MUSINGS ON THE APOCALYPSE
THE opening of this wondrous book gives us its title and
character - "The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto Him." For it
will be found, I judge, to be a revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ in such
characters of glory and power as He derives from God, or a revelation of Him in
the exercise of judicial authority.
Now two exercises of judicial
authority awaited Him after He had ascended to God, and accordingly this book
has two parts.
Chapters 1-3 give us the first part. The Lord is here
exercising judgment in the Church, or among the lights of the sanctuary. This
is called "the things which are."
Chapters 4-22 give us the second part.
The Lord is here exercising judgment in the earth, preparing it for His
kingdom.
This is called "the things which shall be hereafter" (or, after
these).
This is the general order of the book, but these two parts
contain properly both a preface and a conclusion. In the preface (1:1-8) we
first learn that this wondrous book deals with "the word of God" and "the
testimony of Jesus Christ"; that is, Gods counsels made known by Jesus
Christ. Then we are told the manner in which Jesus Christ ministers this
testimony to the churches, and blessing is then pronounced on him who acts
righteously by this book, by either reading or hearing it, and then by keeping
the things which are written in it. After this the seven churches in Asia are
called to listen, and after a benediction on them, the Lord Jesus Christ is
announced as the One who is about to come "with clouds," or in the solemnities
of judgment. (Dan. 7:13; Matt. 24:30; 26:64.) A coming quite according to the
judicial character of the book, and which is to make the kindreds of the earth
wail because of Him, and them which pierced Him to see Him to their
confusion.
But in the midst of such an announcement of the Lord as even
this, the saints have two sweet and happy utterances put into their lips. On
His being here revealed as "the Faithful Witness," "the First-begotten from the
dead," and "the Prince of the kings of the earth," they praise Him as the One
who had loved them. And again, when His coming in the clouds as for
judgment is announced, they invite HIS glory with full confidence still, and
say, "Even so, Amen." For they have thoroughly learned that they may have
boldness even in a day of judgment. (1 John 4:17.) Then, when these utterances
of the saints pass by, the Lord reveals Himself as the First and the Last - a
title which He frequently takes in this book - the very title, too, that He so
constantly assumes when judging the idols of Babylon in Isaiah (see Isaiah 48),
all this still assuring us that He is now about to speak in judgment again. In
the mouth indeed of every witness here we learn that this book is a revelation
of the Lord Jesus Christ, which God, not the Father, gives Him; or, in
judgment, not in grace.. But this is only here at the close of the volume of
the New Testament; for I may observe that the Lord has ever sought, so to
speak, to publish His name in grace before He does so in judgment.
In
some way or other He will and must make Himself known, for that is His
gløry; but He seeks the rather to be known in goodness than in judgment,
if men will hear. We have this variously illustrated. To Egypt, for instance,
the Lord made Himself known in Joseph, the witness of His goodness; for by
Joseph He filled Egypts storehouses with all kinds of wealth. But Egypt
forgat Joseph. A king arose then who persecuted Josephs people, and said
of his God, "Who is the Lord that I should obey Him?" Then the Lord had to
publish His name in that land in judgment, saying to the king, "In this thou
shalt know that I am the Lord: behold, I will smite with the rod." He was now
to be made known not in Joseph, but in plagues.
So in Israel
afterwards. The Lord Jesus Christ was offered to them as "the chief
corner-stone, the sure foundation," the One in whom they should find salvation
and strength; but being rejected as such, He was to be revealed to them as "the
head stone of the corner," in the power and judgment of an exalted stone, which
was to fall and grind to powder.
And so in the world now. This present
dispensation is publishing God in grace, He is beseeching men to be reconciled.
But they who will not thus know Him, neglecting "the great salvation," must
know Him, by and by in judgments. (2 Thess. 1:8.) If the blood of the Lamb be
despised, the wrath of the Lamb must await.
(Rev. 6:16, 17;) The same
One who is "full of grace and truth" now, will by and by send the sword out of
His mouth to execute judgment. (Rev. 19:15.) And this is the difference between
the Gospel and the Revelation by St. John. The Gospel publishes the name of the
Lord in grace, the Revelation in judgment. The one flows from the Father, the
other from God; Now according to all this, when we pass the preface and get
into the body of the book, it is the Lord, the Son of Man in the place of
judgment, that we at once see. (See chapter 1:9-20.)
