In Israel there was the ordinance of redeeming the inheritance, as well as the heir or person (Lev. 25). If either an Israelite or his possession had been sold, it was both his kinsman's duty and right to ransom him and it: now Jesus has approved Himself' our kinsman in both ways. The Son of God became the Son of man and thus showed His kinsman nature. He died to purchase us and our inheritance by blood, and thus showed His kinsman love; and in this book of the Revelation we get Him, I judge, perfecting His acts as such kinsman and redeeming our inheritance out of the hand of its corrupters. The kinsman in Israel had title to redeem the inheritance, but then he had to do it on condition of discharging the debt that was on it. Jesus has paid His blood, a full and more than adequate value, as is here owned, for the Book, or title to the redeemed possession, passes into His hand, and hence the action flows. But the usurper of the inheritance is still to be removed, the enemy to be made the kinsman's footstool; and whether the action be properly that of God, or that of the Lamb Himself, the character of the action, I judge, is equally clear and certain. The action is the redemption of the inheritance flowing from the Lamb's acknowledged title. The Book taken by the Lamb is the title deed; and that it is so, and not a book of instructions to Him as the Prophet of the church, or anything but this title deed that concerns the church's inheritance of the earth, appears to me from several considerations.
1st. Because it lay in the hand of God Almighty, the Creator of all things, before He receives it.
2nd. Because it is taken by the Lord as the Lamb slain, and as the Lion of Judah, characters of purchase and strength.
3rd. Because on the taking of it, the church sings in prospect of her dominion over the earth. The angels, who had been previously ministers of power in the earthy then transfer all that to the Lamb, and creation ends her groans in praises.
These witnesses establish in my mind the character of the Book which the Lamb, takes, and the book of the Revelation is in concord with this. It is the history of the redemption of the inheritance; I mean, of course, the second part of it, after the third chapter. It is the Joshua of the New Testament. It occupies the same place in the history of the acts of the Lord in the New Testament, as the book of Joshua does of the acts of the Lord in the Old. It records the manner of redeeming the inheritance, as that did; and without His acts as recorded in Joshua the Lord's ways in old time would have been imperfect.
He had redeemed the heir out of Egypt by the hand of Moses, educated and trained him in the wilderness, and thus prepared him for rest in. Canaan; but Be had still to redeem Canaan out of the hand of the Amorite, and this act of His is recorded in Joshua. Then, but not till then, the Lord went through the whole course of His mercy and strength; and so, without the book of the Revelation, the record of the Lord's acts would in like manner have been incomplete. The gospels and the epistles tell us, like the book of Moses, of the redemption of the heir, and his education in the wilderness of this present evil world, but now it is this closing book of the Revelation that tells us of the redemption of the inheritance, and thus properly closes and completes the perfect acts of the Lord in behalf of the Church of God.
But the day of vengeance is united with the year of the redeemed (Isa. 63:4; 34:8; 61:2), and accordingly the redemption of the inheritance is conducted by judgments, or vengeance on the enemies of the heir of it, its usurpers and corrupters, as therefore from henceforth in this book (until the inheritance is redeemed—until the kingdom is brought in) it is judgment that is proceeding (6.-19.). It may be seals that are opened, trumpets blown, or vials emptied, but all is preparing the inheritance for the Lamb and the church, all is action for the redeeming of it, and bringing it into the hand of Him into whose hand the title deed of it, as we have seen, has already passed. And according to this, on His beginning this action, He receives both a bow and a crown, the one signifying that He was going forth to judge and make war, the other that that warfare was to end in the kingdom. As is said to Him in another Scripture, " Gird thy sword upon thy thigh, O most mighty," and then " Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever " (Psa. 45). Thus it is henceforth a book of judgments, as it has been hitherto, only judgments in another sphere and for another end—not of the candlestick but of the earth and its corrupters. Judgment had begun at the house of God, and now ends with those who would not obey the gospel. One enemy may appear after another, the beast, and the false prophet, the dragon, the great whore, or the kings of the earth, but it is only that each, in his season, may meet the judgment of the Lord. So there may be sorrow after sorrow, the woman may have to fly into the wilderness, the remnant of her seed to feel the rage of the dragon, those who refuse to take the mark of the beast to know and exercise the patience of the saints, and the two witnesses to lie slain in the streets of the great city; but all this sorrow is only leading on to the rest of the kingdom, or to the descent of the Golden City. The inheritance is thus redeemed by judgments out of the hands of its corrupters, and then the righteous nation that has kept the truth enters. But in all this action, I judge,' the church has no place, the saints having been taken to meet the Lord in the air before it begins. This scene is one of judgment, and they have been removed, like Enoch, to another altogether. And I would now suggest a few reasons, on which I ground this conclusion, as I did before for my conclusions on the character of the sealed book.
1st. The saints are seen around the throne in heaven; or, as I have already noticed, in the 4th chapter, and throughout the book, onward from that, they are never seen but there; and this leads me to judge that the church has been removed from the earth at some untold moment between the time of the 3rd and 4th chapters, as I have already said.
2nd. At the opening of this action, chap. 6., the same signs are given as had before been given by the Lord Himself to His Jew ish remnant (Matt. 24) respecting the end of the world (or age); and as in all that prophecy the church is not contemplated, so do I judge that sheds not contemplated here, but that it is the faithful Jewish election who are engaged in this action, as they only are considered in that prophecy.
3rd. The judgments begin with the 6th chapter, but as Joshua of old did not begin his wars till the redemption and discipline of the people were ended, and they were taken out of the wilderness, so, do I judge, will not the action of the 6th chapter begin till the rapture of the saints, which closes the discipline of the church and takes her out of the wilderness, is over.
4th. It is a scene of judgment, as I have already noticed, and the calling of the church is that of Enoch, to be taken out of it, and not like Noah, preserved in it (see 1 Thess. 4 and 2 Thess. 2).
From such considerations I do conclude that the church is not mixed up in the scene which now lies before us. They have been taken into their more immediate inheritance which is in heaven (1 Peter 1:4), which is to them the passage of the Jordan, before these judgments on the corrupters of the earth, the mystic Amorites of Canaan, begin. These scenes are the wars of our Joshua—a remnant like Rahab is delivered out of the defiled place after they begin; but the saints have passed into their inheritance, though the whole of it is not yet subdued, and through these chapters, 6.—19., they wait in the house of the Father for it. But I do not particularly notice these chapters; indeed I do not believe that we are competent to speak of them with authority. We may draw much warning and exhortation from them, which we should lay deeply to heart as being that which the Lord would continually say to us, in order that we may stand in any evil day that may arise, as arise it may, to try and sift us at any hour. But of the scenes themselves I would not speak with authority. The Lord inthem is clad with zeal as a cloak, the day of vengeance being in His heart, and the year of His redeemed having come, and onward thus He travels in the greatness of His strength, till He couches in His kingdom as the Lion of Judah. The true day of Jericho, and of Ai, of the valley of Ajalon, and of the waters of Merom are here fought till the earth gets rest from war, and the people of the Lord dwell again in sure and quiet habitation.
(Continued from page 40.)
(To be continued, D. V.)