Revelation 2:8-11--To the Church in Smyrna

Revelation 2:8-11
English Standard Version

To the Church in Smyrna
8 “And to the angel of the church in Smyrna write: ‘The words of the first and the last, who died and came to life.

9 “‘I know your tribulation and your poverty (but you are rich) and the slander of those who say that they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan. 10 Do not fear what you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested, and for ten days you will have tribulation. Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life. 11 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. The one who conquers will not be hurt by the second death.’

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This is the message of Jesus Christ to the pastor of the congregation at Smyrna.  He is the First and the Last (the Alpha and Omega) who was dead, but has lives again (to give new, eternal, abundant life to all who believe in Him).

This church also faced great persecution and poverty on top of that.  However, they were storing up riches for themselves in heaven. .  They have had to withstand the slander of people who say they are Jews and children of Abraham, but they are not, because if they truly loved God, they would love His Son and believe in Him.  The ethnically Jewish people were some of the strongest opponents to the gospel in the days of the early Church, yet we cannot miss that God used a group of Jewish men to write not just the Old Testament, but the New Testament and to lead the Church as Apostles (even the Gentile believers).  Yet, in the gospel Jew and Gentile are on equal footing there is no benefit to being a Jew or a Gentile (see the book of Romans).  The one and only Way to God is through our Great High Priest, Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.  These Jews (and all who oppose and persecute Christians now) were doing the work of Satan and God says that these Jews in particular from Smyrna belonged to "The Synagogue of Satan."  I don't think this means that they were knowingly Satanists who were openly worshiping Satan (those people did exist at that time too), but that they were deceived to believe that they were obeying God and doing what He wanted, when they were obeying Satan and doing what he wanted.

For this reason, Jesus says that Satan would be throwing many of these Christians in Smyrna in prison (but I think the point is being made that it will be done through the hands of these Jews and the Gentiles that are under Satan's deceptive influence).  They are about to suffer many things for the sake Christ, His Name, and because of His gospel.  They are not to loose heart or recant, for this will be a test of their faith to see who truly believed and who will fall away because they never truly believed.

It is unclear whether the "ten days" are to be interpreted as ten 24-hour days, but it is probably a call-back to other periods of testing that lasted ten days in the Old Testament, most notably when Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah asked to not be served the meat and wine from the king's table but only vegetables and water for ten days and then to be tested to see if they were not more healthy and stronger and better than all those who ate from the king's table.  (Daniel 1:12-14). There are various interpretations as to whether the "ten days" were in past history, continue to happen now, or will happen at some point in the future.  These all stem from different frameworks of interpretation for the book of Revelation and I won't get into all the different views now, because I don't want to major on the minors--persecution is coming, Jesus knows about it, He warns the Church of it, He says that Satan is behind it, and though Satan intends to use it to destroy the Church, Jesus is going to use it to weed out the people who claim to believe something they do not and to strengthen those who hold fast to Him.

The Christians in Smyrna (and all of us too) are called to be faithful unto death.  Then we will receive the crown of life from Jesus (a victor's crown, but it will not be a perishable wreath like the ones for the people who won the Olympic Games).  The Spirit says to the Seven Churches (that's all of us) that the one who conquers (overcomes) will not be touched by the Second Death (That is the Lake of Fire that was prepared for the Devil and his angels where all the wicked will spend eternity in judgment).