Welcome to EBible Fellowship's Bible study in the Book of Revelation. This will be study #41 of Revelation, chapter 1, and we will be reading from Revelation 1:15:

And his feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace; and his voice as the sound of many waters.

We have been following along, verse after verse, as the Apostle John has been given a vision of "one like unto the Son of man" that was "in the midst of the seven candlesticks," and we know that this is not a literal description of Christ, but it is God giving a description of what this "one like unto the Son of man" looked like in order to teach us certain truths about the Lord Jesus Christ.

And that is why "his head and his hairs were white like wool," to identify with a lamb, because He is the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world. And "his eyes were as a flame of fire," which we discussed in our last study, in order to teach us that Christ is the Judge of all the earth, and His eyes see all the sins of mankind, and this provokes the wrath of God toward unsaved sinners.

Now we are moving on to Revelation 1, verse 15, and it is continuing to describe this "one like unto the Son of man," who is Christ Himself, and "his feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace." And we wonder why God is discussing His feet, and why He likens them to fine brass as if they burned in a furnace.

Well, we do know that the Bible tells us of the feet of Christ in Isaiah 52:7:

How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace; that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation; that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth!

The feet of Christ are involved in the sending forth of the Gospel when God was evangelizing the world and seeking His lost sheep and finding all of the elect individuals---wherever they might have been in the world---all down through history; God was seeking them out, and the Lord Jesus, personally, is said to be the one whose feet were going forth to bring the good tidings of salvation.

Now we know there is a parallel verse in the Book of Romans that is almost the same as this verse in Isaiah, except it does not say the "feet of him," but it says the "feet of them," which would be the body of believers. And it is really one and the same, as God would move His people to go forth to accomplish His purpose, His will, and it would be as those Christ's feet were the ones that were traveling the country sides and the villages and towns and cities of the earth, because He was the mover of His body, the children of God, who out of obedience and love towards Him, were desirous to do this, and did perform this task obediently during the period of the day of salvation.

So, that is one aspect to the feet of Christ, and there are other things involved regarding the feet. The feet do tie in with the will of the one that is spoken of, so we could also understand this to relate to the will of Christ.

Well, "his feet were like unto fine brass." "Fine brass" is a translation of the one Greek word found in the original text, but that Greek word is a compound word, and the translators attempted to give the full meaning of that compound word by translating it as two English words: *fine* and *brass*.

But when we look at the two Greek words that make up Strong's #5474, which is a compound Greek word, we find that one is properly translated as *brass* and is the typical word for *brass*. But the other word that is found joined to it is clearly the word for *frankincense*, and this word should be translated as *frankincense* or, possibly, as *incense*, but not as "fine brass.* The better translation of this compound word would be "frankincense brass" or "brass frankincense." The word order does not matter. Probably, "frankincense brass" sounds better, but the translators did not translate it that way because it did not make much sense to say "frankincense brass." What does that mean? What is God trying to say by that?

Let us take a look into the Book of Leviticus, where we will find God using *frankincense* in a couple of places. We will read the first two verses of Leviticus 2:1-2:

And when any will offer a meat offering unto JEHOVAH, his offering shall be of fine flour; and he shall pour oil upon it, and put frankincense thereon: And he shall bring it to Aaron's sons the priests: and he shall take thereout his handful of the flour thereof, and of the oil thereof, with all the frankincense thereof; and the priest shall burn the memorial of it upon the altar, to be an offering made by fire, of a sweet savour unto JEHOVAH:

Then, later in the same chapter, it says in Leviticus 2:14:

And if thou offer a meat offering of thy firstfruits unto JEHOVAH, thou shalt offer for the meat offering of thy firstfruits green ears of corn dried by the fire, even corn beaten out of full ears. And thou shalt put oil upon it, and lay frankincense thereon: it is a meat offering. And the priest shall burn the memorial of it, part of the beaten corn thereof, and part of the oil thereof, with all the frankincense thereof: it is an offering made by fire unto JEHOVAH.

