Behold, he comes with the clouds, and every eye shall see him, and they which have pierced him, and all the tribes of the land shall wail because of him. Yea. Amen.
Right at the start of Revelation, verse 7 announces the event the whole book moves toward: the Lord's return in public view. Two questions shape how we read it. Is this the same coming Christians wait for? And why does the sight of Him bring wailing instead of welcome?
Verse 7 follows a burst of praise. Writers point out that the words which come next do a different job.
Now we have (verse 7) those solemn but blessed words: "Behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him…" This is not part of the song, but a testimony quite distinct from it. We often find these two things together: what forms the communion of a person who belongs to God, and then what is, or should be, his testimony.
Small words carry the weight here. The word "with" marks a different moment from the one believers wait for.
Christ is nowhere said to come with the clouds to gather His own. On the contrary, they go up in the clouds (1 Thess. 4:17). These are the royal carriages provided to carry us from earth to meet the Lord. The cloud of old was the well-known symbol of Jehovah's presence with His people (Ex. 13:21; 40:34-38; Luke 9:35). But notice: Scripture says Christ comes not only in the clouds (Mark 13:26), but with them (Rev. 1:7), and on them (Matt. 24:30). The clouds that come with Him are symbols of His majesty (Ps. 18:9-12). He sits on them as on His throne (Matt. 24:30).
People rejected Him in the open, in front of crowds. His return answers that in the same terms.
He leaves no room for doubt. His coming in the clouds of heaven will be visible to all. His humiliation was public, and so were the insults people heaped on Him. Just as publicly He will display His glory and make good the dignity and the claims that men trampled on.
The phrase points back to Zechariah, where the wound and the mourning go together. One writer traces the link, and finds two kinds of grief here.
This takes us straight back to Zechariah, where we find Israel brought fully to repentance at the sight of Him who was wounded in the house of His friends: "they shall mourn for him, as one mourns for an only child." The word for "earth," in both Greek and Hebrew, is the same as "land," so "all the tribes of the earth" must make us find Israel here, as in Zechariah. Still, the outlook in Revelation is wider. There may also be a wail which is not repentance, but the wail of awful fear.
Commentators differ over how far "all the tribes of the earth" reaches. Others press for the wider sense.
Revelation 1:7 must not be limited to Jews, however much it resembles the old Greek translation of the words in Zechariah 12… The scope here is larger and wider than in Old Testament prophecy; but it concerns the world, not the church.
Some teach that the gospel will win the whole world first, and that Christ then comes to a planet that wants Him. The reaction in this verse rules that out.
It is hard to see how this idea ever caught on, when the Bible holds a passage as solemn as Revelation 1:7… A converted world would welcome Him with cheers, not wailing… But people believe what pleases them. The thought of the Lord stepping in to judge does not please those who love the world, or who have a stake in its grand schemes for its own greatness.
If the world wails at His appearing, does the Christian join in? One writer keeps the two apart.
I can testify that "every eye will see him, even those who pierced him, and all tribes of the earth will wail on account of him." But am I to wail because He comes who has washed me from my sins in His own blood? No, I am rejoicing. My portion is one thing, my testimony another.
The verse closes with two words of agreement drawn from two languages.
The double affirmation, "Even so, Amen," is the Spirit's seal to this striking prophetic testimony. The "Even so" is Greek, the "Amen" is Hebrew. To both Gentiles and Jews His Word is unchangeable.
- Announced — verse 7 is not part of the praise before it. It is a separate testimony, set right where the book begins.
- Visible — He comes with the clouds, the sign of His majesty. Believers go up in clouds, the royal carriages that carry them to meet Him.
- Public — men insulted Him in the open, and in the open He will display His glory and His claims to every eye.
- Pierced — the wound recalls Zechariah. Some of the mourning is repentance; some, writers suggest, is sheer dread.
- Sealed — the wailing shows a world still unconverted at His return. "Even so, Amen" stamps His word as unchangeable for Jew and Gentile alike.
I am the Alpha and the Omega, saith [the] Lord God, he who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty.
