The sky was removed like a scroll when it is rolled up. Every mountain and island were moved out of their places. The kings of the earth, the princes, the commanding officers, the rich, the strong, and every slave and free person, hid themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains. They told the mountains and the rocks, “Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb, for the great day of his wrath has come; and who is able to stand?”
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Revelation 6:14-17 sits inside this longer paragraph.
I saw when he opened the sixth seal, and there was a great earthquake. The sun became black as sackcloth made of hair, and the whole moon became as blood. The stars of the sky fell to the earth, like a fig tree dropping its unripe figs when it is shaken by a great wind. The sky was removed like a scroll when it is rolled up. Every mountain and island were moved out of their places. The kings of the earth, the princes, the commanding officers, the rich, the strong, and every slave and free person, hid themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains. They told the mountains and the rocks, “Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb, for the great day of his wrath has come; and who is able to stand?”
Parallel Translations
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The sky was removed like a scroll when it is rolled up. Every mountain and island were moved out of their places.
The kings of the earth, the princes, the commanding officers, the rich, the strong, and every slave and free person, hid themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains.
They told the mountains and the rocks, “Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb,
for the great day of his wrath has come; and who is able to stand?”
-
And heven vanysshed awaye as a scroll when it is rolled togedder. And all mountayns and yles were moved oute of their places.
And the kynges of the erth and the gret men and the ryche men and the chefe captaynes and the myghty men and every bond man and every free man hyd them selves in dennes and in rockes of the hylles
and sayde to the hylles and rockes: fall on vs and hyde vs from the presence of him that sytteth on the seate and from the wrath of the lambe
for the grete daye of hys wrath ys come And who can endure it.
Show all 3 translations
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And heauen departed away, as a scroule, when it is rolled, and euery mountaine and yle were mooued out of their places.
And the Kinges of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chiefe captaines, and the mighty men, and euery bondman, and euery free man, hid themselues in dennes, and among the rockes of the mountaines,
And said to the mountaines and rocks, Fal on vs, and hide vs from the presence of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lambe.
For the great day of his wrath is come, and who can stand?
Cross-references (63)
- Isaiah 34:4 (v14) All of the army of the sky will be dissolved. The sky will be rolled up like a scroll, and all its armies will fade away, as a leaf fades…
- Luke 23:30 (v16) Then they will begin to tell the mountains, ‘Fall on us!’ and tell the hills, ‘Cover us.’
- Hosea 10:8 (v16) The high places also of Aven, the sin of Israel, will be destroyed. The thorn and the thistle will come up on their altars. They will tell…
- Revelation 16:20 (v14) Every island fled away, and the mountains were not found.
- 2 Peter 3:10 (v14) But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will be…
Show all 61 cross-references
- Isaiah 2:19 (v15) Men shall go into the caves of the rocks, and into the holes of the earth, from before the terror of Yahweh, and from the glory of his…
- Psalms 76:7 (v17) You, even you, are to be feared. Who can stand in your sight when you are angry?
- Joel 2:11 (v17) Yahweh thunders his voice before his army; for his forces are very great; for he is strong who obeys his command; for the day of Yahweh is…
- Malachi 3:2 (v17) “But who can endure the day of his coming? And who will stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner’s fire, and like launderers’ soap;
- Hebrews 1:11-13 (v14) They will perish, but you continue. They all will grow old like a garment does. You will roll them up like a mantle, and they will be…
- Psalms 102:26 (v14) They will perish, but you will endure. Yes, all of them will wear out like a garment. You will change them like a cloak, and they will be…
- Isaiah 2:21 (v15) to go into the caverns of the rocks, and into the clefts of the ragged rocks, from before the terror of Yahweh, and from the glory of his…
- Joel 2:31 (v17) The sun will be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and terrible day of Yahweh comes.
- Revelation 4:2 (v16) Immediately I was in the Spirit. Behold, there was a throne set in heaven, and one sitting on the throne
- Isaiah 24:21-22 (v15) It will happen in that day that Yahweh will punish the army of the high ones on high, and the kings of the earth on the earth. They will be…
- Jeremiah 30:7 (v17) Alas! for that day is great, so that none is like it. It is even the time of Jacob’s trouble; but he will be saved out of it.
- Revelation 16:14 (v17) for they are spirits of demons, performing signs; which go out to the kings of the whole inhabited earth, to gather them together for the…
- Revelation 20:11 (vv14, 16) I saw a great white throne, and him who sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away. There was found no place for them.
- Isaiah 2:10 (v15) Enter into the rock, and hide in the dust, from before the terror of Yahweh, and from the glory of his majesty.
- Isaiah 54:10 (v14) For the mountains may depart, and the hills be removed; but my loving kindness will not depart from you, and my covenant of peace will not…
- Jeremiah 4:23-26 (v14) I saw the earth, and, behold, it was waste and void, and the heavens, and they had no light. I saw the mountains, and behold, they…
- Nahum 1:5 (v14) The mountains quake before him, and the hills melt away. The earth trembles at his presence, yes, the world, and all who dwell in it.
- Psalms 130:3-4 (v17) If you, Yah, kept a record of sins, Lord, who could stand? But there is forgiveness with you, therefore you are feared.
- Isaiah 2:14-17 (v14) for all the high mountains, for all the hills that are lifted up, for every lofty tower, for every fortified wall, for all the ships of…
- Isaiah 13:6-22 (v17) Wail, for Yahweh’s day is at hand! It will come as destruction from the Almighty. Therefore all hands will be feeble, and everyone’s heart…
- Jeremiah 51:25 (v14) “Behold, I am against you, destroying mountain,” says Yahweh, “which destroys all the earth. I will stretch out my hand on you, roll you…
- Ezekiel 38:20 (v14) so that the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, the animals of the field, all creeping things who creep on the earth, and all the men…
- Habakkuk 3:6 (v14) He stood, and shook the earth. He looked, and made the nations tremble. The ancient mountains were crumbled. The age-old hills collapsed.…
- Zephaniah 1:14-18 (v17) The great day of Yahweh is near. It is near, and hurries greatly, the voice of the day of Yahweh. The mighty man cries there bitterly. That…
- Romans 2:5 (v17) But according to your hardness and unrepentant heart you are treasuring up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath, revelation, and of the…
- Revelation 21:1 (v14) I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth have passed away, and the sea is no more.
- Psalms 110:5-6 (vv15–16) The Lord is at your right hand. He will crush kings in the day of his wrath. He will judge among the nations. He will heap up dead bodies.…
- Psalms 2:10-12 (v15) Now therefore be wise, you kings. Be instructed, you judges of the earth. Serve Yahweh with fear, and rejoice with trembling. Give sincere…
- Psalms 14:5 (v16) There they were in great fear, for God is in the generation of the righteous.
