After this, I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, so that no wind would blow on the earth, or on the sea, or on any tree. I saw another angel ascend from the sunrise, having the seal of the living God. He cried with a loud voice to the four angels to whom it was given to harm the earth and the sea, saying, “Don’t harm the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, until we have sealed the bondservants of our God on their foreheads!”
Parallel Translations
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After this, I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, so that no wind would blow on the earth, or on the sea, or on any tree.
I saw another angel ascend from the sunrise, having the seal of the living God. He cried with a loud voice to the four angels to whom it was given to harm the earth and the sea,
saying, “Don’t harm the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, until we have sealed the bondservants of our God on their foreheads!”
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And after that I sawe.iiii. angels stonde on the iiii. corners of the erth holdynge the iiii. wyndes of the erth that the wyndes shulde not blowe on the erthe nether on the see nether on eny tree.
And I sawe another angell ascende from the rysynge of the sunne: which had the seale of the lyvynge god and he cryed with a loude voyce to the iiii angelles (to whom power was geven to hurt the erth and the see)
saying: Hurt not the erth nether the see nether the trees tyll we have sealed the servauntes of oure god in their forheddes.
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And after that, I sawe foure Angels stand on the foure corners of the earth, holding the foure windes of the earth, that the winds should not blow on the earth, neither on the sea, neither on any tree.
And I sawe another Angel come vp from the East, which had the seale of the liuing God, and hee cried with a loud voice to the foure Angels to who power was giuen to hurt the earth, and the sea, saying,
Hurt ye not the earth, neither the sea, neither the trees, til we haue sealed the seruants of our God in their foreheads.
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Cross-references (59)
- Matthew 24:31 (vv1, 3) He will send out his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together his chosen ones from the four winds, from one…
- Daniel 7:2 (v1) Daniel spoke and said, “I saw in my vision by night, and, behold, the four winds of the sky broke out on the great sea.
- Jeremiah 49:36 (v1) I will bring on Elam the four winds from the four quarters of the sky, and will scatter them toward all those winds. There will be no…
- Ezekiel 9:4 (v3) Yahweh said to him, “Go through the middle of the city, through the middle of Jerusalem, and set a mark on the foreheads of the men that…
- Revelation 22:4 (v3) They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads.
Show all 54 cross-references
- Revelation 9:4 (vv1–3) They were told that they should not hurt the grass of the earth, neither any green thing, neither any tree, but only those people who don’t…
- Mark 13:27 (v1) Then he will send out his angels, and will gather together his chosen ones from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of…
- Revelation 13:16 (v3) 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…
- Exodus 12:13 (v3) The blood shall be to you for a token on the houses where you are. When I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague will be on you…
- Daniel 8:8 (v1) The male goat magnified himself exceedingly. When he was strong, the great horn was broken; and instead of it there came up four notable…
- 2 Corinthians 1:22 (v2) who also sealed us, and gave us the down payment of the Spirit in our hearts.
- Ephesians 4:30 (v2) Don’t grieve the Holy Spirit of God, in whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.
- Revelation 14:1 (v3) 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…
- Revelation 20:4 (v3) I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was given to them. I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for the testimony of…
- Ezekiel 7:2 (v1) “You, son of man, the Lord Yahweh says to the land of Israel, ‘An end! The end has come on the four corners of the land.
- Ezekiel 37:9 (v1) Then he said to me, “Prophesy to the wind, prophesy, son of man, and tell the wind, ‘The Lord Yahweh says: “Come from the four winds,…
- Isaiah 27:8 (vv1, 3) In measure, when you send them away, you contend with them. He has removed them with his rough blast in the day of the east wind.
- Revelation 7:3-8 (v2) 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…
- Ephesians 1:13 (v2) In him you also, having heard the word of the truth, the Good News of your salvation—in whom, having also believed, you were sealed with…
- 2 Timothy 2:19 (v2) However God’s firm foundation stands, having this seal, “The Lord knows those who are his,” and, “Let every one who names the name of the…
- Isaiah 11:12 (v1) He will set up a banner for the nations, and will assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four…
- Isaiah 26:20-21 (v3) Come, my people, enter into your rooms, and shut your doors behind you. Hide yourself for a little moment, until the indignation is past.…
- Isaiah 54:17 (v3) No weapon that is formed against you will prevail; and you will condemn every tongue that rises against you in judgment. This is the…
- Revelation 9:14 (v1) saying to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, “Free the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates!”
- Zechariah 1:18-20 (v1) I lifted up my eyes, and saw, and behold, four horns. I asked the angel who talked with me, “What are these?” He answered me, “These are…
- Matthew 8:26-27 (v1) He said to them, “Why are you fearful, O you of little faith?” Then he got up, rebuked the wind and the sea, and there was a great calm.…
- Revelation 5:2 (v2) I saw a mighty angel proclaiming with a loud voice, “Who is worthy to open the book, and to break its seals?”
- Revelation 7:3 (v1) saying, “Don’t harm the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, until we have sealed the bondservants of our God on their foreheads!”
- Revelation 6:6 (vv1, 3) I heard a voice in the middle of the four living creatures saying, “A choenix of wheat for a denarius, and three choenix of barley for a…
- Exodus 12:23 (v3) For Yahweh will pass through to strike the Egyptians; and when he sees the blood on the lintel, and on the two door posts, Yahweh will pass…
- Jonah 1:4 (v1) But Yahweh sent out a great wind on the sea, and there was a mighty storm on the sea, so that the ship was likely to break up.
- Zechariah 6:1 (v1) Again I lifted up my eyes, and saw, and behold, four chariots came out from between two mountains; and the mountains were mountains of…
- Malachi 3:18 (v3) Then you shall return and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him who serves God and him who doesn’t serve him.
- John 6:27 (v2) Don’t work for the food which perishes, but for the food which remains to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For God the…
- Revelation 19:2 (v3) for his judgments are true and righteous. For he has judged the great prostitute, who corrupted the earth with her sexual immorality, and…
- Exodus 9:4-6 (v3) Yahweh will make a distinction between the livestock of Israel and the livestock of Egypt; and nothing shall die of all that belongs to the…
- Isaiah 6:13 (v3) If there is a tenth left in it, that also will in turn be consumed, as a terebinth, and as an oak, whose stump remains when they are cut…
- Isaiah 27:3 (v1) I, Yahweh, am its keeper. I will water it every moment. Lest anyone damage it, I will keep it night and day.
- Isaiah 65:8 (v3) Yahweh says, “As the new wine is found in the cluster, and one says, ‘Don’t destroy it, for a blessing is in it:’ so I will do for my…
- Zephaniah 2:3 (v3) Seek Yahweh, all you humble of the land, who have kept his ordinances. Seek righteousness. Seek humility. It may be that you will be hidden…
- Matthew 24:22 (v3) Unless those days had been shortened, no flesh would have been saved. But for the sake of the chosen ones, those days will be shortened.
- John 12:26 (v3) If anyone serves me, let him follow me. Where I am, there my servant will also be. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him.
- Revelation 1:3 (v2) Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of the prophecy, and keep the things that are written in it, for the time is at hand.
- Revelation 4:1-6 (v1) 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…
- Revelation 8:7-12 (v2) The first sounded, and there followed hail and fire, mixed with blood, and they were thrown to the earth. One third of the earth was burned…
- Song of Solomon 8:6 (v2) Set me as a seal on your heart, as a seal on your arm; for love is strong as death. Jealousy is as cruel as Sheol. Its flashes are flashes…
- Daniel 3:17 (v3) If it happens, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace; and he will deliver us out of your hand, O king.
- Daniel 3:26 (v3) Then Nebuchadnezzar came near to the mouth of the burning fiery furnace. He spoke and said, “Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, you servants…
- Daniel 6:16 (v3) Then the king commanded, and they brought Daniel, and cast him into the den of lions. The king spoke and said to Daniel, “Your God whom you…
- Romans 6:22 (v3) But now, being made free from sin and having become servants of God, you have your fruit of sanctification and the result of eternal life.
- Hebrews 12:22 (v2) But you have come to Mount Zion, and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable multitudes of angels,
- Revelation 8:3 (v2) Another angel came and stood over the altar, having a golden censer. Much incense was given to him, that he should add it to the prayers of…
- Revelation 10:1 (v2) I saw a mighty angel coming down out of the sky, clothed with a cloud. A rainbow was on his head. His face was like the sun, and his feet…
- Revelation 10:4 (v2) When the seven thunders sounded, I was about to write; but I heard a voice from the sky saying, “Seal up the things which the seven…
54 distinct cross-references across this passage (59 total citations).
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this passage (29 sources)
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Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv1–2 The second member of this part, is a preventing…
The second member of this part, is a preventing of danger as we distinguished the same before, Chap. 6:1, that is of the caution whereby God took care before hand and provided for his that after the example of the Israelites of old, Exod. 8:13, the faithful might be exempted from the plagues of this wicked world. This whole place is a certain interlocution and bringing in for this whole chapter by occasion of the prediction and argument of the sixth seal. For first that evil is prevented in the elect unto verse 9. Then thanks are given by the elect for that cause, verses 10, 11, 12. Lastly, the accomplishment of the thing is set forth unto the end of the chapter. The first verse is a transition speaking of the Angels which keep these inferior parts from all evil, until God do command. For (as it is excellently figured by Ezek. 11:12) their faces and their wings are reached upwards, continually waiting upon and beholding the countenance of God for their direction: and every [one] of them goeth into that part that is right before his face, whithesoever the Spirit shall go, they go, they step not out of the way, that is, they depart not so much as a foot breadth from the path commanded them of God.
On the four quarters or coasts of the earth.
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That is, neither into the air, into which the tops of trees are advanced.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv1–3 1 And after these things I saw four angels…
1 And after these things I saw four angels standing on the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth, nor on the sea, nor on any tree.
Ver. 1. And after these things] This whole chapter is purposely interlaced between the opening of the sixth and seventh seal, for the support of the poor suffering saints, that they sink not under their many pressures.
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Four angels] Ministers of indignation, whether good or evil angels the doctors are divided.
Holding the four winds] Those besoms of the air, as Rupertus calls them, and Scripture emblems of spiritual influence, Joh 3:8; Son 4:16; Eze 37:9. The holding of the winds may peradventure intimate here that peace and ease in which God suffereth worldly men to live, and be overtaken, even upon the point of his great judgments, 1Th 5:3. He made fair weather before Pharaoh till he had him in the heart of the Red Sea.
Nor on any tree] The philosopher compares men (the Scripture good men often) to trees, which by benign winds are filled with fruits.
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 vv1–3 The first sufferings of the church under the Roman…
The first sufferings of the church under the Roman emperors that were pagans, was foretold under the first six seals, as hath been showed; but they had yet more, if not greater, things to suffer, which are discovered to John, as we shall see when we come to the opening of the seventh and last seal in the next chapter; only it pleaseth God by a vision, in this chapter, to comfort his church: so as though this vision relateth to the sixth seal, and was before the opening of the seventh, yet it hath a relation to that, to show the care that God would take of his church under those great evils that should happen upon the opening of the seventh seal, or when the things foretold upon the opening of it should come to be accomplished.
I saw four angels standing on the four corners of the earth; four good angels; God is called their God, Rev 7:3.
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Holding the four winds of the earth; that is, to whom God had given it in charge that they should inflict his judgments upon all the parts of the earth; for God often useth, by his prophets, the metaphor of winds, to express stormy, troublesome dispensations, as Jer 18:17; 49:36; 51:1.
That the wind should not blow on the earth, nor on the sea, nor on any tree: this phrase is interpreted variously, God making use of the winds:
1. In a way of judgment, to throw down buildings and trees.
2. In a way of mercy, to purify the air, and by their gentle breathings to cherish things. Some interpret this command to the angels, into a command to these angels to forbear awhile those storms of judgment which were coming, till the servants of God should be sealed.
Others interpret them into a command to bring judgments, either corporal or spiritual, which they think is signified by the winds not blowing. The last seemeth to be favoured by the next verse, to whom it was given to hurt the earth and the sea; which seemeth to me to interpret the blowing mentioned in this verse of a hurtful blowing.
The earth, the sea, and the trees, seem to signify all the sublunary world, especially the church.
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 vv1–2 Observe here, 1. That if a temporal judgment on…
Observe here, 1. That if a temporal judgment on the Jews be here intended, then this vision represented to St. John, God’s decree and purpose for suspending the dreadful execution of the threatened and intended vengeance upon Judea for a time, namely, until God had sealed his number, that, marked them for preservation, Set a mark upon the forehead of the men, &c. Eze 9:4, that is, preserve the penitent believers from the common destruction, as the Israelites were preserved in Egypt from the destroying angel. I beheld four angels, that had power to inflict judgments, famine, sword, and pestilence, (foretold chap. 6) upon Judea; I beheld these angels making a stay and stop, before they would suffer those mischiefs to break forth upon the earth.
Where note, That the office of the holy angels in heaven is at God’s command, and by God’s direction, to execute vengeance, and to inflict all temporal judgments upon obstinate sinners here on earth; yet glad they are when it pleases God to stay and stop them from a speedy execution of his wrath and vengeance; for as judgment is God’s strange work, in which he does not delight, so neither is it pleasing to the angels as an act of punishmnent, but only in obedience to the command of God, and with an eye and respect to the glory of God.
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Observe, 2. That if a spiritual judgment be here intended, as others apprehend, namely, the calamities befalling the church by reason of an apostasy under Antichrist, then by the winds they understand heresies and false doctrines of all sorts, which have an impetuous force and violence, like winds, to drive unstable souls from their steadfastness in the truths of God, into damnable errors.
Now God takes special care that these winds should not blow, these anti-Christian errors and false doctrines should not overflow the earth, until he had sealed his people, that is, secured them from that danger, preserving them from spiritual defilement, as the undoubted fruit of their sealing; where we see, that in all times of public calamity, be it temporal or spiritual, God has a special care of his own, and bears a special regard unto his own; here he commands the angels to hold the winds from smiting the earth until the number of his sealed ones was completed.
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 On v1 Here we have, I. An account of the restraint…
Here we have, I. An account of the restraint laid upon the winds. By these winds we suppose are meant those errors and corruptions in religion which would occasion a great deal of trouble and mischief to the church of God. Sometimes the Holy Spirit is compared to the wind: here the spirits of error are compared to the four winds, contrary one to another, but doing much hurt to the church, the garden and vineyard of God, breaking the branches and blasting the fruits of his plantation. The devil is called the prince of the power of the air; he, by a great wind, overthrew the house of Job's eldest son. Errors are as wind, by which those who are unstable are shaken, and carried to and fro, Eph 4:14. Observe, 1. These are called the winds of the earth, because they blow only in these lower regions near the earth; heaven is always clear and free from them. 2. They are restrained by the ministry of angels, standing on the four corners of the earth, intimating that the spirit of error cannot go forth till God permits it, and that the angels minister to the good of the church by restraining its enemies. 3. Their restraint was only for a season, and that was till the servants of God were sealed in their foreheads. God has a particular care and concern for his own servants in times of temptation and corruption, and he has a way to secure them from the common infection; he first establishes them, and then he tries them; he has the timing of their trials in his own hand.
II. An account of the sealing of the servants of God, where observe, 1. To whom this work was committed - to an angel, another angel. While some of the angels were employed to restrain Satan and his agents, another angel was employed to mark out and distinguish the faithful servants of God. 2. How they were distinguished - the seal of God was set upon their foreheads, a seal known to him, and as plain as if it appeared in their foreheads; by this mark they were set apart for mercy and safety in the worst of times. 3. The number of those that were sealed, where observe, (1.) A particular account of those that were sealed of the twelve tribes of Israel - twelve thousand out of every tribe, the whole sum amounting to a hundred and forty-four thousand. In this list the tribe of Dan is omitted, perhaps because they were greatly addicted to idolatry; and the order of the tribes is altered, perhaps according as they had been more or less faithful to God. Some take these to be a select number of the Jews who were reserved for mercy at the destruction of Jerusalem; others think that time was past, and therefore it is to be more generally applied to God's chosen remnant in the world; but, if the destruction of Jerusalem was not yet over (and I think it is hard to prove that it was), it seems more proper to understand this of the remnant of that people which God had reserved according to the election of grace, only here we have a definite number for an indefinite. (2.) A general account of those who were saved out of other nations (Rev 7:9): A great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues. Though these are not said to be sealed, yet they were selected by God out of all nations, and brought into his church, and there stood before the throne. Observe, [1.] God will have a greater harvest of souls among the Gentiles than he had among the Jews. More are the children of the desolate than of the married woman. [2.] The Lord knows who are his, and he will keep them safe in times of dangerous temptation. [3.] Though the church of God is but a little flock, in comparison of the wicked world, yet it is no contemptible society, but really large and to be still more enlarged.
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III. We have the songs of saints and angels on this occasion, Rev 7:9-12, where observe,
1. The praises offered up by the saints (and, as it seems to me, by the Gentile believers) for the care of God in reserving so large a remnant of the Jews, and saving them from infidelity and destruction. The Jewish church prayed for the Gentiles before their conversion, and the Gentile churches have reason to bless God for his distinguishing mercy to so many of the Jews, when the rest were cut off. Here observe, (1.) The posture of these praising saints: they stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, before the Creator and the Mediator. In acts of religious worship we come nigh to God, and are to conceive ourselves as in his special presence; and we must come to God by Christ. The throne of God would be inaccessible to sinners were it not for a Mediator. (2.) Their habit: they were clothed with white robes, and had palms in their hands; they were invested with the robes of justification, holiness, and victory, and had palms in their hands, as conquerors used to appear in their triumphs: such a glorious appearance will the faithful servants of God make at last, when they have fought the good fight of faith and finished their course. (3.) Their employment: they cried with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God who sitteth upon the throne, and to the Lamb. This may be understood either as a hosannah, wishing well to the interest of God and Christ in the church and in the world, or as a hallelujah, giving to God and the Lamb the praise of the great salvation; both the Father and the Son are joined together in these praises; the Father contrived this salvation, the Son purchased it, and those who enjoy it must and will bless the Lord and the Lamb, and they will do it publicly, and with becoming fervour.
2. Here is the song of the angels (Rev 7:11, Rev 7:12), where observe, (1.) Their station - before the throne of God, attending on him, and about the saints, ready to serve them. (2.) Their posture, which is very humble, and expressive of the greatest reverence: They fell before the throne on their faces, and worshipped God. Behold the most excellent of all the creatures, who never sinned, who are before him continually, not only covering their faces, but falling down on their faces before the Lord! What humility then, and what profound reverence, become us vile frail creatures, when we come into the presence of God! We should fall down before him; there should be both a reverential frame of spirit and a humble behaviour in all our addresses to God (3.) Their praises. They consented to the praises of the saints, said their Amen thereto; there is in heaven a perfect harmony between the angels and saints; and then they added more of their own, saying, Blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honour, and power, and might, be unto our God for ever and ever. Amen. Here, [1.] They acknowledge the glorious attributes of God - his wisdom, his power, and his might. [2.] They declare that for these his divine perfections he ought to be blessed, and praised, and glorified, to all eternity; and they confirm it by their Amen. We see what is the work of heaven, and we ought to begin it now, to get our hearts tuned for it, to be much in it, and to long for that world where our praises, as well as happiness, will be perfected.
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 On vv1–3 And after these things,.... After the opening of six…
And after these things,.... After the opening of six of the seals of the sealed book, and after the demolition of Heathen deities, and of Heathen worship, and of Heathen magistrates, in the Roman empire, and the representation of these to John, he had the following vision; and which therefore does not refer to the preservation of the Christians, before and at the destruction of Jerusalem, which was under the first seal; nor to the security of the saints from the wrath of the Lamb, when it fell upon the Pagan worshippers, of all ranks and degrees, which was under the sixth seal, and was now over; but rather it respects an intermediate space of time between the sixth and seventh seal, as reaching from Constantine to Theodosius; for upon Constantine's being sole emperor, the church enjoyed great peace and tranquillity after the blustering storms of Pagan persecution ceased; and great numbers of God's elect were converted and sealed, and the winds of Heathen persecution were held, and blew no more, unless for a short time under the Emperor Julian; though the church was not free from the wind of error and heresy; and the storms of contention which arose about them, nor from the tempest of Arian persecutions, which were very grievous; wherefore this refers to what should be between the sixth and seventh seal, which brings on the seven trumpets: and now, before John sees that seal opened, a pause is made, and this vision is shown him, to fortify his mind, and all other saints, that are observers of these things, who by the opening of the following seal would see what judgments and plagues would come upon the empire, now become Christian, and what changes and revolutions would be made in it, and might fear that the church of God would be wholly swallowed up and lost; wherefore this vision is exhibited to show, that notwithstanding the devastations by the Goths and Vandals, and the rise, progress, and power of Mahomet, and the dreadful apostasy of the church of Rome, and all the miseries of it, and the plagues that should come upon the church for it; yet God would have throughout all this, and in, every age of time, a sealed number, a true church, hidden and secured, even until the seventh angel has sounded his trumpet, and time shall be no more, and the mystery of God will be finished.
I saw four angels standing on the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth, nor on the sea, nor on any trees. Four angels are mentioned, in allusion to the four spirits of the heavens, in Zac 6:5; and though the earth is not a plain square with angles, but round and globular, yet it is said to have four corners, with respect to the four points of the heavens; and though there is but one wind, which blows sometimes one way, and sometimes another, yet four are named with regard to the above points, east, west, north, and south, from whence it blows. These are commonly called "the four winds of heaven", Dan 8:8; but here, of the earth, as in the Targum on Isa 11:12, and he shall bring near the captivity of Judah, , "from the four winds of the earth". And such things as are chiefly affected with winds are particularly observed, as the earth, upon which buildings are thrown down by them; and the sea, in which ships are wrecked; and trees, which by the violence of them, are blown down, and torn up by the roots. Some by these angels understand evil angels, who are sometimes called angels, without any additional epithet to distinguish them, and that because a desire of hurting seems to have been in them, as well as a power, Rev 7:2; and who are, in every part of the world, seeking to do all the mischief they can; and may be said to hold the winds, not in a literal sense, for God only gathers the wind in his fist, and holds it there, and lets it loose at his pleasure; but in a mystical sense, as these may refer to the word, and the ministers of the word, whose progress and success are often hindered by Satan and is emissaries; and some particularly understand by them the four monarchies of the Babylonian, Persian, Grecian, and Roman; others the four emperors, after that Dioclesian and Maximianus had resigned, as Maximinus, Galerius, Maxentius, and Licinius; others Mahomet, or the Turk, in the east, who hindered the Gospel by his wars and devastations, as well as by false worship; the kings of France and Spain on the west, by fire, and faggot, and sword; and the pope in the south, by bulls and excommunications; and the empire and emperors of Germany on the north, by public edicts; or, in general, all the Popish tribe, popes, cardinals, bishops, priests, monks, and friars, by their decrees, anathemas, sermons, writings, and lying miracles, did all they could that the Gospel might not be preached neither in the earth, on the continent, nor in the sea, or in the islands of it; or that any of the saints, the trees of righteousness, who lived in woods and mountainous places, or were forced to fly into woods, might have any advantage by it. But, after all, rather this is to be understood of good angels, and either of their restraining evil angels from doing mischief, see Dan 10:13; or keeping back the winds of false doctrines and heresies from the churches of Christ, in the several parts of the world; or rather, and which is the true sense, of their holding in the storms of calamities and war to the destruction of kingdoms, provinces, islands, and the several inhabitants of them, and intends a general peace throughout the world; see Jer 49:36. This mystical way of speaking seems to agree with the notions of the Jews, who speak of angels standing at the gates of the four winds, "and the keys of the wind in their hands", whose names they give us (x); and make mention of , "the angels of the wind" (y); and the Magi among the Persians call the angel of the wind "Bad", or "Badran" (z).
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(x) Raziel, fol. 36. 1. 2. (y) Targum in 1 Reg. xix. 11. (z) Hyde, Hist. Relig. Pers. c. 12.
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 vv1–3 And after these things - What follows is a…
And after these things - What follows is a preparation for the seventh seal, which is the weightiest of all. It is connected with the sixth by the particle and; whereas what is added, verse 9, stands free and unconnected. I saw four angels - Probably evil ones. They have their employ with the four first trumpets, as have other evil angels with the three last; namely, the angel of the abyss, the four bound in the Euphrates, and Satan himself. These four angels would willingly have brought on all the calamities that follow without delay. But they were restrained till the servants of God were sealed, and till the seven angels were ready to sound: even as the angel of the abyss was not let loose, nor the angels in the Euphrates unbound, neither Satan cast to the earth, till the fifth, sixth, and seventh angels severally sounded. Standing on the four corners of the earth - East, west, south, north. In this order proceed the four first trumpets. Holding the four winds - Which else might have softened the fiery heat, under the first, second, and third trumpet. That the wind should not blow upon the earth, nor on the sea, nor on any tree - It seems, that these expressions betoken the several quarters of the world; that the earth signifies that to the east of Patmos, Asia, which was nearest to St. John, and where the trumpet of the first angel had its accomplishment. Europe swims in the sea over against this; and is accordingly termed by the prophets, "the islands." The third part, Africa, seems to be meant, chap. viii, 7, 8, 10, by "the streams of water," or "the trees," which grow plentifully by them.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv1–3 The four angels holding the four winds of heaven,…
CHAPTER VII.
The four angels holding the four winds of heaven, 1.
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The angel with the seal of the living God, and sealing the
servants of God out of the twelve tribes, whose number
amounted to one hundred and forty-four thousand, 2-8.
Besides these, there was an innumerable multitude from all
nations, who gave glory to God and the Lamb, 9-12.
One of the elders shows who these are, and describes their
most happy state, 13-17.
NOTES ON CHAP. VII.
Verse 1. And after these things] Immediately after the preceding vision.
I saw four angels] Instruments which God employs in the dispensation of his providence; we know not what.
On the four corners of the earth] On the extreme parts of the land of Judea, called η γη, the land, or earth, by way of eminence.
Holding the four winds] Preventing evil from every quarter. Earth-sea, nor on any tree; keeping the whole of the land free from evil, till the Church of Christ should wax strong, and each of his followers have time to prepare for his flight from Jerusalem, previously to its total destruction by the Romans.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv1–2 Rev 7:1. After these things — After the former…
Rev 7:1. After these things — After the former discoveries made to me, which represented the providence of God toward his church and the world, till the downfall of the heathen Roman empire, the state of the church and the world immediately to succeed was also represented to me in the manner following: — I saw four angels standing on the four corners of the earth — That is, the north, the south, the east, and the west; holding the four cardinal winds of the earth — Keeping them in a state of restraint; that the wind might not blow upon the earth — That there might be the most entire and complete calm, to represent the peaceful state of things which should succeed the tumultuous and distressing revolutions which had been last discovered to me. Winds are emblems of commotions, and very properly, as they are the natural causes of storms. Thus this figurative expression is used and explained by Jer 49:36-37; Upon Elam will I bring the four winds, from the four quarters of heaven, and will scatter them toward all those winds, &c., for I will cause Elam to be dismayed before their enemies, &c. To hold the winds, therefore, that they should not blow, is a very proper prophetic emblem of a state of peace and tranquillity. This chapter, it must be observed, is still a continuation of the sixth seal, for the seventh seal is not opened till the beginning of the next chapter. It is a description of the state of the church in Constantine’s time, of the peace and protection that it should enjoy under the civil powers, and of the great accession that should be made to it, both of Jews and Gentiles. Eusebius is very copious upon this subject in several parts of his writings, and hath applied that passage of the psalmist in the version of the Seventy, (Psa 46:8-9,) Come hither, and behold the works of the Lord, what wonders he hath wrought in the earth; he maketh wars to cease unto the end of the earth; he breaketh the bow, and cutteth the spear asunder; he burneth the chariot in the fire; which things, saith he, being manifestly fulfilled in our times, we rejoice over them. Lactantius also saith, in the same triumphant strain, “Tranquillity being restored throughout the world, the church which was lately ruined riseth again. Now, after the violent agitations of so great a tempest, a calm air and the desired light become resplendent. Now God hath relieved the afflicted. Now he hath wiped away the tears of the sorrowful.” These are testimonies of contemporary writers. Medals of Constantine are still preserved, with the head of this emperor on one side, and this inscription, CONSTANTINUS AUG., and on the reverse, BEATA TRANQUILLITAS, Blessed Tranquillity.
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 On vv1–3 And after these things - After the vision of…
And after these things - After the vision of the things referred to in the opening of the sixth seal. The natural interpretation would be, that what is here said of the angels and the winds occurred after those things which are described in the previous chapter. The exact chronology may not be always observed in these symbolical representations, but doubtless there is a general order which is observed.
I saw four angels - He does not describe their forms, but merely mentions their agency. This is, of course, a symbolical representation. We are not to suppose that it would be literally fulfilled, or that, at the time referred to by the vision, four celestial beings would be stationed in the four quarters of the world for the purpose of checking and restraining the winds that blow from the four points of the compass. The meaning is, that events would occur which would be properly represented by four angels standing in the four quarters of the world, and having power over the winds.
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Standing on the four corners of the earth - This language is, of course, accommodated to the prevailing mode of speaking of the earth among the Hebrews. It was a common method among them to describe it as a vast plain, having four corners, those corners being the prominent points - north, south, east, and west. So we speak now of the four winds, the four quarters of the world, etc. The Hebrews spoke of the earth, as we do of the rising and setting of the sun and of the motions of the heavenly bodies, according to appearances, and without aiming at philosophical exactness. Compare the notes on Job 26:7. With this view they spoke of the earth as an extended plain, and as having boundaries or corners, as a plain or field naturally has. Perhaps, also, they used this language with some allusion to an edifice, as having four corners; for they speak also of the earth as having foundations. The language which the Hebrews used was in accordance with the prevailing ideas and language of the ancients on the subject.
Holding the four winds of the earth - The winds blow in fact from every quarter, but it is convenient to speak of them as coming from the four principal points of the compass, and this method is adopted probably in every language. So among the Greeks and Latins, the winds were arranged under four classes - Zephyrus, Boreas, Notus, and Eurus - considered as under the control of a king, Aeolus. See Eschenburg, Man. Class. Literally, section 78, compare section 108. The angels here are represented as “holding” the winds - κρατοῦντας kratountas. That is, they held them back when about to sweep over the earth, and to produce far-spread desolation. This is an allusion to a popular belief among the Hebrews, that the agency of the angels was employed everywhere. It is not suggested that the angels had raised the tempest here, but only that they now restrained and controlled it. The essential idea is, that they had plower over those winds, and that they were now exercising that power by keeping them back when they were about to spread desolation over the earth.
That the wind should not blow on the earth - That there should be a calm, as if the winds were held back.
Nor on the sea - Nowhere - neither on sea nor land. The sea and the land constitute the surface of the globe, and the language here, therefore, denotes that there would be a universal calm.
Nor on any tree - To injure it. The language used here is such as would denote a state of profound quiet; as when we say that it is so still that not a leaf of the trees moves.
In regard to the literal meaning of the symbol here employed there can be no great difficulty; as to its application there may be more. The winds are the proper symbols of wars and commotions. Compare Dan 7:2. In Jer 49:36-37 the symbol is both used and explained: “And upon Elam will I bring the four winds from the four quarters of heaven, and will scatter them toward all those winds; and there shall be no nation whither the outcasts of Elam shall not come. For I will cause Elam to be dismayed before their enemies, and before them that seek their life.” So in Jer 51:1-2, a destroying wind is an emblem of destructive war: “I will raise up against Babylon a destroying wind, and will send unto Babylon fanners, that shall fan her, and shall empty her land.” Compare Horace, Odes, b. i. 14. The essential ideas, therefore, in this portion of the symbol, cannot be mistaken. They are two:
(1)That at the period of time here referred to - after the opening of the sixth seal and before the opening of the seventh - there would be a state of things which would be well represented by rising tempests and storms, which if unrestrained would spread desolation afar; and,
(2)That this impending ruin was held back as if by angels having control of those winds; that is, those tempests were not suffered to go forth to spread desolation over the world. A suspended tempest calamity held in check; armies hovering on the borders of a kingdom, but not allowed to proceed for a time; hordes of invaders detained, or stayed in their march, as if by some restraining power not their own, and from causes not within themselves - any of these things would be an obvious fulfilling of the meaning of the symbol.
