Revelation
"THINGS THAT SHALL BE"
THE SIXTH TRUMPET. (Chap. ix. 12 - 21.)
IN these trumpet judgments we are, as has been already
seen, traversing some of the most difficult parts of the book of New-Testament
prophecy. This is owing largely to the fact that the link with the Old
Testament seems very much to fail us, and thus the great rule for
interpretation which Peter gives us can be acted on only with proportionate
difficulty. Moreover, in the case of symbols such as we have before us, the
application is of the greatest importance to the interpretation, and the
application is just the fitting of the individual prophecy into the prophetic
whole. We have need, therefore, to look carefully, and to speak with a caution
corresponding to the difficulty.
A certain connection of the trumpets
among themselves, however, we have been able to trace, and this we should
expect still to discover, every fresh step in this confirming the past and
gaining for itself thus greater assurance. Moreover, the general teaching of
prophecy will assist and control our thoughts, although we may be unable to
show the relation to each other of single predictions, such as we find for
instance in comparing the fourth beast of Daniel with the first of
Revelation.
A voice from the horns of the golden altar brings on the
second woe. It is natural at first sight to connect this with the opening of
the eighth chapter, and to see in it an answer to the prayers of the saints
with which the incense of the altar is offered up. But this view becomes less
satisfactory as we consider it, if only for the reason that the whole of the
seven trumpets are in answer to the prayers of the saints, as we have seen, and
to make the sixth trumpet specifically this would seem in contradiction.
Besides, a voice from the horns of the altar, or even from the altar, would
scarcely convey the thought of an answer to the prayers that came up from the
altar. The horns too were not in any special relation to the offering of
incense, but were for the blood of atonement, which was put upon them either to
make atonement for the altar itself, or for the sin of the high-priest or of
the congregation of Israel. A voice of judgment from these horns, - still more
emphatic if we read, as it seems we should do, "one voice from the four horns,"
- so different from the usual pleading in behalf of the sinner, speaks of
profanation of the altar, or of guilt for which no atonement could be found;
and, one would say, of such guilt resting upon the professed people of God,
whether this were Israel or that Christendom which Israel often
pictures.
If with this thought in our mind we look back to what has
taken place under the last trumpet, there seems at once a very distinct
connection. If the rise of Antichrist be indeed what is represented there, then
we can see how the horns of the altar, from which he has caused sacrifice and
oblation to cease (Dan. ix. 27), should call for judgment upon himself and
those who have followed him, whether Jews or Gentiles. In the passage just
quoted from Daniel it is added, "And because of the wing of abominations there
shall be a desolator." In the sixth trumpet we have just such a
desolator.
The Euphrates was the boundary of the old Roman empire, and
there the four angels are "bound " - "restrained," it may be, by the power of
the empire itself, until, having risen up against God, their own hands have
thrown down the barrier, and the hordes from without enter upon their mission
to "slay the third part of men," a term which we have seen as probably
indicating the revived Roman empire. Here, too, is the seat of the beast’s
supremacy and of the power of Antichrist. Thus there seems real accordance in
these several particulars; and in this way the trumpet judgments give us a
glance over the prophetic field, if brief, yet complete, as otherwise they
would not appear to be. Moreover, when we turn to the thirty-eighth and
thirty-ninth chapters of Ezekiel to find the (desolator of the last days (chap.
XXXVIII. 17), we find in fact the full array of nations from the other side of
the Euphrates pouring in upon the land of Israel, while the connection of that
land with Antichrist and with the Roman empire is plainly shown us in Daniel
and in Revelation alike. If the Euphrates be the boundary of the empire, it is
also Israel’s as declared by God, and the two are already thus far
identified their connection spiritually and politically we shall have fully
before us in the more detailed prophecy to come.
