And I saw, and behold, the Lamb standing upon mount Zion, and with him a hundred [and] forty-four thousand, having his name and the name of his Father written upon their foreheads.
In chapter 13 John saw the dragon, the beast, and the false prophet at the peak of their power. Chapter 14 opens on a different hill, and it answers one question: what is God doing while evil seems to have won?
This vision comes straight after chapter 13, where Satan and his instruments seem to run the world.
But then the question arises, If Satan is so busy himself and his instruments, what is God doing? Has He been inactive all this time? Indifferent He could not be. Revelation 14 seems to be the answer to that question... And first, it is not now the heavens, nor the earth, nor the sea. None of these is the ground or scene of what the early verses of this chapter set before us. A new place comes in here — one not mentioned before, yet very important and full of meaning.
The hill is not chosen at random. Its meaning stands out against another mountain: Sinai.
Israel had come to Sinai. That mountain marked their whole course from beginning to end. And what was the result of it? As it began with darkness and distance, so it ended with misery and death... "But you have come," says the Spirit, "to Mount Zion" — the mountain of God's intervention in grace, as Sinai was the mountain of man's responsibility... When Zion first appeared by name, Israel — people, priests, king — had completely failed. Then God stepped in unasked and set up the king of His own choice in Zion. He raised him and his son to a height of glory Israel never knew before. Israel will never see such glory again, until the true David comes and plants His royal glory on Zion, never to be moved.
The One on the hill is not called King here but Lamb — the title of the sufferer — and He is standing where David reigned.
The prophet sees a Lamb standing on Mount Zion. He who suffered takes His royalty — in particular the royalty of Mount Zion, the royalty of David. With Him are companions of the royal sufferer, 144,000, with His Father's name written on their foreheads. Having suffered like Him, they are associated with Him in the royal place of earthly glory.
Scott points to the timing of the scene.
Christ does not yet reign on Zion, but the time is near. In the meantime He stands as the Lamb with His chosen ones.
Scott names who they are and what they have come through.
Here the Lamb stands on Mount Zion, but the bowls of judgment have yet to be poured out. The 144,000 seen here are of Judah. A company of the same number out of all Israel (Revelation 7:4) forms a separate vision... The mark of the Beast is on each one of his worshippers. The Name of the Lamb and His Father's Name as well on the forehead of each confessor of Christ. We see these witnesses as having come out of the fiery trial under the Beast. They are Jews who held firmly to the rights of God and of the Lamb, and now He owns them in public.
Commentators differ over whether this is the same company as the 144,000 of Revelation 7. Scott holds this is a separate vision, out of Judah; others see the two scenes as reminders of one another.
Grant sets the scene against the state of the nation at that moment.
These first five verses give another striking preview of the blessing of the godly remnant in Israel. This preview comes at a time when the nation is sunk in the most brazen idolatry in its history. The Lamb standing on Mount Zion shows His final and complete triumph over idolatry. The 144,000 with Him remind us of Revelation 7:2-8, where all twelve tribes are represented and sealed on their foreheads.
The wording is exact. The name they carry is Christ's relationship, not their own.
The name Father is used also in Revelation 14:1. There the name of the Lamb's Father is written on the foreheads of the hundred and forty-four thousand. Even then it is His Father, though His name is on their foreheads... The system and the relationships in the book of Revelation are of a different kind altogether. It is God dealing with what is on the earth, according to the responsibility.
Darby explains why the wording is not "their Father."
It is not said, "their Father's." They had not had the Spirit of adoption on the earth. But they had walked in the Lamb's steps, and He had this relationship as born on earth.
- Answer — Chapter 13 raises a question. Chapter 14 answers it: while Satan works through the beast, God is not idle.
- Mountain — Zion, not Sinai, is the ground here. Sinai measured what man owed. Zion is where God stepped in with grace after people, priests, and king had failed.
- Lamb — The One who suffered takes David's royal place. Those who suffered like Him stand with Him there.
- Mark — Every forehead in these chapters is stamped. The beast brands his worshippers; the Lamb's own carry His name and His Father's name.
- Precision — It is His Father's name, not theirs. Revelation deals with responsibility on earth, so the relationship named here is Christ's own.
And I heard a voice out of the heaven as a voice of many waters, and as a voice of great thunder. And the voice which I heard [was] as of harp-singers harping with their harps;
The chapter opens with the Lamb on Mount Zion with the 144,000, and John turns from what he sees to what he hears. He hears one voice from heaven and describes it three ways at once, which raises the question: whose voice is it?
The chapters before this were full of the beast's roar and his ally's deception. This sound turns that around.
