I do not believe that we are, at this time, competent to speak particularly of these chapters, and it is rather, therefore, as suggestion than interpretation that I offer these thoughts.
Chap. 6. Here the Lord begins His action as the Redeemer of the inheritance. On His going forth to it, He receives a bow and a crown, emblems of His work and its fruit. He then sends out one harbinger of His coming after another, such as we see in Matt. 24—sword, famine, pestilence—and we get notice here, as there, of the martyrdom of the Jewish saints (given, however, in a different manner; there, historically (see ver. 9), but here, in the symbol of a cry heard from under the altar). These are the beginning of sorrows. Then under the sixth seal, the immediate precursors of the coming are given to us, as in Matt. 24:2929Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken: (Matthew 24:29).
The scene under the sixth seal is like Isa. 2, and thus it may occupy a larger space of time than we might at first be disposed to judge.
I have already observed in a paper on the Book of Revelation, that as Matt. 24 does not address itself to the Church, but to the Jewish remnant, so does this chapter, which is like it, and consequently so does the whole subsequent action of this book, till the kingdom is set up in chapter 20, for all that action is under the sixth seal, as I think we shall see. (?) The sun, moon, and stars are ordinances of goodness (Gen. 1) to the earth. In this day of the earth's judgment they are changed. (See also Matt. 24)
Chap. vii. This is another vision. The sealing of the 144,000 has taken place during the progress of the preceding scenes, but exactly when I say not. The 144.000 are the elect of Matt. 24:2222And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened. (Matthew 24:22), or the righteous of that prophecy in Isaiah already referred to (chap. 3:10, 4:3.) It is the Lord securing a remnant out of Israel, who are to be preserved when the judgment comes. It is like Noah finding grace in the eyes of the Lord. (See also Ezek. 9)
Upon this we see and hear the heavenly family rejoicing as though their gladness had been freshly awakened by this revelation of grace to the remnant.
This heavenly family, I judge, taken from all nations and peoples and tongues, and having come out of great tribulation and received white robes, are the martyred remnant of the fifth seal, Jews bated of all nations and slain among them. (Matt. 24) (?) For the description of the joy of this multitude is taken from Jewish ordinances and prophecies.
Chaps. 8, 9. The cry of the suffering saints goes up into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth, and then there is a solemn pause in heaven. A censer full of burning coals empties itself on the earth as an answer to this cry, and the meaning of that answer is then disclosed by seven trumpets, which contain or exhaust all the judgments, and end in the doom of the last enemy, and in the Lord and His saints taking the kingdom.
These two chapters, however, give us but six of these trumpets, the seventh being withheld till a certain incidental action is accomplished, as the seventh seal had not been opened till another incidental action (as we saw in chap. 7) was finished.
Chap. 10. Here the Lord appears, not with a sealed book as before, but with an open one, and not as a Lamb slain as before, but as a mighty angel setting one foot on the earth and the other on the sea (expressive of power and judgment), and as having taken the rainbow, the pledge of ownership of the earth, from around the throne (chap. 4.), to put it round His own head, and then roaring like a lion over his prey, in the joy that the inheritance was His. Seven thunders then echo the cry or roar, which John is not allowed to record, being rather instructed to wait for the seventh trumpet which is to finish the mystery of God, and in the meantime to become a prophet again by eating the little open book which was to enable him to tell out the contents of a certain brief space of time that was to precede the sounding of the seventh trumpet: “There should be time no longer” (chap. 10:6), the same, I suppose, as “the time of the end.” (Dan. 12:4, 94But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased. (Daniel 12:4)
9And he said, Go thy way, Daniel: for the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end. (Daniel 12:9).) The voice of the seventh trumpet is synchronous with that of the seventh thunder, I should judge, or with the seventh vial. (See chapter 16:17.) This seems to give us these seven thunders in the seven vials afterward. (?)
Chap. 11. John having digested the book is here at once set into action. He is told to measure the temple, or that part of it where the altar was, leaving the courts unmeasured. By which we learn, I judge, the division that is between the sealed remnant (or it may be, I take not on me to determine, the heavenly remnant known to God, and to be martyred by and by) thus measured or preserved, and the nation given over to the feet of the Gentiles 1260 days.
