<p>22:16 <i>I Jesus have sent my angel to testify to you these things for the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, the bright morning star</i>- This statement of the obvious seems to be another example of how the utter reality of these things is being emphasized. This is not fantasy or wild dreaming, there is an eternal truth to this message of the Kingdom. And the message is to be shared with &quot;the churches&quot;, initially the seven representative churches of chapters 1-3.</p><p>The Lord is both the offspring of Jesse and David, and also &quot;the root of Jesse&quot; (Is. 11:1,10). This is another way of saying that He is the alpha and omega of all things. All this wonderful plan was planned for us from the beginning and shall come to fulfilment. Barnes helpfully comments: &quot;Not the root in the sense that David sprang from him, as a tree does from a root, but in the sense that he was the &ldquo;root-shoot&rdquo; of David, or that he himself sprang from him, as a sprout starts up from a decayed and fallen tree - as of the oak, the willow, the chestnut, etc. The meaning then is, not that he was the ancestor of David, or that David sprang from him, but that he was the offspring of David, according to the promise in the Scripture, that the Messiah should be descended from him. No argument, then, can be derived from this passage in proof of the pre-existence, or the divinity of Christ&quot;.</p>