Revelation
Things That shall
Be
THE PARENTHETIC VISIONS - THE SEALED OF
ISRAEL.
(Chap. vii. i8.)
AN objection may be taken to our interpretation of the
convulsion under the sixth seal, - that it is not in harmony with that which we
have given of the earlier ones. In these, the "earth," for instance, was
assumed to be literally that; in the latter, it is taken in a figurative sense;
and it may be urged that this want of uniformity in interpretation allows us to
make of these visions very much what we will, - in fact makes their alleged
meaning altogether inconsistent and unreliable.
This is a mistake,
though a very natural one, and it needs to be examined and shown to be such, or
else a serious difficulty will remain in the way of further progress, if such
indeed be possible. For the same inconsistency, if it be really that, will
appear again and again as we proceed with our study of the book before us; we
shall be using the same terms now in a literal and again in a figurative sense,
as it may appear, arbitrarily, but in fact as compelled by necessity to do so,
or according to the law of the highest reason.
Figures pervade our
common speech, even the most literal and prosaic, - disguised for us often by
the mere fact that they are used so commonly. We employ them, too, with a
latitude of meaning which in no wise affects their intelligibility to us. They
are used with a certain freedom in which there is nothing arbitrary, but the
reverse. They are used rather in the interests of clearness and
intelligibility, the main end sought, which governs indeed their use. It is
simple enough to say that the whole art of language is in clearness of
expression, and that the right use of figures is therefore for this
end.
Now, in visions, such as we have in Revelation, figures, it is
true, have a much larger place: the meaning of the vision as a whole is
symbolic - figurative. Yet this does not at all suppose that every feature in
it is so, and in no case perhaps is this really true.
Take the fifth
seal as a sufficient example, - where the altar is figurative, and so are the
white robes, but the killing of their brethren is real and literal. This
mingling of the literal and symbolic in one vision makes it plain that they may
be and will be found mingled through the whole series of visions. And if it be
asked, How, then are we to discern the one from the other? the answer will be,
that each case must be judged separately, - the sense that is simplest, most
self consistent, and agreeable to the context being surely the right one. God
writes, as man does, to be understood, and intelligibility gives the law,
therefore, to all the rest. It is reassuring indeed to remember this: plenty of
deep things there are in the Word of God, and more perhaps than any where else
are they to be found in the book of Revelation, but the mystery in them is
never from mere verbal concealments or misty speech, but from defect in us, -
spiritual dullness and incapacity. This most difficult of all Scripture books
God has stamped with the name of "REVELATION."
These thoughts are not
an unnecessary introduction to the parenthetic visions between the sixth and
the seventh seals, where just such questions have been asked as to the sealing
of a hundred and forty-four thousand out of every tribe of the children of
Israel. Is it in fact Israel literally, or a typical, spiritual Israel that we
are to think of? The latter is the thought of expositors generally, though by
no means all; and we are told (as by Lange, for instance,) that if we take
Israel literally to be meant, then we must take all the other details, - the
exact number sealed, etc., - literally also: to do which would not involve any
absurdity, but which we have seen to be not in the least necessitated. We are
free, as to all matters of the kind, to ask, What is the most suitable meaning?
and to find in this suitability, the justification of one view or the other.
The context argues for the literal sense. The innumerable multitude seen
afterward before the throne, "out of all nations and kindreds and peoples and
tongues," shows us plainly a characteristically Gentile gathering, and that
they are in some sense in contrast with the Israelitish one seems clear. Taken
together, they throw light upon one another, and display the divine mercy both
to Jews and Gentiles in the latter days. While the separateness of these
companies, and the priority given to Israel, agree with the character of a time
when the Christian Church being removed to heaven, the old distinctions are
again in force. We are again in the line of Old Testament prophecy, and of
Jewish "promises" (Rom. ix. 4); "the Lion of the tribe of Judah" has taken the
book. Even apart from the context, (decisive as this is), the enumeration of
the tribes would seem to make the description literal enough, even although Dan
be at present missing from among them, and supposing no reason could be
assigned for this. Judah too is in her place as the royal tribe: not the
natural birthright, but divine favour Israel controls the order here. Every
thing assures us that it is indeed Israel, and as a nation, that is now in the
scene. Let us turn back now to see how she is introduced to us.
