I have been studying the seven churches in. Revelation and a church stood out to me- the Church of Smyrna. Whenever I am studying a biblical church or people I always need some type of background on them. I need to be reminded that though they lived about two thousand years ago - these are real people, with real problems and real feelings just like you and me. I have to make them tangible in some way, so please bear with me.
Where is Smyrna? The city is now known as Izmir in western Turkey. This was the hometown of Homer who wrote the Iliad and the Odyssey. Smyrna was a port city; and was 35 miles away from our first Revelation church, Ephesus. It was known as one of the most beautiful and prosperous cities in the region. Smyrna and Ephesus were in competition for a time as to which city was the dominant port in the region. In the long run, Smyrna won.
So our Smyrna church was positioned in a port city with a diversity of goods, services, people and cultures coming in and out. They are in a place where they can see and and more importantly be seen. They were also in an ancient city that had survived the transitions - the rise and fall of kings and kingdoms. They had been ruled by the Ionians, the Hellenic Greeks and now -when we encounter them - the Romans. Smyrna did not lose its place of prominence until the rise of Constantinople and the Byzantine Empire.
With this background in mind, let’s take a look at this love note. Revelation chapter 2:
8 “And to the angel of the church in Smyrna write: The first and the last, who [e]was dead, and has come to life, says this: 9 ‘I know your tribulation and your poverty (but you are rich), and the blasphemy by those who say 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 cast some of you into prison, so that you will be tested, and you will have tribulation for ten days. [f]Be faithful until 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. He who overcomes will not be hurt by the second death.’ (NASB)
Wow. The message to this church is not long, but it is a mouth full. Did I mention that this is the only time that Smrnyna gets a message as a church that is recorded? They do not show up in Acts and we have no record of Paul sending them a letter like he did to Ephesus. This, it seems, is it. And what a message to receive. You have been called to a season of suffering.
Who likes to suffer? No one likes to suffer. But it is clear that Smyrna is being called to walk through tribulation. It is a season for the Christian that none of us can escape or ignore. We will all have to walk through a season or even a series of trials.
The note in a nutshell. The church of Smyrna is being asked - it’s being foretold- they are going to live up to the city’s name. Wait, live up to the city’s name? What does Smyrna mean? Good question. When the Hebrew Bible was translated from Hebrew into Greek- the book that became the Septuagint- the word Smyrna was used to translate the word myrrh. Myrrh in Arabic means bitter.
The word Myrrh is one we may recognize. Myrrh was one of the gifts the wise men gave to little Jesus. Myrrh shows up multiple times in the Hebrew Bible. Myrrh was one of the oils used by Esther to purify herself in her months of preparation before her interview with the Persian king. It is one of the oils the bridegroom used to adorn himself in the Song of Solomon. Myrrh was a part of the payment that Ishmaelite traders received when Joseph’s brothers sold him into slavery to Egypt. Myrrh was on par with gold and other metals for its trading value. It is still expensive today. About an ounce of it in its pure form can cost around $75.00 today.
But what is it? It is a plant, a bush, and the resin or oil that came from it was highly valued and respected for its healing properties. The most precious thing about the myrrh plant is its oil and the only way to get the oil out of the tree is for the tree to be cut into and the resin pressed out.
Trials and tribulation are just another way of saying that our believers in Smyrna were being called to be cut and pressed. If you have ever seen or smelled it, Myrrh smells a bit bitter and it has the color of darkened blood. Dried blood like you’ve been in a fight and had to get back up. Being pressed doesn’t feel good. Being pressed doesn’t look good. Tribulation tastes bitter. But after the pressing comes the benefit and the benefit is the oil. It is not a coincidence that a church in a town called Myrrh is being called to suffer.
The Smyrna church housed something precious. (remember our love note states though they think they’re poor, they are really rich.) They housed the same thing each body of believers is supposed to have- the oil of the glory of God. That’s why they are rich. The only way for that oil to flow at its full capacity was for the body of believers to be pressed.
How are they being pressed? Smyrna was being pressed in more than one way. In more than one direction. (Isn’t this usually the way.) They appear to be being pressed from without and from within. The authorities were coming after them. Prison was on the horizon for some of its members. As this external press is happening, internal fissures and cracks were being revealed. The emergence of those who would promote false or incomplete belief.
