Jesus had referred to himself with this name in Revelation 1:17. This self-identification was borrowed from God’s revelation to Israel through Isaiah (Isaiah 44:6–8), where the Lord existed before other gods came into being and will last longer. The point of the phrase is that he determines all that is going to happen (Isaiah 44:7), something no other god is able to do simply because they are all lifeless (Isaiah 44:9–18). All things and all events have their origin in God (see Isaiah 44:24–28). So you can always verify God’s reality (and faithfulness) by seeing things once foretold actually happening in years to come. The phrase the last
indicates that whatever the Lord does is directed to his own glory. Yet it’s not so that what God does occurs at the expense of his people, for God’s children get to share his glory in the New Jerusalem (see Isaiah 44:23).
8 “And to the angel of the church in Smyrna write: ‘The words of the first and the last, who died and came to life.