Revelation
1.) PRESENT
THINGS
As FORESHOWN IN THE BOOK OF REVELATION
THE PREFACE TO
THE BOOK
The Book and Its Subjcct.
(Chap. i. 1 - 5)
2.) THINGS THAT SHALL BE
an
Exposition of Rev. 4-22.
THE book of Revelation is the one only book of
New-Testament prophecy. As the completion of the whole prophetic Scriptures, it
gathers up the threads of all the former books, and weaves them into one chain
of many links which binds all history to the throne of God. As New-Testament
prophecy, it adds the heavenly to the earthly sphere, passes the bounds of
time, and explores with familiar feet eternity itself. Who would not, through
these doors set open to us, press in to learn the things yet unseen, so soon to
be for us the only realities? Who would not imagine that such a book, written
with the pen of the living God Himself, would attract irresistibly the hearts
of Christians, and that no exhortation would be needed for a moment to win them
to its patient and earnest study?
It should be so, assuredly. How
little it is so, the book in its first words is witness to us: for no book is
so full of just such exhortation. And especially the first part, with which we
are to be for the present occupied, abounds with solemn warnings to attention,
regularly appended to its several sections: "He that hath an ear, let him hear
what the Spirit saith unto the churches." Why is it that just here, where at
first sight we have only addresses to the churches of far-distant times, these
calls should be multiplied? Why but because there was just this danger to be
guarded against? why but because the Spirit of God foresaw that a generation of
men, most blind to their own interests when most wedded to them, would slight
the very words of Christ Himself unless thus directly made over to them? What
shall we say of those who with all this warning slight them still?
Scripture is thus ever prophetic, not in its plain predictions merely, but in
its manner also. Why should Peter be the one to tell us that all Christians are
"a holy priesthood," but in view of those who should misuse his name in
after-times? or why should he be the one to announce to us that we are born
again by the word of God, which is preached in the gospel, thus with two blows
destroying ritualism to its foundations? or why should Mary never prefer a
request to her Son and Lord but to be checked for it, save as an after-rebuke
to those who should think to avail themselves of the Virgins
intercession?
So too is not the very title of this book, with its
subject announced, and encouragement both to reader and hearer? How could words
be better suited to rebuke the neglect, into which so many have fallen, in
which so many still are found, of what is Christs own "revelation," given
to Him by God, "to show unto His servants things which must shortly come to
pass"? Does a "revelation" hide, or reveal? Is that which is revealed to
servants, to be kept (v. 3) by them in their service to their Lord, given in so
doubtful a manner as to be more perplexity than guidance? Is not this an
accusation of Him who has forbidden to His people doubtful paths, because
"whatsoever is not of faith is Sin"?
Strange is the mistake that "the
Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto Him," means His "appearing,
because His appearing is the central theme of the book No doubt it is so,
and that His appearing is spoken of elsewhere as His revelation, but here, that
"which God gave unto Him, to show unto His servants things which must shortly
come to pass, is plainly the book itself, and defines its character It is
not simply an inspiration, as all Scripture is, but something revealed for the
r instruction of the saints Many are too little clear yet as to the difference
between the two But revelation is that in which is a direct communication from
God to man - a fresh discovery of truth other wise unknown, while inspiration
is that which preserves from error, and assures that all that is written is for
true profit and blessing to man.
"Jesus Christs revelation"
emphasizes the book before us, as what is from the Lord Himself in a peculiar
way, of special importance and value where all is of value; and it is received
by Him from God, as One who all through takes the place of Man, and as such is
exalted of God, never exalts Himself. True pattern for His servants! He asks
them to walk in no other path than He has trodden, and where they may have
fellowship with Him.
This book is the servants book. So it is
plainly stated: "To show unto His servants." We may not expect, therefore, to
be shown, except we come under this title; and indeed every child of God has
the responsibility and privilege of service, - has something, no doubt, of the
reality of it, as the Lord says, "He that hath My commandments and keepeth
them, he it is who loveth Me" (Jno. xiv. 21). And so the apostle: "This is the
love of God, that we keep His commandments" (i Jno. v. 3). Both passages
maintain that the only right measure of love is that of practical obedience.