"After
this, I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding the
four winds of the earth, that no wind should blow on the earth, or on the sea,
or upon any tree. And I saw another angel ascend from the sunrising, having the
seal of the living God; and he cried with a great voice to the four angels to
whom it was given to hurt the earth and the sea, saying, Hurt not the
earth, nor the sea, nor the trees, till we shall have sealed the servants of
our God in their foreheads."
Here it is manifest that, terrible
as have been the judgments already, far worse are at hand. The four winds -
expressive of all the agencies of natural evil - are about to blow together
upon the earth, under the control of spiritual powers (the angels) which guide
them according to the supreme will of God. It is the "day of the Lord of Hosts
upon every one that is proud and lofty, and upon every one that is lifted up;
and he shall be brought low" (Isa. ii. 12). And as nothing lifts itself up as
the tree does, so the "tree" is specially marked out here: the ax is laid at
the root of it. The passage in Isaiah goes on quite similarly: "And upon all
the cedars of Lebanon that are high and lifted up, and upon all the oaks of
Bashan" (v. 13).
But this becomes, as in the Baptists lips, a
general sentence upon man as man, from which none may escape but as in the
Lords grace counted worthy. Thus the sealing becomes quite evidently the
counterpart of what we find in the ninth of Ezekiel, though there the range of
judgment is more limited. "And He called to the man clothed in linen, which had
the writers inkhorn by his side; and the Lord said unto him, Go
through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark
upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and cry for all the abominations that
be done in the midst thereof. And to the others He said in mine hearing,
Go ye after him through the city, and smite; let not your eye spare,
neither have ye pity; slay utterly old and young, both maids and little
children and women, but come not near any man upon whom is the
mark."
The sealing is as evidently preservative as the "mark" is.
They are both upon the forehead, - open and manifest. If we look on to the
fourteenth chapter here, we shall find upon the hundred and forty-four thousand
there (a company as to the identity of which with the present one it is not yet
time to ask the question,) the name of the Lambs Father written, and the
seal marks thus undoubtedly to whom they belong. Let us notice also that we are
just approaching the time here in which the beast also will have his mark, if
not always on the forehead, at least in the hands (chap. xiii. 16). The time of
unreserved confession of one master or the other will then have come; and no
divided service will be any longer possible. The beast "boycotts" (they have
already invented both the thing and the expression for him,) those who do not
receive his mark: those who do receive it are cast into the lake of fire (chap.
xiii. ii Xiv. 9, io).
The sealing is angelic, - a very different
thing therefore from present sealing with the Holy Ghost, and from any power or
gift of the Spirit. No angel could confer this, and the creaturehood of the
angel here is manifest from his words, "Till we have sealed the servants of our
God in their foreheads." The "we" shows that more than one execute the
ministry, and they that do this speak of God as "our God." This is decisive,
apart from all dispensational considerations. But in what the sealing consists
it seems scarcely possible to say: the effect is, that the people of God are
manifested as His, and preserved thus from the judgments which are ready to be
sent upon it.
"The seal of the living God" seems along with this to
imply their preservation as living men against all the power of their
adversaries - His, and therefore theirs. True, that the power of the living God
is shown more victoriously in resurrection than in preservation merely; true
also that to the souls under the altar it has been foretold of others of their
brethren to be slain as they were, and who are no less marked as His by the
deaths they die for Him than any others can be: yet the "seal of the living
God" may clearly manifest its power in securing preservation of natural life,
and the connection seems to imply this here; while thus alone do the two
companies of this parenthetic vision, - the Jewish and the Gentile, -
supplement each other, as is their evident design. This also to some will not
be apparent, for the Gentile multitude are commonly taken to be risen saints in
heaven. But the consideration of this must be reserved for the present.
