Over this past summer, I was given the amazing opportunity to do a Night Watch internship at the Toronto House of Prayer. It took place over a three-month period, where I had to radically shift my lifestyle and consecrate myself before the Lord by staying up three nights a week to pray, worship, fast, and have bible study. Although I was very hesitant at first to do it, I am eternally grateful to our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, for giving me the strength to endure such a stressful season.
One of the teachings that I had received involved learning about the Book of Revelation. In this course, we were asked to study the Vision of the Son of Man in Revelation 1:13-16 and to choose one of Jesus’ attributes in order to compose a sermon declaring this revelation.
The second part of the task was to publish our work through a mode of communication, such as Facebook, YouTube, or Twitter. That’s why I chose to post a blog about it here.
Although, I don’t want to go off topic, I feel it’s important I discuss the reason for my examination into the following topic. When I began my study into the Word of God, I found that a lot of teachings rarely speak on the subject of God Himself. There are several sermons on how to receive a greater blessing from God or how to live in a godly manner, but rarely are there discussions on the attributes of God or His characteristics. This prompted a huge question in my mind, “How can we love someone that we don’t even know?”
In Matthew 10:27, Jesus tells the disciples, “What I tell you in the dark, speak in the daylight; what is whispered in your ear, proclaim from the roofs”. Most of the time God gives us whispers or just a hint of information, about who He really is and His purpose for our lives. Yet, we often forget that the Holy Spirit is the one that guides us in this pursuit and delights to reveal God to us. Though it may take great resolve and patience to delve deep into the Word of God, I believe that the Spirit gives us grace to seek God out.
Accordingly, my prayer for this message is that I hope it will enlighten your minds and more importantly, your hearts, towards the love that God has for us. I also pray that your hearts will be stirred to continue to seek after God through reverent meditation of His Word.
TOPIC:
The Book of Revelations is the final book in the New Testament and is considered to be one of the most sacred texts within Christian theology. The Apostle John, who was a long-standing disciple of Jesus Christ, is accredited to being the author of this book.
In the first chapter of the Book of Revelations, the Apostle John recounts the vision of his first encounter with Jesus on the Island of Patmos. Within the second-half of the passage, John begins to describe the physical appearance of Jesus Christ.
The attribute that particularly fascinates me the most would be His eyes. As seen in Revelations 1: 14, which states: “His head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes were like blazing fire.“ That will be the focus of this blog, “His eyes were like a blazing fire”.
THE BLAZING FIRE: DEFINITION
When you think of a blazing fire, what is the first thing that comes to mind?
The blazing flame is like an intense fire that is continuously burning and can never be put out. Fire is exciting and spontaneous! It draws peoples’ attentions; no one can run away during the times of a fire, we are awestruck by the engulfing blaze. We try to look away, but cannot, because it captures our focus.
We see a similar incidence in the Bible occurred with Moses and the burning bush. It drew his attention and God knew what would make Moses take notice of the Lord’s calling upon His life. Likewise, God knows what it takes to fix our gaze towards Him.
REFERENCE IN BOOK OF REVELATION:
The peculiar case, however, in the book of Revelation is that His eyes are mentioned on three separate occasions. This is unusual, because there are only a few characteristics of Jesus that are mentioned this many times. Therefore, it is a point worth noting.
Many people might read this verse and assume that this is a figurative statement. But this isn’t just figurative; it’s a reality of His personhood. It is an aspect we encounter when the fullness of His glory is revealed to us and this is when His eyes of fire are exposed. The Scriptures often tell us to seek His face and in doing so, we seek to look upon His eyes as well. In our life right now, we won’t be able to see the burning stare of His eyes, but we can feel it.
Similarly, in Luke 24:32, Jesus encounters the disciples on the road to Emmaus, but His identity is hidden from them at the time. Although, they were not aware of His true form, they did indeed feel the impact and power of His gaze upon them as they walked.
They asked each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?” (Luke 24:32)
From my own personal experiences, I felt the same way when Jesus first began working in my heart. The power of His gaze overcame me in many aspects of my life, but it mostly affected me in terms my social relationships with others. I especially felt His gaze upon me when I would associate with people from other religious backgrounds. I’m not saying that hanging out with unbelievers is a bad thing, because I do learn a lot about other beliefs and it gives me opportunity to spread the Gospel. But, I did feel that through my experiences, I became more mindful of how the people closest to us can have a great influence on our actions.
When we begin to wholeheartedly seek after God and encounter Him on a daily basis in our lives, He empowers us to remove the things that hinder our affections towards Him.
WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR US?
There are many different ways to interpret this Scripture, but four of them really hit home for me.