- Jeremiah 8:3 (v16) Death will be chosen rather than life by all the residue that remain of this evil family, that remain in all the places where I have driven…
- Matthew 26:64 (v16) Jesus said to him, “You have said it. Nevertheless, I tell you, after this you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of Power,…
- Luke 21:36 (v17) Therefore be watchful all the time, praying that you may be counted worthy to escape all these things that will happen, and to stand before…
- 2 Thessalonians 1:7-9 (v16) and to give relief to you who are afflicted with us, when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire,…
- Jude 1:6 (v17) Angels who didn’t keep their first domain, but deserted their own dwelling place, he has kept in everlasting bonds under darkness for the…
- Revelation 11:18 (v17) The nations were angry, and your wrath came, as did the time for the dead to be judged, and to give your bondservants the prophets, their…
- Revelation 19:13-21 (v15) He is clothed in a garment sprinkled with blood. His name is called “The Word of God.” The armies which are in heaven followed him on white…
- 1 Samuel 13:6 (v15) When the men of Israel saw that they were in trouble (for the people were distressed), then the people hid themselves in caves, in…
- Job 34:19-20 (v15) He doesn’t respect the persons of princes, nor respect the rich more than the poor; for they all are the work of his hands. In a moment…
- Psalms 2:9-12 (v16) You shall break them with a rod of iron. You shall dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.” Now therefore be wise, you kings. Be…
- Psalms 49:1-2 (v15) Hear this, all you peoples. Listen, all you inhabitants of the world, both low and high, rich and poor together.
- Psalms 76:12 (v15) He will cut off the spirit of princes. He is feared by the kings of the earth.
- Isaiah 42:22 (v15) But this is a robbed and plundered people. All of them are snared in holes, and they are hidden in prisons. They have become captives, and…
- Jeremiah 3:23 (v14) Truly help from the hills, the tumult on the mountains, is in vain. Truly the salvation of Israel is in Yahweh our God.
- Micah 7:17 (v15) They will lick the dust like a serpent. Like crawling things of the earth they shall come trembling out of their dens. They will come with…
- Habakkuk 3:10 (v14) The mountains saw you, and were afraid. The storm of waters passed by. The deep roared and lifted up its hands on high.
- Hebrews 11:38 (v15) of whom the world was not worthy—wandering in deserts, mountains, caves, and the holes of the earth.
- Revelation 18:9-11 (v15) The kings of the earth who committed sexual immorality and lived wantonly with her will weep and wail over her, when they look at the smoke…
- Joshua 10:16-17 (v15) These five kings fled, and hid themselves in the cave at Makkedah. Joshua was told, saying, “The five kings have been found, hidden in the…
- Judges 6:2 (v15) The hand of Midian prevailed against Israel; and because of Midian the children of Israel made themselves the dens which are in the…
- Psalms 21:8-12 (v16) Your hand will find out all of your enemies. Your right hand will find out those who hate you. You will make them as a fiery furnace in the…
- Zechariah 1:14-15 (v16) So the angel who talked with me said to me, “Proclaim, saying, ‘Yahweh of Armies says: “I am jealous for Jerusalem and for Zion with a…
- Revelation 4:5 (v16) Out of the throne proceed lightnings, sounds, and thunders. There were seven lamps of fire burning before his throne, which are the seven…
- Revelation 4:9 (v16) When the living creatures give glory, honor, and thanks to him who sits on the throne, to him who lives forever and ever,
- Revelation 6:10 (v16) They cried with a loud voice, saying, “How long, Master, the holy and true, until you judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the…
- Revelation 10:6 (v16) and swore by him who lives forever and ever, who created heaven and the things that are in it, the earth and the things that are in it, and…
- Revelation 19:15 (v16) Out of his mouth proceeds a sharp, double-edged sword, that with it he should strike the nations. He will rule them with an iron rod. He…
61 distinct cross-references across this passage (63 total citations).
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this passage (17 sources)
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Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv15–16 The event of the sign aforegoing: that there is…
The event of the sign aforegoing: that there is no man that shall not be astonished at that general commotion, fly away for fear and hide himself in this verse, and wish unto himself most bitter death for exceeding horror of the wrath of God, and of the Lamb, at which before he was astonished. Now this perplexity is not of the godly, but of the wicked, whose portion is in this life, as the Psalmist speaketh, Ps. 17:14. Not that sorrow which is according unto God, which worketh repentance unto salvation, whereof a man shall never repent him, but that worldly sorrow that bringeth death, 2 Cor. 7:9, as their wishings do declare: for this history is of the whole world, severed from the history of the Church, as I have showed before, Rev. 4:1.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv14–17 14 And the heaven departed as a scroll when…
14 And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places.
Ver. 14. And every mountain] {See Trapp on "Rev 6:12"} Cinis quidam noxius e Visuvio emissus, Romam venit (inquit Dio) ita ut incolae putare coeperunt omnia sursum deorsum ferri, solemque in terram cadere, ac terrain in caelum conscendere. I myself saw, saith Bellarmine, a huge hill removed by an earthquake, and brought down to a town, which was wholly covered by it, and as it were buried under it. Perhaps he meant Pleurs in Rhetia, which was overcovered suddenly with a mountain, so that 1500 persons were buried there alive.
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 On vv14–17 Two expressions more signifying the same thing. The first…
Two expressions more signifying the same thing. The first is used by the prophet, to signify the change God would make in the state of the Edomites, Isa 34:4, as will appear by comparing what that prophet saith, with what Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Obadiah say, upon the same argument, Jer 49:7-22; Eze 35:1-15.
And every mountain and island were moved out of their places; all sorts of people shall be destroyed, or all the paganish religion shall be rooted out.
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 On v15 Observe here, That if this was meant of the…
Observe here, That if this was meant of the Jews at the destruction of Jerusalem, it was exceeding dreadful, and bespake all sorts of men, from the highest to the lowest, to be under a most dreadful consternation, when they saw an inevitable vengeance coming upon them for crucifying Christ, and persecuting his members, which made them run into rocks, and call upon mountains to hide them: if it be applied to the judgment of the great day, it shows the justice of Christ in forcing those to call upon the mountains to hide them, who by persecution had driven his members to hide themselves in mountains, dens, and caves, of the earth: any sort of hope will be then in vain; neither greatness nor numbers will save any from misery and terror, when that day of vengeance is come.
Learn hence, That wicked men, how numerous, how powerful and strong soever, shall fall before the wrath and indignation of Christ; if when Christ appears like an angry Lamb the greatest in the world fall before him, what will they then do when Christ shall put on the fierceness and severity of a roaring lion? Mitissima sententia quae a mitussima judice denuntiatur. If the wrath of the Lamb cannot be borne, if the unbelieving kings and potentates of the earth shall be cast down at the sight of Christ, where shall the wicked and the sinner appear? If the wrath of a king be as the roaring lion, what will the wrath of God, an angry God, be?
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Let us now be cast down at the sight of sin, and we shall not be cast down hereafter at the sight of God; but when others, at his appearance, cry to the rocks to cover them, and to the mountains to fall upon them, such as have seen sin to their abasement and humiliation, shall see a Saviour to their joyful satisfaction, and spend an eternity in the rapturous contemplation and ravishing fruition of him. Amen.