Emotional glow, warm feelings, are indeed to be desired, - nay, to be expected,
from those conscious of redemption by the blood of Christ; but these vary with
different natures, vary in the same person at different times, may even deceive
very much the subject of them, while obedience is the test of the judgment-seat
itself. Words and deeds we read of then as alone in question.
Yet there
is need of a counter-check here too; for how much frequently goes under the
name of service which is in truth even disobedience and self-will! How much
there is also of legal drudgery and pretentious claim, which the light of
Gods holy presence will shrivel into nothing! "Lo, these many years do I
serve thee" is the language of one to whom the music of the fathers house
was a strange and unaccustomed sound; and "I fast twice in the week, I give
tithes of all that I possess" was said by one less acceptable to God by far
than the despised publican, who could only groan out in His presence, "God be
merciful to me the sinner!" The service of love and the service of claim are
opposites. "He died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live
unto themselves, but unto Him who died for them and rose again." Thisis the
moral power of Christianity - the fruit of grace, and only that. For if still
there is a possibility of condemnation in the day of judgment, fear stirs me to
self-interest, I work for myself to escape the condemnation. "Faith worketh by
love " - an entirely opposite principle. Such service is necessarily freedom,
the more so the more it rules me, and entire happiness. In exact proportion to
love will be the desire to serve the object of our love: as we read of the
"work of faith," so we do of the "labour of love." But earnest and
self-sacrificing as this labour may be, it can never be drudgery, never aught
but joy. If such is our service, the thankful offering of those knowing
themselves washed from their sins in the blood of Christ, then Revelation, with
its survey of the whole field of labour, and its communication of the mind of
Christ as to all, - Revelation, with its windows open toward Jerusalem, and its
eternal sunshine for our souls, - Revelation, with its throne of God and the
Lamb, and the stimulation of its encouraging words to the overcomer, - is the
very book for us, surely. We shall enter with rapt hearts into the truth of
this:
"Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of the book
of this prophecy, and keep the things that are written therein."
It is
the book for all servants. We have many and different fields of service, it is
true; and happy as well as important it is to recognize this fact. There are
high positions and lowly ones; positions before the eyes of multitudes, and
positions hidden from almost all eyes, save His who are in every place. But
every where it is a joy to know that we are accepted, not according to the
place we are put in, but the way we fill it - the way we do the Masters
work there. Lowliness and obscurity will be no discouragement to those in the
communion of the Father and the Son: they cease to have meaning there. And
publicity and prominence are how unspeakably dangerous, if the soul is not
correspondingly before God; like the tree which spreads its branches and lifts
its top toward heaven, if its roots are not proportionately deep in the unseen
depths below.
Whatever the field of service, the book of Revelation is
for all. All need alike the warnings, all need alike the encouragement. From
the most hidden retirement, He whom we serve in love would have our hearts with
Himself, busy with all that is of interest to Him. In the place of intercession
Himself above, He would have us in fellowship with Him below; our prayers
rising up for all parts of the earth His Word is visiting, and where the true
"irrepressible conflict" is going on between the evil and the good; our
praises, too, returning to Him for all He is daily accomplishing. In Revelation
is given us the one "mind of Christ" about all, that our prayers may be the
intelligent guiding of the Holy Spirit, and our hearts giving their sympathies
aright, our energies going forth in channels of His own making. Little indeed,
in many of the systems of interpretation of this book, may be found, it is
true, such help as this; and quite unable we may be to extract the spiritual
blessing to be found in seals or trumpets which speak only of Alaric the Goth,
or Attila the Hun: but for the simple ones who believe God, the mere direct
label of this book for Christs servants may certify that there is
something deeper while simpler than all this for souls that seek it.