(1) THE OMNISCIENCE OF JESUS:
Mainly, His eyes in this verse speak of God’s ability to see every thing. Many Christians acknowledge this fact, however, the implications of such an attribute can be quite vast. Jesus is omniscient. This term is used to describe the capacity to possess all knowledge or to know everything that there is to know. He sees the full truth of everything that exists in creation with respect to what is good and what is considered evil. There is no distortion in His gaze and He is able to do this all the time.
This is seen in Psalm 139: 2: “You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar.” King David speaks earnestly to God and reveals one of the greatest secrets for the power of his consistent love. David knew that God’s eyes were always on him. He knew that God knew his motives, thoughts, and even the implications of his actions.
Later in Psalm 139:4, David alludes to the fact that God knows his every thought before he even intended to speak the words that came forth from his mouth. “Before a word is on my tongue, you, Lord, know it completely ” (Psalm 139:4).
The implication of understanding this is that it profoundly affects the way we relate to God, because it fosters more maturity in our intimacy with God. We begin to become more conscientious of every action, intention, thought, or word and determine whether these things align with Christ. The knowledge of His eyes always being upon us moves our hearts to abide in Him.
(2) TO EXAMINE OUR HEARTS:
The reason for His expansive and vast love is that He wants to change us that we can again be with Him. This is the only way to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. He wants us to examine the content of our hearts and make sure that it aligns with God’s heart.
As it is written in Hebrews 4:3:
“Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account.”
Jesus is the tester of our hearts! He wants to see the full extent of our love for Him, are we truly seeking His heart or are we simply longing to satisfy the desires of this world.
I was reading a blog posting by Steve Bremner, with regards to Jesus’ eyes of fire. It refers to God as an assayer. This is an occupation where an individual tests the metal or ore of its components and the purity of its composition in order to determine its value. When there is any defilement in metal, the metal is put through a burning fire in order to become purified.
God is the same way!
Jesus’ eyes are not only pure, but they in turn work to purify our hearts. He examines our hearts, in order to understand the level of faith that we have in Him so as to fulfill His will in our lives. Also, he allocates us with more sanctification in our life that can be useful to us later on in other circumstances.
In one of his Daily Devotions, Oswald Chambers elaborates on the topic of Holiness. I think he put this contention that God has for man to be holy in the best way:
“The one thing that matters is whether a man will accept the God Who will make him holy. At all costs a man must be rightly related to God.
Do I believe I need to be holy? Do I believe God can come into me and make me holy? If by your preaching you convince me that I am unholy, I resent your preaching. The preaching of the gospel awakens an intense resentment because it must reveal that I am unholy; but it also awakens an intense craving. God has one destined end for mankind, viz., holiness. His one aim is the production of saints. God is not an eternal blessing- machine for men; He did not come to save men out of pity: He came to save men because He had created them to be holy. The Atonement means that God can put me back into perfect union with Himself, without a shadow between, through the Death of Jesus Christ.”
Like a piercing fire, God looks at the condition of our heart and gives this penetrating gaze into it. In this way, He is able to give clear and precise judgment, because as it says in the verse there is nothing hidden from Him. His judgment is of clarity, because unlike fleshly eyes, He can see everything that is good or bad in a person’s life. There is no confusion in His judgment, because He knows all and therefore has no partiality even towards the smallest implication in a person’s life.
This has increased my fear for God, because I realize now that His eyes are on me to act accordingly in righteousness. His eyes are a burning stare that no one can escape. We should feel honoured that a God like ours would burn with such jealously for us! At the same time, He knows everything we do both on the outside to the world and in the inside of our hearts. This should be the pivotal force that allows us to mature in our intimacy with God. That is why it is so important to know the Word since it reveals so much of God’s character and His heart towards the commandments of what is right and what is wrong. Since we have to be accountable to Him on the Day of Judgment, not mankind. Believe me, the last thing God wants is for us to suffer eternal damnation in hell.
That is why He needs to know are we for Him or against Him?
As it says in Malachi 3:2: “Who can endure the day of His coming? And who can stand when He appears? For He is like a refiner’s fire and like launderers’ soap”
He wants to determine who is worthy of entering into His kingdom through judging their level of faith and their level of commitment in fulfilling His Father’s will on earth. He wants to know whether they followed His commands wholeheartedly or were all their deeds for Him in vain. But I want to make this point very clear, we DO NOT preserve by our own strength, but are preserved by the undying faithfulness of God. It is not by works, since our righteous deeds appear as filthy rags before God (Isaiah 64:6), but rather did we walk in faith with Jesus till the end.
The Lord seeks to see the spiritual condition of our hearts. If it is for Him, He can do His work in us and allow us to partner with Him in fulfilling the will of His Father. If not, then we simply live in this life, enjoying the worldly pleasures of this world and merely waste away.
