In beginning our " Meditations " on this wondrous book it will be well to recall what was said in our Introductory Meditation on Prophetic Portions of The New Testament, viz., that " we ought to enter on it with our consciences and sympathies rather than with our intellects," and to see to it that our souls are somewhat in order, treated as we are as friends on these occasions (see page 5 of Vol. 13). We need also, I believe, to know something of what another has called " the Patmos platform " if we would understand rightly the teachings of this solemn portion of the word of God.
It was the same God who gave to the Lord Jesus the Revelation for us in grace, who also marked for Him the time in which He should give it forth. And He also it was who, at that very time, brought John, though the means of a bitter persecution, into the very spot in which the Lord was to reveal it to him.
I dare say John's thoughts about the troubles that befell him, and which were the immediate occasion of his being pushed into Patmos, were very different before and after that he had been there and had there received the Revelation.
Afflictions, weakness, man's wickedness acting according to hatred of the truth, and the breaking up of all John's work, and, perhaps, thoughts about work for the Lord on the one side; and on the other side, God and the power of His might which (causing all things to work together for good) was guiding John—in his weakness, by a current of afflictive circumstances over which he had no power—to a point where the Lord Jesus wanted to meet him and give him the substance of the Apocalypse.
These are the two very opposite views of one and the same thing, as looked at from John's stand-point on the earth, or from God's stand-point in heaven.
The opening of this remarkable book gives us its title and character, " The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto Him." For it will be found, I judge, to be a revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ, in such characters of glory and power as He derives from God, or a revelation of Him in the exercise of judical authority. Now two exercises of judical authority awaited Him after He had ascended to God, and accordingly this book has two parts.
1.-3. These chapters give us the first part.
The Lord is here exercising judgment in the Church, or among the lights of the sanctuary. This is called, " The things which are."
4.-22. These chapters give us the second part. The Lord is here exercising judgment in the earth—preparing it for His kingdom. This is called, "The things which shall be hereafter."
This is the general order of the book, but these two parts contain properly both a preface and a conclusion.
In the preface (1:1-8) we first learn that this wondrous book deals with " The word of God, and the testimony of Jesus Christ,'' that is, God's counsels made known by Jesus Christ. Then we are told the manner in which Jesus Christ ministers this testimony to the churches, and blessing is then pronounced on him who acts righteously by this book, by either reading or hearing it, and then by keeping the things which are written in it.
After this the seven churches in Asia are called to listen, and after a benediction on them, the Lord Jesus is announced as the One who is about to come " with clouds " or in the solemnities of judgment (Dan. 7:1313I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him. (Daniel 7:13); Matt. 24:30; 26:6430And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. (Matthew 24:30)
64Jesus saith unto him, Thou hast said: nevertheless I say unto you, Hereafter shall ye see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven. (Matthew 26:64)). A coming 'quite according to the judical character of the book, and which is to make the kindreds of the earth wail because of Him, and those which pierced Him to see Him to their confusion.
But in the midst of such an announcement of the Lord as even this, the saints have two sweet and happy utterances put into their lips. On His being here revealed as " the faithful witness," " the first begotten from the dead," and " the Prince of the kings of the earth," they praise Him as the One who loved them. And again, when His coming in the clouds as for judgment is announced, they invite His glory with full confidence still, and say, " Even so, amen." For they have thoroughly learned that they may have boldness even in a day of judgment (1 John 4:1717Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world. (1 John 4:17)). Then when these utterances of the saints pass by, the Lord reveals Himself as " the First and the Last," a title which He frequently takes in this book, the very title, too, that He so constantly assumes when judging the idols of Babylon in Isaiah (see Isa. 48), all this still assuring us that He is now about to speak in judgment again, In the mouth indeed of every witness here, we learn that this book is a revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ, which God, not the Father, gives Him, or in judgment, not in grace. But this is only her at the close of the volume of the New Testament, for I may observe that the Lord has ever sought, so to speak, to publish His name in grace before He does so in judgment. In some way or other He will and must make Himself known, for that is His glory; but He seeks the rather to be known in goodness than in judgment, if men will hear. We have this variously illustrated. To Egypt, for instance, the Lord made Himself known in Joseph, the witness of His goodness; for by Joseph he filled Egypt's storehouses with all kinds of wealth. But Egypt forgat Joseph. A king arose there, who persecuted Joseph's people and said of his God, " Who is the Lord that I should obey Him?," Then the Lord had to publish His name in that land in judgment, saying to the king: " In this thou shalt know that I am the Lord, behold, I will smite with the rod." He was now to be made known not in Joseph, but in plagues. So in Israel afterward. The Lord Jesus was offered to them as " the chief corner stone, the sure foundation," the One in whomthey should find salvation and strength; but being rejected as such, He was to be revealed to them as " the head stone of the corner " in the power and judgment of an exalted stone which was to fall and to grind to powder. And so in the world now; this present dispensation is publishing God in grace: He is beseeching men to be reconciled. But they who will not thus know Him, neglecting " the great salvation," must know Him by-and-bye in judgments (2 Thess. 