This episode is the midpoint of the miniseries about the seven churches that Jesus directly addressed. And this one gets heavy, and it is longest letter, the heaviest letter to a tiny little church that wasn’t in a major city at all. It was in the middle of the seven, in the middle of a path to two greater cities, and perhaps even in the… Middle Ages? But that’s a bit cryptic so we’ll get to that in a bit…
First, did you know that in addition to being a king, a priest, a healer, a preacher and a warrior, Jesus was a prophet? It’s true. Jesus gave many specific prophecies during his three years of ministry, and he didn’t stop there. When he visited John, he arrived with a burden of prophecy for each of the churches. In fact, he even called it a burden, a translation of the same term that most of the Old Testament prophets used for their heavier prophecies of judgment. In Isaiah 13:1, Nahum 1:1, Habakkuk 1:1, Malachi 1:1, Ezekiel 12:10, among other places, these prophets started out their heavier prophecies by explicitly calling them a burden of the word of the Lord. The Hebrew term for burden was מַשָּׂא and it meant a heavy thing you carry, you know a burden — but the metaphor of judgment was clear. The prophet is carrying a heavy thing that is an event in the future that is rolling your way as surely as a boulder rolling down a hill.
This episode digs deeper into “baros” (βάρος meaning ‘burden’) in Revelation 2:24.
Revelation 2:24 - “Now I [Jesus] say to the rest of you in Thyatira, to you who do not hold to her teaching and have not learned Satan’s so-called deep secrets, ‘I will not impose any other burden on you.” (NIV)
A big thank you to Rebecca J Gomez for the use of her poem entitled “Coming Spring” at the end of this episode!
Check out her substack entitled: Snippets and Sketches
Also check out her Middle Grade novel in verse: Mari in the Margins
Mentioned:
Rebecca J. Gomez’ Substack “Snippets & Sketches”
Elijah vs. the Prophets of Ba’al
What is a Bammerhab?
“You have not given me into the hands of the enemybut have set my feet in a spacious place.” (Ps. 31:8 - NIV)
The phrase “in a spacious place” is the Hebrew word: Bammerhab.
Thanks to:
• Aaron Woodard for Graphic Design
• Dave Allam of Allam House for podcasting techniques
• Bible Hub for Greek / Hebrew resources