Heaven is stirred and breaks out into song. We have had the Babel sounds of earth, the mingled cry of the victor, and the wail of the vanquished. We have seen the Beast trampling the earth and breaking it in pieces — a display of senseless brute force. We have also seen his partner in crime, the Antichrist, morally darkening and deceiving the world. But now other sights delight the eye, and other sounds and songs greet the ear.
One writer explains what this picture says about the voice of Christ.
The grandeur, the majesty of His voice is beyond the ceaseless roar of many waterfalls... His voice is like the roar of many waters. That is the sign of His supreme sovereignty and majesty. He is above all the waves of human passion, above the circumstances of a wrecked world and a ruined Church. It was His voice — "God said," ten times over — that brought order out of chaos, light out of darkness, and life out of death.
The three descriptions in the verse belong together.
The song and harp blend so closely that John speaks of them as one voice — majestic as many waters and powerful as great thunder.
Only one instrument appears in these heavenly scenes.
The harp is notable for its soft, soothing sound. David used it to drive the evil spirit away from Saul. It is also the only musical instrument that Scripture pictures symbolically in heaven. Revelation 5:8; Revelation 14:2 — called "the harps of God" in Revelation 15:2.
Commentators differ here. One writer counts the companies in the scene and then names the singers.
Notice here that we have, first, the company on Mount Zion; second, the elders in heaven; and third, harpers harping before the elders. Here are three distinct companies — one on earth and two in heaven... Besides the elders in chapter 5, only one company in Revelation has harps. They are the part of the faithful remnant who are martyred for refusing to worship the beast.
Another writer will not name them, and points instead to what the song is about.
Who these heavenly singers are we are not told... But whoever these celebrants of praise may be, the subject seems, from the connection, to be the victorious outcome of the sufferings of this chosen remnant. No doubt that outcome traces back to God's grace and the blood of the Lamb.
Heaven had already sung about redemption in chapter 5. This song is not a repeat of it.
Heaven celebrates it with a voice of many waters, and as of thunder, but with joy. This voice was the voice of harps... There had been song in and of heaven in chapter 5, in connection with redemption. But God made the redeemed there kings and priests. Here redemption is tied to earthly blessings, not to the kingdom and priesthood on high.
The singers in heaven and the company on earth know each other.
Their brothers on earth, once their companions in confession and sorrow, alone can learn the song of Heaven. How near is Heaven to earth in those days! How real and how interested is the fellowship of the saints in Heaven with those on earth!
One writer turns the harp into a test for daily Christian life.
We read of saints with harps in their hands, an emblem of praise. We meet many Christians with tears in their eyes and complaints in their mouths. But few hold a harp in their hands and praise God in affliction. Every bird can sing in spring, but some birds will sing in the dead of winter.
- Contrast — After the roar of the beast and the wail of the conquered, heaven breaks in with song. It answers the noise of earth instead of matching it.
- Majesty — One voice, majestic as many waters and powerful as thunder, above all the waves of human passion.
- Harp — The one instrument shown in heaven is the soft, soothing one, and chapter 15 calls them the harps of God.
- Singers — Commentators differ. Some name the harpers as those martyred under the beast. Others say Scripture does not tell us. Both agree the song celebrates the remnant's victory.
- Learning — Only those who shared the sorrow can learn the song. And the harp is for the dead of winter as much as for spring.
and they sing a new song before the throne, and before the four living creatures and the elders. And no one could learn that song save the hundred [and] forty-four thousand who were bought from the earth.
John has just watched the beast trample the earth. Now he hears harps in heaven and a song before God's throne. Two questions follow: what makes this song new, and why can only one company on earth learn it?
Earth's noise comes first; heaven answers it.
Heaven is stirred and breaks out into song. We have heard the confused noise of earth, the mixed cry of the victor and the wail of the defeated. We have watched the Beast trampling the earth and breaking it in pieces — a display of senseless brute force. We have watched his partner in crime, the Antichrist, morally darkening and deceiving the world. But now other sights delight the eye, and other sounds and songs greet the ear. We meet a new company in Heaven. They are distinct from both the living creatures and the elders, for they harp and sing "before the throne and before the four living creatures and before the elders."
Commentators differ here. Scott sees a new company in heaven, tied to those on Zion below. Another writer leaves them unnamed and points instead to the subject of the song.
Who these heavenly singers are we are not told. The voice comes "from heaven," and they sing the song before the throne, and before the four living creatures, and before the elders. But whoever these singers of praise may be, the subject seems, from the context, to be the victorious outcome of this chosen remnant's sufferings. No doubt it traces back to God's grace and the blood of the Lamb.
Chapter 5 also had a song about redemption. The difference lies in what that redemption leads to.