But why four angels
and what do they symbolise? The restraint under which they were marks them
sufficiently as opposing powers, and would exclude the thought of holy angels
nor is it probable that they are literal angels at all. They would seem
representative powers, and in the historical application have been taken to
refer to the fourfold division of the old Turkish empire into four kingdoms
prior to the attack upon the empire of the East. If such an interpretation is
to be made in reference to the final fulfillment, then it is noteworthy that
Gog, of the land of Magog, prince of Rosh, Meshech, and ‘Tubal," - as the
R.V., with most commentators, reads it now, - gives (under one head, indeed,)
four separate powers as principal associates in this latter-day irruption.
Others there are, but coming behind and apart, as in their train. I mention
this for what it may be worth. It is at least a possible application, and
therefore not unworthy of serious consideration, while it (does not exclude a
deeper and more penetrative meaning.
The angels are prepared for the
hour and day and month and year, that they might slav the third part of men.
The immense hosts, two hundred millions in number, are perfectly in the hand of
a Master, - time, work, and limit carefully apportioned by eternal Wisdom, the
evil in its fullest development servant to the good. The horses seem to he of
chief importance and must dwelt upon. Their their riders arc first described,
but only as to their "breast-plates of fire and hyacinth and brimstone."
These answer to the "fire and smoke and brimstone" out of the horses’
mouths: divine judgment of which they are the instruments making them thus
invincible while their work is being done. The horses have heads like lions ;
destruction comes with an open front - the judgment of God: so that the human
hands that direct it are of the less consequence, - divine wrath is sure to
find its executioners.
God’s judgment is foremost in this
infliction, but there is also Satan’s power in it: the horses’ tails
are like serpents, and have heads, and with these they do hurt. Poisonous
falsehood characterizes this time when men are given up to believe a lie.
Death, physical and spiritual, are in league together, and the destruction is
terrible ; but those that escape are not delivered from their sins, which, as
we see, are, in the main, idolatrous worship, with things that naturally issue
out of this. The genealogy of evil is as recorded in the first of Romans: the
forsaking of God leads to all other wickedness ; but here it is where His full
truth has been rejected, and the consequences are so much the more terrible and
disastrous.
THE LITTLE OPEN BOOK.
(Chap. x.)
WE have already seen that in the trumpets, as in the seals,
there is a gap, filled up with a vision, between the sixth and seventh, so as
to make the seventh structurally an eighth section. This corresponds, moreover,
to the meaning; for the seventh trumpet introduces the kingdom of Christ on
earth, which, although the third and final woe upon the dwellers on the earth,
is on the other hand the beginning of a new condition, and an eternal one. With
this octave a chord is struck which vibrates through the universe.
The
interposed vision is in both series, therefore, a seventh, with a meaning
corresponding to the number of perfection. At least, so it is in the series
of the seals, and we may be sure we shall find no failure in this case: failure
in the book of God, even in the minutest point, - our Lord’s "jot or
tittle," - is an impossibility. Nothing is more beautiful of its kind than the
way in which all this prophetic history yields itself to the hand that works in
all and controls all: thank God, we know whose hand.
But the vision of
the trumpet series is very unlike that of the seals, and its burden of sorrow
different indeed from that sweet inlet into beatific rest. We shall find,
however, that it vindicates its position none the less. As in the work, so in
the word of God, with a substantial unity, there is yet a wonderful variety,
never a mere repetition, which would imply that God had exhausted Himself. As
you cannot find two leaves in a forest just alike, so you cannot find two
passages of Scripture that are just alike, when they are carefully and
intelligently considered. The right use of parallel passages must take in the
consideration of the diversity and unity alike.
In the vision before us
there is first of all seen the descent of a strong angel from heaven. As yet,
no descent of this kind has been seen. In the corresponding vision in the seal
series, an angel ascends from the east, but here he descends, and from heaven.