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 On vv1–3 I saw four Angels, &c. Though some understand here…
I saw four Angels, &c. Though some understand here evil spirits, whom God may make use of as instruments to punish the wicked, yet we may rather, with other interpreters, understand good angels sent from God to guard and protect his faithful servants both from evil spirits and wicked men. (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 On v1 Revelation Chapter 7
Revelation Chapter 7
First, the perfect number of the remnant of Israel is sealed, before the providential instruments of God’s judgments are allowed to act; 144,000=12 x 12 x 1000. They are secured for blessing according to God’s purposes and set apart by Him; not yet seen in their blessings, but secured for them. Afterwards the vast multitude from among the gentiles is seen. We must remark here, there is no previous prophetic announcement of the blessing of the spared ones in the great tribulation (not the three years and-a-half of Mat 24:1-51 -this refers to Jews-but that mentioned in the epistle to the church at Philadelphia). Hence this is fully given to us here, and we are distinctly told who they are. A multitude of Gentiles is seen standing not as around the throne, but before it and before the Lamb, their righteousness owned and themselves victorious. They ascribe salvation to God thus revealed, that is, to God on the throne, and to the Lamb. They belong to these earthly scenes, not to the assembly. This is answered by the angels who are around the throne, the elders, and the living creatures -all together composing the heavenly part of the scene already connected with the throne; the angels surrounding the others, which form the centre and immediate circle of the throne, the white-robed multitude before it. The angels give their Amen, and pronounce the praise of their God too.
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All this belonged to the white-robed multitude and the angels; only the former speak of the Lamb, who was also their salvation. The angels add their Amen to this; but praise their God. They had ascribed glory and blessing to the Lamb before; but, naturally, salvation to the Lamb was not their own part of the song. But the four living creatures and the elders do not worship here, because their own relationships were different, and these are not what are spoken of here. They are found, as far as the book goes, in chapters 4 and 5, where they are on thrones around, and cast their crowns before the throne, and worship Him that liveth for ever and ever. They give the motives of worship according to the relationships they are in: that of the angels is with their God; of the white robed multitude, with the God of the throne and the Lamb as having the title to the government and deliverance of the earth as a present thing. That the Lamb was the Son, yea, the God who created the angels, is not the question here, but of each speaking in his own relationship, so as to bring these relationships out.
We have thus the heavenly hosts, the glorified saints, and the white-robed multitude, each in a different relationship, but the first and the last thrown in the main together-the glorified saints forming a class apart. They do not worship here. But one of the elders, who have always the intelligence of God explains to the prophet who the white-robed multitude are. It formed no part of the prophetic revelation as yet, and it was not the assembly’s own place. “Sir, thou knowest,” says the prophet. They had come out of the great tribulation, faithful in it, their robes white in the blood of the Lamb. They were not millennial saints, that is, born in that time, and subject by birth to the responsibility of that condition (which grace had to meet). They were cleansed and owned to be so, having the consciousness of it and victory when the others began; so that they, as already cleansed and owned, are always before the throne a special class, and serve Him day and night in His temple.
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 On v1 The Seven Penitential Trumpets, issuing from the Opening of…
SECTION THIRD
The Seven Penitential Trumpets, issuing from the Opening of the Seventh Seal
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Rev_7:1 to Rev_9:21
A.—IDEAL HEAVENLY WORLD-PICTURE OF THE SEVEN PENITENTIAL TRUMPETS. THE IDEAL, INVINCIBLE CHURCH. ITS ESTABLISHMENT AS THE CHURCH MILITANT BY THE SEALING OF THE ELECT IN THIS WORLD; ITS CONSUMMATION WITH THE FOUNDING OF THE CHURCH TRIUMPHANT IN THE OTHER WORLD. PREPARATION FOR THE LOOSING OF THE SEVENTH SEAL
Rev_7:1-17
1And1 after these [this2] things [om. things] I saw four angels standing on [upon] the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that the wind should [may] not blow on [upon] the earth, nor on [upon] the sea, nor on [upon] any tree.3 2And I saw another angel ascending from the east [sun-rising], having the [a] seal of the living God: and he cried with a loud [great] voice to the four angels, [ins. those] to whom it was given to hurt [injure] the earth and the sea, 3saying, Hurt [Injure] not the earth, neither [nor] the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed4 the servants of our God in [upon] their foreheads. 4And I heard the number of them which were [om. them which were—ins. the] sealed: and there were sealed [om. and there were sealed] a hundred and forty and four thousand [ins. sealed] of all the tribes [out of every tribe] of the children [sons] of Israel. 5Of [Out of] the tribe of Juda were sealed [om. were sealed] twelve thousand [ins. sealed5]. Of [; out of] the tribe of Reuben were sealed [om. were sealed] twelve thousand. Of [; out of] the tribe of Gad were sealed [om. were sealed] twelve 6thousand. Of [; out of] the tribe of Aser were sealed [om. were sealed] twelve thousand. Of [; out of] the tribe of Nephthalim were sealed [om. were sealed] twelve thousand. Of [; out of] the tribe of Manasses were sealed [om, were sealed] 7twelve thousand. Of [; out of] the tribe of Simeon were sealed [om. were sealed] twelve thousand. Of [; out of] the tribe of Levi were sealed [om. were sealed] twelve thousand. Of [; out of] the tribe of Issachar were sealed [om. were sealed] 8twelve thousand. Of [; out of] the tribe of Zabulon were sealed [om. were sealed] twelve thousand. Of [; out of] the tribe of Joseph were sealed [om. were sealed] twelve thousand. Of [; out of] the tribe of Benjamin were sealed [om. were sealed] twelve thousand [ins. sealed].
9After this [these things] I beheld [saw], and, lo [behold]6, a great multitude, which no man [one] could number, of [out of] all nations, and kindreds [tribes], and people [peoples], and tongues, stood [standing]7 before the throne, and before 10the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands; and [ins. they] cried [cry] with a loud [great] voice, saying, [ins. The] salvation to [or, is with] our God which [who] sitteth upon the throne, and unto [or, is with] the Lamb. 11And all the angels stood [were standing8] round about om. about] the throne, [om.,] and about [om. about] the elders and the four beasts [Living-beings], and [ins. they] 12fell before the throne on their faces, and worshipped God, saying, Amen: [ins. the] blessing, and [ins. the] glory, and [ins. the] wisdom, and [ins. the] thanksgiving, and [ins. the] honor, and [ins. the] power, and [ins. the] might [strength], be [or om. be] unto our God for ever and ever [into the ages of the ages]. Amen.
13And one of the elders answered, saying unto me, What are [om. What are] These which [who] are arrayed in white robes [ins., who are they]? and whence came they? 14And I said unto him, Sir [My9 lord], thou knowest. And he said to me, These are they which came [that come] out of [ins. the10] great tribulation, and [ins. they] have [om. have] washed their robes, and made them11 white in the blood 15of the Lamb. Therefore [On this account] are they before12 the throne of God, and [ins. they] serve him day and night in his temple: and he that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them [σκηνώσει ἐπ’ αὐτούς, shall spread his tabernacle over 16them]13. They shall [ins. not] hunger no [any] more, neither [ins. shall they] thirst any more; neither [οὐδὲ μὴ]14 shall the sun light [πέσῃ, fall] on them, nor any heat [καῦμα, burning heat]. 17For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne [τὸ ἀνὰ μέσον τοῦ θρόνου] shall feed [shepherdize] them, and shall lead them unto living [om. living] fountains of waters [ins. of life15]: and God shall wipe away all tears [every tear] from their eyes.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
SYNOPTICAL VIEW16
The literal, allegoristical exegesis, with its chronological interpretation, has covered this section [Revelation 7] in particular, together with the corresponding eighth and ninth chapters, with confusion and obscurity. It should be premised, first of all, that Revelation 7-9 constitute a whole, representing the essential form of the history of the Church in this world in respect of its spiritual aspect, in its connection with the history of the Kingdom of God, or the New Testament history of religion. [See p. 192 sq.] If the seven churches were, portraits of the Church in its spiritual and world-historical aspects; if, further, the seven seals were characteristic of the world-historical side of New Testament times; so now in the seven trumpets the New Testament history of religion, as the spiritual side of New Testament times, is exhibited, or, in other words, the Church is portrayed in its transcendent nature as militant and triumphant. It will appear, as we proceed, that the reference is purely to spiritual matters; let us meantime direct the attention of our readers to the characteristic of the section as presented in the concluding words Rev_9:20-21. The dark side in the entire period is the worship of demons, devilish spirits, and this dark side is divided into religious idolatries and moral enormities. As the sections throughout the Apocalypse unfold into the antithesis of Heaven-pictures and earth pictures, so it is with the present one. If it be objected that the sealing of the 144,000 souls does not take place in Heaven, but on earth, we respond that to the Apocalyptist, Heaven and earth are not purely local terms, as is evident, moreover, from chaps. 12 and 21. Even the Son of Man Himself walks on earth, amid the candlesticks, according to Revelation 1 We must, therefore, once for all, distinguish Heaven on earth from the earthly form of the Kingdom of God. And this Heaven on earth is in this case the kernel of the Church Militant, the plenary number of the sealed elect, from whose ranks are issuing, ever and anon, those victor-trains of parting souls that form the Church Triumphant in the world beyond the grave. Thus is framed the conception of the Heaven-picture of the ideal Church as a whole; as branching into the two stages of the Church Militant and the Church Triumphant (Rev_7:1-8; Revelation 9-17). The contrasted earth picture of the Church is characterized by the trumpets themselves. We continue to designate these as penitential Trumpets, though prominence should also be given in the first place to the more general signification of the trumpetings, as figuring the sudden warlike or dramatic appearance of worldly spirits and spiritual errors, both of which, however, serve as an admonition to repentance, to the marrow of the Church. [See p. 212 sqq.]
With the chronological and literal conception referred to, correspond the most considerable misunderstandings which attach to this chapter. Above all, the chapter should not be regarded in the light of an episode. Neither should it be considered as a special promise to the Jewish people. If we hold fast to the idea of the organic completeness and unitedness of the Apocalyptic narration, such an episode, which would be destructive of all connection, is inconceivable. As, furthermore, the seventh chapter, as the basis of the seven Trumpets, must perfectly coincide with the following two chapters, it cannot be reduced to a section of the last time.
So far as the Jews are concerned, those commentators are entirely at odds with the text who teach that the Jews in a literal sense are intended here. As surely as the New Jerusalem of Revelation 21 cannot denote a new Jewish city; as surely as the term Jews, as used in the seven epistles, denotes the very opposite of Judaists, namely, the true spiritual Israel; just so surely are the people of Israel, here, representative of the whole body of the people of God. It can be affirmed only that converts from Israel are included.
Or are the 144,000 souls, standing, according to Revelation 14, on Mount Zion, other chosen ones, though those here mentioned likewise appear as sealed? Or are the former, also, only Jews after all? And being Jews, are they virgins in the literal sense, as Rothe maintains; celibates, such as are found so seldom amongst the Jews? And has the scene so far changed that, whilst in our passage the Church in this world consists purely of Jews, but in the other world is made up of all nations, Gentiles predominating, therefore,—in Revelation 14, on the other hand, the Gentiles upon Mount Zion, i.e., in the same region in which they, in Revelation 7, occupy the foreground, are displaced by the Jews?—In every case, we answer no.
Be it observed, moreover, that if the symbolical significance be lost sight of in the leading matter, the Twelve Tribes must also be taken literally; as also the 12,000 of every Tribe; the omission of the Tribe of Dan, and everything else. And this, apart from the essential absurdity that during this whole period of sealed Jewish Christians, there should be no account made of sealed Gentile Christians on earth.
And here arises the question, why the New Testament Church should be symbolized by the Jewish Tribes; its kernel by sealed individuals belonging to those Tribes. This question is at once satisfactorily settled if we do but glance back at the prophetic representation of the destiny of Israel. The people of Israel is the typical servant of God, His elect, whose office it is to disseminate His law amongst the Gentiles (Isaiah 42, 43, etc.), before the Servant of God in the truest and fullest sense of the term, the Messiah, is spoken of. The New Testament, again, takes up this typical import of Israel, but only decisively to transfer it to the spiritual Israel, the New Testament faithful people, or people of faith (Mat_8:11; Rom_2:28; Rom_4:11-12; Gal_4:26). In our passage there was abundant motive for going back to the symbolical name of Jews, and to the symbolical import of the Twelve Tribes in particular, since the position of the spiritual Israel in regard to spiritual heathendom—whose pressure into the Church the Apocalyptist foresaw—was to be marked.17 We would observe, in this connection, that John, in accordance with ideal theocratic notions, regarded even Judaistic forms of corruption as a special formation of heathenism. Precautionary measures were virtually taken against misunderstanding, in the fact that the Seer made those who were sealed in this world re-appear, in their consummation in the other world, as an innumerable throng out of all nations. [See p. 193.] What we have here, therefore, is not a special scene from the last time, but an entirely new cycle of the whole New Testament time which, as a whole, is eschatological;—a heavenly portrait of the ideal Church.
The vision begins with the apparition of the four Angels that stand upon the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that no wind may blow upon the earth, nor upon the sea, nor upon any tree.
We have recognized the earth as the theocratic order or institution; here it is the New Testament order of things, as presented, first, in the Church alone, branching out, subsequently, into ecclesiastical and political life. On the four corners of this earth, where it comes in contact with the old world—from the direction of heathenism, consequently—the four winds arise. The four winds are the fundamental forms of those worldly time-currents which threaten the ruin of the Church (Dan_7:2; Eph_4:14). These time-currents must be loosed when their time comes, for a particular work is appointed them; on this very account, however, they are, as Divine dispensations, held by Angels, that they may not break loose before their time and destroy the earth, i. e., the young Church; the sea, or Christian national life, which is not yet strong; or individual Christians that, like all sorts of trees of God (τὶ) have begun to grow up (Psalms 1). [See p. 187.]
When another Angel appears, forbidding the four Angels to injure the earth, or the sea, or individual trees, until he shall have sealed the servants of God, there is presented, in the antithesis of two chronological sections of time, in the antithesis of the bound and the loosed winds, a spiritual antithesis; that, namely, of the sealed, over whom the four winds have no power, as contrasted with the injured earth, the injured sea, and the injured trees. The temporal distinction, however, has likewise its own independent signification; the winds are never loosed until the kernel of the faithful is firmly established.
The nature of the other Angel, ascending from the rising of the sun, is determined by the idea of the sealing. Since the conception of justification has suffered such decay in the evangelical Church, it is not to be wondered at that our Theology has in still greater measure lost the idea of sealing, although the latter was prefigured in the Old Testament (Eze_9:4), whilst it appears distinctly in the New Testament as the idea of the eternal fixation of Christian character, to preserve it from the danger of apostasy (Rom_5:4, δοκιμή; Jam_2:21; Eph_1:13). [See. p. 186.]
With justification, the new life of faith is principially decided; it is necessary, however, that it should be historically proved and fixed, just as it was necessary that Abraham’s faith should be proved (see Jam_2:21; comp. Jam_2:23). Now this proving [or verification] is called, in its relation to the simple trials of life, proving; in its spiritual import, over against the temptations to apostasy, it is denominated sealing; Ezekiel symbolized it by a mark on the forehead. It is the mark of a spiritually quick and faithful confession, which the tempter, the spiritual murderer, passes timorously by.
It will hardly be supposed that the Apocalyptist had a lower conception of the sealing than the Apostle Paul; consequently, the Angel of sealing can be significant only of t he Holy Ghost. [See p. 187.] He ascends with the rising of the sun; i. e., the life of Jesus Christ, in His glorification, results in the sending of the Holy Ghost. His seal is the seal of the living God; no letter, no form, no fancy:—nothing but the life of the living God, Whose personal manifestation is consummated in the glorification of Christ, begets in pure and honest souls such a homogeneous Divine life as, in its matured form, victoriously withstands all the winds and storms of worldly history (1Jn_5:4). For, after the sealing, all the four winds must have been suffered to sweep over them; otherwise it could not be said of them: they are come out of the great tribulation. Nay, sealing is itself a confirming against great temptation.
Again, this Angel has power, with a mighty voice to put his veto on an untimely loosing of the four winds. This is the power of mighty operations of the Spirit of God, checking for a while the currents of the spirit of this world; e. g., by this power heresies were restrained throughout the entire Apostolic age.
Then follows the sealing itself. This is too great and too extended for the Apocalyptist to describe the view of the acts themselves; he, therefore, hears the number of the sealed. And the mere number is a leading point; it is a predetermined plenary number, the whole harvest of God (Mat_3:12), the whole inheritance of God. [See p. 193.] The winds may take their part, the chaff (Psalms 1; Matthew 3); the whole wheat harvest is secured to the Lord. We scarcely need remark that the predestination indicated corresponds with religious and moral conditions. If it were not so, the sealed must have brought the mark on their foreheads into the world with them.
The plenary number of the sealed is 144,000. For all charismatic ground-forms of the life of faith are represented by the Twelve Tribes; whilst the 12,000 souls out of every Tribe represent the whole ramification of each ground-form into its twelve modifications, and the whole harvest of this fullness of the Divine Spirit and human spirits, through the entire Christian course of the world, as symbolized by 1000 years. In proportion to the historical extension of the Tribes, the number 12,000 is exceedingly small; this fact, however, agrees with all the declarations of the New Testament [in regard to the proportion of the saved].
The order of the Tribes gives rise to several queries. Why is the Tribe of Dan wanting here, whilst in the blessing of Moses the Tribe of Simeon was left out? Why is Simeon here even set over Levi? Why is Manasseh distinguished from Joseph, and why is Ephraim merged in Joseph? It would almost seem as if the Tribes had been mingled together promiscuously, in order to ward off every Judaistic conception from the figure. At all events, the perfect equalization of the Tribes is itself not without significance. A Jew would have expected preference to be shown to the Tribe of Judah; he would, however, have anticipated that the Tribe of Levi would have the priority over all. Levi, however, is placed amongst the later Tribes; the prerogatives of the Old Testament priesthood are at an end (Bengel). We shall revert later to the Christian and Jewish traditions in regard to the omission of the Tribe of Dan. As this Tribe early left its inheritance (Judges 18), and conquered the city of Laish, which, probably, was subsequently included in the domain of Naphthali, the Israelitish genealogy merged it in Naphthali (see 1 Chronicles 4 sqq.); and the Tribe the rather lost its symbolical significance, since it had damaged it, not merely by the surrender of its tribal seat, but also in other ways (by idolatry). And yet from none of these things need we conclude that the future Antichrist is to issue from it, or that it has died out. In all New Testament times, the Twelve Tribes have been represented only by Judah, Benjamin, Levi, and remnants of the other Tribes, and it is not known exactly where the great mass of the Ten Tribes are. The thing which the Apocalyptist had in view was a symbolical twelve, on a historical basis. Possibly the motive for this substitution of the venerable name of Joseph for Ephraim was, that a disturbing allusion to the falling away of Israel might be avoided. Amid all the seeming confusion of the Tribes, in which no distinction is made between the sons of Jacob’s lawful wives and the sons of his concubines, it is still in harmony with the theocratic idea that Judah should head the list and Benjamin conclude it.
If we essay now to divide the entire table by the number three, as the number of spirit, into four times three, we have, first, two sons of Leah and one of her maid: Judah, Reuben, Gad; we have, secondly, Leah’s adopted son, Aser, Rachel’s adopted son, Nepthalim, and Manasseh, the first-born of Joseph; the third triad is formed by Leah’s sons, Simeon and Levi, and her adopted son, Issachar; in the fourth group, Zabulon is conjoined with Joseph and Benjamin, the late offspring of Leah with the late offspring of Rachel.
On a general survey, the thought forces itself upon our mind that the vision, in its symbolistic enumeration of the Twelve Tribes, has obliterated every semblance of a legal prerogative;—apart from Judah’s place of honor, which, again, was symbolically significant of the dignity of Christ.
In the 144,000 sealed ones, the assurance is given that the Church shall in all ages have a heart or kernel firm as a rock; an invisible congregation of sealed ones, against whom every power of temptation, or every storm of the four winds, must break. Our eyes are not permitted to behold this kernel, this choicest and innermost part; for this reason, among others,—because many apparent forms of Christian heroism are delusive and fall (the young men fall and the youths faint, etc.), whilst insignificant and humble characters, or such as are disguised in worldly forms, step into the breach at decisive moments. Furthermore, we do not readily recognize and honor God’s heroes in a strange attire, as, for instance, when they appear in the Middle Ages in monkish garb, or, in the eighteenth century, in the garment of critical humanism. Enough, the Rock is ever there, and though the gates of the abyss lift themselves up against it, they shall be confounded; and that Rock is Christ in His elect. The fact that these chosen ones are numbered, like the Einheriar [heroes] of Odin in the Northern mythology, points to the conclusion that the reference is not to all pious souls, indiscriminately, or in a body, but to those only who constitute the support of the Church, as is evident also from the description of the 144,000 in Revelation 14, and from the second scene of our vision, the picture of the Church Triumphant.
It is tacitly assumed that the four winds have been loosed subsequently to the sealing. Their effect, however, is not described until we come to the seven Trumpets, and then the figures are changed. Yet it is declared of the triumphant throng: these are they that come ([or, the coming ones] οἱ ἐρχόμενοι) out of the great tribulation (Rev_7:14). The throng is not secluded in Heaven, but is constantly receiving new additions. We have here, therefore, no picture of the Church Triumphant in its perfection; we see it in the period of its growth, during the entire course of New Testament times. Hence, too, this Church Triumphant presents the most diverse contrasts to the sealed on earth. It is a multitude so great that none can number it; because, in the first place, it increases every instant by the arrival of those who have died in the Lord; and, further, because not only the sealed heroes of God, but all the blessed make their appearance here. It is a multitude out of all the nations and tribes and peoples and tongues. That there are blessed Israelites in this throng, is a matter of course; and it is just as evident that the name Jews, in the picture of the Church Militant, is the symbolical title of honor of the heroes of the New Testament people of God. They who compose this multitude appear as the antitype of the sealed, i. e., the invincible on earth; they have overcome. They have left the storms of earth behind them; they stand before the Throne, to whose Occupant they owe their general redemption from the woes of earth; and before the Lamb, to Whom they owe their specific redemption. The white robes, with which they are clothed, are significant of their victory; the palms in their hands denote the eternal festival that has begun for them. Their maturity is evidenced in part from the fact of their ascribing their whole salvation to the grace of God, glorifying not simply the government of the Father, but also that of the Lamb; not simply the government of the Lamb, but also that of the Father, and praising the latter first. Their song is a unitous, mighty harmony, at which the Angels in the grand circle surrounding the Elders and the Living-forms, fall upon their faces and worship. The Amen which they utter, proclaims the unison of the whole spirit-world with that redemption of which earth is the scene (Col_1:20); and their present understanding of the great fact so long hid from their gaze (Eph_3:10; 1Pe_1:12) is expressed in their doxology. In accordance with their universal stand-point, they merge the praise of the Lamb in the general praise of God. It is evident from the praise which they render, that the world of spirits and the world of blessed humanity have become one congregation of God. The sevenfoldness of their ascription of praise has been referred, not without reason, to the antithesis of the seven Thunders; at all events, the whole New Testament Divine week, the entire accomplishment of the work of redemption is herein symbolized. In the first two dicta lies the general verdict, the praise of the spirits, corresponding with the glory of God. The two following dicta are declarative, on the one hand, of the wisdom of God; and, on the other, of the thanksgiving of the spirits. In the following two, mention is made of the honor, the honorableness, which God has given to His people, and with it is extolled the power or majesty to which they owe this honor. That, however, which has finally snatched the redeemed out of all tribulation, is the eschatological mighty ruling of God. And for this He is worshipped, in accordance with all these terms, into the æons of the æons; all the ground-tones of the world’s history, and of the history of salvation form themselves into this eternal hymn, resounding henceforth without end throughout the æons.
The conversation next ensuing between one of the Elders and the Seer himself, reviews the spiritual career through which the blessed ones of Heaven passed on earth. The Elder seems to answer the question contained in the astonishment of the Seer by first questioning him as to whether he knows who the white-robed ones are and whence they come. Though the Seer himself cannot be uncertain in regard to the general facts of the case, he desires a heavenly assurance as to the earthly extraction of the blessed. He, therefore replies: Thou knowest. The response of the Elder embraces both questions: Who are they? and whence come they? For they are sufficiently characterized by the statement that they came out of the great tribulation of all earthly trials and temptations; that they have escaped from it; and that, with a full sense of the inherent natural impurity of their garments,—which are significant of their form of life—they have washed them—washed them and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. We cannot conceive of blood as making garments white, but in the conception of salvation, the Atonement in Christ makes them white as snow. Here, then, righteousness of faith and righteousness of life are evidently united. In accordance with this is their exaltation (διὰ τοῦτο; comp. Php_2:9). They are before the Throne of God, happy in the contemplation of His governance. They serve Him day and night in His Temple. This is the eternal, real Divine service of the priestly race; they have become absolutely devoid of will, and strong in will in their God. The glory of God is extended permanently over them, just as, in a typical manner, it was outspread over the Ark of the Covenant in the Holy of Holies. All their longings, all their needs are satisfied; their hunger and their thirst are forever appeased; i. e., they are in the enjoyment of all heavenly blessings, whilst they are free from every annoyance from the earthly sun and every heat of the day. They are thus complete negatively and positively. They have reached the highest point of that experience which falls to the lot of God’s people even on the earth, according to Psalms 23. The Lamb in the midst before the Throne is their Shepherd, Who feeds them and leads them to the water-springs of life. And, again, together with their positive felicity, their negative blessedness is expressed in a few glorious and comforting words: God Himself (their Leader through the vale of tears) shall wipe away every tear from their eyes. The highest heavenly consolation for every sad experience is theirs, in the warmest human form, as if consoling love were for them transformed into pure maternal tenderness. Every tear! Every tear of every sort! God shall wipe it away as a mother does with her child. The blessed, then, may come into the heavenly world with a tear in their eyes, a child-like question as to the way that God has led them.
[ABSTRACT OF VIEWS, ETC]
By the American Editor
[Elliott says, concerning the two visions of this chapter, that they “together constitute the second part of the sixth Seal” (see p. 168). The period he places between the destruction of the political power of heathenism and the year 395. This period he sets forth as satisfying the symbols, in that it was one in which—1. “The threatening tempest of barbarians, which so soon subverted the Roman greatness, being just during the Constantinian era ‘repelled or suspended on the frontiers” (quoting Gibbon III. 97); 2. “The great mass of the professedly Christianized population of the Roman world” were “Christians in profession only;” 3. Through the instrumentality of faithful ministers, Jesus gathered an elect portion for Himself from the corrupt mass. The first vision (Rev_7:1-8) he regards as “figurative not of events cognizable in real life by mortal eyes, … but of certain invisible and spiritual actings by Jesus Christ, whereby to constitute and mark out for Himself an election of grace;” the second (Rev_7:9-17) as indicating that the view of Christ’s true Church … embraced the far future, … as well as the present; the perpetuation of this true Church in its integrity …; and, in fine, the realization by the whole collective body of its many successive generations, and by each and all of its individual members, of the blessedness of accomplished salvation and the glory of the beatific vision.”
Barnes agrees with Elliott, substantially, as to the period of the first vision, carrying it on, however, to the sack of Rome, A. D. 410. By the sealing he understands the affixing “some mark, sign or token” (1) “by which they who were the people of God would be known;” (2) “that would be conspicuous or prominent, as if it were impressed on the forehead;” (3) “appointed by God Himself;” (4) that “would be a pledge of safety.” What this sealing is, he does not directly state. His language is such as to induce the belief, that he regarded it as, possibly, two-fold: (1)Christian profession, in view of which multitudes were saved in the destruction of Rome by Alaric, and (2) the “influence” “of the doctrines of grace” selecting and designating those who were “the ‘true servants of God’ among the multitudes who professed to be His followers.” The process of sealing he regards “as continued throughout the long night of Papal darkness.” The second vision (Rev_7:9-17) he regards as “an episode having no immediate connexion with what precedes or with what follows.” “The scene is transferred to Heaven, and there is a vision of all the redeemed—not only of the 144,000, but of all who would be rescued and saved from a lost world.”
Stuart regards Revelation 7 as an episode indicating the care of God for His people, and their safety in the time of destruction.
Wordsworth treats of the whole chapter as an episode, without directly declaring that it is so. He regards the first vision as relating to “the ‘blessed company of all faithful people’ gathered together from all parts of the world and constituting the Church universal, redeemed by Christ’s blood, and sealed by His Spirit,” etc.; the second vision he regards as relating to the same Church glorified and triumphant.
Alford directly declares that the whole chapter is an episode; the first vision representing “the sealing of the elect on earth;” the second, “the great final assemblage of the saints in Heaven.” Concerning the first vision, he declares that it “stands in closest analogy with Mat_24:31. … The judgment of the great day is in fact going on in the background.” Concerning the nature of the sealing, he expresses no opinion; as to its intent, he argues that (1) “it was to exempt those sealed from the judgments which were to come on the unbelieving,” and (2) “it appropriates to God those upon whom it has passed.”
Lord connects the visions with the sixth Seal. Under his comments on this Seal, he writes: “Betwixt that fall (of Bonaparte in 1815) and the final subversion of the governments of the earth, denoted by the passing away of the heavens, a period intervenes during which the sealing symbolized by the next vision is to take place.” In this vision (Rev_7:1-8), he regards the “winds” as indicating “multitudes and nations roused to passion, and uniting in a violent demolition of political and social institutions;” the symbol of the sealing as denoting “that the servants of God, ere the whirlwind of ruin begins, are to be led to assume a new attitude towards the apostate Church, and usurping civil rulers, by which, and in a manner never before seen, they are to be shown to be indubitably His true people. … The sealed and the witnesses (Rev_11:13) are undoubtedly the same.” The scene of the second vision he declares to be the Divine presence. “The innumerable multitude stand before the throne of God and the Lamb, and are undoubtedly the redeemed raised from the dead, publicly accepted and exalted to the station of heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ in His Kingdom” (the resurrection here referred to is the first—that of “the holy dead”).—E. R. C.]
EXPLANATIONS IN DETAIL
To regard Revelation 7 as an episode, with Eichhorn and others, and even Düsterdieck, is almost as incorrect as to assume, in accordance with Vitringa, that it constitutes the second and third parts of the sixth Seal; according to this view, the true contents of the sixth Seal, as described in Revelation 6, would form but the third of it.
The discussions relative to the purpose of the sealing show the obscurity that has crept over the idea of sealing—an idea so familiar to the New Testament, and introduced even by the Old Testament. Düsterdieck justly combats the view of many exegetes (especially à-Lapide, Ebrard), according to which the sealing here denotes an insurance against threatening penal judgments. The New Testament sealing secures against that temptation to apostasy which is enwrapped in the penal judgments, and thus conditionally, we admit, annuls the penal judgments so far as the sealed are concerned, although they pass through them. And hence the signs, σημεῖα, Exodus 12 and Ezekiel 9, have a typical relation to this passage; a fact which Düsterdieck denies, notwithstanding his correct apprehension of the idea of sealing (p. 280).
[Is not the sealing the impressing upon believers the name, i. e., the image of God the Father and the Son (comp. Rev_14:1), or, in other words, is it not their sanctification? This interpretation well agrees with all the instances in the New Testament, in which it is said that believers are sealed (see 2Co_1:22; Eph_1:13; Eph_4:30). Barnes writes: “It would be something that would be conspicuous or prominent, as if it were impressed upon the forehead. It would not be. merely some internal sealing, or some designation by which they would be known to themselves and to God, but it would be something apparent, as if engraved on the forehead.” Sanctification, although internal as to its origin, becomes apparent in the whole carriage of the man; it shines forth from him. No figure of it, as apparent, could be more striking than that of a seal placed upon the forehead—the noblest and most prominent portion of the physical man.
[The intent of sealing is, first, to make manifest the fact of ownership, and, secondly, to secure. Both these ends are effected by the sealing, as interpreted above; and furthermore, it may be remarked, the safety of that portion of the sealed who may remain on earth during the period of the great tribulation is insured, whether we regard that tribulation as resulting from special judgments, inflicted by personal ministers of God, or from the influx of fearful temptations. In the former case, it is secured, as was that of the Israelites in the last great judgment inflicted upon the Egyptians, by the sprinkled blood of the paschal lamb; in the latter, by the spiritual strength inwrought by the Spirit of sanctification.—E. R. C.]
