13One of the elders answered, saying to me, “These who are arrayed in the white robes, who are they, and where did they come from?”
14I told him, “My lord, you know.” He said to me, “These are those who came out of the great suffering.They washed their robes, and made them white in the Lamb’s blood.
15Therefore they are before the throne of God, they serve him day and night in his temple. He who sits on the throne will spread his tabernacle over them.16They will never be hungry or thirsty any more. The sun won’t beat on them, nor any heat;17for the Lamb who is in the middle of the throne shepherds them and leads them to springs of life-giving waters. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”
13 One of the elders answered, saying to me, “These who are arrayed in the white robes, who are they, and where did they come from?”
14 I told him, “My lord, you know.” He said to me, “These are those who came out of the great suffering.They washed their robes, and made them white in the Lamb’s blood.
15 Therefore they are before the throne of God, they serve him day and night in his temple. He who sits on the throne will spread his tabernacle over them.
16 They will never be hungry or thirsty any more. The sun won’t beat on them, nor any heat;
17 for the Lamb who is in the middle of the throne shepherds them and leads them to springs of life-giving waters. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”
TYNDALETyndale New Testament (1534)
13 And one of the elders answered sayinge vnto me: what are these which are arayed in longe whyte garmentes and whence cam they?
14 And I sayde vnto him: lorde thou wottest. And he sayde vnto me: these are they which cam oute of gret tribulacion and made their garmetes large and made them whyte in the bloud of the lambe:
15 therfore are they in the presence of the seate of God and serve him daye and nyght in hys temple and he that sytteth in the seate wyll dwell amonge them.
16 They shalt honger no more nether thyrst nether shall the sunne lyght on them nether eny heate:
17 For the lambe which ys in the myddes of the seate shall fede them and shall ledde them vnto fountaynes of lyuynge water and god shall wype awaye all teares from their eyes.
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GNVGeneva Bible (1599)
13 And one of the Elders spake, saying vnto me, What are these which are araied in log white robes? and whence came they?
14 And I saide vnto him, Lord, thou knowest. And he saide to me, These are they, which came out of great tribulation, and haue washed their long robes, and haue made their long robes white in the blood of the Lambe.
15 Therefore are they in the presence of the throne of God, and serue him day and night in his Temple, and he that sitteth on the throne, wil dwell among them.
16 They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more, neither shall the sunne light on them, neither any heate.
17 For the Lambe, which is in the middes of the throne, shall gouerne them, and shall leade them vnto the liuely fountaines of waters, and God shall wipe away all teares from their eyes.
1 John 1:7(v14)But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ, his Son, cleanses…
Revelation 22:14(v14)Blessed are those who do his commandments, that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter in by the gates into the city.
John 7:37-38(v17)Now on the last and greatest day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink! He who…
Psalms 36:8-9(v17)They shall be abundantly satisfied with the abundance of your house. You will make them drink of the river of your pleasures. For with you…
Hebrews 13:12(v14)Therefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people through his own blood, suffered outside of the gate.
Show all 100 cross-references
John 4:14(vv16–17)but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never thirst again; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well…
Revelation 1:5(v14)and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. To him who loves us, and…
Revelation 12:11(v14)They overcame him because of the Lamb’s blood, and because of the word of their testimony. They didn’t love their life, even to death.
Hebrews 9:14(v14)how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without defect to God, cleanse your conscience from…
Psalms 23:1-2(v17)Yahweh is my shepherd: I shall lack nothing. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters.
Isaiah 1:18(v14)“Come now, and let’s reason together,” says Yahweh: “Though your sins are as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. Though they are red…
John 4:11(v17)The woman said to him, “Sir, you have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. So where do you get that living water?
1 Peter 1:19(v14)but with precious blood, as of a lamb without blemish or spot, the blood of Christ,
Zechariah 3:3-5(v14)Now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments, and was standing before the angel. He answered and spoke to those who stood before him,…
Psalms 23:5(v17)You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil. My cup runs over.
Ephesians 5:26-27(v14)that he might sanctify it, having cleansed it by the washing of water with the word, that he might present the assembly to himself…
Revelation 22:1(v17)He showed me a river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb,
Revelation 21:4(vv16–17)He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; neither will there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain, any more. The…
1 Corinthians 6:11(v14)Some of you were such, but you were washed. But you were sanctified. But you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and in the…
Matthew 24:21(v14)for then there will be great suffering, such as has not been from the beginning of the world until now, no, nor ever will be.
Revelation 5:9(v14)They sang a new song, saying, “You are worthy to take the book and to open its seals: for you were killed, and bought us for God with your…
Isaiah 49:10(v16)They shall not hunger nor thirst; neither shall the heat nor sun strike them: for he who has mercy on them will lead them. He will guide…
Revelation 21:6(v17)He said to me, “I have become the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. I will give freely to him who is thirsty from the spring…
Zechariah 13:1(v14)“In that day there will be a spring opened to David’s house and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, for sin and for uncleanness.
Isaiah 25:8(v17)He has swallowed up death forever! The Lord Yahweh will wipe away tears from off all faces. He will take the reproach of his people away…
John 13:8-14(v14)Peter said to him, “You will never wash my feet!” Jesus answered him, “If I don’t wash you, you have no part with me.” Simon Peter said to…
John 10:11(v17)I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.
John 16:33(v14)I have told you these things, that in me you may have peace. In the world you have trouble; but cheer up! I have overcome the world.”
Psalms 121:6(v16)The sun will not harm you by day, nor the moon by night.
Matthew 5:6(v16)Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled.
Romans 5:3(v14)Not only this, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces perseverance;
Revelation 17:6(v14)I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus. When I saw her, I wondered with great…
Revelation 21:3-4(v15)I heard a loud voice out of heaven saying, “Behold, God’s dwelling is with people, and he will dwell with them, and they will be his…
Luke 6:21(v16)Blessed are you who hunger now, for you will be filled. Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh.
John 10:14(v17)I am the good shepherd. I know my own, and I’m known by my own;
Acts 14:22(v14)strengthening the souls of the disciples, exhorting them to continue in the faith, and that through many afflictions we must enter into…
Revelation 6:9-11(v14)When he opened the fifth seal, I saw underneath the altar the souls of those who had been killed for the Word of God, and for the testimony…
Revelation 22:3(v15)There will be no curse any more. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will serve him.
2 Thessalonians 1:4(v14)so that we ourselves boast about you in the assemblies of God for your perseverance and faith in all your persecutions and in the…
Revelation 2:9(v14)“I know your works, oppression, and your poverty (but you are rich), and the blasphemy of those who say they are Jews, and they are not,…
Revelation 15:2(v14)I saw something like a sea of glass mixed with fire, and those who overcame the beast, his image, and the number of his name, standing on…
Isaiah 41:17(v16)The poor and needy seek water, and there is none. Their tongue fails for thirst. I, Yahweh, will answer them. I, the God of Israel, will…
Isaiah 60:20(v17)Your sun will not go down any more, nor will your moon withdraw itself; for Yahweh will be your everlasting light, and the days of your…
Psalms 28:9(v17)Save your people, and bless your inheritance. Be their shepherd also, and bear them up forever.
Isaiah 25:4(v16)For you have been a stronghold to the poor, a stronghold to the needy in his distress, a refuge from the storm, a shade from the heat, when…
Jeremiah 2:13(v17)“For my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the spring of living waters, and cut out cisterns for themselves: broken…
Ezekiel 34:23(v17)I will set up one shepherd over them, and he will feed them, even my servant David. He will feed them, and he will be their shepherd.
Matthew 2:6(v17)‘You Bethlehem, land of Judah, are in no way least among the princes of Judah: for out of you shall come a governor, who shall shepherd my…
Luke 1:53(v16)He has filled the hungry with good things. He has sent the rich away empty.
Isaiah 4:5-6(vv15–16)Yahweh will create over the whole habitation of Mount Zion and over her assemblies, a cloud and smoke by day, and the shining of a flaming…
Revelation 7:9(vv13, 15)After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude, which no man could count, out of every nation and of all tribes, peoples, and…
Isaiah 12:3(v17)Therefore with joy you will draw water out of the wells of salvation.
Isaiah 30:19(v17)For the people will dwell in Zion at Jerusalem. You will weep no more. He will surely be gracious to you at the voice of your cry. When he…
Isaiah 35:6-7(v17)Then the lame man will leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute will sing; for waters will break out in the wilderness, and streams in…
Isaiah 35:10(v17)Then Yahweh’s ransomed ones will return, and come with singing to Zion; and everlasting joy will be on their heads. They will obtain…
Isaiah 65:13(v16)Therefore the Lord Yahweh says, “Behold, my servants will eat, but you will be hungry; behold, my servants will drink, but you will be…
2 Corinthians 6:16(v15)What agreement does a temple of God have with idols? For you are a temple of the living God. Even as God said, “I will dwell in them and…
Revelation 5:6(v17)I saw in the middle of the throne and of the four living creatures, and in the middle of the elders, a Lamb standing, as though it had been…
1 Chronicles 23:25(v15)For David said, “Yahweh, the God of Israel, has given rest to his people; and he dwells in Jerusalem forever.
Psalms 22:26(v17)The humble shall eat and be satisfied. They shall praise Yahweh who seek after him. Let your hearts live forever.
Psalms 42:2(v16)My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God?
Song of Solomon 1:6(v16)Don’t stare at me because I am dark, because the sun has scorched me. My mother’s sons were angry with me. They made me keeper of the…
Isaiah 25:6(v17)In this mountain, Yahweh of Armies will make all peoples a feast of choice meat, a feast of choice wines, of choice meat full of marrow, of…
Isaiah 49:9(v17)saying to those who are bound, ‘Come out!’; to those who are in darkness, ‘Show yourselves!’ “They shall feed along the paths, and their…
Micah 5:4(v17)He shall stand, and shall shepherd in the strength of Yahweh, in the majesty of the name of Yahweh his God: and they will live, for then he…
Matthew 13:6(v16)When the sun had risen, they were scorched. Because they had no root, they withered away.
John 1:14(v15)The Word became flesh, and lived among us. We saw his glory, such glory as of the one and only Son of the Father, full of grace and truth.
Hebrews 12:2(v15)looking to Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising its shame, and…
1 Peter 5:2(v17)Shepherd the flock of God which is among you, exercising the oversight, not under compulsion, but voluntarily, not for dishonest gain, but…
Revelation 4:10(v13)the twenty-four elders fall down before him who sits on the throne, and worship him who lives forever and ever, and throw their crowns…
Revelation 4:11(v17)“Worthy are you, our Lord and God, the Holy One, to receive the glory, the honor, and the power, for you created all things, and because of…
Revelation 4:4(vv13, 15)Around the throne were twenty-four thrones. On the thrones were twenty-four elders sitting, dressed in white garments, with crowns of gold…
Exodus 29:45(v15)I will dwell among the children of Israel, and will be their God.
1 Kings 6:13(v15)I will dwell among the children of Israel, and will not forsake my people Israel.”
Psalms 63:1(v16)God, you are my God. I will earnestly seek you. My soul thirsts for you. My flesh longs for you, in a dry and weary land, where there is no…
Psalms 68:16-18(v15)Why do you look in envy, you rugged mountains, at the mountain where God chooses to reign? Yes, Yahweh will dwell there forever. The…
Psalms 134:1-2(v15)Look! Praise Yahweh, all you servants of Yahweh, who stand by night in Yahweh’s house! Lift up your hands in the sanctuary. Praise Yahweh!
Psalms 143:6(v16)I spread out my hands to you. My soul thirsts for you, like a parched land.
Song of Solomon 1:7-8(v17)Tell me, you whom my soul loves, where you graze your flock, where you rest them at noon; for why should I be as one who is veiled beside…
Isaiah 30:25(v17)There will be brooks and streams of water on every lofty mountain and on every high hill in the day of the great slaughter, when the towers…
Isaiah 32:2(v16)A man shall be as a hiding place from the wind, and a covert from the storm, as streams of water in a dry place, as the shade of a large…
Jeremiah 31:9(v17)They will come with weeping. I will lead them with petitions. I will cause them to walk by rivers of waters, in a straight way in which…
Jonah 4:8(v16)When the sun arose, God prepared a sultry east wind; and the sun beat on Jonah’s head, so that he fainted, and requested for himself that…
Micah 7:14(v17)Shepherd your people with your staff, the flock of your heritage, who dwell by themselves in a forest, in the middle of fertile pasture…
Matthew 13:21(v16)yet he has no root in himself, but endures for a while. When oppression or persecution arises because of the word, immediately he stumbles.
Mark 4:6(v16)When the sun had risen, it was scorched; and because it had no root, it withered away.
Mark 4:17(v16)They have no root in themselves, but are short-lived. When oppression or persecution arises because of the word, immediately they stumble.
John 21:15-17(v17)So when they had eaten their breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of Jonah, do you love me more than these?” He said to him,…
Acts 20:28(v17)Take heed, therefore, to yourselves, and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the assembly of the…
1 Corinthians 3:16(v15)Don’t you know that you are a temple of God, and that God’s Spirit lives in you?
Hebrews 8:1(v15)Now in the things which we are saying, the main point is this. We have such a high priest, who sat down on the right hand of the throne of…
James 1:11(v16)For the sun arises with the scorching wind and withers the grass, and the flower in it falls, and the beauty of its appearance perishes. So…
Revelation 5:5(v13)One of the elders said to me, “Don’t weep. Behold, the Lion who is of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has overcome: he who opens the…
Revelation 5:11(v13)I saw, and I heard something like a voice of many angels around the throne, the living creatures, and the elders. The number of them was…
Revelation 11:19(v15)God’s temple that is in heaven was opened, and the ark of the Lord’s covenant was seen in his temple. Lightnings, sounds, thunders, an…
Revelation 14:3-5(v15)They sing a new song before the throne, and before the four living creatures and the elders. No one could learn the song except the one…
Revelation 22:5(v15)There will be no night, and they need no lamp light or sun light; for the Lord God will illuminate them. They will reign forever and ever.
Judges 13:6(v13)Then the woman came and told her husband, saying, “A man of God came to me, and his face was like the face of the angel of God, very…
Isaiah 40:11(v17)He will feed his flock like a shepherd. He will gather the lambs in his arm, and carry them in his bosom. He will gently lead those who…
John 7:28(v13)Jesus therefore cried out in the temple, teaching and saying, “You both know me, and know where I am from. I have not come of myself, but…
100 distinct cross-references across this passage (106 total citations).
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this passage (24 sources)
Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.
Geneva Bible translators1599 · Public DomainOn vv13–15A passage over unto the expounding of the vision,…
A passage over unto the expounding of the vision, of which the Angel inquireth of S. John to stir him up withal, in this verse and John in the form of speech, both acknowledgeth his own ignorance, attributing knowledge unto the Angel, and also in most modest manner requesteth the expounding of the vision.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp1656 · Public DomainOn vv13–1713 And one of the elders answered, saying unto…
13 And one of the elders answered, saying unto me, What are these which are arrayed in white robes? and whence came they?
Ver. 13. And one of the elders] {See Trapp on "Rev 5:5"}
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 Poole1685 · Public DomainOn vv13–17Not that he did not know, but to try…
Not that he did not know, but to try whether John knew, or rather to set John upon inquiring.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
William Burkitt1703 · Public DomainOn vv13, 16As if John had said, One of the elders,…
As if John had said, One of the elders, not out of ignorance as to himself, but out of desire to inform me, asked me, Whether, I knew what these were that stood arrayed in white? And I told him I did not know, but desired him to imform me. He replied, They were such as had suffered great tribulation for Christ, and were now accepted of him, and dignified by him; not for their own worthiness, but for the sake of his sufferings.
Note here, 1. The present state and condition of the church of God, and members of Christ in this world, they are in tribulation, yea, in great tribulation here; as long as there is a devil in hell, and wicked men upon earth, all that will live godly in Christ Jesus must suffer tribulation.
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Note here, 2. The future state which they shall be advanced to, they shall come out of great tribulation; the saints’ sharp sufferings and persecutions shall have a joyful issue and glorious end.
Yet note, 3. That though the cross was the way to the crown, yet the cross did not merit the crown; their sufferings would not, could not, bring them to heaven, without having their souls washed in the blood of the Lamb, much less could their sufferings merit and purchase heaven; but it pleased God of his free grace thus to reward their sufferings. They were washed in the blood of the Lamb, whose blood paid the price of their salvation.
Note, 4. The description which is here given of heaven; it is called a temple, in allusion to the Jewish temple, in which God dwelt of old; as God by his gracious presence dwelt in his temple in heaven; and accordingly the glorified saints in heaven do temple-service, they worship God continually, and serve him day and night.
In allusion, this is probably spoken to the priests standing in the material temple, and serving in their courses night and day, Psa 134:1.
Heaven is a place of employment and service, as well as of pleasure and joy; and the greatest joy results from the greatest service.
William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Henry1710 · Public DomainOn v13Here we have a description of the honour and…
Here we have a description of the honour and happiness of those who have faithfully served the Lord Jesus Christ, and suffered for him. Observe,
I. A question asked by one of the elders, not for his own information, but for John's instruction: ministers may learn from the people, especially from aged and experienced Christians; the lowest saint in heaven knows more than the greatest apostle in the world. Now the question has two parts: - 1. What are these that are arrayed in white robes? 2. Whence came they? It seems to be spoken by way of admiration, as Sol 3:6, Who is this that cometh out of the wilderness! Faithful Christians deserve our notice and respect; we should mark the upright.
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II. The answer returned by the apostle, in which he tacitly acknowledges his own ignorance, and sues to this elder for information: Thou knowest. Those who would gain knowledge must not be ashamed to own their ignorance, nor to desire instruction from any that are able to give it.
III. The account given to the apostle concerning that noble army of martyrs who stood before the throne of God in white robes, with palms of victory in their hands: and notice is taken here of, 1. The low and desolate state they had formerly been in; they had been in great tribulation, persecuted by men, tempted by Satan, sometimes troubled in their own spirits; they had suffered the spoiling of their goods, the imprisonment of their persons, yea, the loss of life itself. The way to heaven lies through many tribulations; but tribulation, how great soever, shall not separate us from the love of God. Tribulation, when gone through well, will make heaven more welcome and more glorious. 2. The means by which they had been prepared for the great honour and happiness they now enjoyed: they had washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb, Rev 7:14. 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. Other blood stains; this is the only blood that makes the robes of the saints white and clean. 3. The blessedness to which they are now advanced, being thus prepared for it. (1.) They are happy 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 fulness of joy. (2.) They are happy in their employment, for they serve God continually, and that without weakness, drowsiness, or weariness. Heaven is a state of service, though not of suffering; it is a state of rest, but not of sloth; it is a praising delightful rest. (3.) They are happy in their freedom from all the inconveniences of this present life. [1.] From all want and sense of want: They hunger and thirst no more; all their wants are supplied, and all the uneasiness caused thereby is removed. [2.] From all sickness and pain: they shall never be scorched by the heat of the sun any more. (4.) They are happy in the love and guidance of the Lord Jesus: He shall feed them, he shall lead them to living fountains of waters, he shall put them into the possession of every thing that is pleasant and refreshing to their souls, and therefore they shall hunger and thirst no more. (5.) They are happy in being delivered from all sorrow or occasion of it: God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes. They have formerly had their sorrows, and shed many tears, both upon the account of sin and affliction; but God himself, with his own gentle and gracious hand, will wipe those tears away, and they shall return no more for ever; and they would not have been without those tears, when God comes to wipe them away. In this he deals with them as a tender father who finds his beloved child in tears, he comforts him, he wipes his eyes, and turns his sorrow into rejoicing. This should moderate the Christian's sorrow in his present state, and support him under all the troubles of it; for those that sow in tears shall reap in joy; and those that now go forth weeping, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again rejoicing, bringing their sheaves with them.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill1763 · Public DomainOn vv13–17And one of the elders answered, saying unto me,....…
And one of the elders answered, saying unto me,.... This elder was not the Apostle Peter, as some Popish interpreters have thought; and still less Pope Silvester, who lived in the times of Constantine; be is much more likely, according to others, to be Constantine himself, the first of the elders, or the chief magistrate when the church sprung out of its troubles, and enjoyed rest and peace; though some have thought of the prophet Isaiah, since many things said by this elder are to be found in his prophecy; compare Rev 7:14; with Isa 1:18; but it is needless to inquire who the particular person was; it is enough to say, that he was one of the four and twenty elders about the throne, one that belonged to the church, perhaps the same as in Rev 5:5; who, in a visionary way, is represented as accosting John upon the above sight. The word "answered" is a common Hebraism of the New Testament, which is often used when nothing goes before, to which a return is made; and only signifies here, that the elder opened his month, began to speak, and called to John, and said as follows:
what are these which are arrayed in white robes? and whence came they? This he said, not as being ignorant of them, or of the reason of their being clothed in this manner, nor of the place and state from whence they came, as appears by the account afterwards given of them by him; but to stir up John to take more notice of them, as being a body of men that were worthy of observation and contemplation, and were worth his while to consider well who they were, and from whence they came; and also to try him whether he knew them or not, and to bring him to a confession of his ignorance; and that he might have an opportunity of giving him some hints about them, which might be useful to him, and to the churches, and for the explanation of this vision, and other parts of this prophecy.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley1765 · Public DomainOn vv13–17And one of the elders - What stands, verses…
And one of the elders - What stands, verses 13-17, ver. 13-17 might have immediately followed the tenth verse; but that the praise of the angels, which was at the same time with that of the "great multitude," came in between. Answered - He answered St. John's desire to know, not any words that he spoke.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke1810 · Public DomainOn vv13–17Verse 13. One of the elders answered] A Hebraism…
Verse 13. One of the elders answered] A Hebraism for spoke. The question is here asked, that the proposer may have the opportunity of answering it.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson1811 · Public DomainOn v13Rev 7:13-17. And one of the elders, &c. —…
Rev 7:13-17. And one of the elders, &c. — What is here related, to Rev 7:17, might have immediately followed the tenth verse; but that the praise of the angels, which was given at the same time with that of the great multitude, came in between: answered — That is, he answered St. John’s desire to know, not to any words the apostle spoke. Or, in order to give him a more exact information concerning the persons who were clothed in the white robes of purity, honour, and dignity, one of the elders led him on by a question to ask of him a fuller account of them. What are these which are arrayed in white robes? — And make such a splendid appearance; and whence came, or come, they? And, believing the question to be asked in order to quicken my attention to what he had to tell me concerning them, I said, Sir, thou knowest — Though I do not. And he said, &c. — These persons, whom you behold appearing in their state of honour and happiness, are they which came — Or come, as οι ερχομενοι rather signifies; out of great tribulation — They were very lately in a state of great affliction and suffering, for the sake of their faith and constancy; but, having kept the faith, they have received the blessings which Christ obtained by his blood for his church and faithful people. Yet these could not be all martyrs, for the martyrs could not be such a multitude as no man could number. But as all the angels appear here, so probably did all the souls of the righteous, who had lived from the beginning of the world. All these may be said, more or less, to come out of great tribulation,, of various kinds, wisely and graciously allotted by God to all his children; and have washed their robes — From all guilt; and made them white — In all purity and holiness; in, or by, the blood of the Lamb — Through which alone we obtain remission of sins, and the influences of the sanctifying Spirit, so that they are advanced to the state of glory and happiness in which you see them. Therefore — Because they came out of great affliction, and have washed their robes in Christ’s blood; are they before the throne of God — It seems even nearer than the angels; and serve him, day and night — Speaking after the manner of men; that is, continually; in his temple — In heaven; and he that sitteth on the throve shall dwell among them — Σκηνωσει επ αυτους, shall have his tent over them: shall spread his glory over them as a covering. They shall hunger no more — They shall be no more subject to any of their former infirmities, wants, or afflictions; neither shall the sun light on them, &c. — None of the natural or common evils of the world below shall reach them any more. For the Lamb who is in the midst of the throne shall feed them — With eternal peace and joy, so that they shall hunger no more; and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters — The comforts of the Holy Spirit, so that they shall thirst no more; neither shall they grieve any more, for God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes — Every sorrow, with every cause of sorrow, shall be fully taken away for ever.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes1834 · Public DomainOn vv13–17And one of the elders - See the notes…
And one of the elders - See the notes on Rev 4:4. That is, as there understood, one of the representatives of the church before the throne.
