The Revelation of Jesus Christ was given when the church had failed. In early days the great thing for every Christian was the “Name of the Lord Jesus” — “Whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus.” Even to the young, “Children, obey your parents in all things.” Why? “For this is well pleasing unto the Lord.” But the eye of believers had got off the Lord when God gave Him this Revelation, and which He gave to John for us.
It is addressed to “His servants” —not to the church as such, nor even to those alone who form the church—for there are “servants of our God” (7:3) found after the church is gone; but it speaks to all who take the place of “servants,” whether true believers or not, and they are dealt with according to their profession.
When Jehovah brought Israel out of Egypt He forbade any Israelite to make a slave of his brother, “for they are My servants,” to serve Him alone. “If I desire to please men, I should not be the servant of Christ,” says Paul.
John introduces himself as a servant, not as a disciple. True, he was a disciple, he had leaned on the Lord's breast at supper; but here he is seen in a very different manner. He had to do with his Master, “Whose eyes are as a flame of fire,” and he falls at His feet as dead (1:17).
We have the Lord daily with us in our bedroom, our drawing-room (if we have one), our kitchen, not alone as the High Priest presenting all our petitions in the acceptance of His own person, but as the priest of Ezekiel (44:23), teaching us how to choose between the clean and the unclean, that which we should not touch, and that which we may enjoy. And this, though causing no terror, gives solemnity to everything.
John has no power to serve the Lord now; he is at His feet as dead. Then the Lord laid His right hand on him and imparted strength. We need the Lord in His death for our sins; we need His priestly intercession for us up there now for our weaknesses. We need His right hand for everything: His strength for every service as it comes. We may want to follow the Lord over the sea, like Peter, but we shall go down like a shot unless His hand holds us up. As soon as the Lord touched His servant John, he was strengthened to write the whole book for Him.
In chaps. 2, 3, we have the Lord Jesus Christ and seven churches viewed in their responsibility as light-bearers in the world; but the world itself is not here spoken of.
There is failure, something wrong, in almost every one of these seven churches, but before we get that, we have the Lord Himself presented in just the way to meet it.
We can never be in circumstances too bad for Him to meet, but we are never justified in going on with evil. Other scriptures reveal the duty of the faithful in such circumstances, but in this portion, which in no way treats of assembly discipline, we have what is obnoxious (cf. 2:4-6, 9, 14-16, 20-23; 3:1-3, 9, 15-19) to Him who is seen walking “in the midst of the seven golden lampstands,” whose “eyes are as a flame of fire,” and who gives “to every one of you according to your works.” This, surely, is not without its effect upon the one who seeks to walk in communion with the Lord Jesus Christ.
In the last of these seven churches, where latitudinarianism and indifferentism seem to sweep away all true testimony, even then we are directed to the “Amen, the Faithful and True Witness,” who delights to succor and strengthen the true-hearted by coming in to sup with the one that hears His voice, and opens the door to Him, and who is given further to sup with Him. Thus may we unburden our hearts and learn His mind and will in this blessed communion with Himself. Those who have recourse to Him down here shall indeed be rewarded up there.
There is nothing said about the world, while the church is seen down here, because the Lord would have us occupied with Himself and His people; but there is much about it when we are gone, because then God will be occupied with it. He is still, of course, overruling everything, not a sparrow falling to the ground without Him; but He is not now dealing in government, but showing all long-suffering.
The throne of Heb. 4 is very different from that of Rev. 4. The throne of grace we are to come to. We are already there and around it in Rev. 4. The rainbow round about the throne denotes government of the earth, for the covenant of Gen. 9 was made with the whole creation. The throne has its full executors of judgment, the four living creatures marking perfection of strength, patience, wisdom, swiftness. In chap. v. we have an Object on the throne, a Lamb, the symbol of perfect weakness, but He has seven horns (perfection of strength), and seven eyes (fullness of wisdom). Let us take heed how we speak of Him When going to the cross, though we know He could have burst the cords, He asked permission to use His hand. “Suffer ye thus far," and then put it forth to heal the servant's ear. How can we divide the human from the divine? May we bow and adore! He is the center and object of the praise of the elders, the angels, and of all creation.
All heaven is agreed to favor the “righteous cause” (Psa. 35:2727Let them shout for joy, and be glad, that favor my righteous cause: yea, let them say continually, Let the Lord be magnified, which hath pleasure in the prosperity of his servant. (Psalm 35:27)) of the Lord Jesus; He is the “Lion of the tribe of Judah” (the royal tribe), as well as the “Root of David.” All things are His by personal right and title, but He receives them from His Father on account of His work, that we who have no title may be Christ's fellow-heirs.
Since the cross, the Lord Jesus has not been occupied with the world as such (except, of course, as Creator). He prayed for those whom the Father had given Him, but He did not ask for the world. When He does, it will be given Him. Our testimony to the world is that we are outside it—strangers and pilgrims. But when we are at rest with Him, then all heaven is occupied with His “righteous cause” as King over the whole earth. He that sits on the throne gives Him the book. The contents of that book, as He opens it, are introduced by the executors of the government of the throne. The living creatures say “Come.”