A more positive direct action of heaven upon the earth is implied, power
acting, though not yet the great power under the seventh trumpet when the
kingdom of Christ is come. This being, apparently angelic, is "clothed with a
cloud," - a vail about him, which would seem to indicate a mystery either as to
his person or his ways. It does not say "the cloud," - what Israel saw as the
sign of the presence of the Lord, - otherwise there could be no doubt as to who
was here : yet in His actions presently He is revealed to faith as truly what
the cloud intimates. It is Christ acting as Jehovah, though yet personally
hidden, and in behalf of Israel, among whom the angel of Jehovah walked thus
appareled. It is only the cloud; the brightness which is yet there has not
shone forth: faith has to penetrate the cloud to enter the Presence chamber:
yet is He there, and in a form that intimates His remembrance of the covenant
of old, and on His own part some correspondent action.
So also the
rainbow (which we last saw round the throne of God) encircles His head. Joy is
coming after sorrow, refreshing after storm, the display of God’s blessed
attributes at last, though in that which passes, a glory that endureth. And
this is coming nearer now, in Him who descends to earth. But His face is as the
sun there indeed we see Him; who else has such a face? In our sky there are not
two suns: our orbit is a circle, not an ellipse. His face is above the cloud
with which He is encircled: heaven knows Him for what He is; the earth not yet;
though on the earth may be those who are in heaven’s secret. But His feet
are like pillars of fire, and these are what are first in contact with the
earth, the indication of ways which are in divine holiness, necessarily,
therefore, in judgment, while the earth mutters and grows dark with
rebellion.
Now we have what reveals to us whereto we have arrived: "And
he had in his hand a little book opened." the seventh seal opens a book which
had been seen in heaven; the seventh section here shows us another book now
open, but a little book. It had not the scope and fullness of the other: we
hear nothing of how the writing fills up and overflows the page. It is a little
book which has been till now shut up, but is no longer shut up, - a book too
whose contents, evidently connected with the action of the angel here, has to
do with the earth simply, not with heaven also, as the seven-sealed book has.
We have in this what should lead us to what the book is; for the characteristic
of Old Testament prophecy is just this, that it opens to us the earthly, not
the heavenly things. Its promises are Israel’s, the earthly people (Rom.
ix. 4), and it deals fully with the millennial kingdom, and the convulsions
which are its birth-throes. Beyond the millennium, except in that brief
reference to the new heavens and earth to which Peter refers, it does not go;
and the "new heavens" are not our blessed portion, but the earth-heavens, as
Peter very distinctly shows. There is no heavenly city there in prospect; there
is no rule over the earth on the part of Christ’s co-heirs, such as we
have already found in the song of Revelation. All this the Christian revelation
adds to the Old Testament; while in Revelation the millennium is passed over
with the briefest notice. Here for the first time indeed we get its limits set,
and see how short it is, while the main thing dwelt upon as to it is with whom
shall be filled those thrones which Daniel sees "placed," but sees not the
occupants (chap. vii.). Thus it is plain how the book of Old Testament prophecy
is, comparatively with the New, "a little book."
It is fully owned and
maintained that when we look, with the aid of the New Testament, beyond the
letter, we can find more than this. Types there are and shadows, and that every
where, in prophecy as well as history, of greater things. Earth itself and
earthly things may be and are symbols of heaven and the heavenly. The summer
reviving out of winter speaks of resurrection; the very food we feed on
preaches life through death. And so more evidently the Old Testament: for
Revelation, completing the cycle of the divine testimony, brings us back to
paradise, as type of a better one; and the latest unfolding of what had been
for ages hidden, shows us in Adam and his Eve Christ and the Church.
But this manifestly leaves untouched the sense in which Old Testament prophecy
may be styled "a little book." The application here is also easy. For in fact
the Old Testament prophecy as to the earth has been for long a thing waiting
for that fulfillment which shall manifest and illumine it. Israel outcast from
her land, upon whom the blessing of the earth waits, all connected with this
waits. We may see now, indeed, as in some measure we see their faces set once
more toward their land, that other things also are arranging themselves
preparatory to the final accomplishment. But yet the proper fulfillment of them
is not really begun.
