Episode 10a: Ice - Chapter 1 Verse 14

Hair as white as snow.

Throughout the Bible this is symbolic of cleanliness or purity. It also refers to sheep or a lamb.  A lamb without blemish was required to be sacrificed on the night before passover as a sign of God's enduring salvation.

Now, we have Jesus, the ultimate sacrifice for God's plan of salvation.

Listen as Elizabeth and Christine dive in to verse 14, talking about the Lamb and the hope we have through Him.

Watch Christine's Revelation Study video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mdbfyswVKkY

==========

A Coffee With Jesus Production

Visit our Website: https://coffeewithjesus.info/
Follow us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/cwj2011/
View us on YouTube:  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKsQBybBdPxlSxvmWYfcMzQ
View us on Rumble: https://rumble.com/c/CoffeeWithJesus
Check out our Substack: https://coffeewjesus.substack.com/

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:20

Thank you for tuning in to Coffee with Jesus. My name is Elizabeth Bristol, and Christine Hobbs is here with me again today. So we can continue our conversation about the book of Revelation. If you haven't had a chance to listen to her 10-minute or so podcast about this section, we're going to include that in the show notes so it can we'll make it easy for you to find it. And our goal, like we've said before in studying Revelation, is to learn how we might be ready for Jesus's return. So if you know others that might be interested in this podcast, we would love for you to share it. And today we'll be talking about verses 14 and 15 in chapter one. So, Christine, where would you like to start us off?

SPEAKER_00 1:08

Well, as always, let's start with the text first, right? And we'll start in um verse 14. Um, his head and his hair were white like wool, like snow, and his eyes were like a flame of fire. Okay, so it seems like just such a short little line, and yet there's quite a bit to talk about in this one little line. Right?

SPEAKER_01 1:37

It is. It's like you said, you know how sometimes it's easy to skip over because you can't quite grasp it. So I'm glad we're gonna go there.

SPEAKER_00 1:44

Well, and and as I've been saying all along, and I hope you're all starting to get the picture at this point, that each line in and of itself has multiple arms that go out and and touch the old testament, the new testament, other verses, it's all interconnected. So again, it's not a book we can read like a story. Right, right. So John is seeing again, we're in a vision. This is his first vision. We talked about that last time, that this is his first vision, and he's looking at Jesus in his kingship, in his form as king, not um servant and savior. And so um, what we're reading is more likely symbolic than literal. Yes, he's literally a king, but John is describing him in a way that is teaching us what we need to know about Jesus Almighty, right?

SPEAKER_01 2:49

Because it doesn't look like the pictures we see of Jesus, right, with the bright haired Jewish man.

SPEAKER_00 2:55

Right. So the first thing he starts to describe last week we talked about his clothing, you know, that it was pointing to him moving to his priesthood as as priest over all things. This week he's giving us a description of his head and his hair, and so we have to look at what he defines them like. He says, his head and hair were white like wool. Okay, so the first word is white, and white typically um gives the impression of cleanliness, of purity. Anytime you see white in the Bible, it's typically talking about that. But here we have his head and his hair were white, like snow, so his skin is white even, right? So it's this dual picture, yeah, because we've we get the description. What else is white in scripture in terms of skin? And that would be leprosy. Yeah, the skin diseases. The leprosy is a picture of sin, and we know that he took our sin onto himself. And in in the Bible, leprosy often is a picture for sin. So it was a real disease, but the scriptures use it as a way of describing sin. When God looks upon us, he looks upon us as if we have leprosy. Wow. Right? So it's hard for him to look at because we're we're, you know, in a place where it's a disease in a way. Right. Sin is a disease.

SPEAKER_01 4:49

Um Jesus is both pure, but with our sin on him, white like the double right.

SPEAKER_00 4:59

And again, this isn't literal, right? So we're getting pictures. So his hair is white like wool. Okay, so where do we get wool? Sheep, obviously, right? Um, and so the Bible also pictures sheep all through scripture, right? I love that. And and the sheep need a shepherd, right? So we're considered sheep. So we're getting a picture of him taking our place, but unlike sheep, right? Yeah, so unlike sheep that we look at, if you go to a farm, sheep are filthy, yeah, you know, their fur is dirty, and that's not what he's describing. So he's describing him taking our place, but he's white, yes, because he took our place in perfection. So have you ever had any experience with sheep? Yeah, I love sheep. I don't they're not the brightest of animals. No, they're not. It's not a compliment, but that's what we're called.

SPEAKER_01 6:10

Well, and that that it was interesting to look at this because I I have, of course, heard of him as the lamb of God, but to think of him as a lamb with us was encouraging, right? And then one of my favorite books has been A Shepherd Speaks to the 23rd Psalm because it's a shepherd who pulls out all these similarities and describes them in a really cool thing. And it's funny, but I love sheep. So one time I was at the farmer's market when I lived out in Oregon, and these people were there who um had, you know, sweaters and spinning, they had the spinning wheel and stuff, and sure enough, they had sheep. And so they invited me to come to the sheep shearing that they did every February, and they like to get a bunch of people. They make a big party of it. You have a potlock, and so there's all these people watching the shearing. And this guy grabs one sheep at a time, one leg of the sheep, and he shears that thing in 28 seconds. I took a video and he flips the sheep over. The poor thing is, you know, like, yikes, and and it's matted and it's dirty. And you know, can you imagine this? Is February in Oregon? One minute you've got all that on you, that weight, that dirtiness, and the next minute they are clean when you take all that stuff out. Of course, underneath they're clean and it doesn't weigh that much, and they're probably cold, you know, all of a sudden with that. So we all had jobs. You could go watch and everything, and then I was in the they'd kind of throw us, I don't know what they call the whole piece of wool from one whole sheep, and we'd sit there with these cardboard things, demand um, you know, taking the hay out, cleaning them. And what was so funny to me is there was a knitting group and they were walking around feeling the wool, and each sheep's wool felt different. And so they were kind of like picking out what they wanted to make. They're gonna take this wheel, they're gonna make some yarn out of that, and they're gonna make a sweater. And I thought, oh my word, they knew the name of their sheep that was gonna like this sweater is Jacob, right? This sweater is, you know, and I'm like, oh my word, it made me want a sweater just so I could say, I know the name.

