Hello everyone and welcome back to the Deeper Waters blog where we dive into the ocean of truth. We are going to be continuing our Trinitarian Commentary later tonight. First, I wish to produce my usual prayer requests. The first is for my Christlikeness, which I believe has been making a difference in the past few weeks. Second, I still wouldn’t mind some financial assistance coming in. I have a lot of expenses that are coming up this Summer. Third, I ask for prayers in a third related area of my life. For now, let’s get to the text. We’re going to be looking at Revelation 17:12-14.
12“The ten horns you saw are ten kings who have not yet received a kingdom, but who for one hour will receive authority as kings along with the beast. 13They have one purpose and will give their power and authority to the beast. 14They will make war against the Lamb, but the Lamb will overcome them because he is Lord of lords and King of kings—and with him will be his called, chosen and faithful followers.”
Remember readers that for the eschatology, I’m letting you all come to your own conclusions. I hope what I’ve said in the look at Revelation so far has been something that people of all manner of different eschatological persuasions can agree with.
Evil kings here are seen as going to war against the Lamb. Once again, we must not lose sight of the terminology that we have taking place. Who would think about writing something about kings going to war against a Lamb, yet so many times we have read this book probably and overlooked this term, which is the one John uses the most. (Interestingly, it’s also the one that in the gospel of John, John the Baptist uses to introduce Jesus to John.)
Note that the Lamb is referred to as the Lord of Lords and the King of Kings. Let’s look at the first one first. The reader would think of Deuteronomy 10:17.
For the LORD your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God, who is not partial and takes no bribe.
And Psalm 136:3
Give thanks to the Lord of lords,for his steadfast love endures forever;
Both of these speak of his deity. YHWH was said to be the Lord of Lords, supreme over all of the supposed gods of other religions. The Lord of Lords title was the superlative way of referring to someone as Lord. It is akin to our saying “The best of the best.”
Other kings were frequently called the King of Kings in the same way, such as Nebuchadnezzar. What does this say about Jesus then? By applying both, Jesus is the supreme God and he is the supreme king. He is the ruler of men and he is the ruler in the spiritual realm as well. Putting both together shows the high rank that he holds in the universe.
All of this belongs to who? The Lamb.
The comfort we can get? It is because of who the Lamb is that he is able to overcome. How he overcomes evil does not matter. John doesn’t tell us. What matters is that he overcomes evil because of who he is. He is Lord of Lords and King of Kings.
We shall continue tomorrow.
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