Now for the second of three thoughts between chapter 2 and 3 of Revelation. These may have been overlooked or thought nothing of back in the day....And remember that it is the LORD Jesus speaking here, in the verse used as our base.
Thoughts on Food Offered to Idols:
Revelation 2:20, "'It disturbs Me that you accommodate the typical Jezebel (Hebrew H348) influence, a self-appointed, a self-appointed Prophetess who teaches and seduces My [1]devoted friends into participating in am [2]idolatrous sacrificial systems by eating food offered to [3]idols and fornicating with her foreign ideas about God.'" (The word [1, G1401 from G1210] doulos, means bond-servant or slave; also a devoted friend, from (G1210) deo, to be bound to another in friendship or marriage. The word, [2, G1494 a compound of G1497, from G1491 and a presumed derivative of G2380] eidolothuton, is from (G1497 from G1491) eidolon, an image, and (G2380) thuo, to slay in sacrifice. The word [3, G1491 from G1492 eidō, to know] eidolon, is where we get the word idol from meaning image of likeness-this is the theme of the Bible and redemption; The image and likeness of GOD (within humanity) revealed and redeemed in human form! Idolatry is a projection of an image of one's own making. Idolatry is the crux of all religions-it is expensive business since your idol is like a slot machine at the casino! It remains hungry and it is wired to bite and bankrupt all! As is man's religious systems.
To appreciate this statement, "eating food offered to idols," one needs to understand the significance of meals in the NT context. Your mind consumes thoughts like you eat food-just as food become flesh so do words become incarnate! By teaching pagan philosophies to the church where they feast on food (words) offered to idols (imaginations) there is a direct rejection of the New Covenant symbolized in our every meal as a celebration of the incarnation! Jesus as the Lamb of GOD introduced the New Covenant meal where His incarnate body and shed blood turns the prophetic word of GOD into our true sustenance! Look at 1Corithinas 11:23-24, in the Mirror: Your every meal makes the mandate of His coming relevant and communicates the meaning of the New Covenant. 'This cup holds the wine of the New Covenant in My blood; You celebrate Me every time you drink with this understanding!' [From now on our meals are meaningful expressions of our union with Him.] We celebrate the fact that the incarnation reveals our redemption; The promise became a person. He redeemed our original value, identity, and innocence; He died our death and defines the life we now share. He fulfills the theme of Scripture: the sufferings of the Jewish Messiah and the subsequent glory! [1Peter 1:10-11] In John's synoptic gospel chapter 6, where he reminds us about the economy of Jesus' ministry; He knew very well the pivotal significance of His appointment with the ultimate Passover where He would lay down His life as the Lamb of GOD to be slaughtered by His own creation for their salvation. John 6:5-6, when Jesus saw the multitude arriving, He said to Phillip, How do you think we are going to feed all these people? This wasn't a trick question, but simply to engage their faith; He already knew exactly what he was going to do! Jesus was not about to be distracted by the enormity of the mission where His body would be broken at the highest price in order to feed the multitudes of His humanity with the true bread from heaven! Just like in chapter 24 of Luke-the picture of a meal always translates into incarnation language-bread becomes flesh! In John 6:7, Phillip immediately concluded that this was impossible to do and far beyond a budget of any reasonable calculation; two hundred days wages could never buy enough for each person in the crowd to even get a little morsel of bread! Humanity cannot redeem themselves! Again, Jesus leads the conversation into a different dimension-like with Nicodemus and the Samaritan woman-He points to a different source; Not related to external reasoning or challenges to be met with personal contributions of our own toil of labor to define or defend ourselves but simply accessing Father's limitless resources within. He has come to free our minds from the restrictions of a dimension that could never truly define us! he dramatically and very intentionally disengages us with every effort of our own to save ourselves! Our salvation is beyond our budget! BUT WHAT!!! What about the little lad!? For unto us a child is born, remember!)
John writes in 6:31, "How do you compete with Moses? Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness-as it is written - He gave them bread from heaven to eat." (The rabbis quoted from Psalm 72:16, to prove that the Messiah, when he comes, will outdo Moses with manna from heaven. (Robertson's Word Pictures.)
Psalm 72:16, "There shall be a handful of corn in the earth upon the top of the mountains; the fruit thereof shall shake like the cedars of Lebanon: and they of the city shall flourish like grass of the earth." KJV [A handful of corn-five loaves here and in the following year's Passover Jesus' own body would be the bread broken on the mount of Golgotha!]
Deuteronomy 8:3, And he treated you gently in the wilderness of your unbelief and fed your hunger there with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know; that he might make you know that humanity does not live by the bread of their own labor, but that the life of our design hungers to be completely sustained by the Word which proceeds out of the mouth of GOD, the LORD. [Some translations say, "humbled you" but in 2Samuel 22:36 the Hebrew word (H6031) עָנָה, ‛ânâh, is translated, "Thou hast given me the shield of thy salvation, and thy gentleness made me whole (great)." The Hebrew word (H3605 from H3634) כּוֹל, kôl, is often translated, "every" actually means the whole; the word in its most complete context - which clearly points to the INCARNATION!] He divorced them from that which does not satisfy!
You freed us from our slavery and led us gently like a Shepherd through the wilderness of our own unbelief and made know to us our authentic hunger not for the bread we labor for but the word which mirrors our joint-genesis and eternal oneness!)