SPEAKER_00 8:28

Well, and this is what we're getting as a picture, right? So we know Jesus' hair um isn't literally wool, but John is painting a picture in in three words that if he spelled it out like we're talking right now for every line, if he did that, the book would be just volumes.

SPEAKER_01 8:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 8:50

So we're getting a very descriptive picture. And and so it's interesting that the Bible calls us sheep because we're so easily lost and we're not the brightest in a lot of ways. We get enticed, we're manipulated easily, just like you said, they were able to flip the sheep and de-wool them in 28 seconds. Well, that's kind of true for us. We're easily taken and fooled very quickly. Um, we stray easily, we need a shepherd, and then we get the picture of him with the wool hair. He took our place, he was the perfect lamb. Yeah. So if you think about the picture that's being presented here, the old testament in Exodus 1213 talks about the Passover lamb, right? And they used a lamb versus a sheep because the lambs weren't marred up at that point. Because you had to bring to the temple a sacrificial lamb that had no blemishes. Yeah. So it would be a lamb because by the time they were sheep, they were dirty and and yucky and scarred from hitting trees or whatever, wandering and getting into something. Um so here you have this sacrifice that would take place. And if you remember in Exodus 12, they were instructed to put the blood of the lamb over the doorpost. So when the plagues of Egypt hit, it would not happen to them. That would be the clue that the plague would pass over your household. Fast forward, we know the plague, the leprosy of this life. Jesus took that on to himself. He was the blood that now covers us in the New Testament. Sacrifice, all of those things. Do you see the picture? Yeah, it started in the Old Testament and it's in the New Testament, and here he's showing us the finality of it that he paid the price. We know he hung on the cross, and here he is white over us, hair, white skin, and then it moves on to say, like snow. So it's not only white, it's like snow. And just one little statement there, but it's so interesting because as I thought about it, I'm like, okay, I live in New England, we're both in New England at this point, and when it snows here, and then the sun comes out, the reflection off of that new bright white snow is so blinding in a way. Um, after a fresh snowstorm, and I think that's the picture that's being painted here. He is so glorified in his deity that he's like snow. So he took on our sin. He's the lamb, the sacrificial lamb, and he's so glorified at this point in his kingship that he's glaringly bright. And we know this is true because the apostles had that moment in the transfiguration story, yeah. It was so bright, they actually got to see him prior to the resurrection in his glorified state as he spoke on the mountaintop. So we know that that's likely to be what this means. Um right.

SPEAKER_01 12:31

And here's John trying to describe something he hasn't even seen, you know.

SPEAKER_00 12:36

Well, he was one of the ones that was thinking about it. Oh, right, right, right. But okay, but he's seeing it in its fullness. Yes. Like he was, he was at, you know, he was kind of coming out of a sleep. I think it was Peter that saw it first, but they they witnessed it, but it was at a distance, and like he's getting the fullness of this picture. And even like when we get to the end, um, Lord willing, because there's a lot to get through, right? Um when we get to the end, what we'll discover is there's no more stars, there's no more moon, there's no more sun. Because when we're in that final kingdom with Jesus Christ, he is the light. We're not gonna need a sun.

SPEAKER_01 13:20

I know that's hard to imagine, but yeah.

SPEAKER_00 13:24

And that's what John's seeing, white like snow. He's so glorified that that is the sun. That is the light. That's what he's seeing here. So, yeah, so that's really I think the picture that you know we have Second Corinthians 5 21. It says, He made him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in him. So that's that you know, payment, behold the Lamb of God, right? Like that's all of the things that we quote so often. We're seeing the culmination here as John describes him of that. Then we get to let's see, anything that you can think of that I'm missing here on that point? Nope.

SPEAKER_01 14:17

Well, Lord, Father, I just thank you that you come with each one of us, even as we, you know, finish recording and we all go our separate ways, that you are you're able to have conversations with each one. And I pray, Father, that wherever we are in this, that you will continue the conversation. You know, like if someone's afraid for some reason, um, that you will speak right directly into that fear, like speak whatever lies the enemies might be attacking us with, that you're you will reveal your truth, right? That you will just again, I don't know, I don't know. For those of us that love sheep, I would love new fresh revelation like you and how we are to be shepherds. And so I'm just grateful of all the times you tell us not to be afraid in the Bible. Um, because sometimes when we watch the news or we see what's going on in this world, it's hard to hold on to our peace and trust you like we want to. So we do thank you, Lord, that you are our refuge, you're our strength in these times of trouble. And we thank you for all of your many promises to help us, to strengthen us, never to leave us, to provide for us. We thank you that we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us. And we thank you for this podcast that you are showing us exactly what you mean, and that you are teaching us how we might use our authority in you um to, yeah, just to be prepared for when you come and to help others be the same. Lord, you know we have all have loved ones that that need to know you too. So we ask you for help in that in Jesus' name. Amen. And we thank you everyone for joining us. And um, yeah, just bless you and and please come back.