They sing a new song before the throne and the living creatures and elders. Here the fact itself is what matters. In chapter 5 there was a song in heaven, and of heaven, about redemption. But those redeemed there became kings and priests. Here redemption is tied to earthly blessings, not to the kingdom and priesthood on high. And they sing it before the heavenly company and the throne. Heaven, however, has a direct link with the song. It goes with triumph over the power of evil through patient endurance of suffering.
The word "new" also sets this song against an older one.
This company of harp-singers sing a "new song" in contrast with the old song. The new song has redemption as its theme; the old song has creation as its subject.
The limit is not arbitrary. Experience is what shuts everyone else out.
No one could learn that song but the 144,000. Only they had passed through the sorrows, and only they had known the grace connected with their deliverance. Heaven raised the song that suited their circumstances. In communion with the mind of God, they caught up the strains and repeated them.
Suffering, then, is not a barrier to this joy but the doorway into it.
There is a special joy belonging to those who have passed through the furnace of affliction… Others will share the blessings of the millennial reign. But none will taste all its sweetness like those who have drained the bitter cup of the sorrows that came before. No one will come as near to the throne as those who have tested God's strength and faithfulness in the hour of deepest need.
"Redeemed from the earth" marks out where this company belongs. It also keeps them apart from the church.
They are redeemed from the earth, from among men, the firstfruits to God and the Lamb (verses 3, 4)… This first point matters. It shows us that this company stands on the mount of earthly favour and blessing, redeemed from the earth. They are a chosen group from among the people of Israel, for the earth. There is no thought here of the Church, the body of Christ. This is a remnant of Israel that God will bring through the great tribulation into the millennial blessing. Their being the "firstfruits" means firstfruits from the earth for earthly blessing: the harvest of the earth is to follow.
The tie between the two groups is older than the song.
The singers in Heaven and those with the Lamb on Zion are clearly in closest sympathy. The two together formed one company on earth. How fitting, then, that the saved and delivered Jews on Zion should be the only ones on earth who enter into and learn the song of their brothers "before the throne" in Heaven. On earth they learn; in Heaven they know.
- Suffering — the song belongs to those who came through "the furnace of affliction." The trial qualifies the singer.
- Song — it is new because its theme is redemption, not creation. And that redemption brings earthly blessing, not the kingdom and priesthood of chapter 5.
- Sung — heaven raises the song first; those on Zion catch it up, in communion with the mind of God.
- Sealed — no one else can learn it. No one else drank that cup or tasted that grace of deliverance.
- Seen — redeemed from the earth, they are the firstfruits of an earthly harvest still to come. They learn below what they will know above.
These are they who have not been defiled with women, for they are virgins these are they who follow the Lamb wheresoever it goes. These have been bought from men [as] first-fruits to God and to the Lamb
Revelation 14 opens with the Lamb standing on Mount Zion. Verse 4 describes the 144,000 gathered around Him: their purity, their obedience, and the name they are given — firstfruits. Who are they? Why are they called virgins? And what does it mean to follow the Lamb wherever He goes?
The verse calls them "redeemed from mankind." That puts this group on earth, not among the glorified.
First, they are redeemed from the earth, from among men, as the firstfruits to God and the Lamb (vv. 3, 4). Second, they were faithful to God. The first point matters. It shows us that this company is on the mount of earthly favour and blessing, redeemed from the earth — a chosen people from among Israel, for the earth. There is no thought here of the Church, the body of Christ. It is a remnant of Israel, and they will be brought through the great tribulation into the blessing of the kingdom to come.
Commentators differ on the details. Some see a different company from the sealed 144,000 of Revelation 7; others link the two. Either way, the number is symbolic, and God keeps this company for Himself in a corrupt world.
In this vision we see how God will preserve for Himself faithful souls. They will be true to the Lamb and free from the corruptions that the beast is forcing on all under his power. The number given is symbolic. Twelve is the number of complete administration, and here we have the square of it multiplied by a thousand. We have had it before in the number sealed of the tribes of Israel in Revelation 7, but we must not infer from this that the two companies are identical.
Some read "have not defiled themselves with women" as a rule about marriage. Commentators reject that reading.
Verse 4 must not be interpreted in a literal sense. Some apply it to a firstfruits of the Church, and that has led to much confusion and even worse things. Literal impurity is not in view. If it had a literal meaning this company would consist of men only. At that time the woman is on earth — the great prostitute Babylon and her daughters, the godless religious world-systems that leave Christ out (chapter 17). They did not defile themselves with the corruptions and idolatries prevalent on the earth. They kept themselves from spiritual fornication.
Their purity has a positive side too.
