_SECOND CONSOLATORY VISION AND THE SEVENTH
TRUMPET._
REV. xi.
From the first consolatory vision we proceed to the second:--
And there was given unto me a reed like unto a rod: and one said,
Rise, and measure the temple of God, and the altar, and them that
worship therein. And the court which is without the temple cast
without, and measure it not; for it hath been given unto the
nations: and the holy city shall they tread under foot forty and
two months (xi. 1, 2).
Various points connected with these verses demand examination before any
attempt can be made to gather the meaning of the vision as a whole.
1. What is meant by the _measuring_ of the Temple? As in so many other
instances, the figure is taken from the Old Testament. In the prophet
Zechariah we read, "I lifted up mine eyes again, and looked, and behold
a man with a measuring line in his hand. Then said I, Whither goest
thou? And he said unto me, To measure Jerusalem, to see what is the
breadth thereof, and what is the length thereof."[242] To the same
effect, but still more particularly, the prophet Ezekiel speaks: "In the
visions of God brought He me into the land of Israel, and set me upon a
very high mountain, by which was as the frame of a city on the south.
And He brought me thither, and, behold, there was a man, whose
appearance was like the appearance of brass, with a line of flax in his
hand, and a measuring reed; and he stood in the gate.... And behold a
wall on the outside of the house round about, and in the man's hand a
measuring reed of six cubits long by the cubit and an handbreadth, so he
measured,"[243] whereupon follows a minute and lengthened description of
the measuring of all the parts of that Temple which was to be the glory
of God's people in the latter days. From these passages we not only
learn whence the idea of the "measuring" was taken, but what the meaning
of it was. The account given by Ezekiel distinctly shows that thus to
measure expresses the thought of preservation, not of destruction. That
the same thought is intended by Zechariah is clear from the words
immediately following the instruction given him to measure: "For I,
saith the Lord, will be unto her a wall of fire round about, and will be
the glory in the midst of her;"[244] while, if further proof upon this
point were needed, it is found in the fact that the measuring of this
passage does not stand alone in the Apocalypse. The new Jerusalem is
also measured: "And he that spake with me had for a measure a golden
reed to measure the city, and the gates thereof, and the wall thereof.
And he measured the wall thereof, an hundred and forty and four cubits,
according to the measure of a man, that is, of an angel."[245] When God
therefore measures, He measures, not in indignation, but that the object
measured may be in a deeper than ordinary sense the habitation of His
glory.
2. What is meant by _the temple, the altar_, and the _casting without
of the court which is without the temple_? In other words, are we to
interpret these objects and the action taken with the latter literally
or figuratively? Are we to think of the things themselves, or of certain
spiritual ideas which they are used to represent? The first view is not
only that of many eminent commentators; it even forms one of the chief
grounds upon which they urge that the Herodian temple upon Mount Moriah
was still in existence when the Apocalyptist wrote. He could not, it is
alleged, have been instructed to "measure" the Temple if that building
had been already thrown down, and not one stone left upon another. Yet,
when we attend to the words, it would seem as if this view must be set
aside in favour of a figurative interpretation. For--
(1) The word "temple" misleads. The term employed in the original does
not mean the Temple-buildings as a whole, but only their innermost
shrine or sanctuary, that part known as the "Holy of holies," which
was separated from every other part of the sacred structure by the
second veil. No doubt, so far as the simple act of measuring was
concerned, a part might have been as easily measured as the whole. But
closer attention to what was in the Seer's mind will show that when he
thus speaks of the _naos_ or shrine he is not thinking of the Temple
at Jerusalem at all, but of the Tabernacle in the wilderness upon
which the Temple was moulded. The nineteenth verse of the chapter
makes this clear. In that verse we find him saying, "And there was
opened the temple" (the _naos_) "of God that is in heaven, and there
was seen in His temple" (His _naos_) "the ark of His covenant." We
know, however, that the ark of the covenant _never had_ a place in
the Temple which existed in the days of Christ. It had disappeared at
the destruction of the first Temple, long before that date. The Temple
spoken of in the nineteenth verse is indeed said to be "in heaven;"
and it may be thought that the ark, though not on earth, might have
been seen there. But no reader of the Revelation of St. John can doubt
that to him the sanctuary of God on earth was an exact representation
of the heavenly sanctuary, that what God had given in material form to
men was a faithful copy of the ideas of His spiritual and eternal
kingdom. He could not therefore have placed in the original what, if
he had before his mind the Temple at Jerusalem, he knew had no
existence within its precincts; and the conclusion is irresistible
that when he speaks of a _naos_ that was to be measured he had turned
his thoughts, not to the stone building upon Mount Moriah, but to its
ancient prototype. On this ground alone then, even could no other be
adduced, we seem entitled to maintain that a literal interpretation of
the word "temple" is here impossible.
(2) Even should it be allowed that the sanctuary and the altar might
be measured, the injunction is altogether inapplicable to the next
following clause: _them that worship therein_. And it is peculiarly so
if we adopt the natural construction, by which the word "therein" is
connected with the word "altar." We cannot literally speak of persons
worshipping "in" an altar. Nay, even though we connect "therein" with
"the temple," the idea of measuring _persons_ with a rod is at
variance with the realities of life and the ordinary use of human
language. A figurative element is thus introduced into the very heart
of the clause the meaning of which is in dispute.