If in chap. 5 we have heaven's interest in the “righteous cause” of the Lamb, in chap. 6 we find those on earth who learn it from the written word, and, for “favoring” it, meet with martyrdom. They cry, “How long?” etc., and the answer comes in the opening of the sixth seal, when the misery of those who oppose the Lord's claims becomes manifest, even at the beginning of the book. Chap. 7 is a happy parenthesis showing God's side. He seals the perfect earthly number from Israel, and then gives us the result of their testimony in the countless multitude who surround the throne (see Rom. 11). The fall of Israel, their rejection of the last message by Paul—when Peter who was the apostle of the circumcision preached, 3,000 were converted; when Paul preached almost the same sermon (Acts 13) they rejected it. God is sovereign in the use of His servants—caused him to turn to the Gentiles, and we have been saved. If this, their fall, was the riches of the Gentiles, how much more their fullness? When the book is fully opened, there is silence in heaven. When the seventh trumpet sounds, there are great voices. Why is there silence? In verse 2 we find there those who “favor His righteous cause,” willing to die for it, yet sealed from martyrdom and testifying to it, and their prayers are ascending. Heaven is silent to listen to them. The Lamb is no longer seen on the throne; He stands in angelic form at the altar, presenting their petitions. And as the incense goes up from His hand, the judgments come down in answer. The trumpets are God's call to men to listen to the righteous cause of the Lord.
It is a great mercy that our God has revealed to us the power of the enemy. Man thinks he is a free agent, doing his own will, forgetting that that will is directed by Satan. “The spirit that now worketh in the sons of disobedience.” He ever works on the flesh (the new man he cannot touch), and “the mystery of lawlessness doth already work.” Lawlessness is in ourselves. God has disclosed to us in chaps. 7-10 what will be the issue of the works of the devil in the things we see around us now.
We have already remarked that when the seventh seal is opened there is silence in heaven. Heaven has its joys—when one sinner repents, there is joy in heaven. Heaven is interested intensely in the earth, and it can afford to be silent at this peculiar moment when nothing arises from the earth but the cry of God's saints for vengeance—no praise, no testimony, nothing but the cry for vengeance. But that cry instantly brings the Lord Jesus to the altar. Those prayers, feeble as they may be, immediately occupy Him. He gives efficacy to them, they ascend from His hand. And is that true of us now? Unceasing as we realize the power of the enemy to be, the Lord Jesus is still more unceasing in His care, as He is the One most deeply interested in the feeblest cry of the weakest of His own, or the strongest—it might be Paul. He had a messenger of Satan to buffet him, and he prayed or besought the Lord to take it away. “No,” says the Lord, “You fight him, Paul.” “How can I, Lord?” “My grace is sufficient for thee, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” “I have fought the good fight,” the apostle says at the close. So you have, Paul, but you did not do it yourself, it was His grace that made you more than conqueror.
The seven angels stand before God. He is not spoken of here darkly or mystically as the one that sat on the throne, “like a jasper and a sardine stone,” but as God dealing with men! From His presence the angels sound their trumpets, calling men to repent. The first four judgments are slight compared with the later ones, but terrible beyond anything we know. The earth now is divided into three classes—Jew, Gentile, and the church of God. It would seem that then, though the church is removed, the distinction will remain in connection with what professes to be Christendom. The first four trumpets (which fall on a third part) deal with natural things. When God gave government into the hand of the Gentiles, Nebuchadnezzar had no instructions how to govern—a contrast to the command that Israel's kings, on coming to the throne, should copy out the law of Jehovah (Deut. 17:1818And it shall be, when he sitteth upon the throne of his kingdom, that he shall write him a copy of this law in a book out of that which is before the priests the Levites: (Deuteronomy 17:18)), the best possible way of learning how to rule. Nebuchadnezzar had no such instructions, he had to be taught by the judgment that fell on him. It is no excuse for nations that they have not the Bible. There are plenty of witnesses around them. See the “everlasting gospel” preached in Rev. 14:77Saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come: and worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters. (Revelation 14:7) where they are told to “fear God and give Him glory... and worship Him” whose works they see all around them, so it would seem that these trumpets are to Gentiles as such.
Then come the “woe” trumpets. In chap. 9 it is not natural things afflicted, but the state of conscience. It comes from the bottomless pit, and the fifth trumpet is to those who “have not the seal of God in their foreheads,” evidently of the same nation as those who are sealed in chap. 7 Israel. It is in awful contrast with the blessing they would have had had they accepted their Messiah. He was the “Light of life.” Here is, alas! deadly darkness and the power of lies (cf. 9:10 with Isa. 9:1515The ancient and honorable, he is the head; and the prophet that teacheth lies, he is the tail. (Isaiah 9:15)).
If the fifth judgment comes from the bottomless pit, the sixth comes from hell itself. It falls on those who “worship demons,” nor repent “of their murders,” etc. (9:20, 21). Terrible sinners! yet the counterpart of the description of Babylon itself. After the church is gone, Christendom will unite under Rome to fall under her judgment.
Chapter 10 shows the Lord coming to take possession of the earth, with the sign of His covenant with it round His head. The book is “little” now, not much remaining to be fulfilled. He lifts up His hand and swears, reminding of Deut. 32 Then comes His special care of Jerusalem, and the testimony in her (the two witnesses). The seventh trumpet takes us right to the end. The nations angry (not repentant), wrath come, the dead judged, and every servant, however small, rewarded—God's answer to the question why so much sin and dishonor to Him has been allowed to go on. The mystery of God now finished.