In the middle of the worst corruption — open idolatry, proud boasting, daring blasphemy, and open wickedness — these saints had not defiled themselves. They had walked through a scene abandoned to Satan without defilement. They lived and walked in virgin purity. They had "kept themselves unspotted from the world." There is more here than virgin purity of life. There is also virgin love — undivided heart affection for the Lamb.
The phrase marks out a place of nearness in the kingdom. It is not the portion of every believer.
Then they "follow the Lamb wherever He goes." That is, they are His companions in His earthly kingdom. The Letter to the Hebrews speaks of the companions of Christ. But those "companions" include all Christians. Here the word covers only this suffering, now victorious, remnant. To have the privilege of being the constant and close attendants of the King in His glory will be the sum and perfection of earthly happiness.
The name firstfruits marks the difference between their portion and the heavenly one.
They have shared Christ's rejection, and now they have a place of special blessing. Special blessing is always the result of special sorrow. They are the firstfruits for God and the Lamb on the earth, as we are the firstfruits for heaven.
The same word carries a promise about what follows them.
"Firstfruits to God and to the Lamb." These are a pledge of earth's coming blessing. God and the Lamb are to reap a rich and plentiful harvest, and these are a sample.
The scene lies in the future. The path of separation it describes is open now.
How good it is for believers today, who are the subjects of sovereign grace, to seek to walk in separation from the growing evils of our time, whether political or religious. In obedience to the Word, they take a place outside the camp, to gather to Christ and, as it were, to "follow the Lamb wherever He goes."
- Bought. Everything in the verse rests on redemption. They are "redeemed from mankind" before the verse names a single virtue of theirs.
- Undefiled. "Virgins" is moral, not marital. They refused the idolatry and corruption around them and kept their hearts whole for the Lamb.
- Following. Purity clears the way for obedience — they go wherever He goes, as His close companions in His kingdom.
- Firstfruits. They are the sample of earth's coming harvest, the pledge that a great ingathering follows.
- Reward. Their special blessing grew out of special sorrow. The same path of separation is open to believers now.
and in their mouths was no lie found; [for] they are blameless.
The vision of the 144,000 on Mount Zion ends with what they are, not what they own: clean speech in a world full of lies, and a walk no one could fault. Two questions follow — who are these people, and how far does "blameless" reach?
The description belongs to a group marked out for earth, not for heaven. Commentators call them a remnant of Israel, kept through the great tribulation.
They are redeemed from the earth from among men, the firstfruits to God and the Lamb (verses 3, 4). This point is important. It shows us that this company is on the mount of earthly favour and blessing — an election from among the people of Israel for the earth. There is no thought here of the Church, the body of Christ. It is a remnant of Israel, which will be brought through the great tribulation into the millennial blessing.
The "lie" is not vague dishonesty. It stands against the campaign of deception run by the two beasts in the previous chapter.
The propaganda of the two beasts of Revelation 13 was one huge lie, just as Paul indicated in 2 Thessalonians 2. Paul describes the miracles worked by the beast as "lying wonders." He tells us that God will send men a strong delusion, "that they should believe a lie." These saints were completely separate from all this.
Their truthfulness had a specific content — the person they named as Messiah.
Truthful words marked them out. They confessed Christ as the real Messiah, and their confession was true (1 John 2:21-27). The mass of people around them were given over to believe a lie. They received and acknowledged the false Messiah, the Antichrist (2 Thess. 2:11; 1 John 2:22).
The clean mouth is not a new standard. An old psalm asked who may live on God's holy hill. These are the people found there.
Psalm 15 asks, "O Lord, who shall sojourn in your tent? Who shall dwell on your holy hill?" The answer, among others, is: "He who walks blamelessly and does what is right and speaks truth in his heart." The 144,000 match this last mark, and they stand on God's holy hill of Zion with the Lamb. They had truth within, so no lie was found in their mouth.
Older versions read "without fault" here. The same writer traces that word, and what their spotlessness rests on.
As with every group of the redeemed in every age, so with these, the blood of Christ alone is their ransom price... The word translated "without fault" is the same one used of our Lord in Hebrews 9:14 and 1 Peter 1:19, where it is given as "without spot." If they are spotless, and so able to stand in His immediate presence, it could only be through the applied power of His own most precious blood. That, and that alone, cleanses from all sin.
Older English versions add the words "before the throne of God" here. The best manuscripts do not have those words, and they change what the verse claims.
The Authorised Version puts guile in place of "lie," and adds "without fault before the throne of God." This is a serious addition to the text. The simple statement "they are blameless" means that they were blameless in practical ways and in general conduct. They refused to obey the persecuting and blaspheming orders of the Beast... If the absolute holiness of God were in question, and the claims of His throne and His nature, no one on earth could stand and say, "I am blameless in myself." The passage does not claim that. It is simply God's estimate of their practical conduct while under the Beast.