With the manifold misapprehension of the sealing, a non-appreciation of the universal import of this section is connected. Hence have arisen false specializations, as e. g.: the flight of the Christians to Pella (Grot. and others). All the Jews down to the final judgment (Heinrich). All the servants of God at the end of the days (De Wette). Hengstenberg, however, interprets the passage more correctly than would appear from Düsterdieck’s notice of his views (p. 277). He writes as follows: “The sealing, as a symbolical act, is enclosed in a particular epoch of time; it takes place, once for all, before the commencement of the plagues with which the godless world is judged. The root idea, however, is this: that God protects His own in the midst of all the judgments that sweep over the godless world.—The sealing has reference to the entire duration of the Christian Church, until its final consummation; to the entire duration of the world, to its final destruction (?). It has, therefore, not yet lost its significance.”
The relation of the second part of the chapter (from Rev_7:9 to the close) to the first part has been defined in harmony with the individualization of the section. The innumerable multitude of Christians, Rev_7:9, has reference to the Christians in Syria, according to Grotius. It forms a portion of the 144,000; a portion that have perished despite the sealing, according to Heinrich. It is also declared to be identical with the 144,000. Düsterdieck makes an ingenious attempt to answer the question why only believing Jews (as he supposes) are represented as sealed. If, however, it were really true that sealed Jewish Christians were alone intended here, the charge of Volkmar and others, that the Book is Judaistic, would not be so easily set aside. Ebrard affirms, that Israel alone is spoken of here, “not because the Gentile Christians then existing together with it are excluded from this congregation of Israel, but because they must be conceived of as adopted into it.” This reminds us of a generally diffused school-idea, according to which Israel is, at the end, yet to obtain legal prerogatives; though it was to its pretension to such prerogatives that its apostasy was owing. The simple antithesis of the elect, as the kernel of the Church in this world, and the innumerable blessed, as the constituents of the continually increasing Church in the other world, is entirely overlooked. Even Düsterdieck limits the 144,000 to Jews. A special reason for this is the fact, that the Twelve Tribes are mentioned by name. As if the very Tribes had not a typical or symbolical meaning! Let the full consequence of Israel’s symbolical import be gathered from the Prophets, Evangelists, and Apostolic writings, and Düsterdieck’s arguments in favor of Bengel’s view—viz., that in Rev_7:1-8 only Israelitish believers are intended, whilst Rev_7:9 has reference to blessed spirits from all nations, from the Gentiles and the Jews—will excite nothing but astonishment. On special distinctions see Düsterdieck, p. 280.
Rev_7:1. Four angels.—These are neither four world-kingdoms (Bede), nor ostensible Angels of Nature (De Wette), nor bad Angels (Calov.), nor distinct personal Angels, but symbolical angelic forms, like the Cherubs at the entrance of Paradise; denoting here all God’s providential arrangements in regard to the forth-breaking of the spirit or winds of temptation.18 “In the Angels who restrain and loose the winds, the idea that the salvation of the elect and the perdition of the wicked (?) come from God alone has, as it were, assumed flesh and blood. Comp. the similar symbolical representation in Rev_9:14-15” (Hengstenberg). The commentator just quoted also shows that the winds in Scripture are symbols of Divine judgments (p. 177); and it is thus that he apprehends them here. In the New Testament, however, they are also symbols of opinions, of false doctrines, Eph_4:14 (comp. Hos_8:7), and this meaning is by far the more probable one here.19 Ebrard truly remarks, that the conception of the four corners of the earth does not necessitate the idea that the earth is a four-cornered plane. The four corners characterize the whole earth-world in respect of its spiritually dark side, the heathen earth. The Seer is already accustomed, like the Christian Church at a later period, to conjoin the idea of heathenism (Paganism) with the idea of a coming from the uttermost corners of the earth. And in this Ezekiel preceded him with his prophecy concerning Gog and Magog—a prophecy which John himself takes up (Revelation 20). According to Hengstenberg, the four winds denote, “that the storms of Divine judgments are to burst upon the earth from all sides.” Düsterdieck maintains that the winds are to be taken simply as actual storm-winds, just as in Rev_6:12 a real earthquake should be understood. Misunderstanding is driven to its utmost stretch when it is proposed to take the figures of an allegorical book literally, and when, on the other hand, the law-abiding explanation of these allegorical figures is denominated allegorical interpretation. With equal justice might it be said, that the sower of Matthew 13 is a real sower, and that the spiritual interpretation of him is allegorical exposition. However abortive most of the interpretations of such allegorical figures may be, they are so only because they have not sufficiently regarded the key which is offered by the poetical and prophetico-symbolical style of expression. Our remark applies, for instance, to Bengel’s explanation of the earth as Asia; the sea as Europe; the trees as Africa. Yet other interpretations see in Düsterdieck. Hengstenberg quite rightly understands the sea as denoting the sea of nations. Here, however, the sea should be apprehended in the better sense of the term, as symbolizing Christian national life, because it is possible for it to be injured; it cannot thus be understood, however, in cases where the harm proceeds from it, as Dan_7:2 and Revelation 13. Hengstenberg thinks that the trees denote kings or magnates; trees and grass, the lofty and the lowly. We prefer, in this passage, to apprehend the trees in accordance with Psalms 1, the grass in accordance with Psalms 23, since it is not neutral things that are spoken of as being injured, but positively good things.
[May there not be here a double symbolization—the storm directly significant of a convulsion that is to shake the real earth and sea, and that symbolic of convulsion in the whole fabric of human society? Our Lord connects together storms in the physical and social worlds as preceding His Coming (Luk_21:25-28), and the whole imagery of the Apocalypse leads to the idea that such storms will be connected in reality—E. R. C.]
Rev_7:2. And I saw another angel.—Vitringa, with perfect justice, regarded this other Angel as significant of the Holy Ghost. Düsterdieck considers it too great a digression from the text to regard him even as an Archangel (Stern), or as Christ (Calov., Hengstenb.). The term certainly is ἄγγελος, and not Holy Ghost; but outside of Apocalyptic symbolism, it is the Holy Ghost Who seals. [The Holy Ghost, doubtless, is the efficient sealer; but may not the Angel be a symbol of the instrumentalities by which He seals?—E.R.C.] This Angel undoubtedly says in Rev_7:3, the servants of our God; but he must, necessarily, speak as an Angel and he also includes with himself, as Hengstenberg correctly reminds us, the four Angels first spoken of. [The inclusion is possible, but not necessary.—E. R. C.]
Ascending from the sun-rising.—Even this, we are told, contains nothing but the “significant” intimation, “that the Angel who comes on an errand of blessing, with the guarantee of life eternal” (Angels, then, are possessed of such power!), “rises from the side whence light and life are brought by the earthly sun.” Düsterdieck, with reference to Hengstenberg (?), Ebrard, Volkmar and others. The words, then, contain a modern poetical figure, and nothing more, though Scripture speaks of the rising of the Sun of righteousness (Mal_4:2; comp. Luk_1:78; Hengstenberg, p. 382 sqq.). Düsterdieck rejects a number of interpretations similar to his own (p. 284).
A seal of the Living God.—This term does not denote merely that the “seal belongs to the living God;” it means, rather, that it secures a life corresponding to the living God—the new life of believers. Hence God is termed the living God. According to De Wette, the expression means that God is the true God, and hence that His seal is the valid one. According to Hengstenberg, Düsterdieck and others, the meaning is, that God, as the Living One, is also the bestower of life. Our passage treats of the insurance of a life already given, as is always the case when sealing is spoken of. Together with the idea of insuring, the idea of property is included. These two conceptions really cannot be separated; he who seals anything, secures it to himself. Without this reference of insurance to ownership—of which Hengstenberg can find no certain example in Scripture—sealing, as such, would have merely the import of a mechanical fastening. But even a lock is not purely and simply a mechanical impediment.
“According to the hypothesis of several exegetes, the seal bore the name of Jehovah. Such commentators refer to Rev_14:1, where the elect are described as having the Name of God written on their foreheads, etc. It is to be observed, that Ezekiel (Rev_9:4) merely speaks of a mark, without further qualification. This fact alone should prevent us from going beyond what is expressly stated in the text” (Hengstenberg). Others have conjectured that the seal bore the sign of the cross. Düsterdieck, on the other hand, concludes, from the omission of the definite article, that we are at liberty to suppose that God has different seals for different purposes. The Apostle Paul, however, seems to know of but one purpose in the sealing of the servants of God.20
And he cried with a great voice.—This, according to Hengstenberg, denotes the decidedness of the command. Other interpretations see in Düsterdieck, p. 286. We understand by it the mighty counter-working of apostolic Christianity against the incipient breaking loose of spiritual heathenism upon the Church.
To whom it was given.—We find no pluperfect in ἐδόθη; for it is not until the sealing that such power is given them. Previous to the sealing, the four Angels were just as much designed for the restraining of the winds as they afterwards were for the loosing of them, for they were the angelic purpose and the angelic measure of the winds themselves (Psa_104:4)
To injure the earth.—̓Αδικεῖν is to be apprehended in the more general sense of doing harm to.21 A strange perversion of the sense is shown in the interpretations of Bengel, Herder and Rinck, according to whom the holding of the winds should be regarded as an injury, because they have a cooling or a dispersing effect. The ἄχρι in Rev_7:3, irrespective of anything else, decides in regard to the meaning. It even precludes the assumption that harm would result only in case the winds were loosed too soon. After the sealing, the injuring really ensues; though the loosing of the storms is not literally narrated, it is actually accomplished with the sounding of the seven Trumpets.
Till we have sealed.—The general apprehension of the plural as indicating that the Angel has assistants who are not mentioned, may have another direction given to it in the assumption, that the four Angels themselves are the assistants of the Angel who issues the command. This view is justly upheld by Hengstenberg, though Düsterdieck opposes it. For the repression and limitation, as well as the cooperation of temptation, of trial, of tribulation from without, are alike necessary in order that man may inwardly attain to his sealing. As, however, a certain degree of temptation is the condition of sealing, so there are also degrees of temptation which would be irresistible, were it not for the previous sealing. And this is the idea presented here. Hence the four Angels must first take a negative part in the sealing by holding the four winds in check for a time. Calovius’ application of the plural to the Trinity, see noticed by Düsterdieck.
The servants of our God.—In the Old Testament all the pious are, in a general sense, servants of God, in accordance with His Thorah [law]. In a special sense, however, the people of Israel, or pious Israelites, are His servants, being organs of God, designed for the diffusion of His light, His law and His salvation over the whole earth (Isa_42:1). In the most special sense, therefore, the Messiah is His Servant (Isaiah 53). On account of the contrast of son-ship and the slavish servitude of legalists (Romans 6.), the term servant occupies a less conspicuous place in the New Testament. The διάκονος of God is a servant who is familiar with his Master’s purpose, and serves voluntarily. The high and honorable name of δοῦλος, however, gradually and significantly re-appears, and the δοῦλος of Christ is also the δοῦλος of God (Tit_1:1; Rev_1:1). The true servants of God are those in whom Israel’s destiny is fulfilled; those who, in and with Christ, represent, as the kernel of the Church, God’s light and law on the earth.22 And these, some exegetes would fain persuade us, are Jewish Christians exclusively! “De Wette,” says Ebrard, “wrongly refers to Rev_14:1 in proof of the incorrectness of the view which makes the sealed ones of Revelation 7 Jewish Christians. In his opinion the 144,000 sealed ones of Revelation 7 re-appear in Revelation 14, being generally designated in Rev_7:3 as redeemed from the earth.—We shall see, in due time, that the 144,000 introduced in the latter chapter have nothing whatever to do with those of Revelation 7.”23 And yet in each case the number and qualification [the mark on the forehead] are the same! The identity of individuals is, of course, not the material point: what we contend for is the identity of the idea: viz. of the 144,000 as the stand-holders of the people of God, the pillars of the Temple.
On their foreheads.—Düsterdieck: “The mark received by the servants of the Beast is—like the mark of slaves in ordinary life—impressed upon the right hand or the forehead (Rev_13:16; Rev_14:9; Rev_20:4); the servants of God bear the seal and the name of their Lord on their foreheads alone. The fact that this is the most conspicuous place (Aret., Bengel, Stern and others) is a sufficient reason only in the case of the servants of the Beast; with the servants of God, the material point is, rather, that the noblest part of the body should bear the sacred mark.” Again, there is no recourse to the Scriptural bases of the idea. Why does Aaron bear the name of Jehovah upon his frontlet (Exo_39:30; Exo_28:36), and upon his breast-plate the name of the children of Israel? The breast encloses the secret of faith; but the forehead manifests the confession, the stand-point, the symbol, the colors and standard (Rom_10:10). When it is said of the house of Israel: It hath hard foreheads and obdurate hearts ([they are stiff of forehead and hard of heart] Eze_3:7), not only is the like substance of unbelief expressed, but also an antithesis of form. The expression: Thy forehead against their forehead, is precisely a case in point. The symbolical sense of the words is unmistakable (see Eze_3:8-9).
Rev_7:4-8. As the loosing of the storms is not described further on, neither is the very act of sealing now depicted. John heard the number of the sealed. Why “probably from the other Angel” (De Wette, Ebrard)? The visional hearing is the finest sensorium for the most secret and profound revelation (see 2Co_12:4). And there are here but three general points: Israel; the number, 144,000; each Tribe furnishing a twelfth of this number. On the number itself, see the Introduction, p. 16. The equality of the number 12,000 for each Tribe is, according to Düsterdieck, expressive of the idea that all have an equal share in the Divine gift of grace—none, however, of right. But if the Twelve Tribes, like the Twelve Apostles, be significant, as an organic totality, of the manifold-ness of the different gifts of grace, the meaning of this equality will be, that the round sum and plenitude of every species of churchly gifts of grace is assured to the eternal Kingdom of God.
The enumeration of Levi amongst the Twelve Tribes has been pertinently explained by Bengel as follows: “The Levitic ceremonies being done away with, Levi is again placed on an equal footing with his brethren.” Now if, Levi being included, Manasseh and Ephraim—the latter under the name of Joseph—retain their places in the catalogue, the result must be thirteen Tribes. In order to avoid this, the vision omits the Tribe of Dan.
On violences against the text, see Düsterdieck, p. 289. As also on the play upon the name of Manasseh; the ancient conjecture, that Antichrist is to come out of Dan (with reference to the figure of the serpent, Gen_49:17!); the reference to the idolatry of the Danites; also the reference to the Jewish tradition, representing the Tribe as being extinct, with the exception of a single family. Düsterdieck himself thinks that the omission of Dan is to be explained on the ground of the Tribe’s having become extinct. We refer to the general view of the chapter presented above.24 The Tribe of Simeon was also in danger of being left out on account of its partial emigration and its partial fusion with Judah (see 1 Chronicles 4.; comp., with reference to Simeon, Deuteronomy 33. According to Düsterdieck, Issachar, too, is here left out).
On the promiscuous order of the sons of the different wives, and its design, as expressive of the co-ordination of all believers, see Hengst., p. 398 sqq.
For a table of the different occasions when, the Twelve Tribes are mentioned, see Ebrard, p. 266 (Gen_29:30; Genesis 49 :; Numbers 1; Numbers 2; Deuteronomy 27; Deuteronomy 33; Ezekiel 48)
On an error in the Cod. Sin. see Düsterdieck, p. 290. [Gad and Simeon are omitted; Joseph and Benjamin, transposed.—E. R. C.]
Rev_7:9. As a matter of course,—De Wette to the contrary, notwithstanding—the section which now follows forms, in connection with the preceding section, one general picture.25
[“The vision seems to be transferred from earth to Heaven; for the multitudes which he saw appeared before the throne, i. e., before the Throne of God in Heaven. The design seems to be to carry the mind forward quite beyond the storms and tempests of earth—the days of error, darkness, declension and persecution—to that period when the (entire) Church should be triumphant in Heaven.” Barnes.—E. R. C.]
A great multitude.—The elect in this world are numbered; the blessed in the other world are innumerable. This one antithesis makes a rent both in the Calvinistic doctrine of predestination and in the system of its antagonists, which fails to recognize the element of truth in the doctrine of election. It might be supposed, that the distinction consists in the fact that the 144,000 sealed ones are significant merely of the last Christian generation, whilst the blessed are congregated out of all generations. But even the sealed denote the whole sum of steadfast Christians out of the most diverse Christian ages.
An antithesis must have been formed in the Seer's perception by the fact, that he only heard on earth of a host whose ranks were closed, whose number was complete, whilst in Heaven he actually saw a whole train of constantly augmenting masses. The constituent element of the contrast can, however, lie only in the distinction between the chosen servants of God who have to withstand the storms of the kingdom of darkness on this earth, and the whole fullness of blessed souls, amongst whom there are also children, who have entered into bliss. In Revelation 14. this antithesis again makes its appearance; and that in stronger terms and as continuing in Heaven itself, without detriment to the blessedness of all.
According to Düsterdieck, the difference is contained in the circumstance, that the sealed are of Israel exclusively, whilst the great multitude are gathered out of all nations. According to Ebrard, the distinction consists in the fact, that the former are the Christians still on earth in the last time, being, therefore, pre-eminently Jewish Christians; whilst the latter are all the blessed in the other world, being, therefore, pre-eminently Gentile Christians. According to De Wette, the distinction consists in the fact, that the former are representative of an elect number, in antithesis to the rejected, whilst in the latter case there is no such antithesis.26
Standing before the Throne.—The nominative ἐστῶτες27 remarkable in connection with the accusative περιβεβλημένους [see Text, and Gram.], seems, together with ὄχλος, to be dependent upon ἰδού, thus supporting the reading indicated; it may be explained, however, by the irregularity of the Apocalyptic style.
Standing before the Throne, and before the Lamb.—Contemplation of the two-fold and yet unitous source of their felicity, in God’s providence and Christ’s suffering; this contemplation is at once the continuance and the perfection of their bliss.
[“Of all nations.—Not only of the Jews; not only of the nations which in the time of the sealing vision had embraced the Gospel, but of all the nations of the earth. And kindreds—φυλῶν.—This word properly refers to those who are descended from a common ancestry, and here denotes a race, lineage, kindred.…And peoples—λαῶν.—This word refers properly to a people or community as a mass, without reference to its origin or any of its divisions. And tongues—languages.—This word would refer also to the inhabitants of the earth with respect to the fact, that they speak different languages not as divided into nations; not with reference to their lineage or clanship; and not as a mere mass without reference to any distinction, but as divided by speech. The meaning of the whole is, that persons from all parts of the earth, as contemplated in these points of view, would be among the redeemed.” Barnes.—E. R. C]
The white robes are the attire of victory. [“The emblems of innocence or righteousness, uniformly represented as the raiment of the inhabitants of Heaven.” Barnes. Comp. chs. 3:4; 6:11; and especially Rev_7:14, where the symbol is explained.—E. R. C.] The palms are signs of peace and festivity. From these the inference has been drawn that a heavenly Feast of Tabernacles or harvest is indicated (Züllig, Hengstenberg, p. 403, with reference to Zec_14:16). “The palms, as a symbol of victory, attribute an activity to the redeemed which is not pertinent here, where everything subserves to the praise of God’s transcendent redeeming grace” (Hengstenberg). As if any principial contradiction were involved therein! It cannot be disputed, however, that the Israelitish Feast of Tabernacles might form the point of departure for the present figurative representation. [The palm was the symbol of victory amongst the Greeks, but not amongst the Hebrews. With the latter (in the Feast of Tabernacles) it was the memento of trials from which they had been delivered—it was the symbol of salvation (comp. Lev_23:39-44.). The remarks of Trench on Rev_2:17 (the last quoted), p. 85, are applicable here.—E. R. C.]
Rev_7:10-12. With a great voice.—Now follows the doxology of the Church Triumphant, rejoicing in its deliverance from the great tribulation of the Church Militant. The mighty voice is the expression of the great, common, unitous feeling of all the redeemed at their complete redemption. Σωτηρία denotes the whole redemptive salvation, as principial and final σωτηρία [deliverance from sin (comp. Mat_1:21) and woe.—E. R. C.]. “Grotius erroneously interprets ἡ σωτηρία metonymically (=gratias ob acceptam salutem). The thanksgiving consists rather in the fact, that the σεσωσμένοι ascribe the σωτηρία given them to their God as the σωτήρ” (Düsterdieck). This, then, is, after all, equivalent to converting the σωτηρία into a thank-offering.28 The Apocalyptic doxologies have in all cases a similar profound meaning. They give back to God in thanks and praise that which He has first bestowed.
Rev_7:11. And all the Angels.—Here personal Angels are spoken of. Whilst the symbolical Angels are restraining the storms on earth, it is said of this heavenly choir: all the Angels.
Were standing.—The celebration of the fact of redemption summons them all around the Throne. They first ratify the song of praise raised by the throng of blessed human spirits, by their deep adoration and their Amen. Then they also give expression to their angelic stand-point in contemplating the redemption. We apprehend their doxology from the Christological point of view, so that three harmonious antitheses form a group of six, which, with a mighty finale, becomes a septenary. See the Synoptical View.
Rev_7:13-17. The ensuing explanation of the foregoing vision reminds us of a similar scene which occurs in Rev_17:7. The conversation here, manifestly, serves to give additional distinctness and effectiveness to the hortatory and consolatory idea of the vision.
Rev_7:13. And one of the Elders answered.—An Elder speaks; what he says is an answer according to Hebrew usage. No explicit question preceded his reply; it had, however, an interrogative cause, consisting, doubtless, in the question enwrapped in the astonishment of the Seer. An Elder, as a representative of redeemed humanity, is the fittest interpreter of the scene depicted.29 “The dialogistic form, with its distinctness and liveliness, serves to mark the point in question” (Düsterdieck).
These who are arrayed In white robes, who are they? and whence came they?—He does not mention the token of the palms—a circumstance which demonstrates more clearly his desire to give prominence to the great marvel: so many men of a sinful race—countless men—in the garb of innocence. Yes, countless holy men! How is it possible? Here the question qui genus? unde domo? (see Düsterdieck) acquires quite a unique significance.
Rev_7:14. Lord, thou knowest.—This mode of address—lord or sir—is, in its more general sense, a term of respect. Thou knowest. Ebrard: “I, indeed, know; but thou knowest far better.” Düsterdieck and others: “I know not, but I should like thee to tell me.”
Both, of course, are aware that these blessed ones are men, and that they come from earth. Even John knows great things concerning the redemption and its effect. But notwithstanding this, it continues to be a question with him, what the nature of this vision of innumerable sanctified human beings, clad in snow-white raiment, is. He is battling with sin, like Elijah of old, and though it is with a New Testament experience of salvation that he is waging this conflict, still the view of the Elder is on a higher plane than his own, just as the voice that told of the seven thousand faithful Israelites was exalted above the conception entertained by Elijah. The wealth of the heavenly fruits of the Gospel passes even the ethical conception of a John.
The train of the blessed is an endless festal line; they come and come. Hence the answer:
These are they that come [Lange:—These are the ones coming].—And the answer to the question, Whence come they? is at the same time a reply to the inquiry as to who they are. All who suffered, fought and conquered in the great tribulation through which every Christian, from the beginning of the ages of the Cross down to the end, has to pass. According to Düsterdieck, the great tribulation of the last days is alone intended. He also thinks that the comers are to be regarded as “on earth as yet.”
Out of the great tribulation.—This expression has, doubtless, an eschatological bearing; not, however, in the sense which Düsterdieck attributes to it, citing Ebrard in support of his view, though the last-named commentator says: “The great tribulation can be only that general one, which had begun in John’s time, and which is to continue until the ἐκδίκησις at Christ’s return.” On the other hand, Bengel’s interpretation of the great tribulation, as significant of all the Adamic trouble and toil of Earth, is, undoubtedly, too general, or, rather, it is altogether wrong, since the tribulation begins only with the conflicts of faith. This is the first historical fundamental feature of the blessed: they have passed happily through this great tribulation. The historical conflict, however, is based upon the inward fact:
And they washed their robes, etc—Quite characteristically Johannean is this more definite apprehension of the Atonement in the innermost centre of the expiation. Equally characteristic the Catholic mediæval idea, held by Bede and Lyra, of the purifying power of the blood of the martyrs; Ewald himself, in his earlier publication, espoused this view (see Düst., p. 295). “Hengstenberg’s distinction of the washing from the making white, and his application of the former to the forgiveness of sins and of the latter to sanctification, is contrary to the nature of the figure. A washing whereby the garments have become white, is denoted” (Düsterdieck).
[Note on The Great Tribulation.—Daniel (11:1) prophesied of a “trouble” (θλῖψις) to occur in the last days in the following language: (LXX.) καὶ ἔσται καιρὸς θλίψεως, θλῖψις οἳα οὐ γέγονεν ἀφ̓ οὗ γεγένηται ἔθνος ἐν τῇ γῇ, ἔως τοῦ καιροῦ ἐκείνου. He also declared “at that time thy people shall be delivered (σωθήσεται).” The evident implication of the Prophet is that this θλῖψις shall not be visited upon the people of God, but upon men of the world. Our Lord (manifestly referring to this prophecy, for He uses its very phraseology) speaks of the same θλῖψις, describing it as great. His language is (Mat_24:21): ἔσται γὰρ τότε θλῖψις μεγάλη, οἴα οὐ γέγονεν ἀπ̓ ἀρχῆς κόσμου ἔως τοῦ νῦν, οὐδ’ οὐ μὴ γένηται. This θλῖψις immediately precedes the Coming of the Son of Man (Mat_24:30); and there can be no doubt that the period thereof is that of the vengeance predicted Luk_21:22, whose special woes the disciples were exhorted to labor to escape by faithfulness (Luk_21:36). In the Epistle to the Church of Philadelphia, the same tribulation, doubtless, was alluded to as “the hour of temptation (πειρασμός),” which should “try them that dwell upon the Earth” (worldlings), but from which the faithful should be “kept” (Rev_3:10). It seems hardly possible to avoid the conclusion, that when, in connexion with the Coming of the Lord, a tribulation was spoken of to John, which, in the very words of Jesus, is emphasized as “the tribulation, the great one” (οἱ ερχόμενοι ἐκ τῆς θλίψεως τῆς μεγάλης), the Seer must have understood by it the very tribulation predicted by Jesus. Two objections, possibly, may be urged against this view, viz.: that (1) the redeemed are said to come out of (ἐκ) the tribulation; (2) this interpretation involves that the innumerable white-robed throng consists only of those who were on earth at the beginning of the tribulation. Concerning the former of these, it may be said, that the force of ἐκ not necessarily that the delivered should have been actual participators in, or sufferers from, that from which they are delivered, see chs. 2:11; 3:10; 18:4; Joh_10:39; Act_15:29; 2Co_1:10; Gal_2:13; 2Ti_4:17; 2Pe_2:9, etc. The second objection disappears on the supposition, that the winds, which are to bring on the great tribulation, have been threatening, but are withheld, throughout the entire preceding period, until the sealing and gathering of the elect; on this supposition, all the redeemed who have died throughout the preceding ages have gone up from that which is constantly threatening (see under Rev_3:10, and also Additional Note, on p. 193).
[There can be little doubt that the prophecy of our Lord, Mat_22:15-22; Luk_21:20-24, found its first or typical fulfillment in the destruction of Jerusalem; it should be remembered, however, that, previous to that destruction, “the Christians, remembering the Lord’s admonition, forsook Jerusalem and fled to the town of Pella,… …where King Herod Agrippa II.… … opened to them a safe asylum” (Schaff’s Hist. Ap. Ch., p. 391). It may be asked, if the flood, the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, and the destruction of Jerusalem, are not types of the great tribulation, and if the deliverance of Noah, of Lot, and of the Church of Jerusalem, are not, at the same time, types of the deliverance of the Saints (comp. 2Pe_2:5-9)?—E. R. C.]
Rev_7:15. On this account are they before the throne.—[They are in Heaven; see the extract from Barnes, p. 185.—E. R. C.] Perfectly Johannean: 1Jn_3:2. And all this Grotius soberly refers to the Christians in Pella!
And serve Him day and night.—The heavenly life has itself become a priestly service of God, being, moreover, as a spiritual life, elevated above the change of day and night (Rev_4:8; Rev_5:8; Rev_22:3). [The heavenly life is not one of mere enjoyment, but of continued, active service.—E. R. C.]
And He that sitteth on the throne shall spread his tabernacle over them [Lange: shall settle abidingly over them].—Σκηνώσει is difficult to translate. Hengstenberg’s translation: to tabernacle, is objected to by Ebrard on philological grounds. The expression μετ̓ αὐτῶν, Rev_21:3, is different from the present term ἐπ̓ αὐτούς. In Rev_21:22 it is declared concerning the City of God: I saw no Temple in it: God Himself is its Temple. There is, then, a development of blessedness in the other world. Whatever interpretation we may give to the passages in question, it is a thought of unique grandeur, that the glory or Shekinah of God, once veiled by the pillar of cloud and fire, and, outside of distinct prophetic manifestations, regularly revealed only in a figurative form to the High Priest in the Holy of Holies (of the Tabernacle), is now, in a permanent and apparent glory, to sink down from the Throne upon the blessed and spread itself out over them. See Mat_5:8; 1Co_13:12; comp. Lev_26:11; Isa_4:5; Eze_37:27. [“It is exceedingly difficult to express the sense of these glorious words, in which the fulfillment of the O. T. promises, such as Lev_26:11; Isa_4:5-6; Eze_37:27, is announced. They give the fact of the dwelling of God among them, united with the fact of His protection being over them, and assuring to them the exemptions next to be mentioned.” Alford.—E. R. C.]
Rev_7:16. They shall not hunger any more.—Psa_17:15.
Thirst.—Isa_55:1; Psa_107:9.
Hunger and thirst, and the satisfaction of both these needs, are, throughout the Scriptures, the fixed figures of spiritual circumstances. As the body is a fixed symbol of the soul, so the conditions of bodily existence and satisfaction are a fixed symbol of the corresponding spiritual conditions. [If the vision was of the post-resurrection condition of the Saints, there was more than the figure of spiritual supply in these words. The bodies raised from the dead shall experience no want or pain.—E. R. C.]
The sun.—Psa_121:6; Psalms 90 and other passages. The oriental sun, in its overpowering effects; a type, also, of overpowering reality in daily life.
Any burning heat, (καῦμα.)—Heat of the hot wind, of the burden of the day, of fever, etc.
For the Lamb.—Isa_49:10. “He that hath mercy on them.” [“Ihr Erbarmer” their Compassionator.] From Him that shows mercy, or that pities, comes the Spirit of mercy; He perfects His manifestation in the spirit of the Lamb, personal and complete meekness, and founds a congregation of infinitely deep and firm peace. On the expression: τὸ ἀνὰ μέσον τοῦ θρόνου, comp. Düsterdieck, p. 297. The meaning is probably this: that Christ, by His invincible meekness, has risen to the centre of the Divine government. As the meek are to possess the kingdom of the earth, so the Meek One par excellence has attained the sovereignty over Heaven and earth at the right hand of the Father and in His Name, Mat_28:18; Philippians 2.
Shallshepherdize them.—Psalms 23; John 10.
And God shall wipe away every tear from their eyes.—Isa_25:8; Rev_21:4.
[ADDITIONAL NOTE ON THE VISIONS OF Revelation 7.]
By the American Editor
[That chap. 7 is independent of what precedes (although, of course, related to it), is evident from the disjunctive phrase, μετὰ τοῦτο εἶδον, with which it commences (see footnote, p. 190); and that it consists of two independent visions, is also evident from the similar phrase with which the second vision is introduced, Rev_7:9. These visions are here introduced as proper to this stage of the complex narrative. They do not, properly speaking, constitute an Episode, because they enter as materially into the revelation of things future as do the events under the Seals. They are not placed under the Seals, because the matters set forth were not concealed from the heavenly hosts (the withholding of the tempest of wrath, the sealing, and the gathering of the redeemed in bliss), but had been in process of development for a long time, possibly from the days of Abraham or even those of Abel.30
The 144,000 of the first vision the writer identifies with those of Revelation 14; in his judgment the number and the almost certain reference to the Seal upon the forehead in Rev_14:1, place this beyond a peradventure. But if this identification be correct, then the Sealed constitute a peculiar portion of the redeemed, eminent for faithfulness and nearness to Christ: “They are the first-fruits, the ἀπαρχή, unto God and to the Lamb” (Rev_14:3-5). This fact seems also to be indicated by the number, which is one of perfection, which may well indicate, not merely completeness as to number, but the peculiar excellence, both in character and condition, of the whole body. They are selected from the tribes, the denominations, of the nominal Israel, the visible Church of God (possibly the Jewish as well as the Christian—the latter being the legitimate successor of the former, Rom_11:17-18). By the sealing the writer understands (probably) a peculiar Christ-likeness impressed upon the sealed by the sanctifying influences of the Holy Ghost (see p. 186). The period of the sealing he regards as extending throughout the whole Christian dispensation, and possibly back to the institution of the visible Church in Abraham, during the whole of which periods the winds of Divine wrath were restrained.31
The second vision contemplated, not (or not merely) the ἀπαρχή, but the whole body of the redeemed (probably exclusive of the ἀπαρχή). This innumerable company was composed of individuals of all ages—ante as well as post-diluvian; of all races: it included, probably, that innumerable host of infants (more than one half of the entire human family), and those others amongst the nations, who, influenced by the Spirit by modes unknown to us, have been renewed and saved by the blood of the Atonement.