In the meanwhile, though the Lord is fulfilling
His purposes of grace, and taking out from among the Gentiles a people for His
name, as to the earth, it is "man’s day." (i Cor. iv. 3, marg.) When He
shall have completed this, and having gathered the heavenly saints to heaven,
shall put to His hand in order to bring in the blessing for the earth, then the
day of the Lord will begin in necessary judgment, that the inhabitants of the
world may learn righteousness. (Is. xxvi. 9.) This day of the Lord begins,
therefore, before the appearing of the Lord, for which it prepares the way: the
dawn of day is before the sunrise.
The apostle, in warning the
Thessalonians against the error of supposing that the day of the Lord was come
(2 Thess. ii. 2, R. V.), gives them what would be a sign immediately preceding
it: "For that day," he says, "shall not come except there come a falling away
first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition, who opposeth and
exalteth himself above all that is called God or that is worshipped, so that he
sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God." The
manifestation of the man of sin is therefore the bell that tolls in solemnly
the day of the Lord.
This would seem to be the opening, then, of the
"little book." Thenceforth the prophecies of the latter day become clear and
intelligible. Now the apostasy has been shown, as it would seem, in its
beginning under the fifth trumpet, and the man of sin may well be the one
spoken of there: thus the little book may be fittingly now seen as opened, and
in the continuation of the vision here we find for the first time the "beast,"
the "wild beast" of Daniel, in full activity (chap. xi. 7). All, therefore,
seems connected and harmonious; and we are emerging out of the obscure
borderland of prophecy into the place where the concentrated rays of its lamp
are found.
We see too how rapidly the end draws near: "And he set his
right foot upon the sea, and his left upon the earth; and he cried with a great
voice, as when a lion roareth." It is the preparatory voice of Judah’s
Lion, as "suddenly his anger kindles;" and the seven thunders, - the full
divine voice, - the whole government of God in action, - answers it; but what
they utter has to find its interpretation at a later time.
Meanwhile,
the attitude of the angel is explained: "and the angel which I saw standing
upon the sea and upon the earth lifted up his right hand to heaven, and sware
by Him that liveth forever and ever, who created the heavens, and the things
that are therein, and the earth, and the things that are therein, and the sea,
and the things that are therein, that there should be delay no longer; but in
the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he is about to sound " - when
he shall sound, as he is about to do, - " then is finished the mystery of God,
according to the good tidings which He hath declared to His servants the
prophets."
All is of a piece: the prophetic testimony, (the testimony
of the little open book,) is now to be suddenly consummated, which ends only
with the glories of Christ’s reign over the earth. Amid all the confusion
and evil of days so full of tribulation, that except they were mercifully
shortened, no flesh should be saved (Matt. xxiv. 22), yet faith will be allowed
to reckon the very days of its continuance, which in both Daniel and Revelation
are exactly numbered. How great the relief in that day of distress! and how
sweet the compassion of God that has provided it after this manner! "He that
endureth to the end shall be saved," - shall find deliverance speedy and
effectual, and find it in the coming of that Son of Man whose very title is a
gospel of Peace, and whose hand will accomplish the deliverance. ‘Here has
been an apparent long delay: "There shall be delay no longer." Man’s day
has run to its end, and, though in cloud and tempest, the day of the Lord at
last is dawning. Then the mystery of God is finished: the mystery of the first
prophecy of the woman’s Seed, and in which the whole conflict between good
and evil is summarized and foretold. What a mystery it has been! and how
unbelief, even in believers, has stumbled over the delay! The heel of the
Deliverer bruised: a victory of patient suffering to precede and insure the
final victory of power! Meantime, the persistence and apparent triumph of evil,
by which are disciplined the heirs of glory! Now, all is indeed at last cleared
up; the mystery of God (needful to be a mystery while patience wrought its
perfect work,) is forever finished : the glory of God shines like the sun;
faith is how completely justified ! the murmur of doubt forever
silenced.