There
the words stand for faith to receive and rejoice in, - "Jesus Christs
revelation, which God gave unto Him, to show unto His servants things which
must shortly come to pass." Join us in prayer, beloved reader, ere we pass on,
that we may give His people from these pages real help and blessing drawn from
this precious book! "Things which must shortly come to pass." This would now no
doubt impress us, as we look back from the end of eighteen centuries fulfilled
since it was written, with the belief that already some, if not much, of what
is here spoken of must already have come to pass. And this we shall find
confirmed fully in the sequel. But two things we should guard here
carefully, - the possibility on the one hand, and the profit on the other, of
tracing with certainty, in the light of the prophetic Word, things which have
not come to pass, and even will not while we are upon the earth. These two
things, it is plain, hang very much together; for if there be not profit in it,
it would seem clear that God would not enable us to do it; while of course
there can, on the other hand, be no profit to us in a thing we cannot
do.
But this impossibility of knowing can only be meant seriously as
applying to details, and to a certain extent every Christian would allow this.
Events are not so mapped out and put together for us as to make us able to see
otherwise than "through a glass darkly " - the apostles own emphatic
word. We can see only as one behind a window, and in twilight, and are apt to
fall into mistakes. Many have been thus made, which have thrown the study of
future prophecy, for some, into utter disrepute. Yet who would say, or think
the apostle meant to say, that "through a glass darkly" nothing, or nothing to
the purpose, could be seen? The uncertainty applies mainly to the smaller
features; there is much certain, much that grows always clearer as we look upon
it. Who that would use the mistakes that have been made for discouragement from
prophetic study has ever been a student of it P I dare to say, none.
Granted, the mistakes: let us use them for humility, use them as arguments to
more prayer, more careful searching, then, after all, they will be helpful in
the end. We can see already why and how many of them came about; we can see how
better to avoid them also in the future, and that the Word was not to blame, is
not the less trustworthy, because we made them. We see that we trusted it too
little, trusted ourselves too much.
Then as to the profit. All our
blessings lie in the field of unfulfilled prophecy. What are all our promises
but this? And then as to the earth, and what is to take place upon it, it is
true that such interpretations as are common in many popular books leave one
with the profound sense that they minister rather to spiritual dissipation than
to profit. What can be supposed more unprofitable than the question if the
antichrist is to come of the Napoleon family ? - a great and grave point with
many for years past; or whether the stars falling from heaven might be
fulfilled in a shower of meteors? Such things seem to be utterly barren, and
unworthy of a book so solemnly announced, so commended to us as is
this.
Surely, "he that prophesieth speaketh to the church to
edification and exhortation and comfort" might not be an inapt word to condemn
such profitless speculation; and there is abundance of it in popular
commentaries. But here the question is really not of fulfilled or unfulfilled
prophecy. Such supposed fulfillment may be brought forward to vindicate
Scripture - which has no need of it - or a certain system of interpretation,
which it more justly would set aside. But unfulfilled prophecy, as we find it
in the Word of God, even when it speaks of earthly events, and such as cannot
be while we are upon the earth, always gives them morally; as what can be more
practical for us than to trace out in the future, as men are constantly seeking
to do, the results of the present? In this way we may find the scriptural fall
of stars to have the deepest significance.
That all here is in the
fullest way practical is very clear, from the blessing pronounced on those who
"keep the things which are written" in the book. This "keeping" is observing
them in such a way that our practical conduct shall be governed by them. Indeed
we shall find that the wisdom of them we must be content to " buy," with what
men would call many a sacrifice. There are costs to be counted if we would
possess it really. And this is the demand that all truth makes upon us. It
requires subjection to it as the first thing. We must not trifle with the words
of our Lord and Saviour, nor set Him limits as to how far we shall obey Him. It
is this, however little avowed, that darkns the minds of saints, diminishing
all spiritual perception. It is this that is at the bottom of all doctrinal
heresy. We will not have the truth, and seek out inventions to cover our
nakedness; or at least we have not the soldiers "virtue," which is
courage, and so cannot "add to" our "virtue knowledge."
I would warn my
readers that the book of Revelation makes great demands upon those who keep its
words. But I may assure them, on the other hand, that the more the demand the
greater the blessing. Can it be otherwise when Christ it is who is speaking to
us of that easy yoke and that light burden, in which, as we take them, we find
rest to our souls? Will any that know their Lord charge Him with being a "hard
man," or a taskmaster? Our givings up are here in reality only gains. We
have that in Him which we are never called to give up, and which the more we
prove the more its sufficiency is found for all conditions; the more we give up
for it the deeper the endless joy.