This matters for every reader, not only for that future remnant. Being blameless among people is one measure. God's holiness is another.
They are blameless, it is true. But "blameless" here refers, I think, to their practical conduct. Compared with the men they were redeemed from, that is what they were. Now suppose God puts them before His throne, to search what they have been here, measured by His holiness. That is another thing. There I need forgiveness. There I need to stand, not in my own blamelessness, but made the righteousness of God in Christ.
Their record stands in contrast to the world they lived in. That same contrast should mark God's people now.
They have held and practised the truth, for "in their mouth no lie was found," while all the world was going after the falsehood of the beast... Their sins as believers are all put away, but that is not the question here. The character of their walk is blameless, just as the walk of believers should be now, in contrast to the wickedness and corruption of the world around them.
- Bought. The blood of Christ alone is the ransom price of this company, as it is for the redeemed of every age.
- Kept. They are a remnant of Israel, not the Church. They come through the great tribulation into earthly blessing.
- True. Their mouths hold no lie. The world around them swallows the beast's falsehood and confesses a false Messiah.
- Blameless. The word describes how they lived among people. It is not a claim to sinlessness. Before God's throne, anyone needs forgiveness and Christ's righteousness.
- Copied. The same walk should still mark believers off from the corruption around them.
And I saw another angel flying in mid-heaven, having [the] everlasting glad tidings to announce to those settled on the earth, and to every nation and tribe and tongue and people,
John sees an angel cross the open sky with news for every nation on earth. The message is called eternal, yet it sounds nothing like the preaching heard in churches today. What is this gospel? Who is it for? Why does it come at this hour?
The word "gospel" covers more than one message in Scripture. This one is not the message going out today. Older translations call it the "everlasting gospel."
Why is it called "everlasting"? We must remember that the gospel preached now is a very special gospel, and in no way an everlasting gospel. Nobody ever heard the gospel we preach now until Jesus died, rose, and even went to heaven... So the gospel of the grace of God is not rightly called the "everlasting gospel." Scripture never calls it that.
The two messages also run in opposite directions.
This is not the message of salvation that God now sends to men by the preaching of the name of Jesus. To apply this passage to missionary work today is to shut the mouth of the angel. He says, "The hour of His judgment has come." God, on the contrary, still gives us time to announce and proclaim His grace towards poor sinners... The gospel we have to preach gathers the church for heaven. The angel's gospel announces judgment to the earth. God always sends a special testimony before judgment. He sent Noah before the flood, and He will act the same way before the judgment of the earth.
Writers differ on where the word "everlasting" points. Some trace it back to the first promise God ever made to fallen humanity.
In the garden of Eden, in the paradise ruined and lost by sin, God still pointed to the Seed of the woman. Note that He is the bruised Seed of the woman, and He was to bruise the serpent's head. Is this not gospel? Has it not been blessed gospel from the very first? Is it not also the gospel to the very last — "everlasting gospel"?
Others root the word in something even more basic than promise — the claim the Maker has always had on the people He made.
It is called the everlasting gospel for this reason. God has always stood to men as Creator to His creatures. That is true apart from His special revelations to Israel and to Christians, and so beyond every era of His dealings. As Creator He has a right to their reverence and worship.
The angel's call in the next verse tells men to fear God and worship the Maker of heaven, earth, sea and springs. Why name God that way?
This testimony clearly matches the evil of the time. The previous chapter tells us that they worshipped the dragon, because he gave his authority to the beast, and they worshipped the beast. So men worship Satan and the Roman beast. In these circumstances the gospel identifies God as the One who created all things. What a comment on the state of the world! Men are so carried away by Satan's influence that God must spell out who He is. When He claims the worship due to Him, He has to name Himself as the One who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and the springs of water.
The verse names two audiences: those who dwell on the earth, and then every nation, tribe, tongue and people. Why that order?
In chapter 14 we find God sends a solemn message, the everlasting gospel. And with whom does He begin? With the worst — "those who dwell on the earth," which literally means "those who sit"... then the message goes out to men in general. Other passages fully confirm this. To "dwell on the earth" is not a vague description of men; it expresses a moral condition.
John sees an angel carrying the message. But who does the preaching?
Will a spiritual being really proclaim the glad tidings from mid-heaven as he speeds along?... God has given the preaching of the gospel to men and not to angels. That is true whether it is the gospel of the kingdom, of the grace, or of the glory of God... We understand that the preachers of the Everlasting Gospel will be mainly converted Jews. The result of their mission will be a great, countless crowd of saved Gentiles gathered in for millennial blessing. The flying angel shows that a wide and rapid testimony to grace, with a warning of judgment, goes out on the eve of "the day of vengeance of our God."