Thus the sea and the land already, even while the days of
trouble last, know the step of the divine angel, claiming earth and sea for
Christ. And now faith (as in the prophet) is to devour the book of these
wondrous communications, sweet in the mouth, yet at present bitter in
digestion, for the last throes of the earth’s travail are upon her. By and
by this trouble will be no more remembered for the joy that the birth of a new
day is come, - a day prophesied of by so many voices without God, but a day
which can only come when God shall wipe away the tears from off all faces. And
it comes; it comes quickly now: the voice heard by the true Philadelphian is,
"I come quickly." Come, Lord, and "destroy the face of the covering that is
cast over all peoples, and the vail that is spread over all nations;" come, and
swallow up death in victory, and take away the reproach of Thy people from off
all the earth; come, that faith may say in triumph, "Lo, this is our God: we
have waited for Him, and He will save us: this is the Lord; we have waited for
Him, we will be glad and rejoice in His salvation."
THE WITNESSES. (Chap. xi. 1 - 14.)
THE last
words of the preceding chapter receive their explanation from what we have seen
to be the character of the little open book. If this be Old Testament prophecy
that is now "open," then we can see how John has at this point to "prophesy
again," not "before," but "over," - that is, "concerning many peoples and
nations and tongues and kings." He is to take up the strain of the old
prophets, not, of course, merely to echo their predictions, but to add to them
a complementary and final testimony.
Accordingly we find now what
carries us back to those prophecies of Daniel which were briefly reviewed in
our introductory chapter. The mention of the "beast," and of the precise period
of "forty-two months," or "twelve hundred and sixty days," - that is, the
half-week of his last or seventieth week, previous to the coming in of blessing
for Israel and the earth, is by itself conclusive. This week we have seen to
be, in fact, divided in this way by the taking away of the daily sacrifice in
the midst of it (Dan. ix. 27). It is by this direct opposition to God also that
the man of sin is revealed. Hence it would seem clear that it is with the last
half of the week that we have here to do.
A reed like a staff is now
given to the prophet that he may measure with it the temple of God. If a reed
might suggest weakness, as in fact all that is of God lies at the time
contemplated under such a reproach, the words, "like a staff" suggest the
opposite thought. God’s care for his people implied in this measurement is
to unbelief indeed a mystery, for they seem exposed to the vicissitudes of
other men, yet is it a staff upon which one may lean with fullest confidence.
This measurement of things abides, perfect righteousness and absolute truth,
abiding necessarily as such.
The temple of God is, of course, the
Jewish temple, and though not to be taken literally, still, as all its
connections here assure us, stands for Jewish worship, and not Christian,
though a certain application, as in the historical interpretaion, need not be
denied. The altar, as distinct from the temple proper, is, I believe, the altar
of burnt-offering, upon which, indeed, for Israel, all depended. It was there
God met with the people (Ex. xxix. 43), although, as we contemplate things
here, the mass of the nation was in rejection, the court given up to the
Gentiles, the holy city to be trodden under foot by them, only a remnant of
true worshipers acknowledged. It may be said that the altar of burnt-offering
stood in the court; but the idea connected with each is different. The court,
however, being given up, the worshippers recognized must have the sanctuary
opened for them: in the rejection of the mass, God brings the faithful few
nearer to Himself. This is His constant grace.
"And the holy city shall
they tread under foot forty and two months." The " holy city" can speak but of
one city on earth; nor can there be justifiable doubts as to the place in
prophecy of this half-week of desolation. The mixture of literal and figurative
language will be no cause of stumbling to any one who has carefully considered
the style of all these apocalyptic visions, which are evidently not intended to
carry their significance upon their face. All must be fully weighed, must be
self.consistent, and fitting into its place in connection with the whole
prophetic plan. Thus alone can we have clearness and certainty as to
interpretation.
