SMYRNA was a city in Asia Minor on the Ægean Sea, about forty miles north of Ephesus. It was built by Theseus B.C. 1312, and named after his wife. It was destroyed in B.C. 628. Alexander the Great, through Lysimachus, built a new city by the same name in B.C. 320. It was an important commercial port, and famous for its beauty. Christianity was early planted there, and Polycarp, a pupil of John, a bishop of the church, suffered martyrdom here in A.D. 155, eighty-six years after his conversion. The modern city, possessed by the Turks since 1313, has a population of 180,000. It is on the whole wicked, degraded, filthy, possessed of a cosmopolitan population. Here dwelt anciently a persecuted church, and so a fitting type of that phase of the Church of Christ in general, dominant say from A.D. 140 to 300. The characteristics will be more clearly revealed in the scripture that follows:—
(8) “And to the angel of the church in Smyrna write:— “These things saith the First and the Last, who was dead, and lived again. (9) I know thy tribulation, and thy poverty (but thou art rich), and the blasphemy of them that say they are Jews, and they are not, but are a synagogue of Satan. (10) Fear not the things which thou art about to suffer: behold the devil is about to cast some of you into prison, that ye may be tried, and ye shall have tribulation ten days. Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee the crown of life. (11) He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith to the churches. He that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death.”
Questions on the Text.
Which is the second of the seven churches addressed?
“To the angel of the church in Smyrna write.”
What characteristics are given of the writer?
“These things saith the First and the Last, who was dead, and lived again.”
What is the first thing He knows of the church in Smyrna?
“I know thy tribulation.”
What does He mention as the second thing?
“I know thy poverty.”
What paradoxical statement does He add?
“But thou art rich.”
What further fact does the Master mention?
“I know . . . the blasphemy of them which say they are Jews, and they are not, but are a synagogue of Satan.”
What double assurance does He give them?
“Fear not the things which thou art about to suffer.”
Of what does He foretell?
“Behold, the devil is about to cast some of you into prison, that ye may be tried.”
How long would this special tribulation last?
“Ye shall have tribulation ten days.”
What exhortation and promise does He give?
“Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee the crown of life.”
What universal command does He give?
“He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith to the churches.”
What promise does He make to the overcomer?
“He that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death.”
Exposition and Comment.
1. “The First and the Last.”—We are not to understand from this that at one time our Lord was not and there will come a time when He will not be. He is comforting a church who is meeting persecution from seemingly invincible powers. The Master whom she serves is reminding her that He is before all opposing forces, and when they are forever gone, He will still exist. He knows the power of their persecutor. Human as the church is human, He met the persecutions, yea, even unto death. The rock sepulcher was closed over him; the Roman seal and guard secured the prison-house from all outward attempts; but the Dead lived again, the mighty Conqueror over all foes. It is He who writes to suffering Smyrna to assure her that she will not be forgotten.
2. “I know thy tribulation.”—Smyrna means “myrrh;” and myrrh is the product of a low thorny tree (balsamodendron opobalsamum), which grows chiefly in Arabia. It is of a strong and agreeable smell, was used medicinally, as a compound of the holy ointment (Ex. 30:23), in embalming the dead (John 19:39), as an agreeable perfume (Est. 2:12; Ps. 45:8; Prov. 7:17), and as a valuable gift (Matt. 2:1, 11). Its fragrant odor would be more manifest by crushing, squeezing, pressing, bruising, and that is the root meaning of tribulation. The church in Smyrna represents the church of God in the dark days of pagan persecution under Imperial Rome. The State2was dominant, but religion was woven into its every fiber. It was literally impossible for a Christian to live and not continually transgress Roman law. Through the utter indifference to all things religious, or even moral, on the part of many of the emperors and lower officials, many of these minor things were overlooked. Some of the sufferings of the Christians during the rule of Pagan Rome came through the devilish cruelty and oppression of the emperors toward every one in general upon whom they thought it safe to vent their innate malice. The worst persecutions came generally from the most conscientious pagan rulers. It was a time to the church when the only certain thing was faith in God; and from her tribulation, her sacrifice and suffering for Christ’s sake, arose a sweet-smelling savor. Dear soul, are you in the pressure of tribulation? Jesus Christ knows it, and is with you.
