Here is the endurance of the saints, who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.
The third angel has just warned of unending torment for everyone who worships the beast and takes his mark. Verse 12 turns to those who refuse the mark, and it raises two questions: who are these saints, and what holds them up when refusing costs everything?
Older versions read "patience" here. One study of the word shows it means more than waiting quietly:
hupomone (from hupomeno, "to sustain") is translated "enduring" in 2 Corinthians 1:6 and "patient continuance" in Romans 2:7. All of that belongs to the thought of the word. It is a "patient endurance" that does not give way under trial and suffering… The same word stands behind "the one who endures to the end" in Matthew 10:22 and Matthew 24:13… The Lord Jesus, in the place He has taken as Man, is our perfect example of it (Hebrews 12:2-3). He "endured" the cross, and the hostility of sinners against Himself.
These saints are not allowed to fight back. Holding on is the only course left to them:
In this state of things, unequalled in the history of the human race, the saints can only hold fast and hold on. They are forbidden to resist with the sword, even if they could (Rev. 13:10). But faith and patience win the day in the end, however severely they are tested. Death is before them; yet it is better for the beast to kill them than for them to share the beast's torment.
Verse 11 sounds like pure threat. One writer reads it as mercy, spoken while the saints' patience holds:
Here God's mercy can only take the form of a loud, emphatic threat of the harshest penalty for those who worship the beast. The more dreadful the evil, the more openly the Lord announces the doom that hangs over it, so that no one runs into that doom without knowing. Here "the patience of the saints" is sustained in a "reign of terror" such as the world has never yet seen.
Keeping God's commandments costs these saints, because a rival set of commands is pressed on everyone:
When people everywhere are being forced to obey the demands and commandments of the beasts, these will keep the commandments of God. They will do this because they cling to "the faith of Jesus." They may not know Him in that full way which belongs to the Christian today. But they will know that Jesus, who once came and was despised and rejected, is the true Christ of God. That faith will take hold of them despite everything, and they will brave the fury of the devil.
Their faith attaches to a name, and that name ties them to the martyrs later in the book:
The afflicted saints cling to the clear commands of God and to the faith of Jesus. In this prophetic record the martyrs are the martyrs of Jesus (Rev. 17:6). That name of sweetest sound is brought in only rarely in the book, but the places where it appears are full of interest (Rev. 14:12; Rev. 17:6; Rev. 22:16).
One writer names who these saints are, and adds a note on the verse's wording:
These saints are, in fact, the Jewish remnant. They hold to the commandments of God as given in Old Testament times, and they believe in Jesus as the coming Messiah, despite the claims of antichrist. Tested to the utmost, they will stand firm, holding fast to the word of God and to their faith in Jesus all through this period of darkness… The words "here are" before "they that," as in the English version, should be left out. The last clause of the verse simply describes what these saints are like.
Faithfulness takes one shape in calm times and another under persecution:
There are times when one can walk quietly. Faithfulness then means complete separation from the world. But peace makes this hard, because the line between the two is easily forgotten, and worldliness creeps in. In times of persecution faithfulness means bearing witness, and not denying the Lord or His testimony to escape the anger of man and of the enemy.
- Hold — endurance here is patience that carries a load without breaking. The same word describes Christ enduring the cross.
- Hold against — the beast issues commands, and these saints keep God's instead. Their choice narrows to death by the beast or torment with him.
- Hold onto — the faith of Jesus keeps them. They know the rejected One is the true Christ, even without the fuller light Christians have now.
- Held up — the loud threat of verse 11 is mercy, spoken while their patience holds through a reign of terror without parallel.
- Held out — in quiet days faithfulness means staying separate from the world. Under persecution it means not denying Him to escape.
And I heard a voice out of the heaven saying, Write, Blessed the dead who die in [the] Lord from henceforth. Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours; for their works follow with them.
Just after the warning that beast-worshippers get no rest, a voice from heaven tells John to write a blessing on the dead. Why bless the dead here, why say "from now on", and how can a person's works follow them?
The chapter has already described two crowds. Some hold the truth through the darkness; others are swept along by the lies. One writer points to a third group here.
But there is another group: those who hold the truth and yet die during the miseries and persecutions of this terrible time. These are the blessed dead spoken of here. They have had to choose between taking the mark of the beast and death, and they have chosen death. What, then, will they receive?
The verse ties the blessing to a moment in time. Older translations read "henceforth" here. One explanation is that the phrase points forward, to a blessing standing at the door.
The word "henceforth" shows that the end is near, and that they are just about to enter the blessing.
Another reading takes it as closing a chapter, not opening one. After this point, no more of the Lord's people die.
From this time nobody who belongs to the Lord is going to die. Those who die in the Lord... are just on the point of blessedness. This comes not by any personal exemption, but by the first resurrection and the reign with the Lord, which will end all further persecution and death for His name.
The answer turns on what these believers were hoping for.
But in the time this part of Revelation deals with, believers are not a heavenly people. They are not waiting to be taken to heaven; they are waiting for blessing on the earth. This is the hope Scripture gives them... So death comes to them not as a fulfilment of their hopes, but as a frustration of them. It does not bring them into their own promises; it takes them away from them. So a special word is needed, and God sends it here, to assure them of blessedness in another form.
Heaven speaks, and a second voice agrees — the voice of the One who had been with these people all along.
The death of the saints was now quite done with, and the blessedness of those who had this portion came to light... The Spirit had been their secret strength in their work, and even in death. Now, with the same understanding and sympathy in their joy, He adds His "Yes" to that blessedness.
This blessing stands against something said just before it: the beast's worshippers have no rest. One writer also spells out what dying "in the Lord" means.
Saints who hold the faith of Jesus may be killed in the worst distress, and it may look like defeat. But "henceforth" — from that very moment — their blessedness begins... These saints keep the commandments of God; they also hold the faith of Jesus; they die in the Lord, that is, because they own His authority; the Spirit endorses their blessedness. We have just seen that the damned have no rest. But these "rest from their labors, for their deeds follow them" into the eternal world, so that they receive their due reward.
Some translations read that their works "follow with them". One writer leans on that small word "with".
When these saints are raised and taken up, their works go with them. Their works do not come after them; they come "with them." The righteous Judge will value their works at their true worth, and He will reward every man according to his work. Rest and reward come at once to those who then die in the Lord.
Commentators differ here. Some warn that the verse belongs to one group in particular, so it does not fit a gravestone.
Those who "die in the Lord" are killed; so our text does not fit when it is carved on stone and monument in memory of our precious dead. Those who "die in the Lord from henceforth" do so as martyrs.
Others keep that special application, and still leave the door open for every reader.
How perfectly the tenderness of the Lord has provided for the special need of these specially tried and needy sufferers!... while the comfort remains, of course, for people of every time. Such are the "oracles" of God's living word, and what a sweet testimony we have of the heart behind them!
- From now on — the word fixes a moment. Heaven announces the blessing just as persecution ends and the reign begins, so dying for the Lord's name is almost over.
- Blessed — God says it over people who faced a choice between the mark and the grave, and chose the grave.
- Needed — these believers were waiting for blessing on earth, so dying looked like losing everything. Heaven answers that fear.
- Rest — the beast's worshippers get none. These saints rest, and the Spirit Himself says yes to the promise.
- Works — nothing done for Him stays behind. Their works travel with them, and the righteous Judge values them at their true worth.