“And to the angel of the church in Thyatira write: The Son of God, who has eyes like a flame of fire, and His feet are like burnished bronze, says this: … ‘And I will kill her children with pestilence, and all the churches will know that I am He who searches the minds [kidneys] and hearts; and I will give to each one of you according to your deeds'” (Rev 2:18, 23).
The denial of Yeshua’s deity by so-called Christians is, among other things, a symptom of a very shallow reading of the New Testament. It is a reading of the NT without any regard whatsoever for its biblical (i.e., OT) background. It is only when we consider Yeshua’s extraordinary statement about himself in Revelation 2:23 that its full meaning comes to light: “I am he who searches the kidneys and the hearts.” Anyone who knows the Hebrew Scriptures will quickly realize that anyone who claims the ability to do this would be guilty of blasphemy, unless this claim is really is true of course! According to the Scriptures, the LORD God of Israel alone searches minds [kidneys] and hearts:
“For the righteous God tries the hearts and minds” (Ps 7:9[10]).
“Examine me, O LORD, and try me; test my mind and my heart” (Ps 26:2).
“But, O LORD of hosts, who judges righteously, who tries the mind and the heart” (Jer 11:20).
“Yet, O LORD of hosts, You who test the righteous, Who see the mind and the heart” (Jer 20:12).
Put these same words in the mouths of Moses, David, Isaiah, Peter, and Paul, and we would have to stone them to death.
Add to this the fact that Revelation 2:23 uses a nearly verbatim citation of God’s words to Jeremiah in 17:10 and applies them directly to Yeshua: “I, the LORD, search the heart, I test the mind, Even to give to each man according to his ways, According to the results of his deeds.” “I am He who searches the minds [kidneys] and hearts; and I will give to each one of you according to your deeds” (Rev 2:23). Put these same words in the mouths of Moses, David, Isaiah, Peter, and Paul, and we would have to stone them to death. Put them in the mouth of Yeshua, however, and we fall down in worship at his feet, because he knows us inside and out and to him we will one day give an account.
The only way to say that Yeshua is not God in light of his ability to search our minds and hearts is to embrace the equally false idea that the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament represent two completely different religions. But in so doing, we will end up abandoning the only God and Savior who can save us!
“O LORD, the hope of Israel, all who forsake You will be put to shame. Those who turn away on earth will be written down, because they have forsaken the fountain of living water, even the LORD” (Jer 17:13).
