What an appropriate way to introduce this new Revelation of the Lord to the churches! The light of Truth, radiating from these little assemblies would literally light the world!
13 And in the midst of the seven candlesticks one like unto the Son of man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt about the paps with a golden girdle.
Surely, many such glimmerings of Truth doubtless flickered through the mind of John as he stood there gazing upon those candlesticks. But the candlesticks would only capture his attention for a brief few moments because of the One standing there “in the midst of the seven candlesticks one like unto the Son of man.” As that awareness fell upon him, John’s mind was likely to also be reeling with further Truth from his early days contemplating the Hebrew writings. For, the very phrase he uses to describe the One standing among the candlesticks: one like unto the Son of man, has a familiar ring to it. It is a title that the Lord Himself used in referring to the prophet Ezekiel when giving him some of the most astonishing visions ever given by God to any man.[1]
In Ezekiel it is the LORD, the almighty God, speaking with a mere mortal man, whom He has decided will be His messenger to His erring people. It I almost as though the transcendent God is continually reminding Ezekiel [by addressing him as “son of man,”] that Ezekiel is but a mere man. This lies at the heart of God’s revelation of Himself to Israel at this point in their history. They had completely lost track of the unbridgeable chasm between themselves and Jehovah. They needed a strong reminder of Whom they were being confronted by.
In the Revelation, this phrase, “Son of man,” would emphatically hearken back to the Lord Jesus Christ’s own usage of the phrase repeatedly as recorded in the Gospel of Matthew.[2] John had no doubt of Who he was seeing in this vision. Surely, John’s mind was already experiencing much the same wonder as Ezekiel’s had when receiving those staggering revelations many centuries ago! And this is truly just the beginning of such visions given to John for the churches!
Now John turns his attention to describing the appearance of the Lord Jesus Christ as he saw Him in this vision. In discussing these details, I will NOT seek to speculate as to the “meaning” of each aspect of the Lord’s appearance here, I firmly hold that to speculate upon details given in scripture, when we have no authoritative basis for such suppositions, is far more damaging than good. It introduces thoughts that may very well move us away from what the Lord intended.[3] As is the case in my writing upon Ezekiel, I will seek to see “What is Clear” in such passages as the one we have before us now.
[1] The LORD used this title for Ezekiel no less than 93 times in the book of his prophecy! [2] No less than 32X He spoke of Himself using these exact words! [3] Please see Appendix D, in which I briefly discuss why it is unwise in my opinion to dissect the details of the vision granted to Ezekiel and recorded in chapter 1 of his prophecy. It is relevant to our contemplations here in the Revelation.