Revelation 8:6–11:18

Specific judgments were ready to follow, and the seven angels prepare to sound. This is how God's ways and dealings with His saints connect. Everything is ready for judgment. But they, however weak, represent God on the earth. So the wicked aim their wickedness at them, and that wickedness must be judged. Their cry brings the judgment. Christ offers up that cry with all the value of the incense He can add to it.

But why trumpets? No wind instrument was more widely used in the national life of Israel than the trumpet. It called them together in public assembly. Its loud blast called them to war. It told them when to advance and when to retreat… Its loud warning notes announced that danger or an enemy was near… Both Joel and John speak of the blast of the trumpet. It shows that God is about to punish the sin before Him, openly and in front of everyone — a public and loud announcement that He is about to do so. "The seven trumpets" mean a complete and full announcement.

In general the seals seem to reach further, but the blows were not so severe. With most of the trumpets it is a third part that is struck. So the trumpets may reach less far, but they prove more intensely judicial than the seals… The very name shows a difference. The trumpet represents a loud and solemn call of God. It is God summoning men; for if they have rejected His grace, they must hear — even if they forget — these sharp warnings of His judgment. Unless God had told us beforehand, we might not so readily have seen the seals as acts of God… But with the trumpets there is less need to say that they are judgments sent from heaven. Their sound or summons is quite plain and urgent. They appeal to men far more unmistakably.

"Now the seven angels who had the seven trumpets prepared to blow them." These seven angels do not themselves carry out the judgments they announce. The four judgment angels (Rev. 9:14) are not the same as the seven trumpet angels.

God's judgment, when it falls, is not only certain but swift. Yet it is never hurried. During this silence the seven angels "prepared to blow" their trumpets. There is a calm serenity about God's action in judgment. He puts it off to the last possible moment.

We are not to take these things only in their obvious or physical sense. Suppose you take something like a mountain falling into the sea (verse 8) literally. Would that ever turn the water into blood? Nothing of the sort. The fact is that these were pictures that passed before the eyes of the prophet. What the figures meant we have to gather from the general tenor of the word, by the teaching of the Spirit.

We can also look at the sounding of the seven trumpets as a section of its own. It runs from the sixth verse of chapter 8 to the end of chapter 11… Notice too what happens at the seventh trumpet. There are lightnings, voices, thunderings and an earthquake. The Lord Jesus comes out in glory with His saints, to take the kingdom and judge the world in righteousness. The voices in heaven say, "The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever."

The trumpet sets forth a loud and solemn call of God. It is God summoning men. If they have rejected His grace, they must hear these sharp warnings of His judgment, even if they forget them. We might not so easily have seen the seals as God stepping in, unless He had told us beforehand that this is what they were... With the trumpets there is less need to say that they are heaven-sent judgments. Their sound or summons is quite plain and urgent.

The seals in general appear to have a larger extent, but the blows were not so severe... The trumpets, then, may be less extensive in their range, but it will later be clear that they are more intensely judicial than the seals.

Hail signifies a sudden, sharp, and overwhelming judgment from above, with God carrying it out (see Isa. 28:2, 17; Rev. 11:19; Rev. 16:21). Fire is the expression of God's wrath... Fire stands for thorough, unsparing, agonising judgment... Blood signifies death, both physical and moral. Moral death would take the form of apostasy — a complete abandonment of revealed truth, all religious profession given up.

Hail with fire is one of the most solemn pictures of God's judgment that nature gives us. It was one of the plagues of Egypt... Cold, like darkness, stands for God withdrawing. Fire, which is both heat and light, stands for the glow of His presence — and against sin that presence is wrath. The two can come together, however contradictory they seem: "hailstones and coals of fire" poured out at once. When God forsakes, it is always in anger. So what would have refreshed becomes a storm of judgment. There is a concord of contraries against those that cast off God; as for those who love Him, all things work together for good.

In both cases (vv. 5 and 7) the term "cast" implies irresistible power behind. The judgment of the hail and fire with blood cannot be traced to natural causes. They were cast down. They did not fall from the heavens in an ordinary way — an unseen but powerful arm drove them... The earth here means the part of the world that is civilised and under settled, established government.

You will notice that the third part keeps coming up in these divine visitations. What is the prophetic meaning of "the third"? The answer seems to be given us in Rev. 12 (that is, the distinctively Roman or western empire)... If this is so, "the third" would mean the varied wasting away of the Roman empire in the west... One able writer contends for the Greek or Eastern Empire, because the Macedonian was the third of the four great empires of Dan. 2 and Dan. 7. But "the third part" is quite another thought and phrase.

This clearly does not refer to the literal earth, trees, or grass. In Scripture grass is the symbol commonly used for man in his weakness, his very glory being like the flower of grass. Human prosperity, then, would be set forth by green grass. Here we have a judgment of God upon it. Not a certain part only, however large, but the whole of it is destroyed. The trees represent those who are high and exalted among men... So the blow falls on one marked-off part of the scene of God's moral dealings. All the lowly feel the ruin, and the higher classes feel it to a large extent.

