The Bright and Morning Star

“I Jesus have sent Mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches.  I Am the Root and Offspring of David, and the Bright and Morning Star.”  Revelation 22:16

This statement by Jesus was made to the Apostle John near the end of the Revelation of future events that will come upon the world.  The words He gave to John personally and through His angel were directed toward the seven churches of Asia minor, but also for all bodies of believers until time as we know it shall be no more.  The Book of Revelation is somewhat difficult to understand, but that is no excuse to not study it.  (I don’t know exactly how a car with all of its many parts works, but that doesn’t stop me from driving one.)  Jesus said that those who read His Revelation of the future and take its words to heart would be blessed.  A good bit of it can be understood through diligent study with the aid of the Holy Spirit.  You might be surprised at how much of scripture that God will reveal to you if you are truly seeking to know Him and follow His word.

Jesus identifies Himself as the Root and Offspring of David, and the Bright and Morning Star.  In other words, Jesus existed before David, yet was descended from the line of David.  When He spent time on earth ministering and teaching, Jesus got into an interesting conversation with a group of Pharisees (Matthew 22:41-46).  He began by asking them, “What do you think about Christ?  Whose Son is He?”  They did not consider Jesus as Christ for they believed the promised Messiah had not yet come.  They answered, “The Son of David”.  Jesus then asked them that if David called Christ Lord, then how could Christ be David’s Son?  They couldn’t answer that.  They failed to believe that Jesus was the Son of God, the Messiah, and also a descendent of King David.  That is the only answer that works.  If they would have accepted the truth about Jesus then they could have answered that Christ, in His humanity, was David’s Son (descendant), and in His divinity, was David’s Lord.

The Jewish religious leaders were looking for the Messiah to come in splendor and glory (which He will when He returns) as a conquering hero to free them from under the thumb of the Roman Empire and to set up God’s kingdom on earth of which they presumed they would have prominent positions.  That’s the problem with us humans.  We always want to know what’s in it for us.  They weren’t expecting a Man who came out of relative obscurity, who wore the clothes of a common man, and who traveled with a group of ragtag fishermen and a tax collector to boot.  This was just not how they pictured the Messiah to be.  It is interesting to note that the term “Messiah”, as translated from Hebrew, means “anointed” and only appears twice in the Old Testament in the book of Daniel, Chapter 9:25-26, in which Daniel prophesies of the Redeemer.  In the New Testament the term “Messias” only appears twice in the book of John, Chapters 1 and 4, and translated from the Greek, means “Christ”.  The book of Isaiah, particularly Chapter 53, and Psalm 22, provided accurate descriptions of the Messiah long before He came to earth, thus the religious leaders had no excuse not to believe that Jesus was the Son of God sent to redeem mankind.  I guess one of the main reasons that they didn’t accept him was that He wasn’t like them.  He was different.  They allowed prejudice to rule their hearts and cause them to lose out on the best life that they could have had, both then and forever in eternity.