But submission there must be.
Absolute submission is what He rightly calls for; and it is well to search our
hearts, to see if our desire and purpose are, to give Him that without
reserve. How blessed to be among those who in uprightness of heart can say, "I
esteem all Thy precepts concerning all things to be right, and I hate every
false way" (Ps. cxix. 128)!
The Style and Character
of the Book.
(Chap. 1. 4 - 5.)
WE now come to the
opening words of the book itself. It is in form a letter from the beloved
apostle to "the seven assemblies which are in Asia." This Asia was the Roman
province called by this name, being the west coast of what is now, for the sins
of christendom, Turkey in Asia. The churches in it were even then, though
traditionally the scene of Johns as in the Acts of Pauls labours,
already departing from the faith and spiritual power of Christianity; and this,
as we may see more hereafter, gives at once a certain character to the book.
Whoever they were of whom Paul in his very last epistle says, "This thou
knowest, that all they which be in Asia are turned away from me, of whom are
Phygellus and Hermogenes," it is clear that Asia was thus the scene of a revolt
from that "apostles doctrine and fellowship" which it was a marked
feature of the bright Pentecostal times to maintain.
The salutation
shows at once the style of the book. It is not "grace and peace from God the
Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ," but "from Him who is, and who was, and who
is to come; and from the seven Spirits which are before His throne; and from
Jesus Christ, the faithful Witness, and the Firstborn of the dead, and the
Ruler of the kings of the earth." Here, it is evident, we are not in the
intimacy of children, but in the character of servants, according to what the
previous verses have announced. The book is the book of the throne - of divine
government; and that, not merely of the world, but of Christians no less.
Indeed, where should divine government be more exemplified and maintained than
among the people of God. "You only have I known of all the families of the
earth," says God to His people of old; "therefore will I punish you for your
iniquities." It is true that toward us now grace is fully revealed, and the
throne is a "throne of grace," but its holiness is none the less inflexible.
Would it be grace if it were not so? or do we desire to be delivered from the
conditions of holiness, or from the sovereignty of God? No; grace enables for
the conditions, - does not set them aside; and it sets God fully on the throne
for us, makes the "shout of a King" to be in our midst. Children with the
Father, where should there be whole-hearted, unreserved obedience if not among
these?
The throne here is Jehovahs throne, for "who is, and was,
and is to come" is just the translation of the covenant-name of Israels
God. "Grace and peace" salute us from this unchangeable One - this eternal God.
The new revelation has not displaced, nor mended, (as rationalism would have
it,) the God of Israel for us! It has declared Him: displaced shadows, filled
in gaps, perfected the partial and fragmentary into the glorious God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ! taught us to see in the older Scriptures themselves a
fullness of meaning of which those who wrote them could have no possible
perception. Do Davids psalms yield us less than they yielded to faith of
old? And if the New Testament has no corresponding book, is it not because, now
that the Spirit of God is come, our psalmody is to be found in every book,
which for us He has combined into one harmony of praise and triumphant
joy?
Yes, the One who is was, and is to come. Our present God is He who
from first to last abides, in every generation, amid all changes changeless;
sitting on high above all water-floods; whose kingdom is an everlasting
kingdom. What a resting-place for faith! "Oh Lord, Thou hast been our
dwelling-place in all generations!"
But not only are grace and peace
breathed from this ever-living One, but also "from the seven Spirits which are
before His throne." We all recognize at once that these seven Spirits stand for
the plenitude of the Holy Spirit; and in the fourth chapter they are
represented as seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, while in the
fifth they are the "seven eyes" of the Lamb, "sent forth into all the earth."
This, again, evidently connects with Isaiah xi, where these seven Spirits are
seen to be energies of the Spirit which are found in the Man, Christ Jesus, as
reigning over the earth.
"Grace and peace," then, from these - how
blessed! All the ministries of divine government upon the earth working in
blessing toward us; all the course of things as guided and controlled by God,
spite of all hindrances, all puzzles and perplexities, still working in one
harmony of grace and peace toward His own. How easy to be bold and patient
both, if we believe this!
