Good evening, and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the book of Revelation.  Tonight is study #28 of Revelation 2, and we are going to read Revelation 2:20-22:

Notwithstanding I have a few things against thee, because thou sufferest that woman Jezebel, which calleth herself a prophetess, to teach and to seduce my servants to commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed unto idols. And I gave her space to repent of her fornication; and she repented not. Behold, I will cast her into a bed, and them that commit adultery with her into great tribulation, except they repent of their deeds.

We have been looking at these verses for several studies, and we have seen how God is warning the New Testament churches and congregations that if they continued down the path they had been traveling by allowing Jezebel to teach, they would come into judgment for it.  God even began to identify the corporate church itself as “Jezebel,” as He said, “And I gave her space to repent of her fornication; and she repented not.”  The space was 1,955 years, the entire church age.  That was quite a long time.  It was more than a sufficient amount of time for the churches to have repented if they ever were going to repent.  But the problem is that they never did, and they never would, so God set a timetable for the church age, and He followed through as He came to visit at the end of the appointed time, the end of the season of the firstfruits.  He came to see if the churches had done His commandments and turned from their wicked ways.  Then He came on May 21, 1988, and He saw that they did not repent, and then He said in Revelation 2:22:

Behold, I will cast her into a bed, and them that commit adultery with her into great tribulation, except they repent of their deeds.

We are curious about this first statement: “I will cast her into a bed.”   What does the Lord mean?  What does it mean spiritually to be cast into a bed?  The only way we can hope to understand this statement – as well as any statement in the Bible – is to examine the Bible for any information concerning a “bed.”  When we do, I think we will come to an understanding of what God is saying here.

Let us go to the Old Testament and look at 2Kings 1:4:

Now therefore thus saith JEHOVAH, Thou shalt not come down from that bed on which thou art gone up, but shalt surely die. And Elijah departed.

Let us go back to verse 2 so we can see who God is talking to and a little bit about the context.  It says in 2Kings 1:2-4:

And Ahaziah fell down through a lattice in his upper chamber that was in Samaria, and was sick: and he sent messengers, and said unto them, Go, enquire of Baalzebub the god of Ekron whether I shall recover of this disease. But the angel of JEHOVAH said to Elijah the Tishbite, Arise, go up to meet the messengers of the king of Samaria, and say unto them, Is it not because there is not a God in Israel, that ye go to enquire of Baalzebub the god of Ekron? Now therefore thus saith JEHOVAH, Thou shalt not come down from that bed on which thou art gone up, but shalt surely die. And Elijah departed.

It mentions “bed” again in 2Kings 1:6:

And they said unto him, There came a man up to meet us, and said unto us, Go, turn again unto the king that sent you, and say unto him, Thus saith JEHOVAH, Is it not because there is not a God in Israel, that thou sendest to enquire of Baalzebub the god of Ekron? therefore thou shalt not come down from that bed on which thou art gone up, but shalt surely die.

This was God’s pronouncement of judgment upon the king of Israel because he sought Baalzebub for wisdom and help in this sickness, so God said he would not recover but he would die on that bed.  So this identifies sickness and death with the bed, and that is not isolated to this passage.

Let us turn to Psalm 41:3:

JEHOVAH will strengthen him upon the bed of languishing: thou wilt make all his bed in his sickness.

Again, we find “bed” and “sickness” spoken of in the same verse.

When we turn to the New Testament, we find similar language.  It says in Matthew 9:2:

And, behold, they brought to him a man sick of the palsy, lying on a bed: and Jesus seeing their faith said unto the sick of the palsy; Son, be of good cheer; thy sins be forgiven thee.

Then it says in Matthew 9:5-7:

For whether is easier, to say, Thy sins be forgiven thee; or to say, Arise, and walk? But that ye may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins, (then saith he to the sick of the palsy,) Arise, take up thy bed, and go unto thine house. And he arose, and departed to his house.

