“I, Jesus, have sent my angel to give you this message for the churches. I am both the source of David and the heir to his throne. I am the bright morning star.” Revelation 22:16, NLT
Taken from the Wayfinding Bible
In Revelation 22:16, Jesus clearly identifies himself and ties the past to the future. Long ago God promised his people that a star would come from Jacob (Numbers 24:17). To Isaiah he promised that a shoot would come from “the stump of David’s family” (Isaiah 11:1). When Jesus walked the earth, people knew he was the son of David (Matthew 22:42). What was promised so many centuries before has come true. In one statement, Jesus unites thousands of years of prophecies and history.
John’s thinking and writing were steeped in the Old Testament. The book of Revelation adopts imagery that appears everywhere from Genesis to Malachi. Understanding the meaning of these images in the Old Testament can help make sense of what John meant in Revelation. Check out the graphic below from the Wayfinding Bible to see the connection of Revelation imagery to the Old Testament.
Wayfinding Bible