William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv14–17 And the heaven departed as a scroll when it…
And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together,.... The manner of writing formerly was on rolls of parchment; hence the word volume is used for a book, which, when rolled up, the writing within could not be seen, not a syllable nor letter of it. In like manner the Roman empire, as Pagan, which was like a large sheet, or rather like the expanse or firmament of the heaven, stretched out over all the earth, was now, as to the Paganism of it, rolled up together, so that there were no more Heathen gods, nor Heathen priests; no more idolatry, and idolatrous worship of that kind were to be seen, and not so much as the names of Heathen gods to be heard of in the empire.
And every mountain and island were moved out of their places; by "every mountain" may be meant the places of idolatrous worship, which were usually upon mountains; see Jer 3:6; which were now shut up, or demolished, or used for Christian worship; and "every island" being moved also may show, that Paganism was not only rooted out of the provinces of the empire upon the continent, but out of the islands also; and the ecclesiastical history of these times informs us, that there were Christian churches in the isles, which enjoyed the Gospel free of persecution and distress; as in the isles of Cyprus, Crete, the Cyclades, Sardinia, Siciiy, Corsica, and in ours of England, Scotland, and Ireland (o). Mr. Daubuz thinks, that as "mountains" design the temples of idols, "islands" signify the revenues of them, which were now taken away, and applied to other uses.
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(o) Centuriator. Magdeburg. Cent. 4. c. 2. p. 5, 8.
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 On vv14–16 And the heavens departed as a book that is…
And the heavens departed as a book that is rolled together - When the scripture compares some very great with a little thing, the majesty and omnipotence of God, before whom great things are little, is highly exalted. Every mountain and island - What a mountain is to the land, that an island is to the sea.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv14–17 Verse 14. And the heaven departed as a scroll]…
Verse 14. And the heaven departed as a scroll] The whole system of pagan and idolatrous worship, with all its spiritual, secular, and superstitious influence, was blasted, shrivelled up, and rendered null and void, as a parchment scroll when exposed to the action of a strong fire.
And every mountain] All the props, supports, and dependencies of the empire, whether regal allies, tributary kings, dependent colonies, or mercenary troops, were all moved out of their places, so as to stand no longer in the same relation to that empire, and its worship, support, and maintenance, as they formerly did.
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And island] The heathen temples, with their precincts and enclosures, cut off from the common people, and into which none could come but the privileged, may be here represented by islands, for the same reasons.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On v14 And every mountain. In the dreadful confusion of the…
And every mountain. In the dreadful confusion of the Roman empire, in the time of Constantine, so great was the revolution, that mountains appeared, as it were, moved out of their places; islands shifted from their accustomed situations. We behold at one time seven persons, Maximin Galerius, Maxentius, Severus Cæsar, Maximin, Alexander, Maximin Hercules, and Licinius, all aiming at the empire. The first six perished in nine years, from 305 to 314: Licinius was strangled in 324. All these were enemies of the Christian religion. Constantine, who supported it, remained sole master of the empire. (Calmet)
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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).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv14–17 departed--Greek, "was separated from" its place; "was made to…
departed--Greek, "was separated from" its place; "was made to depart." Not as ALFORD, "parted asunder"; for, on the contrary, it was rolled together as a scroll which had been open is rolled up and laid aside. There is no "asunder one from another" here in the Greek, as in Act 15:39, which ALFORD copies.
mountain . . . moved out of . . . places-- (Psa 121:1, Margin; Jer 3:23; Jer 4:24; Nah 1:5). This total disruption shall be the precursor of the new earth, just as the pre-Adamic convulsions prepared it for its present occupants.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv14–17 14. Heaven departed as a scroll—Compare our notes on…
14. Heaven departed as a scroll—Compare our notes on the passing “away with a great noise,” of 2Pe_3:10; and also on “the earth and the heaven fled away,” of Rev_20:11. These parallels prove the identity of this dissolution with that of those two passages, as well as with that of Mat_24:29. This identity of the three is conclusive against a pre-millennial advent.
A scroll—A sheet of parchment, papyrus, or paper, loosely crumpled and vanishing away. To the eye of the spectator, in this scene of rocking terrene convulsion, the apparent sky of clouds and firmament will seem to crumple and rush away.
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Mountain… island… moved—As seen from a bird’s-eye view, the prominent geographical points will appear to change their places.
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 On vv14–17 14. And the heaven departed] i.e. parted asunder. The…
14. And the heaven departed] i.e. parted asunder. The verb depart was so used (only in a transitive sense) in the Marriage Service until the last revision of the Prayer-Book, “till death us depart,” i.e. “till death part us.” Here we still have a reference to Isa_34:4. The word for “scroll” is the same as that rendered “book” in c. v. &c.
every mountain and island, &c.] Cf. Rev_16:20. There the convulsion is greater than here: and even there it does not imply quite so much as Rev_20:11—a fact to be remembered in the interpretation of this passage.
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 On vv15, 17 (15-17) And the kings . . .—Translate, And the…
(15-17) And the kings . . .—Translate, And the kings of the earth, and the magnates, and the commanders of hosts, and the wealthy, and the strong, and every man, bond and free, hid themselves (going) into the caves and into the rocks of the mountains; and say to the mountains and to the rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of Him that sitteth upon the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: for the day, the great (day) of His wrath came (or, is come); and who is able to stand? In the list of the great ones here we may notice the descending order—kings, magnates or statesmen, generals, rich men, strong men, bond and free men. The terror strikes into every class: monarchs and their advisers, the statesmen and diplomatists, the commanders of troops, the merchant princes, the men of ability, as well as the obscurer orders of society. Neither royalty, nor rank, nor force of arms, nor opulence, nor talent, nor strength, either of intellect or frame, avail in that crisis; neither does insignificance escape in that day when God brings to light the hidden things. The tests of God are spiritual, as the weapons of God’s war are not carnal. Men who have relied upon wealth, rank, or power, have prepared themselves against one form of trial, but find themselves unarmed in the day of spiritual testing. Like Macbeth, they are unable to fight with the unexpected shape which haunts them. They would rather meet the bodily foe, “who would dare them to the desert with a sword.”
Thus in the final day of judgment the revealing of the spiritual order of all life will confound men whose minds have been blinded by their entire absorption in world-splendours and world-powers. Nor is it merely the unveiling of the forgotten spiritual order which will confound them. The advent is of a Person. It is more than the manifestation of the kingdom of Him who all this while had been King on His throne, and whom they had forgotten—it is the revealing of God’s Son from heaven. It is not without significance that He is described as the Lamb. In that day of His wrath, it is not as a Judge who has laid aside the tokens of His humiliation and suffering: it is as the Lamb. He whom they now shrink from is He who came meek as a lamb, gentle, pure, and suffering on their behalf. He whom they now behold with dismay is He whom they treated with neglect, and whose love they spurned.