As a man, then, who has been sunk in a long dream of
sorrow, but to whom is now brought inspiriting news of a joy in which he is
called to have an active part, - as an Elijah at another Horeb after the wind
and the earthquake and the fire have passed and He whom he had sought - the
Lord - is not in these, but who is aroused at once by the utterance of the
"still, small voice," - so the prophet here is bidden to rise and measure the
temple of God. Not so unlike, either, to the measure given to the elder
prophet, of seven thousand men that had not bowed the knee to the image of
Baal. How speedy and thorough a relief when God is brought into the scene! and
from what scene is He really absent? How animating, how courageous a thing,
then, is faith that recognizes Him!
And where He is there must be a
testimony to Him. We find it, therefore, immediately in this case: "And I will
give power unto My two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand, two
hundred, and threescore days clothed in sackcloth. These are the two
olive-trees, and the two candlesticks which stand before the Lord of the
earth."
The reference is plain to Zechariah (chap. iv.), but there are
also differences which are plain. There it is the thing itself accomplished, to
which here there is but testimony, and in humiliation, though there is power to
maintain it, spite of all opposition, till the time appointed. The witnesses
are identified with their testimony - that to which they bear witness. Hence
the resemblance. They stand before the Lord of the earth, - the One to whom the
earth belongs, to maintain His claim upon it: in sackcloth, because their claim
is resisted; a sufficient testimony in the power of the Spirit, a spiritual
light amidst the darkness, but which does not banish darkness.
"And if
any man desireth to hurt them, fire proceedeth out of their mouth and devoureth
their enemies; and if any man shall desire to hurt them, in this manner must
be be killed. These have power to shut the heaven that it rain not during the
days of their prophecy; and they have power over the waters, to turn them into
blood, and to smite the earth with every plague as often as they shall
desire."
Here is not the grace of Christianity, but the ministry of
power after the manner of Elijah and of Moses: judgment which must come because
grace has been ineffectual, and of which the issue shall be in blessing, for
"when Thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world shall learn
righteousness." (Isa. xxvi. 9.)
The association of Elijah with Moses,
which is evident here, of necessity reminds us of their association also on the
mount of transfiguration, wherein, as a picture, was presented "the power and
coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." (2 Pet. i. i6 18.) They are here in the same
place of attendance upon their coming Lord. It does not follow, however, that
they are personally present, as some have thought, and that the one has had
preserved to him, the other will have restored to him, his mortal body for that
purpose.
The preservation to Elijah of a mortal body in heaven seems a
thought weird and unscriptural enough, with all its necessary suggestions also.
But the closing prophecy of the Old Testament does announce the sending of
Elijah the prophet before the great and dreadful day of the Lord. Is not this
proof that so he must come?
Naturally, one would say so; but our
Lord’s words as to John the Baptist, on the other hand, - " If ye will
receive it, this is Elias, which was for to come," - raise question. It has
been answered that his own words deny that he was really Elias, and that Israel
did not receive him, and so John could not be Elias to them. Both things are
true, and yet do not seem satisfactory as argument. That he was not Elias
literally, only shows, or seems to show, that one who was not Elias could,
under certain conditions, have fulfilled the prediction. While other words of
the Lord - " I say unto you that Elias is come already, and they have done unto
him whatsoever they listed " - show even more strongly that for that day and
generation he was Elias. Why, then, could not another, coming in his spirit and
power, fulfill the prophecy in the future day?
This Revelation seems to
confirm, inasmuch as it speaks of two witnesses who are both marked as
possessing the spirit and power of Elias, and who stand on an equal footing as
witnesses for God. Had it been one figure before the eyes here, it would have
been more natural to say it is Elias himself; but here are two doing his work,
nor can we think of a possible third behind and unnoticed and yet the real
instrument of God in this crisis. The two form this Elias ministry, which is to
recall the hearts of the fathers to the children, and of the children to the
fathers, and who both lay down their lives as the seal of their testimony. Put
all this together, and does it not seem as if Elias appeared in others raised
up of God and indued with His Spirit, to complete the work for which he was
raised up in Israel?