Certainly the enumeration of the tribes speaks for their connection with
Gods purposes for Israel nationally upon the earth, where her future is.
In heaven, as a nation, she has no place, but on earth ever preserves it (Isa.
lxvi. 22). And here the connection of both these companies with a series of
events on earth is evident. It may be said that the souls under the altar
find similarly their place in connection with the seals, and yet are passed
from earth: but these are introduced to show the prevalence of persecution, the
unchanged enmity to God manifesting itself thus after the first periods of
judgment have run their course; while they bring on, as it would seem by their
prayers, the crash which follows under the sixth seal.
No such
connection can be seen here, but the saints here are to be sheltered from the
judgments coming on the earth - being themselves on it, an Israelitish company,
inferring national revival, significant enough for earth, but not at all for
heaven.
Leaving this for the present, we must give our attention to the
number so definitely stated, and so earnestly repeated, of this sealed company.
The enumeration, so held up before us, and emphasized by repetition, cannot be
a point of little consequence. Of each tribe distinctly it is stated that there
are twelve thousand sealed. What, then, is the meaning of this number? It is
evidently made up of 12 and io, the latter raised to its third power, the
number of government and of responsibility. But we must look at these a little
further.
Ten is the measure of responsibility, as in the ten
commandments of the law; raised to the third power, it seems to me to be
responsibility met in grace with glory; while the number 12 speaks, as I have
elsewhere sought to show, of manifest government. If I read the meaning right,
the two together speak of special place conferred upon this company in
connection with the Lambs government of the earth; and this, it seems to
me, is confirmed by other considerations.
That they are not the whole
remnant of Israel preserved to be the stock of the millennial nation is evident
from the one fact before mentioned, that the tribe of Dan has no place among
them, and yet certainly has its place in the restored nation. In Ezekiel
(xlviii. i), Dan has his portion in the extreme north of the land. Thus the
hundred and forty-four thousand here are clearly a special company, and not the
whole of the saved people.
But the case of Dan has further instruction for
us in this connection; and we shall find it, if we turn back to the blessing of
the tribes by Jacob in the end of the book of Genesis. Jacob himself tells us
here that he is speaking of what should befall them in the "last days;" and it
is to these last days plainly that Revelation brings us: so that the propriety
of the application cannot be doubted. Let us listen, then, to what the dying
patriarch has to say of Dan.
"Dan shall judge his people as one of the
tribes of Israel. Dan shall be a serpent by the way, an adder in the path, that
biteth the horse-heels, so that his rider shall fall backward. I have waited
for Thy salvation, 0 Lord."
Abrupt, fragmentary, enigmatic, as the
words are, with just this passage of Revelation before us, they startle us by
the way in which they seem to meet the questionings which have been awakened by
it. We are looking upon a sealed company, "a hundred and forty-four thousand of
all the tribes of the children of Israel." But Dan is not found among them! Can
this tribe, we ask, have been suffered to drop out of Gods chosen earthly
family, so as to have no part in the final blessing? The voice from of old
answers the question decisively: "Dan shall judge his people as one of the
tribes of Israel." No! the Lords grace prevails over all failure: Dan
does not lose his place. It cannot be that a tribe should perish out of the
chosen people. But more, - the company before us, if we have read its numerical
stamp aright, is a company having a place of rule under the Lamb in the day of
millennial blessing; and among these, assuredly, Dan is not found. How the old
prophecy comes in here once more with its assurance, "Dan shall judge his
people"! The staff of judicial authority is not wholly departed; but simply as
what is necessary to tribal place he retains it, "as one of the tribes of
Israel," - nothing more.
