Revelation 3:9

Revelation 3:9. The two parts of this verse each beginning with ‘Behold' must be taken together, for the second ‘behold' is the repetition of the first. Those referred to are described as in chap. Revelation 2:9 (see note there). Commentators generally imagine that we have here a promise of the conversion of the Jews literally understood, not indeed of the whole nation, but of that ‘remnant' which, as we learn from other passages of Scripture, still remained, amidst the general obstinacy of the nation, susceptible to the influences of the Christian faith. It is impossible to take such a view, for not only do the prophecies upon which the language before us rests, if it be a prophecy (Isaiah 2:3; Isaiah 49:21-23; Isaiah 60:14-16; Zechariah 8:20-23), refer to the coming in of the Gentiles rather than of the Jews; but there is nothing in the words in the least degree resembling a promise of conversion. They speak only of constrained submission to a Church which has been hitherto disowned, and of acknowledging what has been hitherto denied, that Christians are the object of God's love (comp. John 14:31). It ought further to be observed, that in the language employed by the Lord it is not some of these Jews that are thought of, but all. There is no mention of the ‘remnant' alluded to by St. Paul in Romans 9:27. We are therefore entitled to conclude that in this verse nothing is said of a calling in of the Jews, whether in whole or in part. What we read of is simply the bowing down of the Church's enemies before her feet. The outward progress of the Church, as illustrated by the case of Philadelphia, is again worthy of notice. At chap. Revelation 2:9 these enemies of the faith were only not to be feared: now they bow in submission before her whom they had persecuted. Nor is the inward progress of the Church less perceptible. For the first time in these Epistles we see her bearing witness to Christ in word, opening her lips to speak the Word of God, herself, in short, a continuation of The Word.