I saw, and behold, the Lamb standing on Mount Zion, and with him a number, one hundred forty-four thousand, having his name, and the name of his Father, written on their foreheads.
Parallel Translations
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I saw, and behold, the Lamb standing on Mount Zion, and with him a number, one hundred forty-four thousand, having his name, and the name of his Father, written on their foreheads.
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And I loked and loo a lambe stode on the mount Syon and with him C. and xliiii. thousande havynge his fathers name written in their forhedes.
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Then I looked, and lo, a Lambe stood on mount Sion, and with him an hundreth, fourtie and foure thousand, hauing his Fathers Name written in their foreheads.
Cross-references (27)
Passages linked to Revelation 14:1 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Joel 2:32 It will happen that whoever will call on Yahweh’s name shall be saved; for in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there will be those who escape, as Yahweh has said, and among the remnant, those whom Yahweh calls.
- Revelation 3:12 He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God, and he will go out from there no more. I will write on him the name of my God and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from my God, and my own new name.
- Revelation 7:3-17 saying, “Don’t harm the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, until we have sealed the bondservants of our God on their foreheads!” I heard the number of those who were sealed, one hundred forty-four thousand, sealed out of every tribe of the children of Israel: of the tribe of Judah twelve thousand were sealed, of the tribe of Reuben twelve thousand, of the tribe of Gad twelve thousand, of the tribe of Asher twelve thousand, of the tribe of Naphtali twelve thousand, of the tribe of Manasseh twelve thousand, of the tribe of Simeon twelve thousand, of the tribe of Levi twelve thousand, of the tribe of Issachar twelve thousand, of the tribe of Zebulun twelve thousand, of the tribe of Joseph twelve thousand, and of the tribe of Benjamin twelve thousand were sealed. After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude, which no man could count, out of every nation and of all tribes, peoples, and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, dressed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands. They cried with a loud voice, saying, “Salvation be to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” All the angels were standing around the throne, the elders, and the four living creatures; and they fell on their faces before his throne, and worshiped God, saying, “Amen! Blessing, glory, wisdom, thanksgiving, honor, power, and might, be to our God forever and ever! Amen.” One of the elders answered, saying to me, “These who are arrayed in the white robes, who are they, and where did they come from?” I told him, “My lord, you know.” He said to me, “These are those who came out of the great suffering.They washed their robes, and made them white in the Lamb’s blood. Therefore they are before the throne of God, they serve him day and night in his temple. He who sits on the throne will spread his tabernacle over them. They will never be hungry or thirsty any more. The sun won’t beat on them, nor any heat; for the Lamb who is in the middle of the throne shepherds them and leads them to springs of life-giving waters. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”
- Luke 12:8 “I tell you, everyone who confesses me before men, the Son of Man will also confess before the angels of God;
- Hebrews 12:22-24 But you have come to Mount Zion, and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable multitudes of angels, to the festal gathering and assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, to God the Judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect, to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better than that of Abel.
- Revelation 5:5-9 One of the elders said to me, “Don’t weep. Behold, the Lion who is of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has overcome: he who opens the book and its seven seals.” I saw in the middle of the throne and of the four living creatures, and in the middle of the elders, a Lamb standing, as though it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God, sent out into all the earth. Then he came, and he took it out of the right hand of him who sat on the throne. Now when he had taken the book, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each one having a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. They sang a new song, saying, “You are worthy to take the book and to open its seals: for you were killed, and bought us for God with your blood out of every tribe, language, people, and nation,
- Micah 4:7 and I will make that which was lame a remnant, and that which was cast far off a strong nation: and Yahweh will reign over them on Mount Zion from then on, even forever.”
- Romans 9:33 even as it is written, “Behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling stone and a rock of offense; and no one who believes in him will be disappointed.”
- Revelation 5:12-13 saying with a loud voice, “Worthy is the Lamb who has been killed to receive the power, wealth, wisdom, strength, honor, glory, and blessing!” I heard every created thing which is in heaven, on the earth, under the earth, on the sea, and everything in them, saying, “To him who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb be the blessing, the honor, the glory, and the dominion, forever and ever! Amen!”
- Psalms 2:6 “Yet I have set my King on my holy hill of Zion.”
- Psalms 132:13-14 For Yahweh has chosen Zion. He has desired it for his habitation. “This is my resting place forever. I will live here, for I have desired it.
- Zechariah 4:2 He said to me, “What do you see?” I said, “I have seen, and behold, a lamp stand all of gold, with its bowl on the top of it, and its seven lamps on it; there are seven pipes to each of the lamps, which are on the top of it;
- Revelation 14:14 I looked, and saw a white cloud, and on the cloud one sitting like a son of man, having on his head a golden crown, and in his hand a sharp sickle.
- Isaiah 49:14 But Zion said, “Yahweh has forsaken me, and the Lord has forgotten me.”
- Revelation 15:5 After these things I looked, and the temple of the tabernacle of the testimony in heaven was opened.
- Jeremiah 1:11 Moreover Yahweh’s word came to me, saying, “Jeremiah, what do you see?” I said, “I see a branch of an almond tree.”
- Ezekiel 1:4 I looked, and behold, a stormy wind came out of the north: a great cloud, with flashing lightning, and a brightness around it, and out of the middle of it as it were glowing metal, out of the middle of the fire.
- Ezekiel 2:9 When I looked, behold, a hand was stretched out to me; and, behold, a scroll of a book was in it.
- Ezekiel 8:7 He brought me to the door of the court; and when I looked, behold, a hole in the wall.
- Ezekiel 10:1 Then I looked, and see, in the expanse that was over the head of the cherubim there appeared above them as it were a sapphire stone, as the appearance of the likeness of a throne.
- Daniel 12:5 Then I, Daniel, looked, and behold, two others stood, one on the river bank on this side, and the other on the river bank on that side.
- Amos 8:2 He said, “Amos, what do you see?” I said, “A basket of summer fruit.” Then Yahweh said to me, “The end has come on my people Israel. I will not again pass by them any more.
- Revelation 4:1 After these things I looked and saw a door opened in heaven, and the first voice that I heard, like a trumpet speaking with me, was one saying, “Come up here, and I will show you the things which must happen after this.”
- Revelation 6:8 And behold, a pale horse, and the name of he who sat on it was Death. Hades followed with him. Authority over one fourth of the earth, to kill with the sword, with famine, with death, and by the wild animals of the earth was given to him.
- Ezekiel 10:9 I looked, and behold, there were four wheels beside the cherubim, one wheel beside one cherub, and another wheel beside another cherub. The appearance of the wheels was like a beryl stone.
- Ezekiel 44:4 Then he brought me by the way of the north gate before the house; and I looked, and behold, Yahweh’s glory filled Yahweh’s house; so I fell on my face.
- Revelation 13:16-17 He causes all, the small and the great, the rich and the poor, and the free and the slave, to be given marks on their right hands, or on their foreheads; and that no one would be able to buy or to sell, unless he has that mark, which is the name of the beast or the number of his name.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (30 sources)
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Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain As ready girt to do his office (as Acts…
As ready girt to do his office (as Acts 6:56) in the midst of the Church which aforetime mount Zion did prefigure.
The history of the Church of Christ being finished for more than a thousand and three hundred years, at which time Boniface the eighth lived as before hath been said, there remaineth the rest of the history of the conflicting or militant Church, from thence unto the time of the last victory in three chapters. For first of all, as the foundation of the whole history, is described the standing of the lamb with his army and retinue in five verses, after his worthy acts which he hath done, and yet doth in most mighty manner, whilst he overthroweth Antichrist with the spirit of his mouth, in the rest of this chapter, and in the two following. Unto the description of the Lamb, are propounded three things: his situation, place and attendance: for the rest are expounded in the former visions, especially upon the fifth chapter.
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As before 7:2. This retinue of the Lamb is described first by divine mark (as before 7:2) in this verse. Then by divine occupation, in that all and every one in his retinue most vehemently and sweetly (verse 2) do glorify the Lamb with a special song before God and his elect Angels: which song flesh and blood cannot hear, nor understand, verse 3. Lastly by their deeds done before, and their sanctification in that they were virgins, pure from spiritual and bodily fornication that is, from impiety and unrighteousness, that they followed the Lamb as a guide unto all goodness, and cleaved unto him that they are holy unto him as of grace redeemed by him: that in truth and in simplicity of Christ, they have exercised all these things, sanctimony of life, the direction of the Lamb, a thankful remembrance of the redemption by him: finally (to conclude in a word) that they are blameless before the Lord, verses 4, 5.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain 1 And I looked, and, lo, a Lamb stood…
1 And I looked, and, lo, a Lamb stood on the mount Sion, and with him an hundred forty and four thousand, having his Father’s name written in their foreheads.
Ver. 1. A lamb] In opposition to that counterfeit lamb, Rev 13:12. A lion he can show himself at pleasure.
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Stood] Ready pressed for action, as at the stoning of Stephen, or he stood sentinel for such as he here reserved to himself under the reign and rage of Antichrist.
A hundred forty and four thousand] The same that were sealed, Rev 7:4, all the holy martyrs, confessors, believers.
Having his Father’s name] His Father and their Father, his God and their God; this was written. on their foreheads, as "holiness to the Lord" was upon the high priest’s, Exo 28:36. For the constancy of their confession; they were not "ashamed of the gospel of Christ" Rom 1:16, nor "afraid with any amazement," 1Pe 3:6.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain God, in this part of the vision, showeth his…
God, in this part of the vision, showeth his servant John, that during the whole reign of antichrist, till the voice mentioned Rev 14:8,
Babylon is fallen, should be heard, notwithstanding all his rage, he would preserve his church, though it would be but a small number, bearing no better proportion to the whole world than one hundred and forty-four thousand (the number of those sealed of each tribe of Israel, Rev 7:1-17) bare to whole Israel, which were above six hundred thousand upon both their numberings, Num 1:26. The
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Lamb here signifieth Christ, Rev 5:6.
Mount Sion signifieth the church of the gospel, typified by Mount Sion amongst the Jews where the temple stood.
An hundred forty and four thousand is the same number that was sealed of all the tribes of Israel, Rev 7:1-17; not that there was just so many which made up the church under antichrist’s persecution; but it signifies:
1. A small number in comparison of such as should be of another stamp.
2. It is a number made up of twelve times twelve, by which is signified that they were a people that should answer the Israelites indeed of the Old Testament, that remnant of the twelve tribes whom God had chosen, who adhere to the doctrine and precepts of the twelve apostles.
Having his Father’s name written in their foreheads; making an open profession of being the children and servants of God: as those servants and soldiers did that had anciently the names of their masters and generals in their foreheads; it being an ancient custom for masters to brand their servants, and captains their soldiers, as we do our beasts at this day.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
William Burkitt 1703 · Public Domain This verse represents to us a fresh vision which…
This verse represents to us a fresh vision which St. John had, in which several things are very observable, as,
1. What and whom St. John was, a Lamb, by whom Christ is to be understood.
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2. The posture which this Lamb was found in, he stood, showing thereby his readiness to deliver his church, and to do every thing that is needful for her.
3. The place where he stood on, Mount Sion, that is, in the midst of the church. Christ ever has been, is, and will be, present with his church, even to the end, although his presence with her is not always sensibly perceived; his care is mysteriously exercised; he is then taking most care of her when he seems to take least, nay, when the men of the world think he takes none at all.
Observe, 4. His company and attendants, and they are described two ways,
1. By their number, to wit, an hundred forty and four thousand, whereby the collective body of the whole church is to be understood; and intimates to us, that in the worst of times, even when apostasy and persecution do most universally prevail, Christ never wants a church, and is not without a number of true worshippers.
2. They are described by their badge or mark, having their Father’s name written in their foreheads; in opposition to the mark of the beast mentioned in the foregoing chapter, and in allusion to a custom amongst men, who put their mark or names upon thier goods, especially upon such as are very precious, as silver or gold vessels, and the like; so that the mark of the Father’s name upon the forehead denotes both the precious esteem which God has of his people, and also intimates their open profession and owning of him for their Lord and Master, and their faithful adherence to his worship.
Learn hence, That the sincere worship of God, with the open and avowed profession of his holy and undefiled religion, accompanied with a suitable conversation, is a better mark and note of the true church than multitudes and numbers, which are a note of the antichristian synagogue: the world wonders after the beast, when Mount Sion here affords only an hundred forty-four thousand, which had the Father’s name written on their foreheads.
William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain Here we have one of the most pleasing sights…
Here we have one of the most pleasing sights that can be viewed in this world - the Lord Jesus Christ at the head of his faithful adherents and attendants. Here observe, 1. How Christ appears: as a Lamb standing upon mount Zion. Mount Zion is the gospel church. Christ is with his church and in the midst of her in all her troubles, and therefore she is not consumed. It is his presence that secures her perseverance; he appears as a Lamb, a true Lamb, the Lamb of God. A counterfeit lamb is mentioned as rising out of the earth in the last chapter, which was really a dragon; here Christ appears as the true paschal Lamb, to show that his mediatorial government is the fruit of his sufferings, and the cause of his people's safety and fidelity. 2. How his people appear: very honourably. (1.) As to the numbers, they are many, even all who are sealed; not one of them lost in all the tribulations through which they have gone. (2.) Their distinguishing badge: they had the name of God written in their foreheads; they made a bold and open profession of their faith in God and Christ, and, this being followed by suitable actings, they are known and approved. (3.) Their congratulations and songs of praise, which were peculiar to the redeemed (Rev 14:3); their praises were loud as thunder, or as the voice of many waters; they were melodious, as of harpers; they were heavenly, before the throne of God. The song was new, suited to the new covenant, and unto that new and gracious dispensation of Providence under which they now were; and their song was a secret to others, strangers intermeddled not with their joy; others might repeat the words of the song, but they were strangers to the true sense and spirit of it. (4.) Their character and description. [1.] They are described by their chastity and purity: They are virgins. They had not defiled themselves either with corporal or spiritual adultery; they had kept themselves clean from the abominations of the antichristian generation. [2.] By their loyalty and stedfast adherence to Christ: They follow the Lamb withersoever he goes; they follow the conduct of his word, Spirit, and providence, leaving it to him to lead them into what duties and difficulties he pleases. [3.] By their former designation to this honour: These were redeemed from among men, being the first-fruits to God, and to the Lamb, Rev 14:4. Here is plain evidence of a special redemption: They were redeemed from among men. Some of the children of men are, by redeeming mercy, distinguished from others: They were the first-fruits to God, and to the Lamb, his choice ones, eminent in every grace, and the earnest of many more who should be followers of them, as they were of Christ. [4.] By their universal integrity and conscientiousness: There was no guile found in them, and they were without fault before the throne of God. They were without any prevailing guile, any allowed fault; their hearts were right with God, and, as for their human infirmities, they were freely pardoned in Christ. This is the happy remnant who attend upon the Lord Jesus as their head and Lord; he is glorified in them, and they are glorified in him.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain And I looked, and, lo, a Lamb,.... The Alexandrian…
And I looked, and, lo, a Lamb,.... The Alexandrian copy, and some others, read "the Lamb"; the same that had been seen before in, the midst of the throne, Rev 5:6; and all the Oriental versions have the same article also; the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, for mention is made of his Father in a following clause; the King of Zion, where he is seen standing, and the Redeemer of his people, who are at large described; it is the same Lamb who is so often spoken of in this book before: in the two preceding chapters an account is given of the state of the church, as oppressed under Rome Pagan, and Rome Papal, and here of its more glorious and victorious condition, with Christ at the head of it; in the last chapter antichrist is described, with his followers and worshippers, and as exercising tyranny and cruelty upon the saints, and here Christ and his followers are represented in vision, and some hints given of the fall of Babylon, and of the wrath of God upon the worshippers of the beast, and of the happiness of those who belong to the Lamb: and of him it is here said, that he
stood on the Mount Zion; by which is meant not heaven, but the church on earth; why that is called Mount Zion; see Gill on Heb 12:22; here Christ the Lamb stood, as presiding over it, being King of Zion, or the church; where he stood and fed, or ruled, in the name of the Lord, and in the majesty of his God; and where he appeared in the defence of his church and people, oppressed by antichrist; for he is Michael that standeth for the children of his people, and who stands with courage, and in the greatness of his strength, and is invincible; nor does he stand here alone:
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and with him an hundred forty and four thousand; the same with those in Rev 7:3, though all the world wondered after the beast, and all that dwelt upon the earth worshipped him, yet there was a number preserved that did not bow the knee to him; a remnant according to the election of grace, who were called out of the world, and brought to Zion, and were on the side of the Lamb, and abode by him, and cleaved unto him:
having his Father's name written in their foreheads; not baptism, administered in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, as some think; nor eternal election, as others, though as their names were written in the Lamb's book of life, so this was manifest to themselves and others, as if his name and his Father's had been written in their foreheads; but rather adoption, the new name of a child of God, they having the spirit of adoption, whereby they cried, "Abba", Father, and being openly and manifestly the children of God, by faith in Christ Jesus; unless it should be thought there is an allusion to the inscription in the mitre on the forehead of the high priest, "holiness to the Lord", and so be expressive of that visible holiness which will be on the saints in the spiritual reign of Christ, which this vision respects; see Zac 14:20; or to the frontlets between the eyes of the people of Israel, to put them in mind of the law, and their obedience to it, Deu 6:8; and so may here denote the engagements of those saints in the service of God; though perhaps no more is intended than their open and hearty profession of their faith, and that they were not ashamed of appearing in the cause of God and truth; nor of Christ and his words, his Gospel and ordinances: the Alexandrian copy, the Complutensian edition, the Vulgate Latin, Syriac, and Arabic versions, read, "having his name, (the Lamb's,) and his Father's name written in their foreheads"; and the Ethiopic version adds, "and of his Holy Spirit". Mr. Daubuz thinks this vision refers to the times of Constantine, and to the Christians then, and particularly the council of Nice, and as contemporary with that in Rev 7:9.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain And I saw on Mount Zion - The heavenly…
And I saw on Mount Zion - The heavenly Zion. An hundred forty-four thousand - Either those out of all mankind who had been the most eminently holy, or the most holy out of the twelve tribes of Israel the same that were mentioned, chap. vii, 4, and perhaps also, chap. xvi, 2. But they were then in the world, and were sealed in their foreheads, to preserve them from the plagues that were to follow. They are now in safety, and have the name of the Lamb and of his Father written on their foreheads, as being the redeemed of God and of the Lamb, his now unalienable property. This prophecy often introduces the inhabitants of heaven as a kind of chorus with great propriety and elegance. The church above, making suitable reflections on the grand events which are foretold in this book, greatly serves to raise the attention of real Christians, and to teach the high concern they have in them. Thus is the church on earth instructed, animated, and encouraged, by the sentiments temper, and devotion of the church in heaven.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain The Lamb on mount Sion, and his company and…
CHAPTER XIV.
The Lamb on mount Sion, and his company and their character,
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1-5.
The angel flying in the midst of heaven, with the everlasting
Gospel, 6, 7.
Another angel proclaims the fall of Babylon, 8.
A third angel denounces God's judgments against those who
worship the beast or his image, 9-11.
The patience of the saints, and the blessedness of them who die
in the Lord, 12, 13.
The man on the white cloud, with a sickle, reaping the earth,
14-16.
The angel with the sickle commanded by another angel, who had
power over fire, to gather the clusters of the vines of the
earth, 17, 18.
They are gathered and thrown into the great winepress of God's
wrath, which is trodden without the city, and the blood comes
out 1600 furlongs, 19, 20.
NOTES ON CHAP. XIV.
Verse 1. A Lamb stood on the mount Sion] This represents Jesus Christ in his sacrificial office; mount Sion was a type of the Christian Church.
And with him a hundred forty and four thousand] Representing those who were converted to Christianity from among the Jews. See Re 7:4.
His Father's name written in their foreheads.] They were professedly, openly, and practically, the children of God, by faith in Christ Jesus. Different sects of idolaters have the peculiar mark of their god on their foreheads. This is practised in the east to the present day, and the mark is called the sectarial mark. Between eighty and ninety different figures are found on the foreheads of different Hindoo deities and their followers.
Almost every MS. of importance, as well as most of the versions and many of the fathers, read this clause thus: Having HIS NAME and his Father's name written upon their foreheads. This is undoubtedly the true reading, and is properly received by Griesbach into the text.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain Rev 14:1-4. I looked, and behold a Lamb —…
Rev 14:1-4. I looked, and behold a Lamb — The Lord Jesus, in the form of a lamb, or as the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sins of the world, and not only with horns like a lamb; stood on mount Sion — Namely, the heavenly Sion; and with him a hundred forty and four thousand — The same select number that was mentioned Rev 7:4, the genuine followers of the twelve apostles, apostolically multiplied, and therefore the number of the church, as six hundred and sixty-six is the number of the beast; and as the followers of the beast have the name of the beast, so these have the name of God, and, as some copies add, of Christ, written in their foreheads — As being the redeemed of God and of the Lamb, his now unalienable property, and as having been, when on earth, his professed servants, and the same as the witnesses. This prophecy often introduces the inhabitants of heaven as a kind of chorus, with great propriety and elegance. The church above, making suitable reflections on the grand events which are foretold in this book, greatly serves to raise the attention of real Christians, and to teach the high concern they have in them. Thus is the church on earth instructed, animated, and encouraged, by the sentiments, temper, and devotion of the church in heaven. And I heard a voice — Or sound, from heaven — Sounding clearer and clearer; first at a distance; as the sound of many waters — Or thunders; and afterward, being nearer, it was as of harpers harping on their harps — It sounded vocally and instrumentally at once. And they sung — With voices and instruments of music; as it were a new song — The Christian song, which they sung before, chap. 5.; and no man could learn that song but the hundred and forty-four thousand — Those who had been the true spiritual worshippers of the one true God, through the one true Mediator, Jesus Christ; all the rest of mankind offering up their devotions to other objects, and through other mediators; or not worshipping with a truly spiritual worship; which were redeemed from the earth — From this present evil world, being bought by the blood of Christ, and delivered from the guilt and power of sin by the word and Spirit of God. These are they which were not — Or, had not been, defiled with women — It seems that one kind of defilement, and the most alluring temptation, is put for every other. Or rather, the meaning is, that they had kept themselves pure from the stains and pollutions of spiritual whoredom, or idolatry, with which the other parts of the world were miserably debauched and corrupted. These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth — Who are nearest to him; or rather, the meaning is, who followed the Lamb in all things while on earth; who adhered constantly to the religion of Christ, in all conditions and in all places, whether in adversity or prosperity; whether in conventicles and deserts, or in churches and cities. These were redeemed from among men — Rescued from the corruptions prevalent among mankind, and consecrated as the first-fruits unto God and the Lamb — An earnest and assurance of a more plentiful harvest in succeeding times. And in their mouth was found no guile — They were as free from hypocrisy as from idolatry; for they were without fault before the throne of God — They resembled their blessed Redeemer, who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth, (1Pe 2:22,) and were, as the apostle requires Christians to be, blameless and harmless, the sons of God without rebuke, &c., Php 2:15. But possibly it may be asked, Where did such a church ever exist, especially before the Reformation? To which it may be replied, That it hath existed, and not only in idea, history demonstrates; as it hath been before evinced that there hath been, in every age, some true worshippers of God, and faithful servants of Jesus Christ; and as Elijah did not know the seven thousand who had never bowed the knee to Baal, so there may have been more true Christians than were always visible.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain And I looked - My attention was drawn to…
And I looked - My attention was drawn to a new vision. The eye was turned away from the beast and his image to the heavenly world - the Mount Zion above.
And, lo, a Lamb - See the notes on Rev 5:6.
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Stood on the mount Zion - That is, in heaven. See the notes on Heb 12:22. Zion, literally the southern hill in the city of Jerusalem, was a name also given to the whole city; and, as that was the seat of the divine worship on earth, it became an emblem of heaven - the dwelling-place of God. The scene of the vision here is laid in heaven, for it is a vision of the ultimate triumph of the redeemed, designed to sustain the church in view of the trials that had already come upon it, and of those which were yet to come.
And with him an hundred forty and four thousand - These are evidently the same persons that were seen in the vision recorded in Rev 7:3-8, and the representation is made for the same purpose - to sustain the church in trial, with the certainty of its future glory. See the notes on Rev 7:4.
Having his Father’s name written in their foreheads - Showing that they were his. See the notes on Rev 7:3; Rev 13:16. In Rev 7:3, it is merely said that they were “sealed in their foreheads”; the passage here shows how they were sealed. They had the name of God so stamped or marked on their foreheads as to show that they belonged to him. Compare the notes on Rev 7:3-8.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain Behold a Lamb, by which is divers times represented…
Behold a Lamb, by which is divers times represented our Saviour Christ. (Witham)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
John Nelson Darby 1862 · Public Domain Revelation Chapter 14
Revelation Chapter 14
In chapter 14 we have the dealings of God with the evil, only first owning and setting apart the remnant. The remnant belongs entirely to the renewed earth: they are seen on that which is the centre of dominion and glory in it-Mount Zion where the Lamb shall reign. They had His and His Father’s name on their foreheads; that is, by their open confession of God and the Lamb they had been witnesses of it, and suffered as Christ had suffered in His life in owning God His Father: only they had not suffered death. It was a new beginning, not the assembly, not heavenly, but the blessing of a delivered earth in its firstfruits in those who had suffered for the testimony to it. Heaven celebrates it with a voice of many waters, and as of thunder, but with joy. This voice was the voice of harps. A new song is sung before the throne and beasts and elders. Here the fact is the important thing. There had been a song in and of heaven, in chapter 5 in connection with redemption; but those who were redeemed there were made kings and priests. Here it was redemption in connection with earthly blessings, not with the kingdom and priesthood on high; and it is sung before the heavenly company and throne. Heaven however is directly connected with the song. It was connected with triumph over the power of evil by patient endurance of suffering.
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What specially characterised them was purity from the contamination that surrounded them. This passing through sorrow and overcoming connects them directly with the heavenly conquerors. It was not the new song of heavenly redemption; still it was victory when down at the gates of death, though not actually in it. It was “as it were a new song.” This none could learn but those who had shared the earthly sufferings of the Lamb, and would now be His companions in His earthly royalty; they had followed Him, they would follow Him whithersoever He went. They are the firstfruits of the new scene. They had not corrupted themselves where all did. They were not of those who loved or made a lie, or gave in to it. Corruption and falsehood they had been kept free from, openly confessing the truth. They had not the heavenly place, but they are without fault, and they share the Lamb’s earthly place and glory, accompanying Him whithersoever He goes, in the manifestation of that glory. All that led to these privileges had no place when once the kingdom was set up. It was then too late to shew faithfulness in this way. There is a connection with the heavenly saints which is not in chapter 7. The white-robed multitude stood before the throne and the Lamb. They are before the throne of God, they worship in His temple, and the Lamb comforts them. Here there is special association with the Lamb on earth, in their path and in their consequent place. It is the remnant of the Psalms (especially 1 - 41). But, though on earth with the King, they are redeemed from among men before Christ comes to earth; and the song they learn to sing is sung before the elders and living creatures. They are not with them, but they sing the song sung before them; that is, the Gentile multitude are admitted to special privileges before God and the Lamb; the Jewish remnant are associated with the Lamb on earth, and, in a certain sense, with heaven.
The progress of God’s ways follows-warning to the earth to leave idolatry; for the hour of God’s judgment was come. The everlasting gospel is the testimony of Christ’s power, from paradise onward, as in contrast with the special announcement of the assembly, and glad tidings connected with it. Babylon is announced to be fallen; threats and warnings to any that should own the beast; but the time is now come when dying in the Lord was to cease; only their blessedness remained henceforth. Dying and tribulation were over. They are looked at as one whole body; and while any remained yet to die, they were diers in the Lord, not rested and blessed. Now their rest is come and their reward.
Christ then reaps the earth-separating, gathering, and judgment; and treads the winepress, exercise unmingled vengeance on the wicked. Hence in this last judgment it is the angel who had the power over fire who calls for it; it was full divine judgment. This judgment was not within the limits of Babylon -was not in the sphere in which man had formed and ordered his organization in opposition to God. This closes the whole scene of that which the history had begun by the catching up of the Man-child to heaven. He has returned in vengeance. An interesting question here arises-What is the vine of the earth? It is that which is the fruit bearing organization, or what should be so (that is the idea of it), in professed connection with God, as His planting in the earth. Israel has the vine brought out of Egypt. Christ on earth was the true vine. It is not connection with Him in heaven. There we are looked at as perfect, not to bear fruit and be pruned. But analogously it went on after He had ascended on high, and professing Christians are the branches. But here it is the vine of the earth, that which has its character and growth therein, but with the pretension to take the religious place by succession on the earth. The true saints are gone on high, or are a persecuted individual remnant. I have no doubt the Jews will be the centre of that system then, but they will be mixed up with Gentiles, have turned to idolatry, and have seven spirits worse than that; and the apostate Gentiles will be fully associated with it all. (See Isa 34:1-17, Isa 63:1-19, Isa 65:1-25, Isa 66:1-24)
John Nelson Darby — Synopsis of the Books of the Bible: the New Testament (c. 1857–1862) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain (First Division)
SECTION SIXTH
(First Division)
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The End-judgment in general. The Judgment of Anger. The Seven Vials of Anger
Rev_14:1 to Rev_16:21
A.—THE IDEAL HEAVENLY WORLD-PICTURE OF THE LAST JUDGMENT; THE ANGER-VIALS IN GENERAL
Rev_14:1 to Rev_15:8
1. The solemn Festival of the Elect. The Church Triumphant high above the Anger-Judgments of Earth
1And I looked [saw], and, lo [behold], a [the]1 Lamb stood [standing]2 on the mount Sion, and with him a hundred forty and four thousand, having [ins. his name and]3his Father’s name written in their foreheads. 2And I heard a voice from [ins. the] heaven, as the [a] voice of many waters, and as the [a] voice of a [om. a] great thunder: and [ins. the voice which]4 I heard the voice [om. the voice —ins. was as]4 of harpers harping with their harps: 3And they sung [sing] as it were [om. as it were]5 a new song before the throne, and before the four beasts [living-beings], and the elders: and no man [one] could [was able to] learn that [the] song but [except] the hundred and forty and [om. and] four thousand, which 4[that] were redeemed [bought] from the earth. These are they which [who] were not defiled with women; for they are virgins. These are [are] they which [who] follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth [may go].6 These were redeemed [bought] from among men, being the [om. being the—ins. a] first-fruits [first-fruit] unto God and to [om. to] the Lamb. 5And in their mouth was [ins. not] found no [om. no] guile [falsehood]: for they are without fault [blameless] before the throne of God [om. before the throne of God].7
2. The Three Angels of the Annunciation of the Final Judgment
a. Announcement of the Final Judgment as the Eternal Gospel
6And I saw another8 angel fly [flying] in the midst of heaven [mid-heaven], having the [an] everlasting gospel [,]9 to preach [declare glad tidings (εὐαγγελίσαι)] unto10 them that dwell [sit]11 on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred [tribe], and tongue, and people, 7Saying with a loud [great] voice, Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come: and worship him that [who] made [ins. the] heaven, and [ins. the] earth, and the12 sea, and the [om. the] fountains of waters.
b. Announcement of the Final Judgment for the Destruction of Babylon
8And there [om. there—ins. another, second13 angel] followed another angel [om. another angel], saying, [ins. Fallen, fallen, is] Babylon [ins. the great]14 is fallen, is fallen, that great city [om. is fallen, is fallen, that great city],14 because she [om. because she—ins. who]15 made [gave] all [ins. the] nations [ins. to] drink of the wine of the wrath [anger or rage]16 of her fornication.
c. Announcement of the Final Judgment upon the Wicked
9And the [om. the—ins. another,]17 third angel followed them,18 saying with a loud [great] voice, If any man [one] worship [worshippeth] the beast [wild-beast] and his image, and receive [receiveth] his [or a] mark in [on] his forehead, or in [on] 10his hand, The same [he also] shall drink of the wine of the wrath [anger] of God, which is [hath been] poured out without mixture into [or mingled unmixed in]19 the cup of his indignation [wrath (ὀργή)]; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the [om. the]20 holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb: 11And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up [om. up] for ever and ever [into ages of ages]: and they have no [not] rest [ins. by] day nor [and by] night, who worship the beast [wild-beast] and his image, and whosoever [if any one] receiveth the mark of his name. 12Here is the patience [endurance] of the saints: [,] here are they that [om. here21 are they that—ins. who] keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.
d. Deliverance concerning the Godly
13And I heard a voice from [ins. the] heaven saying unto me [om. unto me]22, Write, Blessed are the dead which [who] die in the Lord from [om. from] henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may [shall] rest23 from their labours; and [for]24 their works do [om. do] follow [ins. with] them.