(3) A similar observation may be made with regard to the words _cast
without_ in ver. 2. The injunction has reference to the outer court of
the Temple, and the thought of "casting out" such an extensive space
is clearly inadmissible. So much have translators felt this that both
in the Authorised and Revised Versions they have replaced the words
"cast without" by the words "leave without." The outer court of the
Temple could not be "cast out;" therefore it must be "left out." The
interpretation thus given, however, fails to do justice to the
original, for, though the word employed does not always include actual
violence, it certainly implies action of a more positive kind than
mere letting alone or passing by. More than this. We are under a
special obligation in the present instance not to strip the word used
by the Apostle of its proper force, for we shall immediately see that,
rightly interpreted, it is one of the most interesting expressions of
his book, and of the greatest value in helping us to determine the
precise nature of his thought. In the meanwhile it is enough to say
that the employment of the term in the connexion in which it here
occurs is at variance with a simply literal interpretation.
(4) It cannot be denied that almost every other expression in the
subsequent verses of the vision is figurative or metaphorical. If we
are to interpret this part literally, it will be impossible to apply
the same rule to other parts; and we shall have such a mixture of the
literal and metaphorical as will completely baffle our efforts to
comprehend the meaning of the Seer.
(5) We have the statement from the writer's own lips that, at least in
speaking of Jerusalem, he is not to be literally understood. In ver. 8
he refers to "the great city, which _spiritually_ is called Sodom and
Egypt." The hint thus given as to one point of his description may be
accepted as applicable to it all.
We conclude, therefore, that the "measuring," the "temple" or _naos_,
the "altar," the "court which is without," and the "casting without"
of the latter are to be regarded as figurative.
3. Our third point of inquiry is, What is the meaning of the figure?
There need be no hesitation as to the things first spoken of: "the
temple, the altar, and them that worship therein." These, the most
sacred parts of the Temple-buildings, can only denote the most sacred
portion of the true Israel of God. They are those disciples of Christ
who constitute His shrine, His golden altar of incense whence their
prayers rise up continually before Him, His worshippers in spirit and
in truth. These, as we have already often had occasion to see, shall
be preserved safe amidst the troubles of the Church and of the world.
In one passage we have been told that they are numbered[246]; now we
are further informed that they are measured.
It is more difficult to explain who are meant by "the court which is
without the temple." But three things are clear. First, they are a
part of the Temple-buildings, although not of its inner shrine.
Secondly, they belong to Jerusalem; and Jerusalem, notwithstanding its
degenerate condition, was still the city of God, standing to Him in a
relation different from that of the "nations," even when it had sunk
beneath them and had done more to merit His displeasure. Thirdly, they
cannot be the Gentiles, for from them they are manifestly
distinguished when it is said that the outer court "hath been given
unto _the nations_: and the holy city shall they tread under foot
forty and two months."[247] One conclusion alone remains. The "court
that is without" must symbolize the faithless portion of the Christian
Church, such as tread the courts of the house of God, but to whom He
speaks as He spoke to Jerusalem of old: "Bring no more vain oblations;
incense is an abomination unto Me; the new moons and sabbaths, the
calling of assemblies, I cannot away with; it is iniquity, even the
solemn meeting. Your new moons and your appointed feasts My soul
hateth: they are a trouble unto Me; I am weary to bear them."[248]
The correctness of the sense thus assigned to this part of the vision is
powerfully confirmed by what appears to be the true foundation of the
singular expression already so far spoken of, "cast without." Something
must lie at the bottom of the figure; and nothing seems so probable as
this: that it is the "casting out" which took place in the case of the
man blind from his birth, and the opening of whose eyes by Jesus is
related in the fourth Gospel. Of that man we are told that when the Jews
could no longer answer him "they cast him out."[249] The word is the
same as that now employed, and the thought is most probably the same
also. Excommunication from the synagogue is in the Seer's mind, not a
temporal punishment, not a mere worldly doom, but a spiritual sentence
depriving of spiritual privileges misunderstood and abused. Such a
casting out, however, can apply only to those who had been once within
the courts of the Lord's house or to the faithless members of the
Christian Church. They, like the Jews of old, would "cast out" the
humble disciples whom Jesus "found";[250] and He cast them out.
If the explanation now given of the opening verses of this chapter be
correct, we have reached a very remarkable stage in these apocalyptic
visions. For the first time, except in the letters to the
churches,[251] we have a clear line of distinction drawn between the
professing and the true portions of the Church of Christ, or, as it
may be otherwise expressed, between the "called" and the
"chosen."[252] How far the same distinction will meet us in later
visions of this book we have yet to see. For the present it may be
enough to say that the drawing of such a distinction corresponds
exactly with what we might have been prepared to expect. Nothing can
be more certain than that in the things actually around him St. John
beheld the mould and type of the things that were to come. Now
Jerusalem, the Church of God in Israel, contained two classes within
its walls: those who were accomplishing their high destiny and those
by whom that destiny was misunderstood, despised, and cast away. Has
it not always been the same in the Christian Church? If the world
entered into the one, has it not entered as disastrously into the
other? That field which is "the kingdom of heaven" upon earth has
never wanted tares as well as wheat. They grow together, and no man
may separate them. When the appropriate moment comes, God Himself will
give the word; angels will carry off the tares, and the great
Husbandman will gather the wheat into His garner.
