And I saw as a glass sea, mingled with fire, and those that had gained the victory over the beast, and over its image, and over the number of its name, standing upon the glass sea, having harps of God.
The scene opens between the announcement of the seven last plagues and their pouring out. Before a single bowl of wrath falls, John sees a company already safe in heaven. The beast had killed them. Heaven calls them the winners.
The picture comes from the tabernacle and the temple, where a great basin of water stood for the priests to wash. Here the material changes, and the meaning changes with it.
The tabernacle had the laver, and the temple had its molten sea — a larger vessel of a similar kind. In it the priests washed their feet and hands when they went in to do the service of the Lord. In this case it is a sea of glass, and therefore not used for purification. It was not a sea of water, but was solid. Because it is glass, it shows a state of firm and settled purity. It was not the thing used to cleanse. It was the image of purity that nothing can defile. These saints no longer need cleansing by the washing of water by the word. That was over… What is meant here is not washing in the sea, but standing on it.
In the earlier vision of chapter 4 the same sea is clear as crystal. Here fire runs through it, and that points back to what this company came through.
In the first of these heavenly visions (Rev. 4) John saw a sea of glass like crystal spread out before the throne of the Eternal. It showed a fixed state of purity in keeping with the holy character of the throne… But in the vision before us the crystal is left out… Here the sea is "mingled with fire." This points to the fiery persecution under the Beast, a trial far worse in its mix of suffering than anything experienced up to that time.
By his power the beast had the last word on earth. God's verdict runs the other way.
To man's eyes his power had crushed them. But before God they were conquerors through Him who had loved them. It was the same, on the outside, with our blessed Lord: "He was crucified through weakness, yet He lives by the power of God." Man's victories are showy and loud. Moral triumphs are silent and unseen. They often come, as with these saints, with the loss of everything in this world.
Earth and heaven say two different things about the beast.
On earth the cry is, "Who is like the beast, and who can fight against it?" In heaven the song is, "Who will not fear, O Lord, and glorify your name?" God always wins in the end. So do those who trust Him.
These are not the elders. Their description ties them to one stretch of time.
Victory over the beast is never said of the elders in any way. There is no connection with the elders here… no one can deny that these conquerors belong only to the time of the devil's last efforts through the beast and the false prophet… Their melody in praise of the Lord was none the worse for the sea of tribulation they had passed through into His presence.
Their instruments carry a name: harps of God. That name matters.
"Having harps of God." The Authorised Version wrongly puts the article before harps… The words "of God" mean that He provides them for His own direct praise and worship. They are God's harps, since the instruments, the musicians, and the themes are His.
The chapter sets the victors beside the plagues. Faith's victory comes first.
We see the seven angels with the seven last plagues, which fill up the wrath of God. But at the same time — all joy in the thought! — we see those who had won the victory over the beast and his image and his mark. Faith wins its victory before God removes in judgment the evil that faith had to fight… They have judged and overcome the evil before God sweeps it away. They have vindicated God in what He does.
- Fire — the sea is mingled with fire because of what this company walked through. It was the persecution under the beast, a trial beyond anything known before it.
- Fixed — glass, not water. The laver washed; this sea cannot cleanse and does not need to. It pictures purity that nothing can defile, and the washing days are over.
- Victory — the beast killed them, and heaven calls them the winners. The pattern is Christ's own: crucified in weakness, alive by the power of God.
- Harps — the instruments are God's, given by Him for His praise. The players and the themes are His too. Even the song of the rescued is His gift.
- Order — faith wins before judgment falls. They stand vindicating God before He pours out a single bowl on the world that killed them.
And they sing the song of Moses bondman of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, Great and wonderful [are] thy works, Lord God Almighty; righteous and true [are] thy ways, O King of nations.
Revelation 15 pauses before the last plagues to show a company already safe and beyond the beast's reach — people who lost everything on earth, now standing and singing. Their song carries two names: Moses and the Lamb. Why two songs, and what do these singers praise God for?
Scripture marks these singers out by what they overcame. On earth it had looked like total defeat.
They are those who "had conquered the beast," and so on. To human eyes the beast's power had surely crushed them. But before God they were conquerors through Him who had loved them. On the outside it was the same with our blessed Lord: "He was crucified in weakness, but lives by the power of God." Man's victories are loud and showy. Moral triumphs are silent and unseen, and they often cost everything in this world, as they did for these saints. Their occupation is praise: they have harps — symbols of triumphant gladness — and they sing.
Each name in the song points to a different side of the same victory.
In Revelation 15:3 we read of those who had won the victory over the beast. They sing "the song of Moses the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb." The song of Moses points, we judge, to Exodus 15 rather than Deuteronomy 32. In it they will glorify the power of God in the victory He had given them. The song of the Lamb shows that they had gained that victory through weakness and apparent defeat.
The scene matches Israel standing safe on the far side of the Red Sea while Egypt lay under plagues.
Plagues struck Egypt, the oppressor. Israel crossed the Red Sea, saved and set free, and sang on the eastern bank — the first song recorded in Scripture (Ex. 15). All this has its spiritual counterpart here. A series of plagues strikes the Beast, the enslaver of God's saints. The godly remnant stand beyond the malice of the Beast, saved and triumphant, singing the song of Moses on the sea of glass — the last song recorded in Scripture (Rev. 15).
The song moves in two steps — first what God has done, then how He does it — and the order matters.
Now if we look at Psalm 103:7, we find that the Holy Spirit highlights two things — the ways of Jehovah and His acts. "He made known his ways to Moses, his acts to the people of Israel." The difference is this: Moses knew the deep, hidden ways of the Lord, while the public acts were plain before all Israel. Here these saints take up, not His ways first, but His displayed works... And then they rise to celebrate His ways.