3. The Three Angels of the Beginning Execution of the Final Judgment
a. The Judgment, or Harvest, of the Earth itself. The Chief Harvest, or the Harvest of the Blessed.
(Mat_3:12 a. Mat_13:43.)
14And I looked [saw] and behold a white cloud, and upon the cloud one sat [sitting] like unto the [a] Son of man, having on [upon] his head a golden crown (στέφανον), and in his hand a sharp sickle. 15And another angel came [ins. forth] out of the temple, crying with a loud [great] voice to him that sat on [the one sitting upon] the cloud, Thrust in [Send forth (πέμφον)] thy sickle, and reap: for the time [hour] is come for thee [om. for thee]25 to reap; for the harvest of the earth is ripe 16[has become dry]. And he that sat on [the one sitting upon] the cloud thrust in [cast (ἔβαλεν)] his sickle on [upon] the earth; and the earth was reaped.
b. The Harvest of Anger, or the Judgment upon the Wicked (Mat_3:12; Mat_13:42).
17And another angel came [ins. forth] out of the temple which is in [ins. the] heaven, he also having a sharp sickle. 18And another angel came [ins. forth] out from [of] the altar, which had [om. which had—ins. having]26 power [authority (ἐξουσία)] over [ins. the] fire; and cried with a loud cry [great voice] to him that had [the one having] the sharp sickle, saying, Thrust in [Send forth] thy sharp sickle, and gather the clusters of the vine of the earth; for her grapes are27 fully ripe. 19And the angel thrust in [cast] his sickle into [unto] the earth, and gathered the vine of the earth, and cast it [om. it] into the great28 winepress of the wrath [anger] of God. 20And the winepress was trodden without the city, and blood came [ins. forth] out of the winepress, even [om. even] unto the horse [om. horse] bridles [ins. of the horses], by the space [or to the distance] of a thousand and six hundred furlongs [stadia].
See Rev_15:1 ff for more analysis on Revelation 14
Footnotes:
[1]Rev_14:1. [Crit. Eds. give τό, with א. A. B*. C.; it is omitted by P. 1, 28, etc.—E. R. C.]
[2]Rev_14:1. Instead of the Rec. ἑστηκός, א. A. C. [P. 79] give ἑστός. [B*. gives ἑστώς.—E. R. C.]
[3]Rev_14:1. His against the Rec. [Lange reads αὐτοῦ twice, but ὄνομα only once. Alf., Treg., Tisch., rend τὸ ὄνομα αὐτοῦ καὶ τὸ ὄνομα τοῦ πατρὸς αὐτοῦ with א. A. B*. C.; 7, 16, 98, with Lange, omit the second τὸ ὄνομα; P. and 1 read as Rec.—E. R. C.]
[4]Rev_14:2. [Alf., Treg., Tisch., read καὶ ἡ φωνὴ ἣν ἤκουσα ὡς with א. A. B*. C.; P. reads, καὶ φωνὴν ἤκουσα ὡς.—E. R. C.]
[5]Rev_14:3. The reading of א. B*. [P.], etc.; A. C., etc., read ὡς ᾡδήν. [Tisch., as Lange, omits; Alf. and Treg. bracket.—E. R. C.]
[6]Rev_14:4. [Lange and Tisch. (8th Ed.) read ὑπάγῃ with א. B*. P.; Lach., Alf., Treg., Tisch. (1859) ὑπάγει with A. C. 7, etc.—E. R. C.]
[7]Rev_14:5. This clause is wanting in the best codices. [So modern Crit. Eds. with א. A. B*. C. P. 1, etc.—E. R. C.]
[8]Rev_14:6. [Lange, Treg., Tisch., real ἄλλον with אoc. A. C. P., Vulg., etc.; Gb. omits with א*. B*.; Alf. brackets.—E. R. C.]
[9]Rev_14:6. [The pointing is that of the Vulg., Treg., Lillie, etc.—E. R. C.]
[10]Rev_14:6. Codd. A. C. [א. P.] give ἐπί before καθῃμένους.
[11]Rev_14:6. [Modern Crit. Eds. give καθημένους with א. B*. C. P. Vulg., etc. Lach. (min.), κατοικοῦντας with A.14, etc.—E. R. C.]
[12]Rev_14:7. [Tisch. (8th Ed.) gives τήν with א. B*.; Lach. Alf., Treg., Tisch. (1859) omit with A. C. P. 1, etc.—E. R. C.]
[13]Rev_14:8. [Crit. Eds. give δεύτερος in acc. with almost all the Codd.—E. R. C.]
[14]Rev_14:8. [Modern Crit. Eds. read Ἔπεσεν ἔπεσεν Βαβυλὼν ἡ μεγάλη; the insertion of ἡ πόλις is without authority—E. R. C.]
[15]Rev_14:8. In accordance with A. C., etc., ἥ. [Ὅτι is given only by 1 and 36.—E. R. C.]
[16]Rev_14:8. [For the rendering anger see Note 29 below. It is, however, exceedingly questionable whether, by reason of its connection with wine and fornication, θυμός has not, in this place, a peculiar idiomatic force, and should not be translated rage. See Note 29 below.—E. R. C.]
[17]Rev_14:9. In accordance with A. B*. C [P.] etc.
[18]Rev_14:9. [Crit. Eds. generally read αὐτοῖς with Cypr.; Lange reads αὐτῷ with A.—E. R. C.]
[19]Rev_14:10. [The E. V. presents the idiomatic, though not the literal, translation of the Greek. Alford remarks: “From the almost universal custom of mixing wine with water, the common term for preparing wine, putting it into the cup, came to be κεράννυμι; hence the apparent contradiction in terms here.”—E. R. C.]
[20] Rev_14:10. [Treg. and Tisch. (8th Ed.) give ἀγγέλων ἁγίων (without τῶν) with א. C. P., etc.; B*. prefixes τῶν; Tisch. (1859), Alt. read τῶν ἀγγέλων with A.—E. R. C.]
[21]Rev_14:12. The second ὧδε is unfounded. [Crit. Eds. omit with א. A. B*. C. P. Vulg., etc.: it is given by 1. 7, etc.—E. R. C.]
[22]Rev_14:13. [Lach., Alf., Treg., Tisch., omit μοι with א. A. B*. C. P. Am., Fuld., etc.; Lange gives it with 1, 28, 36, Clem., etc.—E. R. C.]
[23]Rev_14:13. Crit. Eds. give ἀναπαήσονται with א. A. C. (B*. and 1 also give ἀναπαύσονται); P. gives ἀναπαύσωνται.—E. R. C.]
[24]Rev_14:13. [Lach., Alf., Tree, Tisch. (8th Ed.) give γάρ with א. A. C. P. Vulg., etc.; Lange and Tisch. (1859) read δἐ with B*.—E. R. C.]
[25]Rev_14:15. Σοι is omitted by the best Codd. [by א. A. B*. C. P. Vulg.—E. R. C.]
[26]Rev_14:18. The article ὁ is omitted by א. B*. [P.]; the omission probably originated in an incorrect exegetical apprehension of the passage. [Alf., Treg., Tisch. (8th Ed.), omit; Lach., Lange, and Tisch. (1859) give it with A. C.—E. R. C.]
[27]Rev_14:18. The reading ἤκμασεν ἡ σταφυλὴ τῆς γῆς, in acc. with B*., etc. The easier reading undoubtedly has more authorities in its favor. But why is this? The question is whether that which is difficult is significant. [Crit. Eds. generally give ἤκμασαν αἱ σταφυλαἱ αὐτῆς, with א. A. C. P. 1, Vulg., etc.; Tisch. (1859) instead of αὐτῆς reads τῆς γῆς with B*. 7, etc.—E. R. C.]
[28]Rev_14:9. The remarkable reading τὸν μέγαν; the most obvious explanation is that ληνός is gen. commun. On the change of gender in the adjective see Winer, De Wette, Düsterd. [The reading is supported by A. B*. C. P. 6, 8, etc.; א. 7, etc., give τὴν μεγάλην.—E. R. C.]
SPECIAL DOCTRINO-ETHICAL AND HOMILETICAL NOTES (ADDENDUM)
Section Twelfth
Heavenly World-picture of the Seven Vials of Anger, or the Judgment of Anger in its General Form (embracing the Three Special Judgments upon Babylon, the Beast and Satan.) (Chs. 14, 15)
General.—The peculiar sublimity of this section is thoroughly manifest only when it is regarded as representative of the heavenly celebration of God’s anger-judgments on earth, and when its relation to these is recognized in the treatment of it. The dreadful darkness of these judgments, as they here appear, is pure light above,—aye, it is there resolved into festal radiance. Above, the measures of Divine anger, ruling, as a holy anger of united love and righteousness, over the wrath of the heathen [nations], and, by its ruling, conducting the latter to the judgment of self-annihilation, are recognized and magnified, in their holiness and gloriousness, to the glory of God and the Lamb.
In the foreground of the whole festal scene stands the Lamb, on the Mount Zion, surrounded by the 144,000 elect, who represent the Church Triumphant. Herein two grand ideas are involved. On the one hand, the Lamb has lifted His heavenly Congregation high above the sphere of anger; and, on the other hand, it is the very righteousness and privilege of the Lamb and His companions by which the wrath of the heathen [nations] is excited, and the holy anger of God at that wrath is superinduced. Here lies the causality of the Vials of Anger.
Next follows a description of the perfect heavenly consciousness of the necessity for these judgments, as well as of the ideal import of them—that at the right time they must needs come as the harvest of the earth, now that the earth is ripe for harvest,—ripe for a judgment which will be the final redemption, in virtue of its separation betwixt the wheat and the chaff. This entire description is presented in the form of a grand transaction between six Angels, three of whom are charged with the proclamation of the judgment, whilst the three others have the symbolic execution of it. The two divisions are separated by an intervening voice from Heaven, declaratory of the blessedness of the dead who die in the Lord. The first herald of the judgment proclaims throughout the universe that the imminent judgment will be an eternal Gospel, a Gospel of eternity, for all who give glory to God. As a death-judgment, the judgment is divided into two sections, the first consisting of the judgment upon Babylon the Great, and the second composed of the judgment upon the Beast and its worshippers. These two judgments form two sides of the one general judgment (Rev_14:19-20). The transactions of the three executive Angels likewise fall into two divisions. At the head of the three executive Angels appears the seventh, or rather the first, figure of the entire group, the Man on the white cloud, or the Lamb, again, in another form. As the Father has reserved to Himself the time and the hour of the final judgment, an Angel represents this reservation on the part of the Father, by summoning the One on the cloud to the harvest of the earth. Christ casts His sickle upon the earth, and thus ensues the harvest in the truest sense of the term—the harvest of redemption, of the redeemed. This is followed by the harvest of anger. Thus is unfolded the perfect heavenly consciousness concerning the idea, the purpose, the time and the hour of the judgment of anger.
Next follows Act the Third, the representation of the holy order of the judgment of anger, and its sacred heavenly measures. The Divine clemency which characterizes the judgment itself is expressed first by the fact that it is septenariously divided; secondly, by the execution of the judicial decrees by seven Angels of God; and, thirdly, by the circumstance that the result of the judgment once more appears,—the crystal sea, the eternal, new humanity,—and that this result is celebrated by a song, in which the song of Moses, or the song of anger, and the song of the Lamb, or the song of love, are united. Worthy of special prominence is the further fact that the Angels go forth from the Temple of the tabernacle of the witness, and thus accord with the ideality of the Divine Law—a truth which is likewise expressed in their holy adornment [clothed in pure and white linen], and in the committal to them of the dispensation of the Divine anger in golden vials—in heavenly measures, determined by Divine faithfulness (see Exeg. Notes).
Special.
[Chs. 14, 15.] Pre-celebration of the anger-judgment in Heaven.
[Rev_14:1-5.] The Church Triumphant: (a) Her stand-point, (b) her centre, (c) her characteristics, (d) her song.—Relation of the 144,000 triumphant ones to the 144,000 sealed ones (Revelation 7).—The end-judgment as the harvest of the earth.—The new Bong: (1) Its newness, (2) its melodies, (3) the singers, (4) the hearers.
[Rev_14:6.] The eternal [everlasting] Gospel as the Gospel of eternity. Or as the eschatological phase of the one principial Gospel.
[Rev_14:8.] Pre-celebration, in Heaven, of the judgment upon Babylon.
[Rev_14:9-11.] Pre-celebration of the judgment upon Antichristianity.
[Rev_14:12.] The patience of the saints, (1) as endurance in persecution, (2) as forbearance from persecution.—Great warning against Antichristianity (Rev_14:9-11).
[Rev_14:13.] Blessed are the dead, etc., or the heavenly peace-bell, pealing amid the thunders of judgment.
[Rev_14:14-20.] God’s double harvest on earth: 1. The proper harvest (the sickle); 2. The improper harvest (the wine-press).
Revelation 15 : The heavenly equipment of the seven Angels of Anger in its grand significance: 1. What they effect (Rev_15:2); 2. What they glorify (Rev_15:3); 3. What they bring about (Rev_15:4).
[Rev_15:6.] Forth-going of the judgments of God out of His Temple.—The judgments of God in their beauteous heavenly aspect (Rev_15:6-7).
[Rev_15:8.] Sublime veiling of the majesty of God during the time of His judgments on earth, and the import of that veiling.
Starke (Chap. 14.): Christ stands in the midst of His Church, over against Antichristian abominations and cruelties, as a Conqueror (Psa_100:2), and is ready to help His people (Act_7:56).—Cramer: The holy Christian Church is not founded upon the sand, but upon a mountain (Psa_68:16), aye, firmer than the seven mountains on which the great city lies (Rev_17:9).
Rev_14:2. This is to be understood of the true confessors of the Church’s doctrine, in which doctrine they, in reference to the corruption of the spiritual Babylon, are emphatic and unanimous. Hence there is ascribed to them a voice of great waters, because with their doctrines they instituted many movements; a voice of a great thunder, which penetrates and shakes all things, indicates the mighty preaching of the Gospel, Mar_3:17; and a voice of harmonious music teaches that all their doctrines beautifully harmonized in Christ, Col_3:16. (All this is, indeed, not yet fulfilled in Protestant theology or the ecclesiastical structures of the Reformation, so far as their outward form is concerned.) This picture is drawn from the service of the Levites in the Old Testament (Psalms 134).
Rev_14:3. It sounded entirely new (as when we hear a new and unknown song, set to a strange and unaccustomed tune), because the faithful bring it with new hearts, and because it tells of new benefits, etc.—It is called new in antithesis to the old.—God’s praise must be sung in the Church.—He who would sing the Gospel song aright, must have a new heart and must have his face set toward God and His Throne.
Rev_14:6. The Angel with the everlasting Gospel. Those who regard this as fulfilled, explain it as follows; This has reference to a remarkable teacher who should reform the Church and purify it in the time of Antichrist; by this Angel, Luther and his associates, who began the Reformation, are intended. Those who regard it as future, explain as follows: The voices of these three Angels pertain to the very last time, etc.
Rev_14:8. This expression is taken from the philters or love-potions of abandoned women, etc.
Rev_14:9. This proves clearly that the Beast cannot be the Harlot, or the Papacy.
Rev_14:13. The ancients carefully distinguished between dying for the Lord and dying in the Lord; the former is peculiar to martyrs, the latter is common to all true Christians. (The distinction, becomes false, however, so soon as it is pressed.)—The voice of the Lord which gives command to write, also commands men to read.—The tears which flow at the departure of pious persons may be wiped away by the diligent contemplation of the bliss to which they have attained.—The Holy Scriptures know of no purgatorial fires; those who have died in the Lord they place, immediately upon their death, in Heaven.
Rev_14:15. And another Angel. Some understand, by this other Angel, the Holy Ghost, Who is sent into the hearts of men and, with strong crying, makes the distress of the faithful known unto Christ.
Rev_14:18. Some regard the Angel mentioned here, as the Holy Ghost.
Rev_14:20. In the grain harvest there is no sign of anger, but, on the contrary, there is mercy in it, for believers who have remained faithful to Jesus under the domination of the Beast, are then gathered into God’s garner because the judgment upon the wicked is at hand (Mat_13:30). The vintage is a harvest of anger, for there is express mention of anger in this connection (Rev_14:19).—Rev_15:3. Some apprehend the song of Moses as the Law and the song of the Lamb as the Gospel (in contra-distinction to those who regard the song of Moses as the song of the physical redemption, by means of the passage through the Red Sea, and the song of the Lamb as the song of the spiritual redemption from the spiritual Egypt). True servants of God must unite the song of Moses and that of the Lamb—the old and the new.
Sabel (see p. 73): Rev_14:1. He is called the Lambkin [τὸ ἀρνίον] in antithesis, to the great red Dragon (Rev_12:3) who gave his great authority to the Beast (Rev_13:2), and in antithesis to the Beast itself, which speaks great things and blasphemies (Rev_13:5).
Rev_14:3. No one could learn the song, etc. There are, then, lessons to be learned even in Heaven. That learning will, however, be something different from our more mechanical, discursive learning. Even [in this mortal life] we know the difference between this latter learning and the being taught of God (Joh_6:45).
Rev_14:4. Even on the basis of the Apocalypse a literal interpretation of this passage would be productive of great embarrassment. Such an interpretation would exclude from the 144,000 the Apostles themselves—a thing inconceivable according to Mat_19:28; the brethren of the Lord—of whom it is related, 1Co_9:5, that they carried their wives with them on their missionary journeys; and also Philip, one of the deacons, the father of four daughters (Act_21:8-9). There is, moreover, not the slightest indication to be found in the Old Covenant, from the participants in which the nucleus of the heavenly congregation of the first fruits had been gathered, that celibacy was regarded with any favor in Israel. On the contrary, no eunuch, no impotent man, could enter into the congregation of God (Deu_23:1), and only of the future system of salvation was it prophesied that not even the eunuch should be shut out from it (Isa_56:3; see Gen_2:18; Mat_19:4-5; Eph_5:23; 2Co_11:2; 1Ti_4:1-3).—The Angel with the everlasting Gospel. This is the Angel of missions, the representative of all missionary labor, both within apostate Christendom and in heathen lands. (Missions are good and great; but the reference here is to a time when missions must have completed their work, and to a new fact, the end-judgment, in its character of a gospel of a blessed eternity, for believers.)
[From M. Henry: Rev_14:13. Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from henceforth, etc. They are blessed, 1. In their rest; they rest from all sin, temptation, sorrow, and persecution. 2. In their recompense, their works follow them; they do not go before them as their title or purchase, but follow them as their evidence of having lived and died in the Lord. 3. In the time of their dying, when they have lived to see God’s cause reviving, the peace of the Church returning, and the wrath of God falling upon their idolatrous, cruel enemies.—From The Comprehensive Commentary: Rev_14:4. They follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth. Through persecutions and tribulations, into obscurity, or into prisons, with self-denial, obedient faith, and patient hope; “taking up their cross,” and copying His example of meekness, purity and love. (Scott.)—From Barnes: Rev_14:3. To appreciate fully the song of Zion; to understand the language of praise; to enter into the spirit of the truths which pertain to redemption, one must himself have been redeemed by the blood of Christ.
Rev_14:11. And they have no rest, day nor night. It will be one of the bitterest ingredients in the cup of woe, in the world of despair, that the luxury of rest will be denied forever, and that they who enter that gloomy prison sleep no more; never know the respite of a moment—never even lose the consciousness of their heavy doom.
Rev_14:13. Blessed are the dead. We should be grateful for any system of religion which will enable us thus to speak of those who are dead; which will enable us, with corresponding feeling, to look forward to our own departure from this world.—Which die in the Lord. Not all the dead; for God never pronounces the condition of the wicked who die, blessed or happy. The declaration is confined to those who furnish evidence that they are prepared for heaven. “To die in the Lord” implies, 1. That they who thus die are the friends of the Lord Jesus. 2. It would seem also to imply that there should be, at the time, the evidence of His favor and friendship. This would apply (1) to those who die as martyrs; and (2) to those who have the comforting evidence of His presence and favor on the bed of death.—That they may rest from their labors. In view of such eternal rest from toil, we may well endure the labors and toils incident to the short period of the present life, for however arduous or difficult, it will soon be ended.—Their works do follow them. Note here, 1. That all that the righteous do and suffer here will be appropriately recompensed there. 2. This is all that can follow a man to eternity. He can take with him none of his gold, his lands, his raiment; none of the honors of this life, none of the means of sensual gratification. All that will go with him will be his character, and the results of his conduct here; and, in this respect, eternity will be but a prolongation of the present life. 3. It is one of the highest honors of our nature that we can make the present affect the future for good; that by our conduct on earth we can lay the foundation for happiness millions of ages hence.
Rev_14:15. For the time is come for Thee to reap. That is, “the harvest which Thou art to reap is ripe; the seed which Thou hast sown has grown up; the earth which Thou hast cultivated has produced this golden grain, and it is fit that Thou shouldst now gather it in.”—From Vaughan: Rev_14:7. Till a man fears, he can never know hope. The first, call of the everlasting Gospel itself is to fear God and to worship the universal Creator.
Rev_14:11. Some rest not day nor night from praise (Rev_4:8); others rest not day nor night from suffering.
Rev_14:15. As there is a harvest of the earth for good, so also there is a harvest of the soul, an immaturity and a ripeness of the individual Christian.
Rev_14:18. So also there is an individual ripening for the vintage of wrath and judgment.—From Bonar: These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth. We follow Him here in suffering and service, as we shall follow Him hereafter in glory and joy.]
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain a. Anticipative But Indefinite Joy—Song At Jerusalem On Mount…
a. Anticipative But Indefinite Joy—Song At Jerusalem On Mount Zion, Rev_14:1-5.
From the distant sea whence the beast emerged, the spirit eye of the seer, standing on mount Moriah, (note Rev_4:11,) now looks toward Jerusalem, to Zion, and to the temple, where (as in Rev_6:1, where see note) are the throne and the twenty-four elders.
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1. I looked, and lo—The words signalize the change of sight-direction, and the opening of a new scene of symbols. Great is the contrast between the sea of the beast and the mount of the one hundred forty and four thousand. The phrase, And I saw, or looked, opens a second movement of the panorama at Rev_14:6, and a third at Rev_14:14.
A Lamb—Rather, the Lamb; known from former mention. The glorious leader is here the Lamb, since it is in his atoning character that this glorious host expects to conquer. The mount Zion was of course easily seen by John from Moriah. The throne might seem to be in the most holy place, yet allowing all visional freedom. The Jerusalem they are in is not the material Jerusalem, but the mystic Christian capital, in antithesis with the mystic antichristic capital, Babylon.
And with him—Who are this hundred forty and four thousand? Dusterdieck denies them to be the same as those of chapter vii, and affirms them to be a choice body of eminently pure saints. For, 1. The article is omitted before the number, so that they are not the, but a hundred forty and four thousand, the number being merely a churchly designation; and, 2. They are the Jewish symbol, because the enemies they oppose are pagan, that is, Gentile. But Alford maintains the full identity with the glorious company of the former chapter. We think the truth lies between the two commentators. The two glorious companies are the same, but not in equal amount. Chapter vii purposes to symbolize the entire Church of glorified spirits; this simply represents a part of the same, including only the earlier Church—the Church of both the pagan and papal martyrdoms, hence they are called first-fruits. The hundred forty and four thousand are still from Israel, and the harpers are still the Gentiles. In fact, the whole are the souls under the altar of chapter vi, multiplied in number, and giving their own holy character to the whole Church of their period; they have risen from beneath the altar, have scaled mount Zion, and fill the very heaven above the mystic Jerusalem, pouring down their strains of song upon the ear of St. John.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain The Lamb upon Mount Zion. Chap. 14 Rev_14:1-5
The Lamb upon Mount Zion. Chap. 14 Rev_14:1-5
1. a Lamb] Read the Lamb: of course the same as in chap. 5.
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on the mount Sion] Probably the earthly one—the heavenly Jerusalem of chap. 21 has not yet appeared. And in Rev_11:7-8 we had an intimation that the seer’s gaze was now directed to Jerusalem: Babylon, though mentioned in Rev_14:8, is not seen till chap. 17.
an hundred forty and four thousand] Cf. Rev_7:4.
his Father’s name] Read, His Name and His Father’s Name. Notice that it is assumed as understood, that the Lamb is the Son of God. See notes on Rev_3:12, Rev_7:3.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (1) And I looked . . .—Better, And I…
THE CITADEL OF THE SAINTS AND THE SERVANTS OF THE LAMB.
(1) And I looked . . .—Better, And I saw, and behold, the Lamb (not “a Lamb:” it is the Lamb, the true Lamb of God, against whom the wild beast wages savage and subtle war) standing on the Mount Sion. The Saviour, the Lamb, in whose blood the saints have found their victory, is seen standing on the citadel of the heavenly city. Babylon is to be introduced (Rev_14:8). In contrast, Zion, the chosen abode of God (Psa_132:13-18), the type of the spiritual city whose citizens are true to the King (comp. Psa_2:6; Psa_74:2; Heb_12:22-24), is introduced. There are to be seen the Lamb, set as King upon the holy hill of Zion, and with Him the sealed ones, His faithful soldiers and servants. They are described as 144,000 in number: a number which represents the full growth of the choice ones of God, the true Israel of God. (See Note on Rev_7:4.) These have their Father’s name on their foreheads: they can be recognised as children of God, (Comp. Note on Rev_7:2-3, and Rev_22:4.)
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain And I looked; and I saw, indicating a fresh…
And I looked; and I saw, indicating a fresh phase of the vision. (cf. Rev_4:1, etc.) Having described (Re 12 and Re 13) the trinity of enemies with which Christ and his people contend, the vision now passes on to depict the blessedness in store for the faithful Christian, and, on the other hand, the final fate of the dragon and his adherents. We are thus once more led to the final judgment. And just as in the former vision, after the assurance of the salvation of the faithful, (Re 7) came the denunciation of woe for the ungodly, (Re 8-11:14) leading once more to a picture of the saved, (Rev_11:15-19) so here we have the assured blessedness of the faithful portrayed, (Rev_14:1-13) followed by the judgments upon the ungodly, (Rev 14:14-18:24) and leading on once more to a picture of the saints in glory. (Re 19) And, lo, a Lamb stood on the Mount Zion; and behold, the Lamb standing on the Mount Zion, as in the Revised Version. "The Lamb," with the article, referring to "the Lamb" described in Re 5, whom the second beast had attempted to personate. He stands on Mount Zion. (cf. Heb_12:22, "Mount Zion, the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem The appropriateness of the position is seen
(1) in its strength. (cf. the position of the beast, rising from the sea, perhaps standing on the sand, Rev_13:1; and cf. Psa_87:1, Psa_87:2, "His foundation is in the holy mountains. The Lord loveth the gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob
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(2) Because there is the temple of God, in the midst of which is the Lamb, and there is the new Jerusalem. (Rev_21:2)
(3) Zion is the new Jerusalem, the opposite extreme to Babylon (ver. 8). And with him a hundred forty and four thousand, having his Father"s Name written in their foreheads. The reading, to onoma autou kai to onoma tou Patro , his Name and his Father"s Name, adopted in the Revised Version, is supported by a, A, B, C, with most cursives, versions, and Fathers. Note the similarity to the description in Re 7. Here, as there, the hundred and forty-four thousand are those "redeemed from the earth" (ver. 3). The number denotes a large and perfect number; a multitude of which the total is complete. (see on Rev_7:4) In Re 7 the sealing in the forehead is described. This sign marks out the redeemed in contradistinction to those who have received the mark of the beast. (Rev_13:16)
Vers. 1-5. Light gleams in the darkness. "Without fault!
The apostle in this book never keeps us too long in the shade without a break. Just as, after the terrible convulsions depicted in the sixth chapter, we had the glorious vision of the blest in heaven in that which followed, so it is here. We have watched the working of three of the foes of God and of his Church. Now we are bidden to turn our eye upward, and behold again the hundred and forty-four thousand whose blessedness had been already portrayed. And I saw the formula which introduces a separate vision.
Behold! indicating abruptness and surprise. The raging of the dragon and of the two wild beasts is exchanged for the sight of purity and calm. "A Lamb." The Lamb. The Lamb of God. Standing on Mount Zion." Mount Zion was where the temple stood. The old Jewish figure sets forth new Christian realities. "Ye are come unto Mount Zion," etc.. (Heb 12) The hundred and forty-four thousand." We have seen them before; we recognize them again. They are not only seen, but heard (vers. 2, 3). They sing, etc. are singing. Their melody and harmony ring in the apostle"s ear. As it were a new song." Not actually new. It is the old, old song of redemption which is their theme. But their circumstances are so changed that it is sung with new joy, and through endless ages it will be ever new. Only those can learn this song who are redeemed from the earth. It befits only the Church of God; and not only is their position clearly defined, but their character is definitely given (ver. 4). There are "more to follow." For these whom the apostle saw are but the "firstfruits." In the fifth verse, however, there is one expression concerning them a very short one, it is true so significant, that it attracts us more than all the rest; it is one on which we love to linger. It is this: "They are without fault.
I LET US STUDY THIS CHARACTERISTIC OF THE SAINTS IN HEAVEN. We say, "in heaven," for there need be no fear as to whether we are right in doing so. They are "redeemed from the earth" (ver. 3): this points to what they were. They are with the Lamb on Mount Zion: this tells us where they are. They are the "redeemed:" this tells us how they came to be where and what they are. The assertion that they are "without fault" is much more striking than if it had been made by man. It is a phrase inbreathed by the Spirit of God, telling us that in the sight and light of heaven itself they are "faultless. Shall we try and see what a character without flaw would be? The expression must mean:
1. That there is nothing wrong in them. Not a single sin do they commit. Every word, deed, and thought is pure. Nor is there even any sinfulness of nature out of which aught that is corrupt can arise. Not one inferior motive mars their actions; not one waste by thought intrudes into their devotion. Nor is there the least wish or thought but such as is perfectly in harmony with the will of him who sits upon the throne.
2. There are no infirmities of nature. Those frailties which, though not sinful, yet may be the inlets of sin into a disordered constitution, and may make it more difficult to resist evil, are done away. Here the physiological accidents of our birth are perpetually telling on us, causing each of us to be surrounded by an easily besetting sin, and making it hard to withstand temptation. The eye, the ear, the hand, the foot, yea, any member of the body, may be an occasion or a vehicle of wrong. But in the redeemed on high, all this is forever done away. True, this is only the negative side of their character. Only the negative! Blessed would it be if we could present such a negation! In consequence of this, however because there is nothing to repress the growth or manifestation of what is Divine the image of God in them must needs be seen in its perfection. Not that each one will be equally developed. There will be many a flower whose opening has been retarded by chilly winds and adverse weather, and that has been waiting for eternity"s sun to shine upon it ere it opened its petals at all. Besides, there must be different stages of growth, etc. "One star differeth," etc. Remembering this, let us glance also at the positive side of their character. Their judgment is sound. Their perceptions are clear. They see light in God"s light. Every perception of truth is attended with corresponding emotion, and every recognition of duty is followed by corresponding action. Every determination of the will is "holiness unto the Lord." Their work for God is as perfect as their wills are pure. Their social life is all that it should be. Intense sympathy with each other"s joys marks them all. Benevolence moves the heart to kindly willing, and beneficence prompts the hand to kindly action; while the sense of a common obligation to a redeeming Lord causes them to unite in the "new song" with rapturous and transcendent joy. But, ah! what pen can sketch the life of beings so perfectly Divine? All that we can say is poor. We can conceive more than we can say. But the one touch of our text suggests that which surpasses alike word and thought they are without fault!
