“Ye shall have tribulation ten days” – I am not sure what this means. I have read that it refers to being tested for a specified period of time. (cf 2Cor. 4:17 For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.) I’ve wondered if there couldn’t be some connection to the ten days of awe between Rosh Hoshanah and Yom Kippur that are representative of a time of repentance.
Considering that possibility, I found a section in The End, a book by George Madray, which was thought provoking. It stated:
Tribulation = 7 years – so 1 day = 1 year
“But more definitely, these chapters provide ongoing instruction throughout the tribulation….This author believes that instructions about what to do during the tribulation have already been provided in the book of Revelation, chapters 2-3. These special chapters in Revelation offer many details to the churches about how to proceed through the tribulation. The solution to the enigma is that the churches described in chapters 2-3 are believers who are receiving instructions during the time that evil is no longer being restrained. This body of believers is clearly very Jewish in nature and is not the Mystery Church….Rather, this is the body of believers who begin to profess Christ after the Mystery Church is raptured….If we assume that great evil and suffering will break out when God no longer restrains evil; that God will begin to deal with the Kingdom Church right after the rapture of the Mystery Church; that the ten days in Revelation 2:10 and ten years; then the Mystery Church is taken to heaven ten years before the end.”
In The Revelation Record Henry Morris equates the ten days to the ten days of testing that Daniel and his friends underwent at the beginning of their captivity. “Ten days of testing in Daniel’s case then yielded over 70 years of uniquely effective service for God. Just so, Christ assures Christians in Smyrna and all other suffering churches that a brief ‘ten days’ of testing will, if accepted with a resolve to be ‘faithful unto death,’ yield a crown of life and glory that will be ten times greater when Jesus comes.”
Those who are faithful unto death, willing to die for their faith in Jesus, will be given a crown of life. (Father, please humble me, convict me, love me to a place and spirit that will honor you as the body of believers at Smyrna. Strengthen me to the point that if I am ever in a position to die for my faith, I will do so willingly and joyfully and victoriously.)
Special note—This church receives no words of rebuke. If they had been deserving of rebuke, they would have received it.
Revelation 2:11 He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; He that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death.
Again, this message is for all the churches; and those who are willing to listen to and heed the message being given will not be hurt by the second death (eternal separation from God forever).
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