*Frankincense* was an incense used with the sacrifices, with the offering made by fire. It was to be used with other elements in the sacrifice, and all of the sacrifices that God commanded point to the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, *frankincense* is an incense that identifies with the sacrifice of Christ.

You know, this is one of the reasons that when the wise men came from the East, as they were following the star to find the Messiah to worship Him, that when they finally found the young child Jesus, it says in Matthew 2:10-11:

When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceeding great joy. And when they were come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary his mother, and fell down, and worshipped him: and when they had opened their treasures, they presented unto him gifts; gold, and frankincense, and myrrh.

*Frankincense* is an element that would be used in the offering of the sacrifice, and, here, we can see (spiritually) God having the wise men from the East present *frankincense* to the Lord Jesus in order to relate the sacrifices of the Old Testament with the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Messiah. So, we see that *frankincense* has everything to do with the sacrifices, and they, in turn, have everything to do with the sacrifice of Christ. So we are not surprised that Revelation 1:15 tells us that "his feet like unto fine brass," or "frankincense brass."

Now we can understand why God used *frankincense*, but why brass? Why identify *frankincense* with brass? We do know this: God associates the Lord Jesus Christ with *brass* in a few places, and many of the vessels of the temple, or of the tabernacle before it, were made of brass, including the altar, and we read in Numbers 21:7-9:

Therefore the people came to Moses, and said, We have sinned, for we have spoken against JEHOVAH, and against thee; pray unto JEHOVAH, that he take away the serpents from us. And Moses prayed for the people. And JEHOVAH said unto Moses, Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole: and it shall come to pass, that every one that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live. And Moses made a serpent of brass, and put it upon a pole, and it came to pass, that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived.

Here, that "serpent of brass" would have to point to Jesus because it provided deliverance and salvation to the rebellious sinner. If he looked upon the serpent, he lived. We know that the "serpent of brass" identifies with Christ because in the Gospel of John it is related to Him, in John 3:14:

And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up:

So, the "serpent of brass" was a spiritual illustration of the "Son of man," the Lord Jesus Christ and, therefore, Christ is typified by that image of the serpent that was made out of *brass*.

Now there is another verse that I want to look at quickly before we move on, and it is found in Job, and it says in Job 28:1-2:

Surely there is a vein for the silver, and a place for gold *where* they fine it. Iron is taken out of the earth, and brass is molten out of the stone.

There is some discussion about where *brass* comes from, but we are just going to go with God's statement here in the Bible, and we will just use the picture that the Lord provided: "brass is molten out of the stone." The word *molten* is a word also translated as *poured* or "poured out of the stone," and we know that Jesus is also typified as a stone. It says in Isaiah 28:16:

Therefore thus saith the Lord JEHOVAH, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation: he that believeth shall not make haste.

That is also referring to the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the *stone*, just like He is the *Rock*, and God also uses this word *stone*, so the "brass is molten out of the stone," and, again, we can see how that ties into Jesus Himself.

Here, in our verse in Revelation 1:15, "his feet like unto fine brass," or "frankincense brass," that is, brass that is related to the sacrifice, and the sacrifice that is put to the fire, and that is why we are not surprised at the next statement that continues on to say, "as if they burned in a furnace." So, in other words, Christ's feet are also related to the fact that He has offered up Himself as the Lamb of God, the sacrifice for the sins of His people, and that He has endured the fires of God's wrath for their sakes. And, as a result, He is qualified to go forth with the Gospel to seek those individuals that He died for, in order that they might hear that beautiful Gospel---the glad tidings of the word of

God---and that they might become saved.

Now, let us look at that next phrase, "as if they burned in a furnace." Again, Christ is being described in this way in order to teach us these things about the sacrifice of Himself, and now we see it with the word *burn* and the word *furnace*. Let us look at the word *furnace* first. It is found twice in Matthew 13, in verse 42 and in verse 50. It says in Matthew 13:42:

And shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.