II THE PASSAGE SHOWS THE CONNECTION BETWEEN THEIR PRESENT FAULTLESSNESS AND THEIR EARTHLY LIFE. This it does in two ways. It shows us:
1. God"s work for and on them.
(1) They were purchased. (ver. 3; cf. Rev_5:9, 10 Tit_3:5 1Pe_1:18, 19 Rev_7:14)
(2) They were begotten (ver. 3); "purchased to be the firstfruits," etc. (cf. Jam_1:18)
(3) They were sealed (ver. 1, "his name... written," etc.). This is the triple order of the Divine work in every case. (Eph_1:13, Eph_1:14) The sealing marks them
(a) as God"s own,
(b) as the object of God"s care,
(c) as having forthwith on their forefront the badge of service.
Their constant motto is, "Whose I am, and whom I serve." There is also indicated:
2. Their work for God.
(1) Acknowledged devotion to God and his cause. The seal on their foreheads, while graven by God, is also a visible and constant pledge of loyalty and fidelity to him. Secret discipleship is not the law of Christian life. Men are to say, "I am the Lord"s.
(2) Avoidance of sin. They stand in contrast from those named in vers. 9-11; and are those specified in Rev_15:2. They have gained the victory over
(a) Satan;
(b) the first beast, or worldly pomp;
(c) the second beast, or ecclesiastical show;
(d) all filthiness of the flesh and spirit (ver. 4).
(3) "Following the Lamb whithersoever he goeth." These are the men. There is no mistaking them; their marks are plain enough. They stand out from the crowd while on earth, and in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation shine as lights in the world. The Word of God abideth in them, and they overcome the wicked one. Surely it is natural to expect for such a continuity of life. Theirs is just the life which may well give promise of emerging out of the great tribulation to the calmer scenes above. It is by no "sudden strange transition," by no leap from complacent impurity to spotlessness, that they find themselves there. Ah! no. Their being without fault is but the completion of a work which was going on here; it is a receiving the last finishing touch and impress of the Spirit"s seal. That last impress stamped out the marks of the last sin.
III SUCH SCENES AS THESE SHOULD HAVE OVER US AN ELEVATING POWER.
1. The very fact of such an issue being set before us as the rightful goal of the individual life is of itself an ennobling of human existence. There is, it may freely be confessed, something to inspire one in the thought of the race rising to any such greatness after evolution has had time enough to work out to such an issue. But when the deduction has to be made of the extinction of individuals in the race process, the heart is taken out of us the moment our hope sets to work. The redeeming grace of God rescues the individual, and gives him a living hope. And one of the most painful features of the day is to find many, trained and nurtured in, and even saturated with, the beautiful and consoling truths of the glorious gospel of the blessed God, casting away from them the only props on which such a hope can rest. The hope survives a while, but cannot long continue when its support is gone. The only alternative is supernaturalism or despair. "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.
2. We may well admire the high standard of gospel morality. Some there are who accuse us of a low-toned morality in preaching, "Believe, and be saved." One would think that we stopped with the word "believe," and went no further. But; the fact is, no sinful man can start fairly for holiness until he has a firm standing and a new power. Faith in a living Saviour ensures both these, and faith in him alone.
3. Let us be filled with thankfulness that we are permitted such a fore glance of those who once "Wrestled hard, as we do now, With sins, and doubts, and fears. What they were, we are. What they are, by the grace of God we too may be.
4. Be it ours to imitate those who have gone before. The victory they now enjoy was not won without many a hard struggle. Supposing we had before us now two men: one, a model of faultless social propriety, yet steeped in self complacency; the other, the worst of publicans and sinners. We would gather from the scenes reviewed in this chapter a word of equal appropriateness to both. To the open sinner we would say, "You may be separated from your sins, if you will. Christ will kill them and save you!" To the other we would say, "You must be separated from your pride; for you can no more enter heaven in your spirit of self righteousness than the most openly abandoned sinner." Mercy is free to all. The best need it. The worst may have it. Without it, we must all likewise perish.
5. Let no Christian struggler despair. God is able to keep him from falling, and to present him faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy.
HOMILIES BY S. CONWAY. Vers. 1-5. The perfect Church.
How well it is for us, in forming our estimates and in regulating our conduct, to have set before us a true ideal and a faultless standard! To compare ourselves with ourselves, that is, with men like ourselves, is, so St. Paul tells us, not wise. And all experience proves the truth of his word. The low levels of ordinary religious life in the present day all result from our practically, not professedly, putting before ourselves standards which are faulty and inferior, instead of those which would be constantly summoning us to higher and holier attainment. Now, the Word of God is ever furnishing us with such perfect standards. Our Lord again and again bids us turn our gaze heavenward, that we may see there how we ought to judge and what we ought to be. How frequently he speaks of our Father in heaven, that we may beheld in God the true ideal of all fatherhood! And that we may the better understand and act towards our children, he tells us that "in heaven their angels do always behold," etc. And when his opponents murmured, as was their wont, at his receiving sinners and eating with them, he rebuked them by the reminder that in heaven there is not murmuring, but joy, even over "one sinner that repenteth." And here in these verses we who belong to the Church on earth have given to us a vision of the perfect Church the Church in heaven. And the contemplation of it cannot but be well for us, that we may judge thereby our beliefs, our worship, our selves, and seek more and more to conform them to the heavenly pattern. Observe, then
I THAT WE CANNOT LIMIT THE CHURCH TO ANY ONE VISIBLE CORPORATE BODY. The claims of any such Church body here on earth to be exclusively the Church, and the denial of membership therein to all outside that body, are shown to be false by the fact that the notes and characteristics of the true Church are found in many Churches, but exclusively in none. There are, thank God, few Churches, if any, that have not some of them. Out of all of them the Church is gathered, but to no one of them is it confined. The members of the Church are described here as having the name of the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ "written upon their foreheads." Now, this is a figure of speech to tell of the character of those who form the Church; that that character is:
1. God like. It is the Father"s name which is written; hence they who bear it are holy and without blemish, perfect even as the Father in heaven is perfect.
2. Visible. It is written on their foreheads. The light shines before men; it cannot be hid. That godliness is much to be questioned which no one can see, or which is hidden away and kept for only certain seasons, places, and surroundings. That which is here said teaches the reverse of such a doubtful thing.
3. And it is permanent. It is "written." "Litera scripta manet." It abides, not being a thing assumed for a time, and like the goodness told of by Hosea, which as the "morning cloud" and "early dew goeth away." It is the habit of the life, the continual characteristic of the man. Such, in general terms, is the distinguishing mark of membership in Christ"s true Church. And again we gratefully own that in all Churches it is to be found. Would that it were on all as in all!
II THE CENTRE OF THE WORSHIP OF THE PERFECT CHURCH IS "THE LAMB." St. John says, "I beheld the Lamb;" not a Lamb," as the Authorized Version reads. He does not stop to explain. He has so often spoken of the Lord Jesus Christ as the Lamb, that there can be no room for doubt as to his meaning. It is the Lord Jesus Christ, not so much in his more majestic attributes his might, majesty, and dominion that we are bidden behold, but in his sacrificial character as "the Lamb of God who taketh away the sin of the world." As such he is the Centre of the Church"s adoration. He is seen on Mount Zion, that site of Israel"s temple being taken continually in Scripture as the symbol of the home of God"s redeemed and the scene of their eternal worship. He is surrounded by the Church of the Firstborn firstfruits" unto God, whom he has redeemed by his blood. The number named here, twelve and the multiples of twelve, is ever associated with the Church. And the twelve times twelve tells of the Church"s completion, the "accomplishment of the number of the elect." Now, in the midst of that perfect assembly, that Church of which these are the representatives, stands "the Lamb" as the Object of the adoration, the love, and the worship of all. That Church on earth must, then, lack this distinct note of the heavenly Church if in it Christ the Son of God, as the Redeemer, the Saviour, the Sacrifice for the world"s sins, be not lifted up as the Object of all trust, love, and obedience, and if he be not so regarded by the members of such Church. Let us ask What is he to ourselves? How do we look upon him who is thus looked upon by the Church in heaven? In the midst of our Zions, do we see, as the chief, the central, the pre-eminent figure, the Lamb of God? And in the inner temple of our own hearts, is he there enshrined and enthroned as he hath right and ought to be? What is our hope and what our trust? How can we ever hope to be numbered with "the Church of the Firstborn," if the name of him, to which every heart there responds, awakes no echo, no answering thrill, in us? Our lips utter that name often enough, and in all manner of ways; but what do our hearts say? That is the question to which this vision of the Lamb on Mount Zion, surrounded by the adoring Church, should give rise in every one of us. And may God grant that it may meet with a satisfactory answer!
III THE WORSHIP OF THE PERFECT CHURCH IS A JOYFUL WORSHIP. We are told that "they sung a new song. Joy finds utterance in song; it is its natural expression; and when, therefore, we read of the songs of heaven, it is proof of the joys of that blessed place. The worship of heaven takes this form. Here, prayer and preaching form, and properly form, part of our worship; but there, praise alone is heard. Here, we wail our litanies and pour forth our supplications; but there worship is all song the voice of glad thanksgiving and joyful praise. How much is told us ofthe blessed future in that one fact! And of this song we are told many precious things.
1. How full voiced it is! St. John likens it to that "of many waters that loud, resonant sound as when the floods lift up their voice, or the sea roars, or where some vast volume of water pours itself from over a great height to some far down depth. What a sound comes up from that boiling caldron of tossing waves! The magnitude of the sound of that song is what St. John seeks to set forth by his similitude of "many waters.
2. And its majesty also is indicated by its comparison to "a great thunder the voice of the Lord as they of old regarded it. It is no mean, trivial theme that has inspired that song, but one that wakes up every heart, and opens the lips of all the redeemed, to show forth the praise of him who hath redeemed them. It is a noble song, grand, glorious. How could it be otherwise, telling as it does of deeds of such Divine heroism, of conquests of such moment, and of sacrifice so vast?
3. And how sweet a song is it also! For St. John supplies yet another similitude: its sound was like that "of harpers harping with their harps." So sweet, so soul subduing, so full of heavenly delight, that it brought smiles to the saddest countenance, and wiped away all tears. And is not the song of redemption just such a song as that? Even we know of songs of Zion so unspeakably beautiful, and set to music such as, it seems to us, even angelic choirs might rejoice in. But if earthly song can be so sweet, though coming from lips and hearts so little pure, what must that song have been which is told of here, and which St. John can only compare, for its unutterable beauty, to the strains of the most perfect instruments that the ancient world knew of the harp, Judah"s national symbol, and best beloved accompaniment of praise? But not alone the mingled magnitude, majesty, and sweetness of the sound of this song is set forth here, but also its substance.
4. It was "a new song. There had never been anything like it before. They who sang it had never joined in, or even heard of, such song till they sang it in the presence of. the Lamb on Mount Zion. It could not but be new, for it was inspired by new and glorious revelations of God; sung amid conditions and surroundings that were all new, and by hearts and lips made new by the renewing grace of the Holy Spirit of God. Much there had been in days past for which they had been constrained to praise and give thanks, but till now the half had not been told them, and hence none of their old songs would serve. They must sing a new song; it could not but be new.
5. And it was known by none but those who sang it. "No man could learn that song but," etc. How can he who has never even been to sea know the joy of him who has been saved from shipwreck? Who but the child knows the mother"s love? The song told of here is but the result of the experiences through which they who sing it have been led. How, then, can they sing it who have known none of these things? But those represented by the hundred and forty-four thousand know the depths of sin and sorrow from which, and the heights of holiness and joy to which, and the love by which, and the purpose for which, they have been uplifted. They know the conviction of sin, and the joy of pardon, and the Holy Spirit"s grace, and the love of Christ. But what does the unbeliever know of these things? and how, therefore, can he learn this song? The question comes If such be the worship of the heavenly Church, are our Churches on earth preparing their members to join therein? Churches here should be vestibules for the heavenly Church. Is the Church with which we are associated so to you and me? No one can learn that song unless they be redeemed. Have we the qualification? Have we come to Christ? Are we trusting in him? "We must begin heaven"s song here below, or else we shall never sing it above. The choristers of heaven have all rehearsed their song here ere they took their places in the choir of heaven." But only Christ can touch the soul"s sin darkened eye, and cause it to see that truth which will make redemption precious, and hence he who is our Saviour must be also our Teacher. So only can we learn the new song of his redeemed.
IV ITS MEMBERS ARE WITHOUT FAULT. After that the blessed condition of the redeemed has been set forth, we are next shown their character. The general and symbolic expression which tells how they all have the "Father"s name written on their foreheads" is expanded and explained by the more definite declarations which we must now notice. It is said "they are without fault," or "blameless," as the Revised Version reads; and the apostle specifies four of the chief temptations to which they had been exposed, and which they had resisted and overcome.
1. And the first he names is that of impurity. In the unusual expression in which this sin is referred to, there is no countenance of any teachings which would give higher place to the single over the married life. If the unmarried alone are amongst the redeemed, it is questionable if one of the apostles of our Lord would be found there. But that which is pointed at is those sins of which it is best not to speak, but which we know full well have their roots in the very centre of our nature, and which it is a lifelong struggle to repress and subdue. But this must be done, and blessed be he who saves not only from the guilt, but the might of sin! it may be done, and is being done, even as it was with "these" of whom our text tells.
2. Half heartedness. Great was, and great is, the temptation to follow Christ only along paths not difficult. But to follow him "whithersoever" he went ah! how many would be and are sore tempted to shrink from that! They would follow their Lord for some way even at times a long way; but to follow where difficulty, danger, disgrace, death, waited for them from that how many would shrink! But "these" did not.
3. Conformity to the world. "These" had the holy courage to be singular, to come out "from among men," to go against the stream, to be other than the rest of men. low difficult this is those only know who have tried to do as "these" did. The assimilating power of the society in which we mingle is almost resistless, and often it is full of spiritual peril. It was so to those for whom St. John wrote, and not seldom it is so still. Hence we have to go unto Christ "without the camp, bearing his reproach." "These" did this, and so won the high honour and rich reward told of here.
4. Insincerity. When to confess Christ meant, perhaps, the loss of all things, yea, their very lives; when martyrdom was the guerdon of faithful acknowledgment of their Lord, how tremendous must have been the temptation to tamper with truth, to conceal, to compromise, to evade, to equivocate! But of "these" it is said, "in their mouth was found no guile." He who is the God of truth, yea, who is the Truth, ever lays great stress on this virtue of guilelessness, whilst deceit and lies are declared abominable in his sight.
CONCLUSION. Such was the character of that perfect Church firstfruits unto God and to the Lamb." Doubtless there were all other forms of Christ likeness love, patience, meekness, and the rest for the varied forms of Christ"s grace as seen in character are generally found in clusters. Where you find some you generally find others, yea, in some measure, all of them. But as we read of only what is said here, our heart well nigh despairs, and would altogether were it not that the same source of all goodness is open to us as to them of whom we here read. "Oh, how can feeble flesh and blood Burst through the bonds of sin? The holy kingdom of our God, What man can enter in?
And the sad reply would be, "None," were it not that he who summons us to such high attainment ministers all needed grace. Therefore we may and we must be "holy as he is holy. S. C.
HOMILIES BY R. GREEN Vers. 1-5. The triumphant host.
Again amidst the threatenings of danger and trial, words of consolation and assurance mingle. And out of the midst of the contemplation of the most virulent opposition to the truth, the holy seer is called to lift up his eyes on high, and behold the Mount Zion and the host of the pure and faithful surrounding the Lamb. The hundred and forty-four thousand the Church"s symbol of twelve reproduced and multiplied. It is the Church in her triumph. "The elect" whom Satan has not been able to "deceive" are now in presence of the Redeemer ever "the Lamb" in this book. Their "tribulation" is over; their enemies subdued. They have "kept the faith." Thus is fidelity through trial predicted; thus is it encouraged. There are who will "endure to the end" and "be saved." In viewing this triumphant host we must take notice of
THE DISTINGUISHING FEATURES OF THEIR CHARACTER AND THE DETAILED ELEMENTS OF THEIR REWARD.
1. These are the pure, the undefiled. They are distinguished as free from the prevalent sinfulness of the hour. Nor could symbolism more strikingly stand allied to realism than by describing the saintly hosts as "virgins.
2. They are the obedient. "They follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth." Holiness of life is the invariable adjunct of sanctity of spirit. These "take up the cross and follow him" whom they love, through evil report and good report.
3. They are the truthful. No lie is found in their mouth neither the lie of error nor of untrue profession; nor are they given to falsity and deceitfulness of life.
4. Then are blameless. "Without blemish." These are the redeemed: "the firstfruits unto God and unto the Lamb." The great harvest lies beyond in the unnumbered host. Their reward is thus detailed:
(1) They are purchased: the Lamb"s own property, "whose own" these sheep are.
(2) They are admitted and received within the heavenly courts: they stand on "Mount Zion.
(3) They bear the symbols of their confession and of their recognition: the holy name is on their foreheads signifying their devotion to Christ; as they who were the servants of the beast bore his name.
(4) In eternal joyfulness they sing ever new songs of praise to God, their Creator and Redeemer. A song unknown and unlearned by any but the faithful in Christ Jesus. Truly may we hear an undertone of exhortation:
(a) "Wherefore comfort yourselves with these words;" and
(b) "Be thou faithful unto death. R.G.
HOMILIES BY D. THOMAS Vers. 1-5. The supersensuous heaven of humanity.
"And I looked, and, lo, a Lamb stood on the Mount Zion, and with him a hundred forty and four thousand, having his Father"s name written in their foreheads. And I heard a voice from heaven," etc. May we not regard these verses as a pictorial representation of the supersensuous heaven of humanity? If so, the following facts are suggested concerning the unseen realm of the good or the Christly.
I IT IS A SCENE IN WHICH CHRIST IS THE CENTRAL FIGURE. "And I looked saw, and lo behold, a the Lamb stood standing on the Mount Zion" (ver. 1). No one acquainted with the Scriptures needs to ask who the Lamb is. Christ is the "Lamb of God." Why is Christ called "the Lamb"? Is it because of his innocence, or because of his moral and sacrificial character, or both? Morally he was innocent as a lamb, "holy, undefiled." "He did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth." Or is it on account of his sacrifice? He was, indeed, a sacrifice; his whole being was a sacrifice. There have been those who have answered these questions to their own satisfaction, and there are now those who render replies without hesitation or doubt. I cannot. My eyes are too dim to penetrate into the rationale of Divine operations. What seems clear is that Christ is the central Figure in man"s heaven. He stands on the citadel on which all eyes are fastened, and to which all hearts point and all sympathies flow.
II IT IS A SCENE INTERESTINGLY POPULATED.
1. The population is very numerous. "A hundred forty and four thousand" (ver. 1). This I take to be a definite number used to represent an indefinite multitude a "multitude which no man could number." The dreamer being a Jew, his visions are, of course, full of Jewish facts and sentiments. Hence he thinks of the Jewish scene of worship, Zion, and the Jewish tribes, incalculably numerous. To us, however, all these are mere illustrations of things higher, more important, and lasting. The human tenants in heaven were in number beyond calculation in the days of John, and they have been multiplying ever since.
2. The population is divinely distinguished. "His Father"s name written in their foreheads" (ver. 1). Men glory in things that are supposed to distinguish them advantageously from their fellow men the attractions of physical beauty, the glitter of wealth, the pomp of power; but the greatest of all distinctions, the grandest and highest, is to have the name of the great Father manifest in our lives written on our very "foreheads.
(1) It is the most beautiful distinction. The face is the beauty of man; there the soul reveals itself sometimes in sunshine and sometimes in clouds. The beauty of the face is not in features, but in expressions, and the more it expresses of purity, intelligence, generosity, tenderness, the more beautiful it is. How beautiful, then, to have God"s name radiating in it! God"s name is the beauty of the universe.
(2) It is the most conspicuous distinction. "In their foreheads." It is seen wherever you go, fronting every object you look at. Godliness cannot conceal itself. Divine goodness is evermore self revealing. As the face of Moses shone with a mystic radiance when he came down from the mount after holding fellowship with God, so the lives of all godly men are encircled with a Divine halo.
(3) It is the most honourable distinction. A man sometimes feels proud when he is told he is like some great statesman, ruler, thinker, reformer. But how transcendently honourable is it to bear in our face the very image of God! Let us all seek this distinction. With the Father"s "name in our foreheads" we shall throw the pageantry of the shahs, the emperors, and all the kings of the earth into contempt.
3. The population is rapturously happy. "And I heard a voice from heaven, as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of a great thunder: and I heard the voice of the voice which I heard was the voice of harpers harping with their harps: and they sang sing as it were a new song" (vers. 2, 3). All souls yonder run into music! Here is music loud as booming billows, pealing thunders, and melodious as the enrapturing strains of the harp. How mean and unworthy are men"s views of religious music. "Let us sing to the glory and praise of God," says the leader of public worship. And forthwith a whole congregation breaks into sound. And if the sound is regulated by the harmonious blending of notes, the production is called a "Service of Song;" and more, alas! is made an article of trade. Large incomes are made by the sale of such music. Can such be the music of heaven? Nay. True music is the harmony of soul souls moving ever in accord with the Supreme Will. True music consists not in blending of sounds, whether vocal or instrumental, however charming to the senses, but in sentiments unuttered, perhaps unutterable, yet entrancing to conscience and pleasing to God.
4. The population is redemptively trained. "No man could learn that song but the hundred and forty and four thousand, which were redeemed purchased from the earth" (ver. 3). Heaven, it has been said by men of old, is a prepared place for a prepared people. It is verily so. Observe:
a. Man requires training for heaven.
b. Redemption is the method of training for heaven.
c. Earth is the scene of this redemptive training.
5. The population is spotlessly pure. "These are they which were not defiled with women; for they are virgins" (ver. 4). There are those of our race who have never fallen, who have retained their virgin innocence, who required no pardon for their sins, nor regeneration. What millions of the human population die in their infancy, and go on unfolding their faculties and invigorating their strength through indefinite ages, in scenes of absolute holiness and infallible intelligence! They were not "redeemed from the earth;" such redemption they required not. From the dawn of their being they were ushered into the realms of immaculate purity and perfect bliss.
6. The population is absolutely loyal. "These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth" (ver. 4). All follow the Lamb, the Christ of God. Two words, "Follow me," embody at once the whole duty and perfect Paradise of souls. "Whithersoever he goeth." He is always moving. "The Father worketh hitherto, and I work." We cannot do exactly what he does, but we can imbibe that spirit which inspires him in all he does. Would I become a great painter? then how shall I proceed? If I copy the exact style and method of one of the greatest masters of the art, I shall only become a mere mechanic in the profession, never an artist. But if I catch the genius of the great master, I may, peradventure, leave him behind, and win a place and a distinction all my own. Let us catch the moral genius of Christ.
7. The population is incorruptibly truthful. "In their mouth was found no guile lie: for they are without fault before the throne of God they are without blemish" (ver. 5). No lie! How unlike us! The social atmosphere of our world teems with lies as with microbes. Lies in parliaments, in markets, in Churches. The whole world teems with impostors. What a blessed world must that be where all is truth and reality! D.T.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain A Lamb … and with Him an hundred forty…
Rev_14:1-13
A Lamb … and with Him an hundred forty and four thousand.
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The 144,000
I. Who are these 144,000? They are the identical 144,000 sealed ones spoken of in chapter 7., with only this difference, that there we see them in their earthly relations and peculiar consecration; and here we see them with their earthly career finished, and in the enjoyment of the heavenly award for their faithfulness.
II. What are the chief marks or characteristics of these 144,000?
1. The first and foremost is that of a true and conspicuous confession. They have the name of the Lamb and the name of His Father written on their foreheads. This is their public mark as against the mark of the worshippers of the Beast. There is nothing more honourable in Gods sight than truth and faithfulness of confession.
2. Another particular is their unworldliness. Whilst most people in their day dwell upon the earth, sit down upon it as their rest and choice, derive their chief comfort from it, these are redeemed from the earth--withdrawn from it, bought away by the heavenly promises and the Divine grace to live above it, independent of it. They are quite severed from the world in heart and life.
3. A third point is their pureness. They are virgins, in that they have lived chaste lives, both as to their faithfulness to God in their religion, and as to their pureness from all bodily lewdness.
4. A further quality is their truthfulness. In their mouth was not found what is false. These people were truthful in speech, had also a higher truthfulness. They have the true faith; they hold to it with a true heart; they exemplify it by a true manner of life. They are the children of truth in the midst of a world of untruth.
III. What, then, is their reward?
1. Taking the last particular first, they stand approved, justified, and accepted before God. They are blameless. To stand before God approved and blameless from the midst of a condemned world--a world given over to the powers of perdition by reason of its unbelief and sins, is an achievement of grace and faithfulness in which there may well be mighty exultation.
2. In the next place, they have a song which is peculiarly and exclusively their own. Though not connected with the throne, as the Living Ones, nor crowned and seated as the Elders, they have a ground and subject of joy and praise which neither the Living Ones nor the Elders have; nor is any one able to enter into that song except the 144,000. None others ever fulfil just such a mission, as none others are ever sealed with the seal of the living God in the same way in which they were sealed. They have a distinction and glory, a joy and blessedness, after all, in which none but themselves can ever share.
3. They stand with the Lamb on Mount Zion. To be with the Lamb, as over against being with the Beast, is a perfection of blessing which no language can describe. It is redemption. It is victory. It is eternal security and glory. To be with the Lamb on Mount Zion is a more special position and relation. Glorious things are spoken of Jerusalem which have never yet been fulfilled. On His holy hill of Zion God hath said that He will set up His King, even His Son, who shall rule all the nations (Psa_2:1-12.). The Lamb is yet to take possession of the city where He was crucified, there to fulfil what was written in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin over His head when He died. And when that once comes to pass, these 144,000 are with Him, His near and particular associates in that particular relation and administration.
4. They are a firstfruit to God and to the Lamb, not the firstfruit of all the saved, for the Living Ones and the Elders are in heavenly place and glory above and before them; but a firstfruit of another and particular harvest; the firstfruit from the Jewish field, in that new beginning with the Israelitish people for their fathers sakes, which is to follow the ending of the present times of the Gentiles. They are brought to the confession of Christ, and sealed in their foreheads with the name of both the Father and the Son, during the time that the rest of their blood-kin are covenanting with and honouring the Antichrist as Messiah.
IV. What, now, of the angel-messages?
1. The first message. That an angel is the preacher here is proof positive that the present dispensation is then past and changed. It is no longer the meek and entreating voice, beseeching men to be reconciled to God, but a great thunder from the sky, demanding of the nations to fear the God, as over against the false god whom they were adoring--to give glory to Him, instead of the infamous Beast whom they were glorifying--to worship the Maker of all things, as against the worship of him who can do no more than play his hellish tricks with the things that are made; and all this on the instant, for the reason that the hour of judgment is come.
2. The second message. With the hour of judgment comes the work of judgment. A colossal system of harlotry and corruption holds dominion over the nations. God has allowed it for the punishment of those who would not have Christ for their Lord, but now He will not allow it longer. Therefore another angel comes with the proclamation: Fallen, fallen, the great Babylon, etc. The announcement is by anticipation as on the very eve of accomplishment, and as surely now to be fulfilled. The particulars are given in chapter 17. and 18. There also the explanation of the object of this announcement is given. It is mercy still struggling in the toils of judgment, if that by any means some may yet be snatched from the opening jaws of hell; for there the further word is, Come out of her, My people, etc.
3. The third message. And for the still more potent enforcement of this call a third angel appears, preaching and crying with a great voice, that whosoever is found worshipping the Beast and his image, or has the Beasts mark on his forehead or on his hand, even he shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God which is mingled without dilution in the cup of His anger, and shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the angels and in the presence of the Lamb, and the smoke of their torment ascends to the ages of ages, and they have no rest day and night! It is an awful commination; but these are times of awful guilt, infatuation, and wickedness. And when men are in such dangers, marching direct into the mouth of such a terrible perdition, it is a great mercy in God to make proclamation of it with all the force of an angels eloquence. The same is also for the wronged and suffering ones who feel the power of these terrible oppressors. It tells them how their awful griefs shall be avenged on their hellish persecutors.
4. The fourth message. There is no suffering for any class of Gods people in any age like the sufferings of those who remain faithful to God during the reign of the Antichrist. Here, at this particular time and juncture, is the patience or endurance of them that keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus. To come out of Babylon, and to stand aloof from its horrible harlotries, is a costly thing. Therefore there is another proclamation from heaven for their special strengthening and consolation. Whether this word is also from an angel we are not told; but it is a message from glory and from God. And it is a sweet and blessed message. It is a message which John is specially commanded to write, that it may be in the minds and hearts of Gods people of every age, and take away all fear from those who in this evil time are called to lay down their lives because they will not worship Antichrist. Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from henceforth. And when violence, cruelty, and slaughter are the consequence of a life of truth and purity, the sooner it is over the greater the beatitude. (J. A. Seiss, D. D.)
The communion of saints
I. The communion of saints is the restoration of fellowship between God and man. There are in the will and work of God three perfect and eternal unities: the unity of three Persons in one nature; the unity of two natures in one Person; and the unity of the Incarnate Son with His elect-the Head with the members of His Body mystical. This is the foundation of the communion of God and man. A Lamb stood, etc.
II. The communion of saints is the restoration of the fellowship of men with each other. Our regeneration unites us to the Divine Person in whom God and man are one; and by union with Him we are reunited to all whom He has likewise united to Himself. As the vine has one nature in root and stem, branch and spray, fibre and fruit, so the mystical and true Vine in earth and heaven has one substance and one life, which is the basis of all fellowship in love and will, in sympathy and action, in mutual intercessions of prayer, and in mutual ministries of power. Lessons:
1. Let us learn, first, that we can never be lonely or forsaken in this life. No trial can isolate us, no sorrow can cut us off from the communion of saints. There is but one thing in which the sympathy of Christ has no share, and that is, the guilt of wilful sin.
2. And let us learn further, by the reality of this heavenly fellowship, to live less in this divided world.
3. Lastly, let us learn from this communion of saints to live in hope. They who are now at rest were once like ourselves--fallen, weak, faulty, sinful, etc. But now they have overcome. Only one thing there is in which we are unlike them: they were common in all things except the uncommon measure of their inward sanctity. In all besides we are as they; only it is now our turn to strive for the crown of life. (Archdeacon Manning.)
Having His Fathers name written in their foreheads.
The sublimest human distinction
I. It is the most beautiful. The face is the beauty of man; there the soul reveals itself, sometimes in sunshine, and sometimes in clouds. The beauty of the face is not in features, but in expression, and the more it expresses of purity, intelligence, generosity, tenderness, the more beautiful. How beautiful, then, to have Gods name radiating in it! Gods name is the beauty of the universe.
II. It is most conspicuous. In their foreheads. It is seen wherever you go, fronting every object you look at. Godliness cannot conceal itself. Divine goodness is evermore self-revealing.
III. It is most honourable. A man sometimes feels proud when he is told he is like some great statesman, ruler, thinker, reformer. How transcendently honourable is it to wear in our face the very image of God! Let us all seek this distinction. With the Fathers name on our foreheads we shall throw the pageantry of the Shahs, the Czars, and all the kings of the earth into contempt. (Homilist.)
The name on the forehead
I. A claim of appropriation.
II. A sign of office.
III. A mark of dignity.
IV. A pledge of security.
V. a memento of obligation.
1. To remember that ye are not your own.
2. To profess openly.
3. Faithfully to discharge functions.
4. To the exercise of unvarying trust.
5. To be holy. (Preachers Portfolio.)
Harpers harping with their harps.--
Musical art in its relation to Divine worship
We claim for music the first place among the fine arts.
1. Because it is the most ideal, for the ideal is the highest.
2. Because it most thoroughly expresses the various emotions of the human mind, and therefore has the widest reach over human life.
3. Because, like love, it is eternal.
I. What kind of music is best? Universal agreement on the subject is not to be expected, because the subject is so mixed up with questions of expediency, of taste, of knowledge. People have a right to expect that the canticles and hymns shall be sung to music in which they can join, but devout people who can sing must be taught that, while spiritually alert, they must be vocally silent in many parts of Divine worship.