Much more would all this hinder the reception of
the thought of any personal appearance of Moses, while there is no prediction
at all of any such thing. Jude’s words (which have been adduced) as to the
contention of Michael with Satan about the body of the lawgiver may well refer
to the fact that the Lord had buried him, and no man knew of his sepulcre.
Satan may well, for his own purposes, have desired to make known his grave,
just as God in His wisdom chose to hide it.
Yet the appearance of Moses
and Elias in connection with the appearing of the Lord, as seen on the mount of
transfiguration, seems none the less to connect itself with these two witnesses
and their work, - both caught away in like manner into the "cloud," as the
twelfth verse ought to read. And Malachi, just before the declaration of the
THE Witnesses 119 mission of Elias, bids them, on God’s part, "remember
the law of Moses My servant." Moses must do his work as well as Elias; for it
is upon their turning in heart to the law of Moses that their blessing in the
last days depends; and thus we find the power of God acting in their behalf in
the likeness of what He wrought upon Egypt: the witnesses "have power over
waters, to turn them to blood." It is not that Moses is personally among them,
but that Moses is in this way witnessing for them; and so the vials after this
emphatically declare.
God thus, during the whole time of trouble and
apostasy, preserves a testimony for Himself, until at the close the final
outrage is permitted which brings down speedy judgment. For "when they shall
have finished their testimony, the beast that cometh up out of the abyss shall
make war with them, and overcome them, and kill them. And their dead bodies lie
in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called ‘Sodom’
and ‘Egypt,’ where also their Lord was crucified. And from among the
peoples and tribes and tongues and nations do men look upon their dead bodies
three days and a half, and suffer not their dead bodies to be laid in a tomb.
And they that dwell upon the earth rejoice over, them and make merry; and they
shall send gifts to one another; because these two prophets tormented them that
dwell on the earth. And after the three days and a half, the breath of life
from God entered into them, and they stood upon their feet; and great fear fell
upon them which beheld them. And they heard a great voice from heaven saying
unto them, ‘Come up hither.’ And they went up into heaven in the
cloud; and their enemies beheld them. And in that hour there was a great
earthquake, and the tenth part of the city fell ; and there were killed in the
earthquake seven thousand persons: and the rest were affrighted, and gave glory
to the God of heaven."
If the twelve hundred and sixty days of the
prophetic testimony agree with the last half of the closing week of Daniel,
they coincide with the time of the beast’s permitted power, and the death
of the witnesses is his last political act. That a certain interval of time
should follow before his judgment, which takes place under the third and not
the second woe, does not seem to conflict with chap. xiii. 5, where it should
read, "power was given unto him to practice " - not "continue," - " forty and
two months." The last act of tyranny may have been perpetrated in the slaying
of the witnesses; and indeed it seems a thing fitted to be the close of power
of this kind permitted him. With this the storm-cloud of judgment arises, which
smites him down shortly after.
If, however, the duration of the
testimony be for the first half of the week, then the power of the beast begins
with the slaughter of the witnesses, and the three and a half years’
tribulation follows, which does not seem to consist with the judgment and its
effects three and a half days afterward. Then, too, "the second woe is past"
and the third announces the kingdom of Christ as having come. But we shall yet
consider this more closely when we come, if the Lord will, to the
interpretation of the vials.