The patriarchs first words as to Dan
imply, then, a low place - if not the lowest place - for Dan, even as his
portion in Ezekiel is on the extreme northern border of the land. He retains
his place as part of the nation, that is all. And if we naturally ask, Why? the
answer is given in what follows "Dan shall be a serpent by the way, an adder in
the path, that biteth the horse-heels, so that his rider falleth
backward."
Plainly these are characters which associate him in some way
with the power of the enemy; for the "serpent," the "adder," speak of this.
Jacobs words would show that in the apostasy of the mass of the nation
under Antichrist, in the days to which we are here carried, Dan has a more than
ordinary place. If the antichrist be, as every thing assures us, a Jew himself,
what would be more in accordance with all this than the ancient thought that he
will be of Dan? And here how natural the groan, yet of faith, on the part of
the remnant which breaks out in the next words of the prophecy, "I have waited
for Thy salvation, 0 Lord"!
In Gad, therefore, the conflict finds its
termination: "A troop shall overcome him, but he shall overcome at the last."
Then in Asher and Naphtali the blessing follows, and Joseph and Benjamin show
us in whom the blessing is. Upon all this, of course, it would be impossible to
dilate now.
But all is confirmatory of the thought of this hundred and
forty-four thousand being a special Israelitish company, destined of God to
fill a place (but an earthly one,) in connection with the Lords
government of the world in millennial days. We have now to look at the Gentile
company in the next vision.
THE PALM -
BEARING MULTITUDE.
(Rev. vii. 7 - 17.)
THE
hundred and forty-four thousand have been sealed before the winds of heaven
have been let loose upon the earth. Before the next vision they have spent
their violence, the great tribulation is passed, and an innumerable company of
people are seen as come out of it. This expression, "the great-tribulation," is
one that rules in the interpretation of this scene as should be evident. When
people simply read, "out of great tribulation," it was natural to think of all
the redeemed of all generations as being included here, and the multitude and
universality of the throng thus gathered would confirm the idea; but now it
ought to be no longer possible. That it is "the great tribulation" is even
emphasised in the original - "the tribulation, the great one," - to forbid all
generalizing in this way. We are reminded of one specific one, which as thus
named we are expected to know; and he who will take Scripture simply will
surely find without difficulty the one intended. We have already gone over this
ground, and there is scarcely need to remind our readers that the " great
tribulation" of which our Lord spoke to His disciples, "such as was not from
the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be," which is
shortened by divine grace, for otherwise " no flesh should be saved," and at
the close of which "they shall see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of
heaven," must needs be that out of which the multitude before us come.
That the tribulation is thus immediately followed by the coming of the Lord
from heaven makes it easier to understand another thing, that their standing
before the throne, as the prophet sees them, does not necessitate the thought
of their being in heaven. There is no hint of their being raised from the dead,
or having died at all. Simply they are "before the throne of God, and serve Him
day and night in His temple." Here again it is natural to the common habits
of thought to suppose that the temple of God must be in heaven, and passages
from this very book would doubtless be cited in support of this (chap. xi):
these will come naturally before us for consideration in their own place; but
here it is sufficient to say that it is not said "in heaven," and that on earth
there is yet to be a temple, as Ezekiel shows. Isaiah also declares that also
of the Gentiles the Lord will "take for priests and Levites" (lxvi.
21).
With this view at least let us look at the scene before us, and
see what we can gather more. That they have "white robes" shows simply their
acceptance; the palms in their hands speak of rest in victory; their words
ascribe their salvation to God and to the Lamb, but they "cry," - it does not
say "sing." The angels and the elders stand "around" the throne; they simply
stand "before" it.