Then we hear of two other personages, called the two witnesses, or the olive trees, or candlesticks, who for another (and a preceding) 1260 days bear witness to the Lord in the midst of the nation at Jerusalem. (?) The two periods thus form the whole week, or seven years, or twice 1260 days, which are reserved by Daniel for the Jewish action in the last days. (See Dan. 9:2727And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate. (Daniel 9:27).) The death and ascension of these witnesses at the close of the first 1260 days are then given to us, with the immediate power of that ascension on the earth and the people. The seventh trumpet then sounds, and then the Church or heavenly family anticipate the kingdom, just as the Lord Himself had done before. (Chap. 10:1.)
It is always allowed that in the ministry of these two witnesses there is allusion to the ministries of Moses and Elias. And from this I gather, that as Moses and Elias were ministers to Israel, so will these witnesses; and as the enmity of Israel was drawn out by them, so as to cast each of them first among the Gentiles and then into heaven, so will the enmity of Israel again cast these witnesses into heaven, as we here see. (See Ex. 2; 33:1 Kings 17 Kings 2) And I would add here, that the first woe being so like Joel 2, and the second so like Isa. 5, that this is also evidence that those woes are on the land and people of Israel.
Chap. 12. The woman in this scene, I judge, is the Sarah or freewoman, “the mother of us,” whether the heavenly or earthly seed—the Jerusalem that is from above, or the covenant of promise, the olive. Her man-child is the heavenly family, the heavenly Seed destined for the throne of the kingdom, the Lord Himself being its head.
The dragon's enmity in the first place is directed against the heavenly branch of the woman's seed, but that enmity is disappointed by their rapture, and then the woman has to bring forth her other seed.
To this end she flies into the wilderness for one half-week, there to suffer the persecution of the dragon the second time, now cast down to the earth by the war in heaven, which takes place, I judge, when the earthly remnant begin to cry out in their affliction, the type of which cry and war we have in Dan. 10.
The prayer of Daniel at once raises the war, but the answer to it does not come for twenty-one days. So will the first dawning of repentance in the Jews in the latter day, raise the war again, and Satan will be cast down, for Michael shall stand again for Daniel's people. Surely, I may here say the Church must be in heaven before this, for the voice from heaven now says, “the accuser of our brethren is cast down.” And some of the heavenly family must have been there before others.
The woman's seed are persecuted for the first half-week, but during the last half week (some allowed time, times and a half) they are preserved. For this rage of Satan will be disappointed by the earth helping the woman, as his former had been disappointed by the rapture into heaven. The remnant of her heavenly seed are, however, still to be slain.
Chap. 13. We have here the action of two famous beasts. The first, I judge, is the last king of Babylon, or the one who throws the woman of his back. (Chap. 17.) The second is the infidel religious teacher, who sustains the first beast in his place and persecution of the righteous by the energy of Satan in all lying wonders. The confederacy between them is like that of Pharaoh and his magicians, or that of Balak and Salaam, or that of Saul and the witch of Ender, and they fall together under the hand of the Lord, just before the kingdom opens. (Chap. 19.)
The first beast is the power in the earth during the forty-two months, or last half week. He receives all the strength of Satan or the dragon, then confined to the earth. He appears as in resurrection power, so marvelous an one will he be. He will be in universal monarchy as it were, having all the heads and horns of Daniel beasts (Dan. 7), and be in a different form from what he was when he carried the woman, for then she carried “mystery” on her forehead, but he will carry “blasphemy” (chap. 17.); and the crowns have now got upon the ten horns instead of upon the seven heads; the crowned heads being more the Roman state of the beast, and the crowned horns his Infidel or antichristian state. (Chap. 17:16.)
The second beast comes out of the earth, or corrupted Christendom, as the first had come out of the sea, or political agitation. The two beasts in Job, leviathan and behemoth, are [prefiguratively] these beasts of the sea and of the earth.