Answered - The word “answer,” with us, means “to reply to something which has been said.” In the Bible, however, the word is not infrequently used in the beginning of a speech, where nothing has been said - as if it were a reply to something that might be said on the subject; or to something that is passing through the mind of another; or to something in the case under consideration which suggests an inquiry. Compare Isa 65:24; Dan 2:26; Act 5:8. Thus it is used here. John was looking on the host, and reflecting on the state of things; and to the train of thought passing through his mind the angel answered by an inquiry as to a part of that host. Prof. Stuart renders it accosted me.
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What are these which are arrayed in white robes? - Who are these? The object evidently is to bring the case of these persons more particularly into view. The vast host with branches of palm had attracted the attention of John, but it was the object of the speaker to turn his thoughts to a particular part of the host - the martyrs who stood among them. He would seem, therefore, to have turned to a particular portion of the immense multitude of the redeemed, and by an emphasis on the word these - “Who are these” - to have fixed the eye upon them. All those who are before the throne are represented as clothed in white robes Rev 7:9, but the eye might be directed to a particular part of them as grouped together, and as having something special in their position or appearance. There was a propriety in thus directing the mind of John to the martyrs as triumphing in heaven in a time when the churches were suffering persecution, and in view of the vision which he had had of times of darkness and calamity coming upon the world at the opening of the sixth seal. Beyond all the scenes of sorrow and grief, he was permitted to see the martyrs triumphing in heaven.
Arrayed in white robes - See the notes on Rev 7:9.
And whence came they? - The object is to fix the attention more distinctly on what is said of them, that they came up out of great tribulation.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary1859 · Public DomainOn vv14, 15, 17White in the blood of the Lamb. That is,…
White in the blood of the Lamb. That is, they have been cleansed and purified from sin, by the death, merits, and grace of Christ crucified. (Witham) --- The whole of this verse must be understood in a mystical sense, for we are said to make our garments white in the blood of the Lamb, when we enter into his Church by baptism, or wash away our sins by penance or martyrdom. (Calmet)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown1871 · Public DomainOn vv13–17answered--namely, to my thoughts; spoke, asking the question which…
answered--namely, to my thoughts; spoke, asking the question which might have been expected to arise in John's mind from what has gone before. One of the twenty-four elders, representing the Old and New Testament ministry, appropriately acts as interpreter of this vision of the glorified Church.
What, &c.--Greek order, "These which are arrayed in white robes, WHO are they?"
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. Whedon1874 · Public DomainOn vv13–17d. ELDER’S explanation, and glorious picture of their HEAVENLY…
d. ELDER’S explanation, and glorious picture of their HEAVENLY STATE, Rev_7:13-17.
13. One of the elders—It was fitting that one of the representatives of the Church should unfold the mysteries of the Church triumphant. Nor must we puzzle ourselves to know how one of the circle of elders, enveloped in the crowd of the great multitude, and that girt round with the circle of countless angels, could address an outsider, as John, who stands surveying the whole assemblage. Allow the freedom of a celestial vision. The inner circles within the outer circles can transparently be seen with the supernatural eye, for the outer circles are transparent, though visible to its glance. And in the spirit-land distance is no obstacle to utterance and hearing. Celestials (and John was now a pro tem. celestial) can converse without voice, by pure impartation of thought. See our note on 2Co_12:4.
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Answered—He answered the unuttered questionings expressed in John’s eyes. So in Act_3:12, Peter answered the “wondering” of the crowd in Solomon’s porch.
What—The angel answers by first stating John’s mental question. The Greek is more elegant than our English. These, the arrayed in robes white, who are they, and whence came they? “In this,” says Bede, “he interrogates that he may teach.” Often the most skilful interrogator is the wisest teacher. Wetstein remarks that these questions occur in both Homer and Virgil as the ordinary queries put by ancient hospitality to strangers. Such was the early habit in America, as foreign travellers often tauntingly reported. Yet one English traveller justly remarked, that such questions had a different sound in our Western wilds from similar ones in the streets of London.
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 Colleges1878 · Public DomainOn vv13–1613. one of the elders] See on Rev_5:5. We…
13. one of the elders] See on Rev_5:5. We have similarly “one (no matter which) of the seven Angels” in Rev_17:1, Rev_21:9.
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 Readers1878 · Public DomainOn vv13–17(13) And one of the elders answered, saying unto…
(13) And one of the elders answered, saying unto me.—The seer had asked no question, but the elder answers the wondering thoughts and questionings which fill his mind. Perhaps this scene was in Dante’s mind when he described himself in Paradise:
“Silent was I, yet desire
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Was painted in my looks; and thus I spake
My wish more earnestly than language could.”
—Paradiso, iv. 10-12.
The elder asks the question which he knows St. John would fain ask. These who are clothed in white robes, who are they, and whence came they? The question brings the white robes into prominence. Is it, as has been suggested, that the wonder of the seer is excited more by the emblem of holiness and innocence than anything else? He recognises the multitudes as men and women out of every nation and tribe of sinful humanity, and he sees them clothed in the garb of holiness. Who are these countless throngs of holy ones?
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary1880 · Public DomainOn vv13–17And one of the elders answered. The elder speaks…
And one of the elders answered. The elder speaks because he is typical of the Church, concerning which the exposition which he delivers is to be made. (see on Rev_4:4) Where an explanation is made of visions which refer to the Church, the active part is taken by the elders, while angels introduce visions of which the signification is unexplained. (cf. Rev_5:2 Rev_7:1, 2 Re 8 10:1, 3, etc.; and Rev_5:5) Saying unto me, What are these which are arrayed in white robes? and whence came they? The elder questions that he may teach (Bede).
Vers. 13-17. The eternal blessedness.
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The vision is yet heightened. A further brightness overspreads the scene, The comfort of hope is yet expanded. Arrested by one of the elders, the seer lowlily refrains from declaring who constitute the triumphant host, and receives the consoling assurance that they are from the fields of earthly suffering, toil, and danger. They are now exalted far above all worldly power. The final blessedness of the righteous is
I BLESSEDNESS FOR WHICH THEY ARE PREPARED BY EARTHLY TRIBULATION. Even the rugged ways of earthly obedience lead to heaven"s gates. But all toil and tribulation are o"er.
II The final blessedness is BASED ON AN ATTAINED SANCTITY. "They have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.
III This blessedness INCLUDES:
1. Recognition. They are "before the throne of God.
2. Perpetual service. They serve God "day and night in his temple.
3. They enjoy the perfect protection of the Divine presence.
"He that sitteth on the throne shall spread his tabernacle over them.
IV IT SECURES THEM EXEMPTION FROM THE SORROWS OF THE EARTHLY LIFE. "They hunger no more, neither thirst any more," nor shall the sun or any heat strike upon them.
V THE FINAL BLESSEDNESS OF THE RIGHTEOUS HAS ITS FRUITION IN A GRACIOUS ALLIANCE WITH THE ETERNAL The Lamb "shall be their Shepherd," and shall guide them to the perpetual fountains of life and felicity; and God shall himself exempt them from all further sorrow or suffering. He "shall wipe away every tear from their eyes." Thus every trace of the tribulation of earth shall be removed; and blessedness of the highest possible character shall be the final lot of them who now endure for truth"s sake. Thus in the midst of the earthly raging power is the persecuted Church of God assured, in all ages, of a final, a certain, and an ample recompense. R.G.
Vers. 13-17. The human population in heaven (No. 2).
"And one of the elders answered, saying unto me, What are these which are arrayed in white robes? and whence came they?" etc. Here is an illustration of three facts in connection with the human population in heaven.
I THEIR EARTHLY LIFE WAS MARKED BY GREAT TRIAL. "And one of the elders answered, saying unto me, What are these which are arrayed in white robes? these which are arrayed in the white robes, who are they? and whence came they? And I said say unto him, Sir my lord, thou knowest. And he said to me, These are they which came come out of the great tribulation." An elder in those realms struck, it may be, with certain peculiarities in their appearance and worship puts to John the interrogatory what they were, and whence they came, and the reply he receives is that they had come out of "great tribulation." Tribulation is the common lot of humanity, and ever the discipline of the good.
1. This should teach us contentment under our trials. "No temptation hath happened," etc.
2. This should inspire us with magnanimity under our trials. The tribulations are useful. Like the gales of the mariner, they bear us away from scenes on which our heart is set. The darkest thunder cloud terrifies but for an hour; it soon passes away, and leaves the air clearer and the heavens brighter than before.
II THEIR CELESTIAL CIRCUMSTANCES ARE PRE-EMINENTLY GLORIOUS. "Have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb." Look at:
1. Their appearance. In white robes, emblems of purity and conquest.
2. Their position. "They are before the throne." A throne is the emblem of regal authority, and before this throne we are always appearing in this life, but we are not conscious of it. Their employment. "Serve him day and night;" indicating the entire consecration of their time and powers. They serve him in every department of action. Serve him lovingly, wholly, and constantly.
3. Their companionship. "He that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among spread his tabernacle over them." They enjoy intimate communion with the Sovereign of all.
4. Their blessedness. "They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; ... and God shall wipe away all tears." They are freed from evil, and brought into the full enjoyment of all blessedness.
III THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE EARTHLY AND HEAVENLY CONDITION IS ATTRIBUTABLE TO CHRIST. "They have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore are they before the throne." Three things are implied:
1. That they were originally polluted.
2. That the self-sacrificing love of Christ has a purifying influence.
3. That their cleansing by this influence had taken place when on earth.
CONCLUSION. Mark well the "therefore" of the text. Why are men so different in heaven to what they are on earth in character, circumstances, spirit, different? Not because of the priestly services Of any sect, nor because of their own intellectual attainments, but because they have had their "robes washed in the blood of the Lamb;" it is because of Christ they are in heaven. 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 Illustrator1887 · Public DomainOn vv13, 15, 16What are these which are arrayed in white robes.
Rev_7:13-14
What are these which are arrayed in white robes.
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What and whence are these?
I. Concerning the bright spirits in heaven--whence came they? These are they which came out of great tribulation.
1. They were then like ourselves, for, in the first place, they were tried like others.
(1) The saints now glorified were not screened from sorrow. I saw to-day a number of lovely flowers; they were as delightful in this month of February as they would have been in the midst of summer; but I did not ask, Whence came they? I know very well that they were the products of the conservatory; they had not been raised amid the frosts of this chill season, else they had not bloomed as yet. But when I look upon Gods flowers blooming in heaven, I understand from the voice of inspiration that they enjoyed no immunity from the chill breath of grief; they were made to bloom by the master hand of the Chief Husbandman, in all their glory, amid the adversities and catastrophes which are common to men.
(2) They were not even screened from temptation. To the child of God, temptation to sin is a greater grievance than the suffering of pain. Storms on any sea are to be dreaded; but a whirlwind raised by Satan on the black sea of corruption is horrible beyond conception. Yet, do not say you cannot enter heaven because you are tempted, for all those snow-white bands attained their glorious standing through much temptation, as well as through much affliction.
(3) They were men who as keenly felt trial and temptation as we do. Good men, because they are good, are not the less sorrowful when their beloved ones are taken from them: gracious men are not by grace petrified so as to despise the chastening of the Lord. Jacob mourned for Rachel, and David for Jonathan. Peter wept bitterly, and Paul had continual heaviness. Tribulations abounded and afflictions were multiplied to the first disciples, and we wrong both themselves and us if we dream that it was easier for them to suffer than for us. I grant you that they possessed a secret something which enabled them to endure, but that something was not homeborn in their nature any more than it is in ours. They were fortified by a secret strength which they found at the throne of God in prayer, a patience which the Holy Ghost wrought in them, and which He is equally ready to work in us.
2. The saints who are now in heaven needed trial like others. To what end do men need tribulation? We reply, they often require it to arouse them; and yonder saints who serve God day and night in His temple, once slept as do others, and needed to be bestirred. They required adversity to educate them into complete manhood, for they, too, were once babes in grace. They needed tribulation, moreover, that they might be made like their Saviour.
3. The children of God who are in heaven in their trials had no other support than that which is still afforded to all the saints.
4. If there was any difference between those saints and ourselves, it lay in their enduring superior tribulations, for these are they that came out of great tribulation.
II. What are these? The reply was, They have washed their robes, etc.
1. All those in heaven were sinners, for they all needed to wash their robes.
2. All who are in heaven needed an atonement, and the same atonement as we rely upon. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Not one of them became white through his tears of repentance, not one through the shedding of the blood of bulls or of goats.
3. The saints in heaven realised the atonement in the same way as we must do. The act which gave them the virtue which lies in the atonement was the act of faith. There is nothing to do, and nothing to feel, and nothing to be, in order to forgiveness; we have but to wash and the filth is gone.
III. Now, what of all this? Why, first of all, we must not draw the conclusion that trouble and temptation are any argument that a man will get to heaven. I add a caution. I would, however, have you learn that no amount of trial which we have to suffer here, if we are believers in Jesus, should lead us to anything like despair, for however trouble may encompass us to-day, those in heaven came through as great a tribulation, and why may not we? (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Whence come the saints?
Whence came they? Heaven, then, itself has a retrospect as well as a fruition. Heaven itself is a sequel and a consequence as well as a fact, and a present. Heaven is an arrival; heaven is a development; heaven is a result, in one aspect, however infinite its capacities of attainments beyond. Whence came they? Then they were somewhere before. These same persons, different as they are, transfigured as they are from anything that we see, yet were once here. We have seen such persons; we have talked with some of them. The dark river was known not to them, and it was no unmaking and remaking of them to us. Whence came they? They came from this earth, and they are perfected. But the question as It is answered in the context has a fuller meaning than this--it pre-supposes this, and passes on. From earth, of course is the answer, but from earth how conditioned and how used? Heaven is a sequel and a consequence--a consequence of what sort of earth? Heaven is a consummation, though never itself to be consummated. Then of what experience is it the consummation? He calls it two things: two only--pain and purification. These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes. The simplicity, the brevity of the answer may surprise us? Whence came they? We might have expected in answer, From every possible variety of condition, private or public, humble or conspicuous, adverse or prosperous; wealth and length of days, or else sickness, privation, distress, and woe. Not so. The kind of earth from which they came was one and but one. These are they that came out of great tribulation. Pain, then, is the common feature of the earth, of which the terminus is heaven. It is a thought which has exercised Christian people, and we cannot wonder at it. If those who wear the white robes came out of great tribulation, what prospect is there for me to whom tribulation is an experience unknown? The question ought to press upon us. It is easy to say, You cannot force, you need not invite, and you must not simulate pain. If pain does not come the fault is not yours. Pain may be on its way--you must bear it when it comes. This is true, but it is not all the truth. If life smiles on you personally, if it supplies your abundant needs, if its occupations are pleasant, if its friends are many, if its bereavements are few and far between; if, therefore, you cannot affect not to be happy, it is plain that as regards yourself, the only two questions on this head can be--Are you thankful? and Are you kind? Do you receive your blessings from God, and do you share them generously with men? But much more than this. The compass of pain is not thus limited. If neither bodily pain nor mental is yours, we go on to ask, What of spiritual? Is it no pain to feel myself so sinful, that when I would do good evil is present with me; when I would feel the wonderful love there is no response; when I would mount up into the heaven, which is Gods, I faint, and fall back into the dreamy world where God is not? But while spiritual pain is one kind, one ingredient of the great tribulation, there is another--the purely unselfish pain: the pain which looks upon the animate creation groaning in travail, and travails in pain with it; the pain which looks on this anguished England, with food not enough, and work not enough for its toiling millions; feels, too, with the foolish misled dupes of the so-called sympathy or philosophy which leads them on to quagmires and quicksands unfathomable. Yes, there is an unselfish as well as a spiritual tribulation; and I think some of the white-robed in heaven have come out of it. So, then, pain is one of the two earths out of which heaven is made. Now for the other. We have called it in one word, purification. They washed their robes down here and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Purification: the being made white; Oh, who shall give me that for this black thing, this spotted, sullied, sordid blackening which is all around me? I feel it, I am ashamed, I am unhappy. Oh, for the whiteness, oh, for purification. Is it a name; is it a dream; or is it a reality? These white-robed ones in heaven, they have it; nay, they had it down here. So then justification, which is in other words the forgiveness of sins, sets in motion sanctification, which is purification, too. But, lastly, we would bid you all ask, are you in process of purification? Who can say, a Scriptural writer asks, Who can say I have made my heart clean? I am pure from my sin? (Dean Vaughan.)
Final blessedness of the saints
I. The previous condition of the persons here presented to Johns notice. One unacquainted with Gods ways, or with the history of our race, would have been, perhaps, ready to conclude that, in their journey hither, their path had been strewed with flowers and gladdened with perpetual sunshine. This we ourselves would be apt to desire. But the ways of God are not as our ways, nor His thoughts as our thoughts. The zeal of saints for the truth of God; their opposition to the sinful practices which abounded around them; their diligence in the cultivation of holy affections; and their zeal in the discharge of private and public duties--all standing forth in marked contrast with the maxims and customs of a world lying in wickedness--have ever exposed them to innumerable trials, to reproaches, and sufferings. In addition to the causes of tribulation which we have now specified as the peculiar lot of the Christian, I mention farther the remains of sin within him.
II. The means by which they have attained their present state.
III. This blessedness of which these saints are represented as partakers. (James Clayson.)
The worshippers in the heavenly temple
I. The temple here spoken of. It is a heavenly temple; a holy place, standing not on this perishable world, but on the everlasting hills of heaven. All other temples have been erected by man, but this temple has been built by Jehovah Himself, to be the eternal dwelling place of His Church, and the seat of His own glorious throne. The most glowing descriptions that language can convey, and the most exalted conceptions to which our imaginations can reach, fall infinitely short of that dazzling splendour which fills the courts of the living God. The world which we inhabit, though defiled by sin and under the curse of God, has yet so much beauty and magnificence in it, that we are often delighted and astonished as we contemplate its scenes. What, then, must be the glory of that world which has never felt the polluting touch of sin, which was prepared before the foundations of the earth were laid? Happy are they who dwell in such a templet Blessed is the man who is but a doorkeeper in such a house!
II. The happy beings who are the worshippers in this splendid temple.
1. The former condition of these worshippers.
(1) It was an earthly condition. They were not, like the angels, always in this house. They were natives of an apostate world.
(2) Their condition, too, was a sinful one. There is not one among them who was not a transgressor while on earth, and who has not to this very hour a remembrance of his guilt.
(3) They were also in an afflicted condition. Many of them came here out of a state of peculiar distress and suffering.
2. Their present condition.
(1) It is a state of peace, a state of freedom from pain and sorrow. The billows of adversity which once filled them with fear still swell and rage, but they are all raging far beneath them, and can never again toss them with their waves.
(2) It is also a state of purity. They have washed their robes, etc. They were indeed continually contracting fresh defilement as long as they remained on earth, and were constrained to wash again and again in the same fountain that cleansed them at first; but if this fountain had left the unpardoned guilt of only one sin upon their souls, that one sin would have disqualified them for the pure services of the habitation of God, and have barred for ever its sacred doors against them. This free and full pardon of sin is not, however, the only blessing which the heavenly worshippers have obtained through the blood of the Lamb. The same fountain that freed them from the guilt of sin, washed away sin itself, and freed them from its power. Not that they were at once brought into this state of perfect purity. Years passed away before some of them were completely sanctified, and made meet to minister among the saints in light; and they were all harassed to their dying hour, in a greater or less degree, with the struggling corruptions of their evil hearts. But sin could not follow them beyond the grave.