WHAT DOES GOD TEST US FOR?
So how does God examine the content our hearts?
He Tests Us.
No, this is not a written exam and God doesn't do this to punish us. Jesus tests us, because He ultimately wants to make us better. His intention is to purify us and at times, He does this through trials and tribulations. Many Christians often forget that like a loving father, God disciplines us out of love. We must suffer at times to be prepared to be in His presence during the judgment.
So these eyes of fire represent the refinement that God has in us that makes us turn to gold. It brings us back to how God works within the inner workings of our heart by the power of the Holy Spirit. He does this through various circumstances, trials or tribulations that He places in our lives in order to help build our character and ultimately conform us to the image of His Son. Many Christians may refer to this fire as the “Refiner’s fire”.
This is seen in Psalms 66:1: “For you, God, tested us; you refined us like silver.”
As we draw closer to God and begin to understand the true depravity of our sins, it can be quite convicting. This fire touches every aspect of our lives; it touches our minds, our hearts, our intentions, and it purifies our mind. This is the only way we can seek His face, when we have been purified by the fire of God.
Jesus tests us with his eyes of fire, “so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand” (Ephesians 6:13)
But this is only one side of our Lord! He deals in judgment too!
(3) GOD’S RIGHTEOUS JUDGEMENT:
The most prominently held view of this would be that His blazing eyes of fire connotes His righteous judgment. This is considered to be the most negative dimension of Jesus' eyes of fire, because He has he ability to view every aspect of our lives. The first thought in our minds is fear. But this is due to our lack of knowledge in understanding the goodness in God's ability to see everything. His judgment also reflects a positive facet of God’s love, which gives us the power to step away from our immoral actions and intentions and rather seek Him.
Usually, we associate fiery eyes with anger. One look at that kind of expression on a person’s face would make us run in the opposite direction and hide for dear life!
In fact, John, referred to as the one whom Jesus loved, yet when Jesus revealed Himself before him, he actually fainted as though he were dead. His stare is something that we cannot contain. It is something that is so powerful that even men, like Daniel, who were so filled with the Spirit of God, could not even bear the weight of God’s divine glory.
Moreover, countless instances in the Old Testament reveal God’s righteous judgment as a fire as well.
In Genesis 19:24, Sodom and Gomorrah witnessed this kind judgment as fire consumed the entire city. Furthermore in Exodus 9:20, when Moses asked Pharaoh to let the Israelites go, God had ensued His great punished upon Egypt, when He made hail mingled with fire come from the sky. This continues even into the vision that was seen by Daniel had seen of Jesus and how His eyes are like the torches of fire
A commentary from John MacArthur on this passage states that the many crowns that is referred to later on in this verse pertains to the many crowns that God will attain when He subdues all the dark powers of authority on the earth. The eyes of God are piercing and seek to bring forth righteousness into the world.
As it is written in Psalms 89:14: “Righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne; love and faithfulness go before you.”
Reference to Revelation:
In this context, I believe that His eyes of blazing fire represent the judgment that God will pour out on the earth during the time of His coming. My reasoning for this is that the verse also refers to His sovereign authority on the earth.
We can also come to this conclusion, because a similar situation is seen later in the book of Revelation, when Jesus begins to address the Church of Thyatira. In Revelation 2: 18-19, Jesus declares, “To the angel of the church in Thyatira write: “These are the words of the Son of God, whose eyes are like blazing fire and whose feet are like burnished bronze. 19 I know your deeds, your love and faith, your service and perseverance, and that you are now doing more than you did at first.” In this context, His eyes have fire reveal both a negative and positive connotation, because it discusses His desire to remove the immortality out of the church of Thyatira. On the one hand, His eyes of fire will impart judgment upon the lives of believers that will not denounce their depraved ways. But He will also use these same eyes to empower the believers that choose to renounce the wickedness in their hearts and choose to abide in Him. Thus, these eyes will gradually impart the glory of God and help strengthen them on their journey towards Christ.
The first judgement sounds pretty harsh, doesn’t it? Such judgments are also the reason why many Christians are afraid to the read the book of Revelation. But the reason for these decrees is of great importance. At this time, there was a false teaching within the church of Thyatira, Jesus alludes to this false doctrine in Revelation 2:20: “Nevertheless, I have this against you: You tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophet. By her teaching she misleads my servants into sexual immorality and the eating of food sacrificed to idols”. In essence this religious movement assumed that since they were living in the grace of God, they were ultimately more spiritual than they were physical. Therefore, their sins of sexual immorality or false idol worship would not be judged with such severity, because they knew so much about God. In fact, it was called Gnosticism. It was a prominent heretic movement in the second century Christian church, which stipulated that salvation could be gained through secret knowledge or works. But this is strongly against Christian doctrine, which states that “8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast.”(Ephesians 2: 8-9).
