He Who Holds the Seven Stars

He holds the seven stars in his right hand. That is to say, Christ holds the Churches in his hand. The word for to hold is kratein, and it is a strong word. It means that Christ has complete controld over the Church. If the Church submits to that control, it will never go wrong; and more than that--our security lies in the fact that we are in the hand of Christ. "They shall never perish, and no one shall snatch them out of my hand" (John 10:28).

There is another point here which emerges only in the Greek. Kratein normally takes a genitive case after it (the case which in English we express the word of). Because, when we take hold of a thing, we seldom take hold of the whole of it but of part of it. When kratein takes an accusative after it, it means that the whole object is gripped within the hand. Here, kratein takes the accusative and that means that Christ clasps the whole of the seven stars in his hand. That means he holds the whole Church in his hand. 

 ---(from the Revelation of John Volume 1, William Barclay) p. 61