5th— “Their teeth were as the teeth of lions.” This shows their preparedness for consuming; for the lion, whether applied to Judah, Messiah, Satan, or in nature, stands for courage and power. (Prov. 28:1; 30:14, 30; Dan. 7:7, 19; Joel 1:6.)
6th— “They had breastplates as it were breastplates of iron,” unassailable defensive armor. (Eph. 6:14; 1 Thess. 5:8.)
7th— “The sound of their wings was as the sound of chariots.” (See Isa. 37:24; Jer. 47:3; 46:15; Ezek. 26:10; Joel 2:5.)
They did not attack the grass of the earth, neither the green things, &c. (for the force of this, see trumpet first). Though competent, and though apparently made to conquer the earth, this was not their object. Perhaps the double name in Hebrew and Greek shows that their power will be upon Jews and Gentiles.
An edict, instituting and enforcing a fine upon the observance of circumcision, or of the unity of God, by any power ranging over the precincts of the land, would produce just the recklessness referred to. The nursery of these marauders, if not their nest, was a thick mist of mysticism and error from beneath.
The star, by whose means the way is made for them, does not seem to be marked as their leader. He, the star, is perhaps only the remover of the hindrances which prevent the smoke rising.
The mists from beneath, in themselves savoring of judgment (as smoke tells of fire), do away with the light and air, destroying apparently, that in which man finds his way before God, and that also which is the power of mutual association; thereupon result these marauders, already looked at. They seemed fit but for one thing, to eat grass, &c.; but, in fact, this they did not, but only used the power, not natural to them but bestowed upon them, of torment and torture.
Hitherto the sad results of each successive blast have been worse than those of that which preceded, and more manifestly laying bare, and declaring the presence of, the hand of God; and so in the coming trumpet.
On the sounding of the first, hail and fire, mingled with blood, were cast on the earth, to the destruction of one-third of its produce. The second brought a great mountain on fire into the sea, for a similar destruction of, one-third of its contents.
The third issued in the poisoning of one-third of the rivers and fountains, so that many men died.
The fourth brought darkness on one-third of the sun, and moon, and stars.
The fifth was a scourge and trial of all not having the seal of God, thus making manifest God's object of affection and desire, and so confessing Him more plainly than ever; even as the gradual development of power, in that part of the series which had preceded, had gradually made the divine power, which was at the bottom of it all, more and more conspicuous, for the actions become more and more manifestly divine as to the extent of power. In the fifth, the sealed have been exempted from the trial, so far at least as the scorpion stings were concerned (whether beyond this I know not). On the sixth angel sounding, the cry comes from the golden altar, as showing where the mind which regulated, and which was the spring of it all, was; and perhaps also showing that that altar, which had been the altar of the heavenly calling, was in some sense, in its past history, connected with it all. The scene of this wave of trouble is wider than of the preceding, for its waters were circumscribed to the bounds of the Hebrew and Greek tongues. Here the trouble springs up in the Euphrates, and has a fourfold energy, going whithersoever there is idolatry. There is a haste and a wildness in the mighty rush here presented to us, and an all-devouring character of action prominently displayed in their first appearance, very unlike the character of action in the last trumpet. There is no presenting of any such idea of order, preparedness, dominion, intelligent lordship, or apparent gentleness, as in trumpet fifth; but the two hundred millions are presented at once, brilliant as the flames in, action; and consumption, rather than victory, marking their progress; while behind them is felt the stinging wretchedness of subjection to them. The sorrow rolls in judgment over heathenism, but leaves it, in moral result, just where it was. If these horsemen are the Lord's, this visitation may be, perhaps, a plague, or pestilence, and the four angels be the same who, in chapter vii. 1, are represented as having it in them to withhold the wind, and so injure the earth, &c.; and so symbol is preserved throughout, which I judge to be the case.