II. How can we best secure the best music for Divine worship? As to the voices, assuming that those of the men are sweet in quality, the success of a male choir may be said to depend on three things mainly: First, that the voices of the boys shall be properly trained, so that they produce a clear and flute-like tone. Secondly, that no music should be attempted which is beyond the ability of the choir to execute. Thirdly, that nothing be put on the programme until it is thoroughly rehearsed and well known. Then let everything be done decently and in order. Then will our Church music be a real help to devotion. Hearts will be uplifted, voices upraised. Then will our sacred songs be as the echo of the angelic songs above, and God will be glorified. (J. W. Shackelford, D. D.)
Music in heaven
There is music in heaven, because in music there is no self-will. Music goes on certain laws and rules. Man did not make these laws of music; he has only found them out; and if he be self-willed and break them, there is an end of his music instantly; all he brings out is discord and ugly sounds. The greatest musician in the world is as much bound by those laws as the learner in the school, and the greatest musician is the one who, instead of fancying that, because he is clever, he may throw aside the laws of music, knows the laws of music best, and observes them most reverently. And therefore it was that the old Greeks, the wisest of all the heathens, made a point of teaching their children music; because they said it taught them not to be self-willed and fanciful, but to see the beauty of order, the usefulness of rule, the divineness of laws. And therefore music is fit for heaven; therefore music is a pattern and type of heaven, and of the everlasting life of God, which perfect spirits live in heaven; a life of melody and order in themselves; a life of harmony with each other and with God. (G. Kingsley.)
They sung as it were a new song.--
The new song in the soul
(with Eph_5:19):--The text from St. Paul is the necessary introduction to the one from St. John. They both suggest for us the necessary connection of inner and outer harmony of being. What makes martial music noisy, blatant, offensive? It is when a spirit of mere savage quarrelsomeness is in connection with it. And what makes it majestic and able to marshal and lead hosts? It is the force of national duties and earnestness, giving it commanding power. Our texts give the highest Christian form of this truth, the connection of inner and outer harmony. It declares that no man can learn the new song who has not been redeemed in nature; none can sing it who has not made, first, melody in the heart unto the Lord. First, consider this in connection with the statement that holiness, goodness, is a concord. Every virtue is a harmony. It is the result of combining different and separate tendencies. It is complex. It is, as it were, a chord of the inner music, formed by striking different notes of character together, and combining them in one. And that is what makes virtue so hard of acquisition and a virtuous Christian life such a struggle. The true graces are harmonies of different notes; are chords of character; not merely a single note of character, struck with a single finger, easily, and at once; but each, a combination of various notes of character, revealed only by using all the hand, and both hands of life; including different parts and requiring earnest, anxious toil, before it is harmoniously and truly struck--struck with pleasure to the great Hearer, to whose ear your character makes melody in your heart, the Lord. Look at some of the several virtues, and see if it be not so; that each one is a chord, a combination, a harmony. Take love, or charity, the most winning and prominent of virtues. It is not simple. In its true height it is a combination. It is composed of the union of self-sacrifice and benevolence to others. Passion is never true love, for it is selfish. Or take another human virtue, true human courage, and see its component parts. Who is a brave man, but he who, keenly alive to pain, tingling through and through with sensitiveness of danger and love of life, is yet also full of the sense of duty and the glow of patriotism, and out of those two very different parts constructs the delicate, perfect harmony of his courage? Or again, select a third one out of the catalogue of noble human characteristics; and see how, in its true form, it is harmony, a combination of differing elements. Take freedom, liberality, or liberty of spirit. There is a true and a false freedom. The false freedom is simply license. It has only one thought--to do its own will, to get its own desire, to be unbound by others will. It has no harmony. It has but a single note, a single tone, and it is easily gained. There is no struggle, no argument to reconcile and combine any differences in a melody. But there is a truer human liberty than this; that which Paul describes when he says, as free, but as servants; one which strives, while doing its own will, to be sure that it is also doing the will of God and truth; one which labours to combine obedience with freedom, to be obediently free and to be freely obedient; to make it the freest action of the human will to do Gods will, and to obey the commandments of His love and truth. That is a hardly gained, but a very rich harmony. Take still one more example of the fact that every virtue, in its true, essential form, is a concord, a combination of tones. You will find it in the trait of justice. To be just is not a very simple operation. It requires, first, wisdom, judgment, intelligent power of discerning and discriminating. It requires, secondly, courage, freedom to announce the decision of wisdom, without fear or prejudice. It requires, thirdly, temperateness, power of self-restraint, that there be no excess, or passion, or over-statement of ones decisions in the vehemence of his convictions. Every act of justice must include these three. But let us think on a little further. The Bible calls human virtues and graces fruits of the Spirit. Their harmony is produced by the Spirit of God. Have you ever stood and wondered at the wild, sweet music of an AEolian harp--held by no human hands, resonant under no human fingers, but swayed by the breathing winds of nature, bringing forth its strange combined melodies? Such an instrument is the human soul. Strung and held by no human hands, with the spiritual breath of God the Spirit passing over its strings, seeking to awaken them to speak in those perfect harmonies which we call virtues, but which the Bible calls fruits, or results of the Spirit. Oh, let us not quench the Spirit. It is about us, fraught and laden with all the airs and strains of God; able and waiting to call them out of our hearts, and the materials of our character and nature. By it we may be able to make melody in our hearts to the Lord. By it we may strive to do here what the redeemed shall de by it at last before the throne, in that land of the Spirit. We may learn from the Spirit that perfect new song which can only be sung by a melodious heart and nature. (Fred. Brooks.)
The music of heaven
1. The heavenly song is described as a new song. And it is so in that the theme of it will be new. They sing, says St. John, the song of Moses the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb. The song of Moses celebrated redemption out of Egypt. Here, on earth, the Church cannot fully comprehend the whole development of the plan of Divine mercy. The process is still going on, and not until all the saved are brought to glory will it be completed; and hence those songs which most appropriately express our holiest thoughts and aspirations here will not be suited to our condition hereafter. The new song is adapted to our enlarged powers and to our altered circumstances.
2. Continued freshness will characterise the song of heaven. The sweetest strains lose more or less of their freshness by constant repetition.
3. Further, the music of heaven shall give rise to new emotions. In the life of the celebrated composer Handel it is stated that upon being asked how he felt when composing the Hallelujah Chorus, he replied, I did think I did see all heaven before me, and the great God Himself. And it is said that a friend called upon him when he was in the act of setting to music the pathetic words, He was despised and rejected of men, and found him absolutely sobbing. What will be the emotions of joy and gratitude which will be experienced when all the redeemed, gathered out of every nation, and kindred and tongue shall unite as with one heart and one voice, and sing the song of Moses and of the Lamb?
4. And then unlike the songs of earth, the new song shall never be interrupted. Sin, sorrow, death, are all unknown there! The song of heaven shall be an eternal song, and the strains of the music of the heavenly harpers shall flow on for evermore! Have you the prospect of joining the heavenly throng? (S. D. Hillman.)
A song of freedom
A new song, it is doubtless the song of a new and higher victory. A song is, above all, an expression of the heart, something spontaneous, the irrepressible upspringing of an inward emotion. A bird sings because it cannot help singing, and because its little heart is thrilling with an overflowing joy; and so they who sing the new song have had, doubtless, some true experience of a great good and joy which causes them to sing. I think that it is the experience of every thoughtful man that all the real misery springs, in some way, from spiritual wrong. If he have lost friends, which is one of our great natural griefs, yet if sin had not thrust itself into this sorrow, if the soul of the friend as well as ones own had been perfectly true to God, and to right, one would find in the bereavement a cause to rejoice, for to the holy dead God reveals the fulness of His love. It is the conscious want of the love of God, manifesting itself in acts of selfishness, ingratitude, and treason to truth and duty--it is always this that has made the human spirit wail. Selfishness is a constant pain, and love a constant joy. I do not deny the many natural sorrows of life, and that they are sometimes painful beyond human power to endure, but we would be strong from a Divine strength to bear troubles and sufferings which fall to our lot in this life, and they would be only for our discipline and perfection, were we without transgression. These would be outside sufferings. But it is the feeling that we have acted unrighteously, that we have stained our souls honour, that we have been unthankful to the heavenly Father. It is this that consumes the spirit within us. If we arc raised for one instant by the quick motion of faith, by the absorbing exercise of prayer, by the unselfish act of pure obedience, into the light and liberty of Gods presence, we gain inward freedom and peace, we experience an absolute deliverance from the tyranny of evil. We may perceive, then, why the power of sin in our human nature is called in the Scriptures a bondage. It is pure absolutism. Let the bondsman strive once to free himself, to shake himself loose from his bonds, to change his own nature, and he will see what a grasp evil has. To be freed from the power of evil would soothe all pangs, would wipe away all tears, sorrow, care, and would restore to the life-giving presence and joy of God. Can we not then begin, in some feeble manner I grant, to perceive or imagine what may be the significance of the new song? It is in truth a song of freedom, and we need not wonder that it is represented to be like the sound of many waters, the outpouring of innumerable hearts on the free shore of eternity, for God has made the soul to be free and to have no law over it but the law of love. There are, indeed, but few such chords that vibrate in human hearts. Sorrow is one of these. Coleridge said that at the news of Nelsons death no man felt himself a stranger to another; and of these universal chords, that of freedom is also one. Such a spontaneous cry rises from an enslaved nation, whose chains are broken by some God-inspired man. Never shall I forget the mighty shout I heard that went up from the whole people of Florence, gathered together in the great market-square of the beautiful city on the Arno, at the news of a decisive victory gained over the powerful enemy of Italian independence--Austria. A new, unlooked-for joy poured into the hearts of the suffering and long-oppressed Italian people that they were at length free! It made them one. It overflowed their hearts with sudden strength, and men fell upon each others necks and kissed each other, and their joy found expression in shouts and songs. So it will be a new joy in heaven to be free--to be free from the shameful oppression of evil. The believer may, in some feeble and imperfect measure, in his best times, when Christ his Light is near, be able to conceive of this state of entire victory over, or deliverance from, sin, because he has in the present life yearnings after it, and prophecies of it; but to the unrenewed mind this truth is not quite clear. It is, on the contrary, a thought which gives that mind, when it thinks at all, much uneasiness and confusion. For it has had fleeting tastes of sweetness in this earthly life, and in those pleasures into which God does not come, poor though they be, and it fears to lose those alloyed and swift-passing experiences of happiness in being holy. It would not release entirely its hold upon these, for fear of losing its happiness altogether. But we must let go one to win the other. We must push off from the shore of this world to gain the free shore of eternity; and so complete is the victory of heaven, that not even such an electric thought of evil as has been described, shall pass over the soul. Holiness is happiness. Goodness is joy. Love is freedom. There are no remains of the conflict of temptation. The spell of sin is broken; and as freedom is one of those things that never grows old, so the song of heaven shall be a new song.
II. But another and higher sense remains, in which it would seem that the song of heaven is called a new song, arising from the fact that this heavenly freedom which is sung, does not end in ourselves, in our freedom or holiness or joy, but ends in Christ, and in the Divine will in which dwells this pure and mighty power of the souls deliverance from evil. (J. M. Hoppin.)
The song of the redeemed
I. Their character. They are redeemed from the earth. Redemption, in their ease, was not merely virtual, but actual; not in price only, but also in power. It was a redemption carried into their personal experience. Such must ours be, or the price of our redemption has been paid for us in vain. There is pardon, finely represented as implying submission to God, and acceptance and acknowledgment by him. The Fathers name is written in their foreheads. There is confession of God before men. They practised no unholy concealment; their religion was public, and declared at all hazards. They were undefiled. They were unspotted from the world, even its more prevalent errors-errors recommended by example, justified by sophistry, alluring by interest, and enforced by persecution. There is their obedience. This is impressively described by their following the Lamb whithersoever He goeth. There is their completeness. Sanctified throughout, they were preserved blameless in spirit, soul, and body. And there is their redemption from earth. They were redeemed from its corporate society, as the world. That remained; they were chosen out of it. They were redeemed from its cowardly and selfish principles, by which truth is sacrificed to ease and gain; whereas these sacrificed ease and gain for truth. From its example; for, while the multitude were wandering after the beast, these were following the Lamb. From Rs pollutions; for they had been washed from their sins by the blood of Him who loved them. From earth itself; for they are now before the throne.
II. Their place. Before the throne.
1. It is the place of glorious vision.
2. It is the place of eternal security. Day is there, never succeeded by night. There is quiet, unbroken by alarm: the gates of the city are not shut by day or night. There is life, never to be quenched in death. For ever does the river flow from under the throne, and the tree of life feels no winter.
III. The represented action.
1. They sang. Powerful emotions of joy seek for outward expression. This is one of the laws of our very nature. The expression will be suitable to the emotion. Grief pours forth its wailings; joy is heard in the modulations of verse, and the sweet swells and cadences of music.
2. They sang a new song. Every deliverance experienced by the saints of God calls for a new song: How much more, therefore, this, the final deliverance from earth! Their song is new, as demanded by new blessings. John saw before the throne a Lamb, as it had been newly slain. The phrase intimates that blessings for ever new will flow from the virtue of His atonement, and the manifestation of the Divine perfections by Him. Nor shall the song be new as to individuals only, but as to the whole glorified Church.
3. They sang it before the throne. The glorious fruit of the travail of His soul.
IV. The peculiarity of their employment. No man could learn that song. Not so much to the sound, the music, of the song, as to its subject, does this language refer; and such subjects only can be turned into song, as dwell in the very spirits of the redeemed.
1. There are remembered subjects. The redeemed from earth recollect the hour when light broke In on their darkness.
2. There are present subjects. (R. Watson.)
The unlearned song of the redeemed
What can be the meaning of this singular announcement of a song not to be taught even to the other inhabitants of heaven? We need but refer to a familiar principle of the minds operations, whose religious significance is often not perceived; by which toil, pain, and trial, however grievous in the experience, turn to comfort and delight in the retrospect. As, by the influence of chemical attraction, the most glossy white is brought out on textures originally of the blackest dye, or as the mere constant falling of the bleaching sunlight makes a dull surface glisten like snow, so do the souls melancholy passages change as they are acted on by reflection, and the darkest threads of its experience brighten in the steady light of memory. There are few enjoyments more exquisite than the father feels in telling his son of the hardships of his early life. How he dilates on the efforts and sacrifices with which he began his career! But would he spare one hard days labour, though it wore and bent his frame? one hours thirst, with which his lips were parched? Not one: not one act of self-denial, not one patient stretch of endurance; for all these, by this transforming principle, have become most pleasant to his mind. On the same principle, we can understand, without referring to unworthy motives, the soldiers interest in his oft-repeated narratives. Oh, the dark and deadly scene! the ground wet with blood, and the smoke of carnage mounting heavy and slow over the dead and the dying I It is not necessarily that his soul breathes the spirit of war; but it is that these, like other trials, turn to joys, as viewed from the height of his present thought, stretching picturesquely through the long valley of the past. The same principle operates in the hardships of peaceful life. The sailor has a like gladness from the dangers with which he has been environed on the stormy deep. He interprets the almost intolerable accidents that overtook him into good and gracious providence, and sings of his calamity, privation, and fear. So all the sweetest songs, and all the grandest and most touching poetry, that have ever been on earth breathed into sound or written in characters, have sprung out of such work and strife, sorrow and peril. And why should not a new song, unknown even to the elder seraphs, be so composed and framed in heaven, out of all lifes trouble and disaster; while the mercy of God, the atoning influence of Christ, all heavenly help and guidance that they have received in their struggles, shall add depth and melody to those voices of the redeemed? Such is the mystery and bounty of the Divine. Paradoxical as it may seem, God means not only to make us good, but to make us also happy, by sickness, disaster, and disappointment. For the truly happy man is not made such by a pleasant and sunny course only of indulged inclinations and gratified hopes. Hard tasks, deferred hopes, though they make the heart sick, the beating of adverse or the delay of baffling winds, must enter into his composition here below, as they will finally enter into his song on high. There is more than pleasant fancy or cheering prediction in that language about beauty being given for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, and the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; for out of dust and ashes alone beauty can grow; supreme gladness glistens nowhere but upon the face where grief hath been sitting; and the highest praise to God is sung when He hath delivered us from the pit of woe and despair. The opening of one of the most strangely beautiful flowers, from the roughest of prickly and unsightly stems, is an emblem of the richest blooming of moral beauty and pleasure from thorns and shapes of ugliness in the growth of the immortal mind. But there is a strict condition. They who would blend their voices in that happy choir, to which the hosts of heaven pause to listen, must be faithful in performing this toil, in overcoming this temptation, in enduring this trial. An ancient poet says, it is a delight to stand or walk upon the shore, and to see a ship tossed with tempest upon the sea; or to be in a fortified tower, and see hosts mingled upon a plain. But what is such pleasure compared with that felt by those who look down from the firm ground of heaven upon their own tossings in the voyage they have with a sacred and religious faithfulness accomplished, and fix their retrospective eye on the fight they, with a holy obstinacy, waged with their own passions and besetting sins? (C. A. Bartol.)
The new song
We shall begin our meditation on this vision by considering the occupation of those referred to. They sing. Praise is often spoken of as the chief occupation of the saints in heaven. Nor need we wonder that such is the case. They have passed to the land of pure delight. They mingle in congenial society. Above all, they behold Him, whom they have long adored afar off, and with Him they maintain unbroken communion. His presence and voice fill their hearts with joy, deep and intense. Nor does the inspiration of their song come only from the present; it comes also from the past. Then they fully learn what has been done to them and for them during their earthly journey. This praise, too, is unceasing. Other engagements and interests concern men in this life. They have wants that must be supplied; they have burdens that must be borne; they have battles that must be fought. And these urge them to prayer as often as to praise. Even up to the Jordans bank they must stretch forth their hands and raise their voice in supplication. But, in that better land, they enjoy satisfaction and rest. Full provision has been made, and they have only to celebrate the goodness that has done it all. That which they sing is called a new song. It is heavenly in origin and character. It is no feeble strain of earth, weak in thought and poor in expression. It far transcends in matter and in form the psalms and hymns and spiritual songs of the Church below. These were suited to the partial knowledge of this lower sphere, but they are inadequate to the fuller view and the deeper experience to which the redeemed have risen. Of that anthem we catch some echoes in the revelation which John has given us. It is a song of salvation, it is a shout of triumph. It is called the song of Moses and of the Lamb, and this title is suggestive of its tenor. From a danger greater than that to which the Israelites were exposed have those who are with the Lamb been delivered. Not from physical evil or an earthly enemy, but from spiritual loss and death, and from the power of the wicked one, have they been rescued. Not only, therefore, do they sing the song of Moses; they sing also the song of the Lamb. Being a new song, it must be learned by those who would sing it. But the text warns us that this is possible only for those who have undergone a certain training. Without discipline we cannot take our place in the choir above, engage in the occupations, or enjoy the beauties and delights of the Paradise above. This, indeed, we might understand apart from revelation. All experience combines to suggest it. In the material world everything has its place and work, and is specially fitted for filling the one and performing the other. We recognise in that sphere the reign of law. Every branch of industry has its own rules and its own methods. To learn these an apprenticeship must be undergone. And this is as applicable to the moral region as it is to the social and the intellectual. Place a man of dissolute habits, of vicious temper, of impure thought, of blasphemous speech, in the company of men and women who are spiritual in tone, pure in thought, reverent in speech, and what will his experience be? Not certainly one of satisfaction and enjoyment. He will be wretched. He will long to escape that he may go to his own company and to his own place. Now, this truth, which is received and acted on in all spheres of human activity, has force beyond the limits of earth. It touches the constitution of things: it rests on our nature, and must, therefore, determine our experience not only here but hereafter. To occupy our minds with the foolish, if not the wicked, things of earth, is to render ourselves incapable of dealing with the concerns of heaven; that before we can even learn the song of the redeemed we must have been prepared, for not every one can learn the new song that is being sung before the throne, before the four beasts, and before the elders. But we are not only warned that preparation is required; we are also taught in what it is to consist. Its general character may, indeed, be gathered from what has just been said. We have been reminded that to engage heartily in any occupation we must make ourselves acquainted with its rules and methods, that to enjoy any society we must have in some measure risen to the attainment of its members. In order, then, to discover what is needful, by way of training, before we can join this company, enjoy their fellowship, and sing their song, we have only to inquire by what features they are marked. They are spiritual in character, they are with the Lamb on Mount Zion, they are pure and holy. From this it follows that the education which those who would join them must undergo is spiritual. It is not intellectual only. Mere acquaintance with what concerns persons is not of necessity sympathy with them. Only when knowledge touches heart and life can there be fellowship, for only then are companions animated by the same spirit and interested in the same subjects and pursuits. Nor, on the other hand, can the training be merely mechanical. By no outward washing or cleansing can we free the soul from its foul blot; can we make ourselves pure, worthy to stand before the great white throne and Him who sits thereon. The one hundred and forty and four thousand who do learn the song are said to have been redeemed from the earth. They have been redeemed. This indicates that by nature they are not fit for the occupation referred to. The faculty qualifying them for it has been lost, and has to be restored. The dormant faculties must be roused and developed, the powers that have been misapplied must be converted. The term redemption is employed in Scripture in two different senses, or rather to suggest two aspects of the change which it indicates. At one time it signifies release from the bondage of the Evil One without; at another, release from the bondage of the evil nature within. Here it is the inner rather than the outer reference that is in view. It is less escape from slavery and danger than purity and elevation of character that is thought of. Not at once are we made fit for heaven in the fullest sense: not at once is the hold which sin has gained on us relaxed. That comes by struggle, by warring against the powers and principalities arrayed against us, and to which we have submitted. Emancipation in this view is education, growth, advance. The possibility of it rests on living faith, and the realisation of it is gradual, to be carried forward day by day. We have not yet attained, neither are we already perfect, but we follow after, pressing toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. In His footsteps we should be seeking to walk, and only as we are doing so are we preparing ourselves for the engagements and the delights of the Better Land. That such is the nature of the redemption spoken of in the text becomes still clearer when we observe that those spoken of are to be redeemed from the earth. By the earth is meant the lower nature, and what stands related to it. To be redeemed from the earth is to be lifted above it, to use it without abusing it, to act under the control of the Spirit, and this is a movement that should be upward as well as onward--not monotonous progress on a dead level, but achievement, victory, exaltation. It must be apparent to every one that redemption from earth means meetness for heaven, Heaven and earth, in their spiritual use, stand opposed to each other. To be subject to the one is to be beyond the range and influence of the other. We should then be striving after this redemption; we should be seeking to value aright the things around, and we should be endeavouring to free ourselves from their dominion; we should be struggling, that the evil powers within may be subdued--knowing that only thus can we be prepared for joining the glorious company above, for learning the new song, and for celebrating the praise of Him who hath wrought salvation for us. (James Kidd, B.A.)
The new song
Whilst passing in early manhood through a stage of deep dejection, John Stuart Mill found occasional comfort in music. One day he was thrown into a state of profound gloom by the thought that musical combinations were exhaustible. The octave was only composed of five tones and two semi-tones. Not all the combinations of these notes were harmonious, so there must be a limit somewhere to the possibilities of melody. No such possibility can limit the range of the new song, for it shall be pitched to the key of Gods ever-renewed mercies. We need not dread an eternity of monotonous, mill-round worship. The originality of Gods mercy will be a spring of originality in us. (T. G. Selby.)
No man could learn that song but the hundred and forty and four thousand.--
Man training for heaven
I. Heaven requires his training. Man cannot blend in the happy harmony of the celestial state without previous training. Analogy would suggest this. In the physical system, every being is fitted to his position; his organism is suited to his locality. In the social system the same principle of fitness is required. The stolid clown could not occupy the professors chair; nor could he who is reckless concerning law, right, and order, occupy the bench of justice. It is just so in relation to heaven. To feel at home in the society of the holy, cheerfully to serve the Creator and His universe, and to be in harmony with all the laws, operations, and beings, in the holy empire, we must manifestly be invested with the same character. But what is the training necessary? It is moral--the training of the spiritual sympathies; the heart being brought to say, Thy will be done.
II. Redemption is the condition of his training. Those who were redeemed from the earth. The redemption here referred to is evidently that procured by the system of Christ (Rev_5:9). The training requires something more than education; it needs emancipation--the delivering of the soul from certain feelings and forces incompatible with holiness--a deliverance from the guilt and power of evil. The grand characteristic of Christianity is, that it is a power to redeem from all evil.
III. The earth is the scene of his training. Redeemed from the earth. The brightest fact in the history of the dark world is, that it is a redemptive scene. Amidst all the clouds and storms of depravity and sorrow that sweep over our path, this fact rises up before us as a bright orb that shall one day dispel all gloom and hush all tumult. Thank God, this is not a retributive, but a redemptive scene. But it should be remembered that it is not only a redemptive scene, but the only redemptive scene. (Homilist.)
Angelic incompetency
It seems that when the song of grace rises in heaven, there are a great multitude who are incompetent to take part in it. What is the song that utterly defies the unfallen spirits of heaven? It is the song of redemption, and I shall give you two or three reasons why those unfallen spirits find it an impossibility to sing it.
1. First, they never were redeemed from sins. Standing in the light of heaven, they know nothing about the joy of rescue. Having sailed for ages on the smooth seas of heaven, they know nothing about the joy of clambering out from the eternal shipwreck. Beautiful and triumphant song, but they cannot sing it. It is to them an eternal impossibility.
2. Again, these unfallen spirits of heaven cannot mingle in that anthem because they do not know what it is to be comforted in suffering. You sometimes find a pianist who has been through all the schools, and has his diploma; but there seems to be no feeling in his playing. You say: Whats the matter with that musician? Why, I will tell you: he has never had any trouble. But after he has lost children, or been thrust into sickness, then he begins to pour out the deep emotion of his own soul into the instrument, and all hearts respond to it. So, I suppose that our sorrows here will be somewhat preparative for the heavenly accord. It will not be a cold artistic trill, but a chant struck through with all the tenderness of this worlds sufferings.
3. Again, I remark that the unfallen spirits of heaven cannot join in the anthem of grace in heaven, because they never were helped to die. Death is a tremendous pass. Do you not suppose when we get through that dark pass of death, we are going to feel gratitude to Christ, and that we will have a glorious anthem of praise to sing to Him? But what will those unfallen spirits of heaven do with such a song as that? They never felt the death shudder. They never heard the moan of the dismal sea. But you say: That makes only a half and half heaven; so many of these spirits will be silent. Oh, there will be anthems in which all the hosts of heaven can join. The fact that there will be a hundred and forty and four thousand, as stated in the text, intimates that there will be a vast congregation participating. That song is getting sweeter and louder all the time. Some of our friends have gone up and joined in it. If our hearing were only good enough, we would hear their sweet voices rippling on the night air. (T. De Witt Talmage.)
Not defiled with women.--
Undefiled
The words cannot be literally understood, but must be taken in the sense of similar words of the Apostle Paul, when, writing to the Corinthians, he says, For I am jealous over you with a godly jealousy; for I espoused you to one husband, that I might present you as a pure virgin to Christ. Such a pure virgin were the hundred and forty and four thousand now standing upon the Mount Zion. They had renounced all that unfaithfulness to God and to Divine truth which is so often spoken of in the Old Testament as spiritual fornication or adultery. They had renounced all sin. In the language of St. John in his first Epistle, they had the true God, and eternal life. They had guarded themselves from idols. (W. Milligan, D. D.)
Follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth.--
The followers of the Lamb
I. An outline of the character of those blessed ones while they are here.
1. First, notice their adherence to the doctrine of sacrifice while they are here: These are they which follow the Lamb.
2. And, next, it is clear of these people that they followed the Lamb by practically imitating Christs example, for it is written, These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth. Try to put your feet down in the footprints that He has left you. Do aim at complete conformity to Christ; and wherein you fail, mark that.
3. Now, notice in the sketch of these people that they recognised a special redemption: These were redeemed from among men. Christ had done something for them that He had not done for others.
4. And as they recognized a special redemption, they made a full surrender of themselves to God and to the Lamb: These were redeemed from among men, being the firstfruits unto God and to the Lamb. If you are the firstfruits unto God, be so; if you belong to yourself, serve yourself; but if, by the redemption of Christ, you are not your own, but bought with a price, then live as those who are the Kings own, who must serve God, and cannot be content unless their every action shall tend to the Divine glory, and to the magnifying of Christ Jesus.
5. These people who are to be with Christ, the nearest to Him, are a people free from falsehood. In their mouth was found no guile. If we profess to be Christians, we must have done with all craft, policy, double-dealing, and the like. The Christian man should be a plain man, who says what he means, and means what he says.
6. And then, once more, it is said that they are free from blemish; they are without fault before the throne of God.
II. A glimpse of the perfect picture in heaven.
1. Well, first, those who are with Christ enjoy perfect fellowship with Him. Up there, they follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth. They are always with Him.
2. Well, now, notice in this complete picture, next, that up there they are perfectly accepted with God: These were redeemed from among men, being the firstfruits unto God and to the Lamb. God always accepts them; He always looks upon them as His firstfruits, bought with His Sons blood, and brought by His Son into His heavenly temple, to be His for ever. Sometimes here we mar our service; but they never mar it there.
3. Observe, also, that they have perfect truth there in heart and soul: In their mouth was found no guile. No lie, says the Revised Version. Here, we do fail into error inadvertently, and sometimes, I fear me, negligently.
4. One more feature of that perfect picture is this, they enjoy perfect sinlessness before God: They are without fault before the throne of God. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
The followers of Jesus
I. The instructive view of Christians which the text presents.
1. To follow Jesus is to maintain a visible profession of His religion. Are we doing this, or are we halting and hesitating? Is our character uniform, or are we religious and the contrary just as serves our convenience, and meets the wishes of our associates?
2. To follow Jesus is to receive Him as a Saviour. This implies the subjection of the soul to Him.
3. To follow Jesus is to listen to Him as a teacher. A scholar follows his master; he respects his authority.
4. To follow Jesus is to obey Him as a Sovereign.
5. To follow Jesus is to imitate Him as an example.
II. What there is in such persons remarkable; or why our attention should be so particularly directed to them: These are they.
1. We see in them the favourites of heaven. The Lord loves them; He honours them; He delights to bless them, and to do them good.
2. We see in them the monuments of Divine mercy. These are they whom God hath called out of darkness into His marvellous light.
3. They are the most honourable characters on the face of the earth. Honourable in reality, not in appearance; in the sight of angels and of God, not perhaps in the judgment of men.
4. They are the most happy persons in times of difficulty and trial. These enter into the spirit and life of religion: they taste its comfort, they prove its real enjoyment.
5. They are the instruments of the Redeemers glory. All Mine are Thine, and Thine are Mine; and I am glorified in them; glorified in their faith, their patience, their hope, but especially in their holy and active obedience.
6. They will be the inhabitants of a better world, the companions of Christ in His kingdom.
In that upper world they still follow Him, but without the least reluctance, without the most distant feeling of languor. Reflections:
1. Are we the followers of Jesus?
2. What cause have we all to lament our carelessness and cowardice in religious concerns!
3. Let us rise to greater vigour in the ways of the Lord, and be unreservedly devoted to Him. (T. Kidd.)
Devotion to Christ
I. In devotion to Christ we find the true guide of life.
II. In devotion to Christ, we find the true joy of life.
III. In following Christ is revealed to us the true end of life. (R. Forgan, B. D.)
The followers of the Lamb
I. What it is to follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth. In His commandments--teaching--providences--example. Truly, without hypocrisy; constantly, without apostasy. Speedily, truly, undividedly, zealously, humbly, cheerfully, diligently, constantly, faithfully, transcendently.
II. Why they follow the Lamb. Because they are redeemed by His blood--enlightened by Him--loving Him--possessing His spirit, etc.
III. The excellency of following the Lamb. They have His presence--shall know His mind--may come boldly to Him--shall be protected by Him, etc.
IV. How they may be known who follow the Lamb. By their character--spirit--name--graces--associates--language. (W. Dyer.)
Absolute obedience to the guidance of Christ
We do not, of course, take the number here specified as implying more than greatness and completeness. It is based, probably, upon the number of the twelve apostles, and of the twelve tribes largely multiplied, and expresses, as has been said, the native and not degenerate progeny of the apostles. They are the princes of the kingdom, perfect in a multiform unity, which are so delineated, equally derived from every quarter. What has won them their high pre-eminence? What has caused them to excel their brethren, so as to stand nearest to the Lamb upon the heavenly mount? Others may be pure, for the pure alone shall see God; others are redeemed, for otherwise there could be no salvation; but that which builds the thrones of the twelve and the long line of saints who come after is the following--the Lamb whithersoever He goeth.