4. One question still remains: What is the meaning of the _forty and
two months_ during which the holy city is to be trodden under foot of
the nations? The same expression meets us in chap. xiii. 5, where it
is said that "there was given to the beast authority to continue forty
and two months." But forty and two months is also three and a half
years, the Jewish year having consisted of twelve months, except when
an intercalary month was inserted among the twelve in order to
preserve harmony between the seasons and the rotation of time. The
same period is therefore again alluded to in chap. xii. 14, when it is
said of the woman who fled into the wilderness that she is there
nourished for "a time, and times, and half a time." Once more, we read
in chap. xi. 3 and in chap. xii. 6 of a period denoted by "a thousand
two hundred and threescore days;" and a comparison of this last
passage with ver. 14 of the same chapter distinctly shows that it is
equivalent to the three and a half times or years. Three and a half
multiplied by three hundred and sixty, the number of days in the
Jewish year, gives us exactly the twelve hundred and sixty days. These
three periods, therefore, are the same. Why the different designations
should be adopted is another question, to which, so far as we are
aware, no satisfactory reply has yet been given, although it may be
that, for some occult reason, the Seer beholds in "months" a suitable
expression for the dominion of evil, in "days" one appropriate to the
sufferings of the good.
The ground of this method of looking at the Church's history is found in
the book of Daniel, where we read of the fourth beast, or the fourth
kingdom, "And he shall speak great words against the Most High, and
shall wear out the saints of the Most High, and think to change times
and laws: and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times
and the dividing of time."[253] The same book helps us also to answer
the question as to the particular period of the Church's history denoted
by the days, or months, or years referred to, for in another passage the
prophet says, "And 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."[254] The three and a half years therefore, or the
half of seven years, denote the whole period extending from the
cessation of the sacrifice and oblation. In other words, they denote the
Christian era from its beginning to its close, and that more especially
on the side of its disturbed and broken character, of the power
exercised in it by what is evil, of the troubles and sufferings of the
good. During it the disciples of the Saviour do not reach the
completeness of their rest; their victory is not won. Ideally it is so;
it always has been so since Jesus overcame: but it is not yet won in the
actual realities of the case; and, though in one sense every heavenly
privilege is theirs, their difficulties are so great, and their
opponents so numerous and powerful, that the true expression for their
state is a broken seven years, or three years and a half. During this
time, accordingly, the holy city is represented as trodden under foot by
the nations. They who are at ease in Zion may not feel it; but to the
true disciples of Jesus their Master's prophecy is fulfilled, "In the
world ye shall have tribulation."[255]
The vision now proceeds:--
And I will give power unto My two witnesses, and they shall prophesy
a thousand two hundred and threescore days, clothed in sackcloth.
These are the two olive trees, and the two candlesticks standing
before the Lord of the earth. And if any man desireth to hurt them,
fire proceedeth out of their mouth, and devoureth their enemies: and
if any man shall desire to hurt them, in this manner must he be
killed. These have the power to shut the heaven, that it rain not
during the days of their prophecy: and they have power over the
waters to turn them into blood, and to smite the earth with every
plague, as often as they shall desire. And when they shall have
finished their testimony, the beast that cometh up out of the abyss
shall make war with them, and overcome them, and kill them. And
their dead body lies in the street of the great city, which
spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also their Lord was
crucified. And from among the peoples and tribes and tongues and
nations do men look upon their dead body three days and an half, and
suffer not their dead bodies to be laid in a tomb. And they that
dwell on the earth rejoice over them, and make merry: and they shall
send gifts one to another; because these two prophets tormented them
that dwell on the earth. And after the three days and an half the
breath of life from God entered into them, and they stood upon their
feet; and great fear fell upon them which beheld them. And they
heard a great voice from heaven saying unto them, Come up hither.
And they went up into heaven in the cloud; and their enemies beheld
them. And in that hour there was a great earthquake, and the tenth
part of the city fell; and there were killed in the earthquake seven
thousand persons: and the rest were affrighted, and gave glory to
the God of heaven (xi. 3-13).
The figures of this part of the vision, like those of the first part,
are drawn from the Old Testament. That the language is not to be
literally understood hardly admits of dispute, for, whatever might
have been thought of the "two witnesses" had we read only of them, the
description given of their persons, or of their person (for in ver. 8,
where mention is made of their _dead body_--not "bodies"--they are
treated as one), of their work, of their death, and of their
resurrection and ascension, is so obviously figurative as to render it
necessary to view the whole passage in that light. The main elements
of the figure are supplied by the prophet Zechariah. "And the angel
that talked with me," says the prophet, "came again, and waked me, as
a man that is wakened out of sleep, and said unto me, What seest thou?
