Immanuel, the First and the Last

One of Jesus's names is Immanuel, which means "God with us". In the first chapter of Revelation, we see Jesus among the lampstands, which are the churches in their light-giving aspect. In the opening to this book, the Lord God says, "I am the Alpha and the Omega, who was and is and is to come, the Almighty." Alpha and Omega were the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet, of course, and under this statement can be brought all sorts of ways in which God is the First and the Last. He is eternal, existing before the first thing and beyond the last thing; he encompasses all; he is the first and final cause of all things; he was there before the beginning and will be there after the end, etc. He always was, he is currently, and he is "coming" in the future. His saying, "Is to come" rather than the strictly parallel "will be" suggests a future not merely of existing but of acting, of self-revelation.

In the opening vision, we see Jesus standing among the Lampstands of the Seven Churches. He is there in their midst, holding in his hand their "angels". He identifies himself as "the First and the Last", not using the exact Alpha and Omega terminology used a few verses prior, but clearly reflecting the same idea. Do a word search on "first and last" and you will see that it is used of God throughout the Old Testament. (In the OT, it would not have been Alpha and Omega because those books were not originally written in Greek, but in Hebrew or Aramaic.)

So here, at the opening, we see Jesus, the eternal one, the one who died and returned to life, standing here on earth, in our midst, caring for us, having the angels of our churches in the palm of his hand. Jesus as Immanuel, God with us. Whatever frightening vision are to come, this revelation begins comfortingly with the truth that we are not alone in the world, that though we may not see Him with our physical eyes, yet Jesus is in our midst, walking among His churches.