The burning up of "all green grass" may refer to the withering of the means of support; or, if grass is here used as a figure of man in his frailty, it indicates a destruction of the choicest and most vigorous portion of the human race, such as the wholesale slaughter of young men called out to serve in war.

In the first trumpet, we see hail, fire, and blood cast on the earth, and some trees and all green grass burnt up. In the second trumpet, a great mountain, as it were — that is, something similar to a great burning mountain — is cast into the sea. In the first trumpet, the earth, trees and grass are affected; in the second, the sea, its creatures and its ships. Both are fiery, burning judgments.

The judgments fall on things rather than men. Yet the things listed — earth, trees, grass, sea and creatures in it, ships, rivers, fountains, sun, moon, stars — are not moral beings, and so are not accountable to God. Man is the rebel sinner who has to be dealt with. The things are symbols of man and of what is connected with him.

"Behold, I am against you, O destroying mountain, declares the LORD, which destroys the whole earth; I will stretch out my hand against you, and roll you down from the crags, and make you a burnt mountain." The LORD speaks against the Chaldean kingdom. It looked so firmly established in its might and greatness that no one could overthrow it. Yet He threatens it with consuming judgment, a "burnt mountain." … A mountain as a symbol represents a kingdom or a firmly established power. The key idea in these prophetic symbols is a strong, solid, established power. And this power is itself the target of God's governmental vengeance.

A mountain is the usual symbol of high, settled power. But here it is thrown into the sea, because it becomes the means of judgment to others, and not just the object of judgment itself.

A great mountain speaks of a great governing power, while burning with fire points to a fearsome character of oppression. Thrown into the sea speaks of God's own sovereign power inflicting this scourge upon the nations (the sea of the Gentiles). The waters of the sea speak of "peoples and multitudes and nations and languages" (Revelation 17:15).

First, all through the peoples (the sea) of the Roman earth, the "blood," the "deathful power of evil," prevails. A third part of the creatures in the sea that had life died. As another writer has put it, "I take dying here to be departure from the profession of association with God, public separation from Him, or apostasy." Unbelief and atheism always flourish in times of great disturbance, social earthquakes and revolutions.

Does blood here symbolise a violent natural death, or does it refer to the spiritual death of apostasy? In our judgment these two forms of death are here combined.

This trumpet seems to foretell the overwhelming destruction of a great world power. In its fall it will bring ruin and death on a third part of the nations. The destruction of the ships brings trade to a standstill, and so they lose their means of living.

The language is still highly symbolic. A feature common to each is that the judgments only fall on a third part of the things affected. This shows that for the moment the effects are not universal but limited. The phrase "the third part" occurs again in Revelation 12:4, where the Roman Empire is in question. So here it points to the Roman earth: practically the western European powers, or, we may say, Christendom.

In the judgment of the second trumpet John saw "something like a great mountain, burning with fire," thrown into the sea. In Scripture a mountain pictures a great and long-established power. So Scripture calls Babylon a "destroying mountain," and the LORD says to her, "I will roll you down from the crags, and make you a burnt mountain" (Jer. 51:25). The sea never stops moving, so it often pictures the nations in a state of unrest (see Rev. 17:15).

It is a power that is mighty, seated firmly and lifted high, yet full of volcanic forces in conflict. These will tear out her own insides and spread ruin all around. Thrown into the sea of the nations — already in commotion, as the word "sea" implies — this power produces death and disaster beyond that of the previous trumpet. It attacks human life more directly. Such a state of eruption was in France at the end of the eighteenth century, and it may well illustrate what seems intended. History is full of such warnings of what is coming, and we do well to take note of them. We may expect this all the more as the end approaches. Things grow towards it, and at last it takes by surprise those who have not heeded the warning.

The ever-restless sea is here the chosen figure for the peoples of the earth in terrible anarchy. They have no strong controlling power or firm hand over them. God ordains civil and governmental authority (Rom. 13:1). So the prophetic sea stands for the general state of the nations with no civil or spiritual government. Into these seething masses of mankind this burning power is cast.

Persons, and not peoples or nations in general as in the first judgment, are in question. The term "creatures" would imply as much... Moral, spiritual death is the undoubted force of the judgment carried out here. It is death towards God, and death towards the principles of truth and righteousness. In fact, it is moral death in its widest sense.

A great power that seemed settled is removed from its place. That power is not so much shattered itself as made the means of suffering to others. It is burning with fire, and the result is destruction to a third of the living creatures and ships in the sea. The whole thing is a figure taken from what a volcano would do if it were cast into the sea. In this way the Lord fills out the picture of destruction. A great consuming power falls on confused masses of people, and the result is human slaughter and political anarchy.

This trumpet appears to foretell the overwhelming destruction of a great world power. Its fall will bring ruin and death on a third of the nations. The destruction of the ships brings commerce to a standstill, and so destroys the way they make their living.

A feature common to each is that the judgments fall only on a third part of the things affected. This shows that for the moment the effects are not universal but limited. The phrase "the third part" occurs again in Revelation 12:4, where the Roman Empire, energised by Satan, is in question. This leads to the conclusion that here it shows the Roman earth — in practice the western European powers, or perhaps we may say, Christendom.