His ways show His character, and not every eye can read them.
His tenderness, His grace, His love, His wisdom, and every gracious, moral feature shown in His dealings with His saints pass before the victors in review... Israel saw the striking acts of Jehovah with their own eyes. These acts of power did not call for an intimate knowledge of Jehovah's character. They were self-evident to all. But only the spiritual could discern the ways of God — those dealings that flow from what He is. His ways here, though, are ways of judgment, and that judgment, however it is put, is "just and true."
"Lord God Almighty" gathers up three names God had already made known, each with its own history.
As Jehovah He was known to Israel (Ex. 6:2-3). As God He stands related to creation (Gen. 1). As the Almighty He revealed Himself to the patriarchs (Gen. 17:1). The order of the divine names and titles here differs from the order in which He revealed them... How true God is to His own Word and Name!
Some older English versions read "King of saints" here. William Kelly explains why that reading cannot stand.
Everyone who knows the best reading must drop "King of saints," the wording of the received text in Rev. 15:3. It should be "of the nations," though "of the ages" has excellent authority. Whichever of these we take, it is certain that "of the saints" has almost no support... "Of the nations" seems drawn from Jer. 10:7, or at least fully agrees with it. Christ is King of Israel in Zion. As Son of Man all the peoples and nations and languages shall serve Him. As Jehovah He shall be King over all the earth.
- Defeat — The beast seemed to crush them, yet Scripture names them the ones who overcame it. Before God the losers were the conquerors.
- Deliverance — The song of Moses praises power that parts a sea. The song of the Lamb praises a victory won through weakness and apparent defeat.
- Depth — Israel saw God's public acts; Moses knew His hidden ways. The song starts where all can see and climbs to what only the spiritual discern.
- Dependability — Jehovah to Israel, God to creation, Almighty to the patriarchs. Every name He made known still holds good in the last song of the Bible.
- Dominion — Not "King of saints" but King of the nations, echoing Jeremiah 10:7. His rule reaches Israel, all peoples, and the whole earth.
Who shall not fear [thee], O Lord, and glorify thy name? for [thou] only [art] holy; for all nations shall come and do homage before thee; for thy righteousnesses have been made manifest.
Revelation 15:4 closes the song of the victors, and it is a question, not a statement. They throw it out over the whole earth, just before the bowls of God's wrath fall. The expected answer is "no one." The verse then gives three reasons: who God is, what the nations will do, and what His judgments have shown.
One commentator notes both which word for "holy" the verse uses and which tense the promise about the nations takes:
Then the victors in their song throw out a universal question. The word for is repeated three times. It gives three reasons why all should answer that call to fear the Lord and glorify His Name, and each reason rests on the character of God. The word here translated "holy" is not the word usually applied to God when speaking of His holy character... here it means that the sum of what God is gives Him alone the right to every creature's worship. How fitting that this word describes the Lord at a time when the world marvels at the Beast and worships it. Such worship belongs to God alone... The prophecies in this book are usually written in the present tense, but this one is an exception: it uses the future. These ways of judgment by the "King of nations" break the iron will of the peoples. They turn from human supports and confidences to God, and worship in His presence.
This song is sung on the edge of the bowls, and the word for "holy" in it repays a close look:
The word used for "holy" here is an unusual one. It is the same used where Scripture speaks of the mercies of David... There is the common word for "holy." It appears in Revelation 4: "Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty." That word always implies separation from evil — absolute separation. The holiness spoken of here implies mercy, which is quite another thought. We are about to hear of the bowls, and the first thought would be, "how dreadful!" God's wrath is going to be fulfilled. But who and what is this God who is about to complete His wrath? He whose holiness is full of mercy... They look past the judgments, and they see that the end is always this: "the Lord is compassionate and merciful."
Commentators differ here. One reads the word as God's exclusive right to worship. The other reads it as holiness full of mercy.
The verse gives its own explanation for the world turning to God, and it is not preaching but judgment:
Verse 4 shows how God will bring the nations to Himself: He will fully display His judgments. Isaiah 26:9-10 shows the same principle, and it is key to understanding God's ways here. "If favor is shown to the wicked, he does not learn righteousness." That is what the gospel sets before us. But when God's judgments are on the earth, the people of the world will "learn righteousness."... The gospel will not bring the people of the earth under God's rule. Its work is to gather the church for heavenly glory. The nations come and bow down before God because He has made His judgments plain.
The final clause uses a word worth weighing:
The song closes with three reasons why God should be feared and glorified. The first is what He is in His gracious holiness... The third is the rightness of His judgments, now on display. The word here is literally "righteousnesses," the same word used for the righteous acts of the saints in Revelation 19:8.
The singers are not on earth. What they celebrate is what is coming to the earth:
Next they consider the effect of God's judgments... These saints, remember, are in heaven. From there they look ahead to the earth's full blessing in the thousand-year kingdom, when all nations are subject to Christ as King. And this comes about because God has made His judgments plain. (See Psalm 72:8-11; Zephaniah 3:8-9; Zechariah 14:16.)
Not every response to judgment is worship:
In Revelation, the plagues that strike the earth provoke blasphemy instead. Men are forced to give glory to the God of heaven. They admit His decrees are just, even while those decrees terrify them. But they will not give Him glory by repenting.
- Question — the verse asks who will not fear and glorify God. It answers itself with three reasons, each drawn from who God is.
- Holy — the word here is not the usual one for absolute separation from evil. It marks God's sole right to worship, and some read in it a holiness full of mercy.
- Judgments — the nations come because God has displayed His righteous acts, not because the gospel won them over.
- Reach — saints already in heaven sing ahead of time about all nations bowing to Christ as King.
- Warning — judgment can also harden. Men may admit God is just and still refuse to repent.