And in Matthew 13:50:

And shall cast them into the furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.

They are almost identical statements, and they have to do with the judgment of God, the punishment and wrath of God upon sinners for their sins, the transgression of God's law. *Furnace* would relate to the judgment of God, the fiery wrath of God.

Let us also go to Revelation 9:1:

And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth: and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit.

(And this is a reference to the Lord Jesus. He is likened to a star here, and He is the one that possesses the key to death; He is the one that has the key, and He is the only one able to open up the pit.)

It says in Revelation 9:2:

And he opened the bottomless pit; and there arose a smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit.

Now we know that Revelation 9 is speaking of judgment day, and we know this for many reasons. One reason is that the previous chapter in the last verse in Revelation 8:13 pronounced three woes to the inhabiters of the earth, and that phrase alone identifies with the inhabitants of the world, the people of the world, and outside of the churches. That phrase is found in Jeremiah chapter 25, for instance, after God is bringing judgment on the city called by His name, and then He turns to the nations of the world, and it says in Jeremiah 25:29:

For, lo, I begin to bring evil on the city which is called by my name, and should ye be utterly unpunished? Ye shall not be unpunished: for I will call for a sword upon all the inhabitants of the earth, saith JEHOVAH of hosts.

That is the transition statement from God's judgment on the church to the expanded judgment now on all the unsaved people of the world. So in Revelation, chapter 8, the first four trumpets dealt with the judgment on the churches, but the last three trumpets are still to sound, so "Woe, woe, woe;" the final three trumpets are each likened to a "woe", and they are for the inhabitants of the earth, the people outside of the churches. It is a very nice transition, just as we find in Jeremiah chapter 25.

Of course, the second big reason that Revelation 9 is focused on the judgment of unsaved mankind---the whole earth---is that the sun is darkened. And we know Matthew 24:29 and other verses inform us that immediately after the tribulation the sun is darkened; and the tribulation is the time of judgment on the churches, so "immediately after" follows the judgment on the world.

Now a third reason would be this word *furnace*, as we saw in Matthew 13, in those two places, it is describing the wrath of God on mankind, and now there "arose a smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit." It is the Day of Judgment; the wrath of God now is being poured out upon the inhabitants of the earth.

Judgment day, we can also understand, to be a "day of fire," a day of fiery fury, as God is now showing His anger that He has for all those that have sinned against Him, and this great *furnace* demonstrates that anger. It pictures the all-consuming, fiery God, with which the people of the world now have to do.

So we see three verses where this word *furnace* refers to the judgment of God, and that helps us to understand that our verse in Revelation 1:15, where it says "And his feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace"; that, again, God is stressing and emphasizing by each of these statements that Jesus went through the wrath of God, that He had to endure the fiery wrath of the Father, but not for His own sins or for His own sake, but for the sins of His people.

Let us just look at the word *burn* quickly before we continue on. The word *burn* is found in Revelation 3, (and we will also see the word *furnace* again), and the Greek word translated as *burn* is translated as *tried* in Revelation 3:18:

I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and *that* the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see.

Now here it says *fire* and not *furnace*, but it is the same idea: "I counsel thee to buy of me gold *tried* or *burned* in the fire." That is, Jesus has gone through that *fire* for His people, and there, in Him, is salvation; so the wise counsel of God is to go to Him, to look upon Him, that "serpent of brass," that you might live. Look upon the one that has been formed out of the fire, and beseech God (and this would have been during the day of salvation when the Lord's mercy was still available), and cry out, "Oh, LORD, have mercy upon me! Could I be one of your elect?"

Now, of course, that prayer needs to be corrected, since we have entered into the Day of Judgment, and the day of salvation has concluded. We can still go to God, and we can still beseech Him for mercy, but we would pray differently. We would pray, "Oh, LORD, could I be one of those elect individuals that Christ died for, and also could I be one that you have already applied that redemption to before you shut the door of heaven on May 21, 2011 when judgment day began?"