The trumpets may reach less far than the seals. But it will appear later that they strike with heavier judgment.

A star is the symbol of authority in government. It is not supreme authority — the sun stands for that — but authority held under another. So the very picture used shows a man who should have been a source of light and order to people. But he falls "from heaven," from the place where God had set him, for God appoints the powers that rule. By that fall he is now cut off from all connection with God. Yet he still burns — not as a star now, but as a lamp — and so he still attracts people by his light and brightness.

The Heaven is the source of authority, a fixed position; all spiritual, civil, and political authority has its source above… Under the two trumpets before this, the instruments of judgment were "cast" upon the earth and the sea. Here this apostate ruler "fell" out of the Heaven. "Cast" would imply that an unseen actor used irresistible power, and that the judgment was violent. "Fell" points rather to a sudden, unexpected downfall.

Waters are the symbol of peoples with no settled shape. Fountains are the sources of their refreshment, and a river stands for what marks the course they take… This blow seems less political than the judgment before it. It is rather the poisoning of everything that ought to bring blessing to people and that touches their ordinary life.

The name "Wormwood" shows his character… Everyone under the withering influence of this fallen being shares his character, "Wormwood." There is a reference here to that striking event in Israel's history told in Exodus 15:22-25. There God made the bitter waters sweet; here the sweet waters become bitter… It poisons their springs of action — their motives, principles, and moral life.

The heavens are the sphere of government, whether civil or spiritual, so this could point to a ruler of either kind… Yet the fall from heaven and the poisoning of the sources of refreshment seem to point much more strongly to an apostate teacher. His fall turns the springs of spiritual truth bitter, and people perish… They refused to love the truth and so be saved, so God sends them a strong delusion and they believe what is false. Here would seem to be the beginning of this.

It is some person who claimed authority and then becomes an apostate. His fall produces the awful results given here. It may be the final Antichrist. He may first have claimed to be a great teacher for Israel with divine authority, and then he takes the awful plunge.

He corrupts the truth of God by his poisonous teaching (1 John 2:22). Many die through it — not in body, but by falling away, so that they become dead to any recognition of the living God.

One would think that such mighty displays of divine power would soften people's hearts. But it is not so… Love, God's own love to man as a sinner, in the cross of Christ, alone breaks and captivates the human heart.

A star, as we saw in an earlier chapter in another connection (Revelation 1:20), pictures someone who holds a lower place of authority. He may give light to others. He is under another himself, but he still rules. Here it is a degraded ruler, a dignitary fallen from his place of authority. Waters are the symbol of peoples not yet formed. Fountains are the sources of their refreshment, and a river is what gives their course its character.

But he falls "from heaven," out of the place where God had set him — for God appoints the powers that exist. His fall now cuts him off from all connection with God. Yet he still burns, not as a star but as a lamp, so he still attracts people by his light and brightness. He falls on all the sources of life, the moral sources, pictured by the rivers and fountains of waters. You can often see this when someone prominent in the church of God turns unfaithful or apostate and morally destroys his hearers by unbelieving teaching.

His name was Wormwood. Deuteronomy 29:19-20 speaks of the man who hears the curses of the law and says, "I shall have peace, though I walk in the stubbornness of my heart, to add drunkenness to thirst." Scripture compares him to a root that bears gall and wormwood. See also the immoral woman of Proverbs 5:4, and Jeremiah 23:15. In Jeremiah 9:15, wormwood seems to be the bitter result of disobedience — even the scattering among the nations. Here, as in Amos 5:7, "You who turn justice to wormwood," it seems to mean the corruption of the waters, and the death of those who drank them.

The name "Wormwood" points to character... The fountains, the sources of national life, are poisoned. All who come under the withering influence of this fallen being share his character, "Wormwood." There is a clear reference here to a striking incident in Israel's history, told in Exodus 15:22-25. There the bitter waters were made sweet; here the sweet waters are made bitter.

The heavens are the sphere of government, whether civil or spiritual, so a ruler of either kind might be meant here... Yet the fall from heaven, the poisoning of the sources of refreshment, and the connection with the sixth trumpet — a parallel, if not something deeper — seem to point much more strongly to an apostate teacher. His fall would embitter the springs of spiritual truth and cause men to perish... People have not received the love of the truth so that they might be saved. So God will send them a strong delusion, so that they believe a lie. Here would seem to be the beginning of this.

The language stays highly symbolic. One feature is common to each judgment: it falls only on a third part of the things affected. This shows that for the moment the effects are not universal but limited.

One would think that such mighty displays of divine power would soften people's hearts. But it is not so... Love, God's own love to man as a sinner, in the cross of Christ, alone breaks and captivates the human heart.

It is the governments of the earth that are affected by the sound of the fourth trumpet (v. 12), and no form of it escapes. As pointed out before, the sun is a symbol of supreme authority. The moon stands for authority derived from the supreme, just as the moon takes her light from the sun and reflects it. The stars just as plainly speak of what is subordinate. Sun, moon, and stars, therefore, express every order of human authority in government… The effect is that confusion and darkness reign instead of peace and security. Little do men realise how much they owe to orderly and stable governments.