These verses
introduce the first scene which the book discloses, and here St. John sees the
Lord as High Priest prepared to judge the sanctuary. He does not show Himself
to John as the Priest at the golden altar, with the censer and the burning
incense, but at the candlestick with the golden snuffers, as though He were
enquiring, and that too for the last time, whether or not the lamps of the
sanctuary would burn worthy of the place, or whether He should not be compelled
soon to remove them. It is the Son of man, with garments down to the foot, and
golden girdle about His loins, with head and hair white as wool, eyes of flame,
feet of brass, and voice of many waters, in His hand holding the seven stars,
and in His mouth the two-edged sword, and walking in the brightness and power
of the midday sun, among the seven candlesticks. All this was an expression of
judgment "of the house of God," a revelation of the Priest, not at the altar
with ináense, not even at the candlestick with oil to feed it, but at
the candlestick. with the snuffers to judge and trim it, as being out of order.
John shall hear himself personally and individually addressed with the wonted
words of Gods sweet love to us, "Fear not"; but still this is a vision
that may well make the stoutest of the children of men to fall as dead.
And it is quite according to such an introduction as this that we find our Lord
in the following scene. (Rev. 2:1.) Here it is the Lord in "the house of God"
challenging the churches. to answer for themselves. He had before set them in
the blessing, and now He looks for fruit. It is as though He had heard a report
of their unfaithfulness, and was now saying unto them, "How is it that I hear
this of thee? Give an account of thy stewardship; for thou mayest be no longer
steward." He had already communicated with them through the apostles, but now
He does so through the angels. St. Paul addressed them in the pastoral grace of
Christ; St. John now addresses them as from the judicial authority of Christ;
The apostles had fed them arid disciplined them as in the place of dependence,
but now these epistles challenge them as in the place of responsibility, and
the moment they are thus addressed they are found wanting as candlesticks bound
to shine to the praise of Him who had set them in His sanctuary. They are now
visited, and the common result of all such visitations of Gods stewards
may tell us the end of the candlesticks also.
For the crisis or
judgment has always found man unready. Whether planted in innocency, in a
sphere of providence, or under a ministration of grace, man has been found
unequal even to hold a blessing. "Adam, where art thou?" got this answer, "I
heard Thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid
myself." The vineyard of Israel afterwards should have yielded its fruit to Him
who had planted and dressed it, but when He came it was only wild grapes that
He found. And so it is now with the candlesticks in the house of God. They had
been duly prepared by Gods care. They were nothing less than golden
candlesticks, churches fed by the Spirit, blessed with blessings from God the
Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, made fully furnished and well ordered lights
in the sanctuary. But now that the visitation is made, in due season too, the
Son of man finds something unsuited to the holy place. These seven churches
(the sevenfold or perfect expression of the Church) are here challenged by the
Son of man with these words, "I know thy works," but the sevenfold light is but
dim and uncertain. This steward of Gods glory is but unfaithful also. And
so by and by the same inquisition will be made of "the earthly gods," the
Gentile powers to whom the Lord has committed the sword, and they will then in
like manner as Adam, Israel, or the candlesticks, be found wanting, and they
will have to fall as men and die like one of the princes. (Psalm 82.) All the
stewards are thus found wanting, when weighed in the balance, and the Lord is
justified in His saying and clear when.He judges.
These seven churches
are here as in the place of this judgment. There were, it is true, other
congregations of the Lord at the time, but these seven are enough to exhibit
the judgment, for seven is completeness. So some of them may be found by this
judgment or visitation in a better condition than others; but still the Son of
man sees the whole thing far different from what it ought to be. One was not
judged ifl the other, but each was responsible for itself, and thus some
maintained their purity longer than others. But still the whole tone of this
visitation bears with it a notice of what the end speedily was to be. As in our
day we see it, for Philadelphia and Smyrna are now as fully removed
candlesticks as Sardis or Pergamos.
These challenges of the churches by
the Son of man lead us to see that all was then nearly over, that there was but
a step between such rebukes and their removal. And, surely, we do not in our
day need to be told of the disturbance which has taken place in the house of
God. We learn that Adam lost Eden, and the present groans of creation tell us
so. We learn that Israel lost Canaan, and their present wanderings over the
earth tell us so. And how see we the sanctuary? Are we not witnesses to
ourselves that we have been no more able to hold the blessing which was ours,
than Adam could hold Eden, or Israel Canaan? The candlestick that was set for
the rebuking of all that was without as darkness, and for being itself the
embodied and well ordered light of the world, is not now at Ephesus, or even
Sardis. But where is anything like it? Can any one thing, in any one place,
assert the honour of being the Lords candle there, and shew that the Lord
is feeding, and judging, and trimming jt as such? In this day of St. John the
Lord still owned the candlesticks, owned them by thus visiting and judging
them. But is there such recognition now? We may try our ways most surely by all
that is here said to the churches, but this does not amount to the Son of man
owning us by judgment. And our first duty therefore, both in grace and Wis dom,
is to be humbled because of this; for though we may have much in fragments that
belongs to the candlesticks, yet all that does not give us the standing and
privilege of the candlestick entitling us to set aside as darkness, and as not
of the sanctuary, all that is not of ourselves.