The manifest points of difference between the two companies have already been alluded to; they may, however, be arranged as follows: the one was innumerable, from all nations, the whole body of the redeemed; the other was a (comparatively) small, definite number, from Israel (the Church), the first-fruits. It may be asked, if another point of difference is not suggested by the ἐστῶτες of Rev_7:9; there the general throng are represented as standing before the Throne, but the promise to the faithful of the Church is that they themselves shall be enthroned with Jesus (comp. chs. 3:21; 20:4).—E. R. C]
Footnotes:
[1]Rev_7:1. The Καὶ uncertain. [Words, and Tisch. give it with א. B*. P.; Lach. omits with A. C., Vulg.; Alf. and Treg. bracket.—E. R. C.]
[2]Rev_7:1. The reading τοῦτο preponderates. [Critical Editors read τοῦτο with א. A. B*. C.; Cod. P., Vulg., etc., give ταῦτα.—E. R. C.]
[3]Rev_7:1. Τι δένδρον, more significant than πᾶν δένδρον. [Gries., Words., Lach., Treg., Tisch. (Ed. 1859) read τι with B*. C., Vulg.; Tisch. (8th Ed.) gives πᾶν with א. P.; Alford brackets τι.—E. R. C.]
[4]Rev_7:3. [The reading σφραγίζωμεν is without authority. All the Critical Editors with א. A. B*. C. P., etc., σφραγίσωμεν—E. R. C.]
[5]Rev_7:5. In the best Codd. ἐσφραγισμένοι is given only at the beginning and at the close (Rev_7:5; Rev_7:8).
[6]Rev_7:9. The Καὶ ἰδοὺ is doubtful. In a material aspect also, inasmuch as the whole chapter treats of one general vision. [Words., Alf., Treg., Tisch., give καὶ ἰδοὺ with א. B*. P.; Lach. omits with A., Vulg.—E. R. C.]
[7]Rev_7:9. [Words. and Alf. read ἑστῶτας with B*.; Cod. C. gives ἑστώτων; Lach., Treg., Tisch. (and Lange, see in loc.), With א. A. P., etc., ἑστῶτες.—E. R. C.]
[8]Rev_7:11. Different readings see in Düst. [Lach., Alf., Treg., Tisch. give εἱστήκεισαν with א. A. B*. P. (א. A. P., however, give ἱστ-, א. also gives -κισαν, and B*. -κησαν.—E. R. C.]
[9]Rev_7:14. There is a μου after κύριε according to B*. C., etc. [Μου is given by Words., Alf., Treg., Tisch., with א. B*. C. P., Vulg., etc.; it is omitted by A. 1, etc.—E. R. C.]
[10]Rev_7:14. The article is significant. The reading of Lachmann omits it. [Words., Alf., Treg., Tisch., give ἐκ τῆς θλίψεως τῆς μεγ., with א. B*. P., etc.; Lach. gives ἀπὸ θλίψ. μεγ., with A. (Tisch. does not mention A. as presenting this reading).—E. R. C.]
[11]Rev_7:14. “Their robes” [τὰς στολὰς αὐτῶν] in accordance with minuscules.
[12]Rev_7:15. [Tisch. (Ed. 1859) gave ἐπὶ τῷ θρόνῳ with B*.; Cod. א. A. P., etc. (according to Treg. and Tisch.) give ἐπὶ τοῦ θρόνου; Words., Alf., Treg., Tisch. (8th Ed.) give ἐνώπιον τοῦ θρόνου, the ἐνώπιον being apparently without authority. (Alf. claims for it א. and A., and cites P. as agreeing with B*. The Am. Ed. cannot but suggest that the true reading is as given by א. A. P., the ἐπί (with the genitive) having the force of before or near (see Robinson’s Lex. under Ἐπί, I. a. (β), and Winer, § 47, g. (c)).—E. R. C.]
[13]Rev_7:15. [Lange translates “will settle abidingly (in His glory of manifestation) over them.” See Explanations in Detail, p. 192., and also a most valuable note by Schaff in the Lange Comm. on John (Text. and Gram.) 1:14, p. 71. The idea here seems to be that God will spread His own special dwelling-place over them; this includes the idea that He will dwell among them.—E. R. C.]
[14]Rev_7:16. [Alford and Tisch. (1859) read οὐδ̓ οὐ μὴ; Tisch., Treg., with א. A. P., etc., read as above.—E. R. C.]
[15]Rev_7:17. The reading ζωῆς. [So all modern Critical Editors, with א. A. B*. P., Vulg., etc—E. R. C.]
[16][Additions may be found under Explanations in Detail.—E. R. C.]
[17][See foot-note † on p. 27.—E. R. C.]
[18] [Lord regards the Angels as (Classical) Symbols of “the authors and propagators of those (disorganizing) opinions; the fomentors and directors of the violences to which they excite.” There is nothing in this opinion inconsistent with the fact that they are under the direction of God, since the wicked are His hand, and He restrains the remainder of wrath (comp. Psa_17:14; Psa_76:10).
[Alford remarks: “This (that they are simply Angels) is all that is declared to us in the text, and it is idle to inquire beyond it. All allegorizing and all individualizing interpretations are out of the question.”—E. R. C.]
[19][See preceding foot-note.—E. R. C.]
[20][The Apostle Paul, when he wrote of sealing, was writing, not as a prophet, but of a matter then existent. The fact that but one kind of sealing (or a sealing having but one purpose) then existed, or may exist throughout the greater portion of the Christian era, does not exclude the possibility that in “the last days” another kind may be employed.—E. R. C.]
[21][The use of ἀδικεῖν, the proper meaning of which before an accusative is to do wrong to (comp. Mat_20:13; Act_7:26-27, etc.) favors the idea of Lord, that the four Angels are symbolic of evil men, or, at least, the idea that they signify evil agencies. No valid objection can be urged against this opinion from the fact, that “it was given” to them to injure, since it is the prerogative of God to use even the evil as His instruments; that which is a wrong from them, is no wrong from Him Who permits, uses and restrains them (comp. Act_2:23).—E. R. C.]
[22] [Therefore no less than six words in the Greek Testament which in the German Version are rendered Knecht, and in the English (with one additional) servant. The word generally and correctly so rendered is δοῦλος, the ordinary LXX. rendering of עכד. It cannot with propriety be said, that it occupies a less conspicuous place in the New Testament than its equivalent in the Old. In the Gospels, in direct address to the disciples and in descriptive parables, our Lord used it more than fifty times; it is applied twenty-five times to Christians in other portions of the New Testament. It is a term generally employed by the Apostles in the introductions to their Epistles as descriptive of their own relation to Christ; see Rom_1:1; Php_1:1; Tit_1:1; Jam_1:1; 2Pe_1:1; Rev_1:1. With still less propriety can it be affirmed, that there was any relinquishment of the term because of “the contrast of sonship and the slavish servitude of legalists.” In the very chapter to which our Author refers as presenting that contrast (Romans 6.) δοῦλος is employed as a generic term applicable to both the righteous and the wicked Rom_6:16), and the verb δουλόω is twice applied to Christians (Rom_6:18; Rom_6:22); and in the beginning of that very Epistle Paul styled himself a δοῦλος.
[In the primitive sense of the term, all creatures are the δοῦλοι of God; as applicable to Christ and Christians, it carries with it the idea of voluntary subjection to Him as Master, Owner (comp. Eph_6:16). Ordinarily, this subjection implies ministration (in the ordinary sense of that word), because God commands His δοῦλοι (having the opportunity) to minister. It is not implied, however, in the use of the term δοῦλος, nor is it always implied in fact: God sometimes calls His δοῦλοι to serve by patient acquiescence in circumstances which forbid them to minister—“they also serve who only stand and wait.” The position of Lange is based upon the altogether unauthorized (occasional) translation of διάκονος by the German Knecht (=the English servant). Not only are these words radically distinct as to meaning, but in the New Testament one is never used as exegetical of the other, and, still further, never are Christians, as such, styled the διάκονοι of Christ. The only instance which can be, even apparently, adduced as negativing the last assertion is Joh_12:26; but even there, manifestly, the idea present to the mind of our Lord was personal ministration. For a full discussion of the terms δοῦλος and διάκονος see Cremer’s Biblico-Theological Lexicon of N. T. Greek (translated from the German); Edinburgh (T. & T. Clark), 1872—a most valuable work.—E. R. C.]
[23][For a counter statement see Additional Note, p. 193.—E. R. C.]
[24][“He must have had an important special reason for leaving out the Tribe of Dan; and this could only be a theological one. We find the key in such passages as Rev_14:4, where it is said of the 144,000: ‘These are they who have not defiled themselves with women (i e., sins [or rather idolatry=spiritual adultery]), for they are virgins,’ Rev_21:27; Rev_22:14. Almost the only remarkable fact which is to be found in the history of the Danites is, that after having got possession of the land, they introduced into their territory a false worship (Judges 18.), which continued through centuries.” Hengstenberg.—E. R. C.]
[25][Why “as a matter of course,” when separated from the preceding section by the strong disjunctive phrase, μετὰ ταῦτα ει̇͂δον? See on Rev_4:1 (and foot-note), p. 150; also Additional Note, p. 193.—E. R. C.]
[26][See Additional Note, p. 193.—E. R. C.]
[27][See Additional Note, p. 193.—E. R. C.]
[28][The ascription, according to the view of Düsterdieck, implies thanks; but is not thereby converted into a mere thank-offering. It implies thanks, because it is an ascription of praise in view of benefits conferred.—E. R. C.]
[29][See foot-note† on p.152.—E. R. C.]
[30][The Seals symbolize the concealment from angelic and human view of certain (not all) events in future history. Probably, at the date of the Apocalypse, both Angels and men expected the immediate return of Christ to earth. The eschatological predictions of our Lord (Matthew 24, etc.) up to the point of His promised appearing seemed to have been fulfilled (and typically they had been fulfilled) in the destruction of Jerusalem. It is probable that neither Angels nor men dreamed that centuries, or even months, of false Christs, wars, famines, pestilences, persecutions, would intervene before the earthly establishment of the promised Kingdom; and hence the importance of the unloosing of the Seals. But however these things might be hidden, the sealing of believers and the gathering of departed Saints in Heaven were not concealed from any. These were events that for years (or centuries) had been going on, and their continuance until the resurrection (whenever, or after whatsoever events, that might be) was revealed and secured by the open promise of God. In the visions of Revelation 14, the Seer had a view of what had been openly progressing under the view of Angels, and the fact of whose future progress had already been revealed.—E. R. C.]
[31][If by the sealed the first-fruits are meant, they cannot be regarded as consisting merely of those who shall be on Earth just before the great tribulation. Not only is it repugnant to reason and sensibility to shut out from that glorious company the Apostles and Martyrs, but we are expressly taught, that the primitive Christians formed a portion of the ἀπαρχή (Jam_1:18), and the Apostle Paul assures us, that those who are alive at the Coming of the Lord shall not take precedence of those who sleep (1Th_4:14-17). Nor does it seem proper to exclude from the company of the faithful the Father of the faithful and that noble host described in Hebrews 11, of whom it is impliedly declared that, though without us they are not made perfect, with us they shall be perfected (Heb_11:40).—E. R. C.]
SPECIAL DOCTRINO-ETHICAL AND HOMILETICAL NOTES (ADDENDUM)
Section Sixth
Ideal heavenly World-picture of the Seven Penitential Trumpets. (Ch. 7)
General.—The Invisible Church here and beyond: here, the sealed—militant conquerors; beyond, blessed conquerors. The Sealing, and its doctrinal import (δοκιμή characterized by James as δικαιοῦν; Rom_5:4; Jam_2:21). The neglect of the distinction between justification and sealing has resulted in a sad obscuration of the evangelic fundamental doctrine of justification, especially in three great theological school-circles. According to the idea of the Apostle James, Abraham was justified, Genesis 15, and sealed, Genesis 22. Since justification always takes place in a forum of justice, and since there are different sorts of forums (see the Art. by Tersteegen in Herzog’s Encyklopädie), James could speak of justification as an imputation of faith as righteousness, and apply the term of δικαιοῦν to sealing. In the one case, the court of conscience was intended, in the other the forum of the Church was contemplated (“and he was called the friend of God”). Seethe Lange Com. on James 2. [and on Romans 5],—The Sealing has reference not solely to the last time, but, through the whole succession of the New Testament time (which is, indeed, in a general sense denominated the last time), to the assurance of saints in face of the temptations of this world. That is, the Sealing in Revelation 7 relates to the Trumpets in Revelation 8. That which the four Angels are stationed on the four corners of the earth to accomplish—namely, to loose the four winds of the earth, the spirit of the world in all its ground-forms, upon the earth and the sea, to injure them: upon the theocratic Divine institution, or the Church, and upon national life, to purge them through great temptations—this, we repeat, is fulfilled in the judgments of the Trumpets. In reference, however, to these temptations, which shake and imperil the visible Church, the invisible Church is represented as assured—assured, partly through the sealing effected here and partly through the entry of the blessed into the Church Triumphant beyond. When it is declared that the Angels may not loose the winds of temptation until the sealing is consummated, in the priority of the time of the sealing the priority of strength in the sealed is expressed. They are established through the gift of the grace of steadfastness. In chap. 14 we learn that their approval was conditioned by uprightness, purity, and the avoidance of false-hood, but we must first know that their sealing is entirely a work of grace.—On the import of the four winds from the four corners of the earth, the earth itself, the sea, the trees, the rising of the sun, the injuring, the number 144,000, see the Exeg. Notes.
We have already demonstrated that the literal interpretation of the twelve Tribes of Israel as having reference to the Jewish nation in the last time, is utterly untenable. The symbolic designation of the chosen servants of God by the name of the spiritual Israel, is, however, sufficient guaranty for the fact that the Apostle has in view the general hope of a restoration of Israel at the same time that he contemplates a more extended class of elect persons. For as the symbolic name of Israel does not exclude believers from the Gentiles, neither does it shut out believing Jews, or the hope that Israel, as a people, will yet exercise faith in their long neglected Messiah. The well-known Judaistic apprehension of the Sealing—discussed by us in the Exegetical Division—bears upon it not only the exegetical stain of gross literalness, but also the blot of dogmatical error, in maintaining that in the end of the times Israel could again possess national prerogatives in the Kingdom of God, when it was precisely on account of its pretensions to such prerogatives in the midst of the ages that the nation incurred rejection.
Furthermore, the architectonics and symmetry of the table of the sealed plead for its symbolical character. The special duodecenary, running through the general duodecenary and multiplied invariably by the æonic number 1000, is the ever recurring expression of sacred fullness, sacred completeness. Again, the free arrangement and modification of the list of the twelve Tribes (see Exeg. Notes) are in favor of this symbolical character; and it is no less supported by the perfect coördination of individual Tribes in respect of the number selected from each. We must here repeat the statement previously made elsewhere, namely, that the selection does not exclude further circles of blessed ones. The same literal exegesis which, on the one hand, so exceptionally favors Judaism, would, on the other hand, inflict most serious detriment upon it if it were proposed to apprehend the text as declaring that many Jews should, in the last times, become believers, but that their number, however, should not exceed 144,000. The sealed are the true stand-holders of the living Church throughout the ages of the Church, the pillars, against which many who are weak lean for support.
This truth is immediately expressed by the second part of the vision, the vision of the innumerable throng of blessed ones. These are characterized by the following items: 1. They form a countless throng; in antithesis to doctrinal particularism. 2. They are from all nations and tribes and peoples and tongues; in antithesis to exegetical particularism, which stamps the Apocalypse with a Judaistic tendency. 3. They are perfected: they stand before the Throne of God and the Lamb, clothed in white robes—the adornment of holiness—and palms—as tokens of victory, peace and festival—in their hands; in antithesis to hierarchic particularism, which treats of an immediate entry into blessedness in conformity with mediæval ideas (confining the privilege to martyrs, monks, priests, ascetics who have built up a holiness of works, and calendar saints). 4. Their cry: The salvation is with our God, etc.;—thoroughly evangelic; it is even a protest against all righteousness of works and doctrine. With our God and the Lamb: in antithesis both to pietistic-exclusive and deistic-exclusive forms of belief. 5. The Amen and the song of praise of the whole angel or spirit world.
The great Heaven-picture of the perfected is accompanied by heavenly instructions concerning the origin of the blessed, their endless train, their character and destiny. Even the faith of a John failed to grasp the origin of these innumerable throngs of blessed ones and the height at which they had arrived. But one of the Elders, to whom the depths of the history of the Kingdom are no secret, vouchsafes him an explanation: He explains (1) whence they have come—viz. out of great tribulation. All come from unknown depths of suffering, of conflict—not simply from visible martyr-sufferings (see Romans 6). They have all washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. With the depth of their experience of suffering, corresponds the depth of their experience of salvation: they all recognize and confess the world-reconciling Atonement. But, again, with these depths, corresponds the height of their goal. Thus we have (2) an explanation as to whither they have arrived—viz. before the Throne of God, to a blessed priestly service, after the type of life in the Temple; to the perfect satisfaction of every longing, and to freedom from all heat, after the image of a life of business, toil and wandering (Psalms 23); to the full and comfortable discovery of the joyful harvest of the seed of tears, yea, to the discovery of the heavenly pearl to which every tear has turned (see Exeg. Notes).
Special.—[Rev_7:1] Various forms of the spirit of the world and its temptations.—Temptations as Divine dispensations.—Limited as to time, place and degree.—Their design.—[Rev_7:2-3] Different moments in the development of salvation—especially sealing.—The awakened may fall; but it is the distinction of the sealed that they have made good their faith in the battle of life, particularly in moments of great sacrifice.—Men in Christ.—[Rev_7:4-8] The heroes of Israel, the heroes of David, as types of God’s heroes.—Chosen stones, flowers, animals, men, Christians.—The Twelve Tribes as types of the charisms.—Consecration of a natural gift to a gracious gift, through the gift of the Spirit.—Both gifts are gifts of grace in the broader sense of the term—the first as a gift of unmerited creative favor, the second as a gift of unmerited redemptive salvation.—The Twelve Tribes types of the fullness of the charisms in the Kingdom of God.—The choice of them, a type of the personally and historically chosen.—The number 1,000 as a figure of the continual presence of Christ in His Church through the whole æon.—Comparison of particular characteristic Tribes: Judah and Joseph; Simeon and Levi; Joseph and Benjamin.—[Rev_7:9.] The visible and the invisible Church.—The two spheres of the invisible Church, in this world and in the Beyond.—In the visible Church, the visible appearance of the Church may be greatly obscured. If the visible Church becomes invisible as the Church, the invisible Church emerges into visibility. This remark applies to every time, but is particularly true of the last time.—The heavenly Festival of Palms.—[Rev_7:10] The heavenly confession of the blessed.—Their song.—[Vers.11, 12.] The song of praise of all spirits concerning the consummation of the blessed.—Doxologies of men and angels.—[Rev_7:13.] The catechism of John which the Elder institutes, compared with the catechism of Peter (John 21).—[Rev_7:14] Humility of the great Apostle as manifested in his answer to the question of the Elder.—The great, eternal, pilgrim and festal procession of blessed souls from earth to the heavenly Home.—[Rev_7:15] The Throne.—Service in the Temple.—The glory of God over them.—Analogous passages: Isa_25:4 sqq.; Isa_49:10; Psalms 23, 91, 126; Isa_66:13.
Starke: God has numbered His elect, but their number is known to Him alone. If He has counted the hairs of the faithful, He has surely counted their persons.—The same number in each Tribe, when there were some Tribes that were more numerous than others, shows that God bears the same gracious will to all believers, of whatsoever race or people they be. (The text, however, has reference to sealed persons, and the numbers are symbolical.)
Rev_7:13. The best and fittest mode of instruction—especially for those who are young and simple—is by question and answer, Gen_3:9; Luk_2:46-47 (!).
A. H. W. Brandt, Anleitung zum Lesen der Offenb. Joh. (see p. 73): The sealed. John does not see them even in spirit; much less are they to be seen with the bodily eye in their substantiality on earth. Nevertheless they are a people of God on earth, having His Spirit, and numbered by Him, in the sense of Mat_10:30. They are described, in prophetic wise, by their Old Testament type, whose names and Tribes are presented not in the single 12, but by 12x12, and multiplied by thousands. It is the true Israel, baptized with the Spirit and consisting of all (?) the servants of God who are born of the Spirit.
Rev_7:9-12. And behold! A great multitude. This excites the astonishment of the Seer, which was not the case with the preceding occurrence; he, indeed, did not see the sealed, but this multitude visibly appears in Heaven. (A highly significant contrast. Concerning the sealed on earth he learns only the tribal characters and numbers by an auricular wonder; the blessed, on the other hand, are presented to his contemplation in personal distinctness by an ocular wonder.)
[From M. Henry: Rev_7:3. God has particular care and concern for His own servants in times of temptation and corruption, and He has a way to secure them from the common infection: He first establishes them, and then He tries them; He has the timing of their trials in His own hand.
Rev_7:9. Before the throne, and before the Lamb. In acts of religious worship we come nigh to God, and are to conceive ourselves as in His special presence; and we must come to God by Christ; the throne of God would be inaccessible to sinners, were it not for a Mediator.
Rev_7:13-17. Here we have a description of the honor and happiness of those who have faithfully served the Lord Jesus Christ, and suffered for Him. Note, 1. The low and desolate state they had formerly been in. The way to heaven lies through many tribulations; but tribulation, how great soever, shall not separate us from the love of God. 2. The means by which they had been prepared for the great honor and happiness they now enjoyed; they had washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. It is not the blood of the martyrs themselves, but the blood of the Lamb, that can wash away sin, and make the soul pure and clean in the sight of God. 3. The blessedness to which they are now advanced, being thus prepared for it. They are happy, (1) In their station, for they are before the throne of God night and day, and He dwells among them; they are in that presence where there is fullness of joy. (2) In their employment, for they serve God continually, without weakness, drowsiness, or weariness; heaven is a state of service, though not of suffering; of rest, but not of sloth; it is a praising, delightful rest. (3) In their freedom from all the inconveniences of this present life; a. From all want, and sense of want; They hunger and thirst no more. b. From all sickness and pain; they shall never be scorched by the heat of the sun anymore. 4. In the love and conduct of the Lord Jesus; He shall feed them, He shall lead them to living fountains of waters. (5) In being delivered from all sorrow, or occasion of it; God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.]
Section Seventh
The Seven Penitential Trumpets. Earth-picture. (Chaps. Rev_8:1 to Rev_9:21)
General.—Since there is an increase of disagreement in the different expositions of this eighth chapter, and, by consequence, an augmented insecurity attaching to any exposition of it hitherto offered, there is an increased demand for caution in the theoretic and practical application of it.
Many, for instance, consider Revelation 7 as an episode, and affirm an immediate connection of Revelation 8 with Revelation 6. We, on the contrary, regard Revelation 7 as the heavenly phase of the Earth-picture which follows it in the vision of the Trumpets. Or, in other words, the Seven Trumpets are a loosing of the four winds from the four corners of the earth, in order to the injury of the Church and national life (earth and sea). In accordance with this view, we have to do altogether with darkenings of the visible Church, with spiritual occurrences presented under cosmical forms. These darkenings are, agreeably to the conditions of the Church, judgments; for individual Christians, they are temptations [or testings]; as dispensations of the Lord, they are admonitions and arousing summonses to repentance and to combat—and, hence, Trumpets.
The silence in Heaven for the space of half an hour denotes that heavenly bracing and arming for which the whole great hour of temptation [Rev_3:10] gives occasion.
Even the Seven Angels with the Trumpets must restrain themselves and wait for the right moment, like the Four Angels in the preceding chapter. Their waiting has a common purpose with that of the Four Angels. The latter waited for the accomplishment of the Divine work of sealing; the former wait for the consummation of the human prayers of the saints, which correspond with the work of sealing. Thus the spirit of prayer must constitute the Church’s defence against the coming temptations. The prayers which ascend from earth must, however, be completed in Heaven. Their purification from earthly passion—e. g., of confessionalism or nationalism—is first represented in the form of a supplementing with incense, which an Angel with a golden censer, in which much incense is given him for the heavenly altar of incense, adds to the prayers of the saints. In accordance with Scripture, this figure can be understood solely of the heavenly intercession of the Spirit of Christ. Next the other function of the Angel is represented—the emptying of the censer, previously filled with fire from the altar, upon the earth. This is indicative, without doubt, of the missions of the high-priestly Spirit of Christ from Heaven, the effects of which missions are figuratively represented in voices, thunders, lightnings, and earthquake (see the Exeg. Notes). The two-fold continuance of Christ’s work, in His eternal Spirit, consists in a direction towards God in intercession, and a direction towards the Church on earth in the outpourings of His Spirit, accompanied by the glowing coals of His high-priestly temper of love and sacrifice.
The First Four Trumpets (see Exeg. Notes). [Rev_8:7] The first darkening of the Church owes its origin to fanaticism; this appears as a judgment upon the lack of inward devotion and sincerity.—[Rev_8:8-9.] The second great temptation [or trial] is the spread of fanaticism, in which a great mountain, a theocratic, ecclesiastico-political institution, begins to burn and plunges into the sea—Christian national life.—[Rev_8:10-11] This calls forth the reactions of embitterment—deviations [or dissents], apostasies, indicated by the burning star which falls upon the rivers and fountains.—[Rev_8:12] A result of these three destructive and corruptive agencies, which, with all their contrasts, work together, is the great spiritual diminution of the sunlight of revelation, the moonlight of natural revelation (which, amid all the advances of natural science, may still become obscured), and the light which proceeds from spiritual stars in the Church.
The Last Three Trumpets. These are distinguished from the first four Trumpets and raised above them, primarily in that they are heralded by an Eagle, which flies through the midst of Heaven and proclaims their approach, and secondly by the Eagle’s designation of them as three woes upon those who dwell on the earth. We remark here, by way of addition, that the scope of the first woe is accurately defined as the sphere of the Fifth Trumpet (Rev_9:1-11). No less definite is the determination of the sphere of the second woe as the sphere of the Sixth Trumpet (Rev_9:1-21). As chs. 10 and Rev_11:1-14 relate to the seven sealed Thunders, and in a sense form a real episode between the Trumpets, it might be as well to regard the second woe under a formal aspect, as closed with Rev_9:21, as to conceive of it as continued through Revelation 10,—in accordance with the material point of view to which we adhered on p. 226, to the adoption of which we were particularly influenced by Rev_10:4. The lack of precision in the construction of this portion of the Apocalypse is owing to the fact that the Apocalyptist was in the main desirous of depicting, under the cycle of the Seven Thunders, only the activity of the Two Witnesses, but found occasion to communicate the issue of their history as well.
From the material point of view, the incipient apostasy, depicted Rev_11:1-14, certainly forms a supplement to the judgment of the Sixth Trumpet.
The Eagle’s cries of Woe upon the dwellers on the earth, are expressive of the fact that the Spirit of prophecy now, in lofty majesty, announces three universal temptations [trials] which are to come upon all men and which shall be so mighty as to make it manifest from the outset that the majority will fall when exposed to them, whilst the minority, constituted by the sealed, will have to undergo the sorest afflictions and persecutions.
In respect of the Fifth and Sixth Trumpets, we refer to the Exegetical Notes. Although, for our own part, we regard our view as thoroughly grounded (especially by the circumstances that the locusts of the Fifth Trumpet so torment men as to plunge them in despair, without killing them, and that the fiery horses of the Sixth Trumpet kill men—which must, doubtless, be understood as significant of a spiritual killing), it is requisite that the security of the foundation of this exegesis should be additionally manifested before any superstructure is erected upon it. The founding of homiletical and practical applications upon the traditional Church-historical exposition, e. g., upon the hypothesis that the locusts are Mohammedans and Apollyon the caliphs, and that the horses of the Sixth Trumpet are the second deluge of Mohammedans—the appearance of the Turks (Sander; according to Von Meyer, the locusts denote the mediæval priesthood, the horses being Oriental barbarians in general)—has, like kindred expositions, not such evidence in its favor as evangelical preaching and instruction demand.
Especially noteworthy, in our eyes, is the fundamental thought that the destructive agencies depicted in the Seven Trumpets, are set forth in plastic figures of disturbed nature—in part, of the most horrible unnaturalness. A rain of hail and fire, mingled with blood; a great mountain, plunging, burning, into the sea; a star falling from Heaven, and, burning like a torch, poisoning many rivers and fountains; sun, moon, and stars, shorn of a third of their brightness—all consternating images of a disturbance of nature. Under the Fifth Trumpet, however, the most terrific contradictions of nature are exhibited: locusts that eat no green thing, but, on the contrary, sting men after the manner of scorpions; having hair like the hair of women, and teeth like lions’ teeth, etc.; these make their appearance as a mere prelude to the fiery horses of the Sixth Trumpet, which seem to drag their riders along with them, which bite with their snake-like tails as with mouths and vomit from their mouths fire, smoke and brimstone. But not until the Seventh Trumpet is the contradiction of nature consummated in the figures of the Dragon, the Beast, and the Woman who rides upon the Beast. With a master-touch at which we can but marvel, evil is here throughout delineated in extravagant contradictions, as unnaturalness.
Special.—We note only such items as appear to us to be more or less firmly established.—Darkenings of the Church, judgments of God.—The Trumpets of God—Divine judgments upon the unfaithful—as summonses of the faithful to battle, and as calls to awakening and repentance for all.—[Rev_8:1] The silence in Heaven a sign of the great sympathy of the heavenly Church in its foreview of the trials of the Church on earth.—[Rev_8:3-4] Completion of the prayers of believers by the intercession of Christ in Heaven.—[Rev_8:5] The fire of the health-bringing Spirit, falling from Heaven in order to the vitalizing of the Church, that the fire of judgment may not in the end fall upon her from Heaven.—[Rev_8:6] The series of Trumpets of judgment and repentance, a continual climactic succession, in accordance with the increasing development of mankind.—[Rev_8:7] Fanaticism, a mixture of frost and fire (icy coldness of heart and carnal heat of the imagination), mingled with blood.—[Rev_8:8] What can be understood, in a spiritual sense, by a burning mountain, falling into the sea?—[Rev_8:10-11] Since Satan has been styled a star, falling from Heaven, we may designate the falling star called Wormwood, apostasy, that has its origin in embitterment.—Intellectual or spiritual rivers, currents and fountains in humanity; their destinations and manifold empoisonment.—[Rev_8:12] Darkening of intellectual or spiritual lights of Christendom, and the sins which must have preceded such darkening.—[Rev_8:13] The Eagle of prophecy.—Warning cry of the Spirit of prophecy, concerning the whole earth.—As a woecry, it has reference to the earthly-minded.—The great dispensations of woe upon the earth are, incontrovertibly, great general temptations (no cry of woe was heard at the forth-going of the three sombre horsemen).
[Rev_9:1] The abyss, as the middle region between Hades and hell.—[Rev_9:2-11] The soul-sufferings of humanity, accompanying its development, through the medium of Christianity, in the sphere of all spiritually unsound life.—All spiritual manifestations which, by reason of great internal contradictions, assume a monstrous character, judge themselves. They are, however, the means of the spiritual ruin of the blinded individuals who yield themselves up to them. Examples of such contradiction may be given in abundance, and consist, especially, of pretensions to high spiritual life, conjoined with enslaving ordinances (Montanism); pretensions to high Christian sanctity, conjoined with pitiless severity (Novatianism); pretensions to purity from the influence of world and state, conjoined with a system of robbery (Donatism), etc.—[Rev_9:13-19] Manifestations of unnaturalness in the religious and moral world are armies of corruptive and destructive agencies slaying spiritually and, indirectly, also physically.—The horses of corruption and destruction run away with their riders.—[Rev_9:20-21.] Impenitence under the judgments of God, considered under the antithesis of bigotry and the service of sin (see chs. 20 and 21). Bigotry and sensuality are prominent features of the most modern forms of corruption.