The day does not shine in a third part of the sphere of its rule, and neither does the night, in its moon and stars. This would certainly not be the natural result of darkening a third part of sun and moon. It shows us that we do not have here a literal event of the kind described, but figures of other things. Royal or imperial authority has collapsed, along with all the lesser powers that depend on it, within such limits as a "third part" may mark out; and with this, the first series of the trumpets ends.

The language stays deeply symbolic. A feature common to each is that the judgments only fall on a third part of the things affected. For the moment the effects are not universal but limited. The phrase "the third part" occurs again in Revelation 12:4, where the Roman Empire, energised by Satan, is in question. This leads to the conclusion that here it means the Roman earth.

Under the sixth Seal (Rev. 6:12-13) the same symbols express a total collapse of all governing authority on earth. There, however, nothing restricts the breakdown of the whole social fabric and the overthrow of every seat of power… Here under the fourth Trumpet the judgment and its effects reach the "third part" of the prophetic scene, the western part of the revived empire. The term "third part" occurs five times in this one verse (v. 12). The effect of this judgment is that moral darkness settles down on the empire like a funeral shroud.

The public course of things was thrown into confusion and darkness, the day darkened in its sunlight. But more than that, the private and hidden life of man lost the light that guided it. There was darkness and stumbling. There was no perception of God's will, and no way or light to walk by that human understanding could use.

Of course this cannot be literal. The sun (which is the supreme source of light to the earth) speaks of the light of the glory of God. So this darkening speaks of people being plunged into the darkness of atheism, not seeing the sun. They become closed even to the reflected light of the moon and the stars. The light of heavenly testimony is gone from the whole kingdom of the beast.

We have had the preliminary judgments brought in by the first four trumpets… and last of all, the whole fabric of political rule, both supreme and subordinate, has to suffer a notable eclipse. So it was a judgment of circumstances, not a judgment falling on people themselves. But we also see a closing hint of still deeper blows. They are marked off in the clearest way from the series that came before: "Woe, woe, woe to those who dwell on the earth!"

I believe John saw an eagle here. In Revelation 14:6 it is an angel, and our verse may have been made to match that one. Or perhaps the two words were simply confused by carelessness. The eagle's flight in mid-heaven was the dark and most fitting herald of coming woe. Nor is there any real difficulty in its loud utterance; for the altar itself is, in the true text, made to speak in Revelation 16:7.

Both the eagle and the angel are messengers. Both are seen flying across the sky so as to scan the earth, even to its farthest bounds, and to proclaim their message aloud. The flying eagle is a herald of judgment, the flying angel is a messenger of mercy.

Judgment is about to fall on these "inhabitants of the earth." The eagle that announces the woes probably stands for the speed with which the blows will descend. For "while people are saying, 'There is peace and security,' then sudden destruction will come upon them." When God begins to judge, He makes short work of the earth.

The first four trumpet judgments dealt mainly with the circumstances of life. The trees, the rivers, the sun, moon, and stars stand for these. The last three trumpet judgments are more severe and terrible, since, as we shall see, they fall on people rather than on their circumstances. They bring woe to that special class called dwellers upon the earth. These are the people who, like Cain, go out from the presence of the Lord and try to build a world without God.

Woe is then announced. It falls above all on those who had their settled place on earth, unlike those with the heavenly calling. The judgments on the earth neither woke them nor moved them. They clung to the earth as their home despite everything. Threefold woe! The term "dwellers on," or "inhabitants of," the earth has not appeared before this, apart from the promise to Philadelphia and the cry of the souls under the altar. Both of those stood in contrast with such people. After all these dealings of God they are a distinct and clearly marked class.

It is a class who profess the light outwardly. They even admit that the testimony in the word of God is true, both to the present grace of the gospel and to the coming judgment on the world. Still, their interests lie entirely on the earth. There may be an actual crisis, as there surely will be, when this is plainly shown. Yet as a principle it is of the deepest practical importance to see how God regards "dwellers on the earth."

Then the fifth trumpet, or first woe judgment, falls on a Judaism that has turned away from God. It is the subject of Revelation 9:1-11. The sixth trumpet, or second woe judgment, deals with the guilty inhabitants of the Roman earth, who have also abandoned God. That is the burden of Revelation 9:12-21. The final blast of the trumpet, or third woe, touches the whole world. In the end it reaches to the close of the thousand-year kingdom reign, even to "the time for the dead to be judged."

At the sound of the fifth trumpet a star appears — not falling, as the older common translation puts it, but already fallen from heaven to earth. This seems to connect him with the apostasy under the third trumpet. And no one else's apostasy is likely to be as notable as the apostasy of the man whose course is recorded here. In any case, it is certainly an apostate who stands before us, and to him is given "the key of the abyss."

The star fallen from heaven to earth is a dignitary in an apostate state. This points to a real person, as the next words show — "to him was given the key of the pit of the abyss." The allusion to Isaiah 14:12 seems clear. There the king of Babylon is taunted: "How you are fallen, O Lucifer [that is, day-star], son of the morning… Yet you shall be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit." What is in view here is not his doom, but the authority he was permitted to exercise over the abyss. The abyss is the expression of the source of satanic evil and misery.