When our fidelity to
the Lord became the question, we were found wanting, as any other steward. This
book will, at the end, shew us that the question of the Lords fidelity to
us will be answered in the other way; for, as the Lambs wife the Church
will then be found to survive all the judgments, though here she could not as
the candlestick stand the righteous challenge of the Lord. And this is man -
and this is God always; shame and ruin mark our end - honour and peace, and
everlasting truth and love, the end of the Lord. And in this shame and ruin, I
believe, these three chapters close; the perfect order of the seven lights of
the house of God is gone, not to be restored; and according to this, the
prophet is at once called to see other things and other places, to witness
another scene, but still a scene of judgment, as we shall find; not that of the
priestly Son of man in His temple,- but that of God and the Lamb in the earth.
But this judgment is delayed till all the fore-known family have come
in; for Gods long-suffering is salvation (2 Peter-3:15). The fulness of
the Gentiles must come in, and all be brought to the knowledge of the Son of
God. (Horn. 11:25; Eph. 4:13.) Therefore, before we are led in our prophet to
behold this second scene of judgment, or the judgment of the earth, we are
given, I believe, a sight of the Church in heaven,* under the symbols of the
living creatures, and crowned elders round the throne; so that the rapture of
the saints into the air had taken place at some untold moment between the times
of our third and fourth chapters. *The twenty-four elders no doubt represent
the whole company of the redeemed in glory from Adam down to the rapture, and
not the Church exclusively. - Ed.
But here I would pause a little.
We have not, I am aware, this ascension of the saints actually presented here.
We learn it in the appointed scripture (1 Thess. 4), and that rapture will lead
both to the Lord Himself and then to the Father. But it is not these results
that we get here. It is not the saints, either in the Lords presence, or
in the mansions of the Fathers house, that we see here, but the Church
before the throne of God Almighty, of Him who was, and is, and is to come, for
whose pleasure all things were created. This is the scene we get here. It is
not the children before the Father, but the Church in dignity before the
throne.
But how perfect is the wisdom of God in appointing all the
reasons for revealing His mind and purposes! A - view of the Fathers
house would not have been in character here, for this is the book, not of
consolations for the children of the Father, but of judgment by which God and
the Lamb are asserting their holy rights, vindicating their own praise, and
delivering the long-usurped and corrupted inheritance out of the hands of its
destroyers. The Gospel by St. John conducts us to the Fathers house; our
path there ends, as the path of children, in that house of love; but this
Apocalypse by St. John gives us the action that gets the golden city ready for
us, and our path here ends, as the path of heirs, in that place of glory; for
both are ours, the joys of children, and the dignity of heirs; the house of the
Father, and the throne of the Son.
Here then, when taken into vision
of heavenly things, it is the throne of God with its due attendants, and not
the Fathers house with the children, that we see. It is the throne of God
Almighty, Creator and Ruler of all things, around which is, therefore, thrown
the holy pledge of the earths covenanted security. And it is the place,
too, from which the subsequent action of the book, or the judgment of the
earth, flows; and, therefore, lightnings and thunders, and voices (the symbols
of these judgments), here issue from it. And it is the throne, also, which is
to rule the world to come, or the kingdom at the end. And, therqfore, the seven
spirits (the symbol of that energy by which that kingdom is to be main- tamed,
Isaiah 11:1-3), are here seen before it; and in connection with this government
of the kingdom, or "world to come," we see the Church in the symbol of the
living creatures and elders also around it. But as to this wondrous subject of
the living creatures, or the cherubim, I would observe a little more par
ticularly. Whenever we see them throughout Scripture, they are always
attendants upon the throne of God; always reflecting by their action, or
attitude, the mind and ways of Him who sits there.
1. Thus they are
seen at the gate of Eden, with a flaming sword, because there the Lord was
expressing His own unrepenting righteousness in the law, driving, as He then
was, the sinner out of His place.
2. Thus also they are seen over the
mercy seat in the holiest, with fixed, delighted gaze, enquiring into the
secrets of that throne of grace, because there the Lord was expressing His work
in Jesus, the fixedness of His purpose, and joy in the gospel of His dear Son.
(Exodus 25:20; 1 Peter 1:12.)
3. Thus also they are seen with unfolded
wings under the God of Israel (Ezek. 1), because Then the Lord of Israel was
about to leave His sanctuary, the apostasy of His people having disturbed His
rest in Jerusalem. And they are here also seen reaching out their hands to take
fire and cast it over the city, for then the Lord had commanded the judgment of
its sins.