It was a historical fact that the Lord saw this man lying on a bed, sick of the palsy.  Christ first said to him, “Son, be of good cheer; thy sins be forgiven thee.”  The scribes that were standing around said, “This man blasphemeth,” because God alone can forgive sins.  Why did Jesus say that to this sick man lying on a bed?   The reason He did this was because as He went around healing people of their physical sickness and disease, it was always a picture of salvation.  Every time that Christ cleansed a leper, the leprosy typified sin, and the cleansing of the leper was a picture of an individual cleansed of his sins and washed by the blood of Christ.  When the Lord would heal a blind man and give him sight, the blindness was a picture of an individual in his sin who does not see spiritually.  But in salvation, the Lord gives spiritual eyes to see.  The same was true for deafness.  It was a picture of Christ giving them “ears to hear,” spiritually.  And it was the same picture when Christ raised a dead person.  That physical death was an illustration of spiritual death, the condition of all men because of our sinful rebellion against God.  We were dead in sin.  So when Christ raised the twelve-year-old girl from the dead, or when he raised a young man that was the only son of a widow from the dead, the raising of the dead was a beautiful picture of God’s salvation of sinners.

In this instance of the man who had palsy and was lying upon a bed, the Lord decided to state the spiritual application of healing first.  Instead of first healing the man physically as a picture or representation of the forgiveness of sin, He would help us understand the spiritual aspect of all the healings performed by first saying, “Son, be of good cheer; thy sins be forgiven thee.”  Then the scribes said that He blasphemed, and then Jesus asked in Matthew 9:5:

For whether is easier, to say, Thy sins be forgiven thee; or to say, Arise, and walk?

What is the answer to that question?  Which was easier?  Was it easier for Christ to heal a man physically of his ailment, or to forgive the man’s sins?  Of course, the answer is that it is much more difficult to grant forgiveness of sins than to heal a man’s legs, eyes, or ears, or to heal his palsy.   And that is because in order to forgive a man’s sins, the Lord Jesus had to take those sins upon Himself and make payment for those sins by dying at the foundation of the world.  That is far more difficult than just healing someone physically, so Christ was emphasizing His work of saving sinners in this passage, and then He went on to say in Matthew 9:6:

But that ye may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins, (then saith he to the sick of the palsy,) Arise, take up thy bed, and go unto thine house.

There is the proof that we have biblical justification whenever we are saying that the physical healing was a picture of salvation, the fact that Christ had the power to forgive sin.

This man was lying on his bed.  That is why we came to this passage.  The man had a sickness, and he was healed of that sickness, but it was all a spiritual picture of a sin-sick soul experiencing salvation.  Therefore the “bed” is connected to sin-sickness.

Let us go to Mark 7 where there was another healing with a “bed” in view.  This concerned the Syrophenician woman, and it is a lovely story, so let us read Mark 7:24-30:

And from thence he arose, and went into the borders of Tyre and Sidon, and entered into an house, and would have no man know it: but he could not be hid. For a certain woman, whose young daughter had an unclean spirit, heard of him, and came and fell at his feet: The woman was a Greek, a Syrophenician by nation; and she besought him that he would cast forth the devil out of her daughter. But Jesus said unto her, Let the children first be filled: for it is not meet to take the children's bread, and to cast it unto the dogs. And she answered and said unto him, Yes, Lord: yet the dogs under the table eat of the children's crumbs. And he said unto her, For this saying go thy way; the devil is gone out of thy daughter. And when she was come to her house, she found the devil gone out, and her daughter laid upon the bed.

The daughter had been in her sickness, laid upon the bed, but now the devil was gone out of her.  The bed is related to having an unclean spirit in this verse.

Let us also go to the Gospel of Luke.  I think we can see that a “bed” relates to “sin-sickness.”  When the Lord said to the church at Thyatira, the condemnation was because they did not repent when He said, “And I gave her space to repent of her fornication; and she repented not. Behold, I will cast her into a bed, and them that commit adultery with her into great tribulation…”  That meant that God was going to cast her into the spiritual condition of being under the wrath of God.  That is, her sins would remain upon her.  There would be no forgiveness, or no rising up out of the bed, and no healing that would result in her being healthy spiritually. 

King Hezekiah had gone to an idol, just as the corporate church had committed fornication by eating things sacrificed to idols.  They had gone the wrong direction, and away from God, seeking wisdom in “high places,” and in a very similar way we could say that they sought after Baalzebub, just as King Hezekiah did.  God was indicating, “You are not going to be healed.  You are sick (in your sins), and you will remain upon that bed, and you will die upon that bed.” 

So the churches would be cast into a “sick bed,” and they that committed adultery with her into great tribulation.  It is interesting that God used the figure of a bed in Luke 17 in the context of the Day of Judgment when He said in Luke 17:34:

I tell you, in that night there shall be two men in one bed…

The word “men” is in italics, so it is really saying, “There shall be two in one bed…”

Again, it says in Luke 17:34-36:

I tell you, in that night there shall be two men in one bed; the one shall be taken, and the other shall be left. Two women shall be grinding together; the one shall be taken, and the other left. Two men shall be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left.