The star fallen from heaven with the key of the pit of the abyss is Satan himself, cast out of heaven. The details of this event we learn in the twelfth chapter.

In the Old Testament a "pit" is often another word for a dungeon, and everything points to that meaning here. The "abyss" is not something other than the pit itself. It only defines it further — the dungeon which is the abyss. So the demons beg not to be sent into the deep, or "abyss" (Luke 8:31), and in the twentieth chapter Satan is shut up there… The abyss is not "hell," the "lake of fire." We can see this from one passage (Romans 10:7), which uses the word in connection with the Lord: "Who will descend into the abyss?" — that is, to bring Christ up from the dead… The literal meaning ("bottomless") must not be pressed, as our own use of the word shows.

Revelation 9:1 makes it clear that Satan does not have absolute control to do as he pleases, for the key of the bottomless pit is not in his hand. The star that fell from heaven was given the key for the time being, but the key did not belong to him. For a limited time this star — some great intellectual or spiritual leader — was allowed to bring up influences from the regions below. Those influences would bring delusion and trouble on all who did not have the seal of God on their foreheads.

The key of the bottomless pit was given to him. God permits Satan to act. Sometimes this is for the good of His children. Sometimes it is to let His judgments fall on His enemies. Satan and his angels are glad to seize an opportunity to do evil. God is coming here to chastise the wickedness of men.

Under the fifth trumpet this fallen ruler is about to let loose the malignant and darkening power of Satan on the apostate part of Judah. Apostate Gentiles are the ones judged under the third trumpet; apostate Jews are the sufferers under the fifth. The state of things under this first woe goes beyond anything we have seen so far. Direct satanic influence and power drive the agents and instruments of evil.

In the Old Testament a "pit" is often a word for a dungeon, and everything here points to that meaning. The "abyss" is not something other than the pit itself. It is only a further definition of it — the dungeon which is the abyss. So the demons pray that they may not be sent into the deep, or "abyss" (Luke 8:31). In the twentieth chapter Satan is shut up there... The abyss is not, however, "hell" — the "lake of fire." ... The literal meaning, "bottomless," must not be pressed. We use the word loosely ourselves, and the Greek word was used in the same way. The Greek Old Testament uses it for the "deep" over which darkness lay on the first day.

He has "the key of the pit of the abyss." This is the unfathomable or bottomless pit, where evil is held back until it receives its final doom. Here "the spirits in prison" are kept (1 Peter 3:19). Here Satan will be shut up for a thousand years, before his last rebellion and everlasting punishment. Here too the angels who sinned are "committed to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment." (2 Peter 2:4.)

If the four earlier judgments were providential, though God inflicted them as acts of judgment, this one is different. It is still under God's control, but its origin and its nature are satanic.

God permits Satan to act sometimes for the good of His children, sometimes to let His judgments fall on His enemies. Satan and his angels are glad to seize an opportunity to do evil. God is coming here to chastise the wickedness of men.

The smoke rising like the smoke of a great furnace is the symbol of a delusion which darkens the mind of man.

Here, in Revelation 9, I take the smoke to express two things. First, that the place it comes from is under judgment. Second, the darkening tendency of what will proceed from there, as the parent or nurse of the locusts issuing from it. The smoke is "like the smoke of a great furnace," which I take to express the fullness of its volume. The result was that the sun and the air were darkened by it.

This means a satanic delusion bred in the abyss, marked by the way it blinds and withers people morally. It is probably the same delusion to which Christendom will be given over, which Paul speaks of (2 Thess. 2:11-12). The smoke is the darkening influence and power of Satan. Its effect will be to blight the supreme government (the sun). It will also darken and corrupt the whole social life and principles of men (the air).

What the smoke exactly represents may be hard to say, but its source and effect are clear. It shuts man off from all that he needs for his moral and spiritual welfare. It is Satan's smoke today that hides the word of God from the souls of men. They breathe it instead of the pure influences of the Scriptures, and so become morally poisoned and tormented.

Christ has "the keys of Death and Hades" (Revelation 1:18). We cannot imagine that He would hand over any part of His own authority to an apostate, whether man or spirit… In fact, the text does not even say that the locusts come out of the pit. Nothing comes out of it but the smoke that darkens the sun and the air. The locusts come out of the smoke… The smoke here is not the smoke of torment, as it is elsewhere. It is the fumes of harmful spiritual influences that darken the air and the supreme source of light itself. We can easily understand that the locusts are bred out of that darkness.

The locusts that come out of the smoke are a picture of aggressive robbers, and they are clothed with a remarkable power of torment, like the scorpions of the earth. The command given shows very plainly, I think, the error of those who take the locusts literally. They were not to hurt the grass of the earth, and so on — that is, their natural food, if real locusts were meant.

The intense anguish caused by these hordes of satanic instruments and agents is like the torment of a scorpion's poisonous sting. The scorpion shuns the light, and the native peoples of Africa and the Arab tribes of Asia rightly dread it. The sting is not often fatal, but the suffering is dreadful… In Luke 10:19 the Lord connects serpents, scorpions, and the power of the enemy with the fall of Satan. Here, in the same way, scorpions are linked with the fallen star.