(3) The state of these worshippers in the temple of God is one of triumph. They have palms in their hands.
3. The greatness of their number. Satan does not number among his subjects all the inhabitants of our globe. The Redeemer has a people on the earth. Who can tell how many an humble Christian has been travelling to the land of rest, while almost all around him, and even the honoured instrument that first turned his soul to God, have been ignorant of his faith?
Lesson:
1. The gospel of Christ does not promise to its followers any exemption from the calamities of life.
2. How great is the contrast between the present and the future condition of the followers of Jesus!
3. A loud call to self-examination. (C. Bradley, M. A.)
White robes
I. The white robes of innocence. The devil stains our souls. The world, too, stains them. Alas! we stain them by our own folly and fault.
II. The white robes of promise. These are the baptismal robes.
III. The white robes of cleansing. God gives us not one start alone in life; He gives us many. We make our promises, and we break them. But God never bids us give up hope. Try to do better. Lift up your hearts.
IV. The white robes of victory. It will not always be striving here. It will not always be staining our robes and cleansing them anew, and then, alas! staining them once more. If we persevere, we shall win. It is not failing to succeed which is so bad, but failing to try. And all who try, however feeble they may be, however often they may give in to the forces against them, shall at the last stand … clothed with white robes, etc. (J. E. C. Welldon, M. A.)
The human population in heaven
I. Their earthly life was marked by great trial.
1. This should teach us contentment under our trials.
2. This should inspire us with magnanimity under our trials.
II. Their celestial circumstances are pre-eminently glorious.
1. Their appearance.
2. Their employment.
3. Their companionship.
4. Their blessedness.
III. The difference between the earthly and heavenly condition is attributable to Christ.
1. They were originally polluted.
2. The self-sacrifice of Christ has a purifying influence.
3. Their cleansing by this influence had taken place when on earth. (D. Thomas, D. D.)
The sainted in heaven
I. The beings to whom attention is directed. They were not the unfallen, in other words, the natives of that better country: they were redeemed human spirits. They were born of human parentage, and nursed upon a human breast. Their first expression on coming into existence was a wail, and their last, perhaps, a groan. And between those periods they had known their share of human suffering. If they had suffered, they had also sinned. No lingerers on the margin of wrong, no prodigals of a day, they had wandered into a far country, and theirs had been the alienation of years. And, if they had sinned, they had repented under the influence of the Holy Ghost; their hearts had turned in longing towards their Fathers house. Nor had their experience ended here. Young Christians, in the first joy of forgiveness, are apt to think heaven very near to them--that the celestial shores will soon loom upon their view. In passing through a Christian career, there are trials to be endured, Men were they of whom the world was not worthy. Into their labours we have entered. The harvests of their life we reap. They came out of great tribulation. Again, they went to heaven by the way of death.
II. Their position and glorious appearance.
1. They are before the throne of God. The meaning of the throne of God we know not. Heaven is said to be His throne, and earth His footstool. The presence of His infinite nature is diffused throughout all things; but, purged from the grossness of earth, the glorified have a more vivid sense of His presence than is given us. Then notice their glorious appearance: Clothed in white robes
(1) As being typical of their parity. No evil is there lurking within the blessed, and they shrink not beneath the Divine scrutiny.
(2) White robes are significant of triumph.
(3) White robes are significant of rest. The man who has laboured throws aside the garments worn in toil, and puts on others in which to repose. In this world, the condition of the Christian is not that of rest but of labour.
III. The employment of the redeemed. A very natural thought is that contained in the line of the American poet, when, speaking of a departed friend, he says: Day after day we think what she is doing. The rest of heaven is not that of death, but of infinite life. The repose of the redeemed does not consist in cessation from employ, but rather in the constant prosecution of congenial labour. Multiform will be the character of life in heaven.
1. There will be social life. There the golden chain of love will link all souls together, binding them to the throne of God. There a feeling of common love will flow through every heart. All will be at home.
2. There will be an intellectual life. The glory of man is his mind. To cultivate this stands among the highest duties of the present life. The present is the infancy of our being, but there is before us a majestic maturity.
3. The employment of heaven will be religious. In this, more than even his intellectual nature, man is capable of unlimited improvement. Even in this life no bounds can be set to faith, and hope, and love, so will it be in the future. Oh, it overwhelms us to think of the position of unfallen spirits, our brain grows dizzy from the height, our eyes dazzle in the excess of glory. Yet is there no altitude where created being now stands, but what man may attain to in the upward career of his moral progress, and for ever; and for ever will he continue to advance through the infinitudes of his natures possibilities. (S. Clarke.)
The blessed state of the redeemed
I. The condition out of which the redeemed have come.
1. They came out of a state of tribulation. Man is born to trouble as the sparks fly upward.
(1) Disease, perhaps, sows its poisonous seeds in his frame.
(2) Death bereaves him of those who were the desire of his eyes.
(3) Adverse providences involve him in disappointment and indigence; the malice of men, in vexation and disgrace; and his own errors and imprudence in inextricable difficulties.
(4) Existence itself may become a burden through a complication of calamities.
(5) It is generally thought, however, that there is here an allusion to those sorrows which are peculiar to Christians. Like Stephen, they winged their way from martyrdom to the presence of God.
2. They came out of a state of impurity. The earth on which they dwelt is one wide scene of disobedience and rebellion against the Majesty of the universe. The taint of moral pollution adheres to all its intelligent inhabitants, and introduces disorder into its very frame.
II. The means by which the redeemed have been advanced to glory.
1. By washing their robes, and making them white in the blood of the Lamb, they acquired a title to be before the throne.
2. By washing their robes, and making them white in the blood of the Lamb, they acquired a meetness to be before the throne. They are freed from their inability to love and enjoy God; they are blessed with an incipient and growing meetness for heaven.
III. The nature of the felicity to which they are exalted.
1. They are raised to an exalted station. Those before the throne of God witness His glory in its brightest manifestations, and enjoy the most intimate communion with the Father of their spirits. The near sight which they obtain of God gives them more distinct apprehensions of His nature--produces more complete assimilation to His image, and fills with livelier joy. The servants who stood in the presence of Solomon must have caught something of the wisdom of their master; and those who are before the throne of God, cannot fail to advance in everything heavenly and divine.
2. They are engaged in the most exalted employments.
3. They are freed from all the infirmities, imperfections, and sufferings of the present life.
4. They make continual advances in the knowledge and enjoyment of God. (J. Kirkwood, M. A.)
All Saints Day a witness of grace
Putting aside those festivals in the Churchs year which speak to us of the life and death of our Blessed Lord, there is no festival so sublime as that which we keep to-day. We commemorate to-day, not the life of any one servant of God, but the life and example of all; of those whose very names we know not, save that we know that they are written in the Book of Life. There is a threefold lesson which speaks to all of us through this festival.
1. The lesson of faith. Especially is this a festival which tells of faith, inasmuch as, above all others, it bridges over the gulf which separates this world from the world beyond the grave. This life is to the future state what the bud is to the flower, the blade in the ear to the full corn. This is a truth of especial importance to us to-day, when we commemorate the faithful dead, whose warfare is accomplished. For it teaches us that there is a real fellowship between them and us; that their relation to us is not done away by death; that their souls are not sleeping idly; that they are living more truly, and in a nobler sense, than we ourselves. In this world, men of noble birth desire--and a right feeling it surely is--to keep the brightness of their name untarnished, not to disgrace the title which their fathers bore. My ancestors, such an one will say, were brave and pure; they helped to vindicate liberty; I will try to be not less brave, not less upright, not less generous and true, than they. Canst thou remember this, O Christian, and forget of what spiritual lineage thou art come? so noble, so pure, so ancient, that by its side the noblest title of this world is but of yesterday? that thou art of the communion of Gods saints, and they thy fathers and ancestors in the faith? Canst thou remain cowardly, remembering that they were brave?
2. But again, the doctrine of this festival is a witness for Christian endurance. It is difficult not to feel sad when we think what multitudes of our fellow-creatures are living sordid burdened lives, whose earthly course seems little else than a constant round of suffering and care. Yet let us observe, that wherever a ray of light shines in on this mystery of suffering, it is from the blessed thought of a life unseen. Or, take the case of one, whose life is often burdened by a consciousness of sin--who finds himself compassed with infirmity; who is often wearied of this constant struggle against besetting sins, Oh, blessed day, such an one may well say, when this strife shall cease; when God in His pardoning mercy shall make me to become that which I long and pray to be.
3. But again, this blessed festival, inasmuch as it thus throws rays of brightness on the sorrows of earth, teaches us a lesson of final perseverance and spiritual joy. We need to remember that in the dreariest November, the gloomiest days of the decaying year, there still stands out a festival of summer gladness, telling of that meeting beyond the grave, where no parting shall ever mar the unity of perfect love; that gathering on the eternal shore, as when the apostles beheld on the shore of the Lake of Galilee the presence of their risen Lord. (J. S. Bartlett, M. A.)
All Saints Day
We are not the first travellers; we are followers of those who have inherited the promises; and, far as the eye can reach, there is one long line of precursors all looking back to assure us that the proposed path is the right. Shall it then be questioned, that the greatest confirmation for faith is to be obtained from the memories of the worthies who have tried and verified the Christian religion? If there were a flaw in its proofs, it must have been long ago detected: if there were forgery in its documents, it must have been long ago exposed. And now how mighty are the external evidences of Christianity--evidences which the labours and events of centuries have piled up as an impregnable bulwark. It is enough for my private conviction, that Christianity is eighteen hundred years old. But this only applies generally to the truth of Christianity. Suppose me convinced of its truth, then how is my faith strengthened by the memory of those who have gone before me to heaven? We reply at once, that whatever mans theoretical persuasion that Christianity is from God, there will be nothing like a practical exhibition of its energy to prevail on him to put faith in its disclosures. The great object of Christianity is to induce me to throw aside all dependence on my own moral strength, and to trust implicitly to the merits of a surety. If I will, indeed, do this, I shall find myself strengthened for conflict with my own evil nature, and at last made more than a conqueror over sin and the grave. Yet there may be misgiving, and if we were the first to put the promises to the proof, we might almost be pardoned for hesitating ere we dared take them to ourselves. The very greatness of the thing promised, and the smallness of the condition prescribed, might cause us to question whether we had not been deceived in concluding the Bible divine. And, therefore, oh, for the history of men who have made the experiment, and proved by experience that believers in Christ gain all which is promised! Here it is that we are vastly advantaged by being followers instead of forerunners in the Christian course. You cannot show me a promise in the Bible of whose fulfilment I cannot bring you evidence in the registered experience of some believer in Christ. Does the promise refer to support in affliction? Then what is that voice that rolls in upon us from the caves of the earth, where the persecuted have taken refuge--God is a very present help, a most strong tower to all who flee to Him for refuge? Is the promise that of immortality--glorious announcements that entrance shall be ministered abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our God and Saviour? Indeed, you may tell me that no biography can exhibit the fulfilment of this promise. I cannot track the burning flight of the emancipated spirit delivered from the flesh, and launched into immortality. We own this. But, nevertheless, we can show you that these promises have sustained men in the very hour of dissolution. And though this does not show you that the promises are made good after death, yet proving them accomplished up to the very moment at which our inspection must cease, proving that they die not when everything that has not in it the breath of immortality does die, we call it nothing better than evasion, if you would plead the want of evidence of its fulfilment, because we cannot with our eyes of sense pierce the deep secrets of futurity. Now, hitherto we have spoken only of that confirmation of faith which is derivable from the experience of the righteous whom we this day commemorate; but let us now briefly consider how we may be strengthened also in patience; for those who are clothed in white robes are they who came out of great tribulation. The fact that afflictions have been the portion of the faithful should remove all surprise that we ourselves have to wrestle with sorrow; the fact that God hath not forsaken the faithful, but brought good out of evil, should scatter all fears that we may be left to perish in our distress. And what will they reply if we ask them whether they regret what they suffered for Christ, or whether, if they had to live over again, they would wish to pass through the same painful discipline? Oh! for melodious sounds in which to syllable their answers. The harshness of human speech ill suits the music of their whispers. They tell you with one voice, one peal of grateful acknowledgment, that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory revealed in them. (H. Melvill, B. D.)
Saints made from sinners
Professor Hy. Drummond addressing a meeting, said that as he walked through the city that morning, he had noticed a cloud like a pure snow-white bank resting over the slums. Whence came it? The great sun had sent down its beams into the city, and the beams had gone among the puddles, even the nauseous puddles and drawn out of them what they needed, and taken it aloft, and purified it, and there it was, above the city a cloud as white as snow! And God, said the professor, can make His saints, who walk in white, out of material equally unfavourable; He can make a white cloud out of a puddle, He can make saints out of the most depraved. (J. H. Jowett, M. A.)
These are they which came out of great tribulation.--
The ministration of suffering
Let us, in some few points, contrast suffering on earth with its fruits in heaven.
1. Earthly suffering seems to come either as a vengeance or as a calamity upon men. It is still a surprise until we have been long wonted to it. But the heavenly side, as disclosed in the apocalyptic vision, shows that suffering ordinarily comes neither as a vengeance nor as a calamity; for, although we may understand that God sometimes employs suffering for purposes of punishment, yet such an employment of it is special. Suffering is intercalated upon the course of nature, and is part of a universal experience. Storms may be most destroying, overflowing the land, tearing up foundations, sweeping away bridges, and submerging harvests; but this result of storms is exceptional. The fall of rain and the sweep of winds are part of the economy of mercy. It is not for destruction, but for benefit. And so sufferings may, at times, in the hands of God, be punitive, but ordinarily they are not. Suffering is intended to make us let go of things that are lower, and to rise a grade higher. Here it seems as if God were angry; but in heaven it is seen that He was dealing in mercy. Here it seems as if great disaster had overwhelmed us; but there the breaking of the cloud over us appears as the waters of a bath from which we shall emerge purer, cleaner, and more manly.
2. Suffering seems to some contrary to the course of nature; an interruption and violation of natural order; but the revelation of the effects of suffering upon the future state shows that it is in accordance with the course of nature. It would seem rational to suppose that God built the enginery of the human mind for happiness; that the way of growth ought not to be through bafflings; that men should not find their stability by overthrow, and their liberty by restraint. At first view everything apparently tends towards freedom and full development. Men fail to see, however, that while there is one tendency toward liberty, there is another toward restraint. If anything can be shown by the indications and facts of nature, it is that man never grows to a mans full estate without the ministration of suffering; and that suffering is a part of nature, or it could not be universal.
3. The contrast between the earthly appearance of suffering as something that weakens and beats us down, and the glorious light of the heavenly side is very striking; for while on earth suffering seems, in all its immediate tendencies, to take away from man, it is, in point of fact, adding to him. It seems to beat him down; but when we look forward to the full disclosure, we find that it is building him up. While the storm pelts, men shrink. While the thunder sounds, they slink down. While the tempest rages, it is as if they were ruined. But when the violence abates a little, they begin to lift up their head, and to perceive that it was not all dark, that it was not all thunder, that it was not all beating, that there was an element of good in it; and gradually they learn the sweet bounty and benefit that God meant to bestow upon them by afflictions.
4. The seeming cruelty of much of suffering, and the unnaturalness of it, are contrasted with great relief with this vision of the final state of those who have suffered in this world. The fatherliness and benevolence of suffering does not appear in its mere earthly relations. In heaven it is clearly pictured. There we see what it has wrought out. Human nature is very much like some elements of vegetation. In tapioca, one of the most harmless of all articles of food, there is one of the most deadly of all poisons. But the poison is of such a volatile nature, that when it is subjected to heat it escapes, and leaves only the nutriment of the starch. I think that the heart of man originally is full of poison, but that, when it is tried by affliction, little by little the poison, the rancour, the virus exhales, and leaves all the rest wholesome indeed.
5. Earthly suffering seems to weaken, to discourage them, and to destroy them; but the fact is, that it does not really destroy or weaken them. That part in us which suffering weakens is usually that very part which ought to be weakened. The great trouble in turning flax into thread or cloth is caused by that which gives the green plant its very power; for when the flax is growing, it needs two things--one is its ligneous or woody structure, and the other is its gluten. But when it has grown enough, and man wants it to make garments, to furnish the queen in the palace and the peasant in the cottage, he must get rid of these two things. And how is the flax separated from them? It is plucked and thrown into the field, that, under the influence of repeated rains and dews, the wood may rot; then the flax is taken and put through the brakes, until every particle of the stiffness and strength that it had is destroyed, and all but the stringy fibres can be shaken to the winds; then it is subjected to certain chemical processes by which the gluten is taken away; and not till then is it in a proper condition to be carried to the spinning-wheel and the loom, and manufactured into materials for use. So it is with men. There are a great many qualities which they need up to a certain point, but which beyond that are a disadvantage to them. We need a given amount of self-will and independence; but after these qualities have been carried to a certain point, the necessity for them measurably ceases, and there must be superinduced on them opposite qualities. For man is made up of contraries. He is to be as firm as iron, and as yielding as silk; he is to be persevering, and yet most ready to give up; he is to be as steadfast as a mountain, and yet easy to be entreated; he is to abhor evil, and yet to love with an ineffable love; he is to be courageous, and yet to have that fear of the Lord which is the beginning of wisdom. Certain qualities, when they have served their purpose, must give place to opposite qualities. Afflictions, under the supervision of Divine Providence, are working out in those that are exercised thereby beneficent results; so that suffering, while it seems frequently to be wasting and destroying men, is only wasting and destroying that part of them which they are better without than with.
6. Suffering on earth seems to set men apart from their fellows. Sometimes it puts them into obscurity. It is an experience full of solitude, voluntary and yet inevitable. Every heart knows its own bitterness. There is a delicacy in grief often. And though sometimes it is clamorous and vocal, oftener it is silent. But there is a process quietly going on, though it may not be apparent, by which those who seem to be separated in the present shall in the future be gathered together by sorrow. Those that weep apart on earth shall joy together in heaven. Those who in their sorrows are cast out from the sympathies of their fellow-men shall be gathered into the fellowship and sympathy of the heavenly host. This separation and disintegration are only apparent. Really, it is a preparation for fellowship in the world to come. (H. W. Beecher.)
The memory of grief and wrong
Whether a race of finite and imperfect beings could have been trained for any worthy end, or have reached a state of conscious happiness, without the ministry of suffering, we are not competent to say. Whether this be the case or not, it is certain that very many of our happiest experiences, and of our best frames of mind and traits of character, are to be traced, if not to the direct agency, at least to the memory, of grief and wrong. I might remind you, in the first place, that the lowest degradation into which a human being can sink is a state in which there is no retentiveness, nay, hardly a transient consciousness, of painful emotion. Let a child, born in sin, be cast in very infancy upon the bleak world, without shelter, education, or guidance, exposed to the pelting of the elements, spurned and buffeted at every hands turn, that child becomes in his very infancy almost invulnerable to every outward influence, and incapable of feeling neglect or injury, but in this process he grows up an absolute brute. He is incapable of attachment and of gratitude. Gentleness cannot tame him, nor can severity awe him. As the frozen limb must be made sensitive to pain, before it is capable of healthy circulation or free motion, the first step towards making him happy will be to unseal the fountain of sorrow. He must weep before he can enjoy. Take next the ease of one who has fallen into loathsome degradation from a favoured and happy early lot. That fall was not without frequent and severe suffering, probably not without full as much wrong received as committed. But the degraded being has lost his sensibility. Rags, hunger, blows, the alms-house, the prison-cell, have become congenial; and the traces of every new hardship or infliction are like those of the arrow in the air. Nor yet can you excite penitence or remorse by any moral representation, however pungent or attractive, of the evil and misery of guilt or the loveliness of virtue. You must go back to the days of innocence--to the earliest steps in the evil path. You must awaken the remembrance of obsolete wrong and sorrow. You must recall the prodigals first wretched pilgrimage from the fathers house. Let us pass now to experiences that lie more within our own sphere of consciousness, and, first, to domestic happiness. We can hardly be aware how much of the joy, how much of the purity and tenderness, of our home relations springs from the very events which we most dread, or from the shadow or apprehension of them. Two young hearts are plighted to each other in the most fervent love, and enter on their united life under the most prosperous auspices and with the highest hopes. Let everything answer to their anticipations--let their life flow on without grief or fear, and their love is either suddenly exhaled, or gradually frittered away. They grow mutually intolerant of their necessary differences of taste, opinion, and feeling. If they remain without mutual discord or dislike, it is through the negative power of passive good nature, while the heart-ties are all the while growing weaker, so that their dissolution would be more and more slightly and transiently felt. But, with their first weighty cares or solicitudes, they are drawn into an intimacy of feeling closer than they had ever imagined before. A similar view presents itself with regard to our religious characters. Could those of us, who are endeavouring to live in the fear of God and the love of Christ, trace back the growth of the religious life in our hearts, we should find that, while the germ was there before care or sorrow had taken strong hold upon us, yet in many instances its first decided development and rapid increase were in connection with pain, perplexity, or grief. It was the clouding over of earthly prospects, that opened to us a clear and realising view of heaven. It was the failure of fond hopes that sealed our determination to lay up treasures where hope cannot fail. It was the falling away of objects of our most confident dependence, that cast us upon the Most High as our only enduring refuge and support. I have spoken of the sheltered scenes of home, and of the interior life of the soul. In the outward relations of society, we are equally indebted to the ministry of affliction. How many are the pure and virtuous friendships, now sources of unalloyed gladness and improvement, which had their commencement in a common grief, or in a burden of solicitude or sorrow, which one, whom previously we had not known how to prize, hastened to bear with us, or we with him! In old age we can also trace the genial influence of sorrow. As the cloud, that has flashed its angry lightnings and poured its desolating showers, retreats fringed with gold and crimson, and spanned with the glorious bow of Gods unchanging promise, so do the griefs that have been the heaviest and the most cheerless, when they lie in the remote horizon of the past, glow with celestial radiance and Divine beauty. As the aged Christian looks back on the conflicts and sorrows of earlier years, every cloud has its rainbow, every retreating storm dies away in whispers of peace. It is the softened, painless memory of trial and of grief that feeds the spirit of patient, cheerful resignation, reconciles the soul to dissolution as it draws near, and sustains the willingness to depart, the desire to be with Christ. I have spoken chiefly of the sorrows that come to us by the direct appointment of Providence. Are there any of us who can look back on wrong and injury done to us by our fellow-men? Even this, if we were wise, we would not wish to forget. Far more noble is it to remember in full and yet forgive, to retain our sensitiveness unimpaired, and yet to take the offending brother to our hearts as if he had done us no wrong. Thus only can we make the wounds of carelessness, unkindness, envy or malice, permitted, though not wrought by Providence, coincide in their blessed ministry with the griefs that flow from the hand of God. Thus do we turn our enemy into a benefactor, by making him the unconscious instrument of calling out in our hearts traits more elevated, Christlike, Godlike, than without his agency we could have put into exercise. Finally, the connection in which our text stands leads us to extend the benign ministry of sorrow to the world where sorrow is unknown. The frequent trials of the present state, its disappointed hopes, defeated plans, withered joys, may, far along in the heavenly life, supply the term of comparison, reveal the measure of our happiness, quicken the flow of adoring gratitude, and sustain a full consciousness of the felicity in which we are embosomed. (A. P. Peabody.)