I know not whether the whole four angels were for a year, a month, a day, an hour, or whether one for a year, another for a month, another for a day: if so, as all four were loosed at once, the sorrow decreases, &c.
Ere proceeding, we must remark, how immediately between the close of the results of the fifth trumpet, and the sound of the sixth, the announcement (ver. 12), “one woe is past; and, behold, there come two woes more hereafter,” comes in, referring to a somewhat similar verse (chap. 8:13) introduced between the results of the fourth trumpet, and the sounding of the fifth.
A verse, similar to the twelfth verse of the ninth chapter, is found (chap. 11:14):— “The second woe is past; and, behold, the third woe cometh quickly,” which refers, I conceive, to the results of this sixth trumpet, and marks chapters 10 and 11:1-13 as a parenthesis. The object of this parenthesis I conceive to be just to show the state, morally and as to circumstances, of the inheritance (toward the assuming of which, by the Lord, all this action is moving on) at the time of the end. It seems to me also to be presented more as a piece of prophetic history; and the burden of the parenthesis is the vision of the state of things, as characteristic of the place at that time, and not of those actions of the Lord, like the parts we have been considering, which have, as their end and object, the introduction of His Lordship only.
Chapter 10—The object of the descent of this mighty angel, and his conduct as to the little book, seem to me two distinct things. Confessedly he is the archangel, and comes to claim the earth and sea as his own, as was promised in Psa. 8.
The connection of a cloud with the Lord is common. In the following places it was the covering of the Lord: Ezek. 16:10, “the glory of the Lord appeared in the cloud,” chapters 19:9; 24:15, 16; 34:5; Lev. 16:8, “I will appear in the cloud, on the mercy-seat.” (See also Num. 12:5; Deut. 31:15; Dan. 7:13.) The connection of the returning Lord with clouds is too frequent to need notice. This, and the rainbow about His head—that is, His crown, the insignia, as seen in chapter iv., of the covenant with creation—and His face like the Son of man's (chap. 1:16), as the sun, and His feet like pillars of tire (as in chap. 1:15), all tell His dignity. Well, He comes forth in all this dignity, with a little book open in His hand. But the book does not seem the important thing, for He sets His right foot on the sea, and left on the earth, thus claiming them for His own, and shouts aloud. Perhaps, in 1 Thess. 4:16, “with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and the trump of God,” refers to the shout here given, to the swearing which follows, and to the seventh trump—I say perhaps. Upon this shout, as of a lion, seven thunders utter their voices. In themselves I conceive they are the divine sanction, or response, to the action and cry of this lion, as in Ezek. 22:25; 1 Sam. 12:17.
In the substance of them, in that they could not be revealed, but were sealed up, they may have contained some expressions of God's mind in connection with that which the little book opens; which, as connected rather with God's estimate of the principle at work in the scene it would open, were not properly expressed at a time when all divine action was confined to the bringing in of the Lordship, and not to witnessing against evil. I know nothing which gives the soul more freedom in reading the book than this sealing up, as telling of the care and love and foresight which has closed in the book all that we might not see. It strikes me that the voices having been heard by John, and the writing of them forbidden to him, the revelation of them to him was probably somehow connected with his peculiar service of testimony. But oh, how sweet it is to rest in the love that sealed them to us, and opened them to John, and to be able to be without jealousy or grudging against Him who has made the difference, or against John to whom it was made. On the command, “Seal up,” and by a voice from heaven, the mighty angel lifts up his hand to heaven, and swears by Him; by the Everlasting Creator (thus letting out who himself the while was), that there should be no, more delay, but, on the seventh angel sounding, the close of the mystery of God, according to the testimony to the prophets, should take place. Then the voice that had commanded the sealing of the thunders' voices sends John to take the little book. The mighty angel tells him it shall be sweet in taste, but bitter in digestion; John takes it, and finds this true; and the mighty angel says to him, “Thou must prophesy again before many peoples, and nations, and tongues, and kings.”
(Continued front page 192.)