Starke: This author gives a singular interpretation of the silence in Heaven as a time immediately succeeding the great judgment and destruction of the Antichristian kingdom, viz. the thousand years (a half hour!). In commenting on the consecutive Trumpets, Starke cites, as usual, two adverse explanations, the one class given by those who regard the Trumpets as fulfilled, the other by those who look upon them as to come.
Christoph Paulus, Blicke in die Weissagung, etc. (see p. 73): Only the first judgment at the time of the first Trumpet, and the last at the time of the seventh Vial of Anger are accomplished by hail; they alone, therefore (because hail comes from above?), appear as a result of immediate Divine interference, as an immediate demonstration of Divine power. All the other judgments, from the second to the last, bear the stamp of historical occurrences (?).—Judgment of the fourth Trumpet. No remarkable occurrence on earth, no historical event distinguishes the time of the fourth Trumpet; nothing of importance happens, but a condition is gradually brought about in which the brightness of all Divine authority on earth is obscured; Church, laws and magistrates lose a considerable portion of their reputation and influence.
Literature.—Vetter, Die sieben Posannen, Breslau, 1860 (see p. 75).
[From M. Henry: Rev_8:3-5. Observe, 1. All the saints are a praying people; 2. Times of danger should be praying times, and so should times of great expectation; 3. The prayers of the saints themselves stand in need of the incense and intercession of Christ to make them acceptable and effectual, and there is provision made by Christ to that purpose; 4. The prayers of the saints come up before God in a cloud of incense; no prayer thus recommended was ever denied audience and acceptance; 5. These prayers that were thus accepted in heaven produced great changes upon earth in return to them.
Rev_9:7-12. Note, 1. When the gospel is coldly received and not permitted to have its proper effect upon heart and life, it is usually followed by dreadful judgments. 2. God gives warning to men of His judgments before He sends them; He sounds an alarm by the written word, by ministers, by men’s own consciences, and by the signs of the times; so that if a people be surprised, it is their own fault. 3. The anger of God against a people makes dreadful work with them; it embitters all their comforts, and makes even life itself bitter and burdensome. 4. God does not in this world stir up all His wrath, but sets bounds to the most terrible judgments. 5. Corruptions of doctrine and worship in the Church are themselves great judgments, and the usual causes and tokens of other judgments.—Rev_9:2. The Devil carries on his designs by blinding the eyes of men, by extinguishing light and knowledge, and promoting ignorance and error; he first deceives men, and then destroys them; wretched souls follow him in the dark, or they durst not follow him.
Rev_9:16. He Who is the Lord of hosts has vast armies at His command, to serve His own purposes.
[From Vaughan: Rev_9:2. If men will not have heaven open to them, if they will break off the connection between earth and heaven, they must expect to have that between earth and hell opened.]
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.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv2–3 from the east--Greek, "the rising of the sun." The…
from the east--Greek, "the rising of the sun." The quarter from which God's glory oftenest manifests itself.
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 vv1–2 Counter picture of celestial reward of Saints, Rev_7:1-17.
Counter picture of celestial reward of Saints, Rev_7:1-17.
a. Winds are silenced, while OLD TESTAMENT SAINTS are sealed, 144,000, Rev_7:1-8.
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1. And—The six seals of chap. vi give the shady side of human history and destiny; this chapter gives the sunny side. During that darksome history there was a Church, sometimes struggling and sometimes triumphant, in the world. And now, to relieve the scene and to exhilarate the Christian heart, a picture of that Church is contrastively spread before us in its glory. It follows, that the complete history of the world is not profane and inglorious, nor a defeat of Christ’s atonement and headship of the race.
“He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied.”
The angel of the seals bids the angels of the winds to hush every breeze while he stamps the servants of God, Rev_7:1-3. One hundred and forty-four thousand are sealed from among the twelve tribes of Israel, Rev_7:4-8. Then the great innumerable body redeemed from among all nations are seen standing before the theophanic throne, (amid a choir of angels circling around them,) and their paradisaic state is explained by one of the elders, Rev_7:9-17.
It is a great question among commentators, who are the 144,000? and who the great multitude of Rev_7:9? By our mode of interpretation, the reply seems clear and simple. They are, as may be fully shown in our notes, the Old Testament and the New Testament Church; and their redemption is here pictorially presented in contrast to the condemnation of the profane world, as presented in the six seals of the last chapter.
After these things—This contrasted half does not belong to the seal series, but is a contrastive counterpart.
Four angels—The creational number, indicating that they are a regular part of the system. In religious allegory they are nature-angels; in science they are the laws of nature; in truth they are the goings forth of the divine power in its established and regular methods.
Four corners—Phraseology based upon the four points of the compass.
Not blow—A divine quietude of the elements over earth, and sea, and tree, must await the sacred sealing process. All nature yields before the dispensations of heavenly grace.
IV. THE SEVEN TRUMPETS, Rev_7:1 to Rev_20:10.
Of the trumpets, the first four are mundane, or earthly; each of the four blasts draws down a judgment upon some creational point, as earth, sea, fountains and rivers; firmamental luminaries. It is the sins of men that draw down these bolts of wrath, rendering every point of creation hostile to our peace. “Cursed is the ground for thy sake,” (Gen_3:17,) is the key-note. This sad status of humanity has existed through all past ages; but it is here represented to form a base from which the history of the renovation commences.
The first four—the earthly trumpets—are each brief as well as terrible; the spiritual, the fifth and sixth, expand into wider dimensions and rise to more spiritual interests; while the seventh trumpet rolls forth its series of events, through all the future scenes of retribution and redemption to the judgment.
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 vv1–3 The Vision of the Four Angels of the Four…
The Vision of the Four Angels of the Four Winds. Chap. 7 Rev_7:1-3
1. four angels] Presumably the Angels of the four winds, as we have other elemental Angels in Rev_14:18, Rev_16:5. Cf. Psa_104:4, of which the probable sense is, “Who maketh His Angels winds,” i.e. sends them into the air to cause the wind to blow, so that the wind is the manifestation of their presence.
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on the four corners of the earth] Probably the four cardinal points, the extreme north, south, east, and west of it. It is hardly likely that the “four winds of the earth” should be conceived as NE., SW., SE., and NW.: in the climate of the Levant, there would not be as much physical truth in such a classification as in our own, and the usage of nomenclature, in Greek and still more in Hebrew, proves that the four winds are N., E., S., W. We therefore cannot argue from the “four corners” that St John conceives the earth is a rectangle—for it would be most unnatural to conceive it as set corner-wise: in Jer_49:36, the four winds blow from the four ends of the earth. But it appears that the machinery, so to speak, throughout the vision does imply that the earth is conceived as a plane. St John is in Heaven, and is able to look down (or even to go down) to the earth, which he sees spread beneath him like a map, from Euphrates to Rome and very likely further. We have somewhat similar language in Enoch xviii. 3, “I also beheld the four winds which bear up the earth and the firmament of heaven.” But St John does not, like Pseudo-Enoch, put forward his imagery as absolute physical truth.
that the wind should not blow] Every one will remember Keble’s beautiful illustration of this image, by the natural phenomenon of the “All Saints’ Summer.” But the next v. shews, that it is by the Angels’ action that the winds blow, as well as that they are restrained from blowing: we are not to conceive the winds (as in Od. X., Aen. I.) as wild expansive forces, that will blow if not mechanically confined.
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 vv1–2 (1) And after these things . . Better, And…
VII.
(1) And after these things . . Better, And after this I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding fast the four winds of the earth, that there might not blow a wind upon the earth, nor upon the sea, nor upon any tree. In the sixth seal the winds had blown, and had shaken violently the fig-tree, causing its untimely figs to drop off: the untimely or winter figs represented those whose religious life was unequal to the strain of trial, and who failed in the crisis to which they were exposed. But is all the fruit shaken off? No; Christ had said that “if a man abide not in Me, he is cast forth as a branch;” but that those who abode in Him, purged by their trials, would bring forth more fruit, and the fruit which these bore was not a fruit easily shaken off, but fruit that should remain (Joh_15:6; Joh_15:5; Joh_15:16). They would not be as winter figs, easily torn from the boughs, for their strength was in God: before the stormy winds of manifold trials had blown they had been sealed with the seal of the living God. This is the scene which is brought before us in this chapter. In it the care of God, who restrains from violence the winds, that they should net shake too soon the immature fruit, the tokens by which the sealed are known and the meaning of their sealing are set forth. The chapter, in fact, answers the solemn question of the last chapter: “Who is able to stand?” The winds are clearly emblems of days of trouble or judgment; as the winds sweep away the chaff and clear the atmosphere, so do judgments try the ungodly, who are like the chaff which the wind driveth away: the storm of God’s judgments shakes the mountains and the wilderness, and strips the oaks of the forest. (Comp. Psalms 29) These winds of judgment are ready to blow from all quarters (four corners of the earth), but they are restrained till the servants of God are sealed. For passages where winds are used as emblems of judgment, see especially Jer_49:36-37, “Upon Elam I will bring the four winds from the four quarters of heaven. And I will bring evil upon them, even My fierce anger, saith the Lord.” Comp, also Dan_7:2, “I saw in my vision by night, and, behold, the four winds of the heaven strove upon the great sea.” But those tempests would not arise or shake a single leaf till the securing of God’s servants was accomplished.
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 vv1–3 And after these things. Meta touto , or, as…
And after these things. Meta touto , or, as some cursives read, meta tauta , is generally regarded as denoting the close of the sixth seal and the commencement of a new subject, interjected by way of episode between the sixth and seventh seals. But, even if not looked upon as an integral part of the revelations made under the sixth seal, the connection is so close that the two must be regarded practically as one. The incidents of the seventh chapter are evidently the complement of those narrated in the closing verses of the sixth. They take up the question with which that chapter closes, "Who is able to stand?" and afford comfort and help to those suffering Christians who were so sorely in need of a renewed assurance of the certainty of their final reward. It seems better, therefore, on the whole, to consider the sixth seal to extend to the end of Re 7. Vitringa takes this view, which appears to be supported also by Wordsworth. Alford, while separating Re 7 from Re 6, as "two episodes," remarks, "The great day of the Lord"s judgment is not described; it is all but brought before us under the sixth seal, and is actually going on in the first of these episodes." I saw four angels. Of the nature of these angels we are told nothing. They are evidently ministers of God"s will, and the mention of them following immediately upon the preceding description seems to connect the whole account more closely with Mat_24:29, Mat_24:30, where the angels gather the elect from the four winds. It does not seem probable that "evil angels" are meant as understood by some writers, since what they do is apparently done at the command of God. Standing on the four corners of the earth. That is, standing in the four opposite directions, and thus controlling all the earth. (Isa_11:12 Rev_20:8) The number four is the symbol of universality and of creation. (see on Rev_5:9) Holding the four winds of the earth. (cf. Jer_49:36 Dan_7:2 Mat_24:31) The angels may have been the "angels of the winds," just as in Rev_14:18 an angel has power over fire, and in Rev_16:5 we read of the "angel of the waters." The winds have been interpreted in two ways, neither of which seems strictly correct. The first is to give a literal meaning (as Dusterdieck) to the winds, and to understand literal windstorms as part of the judgment upon the earth. The second method interprets the winds as symbols of the judgments of the first six seals, which are held in suspension, while the elect are sealed. The truth probably is that the winds, like the earthquake, the rolling up of the heaven as a scroll, etc., are part of the figurative description of the destruction of the world at the judgment day; which destruction, like that of Sodom, is delayed for the preservation of God"s elect. That the wind should not blow on the earth, nor on the sea, nor on any tree. Pan dendron , "every tree," is read in a, P, 1, 36, Andreas, etc. The earth, the sea, the trees, are mentioned as things likely to be affected by the action of the winds; the two former, of course, embracing those things situated upon them, and the last being specially mentioned, perhaps, as a class of things which are peculiarly liable to destruction from wind. Wordsworth and others, interpreting symbolically, consider that the blasts of wind on the earth typify earthly powers, opposed to those of heaven, while the sea is emblematic of nations in a state of agitation against God, and the trees represent the great ones of this world. This interpretation, therefore, regards the objects mentioned as the enemies of God, which, by his command, are preserved from destruction and allowed to flourish in ease and apparent security, until the time of the sealing of God"s servants has been accomplished. But it seems better to regard the winds as forming part of the general description by which God"s judgment is foreshadowed. It is not unusual in the Bible for the wind to be mentioned in connection With destruction and judgment. (cf. 1Ki_19:11Jo 1Ki_1:19 1Ki_21:18 Psa_1:4 Psa_147:18 Isa_11:15 Isa_27:8 Isa_32:2 Isa_41:16 Jer_22:22 Jer_30:15 Dan_2:35 Dan_7:2)
Vers. 1-8. The Church on earth, sealed in the great tribulation.
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The visions of this chapter are set between the sixth and seventh seals. The great tribulation, to which the opening of the sixth seal is the prelude, is not that of the final day of wrath, for we are but at the sixth seal, and not the seventh. Nor can this great tribulation be any merely local calamity, for according to vers. 9-14 those coming out of it are of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues. It is so widespread and terrible as almost to force upon us the question, "Who shall live when God doeth this? What will become of the Church?" To such an inquiry this chapter is our answer. It shows us the Church in two divisions. The first division is on earth, sealed in the great tribulation; the second division is in heaven, caught up out of the great tribulation. In this homily we deal with the first division. By the first three verses of the chapter we are clearly taught that the work of destructive convulsion is held in suspense, until the work of the sealing is done. Four angels are "holding the four winds of the earth;" another, coming from the sunrising, has the seal of the living God. Until every one of the servants of God are marked off from the rest, no judgment is to fall. This sealing is impressed on the hundred and forty-four thousand of all the tribes of the children of Israel. Here we have the figures of the old covenant brought forward to illustrate the blessedness of those under the new, yet surely the restrictions of the old covenant are not to be retained. These sealed servants of God are not the natural, but the spiritual Israel, even "the Israel of God." Hence our theme isThe servants of God preserved in great tribulation; or, good men kept in bad times.
I THERE ARE, IN THE WORD OF GOD, INTIMATIONS OF DARK AND HEAVY STORMS BURSTING OVER THE EARTH. The tribulation, during which these sealed ones are guarded, is plainly the one referred to immediately before, indicated also in ver. 14 of this chapter, as "the tribulation, the great one." That we must regard this as indicative of manifold upheavings in different lands and ages is evident, not only from the considerations specified in preceding homilies, but also from the fact that those who are seen by the apostle as "coming" out of it are from all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues. Again and again wars, famine, pestilences, persecutions, revolutions, will desolate the earth, recurring again and again, ere the end shall come, at divers places and at divers times. There is, moreover, some great mystery of lawlessness which is yet to break forth. And again and again may the Church have to recall her Saviour"s words, "Because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold." No judgment from the hand of God is or can be so perilous for the world as these outbreaks of human sin. We know how they will end. The Lord will "consume them by the Spirit of his mouth, and destroy them with the brightness of his coming." But meanwhile, many will depart from the faith, but not all. For
II AMID THE SEVEREST TRIBULATIONS THERE WILL BE SOME WHO ARE THE SERVANTS OF GOD. It seems to us unquestionable that we are to regard the "Israel" here, not as the Jewish, but the Christian commonwealth, although here, as so often throughout the book, Jewish imagery is employed. But according to the text, it is not the whole of each tribe that are marked as the servants of God, only a number out of them. "They are not all Israel that are of Israel." "He is not a Jew which is one outwardly." "Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom of heaven." They who are really with Christ are "called, and chosen, and faithful." They "follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth." And when the sorest and severest trials come, there will certainly be many who are the true Israel of God.
III ON EVERY SERVANT OF GOD THERE IS A GRACIOUS EYE. In the midst of a world"s sin and unbelief they are recognized individually as bearing a distinct and separate character. Each one is known. No one is confounded with another. "The eye of the Lord is on them that fear him." Every one is known who sighs and cries over the abominations of Jerusalem. "They that feared the Lord spake often one to another, and the Lord hearkened and heard it." Every infant voice that prays is heard amid the roar of the elements and the crash of worlds. Every household altar, every family circle bending before the throne, every group of friends holding converse on the things of God, all, all are known on high. Each one is the object of loving and of infinite regard. Not one is left outside the holy thought and care of our redeeming God. He watches over all. He singles out each.
IV CONSEQUENTLY, ON EVERY SERVANT OF GOD THERE IS A SPECIAL SEAL. When the Israelites were to be marked off from the Egyptians, there was the sign on their door posts the blood of the slain lamb. When, in Ezekiel"s vision, the angel of destruction goes forth, the cry is heard, "Go not near the men on whom is my mark." Again and again in the New Testament is there mention of a Divine "seal" on believers. The symbol is reproduced here. The seal is
(1) a token of redemption;
(2) a mark of possession;
(3) an indication of resemblance;
(4) a badge of service;
(5) a pledge of security.
The mark is, indeed, visible to no human eye. It is graven by no human hand. The writing is by the finger of God, and it cannot be obliterated. Whatever the trouble may be that sweeps over the world, the sealed one will never be lost in the crowd.
V ON ALL WHO BEAR THIS SEAL, DIVINE PROTECTION SHALL REST. So runs the text. "Hurt not... until." Divine judgments are represented as actually being kept back for their sakes. We get the same thought in the Book of Genesis: "I cannot do anything till thou be come thither." We have its equivalent in the Lord"s own words, "But there shall not a hair of your head perish." And if it were necessary for the safety of one servant of God, the lightning should be held in check, and the thunders forbear to roll, till that one had escaped out of danger. Nor must we lose sight of the Divine purpose in this. It is that there may be a living seed of virtue and piety left on earth whatever judgments may befall. How that may yet be secured we cannot say. We can but gather from what God has already done. We know:
1. That God has wondrously guarded the life of believers in times of peril: Daniel; Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego; Ezra; Rafaravavy; Luther.
2. That they have been kept alive in famine: Elijah. Again and again is it proved here, "They that seek the Lord shall not want any good thing." Amid the darkest and the hardest times, when perils have abounded, when doctrine has been corrupted and even disowned, then has God kept for himself "a holy seed," and has enabled his witnesses to put on an "armour of light," from which foul error glanced off in the twinkling of an eye! This is the history of the past. This is the fact of the present. This is the forecast for the future. The same faithful care of which many can even now bear witness shall be continued till the last believer is safely gathered home.
VI THE DOCTRINES TAUGHT IN THIS SECTION ARE FULL OF BLESSED TEACHING.
1. The fact that there is a Divine recognition of every true and pure one, even in the worst of times, should inspire every struggler for the right with a holy courage. Some may, in severe struggles, be so disheartened that they are ready to say, "It is of no use. I cannot breast the storm. I"ll give up. The conflict is too severe." No, no. Let them pause ere coming to such a conclusion. "The eyes of the Lord run to and fro through the whole earth, to show himself strong in the behalf of those whose heart is perfect towards him." If they are clinging to the Lord, his seal is on them. He sees them. He cares for them, and he will bring them through.
2. This fact should lead to the fresh exercise of holy trust. The representation of our text is a revelation to faith. It would be valuable, even though it were but the reasonable tenet of a philosopher; but it is priceless as the revelation of our God. In the former light it would be attainable by the few; in the latter it is addressed to all. It is a Divine assurance in which faith may find infinite repose. "God is my Salvation: I will trust, and not be afraid.
3. This fact is also of great service as an illustration of the Divine method of securing the triumph of righteousness and truth, viz. by preserving in the world men who are right and true. There is no other way. But there is this. It is God"s way, and it is one the carrying out of which he alone can ensure. God will shake the heavens and the earth, but only with the view of ensuring that "things which cannot be shaken may remain." God will let nothing be lost which is worth keeping. "Every plant which my heavenly Father hath not planted shall be rooted up." But all that is good and pure and God-like will live through every storm.
4. This fact shows us what infinite joy and wisdom attach to the service of God. "In peaceful times, when matters go well," says one, "and there is a fair wind, one is not so deeply sensible of this .... But when times of tribulation and chastisement arise, then does the Divine election form a blessed feature in the condition of those who are under the protection of the Almighty." Whatever the storm carries off, that which belongs to God must remain unharmed. Then it is no vain thing to serve the Lord. It is worth while to be faithful even in the most troublous times.
5. This fact shows up most strikingly the old truth that "the Lord doth put a difference between those who are his and those who are not. Always the difference is infinite. But it is not always manifest. It will be some day. "Behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven Then shall ye return, and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not." When "every mountain and island are moved out of their places," and every refuge of lies shames those who have hidden therein, all who are on the "Rock of ages" shall be eternally secure!
HOMILIES BY R. GREEN Vers. 1-8. The Church"s security assured.
Although the vision of judgment has been granted to the seer, an arrest is put upon its execution, and an entirely new series of representations is given. It is illustrative of the entire character of the book. It is one long illustration of the going forth conquering and to conquer by him that sitteth on the white horse. But there is no chronology. The truth here illustrated is ever repeated. Not only in the final acts of judgment will the faithful people be secure, but when God sends his judgments upon the ungodly the Church has always his comforting assurance of protection. By this vision the heart of the Church is comforted. "Only with thine eyes shalt thou behold and see the reward of the wicked." Whatever judgments befall the earth, the righteous people are secure in the guardian love of their Lord. This is declared to the tried ones by the vision of the sealing. A vision which is
I A TOKEN OF THE DIVINE RECOGNITION OF EVERY INDIVIDUAL BELIEVER. Each is sealed on his forehead. "The Lord knoweth them that are his.
II IT IS A PLEDGE OF PERSONAL SECURITY. In the general judgments many even of the faithful suffer. This is inevitable. But the anomalous words of our Lord shall be fulfilled, "Ye shall be delivered up by parents... put to death, hated of all men; and not a hair of your head shall perish." In all judgments the lowly believer may rest in the assurance of personal safety. All shall be well in the end if the Lord"s seal is upon the forehead.
III THE VISION IS A GRACIOUS REVELATION OF GOD. It is of his goodness that he has thus shown beforehand his careful defence of his own in times of judgment and fear. "I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not.
IV THE VISION AFFORDS GROUND FOR THE UTMOST ENCOURAGEMENT TO FAITH AND HOPE. It is a spring of pure consolation. The Divine warrant of safety each believer may ever carry with him. The cruelties of men may bring him suffering, but not the judgments of God. Ever may the disciples know that when the Lord proceeds to judgment he will first seal his own. R.G.
HOMILIES BY D. THOMAS Vers. 1-3. A sketch of an impending judgment.
"And after these things," etc. The text points to a judgment that is overhanging the world, entrusted to angels for its execution, and who are restrained in their work by a special messenger from heaven on account of the godly tenants of the earth. This is a view of the passage which scarcely admits of any data for a different opinion. From the words we see
I THE WORLD EXPOSED TO JUDGMENT. It is represented as exposed to "the four winds of the earth." Winds are the symbols of judgment. Thus in Jer_49:36, 37 we read, "And upon Elam will I bring the four winds from the four quarters of heaven, and will scatter them toward all those winds; and there shall be no nation whither the outcasts of Elam shall not come. For I will cause Elam to be dismayed before their enemies, and before them that seek their life: and I will bring evil upon them, even my fierce anger, saith the Lord; and I will send the sword after them, till I have consumed them." And in the prophecy of Dan_7:2 we have these words, "I saw in my vision by night, and, behold, the four winds of the heaven strove upon the great sea." The four winds indicate the universality of the judgment. They were to come from the four points of the compass north, south, east, west. Whether this universal judgment refers to the destruction of Jerusalem, or some other judicial event that is passed, or points to some future period of retribution in the history of the world, I stay not to inquire. One thing is certain, that there is a universal judgment impending over this earth. It hangs over "every corner of the earth." Its winds will rush in fearful tornadoes from all the points of the compass. Conscience, providence, and the Bible all point to this universal judgment.
II THE JUDGMENT ENTRUSTED TO ANGELS. The words speak of "four angels, to whom it was given to hurt the earth and the sea." Angels are the ministers of God. He employs them to execute his judgments.
1. They appeared amidst the terrors of Mount Sinai. Deu_33:2, "The Lord came from Sinai, and rose up from Seir unto them; he shined forth from Mount Paran, and he came with ten thousands of saints: from his right hand went a fiery Law for them." Again in Psa_68:17 we read, "The chariots of God are twenty thousand, even thousands of angels: the Lord is among them, as in Sinai, in the holy place.
2. They appeared with our Saviour in the destruction of Jerusalem. (Mat_24:30, Mat_24:31)
3. Angels have been frequently engaged in executing Divine judgment on this earth. They acted in connection with the destruction of Sodom, and an angel dealt out judgment to the Egyptians in the destruction of their firstborn. (Exo_12:22) An angel wreaked vengeance on the people of Jerusalem on account of the sin of David. (2Sa_24:16, 2Sa_24:17) An angel destroyed the mighty army of Sennacherib. (2Ki_19:35)
4. Angels are represented as active in the final day of retribution. (Mat_13:39-41 Mat_25:31 1Th_4:16 2Th_1:7-9)
III THE ANGELS RESTRAINED BY A MEDIATOR. "And I saw another angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the living God: and he cried with a loud voice to the four angels, to whom it was given to hurt the earth and the sea, saying, Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads." Observe:
1. The glorious origin of this angel. He ascended "from the east;" from the fountain of glory the east, whence the stars appear, and the glorious sun comes forth to flood the world with light.
2. The Divine credentials of this angel. "Having the seal of the living God.
3. The great earnestness of this angel. "Cried with a loud voice." Who is this angel? Who is represented in this particular case I know not. But I know that the great angel of the covenant answers well this description. He came from the orient depths of glory with Divine credentials and with great earnestness, in order to stay the angels of retribution from executing their terrible commission. Our great Redeemer holds back the hand of the destroying angel, and the burden of his intercession is, "Hurt not the earth, neither the sea." To Christ we owe the postponement of the judgment.
IV THE MEDIATOR RESTRAINING BECAUSE HIS WORK IS UNFINISHED. Why does this intercessory angel, rising from the glorious east, interpose to prevent the judicial angels from discharging their dread commission? Because there was a work to be done. The servants of God were to be "sealed in their foreheads." The image of the sealing is derived from the Book of the Prophet Ezekiel. (Eze_9:2-6, Eze_9:11) Its object was to mark out certain persons as belonging to God, and thus to save them from the miseries of the impending judgment. The effect of the seal visible in the forehead would be like that of the blood on the door posts of the Israelites in the last terrible plague of the Egyptians. "When he seeth it he will pass over the door, and will not suffer the destroyer to come in unto your houses to smite you." Two thoughts are suggested.
1. That there are men who are yet to receive the seal of God. Thousands in ages gone by have had his likeness impressed upon them, and thousands are being impressed in this age, but there are millions more to be sealed in future times. There are men from unborn generations who are to be sealed.
2. That the judgment is delayed until the number of the sealed ones is complete. "Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed," etc. Thus our blessed Mediator is keeping up the world until all his disciples are gathered into his fold, and his purposes of mercy realized. In the majesty of infinite mercy he stands as it were in the midst of the universe. He sees the storm of judgment brooding in the heavens. He sees the angels of justice quartered in every part of the firmament, ready to execute their terrible commission. He waves his hand, and bids them halt. "Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads." Let not even such a breath of judgment pass from your hand as shall wake a ripple on the "sea," or stir a leaf on the "trees." Let mercy reign supreme until my work is finished. Then, when all my redeemed ones are sealed with the seal of God "on their foreheads" and made secure, then let loose your awful winds. Let them rush with their tornadoes of fire, and roar with their thunders of retribution, and destroy this earth; for the mystery of God will be finished. "Accuse not Heaven"s delay; if loth to strike, Its judgments, like the thunder-gather"d storm, Are but the greater. (Webster) D.T.
Vers. 1-8. The Divine management of the world.
"And after these things I saw four angels standing on the four corners of the earth," etc. The subject of these verses is the Divine management of the world, and they suggest two facts concerning it.
I THAT GOD EMPLOYS THE HIGHEST ORDER OF CELESTIAL INTELLIGENCES IN THE CONDUCT OF HIS GOVERNMENT. "After these things after this I saw four angels standing on at the four corners of the earth." The existence of intelligences in the universe, varying in capacity and degree, but all loyal to Heaven and transcending immeasurably man"s attributes of wisdom, power, and speed, is suggested by analogy and abundantly taught in the Scriptures, both the Old and the New. Now, these creatures are here represented as occupying all parts of nature, "standing on the four corners of the earth," and thus controlling the winds of the world the east, the west, the south, and the north. They are endowed with power to turn the winds to any point of the compass, and to regulate them to any degree of power or temperature, raising them to a fury that will shake the earth, and reducing them to a calmness hushing the world to sleep. Is there anything absurd in this? Assuredly not. It is natural, rational, and consistent with every part of nature. Everywhere through the universe God acts by mediation. Nowhere throughout immensity does be appear to act directly, matter on matter, and mind on all. The principle is enunciated in the Old Testament. "It shall come to pass in that day, I will hear, saith the Lord, I will hear the heavens, and they shall hear the earth; and the earth shall hear the corn, and the wine, and the oil; and they shall hear Jezreel". (Hos_2:21, Hos_2:22) The mere scientist accounts for the various objects and phenomena of the material world by what he calls blind forces or natural laws; I prefer ascribing all under God to the "angels standing on the four corners of the earth, and holding the four winds." A wonderful view of the universe, truly, we have here. True, a telescope opens to my vision world upon world and system upon system, until imagination reels at the prospect, and my spirit seems crushed with a sense of its own insignificance; but in these words I have a telescope by which I see the wide fields of the air, the rolling planets, the minute and the vast, the proximate and the remote, peopled and working, reaching in regular gradation from my little being up to the ineffable throne, and all under God.
II THAT GOD, IN EMPLOYING THESE AGENCIES, ENJOINS ON THEM A SPECIAL REGARD FOR THE INTERESTS OF REDEEMED MEN IN THE WORLD. "And I saw another angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the living God," etc. Why not "hurt the earth"? Why not reduce all nature to a wreck? There is a grand, benevolent reason: "till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads." "Of the tribe of Judah were sealed," etc. (vers. 5-8). The Jewish mind regarded Israel as especially the elect of God, and all the tribes in their esteem were specially Divine. This, of course, was a fiction of national vanity. But take them here as a symbolical representation of all the truly good men upon the earth, and we have the idea that God requires all his intelligent ministries to regard the interests of such. The seal must be regarded as implying security. Here is an angel rising as it were from "the door of the dawn," from the east, with a seal in order to effect the security of the good. Angels, we are taught, are "ministering spirits, sent forth to minister to those who shall be the heirs of salvation." Numerous are the instances recorded in the Bible in which we see them render assistance to man. They rescued Lot from Sodom, and guarded Daniel in the lion"s den; they directed Joseph and Mary into Egypt, and liberated the apostles from prison; they directed Cornelius to Peter, and wafted the spirit of Lazarus to the skies. They rejoice over the conversion of sinners; they have a charge over the righteous, they encamp round about them, they bear them up in their hands. Their ministry implies:
1. That there is some method by which they can aid man.
2. That man"s salvation is of paramount importance.
3. That service to the lowest is consonant with the highest greatness.
4. That man"s obligation is to seek the spiritual good of his fellows. 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 On v1 Four angels … holding the four winds.
Rev_7:1-8
Four angels … holding the four winds.