Here, then, for the first time, the beast
out of the abyss comes plainly into the scene. In Daniel, and in Rev. xiii., he
does not come out of the abyss, but out of the sea; but in the seventeenth
chapter he is spoken of as "about to come up out of the abyss," showing
undeniably that it is the same "beast" as Daniel’s fourth one, - the Roman
empire. In the first case, as coming out of the sea, it has a common origin
with the other three empires - the Babylonian, Persian, and Grecian - out of
the heaving deep of Gentile nations. Then we find in Revelation what from
Daniel we should never have expected, but what in fact has certainly taken
place, - that the empire which is to meet its judgment at the coming of the
Lord does not continue uninterruptedly in power till then. There is a time in
which it ceases to be, - and we can measure this time of non-existence
already by centuries, - and then it comes back again in a peculiar form, as
from the dead: "the beast that was and is not, and shall be present." (Chap.
xvii. 8.) This rising again into existence we would naturally take as its
coming up out of the abyss, - out of the death state, - and think that we were
at the bottom of the whole matter. The truth seems to be not quite so simple,
but here is not the place to go into it further.
For the present, it is
enough to say that the coming up out of the abyss is in fact a revival out of
the death state, but, as a comparison with the fifth trumpet may suggest,
revival by the dark and demon influences which are there represented as in
attendance upon the angel of the abyss. It is the one in whom is vested the
power of the revived empire who concentrates the energy of his hatred against
God in the slaying of the witnesses.
The place of their death is
clearly Jerusalem: "Their dead bodies lie in the street of the great city,
which spiritually is called ‘Sodom ‘ and ‘Egypt,’ where
also their Lord was crucified." Certainly no other place could be so defined:
and thus defined and characterized for its lusts as Sodom, for its cruelty to
the people of God as Egypt, it is not now called the "holy," but the "great"
city, - great even in its crimes. In its street their bodies lie, exposed by
the malice of their foes which denies them burial, but allowed by God as the
open indictment of those who have thus definitively rejected His righteous
rule. The race of the prophets is at an end, which has tormented them with
their claim of the world for God; and the men of the earth rejoice, and send
gifts to one another. Little do they understand that when His testimony is at
an end, there is nothing left but for God Himself to come in and to manifest a
power before which mans power shall be extinguished as flax before the
flame.
And the presage of this quickly follows. "And after the three days
and a half, the breath of life from God entered into them, and they stood
upon their feet; and great fear fell upon them which beheld them., And they
heard a great voice from heaven saying unto them, ‘Come up hither.’
And they went up into heaven in the cloud; and their enemies beheld
them."
If this is the time of the addition of the saints martyred under
the beast’s persecution to the first resurrection, of which the vision in
the twentieth chapter speaks, then it is plain that we are arrived at the end
of the beast’s power against the saints, and of the last week of Daniel.
"Two" is the number of valid testimony (Jno. viii. 17), and these two witnesses
may, in a vision like that before us, stand for many more, - nay, for this
whole martyred remnant in Israel. We cannot say it is so, but we can as little
say it is not so; and even the suggestion has its interest: for thus this
appendix to the sixth trumpet seems designed to put in place the various
features of Daniel’s last week, the details of which are opened out to us
in the seven chapters following, with many additions. And this we might expect
in a connected chain of prophecy which stretches on to the end; for under the
seventh trumpet the kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of the Lord,
and of His Christ, and the "time of the dead to be judged" is at least
contemplated.
The resurrection of the witnesses is not all: a great
earthquake follows, "and the tenth part of the city fell; and there were killed
in the earthquake seven thousand persons; and the rest were affrighted, and
gave glory to the God of heaven."
Thus the sixth trumpet ends in a
convulsion in which judgment takes, as it were, the refused tithe from a
rebellious people. There is a marked similarity here between the trumpets and
the vials, which end also in an earthquake and judgment of the great city: as
to which we may see further in its place. The rest that are not slain give
glory to the God of heaven. It is the unacceptable product of mere human
fear, which has no practical result; for God is claiming the earth, not
simply heaven, and for the affirmation of this claim His witnesses have died.
They can allow Him heaven who deny Him earth. And judgment takes its
course.
The second woe ends with this, and the third comes quickly
after it.
Chapter Eight
THE KINGDOM. (Chap.
xi. i8.)
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