WE might linger over the solemn warnings of the opening of the sixth seal, but we must now pass on to the deeply interesting parenthesis of chapter 7.
You will notice before we come to the opening of the seventh seal, God has been pleased to give us this break, as it were, in the prophetic history. Before He reveals the judgments of the blasts of the seven trumpets, He lets us into a few secrets of His gracious purposes, even in the midst of such terrible judgments.
Verse 1. If we compare Dan. 7:22Daniel spake and said, I saw in my vision by night, and, behold, the four winds of the heaven strove upon the great sea. (Daniel 7:2), the four winds would indicate the strife and conflict of the history and times of the Gentiles. This then is suspended until certain things or purposes of God are revealed to us. And first, the purpose of God as to the elect remnant of Israel. For they are, as to this earth, God’s special care. The promises in the Old Testament are almost entirely to them as regards the future kingdom of God on earth. We only need to read the prophets to see that.
God has not forgotten His promise to the fathers. Therefore, before the four winds are let loose, before the further storms of judgment blow upon the four divisions, or where the four empires have been, an elect number of the tribes of Israel are sealed with the seal of the Living God upon their foreheads. This is not historical, it is not as yet earthly distinction or mark, but sealed by an angel. The judgments are stayed until they are sealed. There is great care to show that they are of Israel. The tribes are named by name, and the elect number from each making up the multiple of the number (12) of administration on earth, but a thousand-fold. “And there were sealed an hundred and forty and four thousand.” Let the emperors and kings of the earth beware how they treat those who are yet destined to reign with Christ, their Messiah, on earth.
But this is not all. “For if the casting away of them be the reconciling of the world, what shall the receiving of them be, but life from the dead?” “For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in.” (Rom. 11:15, 2515For if the casting away of them be the reconciling of the world, what shall the receiving of them be, but life from the dead? (Romans 11:15)
25For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in. (Romans 11:25).) Thus these two things go together; the elect remnant of Israel to be gathered in; for this they are sealed: and the fullness of the Gentiles.
First, the sealing of the remnant of Israel, whatever may take place, and however terrible the time of their tribulation as foretold by the prophets, and by the Lord. (Compare Daniel with Matt. 24, &c.) True, they are not sealed by the Spirit as Christians are, but by an angel, and it is the seal of the living God. God will keep His promise to Abraham. Then follows the purpose of God as to the Gentiles.
“After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands; and cried with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb.” How gracious of our God, before going further into the terrible scenes of human wickedness and judgment, thus to give us the sure outcome from it all, both as to Israel and all nations. This vast multitude then will be clothed in white robes, with palms of victory in their hands; and they ascribe salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb.
But lest we should mistake them for the church or the royal priest-elders, both they and the angels are contrasted with the elders. The elders, as we have seen, are brought nearest to the throne of God, or nearest to God. They sit on thrones in heaven around the throne of God, Not so this multitude. They stand before the throne. There is a great effort to Judaize and rob the church of this wondrous place. Yea, some give the Old Testament saints the place of sitting around the throne in chapter 4, and would give the church this place of subordination; for mark, this multitude stand before the throne. “Stood before the throne and before the Lamb.” We have had a large book lent us, holding these erroneous views of the church.
And further, the angels do stand around the elders, but they do not stand around this robed multitude. Blessed as will be their state even standing before the throne, the angels stand round the elders and the throne, and they fall before the throne on their faces, and worship God, saying, Amen: Blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honor, and power, and might, be unto our God forever and ever, Amen. Now examine each word in this angelic ascription of praise, and you will see they have, like chapter 5, the future glory and kingdom of Christ before them—the final outcome of the time of tribulation.