1:88In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: (2 Thessalonians 1:8)). If the blood of the Lamb be despised, the wrath of the Lamb must await (Rev. 6:16,1716And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: 17For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand? (Revelation 6:16‑17)). The same One who is " full of grace and truth " now, will by-and-bye send the sword out of His mouth to execute judgment (Rev. 19:1515And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. (Revelation 19:15)). And this is the difference between the Gospel by John and the Revelation. The Gospel publishes the name of the Lord in grace, the Revelation in judgment. The one flows from the Father, the other from God. Now, according to all this, when we pass the preface and get into the body of the book, it is the Lord, the Son of Man in the place of judgment, that we at once see (see 1:9-20). These verses introduce the first scene which the book discloses, and here John sees the Lord as High Priest prepared to judge the sanctuary. He does not show Himself to John as the Priest at the golden altar, with the censer and the burning incense, but at the candlestick with the golden snuffers, as though He were inquiring, and that too for the last time, whether or not the lamps of the sanctuary would burn worthy of the place, or whether He should not be compelled soon to remove them. It is the Son of Man, with garments down to the foot, and golden girdle about His loins, with head and hair white as wool, eyes of flame, feet of brass, and voice of many waters, in His hand holding the seven stars, and in His mouth the two-edged sword, and walking in the brightness and power of the midday sun, among the seven candlesticks. All this was an expression of judgment " of the house of God " (1 Peter 4:1717For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God? (1 Peter 4:17) cf., also Ezek. 9:5,65And 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: 6Slay utterly old and young, both maids, and little children, and women: but come not near any man upon whom is the mark; and begin at my sanctuary. Then they began at the ancient men which were before the house. (Ezekiel 9:5‑6)); a revelation of the Priest, not at the altar with incense, nor even at the candlestick with oil to feed it, but at the candlestick with the snuffers to judge and trim it, as being out of order. John shall hear himself personally and individually addressed, with the wonted words of God's sweet love to us, " Fear not; " but still this is a vision that may well make the stoutest of the children of men to fall as dead. And it is quite according to such an introduction as this that we find our Lord in the following scene (Rev. 2;3) Here it is the Lord in " the house of God " challenging the churches to answer for themselves. He had before set them in blessing, and now He looks for fruit. It is as though He had heard a report of their unfaithfulness, and was now saying unto them, " How is it that I hear this of thee? Give an account of thy stewardship; for thou mayest be no longer steward." He had already communicated with them through the apostles, but now He does so through the angels. Paul had addressed them in the pastoral grace of Christ; John now addresses them as from the judicial authority of Christ. The apostles had fed them and disciplined them as in the place of dependence, but now these epistles challenge them as in the place of responsibility; and the moment they are thus addressed they are found wanting as candlesticks bound to shine to the praise of Him who had set them in His sanctuary; they are now visited, and the common result of all such visitations of God's stewards may tell us the end of the candlesticks also.
For the crisis or judgment has always found man unready: whether planted in innocency, in a sphere of providence, or under a ministration of grace, man has been found unequal even to hold a blessing. " Adam, where art thou?" got this answer, " I heard thy voice in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked, and I hid myself." The vineyard of Israel afterward should have yielded its fruit to Him who had planted and dressed it, but when He came it was only the wild grape that He found. And so it is now with the candlesticks in the house of God. They had been duly prepared by God's care. They were nothing less than golden candlesticks, churches fed by the Spirit, blessed with blessings from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, made fully furnished and well ordered lights in the sanctuary. But now that the visitation is made in due season too, the Son of Man finds something unsuited to the holy place. These seven churches (the sevenfold or perfect expression of the church) are here challenged by the Son of Man with these words, " I know thy works," but the sevenfold light is but dim and uncertain. This steward of God's glory is but unfaithful also. And so by-and-bye the same inquisition will be made of " the earthly gods," the Gentile powers to whom the Lord has committed the sword, and they will then in like manner as Adam, Israel, or the candlesticks, be found wanting, an d they will have to fall as men and die like one of the princes (Psa. 82) All the stewards are thus found wanting, when weighed in the balance, and the Lord is justified in His saying and clear when He judges.
These seven churches are here as the place of this judgment. There were, it is true, other congregations of the Lord at the time, but these seven are enough to exhibit the judgment, for seven is completeness. So some of them may be found by this judgment or visitation in a better condition than others; but still the Son of Man sees the whole thing far different from what it ought to be. The whole tone of this visitation bears with it a notice of what the end was speedily to be, as in our day we see it, for Philadelphia and Smyrna are now as fully removed candlesticks as Sardis or Pergamos.
( To be continued, D. V.)