4. Thus also, as here, they are seen round the throne, still
attending on it, to celebrate the praise of Him who sits there, and do His
will, and learn His mind; still, therefore, reflecting His mind and ways. But
in this last place of the cherubim we observe a distinction of great
importance. Hitherto, or in the first three instances, they were angelic,
because the law had been ordained by angels. With delight the angels enquired
into the mysteries of Christ (1 Peter 1:12), and the the angles waited on the
Lord of Israel. (Isaiah 6:21) But now the cherubim, or attendants on the
throne; have become human, because "the world; to come" is to be made subject
to man and not to angels (Heb. 2:5), and this throne in Rev. 4 is the throne
that is by and by to preside over "the world to come."
But this is
glorious and wonderful. Poor, sinners redeemed by blood are destined, through
grace, to take the cherubic dignity and joy in which angels; unfallen angels,
once stood; the angels themselves falling back, as it were, mid opening their
ranks to let redeemed sinners in, and then to take their own place around them
as well as around the throne itself (ch. 7).
Angels are thus passed by
and the seed of Abraham taken up, and it is blessed to know that angels
themselves take delight in this. They desire to look into this mystery. God
manifest in the flesh is seen of them. (1 Tim. 3:16.) Their own joy is enhanced
by all this, for by it they have learned more of the shining and gracious ways
of Him who created them, as He has redeemed us, and on whom they as we depend.
Beggars from the dunghill are set as among princes round the throne. The living
creatures and the crowned elders accordingly, never, in the whole action of
this wondrous book, move out of heaven, but there abide, either in the.
intelligence of the mind of God, or in authority under the throne, or in the
holy office of leading the joy of creation. (See chaps. 5, 6, 7, 11, 15, 19.)
They abide in their sphere on high while the action proceeds on earth.*
*There was something like this order of living creatures and crowned
elders in Israel; I mean in the way in which the ark was attended. The priests
and the Levites surrounded the ark in a nearer and smaller circle, and then the
twelve tribes (on each side three) encompassed it in a larger and more distant
circle or square; thus the one had more intimacy with it than the other, as
here the order of living creatures, elders, and angelic hosts around the
throne. (see Numbers 1-4.)
Such I judge to be the throne with its
attributes and attendants. It is the throne of the Creator and Upholder of all
things, from which is to go forth the judgments which are to clear the earth of
its corrupters and destroyers, and then to have connection with the redeemed
earth in "the world to come."
But the throne being thus seen, and
Gods glory and pleasure as Creator and Governor of all things being thus
celebrated, the question arises, Who can He seat on the throne with Himself?
"Who shall ascend into the hill** of the Lord, or who shall stand in His holy
place?" The earth and its fullness is the Lords by the title of creation
here celebrated, and owned in Psalm 24; but it was His pleasure of old to "set
His image over these works of His hand". Adam was given dominion, but Adam lost
his place, and forfeited his kingdom. Who then shall reassume the dignity,
again ascend the hill of the Lord? Who is he whom the Lord God can reinstate in
Adams forfeited lordship? That now becomes the question, and accordingly
it is raised in chapter 5, immediately after the exhibition, of the supreme
throne in chapter 4, and the answer to it from every quarter is this: "The Lamb
that was slain, the Lion of the tribe of Judah." He who sat on the throne joins
to give that answer by letting the book pass from His hand into that of the
Lamb. The living creatures and elders join in giving it by singing their song
of gladness in the prospect of the earth being soon the scene of their glory;
the hosts of angels join in giving it, by now ascribing all strength, and
glory, and faculty for dominion to the Lamb. Every creature in heaven, on
earth, under the earth, and such as are in the sea, in their order and measure
join in giving it, by uniting the name of the Lamb with that of their Creator
and Lord, and they all at once feel as though their groans were already turned
into praises, for as soon as Adam fell creation was sensitive of the cause, and
became "a prisoner of hope" (Rom. 8:20-22); but now that the Lamb takes
the book, she becomes at once equally sensitive of deliverance, and glories in
the liberty of the children of God. Thus is the question settled in
heaven.
The title of the Lamb to take dominion in the earth is owned
and verified in the very place where alone all power and dominion or office
could righteously be had, in the presence of the throne in heaven, for "power
belongeth to God." Messiah owns that in Psalm 62, and here He again owns it by
taking the book out of His hand, for that is an action which confesses on the
part of the Lamb, that powers are ordained of God, that the Lord in heaven is
the foundation of office. Thus it is in heaven, and from the Ancient of days,
that the Son of man takes dominion, and the nobleman receives his kingdom.
(Dan. 7; Luke 19.) Jesus would not take power from the God of this world (Matt.
4:9, 10), nor would He take it from the heated desire of the people. (John
6:15.) He waits to take it (for then alone it could be righteously received)
from the hand of the God of heaven and earth, from whom Adam had of old
received it. And as the Lamb here owns God on the throne to be the source of
power, so God on the throne owns the Lamb to be His ordinance of power.