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 On vv14–17 And the heaven departed as a scroll when it…
And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and the heaven was removed as a scroll when it is rolled up. The scroll the parchment book or roll, which is spread out to read, and, when read, roiled up and put away. The passage is apparently founded upon Isa_34:4. "The host of heaven shall be dissolved, and the heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll," etc. And every mountain and island were moved out of their places (cf. Isa_40:4, "Every mountain and hill shall be made low;" also Jer_3:23, "Truly in vain is salvation hoped for from the hills, and from the multitude of mountains The enumeration of seven objects in vers. 12-14 seems to denote the all extending nature of God"s judgment.
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 On v15 Fall on us, and hide us.
Rev_6:15-16
Fall on us, and hide us.
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The last great prayer meeting
It is generally thought that none but the penitent really pray. And yet the day is coming when even impenitent people will throng together and hold a prayer meeting, and perhaps the most intensely earnest one ever upon record. Notice the time. It is future. It will be after the day of grace has passed, after the privilege for Christian prayer has ceased, and after human probation has been completed. Yes, when the righteous have ceased to pray, and are changing prayers on earth to praises in heaven, the impenitent will begin to pray as if they thought of it for the first time in their lives. It will be when Divine judgments are falling upon the earth. Where? In their homes? No, those prayerless houses will be shaking into ruins by an earthquake. In the churches? The day for churches will be gone. Why did they not hasten to them in the time of mercy? They will meet in the dens and caves, and among the rocks of the mountains. Who will be there? In ages when Gods children were hunted down by foes, chiefly the lowly, the poor, met in such difficult retreats, but to this last prayer meeting kings will run, noblemen will hasten, courtiers and statesmen will speed, rich men and great captains will rush, and all who thought they could trust in the permanence of earthly things. No real Christians will be there. Mere professors and pretenders, deceived in heart or deceiving the very elect, and prayerless in their lives, may be expected; and when there they will contribute their part for the first time to the interest of a meeting, for they will pray voluntarily and with an earnestness they never knew before. What are to be the exercises, the services? No reading of the Word of God. None in that assembly will wish to hear it read or explained. They disowned it once, they dislike it still, for it must expose their sins and neglects. No preaching, because the day for that has passed. No psalms nor spiritual songs. To what will they pray? Not to God. At sea, when the tempest is raging, and all human control of the ship is lost, when the masts are torn away and the next wave that sweeps the deck may bury the company in the deep, the passengers and crew lift their entreaties, not to the storm, not to the waves, but to God, their only resort and refuge. But the prayer at this last meeting is not to God, nor is it to men. In their fears they call upon the mountains. Unwilling to call upon God in the day of prosperity, and disliking to have friends pray for them, their aversion clings to them as a fixed habit, and they are still determined not to cry unto the Lord. Nothing could once persuade them to do it, and now nothing can force them, for the human will is not converted by force, Rather than submit to Gods way, they call upon everything else, idolising the deaf rocks and the dead mountains. These are their gods. Can anything else so portray impenitence and stubbornness of will? And why such a prayer for destruction? There are three reasons here given.
I. Their dread of seeing the face of God. Once that face was radiant with mercy. They might have been forgiven, but they would not seek His pardon. Oh, the lost opportunities, the rejected mercies! All gone for ever. They cannot bear the sight of Him whose offers of grace they so wilfully refused, and they ask the rocks to confer on them a merciless burial.
II. A fear of the justice of Christ. Once He was the Lamb of sacrifice, the atoning Redeemer, the entreating Saviour, ready to save all that would call upon Him for salvation. But they would not call. Their day of redemption is past, and Christ is coming as their Judge. They see punishment awaiting them, and perdition before them as the just desert of their treatment of Christ.
III. The knowledge that they are without excuse. There is for them no apology, no availing plea, no justification, no righteousness, no hope of future grace. (W. M. Blackburn, D. D.)
The last great prayer meeting
The first thing that strikes us about it is that this last great prayer meeting will be attended by a vaster assemblage of human beings than it is even possible for us to conceive. Every grade of society has its representative there--men and women, young and old, the child and the hoary-headed, the lofty and the mean. They have come from every land. In a strange unity of woe the attendants at this last great prayer meeting are to be gathered together into one common centre. Again, this last great prayer meeting is to be, in the fullest and widest sense of the word, a united prayer meeting. There is a unity of sin, as well as a unity of holiness, and the attendants at this last strange audience are all thus bound together. Not that it is a real unity. There seems to be very little of anything like a corporate feeling in this last great gathering. Every man is engaged with his own thoughts, offering his own prayer, yet are they all brought together to one point, and all induced to address a certain particular class of objects, and to offer a certain particular kind of prayer by one vast, common, overwhelming necessity, which spreads its fearful influence over them all. It is a united prayer meeting; and as I contemplate that vast gathering, I find all earthly distinctions have vanished. Social distinctions have passed away. The prince kneels beside the peasant. Again, I observe that all ecclesiastical distinctions have vanished. Yet, again, I notice that in this prayer meeting every man is thoroughly in earnest. I wish I could say as much of the prayer meetings held here on earth in our day. Yet, again, I observe that these men who pray so well and so earnestly are precisely the people who were least given to that pursuit while on earth: the people we very seldom see at prayer meetings here. Yet, again, it is a meeting at which every man prays with a very definite purpose. If I were asked, What is the particular fault of our modern prayer meetings? I should say--Indefiniteness. Yet, again, I notice in this prayer meeting a peculiarity that we do not frequently observe in our gatherings for prayer. I find that every man prays for himself. Now I do not think we ought to confine our prayers to ourselves, but we should pray to a far better purpose if we sometimes prayed out of our own hearts, and asked for the things we ourselves need. People seem rather to aim at employing vague expressions than making their wants known in a spirit of believing supplication to God. And now we come to consider the strangest feature of all. While there are ten thousand times ten thousand voices, it may be, lifted up in supplication, yet we are astonished at observing that of all these prayers that go ringing around a startled world there is not so much as one single petition that is offered to Almighty God--not one. When these praying men were down here on earth they were always flying away from God; they did not want to have anything to do with Him; they could get on very well without Him; they were worshippers of nature; they were believers in second causes--not that they were all such by profession, but they were so practically. These men have made earth their God: they have bowed down before the spirit of this world: they have enthroned that subtle intelligence of evil who has usurped the sovereignty of this fallen world within their hearts. They have practically made him the lord of their will, and submitted their nature to his control; and now, when the last terrible moment comes, and these men are gathered together for their last great prayer meeting, not one of them prays to God. Why? Because the Nemesis of their own sin has come upon them. What is it? Before they would not pray to God, and now they dare not. Where is the answer to come from? These prayers are not addressed to God: they do not reach the place where His honour dwelleth: they dare not hope that they will penetrate into His ears and reach His heart. No: their own consciences forbid such an expectation. Such will be the last prayer meeting. And now I want to ask a question, Are any of you ambitious to bear a part in it? (W. H. M. H. Aitken, M. A.)