In John 6:32-35, Jesus reminded them that it wasn't Moses who gave them the bread from heaven - "'My Father is the one who gives the real bread from heaven! For the bread from GOD that comes down from heaven is the which gives life to the entire world! They said, "Oh Lord! this is the bread we crave! Give us this bread!" Jesus said, 'I am the bread of life! He that comes face to face with Me shall never hunger and he who finds his faith in Me shall never thirst!'"
Then we have this in 1Corinthians 10:16-22, When we share a meal together we declare our association in Christ! Every time we drink from the same cup, we communicate the language of the covenant of grace, which is what our fellowship is all about. The wine we drink is our participation in what the blood (our co-death) of Christ represents. (You know that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from our fathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot [1Peter 1:18-19]. he redeemed our original value and transparent innocence!) The bread we break celebrates our participation in the incarnation! The prophetic promise became flesh in His person; We are jointly declaring that in the revelation of our inclusion in His death and resurrection we are now the visible body of Christ. The single loaf of bread that we all partake of represents the fact that although there are many of us, there is only one Christ! By eating together from that one bread we are declaring that we are one body in Christ and that He is incarnate within each one of us! (Our "many-ness" becomes our "one-ness;" Christ doesn't become fragmented in us. But rather, we become unified in Him. (Taken from the Message Bible) Let us consider the context of the prophetic type of the sacrificial system of Israel; Those who ate the sacrificed animals were partners in the same altar. Now by this i am not saying that there is any magical power in a sacrifice made to an idol; An idol is nothing more than a mere figment of the imagination. The meat offered to an idol is just meat like any other barbecue! The difference between Israel and the Nations is in the prophetic type that Israel's sacrifice pointed to; A sacrifice offered to demons points to nothing and holds no advantage to you. I mean why would you associate with anything that reduces you to less than what you are! (The only significance in the Jewish sacrificial systems was in their pointing to their Messiah; both the promise and the person of the Messiah points to the redemption of humanity's original identity and innocence!) You cannot celebrate the LORD in one meal and then devote yourselves to pagan worship the next time you eat! Every time you drink and eat you [1]co-echo your union in Christ! (In our every communion, even in our daily meals, we co-echo, "I am!" To partake comes from [1, G3348 from G3326 and G2192 ] metecho; with (G3326) meta, meaning together with, and (G2192) echo, meaning to echo what GOD spoke to us in Christ; like the word (G3341 from G3340 from G3326 and G3539) metanous, NOT repentance (re-penance); but to join thoughts about something; to co-know with GOD; to agree with GOD about you, to think differently.) GOD is not in a tug of war with demons or our obsessions with religious rituals! He has no competition. He is I AM! (Even the Jews, who continued their sacrificial rituals after Christ was sacrificed as GOD'S Passover Lamb, were presenting their offerings to pagan gods and Not to GOD! There remains no further spiritual relevance in the practice of Jewish rituals, including the Sabbaths and the annual feasts! And these copied and practiced by many religious denominations and institutions still.)
Then there is 1Corithians 8:1-9 where we find: "You have also asked me questions about whether believers are free to eat food offered to idols. We are free to hold to our own convictions about what to eat and what not to eat; But ultimately it is not about who wins the diet debate, but about sincerely loving people. Let love define your convictions and not with mere head knowledge. Loving GOD (and your fellow humans) is so easy when you understand that He knows you! Let GOD'S knowledge of you inspire your love for Him and your fellow human. By making a fuss about eating food offered to idols gives idols undue prominence; They are nothing so why make something out of nothing! We know that there is only One GOD and that He has no competition! There is a lot of talk about other gods and demonic powers operating on earth as well as in the heavenly realm; Obviously they seem to be empowered by people's belief in them and conversations about them; So there seems to be many gods "lording" it over people. This does not make them competition to GOD; We know that for us there is only One GOD who is the source of all things; There is only one authority, the Lord jesus Christ. All things exist because of Him; We owe our very being to Him. He alone gives context and reference to our being. However not everyone realizes this; There are some believers who are convinced that idols are real, so for them to hear that we say that it's okay to eat food offered to idols presents a massive problem to their conscience. Your diet preference certainly does not improve your standing before GOD; Whether you eat meat or not. The point is not about how justified you feel in your freedom to eat what you like, but how considerate you are not to be a stumbling block to someone else."
Then in Revelation 14:15 we find this: Another Shepherd-Messenger appeared out of the most holy place of the temple and with a loud voice addressed the One seated upon the cloud, saying, "Thrust forth your pruning hook, your hour has come-this is you moment to reap for the earth's harvest is ready." (Look at John 4:31-36, In the mean while His disciples were urging Him to take some food. But He said, 'I am feasting on food you cannot yet see!' His disciples were baffled, "Who brought him anything to eat?" Jesus told them, 'My food is to fulfill the desire of Him Who commissioned Me and to leave no detail undone! The bread you eat you labor for takes four months from the day you sow the seed until it ripens in the ear, doesn't it? This is not the food that I am talking about. The fruit of your own toil and performance will never satisfy permanently; From now on, look at yourselves and everyone else differently; See them through your Father's eyes and you will know that they too are ripe and ready to discover how fully included they are in My finished work. They are perfectly mirror in Me! (A harvest is ripe when the seed in the ear matches the seed that was sown! My mission is to reveal and redeem the image and likeness of GOD in human form!) This harvest reveals how both he who sows and he who reaps participate in the same joy of the life of the ages!) (The Mirror, with editing.)
Now may the LORD increase our understanding of these things. In our next visit the LORD willing we shall look at the Rod of Iron.
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