Then also "from Jesus Christ, the
faithful Witness, and the First-born of the dead, and the Ruler of the kings of
the earth." "Faithful" is emphasized here, for our encouragement surely, if
grace and peace are from such an One, but yet in contrast with other witness
too, as that of the Church, so little faithful. Is it not a needed word for
those oppressed with the sense of failure, - almost ready to give up what are
His principles, because of the break-down of those who have undertaken to carry
them out? In such a case, how good to remember that on the one hand we are
servants and not masters, with no liberty to dispense with one even of His
commandments, and on the other, that we serve One who Himself is faithful,
however we have failed. Shall we go to Him and say, "Master, Thy principles are
impracticable for a world and a time like this"? or shall we lack in courage
when results are in His hand who has never failed, and never will, while He
oftentimes submits to apparent defeat. Such was the cross, the victory of
victories, and we must submit, here as elsewhere, to the rule of the
womans Seed. To this are we not in fact brought in the next words? "The
Firstborn of the dead" unites us with Him as the later-born, and resurrection
is the mode of His triumph over apparent defeat. But it is divine triumph, in
which not alone evil is vanquished, but God is manifested in His resources and
in His grace.
Grace and peace are ours from One who is conqueror over
death, and who brings us into the place into which as Forerunner He has
entered, while already He is, as risen, and on the Fathers throne, Ruler
of the kings of the earth, - the scene through which in the meantime we are
passing. In a little while, when He takes His own throne, we shall share also
in this. Thus are we furnished at the outset for present service. Placed before
the living and eternal God, the energies of His Spirit ministering to us, the
Captain of our salvation cheering us on with the joy of already accomplished
victory, the pledge of certainty as to our own. Now for the response of our
hearts to this before we start: without our hearts are in tune, and we can go
cheerily into the battlefield - for it is a battlefield into which we go, and
not as spectators merely, - we should only expose ourselves there to our shame.
The singers must be in the forefront of the Lords army, as in
Jehoshaphats of old, and then there will be good success. So the
saints answer to their Captains voice here is with a song: -
"Unto Him who loveth us,
And hath washed us from our sins
In His own
blood,
And hath made us a kingdom,
Priests to His God and Father,
Unto Him be glory and might
Unto the ages of ages.
Amen."
This
is a sweet response of loyal hearts on the edge of the battlefield. It is the
good confession of His name, and of the debt we owe Him, which has made us His
own forever. Good it is, the open joyful maintenance of this, which at once
separates us from the world that rejects Him, and puts us in the ranks of His
witnesses and followers. "By Him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise
to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips, confessing His name." No
such wholesome, invigorating, gladdening work as is confession.
"Unto
Him who loveth us," not "loved us," as the common version reads. It is a
present reality, measured only aright by a past work - " and hath washed us
from our sins in His own blood." Let us take care we measure it ever so! Not by
our own changeful feelings or experiences, as we are so prone to do, but by the
glorious manifestation of itself thus: an infinite measure of an infinite
fullness; for who knows aright the value of the blood of Christ?
"And
hath washed us from our sins:" what an encouragement for those who have to go
into a world full of temptation and defilement! We have known sin as sin -
known it as needing the precious blood of Christ to cleanse us from its guilt,
and known ourselves too as thus cleansed. If we are "idle and unfruitful in the
knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ," it can only be because we have "forgotten
that" we were "purged from" our "old sins."
But more: He has "made us a
kingdom, priests to His God and Father." Israel was promised, conditionally
upon obedience, "Ye shall be unto Me a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation."
(Ex. xix. 6.) They failed in obedience, and Levis special priesthood was
the consequence of their failure, while, as part of this failed people, not
even the priesthood could pass within the vail. Grace has now given us as
Christians that access to God to them denied, and to God fully revealed as the
God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who has thus revealed God has given
us our place in His presence - a happy, holy place of praise and intercession.
"To Him be the glory and might unto the ages of ages!"
An "Amen" is
added here, that we may as individuals join our voices to the voice of the
Church at large. It is a blessed thing to be part of the innumerable company
who have a common theme sand a common joy; but it is also blessed to have our
own distinct utterance and our own peculiar joy, The more distinct the better.