Terrified sinners in the last earthly scene
1. We have here a glimpse of the constitution and general condition of society at the time these prodigies befall the world. Suppose that the sixth seal were to be opened to-night, what would it find? Kings and emperors on their thrones; princes, nobles, dukes, and lords securely priding themselves in the prerogatives of their caste and station; rich people wallowing in wealth and luxury; men and women in high places and in low working the wires that fashion events; slaves toiling at their tasks and freedmen just out of their bondage; and evidences everywhere of a depraved and disordered state of things. This is what the judgment would find if it came to-night. And this, John tells us, is what it finds when it does come in reality.
2. There is one thing, however, which shall be very different under the opening of the sixth seal from what it is now. The self-security and composure with which godless people live will then be driven to the winds. Though all the judgments under preceding seals may have failed to appal or arouse them, they will not be able to maintain their equanimity under what this shall bring forth. Self-possession, unshaken courage, dignified composure, philosophic thinking, hopefulness, assurance, and the last remains of the stern intrepidity and statue-like imperturbability which characterise some men now, will then have vanished from humanity. That day will destroy them utterly.
3. We notice also the correct interpretation which mankind will then put upon the terrific disturbances of nature around them. Storms, earthquakes, eclipses, and unusual phenomena in the heavens, are natural symbols of Divine wrath. Modern science calls it superstition. But when the vision of the text comes to be realised, woe to the materialistic, pantheistic, and atheistic philosophies with which men suppose they have rid themselves of the superstitions of antiquity! One flash from the judgment throne will confound them utterly.
4. Nor is it so much the physical prodigies as what they argue that renders the dismay so unsupportable. It is not the shaking, the obscured sun, the falling stars, the recoiling heavens, the moving mountains, so much as the moral truths they flash into the spirit, to wit, that God is on the throne, that sin is a reality, that judgment is come, and that every guilty one must now face an angry Creator. It is not natures bewildering commotions, for they would willingly have the falling mountains cover them if that would shelter them from what is much more in their view, and far more dreadful to them. What they speak of is, God upon the throne, the fear of His face, the day of reckoning, and the wrath of the Lamb. These are more than all the horrors of a universe in convulsions.
5. And how pitiable and absurd the expedients to which they are driven! Oh, imbecile people! When prayer would have been availing, they scorned and detested it as mean and useless; and now that it is futile, they go at it with a will. Still more absurd is the direction in which they address their prayers. Once they considered it folly that man should call on the living God; but now they pray to dead rocks! Once they thought it philosophic to deny that He who made the ear could hear prayers, or that He with whom is the Spirit, and whose is the power, could answer them; but now they supplicate the deaf and helpless mountains! And yet weaker and more insane is the import of their prayers and efforts. Omniscience and omnipresence are among the natural attributes of God. The very things before these peoples eyes should have been enough to teach them this. And yet, philosophers as they are, their proposal is to conceal themselves from the Almighty, and so elude His wrath! Often had shelter and peaceful security been offered them in the mercies of the loving Saviour, and as often had they despised and rejected them; but now the silly souls would take the miserable rocks for saviours! Oh, the foolishness of men who think it folly to serve God! (J. A. Seiss, D. D.)
Presumption running into despair
I. The horror of the reprobates.
1. The persons thus amazed with terror are described in the precedent verse, The kings of the earth, etc. The greatness of man, when it comes to encounter with God, is weakness and vanity. Is he great? Be he never so high, there is One higher than he, and the Highest of all regardeth it (Ecc_8:5), and will subject it. Is he rich? Were he the eldest son of Mammon, and sole heir to all the usurers in the world, can his gold save him? Is vengeance afraid to strike his vessel because his sails be of silk and it is ballasted with refined ore? Shall he buy out his damnation with coin? No, heaven will never take bribes. Is he a chief captain? Be his looks never so stern, his speech never so imperious, impetuous, he may command here and go without. Man is not saved by the multitude of an host.
2. They said. They open their lips to confess the invincible and inevitable power of Christ.
(1) The sense of present misery takes away atheism. The day of judgment, when it comes, shall find no atheist.
(2) The saying that comes from them is desperate; whence note that, in Gods just punishment, desperation is the reward of presumption. They that erst feared too little shall now fear too much. Before they thought not of Gods justice, now they shall not conceive His mercy.
3. These necessary occurrences thus considered, let us pass to their invocation, wherein is exemplified their error. Here we must observe, To what; For what they call.
(1) To what. They are mountains and rocks, unreasonable, yea, insensible creatures.
(a) Negatively, it is clear that they have no acquaintance with God, therefore know not how to direct their prayers unto Him.
(b) Affirmatively, this presents a soul amazed with fear and folly. They call to the mountains that can neither hear nor answer.
(2) For what. The benefit that they would have the rocks and the mountains do them is to fall on them and hide them.
(a) Despair is ever wishing for death, often impatiently snatching at it in this world; but when the last day comes, so greedily longing for it, that to be sure of it, they desire the mountains to dispatch them.
(b) Observe that rocks and mountains are far lighter than sin. Such a weight bore our Saviour that He groaned under it.
(c) Observe that before these wicked were lords of nations and countries; now they would be glad of one hole to hide them. Of all their dominions they beg but the barrenest parcel, a rock or mountain; and that to do them a poor office, to conceal them. How much doth mans avarice and ambition covet here, how little contents him hereafter! Nothing helps when God will smite; mountains and rocks are no defence when God pursues (Jer_22:15). God hath a hand that can strike through forts, rocks, and bulwarks. The heavens melt at the presence of the Lord; if He touch the mountains, they smoke for it.
II. The judge, from whom they desire to be hidden.
1. From the face. It was ever the fashion of guiltiness to fly from the presence of God. Adam had no sooner sinned, but he thrusts his head in a bush. Sins inevitable effect is shame. Of Him that sitteth. Christ now sits in glory. While He was on earth how little rested He! Hast thou laboured? thou shalt have ease: hast thou travelled in the ways of grace? thou shalt sit on the seat of glory. On the throne. Christ at this day shall appear in His true majesty.
2. From the wrath. The wrath of Christ in His justice. (T. Adams.)
From the wrath of the Lamb.--
The wrath of the Lamb
I. Its unexampled strangeness. Who ever saw a lamb in a rage? The more difficulty you have in exciting wrath, the more terrible it is when it appears.
II. Its infinite purity. The Lamb is the emblem of innocence. This wrath of the Lamb is not a passion, but a principle. It is not malign, but benevolent. It is not against existence, but against its sins and its crimes. Conclusion: Learn from this that we turn our greatest blessing into the greatest curse. Our optic and auricular organs may become so diseased as to give to the most beautiful objects and melodious sounds in nature a power to convey into us the most poignant anguish, and so our moral nature may become so corrupt as to turn love into wrath, and blessedness into misery. (Homilist.)