Being pressed also places you in a vulnerable position. Some people will interpret that vulnerability as weakness and attempt to use it to see the upper hand. Yielding to the will of God is never a weakness. But internal struggle is a part of the pressing. You are going to have some false people in your midst- some pseudo-believers trying to vie for prominence but you remain yielded anyway.
Not only are they vulnerable, not only are they pressed but Smyrna has a type of spotlight on them. Remember the church was in a port city, a place where their suffering could be noticed and shared. A place where people traveled back and forth from one region of the empire to another and your private pain and suffering could become a very public thing very quickly. You could be gossiped about and your business, your private business could be aired at the docks and flung not only from one end of town to the other but to the four corners of the Roman world. It could reverberate like the waves that hit this coastal town.
Here they are vulnerable, exposed and possibly talked about across the region. Seen suffering? What is so important about this oil inside them that this church would be willing to go through?
What does the oil do? Myrrh oil was used as incense, as revenue and as medicine. Smyrna carried the same oil we are all supposed to have as believers-the oil of the Holy Spirit and it does the same thing. The prayers and praise of this church during this season was the perfume that reached Heaven’s atmosphere. Their ability to worship and stand during a crisis was what needed to be seen by a watching public.
But we are going to focus on the medicine part of this. A season of suffering can reveal the issues in the body but it can also serve as the opportunity to heal what has been revealed. While they were witnessing, they were also being refined. Did I tell you what myrrh treats? Myrrh treats diseases of the mouth. It attacks cancer cells and kills parasites in the body. It is also used to heal emotional issues caused by abandonment and lack of bonding with a nuclear family. It is the oil recommended for use by adoptive and foster parents with their new children. Why? Because this oil is used to establish trust. Its scent creates a safe zone.
What myrrh oil does in the human body, God’s heavenly oil, the Holy Spirit, does for the body of Christ. The Holy Spirit changes our mouths. Walking with Him through trials changes how we talk and what we talk about. The things that we thought we important before the storm can be far less critical during the trial. The things we would have said don’t come out of our mouths anymore. The Holy Spirit’s oil kills the cancers of false teaching that seek to destroy the body of Christ from the inside. This oil zaps the parasites that seek to sap the nutrients out of the body before the church can use them.
It establishes trust and safe zones, places we will need so that we can withstand the winds of personal trial. It bonds us to people to people who are like Him. We call each other brothers and sisters without the benefit of genetics. We are not bonded through DNA but through the love of Christ, the oil of the Holy Spirit and the trials that we go through together.
We bond together through the cutting, through the pressing but boy can the pressing hurt. But without it- the oil drips, it doesn’t flow.
The Smyrna church had been asked not only to live up to the name of their city but also to the name they represented in the earth, Jesus Christ. The first and the last; the beginning and the end. He’s the one sending this love note. And what He says next is what we should all hold on to.
In verse 10 He says. Do not fear. Do not fear. Do not fear. Do not fear what you are about to suffer. God’s vision is different from our vision. We see incomplete things. We see pieces. He sees completed things, completed works and a completed season. Just as He saw the end of Job’s saga before it even started; He saw Smyrna's. You see, God found Smyrna worthy of being pressed. Not everyone can be trusted to serve from this type of bowed position. Not everyone can be called to walk His will out from this vulnerable place. He could trust them in a season of suffering.
You can’t press something that doesn’t already have something on the inside. You can’t release something from empty vessels. This transition, this season, was not a punishment. It was purposeful for releasing His glory for the benefit of the Kingdom of God and the spreading of the Gospel.
Trying to get the myrrh into a larger container, I spilled a few drops in the house. It’s been two days. My whole living room still smells like myrrh. Imagine if I had broken the bottle. With Smyrna God broke the bottle. He filled the city with the scent of their oil and used it for His glory.
We all have trials of some sort that are pressing us every day. We are told what is waiting for those who endure. For if we are faithful, what is awaiting Smyrna is also awaiting us. What is waiting? A crown of life. Our crown won’t be like the laurel leaf covered diadems made for champions of the Roman circus or games. It will be an incorruptible crown. For He says further that, “He who overcomes will not be hurt by the second death.”
Hold on through this transition, this season of suffering for the reward waiting for you if you are faithful is great.