Abhorring the "Deep Things of Satan" -THYATIRA

 ABOUT 40 miles southeast of Bergama (Pergamum) is the thriving Turkish town of Akhisar some 1,000 years ago, this town was the site of Thyatira.  A traveling overseer could readily reach Thyatira by an inland road from Pergamum and then move in a circuit  to the remaining congregations of Revelation chapter 3-Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea.  Unlike Pergamum, Thyatira does not seem to have been an important center of emperor worship, but it did have shrines and temples dedicated to pagan god's Thyatira was noteworthy as a commercial trading center. 

When Paul was preaching in Macedonia, he met up with a Thyatiran woman name lydia, a seller of purple.  Lydian and all her household gladly accepted the message Paul was preaching and show extraordinary hospitality. (Acts 16:14, 15)  She became the first Thyatiran on record to accept Christianity.  In course of time, the city itself came to have a congregation of Christians.  Jesus direct his longest message there:  "And to the angel of the congregation in Thyatira write:  These are the t hings that the Son of God says., he has who has eyes like a fiery flame, and his feet are like fine copper. - REVELATION 2:18.

This is the only time the expression "Son of God" appears in Revelation, although in other places Jesus does refer to Jehovah as "my Father." (Revelation 2:27; 3:5, 21) The use of the title here likely reminds the Thyatiran  Christians of Jesus' intimacy with Jehovah.  This So "has his eyes like a fiery flame"-a warning to the Christians in Thyatira that his judgment will blaze against anything that sees to be defiling in the congregation.  By referring for a second time to his glowing, copperlike  feet, he emphasizes his own shining example of faithfulness while on earth.  The Christians in Thyatira no doubt  heeded his counsel, and so much we today! - 1 PETER

Happily, Jesus can commend those in Thyatira.  He says: "I know your deeds, and your love and faith and ministry and endurance, and that your deeds of late are more than those formerly." (Revelation 2:19)  Unlike the Ephesians, the anointed Christians there have not lost their first love for Jehovah.  Their faith is strong.  Furthermore, their deeds are more than those formerly, and like the three preceding congregations, the Christians in Thyatira are enduring.  How typical of the almost 100,000 congregations of Jehovah's Witnesses throughout the earth today!  Love for Jehovah shines through, as a spirit of zeal in the ministry permeates the organization, stimulating young and old.  And increasing number expend themselves as pioneers, thus using wisely the yet remaining time to proclaim the glorious hope of God's incoming Kingdom! - MATTHEW 24:14; MARK 13:10.

For decades, many faithful ones, both of the anointed remnant and of the great  crowd, have been showing exemplary endurance in God's service, while the world around them has been plunging deeper and deeper into a hopeless gloom.  But let us be of good courage!  Revelation confirms the testimony of God's earlier prophets.  "the great day of Jehovah is near. It is near, and there is a hurrying of it very much. - ZEPHANIAH 1:14; JOEL 2:1; HABAKKUK 2:3; REVELATION 7:9; 22:12,  13.

Abhorring the "Deep Things of Satan" -"That Woman Jezebel"

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