God Himself speaks here in His own voice, naming who He is before the book's visions begin. Two questions arise: what do these titles mean, and whose voice is it — God's or Christ's?
The first seven verses of the chapter come to us through John. This one comes straight from God.
Our verse gives us the first utterance of God's lips in this wonderful Revelation. The seven previous verses are introductory — an inspired message through the Apostle John. But verse 8 bursts upon us, in deep and divine solemnity, as the true words of the Lord God, the Almighty. He is the Alpha — the great source and originator of all things. And He is the Omega too, the One by whom all things will be wound up and completed. So we do not read "I am Alpha and Beta" (the second letter), as if His aim were to show the beginning and the continuance of His work. That may be true. But if Alpha gives the beginning, Omega shows not only a perfect continuance, but the seal placed on the end of all.
These are the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet. They mark where everything starts and where it ends — even for a reader who looks around and sees only ruin.
"I am the Alpha and the Omega" — first and last letters of the Greek alphabet — would show His relationship to creation. God is the source, the beginning of all truth revealed, of all promise given, and of all testimony entrusted to men. In this respect He is "the Alpha." But He is also the end. His glory is the goal. Everything finds its answer in Him. Our course, our testing lie between these points, God the Alpha and God the Omega. In our hands the threads are broken; in His hands they have never been torn. Circumstances have failed and are failing. The Church, in its outward order, is a ruin among the wrecked testimony of the ages. Yet God's voice rings out above the noise and strife.
The three clauses in the verse form a title. They unfold an Old Testament name, and their order matters.
This description — "who is and who was and who is to come" — is really a title. It matches the Hebrew name Jehovah. "Who is" is a present participle: He always is. "Who was" is an imperfect tense: He ever was. "Who is to come" is a participle: He always is the coming One. Note the present tense comes first in order. God is the great eternal Present, stretching backwards and forwards over a boundless eternity. And this is the Lord Jesus.
Is this God speaking, or Christ? The verse refuses to be pulled apart.
We then find, what is so remarkable in John, the mixing up in expression of God and Christ. Verse 8 cannot be said to be one or the other. It is Christ; but it is Christ Jehovah, Almighty, the Lord; who is, and who was, and who is to come; the first and the last.
The One who speaks here stands behind the whole book.
He is the Source and Doer of all. He makes known to man everything that can be made known. He it is who speaks here — the Lord God, the Eternal, the Almighty — putting His guarantee on the book from the beginning… But here it is the divine sanction of every word, whether in setting aside the guilty present or in establishing the future down to the eternal state. None but the true God could speak to it; and John expressly says that Jesus is the true God.
The last title is the one His people lean on when the book turns dark.
How fitting that this weighty introduction should close with the title of God as the "Almighty." That title has been a rock of strength to His afflicted people in all ages. "The Almighty" is not simply the witness of unlimited power. It means Almighty in "sustaining resources." In this book the circumstances of God's people make many a demand on this strong Name. So it appears often here, and only once elsewhere in the New Testament (2 Cor. 6:18)… He is Almighty in sustaining His people, yet equally Almighty in judgment on His enemies.
Verse 7 announces His coming. Some hear that and wonder whether it can really happen.
Does anyone say, "We know that these things are written in the Scriptures, but is He able to carry them out?"… Well, the Lord pledges His own divine eternal Being on this. He says, "Even so, Amen."… It is the everlasting, self-existent, omnipotent God who speaks. All will have to do with Him. The scribes and Pharisees did not realise that when they despised and rejected Him… Would it not be wise for everyone to have to do with Him in this day of grace?
- Alpha — He is the source of all truth revealed, all promise given, all testimony entrusted to men.
- Omega — not merely continuance but completion: what He began, He seals and finishes.
- Jehovah — the eternal present, reaching back without beginning and forward without end.
- Almighty — power that sustains His people and power that judges His enemies, from the same hand.
- Christ — you cannot separate God from Christ here. It is Christ, Jehovah, the Almighty, guaranteeing every word of the book.