I. It is probable that there are few, if any, amongst you who do not hold what called the main truths of the gospel. Complete unbelief is yet a rare thing amongst us. But if we go a little further and inquire to what the acceptance of the Christian Faith on the part of the multitude amounts, it will be found that their belief is but vague and general, that a vast element of scepticism mingles with their faith. To a certain extent, and to a certain extent only, do they follow the leading of Christ. Whilst He speaks of that which is easy of apprehension, which accords with the natural instinct, or is of palpable utility, they attend Him closely. Lo! He tells of meekness, and purity, and uprightness, and charity; they go heartily along with Him. He warns of a judgment to come, by which the inequalities of this earthly life shall be adjusted; this squares with the conclusion of human intellect and is cordially received. But when He would lead them further, to the acceptance of truths which cannot be demonstrated, which to some extent, at any rate, must be believed on the witness of others, they recoil. Thus the duty and expediency of public worship is admitted. It is a national acknowledgment of duty, an instrument of Christian instruction; but to partake of the Blessed Sacrament involves the admission of certain supernatural powers still operating among us, and forthwith the great congregation dwindles to a scanty company. Nay, is not this sort of feeling on the increase? Just as there have been those who would not neglect prayer, though abstaining from Holy Communion; so, because prayer involves the present action of God, we are now hearing of men refusing to pray, and reducing religion yet further to the hearing and acting out moral lessons. Thus, while the guidance of the Lamb conducts to the knowledge of what is within the grasp of human reason, men are well pleased to wait upon His steps; but no sooner does He move, as it were, out of the open country, and pass onward into the narrower defiles of a land on which rest clouds and darkness, and there is nothing to guide save His footfall, than their steps halt. They follow Him not whithersoever He goeth.
II. But we would not confine the application of the text to the case of doctrine; it may well be extended to that of practice also. There is no more sad spectacle than that of a man whose conduct falls short of his convictions. He can admire the nobility of character, the self-devotion, the unworldliness of the saints of God; he is acute enough to perceive that the doctrines which theoretically he has accepted do, if fairly worked out, lead to a higher line of life; but, withal, he shrinks from pursuing it. He foresees how much must be surrendered, how many difficulties must be encountered, how few, perhaps, will appreciate him when all is done; and so he continues to live on a commonplace life of coldness and self-indulgence, with high principles and low practice--a splendid ideal, but no personal approach to it. These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth! How do they stand out, those saintly ones, in sharpest contrast with the half-obedience of ordinary Christians! Once having embraced the faith, theirs was the firm, unflinching tread of men prepared to resign all, to lose all. Through evil report and good report, through honour and dishonour, they followed their Lord whithersoever He led. Whithersoever--to the snapping asunder of closest ties, to the abandonment of our cherished hopes. Whithersoever--to the restraint of the reasoning faculty, to the submission of private opinion, to the subjection of the will, to the quenching of the passions. Would to God we might only drink in a little of their temper! There is, it has been well said, a first superficial will in man which resents opposition, refuses chastisement, as the child puts from it the medicine draught. So even Jesus Christ prayed that the cup might pass from Him. There is a second, deliberative will in man, which is formed upon reflection, and which is, in fact, the real act of volition. By this Jesus Christ took the cup and drank it to the dregs. That, whatever our first impulse, this second truest will shall in all things acquiesce in what God speaks and does about us and for us, must be our effort; so only can we train ourselves here for following the Lamb whithersoever He goeth along the infinite windings of the Everlasting Hills. (Bp. Woodford.)
The firstfruits unto God and to the Lamb.--
The greater salvation
There is a salvation greater and less. For here it is said that these hundred and forty-four thousand are firstfruits. Therefore we learn--
I. What these are not.
1. They are not all the saved. The very word indicates that there is much more to follow. They are but the beginning. Nor--
2. Are these firstfruits the mass of the saved. True, a large number is named; but what is that compared with the great multitude that no man can number, out of every, etc.
II. What they are. The word firstfruits teaches us that these thus named are--
1. The pledge of all the rest. Thus Christ has become the Firstfruits of them that slept (1Co_15:20). And so the natural firstfruits of corn guaranteed the rest of the harvest. For the same sun, and all other nurturing forces which had ripened the firstfruits, were there ready to do the same kindly office for all the rest. And so we are told, The Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies. The same power is present for both the first and after fruits.
2. The pattern and representative of all the rest. Compare the first and after fruits. In the main they were alike, and so in the spiritual world also. But--
3. The firstfruits were pre-eminent over the rest. They were specially presented to God, and held in honour; so was it with the natural grain. But, without question, there is pre-eminence implied in being the firstfruits of the heavenly harvest.
(1) In time. Theirs is the first resurrection, of which we read in chap. 20. The rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years, etc. (chap. 20.).
(2) In honour. St. Paul called it the prize of our high calling of God in Christ Jesus. And our Lord tells us that there is a first and last in the kingdom of heaven; a least and a greatest. One star differeth from another star in glory. There is an entrance administered abundantly, and there is a being saved so as by fire.
(3) In service. That they were pre-eminent here, who that knows their history on earth, or reads even this book, will question?
(4) In character. See how they are described as to their spiritual purity, their unreserved consecration, their separateness from the world, their guilelessness and freedom from all deceit.
(5) In the approval of God. Of them it is written, Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection (chap. 20.).
4. They are the elect of God. In another part of this book they are spoken of as the called, and chosen, and faithful. All are not firstfruits, greatest, first, in the kingdom of heaven. The very words imply order, gradation, rank. But it is for us to take heed as to--
III. What we should strive to be. (S. Conway, B. A.)
The Church Gods firstfruits
The mention of the hundred and forty and four thousand as firstfruits suggests the thought of something to follow. What that is it is more difficult to say. It can hardly be other Christians belonging to a later age of the Churchs history upon earth, for the end is come. It can hardly be Christians who have done or suffered more than other members of the Christian family, for in St. Johns eyes all Christians are united to Christ, alike in work and martyrdom. Only one supposition remains. The hundred and forty and four thousand, as the whole Church of God, are spoken of in the sense in which the same expression is used by the Apostle James: Of His own will He brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures. Not as the first portion of the Church on earth, to be followed by another portion, but as the first portion of a kingdom of God wider and larger than the Church, are the words to be understood. The whole Church is Gods firstfruits, and when she is laid upon His altar we have the promise that a time is coming when creation shall follow in her train, when it shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the liberty of the glory of the children of God, when the mountains and the hills shall break forth before the Redeemer into singing, and all the trees of the fields shall clap their hands. Why shall nature thus rejoice before the Lord? Let the Psalmist answer: For He cometh, for He cometh to judge the earth: He shall judge the world with righteousness, and the people with His truth. (W. Milligan, D. D.)
In their mouth was found no guile.--
Truthfulness
It is related that when Petrarch, the Italian poet, a man of strict integrity, was summoned as a witness, and offered in the usual manner to take an oath before a court of justice, the judge closed the book, saying, As to you, Petrarch, your word is sufficient.
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Expositor's Bible 1887 · Public Domain
CHAPTER X I
THE LAMB ON THE MOUNT ZION AND THE HARVEST AND VINTAGE OF THE WORLD.
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Rev_14:1-20.
THE twelfth and thirteenth chapters of this book were designed to set before us a picture of the three great enemies of the Church of Christ. We have been told of the dragon, the principle and root of all the evil, whether inward or outward, from which that Church suffers. He is the first enemy. We have been further told of the first beast, of that power or prince of the world to whom the dragon has committed his authority. He is the second enemy. Lastly, we have been told of that false spirit of religion which unites itself to the world, and which, even more opposed than the world itself to the unworldly spirit of Christianity, makes the relation of Gods children to the world worse than it might otherwise have been. The picture thus presented is in the highest degree fitted to depress and to discourage. The thought more especially of faithlessness in the Church fills the heart with sorrow. The saddest feature in the sufferings of Jesus was that He was "wounded in the house of His friends;" and there is a greater than ordinary depth of pathos in the words with which the beloved disciple draws to a close his record of his Masters struggle with the Jews: "These things spake Jesus; and He departed, and was hidden from them. But though He had done so many signs before them, yet they believed not on Him: that the word of Isaiah the prophet might be fulfilled, which he spake, Lord, who hath believed our report? and to whom hath the arm of the Lord been revealed?"* (* Joh_12:36-38)
Even then, however, it was not wholly darkness and defeat, for the Evangelist immediately adds, "Nevertheless even of the rulers many believed on Him;" and he closes the struggle with the words of calm self-confidence on the part of Jesus, "The things therefore which I speak, even as the Father hath said unto Me, so I speak."* Thus also is it here, and we pass from the dark spectacle on which our eyes have rested to a scene of heavenly light, and beauty, and repose. The reader may indeed at first imagine that the symmetry of structure which has been pointed out as a characteristic of the Apocalypse is not preserved by the arrangement of its parts in the present instance. We are about to meet in the following chapter the third and last series of plagues; and we might perhaps expect that the consolatory visions contained in this chapter ought to have found a place between the sixth and seventh Bowls, just as the consolatory visions of chap. 7 and of chaps. 10 and 11 found their place between the sixth and seventh Seals and the sixth and seventh Trumpets. Instead of this the seventh Bowl, at Rev_15:17, immediately follows the sixth, at Rev_15:12 of the same chapter; and the visions of encouragement contained in the chapter before us precede all the Bowls. The explanation may be that the Bowls are the last and highest series of judgments, and that when they begin there can be no more pause. One plague must rush upon another till the end is reached. The final judgments brook neither interruption nor delay. (* Joh_12:42:50)
In this spirit we turn to the first vision of chap. 14:
"And I saw, and, behold, the Lamb standing on the mount Zion, and with Him a hundred and forty and four thousand, having His name and the name of His Father written on their foreheads. And I heard a voice from heaven, as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of a great thunder: and the voice which I heard was as the voice of harpers harping with their harps: and they sang as it were a new song before the throne, and before the four living creatures, and the elders: and no man could learn the song save the hundred and forty and four thousand, even they that had been purchased out of the earth. These are they which were not denied with women; for they are virgins. These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth. These were purchased from among men, a first-fruits unto God and unto the Lamb. And in their mouth was found no lie; they are without blemish (Rev_14:1-5)."
The scene of the vision is "the mount Zion," that Zion so often spoken of both in the Old and in the New Testament as Gods peculiar seat, and in the eyes of Israel famous for the beauty of its morning dews.1 It is the Zion in which God "dwells,"2 the mount Zion Which He "loved,"3 and "out of which salvation comes."4 It is that "holy hill of Zion" upon which God set the Son as King when He said to Him, "Thou art My Son; this day have I begotten Thee."5 It is that Zion, too, to which "the ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come with singing; and everlasting joy shall be upon their heads."6 Finally, it is that home of which the sacred writer, writing to the Hebrews, says, "Ye are come unto Mount Zion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable hosts of angels, to the general assembly and Church of the first-born, who are enrolled in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus the Mediator of a new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speak eth better than that of Abel."7 Upon this mount Zion the Lamb - that is, the crucified and risen Lamb of chap. 5 - stands, firm, self-possessed, and calm. (1 Psa_133:3; 2 Psa_9:11; 3 Psa_78:68; 4 Psa_14:7; 5 Psa_2:6-7; 6 Isa_35:10; 7 Heb_12:22-24)
There is more, however, than outward beauty or sacred memories to mark the scene to which we are introduced. Mount Zion may be "beautiful in elevation, the joy of the whole earth, on the sides of the north, the city of the great King."* But there is music for the ear as well as beauty for the eye. The mount resounds with song, rich and full of meaning to those who can understand it. A voice is heard from heaven which seems to be distinguished from the voice of the hundred and forty and four thousand to be immediately spoken of. We are not told from whom it comes; but it is there, as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of a great thunder, and as the voice of harpers harping with their harps. Majesty and sweetness mark it. It is the music that is ever in Gods presence, not the music of angels only, or glorified saints, or a redeemed creation. More probably it is that of all of them together. And the song which they sing is new, like that of Rev_5:9, which is sung by "the four living creatures and the four-and-twenty elders, who have each one a harp, and golden bowls of incense, which are the prayers of the Saints." That song the Church on earth understands, and she alone can understand. It spoke of truths which the redeemed alone could appreciate, and of joys which they alone could value. There is a communion of saints, of all saints on earth and of all who fill the courts of the Lords house on high. Even now the Church can listen with ravished ear to songs which she shall hereafter join in singing. (* Psa_48:2)
Standing beside the Lamb upon Mount Zion, there are a hundred and forty and four thousand, having the Lambs name and the name of His Father written on their foreheads, in token of their priestly state. We cannot avoid asking, Are these the same hundred and forty and four thousand of whom we have read in chap. 7 as sealed upon their foreheads, or are they different? The natural inference is that they are the same. To use such a peculiar number of two different portions of the Church of God would lead to a confusion inconsistent with the usually plain and direct, even though mystical, statements of this book. Besides which they have the mark or seal of God in both cases on the same part of their bodies, - the forehead. It is true that the definite article is not prefixed to the number; but neither is that article prefixed to the "glassy sea" of Rev_15:1, and yet no one doubts that this is the same "glassy sea" as that of chap. 4. Besides which the absence of the article may be accounted for by the fact that the reference is not directly to the hundred and forty and four thousand of Rev_7:4, but to the innumerable multitude of Rev_7:9.* We have already seen, however, that these two companies are the same, although the persons composing them are viewed in different lights; and the hundred and forty and four thousand here correspond, not to the first, but to the second, company. They are in full possession of their Christian privileges and joys. They are not "in heaven," in the ordinary meaning of that term. They are on earth. But the two companies formerly mentioned meet in them. They are both sealed, and in the presence of the Lamb. (* Comp. Lee in Speakers Commentary in loc. The distinction between the two references is there wrongly given.)
The character of the hundred and forty and four thousand next claims our thoughts.
1. They were not defiled with women, for they are virgins. The words cannot be literally understood, but must be taken in the sense of similar words of the Apostle Paul, when, writing to the Corinthians, he says, "For I am jealous over you with a godly jealousy: for I espoused you to one Husband, that I might present you as a pure virgin to Christ."l Such "a pure virgin" were the hundred and forty and four thousand now standing upon the mount Zion. They had renounced all that unfaithfulness to God and to Divine truth which is so often spoken of in the Old Testament as spiritual fornication or adultery. They had renounced all sin. In the language of St. John in his first Epistle, they had "the true God, and eternal life." They had "guarded themselves from idols."2 (1 2Co_11:2; 2 1Jn_5:20-21)
2. They follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth. They shrink from no part of the Redeemers life whether on earth or in heaven. They follow Him in His humiliation, labours, sufferings, death, resurrection, and ascension. They obey the command "Follow thou Me"* in prosperity or adversity, in joy or sorrow, in persecution or triumph. Wherever their Lord is they also are, one with Him, members of His Body and partakers of His Spirit. (* Joh_21:22)
3. They are purchased from among men, a first-fruits unto God and unto the Lamb. And in their mouth was found no lie; they are without blemish. Upon the fact that they are "purchased" it is unnecessary to dwell. We have already met with the expression in Rev_5:9, in one of the triumphant songs of the redeemed. Nor does it seem needful to speak of the moral qualifications here enumerated, further than to observe that in other parts of this book the "lie" is expressly said to exclude from the new Jerusalem, and to be a mark of those upon whom the door is shut,1 while the epithet "without blemish" is elsewhere, on more than one occasion, applied to our Lord.2 (1 Rev_21:27; Rev_22:15; 2 Heb_9:14; 1Pe_1:19)
The appellation "a first-fruits" demands more notice. The figure is drawn from the well-known offering of "first-fruits" under the Jewish law, in which the first portion of any harvest was dedicated to God, in token that the whole belonged to Him, and was recognized as His. Hence it always implies that something of the same kind will follow it, and in this sense it is often used in the New Testament: "If the first-fruit is holy, so is the lump; " "Epaenetus, who is the first-fruits of Asia unto Christ;" "Now hath Christ been raised from the dead, the first-fruits of them that are asleep;" Ye know the house of Stephanas, that it is the first-fruits of Achaia."1 In like manner the mention of the hundred and forty and four thousand as "first-fruits" suggests the thought of something to follow. What that is it is more difficult to say. It can hardly be other Christians belonging to a later age of the Churchs history upon earth, for the end is come. It can hardly be Christians who have done or suffered more than other members of the Christian family, for in St. Johns eyes all Christians are united to Christ, alike in work and martyrdom. Only one supposition remains. The hundred and forty and four thousand, as the whole Church of God, are spoken of in the sense in which the same expression is used by the Apostle James: "Of His own will He brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of first-fruits of His creatures."2 Not as the first portion of the Church on earth, to be followed by another portion, but as the first portion of a kingdom of God wider and larger than the Church, are the words to be understood. The whole Church is Gods first-fruits; and when she is laid upon His altar, we have the promise that a time is coming when creation shall follow in her train, when "it shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the liberty of the glory of the children of God,"3 when "the mountains and the hills shall break forth before the Redeemer into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands."4 (1 Rom_11:16; Rom_16:5; 1Co_15:20; 1Co_16:15; 2 Jam_1:18; 3 Rom_8:21; 4 Isa_55:12)
Why shall nature thus rejoice before the Lord? Let the Psalmist answer: "For He cometh, for He cometh to judge the earth: He shall judge the world with righteousness, and the people with His truth."* This thought may introduce us to the next portion of the chapter: (* Psa_96:13) -
"And I saw another angel flying in mid-heaven, having an eternal gospel to proclaim over them that sit on the earth, and over every nation, and tribe, and tongue, and people; and he saith with a great voice, Fear God, and give Him glory; for the hour of His judgment Is come: and worship Him that made the heaven, and the earth, and sea, and fountains of waters.
And another, a second angel, followed, saying, Fallen, fallen, is Babylon the great, which hath made all the nations to drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.
And another angel, a third, followed them, spying with a great voice, If any man worshippeth the beast and his image, and receiveth a mark on his forehead, or upon his hand, he also shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is mingled unmixed in the cup of His anger; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb: and the smoke of their torment goeth up unto ages of ages: and they have no rest day and night, they that worship the beast and his image, and whoso receiveth the mark of his name. Here is the patience of the saints, they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus. And I heard a voice from heaven saying, Write, Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their toils; for their works follow with them.
And I saw, and behold a white cloud, and on the cloud I saw One sitting like unto a Son of man, having on His head a golden crown, and in His hand a sharp sickle.
And another angel came out from the temple, crying with a great voice to Him that sat on the cloud, Send forth Thy sickle, and reap: for the hour to reap is come; for the harvest of the earth is fully ripe. And He that sat on the cloud cast His sickle upon the earth; and the earth was reaped.
And another angel came out from the temple which is in heaven, he also having a sharp sickle.
And another angel came out from the altar, he that hath power over fire; and he called with a great voice to him that had the sharp sickle, saying, Send forth thy sharp sickle, and gather the clusters of the vine of the earth; for her bunches of grapes are ripe. And the angel cast his sickle into the earth, and gathered the vine of the earth, and cast it into the winepress, the great winepress, of the wrath of God. And the winepress was trodden without the city, and there came out blood from the winepress, even unto the bridles of the horses, as far as a thousand and six hundred furlongs (Rev_14:6-20).
The first point to be noticed in connection with these verses is their structure, for the structure is of importance to the interpretation. The passage as a whole, it will be easily observed, consists of seven parts, the first three and the last three being introduced by an "angel," while the central or chief part is occupied with One who, from the description, can be no other than our Lord Himself. In this part it is also obvious that the Lord comes to wind up the history of the world, and to gather in that harvest of His people which is already fully or even overripe. There can be no doubt, therefore, that we are here at the very close of the present dispensation; and, as five out of the six parts which are grouped around the central figure are occupied with judgment on the wicked, the presumption is that the only remaining part, the first of the six, will be occupied with the same topic.
In this first part indeed we read of an eternal gospel proclaimed over them that sit on the earth, and over every nation, and tribe, and tongue, and people; and the first impression made upon us is that we have here a universal and final proclamation of the glad tidings of great joy, in order that the world may yet, at the last moment, repent, believe, and be saved. But such an interpretation, however plausible and generally accepted, must be set aside. The light thrown upon the words by their position in the series of seven parts already spoken of is a powerful argument against it Everything in the passage itself leads to the same conclusion. We do not read, as we ought, were this the meaning, to have read, of "the," but of "an," eternal gospel. This gospel is proclaimed, not "unto," but "over," those to whom it is addressed. Its hearers do not "dwell," as in both the Authorized and Revised Versions, but, as in the margin of the latter, "sit," on the earth, in the sinful world, in the carelessness of pride and self-confident security. Thus the great harlot "sitteth upon many waters;" and thus Babylon says in her heart, "I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall in no wise see mourning."1 There is no humiliation, no spirit of repentance, no preparation for the Gospel, here; while the mention of the "earth n and the fourfold division of its inhabitants lead us to think of men continuing in their sins, over whom a doom is to be pronounced.2 Still further, the words put into the mouth of him who speaks "with a great voice," and which appear to contain the substance of the gospel thus proclaimed, have in them no sound of mercy, no story of love, no mention of the name of Jesus. They speak of fearing God and giving glory to Him, as even the lost may do,3 of the hour, not even the "day," of His judgment; and they describe the rule of the great Creator by bringing together the four things - the heaven, and the earth, and sea, and fountains of waters - upon which judgment has already fallen in the series of the Trumpets, and is yet to fall in that of the Bowls.4 Lastly, the description given of the angel reminds us so much of the description given of the "eagle" in Rev_8:13 as to make it at least probable chat his mission is a similar one of woe. (1 Rev_17:1; Rev_18:7; 2Comp. Rev_11:9; Rev_13:7; 3Comp. Jam_2:19; 4Rev. 8 and 15)
In the light of all these circumstances, we seem compelled to come to the conclusion that the "gospel" referred to is a proclamation of judgment, that it is that side of the Saviours mission in which He appears as the winnowing fan by which His enemies are scattered as the chaff, while His disciples are gathered as the wheat. There is no intimation here, then, of a conversion of the world. The world stands self-convicted before the bar of judgment, to hear its doom.
The cry of the second angel corresponds to that of the first. It proclaims the fall of Babylon and its cause. The deeply interesting questions relating to this city will meet us at a later point. In the meantime it is enough to observe that Babylon is described as fallen. The Judge is not only standing at the door: He has begun His work.
The words of the third angel continue the strain thus begun, and constitute the most terrible picture of the fate of the ungodly to be found in Scripture. The eye shrinks from the spectacle. The heart fails with fear when the words are read. That wine of the wrath of God which is mingled unmixed in the cup of His anger, that wine into which, contrary to the usage of the time, no water, no mitigating element, has been allowed to enter; that torment with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb; that smoke of their torment going up unto ages of ages; that no-rest day and night, of so different a kind from the no-rest of which we have read in Rev_4:8 - all present a picture from which we can hardly do aught else than turn away with trembling. Can this be the Gospel of Jesus, the Lamb of God? Can this be a revelation given to the disciple whom Jesus loved, and who had entered so deeply into his Masters spirit of tenderness and compassion for the sinner?
1. Let us consider that the words are addressed, not directly to sinners, but to the Church of Christ, which is safe from the threatened doom; not to the former that they may be led to repentance, but to the latter that through the thought of what she has escaped he may be filled with eternal gratitude and joy.
2. Let us notice the degree to which sin is her supposed to have developed; that it is not the sin of Mary in the house of Simon, of the penitent thief, of the Phillippian gaoler, or of the publicans and harlots who gathered around our Lord in the days of His flesh to listen to Him, but sin bold, determined, loved, and clung to as the sinners self-chosen good, the sin of sinners who will die for sin as martyrs die for Christ and holiness.
3. Let us observe that, whatever the angel may mean, he certainly does not speak of never-ending existence in never-ending torment, for the words of the original unhappily translated both in the Authorized and Revised Versions "forever and ever" ought properly to be rendered "unto ages of ages;"* and, distinguished as they are on this occasion alone in the Apocalypse from the first of these expressions by the absence of the Greek articles, they ought not to be translated in the same way. (*They are so rendered in the margin of the Revised Version)
4. Let us recall the strong figures of speech in which the inhabitants of the East were wont to give utterance to their feelings, figures illustrated in the present instance by the mention of that "fire and brimstone" which no man will interpret literally, as well as by the language of St. Jude when he describes Sodom and Gomorrah as "an example of eternal fire."* (* Jud_1:7 {margin of R.V.}).
5. Let us remember that hatred of sin is the correlative of love of goodness, and that the kingdom of God cannot be fully established in the world until sin has been completely banished from it.
6. Above all, let us mark carefully the distinction, so often forced upon us in the writings of St. John, between sinners in the ordinary sense and the system of sin to which other sinners cling in deadliest enmity to God and righteousness; and, as we do all this, the words of the third angel will produce on us another than their first impression. So far as the human being is before us we shall be moved only to com passion and eagerness to save. But his sin, the sin which has mastered the Divinely implanted elements of his nature, which has fouled what God made pure and embittered what God made sweet, the sin which has subjected one created in the nobility of the image of God to the miserable thralldom of the devil, the sin the thought of which we can separate, like the Apostle Paul, from the "I" of mans true nature* - of that sin we can only say, Let the wrath of God be poured out upon it unmingled with mercy; let it be destroyed with a destruction the memory of which shall last "unto ages of ages" and even take its place amidst the verities sustaining the throne of the Eternal and securing the obedience and the happiness of His creatures. If a minister of Christ thinks that he may gather from this passage, or others similar to it, a commission to go to sinners rather than to sin with "tidings of damnation," he mistakes alike the Master whom he serves and the commission with which he has been entrusted. (* Romans 7)
At this point, after the thought of that spirit of allegiance to the beast which draws down such terrors upon itself, and before we reach the central figure of the whole movement, we have some words of comfort interposed. The meaning of the first part of them is similar to that of Rev_13:10, and need not be further spoken of. The meaning of their second part, conveying to us the contents of the "voice from heaven," demands a moments notice. Blessed, exclaims the heavenly voice (at the same time prefixing the command Write), are the dead which die in the Lora from henceforth. It is difficult to determine the precise point of time referred to in the word "henceforth." If it be the moment of the end, the moment of the Second Coming of the Lord, then the promise must express the glory of the resurrection. But, to say nothing of the fact that "resting from labours" is too weak to bring out the glory of the resurrection state, there is at that instant no more time to die in the Lord. The living shall be "changed." It seems better, therefore, to understand the words as a voice of consolation running throughout the whole Christian age. In the view of "heaven" the lapse of time is hardly thought of. All is Now. The meaning of "dying in the Lord," again, must not be regarded as equivalent to the Scriptural expression "falling asleep in Jesus." Not the thought of "falling asleep" in a quiet Christian home, but of "dying" as Jesus died, is in the Seers mind; and not the thought of rest from work, but of rest from toils, an entirely different and far stronger word, is in the answer of the Spirit. Thus are believers blessed. Their life is a life of toil, of hardship, of trial, of persecution, of death; but when they die, they "rest" And their "works" - that is, their Christian character and life - are not lost. They follow with them, and meet them again in the heavenly mansions as the record of all that they have done and suffered in their Masters cause.
The first three angels have accomplished their task. We now reach the fourth and chief member in this series of seven, and meet with the Lord as He comes to take His people to Himself, that where He is, there they may also be. That it is the Lord who is here before us we cannot for a moment doubt. The designation like unto a Son of man, the same as that of Rev_1:13, itself establishes the fact, which is again confirmed by the mention of the white cloud and of the golden crown. In His hand He holds a sharp sickle, with which to reap. Thus also in different passages of the New Testament our Lord speaks of the harvest of His people, although in them He acts by His angels and Apostles.1 In one passage of the Gospel of St. John He acts by Himself.2 The glorified Redeemer is thus ready to complete His work. (1 Mat_9:37-38; Mat_13:29-30; 2 Joh_14:3)
Another angel now appears, the first of the second series of three, and styled "another," not by comparison with Him who sat on the white cloud, and who is exalted far above all angels, but by comparison with the angels previously spoken of at the sixth, eighth, and ninth verses of the chapter. This angel is said to come out from the temple - that is, out of the naos, out of the innermost shrine of the temple - and the notice is important, for it shows that he comes from the immediate presence of God, and is a messenger from Him. Therefore it is that he can say to the Son, Send forth Thy sickle, and reap. "The Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He seeth the Father doing."1 Until the Father gives the sign His "hour is not yet come;" and more especially of the hour now arrived Jesus had Himself said, "But of that day or that hour knoweth no one, not even the angels in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father."2 The day, the hour, the moment, has now arrived; and, as usual in this book, the message of the Father is communicated by an angel. The intimation that the hour is come is grounded upon the fact that the harvest about to be gathered in is fully ripe. The Revised Version translates "overripe;" but the translation, though literal, is unhappy, and so far false as it unquestionably suggests a false idea. Gods time for working is always right, not wrong; and it is perfectly legitimate to understand the word of the original as meaning simply dry, hard, the soft juices of its ripening state absorbed, and the time of its firmness come.3 Thus summoned by the message of the Father to the work, the Son enters upon it without delay. "As He hears, He judges."4 He that sat on the cloud cast His sickle upon the earth; and the earth was reaped. (1 Joh_5:19; 2 Mar_13:32; 3Comp. the "dried up" of the margin of the Revised Version; 4 Joh_5:30)
The second angel of the second group of three next appears, having, like Him that sat upon the cloud, "a sharp sickle;" and he too waits for the summons to use it.