Why the heavenly robes are white
I. What did these white robes mean?
1. The white robes show the immaculate purity of their character. White signifies perfection; it is not so much a colour as the harmonious union and blending of all the hues, colours, and beauties of light. In the characters of just men made perfect we have the combination of all virtues, the balancing of all excellences, a display of all the beauties of grace. Are they not like their Lord, and is He not all beauties in one?
2. By white robes we also understand the fitness of their souls for the service to which they are appointed; they were chosen before all worlds to be kings and priests unto God, but a priest might not stand before the Lord to minister until he had put on his appointed linen garments; and therefore the souls which have been taken up to heaven are represented in white robes to show that they are completely fitted for that Divine service to which they were ordained of old, to which the Spirit of God called them while they were here, and in which Jesus Christ leads the way, being a Priest for ever at their head.
3. White robes also signify victory. I should think that in almost every nation white has indicated the joy of triumph. True, the Romans adopted purple as their imperial colour, and well they might, for their victories and their rule were alike bloody and cruel; but the Christ of God sets forth His gentle and holy victories by white: it is on a white cloud that He shall come to judge the world, and His seat of judgment shall be the great white throne.
4. White is also the colour of rest. Well may the redeemed be thus arrayed, for they have finally put off the garments of toil and the armour of battle, and they rest from their labours in the rest of God.
5. Chiefly, white is the colour of joy. Almost all nations have adopted it as most suitable for bridal array, and so therefore these happy spirits have put on their bridal robes, and are ready for the marriage supper of the Lamb.
II. How did they come by those white garments?
1. Those characters were not so pure, or, in other words, those garments were not so white by nature. They are washed, you see, and therefore they must once have been stained. Original sin has stained the character of all the sons of Adam. Do not think of one saint who has gone to his reward above as being in any way different in nature from yourselves; they were all men of like passions with us, men who had within them the same tendencies to sin. But it might be suggested that perhaps they came to their rest by a cleaner way than that which now lies before us. Possibly there was something about their surroundings which helped them to keep their garments white. No, it was not so; they passed along the road of tribulation, and that tribulation was not of a less trying kind than ours. Their road was just as miry as ours, and perhaps even more so. How this ought to assist us to feel that albeit our pathway is one in which we meet with innumerable temptations, yet inasmuch as all the glorified have come up white and clean from it, by virtue of the atoning blood, even so shall we.
2. Their garments came to be white through a miracle of grace, because they came through the great tribulation, where everything tended to defile them. I do not think that the text refers to some one great persecution, but to the great conflict of the ages in which the seed of the serpent perpetually molests and oppresses the seed of the woman. The enmity takes all sorts of shapes, but from the beginning even until now it is in the world. Now the white robed ones had come out of that continuous and general conflict uninjured: like the three holy children who came out of the furnace with not so much as the smell of fire upon them. Some of them had been slandered: men of the world had thrown handfuls of the foulest mud upon them, but they washed their robes and made them white. Others of them had come out of remarkable temptations from men and devils; they were tried by the most defiling of temptations, but they overcame through the blood of the Lamb, and were delivered from every polluting trace of the temptation by the efficacy of the atoning sacrifice. It was by the operation of the blood of Christ, and by nothing else, that the glorified saints were made clean.
3. Some of the trials of the saints are evidently intended, by those who are the instruments of them, to make them sin. Tribulation has a tendency to create, even in good men, new sins: sins into which they have never fallen before. Brother, thou sayest, I shall never repine against God. How knowest thou that? Thou sayest, I have never done so unto this hour. Art thou not in health and strength? Why, then, shouldst thou murmur? But suppose the Lord were to strip thee of all these things, O man, I fear me thou mightest murmur as others have done. In some men tribulation works a very fierce temptation to distrust.
4. So, too, great trials are wonderfully apt to reveal the weakness of our graces and the number of our infirmities. Spiritual storms make a man discover what utter weakness he is, and then he is wise to fly to the blood of the Lamb. Oh, what a sweet restorative is found in the atoning sacrifice!
III. What lesson comes out of this?
1. I would say to you, first, meditate on it. A sight of Christ in His agony is a wondrous sure for our agonies.
2. But the chief thing is this--in all times of tribulation the great matter is to have the blood of Christ actually applied to the soul. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
The sufferings of the redeemed
Gods Word does not conceal, but, on the contrary, rather forewarns, that the road to Heaven is one of trial. Christ prepared His people for the highway thither being hedged with tribulation. Beloved, says St. Peter, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you, but rejoice. These trials are the ladder-steps by which the immortal spirits in this vision attained their bliss. We can almost imagine ourselves listening to their varied testimony. God laid me, would be the experience and retrospect of one, on a bed of sickness. I was living a life of engrossing worldliness. I was taking my health as a thing of course. I had no thought of death. He who gave me the abused talent stretched me on a couch of pain. Year after year I was familiarised with the dim night-lamp--the sleepless vigils--the aching head. But He allured me into the wilderness that He might speak comfortably unto me. I now praise Him for it all. Through the chinks of the battered earthly tabernacle were admitted the first rays of the heavenly glory. In the solitary night-watches my lips were first tuned for the heavenly song. I was reposing in the sunshine of earthly prosperity, would be the testimony of another. The fabled horn of plenty exhausted its ample stores in my lap. Riches increased; ah! I set my heart upon them; my closet, my Bible, my family, were sacrificed in the demon scramble. At an unexpected moment the crash came--the whole fabric of a lifetime (the golden fabric) fell to the ground. Seated amid empty coffers, and dismantled walls, and blighted hopes, I was led to bring the perishable into emphatic contrast with the eternal. I too thank my God for it all. But for that simoom-blast which swept over ms, burying the hoarded treasures of a vain existence, I would have died the fool that I lived. I was an idolater of my family, another would tell. I was leaning too fondly and tenderly on some cherished prop--some gourd in the earth-bower of my happiness. The prop gave way--the gourd withered. But as some gentle spirit (be it that of husband, or wife, or child, or brother, or sister) winged its flight to the realms of glory, It brought me, as I was never before, into near and holy contact with the Unseen. The tie snapped on earth bound ms to the throne of God. These thorns inserted in the earthly nest drove me to the wing, and suffered me not to stay my flight until I had reached the golden eaves of the heavenly home! (J. R. Macduff, D. D.)
The richer flowerings of character caused by trial
It is said that gardeners sometimes, when they would bring a rose to richer flowerings, deprive it for the season of light and moisture. Silent and dark it stands, dropping one faded leaf alter another, and seeming to go down patiently to death. But when every leaf is dropped, and the plant stands stripped to the uttermost, a new life is even then working in the buds, from which shall spring a tender foliage and a brighter wealth of flowers. So, often in celestial gardenings, every leaf of earthly joy must drop before a new and divine bloom visits the soul.
Character formed by tribulation
I saw a beautiful vase, and asked its story. Once it was a lump of common day lying in the darkness. Then it was rudely dug out and crushed and ground in the mill, and then put upon the wheel and shaped, then polished and tinted and put into the furnace and burned. At last, after many processes, it stood upon the table, a gem of graceful beauty. In some way analogous to this every noble character is formed. Common clay at first, it passes through a thousand processes and experiences, many of them hard and painful, until at length it is presented before God, faultless in its beauty, bearing the features of Christ Himself. Spiritual beauty never can be reached without cost. The blessing is always hidden sway in the burden, and can be gotten only by lifting the burden. Michael Angelo used to say, as the chippings flew thick from the marble on the floor of his studio: While the marble wastes the image grows. (J. R. Miller, D. D.)
Tribulation ministers to manhood
You may in the conservatory rear the trailing vine or rear the tropical plant, but put into it hardy English oak, Or the tall Norwegian pine, and they, within the conservatory, would die--their life is exposure. Give them the heaven, the wind of heaven in their branches; give them the dew and the rain of heaven on their leaves: give them the great spacious earth beneath into which they can send their roots in search of moisture, and in search of strength; and they will live, and become things of beauty and joy for ever. So let man in the grace, and by the strength of God, face life; stand in front of it, with all its trouble, with all its tempest, with all its sorrow, with all its suffering! The tribulation will work patience, make the more of a man of him, make him the more able to stand in the presence of God as a servant approved. (A. M. Fairbairn, D. D.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
B. W. Johnson1891 · Public DomainOn vv13–1713–17. What are these? The questions are asked by…
13–17. What are these? The questions are asked by the elder that he may teach. “These” refer to the vast multitude described in verse 9.
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.
William B. Godbey1900 · Public DomainOn v1313-17. Here we have a clear definition of the…
13-17. Here we have a clear definition of the qualifications for the bridehood. The Holy Ghost says unequivocally they come out of great tribulations, having washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Hence, entire sanctification is the solitary and inalienable qualification for membership in the bridehood.
William B. Godbey, Commentary on the New Testament (1896–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Alexander MacLaren1905 · Public DomainOn vv15, 17Joh 1:14. - Rev 7:15. - Rev 21:3.
John
‘THREE TABERNACLES’
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Joh 1:14. - Rev 7:15. - Rev 21:3.
The word rendered ‘dwelt’ in these three passages, is a peculiar one. It is only found in the New Testament-in this Gospel and in the Book of Revelation. That fact constitutes one of the many subtle threads of connection between these two books, which at first sight seem so extremely unlike each other; and it is a morsel of evidence in favour of the common authorship of the Gospel and of the Apocalypse, which has often, and very vehemently in these latter days of criticism, been denied.
The force of the word, however, is the matter to which I desire especially to draw attention. It literally means ‘to dwell in a tent,’ or, if we may use such a word, ‘to tabernacle,’ and there is no doubt a reference to the Tabernacle in which the divine Presence abode in the wilderness and in the land of Israel before the erection. In all three passages, then, we may see allusion to that early symbolical dwelling of God with man. ‘The Word tabernacled among us’; so is the truth for earth and time. ‘He that sitteth upon the throne shall spread His tabernacle upon’ the multitude which no man can number, who have made their robes white in the blood of the Lamb; that is the truth for the spirits of just men made perfect, the waiting Church, which expects the redemption of the body. ‘God shall tabernacle with them’; that is the truth for the highest condition of humanity, when the Tabernacle of God shall be with redeemed men in the new earth. ‘Let us build three tabernacles,’ one for the Incarnate Christ, one for the interspace between earth and heaven, and one for the culmination of all things. And it is to these three aspects of the one thought, set forth in rude symbol by the movable tent in the wilderness, that I ask you to turn now.
I. First, then, we have to think of that Tabernacle for earth. ‘The Word was made flesh, and dwelt, as in a tent, amongst us.’
The human nature, the visible, material body of Jesus Christ, in which there enshrined itself the everlasting Word, which from the beginning was the Agent of all divine revelation, that is the true Temple of God. When we begin to speak about the special presence of Omnipresence in any one place, we soon lose ourselves, and get into deep waters of glory, where there is no standing. And I do not care to deal here with theological definitions or thorny questions, but simply to set forth, as the language of my text sets before us, that one transcendent, wonderful, all-blessed thought that this poor human nature is capable of, and has really once in the history of the world received into itself, the real, actual presence of the whole fulness of the Divinity. What must be the kindred and likeness between Godhood and manhood when into the frail vehicle of our humanity that wondrous treasure can be poured; when the fire of God can burn in the bush of our human nature, and that nature not be consumed? So it has been. ‘In Him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.’
And when we come with our questions, How? In what manner? How can the lesser contain the greater? we have to be content with the recognition that the manner is beyond our fathoming, and to accept the fact, pressed upon our faith, that our hearts may grasp it and be at peace. God hath dwelt in humanity. The everlasting Word, who is the forthcoming of all the fulness of Deity into the realm of finite creatures, was made flesh and dwelt among us.
But the Tabernacle was not only the dwelling-place of God, it was also and, therefore, the place of Revelation of God. So in our text there follows, ‘we beheld His glory.’ As in the tent in the wilderness there hovered between the outstretched wings of the silent cherubim, above the Mercy-seat, the brightness of the symbolical cloud which was expressly named ‘the glory of God,’ and was the visible manifestation of His real presence; so John would have us think that in that lowly humanity, with its curtains and its coverings of flesh, there lay shrined in the inmost place the brightness of the light of the manifest glory of God. ‘We beheld His glory.’ The rapturous adoration of the remembrance overcomes him, and he breaks his sentence, reckless of grammatical connection, as the fulness of the blessed memory floods into his soul. ‘That glory was as of the Only Begotten of the Father.’ The manifestation of God in Christ is unique, as becomes Him who partakes of the nature of that God of whom He is the Representative and the Revealer.
And how did that glory make itself known to us? By miracle? Yes! As we read in the story of the first that Christ wrought, ‘He manifested forth His glory and His disciples believed upon Him.’ By miracle? Yes! As we read His own promise at the grave of Lazarus: ‘Said I not unto thee, that, if thou wouldest believe, thou shouldest see the glory of God?’ But, blessed be His name, miracle is not the highest manifestation of Christ’s glory and of God’s. The uniqueness of the revelation of Christ’s glory in God does not depend upon the deeds which He wrought. For, as the context goes on to tell, the Word which tabernacled among us was ‘full of grace and truth,’ and therein is the glory most gloriously revealed.
The lambent light of stooping love that shone forth warning and attracting in His gentle life, and the clear white beam of unmingled truth that streamed from the radiant purity of Christ’s life, revealed God to hearts that pine for love and spirits that hunger for truth, as no others of God’s self-revealing works have done. And that revelation of the glory of God in the fulness of grace and truth is the highest possible revelation. For the divinest thing in God is love, and the true ‘glory of God’ is neither some symbolical flashing light nor the pomp of mere power and majesty; nor even those inconceivable and incommunicable attributes which we christen with names like Omnipotence and Omnipresence and Infinitude, and the like. These are all at the fringes of the brightness. The true central heart and lustrous light of the glory of God lie In His love, and of that glory Christ is the unique Representative and Revealer, because He is the only Begotten Son, and ‘full of grace and truth.’
Thus the Word tabernacled amongst us. And though the Tabernacle to outward seeming was covered by curtains and skins that hid all the glowing splendour within; yet in that lowly life that was lived in the body of His humiliation, and knew our limitations and our weaknesses, ‘the glory of the Lord was revealed; and all flesh hath seen it together’ and acknowledged the divine Presence there.
Still further the Tabernacle was the place of sacrifice. So in the tabernacle of His flesh Jesus offered up the one sacrifice for sins for ever. In the offering up of His human life in continuous obedience, and in the offering up of His body and blood in the bitter Passion of the Cross, He brought men nigh unto God.
Therefore, because of all these things, because the Tabernacle is the dwelling-place of God, the place of revelation, and the place of sacrifice, therefore, finally is it the meeting-place betwixt God and man. In the Old Testament it is always called by the name which our Revised Version has accurately substituted for ‘tabernacle of the congregation,’ namely ‘tent of meeting.’ The correctness of that rendering and the meaning of the name are established by several passages in the Old Testament, as for instance, ‘There I will meet with you, to speak there unto thee, and there I will meet with the children of Israel.’ So in Christ, who by His Incarnation lays His hand upon both, God touches man and man touches God. We who are afar off are made nigh, and in that ‘true tabernacle which the Lord pitched and not man’ we meet God and are glad.
‘And so the word was flesh, and wrought
With human hands the creed of creeds,
In loveliness of perfect deeds.’
The temple for earth is ‘the temple of His body.’
II. We have the Tabernacle for the Heavens.
In the context of our second passage we have a vision of the great multitude redeemed out of all nations and kindreds, ‘standing before the Throne and before the Lamb, arrayed in white robes, and palms in their hands.’ The palms in their hands give important help towards understanding the vision. As has been often remarked, there are no heathen emblems in the Book of the Apocalypse. All its metaphors move within the circle of Jewish experiences and facts. So that we are not to think of the Roman palm of victory, but of the Jewish palm which was borne at the Feast of Tabernacles. What was the Feast of Tabernacles? A festival established on purpose to recall to the minds and to the gratitude of the Jews settled in their own land the days of their wandering in the wilderness. Part of the ritual of it was that during its celebration they builded for themselves booths or tabernacles of leaves and boughs of trees, under which they dwelt, thus reminding themselves of their nomad condition.
Now what beauty and power it gives to the word of my text, if we take in this allusion to the Jewish festival! The great multitude bearing the palms are keeping the feast, memorial of past wilderness wanderings; and ‘He that sitteth on the throne shall spread His tabernacle above them,’ as the word might be here rendered. That is to say, He Himself shall build and be the tent in which they dwell; He Himself shall dwell with them in it. He Himself, in closer union than can be conceived of here, shall keep them company during that feast.
What a thought of that condition-the condition as I believe represented in this vision-of the spirits of the just made perfect, ‘who wait for the adoption, to wit, the resurrection of the body,’ is given us if we take this point of view to interpret the whole lovely symbolism. It is all a time of glad, grateful remembrance of the wilderness march. It is all a time in which festal joys shall be theirs, and the memory of the trials and the weariness and the sorrow and the solitude that are past shall deepen to a more exquisite poignancy of delight, the rest and the fellowship and the felicity of that calm Presence, and God Himself shall spread His tent above them, lodge with them, and they with Him.
And so, dear brethren, rest in that assurance, that though we know so little of that state, we know this: ‘Absent from the body, present with the Lord,’ and that the happy company who bear the palms shall dwell in God, and God in them.
III. And now, lastly, look at that final vision which we have in these texts, which we may call the Tabernacle for the renewed earth.
I do not pretend to interpret the scenery and the setting of these Apocalyptic visions with dogmatic confidence, but it seems to me as if the emblems of this final vision coincide with dim hints in many other portions of Scripture; to the effect that some cosmical change having passed upon this material world in which we dwell, it, in some regenerated form, shall be the final abode of a regenerated and redeemed humanity. That, I think, is the natural interpretation of a great deal of Scriptural teaching.
For that highest condition there is set forth this as the all-sufficing light upon it. ‘Behold, the Tabernacle of God is with men, and He will tabernacle with them.’ The climax and the goal of all the divine working, and the long processes of God’s love for, and discipline of, the world, are to be this, that He and men shall abide together in unity and concord. That is God’s wish from the beginning. We read in one of the profound utterances of the Book of Proverbs how from of old the ‘delights’ of the Incarnate Wisdom which foreshadowed the Incarnate Word ‘were with the sons of men.’ And, at the close of all things, when the vision of this final chapter shall be fulfilled, God will say, settling Himself in the midst of a redeemed humanity, ‘Lo! here will I dwell, for I have desired it. This is My rest for ever.’ He will tabernacle with men, and men with Him.
We know not, and never shall know until experience strips the bandages from our eyes, what new methods of participation of the divine nature, and new possibilities of intimacy and intercourse with Him may be ours when the veils of flesh and sense and time have all dropped away. New windows may be opened in our spirits, from which we shall perceive new aspects of the divine character. New doors may be opened in our souls, from out of which we may pass to touch parts of His nature, all impalpable and inconceivable to us now. And when all the veils of a discordant moral nature are taken away, and we are pure, then we shall see, then we shall draw nigh to God. The thing that chiefly separates man from God is man’s sin. When that is removed, the centrifugal force which kept our tiny orb apart from the great central sun being withdrawn, we shall, as it were, fall into the brightness and be one, not losing our sense of individuality, which would be to lose all the blessedness, but united with Him in a union far more intimate than earth can parallel. ‘The Tabernacle of God shall be with men, and He will tabernacle with them.’
Do not let us forget that this highest and ultimate hope that is held forth here, of the union and communion, perfect and perpetual, of humanity with God, does not sweep aside Jesus Christ. For through all eternity the Everlasting Word, the Christ who bears our nature in its glorified form, or, rather, whose nature in its glorified form we shall bear, is the Medium of Revelation, and the Medium of communication between man and God.
‘I saw no Temple therein,’ says this final vision of the Apocalypse, but ‘God Almighty and the Lamb,’ and these are the Temples thereof. Therefore through eternity God shall tabernacle with men, as He does tabernacle with us now through Him, in whom dwelleth as in its perennial habitation, ‘all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.’