One of the elders now raises the question with John,
"Who are these?" He, unable to say who they can be, refers back the question to
the speaker, and he answers it. But note the strangeness of such a question
upon the ordinary view, and the greater strangeness of Johns inability to
answer. Plainly they were a company of saved ones giving praise for their
salvation, and if it were the whole company, the very naturalness of the
thought as accepted by so many would make us wonder at the question about it,
still more at the apostles speechlessness. But he had seen another
company in heaven, who still kept their place before his eyes, and who had sung
the new song, and at least with fuller praise. As to these, no question had
been raised at all. It would seem, he might be trusted to make out who these
were; and one of these elders was now accosting him! How could he miss the
thought that here was a separate class of redeemed ones, and certainly upon a
lower footing than those whose rapturous thanksgiving he had heard
before?
Accordingly he hears that such is the fact. He is told they
are those who come out of the great tribulation, and have washed their robes,
and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Not their sufferings have washed
their robes white, but the Lambs blood: and here again, though the
expression is peculiar, they are on common ground with saints at all
times.
And on this account they are before the throne of God, and serve
Him day and night in His temple; (but in the new Jerusalem there is no temple:
the "Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the Temple of it;") and "He that
sitteth on the throne shall spread His tabernacle over them." So rightly now
the R.V., and not, "shall dwell among them." It is like Isaiah (iv. 6), who
similarly describes the condition of Jerusalem in the time to which this
refers: "And there shall be a tabernacle for a shadow in the daytime from the
heat, and for a place of refuge, and for a covert from storm and from rain."
How plain that it is as protection and defence, from the words that follow here
in Revelation: "They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more, neither
shall the sun strike upon them, nor any heat"! How suited to men still in the
world is this assurance!
But it goes on: "For the Lamb which is in the
midst of the throne shall be their Shepherd, and shall guide them to fountains
of waters of life, and God shall wipe away every tear from their eyes."
Blessed as all this description is, it seems to fall short of the full eternal
blessing, and certainly short of what is heavenly. The impression given is of
the earths warfare not yet over, sin and evil not completely banished,
but themselves indeed effectually sheltered. The thought of shepherd-care suits
this as well as does the tabernacle stretched over them. The thanksgiving
expressed also is that of those emerging out of a trial great as that out of
which it is said they come, and for whom the joy of deliverance as yet allows
little else to be thought of. There is not even a song - and Scripture can be
trusted to its least tittle of expression - they "cry with a great voice,"
but do not "sing."
We may well believe, then, that these are the
priestly class taken from among the nations of which Isaiah speaks (lxvi. 21).
I am aware that it is a matter of dispute whether "I will take of them for
priests and Levites" is to be referred to the Israelites whom the Gentiles
bring back or to the Gentiles who bring them back; but, as Delitzsch well says,
"God is here certainly not announcing so simple a thing as that the priests
among the returned people should be still priests." He has just declared that
the Gentiles "shall bring all your brethren out of all the nations for an
offering unto the Lord . . . as the children of Israel bring their offering in
a clean vessel unto the house of the Lord." The Gentiles are here, therefore,
this "clean vessel;" and being thus cleansed, He further promises as to them,
"And of them also will I take for priests and Levites, saith the Lord."
The passages in Isaiah and Revelation mutually confirm each other in this
application, and we see who are those honored to serve in the temple of the
Lord, as we see also what temple it is in which they serve. All is in perfect
harmony, and the multitude of Gentiles stands here in plain analogy with
Israels hundred and forty-four thousand, and upon a similar footing to
them. The two together complete the picture of blessing for both Israel and the
Gentiles, through the storm which is about to burst upon the earth. Neither
group is heavenly; neither is the full number to be saved and enjoy the summer
sunshine of millennial days; but they are the sheaf of first-fruits of the
harvest beyond, in each case dedicated, therefore, in a peculiar manner to the
Lord.
Let us pause here to notice the thought so characteristic of the
book of Revelation, book as it is of the throne and of governmental recompense,
- of "robes washed and made white in the blood of the Lamb." The figures of
Scripture are perfectly definite and absolutely appropriate, never needing
apology. Of them, as of all else in it, the words of the Lord are true:
"Scripture cannot be broken." On the other hand, they are various, and with
meaning in their variations, so that if we are not careful, we may easily force
them into contradiction with each other and with the truth.
