Behold Your King
When one sees the Son of God in his full and terrifying glory the beholder is paralyzed until Jesus reaches out and touches him and empowers him to do his will. Revelation, a.k.a ¨The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave to him to show his servants the things that must soon take place (Rev.1:1) is a weighty book that confronts the churches, exhorts them to follow Jesus, and gives them a picture of the future. It contains plenty of weird imagery and glorious images of Christ and His glorified Bride. It gives us a hope to fight and live for. In the beginning of Revelation God the Son in his full glory appears to John in a vision.
¨Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking to me, and on turning I saw seven golden lampstands, and in the midst of the lampstands one like a son of man, clothed with a long robe and with a golden sash around his chest. The hairs of his head were white, like white wool, like snow. His eyes were like a flame of fire, his feet were like burnished bronze, refined in a furnace, and his voice was like the roar of many waters. In his right hand he held seven stars, from his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword, and his face was like the sun shining in full strength.
When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. But he laid his right hand on me, saying, “Fear not, I am the first and the last, and the living one. I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades. Write therefore the things that you have seen, those that are and those that are to take place after this. As for the mystery of the seven stars that 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 are the seven churches.¨ (Revelation 1:12-20)
John beholds Jesus in his glory and falls flat--as though dead. And this Holy One, the one whose eyes are a flame of fire, whose voice is a roaring voice of many waters, whose face shines like the sun in full strength (verses 14-16), reaches out and touches him--assuring John of his nearness and salvation. There is a similar image in Isaiah 6 when Isaiah beholds the preincarnate Christ:
¨In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called to another and said:
“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!
And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke. And I said: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!”
Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar. And he touched my mouth and said: “Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for.”
And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Then I said, “Here I am! Send me.” And he said, “Go.¨ (Isaiah 6:1-9).
Here when Isaiah beholds the preincarnate Christ he recognizes that he is unclean and unworthy to be near such a Holy God. He is touched by the Holy and is made clean by the refining fire of the coal from the altar of atonement where Jesus would be sacrificed in his place. Who would represent this majestic triune God? Isaiah would; a humble, ordinary servant emboldened by the power of the Almighty God--one whom the angels could not even fully behold because of his immense holiness.
There is a third passage where Jesus fulfills the image described in Isaiah 6 in Matthew 17:2-13:
¨And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became white as light. And behold, there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, talking with him. And Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good that we are here. If you wish, I will make three tents here, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah.” He was still speaking when, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.” When the disciples heard this, they fell on their faces and were terrified. But Jesus came and touched them, saying, “Rise, and have no fear.” And when they lifted up their eyes, they saw no one but Jesus only.
And as they were coming down the mountain, Jesus commanded them, “Tell no one the vision, until the Son of Man is raised from the dead.” And the disciples asked him, “Then why do the scribes say that first Elijah must come?” He answered, “Elijah does come, and he will restore all things. But I tell you that Elijah has already come, and they did not recognize him, but did to him whatever they pleased. So also the Son of Man will certainly suffer at their hands.” Then the disciples understood that he was speaking to them of John the Baptist.¨
In these three passages Isaiah, Peter, James, and John are completely overwhelmed when they experience the weight of God's glory in Christ. They fell on their faces and were terrified. Jesus came and touched them. Then Jesus told them how he would soon pay the price of their atonement with God: ¨So also the Son of Man will certainly suffer at their hands”(verse 12). It truly is a wonder how our infinite creator God himself came near to sinful, ordinary men and did not leave them in their sin but reached out and touched them--with the hands that would soon be nailed to a tree in their place, becoming sin for them--ransoming and rescuing them (2 Cor. 5:21). In the Revelation passage Jesus was glorified--he already died and is alive forevermore and he is the one who has complete reign over death and hell.
A bonus passage when the preincarnate Christ shows up in his glory to a pagan king is in Daniel 3 when three of God’s servants refuse to bow down to an idol and are thrown into a furnace:
¨Then King Nebuchadnezzar was astonished and rose up in haste. He declared to his counselors, “Did we not cast three men bound into the fire?” They answered and said to the king, “True, O king.” He answered and said, “But I see four men unbound, walking in the midst of the fire, and they are not hurt; and the appearance of the fourth is like a son of the gods...Nebuchadnezzar answered and said, “Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who has sent his [messenger] and delivered his servants, who trusted in him, and set aside the king's command, and yielded up their bodies rather than serve and worship any god except their own God...for there is no other god who is able to rescue in this way” (Dan. 3:24-29).
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego trusted that God was able to deliver them. God decided to show up himself (the preincarnate Christ) in his glory to unbind his servants and set them free (later Jesus would raise Lazarus from the dead and unbind him and let him go free from death.) Rightly, King Nebuchadnezzar recognized that this was the only true God--one who would come down and enter into the flames of suffering with his servants to set them free. There is no other God that is able to rescue in this way--one who would care enough to enter into a body like ours, experience every range of our sorrow, suffering and temptation and carry it up the hill to defeat it--he went as far as he could to rescue us from Satan, sin, and death and to show us his glorious love so we can be with him forever and ever and evermore, and share how much he has done for us until we’re home.
Isaiah, Peter, James, and John, along with Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego and Nebuchadnezzar experienced the glory of Jesus and were rescued by him and then were sent to go and tell others of his glory and to build his kingdom. Without Jesus we will be consumed by his holiness. We feel our shortcomings and failures. Jesus took our place and became sin so we could become holy without being burned up. We are free to abide in Jesus, beholding his glory, and to be poured out for His name so that people from every nation, tribe and tongue may come near and adore Him. ¨Yet God my King is from of old, working salvation in the midst of the earth” (Psalm 74:12). This is who our awesome God is. His work of salvation began long, long ago and continues today through us.