So we have the three tabernacles, for earth, for heaven, for the renewed earth; and these three, if I may say so, are like the triple division of that ancient Tabernacle in the wilderness: the Outer Court; the Holy Place; the Holiest of all. Let us enter into that outer court, and abide and commune with that God who comes near to us, revealing, forgiving, in the person of His Son, and then we shall pass from court to court, ‘and go from strength to strength, until every one of us in Zion appear before God’; and enter into the Holiest of all, where ‘within the veil’ we shall receive splendours of revelation undreamed of here, and enjoy depths of communion to which the selectest moments of fellowship with God on earth are shallow and poor.
Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield1917 · Public DomainOn vv14, 17The great tribulation is the period of unexampled trouble…
tribulation
The great tribulation is the period of unexampled trouble predicted in the passages cited under that head from Psa 2:5 to Rev 7:14 and described in Revelation 11-18. Involving in a measure the whole earth Rev 3:10 it is yet distinctly "the time of Jacob’s trouble" Jer 30:7 and its vortex Jerusalem and the Holy Land. It involves the people of God who will have returned to Palestine in unbelief. Its duration is three and a half years, or the last half of the seventieth week of Daniel. (See Scofield "Dan 9:24"). Rev 11:2; Rev 11:3 The elements of the tribulation are:
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(1) The cruel reign of the "beast out of the sea" Rev 13:1 who at the beginning of the three and a half years, will break his covenant with the Jews (by virtue of which they will have re-established the temple worship, Dan 9:27 and show himself in the temple, demanding that he be worshipped as God; Mat 24:15; 2Th 2:4.
(2) The active interposition of Satan "having great wrath" Rev 12:12 who gives his power to the Beast Rev 13:4; Rev 13:5.
(3) The unprecedented activity of demons Rev 9:2; Rev 9:11 and
(4) the terrible "bowl" judgments of Revelation 16.
The great tribulation will be, however, a period of salvation. An election out of Israel is seen as sealed for God Rev 7:4-8 and, with an innumerable multitude of Gentiles Rev 7:9 are said to have come "out of the great tribulation" Rev 7:14. They are not of the priesthood, the church, to which they seem to stand somewhat in the relation of the Levites to the priests under the Mosaic Covenant. The great tribulation is immediately followed by the return of Christ in glory, and the events associated therewith Mat 24:29; Mat 24:30.
See "Remnant" Isa 1:9.
(See Scofield "Rom 11:5"). "Beast" See Scofield "Dan 9:24" See Scofield "Rev 19:20" "Armageddon" Rev 16:14. See Scofield "Rev 19:17".
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann1924 · Public DomainOn v13The bliss of the saints in white robes:
The bliss of the saints in white robes:
v. 13. And one of the elders answered, saying unto me, What are these which are arrayed in white robes? And whence came they?
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v. 14. And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest. And he said to me, These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.
v. 15. Therefore are they before the throne of God, and serve Him day and night in His temple; and He that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them.
v. 16. They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore; neither shall the sun light on them nor any heat.
v. 17. For the Lamb, which is in the midst of the throne, shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters; and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.
An interesting conversation is now reported by John: And there answered one of the elders, saying to me, These that are clothed in white robes, who are they and whence came they? Undoubtedly the elder saw the interest and the curiosity of John depicted on his face, and intended to stimulate this interest and direct it into the right channels. Therefore he pointed to the great multitude of the white-robed saints, asking, not concerning their number, but regarding their origin and character.
John’s answer showed the eagerness of his heart: And I said to him, Sir, thou knowest. It was the respectful address of the inferior to one whom he regarded as his superior. See Eze 37:3. He received the information which he sought: And he said to me, These are they that have come out of the great distress, and washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. The great distress was the period of persecution and martyrdom to which reference had been made in chap. 6:11. These people had overcome, they had conquered, they had been faithful unto death, and therefore the Lord had rescued them, had brought them to the haven of eternal safety. There was no merit on their part in this transaction, for all their righteousness were as filthy rags in the sight of God, Isa 64:6. But all the filth of their own garments had been washed away in the blood of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, which cleanses us from all sins, Isa 1:16; 1Jn 1:7. The white robes are the righteousness of Jesus Christ which they received through the means of grace, to which they clung unto the end.
The blessed state of the elect saints is further described: For this reason they are before the throne of God, and they serve Him day and night in His temple, and He that sits upon the throne shall overshadow them. For this reason, not for any merit on their part, but because they accepted the righteousness of Jesus Christ and the white garment of His perfect merit, the perfected saints occupy that place of glory and honor before the throne of God. They are not only new creatures, but they are priests before God, performing the work of their worship before Him in all eternity, without ceasing, since the difference between day and night will then be eliminated. And just as the Shechinah, the cloud of the covenant, hovered over the Tabernacle and over the mercy-seat in the Old Testament with intimate care, thus the presence of God will overshadow the elect in heaven, in order to be united with them in intimate fellowship and to satisfy them with the rich gifts of His house, Psa 36:9; Isa 49:10.
And still more will pertain to the bliss of heaven: They shall no more hunger or thirst, nor shall there strike them the sun or any heat, for the Lamb, which is in the midst of the throne, will be their Shepherd and will direct their way to fountains of living waters; and God shall wipe away every tear from their eyes. These assertions are made with the greatest emphasis. For those that are gathered before the throne of the Lamb hunger and thirst, the time of distress and affliction, are past forever, Isa 49:10. He that has mercy on them shall lead them; even by the springs of water shall He guide them. Never again will the burning rays of the sun, never again will the scorching heat of affliction make their spirits weary. For Jehovah Himself, the Lamb that occupies with the Father the very midst of the heavenly throne, will be the Shepherd that will guide them to the rich pastures of the heavenly blessings; He Himself will lead them beside the still waters of eternal life. He Himself is the bread, the manna, and the water of life, Joh 4:14-15; Joh 6:35; Joh 7:38. He it is that satisfies all hunger and thirst forever. What they have received here on earth in the means of grace, Isa 55:1, they now obtain in richest, endless measure as they see God face to face, as they are partakers of the glory which the Savior gained for them by His redeeming work. Never again will there be a cause for tears in the heavenly home. The last tear that may have remained on their eyelashes, due to the pains of death or martyrdom, will be wiped away, without a trace to show their former misery, Isa 25:8. That is the wonderful, the certain future that awaits the persecuted Church of God when the doors of eternity open. Oh, that this glorious comfort were living in the heart of every believer!
Summary
In the sealing of the servants of God, whose typical number is given, in the scene presenting the countless multitude praising the Lord, in the chorus of the angels, and in the description of the bliss of the saints in heaven the prophet offers the best and most lasting comfort to all believers in all afflictions of this life.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0On vv13, 15clothed with white robes
clothed with white robes
These white robes showed that they were righteous.
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have come out of the great tribulation
"have survived the great tribulation" or "have lived through the great tribulation"
the great tribulation
"the time of terrible suffering" or "the time when people will suffer terribly"
They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb
Being made righteous by the blood of the Lamb is spoken of as washing their robes in his blood. AT: "They have been made righteous by washing their robes white in his blood" (See: Metaphor)
the blood of the Lamb
The word "blood" is used to refer to the death of Lamb. (See: Metonymy)
Tyndale Open Study Notes2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0On vv14–167:14 who died in (literally who came out of):…
7:14 who died in (literally who came out of): See 6:9; 20:4. • the great tribulation: A time of horrible and distressing events (see 1:9; 2:9-10; Deut 4:30-31; Matt 24:21-22; Acts 14:22). • They have washed their robes in the blood of the Lamb: This description symbolizes Christ’s redeeming death for them. • made them white: This description expresses their victory over sin and death and their acceptance by God into eternal life.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv13–15 A passage over unto the expounding of the vision,…
A passage over unto the expounding of the vision, of which the Angel inquireth of S. John to stir him up withal, in this verse and John in the form of speech, both acknowledgeth his own ignorance, attributing knowledge unto the Angel, and also in most modest manner requesteth the expounding of the vision.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv13–17 13 And one of the elders answered, saying unto…
13 And one of the elders answered, saying unto me, What are these which are arrayed in white robes? and whence came they?
Ver. 13. And one of the elders] {See Trapp on "Rev 5:5"}
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 vv13–17 Not that he did not know, but to try…
Not that he did not know, but to try whether John knew, or rather to set John upon inquiring.
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 vv13, 16 As if John had said, One of the elders,…
As if John had said, One of the elders, not out of ignorance as to himself, but out of desire to inform me, asked me, Whether, I knew what these were that stood arrayed in white? And I told him I did not know, but desired him to imform me. He replied, They were such as had suffered great tribulation for Christ, and were now accepted of him, and dignified by him; not for their own worthiness, but for the sake of his sufferings.
Note here, 1. The present state and condition of the church of God, and members of Christ in this world, they are in tribulation, yea, in great tribulation here; as long as there is a devil in hell, and wicked men upon earth, all that will live godly in Christ Jesus must suffer tribulation.
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Note here, 2. The future state which they shall be advanced to, they shall come out of great tribulation; the saints’ sharp sufferings and persecutions shall have a joyful issue and glorious end.
Yet note, 3. That though the cross was the way to the crown, yet the cross did not merit the crown; their sufferings would not, could not, bring them to heaven, without having their souls washed in the blood of the Lamb, much less could their sufferings merit and purchase heaven; but it pleased God of his free grace thus to reward their sufferings. They were washed in the blood of the Lamb, whose blood paid the price of their salvation.
Note, 4. The description which is here given of heaven; it is called a temple, in allusion to the Jewish temple, in which God dwelt of old; as God by his gracious presence dwelt in his temple in heaven; and accordingly the glorified saints in heaven do temple-service, they worship God continually, and serve him day and night.
In allusion, this is probably spoken to the priests standing in the material temple, and serving in their courses night and day, Psa 134:1.
Heaven is a place of employment and service, as well as of pleasure and joy; and the greatest joy results from the greatest service.
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 v13 Here we have a description of the honour and…
Here we have a description of the honour and happiness of those who have faithfully served the Lord Jesus Christ, and suffered for him. Observe,
I. A question asked by one of the elders, not for his own information, but for John's instruction: ministers may learn from the people, especially from aged and experienced Christians; the lowest saint in heaven knows more than the greatest apostle in the world. Now the question has two parts: - 1. What are these that are arrayed in white robes? 2. Whence came they? It seems to be spoken by way of admiration, as Sol 3:6, Who is this that cometh out of the wilderness! Faithful Christians deserve our notice and respect; we should mark the upright.
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II. The answer returned by the apostle, in which he tacitly acknowledges his own ignorance, and sues to this elder for information: Thou knowest. Those who would gain knowledge must not be ashamed to own their ignorance, nor to desire instruction from any that are able to give it.
III. The account given to the apostle concerning that noble army of martyrs who stood before the throne of God in white robes, with palms of victory in their hands: and notice is taken here of, 1. The low and desolate state they had formerly been in; they had been in great tribulation, persecuted by men, tempted by Satan, sometimes troubled in their own spirits; they had suffered the spoiling of their goods, the imprisonment of their persons, yea, the loss of life itself. The way to heaven lies through many tribulations; but tribulation, how great soever, shall not separate us from the love of God. Tribulation, when gone through well, will make heaven more welcome and more glorious. 2. The means by which they had been prepared for the great honour and happiness they now enjoyed: they had washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb, Rev 7:14. 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. Other blood stains; this is the only blood that makes the robes of the saints white and clean. 3. The blessedness to which they are now advanced, being thus prepared for it. (1.) They are happy 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 fulness of joy. (2.) They are happy in their employment, for they serve God continually, and that without weakness, drowsiness, or weariness. Heaven is a state of service, though not of suffering; it is a state of rest, but not of sloth; it is a praising delightful rest. (3.) They are happy in their freedom from all the inconveniences of this present life. [1.] From all want and sense of want: They hunger and thirst no more; all their wants are supplied, and all the uneasiness caused thereby is removed. [2.] From all sickness and pain: they shall never be scorched by the heat of the sun any more. (4.) They are happy in the love and guidance of the Lord Jesus: He shall feed them, he shall lead them to living fountains of waters, he shall put them into the possession of every thing that is pleasant and refreshing to their souls, and therefore they shall hunger and thirst no more. (5.) They are happy in being delivered from all sorrow or occasion of it: God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes. They have formerly had their sorrows, and shed many tears, both upon the account of sin and affliction; but God himself, with his own gentle and gracious hand, will wipe those tears away, and they shall return no more for ever; and they would not have been without those tears, when God comes to wipe them away. In this he deals with them as a tender father who finds his beloved child in tears, he comforts him, he wipes his eyes, and turns his sorrow into rejoicing. This should moderate the Christian's sorrow in his present state, and support him under all the troubles of it; for those that sow in tears shall reap in joy; and those that now go forth weeping, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again rejoicing, bringing their sheaves with them.
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 vv13–17 And one of the elders answered, saying unto me,....…
And one of the elders answered, saying unto me,.... This elder was not the Apostle Peter, as some Popish interpreters have thought; and still less Pope Silvester, who lived in the times of Constantine; be is much more likely, according to others, to be Constantine himself, the first of the elders, or the chief magistrate when the church sprung out of its troubles, and enjoyed rest and peace; though some have thought of the prophet Isaiah, since many things said by this elder are to be found in his prophecy; compare Rev 7:14; with Isa 1:18; but it is needless to inquire who the particular person was; it is enough to say, that he was one of the four and twenty elders about the throne, one that belonged to the church, perhaps the same as in Rev 5:5; who, in a visionary way, is represented as accosting John upon the above sight. The word "answered" is a common Hebraism of the New Testament, which is often used when nothing goes before, to which a return is made; and only signifies here, that the elder opened his month, began to speak, and called to John, and said as follows:
what are these which are arrayed in white robes? and whence came they? This he said, not as being ignorant of them, or of the reason of their being clothed in this manner, nor of the place and state from whence they came, as appears by the account afterwards given of them by him; but to stir up John to take more notice of them, as being a body of men that were worthy of observation and contemplation, and were worth his while to consider well who they were, and from whence they came; and also to try him whether he knew them or not, and to bring him to a confession of his ignorance; and that he might have an opportunity of giving him some hints about them, which might be useful to him, and to the churches, and for the explanation of this vision, and other parts of this prophecy.
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 vv13–17 And one of the elders - What stands, verses…
And one of the elders - What stands, verses 13-17, ver. 13-17 might have immediately followed the tenth verse; but that the praise of the angels, which was at the same time with that of the "great multitude," came in between. Answered - He answered St. John's desire to know, not any words that he spoke.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv13–17 Verse 13. One of the elders answered] A Hebraism…
Verse 13. One of the elders answered] A Hebraism for spoke. The question is here asked, that the proposer may have the opportunity of answering it.
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 v13 Rev 7:13-17. And one of the elders, &c. —…
Rev 7:13-17. And one of the elders, &c. — What is here related, to Rev 7:17, might have immediately followed the tenth verse; but that the praise of the angels, which was given at the same time with that of the great multitude, came in between: answered — That is, he answered St. John’s desire to know, not to any words the apostle spoke. Or, in order to give him a more exact information concerning the persons who were clothed in the white robes of purity, honour, and dignity, one of the elders led him on by a question to ask of him a fuller account of them. What are these which are arrayed in white robes? — And make such a splendid appearance; and whence came, or come, they? And, believing the question to be asked in order to quicken my attention to what he had to tell me concerning them, I said, Sir, thou knowest — Though I do not. And he said, &c. — These persons, whom you behold appearing in their state of honour and happiness, are they which came — Or come, as οι ερχομενοι rather signifies; out of great tribulation — They were very lately in a state of great affliction and suffering, for the sake of their faith and constancy; but, having kept the faith, they have received the blessings which Christ obtained by his blood for his church and faithful people. Yet these could not be all martyrs, for the martyrs could not be such a multitude as no man could number. But as all the angels appear here, so probably did all the souls of the righteous, who had lived from the beginning of the world. All these may be said, more or less, to come out of great tribulation,, of various kinds, wisely and graciously allotted by God to all his children; and have washed their robes — From all guilt; and made them white — In all purity and holiness; in, or by, the blood of the Lamb — Through which alone we obtain remission of sins, and the influences of the sanctifying Spirit, so that they are advanced to the state of glory and happiness in which you see them. Therefore — Because they came out of great affliction, and have washed their robes in Christ’s blood; are they before the throne of God — It seems even nearer than the angels; and serve him, day and night — Speaking after the manner of men; that is, continually; in his temple — In heaven; and he that sitteth on the throve shall dwell among them — Σκηνωσει επ αυτους, shall have his tent over them: shall spread his glory over them as a covering. They shall hunger no more — They shall be no more subject to any of their former infirmities, wants, or afflictions; neither shall the sun light on them, &c. — None of the natural or common evils of the world below shall reach them any more. For the Lamb who is in the midst of the throne shall feed them — With eternal peace and joy, so that they shall hunger no more; and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters — The comforts of the Holy Spirit, so that they shall thirst no more; neither shall they grieve any more, for God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes — Every sorrow, with every cause of sorrow, shall be fully taken away for ever.
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 vv13–17 And one of the elders - See the notes…
And one of the elders - See the notes on Rev 4:4. That is, as there understood, one of the representatives of the church before the throne.
Answered - The word “answer,” with us, means “to reply to something which has been said.” In the Bible, however, the word is not infrequently used in the beginning of a speech, where nothing has been said - as if it were a reply to something that might be said on the subject; or to something that is passing through the mind of another; or to something in the case under consideration which suggests an inquiry. Compare Isa 65:24; Dan 2:26; Act 5:8. Thus it is used here. John was looking on the host, and reflecting on the state of things; and to the train of thought passing through his mind the angel answered by an inquiry as to a part of that host. Prof. Stuart renders it accosted me.
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What are these which are arrayed in white robes? - Who are these? The object evidently is to bring the case of these persons more particularly into view. The vast host with branches of palm had attracted the attention of John, but it was the object of the speaker to turn his thoughts to a particular part of the host - the martyrs who stood among them. He would seem, therefore, to have turned to a particular portion of the immense multitude of the redeemed, and by an emphasis on the word these - “Who are these” - to have fixed the eye upon them. All those who are before the throne are represented as clothed in white robes Rev 7:9, but the eye might be directed to a particular part of them as grouped together, and as having something special in their position or appearance. There was a propriety in thus directing the mind of John to the martyrs as triumphing in heaven in a time when the churches were suffering persecution, and in view of the vision which he had had of times of darkness and calamity coming upon the world at the opening of the sixth seal. Beyond all the scenes of sorrow and grief, he was permitted to see the martyrs triumphing in heaven.
Arrayed in white robes - See the notes on Rev 7:9.
And whence came they? - The object is to fix the attention more distinctly on what is said of them, that they came up out of great tribulation.
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 vv14, 15, 17 White in the blood of the Lamb. That is,…
White in the blood of the Lamb. That is, they have been cleansed and purified from sin, by the death, merits, and grace of Christ crucified. (Witham) --- The whole of this verse must be understood in a mystical sense, for we are said to make our garments white in the blood of the Lamb, when we enter into his Church by baptism, or wash away our sins by penance or martyrdom. (Calmet)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv13–17 answered--namely, to my thoughts; spoke, asking the question which…
answered--namely, to my thoughts; spoke, asking the question which might have been expected to arise in John's mind from what has gone before. One of the twenty-four elders, representing the Old and New Testament ministry, appropriately acts as interpreter of this vision of the glorified Church.
What, &c.--Greek order, "These which are arrayed in white robes, WHO are they?"
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 vv13–17 d. ELDER’S explanation, and glorious picture of their HEAVENLY…
d. ELDER’S explanation, and glorious picture of their HEAVENLY STATE, Rev_7:13-17.
13. One of the elders—It was fitting that one of the representatives of the Church should unfold the mysteries of the Church triumphant. Nor must we puzzle ourselves to know how one of the circle of elders, enveloped in the crowd of the great multitude, and that girt round with the circle of countless angels, could address an outsider, as John, who stands surveying the whole assemblage. Allow the freedom of a celestial vision. The inner circles within the outer circles can transparently be seen with the supernatural eye, for the outer circles are transparent, though visible to its glance. And in the spirit-land distance is no obstacle to utterance and hearing. Celestials (and John was now a pro tem. celestial) can converse without voice, by pure impartation of thought. See our note on 2Co_12:4.
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Answered—He answered the unuttered questionings expressed in John’s eyes. So in Act_3:12, Peter answered the “wondering” of the crowd in Solomon’s porch.
What—The angel answers by first stating John’s mental question. The Greek is more elegant than our English. These, the arrayed in robes white, who are they, and whence came they? “In this,” says Bede, “he interrogates that he may teach.” Often the most skilful interrogator is the wisest teacher. Wetstein remarks that these questions occur in both Homer and Virgil as the ordinary queries put by ancient hospitality to strangers. Such was the early habit in America, as foreign travellers often tauntingly reported. Yet one English traveller justly remarked, that such questions had a different sound in our Western wilds from similar ones in the streets of London.
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 vv13–16 13. one of the elders] See on Rev_5:5. We…
13. one of the elders] See on Rev_5:5. We have similarly “one (no matter which) of the seven Angels” in Rev_17:1, Rev_21:9.
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 vv13–17 (13) And one of the elders answered, saying unto…
(13) And one of the elders answered, saying unto me.—The seer had asked no question, but the elder answers the wondering thoughts and questionings which fill his mind. Perhaps this scene was in Dante’s mind when he described himself in Paradise:
“Silent was I, yet desire
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Was painted in my looks; and thus I spake
My wish more earnestly than language could.”
—Paradiso, iv. 10-12.
The elder asks the question which he knows St. John would fain ask. These who are clothed in white robes, who are they, and whence came they? The question brings the white robes into prominence. Is it, as has been suggested, that the wonder of the seer is excited more by the emblem of holiness and innocence than anything else? He recognises the multitudes as men and women out of every nation and tribe of sinful humanity, and he sees them clothed in the garb of holiness. Who are these countless throngs of holy ones?