And I said, I have looked, and behold a candlestick all of gold, with
a bowl upon the top of it, and his seven lamps thereon, and seven
pipes to the seven lamps, which are upon the top thereof: and two
olive trees by it, one upon the right side of the bowl, and the other
upon the left side thereof. So I answered and spake to the angel that
talked with me, saying, What are these, my lord?... Then he answered
and spake unto me, saying, This is the word of the Lord unto
Zerubbabel, saying, Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit,
saith the Lord of hosts Who art thou, O great mountain? before
Zerubbabel thou shalt become a plain: and he shall bring forth the
headstone thereof with shoutings, crying, Grace, grace unto it....
Then answered I, and said unto him, What are these two olive trees
upon the right side of the candlestick and upon the left side thereof?
And I answered again, and said unto him, What be these two olive
branches which through the two golden pipes empty the golden oil out
of themselves? And he answered and said unto me, Knowest thou not what
these be? And I said, No, my lord. Then said he, These are the two
anointed ones, that stand by the Lord of the whole earth."[256] In
these words indeed we read only of one golden candlestick, while now
we read of two. But we have already found that the Seer of the
Apocalypse, in using the figures to which he had been accustomed, does
not bind himself to all their details; and the only inference to be
drawn from this difference, as well as from the circumstance already
noted in ver. 8, is that the number "two" is to be regarded less in
itself than as a strengthening of the idea of the number one. This
circumstance further shows that the two witnesses cannot be divided
between the two olive trees and the two candlesticks, as if the one
witness were the former and the other the latter. Both taken together
express the idea of witnessing, and to the full elucidation of that
idea belong also the olive tree and the candlestick. The witnessing is
fed by perpetual streams of that heavenly oil, of that unction of the
Spirit, which is represented by the olive tree; and it sheds light
around like the candlestick. The two witnesses, therefore, are not two
individuals to be raised up during the course of the Church's history,
that they may bear testimony to the facts and principles of the
Christian faith. The Seer indeed may have remembered that it had been
God's plan in the past to commission His servants, not singly, but in
pairs. He may have called to mind Moses and Aaron, Joshua and Caleb,
Elijah and Elisha, Zerubbabel and Joshua, or he may have thought of
the fact that our Lord sent forth His disciples two by two. The
probability, however, is that, as he speaks of "witnessing," he
thought mainly of that precept of the law which required the testimony
of two witnesses to confirm a statement. Yet he does not confine
himself to the thought of two individual witnesses, however eminent,
who shall in faithful work fill up their own short span of human life
and die. The witness he has in view is that to be borne by all
Christ's people, everywhere, and throughout the whole Christian age.
From the first to the last moment of the Church's history in this
world there shall be those raised up who shall never fail to
_prophesy_, or, in other words, to testify to the truth of God as it
is in Jesus. The task will be hard, but they will not shrink from it.
They shall be _clothed in sackcloth_, but they shall count their robes
of shame to be robes of honour. They shall occupy the position of Him
who, in the days of His humiliation, was the "faithful and true
Witness." Nourished by the Spirit that was in Him, they shall, like
Him, be the light of the world,[257] so that God shall never be left
without some at least to witness for Him.
Having spoken of the persons of the two witnesses, St. John next
proceeds to describe the power with which, amidst their seeming
weakness, their testimony is borne; and once more he finds in the most
striking histories of the Old Testament the materials with which his
glowing imagination builds.
In the first place, _fire proceedeth out of their mouth, and devoureth
their enemies_, so that these enemies are _killed_ by the manifest
judgment of God, and even, in His righteous retribution, by the very
instrument of destruction they would have themselves employed. Elijah
and the three companions of Daniel are before us, when at the word of
Elijah fire descended out of heaven, and consumed the two captains and
their fifties,[258] and when the companions of Daniel were not only left
unharmed amidst the flames, but when the fire leaped out upon and slew
the men by whom they had been cast into the furnace.[259] This fire
proceeding out of the mouth of the two witnesses is like the sharp
two-edged sword proceeding out of the mouth of the Son of man in the
first vision of the book.[260] In the second place, the witnesses _have
the power to shut the heaven, that it rain not during the days of their
prophecy_. Elijah is again before us when he exclaimed in the presence
of Ahab, "As the Lord God of Israel liveth, before whom I stand, there
shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my word," and
when "it rained not on the earth for three years and six months."[261]
Finally, when we are told that the witnesses _have power over the waters
to turn them into blood, and to smite the earth with every plague, as
often as they shall desire_, we are reminded of Moses and of the plagues
inflicted through him upon the oppressors of Israel in Egypt.