Let me here notice that the dragon has the seven heads and ten horns as well as the beast, which teaches us, I judge, that Rome is owned by the devil, as well as by the beast; the one, as it were, presides over it in the heavenlies, the other uses it on the earth. I judge that chapter xiii. 6 implies that the saints have ascended ere this; for the blasphemy is against God, His tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven.
Chap. 14. The company on Mount Sion is the preserved or earthly remnant, the sealed 144,000. They are here in their city of refuge, fled to the mountains. (See Matt. 24:1616Then let them which be in Judea flee into the mountains: (Matthew 24:16).) And then they learn “salvation,” the song of the heavenly harpers, like Jonah in his city of refuge. (Jonah 3:99Who can tell if God will turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce anger, that we perish not? (Jonah 3:9).) As their sealing was like Noah finding grace, this being on Mount Sion was like Noah getting into the ark.
The seer then sees three angels in different ministries.
1st. Going forth with the gospel to test all nations with the tidings of the Lord's speedy coming.
2dly. Enforcing, as it were, this gospel of the kingdom, or publication of the Lord's coming, by announcing the doom of Babylon. But I do not judge this “everlasting gospel” to be the gospel of the “glory of Christ,” which is now preached. Mark the character given to this gospel or preaching in verse 7.
3dly. Warning all against the pretensions of the beast by solemn sanctions.
These two considerations assure me that the 144,000 is the earthly people:
1st. They are called firstfruits, and as the harvest afterward is a harvest or gathering of the whole earthly family, so I judge this must be a firstfruits of the same. The firstfruits and harvest must correspond.
2dly. They get no reward, but are owned as virgins: but the martyred remnant are afterward pronounced “blessed,” and it is said “their works do follow them.”
By these ministries some are drawn out of doomed Christendom to enter the kingdom with the remnant, as a mixed multitude leave Egypt with Israel.
He then sees the process of the harvest and the vintage, which together, perhaps, present the discernment or separation prophesied in Mal. 4:11For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch. (Malachi 4:1), and which takes place just at the setting up of the kingdom. A similar discernment or separation will be afterward made between the nations, when the throne of glory or the kingdom is actually set up, as between sheep and goats. (Matt. 25) Both are included in the harvest and vintage, I judge.
Chap. 15, 16. All mere conflict with the power of the enemy is now over, and the scene is unmixedly judgment. In other words, the trials of the remnant are now over, and it is simple judgment on the wicked.
The ascension of the last army of martyrs who had suffered under the beast is here assumed, as I judge that of the general saints had been at chapter 4; and that of the martyrs under the fifth seal at the time of chapter 7. The sea of glass, before unoccupied (chap. 4:6), now receives these martyrs as though it had been prepared for them. There they get harps like the heavenly family (chap. 5:8), and sing their song which has something of Jewish minstrelsy in it, for it contains certain notes which had been surely learned in Israel. And as the remnant martyred under the fifth seal had their joy in chapter 7 recorded, so has this remnant theirs here.
This song is like that of Moses and Israel on the banks of the Red Sea, and this tells us that this company of conquerors is Jewish.
Cloud, the symbol of glory, of old hindered the priests from entering the sanctuary. (Ex. 40 Chron. 5) So now, smoke, the symbol of judgment, hinders the heavenly inhabitants in like manner for awhile. But all this is introductory to a rapid pouring out of the last seven plagues or vials of wrath. These, however do not work repentance, but only again and again call forth blasphemy of the God of heaven, like the hardening of Pharaoh's heart from the plagues of Egypt, which these morally resemble. I judge that these are poured out at the close of the last half-week. They constitute the third woe, and are the contents of the seventh trumpet (and the same I believe as the seven thunders), for like it they finish the mystery of God. (See x. 7; xvi. 17.)
On the discharging of the last of them, the mightiest earthquake of all takes place. The beast and his confederate kings and prophet together and great Babylon, the seat of his power; all fall and crumble to dust. As the king of Shishak, she drinks the cup of the Lord's indignation. (Jer. 25:2626And all the kings of the north, far and near, one with another, and all the kingdoms of the world, which are upon the face of the earth: and the king of Sheshach shall drink after them. (Jeremiah 25:26); Rev. 16:19; 19:1919And the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell: and great Babylon came in remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath. (Revelation 16:19)
19And I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against him that sat on the horse, and against his army. (Revelation 19:19).)