This action of taking the book has this concord of sweet sounds in it, for the
Lamb goes up to receive it, and the Lord allows it to pass from His hand.
Gods glory as supreme and only potentate is thus vindicated, and He
commits power in the earth again to the hand of man, as fully sanctioning it
then, and all the exercise of it, as of old He did in Adam delighting again in
this other image and likeness of Himself. And this governs all the subsequent
action of this wondrous book, for the title to the kingdom being thus approved
in the due place and form, it only remains to clothe that title with
possession. The inheritance is the Lambs by purchase of blood; that blood
sealed Him as the fully obedient One, and therefore God could thus highly exalt
Him (Phil. 2), and that blood had also reconciled all things in heaven :and
earth. (Col. 1.) And the inheritance being therefore thus purchased, He has now
only to redeem it. His blood as the Lamb slain had given Him the title to it;
His strength as the Lion of the tribe of Judah must now give Him possession of
it.
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 kinsmans 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 energy to be
made the kinsmans 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 Lords 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 any thing but this title deed that concerns the
Churchs inheritance of the earth, appears to me from several
considerations.
First. Because it lay in the hand of God Almighty; the
Creator of all things, before He receives it.
Second. Because it is taken
by the Lord as the Lamb slain, and as the Lion of Judah, characters of purchase
and strength.
Third. 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 earth, then transfer all that to the earth, and
creation ends its 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 that 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
Lords 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 He 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 Lords 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 of his education in the wilderness of this present evil world,
but now it is this closing Book of 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 no kinsman were found able or willing
to redeem the inheritance, it returned to the heir in the jubilee. The Lord of
Israel thus kept in His own hand the means of But the day of vengeance is
united with the year of the redeemed (Is. 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 (chapters
6-19). It may be seals that are opened, trumpets blown, or vials emptied, but
all is preparing the inheritance for the Lamb of 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 now 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 restoring all things. He acted as Lord of the soil, and
said the land was His. (Lev. 25:23.) He created as it were a tenantry for
forty-nine years, in the fiftieth year resuming the land, and then settling it
anew on His family according to His own mind. And so with this earth, of which
the land of Israel was the sample; man may take it into his own hand for a
time, and by his covetousness on the one hand, or idle habits on the other,
disturb Gods order in it. But a day is coming, the promised and expected
jubilee, the time of the restitution of all things, and then the earth shall be
brought back to God again, and He will resettle it on His family according to
His own holy and righteous principles. I might here observe that sacrifices may
be allowed among the Jews in the kingdom, to keep in memory the blood of the
Lamb which was the price and purchase of the kingdom, then, "Thy throne, 0 God,
is for ever and ever." (Psalm 45.)
Thus it is henceforth a book
of judgments, as it has been hitherto, only judgments in another end, not of
the candlesticks, but of the earth and its corrupters. Judgment had begins 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 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, and 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 street 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 hands of its corrupters, and then the
righteous nations that have kept the truth enter. But in all this action, I
judge, the Churëh has no place; but that the saints have been ,taken to
meet their 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
First. The
saints are seen round the throne in heaven; or, as I have already noticed, in
chapter 4, and throughout the book onward from that, they are never seen but
there; and tbis leads me to judge that the Church - has been removed from the
earth at some untold moment, between the time of chapters 3 and 4, - as I have
already said.
Second. At the opening of this -action, chap. 6, the
same signs are given as had before been given by the Lord Himself to His Jewish
remnant (Matt. 24.) respecting the end of the world; and as, in all that
prophecy the Church is not contemplated, so do I judge that she is 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.
Third.
The judgments begin with chapter 6, but as Joshua of old did not begin his wars
tilithe 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 chapter 6 begin
till the rapture of the saints, which closes the discipline of the Church and
takes her out of the wilderness, is over.
Fourth. 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 in them is clad with seal 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 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. However gloomy the way may be, this is the end of it, the end that
we reach in this book. The action was the judgment of the corrupters of the
earth, and its result is the holy occupation of - it by the Lord and His
saints. The ways of our Joshua end in victory and the kingdom. The bow led to
the crown. (20:1-6.)
"I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and
judgment was given unto them." But before I hasten thus to the result of all
this action, I would further observe, that in the progress of this action
itself, we see, I believe, the deliverance of Jewish remnants from amid both
the corruption and the judgment. Some of them suffer for righteousness even
unto death, and then ascend to heaven to take their place on the sea of glass
before the throne, and some are hid as in a city of refuge through the sorrow,
sealed or measured for final security, and a place on tIie earth, or footstool
of the royal Son of man. But in both ways they are separated from the
corruption and the judgments around them, and after the wars of our Joshua
begin, like Rahab are safe in the Lord, whom they own in the midst of the
apostate nation. And I also see in the progress of this action the occasional
joy of the family in heaven. (See chaps. 5, 7, 11, 14, 15, 19.) Heaven is
surely a place of continuous joy. There the saints hunger no more,* neither
thirst any more, the Lamb feeds and refreshes them for ever. *This (chap.