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 vv13–17 And one of the elders answered. The elder speaks…
And one of the elders answered. The elder speaks because he is typical of the Church, concerning which the exposition which he delivers is to be made. (see on Rev_4:4) Where an explanation is made of visions which refer to the Church, the active part is taken by the elders, while angels introduce visions of which the signification is unexplained. (cf. Rev_5:2 Rev_7:1, 2 Re 8 10:1, 3, etc.; and Rev_5:5) Saying unto me, What are these which are arrayed in white robes? and whence came they? The elder questions that he may teach (Bede).
Vers. 13-17. The eternal blessedness.
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The vision is yet heightened. A further brightness overspreads the scene, The comfort of hope is yet expanded. Arrested by one of the elders, the seer lowlily refrains from declaring who constitute the triumphant host, and receives the consoling assurance that they are from the fields of earthly suffering, toil, and danger. They are now exalted far above all worldly power. The final blessedness of the righteous is
I BLESSEDNESS FOR WHICH THEY ARE PREPARED BY EARTHLY TRIBULATION. Even the rugged ways of earthly obedience lead to heaven"s gates. But all toil and tribulation are o"er.
II The final blessedness is BASED ON AN ATTAINED SANCTITY. "They have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.
III This blessedness INCLUDES:
1. Recognition. They are "before the throne of God.
2. Perpetual service. They serve God "day and night in his temple.
3. They enjoy the perfect protection of the Divine presence.
"He that sitteth on the throne shall spread his tabernacle over them.
IV IT SECURES THEM EXEMPTION FROM THE SORROWS OF THE EARTHLY LIFE. "They hunger no more, neither thirst any more," nor shall the sun or any heat strike upon them.
V THE FINAL BLESSEDNESS OF THE RIGHTEOUS HAS ITS FRUITION IN A GRACIOUS ALLIANCE WITH THE ETERNAL The Lamb "shall be their Shepherd," and shall guide them to the perpetual fountains of life and felicity; and God shall himself exempt them from all further sorrow or suffering. He "shall wipe away every tear from their eyes." Thus every trace of the tribulation of earth shall be removed; and blessedness of the highest possible character shall be the final lot of them who now endure for truth"s sake. Thus in the midst of the earthly raging power is the persecuted Church of God assured, in all ages, of a final, a certain, and an ample recompense. R.G.
Vers. 13-17. The human population in heaven (No. 2).
"And one of the elders answered, saying unto me, What are these which are arrayed in white robes? and whence came they?" etc. Here is an illustration of three facts in connection with the human population in heaven.
I THEIR EARTHLY LIFE WAS MARKED BY GREAT TRIAL. "And one of the elders answered, saying unto me, What are these which are arrayed in white robes? these which are arrayed in the white robes, who are they? and whence came they? And I said say unto him, Sir my lord, thou knowest. And he said to me, These are they which came come out of the great tribulation." An elder in those realms struck, it may be, with certain peculiarities in their appearance and worship puts to John the interrogatory what they were, and whence they came, and the reply he receives is that they had come out of "great tribulation." Tribulation is the common lot of humanity, and ever the discipline of the good.
1. This should teach us contentment under our trials. "No temptation hath happened," etc.
2. This should inspire us with magnanimity under our trials. The tribulations are useful. Like the gales of the mariner, they bear us away from scenes on which our heart is set. The darkest thunder cloud terrifies but for an hour; it soon passes away, and leaves the air clearer and the heavens brighter than before.
II THEIR CELESTIAL CIRCUMSTANCES ARE PRE-EMINENTLY GLORIOUS. "Have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb." Look at:
1. Their appearance. In white robes, emblems of purity and conquest.
2. Their position. "They are before the throne." A throne is the emblem of regal authority, and before this throne we are always appearing in this life, but we are not conscious of it. Their employment. "Serve him day and night;" indicating the entire consecration of their time and powers. They serve him in every department of action. Serve him lovingly, wholly, and constantly.
3. Their companionship. "He that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among spread his tabernacle over them." They enjoy intimate communion with the Sovereign of all.
4. Their blessedness. "They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; ... and God shall wipe away all tears." They are freed from evil, and brought into the full enjoyment of all blessedness.
III THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE EARTHLY AND HEAVENLY CONDITION IS ATTRIBUTABLE TO CHRIST. "They have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore are they before the throne." Three things are implied:
1. That they were originally polluted.
2. That the self-sacrificing love of Christ has a purifying influence.
3. That their cleansing by this influence had taken place when on earth.
CONCLUSION. Mark well the "therefore" of the text. Why are men so different in heaven to what they are on earth in character, circumstances, spirit, different? Not because of the priestly services Of any sect, nor because of their own intellectual attainments, but because they have had their "robes washed in the blood of the Lamb;" it is because of Christ they are in heaven. 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 vv13, 15, 16 What are these which are arrayed in white robes.
Rev_7:13-14
What are these which are arrayed in white robes.
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What and whence are these?
I. Concerning the bright spirits in heaven--whence came they? These are they which came out of great tribulation.
1. They were then like ourselves, for, in the first place, they were tried like others.
(1) The saints now glorified were not screened from sorrow. I saw to-day a number of lovely flowers; they were as delightful in this month of February as they would have been in the midst of summer; but I did not ask, Whence came they? I know very well that they were the products of the conservatory; they had not been raised amid the frosts of this chill season, else they had not bloomed as yet. But when I look upon Gods flowers blooming in heaven, I understand from the voice of inspiration that they enjoyed no immunity from the chill breath of grief; they were made to bloom by the master hand of the Chief Husbandman, in all their glory, amid the adversities and catastrophes which are common to men.
(2) They were not even screened from temptation. To the child of God, temptation to sin is a greater grievance than the suffering of pain. Storms on any sea are to be dreaded; but a whirlwind raised by Satan on the black sea of corruption is horrible beyond conception. Yet, do not say you cannot enter heaven because you are tempted, for all those snow-white bands attained their glorious standing through much temptation, as well as through much affliction.
(3) They were men who as keenly felt trial and temptation as we do. Good men, because they are good, are not the less sorrowful when their beloved ones are taken from them: gracious men are not by grace petrified so as to despise the chastening of the Lord. Jacob mourned for Rachel, and David for Jonathan. Peter wept bitterly, and Paul had continual heaviness. Tribulations abounded and afflictions were multiplied to the first disciples, and we wrong both themselves and us if we dream that it was easier for them to suffer than for us. I grant you that they possessed a secret something which enabled them to endure, but that something was not homeborn in their nature any more than it is in ours. They were fortified by a secret strength which they found at the throne of God in prayer, a patience which the Holy Ghost wrought in them, and which He is equally ready to work in us.
2. The saints who are now in heaven needed trial like others. To what end do men need tribulation? We reply, they often require it to arouse them; and yonder saints who serve God day and night in His temple, once slept as do others, and needed to be bestirred. They required adversity to educate them into complete manhood, for they, too, were once babes in grace. They needed tribulation, moreover, that they might be made like their Saviour.
3. The children of God who are in heaven in their trials had no other support than that which is still afforded to all the saints.
4. If there was any difference between those saints and ourselves, it lay in their enduring superior tribulations, for these are they that came out of great tribulation.
II. What are these? The reply was, They have washed their robes, etc.
1. All those in heaven were sinners, for they all needed to wash their robes.
2. All who are in heaven needed an atonement, and the same atonement as we rely upon. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Not one of them became white through his tears of repentance, not one through the shedding of the blood of bulls or of goats.
3. The saints in heaven realised the atonement in the same way as we must do. The act which gave them the virtue which lies in the atonement was the act of faith. There is nothing to do, and nothing to feel, and nothing to be, in order to forgiveness; we have but to wash and the filth is gone.
III. Now, what of all this? Why, first of all, we must not draw the conclusion that trouble and temptation are any argument that a man will get to heaven. I add a caution. I would, however, have you learn that no amount of trial which we have to suffer here, if we are believers in Jesus, should lead us to anything like despair, for however trouble may encompass us to-day, those in heaven came through as great a tribulation, and why may not we? (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Whence come the saints?
Whence came they? Heaven, then, itself has a retrospect as well as a fruition. Heaven itself is a sequel and a consequence as well as a fact, and a present. Heaven is an arrival; heaven is a development; heaven is a result, in one aspect, however infinite its capacities of attainments beyond. Whence came they? Then they were somewhere before. These same persons, different as they are, transfigured as they are from anything that we see, yet were once here. We have seen such persons; we have talked with some of them. The dark river was known not to them, and it was no unmaking and remaking of them to us. Whence came they? They came from this earth, and they are perfected. But the question as It is answered in the context has a fuller meaning than this--it pre-supposes this, and passes on. From earth, of course is the answer, but from earth how conditioned and how used? Heaven is a sequel and a consequence--a consequence of what sort of earth? Heaven is a consummation, though never itself to be consummated. Then of what experience is it the consummation? He calls it two things: two only--pain and purification. These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes. The simplicity, the brevity of the answer may surprise us? Whence came they? We might have expected in answer, From every possible variety of condition, private or public, humble or conspicuous, adverse or prosperous; wealth and length of days, or else sickness, privation, distress, and woe. Not so. The kind of earth from which they came was one and but one. These are they that came out of great tribulation. Pain, then, is the common feature of the earth, of which the terminus is heaven. It is a thought which has exercised Christian people, and we cannot wonder at it. If those who wear the white robes came out of great tribulation, what prospect is there for me to whom tribulation is an experience unknown? The question ought to press upon us. It is easy to say, You cannot force, you need not invite, and you must not simulate pain. If pain does not come the fault is not yours. Pain may be on its way--you must bear it when it comes. This is true, but it is not all the truth. If life smiles on you personally, if it supplies your abundant needs, if its occupations are pleasant, if its friends are many, if its bereavements are few and far between; if, therefore, you cannot affect not to be happy, it is plain that as regards yourself, the only two questions on this head can be--Are you thankful? and Are you kind? Do you receive your blessings from God, and do you share them generously with men? But much more than this. The compass of pain is not thus limited. If neither bodily pain nor mental is yours, we go on to ask, What of spiritual? Is it no pain to feel myself so sinful, that when I would do good evil is present with me; when I would feel the wonderful love there is no response; when I would mount up into the heaven, which is Gods, I faint, and fall back into the dreamy world where God is not? But while spiritual pain is one kind, one ingredient of the great tribulation, there is another--the purely unselfish pain: the pain which looks upon the animate creation groaning in travail, and travails in pain with it; the pain which looks on this anguished England, with food not enough, and work not enough for its toiling millions; feels, too, with the foolish misled dupes of the so-called sympathy or philosophy which leads them on to quagmires and quicksands unfathomable. Yes, there is an unselfish as well as a spiritual tribulation; and I think some of the white-robed in heaven have come out of it. So, then, pain is one of the two earths out of which heaven is made. Now for the other. We have called it in one word, purification. They washed their robes down here and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Purification: the being made white; Oh, who shall give me that for this black thing, this spotted, sullied, sordid blackening which is all around me? I feel it, I am ashamed, I am unhappy. Oh, for the whiteness, oh, for purification. Is it a name; is it a dream; or is it a reality? These white-robed ones in heaven, they have it; nay, they had it down here. So then justification, which is in other words the forgiveness of sins, sets in motion sanctification, which is purification, too. But, lastly, we would bid you all ask, are you in process of purification? Who can say, a Scriptural writer asks, Who can say I have made my heart clean? I am pure from my sin? (Dean Vaughan.)
Final blessedness of the saints
I. The previous condition of the persons here presented to Johns notice. One unacquainted with Gods ways, or with the history of our race, would have been, perhaps, ready to conclude that, in their journey hither, their path had been strewed with flowers and gladdened with perpetual sunshine. This we ourselves would be apt to desire. But the ways of God are not as our ways, nor His thoughts as our thoughts. The zeal of saints for the truth of God; their opposition to the sinful practices which abounded around them; their diligence in the cultivation of holy affections; and their zeal in the discharge of private and public duties--all standing forth in marked contrast with the maxims and customs of a world lying in wickedness--have ever exposed them to innumerable trials, to reproaches, and sufferings. In addition to the causes of tribulation which we have now specified as the peculiar lot of the Christian, I mention farther the remains of sin within him.
II. The means by which they have attained their present state.
III. This blessedness of which these saints are represented as partakers. (James Clayson.)
The worshippers in the heavenly temple
I. The temple here spoken of. It is a heavenly temple; a holy place, standing not on this perishable world, but on the everlasting hills of heaven. All other temples have been erected by man, but this temple has been built by Jehovah Himself, to be the eternal dwelling place of His Church, and the seat of His own glorious throne. The most glowing descriptions that language can convey, and the most exalted conceptions to which our imaginations can reach, fall infinitely short of that dazzling splendour which fills the courts of the living God. The world which we inhabit, though defiled by sin and under the curse of God, has yet so much beauty and magnificence in it, that we are often delighted and astonished as we contemplate its scenes. What, then, must be the glory of that world which has never felt the polluting touch of sin, which was prepared before the foundations of the earth were laid? Happy are they who dwell in such a templet Blessed is the man who is but a doorkeeper in such a house!
II. The happy beings who are the worshippers in this splendid temple.
1. The former condition of these worshippers.
(1) It was an earthly condition. They were not, like the angels, always in this house. They were natives of an apostate world.
(2) Their condition, too, was a sinful one. There is not one among them who was not a transgressor while on earth, and who has not to this very hour a remembrance of his guilt.
(3) They were also in an afflicted condition. Many of them came here out of a state of peculiar distress and suffering.
2. Their present condition.
(1) It is a state of peace, a state of freedom from pain and sorrow. The billows of adversity which once filled them with fear still swell and rage, but they are all raging far beneath them, and can never again toss them with their waves.
(2) It is also a state of purity. They have washed their robes, etc. They were indeed continually contracting fresh defilement as long as they remained on earth, and were constrained to wash again and again in the same fountain that cleansed them at first; but if this fountain had left the unpardoned guilt of only one sin upon their souls, that one sin would have disqualified them for the pure services of the habitation of God, and have barred for ever its sacred doors against them. This free and full pardon of sin is not, however, the only blessing which the heavenly worshippers have obtained through the blood of the Lamb. The same fountain that freed them from the guilt of sin, washed away sin itself, and freed them from its power. Not that they were at once brought into this state of perfect purity. Years passed away before some of them were completely sanctified, and made meet to minister among the saints in light; and they were all harassed to their dying hour, in a greater or less degree, with the struggling corruptions of their evil hearts. But sin could not follow them beyond the grave.
(3) The state of these worshippers in the temple of God is one of triumph. They have palms in their hands.
3. The greatness of their number. Satan does not number among his subjects all the inhabitants of our globe. The Redeemer has a people on the earth. Who can tell how many an humble Christian has been travelling to the land of rest, while almost all around him, and even the honoured instrument that first turned his soul to God, have been ignorant of his faith?
Lesson:
1. The gospel of Christ does not promise to its followers any exemption from the calamities of life.
2. How great is the contrast between the present and the future condition of the followers of Jesus!
3. A loud call to self-examination. (C. Bradley, M. A.)
White robes
I. The white robes of innocence. The devil stains our souls. The world, too, stains them. Alas! we stain them by our own folly and fault.
II. The white robes of promise. These are the baptismal robes.
III. The white robes of cleansing. God gives us not one start alone in life; He gives us many. We make our promises, and we break them. But God never bids us give up hope. Try to do better. Lift up your hearts.
IV. The white robes of victory. It will not always be striving here. It will not always be staining our robes and cleansing them anew, and then, alas! staining them once more. If we persevere, we shall win. It is not failing to succeed which is so bad, but failing to try. And all who try, however feeble they may be, however often they may give in to the forces against them, shall at the last stand … clothed with white robes, etc. (J. E. C. Welldon, M. A.)
The human population in heaven
I. Their earthly life was marked by great trial.
1. This should teach us contentment under our trials.
2. This should inspire us with magnanimity under our trials.
II. Their celestial circumstances are pre-eminently glorious.
1. Their appearance.
2. Their employment.
3. Their companionship.
4. Their blessedness.
III. The difference between the earthly and heavenly condition is attributable to Christ.
1. They were originally polluted.
2. The self-sacrifice of Christ has a purifying influence.
3. Their cleansing by this influence had taken place when on earth. (D. Thomas, D. D.)
The sainted in heaven
I. The beings to whom attention is directed. They were not the unfallen, in other words, the natives of that better country: they were redeemed human spirits. They were born of human parentage, and nursed upon a human breast. Their first expression on coming into existence was a wail, and their last, perhaps, a groan. And between those periods they had known their share of human suffering. If they had suffered, they had also sinned. No lingerers on the margin of wrong, no prodigals of a day, they had wandered into a far country, and theirs had been the alienation of years. And, if they had sinned, they had repented under the influence of the Holy Ghost; their hearts had turned in longing towards their Fathers house. Nor had their experience ended here. Young Christians, in the first joy of forgiveness, are apt to think heaven very near to them--that the celestial shores will soon loom upon their view. In passing through a Christian career, there are trials to be endured, Men were they of whom the world was not worthy. Into their labours we have entered. The harvests of their life we reap. They came out of great tribulation. Again, they went to heaven by the way of death.
II. Their position and glorious appearance.
1. They are before the throne of God. The meaning of the throne of God we know not. Heaven is said to be His throne, and earth His footstool. The presence of His infinite nature is diffused throughout all things; but, purged from the grossness of earth, the glorified have a more vivid sense of His presence than is given us. Then notice their glorious appearance: Clothed in white robes
(1) As being typical of their parity. No evil is there lurking within the blessed, and they shrink not beneath the Divine scrutiny.
(2) White robes are significant of triumph.
(3) White robes are significant of rest. The man who has laboured throws aside the garments worn in toil, and puts on others in which to repose. In this world, the condition of the Christian is not that of rest but of labour.
III. The employment of the redeemed. A very natural thought is that contained in the line of the American poet, when, speaking of a departed friend, he says: Day after day we think what she is doing. The rest of heaven is not that of death, but of infinite life. The repose of the redeemed does not consist in cessation from employ, but rather in the constant prosecution of congenial labour. Multiform will be the character of life in heaven.
1. There will be social life. There the golden chain of love will link all souls together, binding them to the throne of God. There a feeling of common love will flow through every heart. All will be at home.
2. There will be an intellectual life. The glory of man is his mind. To cultivate this stands among the highest duties of the present life. The present is the infancy of our being, but there is before us a majestic maturity.
3. The employment of heaven will be religious. In this, more than even his intellectual nature, man is capable of unlimited improvement. Even in this life no bounds can be set to faith, and hope, and love, so will it be in the future. Oh, it overwhelms us to think of the position of unfallen spirits, our brain grows dizzy from the height, our eyes dazzle in the excess of glory. Yet is there no altitude where created being now stands, but what man may attain to in the upward career of his moral progress, and for ever; and for ever will he continue to advance through the infinitudes of his natures possibilities. (S. Clarke.)
The blessed state of the redeemed
I. The condition out of which the redeemed have come.
1. They came out of a state of tribulation. Man is born to trouble as the sparks fly upward.
(1) Disease, perhaps, sows its poisonous seeds in his frame.
(2) Death bereaves him of those who were the desire of his eyes.
(3) Adverse providences involve him in disappointment and indigence; the malice of men, in vexation and disgrace; and his own errors and imprudence in inextricable difficulties.
(4) Existence itself may become a burden through a complication of calamities.
(5) It is generally thought, however, that there is here an allusion to those sorrows which are peculiar to Christians. Like Stephen, they winged their way from martyrdom to the presence of God.
2. They came out of a state of impurity. The earth on which they dwelt is one wide scene of disobedience and rebellion against the Majesty of the universe. The taint of moral pollution adheres to all its intelligent inhabitants, and introduces disorder into its very frame.
II. The means by which the redeemed have been advanced to glory.
1. By washing their robes, and making them white in the blood of the Lamb, they acquired a title to be before the throne.
2. By washing their robes, and making them white in the blood of the Lamb, they acquired a meetness to be before the throne. They are freed from their inability to love and enjoy God; they are blessed with an incipient and growing meetness for heaven.
III. The nature of the felicity to which they are exalted.
1. They are raised to an exalted station. Those before the throne of God witness His glory in its brightest manifestations, and enjoy the most intimate communion with the Father of their spirits. The near sight which they obtain of God gives them more distinct apprehensions of His nature--produces more complete assimilation to His image, and fills with livelier joy. The servants who stood in the presence of Solomon must have caught something of the wisdom of their master; and those who are before the throne of God, cannot fail to advance in everything heavenly and divine.
2. They are engaged in the most exalted employments.
3. They are freed from all the infirmities, imperfections, and sufferings of the present life.
4. They make continual advances in the knowledge and enjoyment of God. (J. Kirkwood, M. A.)
All Saints Day a witness of grace
Putting aside those festivals in the Churchs year which speak to us of the life and death of our Blessed Lord, there is no festival so sublime as that which we keep to-day. We commemorate to-day, not the life of any one servant of God, but the life and example of all; of those whose very names we know not, save that we know that they are written in the Book of Life. There is a threefold lesson which speaks to all of us through this festival.
1. The lesson of faith. Especially is this a festival which tells of faith, inasmuch as, above all others, it bridges over the gulf which separates this world from the world beyond the grave. This life is to the future state what the bud is to the flower, the blade in the ear to the full corn. This is a truth of especial importance to us to-day, when we commemorate the faithful dead, whose warfare is accomplished. For it teaches us that there is a real fellowship between them and us; that their relation to us is not done away by death; that their souls are not sleeping idly; that they are living more truly, and in a nobler sense, than we ourselves. In this world, men of noble birth desire--and a right feeling it surely is--to keep the brightness of their name untarnished, not to disgrace the title which their fathers bore. My ancestors, such an one will say, were brave and pure; they helped to vindicate liberty; I will try to be not less brave, not less upright, not less generous and true, than they. Canst thou remember this, O Christian, and forget of what spiritual lineage thou art come? so noble, so pure, so ancient, that by its side the noblest title of this world is but of yesterday? that thou art of the communion of Gods saints, and they thy fathers and ancestors in the faith? Canst thou remain cowardly, remembering that they were brave?