The three figures teach the same lesson. No deliverance has been
effected by the Almighty for His people in the past which He is not
ready to repeat. The God of Moses, and Elijah, and Daniel is the
unchangeable Jehovah. He has made with His Church an everlasting
covenant; and the most striking manifestations of His power in bygone
times "happened by way of example, and were written for our
admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages are come."[262]
Hence, accordingly, the Church _finishes her testimony_.[263] So was
it with our Lord in His high-priestly prayer and on the Cross: "I
glorified Thee on the earth, having accomplished the work which Thou
hast given Me to do;" "It is finished."[264] But this "finishing" of
their testimony on the part of the two witnesses points to more than
the end of the three and a half years viewed simply as a period of
time. Not the thought of time alone, but of the completion of
testimony, is present to the Seer's mind. At every moment in the
history of Christ's true disciples that completion is reached by some
or others of their number. Through all the three and a half years
their testimony is borne with power, and is finished with triumph, so
that the world is always without excuse.
Having spoken of the power of the witnesses, St. John next turns to the
thought of their evil fate. _The beast that cometh up out of the abyss
shall make war with them, and overcome them, and kill them._ This
"beast" has not yet been described; but it is a characteristic of the
Apostle, both in the fourth Gospel and in the Apocalypse, to anticipate
at times what is to come, and to introduce persons to our notice whom we
shall only learn to know fully at a later point in his narrative. That
is the case here. This beast will again meet us in chap. xiii. and chap.
xvii., where we shall see that it is the concentrated power of a world
material and visible in its opposition to a world spiritual and
invisible. It may be well to remark, too, that the representation given
of the beast presents us with one of the most striking contrasts of St.
John, and one that must be carefully remembered if we would understand
his visions. Why speak of its "coming up out of the abyss"? Because the
beast is the contrast of the _risen_ Saviour. Only after His
resurrection did our Lord enter upon His dominion as King, Head, and
Guardian of His people. In like manner only after a resurrection
mockingly attributed to it does this beast attain its full range of
influence. Then, in the height of its rage and at the summit of its
power, it sets itself in opposition to Christ's witnesses. It cannot
indeed prevent them from accomplishing their work; they shall finish
their testimony in spite of it: but, when that is done, it shall gain an
apparent triumph. As the Son of God was nailed to the Cross, and in that
hour of His weakness seemed to be conquered by the world, so shall it
be with them. They shall be overcome and killed.
Nor is that all, for their _dead body_ (not _dead bodies_[265]) is
treated with the utmost contumely. It lies in the broad open street of
_the great city_, which the words _where also their Lord was
crucified_ show plainly to be Jerusalem. But Jerusalem! In what aspect
is she here beheld? Not as "the holy city," "the beloved city," the
Zion which God had desired for His habitation, and of which He had
said, "This is My rest for ever: here will I dwell; for I have desired
it,"[266] but degenerate Jerusalem, Jerusalem become as Sodom for its
wickedness, and as Egypt for its oppression of the Israel of God. The
language is strong, so strong that many interpreters have deemed it
impossible to apply it to Jerusalem in any sense, and have imagined
that they had no alternative but to think of Rome. Yet it is not
stronger than the language used many a time by the prophets of old:
"Hear the word of the Lord, ye rulers of Sodom; give ear unto the law
of our God, ye people of Gomorrah. How is the faithful city become an
harlot! ... righteousness lodged in it; but now murderers."[267]
If, however, this city be Jerusalem, what does it represent? Surely, for
reasons already stated, neither the true disciples of Jesus, nor the
heathen nations of the world. We have the degenerate Church before us,
the Church that has conformed to the world. That Church beholds the
faithful witnesses for Christ the Crucified lie in the open way. Their
wounds make no impression upon her heart, and draw no tear from her
eyes. She even invites the world to the spectacle; and the world,
always eager to hear the voice of a degenerate Church, responds to the
invitation. It "looks," and obviously without commiseration, upon the
prostrate, mangled form that has fallen in the strife. This it does for
three days and a half, the half of seven, a broken period of trouble;
and it will not suffer the dead body to be laid in a tomb. Nay, the
world is not content even with its victory. After victory it must have
its triumph; and that triumph is presented to us in one of the most
wonderful pictures of the Apocalypse, when _they that dwell on the
earth_--that is, the men of the world--_from among the peoples and
tribes and tongues and nations_, having listened to the degenerate
Church's call, make high holiday at the thought of what they have done.
They _rejoice over the dead bodies, and make merry: and they send gifts
one to another; because these two prophets tormented them that dwell on
the earth_. We are reminded of Herod and Pilate, who, when the Jewish
governor sent Jesus to his heathen brother, "became friends that very
day."[268] But we are reminded of more. In the book of Nehemiah we find
mention of that great feast of Tabernacles which was observed by the
people when they heard again, after long silence, the book of the law,
and when "there was very great gladness." In immediate connexion with
this feast, Nehemiah said to the people, "Go your way, eat the fat, and
drink the sweet, and send portions unto them for whom nothing is
prepared: for this day is holy unto the Lord: neither be ye sorry; for
the joy of the Lord is your strength"[269]; while it constituted a part
also of the joyful ceremonial of the feast of the dedication of the
Temple that the Jews made the days of the feast "days of feasting and
joy, and of sending portions one to another, and gifts to the
poor."[270] Taking these passages into account, and remembering the
general style and manner of St. John, we can have no hesitation in
recognising in the festival of these verses the world's Feast of
Tabernacles, the contrast and the counterpart of the Church's feast
already spoken of in the second consolatory vision of chap. vii.