7:14-17) would seem rather to be an earthly scene and company. - Ed.
But still they may be sensible of seasons and occasions of rapture, and
this appears to be intimated to us in these passages. The joys of the heavenly
family and their songs are every now and then awakened afresh, when some new
display of grace, or some new prospect of glory opens before them. Just as with
the heavenly hosts before, for when the foundations were laid, they sang
together anew, and still louder than before shouted for joy.
And here I
may further observe that in the progress of this book, the Church appears to
have taught the angels a still higher joy. In the Epistle to the Ephesians we
learned that the Church was teaching the heavenly powers a lesson of Gods
wisdom (Eph. 3:10); but here we see the angels practising, as it were, the
lessons they had previously learned. The Church leads the joy, and then the
angels take it up, following the living creatures and crowned elders in their
praise. (Chap. 5.) And again, when the redeemed celebrate "salvation," in
chapter 7, they, as having learned the lesson, say "Amen."
Thus much I
would observe on the action of these chapters; but particularly of their
contents I could not speak with any certainty of judgment. But all ends in the
kingdom, as I have noticed. The binding of Satan in the bottomless pit,
connected with the overthrow of the beast and the false prophet, may be called
the morning judgment (the judgment of the quick), ushering in, as it will, the
millennial day, or the kingdom. Then at the close of that day, Satan being let
loose from the pit to raise the last mischief in the world, the great white
throne is erected, before which proceeds the evening judgment (the judgment of
the dead), closing, as it will, the millennial day, or the kingdom. And the day
of the Lord being then over, the kingdom will be delivered up, and the new
heavens and the new earth will appear, the Church exchanging the kingdom for
God all in all, or their millennial for their eternal joy, and Satan the
bottomless pit for the "lake of fire", 0r his millennial for his eternal
doom.
Of all this the prophet has given a passing sight, and then he is
called up to another vision. He had before seen the Bride prepared in heaven
(chap. 19), and now he is called to see her descent out of heaven
(chap.21:2-8), and by and by he will be called, in order to see herself as
descended. (Chap. 21:9.) But now while descending; and he so looking at her, a
voice accompanies the descent saying, "Behold, the tabernacle of God is with
men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself
shall be with them, and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears
from their- eyes; and: there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor
crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed
away." And after this voice passed, He that sat on the throne said, "Behold, I
make all things new." And ,when as another has observed: "The inheritor and the
inheritance will then both have risen in character. The Second man, or the
glorified body, will exceed the first man, or the earthly body, and so the new
heavens and the new earth, will exceed in glory and joy the Paradise of
creation?" He had thus spoken He addresses John, verifying all that John had
heard, and giving him to know that when this came to pass, all would be done,
adding, moreover, such warnings and encouragements as may be listened to by all
from that moment to the end, being delivered by the Lord in the consciousness
of the solemn sanction which the end imparts to all things, as indeed it is
written: "0 that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would
consider their latter end!" (Deut. 32:29.) Thus this vision of the descending
city, and this audience of the voices from heaven, and from the throne pass
away, and our prophet is carried to a great and high mountain that he might see
this city herself, the Bride, the Lambs wife. (21:9; 22:6.)