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The four winds
I. The events figuratively represented by the four winds. Different opinions have been expressed respecting these winds. Bishop Newton and other writers understand by them those Pagan persecutions which assailed the Christian Church prior to the time of Constantine, and which were removed when he took the Christian religion under his protection. The text evidently includes all winds that injure the Christian Church and impede true religion in the world; but Constantine only suspended one wind to let loose another, equally, if not more, injurious than the wind of persecution; I mean the winds of error, formality, earthly-mindedness, and general corruption. Mr. Jones, author of the history of the Waldenses, makes these winds to mean the influences of the Holy Spirit, which, he says, were withheld from the Church when she became the favourite of the state under Constantine. It is quite true that the influences of the Holy Spirit are frequently represented in Scripture by the figurative term winds. Still this cannot be the true meaning of the term winds in this passage, for this reason, the four angels are commanded to restrain these winds till the servants of God are sealed; whereas this sealing cannot be effected without the influences of the Spirit. What, then, are we to understand by the winds mentioned? I answer, two things:
1. Divine judgments. Wars, famine, pestilence, the overthrow of kingdoms, and the universal wreck of all earthly things. The particular judgments to which these winds refer are, I think, those mentioned in the sixth seal, at the close of the sixth chapter, and whose fearful operations are represented by the seven trumpets in the eighth chapter.
2. All events and influences unfavourable to the cause of Christ. The wind of persecution; the wind of false doctrine; the wind of delusion and wild fanaticism; the wind of temptation; the wind of infidelity; the wind of open profanity and blasphemy; the winds of affliction, adversity, and distress; by all of which the Church is frequently assailed. These things are called winds, because they produce agitation and commotion--breaking the branches, blasting the fruits, and uprooting the trees of Gods spiritual vineyard. They are called four winds, to show their universality, their wide-spreading desolation. They are called winds of the earth, because earth is the scene of their operation--they are for ever excluded from heaven; their coming from the four cardinal points at once shows their violence, rage, and fury.
II. The agents to whom they are committed. This notion of angels ruling the winds is very ancient. Herodotus says it was held by the Persians; Eusebius says it was held by the Phoenicians; Pausanias says it was held by the Greeks; Tertullian says it was held by the Romans; Seneca and Virgil say it was held by the Gauls; and most of these people worshipped these ruling spirits. Some understand by the four angels four monarchies, the Babylonian, the Grecian, the Persian, and the Roman; but this cannot be, for at the time to which this passage refers, the monarchies will have long been forgotten, while existing monarchies will be the objects of this vengeance, and not the executioners of it. Others understand by these four angels four emperors, Maximinus, Galerius, Maxenfius, and Licinius, or their praetorian prefects; but the same objections stand against them as against the monarchies. Others think that four persecuting powers are meant. Others think four evil angels, or demons, are meant, who hold back the winds of the Spirit from blowing upon this valley of death, that the dry bones might live; or who are charged with destructive powers, as the messengers of an angry God; but as their work is first to restrain all antagonistic influences to the gospel, while it effects the high purposes of God, and then to execute the Divine vengeance at the day of Christ; and as these employments are nowhere ascribed to wicked angels, this cannot be the real meaning. These are four good angels. This appears first, from the fact that they are here represented as taking a part with the fifth angel in sealing the servants of God; also from their being entrusted with such an important post--restraining wicked spirits, persecuting men, antagonist influences, and Divine judgments, till grace has worked out its wonders. Then their attitude--standing--signifies that they have no settled dominion; that they are the movable ministers of God; that they are ready to do His pleasure.
III. The great Being who commands their postponement or suspension.
1. Bishop Newton, and several other writers both before and since his day, tell us that this angel was Constantine the Great, who, they say, brought light, protection, and deliverance to the Christian Church that had been greatly afflicted under the persecuting tyranny of the Pagan Roman emperors. As far as I can judge, there is not even the shadow of a reason for thinking that this angel was Constantine.
(1) The language applied to this angel is too sublime to refer to a fallen creature like Constantine.
(2) The events which this angel is said to control, and the magnificent work he is said to accomplish, are not the narrow and limited circumstances of one mans life, but they stretch through ages; spread over kingdoms, continents, sea, and land.
(3) The character of Constantine differs widely from what we must believe was the real character of the angel referred to in this passage.
(4) The influences on true religion, which followed Constantines interference, were, in many respects, just the opposite to those which the angel in the text is said to produce. This angel not only suspends persecution and postpones judgments, but vital godliness greatly prospers, as is evident from the number that are said to be sealed. Besides, this prosperity of genuine religion is not for a brief period, but it appears to extend through centuries. Now, is there anything analogous to this, which may be regarded as the result of Constantines interference? That some good resulted to the then existing and persecuted Church, from this interference, we do not deny. Persecution was suspended. Still we maintain that the evil accruing from this change preponderates; it brought her in contact with a secular power that tarnished her purity, beclouded her glory, enervated her native power.
2. Well, who is this Angel? Why, the Lord Jesus Christ, the uncreated Angel of the Covenant, to whom the figurative language of the text applies to the very letter. This Angel is described--
(1) By the point of His ascension. And I saw another Angel ascending from the east. This was literally true of Christ; He came from the east, and hence He is called the East, or, as it is commonly rendered, the Day-spring from on high. But His ascending from the east shows the favourable nature of His mission and character. The east is the great fountain of light, life, fruitfulness, purity, and joy; so this Angel, Christ, is called the Sun of Righteousness, that visits our world with healing beneath His wings. He is that bright, shining Sun, that never sets, but whose heavenly radiance always beams upon His Church, giving salvation, light, beauty, and joy.
(2) By credentials He bears. Having the seal of the living God; which refers, first, to His office as Mediator between God and man. This refers to a custom among the kings of the earth, who have their own confidential servants to whom they deliver certain seals of office. These seals of office are the influences of the Spirit without measure; authority to bestow them, procured by virtue of His atonement; energy, to carry all His plans into successful operation; and all power, both in heaven and in earth, to render all things, creatures, and events, subservient to His designs. But His having the seal of the living God goes further still. It refers to the dignity of His person, as the Son of God, as well as to the glory and credentials of His office, as the Saviour of the world. Having the seal of the living God--that is, having in His own nature the visible impress of deity, the authentic testimony, proof, and demonstration that He Himself was the living God, the brightness of His Fathers glory, and the express image of His person.
(3) By the supreme authority He assumes. He cried with a loud voice, the emblem of supreme authority and power; He commands or forbids as He pleases, and whatsoever He wills is done.
(4) By the command He gives. Hurt not the earth, neither the sea nor the trees. No devastating wars, no raging persecutions, no fearful and wide-spreading judgments, must be permitted to hinder the cause of Christ. The contrary winds must sleep at the feet of their presiding angels, till the ark of salvation is filled with the whole family of God and safely moored in the peaceful bay of heaven.
IV. The reason assigned for their suspension. Till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads.
1. The nature of it. To seal a person or thing is to set a mark upon it for a specific purpose. The term is frequently employed in the Scriptures to express the operations of grace, by which believers are separated from the world and made meet for heaven.
2. The agents of it. We. The work of salvation is of Christ from first to last.
3. The subjects of it. Servants of God, that is, true believers, those who serve God by obeying His commands and seeking His glory. They are sealed to serve Him here and to enjoy Him hereafter.
4. Visibility of it. In their foreheads.
5. The chief design of it. That believers should not be hurt by the fearful calamities that are predicted in the sixth seal, as speedily to fall upon the wicked. God marks them as His special property; and being thus sealed, they live under the special protection of His providence while here, and will meet with an effectual shelter in the great day of His wrath.
6. The extent of it. The question was once put to Christ, Lord, are there few that shall be saved? Here the question receives an answer which shows that there will be many, so that in this, as well as in all other things, Christ will have the pre-eminence.
(1) We have a specific number. Twelve thousand out of each tribe were sealed, making one hundred and forty-four thousand in the whole, which in prophetic language signifies completion and perfection.
(2) We have a general number. The whole assembly of the redeemed, including Jews and Gentiles, rises in splendid array to the apostles view.
7. The ultimate glory of it. They stand before the throne, and before the Lamb. (Wm. Gregory.)
Gods government of the world
I. God employs the highest order of celestial intelligences in the conduct of His government. Nowhere throughout immensity does He appear to act directly on matter and mind at all (Hos_2:21-22). The mere scientist accounts for the various objects and phenomena of the material world by what he calls blind forces or natural laws; I prefer ascribing all under God to the angels standing on the four corners, etc. A wonderful view of the universe, truly, we have here. True, a telescope opens to my vision world upon world and system upon system, until imagination reels at the prospect, and my spirit seems crushed with a sense of its own insignificance; but in these words I have a telescope by which I see the wide fields of air, the rolling planets, the minute and the vast, the proximate and the remote peopled and working, reaching in regular gradation from my little being up to the ineffable throne, and all under God.
II. God, in employing these agencies, enjoins on them a special regard for the interests of redeemed men in the world (verses 2, 3).
1. There is some method by which angels can aid man.
2. Mans salvation is of paramount importance.
3. Service to the lowest is consonant with the highest greatness.
4. Mans obligation is to seek the spiritual good of his fellows. (D. Thomas, D. D.)
A sketch of an impending judgment
I. The world exposed to judgment. Winds are the symbols of judgment (Jer_49:36-37; Dan_7:2). The four winds indicate the universality of the judgment. Conscience, Providence, and the Bible all point to this universal judgment.
II. The judgment entrusted to angels. Angels are the ministers of God. He employs them to execute His judgments.
1. They appeared amidst the terrors of Mount Sinai (Deu_33:2).
2. They appeared with our Saviour in the destruction of Jerusalem (Mat_24:30-31).
3. Angels have been frequently engaged in executing Divine judgment on this earth (Exo_12:22; 2Sa_24:16-17; 2Ki_19:35).
4. Angels are represented as active in the final day of retribution (Mat_13:39; Mat_13:41; Mat_25:31; 1Th_4:16). The Eternal Judge then, as now, will work through others.
III. The angels restrained by a mediator. Who is this angel? Who is represented in this particular case I know not. But I know that the Great Angel of the Covenant answers well this description. He came from the orient depths of glory with Divine credentials and with great earnestness, in order to stay the angels of retribution from executing their terrible commission. Our great Redeemer holds back the hand of the destroying angel, and the burden of His intercession is, Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, etc. To Christ we owe the postponement of the judgment.
IV. The Mediator restraining because His work is unfinished.
1. There are men who are yet to receive the seal of God.
2. That the judgment is delayed until the number of the sealed ones is completed. (Homilist.)
The seal of the living God.
The angels seal, set upon Gods faithful servants, when hurtful winds are blowing in the Church militant
I. Notice some of those pernicious winds where with the Church of Christ is infested while here in a militant state.
1. There is the wind of open violence, persecution, and bloodshed.
2. Sometimes, and very frequently, the hurtful wind of error in doctrine is suffered to blow in the barn or field of the visible Church.
3. Another hurtful wind is the wind of strong delusions as to everlasting soul concerns; and this is consequential unto the former.
4. There is the wind of temptation that blows in the visible Church. This was a wind that blew hard on the glorious Head and Captain of our salvation (Mat_4:1-25.).
5. Another hurtful wind is the wind of profanity and open ungodliness.
6. All these winds are commonly followed with the winds of desolating judgments, such as sword, famine, and pestilence, whereby the wicked are turned off the stage of time into a miserable eternity.
II. Inquire who are those servants of God for whose sake the hurtful winds are restrained, that provision may be made foe their safety when they do actually blow.
1. The servants of God are such as keep the commandments of God, i.e.--
(1) They are holy persons; the sanctified and preserved in Christ Jesus. Or--
(2) As Durham observes, they keep the commandments of God, it is to be understood of a keeping the laws, ordinances, and institutions of Christ, in opposition to a set of men in the Antichristian Church, who, through their traditions, were making void the commandments of God.
2. The faithful servants of God are said to be such as have the testimony of Jesus. By the testimony of Jesus we are to understand the gospel of Christ, or the doctrine of faith in its purity, which only is the power of God unto salvation (Rom_1:16).
III. Speak a little of the seal that is set upon the servants of God.
1. Who is He that seals them? It is Christ, the Great Angel that hath the seal of the living God.
2. What is implied in the sealing them?
(1) That He is their great owner and proprietor; for a man seals his own goods, that it may be known they are his.
(2) A seal is for distinction, to distinguish one mans goods from another.
(3) A seal is for confirmation. The kings seal appended unto a charter establishes and confirms it.
(4) A seal is sometimes for secrecy. We read of a book (Rev_5:1) which was sealed with seven seals because of the great secrets and hid mysteries contained in it. And so it may import that Gods people are His hidden ones, and that His secrets are imparted to them, and not to others.
(5) A seal is a badge of honour, love, and esteem. And so it implies that His servants are honourable persons, precious in His sight (Isa_43:4).
(6) A seal is for custody and preservation. So the saints and servants of God, they are the preserved in Christ Jesus, kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation.
3. When and how are they sealed?
(1) From all eternity they were sealed with His electing and everlasting love.
(2) In their conversion and effectual calling they are sealed in their own persons with the image of the second Adam.
(3) They have a seal of blood set upon them in their redemption and justification; for, as you see (verse 14 of this chapter), they have their garments washed and made white in the blood of the Lamb.
(4) They have the seal of the Spirit of promise set upon them (Eph_1:13).
4. But why are they said to be sealed in their foreheads? This may import two things.
(1) Their visible profession of Christ and their open owning of the Lord, and His way and cause in the time of the greatest opposition, when error and delusion and persecution was most rampant in the visible Church.
(2) Their being marked or sealed in the forehead implies that, in the time of common calamity, God will make such a visible difference between His own faithful servants and others, that he that runs may read, according to that (Mal_3:18).
IV. Inquire into the reasons why Christ, the Angel of the Covenant, will have His servants marked in their foreheads when the winds are to be let blow?
1. In so many words He will have them sealed, because they are His Fathers gift, Thine they were, and Thou gavest them Me, and for the Fathers sake that gave them, He will have them sealed.
2. Because He hath bought them at a dear rate, even with the price of His precious blood, not with silver, or gold, or such corruptible things, etc.
3. He seals them because they believe in Him (Eph_1:18). After that ye believed, ye were sealed, etc.
4. He seals them because they love Him, so as to mourn for injury done Him (Eze_9:4).
5. He seals them because they are His faithful witnesses, that confess Him when others deny Him.
6. He seals them that they may not suffer hurt by the destroying winds that blow in the visible Church. They keep the commandments of God and the testimony of Jesus; and therefore He will keep them in the hour of temptation, according to the promise (Psa_91:8; Psa_91:7). (E. Erskine, D. D.)
Pent-up judgment
I. Pent-up judgment. Righteousness produces judgment, and grace restrains it. Grace does not nullify or cancel judgment; it simply suspends it. The history of our earth is one of suspended judgment. Of this judgment, we may say that it is--
1. Slow. When it comes, it comes swiftly; but meanwhile it is not rash, nor precipitate. This slowness often deludes the sinner.
2. Silent. It makes no sign. The fermenting elements are noiseless. There are often no thunder-clouds, but a calm, blue sky.
3. Sure. It will not miss its mark, nor mistake its victim, nor forget its time. Its slowness and silence contribute to its certainty.
4. Terrible. The blow, when it comes, is overwhelming. The pent-up torrent, when it breaks its barrier, carries all before it. So Gods vengeance is infinitely terrible. Who can stand before it?
II. The sealing. In the chapter before us it is a Jewish multitude that is specially named as sealed; but as in verse 3 it is the servants of God that are said to be sealed, we may infer that by that expression both Gentile and Jew are meant. The sealing seems (as in Eze_9:1-11.) to intimate exemption from the earthly judgments of a particular time. I do not dwell on this further than to point out Gods care for His own in days of trouble--as in Noahs days, in Lots days, in Ezekiels days, in the time of Jerusalems great siege. I would remind you of the ninety-first Psalm also, which is specially written for evil days.
III. The ingathering. It is not simply for temporal protection that God stays His judgments, but for salvation. A time of pent-up judgment is a time of ingathering. A time of judgment may also be so, but a time of suspended judgment still more so. For at such a time God is in earnest--in earnest in His grace, in earnest in His righteousness. His long-suffering is salvation; His patience is life eternal. He pities to the last. Judgment is His strange work. At such a time the gospel comes with peculiar power. (H. Bonar, D. D.)
The sealing of the elect
There is here revealed to us a Divine idea, and a Divine law of action, which is now advancing with perpetual energy, past, present, and to come.
I. God has a forekown number whom He will gather out unto Himself. The whole of the new creation sprung from, and surrounding, the second Adam in the kingdom of life eternal; the mystical Person of Christ, both the Head and the Body, all perfected by that which every joint supplieth; the true and eternal Vine, complete in all its symmetry from root to spray; the heavenly court, compassed about with ranks of angelic hosts; the order of patriarchs, and the multitude of saints, ascending to the Incarnate Son: all this Divine and glorious mystery of miraculous love and power stands in the foreknowledge of the Eternal, full, perfect, and accomplished.
II. The course of this world will run on until this foreknow number shall be gathered in. All things are for the elects sake. What is the history of the world but a history of mans warfare against God? of our provocation, and of His patience?
III. Even now, while judgment is stayed, the Church in the midst of us is sealing Gods elect. The angel ascending from the east is a type of the ministry of angels and men knit together in one order of grace, to gather out the heirs of salvation. The visible polity of the Church, its stately ritual and public solemnities, its fasts and feasts, its chants and litanies, its missions and preachings, all the public order and movement which meets the eye and ear--all this is as the net let down into the sea, which taketh of every kind, both good and bad. But this is not the sealing of the elect. It is an inner work of grace, a choosing from among the chosen, a preparation for that day, when, upon the eternal shore, the angels shall gather the good into vessels, and cast the bad away.
1. The ultimate and true election of God is not collective but several, not of bodies but of persons. Born alone, alone we must live; alone repent, pray, fast, watch, persevere, and die; each one for himself work out his own salvation, and make his calling and election sure.
2. This mystery of election, as it is personal, so it is strictly consistent with our personal probation. God made man free, and elects him to and in the exercise of freedom, will, and power. And what is this seal of the living God, but the image of God renewed in the soul by the power of the Holy Ghost; the likeness and the mind of Christ stamped upon us by a perfect regeneration; the inward reality of a saintly spirit wrought in us, either by a life of steadfast obedience or by a true repentance, by a persevering grace or by a perfect conversion?
IV. Let us try ourselves by some plain questions of self-examination.
1. What is our character? By this we mean the clear, conscious, and definite shape and direction which has been given to our whole spiritual nature. Surely it is no hard thing to find out whether we are living in any known sin or not; whether we are striving against temptation or not; whether we have mastery over our faults or our faults over us; whether we desire the love of God or not; whether sin is to us a sorrow, and the very thought of holiness a delight; whether we are living for this world or for the next.
2. If we have not this higher character, what are our tendencies? Is sin losing hold, and the spirit of sanctity gaining power over us? Are our temptations weaker, and we stronger; our faults fewer, and our repentance deeper?
3. What is our habitual intention? The true self of sincere minds is that which speaks and aspires in their better moments. The lower level on which they move at other times is the way of their infirmity. As the resistance of the atmosphere stays the keenest arrows flight, and bends it to earth again, so the purest and directest intention is slackened by the gross thick airs of our daily life. Not to sink into a slower, earthlier motion is the portion of those who are lifted into a higher and heavenlier sphere, where the actings of the soul have nothing to resist them. In heaven they rest not day nor night; hut on earth the most unresting intention is overcome by weakness and weariness at last. It cannot always be conscious and actual; but that does not take away from its true and habitual reality. Let this, then, be your continual endeavour, to uphold and to prolong these higher intentions. Quicken and strengthen them by a life of prayer, by meditation, by habitual communion, by self-examination, by confession; by exercises of the heart, and by acts of faith, hope, and love. (Archdeacon Manning.)
All-saints day
First, then, man being compassed with a cloud of witnesses of his own infirmities, and the manifold afflictions of this life, had need of some light to show him the right way, and some strength to enable him to walk safely in it. And this light and strength is here proposed in the assistance of an angel. Which being first understood of angels in general, affords a great measure of comfort to us, because the angels are faithful and diligent attendants upon all our steps. But our security of deliverance is in a safer and a stronger hand than this; not in these ministerial and missive angels only, but in His that sends them, yea, in His that made them. This angel, which does so much for Gods saints, is by many expositors taken to be our Saviour Christ Himself. And will any man doubt of performance of conditions in Him? Will any man look for better security than Him who puts two, and two such, into the band, Christ and Jesus: an anointed King, able, an actual Saviour, willing to discharge not His, but our debt? This security, then, for our deliverance and protection, we have in this angel in our text, I saw an angel, as this Angel is Christ; but yet we have also another security, more immediate and more appliable to us. Besides this all-sufficiency of the Angel of the Covenant, Christ Jesus, we have for our security, in this text, I saw an angel, the servants of Christ too. This angel is indeed the whole frame and hierarchy of the Christian Church. So, then, to let go none of our assistants, our safety is in the Angel of the Covenant, Christ Jesus, radically, fundamentally, meritoriously. It is in the ministry of the angels of heaven invisibly; but it is in the Church of God, and in the power of His ministers there, manifestly, sensibly, discernibly. This addition is intended for a particular addition to our comfort; it is a particular endowment, or enlargement, of strength and power in this angel, that he comes from the east. Those angels which have had their sunset--their fall--they came from the east. How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning? He had his begetting, his creation, in the east, in the light, and there might have stayed for any necessity of falling that God laid upon him. Take the angel of the text to be the Angel of the Covenant, Christ Jesus, and His name is The East. Every way the gospel is an angel of the east. But this is that which we take to be principally intended in it, that, as the east is the fountain of light, so all our illumination is to be taken from the gospel. If thou suffer thy soul to set in a dark cloud of ignorance of Gods providence, or in a darker of diffidence of His performance towards thee, this is a turning to the west, and all these are perverse and awry. But turn to the east and to the angel that comes from thence, the ministry of the gospel of Christ Jesus in His Church. It is true thou mayest find some dark places in the Scriptures, yet fix thyself upon this angel of the east, the preaching of the Word, the ordinance of God, and thine understanding shall be enlightened, and thy belief established, and thy conscience unburthened. Our angel comes from the east, a denotation of splendour, an illustration of understanding and conscience, and there is more--he comes ascending. I saw an angel ascend from the east, that is, still growing more clear and more powerful upon us (1Sa_28:13). Take the angel to be Christ, and then His ascension is intended. But as this angel is the ministry of the gospel, God gave it a glorious ascent in the primitive Church, when as this sun ascended quickly beyond the reach of heretics and persecutors. Now to give way to this ascent of this angel in thyself, make the way smooth, find thou a growth of the gospel in thy faith, and let us find it in thy life. If thou find it not ascending it descends. If thou live not by it nothing can redeem thee, thou diest by it. Of the living God. The gods of the nations are all dead gods: either such gods as never had life--stones, and gold and silver--or such gods at best as were never gods until they were dead, for men that had benefited the world in any general invention, or otherwise, were made gods after their deaths, which was a miserable deification. If we seek this seal in the great Angel, the Angel of the Covenant, Christ Jesus: it is true He hath it, for the Father hath committed all judgment to the Son. Christ, as the Son of Man, executes a judgment, and hath a power, which He hath not but by gift, by commission, by virtue of this seal, from His Father. The servants of God being sealed in their foreheads in the sacrament of baptism, when they are received into the care of the Church, all those means which God hath provided for His servants, in His Church, to resist afflictions and temptations, are intended to be conferred upon them in that seal. This sealing of them is a communicating to them all those assistances of the Christian Church. Then they have a way of prevention of sin, by hearing; a way to absolution, by confession; a way to reconciliation, by a worthy receiving the body and blood of Christ Jesus. And these helps of the Christian Church thus conferred in baptism, keep open still, if these be rightly used, that other seal, the seal of the Spirit (Eph_1:13; 2Co_1:22). (John Donne, D. D.)
The servants of our God.--
The best service
I. We ought to be the active servants of our God. It is necessary for us to pray, and if we pray aright, it will make us active in going about doing good. Do not let us enter into the business of life solely an our own account; let us be servants in all we do on Gods account. How earnestly most business men seek opportunities of doing anything and everything to increase their trade and make it prosperous. Why do not we as Christians be equally earnest in attracting people to our churches and chapels? We may be co-workers with God. Your holy, charitable life and manners may melt the opposition of men who hate goodness and truth.
II. Then let us further be consistent servants of our God. The world watches us, waiting to see whether we are true or not. Dont be pious in singing hymns, and impious in something else. Be consistent. If you have faults, dont rest until you get rid of them. Grow daily in grace, piety, and religion, like healthy plants, which grow in beauty day by day.
III. Be a free servant of our God. Dont let any bad habits make you their prisoner. It is said that habit is second nature; and man is a bundle of habits. You know that when you walk across a field for the first time you make scarcely any impression on the grass. But if you go several times a day for a year you will make a beaten path. So one sin may not do you much injury, but it is the beginning of many. One drop of water from yonder hill soon dries up, but if it be followed by fresh drops every moment, by and by it scoops out a way through the hardest rocks, and becomes a rapid, gurgling stream, which dashes from stone to stone until it reaches the broad river. So these bad habits grow upon us and enslave us. Blessed is he that overcometh. The Lord God has promised that if any one ask Him, He will send His Holy Spirit into that mans heart, and deliver him from all his bad habits.
IV. Be Gods servants, showing forth the beauty of holiness. Young man, you may not possess a titled name, but you may make yourself the embodiment of honour. You may not possess great wealth, but you may be known as one of the upright of the earth. When a beautiful woman dies, nobody mourns her; but when a woman who is beautiful in soul passes away, angels welcome her to glory and good men weep for her. Be beautiful in life. (W. Birch.)
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 On v1
CHAPTER V.
CONSOLATORY VISIONS.
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Rev_7:1-17.
SIX of the seven Seals have been opened by the "Lamb," who is likewise the "Lion of the tribe of Judah." They have dealt, in brief but pregnant sentences, with the whole history of the Church and of the world throughout the Christian age. No details of history have indeed been spoken of, no particular wars, or famines, or pestilences, or slaughters, or preservations of the saints. Everything has been described in the most general terms. We have been invited to think only of the principles of the Divine government, but of these as the most sublime and, according to our own state of mind, the most alarming or the most consolatory principles that can engage the attention of men. God, has been the burden of the six Seals, is King over all the earth. Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing? Why do they exalt themselves against the sovereign Ruler of the universe, who said to the Son of His love, when He made Him Head over all things for His Church, "Thou art My Son; this day have I begotten Thee;" "Rule Thou in the midst of Thine enemies"?* Listening to the voice of these Seals, we know that the world, with all its might, shall prevail neither against the Head nor against the members of the Body. Even when apparently successful it shall fight a losing battle. Even when apparently defeated Christ and they who are one with Him shall march to victory. (* Psa_2:7; Psa_110:7)
We are not to imagine that the Seals of chap. 6 follow one another in chronological succession, or that each of them belongs to a definite date. The Seer does not look forward to age succeeding age or century century. To him the whole period between the first and the second coming of Christ is but "a little time," and whatever is to happen in it "must shortly come to pass." In truth he can hardly be said to deal with the lapse of time at all. He deals with the essential characteristics of the Divine government in time, whether it be long or short. Shall the revolving years be in our sense short, these characteristics will nevertheless come forth with a clearness that shall leave man without excuse. Shall they be in our sense long, the unfolding of Gods eternal plan will only be again and again made manifest. He with whom we have to do is without beginning of days or end of years, the I am, unchangeable both in the attributes of His own nature, and in the execution of His purposes for the worlds redemption. Let us cast our eyes along the centuries that have passed away since Jesus died and rose again. They are full of one great lesson. At every point at which we pause we see the Son of God going forth conquering and to conquer. We see the world struggling against His righteousness, refusing to submit to it, and dooming itself in consequence to every form of woe. We see the children of God following a crucified Redeemer, but preserved, sustained, animated, their cross, like His, their crown. Finally, as we realize more and more deeply what is going on around us, we feel that we are in the midst of a great earthquake, that the sun and the moon have become black, and that the stars of heaven are falling to the earth; yet by the eye of faith we pierce the darkness, and where are all our adversaries? Where are the kings and the potentates, the rich and the powerful of the earth, of an ungodly and persecuting world? They have hid themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains; and we hear them say to the mountains and to the rocks, "Fall on us, and hide us from the face of Him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: for the great day of their wrath is come; and who is able to stand?"
With the beginning of chap. 7 we might expect the seventh Seal to be opened; but it is the manner of the apocalyptic writer, before any final or particularly critical manifestation of the wrath of God, to present us with visions of consolation, so that we may enter into the thickest darkness, even into the valley of the shadow of death, without alarm. We have already met with this in chaps. 4 and 5. We shall meet with it again. Meanwhile it is here illustrated: -
"After this I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that no wind should blow on the earth, or on the sea, or upon any tree. And I saw another angel ascend from the sun-rising, having the seal of the living God: and he cried with a great voice to the four angels, to whom it was given to hurt the earth and the sea, saying, Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we shall have sealed the servants of our God on their foreheads. And I heard the number of them which were sealed, a hundred and forty and four thousand, sealed out of every tribe of the children of Israel Of the tribe of Judah were sealed twelve thousand; of the tribe of Reuben, twelve thousand; of the tribe of Gad, twelve thousand; of the tribe of Asher, twelve thou sand; 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 Zebulon, twelve thousand; of the tribe of Joseph, twelve thousand; of the tribe of Benjamin were sealed twelve thousand (Rev_7:1-8)."
Although various important questions, which we shall have to notice, arise in connection with this vision, there never has been, as there scarcely can be, any doubt as to its general meaning. In its main features it is taken from the language of Ezekiel, when that prophet foretold the approaching destruction of Jerusalem: "He cried also with a loud voice in mine ears, saying, Cause them that have charge over the city to draw near, even every man with his destroying weapon in his hand. And, behold, six men came from the way of the higher gate, which lieth toward the north, and every man a slaughter weapon in his hand; and one man among them was clothed with fine linen, with a writers inkhorn by his side. . . . And the Lord said unto him, Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that be done in the midst thereof. . . . And, behold, the man clothed with linen, which had the inkhorn by his side, reported the matter, saying, I have done as Thou hast commanded me."1 Preservation of the faithful in the midst of judgment on the wicked is the theme of the Old Testament vision, and in like manner it is the theme of this vision of St. John. The winds are the symbols of judgment; and, being in number four and held by four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, they indicate that the judgment when inflicted will be universal There is no place to which the ungodly can escape, none where they shall not be overtaken by the wrath of God. "He that fleeth of them," says the Almighty by His prophet, "shall not flee away, and he that escapeth of them shall not be delivered. Though they dig into hell, thence shall Mine hand take them; though they climb up to heaven, thence will I bring them down: and though they hide themselves in the top of Carmel, I will search and take them out thence; and though they be hid from My sight in the bottom of the sea, thence will I command the serpent, and he shall bite them."2 (1 Ezek. 9; 2 Amo_9:1-3)
In the midst of all this the safety of the righteous is secured, and that in a way, as compared with the way of the Old Testament, proportionate to the superior greatness of their privileges. They are marked as God s, not by a man out of the city, but by an angel ascending from the sun-rising, the quarter whence proceeds that light of day which gilds the loftiest mountain-tops and penetrates into the darkest recesses of the valleys. This angel, with his great voice, is probably the Lord Himself appearing by His angel. The mark impressed upon the righteous is more than a mere mark: it is a seal - a seal similar to that with which Christ was "sealed;"1 the seal which in the Song of Songs the bride desires as the token of the Bridegrooms love to her alone: "Set me as a seal upon Thine heart, as a seal upon Thine arm;"2 the seal which expresses the thought, "The Lord knoweth them that are His.3 Finally, this seal is impressed on the forehead, on that part of the body on which the high-priest of Israel wore the golden plate, with its inscription, "Holiness to the Lord." Such a seal; manifest to the eyes of all, was a witness to all that they who bore it were acknowledged by the Redeemer before all, even before His Father and the holy angels.4 (1 Joh_6:27; 2 Son_8:3; 3 2Ti_2:19; 4Comp. Luk_12:8)
When we turn to the numbers sealed, every reader who reflects for a moment will allow that they must be symbolically, and not literally, understood. Twelve thousand out of each of twelve tribes, in all a hundred and forty and four thousand, bears upon its face the stamp of symbolism. It is more difficult to answer the question, Who are they? Are they Jewish Christians, or are they the whole multitude of Gods faithful people belonging to the Church universal, but indicated by a figure taken from Judaism?