The wrath of the lamb
The first thing which strikes us about the expression is its extreme dramatism. There is nothing so dramatic, in my opinion, as the sight of an emotion contrary to the nature. When a man who has always hid his griefs bursts into tears, when a man, like Arnold, who has always veiled his anger, gives way for once to passion, we are impressed with something like a sense of tragedy; it is a bitter day in summer; it is a storm upon a lake. How can we think of the love of God as interrupted even for a moment by a thing called wrath? Can we any more conceive a limit to the love of God than we can conceive a limit to the power of God? The state of mind he is describing is the wrath of a lamb--a particular kind of wrath. He is considering a mode of anger which is not an interruption of love, but itself a phase of love. The wrath of the Lamb is the wrath of love itself. It is no more an interruption to Divine love than the haze is an interruption to the heat of the morning. The wrath clouds the love; the haze clouds the morning; but both the one and the other have grown out of the very thing they obscure. There is an anger which is incompatible with the absence of love, which could not exist unless love existed before it. Here, then, is the subject which rises before us--the difference between the wrath of the Lamb and the wrath of the lion, between the anger of love and the anger of nature. Now, it seems to me that there are three distinct points of difference between them.
1. And first, I would observe that the wrath of the Lamb, or sacrificial spirit, differs from the wrath of the lion in being purely impersonal. The wrath of the lion says, I, king of the forest, have received an affront; some one has presumed to do an unkindness to me. The wrath of the Lamb says, An unkind thing has been done. It keeps the me out of the question altogether. It looks at the deed in itself. It refuses to consider the sense of personal injury as a main feature of the case. You have a son who has defied your authority, spent his substance in riotous living. You are incensed at this act of individual disrespect. You resolve to bring him to his senses; you say, We shall see whether he or I shall be master here. Now, that is quite a legitimate mode of anger, and quits a legitimate ground for it; but it is not the wrath of the Lamb. It is neither good nor bad. It is simply an appetite of nature like any other appetite--like hunger. But it is possible for a father in these circumstances to be filled with indignation on a different ground altogether. It is possible for him to see in his sons delinquency, not an act, but a principle. It is possible for him to feel, not that an insult has been offered to his pride, but that an injury had been done to the universe. It is possible for him to experience, not the sense of a wounded self-love, but an anger from the fact that love itself has been violated. This is the wrath of the Lamb. The Son of Man has reached a splendid impersonality in His judgment of the world. Though Himself at once the greatest and the most wronged of all, He refuses to measure the wrong by His own feeling of pain. He throws Himself into the position of the meanest, the lowliest. I pass to a second point of difference between the wrath of love and the wrath of mere nature.
2. And it is this: The wrath of nature must begin by tearing out pity; the wrath of love is a wrath created by pity. In the former case our indignation is stimulated by hiding the prospective photograph--by shutting our eyes to the possible goodness which the bad man may yet attain. In the latter case the indignation is stimulated by exactly the opposite process--by bringing out the prospective photograph, and considering what the man might be made to become. This brings me to a third point of difference between the two kinds of wrath.
3. They express their feeling in a different formula. The wrath of the lion says, I must have satisfaction; the wrath of the Lamb says, Justice must be satisfied. There is all the difference in the world between giving me satisfaction in a quarrel and satisfying my justice in a wrong. The wrath of the Lamb is always a redemptive wrath. Its first impulse is to buy back what has been enslaved, to restore what has been wrongfully taken, to set at liberty what has been bruised. The wrath of the lion will be satisfied if the delinquent is dead; the wrath of the Lamb pauses not until it learns that the delinquency itself has been wiped away. And this renders powerfully suggestive that theological epigram which represents Christ as paying the debts of humanity. Nothing in a short compass could more completely describe the facts of the case. (G. Matheson, D. D.)
The wrath of the Lamb
There is something of appalling significance in so paradoxical an expression as this, of the Wrath of the Lamb. It makes the wrath trebly potent that it should be wrath, long suppressed, but at length discharged, of a nature essentially and exceptionally meek, patient, long-suffering, easy to be entreated, hard to be angered.
Furor fit laesa sapius patienia, says the Latin proverb: patience, trespassed upon too often, is converted into wrath. And if, O patience, the long-suffering that is in thee becomes wrath, how great is that wrath! Plutarch says of the Roman populace, on the occasion of a certain tumult, they thought that the wrath of Fabius now provoked, albeit he was naturally so mild and patient, would prove heavy and is placable--all the more so, indeed, because of that natural disposition now abused and overstrained. An eminent critic observes, in arguing that all great effects are produced by contrast, that anger is never so noble as when it breaks out of a corn° parative continence of aspect; it is the earthquake bursting from the repose of nature. Charlevoix, in his Histoire de St. Domingo, remarks of the sea of the Antilles and neighbouring isles that R is commonly more tranquil than ours; but, like certain people who are excited with difficulty, and whose transports of passion are as violent as they are rare, so when the sea becomes irritated, it is terrific. (Francis Jacox, B. A.)
The wrath of the Lamb
The lamb is the most simply innocent of all animals. Historically, also, it had become a name for sacrifice. Under this twofold reason Christ is set forth as the Lamb. The lamb is but the complemental gentleness of Gods judicial vigour. We must have the right to believe in the real Christ, and not that theologic Christ which has so long been praised, as it were, into weakness, by the showing that separates Him from all Gods decisive energies and fires of combustion, and puts Him over against them, to be only a pacifier of them by His suffering goodness. Our Christ must be the real King--Messiah--and no mere victim; He must govern, have His indignations, take the regal way in His salvation. His goodness must have fire and fibre enough to make it Divine. Wrath must be kept as a moral, not merely animal, passion, or it will connect associations of unregulated temper that are wholly unsuitable. We understand by wrath, as applied to God and to Christ, a certain principled heat of resentment towards evil-doing and evil-doers, such as arms the good to inflictions of pain or just retribution upon them. It is not the heat of revenge. It is that holy heat which kindles about order and law, and truth and light, going in, as it were, spontaneously to redress their wrongs, and chastise the injuries they have suffered. Is it, then, a fact that Christ, as the incarnate Word of God, embodies and reveals the wrath principle of God, even as He does the patience, or love-principle, and as much more intensely? On this point we have many distinct evidences.
1. Christ cannot be a true manifestation of God when He comes in half the character of God, to act upon, or qualify, or pacify, the other half. If only Gods affectional nature is represented in Him, then He is but a half manifestation. If the purposes of God, the justice of God, the indignations of God, are not in Him--if anything is shut away, or let down, or covered over--then He is not in Gods proportions, and does not incarnate His character.
2. Christ can be the manifested wrath of God without being any the less tender in His feeling or gentle in His patience. In the history of Jesus we see occasions in which He actually displays the judicial and the tender, most affectingly, together and in the very same scene, as in His denouncing and weeping over Jerusalem.
3. God, without the wrath-principle, never was, and Christ never can be, a complete character. This element belongs inherently to every moral nature. God is no God without it; man is no man without it. It is this principled wrath, in one view, that gives staminal force and majesty to character.
4. It is a conceded principle of justice that wrong-doers are to suffer just according to what they deserve. In Christianity God is not less just or more merciful, but He is more fitly and proportionately expressed.
5. One of the things most needed in the recovery of men to God in this very thing--a more decisive manifestation of the wrath-principle and justice of God. Intimidation is the first means of grace.