If so, what a picture does it present!--the degenerate Church inviting
the world to celebrate a feast over the dead bodies of the witnesses
for Christ, and the world accepting the invitation; the former
accommodating herself to the ways of the latter, and the latter
welcoming the accommodation; the one proclaiming no unpleasant
doctrines and demanding no painful sacrifices, the other hailing with
satisfaction the prospect of an easy yoke and of a cheap purchase of
eternity as well as time. The picture may seem too terrible to be
true. But let us first remember that, like all the pictures of the
Apocalypse, it is ideal, showing us the operation of principles in
their last, not their first, effect; and then let us ask whether we
have never read of, or ourselves seen, such a state of things actually
realized. Has the Church never become the world, on the plea that she
would gain the world? Has she never uttered smooth things or
prophesied deceits in order that she might attract those who will not
endure the thought of hardness in religious service, and would rather
embrace what in their inward hearts they know to be a lie than bitter
truth? Such a spectacle has been often witnessed, and is yet witnessed
every day, when those who ought to be witnesses for a living and
present Lord gloze over the peculiar doctrines of the Christian faith,
draw as close as possible the bonds of their fellowship with
unchristian men, and treat with scorn the thought of a heavenly life
to be led even amidst the things of time. One can understand the
world's own ways, and, even when lamenting that its motives are not
higher, can love its citizens and respect their virtues. But a far
lower step in declension is reached when the Church's silver becomes
dross, when her wine is mixed with water, and when her voice no longer
convicts, no longer "torments them that dwell on the earth."
In the midst of all their tribulation, however, the faithful portion
of the Church have a glorious reward. They have suffered with Christ,
but they shall also reign with Him. After all their trials in life,
after their death, and after the limited time during which even when
dead they have been dishonoured, they live again. _The breath of life
from God entered into them._ Following Him who is the first-fruits of
them that sleep, they _stood upon their feet_.[271] They _heard a
great voice from heaven saying unto them, Come up hither_. They _went
up into heaven in the cloud_; and there they sit down with the
conquering Redeemer in His throne, even as He overcame and sat down
with His Father in His throne.[272] All this, too, takes place in the
very presence of their enemies, upon whom _great fear fell_. Even
nature sympathizes with them. Having waited for the revealing of the
sons of God, and in hope that she also shall be delivered from the
bondage of corruption into the liberty of the glory of the children of
God,[273] she hails their final triumph. _There was a great
earthquake, the tenth part of the city_ (that is, of Jerusalem) _fell;
and there were killed in the earthquake seven thousand persons._ It is
unnecessary to say that the words are figurative and symbolical,
denoting in all probability simply judgment, but judgment restrained.
The last words of the vision alone demand more particular attention:
_The rest were affrighted, and gave glory to the God of heaven._ The
thought is the same as that which met us when we were told at the
close of the sixth Trumpet that "the rest of mankind which were not
killed with these plagues repented not."[274] There is no repentance,
no conversion. There is terror; there is alarm; there is a tribute of
awe to the God of heaven who has so signally vindicated His own cause;
but there is nothing more. Nor are we told what may or may not follow
in some future scene. For the Seer the final triumph of good and the
final overthrow of evil are enough. He can be patient, and, so far as
persons are concerned, can leave the issue in the hands of God.
The two consolatory visions interposed between the sixth and seventh
Trumpets are now over, and we cannot fail to see how great an advance
they are upon the two visions of a similar kind interposed between the
sixth and seventh Seals. The whole action has made progress. At the
earlier stage the Church may be said to have been hidden in the hollow
of the Almighty's hand. In the thought of the "great tribulation"
awaiting her she has been sealed, while the peace and joy of her new
condition have been set before us, as she neither hungers nor thirsts,
but is guided by her Divine Shepherd to green pastures and to
fountains of the waters of life. At this later stage she is in the
midst of her conflict and her sufferings. She is in the heat of her
warfare, in the extremity of her persecuted state. From the height on
which we stand we do not look over a quiet and peaceful plain, with
flocks of sheep resting in its meadows; we look over a field where
armed men have met in the shock of battle. There is the stir, the
excitement, the tumult of deadly strife for higher than earthly
freedom, for dearer than earthly homes. There may be temporary repulse
and momentary yielding even on the side of the good, but they still
press on. The Captain of their salvation is at their head; and foot by
foot fresh ground is won, until at last the victory is sounded, and we
are ready for the seventh Trumpet.
Before it sounds there is a warning similar to that which preceded the
sounding of the fifth and sixth[275]:--
The second Woe is past; behold, the third Woe cometh quickly (xi.
14).
These words are to be connected with the close of chap. ix., all that is
contained in chaps. x. and xi. 1-13 being, as we have seen, episodical.