This summons is given by the third angel of the second group, of whom it is said that he came out from the altar, he that hath power over fire. The altar of this verse must be that already spoken of in Rev_8:3, where we were told that "another angel came and stood over the altar, having a golden censer," an altar which we have been led to identify with the brazen altar of Rev_5:9, beneath which were found the souls of the Old Testament saints; and the "fire" over which this angel has power must be the "fire" of Rev_8:5, the fire taken from that altar to kindle the incense of the prayers of the saints. The angel is thus a messenger of judgment, about to command a final and full answer to be given to the prayer that the Almighty will finish His work and vindicate His cause. To this character, accordingly, his message corresponds, for he called with a great voice to him (that is, to the second angel) that had the sharp sickle, saying, Send forth thy sharp sickle, and gather the clusters of the vine of the earth; for her bunches of grapes are ripe. A vintage, not a harvest of grain, is here before us; and it is impossible to doubt that it is the purpose of the Seer to draw a broad line of distinction between the two. The latter is the harvest of the good; the former is the vintage of the evil: and the propriety of the figure thus used for the evil is easily perceived when we remember that grapes were gathered to be trodden in the winefat, and that the juice when trodden out had the colour of blood. The figure was indeed one already familiar to the prophets: "Let the nations bestir themselves, and come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat" (that is, The Lord judges): "for there will I sit to judge all the nations round about. Put ye in the sickle, for the vintage is ripe: come, tread ye; for the winepress is full, the fats overflow; for their wickedness is great;"1 "Wherefore art Thou red in Thine apparel, and Thy garments like him that treadeth in the winefat? I have trodden the winepress alone; and of the people there was no man with Me: yea, I trod them in Mine anger, and trampled them in My fury; and their life-blood is sprinkled upon My garments, and I have stained all My raiment. For the day of vengeance is in Mine heart, and My year of redemption is come."2 The figure is here employed in a similar manner, for the angel gathered the vine (not "the vintage," the whole vine being plucked up by the roots) of the earth, and cast it into the winepress, the great wine press, of the wrath of God. And the winepress was trodden without the city, and there came out blood from the winepress, even unto the bridles of the horses, as far as a thousand and six hundred furlongs. In these words we have undoubtedly the judgment of the wicked, and the last portion of them alone need detain us for a moment. (1 Joe_3:12-13; 2 Isa_63:2-4)
1. What is meant by the statement that the sea of blood thus created by the slaughter spoken of reached "even unto the bridles of the horses "? The horses are those of Rev_19:11-16, where we have again a description of the final victory of Christ over all His enemies, and where it is again said of Him that "He treadeth the winepress of the fierceness of the wrath of Almighty God."1 The same winepress which meets us here meets us there. The battle and the victory are the same; and the horses here are therefore those upon which He that is called Faithful and True, together with His armies that are in heaven, rides forth to conquest The mention of "the bridles" of the horses is more uncertain and more difficult to explain, but one passage of the Old Testament helps us. In speaking of the glories of the latter day, the prophet Zechariah says, "In that day shall there be upon the bells of the horses (the bells strung along the bridles) HOLY UNTO THE LORD."2 The sea of blood reached to, but could not be allowed to touch, these sacred words. (1 Rev_19:15; 2 Zec_14:20)
2. What is meant by the space of "a thousand and six hundred furlongs," over which the sea extended? To resolve it simply into a large space is at variance with the spirit of the Apocalypse; and to imagine that it marks the extent of the Holy Land from Dan to Beer-sheba is both to introduce an incorrect calculation and to forget who constitute the hosts of wickedness that had been engaged in the battle: These were not the inhabitants of Palestine only, but of "the earth," three times mentioned in the description. They were "all the nations" spoken of by the second angel of the first group, all that worship the beast and his image and receive a mark on their forehead or their hand, referred to by the third angel of the same group. They are thus the wicked gathered from every corner of the earth. With this idea the figures 1,600 agree - four, the number of the world, multiplied by itself to express intensity, and then by a hundred, the number so often associated with evil in this book. Whether "furlongs," literally "stadia," are chosen as the measure of space because, as suggested by Cornelius a Lapide, the arena or circus in which the martyrs suffered was called "The Stadium,"* it may be vain to conjecture. Enough that the sixteen hundred furlongs represent the whole surface of the earth upon which the wicked "sit" at ease, the universal efficacy of the sickle by which they are gathered to their doom. (*Comp. 1Co_9:24)
One other point ought to be more particularly noticed before we close the consideration of this chapter. The harvest of the good is gathered in by the Lord Himself, that of the wicked by His angel. The same lesson appears to be read in the parables of the tares and of the drawnet. In the former (although allusions in each parable may seem to imply that angels take part in both acts) it is said that "at the end of the world the Son of man shall send forth His angels, and they shall gather out of His kingdom all things that cause stumbling, and them that do iniquity."l In the latter we read, "So shall it be in the end of the world: the angels shall come forth, and sever the wicked from among the righteous, and shall cast them into the furnace of fire."2 In like manner here. The Son of man Himself gathers His own to their eternal rest. It is an angel, though commissioned by Him, who gathers the wicked to their fate. "And is there not a beauty and tenderness in this contrast? It is as though that Son of man and Son of God who is the Judge of quick and dead, the Judge alike of the righteous and of the wicked, loved one half of His office, and loved not the other. It is as though He cherished as His own prerogative the harvest of the earth, and were glad to delegate to other hands the vintage. It is as though the ministry of mercy were His chosen office, and the ministry of wrath His stern necessity. One like unto the Son of man puts forth the sickle of the ingathering; one of created, though it be of angelic, nature is employed to send forth the sickle of destruction."3 (1 Mat_13:41; 2 Mat_13:49-50; 2Vaughan u. s., p. 378)
William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.
B. W. Johnson 1891 · Public Domain 1–5. And I looked, and, behold. This is the…
1–5. And I looked, and, behold. This is the usual formula in Revelation which introduces a new vision. The Lamb stood on the mount Zion. In chapter 13, a false lamb has been seen, one that had a voice like a dragon. Here, in contrast, is seen the Lamb of God, the same as in chapter 5, taking the book with seven seals. On the Mount Zion. Here and in Heb. 12:22 are the only places in the New Testament where this expression occurs. It is equivalent to the “Jerusalem above” of Gal. 4:26 and Heb. 12:22. Mount Zion, the city of the great King, the seat of the worship of God in Jerusalem, was a type, and is used as a symbol of the true Church. In Hebrews 12:22, the saints who have entered into the covenant of Christ are said to have come, not to the mount that could not be touched, but to Mount Zion, the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. It is there used for the church of the saints, and such is its meaning in this passage. With him a hundred and forty and four thousand, having his name, etc. In chapter 7:4, the same number are spoken of as sealed from the twelve tribes of Israel. It means there, a great, indefinite number. Here, I take that the meaning is the same. It is a great multitude, a round number, who are associated with the Lamb.
B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain THAT we may be assured of the safety of…
THE VISION OF THE FAITHFUL SERVANTS OF GOD
CRITICAL AND EXEGETICAL NOTES
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THAT we may be assured of the safety of God’s faithful ones, even during the time of the triumph of the beast and false prophet, we are shown the sealed ones all secure and in the charge of the Lamb; and we are further assured that seven angels are ministering to the protection and comfort of the imperilled saints. The angel of good news (Rev_14:6-7); the angel proclaiming the doom of the great world city (Rev_14:8); the angel who warns men against the mark of the beast (Rev_14:9-12); the angel of comfort (Rev_14:13); the angel of the wheat harvest (Rev_14:14-16); the angel of the vintage (Rev_14:17-20); the angel of fire (Rev_14:18).
Rev_14:1. Father’s name.—Read “His name and His Father’s name.”
Rev_14:4. Virgins.—The term is used figuratively, not literally. They were virgin souls who had not bowed the knee to the image of Baal: and so here they were virgin souls who had refused to offer incense to the bust of the emperor.
Rev_14:6. Everlasting gospel.—With idea of its universal applicability. Everlasting and eternal are constantly used to indicate quality.
Rev_14:8. Babylon.—The type of all cities that stand in the pride of self-reliance, and so put dishonour upon God. “Is not this great Babylon which I have builded?” “Babylon is clearly an emblem of some principles which have been more or less accepted by all nations, and which will more or less involve all in the consequences of her fall.”
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Rev_14:1-12
The Bible for the World’s Salvation.—The portion which is most suggestive for the purposes of the preacher is that comprised in Rev_14:6-7. See a first truth. It is not the Bible as a record of the gospel that saves the world. The gospel saves the world. The gospel is God saving.
I. What is the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God?—
1. Good news of God Himself. Good, because no other religion proclaims it. It is the news that God is Love, and that we may use the Father-name for Him, and the fatherly relations to represent Him.
2. Good news of God’s gift. “Gave His only begotten Son.” A man, given to men. A son, given to prodigals. We have to “believe the love God hath to us,” as shown in His “unspeakable gift.”
II. Wherein lies the saving efficacy of this gospel?—
1. In its universal adaptation. It is a salvation, not for what is peculiar to some men, or some nations, under some unusual circumstances, but for the woe that is common to all men, which we put into the word “sinners.” Other religions are limited to particular tribes or nations. Illustrate gods of hills and gods of valleys. Distinct deities in different parts of India.
2. In the power of God that works through it. We must never separate agencies from the Divine life that is in them, and think that agencies can save.
(1) The Bible cannot save.
(2) The gospel cannot save.
(3) Faith cannot save. God saves, through faith, by means of the gospel, which is carried to men in the Bible.
3. In the attraction of Him who is the essence of it. There must be personal soul-relations with Christ, the Living Saviour, if there is to be salvation. And these are brought to men through the attractive power which Christ exerts when “lifted up” into their view.
III. Where shall we find the gospel enshrined?—In the Bible. As the Jews, carried and preserved the primary truths of the unity and spirituality of God for humanity, so the Bible—the whole Bible—carries and preserves the gospel—the primary truths of Divine redemption—for humanity. The Bible is not a book of science, or of history, or of social principles; these are but its framing, and setting, and illustration. The one concern of the Bible is Religion. It tells us what God’s relations with man have been. That is the very heart of its history. It tells us what man’s relations with God should be, and may be. That is its message. It is summed up in the words, “He that hath the Son hath life.” Men have done the Bible great wrong by taking it to be what it never proposed to be, and never could be. Then to scatter abroad the Bible, in every land and every tongue, is for the angel to fly abroad with the everlasting gospel. There are two ways in which the angel—as the symbol of agencies—carries the gospel.
1. It is spoken by the servants of God. At first the message was spoken by aposties and teachers. It was not written and collected together so as to be at the command of evangelists and missionaries, for more than two centuries. At first men were possessed with the Word, and spake what they had in them. And this is the deeper truth, and holier power now. The true speaker is the man who has got the Word in him. Send that man anywhere, and he is an angel, having the everlasting gospel.
2. It is distributed as the book which we call the “Word of God.” And we can readily recognise the wisdom that lies in the employment of this agency.
(1) Its attractiveness.
(2) Its variety. Suits all ages and all abilities.
(3) Its adaptation to the world, through being Eastern in form.
(4) Its uniqueness, as compared with the Bibles of other religions. Compare Vedas, Koran, Book of Mormon, etc. But these two—the speakers and the Word—are really one, seeing that the speakers only speak the Word. Always the Word is the agency, whether it be heard from the lips or read from a book. And we must face the fact that what a sinful, dying world wants is that gospel which is in the Bible, and which may come to men either as spoken or as read. Both ways we may think of when we sing:
“Fly abroad, thou mighty gospel,
Win and conquer, never cease.”
For the gospel does everywhere—all the world over and all the ages through—prove itself able to meet and satisfy all kinds of spiritual needs that humanity can feel.
SUGGESTIVE NOTES AND SERMON SKETCHES
Rev_14:1. Marks of Servitude.—It was a custom among the ancients for servants to receive the mark of their master, and soldiers of their general, and those who were devoted to any particular idol, the mark of that particular idol. These marks were usually impressed on their right hands, or on their foreheads (Revelation 13, 16), and consisted of some hieroglyphical character, or of the name expressed in vulgar letters, or in numerical characters. Gal_6:17 : “The marks of the Lord Jesus”. What these marks were, the apostle explains by the stripes, etc, mentioned in 2Co_11:23. There is a beautiful allusion to the stigmata—marks which were sometimes fixed on servants and soldiers, to show to whom they belonged. How strikingly do these two remarks illustrate the scene of Jesus the Lamb of God, the all-conquering Redeemer, standing as the great Captain of Salvation at the head of His brave army of saints on Mount Sion! “I looked, and lo, a Lamb stood on the mount Sion, and with Him an hundred forty and four thousand, having His father’s name written in their foreheads.”
Rev_14:6. The Gospel of Retribution.—That a Divine judgment impends over all the actions and generations of men; that the hour of judgment is sure to strike at the due moment, let men play what tricks they will with the hands of the clock, and sure to be heard over all the world, let men close their ears as they will; that this fact of impending and inevitable judgment is an eternal or œonial gospel, veritable good tidings of great joy to every nation and tribe, tongue and people;—all this is at once of supreme importance and supreme interest. A gospel for all men in all ages must be a gospel for us. A gospel weighted by no miracles and no dogmas, a gospel which is open to no question and no doubt, but is felt to be true always, and everywhere, and by all. What, then, is this gospel? It is the gospel of retribution. We are to fear and glorify God because the hour of His judgment is come. This is the truth which the angel, flying in mid-heaven, between God and man, proclaims today, and always has proclaimed, and always will proclaim. This is the truth which St. John calls “an eternal gospel”—not the gospel, and still less the only gospel, but still a veritable gospel, glad tidings of great joy, to us and to all mankind. If the law of retribution is familiar to you, is it nothing to you to be assured, and assured on the highest authority, that what you admit to be a law is also a gospel? When we are told that God’s judgments on sin are an eternal gospel, a gospel for all beings in all ages, what is implied? This is implied, and there is no truth more precious and more practical: that the judgments of God are corrective, disciplinary, redemptive; that they are designed to turn us away from the sins by which they are provoked; that the message they bring us, and bring from heaven is: “Cease to do evil; learn to do well.—S. Cox, D.D.
The Everlasting Gospel.—Only one gospel is everlasting, which can pass from country to country, from continent to continent, and be at home everywhere; which time cannot wither nor custom stale; which has the safe and certain reversion of all the future. Why is this? What makes the gospel of Christ everlasting?
I. It is a message to what is universal in man.—Religions have been the religions of single tribes, or single countries, and have not been adapted for other parts of the world. But the glory of Christianity is that its teaching is addressed to what is most characteristic in human nature, and absolutely the same in all members of the human race, whether they be rich or poor, whether they inhabit one hemisphere or the other, and whether they live in ancient or modern times. You have only to glance at the most outstanding words of the gospel to see this. E.g.,
1. The word “soul.” Jesus went down to the child, the beggar, the harlot, the weakest and most despised members of the human family, and when He was able to find, even in them, this infinitely precious thing, it was manifest that He had discovered the secret of a universal religion.
2. The word “sin.” Speak to the conscience, and every human being feels that He is the man.
3. The word “eternity.” “God hath put eternity in their heart.” When the hand of the gospel touches this string of the harp of human nature, it responds. On this preaching the union of Christians must be realised.
II. It is a message to what is peculiar in man.—It can meet, as they rise, the changing conditions of society; it has an inexhaustible facility of adaptation to the wants and the circumstances of every individual whom it addresses. Some “preach to the times,” others “preach for eternity.” The two things are not inconsistent. His gospel has a word in season for every condition of life—for the little child, the young man in his prime, and for old age; a word for the multitude, and for the few. We have not exhausted Christ, and we have not exhausted the gospel of Christ. The pulpit is too far away from the individual. We must come nearer to men, and acquaint ourselves with the details of their experience. Sympathy is the key which opens the heart. Professional authentication sometimes only creates obstacles; but all difficulties melt away before the force of love.—James Stalker, D.D.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
William B. Godbey 1900 · Public Domain WE are here introduced to the Lamb and His…
WE are here introduced to the Lamb and His bride standing on Mt. Zion. The chronological panorama corroborates the conclusion, as in Chapter 7, that the rapture has come, the bride is called, the first resurrection has taken place, the living saints have been translated, and all rendezvoused on Mt. Zion, at Jerusalem, preparatory to their ascension into the firmament. The wonderful supernatural graces of entire sanctification always superscribe the Divine cognomen in the faces of His saints. How much more preeminently will this be verified in the transfigured saints!
2-3. Here John testifies to the uproarious shouts of this multitude, like the thundering billows of the great ocean breaking against the rock-bound shore, commingled with the deafening roar of tremendous thunder-claps, all softened and sweetened by the dulcet clarion of golden harps. Meanwhile, amid the tremendous roar, the prophet distinctly discriminates the new song of redemption, rung out from the immortal and indefatigable voices of the blood-washed throng. He tells us this is the “song of Moses and the Lamb.” Moses was the mediator of the Old Covenant, on the basis of justification, and Christ of the New, whose standard is entire sanctification. Hence, we find the members of the bridehood all testify in song to this wonderful double salvation, experienced in regeneration and entire sanctification.
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4-5. These verses testify to the complete purification received by all the members of the bridehood. The term “women” symbolizes the spiritual impurity from which we are all rescued by redeeming grace. Its metaphoric signification, “contrastively with virgins,” must not be pressed too far. Remember Paul says (Gal 3:28):
“In Him is neither male nor female.”
Hence, there is no such thing as sexual distinction in the kingdom of grace and glory. In this Scripture “woman” symbolizes carnality, and virgin holiness. So you must not literalize this spiritual symbolism, as some have done, and gone into fanaticism, teaching the incompatibility of entire sanctification with the conjugal relation. John testifies that the members of the bridehood are the first-fruit unto God and the Lamb, while the glorious harvest is to be reaped during the millennium. This reveals the great and universal mistake on the part of God’s people in recognizing the present age as the harvest. It is a time of toil, conflict, and persecution, in which much seed is sown, irrigated by tears; but, as we are here informed, the reaping is only the first-fruit. This harmonizes with our Savior’s testimony, that “the saved are few.” In vain do we anticipate the wonderful ingathering of the nations while Satan and his myrmidons are loose on the earth. Till they are cast out, the pilgrims on the King’s highway will be here and there a traveler. We should now lay all the powers and agencies of Christendom under contribution to preach the gospel to all nations, that the elect of grace may enjoy a participation of the bridehood. We here see that the only condition of membership in the bridehood is entire sanctification. They are all “blameless,” and “no guile found in their mouth.” Hence we see they are fully saved from all phases of hypocrisy. Where will the bride be during the tribulation period? 1Th 4:13; 1Th 4:18: We learn that the Lord will come and take up His saints, raising the departed from the dead and translating the living. After this, when He comes to reign, He will bring with Him these same transfigured saints. What will the members of the bridehood up in the firmament during the tribulations be doing? While the Ancient of Days here on earth is administering the awful premillennial judgments (Dan 7:13), the Son of God will be administering a very important premillennial judgment among the members of the bridehood. We are copiously informed in the word of God, that Christ will rule the millennial world through His transfigured saints. Perfect order characterizes the universe of God in all worlds. Consequently, the very Greek word cosmos, which means order, also means the world. Hence, you may rest assured the millennial world will be the beau-ideal of perfect order, as neither the devil nor his emissaries will be here to disturb it. When we contemplate, not only the perfection, but the magnitude and diversity of the millennial administration, we must wake up to the fact that quite an extensive judicial diagnosis and distribution will be necessary to prepare the members of the bridehood to understand, assume, and fulfill the diversified offices in the coming kingdom. Be assured, no interest, however small, will he overlooked by the transfigured custodians of the glorious theocracy, which shall belt the globe from the rising to the setting sun in the good time coming. The present age is significantly called “night” in the apostolic Epistles. During the long night of six thousand years, oh, how Satan and his myrmidons have lacerated, abused, and impoverished this earth! They have barbarically worn out the fertile soils and exposed the valuable lands to the deluging rains, which have washed them into chasms, thus transforming great regions into deserts. All these waste lands will he restored and transformed into the fruitful gardens of the Lord. Thus the members of the bridehood, by their immortal sagacity and loving presence, must superintend ten thousand interests in every land and clime. When Christ descends to enter upon His millennial reign, He will be accompanied by His bride, thoroughly equipped, organized, posted, and ready, in perfect order, to take possession of every nation under heaven, and conduct the millennial administration, eliciting the admiration of angels and archangels. The brutal outrages of Satan and his satellites, demoniacal and human, will sink into oblivion, felicitously forgotten amid the glory that shall cover the whole earth. The powers of the earth at this day, in the different continents, are about twelve. How convenient for the twelve apostles to encumber the great thrones of the nations, as Jesus said unto them, “I appoint unto you a kingdom, as My Father hath appointed unto Me; that you may sit upon twelve thrones, ruling the twelve tribes of Israel!” Doubtless the two hundred millions of martyrs will he exceedingly prominent in the millennial administration.
6-7. “I saw another angel flying in the midst of heaven having the everlasting gospel to preach.” The prophetical panorama clearly authenticates the conclusion that this angel is the present Holiness movement. He is not only commissioned to preach the doctrine of holiness to all nations, but the coming of the Lord to judge the wicked Gentiles and the fallen Churches, and to call back the world to the worship of God only. We see from this chapter that this gospel of holiness and the Lord’s coming is to be preached to all nations by the Holiness people. Bishop Taylor has twelve hundred missionaries in the heathen field, Hudson Taylor eight hundred, A. B. Simpson four hundred, and General Booth twelve thousand, all preaching entire sanctification. Here we see four sanctified preachers, without a dollar, having fourteen thousand four hundred missionaries preaching the gospel of holiness to nearly all the nations of the earth. The Holiness movement, without salaries, has more missionaries in the heathen field than all the Churches on the globe, with their wagon-loads of gold and silver. Men and women without financial resources are flying to the ends of the earth preaching the everlasting gospel of entire sanctification to all the nations. Last year I traveled twenty-two thousand miles, and did not have twenty-two cents to start with.
8. This angel proclaims the fall of Babylon, which will speedily follow the preaching of the gospel to all nations. We see from the 18th chapter that Babylon will fall in the midst of the tribulations. The proclamation here is anticipatory of the coming event.
9-11. Here the Apocalyptic Angel pronounces the unutterable woe of eternal damnation on all who worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in the face or the hands. What is this beast? The Greek, theerion, means a bloodthirsty, carnivorous, ferocious wild beast. Daniel and John use it constantly to denote human governments, independent and defiant of God, in contradistinction to the theocracy, which is God’s government for Church and State. Babylon, Persia, Greece, and Rome, the great empires of bygone ages, are all called beast in these prophecies. Rome, the greatest and most ferocious of all the beasts, had seven heads — i.e., the kingdom, the consulate, the dictatorship, the triumvirate, the tribuneship, the empire, and the papacy — each of which, in its time, enjoyed the headship of this monstrous beast. The sixth head was cut off by the barbarians, A.D. 476. Then and there Satan put on the beast the seventh head — i.e., the papacy — which the beast carries, and through which he rules the world. The beast will retain the papal head till his final ejectment into the lake of fire (Rev 19:20).
You see, from these facts, that the beast is the world-power — i.e., this fallen world — including Romanism and all other worldly religions.
Since Satan conquered this world in Eden, it has been the irreconcilable enemy of God. Hence those who serve — i.e., worship — the world are the enemies of God. What is the image of the beast? This is the fashion of the world, with all its pomp, pageantry, and paraphernalia, including the whole concatenation of idolatry in all the fallen Churches of the world. What are the marks of the beast? Tobacco, opium, strong drink, gluttony, and debauchery all distinctly mark their victims. Satan’s corset, compressing the chest, superinducing all sorts of internal ailments of lungs, heart, liver, kidneys, diaphragm, and stomach, destroying the natural symmetry and developing the taper-wasp waist, is a hideous and horrific mark of the beast. All sorts of jewelry and needless ornamentation are forbidden in the word of God, and belong to the marks of the beast. These are mainly about the face and hands, the unclothed parts of the body.
Now, reader, if you don’t want to be “tormented forever in fire and brimstone,” you must not worship the beast nor his image. The literal meaning of the Greek Scripture for conversion is to “take you out of the world.” The lexical meaning of sanctify is to “take the world out of you.” Hence you see the regenerating and sanctifying grace of God is the only possible remedy for this universally-prevalent and damnable idolatry which worships the beast and his image; i.e., the world and its fashion.
ENDLESS PUNISHMENT
This problem, which has been called in question by infidels and skeptics of all ages, who, under the cognomen of religion, have written wagon-loads of books to disprove the eternity of the sinner’s punishment, is here settled by the Holy Ghost beyond the possibility of cavil. He here certifies, in reference to those who worship the beast and his image and receive his mark, who really include this entire wicked world, that “the smoke of their torment ascendeth up forever and ever.” The eternal ascension of the smoke symbolizes the endless punishment of the wicked. Universalists and Restorationists have labored for ages to find a cessation to the adverb, “forever and ever,” when hell will cool off, Satan relax his grip, and the victims of damnation go free. Now, reader, the positive proof of the utter absurdity of this popular dogma, and the unequivocal confirmation of the Bible doctrine of endless punishment, are now patent and conspicuous before the eye of the candid student. The Greek translated “forever and ever” is “eis aioonas aioonoon,” the meaning of which is unto ages of ages, or eternities of eternities. Now, if this don’t express endless duration, can you tell me what combination of words would convey such an idea? You find this phrase in the 11th verse of the 14th chapter, and used to describe the duration of the punishment which awaits all the people who worship the beast and his image. In the 7th verse of the 15th chapter, where the English says, “God liveth forever and ever,” the Greek is that same combination of plural nouns which we have in the 11th verse of the 14th chapter, describing the duration of the sinner’s doom. Hence, it follows as an inevitable conclusion, from the plain and positive word of God, that the punishment of the wicked will he co-eternal with the existence of God. The very same argument which will quench hell-fire and discontinue the retributions of the lost, will inevitably prove that the time will come when God Himself will cease to exist. From these, and many other similar quotations, you see the utter folly, consummate nonsense, and transparent sophistry of all those facetious dogmas so pompously arrayed to disprove the Bible doctrine of eternal damnation.
WHAT BECOMES OF PEOPLE SO SOON AS THEY DIE?
The saints enter heaven immediately, and the wicked drop suddenly into hell. The intermediate paradise into which the Old Testament saints were gathered was abolished at the resurrection of Christ. (1Pe 3:18;
Eph 4:8. — See my next volume.) Since Christ, the first-fruit, passed into heaven, accompanied by the sacramental host of Old Testament saints, the pearly gates have ever stood ajar for all who die in the Lord.
13. “I heard a voice from heaven saying, write: Blessed are the dead from henceforth who die in the Lord.” The Greek word aparti, translated “from henceforth,” means instantaneously, from the very moment. Hence you see the problem is solved and the question is settled. The very moment you die, you are flooded with heavenly bliss, and sweep triumphantly into the glory-land. There, as the Spirit says, “they shall rest from their labors, and their works follow with them.”
THE LORD COMES TO TAKE UP HIS SAINTS
14. In this verse we see the Lord coming in a white cloud with a golden crown upon his head, and a sharp sickle. The 15th verse describes another angel coming out of the temple, and shouting with a loud voice to the Son of man sitting on the cloud, “Thrust in thy sickle and reap, because the hour of reaping has come, and the harvest of the earth is fully ripe.”
16. “The one sitting on the cloud cast His sickle into the earth, and the earth was reaped.” The 6th verse of this chapter describes the Holiness movement flying into all parts of the world and preaching the everlasting gospel of entire sanctification and the Lord’s near coming to all nations. This is the great sowing which has been in progress already twenty years. It is sowing down all nations with the gospel of holiness, and ringing out the proclamation, “Behold, He cometh!”
Mat 24:30-31 :
“Then shall the sign of the Son of man appear in the skies; then all the tribes of the earth shall mourn, and see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and much glory. He shall send forth His angels with a great sound of a trumpet; they shall gather His elect out of the four winds, from the extremities of the heavens unto the extremities of the same.”
Luke describes the same scene (21:28):
“When these things begin to transpire, take courage and lift up your heads, because your redemption drapweth nigh.”
These Scriptures from our Savior’s sermon on the judgments, which He preached on Mt. Olivet the day before He was crucified, vividly and graphically describe the rapture when He shall come and gather His saints from all the ends of the earth, raising the dead and translating the living.”
Matthew 9 :
“Then two men shall be in the field; one is taken, and one is left. Two women are grinding in the mill; one is taken, and one is left.”
You see plainly and clearly, from these statements of our Savior, that this cannot describe the final judgment; for then all on the earth, both living and dead, will be taken. Therefore, it must be the premillennial resurrection and judgment, in which He will come and take up His saints with Him into the cloud, as Paul says. There is a striking harmony between the prophecies of Jesus, Paul, and John, each of whom describes Jesus coming in a cloud and gathering out His saints from every laud under heaven. Daniel (12:1) also add his testimony: “At that time Thy people shall be delivered, every one that is written in the book.” The connection here shows that it is deliverance from the great tribulations destined to come upon the whole earth, shaking every monarch from his throne, racking all nations with mighty revolutionary earthquakes, and filling the world with blood, slaughter, and desolation.
With these prophetical corroborations, we return to our text.
16-18. These three verses describe our Savior coming on a cloud and reaping the harvest of the whole earth, which are declared to be fully ripe. You must bear in mind the logical connection in this chapter between the sowing and the reaping. While in a sense the sowing has been in progress in all bygone ages, the direct and pre-eminent allusion is to the present great and universal sowing by the Lord’s people in the present Holiness movement. How long this gospel sowing shall continue, till the Lord comes to reap His crop of saints, we know not; but the prophetical connection certainly does involve the conclusion that it will not be long.
THE GATHERING OF THE VINTAGE MEANS THE WICKED
You will see from this chapter the contrastive results of preaching the gospel. Those who receive the message delivered by the holy evangels personified by the angel in the 6th verse, get saved, sanctified, robed, and ready to meet the Lord descending on the cloud in verse 14, constitute the harvest of saints which the glorified Savior will reap when He comes. Do not forget that these angels all represent heavenly influences, and are executives of the Divine administration. They are respectively the subordinates of the Holy Ghost.
17. “Another angel came out of the temple which is in heaven, himself also having a sharp sickle.” This is the angel of Divine retribution, destined to come upon all who reject the gospel of holiness, which is now, by the angel of the 6th verse, being preached in all the earth.
18. You see the angel described in this verse comes from the altar in heaven, and that he is the custodian of the fire on that altar. This is the fire that sanctifies all the people who receive appreciatively the gospel of holiness. That angel stands by the heavenly altar flaming with the Holy Ghost fire, whose office it is to consume all sin and exterminate it from the heart. Oh, how he delights, in answer to the prayer of complete consecration and appropriative faith, to send down that fire in the copious, sanctifying baptism of full redemption from all iniquity! Now that the people have persistently, obstinately, and finally rejected heavenly fire, they are shut up to the solitary alternative of hell-fire. Hence you see that this angel of heavenly fire flies down to earth and shouts aloud to the angel of retribution: “Thrust in thy sharp sickle and reap the great bunches of the vine of the earth, because her grapes are fully ripe.
19, 20. These two verses glowingly describe the awful doom of the people on the earth who reject the gospel of holiness, preached by God’s ministers in the present revivals. God in great mercy has raised up the Holiness movement in every country under heaven. We know it is of God because it is everywhere; human agency cannot account for it. Last year I traveled in Europe, Asia, Africa, and about twenty States in America, everywhere meeting the heavenly influence of this wonderful revival. It is God’s last call to a doomed world. The thunders of his premillennial judgments are already shaking the nations. The time of retribution is nigh, when the angel will forsake his post beside the heavenly altars to herald the awful doom of earth’s impending ruin. We see, in these Scriptures, the angel of retribution thrust in his sickle, reap the vintage of a God-rejecting world, and cast it into the great wine-press of God’s terrible castigatory judgments, long due the wicked nations and fallen Churches of a God- forgetting world. The red grape juice gushing out of the wine-press emblematizes the blood flowing copiously from the wounded and the dying. Hence this is the awful doom destined to overtake the wicked in the oncoming tribulations.
The battle of Armageddon is here adumbrated in epitome. The blood flows to the horses’ trappings. In the East, war-horses are decorated with regalia, frequently hanging down below their knees. Such was the ornamentation of the noble Arabic steed rode by my armed escort (a Bedouin Arab) when I traveled -through the wilderness of Judea to the Dead Sea, River Jordan, and Jericho. The idea is that the battlefield will flow with rivers of blood, so as to crimson the horses’ regalia. Rome is to be the center of the battleground, which is to extend one thousand six hundred furlongs; i.e., two hundred miles. As Rome is the successor of Babylon, the persecutor of the ancient Church, she here symbolizes antagonism to the Divine government, and represents the apostate Church in all the world. The Holiness movement, symbolized by the angel in the 6th verse, is this day preaching the gospel throughout the whole world with wonderful expedition. Hudson Taylor, with his eight hundred missionaries, is in China. Sanctified Bishop Thoburn, with his five Conferences, is in India. Sanctified Bishop Taylor, with his twelve hundred sanctified missionaries, is in Africa. A. B. Simpson is fast scattering his sanctified missionaries throughout the heathen world. Last August, at Old Orchard Camp- meeting, in Maine, he raised seventy-two thousand dollars for missions at a single collection. The Salvation Army, with twelve thousand holiness preachers, belts the globe. Astounding is the velocity with which the Apocalyptic Angel — i.e., the Holiness movement — is flying to the ends of the earth preaching entire sanctification and the speedy coming of the Lord to all the nations on the face of the whole earth.
As you see in this chapter, the Lord will soon ride down on a cloud, reap the sanctified harvest, and take away His bride. Then the retribution angel comes down and reaps the vintage, which means the wicked who rejected the gospel of holiness and the Lord’s coming. You see this terrible destruction of the wicked immediately follows the Lord’s harvest of the good. They both follow as legitimate sequences of the gospel sowing. The one class received it and were harvested into the heavenly garners; those who rejected it fell in the terrible and universal slaughter, symbolized by the vintage, with rivers of blood two hundred miles wide, and deep enough to crimson the trappings of the war-horses. Daniel graphically describes this terrible doom of a wicked world and a fallen Church (7:9,10):
“I beheld till the thrones were cast down and the Ancient of Days did sit, whose garment was white as snow, and the hair of His head like the pure wool; His throne the fiery flame, and His wheels burning fire. A fiery stream issued and came forth before Him: a thousand thousand ministered unto Him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before Him. The judgment was set and the books were opened.”
This is not the final judgment, because you see, as you read on, that the Lord’s millennial kingdom follows, whereas the conflagration of the world will accompany the final judgment (2Pe 2:10). Hence, this is the premillennial judgment, in which the thrones of this world will all be cast down, preparatory for the King of kings to descend, establish His kingdom, and reign forever. Whereas the Son will come in His glorified humanity, which ascended up from Mt. Olivet, and be visible to mortal eyes as He was then, the Ancient of Days here spoken of is the Father, who has no incarnation, and is consequently invisible.
