Spirits, Stars, Garments

The letter to the angel of Sardis (Revelation 3:1-6) is smoothly cohesive in
theme. 

Jesus begins with a rebuke to the angel at Sardis, charging that despite
his reputation for life he is in fact dead. Death and sleep are merged in verse
2, where Jesus calls the dead to life with a “wake up.” They need to wake up to
complete their works in the site of God. 

Their works are dead because they fell
asleep – they died – in the midst of the performing them. They could not watch
with Jesus even for an hour, and their failure of alertness elicits Jesus’
rebuke. 

So long as they are sleeping, they are in danger of being surprised by
Jesus’ arrival. He will come as a thief to take away whatever things they have
still to their name. Jesus describes the same phenomenon in terms of apparel:
By falling asleep, by dying in the midst of their work, they have soiled their
garments, polluting them with corpse defilement. The reference to soiled
garments during sleep might also suggest a nocturnal emission, and connect to
Jesus’ warnings about porneia in the earlier letters. 

The ones who have not soiled their garments are clad in white, and they will walk with Jesus, their white garments a sartorial
sign that their names are written in the book of life and confessed before the
Father. Jesus confesses those with white clothing, who are, like Him, clothed
in glory. Those who are covered with shame will not have their names repeated
before the Father, nor will their names be in the citizen-roll of the saints in
the new Jerusalem.

The logic that unites the whole depends on the analogy between sleep and death, and the parallel between clothing and name, between reputation/status and uniform.

What doesn’t seem to fit is Jesus opening self-identification as the one with “seven Spirits of God and the seven stars” (v. 1). How is that a fitting opening for a letter about life and death, waking and sleeping, life and death?

The connection with the Spirit is the more obvious, since the Spirit is said to “clothe” people (Judges 6:34; 2 Chronicles 24:20). The Spirit is the power to bring the dead to life, so Jesus’ command “Wake up” is breathed out in the Spirit, like Ezekiel in the valley of bones. Jesus is clothed in the sevenfold Spirit, and those who wake from sleep are likewise draped by the dazzling Spirit of Jesus. 

We might also tease out connections between Spirit and name: The Spirit-glory of Yahweh that dwelt in the tabernacle was called the “name” of Yahweh. Those who are clothed in/indwelt by the Spirit likewise bear the name of God, as living temples.

The links between Spirit and life also fit with the creation schema that governs the imagery of the seven letters. Sardis is the fifth letter, corresponding to the fifth day of the creation week, the first day in which “living souls” (nephes chayyah) emerge in the creation. 

But how does the reference to “seven stars” relate to the rest of the message?

Now we begin to stretch things. The seven days of creation also form the background for the seven speeches of Yahweh in Exodus 25-31, which describe the tabernacle furnishings. There, the fifth speech gives the recipe for the perfumed holy incense that was to be used exclusively in the tabernacle. This corresponds to the creatures of the fifth day visually – swarming things form clouds, like the incense that rises from the golden altar.

The first speech in Exodus, which stretches from Exodus 25-30:10 is itself divided into seven sections, which correspond to the seven days of creation, and the fifth section describes the garments of glory and beauty that are worn by the high priest (Exodus 29). 

Garments thus correlate with swarming things, which correlate with incense. It’s not for nothing that the high priest enters the Most Holy Place on the day of atonement clothed not in his glory-robes but in a cloud of incense. It’s not for nothing that Isaiah envisions the king of Babylon covered with a garment of maggots – a garment of swarming, creeping creatures that replaces his royal robes (Isaiah 14:11).

How does this help us explain the reference to “stars” in Revelation 3:1? Stars were created on the fourth day, and so seem more fitting in the letter to Thyatira (cf. Revelation 2:28). I suggest that we think of the seven stars as a description of the clothing that Jesus has. He is clothed with the Spirit; He is wrapped in the heavens, and so clothed in stars (cf. Psalm 104:1-3). He sparkles in the Spirit, and those who walk with Him will likewise dazzle with the Spirit.

One final dimension of this: In Exodus 39, the garments of the high priest are described again, and laid out in a series of six items: material, ephod, onyx stones, breastpiece (with sparkling, starry jewels), robe and tunic, crown. This is followed by the Sabbatical announcement that the work of the tabernacle was “completed” (Exodus 39:32; cf. Genesis 2:1; Exodus 40:33). Jesus the high priest wears glittering stars; he is a man of the firmament, decked in the garments of heaven, which shine with the seven stars.