2. But again, the doctrine of this festival is a witness for Christian endurance. It is difficult not to feel sad when we think what multitudes of our fellow-creatures are living sordid burdened lives, whose earthly course seems little else than a constant round of suffering and care. Yet let us observe, that wherever a ray of light shines in on this mystery of suffering, it is from the blessed thought of a life unseen. Or, take the case of one, whose life is often burdened by a consciousness of sin--who finds himself compassed with infirmity; who is often wearied of this constant struggle against besetting sins, Oh, blessed day, such an one may well say, when this strife shall cease; when God in His pardoning mercy shall make me to become that which I long and pray to be.
3. But again, this blessed festival, inasmuch as it thus throws rays of brightness on the sorrows of earth, teaches us a lesson of final perseverance and spiritual joy. We need to remember that in the dreariest November, the gloomiest days of the decaying year, there still stands out a festival of summer gladness, telling of that meeting beyond the grave, where no parting shall ever mar the unity of perfect love; that gathering on the eternal shore, as when the apostles beheld on the shore of the Lake of Galilee the presence of their risen Lord. (J. S. Bartlett, M. A.)
All Saints Day
We are not the first travellers; we are followers of those who have inherited the promises; and, far as the eye can reach, there is one long line of precursors all looking back to assure us that the proposed path is the right. Shall it then be questioned, that the greatest confirmation for faith is to be obtained from the memories of the worthies who have tried and verified the Christian religion? If there were a flaw in its proofs, it must have been long ago detected: if there were forgery in its documents, it must have been long ago exposed. And now how mighty are the external evidences of Christianity--evidences which the labours and events of centuries have piled up as an impregnable bulwark. It is enough for my private conviction, that Christianity is eighteen hundred years old. But this only applies generally to the truth of Christianity. Suppose me convinced of its truth, then how is my faith strengthened by the memory of those who have gone before me to heaven? We reply at once, that whatever mans theoretical persuasion that Christianity is from God, there will be nothing like a practical exhibition of its energy to prevail on him to put faith in its disclosures. The great object of Christianity is to induce me to throw aside all dependence on my own moral strength, and to trust implicitly to the merits of a surety. If I will, indeed, do this, I shall find myself strengthened for conflict with my own evil nature, and at last made more than a conqueror over sin and the grave. Yet there may be misgiving, and if we were the first to put the promises to the proof, we might almost be pardoned for hesitating ere we dared take them to ourselves. The very greatness of the thing promised, and the smallness of the condition prescribed, might cause us to question whether we had not been deceived in concluding the Bible divine. And, therefore, oh, for the history of men who have made the experiment, and proved by experience that believers in Christ gain all which is promised! Here it is that we are vastly advantaged by being followers instead of forerunners in the Christian course. You cannot show me a promise in the Bible of whose fulfilment I cannot bring you evidence in the registered experience of some believer in Christ. Does the promise refer to support in affliction? Then what is that voice that rolls in upon us from the caves of the earth, where the persecuted have taken refuge--God is a very present help, a most strong tower to all who flee to Him for refuge? Is the promise that of immortality--glorious announcements that entrance shall be ministered abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our God and Saviour? Indeed, you may tell me that no biography can exhibit the fulfilment of this promise. I cannot track the burning flight of the emancipated spirit delivered from the flesh, and launched into immortality. We own this. But, nevertheless, we can show you that these promises have sustained men in the very hour of dissolution. And though this does not show you that the promises are made good after death, yet proving them accomplished up to the very moment at which our inspection must cease, proving that they die not when everything that has not in it the breath of immortality does die, we call it nothing better than evasion, if you would plead the want of evidence of its fulfilment, because we cannot with our eyes of sense pierce the deep secrets of futurity. Now, hitherto we have spoken only of that confirmation of faith which is derivable from the experience of the righteous whom we this day commemorate; but let us now briefly consider how we may be strengthened also in patience; for those who are clothed in white robes are they who came out of great tribulation. The fact that afflictions have been the portion of the faithful should remove all surprise that we ourselves have to wrestle with sorrow; the fact that God hath not forsaken the faithful, but brought good out of evil, should scatter all fears that we may be left to perish in our distress. And what will they reply if we ask them whether they regret what they suffered for Christ, or whether, if they had to live over again, they would wish to pass through the same painful discipline? Oh! for melodious sounds in which to syllable their answers. The harshness of human speech ill suits the music of their whispers. They tell you with one voice, one peal of grateful acknowledgment, that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory revealed in them. (H. Melvill, B. D.)
Saints made from sinners
Professor Hy. Drummond addressing a meeting, said that as he walked through the city that morning, he had noticed a cloud like a pure snow-white bank resting over the slums. Whence came it? The great sun had sent down its beams into the city, and the beams had gone among the puddles, even the nauseous puddles and drawn out of them what they needed, and taken it aloft, and purified it, and there it was, above the city a cloud as white as snow! And God, said the professor, can make His saints, who walk in white, out of material equally unfavourable; He can make a white cloud out of a puddle, He can make saints out of the most depraved. (J. H. Jowett, M. A.)
These are they which came out of great tribulation.--
The ministration of suffering
Let us, in some few points, contrast suffering on earth with its fruits in heaven.
1. Earthly suffering seems to come either as a vengeance or as a calamity upon men. It is still a surprise until we have been long wonted to it. But the heavenly side, as disclosed in the apocalyptic vision, shows that suffering ordinarily comes neither as a vengeance nor as a calamity; for, although we may understand that God sometimes employs suffering for purposes of punishment, yet such an employment of it is special. Suffering is intercalated upon the course of nature, and is part of a universal experience. Storms may be most destroying, overflowing the land, tearing up foundations, sweeping away bridges, and submerging harvests; but this result of storms is exceptional. The fall of rain and the sweep of winds are part of the economy of mercy. It is not for destruction, but for benefit. And so sufferings may, at times, in the hands of God, be punitive, but ordinarily they are not. Suffering is intended to make us let go of things that are lower, and to rise a grade higher. Here it seems as if God were angry; but in heaven it is seen that He was dealing in mercy. Here it seems as if great disaster had overwhelmed us; but there the breaking of the cloud over us appears as the waters of a bath from which we shall emerge purer, cleaner, and more manly.
2. Suffering seems to some contrary to the course of nature; an interruption and violation of natural order; but the revelation of the effects of suffering upon the future state shows that it is in accordance with the course of nature. It would seem rational to suppose that God built the enginery of the human mind for happiness; that the way of growth ought not to be through bafflings; that men should not find their stability by overthrow, and their liberty by restraint. At first view everything apparently tends towards freedom and full development. Men fail to see, however, that while there is one tendency toward liberty, there is another toward restraint. If anything can be shown by the indications and facts of nature, it is that man never grows to a mans full estate without the ministration of suffering; and that suffering is a part of nature, or it could not be universal.
3. The contrast between the earthly appearance of suffering as something that weakens and beats us down, and the glorious light of the heavenly side is very striking; for while on earth suffering seems, in all its immediate tendencies, to take away from man, it is, in point of fact, adding to him. It seems to beat him down; but when we look forward to the full disclosure, we find that it is building him up. While the storm pelts, men shrink. While the thunder sounds, they slink down. While the tempest rages, it is as if they were ruined. But when the violence abates a little, they begin to lift up their head, and to perceive that it was not all dark, that it was not all thunder, that it was not all beating, that there was an element of good in it; and gradually they learn the sweet bounty and benefit that God meant to bestow upon them by afflictions.
4. The seeming cruelty of much of suffering, and the unnaturalness of it, are contrasted with great relief with this vision of the final state of those who have suffered in this world. The fatherliness and benevolence of suffering does not appear in its mere earthly relations. In heaven it is clearly pictured. There we see what it has wrought out. Human nature is very much like some elements of vegetation. In tapioca, one of the most harmless of all articles of food, there is one of the most deadly of all poisons. But the poison is of such a volatile nature, that when it is subjected to heat it escapes, and leaves only the nutriment of the starch. I think that the heart of man originally is full of poison, but that, when it is tried by affliction, little by little the poison, the rancour, the virus exhales, and leaves all the rest wholesome indeed.
5. Earthly suffering seems to weaken, to discourage them, and to destroy them; but the fact is, that it does not really destroy or weaken them. That part in us which suffering weakens is usually that very part which ought to be weakened. The great trouble in turning flax into thread or cloth is caused by that which gives the green plant its very power; for when the flax is growing, it needs two things--one is its ligneous or woody structure, and the other is its gluten. But when it has grown enough, and man wants it to make garments, to furnish the queen in the palace and the peasant in the cottage, he must get rid of these two things. And how is the flax separated from them? It is plucked and thrown into the field, that, under the influence of repeated rains and dews, the wood may rot; then the flax is taken and put through the brakes, until every particle of the stiffness and strength that it had is destroyed, and all but the stringy fibres can be shaken to the winds; then it is subjected to certain chemical processes by which the gluten is taken away; and not till then is it in a proper condition to be carried to the spinning-wheel and the loom, and manufactured into materials for use. So it is with men. There are a great many qualities which they need up to a certain point, but which beyond that are a disadvantage to them. We need a given amount of self-will and independence; but after these qualities have been carried to a certain point, the necessity for them measurably ceases, and there must be superinduced on them opposite qualities. For man is made up of contraries. He is to be as firm as iron, and as yielding as silk; he is to be persevering, and yet most ready to give up; he is to be as steadfast as a mountain, and yet easy to be entreated; he is to abhor evil, and yet to love with an ineffable love; he is to be courageous, and yet to have that fear of the Lord which is the beginning of wisdom. Certain qualities, when they have served their purpose, must give place to opposite qualities. Afflictions, under the supervision of Divine Providence, are working out in those that are exercised thereby beneficent results; so that suffering, while it seems frequently to be wasting and destroying men, is only wasting and destroying that part of them which they are better without than with.
6. Suffering on earth seems to set men apart from their fellows. Sometimes it puts them into obscurity. It is an experience full of solitude, voluntary and yet inevitable. Every heart knows its own bitterness. There is a delicacy in grief often. And though sometimes it is clamorous and vocal, oftener it is silent. But there is a process quietly going on, though it may not be apparent, by which those who seem to be separated in the present shall in the future be gathered together by sorrow. Those that weep apart on earth shall joy together in heaven. Those who in their sorrows are cast out from the sympathies of their fellow-men shall be gathered into the fellowship and sympathy of the heavenly host. This separation and disintegration are only apparent. Really, it is a preparation for fellowship in the world to come. (H. W. Beecher.)
The memory of grief and wrong
Whether a race of finite and imperfect beings could have been trained for any worthy end, or have reached a state of conscious happiness, without the ministry of suffering, we are not competent to say. Whether this be the case or not, it is certain that very many of our happiest experiences, and of our best frames of mind and traits of character, are to be traced, if not to the direct agency, at least to the memory, of grief and wrong. I might remind you, in the first place, that the lowest degradation into which a human being can sink is a state in which there is no retentiveness, nay, hardly a transient consciousness, of painful emotion. Let a child, born in sin, be cast in very infancy upon the bleak world, without shelter, education, or guidance, exposed to the pelting of the elements, spurned and buffeted at every hands turn, that child becomes in his very infancy almost invulnerable to every outward influence, and incapable of feeling neglect or injury, but in this process he grows up an absolute brute. He is incapable of attachment and of gratitude. Gentleness cannot tame him, nor can severity awe him. As the frozen limb must be made sensitive to pain, before it is capable of healthy circulation or free motion, the first step towards making him happy will be to unseal the fountain of sorrow. He must weep before he can enjoy. Take next the ease of one who has fallen into loathsome degradation from a favoured and happy early lot. That fall was not without frequent and severe suffering, probably not without full as much wrong received as committed. But the degraded being has lost his sensibility. Rags, hunger, blows, the alms-house, the prison-cell, have become congenial; and the traces of every new hardship or infliction are like those of the arrow in the air. Nor yet can you excite penitence or remorse by any moral representation, however pungent or attractive, of the evil and misery of guilt or the loveliness of virtue. You must go back to the days of innocence--to the earliest steps in the evil path. You must awaken the remembrance of obsolete wrong and sorrow. You must recall the prodigals first wretched pilgrimage from the fathers house. Let us pass now to experiences that lie more within our own sphere of consciousness, and, first, to domestic happiness. We can hardly be aware how much of the joy, how much of the purity and tenderness, of our home relations springs from the very events which we most dread, or from the shadow or apprehension of them. Two young hearts are plighted to each other in the most fervent love, and enter on their united life under the most prosperous auspices and with the highest hopes. Let everything answer to their anticipations--let their life flow on without grief or fear, and their love is either suddenly exhaled, or gradually frittered away. They grow mutually intolerant of their necessary differences of taste, opinion, and feeling. If they remain without mutual discord or dislike, it is through the negative power of passive good nature, while the heart-ties are all the while growing weaker, so that their dissolution would be more and more slightly and transiently felt. But, with their first weighty cares or solicitudes, they are drawn into an intimacy of feeling closer than they had ever imagined before. A similar view presents itself with regard to our religious characters. Could those of us, who are endeavouring to live in the fear of God and the love of Christ, trace back the growth of the religious life in our hearts, we should find that, while the germ was there before care or sorrow had taken strong hold upon us, yet in many instances its first decided development and rapid increase were in connection with pain, perplexity, or grief. It was the clouding over of earthly prospects, that opened to us a clear and realising view of heaven. It was the failure of fond hopes that sealed our determination to lay up treasures where hope cannot fail. It was the falling away of objects of our most confident dependence, that cast us upon the Most High as our only enduring refuge and support. I have spoken of the sheltered scenes of home, and of the interior life of the soul. In the outward relations of society, we are equally indebted to the ministry of affliction. How many are the pure and virtuous friendships, now sources of unalloyed gladness and improvement, which had their commencement in a common grief, or in a burden of solicitude or sorrow, which one, whom previously we had not known how to prize, hastened to bear with us, or we with him! In old age we can also trace the genial influence of sorrow. As the cloud, that has flashed its angry lightnings and poured its desolating showers, retreats fringed with gold and crimson, and spanned with the glorious bow of Gods unchanging promise, so do the griefs that have been the heaviest and the most cheerless, when they lie in the remote horizon of the past, glow with celestial radiance and Divine beauty. As the aged Christian looks back on the conflicts and sorrows of earlier years, every cloud has its rainbow, every retreating storm dies away in whispers of peace. It is the softened, painless memory of trial and of grief that feeds the spirit of patient, cheerful resignation, reconciles the soul to dissolution as it draws near, and sustains the willingness to depart, the desire to be with Christ. I have spoken chiefly of the sorrows that come to us by the direct appointment of Providence. Are there any of us who can look back on wrong and injury done to us by our fellow-men? Even this, if we were wise, we would not wish to forget. Far more noble is it to remember in full and yet forgive, to retain our sensitiveness unimpaired, and yet to take the offending brother to our hearts as if he had done us no wrong. Thus only can we make the wounds of carelessness, unkindness, envy or malice, permitted, though not wrought by Providence, coincide in their blessed ministry with the griefs that flow from the hand of God. Thus do we turn our enemy into a benefactor, by making him the unconscious instrument of calling out in our hearts traits more elevated, Christlike, Godlike, than without his agency we could have put into exercise. Finally, the connection in which our text stands leads us to extend the benign ministry of sorrow to the world where sorrow is unknown. The frequent trials of the present state, its disappointed hopes, defeated plans, withered joys, may, far along in the heavenly life, supply the term of comparison, reveal the measure of our happiness, quicken the flow of adoring gratitude, and sustain a full consciousness of the felicity in which we are embosomed. (A. P. Peabody.)
Why the heavenly robes are white
I. What did these white robes mean?
1. The white robes show the immaculate purity of their character. White signifies perfection; it is not so much a colour as the harmonious union and blending of all the hues, colours, and beauties of light. In the characters of just men made perfect we have the combination of all virtues, the balancing of all excellences, a display of all the beauties of grace. Are they not like their Lord, and is He not all beauties in one?
2. By white robes we also understand the fitness of their souls for the service to which they are appointed; they were chosen before all worlds to be kings and priests unto God, but a priest might not stand before the Lord to minister until he had put on his appointed linen garments; and therefore the souls which have been taken up to heaven are represented in white robes to show that they are completely fitted for that Divine service to which they were ordained of old, to which the Spirit of God called them while they were here, and in which Jesus Christ leads the way, being a Priest for ever at their head.
3. White robes also signify victory. I should think that in almost every nation white has indicated the joy of triumph. True, the Romans adopted purple as their imperial colour, and well they might, for their victories and their rule were alike bloody and cruel; but the Christ of God sets forth His gentle and holy victories by white: it is on a white cloud that He shall come to judge the world, and His seat of judgment shall be the great white throne.
4. White is also the colour of rest. Well may the redeemed be thus arrayed, for they have finally put off the garments of toil and the armour of battle, and they rest from their labours in the rest of God.
5. Chiefly, white is the colour of joy. Almost all nations have adopted it as most suitable for bridal array, and so therefore these happy spirits have put on their bridal robes, and are ready for the marriage supper of the Lamb.
II. How did they come by those white garments?
1. Those characters were not so pure, or, in other words, those garments were not so white by nature. They are washed, you see, and therefore they must once have been stained. Original sin has stained the character of all the sons of Adam. Do not think of one saint who has gone to his reward above as being in any way different in nature from yourselves; they were all men of like passions with us, men who had within them the same tendencies to sin. But it might be suggested that perhaps they came to their rest by a cleaner way than that which now lies before us. Possibly there was something about their surroundings which helped them to keep their garments white. No, it was not so; they passed along the road of tribulation, and that tribulation was not of a less trying kind than ours. Their road was just as miry as ours, and perhaps even more so. How this ought to assist us to feel that albeit our pathway is one in which we meet with innumerable temptations, yet inasmuch as all the glorified have come up white and clean from it, by virtue of the atoning blood, even so shall we.
2. Their garments came to be white through a miracle of grace, because they came through the great tribulation, where everything tended to defile them. I do not think that the text refers to some one great persecution, but to the great conflict of the ages in which the seed of the serpent perpetually molests and oppresses the seed of the woman. The enmity takes all sorts of shapes, but from the beginning even until now it is in the world. Now the white robed ones had come out of that continuous and general conflict uninjured: like the three holy children who came out of the furnace with not so much as the smell of fire upon them. Some of them had been slandered: men of the world had thrown handfuls of the foulest mud upon them, but they washed their robes and made them white. Others of them had come out of remarkable temptations from men and devils; they were tried by the most defiling of temptations, but they overcame through the blood of the Lamb, and were delivered from every polluting trace of the temptation by the efficacy of the atoning sacrifice. It was by the operation of the blood of Christ, and by nothing else, that the glorified saints were made clean.
3. Some of the trials of the saints are evidently intended, by those who are the instruments of them, to make them sin. Tribulation has a tendency to create, even in good men, new sins: sins into which they have never fallen before. Brother, thou sayest, I shall never repine against God. How knowest thou that? Thou sayest, I have never done so unto this hour. Art thou not in health and strength? Why, then, shouldst thou murmur? But suppose the Lord were to strip thee of all these things, O man, I fear me thou mightest murmur as others have done. In some men tribulation works a very fierce temptation to distrust.
4. So, too, great trials are wonderfully apt to reveal the weakness of our graces and the number of our infirmities. Spiritual storms make a man discover what utter weakness he is, and then he is wise to fly to the blood of the Lamb. Oh, what a sweet restorative is found in the atoning sacrifice!
III. What lesson comes out of this?
1. I would say to you, first, meditate on it. A sight of Christ in His agony is a wondrous sure for our agonies.
2. But the chief thing is this--in all times of tribulation the great matter is to have the blood of Christ actually applied to the soul. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
The sufferings of the redeemed
Gods Word does not conceal, but, on the contrary, rather forewarns, that the road to Heaven is one of trial. Christ prepared His people for the highway thither being hedged with tribulation. Beloved, says St. Peter, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you, but rejoice. These trials are the ladder-steps by which the immortal spirits in this vision attained their bliss. We can almost imagine ourselves listening to their varied testimony. God laid me, would be the experience and retrospect of one, on a bed of sickness. I was living a life of engrossing worldliness. I was taking my health as a thing of course. I had no thought of death. He who gave me the abused talent stretched me on a couch of pain. Year after year I was familiarised with the dim night-lamp--the sleepless vigils--the aching head. But He allured me into the wilderness that He might speak comfortably unto me. I now praise Him for it all. Through the chinks of the battered earthly tabernacle were admitted the first rays of the heavenly glory. In the solitary night-watches my lips were first tuned for the heavenly song. I was reposing in the sunshine of earthly prosperity, would be the testimony of another. The fabled horn of plenty exhausted its ample stores in my lap. Riches increased; ah! I set my heart upon them; my closet, my Bible, my family, were sacrificed in the demon scramble. At an unexpected moment the crash came--the whole fabric of a lifetime (the golden fabric) fell to the ground. Seated amid empty coffers, and dismantled walls, and blighted hopes, I was led to bring the perishable into emphatic contrast with the eternal. I too thank my God for it all. But for that simoom-blast which swept over ms, burying the hoarded treasures of a vain existence, I would have died the fool that I lived. I was an idolater of my family, another would tell. I was leaning too fondly and tenderly on some cherished prop--some gourd in the earth-bower of my happiness. The prop gave way--the gourd withered. But as some gentle spirit (be it that of husband, or wife, or child, or brother, or sister) winged its flight to the realms of glory, It brought me, as I was never before, into near and holy contact with the Unseen. The tie snapped on earth bound ms to the throne of God. These thorns inserted in the earthly nest drove me to the wing, and suffered me not to stay my flight until I had reached the golden eaves of the heavenly home! (J. R. Macduff, D. D.)