3. Poverty—Riches.—Tribulation, persecution, invariably bring poverty in worldly goods. It is not a time to pile up wealth, to acquire great riches. Goods are confiscated, houses are destroyed, fine and imprisonment, and need of companions in affliction lick up money and means. But those who look to God at such times receive more than compensation. The believers in Smyrna were rich in God. “Hearken, my beloved brethren; did not God choose them that are poor as to the world to be rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom which He promised to them that love Him?” James 2:5. The lesson of all history is that the Church of Christ is far less likely to fail under the discouragements and deprivations of poverty than she is under the blandishments, flattery, and deceptions of worldly riches and prosperity. To His suffering poor Jesus says: “Blessed are ye poor; for yours is the kingdom of God.” The child of God, tho in deepest poverty, may sing:—
“A tent or a cottage, O why should I care? He is building a palace for me over there: Tho exiled from home, yet still I may sing, All glory to God, I’m the child of a king.”
4. Jews—“Synagogue of Satan.”—Even as literal Jews—professedly the people of God—were the persecutors of the church in ancient Smyrna; even so the apostate church became the persecutor of the true in the second period of her history, prior to A.D. 300. “He is not a Jew who is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision which is outward in the flesh; but he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God.” Rom. 2:28, 29. The true Jew, according to the Word of God, is the follower of Jesus Christ, grafted by faith into the true stock (Rom. 11:17), becoming through Christ fellow citizens with the saints, members of the commonwealth of Israel (Eph. 2:11–20), the seed of Isaac and Abraham (Rom. 9:6–8; Gal. 3:29). Let not the earnest, obedient Christian feel reproached if he be called a Jew. His praise is of God if not of men. Those who profess the name of Jesus and yet reject His words, are not Jews, but are of the synagogue of Satan, heeding his call, and even tho not knowing it they are marshaled under his banners.
5. “Fear not.”—The suffering was coming, it will come, to all God’s children. And our Lord announces it with the assuring “Fear not.” Satan will do all he can to break the spirit and destroy the faith; but fear not. You shall come forth from the trial refined as gold. The prison-house may be the grave into which you will enter; fear not. Christ has broken its bars. He was dead, He lives again forever.
6. “Ten days.”—The days are prophetic, even as the little church in Smyrna was prophetic. Ten literal days of tribulation are of small moment; and the persecuted church met many such. These days represent ten years (Num. 14:34; Eze. 4:4–6), the persecution under Diocletian 302 to 312, the greatest under Pagan Rome.
7. “The crown of life.”—The church in Smyrna was not to see her Lord come. Her day would long be past when that event should take place. The only certainty which was before her in this world was suffering and death. But if true to God, life, eternal life, was hers. Note it is not a crown of life, but the crown of life; the very crown fitted for her, the crowns for the faithful ones. The complement to this promise are the words to the overcomer in verse 11. God’s children may die here; men may put them to death in the most ingenious and cruel ways imaginable. It is their part to be faithful to the end. It is His part to save them from “the second death,”—the wages of sin—and to give them the crown of life. From the first death Jesus Christ will call all forth to life (Acts 24:5); from the second death, chosen by the wicked in choosing character, rendered by eternal justice, there is no resurrection (chapter 20:14). To His faithful ones Jesus is still saying, “I say unto you My friends, Be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do. But I will warn you whom ye shall fear: Fear Him, who after He hath killed hath authority to cast into hell; yea, I say unto you, Fear Him.” Luke 12:4, 5. It is the fear of loving, reverent obedience that is demanded.
AGAINST His persecuted people in this age God brings no reproach, offers no reproof, no rebuke. He recognizes their faithfulness. He cheers them in the darkness, He sustains them in the trial, He keeps for them the crown of life eternal. And the promise is for all similarly situated. “He that hath an ear let him hear what the Spirit saith to the churches.”