The Father said to the Son, “Sit Thou on My right hand, till I make Thine enemies Thy footstool.” The Son still encumbers the intercessory throne at the right hand of the Father. He is Prophet, Priest, and King. On earth, He was the most indefatigable preacher — i.e., prophet — the world ever saw. Having finished His gospel ministry, He entered upon His priestly office in the capacity of high priest, offering His body on the cross, a sacrifice for the sins of the whole world. Then flying up to heaven, He sits down on the mediatorial throne at the right hand of the Father, there, by His intercessory prayers, to perpetuate His priestly office till He descends to reign over the world. Meanwhile, the Father is administering the government of this world amid frequent castigatory judgments, which will finally culminate in the great tribulations, when the invisible Ancient of Days will sit upon the premillennial judgment-seat in this world, till all the thrones shall fall, kingdoms crumble, and Babylon topple to rise no more. Then the Son of man will come down in the clouds, take the scepter of the world from the hand of the Ancient of Days, and rule all nations forever. (Dan 7:13-14.)
This exegesis is abundantly corroborated by the parable of our Savior in reference to the nobleman “who went away to a far country to receive a kingdom, and to return.” (Luk 19:11-13.) While they heard these things, proceeding, He spoke a parable, because He is near unto Jerusalem, and they think that the kingdom of God is to appear immediately. Therefore He said: “A certain nobleman went into a far country to receive a kingdom and to return.” This parable clearly, explicitly, and abundantly proves the hypothesis so currently and copiously set forth in all the prophecies relative to our Lord’s millennial reign. This cannot possibly be identified with His spiritual kingdom. Daniel says (7:21, 22):
“I beheld, and the same horn — i.e., the pope — made war with the saints, and prevailed against them, until the Ancient of Days came and judgment was given to the saints of the Most High; and the time came that the saints possessed the kingdom.”
Now you know that every saint is already in possession of Christ’s spiritual kingdom. Hence you see this is bound to mean the temporal kingdom, which the saints will receive from the Ancient of Days when He shall have cast down all the usurpatious, rebellious, humanistic, Nimrodic thrones on the earth, both political and ecclesiastical, and thus prepared the way for His glorified Son to descend, sit down on the millennial throne, and reign from the rising of the sun to the going down thereof. It is an unquestionable fact that all of His disciples were on the constant outlook for His temporal kingdom. But we see clearly from this parable in Luke 19 th that He has gone away to His Father in heaven to receive this contemplated kingdom, for which He taught us to pray, “Thy kingdom come.” He is to receive this kingdom from His Father, whose judicial reign on the earth will make His enemies His footstool. This parable proceeds to describe our glorious coming King, distributing the governments of the world among His saints, according to their respective ability, giving to one ten cities, to another five, et cetera. This is in perfect harmony with Dan 7:22 :
“Judgment was given to the saints of the Most High.”
The meaning of the word judgment, in this and many other Scriptures, is the government of the world. Hence Daniel and Luke, as well as Paul and John, positively certify, under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, that the saints of God are going to possess the governments and become the rulers of the world, under the sovereignty of the glorified Christ in the coming kingdom. Lord, help us to be candid, honest, and true and fear to handle the word of God deceitfully. Our Christ is both man and God. His divinity reigns in His spiritual kingdom in the heart. His glorified humanity, filled with the divinity, will reign in the coming kingdom. So surely as He rode into Jerusalem on a donkey, He will ride in on a cloud. So surely as He hung on a cross, He will sit on a throne. Zechariah says: “His feet shall stand upon Mt. Olivet.
William B. Godbey, Commentary on the New Testament (1896–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Sermon Bible 1900 · Public Domain The Communion of Saints.
Rev 14:1
The Communion of Saints.
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The communion of saints is (1) the restoration of fellowship between God and man; (2) the restoration of the fellowship of men with each other.
I. Let us learn from it that we can never be lonely or forsaken in this life. Our Lord has promised, "Lo, I am with you alway, even to the end of the world." And in Him all His saints are with us too. No trial can isolate us; no sorrow can cut us off from the communion of saints. There is but one thing in which the sympathy of Christ has no share, and that is the guilt of wilful sin. The faith is the common consciousness and life of the elect, and they who stand for it, although they stand alone against all the world, are never alone, for all the companies of heaven and all the generations of the Church are at their side. Kneel down, and you are with them; lift your eyes, and the heavenly world, high above all perturbation, hangs serenely overhead. Only a thin veil, it may be, floats between.
II. Let us learn further, by the reality of this heavenly fellowship, to live less in this divided world. If we love the world, the love of the Father is not in us, and if no love of the Father, then no communion with His kingdom. Between these two we must make our choice. We are between two cities, the one visible, the other invisible; the one an object of sense, the other of faith; the one garish, splendid, and tumultuous, the other calm, glorious, and serene: on the one side, the world and this earthly life, with its fair show, luring gifts, bright promises, gilded ambition; on the other, the city of God, the fellowship of saints, the sympathy of Christ, the love of the Father, the beatific vision.
III. Let us learn from the communion of saints to live in hope. They who are now at rest were once like ourselves. Their life was once homely and commonplace. While on earth they were not arrayed in white raiment, but in apparel like that of other men, unmarked and plain, worn and stained by time and trial. Only one thing there is in which we are unlike them: they were common in all things except the uncommon measure of their inward sanctity. In all beside we are as they, only it is now our turn to strive for the crown of life.
H. E. Manning, Sermons, vol. iv., p. 303.
References: Rev 14:1-3.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. iii., No. 110; Ibid., Morning by Morning, p. 17. Rev 14:2, Rev 14:3.—T. Burton, Christian Life and Truth, p. 425. Rev 14:3.—G. Calthrop, Words Spoken to My Friends, p. 207; Talmage, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xii., p. 92. Rev 14:4.—R. D. B. Rawnsley, Village Sermons, 4th series, p. 89.
Rev 14:6
The Everlasting Gospel.
Some one not long ago published a book with the title "Gospels of Yesterday." It discussed the writings of several authors who in our generation have caught the popular ear, and analysed their doctrines with keen incisiveness. Gospels of yesterday—how many there have been of them. They lasted as long as they could, but the world outgrew them. There is only one Gospel which is everlasting, which can pass from country to country, from continent to continent, and be everywhere at home; which time cannot wither nor custom stale; which has the safe and certain reversion of all the future. Now why is this? What makes the Gospel of Christ everlasting? To this question I give two answers. First, it is a message to what is universal in man; and secondly, it is a message to what is peculiar in every man.
I. Its universal message. The reason why so many gospels have been doomed to become gospels of yesterday has been because they have addressed themselves to what is transient or partial in human nature. Religions have been the religions of single tribes or single countries, and have not been adopted for other parts of the world; philosophies have addressed themselves to select sections of that community, like that one which inscribed over the entrance to its school in Athens the intimation, "Let no one ignorant of mathematics enter here." Men have been hailed as saviours of society because they have been able to give relief from a need pressing at some particular time, or because their doctrines have fallen in with some passing phase of popular sentiment. But the glory of Christianity is that its teaching is addressed to what is most characteristic in human nature, and absolutely the same in all members of the human race, whether they be rich or poor, whether they inhabit the one hemisphere or the other, and whether they live in ancient or modern times. The three great watchwords of the Gospel—the soul, sin, and eternity—which it is uttering continually wherever its voice is heard at all, are enough to show why it is an everlasting Gospel. Nowhere in the wide world and at no period in the lapse of ages can human beings be found to whom these words will not have all the reality and all the interest of life and death, and if the Gospel can tell how the infinitely precious soul is to be saved, how sin is to be overcome and blotted out, and how eternity is to be transmuted from a dream of terror into a home and an inheritance, then it can never lack an audience.
II. Its particular message. The Gospel has a message for the difference in each specimen of human nature, and for each quarter of the globe and each age of the world, as well as for that which is common to all. God has a special message for every age. His Gospel has a word in season for every condition of life, for the child, and the young man in his prime, and for old age, a word for the multitude and a word for the few. The Chinese, when they accept the Gospel, will find secrets in it which the British have never discovered; the twentieth century will discover phases of the Christian life which are lacking to the nineteenth. We have not exhausted Christ, and we have not exhausted the Gospel of Christ.
J. Stalker, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xli., p. 397.
Reference: Rev 14:6.—Homiletic Quarterly, vol. i., p. 122.
Rev 14:12
There are mainly three conditions required in order to the attainment of the grace of patience.
I. Learn to look on all trying circumstances from the true point of view. The first and most natural view of them is that they destroy our ease. The sense of injury or annoyance, the soreness at the unkindness or disappointment—this occupies us, and the one longing is that the cause of pain may be removed, that at any cost we may be freed from the unwelcome pressure. Thence arises the restless impatience which is the source of some of our worst temptations. We need to rise above this estimate of trial, to look at it on a different side, to view it as God views it. As in mounting a hilly range, when looking down from a higher eminence on points which were above us as we commenced the ascent, their aspect is altogether changed from the mere effect of change in our point of view, so we need to rise above the first appearance of the trial, above the mere temporary effects, separating from it the selfish aspect, the idea of injury, or hardship, or personal annoyance, to rise high enough to apprehend the Divine will regulating it, the love restraining it, lest it become heavier than we are enabled to bear, the virtue which God intended to work in us by its means.
II. The second condition is the self-sacrifice which alone can surrender inward sensibilities to be chastened as God wills.
III. The third condition is the habitual study of the life of Jesus, which cherishes as a reality a spirit of patience. No impulse can rise in rebellion before the face of the Crucified.
T. T. Carter, Sermons, p. 292.
Rev 14:12-13
All Saints.
I. Our text shows us the chief graces which have made the saints what they are: "Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus." So then the saint-like graces on which we are invited to gaze are faith and patience. Patience says, "Do not take for granted that you have failed because the result at present seems poor." The end is not yet. Look with suspicion on rapidly won victories. Those master-builders who have been permitted to raise up the grandest edifices, either of personal piety or of extensive reforms, have generally been men who have passed through repeated disappointments, and by failing often have been taught to build circumspectly, to examine the soil, and to lay warily every stone. It is interesting often to see on its secular side the operation of a grand Christian grace. Some who would scorn patience at the hand of a saint may reverence her when she comes from the hand of a statesman. An instructive story has reached us of the most commanding of English Ministers. One day, we are told, the conversation turned on the quality most required in a Prime Minister. One said eloquence, another knowledge, another toil. "No," said the man who bore the burden for seventeen years; "it is patience."
II. Patience and faith are sister-graces. The saints clung to the powers of the world to come. They were not satisfied with what they saw. Faith is still, as it always has been, the salt of the earth, the one thing which prevents mankind from becoming utterly corrupt and keeps open the ladder of communication between God and man. Nor is it always acting on the defensive. The faith of the saints, the firm trust in God which fills the souls of all His true servants, has been the author of all the great achievements which redeem the history of the world from vulgarity and from selfishness. There is nothing impossible for those who believe in Christ, and are content to bide God’s time.
H. M. Butler, Harrow Sermons, 2nd series, p. 71.
Reference: Rev 14:12, Rev 14:13.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxi., No. 1219.
Rev 14:13
The Immortality of Good Work.
This is a benediction; it is a benediction, too, falling where we are accustomed to look for anything else but felicitation. "Waste," "decay," "death," are words which usually bring only the most gloomy associations; but in the New Testament, more and more as it goes on toward its consummation, the brightest words, the strongest tokens of joy and of triumph, overhang these desolate places; and where men have been accustomed to set fear as a sentinel, to wet the place with tears, there in Christianity we see banners set up for victory, and we see all cheer and all comfort predicated of that which has been the world’s dread and the world’s curse.
I. We regard it as strange when energetic and useful men are cut off. Men cling to their work by that very force which enables them to be useful. We could not be what we are appointed to be in this life if we were so indifferent to our tasks and responsibilities that we could let them go easily; and this very tenacity, this very life adhesion, becomes at last a hindrance. So long as we are bound to this life, we are bound to be interested in the things of this life; and men cling to their work as if that were nature, when it is nature in transitu, or when it is nature partial or relative to one particular period of our age; and when persons are taken out of life in the midst of strength and function, men marvel. They cannot understand why those who are useful should be removed. But do you forget that dying makes but very little void in this world? Indeed, after Christ died He lived more efficaciously than when He was alive. The death of the Apostle stopped nothing, but sped much. No age was ever left without men. We are poor in our conception, but God is rich. He that could raise up seed to Abraham from the very stones need not look about much, nor mourn that men, one and another, drop out from the functions of life; yet it is natural that we should do so. They who have the responsibility, they who supervise the labour, they who must replace the men that are gone, think it strange that those who are well equipped and of the right spirit should be taken out of life.
II. But the consideration of triumph is that men do not cease their work. They never die. The irksome part of their labour they rest from; but their works go after, go on with, or have gone before them. A man’s life is not simply what you see. The effects of a man’s life are not simply those things which you can count, measure, or describe. He who lives in earnest, striving to follow the Lord Jesus Christ, or in the spirit of Christ, throws into life elements which never die out even here—elements that are not witnesses; that have no report; that come not with observation; that are immeasurable; but that are more real a thousand times than the things which are visible.
H. W. Beecher, Christian World Pulpit, vol. vi., p. 60.
I. There seem to be two points to be discussed in the text. (1) What is meant by dying in the Lord, and (2) for what reason or reasons are those who die in the Lord to be pronounced blessed? As to the former of the two, it may be well for us to note that there is a peculiar significance about the expression "in the Lord." The Scriptures of the Old Testament, and even the Scriptures of the New, make much of the lawgiver Moses, and Moses perhaps was the man who more than any other man who ever lived has influenced the fortunes of Israel, and through Israel the fortunes of the human race. But although men may follow Moses and obey the precepts which he gave, you never heard any of them spoken of as being "in Moses." And, again, when we come to the New Testament, we find the Apostle Paul put prominently forward as one of the greatest of the inspired teachers whom God has sent for the instruction and guidance of mankind. Yet neither do you meet with the expression "in Paul" or any conceivable equivalent for it. It is obvious that the expression conveys more than the idea of respecting a teacher, or of imitating an example, or obeying the injunctions of one who has a right to command us. It implies a close and living personal union, which is real, though it may be mysterious, and which shows its existence in certain unmistakable results produced upon our heart and conduct. A Christian is a man who is in Christ, and who abides or remains in Him. The man must die in the Lord as well as live in the Lord, if we are to pronounce him blessed.
II. The reasons for the proclamation of blessedness. They are two in number: (1) they rest from their labours; (2) their works do follow them. The person of the man is accepted for Christ’s sake; his works come afterwards. A man cannot take with him his riches, his honours, his worldly position and successes; these things will drop off him as he enters the cold waters of death. All that will go with him is his character and the results of the influence which he has exerted upon the character of others; and in this respect eternity will be but a continuation and prolongation of the present life.
G. Calthrop, Penny Pulpit, New Series, No. 1163.
The Blessed Dead.
I. The dead that die in the Lord. The term hardly needed much nice definition when to live in the Lord meant almost certainly persecution, and possibly martyrdom. To die in the Lord was the end of those who had lived in the Lord, and few were likely to make that profession who had not taken up the cross and followed Christ in the way. To die in the Lord is to die in possession of all that the Lord, by His incarnation and passion, has won for man; to die in the Lord is to pass up to live with Him. What life do you take through death to that world? Is it a fool’s paradise which you are dreaming of there, or the Lord’s? It is simply a question of at-homeness. Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord, who have lived with Him here, talked with Him, wrought for Him, and have pined for more perfect possession of all that makes the holy beauty of His character and glory of His life.
II. Wherein are they blessed who die in the Lord? What is it which transmutes man’s great terror into an angel of benediction, and makes that which nature shudders at a birth into a world of bliss? Here we rise into another region: a region of intense, conscious, joyous vitality; a region of intelligent, responsible, glorious activity, in which nothing that makes the dignity, the grandeur, of the burden of life is laid down, but only the pain. (1) Because death is birth to the believer, and birth is ever blessed. This is not the noon of life, but its struggling dawn; not its summer, but its bleak and wintry spring. Our high life is the seed in the ground which is growing, struggling into form. Blessed are the dead, for they are born, exiled from the body, at home with the Lord. (2) Born out of a life which is a long pain to a life which is a long bliss. "We that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened." (3) They pass out of relations and fellowships which are ever changing to those which abide and enlarge their ministries through eternity. (4) Blessed are they, for they are for ever beyond the reach of ail that may imperil the prize.
J. Baldwin Brown, The Sunday Afternoon, p. 320.
The Blessedness of the Dead in Christ.
Some years ago, when worshipping in one of the churches of the canton of Glarus, in Switzerland, I could not but be struck with the truth of the remark that there, as in some other parts of that wonderful country, the mountains look in at the windows. Wherever there was an opening, some part of a giant mountain could be seen looking in, as with a lofty and yet kindly eye; and the effect was all the more striking that in that grey and venerable town where I was more than three and a half centuries before the great Swiss reformer Zwingli had begun that work which was to have such consequences for his country and for the world. I have been impressed with the likeness of the relation of heaven to the Church below in the book of Revelation. Everywhere, so to speak, heaven looks in at the windows; and there are not only looks and sympathies, but voices, reminding those engaged in the earthly worship that a higher company is not far off from any one of them, and that where the shadow now falls the summit is also near. Considering the words of the text as in general descriptive of the heavenly blessedness, I shall endeavour to answer three questions regarding it which are here suggested:—
I. How is this heavenly blessedness attested? We all profess to believe in heaven. How do we know that there are such a place and such a state? If we cannot give a good answer, the Apostle John could. Could he have written all this, even had he wished it, without inspiration from God? If the Apostles had seen all that they testified, would they not have been less than men if they had doubted it? And shall we be wiser men than they if we disbelieve it? But their testimony, of an outward kind, has an inward voucher to its own authenticity. It bears the stamp of the heaven whence it professes to come. Here is a heaven of holiness and purity, of likeness to God, and fellowship to Christ, and eternal worship, contemplation, and praise. Did this dream come out of the human mind and heart? Then there is a testimony in living epistles, written, not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God. This is our third evidence of there being a heavenly world, what may be called the evidence from Christian character. Had you been in company with the Apostle John, you would have said, "Here is heaven begun." The Christian Church in all its graces and in all its virtues, as it is a preparation for heaven, so is it a prophecy of heaven.
II. How is this heavenly blessedness gained? (1) Faith is needful to give a title to the heavenly blessedness; (2) holy obedience is necessary.
III. How is this heavenly blessedness to be enjoyed? (1) There is the rest of the worker; (2) there is the continued influence of the work.
J. Cairns, Christ the Morning Star, p. 160.
The Christian’s Death.
I. Death is a curse. My text says, "Blessed are the dead." Still death is a curse. Separate and apart from the consolations of Christian faith, death is a tremendous evil. Nature shrinks from it shuddering. In most cases death presents the unmistakable features of a tremendous curse, being attended with sufferings which, however unpleasant to think of, it is well to anticipate, that we may be prepared for the worst, and, fortified by faith, may withstand the rude shocks of dissolution.
II. Death is a blessing. The union which is formed between Christ and His people being one of incorporation, and not merely one of co-operation, what the one is, the other is; and where the one is, the other is; and as the one feels, the other feels: and as our bodies and their limbs have all things in common, or the branches and trunk of a tree have sap in common, so Jesus and His people have all things in common. To be in Christ, then, to be in the Lord, implies that we shall infallibly enjoy all the blessings, temporal, spiritual, and eternal, which He shed His blood to purchase, these being secured to us by the great oath of God and the bonds of a covenant which is well ordered in all things and sure.
III. Death is a blessing as introducing us into a state of rest. (1) At death the believer rests from the toils of life. (2) At death the believer rests from the cares of life. Faith is often weak, and man is fearful; and so our life has many a troubled dream, that fills those with fears and terrors who are all the time safely folded in a Father’s arms. (3) At death the believer rests from the griefs of life. "Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord will deliver him out of them," if never before, at death. Death cures all griefs; and his own best physic and physician, he applies the most healing balm to the wounds his own hands have made. No more true or beautiful way of announcing a good man’s death than the old-fashioned phrase, "He is at rest"
T. Guthrie, The Way to Life, p. 372.
Rev 14:13
I. Observe that St. John introduces the subject with a singular solemnity; "Yea," as though it was worthy of some special asseveration;—"Yea, the Spirit saith." He said all that John had written; but He said this with a stronger emphasis: "Yea, the Spirit saith,"—for the exceeding comfort of all the weary ones, who are now fighting through the hard day,—"Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours." From their "labours" they "rest," not from their "works," but from the pain of work, for "their works do follow them." There are two senses in which we may take this last clause: the record of their works follows them to testify to the grace of God, to witness to them in the day of judgment, and to be the measure of their eternal reward; or, more literally, their works themselves do follow them, what they used to do and loved to do for God in this present world. It follows them, to be taken up again in some higher and holier manner there. The tastes they formed, the services in which they delighted, the ministrations which they occupied here—they have not ceased to be, but are sweetly renewed in that higher state. And is it not an animating thought to think that all we now try to do for God is the beginning of something which we are to continue for ever and for ever, and for ever and for ever to continue to improve to do? Is it not very pleasant to realise those we love there carrying on still their loving occupations, which we remembered in them so well when they were with us here? But the struggle, the toil, the distress of work, is past for ever. "They rest from their labours," even though, ay, and because "their works do follow them." Work is never a hurtful thing. Work, in its own essence, is all happiness; it is the worry of work, it is the anxiety of work, it is the disproportionateness of work, it is the unkindness of work, it is the clashing of work, it is the incompleteness of work, it is the disappointment of work, this is the trouble and the discipline. Take away these, and work is heaven. Therefore we have all the elements of perfect joy combined when we say, "They rest from their labours, and their works do follow them."
II. To this last release, not from "work," but from "labour," we mount up by many steps. The fourth chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews gives the series of steps. There is a rest or release into which we all enter the moment we believe. "We which believe do enter into rest." It is a rest or release from the feeling of condemnation, from that awfully oppressive feeling of unforgiven sin. From that time "labour" continues, perhaps increases. The sin is more violent; and therefore the labour is more severe. But then it is the labour of a lightened heart; it is the labour of love. After that, after forgiveness, gradually another release takes place. The Christian escapes from the dominion of sin. It becomes rather his servant, that sometimes rebels, than his master, that always rules; and that is the release from the thraldom of the tyranny of sin. Nevertheless, after that release, sin is there. It meets him everywhere; he is never safe from it. He is pained by its contact; he is humbled by its force; he is grieved by its outbreak. He sees it; he feels it; he breathes it; he lives in the atmosphere of it, till at last a moment comes that he is released even from the touch, from the sound, from the breath, from the possibility, of it. And so the believer travels up, in a series of releases, step by step, to that grand dismissal at last when he is set free from the whole warfare of the cross of Christ. But what will the release be? You will come down from your watch-tower. How you are obliged to be always going up to that watch-tower! And how your eye is strained to descry the approach of evil, of which you knew it was somewhere, but from what quarter you could never tell how it would come, often from the most unlikely! And so night and day you had to keep your weary guard there. You may sheathe that sword; you may lay down that shield. There is no adverse occurrent now. Every one that rose up against you is laid dead at your feet. It is peace, peace, inviolable peace, and peace that can never be broken. And painful exercises there are now no more, no rushing tides of contending influences, no antagonism of a double nature, no warring of the flesh against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh, no wrestling with the evil one, no importunate prayer, no baffling mysteries to the tired intellect, no delicate balancing of truth and error, no efforts failing through their own violence, no sinking of the spirit, no eclipse of faith, no mountains of pride, no valleys of despair. The besetting sin rears its conquered head again and again no more. All those are labours past, and, like all labours past, bitter in the present, pleasant, very pleasant, very humbling, but very glorifying to God, to look back upon. And the very capability of sin is gone. It would be as impossible to have a wrong as it is now impossible to have a right thought. You cannot help but love God intently, and please Him absolutely, for nature and grace run in one channel, in one world; and the whole man is one perfect image of one infinite Creator. Then, as I believe, in token of it all, God will give to every discharged soldier "the white stone, with the new name written, which no man knoweth, saving he that receiveth it," the sign of His approving favour, our dismission from sin, our admission into everlasting glory. So will the release come on; and that will be the Easter joy of our resurrection morn.
J. Vaughan, Fifty Sermons, 6th series, p. 45.
Rev 14:13
Degrees of Glory.
We are justified casually by God’s eternal grace; we are justified effectively by the blood of Jesus Christ; we are justified instrumentally by faith; we are justified evidentially by good works. Or, to put this a little more plainly, we are justified before God—i.e., we are accounted righteous and acceptable—only by the faith in Christ which His Spirit creates and moves in our hearts. But how are we justified to ourselves in believing that we are justified before God? how are we justified to the world in saying that we are justified? By our good works. This harmonises the apparent discrepancy between St. Paul and St. James. We are "justified by our works," as St. James says, in believing that we are "justified" before God, as St. Paul says, "by faith" only. "They rest from their labours; and their works do follow them."
I. Observe that it does not say, "They rest from their works"—for that would imply that where they are gone they cease from work, which is entirely the contrary to the fact—but, "They rest from their labours; and their works do follow them." Now labour is work’s distress. Work itself as such is joy. There is no happiness without work. Every man must work, some with their heads, some with their minds, some with their hands; but all must work. The secret of all the wretchedness that there is in the world is the absence of work. Whoever you are, you can never lead a happy life if you do not work, really work, work hard. If your circumstances do not define your work for you, you must define your work for yourself. You must work. It is God’s universal law in His government of this world, "If any man will not work, neither let him eat"—eat of any of the pleasant things which I spread for My children. But then, in this present state, the law of work has its dark shadows: fatigue, infirmity, too great tension, ill-health, disappointments, mistakes, waitings, suspensions, and sins. There is the miserable, depressing sense of inadequacy for the task; there is the perplexity of what is the line of duty and all the entanglements of self on every point; there is the feeling, "After all, all this is but a drop out of the ocean of misery!" I do not wonder that even in His work, Jesus "sighed." Now, all this, and much more, makes the labour. The Greek word has for its root the verb "to cut"—it cuts to the heart. It is like that other word, "Take no thought for the morrow," which is in the original, "Do not cut or split your heart about the morrow." But yet all this that cuts to the quick is necessary now to make work what work was intended to be in this stage of existence. The labour of work is the discipline of work; it is the education, the discipline, the school. It was not the work which was the punishment of Adam and Eve—doubtless they would have worked in paradise—but it was the excess of the work above the power of the being of the worker, work’s pressure: "In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread." And therefore, because it is the needful discipline, the rule holds good, whether it be the bread for the body, or whether it be the bread for the mind, or whether it be the bread for the soul, you can never get what is really satisfying but by dint of real, hard fag, hard toil: "in the sweat of thy brow." It is not work only, but it is labour, which is the condition of the peace of life. Therefore it was that Christ chose the word—for He knew how wide it was—"Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy-laden, and I will give you rest."
II. If a man is in Christ, and that man works, and that man casts the labour of his work upon Christ, its vexings and its harassings, then that man has entered into rest so far, for he does the work, and he casts the labour. Absolutely, however, death is the point when the believer perfectly and for ever exchanges labour for work. Death might be defined as going from labour to work. For do not think that those busy minds which were so active and so earnest here when they were among us, who are gone to their prepared places, are leading there a life of mere receptive enjoyment or meditative peace. They have not so unlearned their natures. "His servants shall serve Him." "They rest not day and night," while they glorify God, in His boundless ministrations, still "each upon his wing," while he soars away for activity in his vast circumference. It is tolerably clear, then, what it is the Spirit saith when He saith, "Yea, that they may rest from their labours."
III. We have now to examine a little further how it is that "their works do follow them." It certainly admits of the interpretation that those works in which Christians are engaged here continue to interest them in the next world. Why should it not be so? Do we not make too much of death if we look upon it as destroying any of the interests of life? For what is death but as if a person should go into some foreign land? He can see no longer what he used to love so well, and what he called home. But do those things which lie beyond the sea become indifferent to him? Are his affections closed to them? Nay, are not those things, in some sense, dearer to him than ever they were before? Surely we may believe that those high and busy enterprises, which had so large a place in the hearts of God’s children here, are not forgotten by them in their perfected happiness! The conversion of the Jews, the missions to the heathen, the flock, the schools, things once so near and bound up with their very life-blood—do you think they are passed away? And if not, if the interest lasts, and is imperishable, then may we not say that, in this way, "their works do follow them"? Nay, may we not go a step further, and hold it probable that there is a continuity between the special tastes, and occupations, and habits of thought, which characterised us here, and that which shall stamp our condition and our services in another state? Do not let us make the gulf between the two worlds greater than it is. There are two offices which the works we have done on earth are fulfilling in another world. (1) The one is to be our witnesses in the day of judgment. The matter which will be examined into at that tribunal will not be acts, but character. It will be, Did you love God? What was Christ to you? What were you to Christ? But, to determine the answer to that inquiry, acts will stand out in evidence; words will be an index. Therefore "by your words you shall be justified, and by your words you shall be condemned." Deeds of charity will stand out in evidence: "Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these My brethren, ye did it not to Me"; "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these My brethren, ye have done it unto Me." Thus, then, just as our justification was justified by our good works when we were here, so there God, though He needs it not, will be justified before the universe, in His final award to all men, by their works, which will be manifest then before men and angels. (2) The second purpose for which our "works will follow us" will be to determine, as I believe, the measure of our glory and our place in heaven, our place, not geographically, but morally, not so as to separate one saint from another—for the communion will be perfect in all saints—but just as Christians here meet in one, but yet are of various capacities and degrees, so there it will be in glory: they are all one, all filled, but the vessels are of different sizes.
J. Vaughan, Fifty Sermons, 6th series, p. 90.
References: Rev 14:13.—S. King, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxxii., p. 51; R. Thomas, Ibid., vol. vii., p. 40; H. W. Beecher, Ibid., vol. xviii., p. 92; Bishop Barry, Sermons for Passiontide and Easter, p. 104; R. D. B. Rawnsley, Village Sermons, 1st series, p. 262; Homilist, 3rd series, vol. iv., p. 83: Preacher’s Monthly, vol. iii., p. 363. Rev 14:15.—H. Robjohns, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxi., p. 271; Preacher’s Monthly, vol. viii., p. 142.
The Sermon Bible, ed. William Robertson Nicoll (1888–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
F. W. Grant 1903 · Public Domain Subdivision 4. (Rev 14:1-20.)
Subdivision 4. (Rev 14:1-20.)
The earth-change at hand.
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We have now a section which seems designed to put together in review the various acts of God in view of the change which is at hand, whether these be in blessing or in judgment. There is mercy, as ever, while yet the world is in its special trial, and evil is fully searched out and under the hand of God.
1. The manifestation of evil is complete. We are now to see God’s dealings as to it. These acts of Satan and his ministers are a plain challenge of all His rights in Israel and the earth; and further patience would be no longer patience, but dishonor. Hence we find now, as if in answer to the challenge, the Lamb upon mount Zion, that is, upon David’s seat; and as the beast-followers have his mark upon them, so the followers of Christ, associated with Him here, have His and His Father’s name upon their foreheads. What this means can scarcely be mistaken.
Zion is not only identified in Scripture with David and his sovereignty, but very plainly with the sovereign grace of God, when everything entrusted to man had failed in Israel -priesthood had broken down, the ark gone into captivity in the enemy’s land, and although restored by the judgment of God upon the Philistines, it was no more sought unto in the days of Saul, who, though Jehovah’s anointed king, had become apostate. All might seem to have gone, but it was not so, and in this extremity, as the seventy-eighth psalm says, "The Lord awoke as one out of sleep. . . . And He smote His adversaries backwards. Moreover, He refused the tent of Joseph, and chose not the tribe of Ephraim, but chose the tribe of Judah -the mount Zion which He loved. . . . He chose also David His servant." Nor was this a temporary choice, as a later psalm adds: "For Jehovah hath chosen Zion, He hath desired it for His habitation. Here is My rest forever; here will I dwell, for I have desired it" (Psa 132:13-14).