The question now asked is of greater than ordinary importance, for upon the answer given to it largely depends the solution of the problem whether the author of the fourth Gospel and the author of the Apocalypse are the same. If the first vision of the chapter relating to those sealed out of the tribes of Israel speak only of Jewish Christians, and the second vision, beginning at Rev_7:9, of "the great multitude which no man could number," speak of Gentile Christians, it will follow that the writer exhibits a particularistic tendency altogether at variance with the universalism of the author of the fourth Gospel. Gentile Christians will be, as they have been called, an "appendix" to the Jewish-Christian Church; and the followers of Jesus will fail to constitute one flock all the members of which are equal in the sight of God, occupy the same position, and enjoy the same privileges. The first impression produced by the vision of the sealed is undoubtedly that it refers to Jewish Christians, and to them alone. Many considerations, however, lead to the wider conclusion that, under a Jewish figure, they include all the followers of Christ, or the universal Church. Some of these at least ought to be noticed.
1. We have not yet found, and we shall not find in any later part of the Apocalypse, a distinction drawn between Jewish and Gentile Christians. To the eye of the Seer, the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ is one. There is in it neither Jew nor Greek, barbarian, Scythian, bond, nor free. He recognizes in it in its collective capacity the Body of Christ, all the members of which occupy the same relation to their Lord, and stand equally in grace. He knows indeed of a distinction between the Jewish Church, which waited for the coming of the Lord, and the Christian Church, which rejoiced in Him as come; but he knows also that when Jesus did come the privileges of the latter were bestowed upon those in the former who had looked onward to Christs day, and that they were arrayed in the same "white robe." Under all the six Seals, accordingly, embracing the whole period of the Gospel dispensation, there is not a single word to suggest the thought that the Christian Church is divided into two parts. The struggle, the preservation, and the victory belong equally to all. A similar remark may be made on the epistles to the seven churches, which unquestionably contain a representation of that Church the fortunes of which are to be afterwards described. In these epistles Christ walks equally in the midst of every part of it; and promises are made, not in one form to one member and in another to another, but always in precisely the same terms to "him that overcometh." It would be out of keeping with this were we now, when a similar topic of preservation is on hand, to be introduced to a Jewish-Christian as distinguished from a Gentile-Christian Church.
2. It is the custom of the Seer to heighten and spiritualize all Jewish names. The Temple, the Tabernacle, the Altar, Mount Zion and Jerusalem are to the embodiments of ideas deeper than those literally conveyed by them. Analogy therefore might suggest that this also would be the case with the word "Israel." Nay, it would even be the more natural so to use that word, because it is so often used in the same spiritual sense in other parts of the New Testament; "But they are not all Israel which are of Israel;" "And as many as shall walk by this rule, peace be upon them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God."1 Nor need we be startled by that employment of the word tribes, which may seem to give more precision to the idea that Jewish Christians are designated by the term, for St. John in his peculiar way of looking at men, beheld "tribes" not only among the Jews, but among all nations: "and all the tribes of the earth shall mourn over Him."2 In Rev_21:12, too, the "twelve tribes" plainly include all believers. (1 Rom_9:6; Gal_6:16; 2 Rev_1:7)
3. The enumeration of the tribes of Israel given in these verses is different from any other enumeration of the king contained in Scripture. Thus the tribe of Dan is omitted; and, contrary to the practice of at least the later books of the Old Testament, that of Levi is inserted; while Joseph also is substituted for Ephraim: and the order in which the twelve are given has elsewhere no parallel. Points such as these may appear trifling, but they are not without importance. No student of the Apocalypse will imagine that they are accidental or undersigned. He may not be able to satisfy either himself or others as to the grounds upon which St. John proceeded, but that there were grounds sufficient to the Apostle himself for what he did he will not for a moment doubt. One thing may, however, he said. If the changes can he explained at all, it must be by considerations springing out of the heart of the Christian community, and not out of any suggested by the relations of the tribes of Judaism to one another. Levi may thus be inserted, instead of standing apart as formerly, because in Christ Jesus there was no priestly tribe: all Christians were priests; Dan may he omitted because that tribe had chosen the serpent as its emblem! and St John not only felt with peculiar power the direct antagonism to Christ of " the old serpent the devil,"1 but had been accustomed to see in the traitor Judas, who had been expelled from the apostolic band, and for whom another apostle had been substituted, the very impersonation or incarnation of Satan2; Ephraim also may have been replaced by Joseph because of its enmity to Judah, the tribe out of which Jesus sprang; while Judah, the fourth son of Jacob, may head the list because it was the tribe in which Christ was born. (1Comp. Rev_12:9; 2 Joh_8:2)
4. Some of the expressions of the passage are inconsistent with the limitation of the sealed to any special class of Christians. Why, for example, should the holding back of the winds be universal? Would it not have been enough to restrain the winds that blew on Jewish Christians, and not the winds of the whole earth? And again, why do we meet with language of so general a character as that of Rev_7:3 : "till we shall have sealed the servants of our God"? This designation "servants" seems to include the whole number, and not some only, of Gods children.
5. If Gods servants from among the Gentiles are not now sealed, the Apocalypse mentions no other occasion when they were so. It is true that, according to the ordinary interpretation of the next vision, they are admitted to the happiness of heaven; but we may well ask whether, if the sealing be the emblem of preservation amidst worldly troubles, they ought not also, at one time or another, to have been sealed on earth.
6. The sealed are marked upon their foreheads, and in Rev_22:4 all believers are marked in a similar way.
7. We shall meet again this number of a hundred and forty-four thousand in chap. 14; and, while it can hardly be doubted that the same persons are on both occasions included in it, it will be seen that there at least the whole number of the redeemed is meant.
8. It is worthy of notice that the contrasts of the Apocalypse lead directly to a similar conclusion. St. John always sees light and darkness standing over against each other, and exhibiting themselves in a correspondence which, extending even to minute details, aids the task of the interpreter. Now in many passages of this book we find Satan not only marking his followers, but, precisely as here, marking them upon the "forehead;"* and it is impossible to resist the conclusion that the one marking is the antithesis of the other. But this mark is imprinted by Satan upon all his followers, and the inference is legitimate that the seal of the living God is in like manner imprinted upon all the followers of Jesus. (* Rev_13:16-17; Rev_14:9; Rev_16:2; Rev_19:20; Rev_20:4)
9. One more reason may be assigned for this conclusion. If Rev_7:4, with its "hundred and forty and four thousand out of every tribe of the children of Israel," is to be understood of Jewish Christians alone, the contrast between it and Rev_7:9, with its "great multitude, which no man can number, out of every nation, and of all tribes, and peoples, and tongues," makes it necessary to understand the latter of Gentile Christians alone. It will not do to say that the comprehensive enumeration of this verse may include Jewish as well as Gentile Christians. Placed over against the very definite statement of Rev_7:4, it can only, according to the style of the Apocalypse, be referred to persons who have come out of the heathen world in the fourfold conception of its parts. Now, whatever may be the precise interpretation of the second vision of the chapter, it is undeniable that it unfolds a higher stage of privilege and glory than the first. It will thus follow on the supposition now combated that at the very instant when the Apostle is said to be placing Gentile Christians in a position of inferiority to Jewish Christians, and when he is treating the one as simply an "appendix" to the other, he speaks of them as the inheritors of a far greater "weight of glory." St. John could not be thus in consistent with himself.
The conclusion from all that has been said, is plain. The vision of the sealing does not apply to Jewish Christians only, but to the universal Church. When the judgments of God are abroad in the world, all the Disciples of Christ are sealed for preservation against them.
Notwithstanding what has been said, the reader may still find it difficult to conceive that two pictures of the same multitude should be presented to us drawn on such entirely different lines. What is the meaning of it? he may exclaim. What is the Seer s motive in doing so? The explanation is not difficult. An attentive examination of the structural principles marking the writings of St. John will show that they are distinguished by a tendency to set forth the same object in two different lights, the latter of which is climactic to the former, as well as, for the most part at least, taken from a different sphere. The writer is not satisfied with a single utterance of what he desires to impress upon his readers. After he has uttered it for the first time, he brings it again before him, works upon it, enlarges it, deepens it, sets it forth with stronger and more vivid coloring. The fundamental idea is the same on both occasions; but on the second it is the centre of a circle of wider circumference, and it is uttered in a more impressive manner. Want of space will not permit the illustration of this by an appeal either to the nature of Hebrew thought in general, or to the other writings of the New Testament which owe their authorship to St. John. It must be enough to say that the fourth Gospel bears deep and important traces of this characteristic, and that difficult passages in it not otherwise explicable seem to be solved by its application.* The main point to be kept in view is that the principle in question may be traced on many different occasions both in the fourth Gospel and in the Apocalypse. One of these has indeed already come under our notice in the case of the "golden candle sticks" and of the "stars" in Chapter I of this book. The two figures relate to the same object, but the second is climactic to the first, and it is taken from a larger field. The same principle meets us here. The second vision of chap. 7 is climactic to the first, and the field from which it is drawn is larger. The analogy, however, not of the golden candlesticks and of the stars only, but of many other passages of a similar kind, warrants the inference that both the visions relate to the same thing, although the aspect in which it is looked at is in each case different. Any difficulty therefore at first presented by the double picture disappears; while the peculiarity of structure exhibited not only helps to lead us to a Johannine authorship, but tends powerfully to establish the correctness of the interpretation now adopted. (*The writer has treated this subject at considerable length in The Expositor {2nd series, vol. 4}).
We are thus entitled to conclude that the hundred and forty-four thousand of this first consolatory vision represent not Jewish Christians only, but the whole Church of God, and that the number used is intended to represent completeness: not one member of the true Church is lost.* Twelve, a sacred number, the number of the patriarchs, of the tribes of Israel, and of the Apostles of Jesus, is first multiplied by itself, and then by a thousand, the sign of the heavenly in contrast with the earthly. A hundred and forty and four thousand is the result. (*Comp. Joh_17:12)
It need only further be observed - and the observations will help to confirm what has been said - that St. John did not himself count the number of the sealed. He heard the number of them (Rev_7:4). Already they were "a multitude which no man could number" (Rev_7:9). But He who telleth the innumerable stars that sparkle in the midnight sky, and who "bringeth out their host by number"* could number them. He it was who communicated the number to the Seer. (* Isa_40:26)
The second vision of the chapter follows: -
"After these things I saw, and, behold, a great multitude, which no man could number, out of every nation, and of all tribes, and peoples, and tongues, standing before the throne, and before the Lamb, arrayed in white robes, and palms in their hands; and they cry with a great voice, saying, Salvation unto our God which sitteth on the throng and unto the Lamb. And all the angels were standing round about the throne, and about the elders and the four living creatures; and they fell before the throne on their faces, and worshipped God, saying, Amen: Blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honor, and power, and might, be unto our God forever and ever. Amen. And one of the elders answered, saying unto me, These which are arrayed in the white robes, who are they, and whence came they? And I said unto him, My lord, thou knowest. And he said to me, These are they which came out of the great tribulation, and they washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore are they before the throne of God, and they serve Him day and night in His temple: and He that sitteth on the throne shall spread His tabernacle over them. They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore; neither shall the sun strike upon hem, nor any heat: for the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall be their Shepherd, and shall guide them unto fountains of waters of life: and God shall wipe away every tear from their eyes (Rev_7:9-17)."
Upon the magnificence and beauty of this description it is not only unnecessary, it would be a mistake, to dwell. Words of man would only mar the sublimity and pathos of the spectacle. Neither is it desirable to look at each expression of the passage in itself. These expressions are better considered as a whole. One point indeed ought to be carefully kept in view: that the palms spoken of in Rev_7:9 as in the hands of the happy multitude are not the palms of victory in any earthly contest, but the palms of the Feast of Tabernacles, and that upon the thought of that feast the scene is moulded.
The Feast of Tabernacles, it will be remembered, was at once the last, the highest, and the most joyful of the festivals of the Jewish year. It fell in the month of October, when the harvest not only of grain, but of wine and oil, had been gathered in, and when, therefore, all the labors of the year were past. It was preceded, too, by the great Day of Atonement, the ceremonial of which gathered together all the sacrificial acts of the previous months, beheld the sins of the people, from their highest to their lowest, carried away into the wilderness, and brought with it the blessing of God from that innermost recess of the sanctuary which was lightened by the special glory of His presence, and into which the high-priest even was permitted to enter upon that day alone. The feelings awakened in Israel at the time were of the most triumphant kind. They returned in thought to the independent life which their fathers, delivered from the bondage of Egypt, led in the wilderness; and, the better to realize this, they left their ordinary dwellings and took up their abode for the days of the feast in booths, which they erected in the streets or on the flat roofs of their houses. These booths were made of branches of their most prized, most fruit-bearing, and most umbrageous trees; and beneath them they raised their psalms of thanks giving to Him who had delivered them as a bird out of the snare of the fowler. Even this was not all, for we know that in the later period of their history the Jews connected the Feast of Tabernacles with the brightest anticipations of the future as well as with the most joyful memories of the past. They beheld in it the promise of the Spirit, the great gift of the approaching Messianic age; and, that they might give full expression to this, they sent on the eighth, or great, day of the feast, a priest to the pool of Siloam with a golden urn, that he might fill it from the pool, and, bringing it up to the Temple, might pour it on the altar. This is the part of the ceremonial alluded to in Joh_7:37-39, and during it the joy of the people reached its highest point. They surrounded the priest in crowds as he brought up the water from the pool, waved their lulabs - small branches of palm trees, the "palms" of Rev_7:9 and made the courts of the Temple re-echo with their song, "With joy shall ye draw water out of wells of salvation."1 At night the great illumination of the Temple followed, that to which our Lord most probably alludes when, immediately after the Feast of Tabernacles spoken of in chap. 8 of the fourth Gospel, He exclaims, "I am the Light of the world: he that followeth Me shall not walk in the darkness, but shall have the light of life."2 (1 Isa_12:3; 2 Joh_8:12)
Such was the scene the main particulars of which are here made use of by the apocalyptic Seer to set before us the triumphant and glorious condition of the Church when, after all her members have been sealed, they are admitted to the full enjoyment of the blessings of Gods covenant, and when, washed in the blood of the Lamb and clothed with His righteousness, they keep their Feast of Tabernacles.
A most important and interesting question connected with this vision has still to be answered. It may be first asked in the words of Isaac Williams. "It is whether all this description is of the Church in heaven or on earth." The same writer has answered his question by saying, "The fact is that, like the expression the kingdom of heaven and many others of the same kind, it applies to both, and it is doubtless intended to do so - in fullness hereafter, but even here in part."1 The answer thus given is no doubt correct when the question is asked in the particular form to which it is a reply. Yet we have still to ask whether, granting it to be so, the primary reference of the vision is to the Church of Christ during her present pilgrimage or after that pilgrimage has been completed, and she has entered on her eternal rest. To the question so put, the reply usually given is that the Seer has the latter aspect of the Church in view. The redeemed are sealed on earth; they bear their "palms," and rejoice with the joy afterwards spoken of, in heaven. Much in the passage may seem to justify this conclusion. But a recent writer on the subject has adduced such powerful considerations in favor of the former view, that it will be proper to examine them.2 (1The Apocalypse, p. 126; 2Professor Gibson, in The Monthly Interpreter, vol. 2, p. 9)
Appeal is first made to Mat_24:13, a passage throwing no light upon the point. It is otherwise with many prophecies of the Old Testament next referred to, which describe the coming dispensation of the Gospel: "They shall not hunger nor thirst; neither shall the heat nor sun smite them: for He that hath mercy on them shall lead them, even by the springs of water shall He guide them;" "He will swallow up death in victory; and the Lord God will wipe away tears from off all faces;" "And it shall come to pass, that every one that is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall even go up from year to year to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, and to keep the Feast of Tabernacles."l To passages such as these have to be added the promises of our Lord as to fountains of living waters even now opened to the believer, that he may drink and never thirst again: "Jesus answered and said unto her, Every one that drinketh of this water shall thirst again: but whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall become in him a springing fountain of water, unto eternal life;" "Now on the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto Me, and drink. He that believeth on Me, as the Scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water."2 St. John, too, it is urged, teaches us to look for a Tabernacle Feast on earth3; while at the same time throughout all his writings eternal life is set before us as a present possession. Nor is this the case only in the writings of St. John. In the Epistle to the Hebrews we meet the same line of thought: "Ye are come" (not Ye shall 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."4 Influenced by these considerations, the writer to whom we have referred is led, "though not without some hesitation," to conclude that the vision of the palm-bearing multitude is to be understood of the Church on earth, and not of the Church in heaven. (1 Isa_49:10; Isa_25:8; Zec_14:16; 2 Joh_4:13-14; Joh_7:37-38; 3 Joh_1:14; 4 Heb_12:22-23)
The conclusion may be accepted without the "hesitation." The colors on the canvas may indeed at first appear too bright for any condition of things on this side the grave. But they are not more bright than those employed in the description of the new Jerusalem in chap. 21; and, when we come to the exposition of that chapter, we shall find positive proof in the language of the Seer that he looks upon that city as one already come down from heaven and established among men. Not a few of its most glowing traits are even precisely the same as those that we meet in the corresponding vision of this chapter: "And I heard a great voice out of the throne saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He shall tabernacle with them, and they shall be His peoples, and God Himself shall be with them, and be their God; and He shall wipe away every tear from their eyes; and death shall be no more; neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain, any more: the first things are passed away."1 If words like these may be justly applied, as we have yet to see that they may and must be, to one aspect of the Church on earth, there is certainly nothing to hinder their application to the same Church now. The truth is that in both cases the description is ideal, and that not less so than the description of the terrors of the worldly at the opening of the sixth Seal Nor indeed shall we understand any part of the Apocalypse unless we recognize the fact that everything with which it is concerned is raised to an ideal standard. Reward and punishment, righteousness and sin, the martyrdoms of the Church and the fate of her oppressors, are all set before us in an ideal light. The Seer moves in the midst of conceptions which are fundamental, ultimate, and eternal The "broken lights" which partially illuminate our progress in this world are to him absorbed in "the true Light." The clouds and darkness which obscure our path gather themselves together to his eyes in "the darkness" with which the light has to contend. Descriptions, accordingly, applicable in their fullness to the Church only after the glory of her Lord is manifested, apply also to her now, when she is thought of as living the life that is hid with Christ in God, the life of her exalted and glorified Redeemer. For this conception the colors of the picture before us are not too bright.2 (1 Rev_21:3-4; 2Comp. on the general thought Brown, The Second Advent, chap. 6)
The relation in which the two visions of this chapter stand to one another may now be obvious. Although the persons referred to are in both the same, they do not in both occupy the same position. In the first they are only sealed, and through that sealing they are safe. Their Lord has taken them under His protection; and, whatever troubles or perils may beset them, no one shall pluck them out of His hand. In the second they are more than safe. They have peace, and joy, and triumph, their every want supplied, their every sorrow healed. Death itself is swallowed up in victory, and every tear is wiped from every eye.
Thus also may we determine the period to which both the sealing of believers and their, subsequent enjoyment of heavenly blessing belong. In neither vision are we introduced to any special era of Christian history. St. John has in view neither the Christians of his own day alone, nor those of any later time. As we found that each of the first six Seals embraced the whole Gospel age, so also is it with these consolatory visions. We are to dwell upon the thought rather than the time of preservation and of bliss. The Church of Christ never ceases to follow in the footsteps of her Lord. Like Him, when faithful to her high commission, she never ceases to bear the cross. The unredeemed world must always be her enemy; and in it she must always have tribulation. But not less continuous is her joy. We judge wrongly when we think that the Man of sorrows was never joyful He spoke of "My peace," "My joy."1 In one of His moments of deepest feeling we are told that He "rejoiced in spirit."2 Outwardly the world troubled Him; and huge billows, raised by its tempestuous winds, swept across the surface of His soul. Beneath, the unfathomed depths were calm. In communion with His Father in heaven, in the thought of the great work which He was carrying to its completion, and in the prospect of the glory that awaited Him, He could rejoice in the midst of sorrow. So also with the members of His Body. They bear about with them a secret joy which, like their new name, no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it As the friend of the bridegroom who standeth and heareth him rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom s voice, so their joy is fulfilled.3 Nor does it ever cease to be theirs while their Lord is with them; and unless they grieve Him "lo, He is always with them, even unto the consummation of the age."4 The two visions, therefore, of the sealing and of the palm-bearing multitude embrace the whole Christian dispensation within their scope, and express ideas which belong to the condition of the believer in all places and at all times. (1 Joh_14:27; Joh_17:13; 2 Luk_10:21; 3 Joh_3:29; 4 Mat_28:20)
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 On vv1–3 1–3. After this. After the opening of the sixth…
1–3. After this. After the opening of the sixth seal. I saw four angels. The vision that appears before his eyes is that of four angels at the four points of the compass, holding four winds to prevent them from rushing in destruction upon the earth. These certainly represent four destructive powers which are held back for a time from the land, the sea, and the vegetation of the earth.
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 On v1 THIS chapter is in the nature of an episode.…
SEALING OF THE SERVANTS OF GOD
CRITICAL AND EXEGETICAL NOTES
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THIS chapter is in the nature of an episode. Before the enemies of the gospel are finally destroyed, St. John sees the admission of believers to their blessedness in heaven. The vision has certainly the appearance of being supplementary to the preceding, and seems to refer to the visitation described under various seals, especially the third and sixth, and to represent their universality (“four corners of the earth,” “four winds of the earth”); their character, as providential, ordered and directed by God through His angels; their limitation, or suspension, or restriction, as the interests of God’s Church required (W. and W.). Godet treats the two visions of this chapter as anticipative. “The foresight of her own triumph is to inspire the Church with courage to face the formidable crises which still stand between her and the object of her hope.” He thinks the first vision concerns Jews (Israel); the second the Gentile Church. It is, however, better to take the earlystandpoint, and see the Christian Church as composed of two distinct, though closely related elements, the Judaic and the Gentile. The revelation is not addressed to Jews, nor does it concern them, save as they stand in some relation, hostile or helpful, to the Christian Church.
Rev_7:1. After these things.—Not to be unduly pressed. The law of succession in time controls all forms of human thinking, even visions. Holding, etc.—By this figure the Divine care of the elect ones is intimated. Their safety is secured before the calamities indicated in the previous chapter are let loose. Winds, being a great cause of calamities, are taken as symbols of calamity.
Rev_7:2. Ascending.—In the book of Enoch, which seems to have suggested some of the figures of this book, the east is the paradise of God, the place where the Lord of Glory dwells. There is the possible idea also that, as the angel came with the dawn, a long day’s work is intimated. Seal of the Living God.—Eastern kings signed documents, etc., by impressing the seal of the signet ring which they jealously kept on their finger. To entrust this seal to a person was to empower him to act on the king’s authority.
Rev_7:3. Sealed the servants of God.—This act is illustrated in the salvation of Israel from the destroying angel, through the mark of the blood upon the door. The sealing does not preserve the Church from being affected by outward calamities, only from being overwhelmed by them.
Rev_7:4. Hundred, forty and four thousand.—Clearly a symbolical number. A goodly number, from all the tribes, had become members of the Christian Church. Scripture gives no support to the notion of “Lost Tribes.”
Rev_7:9. Could number.—The relativity of Gentile to Jewish members of the Christian Church is strikingly suggested by this fixed number for the Jewish, and limitless numbers for the Gentile, portions. White robes.—The sign of triumph in the conflict with evil. Palms.—The recognised symbol of victory.
Rev_7:10. Salvation.—To be conceived as both a negative thing—deliverance from evil; and also a positive thing—attainment of holiness. To our God.—It is fitting that we go past all agencies to the final cause.
Rev_7:13. What are these?—A question not asked in order to gain information, but in order to open the way for giving information.
Rev_7:14. Tribulation.—A special time of trouble is referred to; probably that which was endured by the Church under the Pagan emperors. Washed … in the blood.—This very strange figure is perhaps not yet properly apprehended. The blood of Christ is used as a figure for His strenuous efforts, even unto death, in effecting His purpose of redemption. The champion from Edom with blood-dyed garments (Isa_63:1); the sweat-like blood-drops in Gethsemane; and the appeal in Hebrews, “Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin,” should guide us to the right thought. The idea may be this: Christ is highly exalted because, in the resistance of sin, He “poured out His soul unto death”; and these have the white robes because they, too, resisted sin, and bore their earth-burdens, and won the triumph of obedient submission, as He did, and in His strength. The figure of actually washing clothes or persons in blood is a very strained one, unless its symbolical character is clearly recognised.
Rev_7:15. Dwell among them.—R.V. “Shall spread His tabernacle over them.” Dr. Tregelles compares this passage with Exo_40:35, and suggests, as a true rendering, “He … shall be a covert over them.” In Alford’s revision we read, “shall spread His habitation over them.” The allusion, then, is to the manner in which the Israelites were, all through their wilderness journey, overshadowed by the cloud which represented God’s presence, so that He was not only with them, but they did, as it were, live in the Divine tabernacle, as they moved hither and thither. Compare Joh_1:14; Rev_21:3.
Rev_7:17. Feed them.—As a shepherd. It should be clearly apprehended that the vision blends what waking apprehension cannot. St. John saw a person as if He were a lamb. We should have to speak of Christ in the glory not as a lamb, but as “the lamb-like One.”
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Rev_7:1-17
The Vision of the Redeemed.—
We See—
I. The great number of the redeemed (Rev_7:9). All who have believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, and who have died in the faith; all who shall believe on Him in the future ages; infants, dying in infancy; the great multitude who have come out of great tribulation. Many are the saved.
II. The eternal glory of the redeemed.—
1. The glory of their appearance.
(1) “Clothed with white robes.” They shine in the beauty of holiness.
(2) “With palms in their hands.” They are conquerors through Him that loved them.
2. The glory of their service.
(1) Their service of song; their song of salvation (Rev_7:10); their song of eternal praise to God (Rev_7:12).
(2) Their holy ministry (Rev_7:15).
3. The glory of their eternal home.
(1) Their communion with God (Rev_7:15). “He that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them.”
(2) The heavenly provision (a) for their immortal nature: the Lamb “shall feed them”; He is their eternal Shepherd; (b) for their constant refreshment: the Lamb “shall lead them unto living fountains of waters”; (c) For their everlasting comfort, “God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.”
III. Our lessons from the redeemed.—
1. Once they were sufferers such as we, or more than any of us. They came “out of great tribulation.”
2. Once they were sinners such as we. They had need of cleansing. They “washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.” The same fountain is open for us. Through the merits of the same Saviour we may enter into the same heaven, and enjoy the same blessedness and glory.
SUGGESTIVE NOTES AND SERMON SKETCHES
Rev_7:4. Who are the “hundred and forty-four thousand?”—Very probably the believing Jews of this period—those of the house of Israel who, in an age of national apostasy and national punishment, acknowledged Jesus as their Messiah and Lord; who accepted the new covenant and passed under its seal, both outward and inward. They are the class who are emphatically termed by St. Paul “the election,” “the remnant according to the election of grace” (Rom_11:5; Rom_11:7); the predicted remnant which should be saved (Rom_9:27; Isa_10:20-22; Isa_65:8-9). This interpretation is sustained by the particularity with which the tribes are named, as if to fix attention upon the fact of a special reference to the actual descendants of the patriarchs. Otherwise there must be some spiritual significance in each particular tribe, which is hardly conceivable. The exact number denotes election (Jer_3:14).—W. and W.
God’s Elect.—This vision of a certain number of Israelites, and the next of an innumerable multitude of all nations, are certainly correlative to each other; and the most obvious way of understanding them is, that among God’s elect there will be many faithful Israelites, and yet few comparatively to the number of faithful Gentiles.—W. H. Simcox, M.A.
Rev_7:9. Universal Praise for Redemption.—Then the countless host of the redeemed, with palm branches of victory in their hands, the emblems of the Church’s triumph, unite in praising God, with all the angels, and elders, and living creatures. One universal symphony fills the heavenly world. Among this countless host stand conspicuous, in robes of white, the martyrs who have sealed their testimony by their own blood. The glory to which they are destined is brought distinctly into view in order that persecuted and suffering Christians, then “enduring the cross,” might, “on account of the joy set before them, despise the shame,” and attain at last to the same blessedness.—Moses Stuart.
Rev_7:9-10. All Saints’ Day.—One, day is given to the commemoration of the great general idea of sainthood. It seems to gather in all the multitude of the holy in every age, and bids us think of their characters, and follow in their steps. What is there in the world for each one of us that would not be here if others had not lived before us—if we were the first generation that ever peopled this populous earth of ours? What are the legacies that the past sends down to us?
1. There are certain circumstances, things which men have gradually, in the course of ages, invented and worked out, and they are permanent, and have come down to us in their accumulation. Besides these, there are certain truths; all the knowledge that man has ever won, of physics, of metaphysics, of morals, of religion, of beauty—all this we have not to win over again for ourselves. Besides these, there is another gift—of certain inspirations which we find waiting for us in the world. Men have left behind them their examples, their enthusiasms, and their standards. The impulse and contagion of their work is waiting everywhere to breathe itself into ours. The power of this inspiration comes in various ways. In some degree it is the mere force of hereditation. Then there is the distinct power of example. Moreover, they have set up certain ideals of character, not reducible to precise rules of action, with which we enter into sympathy, and to whose likeness our lives almost unconsciously attempt to shape themselves. This power of influence may belong to all the past in general. From all the multitude of failures and successes rises up the picture of a true successful manhood—the perfect man. That is our leader. Or we see that power incorporate itself in some great man. Who can explain the subtle fascination that reaches everywhere and lays hold of all kinds of men, and turns their lives out of their course to follow his course; to be with him in some sympathy of purpose, and, if possible, to be like him in some similarity of nature? We may analyse the power of leadership that great men have. It may rest in either of three things:
(1) It may be in mere strength of personality;
(2) it may be in some truths that he teaches;
(3) or it may be in a certain thing which we call holiness, which we cannot define otherwise than that it is a larger and more manifest presence of God in the life of one man than other men have—more sympathetic nearness to Divinity—which makes men feel that he, more than they, embodies the Divine Spirit and utters the Divine will; that He shows God to them. This is the leadership of the saint. These are the leaders, the inspirers, of men—the hero, the teacher, the saint. We have reached, then, this distinctive definition of the saint. He is the man whose power comes of his holiness, his godlikeness. It is a special kind of power, and it is the strongest kind of power where it can be brought to bear at all. In the hero man feels that there is something of God’s power, but by no means, of necessity, any of God Himself. In the teacher, there is God’s truth, because all truth is God’s, but the teacher is only the glass through which it shines. But in the saint there is something of God Himself, a real, abiding presence of Divinity. The saint wins a sympathetic, loving awe. In our experience we have felt the power of such saintly souls. We may connect our whole notion of sainthood with this idea of power. True sainthood is the strong chain of God’s presence in humanity running down through all history, and making of it a unity, giving it a large and massive strength, able to bear great things and to do great things too. This unity which the line of sainthood gives to history is the great point that shows its strength. You go to your saint and find God, working and manifest, in him. But he got near to God through some saint who lived before him. And that saint lighted his fire at some flame before him; and so the power of the sainthoods animates and fills the world. So holiness and purity, and truth and patience, daring and tenderness, hope and faith, are kept constant and pervading things in our humanity. In this truth we get the corrective that we need of the continual tendency to solitariness and individuality in our religion. This church of all the saints is a great power in the world. Ever from out the past, from the old saints who lived in other times, from Enoch, David, Paul, and John, Augustine, Jerome, Luther, Leighton, there comes down the power of God to us. Take away holy example, and the inspiration of holy men, and you would depopulate heaven. Only one bold, supreme soul here and there would still be able to scale the height alone, and stand triumphant in the glorious presence of God. We ascend by one another. These saints were incorporations, not of the power, nor of the truth, but of the spirit or the character of God. But in God Himself all three—power, and truth, and character—must go together; and so they will, to some extent, in the saint, who is God’s copy—but not entirely. We must, however, clearly see the absence of power of miracle, or of authority in truth, in the saints of the Christian Church, because we must have some doctrine of sainthood which shall not for a moment dim or distort the leadership and perfect headship of the Christian and the Church, which rests in Christ alone. But Christ, as He leads us on to higher things, may still strengthen us with the company of those who have the same road to travel, and are walking it in the same strength. Are there no saints to-day? If sainthood means what we have said—the indwelling, the manifest indwelling, of God in man—then there must be many a very saintly saint in these late days of ours. There may be fewer supreme, pre-eminent saints, fewer out-reaching pinnacles of grace, in the long ranges of spiritual life. As all civilisation and human culture advances, great men become less common and less marked. Still, there are saints enough, if we only know how to find them. The old idea of sainthood demanded miracles of those whom it admitted to its calendar. It is the truer discrimination that recognises the presence of God in men, the saints that are in the world, not by the miracles they work, but by the miracles they are; by the way in which they bring the grace of God to bear on the simple duties of the household and the street. The saint is he in whom God dwells.—Phillips Brooks.