If the four earlier judgments were providential, though inflicted judicially by God, this one, while still under God's control, is diabolical in its origin and nature.

Their power fits their origin: it is pictured as the power of the scorpions of the earth — that is, their poisonous sting. Their difference from natural locusts shows here. They do not touch the locusts' food. They are a plague only on men, and only on the unsealed among them. Since it is in Israel that the sealing is found, the fair inference is that these unsealed ones are Israelites, and the place of this plague is in the east.

This evil teaching is pictured as a swarm of locusts that sweeps everything before it with irresistible power, leaving misery in its trail. Natural locusts would destroy the grass and every green thing, and strip the trees. But the evil influence set out by these symbolic locusts will not touch people's circumstances in life, or even their bodies. It poisons their minds, just as a scorpion poisons the body.

The command given shows, I think very plainly, the error of those who take the locusts in a literal way. They were not to hurt the grass of the earth, and so on — that is, their natural food, if real locusts were meant. Men were to be the objects of these symbolic raiders — men, except God's sealed ones.

The whole description shows that the locust army is a symbolic picture of judgment of a superhuman kind. So does the ban on injuring the grass and trees, their natural food. There is a further reason why the plant world was to be spared. The grass, "any green plant," and trees point to a general state of prosperity in men's circumstances and position.

Their power is limited. This command settles two things. First, as already said, these are moral, not real, locusts. Natural locusts ravage exactly the plants and trees of the earth. Second, the target of this dreadful visitation is apostate Jews. Revelation 7 tells us that the servants of God, sealed on their foreheads, are the elect of the twelve tribes. So those not sealed would be Jews outside that elect number. Later parts of this book make it clear that these unsealed Jews will be, mostly if not entirely, in Jerusalem and Palestine. That fixes both the sphere and the character of the judgment.

Perhaps the double name in Hebrew and Greek shows that their power will be over Jews and Gentiles.

With the seal we have the idea of God's property, His ownership, and it also carries the meaning of security. If God has put His seal on a man, everyone can see it, because it is on the forehead. Then even these evil powers will not touch him. This mark is the exact opposite of the mark of the beast. People will accept the mark of the beast in order to survive, and that is the opposite of faith.

"The seal of the living God" implies safety from death. The seal on the forehead is a public, open acknowledgment that those sealed belong to God. What the seal is, we are not told.

We learn, second, that God governs the world with His people in view. The angel coming up from the east told the four angels not to hurt the earth, the sea, or the trees, "until we have sealed the servants of our God on their foreheads." It was the same when judgment was about to fall on Jerusalem. The Lord had a mark set on the foreheads of the men who sighed and cried over all the detestable things done in it. He kept this faithful remnant safe while the punishment swept through.

These locusts have the poison of scorpions. The natural locust feeds on every green thing, but these were only to afflict the unsealed among men. Their torment is like the sting of a scorpion, which is very sharp but does not usually kill. There is a limit to the length of this affliction — five months.

Second, we have the extent to which the judgment can go. Satan was allowed to persecute Job, but not to take his life. In the same way these symbolic locusts, these agents from the bottomless pit, are not allowed to take the lives of their victims. They may only put them through such extreme torture for a limited period (five months) that their victims will long for death and not get it.

In Luke 10:19 the Lord connects serpents, scorpions, and the power of the enemy with the fall of Satan. But these hellish instruments of vengeance, let loose on guilty Israel, have no power unless they are given authority to act.

They do not kill, just as the scorpion in general does not. They inflict torment so bad that death would be better. Their power lasts five months.

The whole description shows that this locust army is a symbol of judgment of a superhuman kind. So does the ban on injuring the grass and trees (v. 4), their natural food.

These had the poison of scorpions. The natural locust preys on every green thing, but these were only to afflict people who had no seal. This points us back to the opening verses of Revelation 7. There we find that those who were sealed were the servants of God out of the tribes of Israel.

The next two verses (vv. 5, 6) give the nature, duration, and effect of this judgment. The "locusts" were not permitted to kill, only to torment... We are not told what kind of torment this is, whether mental or otherwise. But if, as we conclude, these "locusts" are demonic agents, the seat of the torment would be the soul rather than the body.

The evil influence pictured by these symbolic locusts will not affect the circumstances of life, or even the bodies of men. It poisons the minds of men just as a scorpion poisons the body. Men will fall into such mental misery that they will seek death and not find it.

We believe that the "five months" of torment points back to the ravages of the natural locust, which usually last five months. A limited and brief period is meant, one that may not go beyond five months.

Those who apply this prophecy to the Saracens have to adopt the "year-day" theory to explain the five months. Take a day to stand for a year, and the five months stretch out to one hundred and fifty years. That, they claim, matches the length of Saracen rule. Unfortunately for those who hold this view, the year-day theory finds no support whatever in this book.

The "locusts" were not permitted to kill, only to torment, and this for the space of five months. The torment makes those who suffer it weary of their lives. They want to die, but death flees from them. Death would be a relief from their agony. But they suffer by God's appointment, and however much they long for death, they are not permitted to find it.

