Weak But Triumphant
WEAK BUT TRIUMPHANT
REVELATION 3:7-13
Our little becomes much in Jesus’ hands.
The picture of “the key of David” (3:7) is taken from Isaiah 22:22; it speaks of Christ’s kingly rule within the people of God, here the local church. We may deduce from the “open door” (3:8) that there are locked ones as well. Many spend the best years of their lives battering at these and wondering why there is no clear call and blessing. Just as others cannot shut the door Christ has opened for us, so we cannot open the doors he has locked. The door, ie the opportunities of service, will always be proportionate to our “power” (3:8): whatever we may not be able to do, we can always keep Christ’s command (“my word”) and not deny his character (“my name”) by our lives.
There is no point in interpreting “the hour of trial” (3:10) as the great tribulation, the more so as “the hour of testing” is the true rendering. There are recurrent judgments of God, nationwide, even worldwide, which reveal the true nature of those who pass through them. The church in Philadelphia had already shown this, and so there was no need of further testing: for a similar thought see 1 Peter 4:1.
Alongside the talk of great evangelistic advances, we need to remember “keep” (3:10), “hold fast” (3:11), “stand” (Ephesians 6:13-14). All too often more ground is lost by erosion in the church than is gained by these advances. The promise to such people, the conquerors, who have “little power” is that they will become “pillars” in God’s temple (3:12). Though the promise is for the future, its reality is very often worked out in the present. The strength of the pillar is that it is rock and that it is based on rock. They are rock because the name, ie character, of Christ is written on them. The features of Jerusalem’s name that must be intended are “holy” (21:10) and “new”. One is holy when one belongs to and is set apart for God. So there is no going out. The feature implied by “new” in Jerusalem and in Jesus’ “own new name” is a disclosure of riches and wonder only half guessed by us.