One
of those angels who had before carried the seven last plagues is Johns
conductor now, and in his presence he measures the city, and, that being the
sign of security (11:1, 2), he thereby gives us a pledge that there is no
agency of destruction against it, but that the very hand which may plague the
earth will shelter the Church. The Church as the candlestick may be shattered,
but as the Lambs wife she shall live. This golden city is this Bride of
the Lamb - the Church of God now manifested in her perfectness. She has length
and breadth and height equal, with twelve foundations, and twelve gates, her
wall great and high, and her street of pure gold. Various all this, but all
shining and costly, expressing her to be the one that is perfect in holy
beauty. And she is not only thus perfect in herself, but she has her dignities
as well as her beauties; she is the habitation of the glory of God, the place
of the throne, a sanctuary too, as well as a palace, having a presence within
her which makes the whole scene a temple. Thus is she the suited dwelling place
of kings and priests; and being thus in herself the beautiful one, and bearing
with her this honor of the royal priesthood, all that goes forth from her, or
enters her, and dwells there, is according to those things. Light is shed from
her that the nations may walk therein. Water from the river of life flows from
her, bearing leaves with it, that the nations may be healed thereby; and all
that goes in is purity, and all who dwell within are in joy and dignity, having
no need of candles, or even of light from the sun, and being in the conscious
dignity of their everlasting kingdom. Such is the city of our God. Nothing must
touch such a habitation of holiness and gladness and glory, but the very honor
of the kings of the earth. They may bring up their glory and honor into it, but
nothing less than that can approach it. All is thus pure and shining within and
around her, and she yields forth streams of light and life that all may be
gladdened and bless her. This is the manifestation of the Church. In this
present dispensation the Church is but forming like Eve for Adam; but when the
time of the kingdom comes, and Adam awakes, then will His Eve be presented to
Him, the associate of His joy and kingdom; the saints will be shown all fitly
framed together, the Church presented to Himself, a glorious Church, without
spot, as here, in the place of blessing and government. Surely all this is
beautiful, as is everything of our God in its season. The incarnation and
ministry of the Lord had been the manifestation of the Father and the Son; the
present age is the manifestation of the HoIy Ghost; and the age to come, and
into which this vision of the golden city introduces us, will be the
manifestation of the Church. For all is perféction in the way of
Gods wisdom, as in the ways of His love. He tells out to us one secret
after another, bringing each in due season out of His treasures. "0 the depth
of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God!" But this only as we
pass on, beloved; but by and by He Himself will detain us for ever.
I
was tracing the character of that holy city which has now been disclosed to us,
and. observing that every thing in it told us that it was the symbol of the
Church in her perfectness and manifestation in glory, or the saints in their
dominion and honour; and I would. again, as connected with this, recur to the
difference between the Gospel and the Revelation by St. John. The Gospel closes
by taking the children to the Fathers house, or hiding them in heaven;
the Revelation, by leading them down from heaven into the place of dominion
over the earth, or manifesting them as the Church of God in the golden city. It
is not the mansions in the Fathers house which we have at the end of the.
Revelation to look into, but the place of the sanctuary,. and the palace, the
residence of the kings and priests unto God. It is not the children in their
home, but the saints in their glory whom we see. And all this is in full
character, for the Gospel by St. John had been throughout training the children
for the Father, but this Revelation by him had been getting the inheritance and
glory ready for the saints. It is a further stage in the history of the
heavenly family. It is not that they have left the joy of the mansions of the
Fathers house, which the Lord is now gone to prepare for them (John
14:2), but they are to receive the glory of the inheritance in addition, and
that is what is here presented to us.
And this day of the descent of
the golden city is the promised day of power, the day of the shutting up of the
influence of hell upon earth by the binding of Satan in the pit, and for the
opening the influence of heaven upon earth by this descent of the city of God;
the setting up of that mystic ladder on which the angels of God are to pass
from heaven to earth, and back to heaven again. And the throne of God seen in
this city has a new attribute, At the beginning it was the throne of God,, and
the Lamb only came up to it to take the sealed book from the hand of Him who
sat there. But now the Lamb has ascended it. It is now "the thione of God and
the Lamb." He has got up to the hill of the Lord, and is now standing in His
holy place. For the whole action of the book has been preparing the throne for
the Lamb as it had been preparing the golden city for the saints.
Such
are the results disclosed now, and thus the action, as I judge, interprets the
result, and the result confirms the character of the action. All is harmony in
this wondrous book. The action was not that of the Son on high preparing the
mansions in heaven for the children, nor the Holy Ghost here preparing the
children for the mansions; but it was the Lord (or God in the supreme place for
Him) coming forth in the power of one judgment after another to make His
enemies His footstool, and then erect His kingdom and lead His saints into it.
I have observed in all its holy order and righteous authority, it is the Church
as a golden city we get, the symbol of righteousness and power united. The
Church with the enthroned Lamb descending out of heaven to take association
with the earth, and ruling and yet blessing it, presiding over it in
righteousness, and yet dispensing to it the water of life, and the light of the
glory, of the very fountains of which she had now become the scene and dwelling
place.
Such is the end of the second part of this book of judgment.
Through the terrible troubles of seals, trumpets, and vials, we have been led
to the blessing of the earth, under the life and light that were in the golden
city, where the throne of God and the Lamb is. And as we had a preface to
the book in its place, so now we have a conclusion. (22:6-21.)
Here we
first listen to the angel who had attended St. John, attesting the full truth
of all that had passed, and then we listen to the Lord pledging His speedy
coming, and blessing (as in the preface) on those who should use the book. We
then find that hearing and seeing of these excellent things wrought for a
moment on the mind of St. John that he falls down and worships the as indeed he
had done before (19:10.) on both these occasions he had been receiving some
overwhelming visions. In chapter 19 he had just seen the marriage of the Lamb
in heaven; and now the golden city in her glory and beauty; and his engaged and
overpowered affections, awakened by such visions, must account to us for these
worshippings of the angel. But the angel rebukes him, as Peter Cornelius in
such a case, and then instructs in one particular touching this book, which
strikingly different from the instructions to the Jewish prophet on a like
occasion. (l 8:26; 12:4-9.) Daniel had seen and wonders, but was told to seal
them till time of the end, because the vision was to be for many days; but here
our prophet told to publish these things which he had Been and heard, because
the time did not now wait, but was at hand.