What, for
instance, is the "robe" in which the saint appears before God? It is easy to
answer, and absolutely scriptural to quote, "He hath covered me with the robe
of righteousness" (Isa. lxi. io). And how beautifully does the "robe" speak of
that, by which the shame of our nakedness, which came in through sin, is put
away!
But what is our righteousness? Here again we have most familiar
texts, "This is the name whereby He shall be called, The Lord our
righteousness" (Jer. xxiii. 6); "Christ, who is made of God unto us . . .
righteousness." And the prodigals "best robe" reminds us here how the
beauty of Christ upon us must transcend far the lustre of angelic
garments.
Nevertheless, if we think we have got the one idea of
Scripture in this matter, we shall be sorely perplexed when we come to this
text in Revelation. Could we wash this robe, and make it white in the blood of
the Lamb? Assuredly not: it would be impossible to apply this expression, in
any way that can be imagined, to this robe, which is Christ.
The
Revelation has its own distinct phraseology here, in perfect harmony with the
line of truth which it takes up. The robe is still the symbol of righteousness,
but in view of the recompense that awaits us, "the fine linen" with which the
bride is clothed, "is the righteousnesses - the righteous deeds - of the
saints" (chap. xix. 8). It is practical righteousness that is in question, -
not something wrought by another for us, but wrought by our own hands. It is a
completely different thought from that in the Lords parable, and in no
wise contradictory because so different. Assuredly "we shall all be manifested
before the judgment seat of Christ, that every one may receive for the things
done in the body, whether it be good or bad" (2 Cor. v. io).
For the
saint, indeed, this is not to come personally into judgment. That, the Lord has
assured us, personally we cannot do (Jno. V. 24, R.V.). God can raise no
question as to a soul whom He has received, whether He has received him. The
matter of reward is entirely distinct from that of personal acceptance; but it
has its place. And here comes in this solemn and precious reminder of how the
robe needs washing in the blood of the Lamb in order to be white. How else
could any thing of ours find approval and recompense? Thus as the apostle tells
us in his prayer for Onesiphorus (2 Tim. i. i8), that reward itself is "mercy:"
"the Lord grant unto him that he may find mercy of the Lord in that
day!"
These saints out of the great tribulation know at least that not
by tribulation, but by the work of Another, can that which is best and holiest
in their lives be accepted of God. "They have washed their robes." They have
renounced the thought of any proper whiteness in their robes save that produced
by the blood of the Lamb. On this ground they are as we, and we are as
they.
Looking back at these visions now, and their connection with the
seals, we see more fully than ever the introductory character the latter have,
and how at the same time the seventh seal introduces to the open book itself.
The sixth seal is not final judgment, prophetic of it as it may be. It is but
as a zephyr compared with the storm-blast, for the winds have not yet been
allowed to burst forth as they will. So too the brethren of the fifth-seal
martyrs, which are to be slain as they were, have yet to give up their lives.
But because the seventh seal, in opening the whole book, brings us face to face
with this last and most awful period of the worlds history ever to be
known, therefore before it is opened, we are summoned apart for the
succession of events, to see the gracious purposes which are hidden behind the
coming judgments, - to see beyond it, in fact, to the clear blue sky beyond.
And we see why these are not seals nor trumpets, but an interruption - a
parenthetic instruction, which, coming in the place it does, pushes as it were
the seventh seal on to be an eighth section, itself filling the seventh place.
If numbers have at all significance, we may surely read them here. The seeming
disorder becomes beauteous order: the seventh seal fills the eighth place, as
introducing to the new condition of things, the earths last crisis; the
seventh place is filled by that which gives rest to the heart in Gods
work accomplished, a sabbatism which no restlessness of man man disturb! Let us
too rest in thanksgiving, for these are the ways of God.
PART II
THE TRUMPETS. (Chap. viii. 2 - Xi. i8.)
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