Glory Veiled

Revelation 1:9-20
I, John, both your brother and companion in the tribulation and kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ, was on the island that is called Patmos for the word of God and for the testimony of Jesus Christ. I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s Day, and I heard behind me a loud voice, as of a trumpet, saying, “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last,” and, “What you see, write in a book and send it to the seven churches which are in Asia: to Ephesus, to Smyrna, to Pergamos, to Thyatira, to Sardis, to Philadelphia, and to Laodicea.”

Then I turned to see the voice that spoke with me. And having turned I saw seven golden lampstands, and in the midst of the seven lampstands One like the Son of Man, clothed with a garment down to the feet and girded about the chest with a golden band. His head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow, and His eyes like a flame of fire; His feet were like fine brass, as if refined in a furnace, and His voice as the sound of many waters; He had in His right hand seven stars, out of His mouth went a sharp two-edged sword, and His countenance was like the sun shining in its strength. And when I saw Him, I fell at His feet as dead. But He laid His right hand on me, saying to me, “Do not be afraid; I am the First and the Last. I am He who lives, and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen. And I have the keys of Hades and of Death.

Write the things which you have seen, and the things which are, and the things which will take place after this. The mystery of the seven stars which you saw in My right hand, and the seven golden lampstands: The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands which you saw are the seven churches.

I was surprised to find John falling down as a dead man in the presence of the Lord! John was supposed to be the disciple whom the Lord loved, who leaned on Jesus’ bosom as would an intimate friend to ask Jesus who His betrayer would be. But when John saw Jesus in His Glory, he became as a dead man!

We have no idea about the glory of Jesus Christ. We see Him as the man who suffered and died and rose again- a man of sorrows. Jesus, with His glory veiled.

But, the glory He had when He was with the Father (Jesus prays in John 17:5 “And now, O Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was.”), before He became a man, was restored to Him after He rose again from the dead, defeating death and satan and saving us from the power of death.

And a glimpse of His Glory would make us as a dead man. May we worship Him.