6. We can see for ourselves that the more impressive revelation of wrath, which appears to be wanted, is actually made in the person of Christ, as in His driving out the money-changers and denouncing the hypocritical Pharisees.
7. Christ is appointed and publicly undertakes to maintain the wrath-principle officially, as the Judge of the world, even as He maintains the love-principle officially, as the Saviour of the world. He even declares that authority is given Him to execute judgment, because He is the Son of man. But the wrath-principle in Christ is only that judicial impulse that backs Him in the infliction of justice whenever justice requires to be inflicted. And it does not require to be inflicted always; it never ought to be when there is anything better that is possible. Put it down, then, first of all, at the close of this great subject, that the New Testament gives us no new God, or better God, or less just God, than we had before. He is the I AM of all ages, the I AM that was, and is, and is to come; the same that was declared from the beginning The Lord God, gracious and merciful, forgiving iniquity, transgressions, and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty. (H. Bushnell, D. D.)
The great day of His wrath.--
The wrath of God and the Lamb
I. Who are the persons whose aspect and appearance shall then be so dreadful to sinners? It is God, the Father of all, and the Lamb of God.
II. How comes the wrath of that great day to be so terrible?
1. It is wrath that ariseth from the clearest discoveries of the love of God neglected.
2. It is wrath that is awakened by the expensive methods of salvation being slighted (Isa_5:4; Isa_55:1).
3. It is wrath that must avenge the affronts done to the chief messenger of Gods mercy.
4. It is such wrath as ariseth from the patience of God, tired and worn out by the boldest iniquities of men.
5. It is such wrath as shall be executed immediately and eternally.
III. How vain all the refuges and hopes of sinners will be found in that dreadful day, to avoid this wrath and vengeance!
1. Rocks and mountains, whose aid is sought in the last extremity of distress, will be but as spiders webs. What folly to call upon creatures to help them against their Creator! (Pro_2:21).
2. Rocks and mountains, though places of secrecy and concealment, cannot hide them from the eyes of God (Pro_15:3; Jer_23:24).
3. Rocks and mountains, though bulwarks of defence and places of security, cannot stand before the indignation of the Almighty (Nah_1:2; Nah_1:6).
4. Rocks and mountains falling upon us are instruments of sudden death.
To conclude.
1. What a wretched mistake it is to imagine that God is all mercy, and Jesus Christ nothing else but love and salvation!
2. The day of Christs patience makes haste to an end (Psa_2:12).
3. How very different will the thoughts of sinners be in that day! (Isa_2:10; Isa_2:21).
4. What hideous and everlasting mischief is contained in rejecting the gospel of Christ!
5. Sinners, consider your ways, the danger you are in, and the need you have of a Saviour (Psa_61:2).
6. You, whose defence is the Rock of Ages, continue in Him (Rev_2:10). (T. Hannam.)
The wrath of God
And this wrath impends over every impenitent and unforgiven sinner.
I. It is sure to fall upon him in due time. It is not a simple possibility. It is not merely a threat to terrify him. It is as sure in the future as God Almightys Word and throne.
1. Eternal and Omnipotent Justice has decreed it.
2. Revelation declares it on almost every page.
3. The providence of God illustrates and confirms His Word.
II. It is sure, in due time, to fall upon the sinner in all the terribleness of its power and severity.
1. Here mercy tempers justice. Here wrath is restrained and grace works. Here the blood and intercession of Jesus Christ, and the tears and prayers of the Church, prevail to mitigate the severity of Gods anger.
2. This is the world of probation, not of final award.
3. The day of reckoning is appointed after death.
4. The wrath of the Lamb will not break forth till the great day of assize shall have come. So that all we know and see of the Divine wrath against sin and incorrigible sinners, in this life, is only an earnest of that awful tempest that will burst in fury upon the ungodly when the great day of His wrath shall have come.
III. This wrath will be justly deserved. It might have been turned aside; voluntary sin, and the persistent refusal of mercy and grace, will have provoked it. It is not simply the wrath of a God of eternal righteousness, hating all iniquity and bound to vindicate outraged justice in the interest of good government; but it is also the wrath of the Lamb, kindled by slighted love, by rejected mercy, by the blood of the covenant counted an unholy thing, by all His bloody sweat and agony and intercession despised! (J. M. Sherwood, D. D.)
The great day and the great question
I. Why it is here called the great day of wrath.
1. It may be called the great day of wrath inasmuch as no other preceding day of wrath ever equalled it. If all the tempests that ever roared, and all the vivid flashes of lightning that were ever seen, and all the hoarse thunders that have ever rolled, and all the roaring of the sea and every noise that has taken place, were all united together in one great swell, it would be nothing to the confusion of that great day. The heaven shall pass away with a great noise. We are told that if you put one drop of water upon an anvil, and some heated iron over it, and strike the iron, that drop of water will explode, and make a sound equal to that attending the discharge of a musket. If one drop of water will produce such a sound, what will it be when all the watery vapours surcharged with fire shall burst in one mighty and terrible crash?
2. It may be called so if we remember that it will be the last day. The sun will shine, on the morning of that day, for the last time. All the wheels of nature will come to a standstill; all the mysterious and intricate movements of time will cease.
3. But we may call it a great day of wrath, more particularly, if we remember that it will be the judgment day.
4. It will be a great day of wrath if we consider, moreover, the Judge who will preside on that day, and I-Its character. Jesus Christ Himself will be the Judge--very consoling to the believer, because the Judge will be his best Friend; exceedingly annoying to the sinner, for he will have sins revealed that he would not have known for ten thousand worlds. Jesus Himself, who is impartial, who will then be inexorable--He will be the Judge. Ah, now is the time. The Saviour will listen to your cry this night. Therefore, when we consider who is the Judge, that He will be inexorable, and will not be then entreated, we may say that it is a great day of wrath.
II. who shall be able to stand? A safe and Scriptural answer to this question is, indeed, very important.
1. Who shall be able to stand? Not the swearer: he has asked God to destroy his soul and body, and now all his prayers shall be answered. Not the liar: all liars shall have their part in the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone. Not the drunkard: he will receive something now more hot than alcohol. Not the hypocrite: the mask will fall off. Not the formalist. Not the backslider. And thus we may go on answering the question in a negative way.
2. I fancy I hear a voice coming from some one in this audience--Well, I am very glad that you have made an exception of me: I am sure that I do not belong to the bundle of swearers, etc. Stop, friend, there is one bundle yet; if you are not there, well, then, we must put you aside. Where is that large bundle of gospel hearers--men and women who have heard the Word and have not obeyed it? You are there.
3. Those, and those alone, will stand in the great day of wrath, who are resting entirely upon the blood and righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ.
(1) They will have their characters publicly vindicated.
(2) They will gather in the fruit of their labours. (J. D. Smith.)
