Overseers in Christ’s Right Hand

8, 9. (a) What vision did the apostle John receive? (b) What was pictured by the seven lampstands and the seven stars?

⁸ The apostle John, a member of the governing body of the early Christian congregation, received a vision in which he “saw seven golden lampstands, and in the midst of the lampstands someone like a son of man . . . And he had in his right hand seven stars.” Jesus Christ explained to John: “As for the sacred secret of the seven stars that you saw upon my right hand, and of the seven golden lampstands: The seven stars mean the angels of the seven congregations, and the seven lampstands mean seven congregations.”​—Revelation 1:12-20.

⁹ Commenting on this passage, the book “Then Is Finished the Mystery of God” states: “Are such ‘angels’ invisible ones? No. The apostle John received the entire Revelation from Jesus Christ by means of a heavenly angel, and it would be unreasonable for him to be writing back to angels in heaven, in invisible realms. They do not need the messages written to the seven congregations in Asia. The basic meaning of the title ‘angel’ is ‘messenger; message bearer.’ . . . As these seven symbolic stars are seen to be upon Jesus’ right hand, they are in his care and charge and under his direction, his ‘right hand’ of applied power being able to direct and protect them. . . . As the ‘seven lampstands’ in the visionary ‘Lord’s day’ pictured all the true Christian congregations in this present, real ‘Lord’s day’ since 1914 C.E., so the ‘seven stars’ symbolize all the spirit-begotten, anointed angellike overseers of such congregations of today.”b​—Pages 102-4.

10. What increased “belongings” have been committed to the slave’s care?

¹⁰ These anointed overseers in Christ’s right hand are all a part of the collective “slave” whom He has appointed “over all his belongings.”