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This text was explained to the Apostle John as those that have washed their robes in the blood of the Lamb, servants of God who will dwell among them, they shall hunger and thirst no more, and have no tears and be led by the Lamb to be led and given living fountains of water, to live eternally. In simple terms, those that have prepared themselves in this life, through Christ, to be His bride. We have all been taught how those white robes come about through the righteousness of Christ, but what of the palms that must also be in our hands? When we read early Christian history and visit the early Christian graves, we see that those grave-stones did not feature the cross as many do today. In its stead, we see the palm used and generally in the language of that country, the word – Christ. It appears our text was the basis of this custom. If we do more research, we will find that the early Church used the palm in Church life, to express the triumph of the Christian over death, through the resurrection. The palm was always used to identify and it became the sign of martyrdom, as this was considered in the light of victory, assuring all of the surety of that person’s coming resurrection. It is no doubt the words of Psalm 92:12; “The righteous shall flourish like a palm tree”, played an important role in this symbol and belief in our text, as it linked the two together. The righteous robe through Christ and the flourishing after the resurrection in the Kingdom of God.

With this knowledge, we then must ask ourselves how this links itself to the Bride and what benefits are bestowed to the world by the palm tree. Solomon’s Song which is a poetic description of the Bride of Christ, tells us in chapter 7:6-7; “How fair and how pleasant art thou O love, for delights! This thy stature is like to a palm tree, and thy breasts to clusters of grapes.” This then leads us to consider the stature of the palm and its use. A palm is a tree that is straight, from the ground up to the first fronds. It is a very deep rooted tree, the roots usually go down deep to find the water. We see the first attributes of the Bride’s stature. Deeply rooted in the faith of Christ, always seeking more and more of the water of life. From the roots we grow straight up towards the heaven, not being side tracked by sending branches out into the world to seek those earthly pleasures. The palm tree is renowned for its long life of fruit bearing, in some cases over two hundred years, telling us that each generation has an obligation to be fruitful and pass that on to the next to continue. A palm is fruitful in many ways and so must the bride. A palm brings forth fruit, it is used to make wax to preserve things. Sugar is extracted to sweeten the lives of others, also oil is extracted and used for sustenance, anointing and healing purposes, tannin for health, dye to make, design and cover up, resin to bind things together and arrack as a substitute for wine.

We can see very clearly that all of these things are also required, as the bride shows forth those gifts of the Holy Spirit.

The prophet Ezekiel had a vision of the temple of God that would be built in the world. Of course he was seeing the spiritual temple, the living Church. It is interesting that in chapters 40 & 41, he saw that palm

trees featured in the design. The message of our text is clear if we are to be of that number, we are dependent on washing our robes in the blood of the Lamb but at the same time, we must be as the palm, upright in life and very fruitful, if we are to gain the palm to hold in our hand.