Safety in the day of wrath
I. Whose is the wrath here spoken of? As a Lamb the Saviour stands on Mount Zion, surrounded by a thousand hosts of His redeemed; as a Lamb He appears before the throne, receiving the prostrate adoration of the elders; as a Lamb He appears as a Bridegroom waiting for the New Jerusalem, adorned as a bride prepared for her husband; and as a Lamb He is represented as standing in the very midst of the throne, with His wounds all fresh, intimating H us that He is still sustaining to His Church the functions of a prevailing, unchangeable, everlasting priesthood. And this image is manifestly designed to set before us various attributes in the character of our Redeemer. First, no doubt it is designed to endear to us the mild and gentle attributes of His nature; to show to us how patient He is to forgive injuries, how long He will bear with the sinners affronts, how hard it is to arouse Him from the serene calm of His holy nature, what a strange work it is with Him to punish and destroy. But in the text there is an adjunct to this image, which at first seems to take away from its fitness and propriety; it would seem to suggest to us attributes of an opposite and conflicting kind; for who ever heard of the wrath of a lamb? Why is it that, on this occasion, the Saviour appears not under one of His more majestic titles--as the Lion of the tribe of Judah, tearing the seed of the rebellious to pieces? This title is retained even in describing the solemn day of Christs appearing as a witness, as a warning, as a setting forth of the aggravated character of mans disobedience, and the utter exclusiveness of a despised salvation.
II. What it is in that day that will make the wrath of the Lamb so terrible.
1. First, it will be because then this wrath will be felt to have been deserved. Well may the Lamb say to those who have refused Him on that day, What more could I have done for you that I have not done? I gave Myself to the insults of men, to the buffetings of Satan, to the piercing of the sword of justice, to the degradation and shame of the Cross.
2. Again: the wrath will be felt to have been deserved on account of the light we enjoy, and the means used by the offended Man to bring us to a knowledge of Himself, and to constrain us to embrace the offers of His love.
3. Then another consideration which will make this wrath so terrible will be its utter implacableness, the awful consciousness that it can never change through the ages of eternity, that the Lamb will never put on those aspects of gentleness, and pity, which were turned towards us in the day of our probation and our hope.
III. Who are they that shall be able to stand? Of course the first answer to this is, they are those who are in Christ Jesus. Who are they that shall stand? Why, they are those who feel that they have made Christ their one entire sole dependence: Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on Thee. Trust in the Lord; for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength. O Lord, our Lord, other gods besides Thee have had dominion over us; but by Thee only will we make mention of Thy name. Then, once more: there is good hope that we shall be able to stand in the day of Christ if we are of those who are waiting for, and hastening to, and desiring His appearing. (D. Moore, M. A.)
Who shall be able to stand in the last judgment
There will assuredly come a day of judgment. The material universe symbolically prophecies some such a moral crisis in the history of man. The flowing river, the growing plants, the breathing tribes, the planetary systems, all tend to a crisis. The unremitting increase from age to age in the human family, viewed in connection with the limited capacity of this planet to sustain animal existence, irresistibly indicates some such a turning point in human history. The universal and concurrent references of the human conscience through all ages and lands, give a high probability to the dawn of such a moral juncture. The Bible settles the question. The sentence preceding the text calls it a great day. It will be great, on account of the number and variety of the moral beings that will be assembled together; great, on account of the results which will then be effected--redemptive providences ended, and the agencies of a righteous retribution brought into full play; great, on account of the thrilling interest it will awake through all the realms of moral existence the universe over; great, on account of the Divine glories that will then be displayed. But our point now is--Who shall be able to stand on that day? In order to illustrate this solemn question I shall suppose a case. What under a legal charge could enable you to look calmly forward to the coming day of trial, feeling that you could stand? We can only conceive of seven things which would answer this purpose.
I. A consciousness of innocence and the power of showing that the charge has no foundation.
II. Assurance that the evidence will be found insufficient to convict. There will be--
1. The omniscient Judge. He knows everything about you.
2. There will be present the persons to whom and through whom you have sinned.
3. Then there will be conscience within you bearing the strongest testimony against you.
III. A feeling that the crime with which you are charged is very insignificant. No. Sin, believe me, is no trifling matter.
1. Think of it in its relation to God. It is a violation of the most righteous laws, for He is your Sovereign. It is a violation of the highest trust; for He is your Proprietor, and you are His stewards. It is a violation of the most wonderful love. He is your loving Father--your merciful Redeemer.
2. Think of it in its bearing on yourself and on the universe. One sinner destroyeth much good. This then will not serve you, will not enable you to stand in the judgment. Another thing that might answer the purpose in the supposed case is:--
IV. A felt capability of proving that the crime was committed accidentally, not by purpose.
V. Faith in the sympathy of the whole court in your favour.
VI. An ability to prove that you have rendered signal service to the state.
VII. The assurance that some one has successfully interposed between you and the superior authority. On the pages of the Bible I find written in sunbeams, that in consequence of what Christ has done, and is willing to do, for us as sinners, we may escape the sad consequences of our sins, and stand triumphantly in the Day of Judgment. (Homilist.)
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The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
B. W. Johnson 1891 · Public Domain On vv14–15 14. The heaven was removed as a scroll. The…
14. The heaven was removed as a scroll. The old religions, supposed to be of heavenly origin, pass away. Every mountain and island were moved. Mountain and island are used to denote earthly rulers and kingdoms, the latter referring more especially to European provinces which are often called “the isles of the sea” in the Bible. From the period of Diocletian, the great persecutor, the title, “Your Eminence,” or, in other words, “mountain,” was bestowed upon princes. As a mountain stood above the plain, so the rulers of the earth were exalted.
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.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On v15 the generals
the generals
This word refers to the warriors who command in the battle.
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caves
large holes in the sides of hills
the face of the one
Here "face" represents "presence." AT: "the presence of the one" or "the one" (See: Metonymy)
the great day of their wrath has come
The day of their wrath refers to the time when they would punish wicked people. AT: "this is the terrible time when they will punish people" (See: Metonymy)
has come
Existing now is spoken of as having come. (See: Metaphor)
their wrath
"Their" refers to the one on the throne and the Lamb.
Who is able to stand?
Surviving, or staying alive, is spoken of as standing. This question is used to express their great sadness and fear that no one will be able to survive when God punishes them. AT: "No one can survive" (See: Metonymy and Rhetorical Question)
translationWords
king
servant
face
wrath
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 On v15 6:15-17 hid themselves: In the face of God’s judgment,…
6:15-17 hid themselves: In the face of God’s judgment, unredeemed people will be terrified and seek a safe hiding place, but in vain (Isa 2:19-21; Ezek 38:20; Hos 10:8; Luke 23:30). The prophets repeatedly warned that the great day would be a day of wrath and judgment (Isa 13:6-11; Joel 1:15; Amos 5:18; Zeph 1:14-15). • The ultimate question concerning God’s judgment is, who is able to survive? (Mal 3:2). God’s children will rejoice to see him (Rev 5:13-14; 14:3-5) because they understand God’s response to the martyrs’ cry for vengeance (6:9-11), and they themselves have nothing to fear from God’s judgment (Acts 10:34-36; Rom 5:1-2). Those who have persecuted God’s people, however, will quake in fear as they face the wrath of the Lamb.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.