The seventh Trumpet is now sounded:--
And the seventh angel sounded; and there followed great voices in
heaven, and they said, The kingdom of the world is become the
kingdom of our Lord, and of His Christ; and He shall reign for
ever and ever. And the four-and-twenty elders, which sit before
God on their thrones, fell upon their faces, and worshipped God,
saying, We give Thee thanks, O Lord, God, the Almighty, which art
and which wast; because Thou hast taken Thy great power, and didst
reign. And the nations were roused to wrath, and Thy wrath came,
and the time of the dead to be judged, and the time to give their
reward to Thy servants the prophets, both the saints and them
that fear Thy name, the small and the great, and to destroy them
that destroy the earth. And there was opened the temple of God
that is in heaven, and there was seen in His temple the ark of His
covenant: and there followed lightnings, and voices, and thunders,
and an earthquake, and great hail (xi. 15-19).
1. By _the kingdom of the world_ here spoken of is meant, that dominion
over the world as a whole has become the possession of our Lord and of
His Christ; and it is to be His for ever and ever. There is no
contradiction between this statement of St. John and that of St. Paul
when, speaking of the Son, the latter Apostle says, "And when all things
have been subjected unto Him, then shall the Son also Himself be
subjected to Him that did subject all things unto Him, that God may be
all in all."[276] The "kingdom" thus spoken of by St. Paul is that
exercised by our Lord in subduing His enemies, and it must necessarily
come to an end when there are no more enemies to subdue. The kingdom
here referred to is Christ's dominion as Head and King of His Church,
and of that dominion there is no end. Of more consequence perhaps is it
to observe that when it is said in the words before us, _The kingdom of
the world is become the kingdom of our Lord, and of His Christ_, there
is nothing to lead to the supposition that this "kingdom" becomes
Christ's by the conversion of the world. The meaning simply is that evil
has been finally and for ever put down, that good is finally and for
ever triumphant. No inference can be drawn as to the fate of wicked
persons further than this: that they shall not be found in "the new
heavens and the new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness."[277] Were
additional proof needed upon this point, it would be supplied by the
fact that in almost the next following words we read of _the nations
being roused to wrath_. These are the wicked upon whom judgment falls;
and, instead of being converted, they are roused to the last and highest
outburst of the wickedness which springs from despair.
2. The song of the four-and-twenty elders. We have already had occasion
to notice that song of the representatives of redeemed creation in which
the four living creatures celebrated "the Lord, God, the Almighty, which
was and which is and which is to come."[278] The song now before us,
sung by the representatives of the glorified Church, is cast in
precisely the same mould of three ascriptions of praise to _the Lord_.
But in the third member there is an important difference, the words "and
which is to come" being omitted. The explanation is that the Lord is
come. The present dispensation is at its close.
3. The events of the close are next described. It is _the time of the
dead to be judged_, and the time _to give reward_ to God's faithful
servants, to whatever part of mankind they have belonged, and whatever
the position they have filled in life. The whole family of man is
divided into two great classes, and for the one there is judgment, for
the other reward.
4. Before passing on it may be well to call attention to one or two
particulars in these verses which, though not specially connected with
that general meaning of the passage which it is the main object of
this commentary to elicit, may help to throw light upon the style of
the Apostle and the structure of his work.
(1) Thus it is important to observe his use of the word _prophets_.
The persons spoken of are obviously in contrast with "the nations" and
"the dead to be judged," and they must include all who are faithful
unto death. Already we have seen that every true follower of Christ is
in St. John's eyes a martyr, and that when he thinks of the martyrs of
the Church he has a far wider circle in view than that of those who
meet death by the sword or at the stake.[279] To his ideal conceptions
of things the martyr spirit makes the martyr, and the martyr spirit
must rule in every disciple of the Crucified. In like manner the
prophetic spirit makes the prophet, and of that spirit no true
follower of Him in whom prophecy culminated can be devoid. In this
very chapter we have read of "prophesying" as the work of the two
witnesses who are a symbol of the whole Christian Church, and who
prophesy through the thousand two hundred and threescore days of her
pilgrimage. We are not therefore to suppose that those here called
"prophets" are either prophets in the stricter sense of the word, or
commissioned ministers of Christ. All Christ's people are His
"servants the prophets," and the idealism of St. John distinctly
appears in the designation given them.
(2) The next following clause, which we have translated in a manner
slightly different from that of both the Authorised and the Revised
Versions, is not less important: _both the saints and them that fear
Thy name_, instead of "and to the saints, and to them that fear Thy
name." It is the manner of St. John to dwell in the first instance
upon one characteristic of the object of which he speaks, and then to
add other characteristics belonging to it, equally important, it may
be, in themselves, but not occupying so prominent a place in the line
of thought which he happens to be pursuing at the moment. An
illustration of this is afforded in John xiv. 6, where the words of
Jesus are given in the form, "I am the Way, and the Truth, and the
Life." The context shows that the emphasis rests wholly on Jesus as
"the Way," and that the addition of the words "the Truth, and the
Life," is only made to enhance and complete the thought. Here in like
manner the contents of what is involved in the term "the prophets" are
completed by a further statement of what the prophets are. They are
"the saints and they that fear God's name." The twofold structure of
this statement, however, again illustrates the manner of St. John.