But more, a question is raised by one of the same elders—and that is the question we wish to have decided—Who are they? Are they the church, identified with the worshipping elders? “And one of the elders answered, saying unto me, What are these which are arrayed in white robes? and whence came they?” Now John did not know, so he said, “Sir, thou knowest. And be said to me, These are they who came out of great [or the great] tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.” Now mark, this blessed vision is given in this book before the great tribulation is come. And it is a scene which is to take place after the tribulation for this complete robed multitude could not have come out of the great tribulation before it took place. But the church of God is taken before the great tribulation. (1 Thess. 4:14-1814For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. 15For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. 16For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: 17Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. 18Wherefore comfort one another with these words. (1 Thessalonians 4:14‑18).) Then the day of the Lord. (1 Thess. 5:1-51But of the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you. 2For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. 3For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape. 4But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief. 5Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness. (1 Thessalonians 5:1‑5); 2 Thess. 2:11Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him, (2 Thessalonians 2:1); Rev. 3:1010Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth. (Revelation 3:10).) They are taken to the place prepared, to SIT in the brightness of the glory of God. (Rev. 4:44And round about the throne were four and twenty seats: and upon the seats I saw four and twenty elders sitting, clothed in white raiment; and they had on their heads crowns of gold. (Revelation 4:4).) All this is before the tribulation of the book begins so that they, the church, cannot possibly be the multitude that shall come out of the great tribulation. That multitude cannot therefore possibly be the church of God.
We shall find them again, like and with the martyred company of the fifth seal, at the completion of the first resurrection of chapter 20. And thus they are the future earthly saints that shall reign with Christ on earth. (Chap. 5:10; 20:4.) Nothing could be more clear. And passing on to those scenes of millennial glory beyond the awful judgments that will deluge the earth, we may now examine the remaining verses of our chapter, and inquire, are they heavenly or earthly scenes?
Chapter 7:15. They have come out, of the, or a great tribulation. As to the great multitude, this is, no doubt, the time of trial spoken of in chapter 3:10. They have washed their robes in the blood of the Lamb. In Matt. 24 we learn that the Lord comes immediately after the Jews’ great tribulation. And this introduces the millennial kingdom on earth. “Therefore are they before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple: and he that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them.” Is that the millennial throne of the Lamb, Messiah on earth? and is that temple on earth Or in heaven during the millennial reign of Christ? One fact stated in chapter 21 will help us in this inquiry. In the heavenly new Jerusalem there is no temple. “And I saw no temple therein, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it.”
This would seem to point to the fact, that the great multitude will have their portion in connection with the temple, and reign on earth—and every word that follows confirms this thought. We could not speak of hunger, and thirst, or the sun’s heat in heaven. But all is in keeping with their blissful state on earth. “They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore; neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat. For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters.”
Thus shall they be blest during the clays of the Lamb’s millennial kingdom on earth. The last few words in the chapter may indeed reach on beyond the kingdom to the eternal state, as more fully revealed to us in chapter 21:3, 4. “And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.”
The blessedness of the earthly kingdom, as described in Isa. 60, is in perfect keeping with this revelation, only there the difference between the earthly kingdom and the heavenly bride was not made known. “Violence shall no more be heard in THY LAND, wasting nor destruction within thy borders; but thou shalt call thy walls Salvation, and thy gates Praise. The sun shall be no more thy light by day, neither for brightness shall the moon give light unto thee: but the Lord shall be unto thee an everlasting light, and thy God thy glory,” &c. And notwithstanding the terrible judgments about to be poured out on this earth—the tribulation, such as never was, and never shall be again—yet immediately after the tribulation, “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. And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.” Thus will the elect of Israel, and the great multitude be gathered to sit in His kingdom on earth. And whilst the revelation of this chapter 7 is entirely new, so much so that John needed the explanation of the elder, yet is it in perfect harmony with all truth which had been revealed before. This book is the filling up or completing of all prophetic truth.
God has thus been pleased to make known to is by revelation His purpose, both as to Israel and to the nations, after the completion of the church, and before we enter upon the direct and terrible judgments of God upon a guilty world. It is mercy rejoicing against judgment. His mercy endureth forever.
Think how long that mercy has borne with the church’s apostasy, and the world’s rejection of His grace in Christ Jesus. When this revelation was given, it was then the last time, or hour, of antichrists; for there were many. Yet His mercy lingereth through all these centuries. But the midnight cry has now gone forth, and the door will soon be shut.
God grant that the reader may not have to stand without and cry in vain, Lord, open unto us. If not saved, oh come, and come now to him who said, “All that the Father giveth me shall come to me, and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.”