Rev_7:13-14. The Redeemed in Glory.—The Bible opens and closes with conflict—between evil and good. Opens with man defeated, closes with man victorious. So it tells the whole story of humanity. The reason for the difference is given us in the song which the victors sing—“Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb.” He that was defeated has become victor, because God Himself has helped him, and won a first and inclusive triumph for him in the person of His Son. The association of the text is a great multitude in the attitude of victors through Christ. It is important to Christian living that our thought should be often lifted to that world towards which we are hastening. We need to keep heaven near. And yet it is but little more than a shadow to us. The terms under which heaven is represented are figurative; of its realities we can know nothing. Figurative language is an accommodation to the uncultured, imperfect mind. It is developed in the early history of nations. But how warm and bright and hopeful are the figures suggesting heaven! Mansions, or Homes. Wiping away tears. Rest. What holy joy and triumph are suggested by its crowns, and harps, and palms, and songs! What a glory is round about its throne!
I. Heaven is not merely another place and other circumstances.—We often cherish the notion that, if we could get away from present scenes, we should lose our troubles. In this hope we have made earthly changes; but did we thus lose the trouble? Many say, “Oh, to get my footsteps off this sinburdemd earth!” It is, therefore, needful to impress that heaven is, primarily, a change in ourselves. Heaven is character first, then place suited to character. White robes are but the expression of moral whiteness.
II. The glorified in heaven keep their individuality.—“Who are these?” Notice the minute account of the tribes, and the maintenance of tribal distinctions. This retention of our individuality is absolutely essential to a full and happy thought of heaven. Unity in variety—not in sameness—is the beauty of the earth. Single leaves; single faces. On the basis of individuality our friendships here are formed. If the redeemed have become merely spirits, our personal interest in them is almost gone. Illustrate by giving the dying hopes of Socrates.
III. In heaven the connection with earth is not lost sight of.—“Whence come they?” If christ remembers Bethlehem and Calvary, well may we. This connection is to be a material element in our bliss. Earth is our battle-ground, the sphere in which we win our victories; it is not merely our place of probation. On earth we learn to estimate the rest, and prepare to enjoy the triumph of heaven. Illustrate by visits to a nation’s battle-fields.
IV. In heaven all merely earthly distinctions are lost.—The angel says nothing about the host being rich or poor, noble or servile. The one characteristic is this: they are clothed in white robes, because blood-washed. The one qualification for heaven is personal interest in the work of Christ. There are two efficiencies in His work: He washes, and He sanctifies. Learn to look far deeper than earthly distinctions, and to value character. The title to the eternal feast is the wedding garment of sanctified character.
V. Heaven helps us to understand and bear present tribulation.—The white-robed came out of great tribulation. There is a direct connection between “tribulation” and “heaven.” Describe the old threshing sledge. Life in general, and life for each individual, has its forms of tribulation. We want to be sure of its relation to the white robes. The Christian has two things to learn experimentally here on earth.
1. How to get his garments washed.
2. How to keep his garments clean. When he has learned both, he is fit for heaven. But he could learn neither without passing through great tribulation. Compare the things talked of in the earthly and heavenly worlds. We talk of the battle for money and position; they talk of the battle for character. We talk of the fashion of the garments that clothe our mortality: they talk of the blood-washed robes of the soul. We talk of success, and worship success; they talk of sanctified tribulation. By cherishing more of their spirit now, we shall be preparing ourselves by-and-bye to share their society.
Rev_7:13-17. The Redeemed in Heaven.—This passage exhibits to us, first, the condition of the redeemed in heaven. That condition is marked, on the one hand, by a cessation from all suffering. They have come out of great tribulation
1. They are beyond the reach of want. “They shall hunger no more.”
2. They are beyond the reach of harm. “The sun shall not light on them, nor any heat.” That condition is marked, on the other hand, by the perfection of all enjoyment. Their enjoyment is traceable to three sources.
(1) They stand in the immediate presence of God. “They are before the throne.”
(2) They are uninterruptedly engaged in His service. “They serve Him day and night.”
(3) They have access to sources of solid gratification. “The Lamb in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them,” etc. The Lamb is here said to lead the flock; the anomaly is unavoidable. The figure is imperfect, and is sacrificed to the sentiment. The passage also distinctly exhibits the ground on which that condition is enjoyed; which is, not their having come out of great tribulation, but their “having washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.” Here are two things implied: the forgiveness of sin, indicated by their being washed in the blood; and the renewal of the character, indicated by their having their robes washed—robes being emblematical of character. It is their being pardoned, or justified, that is the strict and only ground of their admission to the blessedness of heaven; whilst their being sanctified qualifies them to enjoy it.
Rev_7:16. No Thirst in Heaven.—A poor mangled German one night crawled out of his hospital bed in the delirium of fever following amputation. Somebody found him in the village street, moaning and raving alternately, while he tried to drag his bleeding body over the frozen earth. A kind Frenchwoman took him in and put warm wine to his lips, which were burning, while the rest of his frame was so cold. “No, no!” the poor soldier murmured; “I am only thirsty for my home and children;” and so, with that thirst unassuaged, and that heart-touching explanation of his dark journey, he died.—“Daily Telegraph.”
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.
The Sermon Bible 1900 · Public Domain On v1 The Servants of God Sealed.
Rev 7:6
The Servants of God Sealed.
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I. The passage from the book of Revelation selected as the Epistle for All Saints’ Day, while it carries our thought onward to the glories of the world to come, is a most striking reminiscence of old Hebrew history. The constitution of the twelve tribes, the names of the sons of Jacob, come into view once more, as it were, on the threshold of eternity, even as the memory of childhood often grows wonderfully fresh again when an old man is about to pass into the other world.
II. We must not fail to notice the great comfort contained in the word "sealed." The expression seems clearly to imply two things: first, that those who bear this seal are recognised by God as belonging to Him; and secondly, that they are safe. As regards the safety of the saints, it is difficult for us to imagine any being endowed with free-will and subject to moral responsibility to be exempt from the possibility of failing; but if we were to follow speculation in such a matter, it would lead to no results. It seems to be clearly revealed to us that part of the blessedness of the saints will consist in their security.
III. Look at the broad, general fact that in the enumeration before us the tribe of Dan is omitted. Of what does this remind us? Surely of this: that in the great gathering of the saints at the last some who have had rich opportunities will not be there. Even in the course of Christian Church history hitherto, communities which were once full of hope have been quite or almost obliterated, just as rivers which in their earlier course flowed full and strong have been lost and become feeble in the sands. And as with communities, so with separate souls: those who have been equal in privilege will not be together in the end.
IV. Asher was an obscure and insignificant tribe, yet of Asher, as well as of Joseph, or Benjamin, or Judah, were sealed twelve thousand. Spiritual blessings do not depend on earthly fame and greatness, or on any questions of mere numerical proportion.
J. S. Howson, Our Collects, Epistles, and Gospels, p. 161.
Rev 7:9
The Festival of All Saints.
The Festival of All Saints is related in conception to, yet distinct from, the Festival of All Angels. For while the latter speaks of angelic victory, the former speaks only of human victory over evil. It was considered to be the feast of the glorification of human nature by Christ. Now what is it which glorifies human nature? It is expressed in the name of this festival: it is saintliness.
I. There are many associations into which to enter is fame: companies of warriors, societies of science, bands of poets, circles of statesmen, orders of honour; but the most ancient, the most memorable, and the most continuous, continuous even for ever and ever, is the order of all the saints. For it is not only an earthly society; it does not belong to one nation alone; it does not seek its members only out of one age of history. It began with the beginning of the race. It has drawn its members out of every nation, and kindred, and tongue. It is existent in the world beyond the grave. The constant, ceaseless work of the society is the overthrow of evil.
II. The war against evil which the Head of the Church and all the army of the saints are waging now will end, not when the victims of evil are damned or destroyed, but when the evil itself in them is consumed. In every soul of man, by the giving of joy or the giving of suffering, by a thousand means, each fitted to a thousand characters, God will do His conquering work. Those who have already won the crown of saintliness are fellow-labourers with Him in the work of redemptive warfare. The power and the life of Christ are not only powerful and living upon earth: He is redeeming all in the other world. He continues to redeem.
III. Note some of the principles of the life of this great society, and apply them to the minor society of the English nation. (1) In the Church of Christ, each true member is an enthusiast in his work. His heart glows; his tongue cannot be basely silent, though often wisely silent. He feels inspired by the Spirit of God within him. He would rather die than be false to Christ. Ought not that to be the feeling of the citizen towards the nation, enthusiasm, not untaught and rude, but cultured by thought on great questions and tempered by the experience of the past? He who feels the enthusiasm of the Church of Christ ought above all men to be freed himself, and to free others, from political apathy. (2) Both the Church of Christ and the English nation have a glorious past. The Christian and the Englishman are both the children of heroes. The freedom of both in their several spheres has been that of slow and dignified growth, and is of that firm, rooted character which creates the reverence which makes love lasting. (3) In the vast society of which I speak, each man lives for his brother, not for himself; men are united by common love to Christ. We should recognise as Englishmen the same principle. (4) There is one last lesson which the Christian Church teaches us: it condemns, not only local, but also national, selfishness. The time has come in this age to carry out the same principle in the wide politics of the world; the time has come to regulate our relation with other nations by the words, "Do unto other nations as ye would that they should do unto you."
S. A. Brooke, Sermons, p. 290. Revelation vii., vers. 9, 10
The Blessed Saints.
I. The phrase "communion of saints," which is so often on our lips, reminds us that not only is there in heaven a society of just ones made perfect, but also on earth a band of servants of the Lord, who are pressing forward to the high mark of saintliness, who are living a saintly life by reason of their very endeavours to submit to the guidance of a loving Lord. We cannot have sympathy for the saints in heaven unless we have sympathy for the saints on earth, for all the good and noble souls who are working for the Lord in the Church on earth. If the phrase "communion of saints" is to be to us other than a fine-sounding one, emptied of all real meaning, if it is to be to us the centre of a realm of thought which we can never weary of exploring, we must first be assured that the transformation which the Lord has perfected in the saints has been commenced within ourselves. As He perfected that transformation in the saints in glory, so He is still carrying it on in the saints who walk yet on earth in the path of humiliation and duty, and so will He commence and carry it on if we will but trust in Him.
II. Holy men and women there have been in all branches of the Christian Church. Not all their names are inscribed on an earthly roll-call. The true calendar, from which not the name of the humblest saint is absent, is in the Lord’s keeping. As we get to know more and more of those who have lived lives of holiness and usefulness, we feel that the limits of any one branch of the Church catholic are too narrow for the flow of our awakened sympathy; and we are fain to acknowledge that God’s inspiring love acts upon the hearts not only of His children in our own Church, but also of His children in other Churches and in other lands, and that all Churches in which the life of Christ is manifested in the lives of His members form but one grand Holy Catholic Church.
H. N. Grimley, Tremadoc Sermons, p. 63.
The Communion of Saints.
I. This passage suggests (1) the universal character of the communion of God’s people, and (2) the bond which cemented and still continues to cement it. All persons who are tempted to think that they and those who agree with them alone are in the right, all persons disposed to be exclusive in judging of the characters of others, may learn a lesson of wisdom and charity from the vision of St. John. If they could but look to the end, if they could see the battle of life with the eyes of God and of those whom His Spirit most inspires, they would see that as there are many mansions in our Father’s house, so there are many roads that lead to them. Does not All Saints’ Day witness for us, first, that all Christ’s people are substantially one at heart; secondly, that many are Christ’s people who are not thought so by others, and who hardly dare to think themselves so? If we can once believe that Christ, through His Spirit, is the sole Author of all good, we must believe this also. The belief in the communion of saints follows necessarily on the belief in the Holy Ghost.
II. Those whom St. John saw in this vision had all one distinguishing characteristic: suffering followed by purification—purification, not by their own unaided constancy, but by the blood of the Son of God. These are the marks which stamp Christ’s servants, the passports which conduct through the gates of the holy city to the steps of the eternal throne. It is to the struggle, the terrible struggle, with temptation, the constant fall, the timid rising again; to the confession of weakness forced upon us by the consciousness of degradation; to the belief that Christ, in our utmost need, has come to us with a free and wholly undeserved pardon; it is to the wounds and scars which the battle has left on us, and which even the Physician of souls can never wholly efface on earth; it is to suffering, to what St. John truly calls "great tribulation," that we ascribe our admission into the kingdom of God. For the youngest, as for the oldest, life must be a process of purification; and that purification can only come from the Lord Jesus Christ.
H. M. Butler, Harrow Sermons, p. 188.
The Great Multitude.
I. The multitude. The sight of a multitude is, in its way, as attractive as a magnet; we run to see the object which has gathered it together, and this may very properly be done in the present instance. (1) The vastness of the multitude is most remarkable; (2) the variety of the multitude is no less remarkable than the vastness of it: "of all nations, and kindreds, and peoples, and tongues."
II. Their position. Attaching to their position there is evidently (1) a transcendent honour; (2) a superlative happiness.
III. Their adornment. We notice—(1) the spotless purity of their adornment: "white robes"; (2) its triumphal character: "palms in their hands."
IV. Their worship. (1) The song of their worship is replete with interest, the subject of it is salvation, the object God Himself. (2) The service of their worship is full of interest; it is full of both fervour and harmony.
E. A. Thomson, Memorials of a Ministry, p. 319.
All Saints’ Day.
I. Let us ask, What is the use of festivals at all? Why should we keep our saints’ days and our Christmas Day, our Good Friday and our Ascension Day? One day is not better than another, and all the bishops in the world cannot make it better, nor make it a different day from what it is. But is it not meet and right that we should celebrate our birthdays, as men and women born into the world, and celebrate our benefactors’ days, as scholars of this or that foundation, or celebrate our victories or escapes, as sharers in the nation’s weal and the nation’s glory? and is it not at least as meet and right that as Christians, bound together by a common faith in Christ our Lord, we should celebrate our festival days too, and, lest men should pass over too lightly this or that scene in the Saviour’s life, this or that act of devotion, and zeal, and heroic self-sacrifice on the part of His followers in bygone ages, that we should be called upon periodically to refresh our memories on this point or on that? The world at large is so careful and troubled about many things that we may well excuse it if here and there a Mary seems to sit with too rapt a gaze at Jesus’s feet while her more active kinsfolk are toiling at life’s daily labours.
II. Why should there be a festival for the saints unnamed and unknown? This festival was founded for the very purpose to preserve us from forgetting that men are very poor judges of who God’s saints are. It is to remind us that, however much the world may require of us intellect, or knowledge, or strength, or position before it will give us any honour or allow us to take rank among its great ones, yet there is a company before the throne of the Lamb into whose rank the meek and lowly are welcomed, a company whose example on earth we should do well to imitate, and whose song in heaven we should strive to echo, "Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb."
A. Jessopp, Norwich School Sermons, p. 129.
References: Rev 7:9, Rev 7:10.—Homiletic Quarterly, vol. i., p. 270. Rev 7:9-11.—S. A. Brooke, Church of England Pulpit, vol. vi., p. 55; H. P. Liddon, Ibid., vol. vii., p. 31.
Rev 7:13
Heavenly Raiment.
I. Here, in the text, we are presented to a great, victorious company. These pure, victorious ones are as numerous as they are beautiful; from all nations they come; all languages have they spoken; yet have they all been beaten and bruised with the tribulations of the world, and they have come not only out of affliction, but out of great affliction. They were cleansed; their hearts were cleansed, and their garments too. Often in the world they were dressed in meanness, in shame, in sadness, in toil; but all is changed: instead of meanness there is splendour, instead of weakness strength, instead of a heavy heart garments of praise, instead of shame the robe of purity, instead of toil the dress and the palm that denote victory. But how came they to be dressed meanly in this world? Consider what dress is, and how, though it may represent you if you can attain it, you may be unable to attain the material of which to form dress corresponding to your true character. Our dress is made of that which the world around supplies to us. If it be a stupid world, we cannot be robed in such a dress of bright intelligence as we would fain put on; if it be an evil world, we cannot be robed in a joyful dress full of holy excellence. We cannot clothe ourselves as we could if the general sense of mankind were higher. The victorious ones had been clothed meanly (1) because the state of the world was evil, and (2) because their own state was imperfect.
II. He that cleanses his heart cleanses his raiment, and if your heart be refined by the fires of God, then all that is exterior to you will be washed by the waves of the world. Though all this beautiful apparel of saints in heaven is indeed the gift of God by the inward work of His Spirit, from within passing outwardly to the very body and the very raiment—I say, though it is the gift of God, in a certain true sense it is woven by ourselves. Man is but a worm, yet he spins material out of which God adorns heaven. "What are these?" said the reverend elder; "whence came they?" he cried with exulting tone. "Son of man, canst thou tell?" Let the youth of the world hear the voice of this elder. These are the choice ones of this earth, the chief in spiritual contests, the agonised, the disparaged, the killed, the flower of the Church’s chivalry, who represent in their victorious love and beautiful apparel the whole company of the saved. In the flood and the fire they heard a voice say, "Onward!"; on the steep of the mountain they heard a voice say, "Upward!" And when a sad voice called, "All flesh is grass," the flesh of saint and of sinner, they could answer, "The grass that withereth is clothed in goodly raiment, finer its flowers than kings’ robes; and are we not kings and priests unto our God? and, much more, will He not clothe us?"
T. T. Lynch, Three Months’ Ministry, p. 70.
References: Rev 7:13, Rev 7:14.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xviii., No. 1040; A. Mackennal, Christian World Pulpit, vol. viii., p. 300.
Rev 7:13-15
Who are Saints?
I. Notice what we certainly do not mean when we speak of men being saints of God. (1) I find no warrant for believing that the asceticism which appears to have so strange a charm for some minds is pleasing to God, and I find a great deal to convince me that it is even contrary to the spirit of Christian liberty. (2) As self-imposed pain, or discomfort, or poverty does not in any way make a man a saint, so neither is it necessary that there should be any pain or discomfort required of us at all I say it is not necessary; I do not say more. Suffering, even for Christ’s sake, does not make a man a saint, but saintliness will make any man brave enough to suffer. (3) Mere blamelessness does not make a saint of Christ.
II. Who, then, is the true saint? Our text will lead us to the right answer. (1) First, the saints have passed through great tribulation. The first element of saintliness is sorrow for sin; the truest tribulation is that which remorseful grief for sin occasions. (2) The second element in this sanctity is this: that along with shame and sorrow for sin there should be also faith in the Saviour of sinners, for these saints had washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. (3) The third element in this saintliness is a spirit of devotion. They are before the throne of God, and serve Him day and night in His temple, not with a formal, ascetic devotion which trusts to times and places too exclusively. But surely there can be no true sanctity without the spirit of prayer, and that spirit of prayer cannot be kept alive without the frequent act of prayer also.
A. Jessopp, Norwich School Sermons, p. 139.
Reference: Rev 7:14.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxii., No. 1316.
Rev 7:14
We owe very little debt to those who take this out of the grand signification, and say that it belongs to the "multitudes" of Constantine, or the "Constantine age." I would far rather keep to the simple ideas of my childhood, and see in it nothing but a beautiful description of the saints in heaven. Now of all these beautiful words perhaps the most important, certainly the most instructive, is the word "therefore." For this is what we want to know, not, Are they happy? or, What do they? All that we may leave. There is no doubt about that. But why are they there? How did they come there? This is the question which concerns us.
I. And so I ask, Where in the sentence does "therefore" come? I observe that it comes after two things: "tribulation" and "washing," but directly and strictly only after "washing." We might disconnect the latter part of the sentence from the "tribulation," but we could not separate it from the "washing." The order might be that the "tribulation" leads to the "washing," and the "washing" leads to the glory. But it could not be the "tribulation" without the "washing," though it might be the "washing" without the "tribulation." Never think that affliction takes anybody to heaven. It very often conducts further from it. Affliction may lead to the fountain, and the fountain is in the road to the throne. If you go to the fountain, you will at last find yourself before the throne. But "tribulation," whatever it be, saves no one. Only "the washing the robes and making them white in the blood of the Lamb" ever does that.
II. It is very easy to misunderstand that word "tribulation." It sounds like something so very severe. But what I wish to point out is this: that the text does not say that the experience of saints must be very bitter, or the pain very intense. The word used is "friction," the rubbing which goes to make the fine polish or the exquisite edge. And it amounts to this: "These are they which came out of the refining processes of great friction." And what Christian has not friction?—the friction of his two natures clashing; the friction of his besetting sins; the friction of some character in the world with whom he has to do; the friction of some daily duty; the friction of a constant uneasiness; the friction of some weary trial, some continual sore. If there be no more, there is that. And that at least must be. It may not be of many sorts, or it may not be of great importance; but we have it twice—in St. Paul’s exhortation to the Churches of Asia Minor and the elder’s testimony to St. John—"We must through much friction"—it is the same word—"We must through much friction enter into the kingdom of God." It may be a comfort to some who have no overwhelming griefs, but who have abundance of wearing, harassing vexations, that even in that they may fulfil the condition.
III. But if the "tribulation" be the inevitable accompaniment, the cleansing is the essential and the primary cause of all saintship. For then has the "tribulation" done its work, when it has humbled and emptied the heart to such a sinking sense of sin as drives it to the fountain of the cross of Jesus. "They washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb." In the great temple of nature and truth; in the holy places of His handiwork; in the holiest of holies, in His Church, by day, after our feeble power, and by night, when we glorify God by our resting; in the sunshine of the consciousness of saints and the shadows of pain and impotence, we serve God; and this service of ours goes up acceptably through the very same perfume and the same incense of Jesus which makes the service of angels acceptable. And He who is present there is present here; and they know that we have Him, and we know that they have Him. They are perfect reflectors; we are imperfect reflectors. And these, the service, and the presence, and the image, are to be for ever and for ever; and they make "the communion of the saints."
J. Vaughan, Sermons, 14th series, p. 101.
Rev 7:16
"No More" and "More.".
There are four things asserted here:—
I. All need is supplied: "They shall hunger no more, for the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them." (1) Look at the source of the supply. This is sixfold: (a) love which passeth knowledge; (b) power to which nothing is hard; (c) wisdom Divine and infinite; (d) providence minute and universal; (e) oneness of feeling without check; (f) closeness of relationship. (2) Mark the character of the supply. This is in harmony with the source. The source is love, and the supply is generous. It is well sustained, suitable, varied, acceptable, and grateful to the recipient.
II. All desire gratified. There are four qualities clothing this gratification of desire. (1) It is pure, unselfish; (2) it is full, nothing left to be given; (3) it is wholesome and invigorating; (4) it is Divine, of a godly sort.
III. All trouble prevented. It is impossible for trouble to befall us when God places Himself between us and grief.
IV. All sadness taken away and kept away. Then—(1) weep not for the dead who have died in the Lord; (2) shrink not from a rapid approach to immortality; (3) make not heaven your god, or going to heaven your goal and your end, but remember, nevertheless, that God has heaven prepared for you; (4) praise your Saviour, to whom you owe heaven and every good.
S. Martin, Comfort in Trouble, p. 224.
References: Rev 7:16, Rev 7:17.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxx., No. 1800. Rev 7:17.—Ibid., vol. xi., No. 643; Talmage, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xii., p. 233.
The Sermon Bible, ed. William Robertson Nicoll (1888–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. R. Dummelow 1909 · Public Domain On v1 The Redeemed
The Redeemed
Two visions interposed between the sixth and seventh seals. There are similar episodes between the sixth and seventh trumpets and bowls.
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1-3. Four angels are holding in check the four winds of God's judgments (Rev_7:1), and are ordered not to release them until God's servants are sealed, i.e. marked as His: cp. Eze_9:4; Eph_1:13; Eph_4:30; 2Ti_2:19; (Rev_7:2.). These four winds may be the horsemen of Rev_6:1. The meaning is, that Christians need not fear the judgments of Revelation 6. Not a hair of their head shall perish (Luk_21:18).
4-8. The complete number of God's people (see on Rev_21:15.), and that a large one (144,000 is the square of 12 a thousandfold), is being gathered together for everlasting safety. The Church of Christ is spoken of in OT. language: cp. Rom_2:28. The tribe of Dan is not mentioned, perhaps because of a Jewish tradition that Antichrist was to come from that tribe.
9-17. St. John sees, in another vision, how the saints, the '144,000,' are preserved. They may not be delivered from death, but they will be delivered by death: cp. Luk_21:16. Robes and palms of victory (Rev_7:9.) are for those who 'overcome,' and they are enabled to overcome by the 'blood,' i.e. by the communicated power of the sacrificed life of the Lamb: cp. Rev_12:11; (Rev_7:14). Their blessed state is pictured in sweet imagery drawn from the OT. (Rev_7:15-17).
10. Salvation] i.e. victory: cp. Psa_3:8; RM.
11. Beasts] RV 'living creatures.'
12. Sevenfold praise.
14. Sir] RV 'My lord.' Great] RV 'the great.' Washed] cp. Rev_22:14 RV.
15. Dwell among] RV 'spread his tabernacle over': cp. Lev_16:2; Lev_26:11; Eze_10:3.; Eze_37:27.
16. Cp. Isa_49:10.
17. Feed] RV 'be their shepherd': cp. Psa_23:1. Eze_34:23. Living fountains of waters] RV 'fountains of waters of life': cp. Rev_21:6; Rev_22:1, Rev_22:17; Jer_2:13; Joh_4:10; Joh_7:37.
Wipe away] cp. Isa_25:8.
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 On vv1–2 (See Scofield "Heb 1:4").
angels
(See Scofield "Heb 1:4").
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 On v1 Rev 7:1-8.
CHAPTER 7
Rev 7:1-8.
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This is the first parenthesis. It must not be taken chronologically. The six seal judgments extend over the entire period of the ending age. The rider upon the white horse will be on the scene to the end, wars will continue to the end, and culminate in the battle of Armageddon, and so do the famines and pestilences. And the sixth seal brings the end in view. We shall see the correspondence with the seventh trumpet and seventh vial later. The trumpet and vial judgments are more intense and more terrible than the seal judgments. In a certain sense they are parallel; the effect of each is continuously felt. The parenthetical vision of the seventh chapter also covers the entire period of the last seven years and brings before us even the vision of what will be after the great tribulation.
How much confusion would have been avoided if expositors and Christians in searching for the meaning of this vision, had not lost sight of two great facts: 1. This chapter can have no application to the Church on earth, nor to the Church in glory, for the simple reason that the Church is already complete and translated to glory. 2. The vision states clearly that the sealed company is “of all the tribes of the children of Israel.”
The sealed company is of Israel. After the Church is removed to glory, when the fulness of the Gentiles is come in (Rom 11:26) the Lord will turn in mercy to Israel and call, before the judgments fall, a remnant which will also be sealed (See Eze 9:1-11). This remnant is frequently seen on the pages of Old Testament prophecy. This sealed company also bears a great testimony. They are the preachers of the gospel of the kingdom, as a witness to all nations before the end comes (Mat 24:14). Therefore, during the time when the judgments are executed from above there will be a world-wide preaching of the gospel of the kingdom, proclaiming the coming of the King, calling to repentance and faith in His Name, and offering mercy still.
Rev 7:9-17.
The application of this passage of Scripture to the redeemed Church in glory is wrong. This Scripture does not apply to the Church in glory, but to saved Gentiles on earth. It is a company which comes “out of the great tribulation.” The Church enters the glory before that great tribulation begins. The great multitude represents those Gentiles who will hear the final testimony and believe. They will have turned in repentance to Him and will be washed in His precious blood. Our Lord speaks of them in the great judgment of the nations as sheep, who stand at His right hand and inherit the kingdom (Mat 25:31, etc.). The brethren of our Lord mentioned in Matthew are the remnant of Israel. (For a complete exposition see The Gospel of Matthew, by the author of this volume.) This great company, therefore, does not stand before a heavenly throne, but before the millennial throne on earth. It is a millennial scene after the tribulation is passed.
Arno C. Gaebelein, The Annotated Bible (1913–1922) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On v1 The Comfort of the Church in Spiritual Afflictions.
The Comfort of the Church in Spiritual Afflictions.
The sealing of God’s servants:
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v. 1. And after these things I saw four angels standing on the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth, nor on the sea, nor on any tree.
v. 2. And I saw another angel ascending from the east having the seal of the living God; and he cried with a loud voice to the four angels, to whom it was given to hurt the earth and the sea,
v. 3. saying, Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads.
The seventh chapter contains the description of a vision, by which the prophet was to be prepared for the events which were to follow the opening of the seventh seal. It shows in what way the Lord protects those whom He has chosen in the midst of the spiritual tribulations of the latter times. A sin many other pictures, we are able to follow only the general trend of the thought and cannot, in the absence of prophetical explanation, make specific application to certain historical events. The seer writes: And after this I saw four angels standing on the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, lest the wind blow upon the earth or upon the sea or upon any tree. Four angels are named according to the four cardinal points of the compass, thus signifying that the destruction which should be wrought upon the earth would be universal. Their intention seems to have been to destroy earth and sea and all that they contained, not only the unbelievers and godless, but also the believers, the elect of God. They were evil angels, and by withholding the winds from the earth they wanted to work harm for all creatures. The prince of this world has the purpose of hindering the growth and the course of the Gospel, and therefore he inspires false teachers to hold back the breath and the power of the Holy Spirit in the Gospel.
But God promptly intervened: And I saw another angel ascending from the rising of the sun having the seal of the living God, and he called with a mighty voice to the four angels to whom permission had been given to injure the earth and the sea, saying, Do not injure the earth nor the sea nor the trees until we shall seal the servants of our God on their foreheads. Here is comfort and encouragement for the believers of all times. From the east, from the source of light and life, a fifth angel appears, a servant of the most high God, perhaps the Messenger of the Covenant Himself, Mal 3:1. He bore the seal of the living God, which gave Him authority to carry out God’s commands without hindrance. His word, therefore, as He called out to the four evil angels not to injure the earth and the sea and all they contained until they should be given further leave, was at once obeyed. With God’s permission the evil angels are often enabled to work harm in the world, thus incidentally carrying out God’s decrees of punishment; but they must stay their hands at the first word from Him. In this case God intended first of all to have His servants, His believers, His elect, to be sealed upon their foreheads, to bear in this conspicuous place the names of God and of the Lamb, Rev 14:1; Rev 22:4, to serve for their protection amid the spiritual afflictions of the last days, Mat 24:24. No man can pluck them out of His hand, Joh 10:28-29.
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 On v1 General Information:
General Information:
John begins to describe a vision of 144,000 servants of God who become marked with seals. Their marking takes place after the Lamb opens the sixth seal and before he opens the seventh seal.
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the four corners of the earth
The earth is spoken of as if it were flat and square like a sheet of paper. The phrase "the four corners" refers to the north, south, east, and west.
the seal of the living God
The word "seal" here refers to a tool that is used to press a mark onto a wax seal. In this case the tool would be used to put a mark on God's people. AT: "the marker" or "stamp" (See: Metonymy)
put a seal on the foreheads
The word "seal" here refers to a mark. This mark shows that the people belong to God and that he will protect them. AT: "put a mark on the foreheads" (See: Metonymy)
foreheads
The forehead is the top of the face, above the eyes.
translationWords
angel
seal
life
God
voice
servant
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 v1 7:1-17 Three interludes occur in chs 6–14 (ch 7;…
7:1-17 Three interludes occur in chs 6–14 (ch 7; 10:1–11:14; 12:1–14:20) to define the place of God’s holy people and to provide perspective on the previous scenes. In this first interlude before the seventh seal is broken, two visions communicate how God protects his people and assures them of his calling.
7:1-8 The interlude’s first vision shows how God protects his faithful followers from ultimate harm.
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7:1-3 Wait! God calls for a temporary halt by the four angels of destruction. • The seal of the living God implies membership in God’s household; God owns and protects his people (2 Cor 1:22; Eph 1:13-14). In the ancient world, sealing or tattooing was a sign of ownership. • The angel . . . carrying the seal identified God’s people, answering the question of who would survive God’s wrath (Rev 6:17; see Ezek 9:3-8; John 17:14-15) and furthering the promise of protection (Rev 3:10; see also 11:1-2).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.