Death would be a welcome release from the torment — the anguish of soul these servants of Satan inflict. But that last refuge of despair is denied them: "death will flee from them." The gnawing anguish and horrible torment of a guilty and sin-defiled conscience is beyond all telling. Only those enduring it can weigh and measure it.

Isaiah 9:15 throws light, we believe, on this statement: "the prophet who teaches lies is the tail." So the sting in the tail, we believe, is the twisting of truth by these demonic agents. It produces such anguish of spirit in those affected that life becomes unbearable.

They resemble locusts in their overwhelming numbers and power, but they have stings like scorpions. Their torment is so dreadful that men desire death. Death, however, "will flee from them," for this is not a plague of slaughter and destruction, but only of intense suffering. The people harmed are "only those people who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads." Since the sealing was not for people outside Israel, but only for a select number from the twelve tribes, we may infer that it is only the unbelieving part of Israel who suffer the dreadful, though not fatal, anguish inflicted by this army of tormentors from the bottomless pit.

You know how people fear death now, if they are not saved. They would run away from it if they could. But a dreadful time is coming, when the Lord comes to punish people who would not obey the gospel. Then men will be so tormented that they will beg for death. But they shall not die; death will depart from them.

What a solemn picture of how hardened man's heart can become against God! Even this dreadful visitation produces no good effect. They are given up to "a strong delusion, so that they may believe what is false." Those who once despised God in His grace will at last despise Him in His government. Each new stroke of His judgment will only make them more callous and defiant, until at last, like Pharaoh, they walk blindfolded into the very flood that swallows them up. Such is man. How marvellous the grace that could stoop to the fallen state of creatures so degraded and ruined, and buy them for glory at so priceless a cost!

The command given shows, I think very plainly, the error of those who apply the locusts in a literal way. They were not to hurt the grass of the earth, and so on — that is, their natural food, if real locusts were meant. The targets of these symbolic raiders were men — all except God's sealed ones.

The locusts are shaped like horses prepared for battle (v. 7). This speaks of their strength in conquest: they subdue men. "Crowns like gold" speaks of a dignity they have assumed, one that deceives people. Their faces, like the faces of men, add to the deception with a boastful, humanistic approach.

The crown of gold adorns the head of the Son of Man (Rev. 14:14), and also those of the triumphant elders or redeemed (Rev. 4:4). But these satanic invaders from the smoke of the pit are not really crowned, nor is real gold in question. They lay claim to a dignity God never gave them. "On their heads were what looked like crowns of gold." Their claim to royal authority is false.

The crowns they wear are not royal crowns. They are victory wreaths, which they have taken for themselves. To the eye they looked like gold. But they were not what they appeared to be — only "as it were." The face of a man speaks of intelligence.

To those who met them they looked like military imperial power — crowned, and full of masculine energy. But seen from behind, with the secret uncovered, they were subject and weak: their faces were like human faces, their hair like the hair of women.

We may admit that in history this foreshadows the swarms who overran the East under the satanic inspiration of Muhammad. But this is only a secondary fulfilment of the prophecy, and far from a complete one. The reason is clear: Muhammad's conquests were carried out with great bloodshed, while Scripture says plainly that these locusts do not inflict death.

To my mind the meaning is moral, not geographical. This kind of teaching takes away from the real force of Scripture. Is it not almost trifling to take the faces of men, the hair of women, and crowns like gold, and draw out of them a hint of a beard or moustache, with long flowing hair and a turban on top? Taken as emblems of character, the word of God keeps its dignity, and we feel it. The likeness to horses prepared for battle expresses their aggressive attitude, and the crowns like gold seem to hint at their boasted confidence that God had righteously sent them to conquer. Their faces like men's, but with women's hair, may show that, for all their claim to act with authority in God's name, they were subject to mere human authority after all, and not to God.

The New Testament speaks of long hair as the natural covering of a woman. It owns her subjection to the man, and it is a glory to her. But nature teaches that if a man has long hair, it is a shame to him. He must not cover his head in that way, for "he is the image and glory of God." 1 Corinthians 11:6-15. "Hair as the hair of women" is a symbol of subjection to a head, and of effeminacy. Revelation 9:8.

"They had hair like the hair of women" (length of hair) — perhaps the badge of luxury, or of beauty (2 Samuel 14:26; Isaiah 3:24). The mention of women may assert the appearance of weakness (Isaiah 3:12; Isaiah 19:16). Or, taking 1 Corinthians 11 where the hair serves as a veil, it may assert apparent subjection.

Their effeminacy and subjection come next. They are subject not to God, but to Satan their leader: "They had hair as women's hair."

Their faces are as of men, but with the hair of women. This may show that, for all their claim to act with authority in the name of God, they were subject to the lowest human authority after all, and not to God.

"Their faces were as faces of men" also — they had the dignity and apparent independence of men. And yet "they had hair as the hair of women." They were in the fullest subjection to the dark and dreadful power that ruled over them.

Teeth as those of lions exposes their actual character of greed and tenacity: they catch a person and do not let go.