The seven-sealed book thus contains the whole direct action of the book, as I noticed before, which describes the redemption of the inheritance. For the seventh seal contains the seven trumpets, and the seventh trumpet announces the seven vials the last of which destroys the usurper, and makes way for the rightful Heir.
Chapter 17, 18. The last plague had announced the fall of Babylon, and this leads to a view of Babylon in detail, her sin, her greatness and her judgment.
Babylon, I judge, is Rome, or the seven-hilled city in her ecclesiastical tyranny and defilement, sustained by the political strength of Europe. But in the last days the beast, assuming the headship at Rome, will allow this Babylon, this whore, to use him for a while, but finally will, together with the horns or civil powers, conceive enmity against her, and, receiving power from the dragon, throw his rider to the ground; and taking the ten horns or civil powers into confederacy with himself, Babylon in her ecclesiastical character falls. The beast then rising out of the sea, and becoming the king of Babylon, fully enters into its last form and action. (See chap. 13.) Babylon or Rome becomes an infidel rather than an ecclesiastical thing. The political power of Rome, hid for a time under the ecclesiastical, revives in the person of this beast, the king of Babylon, and this gives the beast the resurrection character. Other angels and voices then come as other witnesses to the doom of Babylon. The prophet thus sets this fact as it were legally confirmed.
We have still the angel-interpreter here with John, but John sees and hears other angels, and voices from heaven, and the lamentations of the kings and merchants. The kings of the earth (chap. 18:9) are not the ten horns. (Chap. 17:16.)
Some lament Babylon's fall, some rejoice at it. Great moral distance is between these two; the one having nothing less than the mind of “the god of this world,” the other having “the mind of Christ” or of heaven. Saul spared Agag, and Ahab spared Benhadad, as the kings would spare Babylon.
The beast “was, and is not, and yet is:” “his deadly wound was healed” (chap. 13, 14); so that there may be some lying strange mockery of resurrection in his own person, as well as in his political power at Rome. But all this will be such a reviving or resurrection as hell alone must account for, and therefore it is called an “ascending out of the bottomless pit” (chap. 11:7; 17:8), and only prepares him for further doom in “perdition” (of which he is the son, the heir, 2 Thess. 2), or the lake of fire. (Chap. 17:8; 19:20.)
At this the heavens rejoice, not indeed because all the corrupters of the earth are removed; for the confederacy of the beast and his kings is still to be broken up, but the union of the adulterous pair, the beast and the woman, being dissolved, the time has come for the union of the heavenly pair, the Lamb and the Church, as previous to their taking possession of their glorious inheritance.
The marriage being perfected in heaven, the earth is to receive the united pair, but it is first to be prepared for them, and this is now done by the destruction of the last corrupters of it. To this end the Lord comes out in the full style of the conqueror, for all the signs of His coming have now passed, and He comes forth. He is the David with the sword before He becomes the Solomon on His throne, as Psa. 45 shows Him. His hand is first to do its work with the bow, and then His head is to receive the crown. (Chap. 6:2.) And the saints, in like manner, are here at first the train of the Conqueror, and then coheirs of the throne with the King, as seen in chapter 20 afterward.
And I might observe that all the acts of Christ are the joy of the saints in their season. As our kinsman, He redeems us, and this redemption is our joy, and accordingly the saints had a song over it. (Chap. 5) But as our kinsman He also avenges us, and this vengeance in due season will be our joy, and accordingly the saints have a song over it. (Chap. 19)
I observe that after the supper of the great God in Ezekiel (chap. 39) the scene of blessing becomes earthly. It is the restoration and joy of Israel which the prophet there anticipates and reveals to us. But here, after the same supper, it is heavenly glory that is revealed, and the children of resurrection on their thrones in the kingdom. (Chap. 20) These distinctions are quite characteristic, and as might be expected from the different hands of Ezekiel and John.