Now we can understand a little bit better what God is saying in verse 34: “I tell you, in that night there shall be two in one bed…”  That is, two in their sins, or two in the spiritual condition of being under the wrath of God, and of being condemned for their sin.  But God will take one out of that “bed.”  He will take one, just as He healed the man of palsy, and he took up his bed.  The one will be taken, but the other would remain in his sin and his spiritually dead condition.  So we have a picture of salvation in which one is taken, and the other is left.

Let us return to Revelation 2:22:

Behold, I will cast her into a bed, and them that commit adultery with her into great tribulation, except they repent of their deeds.

I want to quickly look at these two words translated as “great tribulation,” which is “megas-thlipis,” and these two words are found together only four times in the New Testament.  This is one of those places.

It is also found Matthew 24:19-22:

And woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days! But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the sabbath day: For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened.

We have made constant reference to “great tribulation” because it is a period of time that the Lord explained to the disciples when they asked the question, “…what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?”   The character of this period of time is that the churches would come under the judgment of God, a time of great apostacy, or falling away from the truths of the Bible.  The Great Tribulation is characterized as the time when the Holy Spirit comes out of the midst of the churches.  We read earlier in Revelation 1 that the Lord had been in the midst of the seven candlesticks, which represented all the churches and congregations during the church age.  That is where Christ dwelt, figuratively speaking.  But at the time of the end of the church age, the expiration of the time that the Lord had granted her space to repent, God then pronounced the judgment, which was the removal of His Spirit from their midst.  And immediately the light of the Gospel went out, and the door of heaven within the churches was shut, and there was no salvation possible in any church in the world. 

That was the character of the Great Tribulation of spiritual darkness in the churches from May 21, 1988 through May 21, 2011.  These dates fit precisely.  They lay out very well over the biblical calendar of history that God has opened up from His Word so that we can say these things with confidence.  The Great Tribulation came.  It ended after exactly 23 years, and we now find ourselves in the time, “after the tribulation of those days,” spoken of in Matthew 24:29, as well as Mark 13:24.  It is the period of time after the Tribulation.

Again, the Great Tribulation is mentioned four times, once in our verse in Revelation 2:22, and the second time in Matthew 24:21, and a third time in Acts 7:11:

Now there came a dearth over all the land of Egypt and Chanaan, and great affliction: and our fathers found no sustenance.

One of the English words is different, but the Greek words are the same, “megas-thlipis,” the words translated as “great affliction.”  And this is very helpful because in using these two words that identify with the Great Tribulation at the end of the world, the Lord is helping us to see that the famine in the days of Joseph is a type and figure of the Great Tribulation.  Then when we look at the historical period in the days of Joseph in which there was an awful and grievous famine that cause Jacob and his family to leave the land of Canaan and enter into Egypt, the Lord is teaching us that during the famine of the hearing of the Word at the time of the end, the Lord’s people would have to leave the churches.  So this was the third place that we read of “great affliction.”

The fourth and last place these words are used together are in Revelation 7:14, but to pick up the context, let us first read Revelation 7:9-11:

After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands; And cried with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb.

So here are a great multitude of saved people, and God does not want us to miss where these people came from, so He causes the question to be asked in Revelation 7:13-14:

And one of the elders answered, saying unto me, What are these which are arrayed in white robes? and whence came they? And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest. And he said to me, These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.

This is the fourth and last place we find “great tribulation” in the New Testament.   And this is a glorious truth that God is giving us that during the time of the Great Tribulation it was God’s plan to save a great multitude that no man could number.  They came out of “great tribulation.”  They did not come from any other time, like the 3,000 that were saved on the Day of Pentecost,  which identifies with the season of firstfruits and the church age.

This “great multitude” can identify only with the “little season” of the Great Tribulation during the Latter Rain period, a short 17-year period from 1994 to May 21, 2011.  God utilized that “little season” to save a great multitude of sinners all across the face of the earth.  And it so happens that it was during that “little season” that God’s people proclaimed to all the world the coming of Judgment Day on May 21, 2011.  Of course we can see the connection, and we can see that God used that message to reach the ears of His elect all over the earth as the Gospel of the kingdom of God was preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations, and God saved all the elect whose names were written in the Lamb’s Book of Life, a great multitude.  Then He shut the door, and the Day of Judgment came on May 21, 2011.  The end had come upon us.