The richer flowerings of character caused by trial
It is said that gardeners sometimes, when they would bring a rose to richer flowerings, deprive it for the season of light and moisture. Silent and dark it stands, dropping one faded leaf alter another, and seeming to go down patiently to death. But when every leaf is dropped, and the plant stands stripped to the uttermost, a new life is even then working in the buds, from which shall spring a tender foliage and a brighter wealth of flowers. So, often in celestial gardenings, every leaf of earthly joy must drop before a new and divine bloom visits the soul.
Character formed by tribulation
I saw a beautiful vase, and asked its story. Once it was a lump of common day lying in the darkness. Then it was rudely dug out and crushed and ground in the mill, and then put upon the wheel and shaped, then polished and tinted and put into the furnace and burned. At last, after many processes, it stood upon the table, a gem of graceful beauty. In some way analogous to this every noble character is formed. Common clay at first, it passes through a thousand processes and experiences, many of them hard and painful, until at length it is presented before God, faultless in its beauty, bearing the features of Christ Himself. Spiritual beauty never can be reached without cost. The blessing is always hidden sway in the burden, and can be gotten only by lifting the burden. Michael Angelo used to say, as the chippings flew thick from the marble on the floor of his studio: While the marble wastes the image grows. (J. R. Miller, D. D.)
Tribulation ministers to manhood
You may in the conservatory rear the trailing vine or rear the tropical plant, but put into it hardy English oak, Or the tall Norwegian pine, and they, within the conservatory, would die--their life is exposure. Give them the heaven, the wind of heaven in their branches; give them the dew and the rain of heaven on their leaves: give them the great spacious earth beneath into which they can send their roots in search of moisture, and in search of strength; and they will live, and become things of beauty and joy for ever. So let man in the grace, and by the strength of God, face life; stand in front of it, with all its trouble, with all its tempest, with all its sorrow, with all its suffering! The tribulation will work patience, make the more of a man of him, make him the more able to stand in the presence of God as a servant approved. (A. M. Fairbairn, D. D.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
B. W. Johnson 1891 · Public Domain On vv13–17 13–17. What are these? The questions are asked by…
13–17. What are these? The questions are asked by the elder that he may teach. “These” refer to the vast multitude described in verse 9.
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.
William B. Godbey 1900 · Public Domain On v13 13-17. Here we have a clear definition of the…
13-17. Here we have a clear definition of the qualifications for the bridehood. The Holy Ghost says unequivocally they come out of great tribulations, having washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Hence, entire sanctification is the solitary and inalienable qualification for membership in the bridehood.
William B. Godbey, Commentary on the New Testament (1896–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Alexander MacLaren 1905 · Public Domain On vv15, 17 Joh 1:14. - Rev 7:15. - Rev 21:3.
John
‘THREE TABERNACLES’
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Joh 1:14. - Rev 7:15. - Rev 21:3.
The word rendered ‘dwelt’ in these three passages, is a peculiar one. It is only found in the New Testament-in this Gospel and in the Book of Revelation. That fact constitutes one of the many subtle threads of connection between these two books, which at first sight seem so extremely unlike each other; and it is a morsel of evidence in favour of the common authorship of the Gospel and of the Apocalypse, which has often, and very vehemently in these latter days of criticism, been denied.
The force of the word, however, is the matter to which I desire especially to draw attention. It literally means ‘to dwell in a tent,’ or, if we may use such a word, ‘to tabernacle,’ and there is no doubt a reference to the Tabernacle in which the divine Presence abode in the wilderness and in the land of Israel before the erection. In all three passages, then, we may see allusion to that early symbolical dwelling of God with man. ‘The Word tabernacled among us’; so is the truth for earth and time. ‘He that sitteth upon the throne shall spread His tabernacle upon’ the multitude which no man can number, who have made their robes white in the blood of the Lamb; that is the truth for the spirits of just men made perfect, the waiting Church, which expects the redemption of the body. ‘God shall tabernacle with them’; that is the truth for the highest condition of humanity, when the Tabernacle of God shall be with redeemed men in the new earth. ‘Let us build three tabernacles,’ one for the Incarnate Christ, one for the interspace between earth and heaven, and one for the culmination of all things. And it is to these three aspects of the one thought, set forth in rude symbol by the movable tent in the wilderness, that I ask you to turn now.
I. First, then, we have to think of that Tabernacle for earth. ‘The Word was made flesh, and dwelt, as in a tent, amongst us.’
The human nature, the visible, material body of Jesus Christ, in which there enshrined itself the everlasting Word, which from the beginning was the Agent of all divine revelation, that is the true Temple of God. When we begin to speak about the special presence of Omnipresence in any one place, we soon lose ourselves, and get into deep waters of glory, where there is no standing. And I do not care to deal here with theological definitions or thorny questions, but simply to set forth, as the language of my text sets before us, that one transcendent, wonderful, all-blessed thought that this poor human nature is capable of, and has really once in the history of the world received into itself, the real, actual presence of the whole fulness of the Divinity. What must be the kindred and likeness between Godhood and manhood when into the frail vehicle of our humanity that wondrous treasure can be poured; when the fire of God can burn in the bush of our human nature, and that nature not be consumed? So it has been. ‘In Him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.’
And when we come with our questions, How? In what manner? How can the lesser contain the greater? we have to be content with the recognition that the manner is beyond our fathoming, and to accept the fact, pressed upon our faith, that our hearts may grasp it and be at peace. God hath dwelt in humanity. The everlasting Word, who is the forthcoming of all the fulness of Deity into the realm of finite creatures, was made flesh and dwelt among us.
But the Tabernacle was not only the dwelling-place of God, it was also and, therefore, the place of Revelation of God. So in our text there follows, ‘we beheld His glory.’ As in the tent in the wilderness there hovered between the outstretched wings of the silent cherubim, above the Mercy-seat, the brightness of the symbolical cloud which was expressly named ‘the glory of God,’ and was the visible manifestation of His real presence; so John would have us think that in that lowly humanity, with its curtains and its coverings of flesh, there lay shrined in the inmost place the brightness of the light of the manifest glory of God. ‘We beheld His glory.’ The rapturous adoration of the remembrance overcomes him, and he breaks his sentence, reckless of grammatical connection, as the fulness of the blessed memory floods into his soul. ‘That glory was as of the Only Begotten of the Father.’ The manifestation of God in Christ is unique, as becomes Him who partakes of the nature of that God of whom He is the Representative and the Revealer.
And how did that glory make itself known to us? By miracle? Yes! As we read in the story of the first that Christ wrought, ‘He manifested forth His glory and His disciples believed upon Him.’ By miracle? Yes! As we read His own promise at the grave of Lazarus: ‘Said I not unto thee, that, if thou wouldest believe, thou shouldest see the glory of God?’ But, blessed be His name, miracle is not the highest manifestation of Christ’s glory and of God’s. The uniqueness of the revelation of Christ’s glory in God does not depend upon the deeds which He wrought. For, as the context goes on to tell, the Word which tabernacled among us was ‘full of grace and truth,’ and therein is the glory most gloriously revealed.
The lambent light of stooping love that shone forth warning and attracting in His gentle life, and the clear white beam of unmingled truth that streamed from the radiant purity of Christ’s life, revealed God to hearts that pine for love and spirits that hunger for truth, as no others of God’s self-revealing works have done. And that revelation of the glory of God in the fulness of grace and truth is the highest possible revelation. For the divinest thing in God is love, and the true ‘glory of God’ is neither some symbolical flashing light nor the pomp of mere power and majesty; nor even those inconceivable and incommunicable attributes which we christen with names like Omnipotence and Omnipresence and Infinitude, and the like. These are all at the fringes of the brightness. The true central heart and lustrous light of the glory of God lie In His love, and of that glory Christ is the unique Representative and Revealer, because He is the only Begotten Son, and ‘full of grace and truth.’
Thus the Word tabernacled amongst us. And though the Tabernacle to outward seeming was covered by curtains and skins that hid all the glowing splendour within; yet in that lowly life that was lived in the body of His humiliation, and knew our limitations and our weaknesses, ‘the glory of the Lord was revealed; and all flesh hath seen it together’ and acknowledged the divine Presence there.
Still further the Tabernacle was the place of sacrifice. So in the tabernacle of His flesh Jesus offered up the one sacrifice for sins for ever. In the offering up of His human life in continuous obedience, and in the offering up of His body and blood in the bitter Passion of the Cross, He brought men nigh unto God.
Therefore, because of all these things, because the Tabernacle is the dwelling-place of God, the place of revelation, and the place of sacrifice, therefore, finally is it the meeting-place betwixt God and man. In the Old Testament it is always called by the name which our Revised Version has accurately substituted for ‘tabernacle of the congregation,’ namely ‘tent of meeting.’ The correctness of that rendering and the meaning of the name are established by several passages in the Old Testament, as for instance, ‘There I will meet with you, to speak there unto thee, and there I will meet with the children of Israel.’ So in Christ, who by His Incarnation lays His hand upon both, God touches man and man touches God. We who are afar off are made nigh, and in that ‘true tabernacle which the Lord pitched and not man’ we meet God and are glad.
‘And so the word was flesh, and wrought
With human hands the creed of creeds,
In loveliness of perfect deeds.’
The temple for earth is ‘the temple of His body.’
II. We have the Tabernacle for the Heavens.
In the context of our second passage we have a vision of the great multitude redeemed out of all nations and kindreds, ‘standing before the Throne and before the Lamb, arrayed in white robes, and palms in their hands.’ The palms in their hands give important help towards understanding the vision. As has been often remarked, there are no heathen emblems in the Book of the Apocalypse. All its metaphors move within the circle of Jewish experiences and facts. So that we are not to think of the Roman palm of victory, but of the Jewish palm which was borne at the Feast of Tabernacles. What was the Feast of Tabernacles? A festival established on purpose to recall to the minds and to the gratitude of the Jews settled in their own land the days of their wandering in the wilderness. Part of the ritual of it was that during its celebration they builded for themselves booths or tabernacles of leaves and boughs of trees, under which they dwelt, thus reminding themselves of their nomad condition.
Now what beauty and power it gives to the word of my text, if we take in this allusion to the Jewish festival! The great multitude bearing the palms are keeping the feast, memorial of past wilderness wanderings; and ‘He that sitteth on the throne shall spread His tabernacle above them,’ as the word might be here rendered. That is to say, He Himself shall build and be the tent in which they dwell; He Himself shall dwell with them in it. He Himself, in closer union than can be conceived of here, shall keep them company during that feast.
What a thought of that condition-the condition as I believe represented in this vision-of the spirits of the just made perfect, ‘who wait for the adoption, to wit, the resurrection of the body,’ is given us if we take this point of view to interpret the whole lovely symbolism. It is all a time of glad, grateful remembrance of the wilderness march. It is all a time in which festal joys shall be theirs, and the memory of the trials and the weariness and the sorrow and the solitude that are past shall deepen to a more exquisite poignancy of delight, the rest and the fellowship and the felicity of that calm Presence, and God Himself shall spread His tent above them, lodge with them, and they with Him.
And so, dear brethren, rest in that assurance, that though we know so little of that state, we know this: ‘Absent from the body, present with the Lord,’ and that the happy company who bear the palms shall dwell in God, and God in them.
III. And now, lastly, look at that final vision which we have in these texts, which we may call the Tabernacle for the renewed earth.
I do not pretend to interpret the scenery and the setting of these Apocalyptic visions with dogmatic confidence, but it seems to me as if the emblems of this final vision coincide with dim hints in many other portions of Scripture; to the effect that some cosmical change having passed upon this material world in which we dwell, it, in some regenerated form, shall be the final abode of a regenerated and redeemed humanity. That, I think, is the natural interpretation of a great deal of Scriptural teaching.
For that highest condition there is set forth this as the all-sufficing light upon it. ‘Behold, the Tabernacle of God is with men, and He will tabernacle with them.’ The climax and the goal of all the divine working, and the long processes of God’s love for, and discipline of, the world, are to be this, that He and men shall abide together in unity and concord. That is God’s wish from the beginning. We read in one of the profound utterances of the Book of Proverbs how from of old the ‘delights’ of the Incarnate Wisdom which foreshadowed the Incarnate Word ‘were with the sons of men.’ And, at the close of all things, when the vision of this final chapter shall be fulfilled, God will say, settling Himself in the midst of a redeemed humanity, ‘Lo! here will I dwell, for I have desired it. This is My rest for ever.’ He will tabernacle with men, and men with Him.
We know not, and never shall know until experience strips the bandages from our eyes, what new methods of participation of the divine nature, and new possibilities of intimacy and intercourse with Him may be ours when the veils of flesh and sense and time have all dropped away. New windows may be opened in our spirits, from which we shall perceive new aspects of the divine character. New doors may be opened in our souls, from out of which we may pass to touch parts of His nature, all impalpable and inconceivable to us now. And when all the veils of a discordant moral nature are taken away, and we are pure, then we shall see, then we shall draw nigh to God. The thing that chiefly separates man from God is man’s sin. When that is removed, the centrifugal force which kept our tiny orb apart from the great central sun being withdrawn, we shall, as it were, fall into the brightness and be one, not losing our sense of individuality, which would be to lose all the blessedness, but united with Him in a union far more intimate than earth can parallel. ‘The Tabernacle of God shall be with men, and He will tabernacle with them.’
Do not let us forget that this highest and ultimate hope that is held forth here, of the union and communion, perfect and perpetual, of humanity with God, does not sweep aside Jesus Christ. For through all eternity the Everlasting Word, the Christ who bears our nature in its glorified form, or, rather, whose nature in its glorified form we shall bear, is the Medium of Revelation, and the Medium of communication between man and God.
‘I saw no Temple therein,’ says this final vision of the Apocalypse, but ‘God Almighty and the Lamb,’ and these are the Temples thereof. Therefore through eternity God shall tabernacle with men, as He does tabernacle with us now through Him, in whom dwelleth as in its perennial habitation, ‘all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.’
So we have the three tabernacles, for earth, for heaven, for the renewed earth; and these three, if I may say so, are like the triple division of that ancient Tabernacle in the wilderness: the Outer Court; the Holy Place; the Holiest of all. Let us enter into that outer court, and abide and commune with that God who comes near to us, revealing, forgiving, in the person of His Son, and then we shall pass from court to court, ‘and go from strength to strength, until every one of us in Zion appear before God’; and enter into the Holiest of all, where ‘within the veil’ we shall receive splendours of revelation undreamed of here, and enjoy depths of communion to which the selectest moments of fellowship with God on earth are shallow and poor.
Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain On vv14, 17 The great tribulation is the period of unexampled trouble…
tribulation
The great tribulation is the period of unexampled trouble predicted in the passages cited under that head from Psa 2:5 to Rev 7:14 and described in Revelation 11-18. Involving in a measure the whole earth Rev 3:10 it is yet distinctly "the time of Jacob’s trouble" Jer 30:7 and its vortex Jerusalem and the Holy Land. It involves the people of God who will have returned to Palestine in unbelief. Its duration is three and a half years, or the last half of the seventieth week of Daniel. (See Scofield "Dan 9:24"). Rev 11:2; Rev 11:3 The elements of the tribulation are:
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(1) The cruel reign of the "beast out of the sea" Rev 13:1 who at the beginning of the three and a half years, will break his covenant with the Jews (by virtue of which they will have re-established the temple worship, Dan 9:27 and show himself in the temple, demanding that he be worshipped as God; Mat 24:15; 2Th 2:4.
(2) The active interposition of Satan "having great wrath" Rev 12:12 who gives his power to the Beast Rev 13:4; Rev 13:5.
(3) The unprecedented activity of demons Rev 9:2; Rev 9:11 and
(4) the terrible "bowl" judgments of Revelation 16.
The great tribulation will be, however, a period of salvation. An election out of Israel is seen as sealed for God Rev 7:4-8 and, with an innumerable multitude of Gentiles Rev 7:9 are said to have come "out of the great tribulation" Rev 7:14. They are not of the priesthood, the church, to which they seem to stand somewhat in the relation of the Levites to the priests under the Mosaic Covenant. The great tribulation is immediately followed by the return of Christ in glory, and the events associated therewith Mat 24:29; Mat 24:30.
See "Remnant" Isa 1:9.
(See Scofield "Rom 11:5"). "Beast" See Scofield "Dan 9:24" See Scofield "Rev 19:20" "Armageddon" Rev 16:14. See Scofield "Rev 19:17".
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On v13 The bliss of the saints in white robes:
The bliss of the saints in white robes:
v. 13. And one of the elders answered, saying unto me, What are these which are arrayed in white robes? And whence came they?
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v. 14. And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest. And he said to me, These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.
v. 15. Therefore are they before the throne of God, and serve Him day and night in His temple; and He that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them.
v. 16. They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore; neither shall the sun light on them nor any heat.
v. 17. For the Lamb, which is in the midst of the throne, shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters; and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.
An interesting conversation is now reported by John: And there answered one of the elders, saying to me, These that are clothed in white robes, who are they and whence came they? Undoubtedly the elder saw the interest and the curiosity of John depicted on his face, and intended to stimulate this interest and direct it into the right channels. Therefore he pointed to the great multitude of the white-robed saints, asking, not concerning their number, but regarding their origin and character.
John’s answer showed the eagerness of his heart: And I said to him, Sir, thou knowest. It was the respectful address of the inferior to one whom he regarded as his superior. See Eze 37:3. He received the information which he sought: And he said to me, These are they that have come out of the great distress, and washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. The great distress was the period of persecution and martyrdom to which reference had been made in chap. 6:11. These people had overcome, they had conquered, they had been faithful unto death, and therefore the Lord had rescued them, had brought them to the haven of eternal safety. There was no merit on their part in this transaction, for all their righteousness were as filthy rags in the sight of God, Isa 64:6. But all the filth of their own garments had been washed away in the blood of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, which cleanses us from all sins, Isa 1:16; 1Jn 1:7. The white robes are the righteousness of Jesus Christ which they received through the means of grace, to which they clung unto the end.
The blessed state of the elect saints is further described: For this reason they are before the throne of God, and they serve Him day and night in His temple, and He that sits upon the throne shall overshadow them. For this reason, not for any merit on their part, but because they accepted the righteousness of Jesus Christ and the white garment of His perfect merit, the perfected saints occupy that place of glory and honor before the throne of God. They are not only new creatures, but they are priests before God, performing the work of their worship before Him in all eternity, without ceasing, since the difference between day and night will then be eliminated. And just as the Shechinah, the cloud of the covenant, hovered over the Tabernacle and over the mercy-seat in the Old Testament with intimate care, thus the presence of God will overshadow the elect in heaven, in order to be united with them in intimate fellowship and to satisfy them with the rich gifts of His house, Psa 36:9; Isa 49:10.
And still more will pertain to the bliss of heaven: They shall no more hunger or thirst, nor shall there strike them the sun or any heat, for the Lamb, which is in the midst of the throne, will be their Shepherd and will direct their way to fountains of living waters; and God shall wipe away every tear from their eyes. These assertions are made with the greatest emphasis. For those that are gathered before the throne of the Lamb hunger and thirst, the time of distress and affliction, are past forever, Isa 49:10. He that has mercy on them shall lead them; even by the springs of water shall He guide them. Never again will the burning rays of the sun, never again will the scorching heat of affliction make their spirits weary. For Jehovah Himself, the Lamb that occupies with the Father the very midst of the heavenly throne, will be the Shepherd that will guide them to the rich pastures of the heavenly blessings; He Himself will lead them beside the still waters of eternal life. He Himself is the bread, the manna, and the water of life, Joh 4:14-15; Joh 6:35; Joh 7:38. He it is that satisfies all hunger and thirst forever. What they have received here on earth in the means of grace, Isa 55:1, they now obtain in richest, endless measure as they see God face to face, as they are partakers of the glory which the Savior gained for them by His redeeming work. Never again will there be a cause for tears in the heavenly home. The last tear that may have remained on their eyelashes, due to the pains of death or martyrdom, will be wiped away, without a trace to show their former misery, Isa 25:8. That is the wonderful, the certain future that awaits the persecuted Church of God when the doors of eternity open. Oh, that this glorious comfort were living in the heart of every believer!
Summary
In the sealing of the servants of God, whose typical number is given, in the scene presenting the countless multitude praising the Lord, in the chorus of the angels, and in the description of the bliss of the saints in heaven the prophet offers the best and most lasting comfort to all believers in all afflictions of this life.
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 vv13, 15 clothed with white robes
clothed with white robes
These white robes showed that they were righteous.
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have come out of the great tribulation
"have survived the great tribulation" or "have lived through the great tribulation"
the great tribulation
"the time of terrible suffering" or "the time when people will suffer terribly"
They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb
Being made righteous by the blood of the Lamb is spoken of as washing their robes in his blood. AT: "They have been made righteous by washing their robes white in his blood" (See: Metaphor)
the blood of the Lamb
The word "blood" is used to refer to the death of Lamb. (See: Metonymy)
translationWords
elder
tribulation
blood
lamb
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 vv14–16 7:14 who died in (literally who came out of):…
7:14 who died in (literally who came out of): See 6:9; 20:4. • the great tribulation: A time of horrible and distressing events (see 1:9; 2:9-10; Deut 4:30-31; Matt 24:21-22; Acts 14:22). • They have washed their robes in the blood of the Lamb: This description symbolizes Christ’s redeeming death for them. • made them white: This description expresses their victory over sin and death and their acceptance by God into eternal life.
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