"The saints" is, properly speaking, a Jewish epithet, while every
reader of the Acts of the Apostles is familiar with the fact that
"they that fear God" was a term applied to Gentile proselytes to
Judaism. We have thus an instance of St. John's method of regarding
the topic with which he deals from a double point of view, the first
Jewish, the second Gentile. He is not thinking of two divisions of the
Church. The Church is one; all her members constitute one Body in
Christ. But looked at from the Jewish standpoint, they are "the
saints;" from the Gentile, they are those that "fear Thy name."
(3) The verses under consideration afford a marked illustration of St.
John's love of presenting judgment under the form of the _lex
talionis_. The nations were "roused to wrath," and upon them God's
"wrath came." They had "destroyed the earth," and God would "destroy"
them. In studying the Apocalypse, all peculiarities of style or
structure ought to be present to the mind. They are not unfrequently
valuable guides to interpretation.
The seventh Trumpet has sounded, and the end has come. A glorious
moment has been reached in the development of the Almighty's plan; and
the mind of the Seer is exalted and ravished by the prospect. Yet he
beholds no passing away of the present earth and heavens, no
translation of the reign of good to an unseen spiritual and hitherto
unvisited region of the universe. It would be out of keeping with the
usual phraseology of his book to understand by _heaven_, in which he
sees the ark of God's covenant, a locality, a place "beyond the clouds
and beyond the tomb." His employment of the contrasted words "earth"
and "heaven" throughout his whole series of visions rather leads to
the supposition that by the latter we are to understand that region,
wherever it may be, in which spiritual principles alone bear sway. It
may be here; it may be elsewhere; it seems hardly possible to say: but
the more the reader enters into the spirit of this book, the more
difficult will he find it to resist the impression that St. John
thinks of this present world as not only the scene of the great
struggle between good and evil, but also, when it has been cleansed
and purified, as the seat of everlasting righteousness. These in the
present instance are striking words: "to destroy them that destroy the
earth." Why not destroy the earth itself if it is only to be burned
up? Why speak of it in such terms as lead almost directly to the
supposition that it shall be preserved though its destroyers perish?
While, on the other hand, if God at first pronounced it to be "very
good;" if it may be a home of truth, and purity, and holiness; and if
it shall be the scene of Christ's future and glorious reign,--then
may we justly say, Woe to them that destroy the habitation, the
palace, now preparing for the Prince of peace.
However this may be, it was a fitting close to the judgments of the
seven Trumpets that the "temple" of God--that is, the innermost shrine
or sanctuary of His temple--should be opened. There was no need now
that God should be "a God that hideth Himself."[280] When earth had in
it none but the pure in heart, why should they not see Him?[281] He
would dwell in them and walk in them.[282] The Tabernacle of the Lord
would be again with men.[283]
When too the shrine was opened, what more appropriate spectacle could
be seen than "the ark of His covenant," the symbol of His
faithfulness, the pledge of that love of His which remains unchanged
when the mountains depart and the hills are removed? The
covenant-keeping God! No promise of the past had failed, and the past
was the earnest of the future.
Nor need we wonder at the _lightnings, and voices, and thunders, and
the earthquake, and the great hail_ that followed. For God had
"promised, saying, Yet once more will I make to tremble not the earth
only, but also the heaven. And this word, Yet once more, signifieth
the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that are
made, that those things which are not shaken may remain."[284]
FOOTNOTES:
[242] Zech. ii. 1, 2.
[243] Ezek. xl. 2-5.
[244] Zech. ii. 5.
[245] Chap. xxi. 15, 17.
[246] John vii. 4.
[247] Ver. 2.
[248] Isa. i. 13, 14.
[249] John ix. 34.
[250] John ix. 35.
[251] Chaps. ii. 24; iii. 1, 4.
[252] Comp. Matt. xxii. 14.
[253] Dan. vii. 25.
[254] Dan. ix. 27.
[255] John xvi. 33.
[256] Zech. iv.
[257] John viii. 12. Comp. Matt. v. 14.
[258] 2 Kings i. 10, 12.
[259] Dan. iii. 22.
[260] Chap. i. 16.
[261] 1 Kings xvii. 1; James v. 17.
[262] 1 Cor. x. 11.
[263] Ver. 7.
[264] John xvii. 4; xix. 30.
[265] See margin of R.V.
[266] Ps. cxxxii. 13, 14.
[267] Isa. i. 10, 21.
[268] Luke xxiii. 12.
[269] Neh. viii. 10.
[270] Esther ix. 22.
[271] Comp. chap. v. 6.
[272] Chap. iii. 21.
[273] Rom. viii. 19, 21.
[274] Chap. ix. 20.
[275] Chaps. viii. 13; ix. 12.
[276] 1 Cor. xv. 28.
[277] 2 Pet. iii. 13.
[278] Chap. iv. 8.
[279] Comp. p. 102.
[280] Isa. xlv. 15.
[281] Matt. v. 8.
[282] 2 Cor. vi. 16.
[283] Chap. xxi. 3.
[284] Heb. xii. 26, 27.