Out of all the judgments that Jesus declares against the seven churches, I think this one frightens me the most. Since many Christians today are actually living with this false reality! We always are so quick to assume that Jesus would never do this, because we are enshrined by His infinite grace. Well, Jesus says that He will and I’m going to stick with Jesus. This may not be God’s primary way of waking us up. But if we have been warned enough times, then it is within His righteous authority and wisdom that He act in this way in order to prevent us from committing further destruction to ourselves.
During these times when His absolute righteousness and His justice will be seen through judgment, it will be impossible to carry on if we do not acknowledge that we are one of His children.
(4) GOD’S BURNING DESIRE FOR FELLOWSHIP WITH US:
This brings me to my last point. Although this aspect of His eyes may not correspond with the context of this particular verse, I do feel it’s worth mentioning. Since we are on the topic of His eyes, there is another attribute of His eyes that need to be addressed: THEY LONG FOR US.
The reason why He observes us, tests us, and judges us is not so that He can condemn us. No, my beloved brothers and sisters, it's because He loves us. As it says in Hebrews 12:7: "Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as his children. For what children are not disciplined by their father?"
These fiery eyes represent God’s intensity, His longing and fervent desire to be with us! Other instances in Scripture state that the eyes of God are jealous fire and they are longing for the day when the desires of our hearts solely rely upon His guidance. Even the innermost and hidden parts of our hearts that we conceal from others are solely for Him.
In Exodus 20:5, it states: “ You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me”.
Again, in 2 Chronicles 16:9: "For the eyes of the Lord range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him. You have done a foolish thing, and from now on you will be at war.”
So why does God do this? He is God after all; He is all knowing and self-sufficient. Then why would he need humans to fix their gaze on Him?
The simple answer is that He Is Worthy of our adoration and devotion towards him.
He is the great King and the Almighty creator of the Heavens and all the dwells within the universe and earthy realm!! So He should definitely be given praise for that!
But also, He yearns for the time when He is able to express His burdens into our hearts and to understand the pain of His sorrows.
More importantly, His eyes seek out to find an intimate relationship with us, where He is able to impart His knowledge and wisdom to us that we may be able to do His will on earth. His main concern is the restoration of His relationship with humanity, so that to be with Him once again. This is the very reason why God chose to sacrifice His son and allowed him to suffer through the ultimate sacrifice upon the cross. As it states in Song of Songs 8:6:
“Place me like a seal over your heart,
like a seal on your arm;
for love is as strong as death,
its jealousy[a] unyielding as the grave.
It burns like blazing fire,
like a mighty flame.[b]”
In our modern world, we emphasize this point. Since we are living in a time of God’s infinite grace, which is bestowed upon us as a free gift to mankind through Jesus’ death and resurrection. As such, we have the opportunity to respond to God’s abounding and perfect love, which He gives to all without condition. That is, if we choose to accept it.
This reminds me of the story in Daniel 3. When Daniel’s friends Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were in the fiery furnace and the angel of Lord (Jesus) was in there with them. The reason for His appearance was that he longed to be with humanity, he longed to see us. Jesus saw the magnitude of their faithfulness and wanted to be with them, because they loved Him so much that they would be willing to give up their lives for Him.
Likewise, He is yearning for the time to be with us and for us to realize the expanse of His great love and affection for humanity. In this way, we can abide in His love and once again be with Him.
FINAL THOUGHTS:
So God’s blazing eyes of fire bring light into this world and allow for the darkness of our hearts to be seen, because darkness cannot stand in the presence of light. He allows the light to come into us, which then brings truth and conviction in our lives. Jesus is gentle, but yet convicting. We must realize this. That in order to be with God, we must be formed according to His likeness. Many will run away from these piercing eyes and instead hide themselves in condemnation. But I sincerely advise against this. God does this to make us better. The deeper the piercing stare of His eyes, the greater the work done in our hearts.
So the question is, when God confronts you on that day, will you be willing to look into His eyes?
I know that in my walk with Christ, I am so far from this point and I definitely need to work on a lot of my own faults. But God, in His grace and loving mercy, has brought a lot of my sins to the surface. Many of which I still battle through daily. The days when I feel my transgressions are ever before me and I can't face God. I know I still need to study the Word of God a lot more, pray more, and to have a heart of constant repentance, before I can even begin to discuss such things. But, I know that if I trust in Jesus, He can help me get through the weakest of my days. Anyways, this post is starting to become a book, but before it does, I just want to say God bless!