Would the apostle have felt it the same thing to say, "Who loved us, and gave
Himself for us," true as it might be, as to say, "Who loved me, and gave
Himself for me"? Assuredly he would not. The "chief of sinners," realizing
himself that, had something which was individual to himself, and which would
not be lost or overlooked in the general song. And we have, each one of us
surely, special experiences to call forth peculiar praise. Note, too, that the
power of the life lived to God is associated by him with this
individualization: "The life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith
of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me."
Thus, then,
the heart gives out its response to its beloved Lord. Now, then, it is
qualified for testimony to Him. "If we be beside ourselves, it is to God; if we
be sober, it is for your cause." The soul in company with Christ turns
necessarily to the world with its testimony of Him: the Enochlife is
joined with the Enoch-witness. For it was he of whom it is written, "he walked
with God, and he was not,for God took him," who "prophesied, saying,
Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of His saints, to execute
judgment upon all." The Church it is who is called, like another Enoch,
to walk here with Him whom she is soon to be called away to meet and be ever
with; and the next verse in Revelation puts into her mouth her similar
testimony : - "Behold, He cometh with clouds, and every eye shall see Him, and
they also which pierced Him, and all the tribes of the earth shall wail because
of Him." This is evidently not the Churchs hope, but the Churchs
testimony. It takes up the theme of the Old-Testament prophets, with direct
appeal even to their prophecies; for Daniel saw of old the Son of Man come with
the clouds of heaven, and Zechariah declares how Israel look upon Him whom they
have pierced, and how the tribes of the land mourn for Him, as one mourneth for
his only son, and are in heaviness as he that is in heaviness for his
first-born." (Dan. vii. ii Zech.xii.io, 72.)
I do not doubt that, while
the words in Revelation repeat the very language of the older prophets, - for "
kindreds" in the common version is literally "tribes," and "earth" and "land"
are, both in Hebrew and Greek, but the same word, - yet that in the passage
before us a wider application is to be made than this. Not only shall they see
who have pierced Him, but "every eye." Naturally, therefore, not the tribes of
the land only, but of the earth at large, shall wail on account of Him. The
testimony is neither to nor of Israel only, though including these. And while
the mourning in Zechariah is unto repentance, the word here is large enough to
admit of the wail of despair as well as of repentance.
The
Churchs testimony is addressed to all. Christ is coming; the day of grace
running out; judgment nearing with every stroke of the hour. A testimony which
we know from Scripture, as we may realize every day around us, wakes only the
scorn of "scoffers, walking in their own lusts, and saying, Where is the
promise of His coming? for since the fathers fell asleep all things continue as
they were from the beginning of the creation." Whose, then, is this Voice which
here solemnly confirms the testimony of approaching judgment? It is surely none
other than the voice of God Himself: -
"Yea, amen: I am Alpha and Omega,
saith the Lord God, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the
Almighty."
The "Yea, amen," are not, as our books give them, part of
the seventh verse, but commence the verse following; and the words "I am Alpha
and Omega, the Eternal, the Almighty," exhibit fully the One with whom
mens unbelief brings them into controversy. He challenges all unbelief.
Is He not doing so today, when on every side signs political, ecclesiastical,
moral, and spiritual warn men, if they will but attend, that the Lord is at
hand? Why, the cry itself is a sign - " Behold the Bridegroom!" Can they deny
it has gone forth? Call it a mistake, call it enthusiasm, call it high treason
to the worlds magnificent and immense progress, still it stands written,
- "And at mld night there was a cry, Behold the bridegroom! go ye forth
to meet him! . . . And as they went to buy, the bridegroom came He who
speaks is Alpha and Omega, whose word as the beginning and end of all speech:
all that can be said is said when He has spoken, at the beginning, who spoke
all things into being, and whose word, "It is done," will fix their eternal
state He who speaks is Jehovah, the covenant-keeping God, unchangeable amid all
changes, true to His threats and to His promises alike ,.; And He who speaks is
the Almighty, lacking no power to fulfill His counsel. This is He who says,
"Yea, amen, to the testimony that He who was crucified in weakness shall come
again in power, and every knee shall bow to Him, and every tongue confess that
Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Chapter Two
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