- Everlasting — this good news runs from Eden's promise of the Seed of the woman to the end. Commentators differ: some point back to that first promise, others to God's unchanging claim as Creator.
- Different — no one could preach the gospel of grace until Christ had died, risen and gone to heaven. So Scripture never gives it this title.
- Opposite — today's message gathers a people for heaven. The angel's message warns the earth that judgment has come.
- Timely — the angel calls men to worship the Maker of heaven, earth, sea and springs just as the world bows to the beast.
- Wide — God starts with the worst, those settled down on earth. Then He reaches every nation, tribe, tongue and people, through preachers who are men, not angels.
saying with a loud voice, Fear God and give him glory, for the hour of his judgment has come; and do homage to him who has made the heaven and the earth and the sea and fountains of waters.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
And another, a second, angel followed, saying, Great Babylon has fallen, has fallen, which of the wine of the fury of her fornication has made all nations drink.
A second angel follows the first with one sentence of doom: the great city is down. Who is Babylon? Why is her fall announced now? And what is the wine she gave the nations to drink?
The verse gives the fact and little else. It never explains who Babylon is. One writer treats it as a first notice, with the details left for later.
The third section, which can be dealt with in few words, is the warning of Babylon's fall. This is the first notice of man's false church, which has long been the chief source of corruption in religion, and which will sink further into the vile practices of the nations in the future. But in due time we shall hear clear marks and helpful details of something so disgusting to God, and so deceptive to the natural man.
The delay is not an oversight. God gives two whole chapters to this subject later, so that His people know what to keep away from.
But this corrupt system has played so large a part in the history of the world that God has thought it right to warn His people to stay completely apart from it. So in these two chapters He gives us further details about its true character and its solemn end under His judgment.
Babylon does not appear from nowhere. One writer traces her rise back to the Church's own failure.
The Church should have been a witness to God's character as light and love. Instead she has proved an unfaithful steward of the truth, and has failed as a witness to God and to Christ. Then, once the Church is morally ruined, the ground is ready for Satan to bring in the symbolic Babylon. She corrupts the earth and enslaves the nations in spirit, and they are wildly drunk with her adulteries and corruptions.
The name itself is not chosen at random. It carries the memory of the power that once held God's earthly people captive.
The name itself is significant. It was the name of Israel's great enemy, whose power held her down for seventy years... But with God that old Babylon was only a picture of a power prouder, more evil and more defiant of Him than the old Babylonian tyrant. Into her hands the Church of Christ has fallen — the heavenly people, not the earthly one. It is an old history repeated in a new setting and with other names, a fresh proof that man is morally the same in every generation.
The phrase about her cup marks her out. The older Babylon also made the nations drunk, but this wording goes further. The writer below uses an older translation, which reads "the wine of the fury of her fornication" where the ESV has "the passion of her sexual immorality."
Of the Babylon of old it was said, "Babylon has been a golden cup in the Lord's hand that made all the earth drunken: the nations have drunk of her wine; therefore the nations are mad." (Jer. 51:7.) But of the old Babylon it was never said, "the wine of the fury of her fornication." That second phrase shows that the Babylon here is not merely a political power but a spiritual one. One who claims to belong to Christ has sold herself to the world for the sake of power. She has inflamed the nations with unholy principles that work on men's passions. Babylon is fallen, and that fall is final. It is God's judgment on her, and it is a note of the everlasting gospel, which claims the earth for God and announces its rescue from those who oppress it.
The nations are not victims of force. They drank willingly, and the drinking left them out of their senses.
The Babylon of the Apocalypse has by her seductions, unholy allurements, and incitements to evil enthralled the nations. Their passions have been fearfully roused, and they are not only mad (morally, of course), but her illicit intercourse with them has wrought them up to frenzy.
Corrupt religion is not new. Yet this name belongs to one particular stage.
As long as the Holy Spirit is on earth, evil is held back to some extent, and during this time no religious system, however corrupt, is called "Babylon." But once the Holy Spirit is taken away, the empty profession shows itself in all its falsehood and rottenness. Then the Church that is Christian in name only, no longer seasoned with the salt of true believers, becomes the foul mass of corruption that receives the name Babylon.
Her fall does not come from heaven alone. The very powers that used her turn on her.
For long ages this false system has claimed to be Christian while in fact corrupting all nations. It will not only come under the judgment of God; it will also fall before men. As we read a little later, the nations, led by the beast, will destroy this false system (Rev. 17:15-18).
