1:14 – What does Jesus look like? In John’s vision it is a startling image – but what does the white hair and the burning eyes mean?
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Coffee and Revelation 8 – 1:11-13 – The Sash my Saviour Wore
The Blog of David Robertson
The Blog of David Robertson
1:14 – What does Jesus look like? In John’s vision it is a startling image – but what does the white hair and the burning eyes mean?
Subscribe on YouTube
Coffee and Revelation 8 – 1:11-13 – The Sash my Saviour Wore
Yeah I hear you David – and you have my empathy as a fellow baldy. :).
So the hair of purity and the eyes that burn.
Yes – scary stuff. what comes to my mind is the biblical principle of treating all trials as God’s discipline, with all discipline being painful but God’s discipline producing a harvest of righteousness for those who have been purified by it.
And we know the image you speak here of Christ is one in which he returns as judge. And that too is frightening. Some like to describe the fear of God as being a “reverential awe”. I don’t think scripture allows for such a warm fuzzy feeling wiht the fear of God. I think it is abject terror. And the reason why those that had angelic encounters needed to be told “do not be afraid”.
So yes – I get what you like about the purification process, if being refined as gold and the “fire” being what does that.
If I’m honest if it were not for the perfect love of God casting out all fear (including fear of God), such imagery would be overwhelmingly terrifying for me. There’s a reason why Peter told Jesus “get away from me I am a sinful man” when he first met him.
But the delight I have is in Jesus coming in judgement, there being justice for all, release for the oppressed etc. – something to look forward to?
White hair: years ago when my wife and I were serving with OMF in a fairly distant part of Indonesia I once went with a church group to a remote village to visit a congregation. We were introduce to one of the elders of the community whose hair was snow white. It was as boast of the village that they had an elder whose hair proclaimed his wisdom. This cultural value we see in Proverbs where the young are told to rise in the presence of those with white hair. Thought: our churches lose out because, like the society around us, the generations are corralled into peer categories. Our elderly folk have years of spiritual wisdom and insight . . . and is lost. Discus!