Thus, though the long interval of so many centuries may seem to argue repentance upon God’s part, it is not really so. "God is not man, that He should lie; nor the son of man, that He should repent." The Lamb on Zion shows us the true David on the covenanted throne, and Zion by this lifted up, indeed, above the hills. The vision is of course anticipative; for by and by we find that the beast still exists. The end is put first, as it is with Him who sees it from the beginning, and then we trace the steps that lead up to it. With this method all will be familiar who are familiar with the Psalms.
But who are the 144,000 associated with the Lamb? Naturally, one would at once identify them with the similar number sealed out of the twelve tribes in the seventh chapter; and the more so, that the Lamb’s and His Father’s name upon their foreheads is surely the effect of this very sealing which was upon the forehead also. No other mark is given us as to them in the former vision, save that we read of them as exempted from the power of the locusts afterwards. Here, if it is not directly affirmed that they are sealed, yet it seems evident, a seal having been often a stamp with a name, and the purpose of the sealing in the former case being a mark they had as God’s. This is manifestly accomplished by His name upon them. This open identification with Christ in the day of His rejection might seem to be just what would expose them to all the power of the enemy. Yet it is this which, in fact, marks them for security. In reality, what a protection is the open confession of Christ as the One we serve! There is no safer place for us than that of necessary conflict under the Lord’s banner; and the end is glory. Here they stand, then, these confessors openly confessed by Him on His side; and their having been through the suffering and the conflict is just that which brings them here upon the mount of royalty. It is, "If we suffer, we shall also reign with him."
Another inestimable privilege they have got, (though clearly an earthly, not a heavenly company) they are able to learn a song that is sung in heaven: "And I heard a voice from heaven, as the voice of many waters, and as a voice of great thunder; and the voice which I heard was of harpers harping with their harps and they sing a new song before the throne and before the four living beings and the elders and no one was able to learn the song except the 144,000 that were purchased from the earth."
It is clear that the company here occupy a place analogous to that of the Gentile multitude of the seventh chapter, who there stand before the throne and the living ones also. The vision in either case being anticipative, we can understand that earth and heaven are at this time brought near together, and that "standing" before the throne and "singing" before the throne involve no necessary heavenly place for those who sing or stand there. Here, they stand upon mount Zion, while they sing before the throne -that is, if the singers are primarily the 144,000, as many think. What seems in opposition to this is that the voice is heard from heaven, and that the company on mount Zion are spoken of as learners of the song. On the other side, the difficulty is in answering the question, Who are these harpers? plainly human ones, who are distinguished from the elders, yet in heaven at this time. Remembering what the time is, may help us here. May they not be the martyrs of the period with which the prophecy in general has to do -those seen when the fifth seal is opened, and those for whom they are bidden to wait -the sufferers under the beast afterward? two classes which will be seen as completing the ranks of the first resurrection in the twentieth chapter. Those here would give us a third class evidently, neither the heavenly elders nor the sealed ones of Israel, and yet in closest sympathy with the latter. It could not be thought strange that the 144,000 here should be able to learn their song, and at the time when the Lamb is King on Zion this third class would certainly be found filling such a place as that of the harpers here. This seems indeed to meet the difficulty; for their song would clearly be a new song such as neither the Old Testament nor the revelation of the Church-mystery could account for, while the living victors over the beast would seem rightly here to enter into the song of others, rather than themselves to originate it.
But they have their own peculiar place as on mount Zion, first fruits of earth’s harvest to God and to the Lamb, purchased from among men, (grace, through the blood of Christ, the secret of their blessing, as of all other,) but answering to that claim in a true, undefiled condition, in virgin-faithfulness to Him who is afresh espousing Israel to Himself. In their mouth, thus, no lie is found, for they are blameless, and these last words we shall surely read aright when we remember that to those who have not received the love of the truth God will send strong delusion, that they may believe the lie (2Th 1:11), and the apostle’s question, "Who is the liar, but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ?" and that "he is the antichrist who denieth the Father and the Son" (1Jn 2:22). The names of the Lamb and of His Father are on the foreheads of these sealed ones.
2. We have now the earth-gospel, which we need not wonder to be in some sense a gospel of judgment. Thus the denunciative woe upon the beast-followers, as well as the announcement of the fall of Babylon, may enter into it, for these are the necessary clearing of the earth from the power of evil which oppresses it. The everlasting gospel is in terms accordant to this: "Fear God and give Him glory, for the hour of His judgment is come."
(1) It is the fore-gleam of the day that comes that the first vision of this chapter shows us but although the time is coming fast, we are first to see the harbingers of judgment, and then the judgment, before it can in fact arrive. Righteousness unheeded when it spoke in grace must speak in judgment, that the work of righteousness may be "peace, and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance forever." In this way it is that we come now to what seems to us, perhaps, who have one of so much higher character, a strange, sad gospel, and yet the everlasting one which an angel flying in mid-heaven preaches to the inhabitants of the earth. How any one could confound this gospel of judgment with the gospel of salvation by the cross, would seem hard to understand, except as we realize how utterly the difference of dispensations has been ignored in common teaching, and how it is taken as a matter of course that the "gospel" must be always one and the same gospel, which even the epithet "everlasting" is easily taken to prove. Does it not indeed assert it, that the same gospel was preached, of course in a clearer or less clear fashion, all through the dispensation of law, and before it?
No doubt the everlasting gospel must be that which from the beginning was preached and has been preached ever since, although it should be plain that the "hour of His judgment is come" is just what with truth no one in Christian times could say. Plain it is, too, that the command to worship God the Creator is not what any one who knew the gospel could take as that now. In fact, the gospel element, the glad tidings in the angel message, is just found in that which seems most incongruous with it today -that the "hour of His judgment is come." What else in it is tidings at all? That certainly is; and if serious, yet to those who know that just in this way deliverance is to come for the earth, it is simple enough that the coming of the delivering judgment is in fact the gospel.
Listen to that same gospel as a preacher of old declared it. With what rapture of exultation does he break out as he cries, "O sing unto the Lord a new song; sing unto the Lord all the earth; sing unto the Lord, bless His name, show forth His salvation from day to day. Declare His glory among the nations, His marvelous works among all the peoples. . . . Tremble before Him all the earth. Say among the nations that the Lord reigneth, the world also is established that it cannot be moved. He shall judge the peoples with equity. Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice; let the sea roar and the fulness thereof; let the field exult, and all that is therein. Then shall all the trees of the woods sing for joy before the Lord; for He cometh, for He cometh to judge the earth. He shall judge the world with righteousness, and the peoples with His truth" (Psa 96:1-13). Here is a gospel before Christianity, and which has been sounding out all through Christianity, whether men have heard it or not. This, too, is the echo of what we hear in Eden before the gate of the first paradise shuts upon the fallen and guilty pair, that the Seed of the woman should crush the serpent’s head. That is a gospel which has been ringing through the ages since, which may well be called the everlasting one. Its form is only altered by the fact that now at last its promise is to be fulfilled. "Judgment" is to "return to righteousness." The rod is iron, but henceforth in the Shepherd’s hand. Man’s day is passed; the day of the Lord is come, and every blow inflicted shall be on the head of evil, the smiting down of sorrow and of all that brings it. What can he be but rebel-hearted who shall refuse to join the anthem when the King-Creator comes unto His own again? The angel-evangel is thus a claim for worship from all people, and to Him that cometh every knee shall bow.
We must not imagine that the "angel" here is necessarily this. God’s way is to speak by human messengers, and He will doubtless do it at the time we are considering. Those brethren of the Lord whom He owns as such at the time when judgment separates the sheep from the goats, and by the conduct towards whom the condition of men is judged then, are doubtless these very preachers, who are Israelitish as suits the time, and as the "brethren" of the Lord speaks them to be. It is according to the words in Micah, where he speaks of "the remnant of His brethren" returning unto the children of Israel. The passage has been elsewhere examined.
(2) That the message of judgment is indeed a gospel we find plainly in the next announcement, which is marked as that of a second angel, the third following, similar in character, as we shall see directly. Here it is announced that Babylon the Great has fallen: before, indeed, her picture has been presented to us, which we find only in the seventeenth chapter. The name itself is, however, significant as that of Israel’s great enemy, under whose power she lay prostrate seventy years and itself derived from God’s judgment upon an old confederation, the seat of which became afterward the centre of Nimrod’s empire; but that was not Babylon the Great, although human historians would have given her, no doubt, the palm. With God she was only the type of a power more arrogant and evil and defiant of Him than the old Chaldean despot, and into whose hands the Church of Christ has fallen -the heavenly, not the earthly people. It is an old history rehearsed in a new sphere, and with other names -a new witness of the unity of man morally in every generation.
The sin on account of which it falls reminds us still of Babylon, while it has also its peculiar aggravation. Of her of old it was said, "Babylon hath been a golden cup in the Lord’s hand that made all the earth drunken. All nations have drunk of her wine; therefore the nations are mad" (Jer 51:7). But it is not said the "wine of the fury of her fornication." This latter expression shows that Babylon is not here a mere political, but a spiritual power. One who belongs professedly to Christ has prostituted herself to the world for the sake of power. She has inflamed the nations with unholy principles which act upon men’s passions easily stirred, as we have seen in fact in Rome. By such means she has gained and retained power. By such, after centuries of change, she holds it still. But the time is at hand when they will at last fail her, and this is what the angel declares now to have come. Babylon is fallen, and that fall is final. It is the judgment of God upon her. It is retributive justice for centuries of corruption; it is a note of the everlasting gospel which claims the earth for God and announces its deliverance from its oppressors, but we have yet only the announcement. The details will be given in due place.
(3) A third angel follows, noted as that, and belonging therefore to the company of those that bring the gospel of blessing for the earth. That it comes in the shape of a woe we have seen to be in no wise against this. Babylon is not the only evil which must perish that Christ may reign; and Babylon’s removal only makes way at first for the full development of another form of it more openly blasphemous than this. The woman makes way for the man: what professes at least subjection to Christ, for that which is in open revolt against Him. Here, therefore, the woe threatened is far more sweeping and terrible than in the former case. There are people of God who come out of Babylon, and who therefore were in her to come out (Rev 18:4); but the beast in its final form insures the perdition of all who follow it: "If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead or in his hand, he shall even drink of the wine of the fury of God which is mixed, unadulterated, in the cup of His wrath, and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb; and the smoke of their torment ascendeth up to the ages of ages, and they have no rest day nor night who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name."
It is the beast who destroys Babylon, after having for a time supported her. His own pretension tolerates no divided allegiance, and in him the unbelief of a world culminates in self-worship. Here God’s mercy can only take the form of cold and emphatic threatening of extreme penalty for those who worship the beast. In proportion to the fearful character of the evil does the Lord give open assurance of the doom upon it, so that no one may unknowingly incur it. Here "the patience of the saints" is sustained during a "reign of terror" such as has never yet been.
3. Faith, too, is sustained in another way, namely, by the special consolation as to those who die as martyrs at this time: "And I heard a voice out of heaven saying, Write, Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from henceforth." That is plainly encouragement under peculiar circumstances. All who die in the Lord must be blessed at any time, but that only makes it plainer that the circumstances must be exceptional now which require such comfort to be so expressly provided for them. Something must have produced a question as to the blessedness of those who die at this time; and in this we have an incidental confirmation -stronger because incidental -that the resurrection of the saints has already taken place. Were they still waiting to be raised, the blessedness of those who as martyrs joined their company could scarcely be in doubt; but the resurrection having taken place, and the hope of believers being now to enter alive into the kingdom of the Son of man at His appearing, (as the Lord says of that time, "He that shall endure to the end, the same shall be saved" -Mat 24:14,) the question is necessarily raised. What shall be the portion of these martyrs, then, must not remain a question; and in the tenderness of divine love the answer is here explicitly given. Specially blessed are those who die from henceforth. They rest from their labors. They go to their reward. The Spirit seals this with a sweet confirming "yea" -so it is. Earth has only cast them out that heaven may receive them; they have suffered, therefore they shall reign with Christ. Thus, accordingly, we find in the twentieth chapter that when the thrones are set and filled, those that have suffered under the beast are shown as rising from the dead to reign with the rest of those who reign with Him. Not the martyrs in general, but these of this special time, are marked distinctly as finding acknowledgment and blessing in that first resurrection from which it might have seemed that they were shut out altogether. It may help some to see how similar was the difficulty that had to be met with the Thessalonian saints, and which the apostle meets also with a special "word of the Lord" in the first epistle. They also were looking for the Lord, so that the language of their hearts was, with that of the apostle, "we who are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord." They had been "turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait for His Son from heaven;" and with a lively and expectant faith they waited. But then, what about those who were fallen asleep in Christ? It is evident that here is all their difficulty. He would not have them ignorant concerning those that were asleep, so as to be sorrowing for them, hopeless as to their share of blessing in that day. Nay; those who remained would not go before these sleeping ones. They would rise first; and those who were alive would then be "caught up with them to meet the Lord in the air." This for Christians now is the authoritative word of comfort. But the sufferers under the beast would not find this sufficient for them. For them the old difficulty appears once more, and must be met with a new revelation. How perfect and congruous in all its parts is the precious word of God! and how plainly we have, instead of what might seem an obscure or strange expression, -"blessed from henceforth," -a confirmation of the general interpretation of all this part of Revelation! The historical interpretation, however true as a partial, anticipatory fulfilment, fails here in finding any just solution.
4. In the next vision the judgment falls. The Son of man upon the cloud, the harvest, the treading of the wine-press, are all familiar to us from other scriptures, and in connection with the appearing of the Lord. We need have no doubt, therefore, as to what is before us here. The harvest naturally turns us back to our Lord’s parable where the wheat and tares represent the mingled aspect of the kingdom, the field of Christendom. Tares are not the fruit of the gospel, but the enemy’s work, who sows not the truth of God, but an imitation of it. The tares are thus the children of the wicked one, deniers of Christ, though professing Christians. The harvest brings the time of separation. First the tares are gathered and bound in bundles for the burning; but along with this, the wheat is gathered into the barn. In the interpretation afterwards we have a fuller thing. The tares are cast into the fire, and the righteous shine forth as the sun in their Father’s kingdom.
Here, the general idea of harvest would be the same; but it does not follow that it will be necessarily identical with that in the gospel. In fact, this could scarcely be. The wheat is, at the time which we are considering, already reaped in that case, and in the barn. The field is that sown in the generations passing, by the gospel; but the parable of the sheep and goats shows us that there will yet be discriminative judgment; thus a harvest, where that which is for God is gathered in, as well as what He cannot own cast away. The idea is general, and we do not seem able more to particularize. In what follows there is no further discrimination, but judgment pure and simple.
5. Thus, in the vintage, the grapes are cast wholly into the great wine-press of the wrath of God; and thus it is the angel out of the altar who has power over the fire, at whose word it comes. The vine of the earth is a figure suitable to Israel as God’s vine (Isa 5:1-30), but now apostate. Yet it cannot be confined to Israel, as is plain from the connection in which we find it elsewhere, but it represents in any case an apostasy, and thus what we have seen to have its centre at Jerusalem, though involving Gentiles also, far and near. Thus the city, outside of which the wine-press is trodden, is Jerusalem, as the 1600 furlongs is well known to be the length of Palestine. Blood flows up to the bits of the horses for that distance -of course a figure, but a terrible one.
Both figures, the harvest and the vintage, are used in Joel with reference to this time: "Proclaim ye this among the nations; prepare war; stir up the mighty men; let all the men of war draw near; let them come up. Beat your plowshares into swords and your pruning-hooks into spears: let the weak say, I am strong. Haste ye and come, all ye nations round about, and gather yourselves together; hither cause Thy mighty ones to come down, O Lord. Let the nations bestir themselves and come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat, for there will I sit to judge all the nations round about. Put ye in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe. Come, tread ye, for the wine-press is full, the vats overflow; for their wickedness is great. Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision, for the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision. The sun and the moon are darkened, and the stars withdraw their shining; and the Lord shall roar upon Zion and utter His voice upon Jerusalem, and the heaven and the earth shall shake: but the Lord will be a refuge unto His people and a stronghold to the children of Israel."
Thus comes the final blessing, and the picture upon which the eye rests at last is a very different one. "So shall ye know that I am the Lord your God, dwelling in Zion My holy mountain: then shall Jerusalem be holy, and there shall no strangers pass through her any more. And it shall come to pass in that day that the mountains shall drop down sweet wine, and the hills shall flow with milk, and all the brooks of Judah shall flow with waters, and a fountain shall come forth of the house of the Lord and water the valley of Shittim. . . . And I will cleanse their blood that I have not cleansed; for the Lord dwelleth in Zion."
F. W. Grant, The Numerical Bible (4th ed., 1903) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. R. Dummelow 1909 · Public Domain The Lamb and His Followers. Judgment on His Enemies
The Lamb and His Followers. Judgment on His Enemies
In the last two chapters were seen the enemies of the Church, and their fierce power. Now, by way of contrast, and to encourage the Church to resist her enemies with complete certainty of victory, pictures are shown of the blessedness of those who witness a true confession for Christ, and of God's judgment on the ungodly.
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1-5. The Lamb (cp. Rev_5:6, etc.) is seen on Mount Zion, i.e. the true and heavenly home of the Church: cp. Heb_12:22. With Him are the perfect number (cp. Rev_7:4) of those who had been marked with His name and the name of His Father, instead of with the mark of the beast: see on Rev_3:12, and cp. Rev_7:3; Rev_13:16. Both here, and in Rev_7:4, '144,000' is a figurative expression for the whole number of the Redeemed (Rev_14:1). A heavenly chorus is heard, in which the voice of Christ is followed by the voices of the living creatures and of the elders (Rev_14:2). The Redeemed join in the strain (Rev_14:3). They are described as undefiled by idolatry, which is often described in Scripture as adultery against God, and which was itself commonly allied with impurity; as following the Lamb through suffering to glory; as a choice offering to God (Rev_14:4); as having confessed the true God and not the lying idol (guile, RV 'lie'); and as an undefiled (fault, RV 'blemish') sacrifice, perhaps with an allusion to the death of the martyrs: cp. Heb_9:14; 1Pe_1:19; (Rev_14:5).
1. Looked] RV 'saw.' A Lamb] RV 'the Lamb.' His Father's name] RV 'his name, and the name of his Father.'
2. A voice] see on Rev_1:10. I heard the voice of] RV 'the voice which I heard was as the voice of.'
3. They] i.e. the 144,000. Beasts] RV 'living creatures.'.
4. Being] RV 'to be.'
6f. An angel announces the glad tidings for those who fear God, that He is about to be manifested for the salvation of His oppressed people.
6. Heaven] i.e. the sky.
8. The Fall of Babylon, i.e. Rome (see on Rev_17:5; Revelation 18), is spoken of as if it had already taken place. RV 'Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great, which hath made,' etc.: cp. Isa_21:9; Dan_4:30. The wrath of her fornication] i.e. the wrath of God incurred by her unfaithfulness to God in which they had shared: cp. Rev_17:2; Jer_51:7.
9-13. God's wrath is denounced on any who fall away from the Lamb to the beast (Rev_14:9). Their woe is described in language drawn from Isa_34:8., and from the account of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah (Rev_14:10.). The wrath of God is more terrible than that of the beast, hence the endurance of the 'saints' is justified (Rev_14:12). Therefore, also, it is well with those who have died in persecution in the faith of Christ; for while death brings no rest to those who worship the beast (cp. Rev_14:11), the death of the saints brings rest from their labours and sorrows (Rev_14:13).
9. See on Rev_13:16.
10. Poured out without mixture into] RV 'prepared unmixed in,' i.e. it is of full strength: cp. Psa_75:8; Isa_51:17.
13. A voice] see on Rev_1:10.
14-20. St. John sees one 'like unto a son of man' (RV). The expression is derived from Dan_7:13, where it meant one in human form, as contrasted with the beasts. The title was interpreted of the Messiah, and the Jewish 'Book of Enoch' shows that under it the Messiah was regarded as a supernatural person. This was the significance of the term when our Lord applied it to Himself, and He joined to it the conception of the 'man of sorrows' of Isaiah 53. Now, after His sorrows, He is throned on a 'white cloud' (representing the glory of God, cp. Exo_40:34; 1Ki_8:10; Mat_17:5; Mar_14:62), and crowned as king: cp. Rev_19:12; (Rev_14:14). He casts His sickle down to the earth, and the harvest of the saints is gathered (Rev_14:15.).
Then the angel of the fire on God's altar (cp. Rev_9:14; Rev_16:5), the fire of God's judgments (cp. Rev_8:5), calls for the gathering of the wicked for the winepress of God's wrath: cp. Rev_19:15; Isa_63:1. Joe_3:13. (Rev_14:17.). Those who are judged (Rev_14:19) are separated from the heavenly state of the redeemed ('without the city,' cp. Zec_14:4, Zec_14:10; Heb_13:11.). The awfulness of the judgment is described in language similar to that of a description of judgment in the 'Book of Enoch'; and its universality, by the extent of land covered by blood. 'Four' is the number symbolical of the earth, and 1600 is a thousand times the square of 4: cp. '144,000,' the number expressing the people of God (Rev_14:20).
15. Temple] cp. Rev_11:19. Crying.. to him] i.e. the will of the Father is communicated to Christ. Thrust in] RV 'send forth' (and Rev_14:18). For thee] RV omits. Ripe] RV 'overripe.'
16, 19. Thrust in] RV 'cast.'
18. Vine] RV 'vintage.'
20. By the space of] RV 'as far as.'
J. R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (Macmillan, 1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain written in
written in
See, Rev 7:3; Rev 22:4 contra: Rev 13:16.
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Arno C. Gaebelein 1922 · Public Domain Grace ancient
CHAPTER 14
Grace ancient
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1. The Lamb and the 144,000 (Rev 14:1-5)
2. The everlasting gospel (Rev 14:6-7)
3. Fall of Babylon anticipated (Rev 14:8)
4. Wrath for the worshippers of the beast (Rev 14:9-11)
5. The blessed dead (Rev 14:12-13)
6. The harvest and the vintage (Rev 14:14-20)
Rev 14:1-5.
A series of visions follow the dark scenes in chapter 13. The conditions under the domineering power of the two beasts are going to be changed. The Lord will answer the prayers of the persecuted Jewish people and deliver them by His personal coming out of the opened heaven. This glorious manifestation is fully revealed in the nineteenth chapter. Here it is anticipated. There is much said about this intervention in behalf of the suffering godly remnant in the Old Testament. As an illustration we call attention to Psa 44:1-26; Psa 45:1-17. In the Forty-fourth Psalm we find a description of their suffering and the cry to heaven: “Arise for our help, and redeem us for Thy mercies’ sake.” In the Forty-fifth Psalm the answer to this prayer is recorded. The King riding in majesty, dealing with His enemies, surrounded by redeemed companies, is beheld in that Psalm. The entire book of Psalms should be studied from the viewpoint of prophecy; it will shed much light upon these events of this portion of Revelation.
But who are the 144,000 standing with the Lamb upon Mount Zion, having His Name and His Father’s Name written on their foreheads? In the previous chapter we saw a company on earth who have the mark of the beast on their foreheads; but here is a company who have His Name and the Father’s Name on the forehead. A good many have made of this company a portion of the Church, as first-fruits, who, according to this theory, have lived separated lives and are caught up into heaven, while the other believers, who did not live as near to God as they did, will have to suffer in the great tribulation.
The reader who has followed the unfolding of this book will see at once that such an interpretation is impossible. These 144,000 have nothing to do whatever with the Church. And the 144,000 learn to sing this new song. Who then are the harpers? They are the martyred company seen in connection with the fifth seal and they also include now their brethren which were slain during the great tribulation. The characteristics of the 144,000 are next given. Rev 14:4 must not be interpreted in a literal sense. Those who apply it to a first-fruits of the Church have done so, and it has led to much confusion and even worse things. Literal impurity is not in view. If it had a literal meaning this company would consist of men only. The woman, the great harlot Babylon and her daughters, the godless and christless religious world-systems (chapter 17) are then on earth. They did not defile themselves with the corruptions and idolatries prevalent on the earth. They kept themselves from spiritual fornication. They are the first-fruits and the earnest of the blessings soon in store for the earth. They were devoted to the Lamb and no lie (not guile) was in their mouth. The lie and delusion of the end-time were utterly repudiated by them.
Rev 14:6-7.
This has nothing to do with the preaching of the gospel during this church-age. The angel must not be taken as a literal angel. The preaching of any gospel to those who dwell on earth is never committed to angels, but to men. This is true of the gospel of grace which redeemed sinners are privileged to proclaim during this age, and of the everlasting gospel during the end of the age. The gospel preached is the gospel of the kingdom and the preachers are this faithful remnant of God’s earthly people. Nothing of this preaching was said in chapter 7, though the result, the gathered multitude coming out of the great tribulation is seen there. But here, where the moral and spiritual characteristics of the remnant of Israel are seen, their testimony also comes into view. What this everlasting gospel is we need not explain, for Rev 14:7 gives us the information. It is everlasting because it concerns the Creator as the only object of worship. And it will sound the loudest and go forth in no uncertain sound at the time when pandemonium reigns on earth, and heaven is about to open to manifest the King of glory. How great is God’s mercy! And the nations who hear and turn to God will enter the coming kingdom. Read in connection with Rev 14:6-7 Psa 96:1-13. It will give you a great deal of light on this portion of Revelation.
Rev 14:8.
This is an anticipative announcement of what will also happen as the great tribulation nears its close. The particulars are not given here. These and what Babylon is and how Babylon the great (city must be omitted in this verse) falls, we shall find in chapters 17 and 18. God’s intervention in judgment upon the great whore is simply mentioned here.
Rev 14:9-11.
Here we have a third angelic announcement. It concerns the worshipers of the beast. They drink of the wrath of God. It is “without mixture,” that is, no mercy is found in the cup of His indignation. It serves as a solemn warning. Babylon falls prior to the glorious appearing of the King, and the beast will afterward manifest his power as never before. Therefore, the warning concerning the inevitable fate of those who worship the beast and take its mark.
Rev 14:12-13.
It is a voice which proclaims this. It refers especially to those who are martyrs at that time. Certainly all our loved ones who fall asleep in Jesus are blessed. They are absent from the body and consciously present with the Lord. But here is the comfort for those who faithfully resist the worship of the beast, who refuse to take the mark. They become martyrs. The book of Revelation will be read and studied during the great tribulation. Satan through the beasts, will try to annihilate it and the rest of the Bible. But it will be a failure as all former attempts to get the Bible out of the world have failed. Here then, is first the warning. If they worship the beast they will be lost forever. Then there is the alternative to resist the beast and be killed as to the body, but die in the Lord. “From henceforth” means during the tribulation when the great persecution goes on.
Rev 14:14-20.
This brings now the coming of the Son of Man with judgment power into view. The harvest and the vintage have come. The sickle is put in. The reapers used will be angels (Mat 13:41). The day of vengeance has come. Read Isa 63:1-6; Joe 3:1-21; Zec 12:1-14; Zec 13:1-9; Zec 14:1-21. This will greatly help to a better understanding of the harvest and the vintage. The nations and their armies will be in the land; the Assyrian from the north, foreshadowed by the wicked work of Antiochus Epiphanes (Dan 8:1-27) will do his awful work, the false prophet, the second beast is in Jerusalem. But then the judgment clouds break. The battle of Armageddon comes into view for the first time in Rev 14:20. How we ought to praise Him for His infinite grace which has separated us from these awful judgments of vengeance and wrath. His people will be at home when these things come to pass.
Arno C. Gaebelein, The Annotated Bible (1913–1922) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain Of the Church of the Reformation and the Fall…
Of the Church of the Reformation and the Fall of Spiritual Babylon.
The Lamb and His followers:
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v. 1. And I looked, and, lo, a Lamb stood on the Mount Sion and with him an hundred and forty and four thousand, having His Father’s name written in their foreheads.
v. 2. And I heard a voice from heaven as the voice of many waters and as the voice of a great thunder; and I heard the voice of harpers harping with their harps;
v. 3. and they sung as it were a new song before the throne and before the four beasts and the elders; and no man could learn that song but the hundred and forty and four thousand, which were redeemed from the earth.
v. 4. They are they which were not defiled with women; for they are virgins. These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth. These were redeemed from among men, being the first-fruits unto God and to the Lamb.
v. 5. And in their mouth was found no guile; for they are without fault before the throne of God.
After the picture of abomination in the preceding chapter we have here visions full of comfort and strength and consolation for all believers. The Lamb now again becomes the center of interest: And I saw, and, behold, the Lamb standing on Mount Zion, and with Him one hundred forty-four thousand having His name, the name of the Father, written upon their foreheads. In the midst of the last great woe the Lord has ways and means of keeping and saving His Church. Mount Zion is often used figuratively for the Church of Christ and for the place where it is established. The Lamb is our Savior Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the world. The number given here, one hundred and forty-four thousand, is the symbolical figure representing the total number of the elect. See chap. 7:4-8. These elect of God did not bear the mark of the beast upon their forehead, but the name of their Savior, Jesus Christ, and of the Father in heaven, by whose power and through whose will salvation was given them.
John now tells what he heard in that vision: And I heard a voice out of heaven as the voice of many waters and as the rumbling of great thunder; and the voice which I heard resembled that of harpists playing on their harps; and they sang a new song before the throne and before the four living beings and the elders; and no one can learn the song except the hundred and forty-four thousand that have been redeemed from the earth. See chap. 5:8. It was a wonderfully strange and beautiful music which John heard, now as the rushing of mighty waters, then again as the rumbling of loud thunder, then resembling the delicate playing of many harpists attuned in perfect harmony. The glory and power and beauty of the Lord were praised in this incomparable hymn, in this hymn which is sung only in the heavenly presence, before the throne of God, before the four cherubim, before the elders that represent the Church of God on earth; Only those that are among the elect of God are able to learn this wonderful hymn; for hypocrites and Christians in name only it is too difficult It is like the confession of Peter; flesh and blood cannot comprehend it, but only they to whom the Spirit of God has revealed it.
The faithful believers, the elect of God, are now described more fully: These are they that have not been defiled with women, for virgins they are; these have been redeemed from men as the first-fruits to God and to the Lamb, and in their mouth there is found no lie; for they are blameless. That is a characteristic of the elect of God in the midst of the abominations of this last period of the world: they take no part in the idolatry of the Pope wherewith so many people are now defiling themselves; they are pure in this respect. They have been redeemed from among men by the blood of Christ, which was indeed shed for them all, but which the great majority reject and therefore do not become partakers of its wonderful benefits. They are therefore the first-fruits of the spiritual harvest of the world, offered to God as a living sacrifice on the great Passover festival of heaven. They now belong to God, their heavenly Father, and to the Lamb, their Savior, whose cross they cheerfully bear after Him. They do not join in the hypocrisy which sings the praises of the Lamb and does the works of the dragon, but they are free from the lying and the falsehood of Anti-Christ. Altogether, they are pure, blameless, without stain, not on their own account, hut by virtue of the blood of Christ, which cleanses them from all sins.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 Connecting Statement:
Connecting Statement:
John begins to describe the next part of his vision. There are 144,000 believers standing before the Lamb.
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General Information:
The word "I" refers to John.
Lamb
A "lamb" is a young sheep. Here is it used symbolically to refer to Christ. See how you translated this in Revelation 5:6. (See: Symbolic Language)
144,000
"one hundred forty-four thousand." See how you translated this in Revelation 7:4. (See: Numbers)
who had his name and his Father's name written on their foreheads
This can be stated in active form. AT: "on whose foreheads the Lamb and his Father had written their names" (See: Active or Passive)
his Father
This is an important title for God that describes the relationship between God and Jesus. (See: Translating Son and Father)
a voice from heaven
"a sound from heaven"
translationWords
lamb
Zion
God the Father
voice
heaven
water
harp
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 14:1-5 The true Lamb and his followers starkly contrast…
14:1-5 The true Lamb and his followers starkly contrast with the evil trinity.
14:1 standing: See 5:6; study note on 12:18. • 144,000: God’s righteous remnant (see study note on 7:4-8). • The brand on their foreheads (contrast 13:16-17) is the name of both the Lamb and his Father, reflecting the union of Jesus and the Father (see John 5:20-23; 14:5-10; 17:22).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.