Her removal clears the stage for something else entirely.
Chapters 17 and 18 set out her character, her doom, and the human instruments of her destruction. Heaven celebrates her complete and everlasting ruin in the first three verses of Revelation 19, just before the marriage of the Lamb. The prostitute is destroyed, and then the bride is displayed.
- Announcement. The verse states the fact only. Chapters 17 and 18 give her character, her doom and the instruments of her destruction.
- Identity. Babylon is a corrupt religious system that carries a Christian name. It is an old history repeated in a new setting.
- Intoxication. Her wine marks her as a spiritual power, not merely a political one. She claims Christ's name, sells herself to the world for power, and inflames the nations.
- Finality. The fall is God's judgment, and it is final. The very powers that used her carry it out.
- Good news. Her fall is a note of the everlasting gospel: it claims the earth for God, and once the prostitute is gone the bride is displayed.
And another, a third, angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any one do homage to the beast and its image, and receive a mark upon his forehead or upon his hand,
In Revelation 14 a series of angels makes public announcements. This third one is the darkest: a shouted warning about the cost of worshipping the beast and taking his mark.
The announcements in this chapter come before the judgment itself.
There is a solemn call to repentance, and the announcement of coming judgment on the different forms of evil that have corrupted the earth. The judgments are not carried out yet. They are warnings of what is at hand, visions of what is coming — given to John, and recorded here for the comfort and guidance of believers in all ages.
The angel before this one announced the fall of Babylon, the corrupt religious system. One writer explains why this third message is heavier.
Babylon is not the only evil that must perish so that Christ may reign. Removing Babylon only makes room at first for another form of evil to develop fully, one more openly blasphemous than this. The woman makes way for the man — what at least claims to be subject to Christ makes way for what is in open revolt against Him. So the woe threatened here is far more sweeping and terrible than before. There are people of God who come out of Babylon, and who therefore were in her to come out (Rev. 18:4). But the beast in its final form guarantees the ruin of all who follow it.
The verse names two places for the mark. It first appears one chapter earlier. There a writer reads its placement as the language of slavery.
A mysterious mark is put on the right hand or on the forehead of everyone. The only exceptions are the martyrs, who lay down their lives in firm and faithful protest against this satanic claim. The mark on the "hand" would mean that the branded person was an active slave of the beast. Stamped on the "forehead," it would serve as a public acknowledgement of slavery. Either way, all must own the absolute supremacy of the beast and worship him. It was usual to brand slaves with the name or special mark of their owner. Paul (Gal. 6:17), Israel in her tribes (Rev. 7:3), the preserved of Judah (Rev. 14:1), and the glorified and heavenly saints (Rev. 22:4) are marked by God as belonging to Him, and that publicly.
The angel does not murmur. The volume has a purpose, and so does the cup he names.
The "third angel" says "with a loud voice" — so that all may hear, and so be without excuse. The nations had drunk out of the harlot's cup (v. 8); now in retributive justice they shall drink out of God's cup (v. 10). In this cup there are no ingredients to soften it. It is pure, unmixed wrath.
Refusing the mark means facing the beast's anger instead of God's. That choice is the test of faith.
A third angel announces the punishment of the inhabitants of the earth who worship the beast. Men must choose between the wrath of God and the wrath of the beast. The great proof of faith at that time will be in not worshipping the beast.
Those who hold out are described in verse 12 as keeping God's commandments and the faith of Jesus — and one writer notes how little they may know compared with a Christian today, and how much it will still carry them through.
When people generally are being forced to comply with the demands and commands of the beasts, these will keep the commandments of God; and they will do it because they cling to "the faith of Jesus." They may not know Him in that full way which is the Christian's portion today, but they will know that Jesus, who once came and was despised and rejected, is the true Christ of God, and the faith of this will possess them in spite of everything.
Readers stumble at the severity of what follows in verses 10 and 11. One writer answers that this sin is the highest sin ever reached.
Mankind started on its fallen and lawless course fascinated by the lie of the devil, "You will be like God" (Gen. 3:5). Under the same evil leadership, and through the two beasts, mankind will make its supreme and final bid to reach the goal of its desire. At this point human sin reaches its climax and rises to its highest expression. Is it not fitting that the most bitter judgment should fall on the highest sin?
The wording of the penalty settles a question people still argue over: whether everyone is saved in the end. This writer quotes an older translation of verse 11.
It is worth noting the character of this judgment, in a day when universalism is so popular even among professing Christians. True, it falls on one class of people. But even if only some must endure their punishment for "ages of ages," with "no rest day nor night," that completely disproves the claim that there is no such thing as eternal punishment.
