Pergamaum’s “Diamond Word”: “So shall my Word be …it shall accomplish the purpose for which I sent it; I t shall accomplish the purpose for which it was sent” (Isaiah 55:11).
About 50 miles north of Smyrna sat the capital city of Roman Asia, Pergamum. Famous for the manufacture of parchment and the second largest library in the empire (the largest was in Alexandria), it also erected the first temple to deify Caesar Augustus. Some Christians there ate food sacrificed to idols
One person in Pergamum stood out to challenge his fellow Christians: Antipas. He neither burned incense to idols nor ate food sacrificed to Roman gods and goddesses. As the “faithful witness,” he paid for his beliefs with his life. Eastern Orthodoxy has long revered him as a saint. IF he were condemned to death by the Pergamum’s Roman proconsul, then no wonder JP called the Roman judgment seat “Satan’s throne!”.
Most interesting in the Pergamum account is this condemnation, “Some of you hold to the teachings of Balaam” (Rev. 2:14).
Balaam, one of ancient Near East’s renowned Magi (wise men and diviners), came from Pethor, about 400 miles west of Moab and Israel. Balak, Moab’s king, hired Balaam to curse the Israelites as they approached his kingdom on their way to the Promised Land.
As Balaam consulted his auguries and amulets to prepare the curse, The Lord God of Israel intervened. When Balaam opened his mouth to speak, all he could utter were blessings for Israel ( Numbers 24 and 25)!
In Numbers 31:8 and another Old Testament Balaam perspective takes over this positive Balaam tradition. In Numbers 31, Balaam sells Midianite women to Israelite men for sexual immorality and idol worship. Revelation follows this “bad guy” Balaam tradition.
Were some “wise men” in Pergamum selling pagan temple prostitutes to Christian men? Were some Christians in Pergamum thereby engaged in sexual idol worship?
Jesus’ remedy stands identical with that for Ephesus: “Repent.” Here, though, Jesus adds, “ If you do not repent, I will make war with them (the idols you worship) with the sword of my mouth”( a theme already introduced in Revelation 1:16).
What’s this “sword”? ” St. Paul calls it “the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God” (Ephesians 6: 13-17).
***
My favorite Bible verse is about how God’ Word works in our lives --Isaiah 55:10-ll:
“For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return there until they have watered the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater,
So shall my Word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish the purpose for which I sent it, and prosper in the thing to which it was sent.”
I believe God’s Word runs forth into me every day of my life. It accomplishes the purpose for which it was sent, and it prospers. Sometimes His Word scrapes off the rust on my attitudes; sometimes it puts down in me what is puffed up; sometimes it brings me compassion. I have nothing to do with how it works. It’s all on God.
God’s Word was about to prosper in Pergamum. It will turn those Christians’ lives around. The inscriptions on the “white stones” of Pergamum’s Christians (v.17) tells what God’s Word has done for them in the past: “You are forgiven.” It also lets them know what God will help them do in the future: “Let go, and let God.”