This marks the mind of the
spirit so differently in the Jewish prophet, and the prophet who was standing
in our dispensation address - the saints in St. John. For though events have to
pass in the thoughts of Israel the kingdom could come, the Church look for her
Lord at all times, and actngly the Lord at once again breaks in with an
announcement of His speedy comand that, too, with the rewards of right and
revealing Himself again, as He had done in the beginning, in His supreme place
as the Alpha and Omega.
After this the attending angel returns to his
own proper theme, promising a blessing in righteousness on those who obey, and
setting aside all the workers of evil; for this is the theme of the book - a
book which does not say, "Blessed is the man whose iniquities are forgiven, and
whose sins are covered," but pronounces blessing on the righteous, and doom on
all evil doers. For it is not a book of ministering grace, but of exceeding
righteousness; it is not sympathies or consolations that we find in it, but
judgments. It is the place of Ezekiel which the Lord fills here, as it was that
of Jeremiah which He had before occupied in the Gospel. In the Gospel, or in
His ministry through the cities and villages of the land, He was the sorrowing,
sympathizing Prophet, so that some said, "It is Jeremias"; but here He stands
the Son of man, like Ezekiel in the place of judgment, in spirit saying, "He
that heareth let him hear, and he that forbeareth let him forbear." "He that is
filthy let him be filthy still, and he that is holy let him be holy still."
There was no tear in the eye of Ezekiel, though rivers of water ran down the
cheeks of Jeremiah.
All is so perfect in its time. The Lord knew the
sympathies of the one as He walked in the land, and saw the moral ruins of
Zion; and He can now know the righteousness of the other, as he stands above
all that defiled ruin, and apart from it all in judgment.
But still,
after all this, Jesus Himself again forward, and having set His seal to these
revelations and words of the angel, He shows self to His saints; He glances at
them in the majesty of the root and offspring of David, and in the beauty of
the morning star, the moment He thus looks out upon them all the desire of the
Church is awakened, and, led by the Spirit (whose office is always to point to
Jesus), she is moved to invite Him to come; but once thus, with her desire set
in motion, she sweetly goes out in jrace towards others, as in desire towards
Him, and after inviting Him, the bright and Morning to come, she invites others
who would to join her in this, and then those who "athirst," having some
affection towards Lord just stirred, to come up to the full of her desire, and
lastly, through the largeness of her heart, whosoever would, in whatever mind
or state they may. be, to come drink of the living waters with her. Thus her
soul divinely moved upwards and around her. But this was an interruption of
more orderly progress of the book (like 1:5&6) on Jesus being revealed. But
we should prepared for, such interruptions; we should expect that the Lord
could be revealed t the Church being moved, as in these Praise must fill her if
His grace be revealed as there (chap. 1:6); desire must move if His person or
glory be revealed, as here 22); and we should all, beloved, be cultivating that
longing of heart after Him that lead us to take a ready part in such rapture of
the Spirit in the Bride as these.
But this was interruption, and,
therefore, when it passes, the Lord resumes the more proper theme of the book,
and threatens plagues to him who unrighteously adds to it, and loss of life and
glory to him who unrighteously takes from it. This, however, must not be
allowed to close all. "Surely I come quickly" is heard again, words which had
now broken forth from the Lord three times during this conclusion, for His
heart was fuller of that than any other thought, and He would fill ours with it
also. All was either to yield to that, or issue in it. Judgment must be
executed, but judgment is His strange work. Affliction of the righteous must be
gone through, but He never willingly afflicts. All is imperfect till Jesus
appear; His own heart is upon this, and this is the last thought that He
would leave upon ours. And the saint does respond, "Come, Lord Jesus," that the
Lord may thus know that this is His peoples desire and point of hope as
it is His.
Here Jesus the Lord and His ministering angel close their
testimony. The apostle then in his turn takes His leave of the saints, saying,
"The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all." In the love of the Spirit
he commends them to that which is their only provision in the way, till
their journey is ended. Till He comes, come when He may, bringing His glory
with Him, they must stand in His place; for the Lord gives both, and grace
leads to glory. The wilderness is now proving that He has riches and stores of
the one for us, and Canaan will by and by prove that He has riches and stores
of the other for all who love Him in this thankless and evil world. "0 the
depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God how unsearchable
are His judgments, and His ways past finding out!"