- Warned first. The judgment has not fallen yet. The angel announces it in advance, for the comfort and guidance of believers in every age.
- Warned loudly. The loud voice is deliberate — all may hear, so none can plead ignorance when the cup comes.
- Warned about a brand. The mark on the hand marks an active slave of the beast; on the forehead, a public confession of it. God marks His own people too.
- Warned of no exit. People could still come out of Babylon. The beast in his final form guarantees the ruin of everyone who follows him.
- Warned at the climax. This is the old lie "you will be like God" pushed to its limit. The highest sin draws the heaviest judgment, on those who chose the beast's wrath over God's.
he also shall drink of the wine of the fury of God prepared unmixed in the cup of his wrath, and he shall be tormented in fire and brimstone before the holy angels and before the Lamb.
The third angel warns anyone who worships the beast and takes his mark. The verse raises hard questions: why the wrath is "full strength," why the Lamb is named as a witness, and why God says all this out loud first.
God shouts this warning instead of whispering it. Grant reads the volume itself as mercy.
Here God's mercy can only take one form: a loud, forceful threat of extreme punishment for those who worship the beast. The more terrible the evil, the more openly the Lord announces the doom that will fall on it, so that no one may walk into it without knowing.
The phrase behind "poured full strength" is a paradox in the Greek.
In Revelation 14:10 we have the expression tou kekerasmenou akratou, which describes "the wine of the wrath of God" more fully. Lowth and others take it to carry a contrast that our English version does not show — "the mingled unmingled." The picture is of wine not mixed with water to weaken it, but mixed with drugs to make it stronger.
Gaebelein puts the same fact in plain moral terms.
They drink of the wrath of God. It is "without mixture," that is, no mercy is found in the cup of His indignation.
The image answers something earlier in the chapter. The nations had already drunk from Babylon's cup. Where the ESV says "sulfur," older versions say "brimstone."
The nations had drunk out of the harlot's cup (v. 8); now in retributive justice they shall drink out of God's cup (v. 10). In this cup there are no soothing ingredients (Ps. 75:8). It is pure, unmixed wrath. "He shall be tormented in fire and brimstone." "Fire and brimstone" (Isa. 30:33; Rev. 20:10) are symbols of anguish beyond words. The awful torment is individual. Each one shall suffer eternal misery in his own person.
Why name the watchers? Scott treats them as part of the suffering itself.
Another awful feature of the agony laid on each follower of the Beast is that the torment must be endured "before (or in the presence of) the holy angels and before the Lamb." The holy angels had watched from their place on high the horrible wickedness of the Beast and his helpers. Now they will watch God's vengeance, and each tormented one will know that the angels are looking down on that scene of anguish. He suffers "before the Lamb" too, Whom they had openly defied, and Whose blood they had recklessly trampled on.
The same Person can be met in either of two ways.
There is not an unconverted man who shall not see Jesus Christ some day! If you look to Him now you will find Him a Saviour; when you see Him then you will find Him a Judge. If you come to Him now, you will find mercy. If you stand before Him then, you will be driven away to "drink of the wine of the wrath of God … in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb."
How long the punishment lasts settles a modern question: is everyone finally saved in the end? Dennett also names who shares this guilt.
In a day when universalism is so popular, even among professing Christians, it is worth noting what kind of judgment this is. True, it falls on one class of people. But if there were only some who must endure their punishment for "ages of ages," and who will "have no rest day nor night," that alone disproves the argument that there is no such thing as eternal punishment. Note also this: wherever man takes God's place in the souls of others, wherever men give to man what belongs to God alone, there is morally the same guilt that these terrible judgments are pronounced on here.
One other Person has drunk this cup. That is where the warning turns into an offer.
He looked at the cup, shrank from it, but said, I will drink it. Our eternal salvation hung on His drinking that cup. If He did not bear that wrath and judgment, we must; and if He did not drink that cup, we must drink it. ... Drain it? You will drink, and drink, and drink it again as the eternal ages roll on, but you will never drain it. Thank God, my Saviour has drained it for me.
- Cup announced — God proclaims the doom with a loud voice, so no one walks into it blindly. When evil goes this far, a loud threat is the shape mercy takes.
- Cup undiluted — The wine is "full strength": not weakened with water, but made stronger. No mercy softens what is in the cup.
- Cup returned — Those who drank from Babylon's cup must now drink from God's, and each one drinks it in his own person.
- Cup witnessed — The angels who saw the wickedness now watch the vengeance, and so does the Lamb they defied. That same Lamb is Saviour to whoever looks to Him now.
- Cup drained — No one will ever finish this cup: no rest, day or night. Only One ever drained it, and He drained it for others.