"Their teeth were as the teeth of lions." This shows their readiness for consuming. The lion stands for courage and power, whether the word is applied to Judah, to Messiah, to Satan, or to the animal in nature. (Proverbs 28:1; Proverbs 30:14, 30; Daniel 7:7, 19; Joel 1:6.)

To my mind the intention is moral, not geographical... Does it not seem almost trifling to take the faces of men, the hair of women, and crowns like gold as a hint at beard or moustache, with literal flowing hair under a turban? Taken as emblems of character, the dignity of the divine word is vindicated and felt. The locusts naturally point to countless swarms, devouring within set limits, but they are marked out more by the tormenting sting of false doctrine.

That a woman shaving her head may signify grief, I understand — it is a shame, and her ornament is gone. But why a man putting on woman's hair should be joy is, I confess, beyond me. I am not prepared to argue against it, because I am not clear about the point myself.

They know no pity. Neither force nor entreaty has any effect in turning them from their purpose. Their hearts are hard, their consciences like steel — "they had breastplates like breastplates of iron."

Breastplates of iron symbolise that they could not be wounded when attacked. We also see that they had tails like scorpions, with stings in their tails. That shows what harm they could inflict — even the instilling of untruth, which would produce sharp anguish of spirit and make life unbearable.

They have breastplates imitating iron (v. 9). The believer wears the "breastplate of righteousness" (Ephesians 6:14). This is the opposite: a hardened conscience, with no proper feeling left. The sound of their wings inspired terror, like an army of war-horses on the run. When people have rejected God outright, this leaves room for a great and awesome infestation of demons. They will make their power felt.

The satanic host swept on with unstoppable energy, striking fear and terror into their victims. This sound announces their approach: "The noise of their wings was like the noise of many chariots with horses rushing into battle" (compare Joel 2:5).

Whatever its outward attraction to the minds of men, "the teeth of lions" would imply that it will lay hold of men with fanatical ferocity. "The breastplates of iron" may show that it will harden the affections and seize the minds of men with incredible swiftness. "The noise of their wings," likened to "the noise of many chariots with horses rushing into battle," pictures that speed.

To my mind the intention is moral, not geographical. This kind of teaching takes away from the real force of Scripture. It fills the mind with what may be partly true in a natural way, but is not, I believe, what the Holy Spirit intends. … Taken as emblems of character, these figures uphold the dignity of God's word and make it felt. … I take the iron breastplates, the lion-teeth and the sounding wings as a figure of unflinching fanatical courage. That is their strongest armour.

The war horses and crowns seem to point to unstoppable fury and a show of power. … The teeth of lions point to destructive violence. The breastplates of iron point to a conscience steeled against pity and remorse. Their advance causes a mighty commotion, like war-chariots hurrying to battle. … It is not a material but a moral plague that the followers of Apollyon, "the destroyer," inflict. … there is no destruction of physical life.

We may admit that in history this foreshadows the swarms who overran the East … But this is only a secondary and far from complete fulfilment of the prophecy. Those conquests shed great blood, while the text plainly says these locusts do not kill. The main application is therefore to something quite different, and still future.

They are clearly not the literal insects. One reason alone proves it: Scripture says plainly that they do not feed on the natural food of locusts. The well-known creature, with alarming qualities and powers added, becomes the sign that describes these raiders from the abyss.

They were not mere plunderers. They had warlike energy, and they claimed God's righteous approval for their headlong career, carrying His image and glory on the outside, though in truth they were completely subject to man and to Satan too. Ferocity is theirs, and hearts steeled against every feeling of pity as they rush on. But their worst power was the venom of falsehood which followed. It was the energy of false doctrine, represented by the scorpion sting in the tail. And we know from elsewhere, "the prophet who speaks lies, he is the tail."

Isaiah 9:15 throws light, we believe, on this statement: "The prophet who teaches lies, he is the tail." The sting in the tail, then, we believe to be the twisting of truth by these demonic agents, producing such anguish of spirit in those affected that life becomes unbearable.

In the next part of this extraordinary description the past tense gives way to the present. Surely this is deliberate. It marks off the worst and most typical feature from what has gone before: "they have tails like scorpions, and stings." Then again, "and their power was in their tails to hurt men five months." This points back to verses three and five.

Their power matches their origin. It is the power of the scorpions of the earth, that is, a poisonous sting. They differ from natural locusts in this: they do not touch the locusts' food. They are a plague only upon men, and these men are the unsealed. Since we find the sealing in Israel, it seems fair to infer that these unsealed ones are Israelites, and that this plague falls in the east. They do not kill, as a scorpion generally does not. They inflict torment so bad that death would be better, and their power lasts five months.

God's purpose is not yet to kill men. Satan, whatever his power and his malice, can do nothing except what is in the purpose of God. It is a moral, diabolical power over men who have not the mark of God on their forehead.

The locust judgment under the sounding of the fifth angel is a terrible one. Despite Hengstenberg's claim to the contrary, we believe the "five months" of torment points to the ravages of the natural locust, which usually last five months. A limited and brief period is meant, one which may not exceed five months.

Many take the five months of torment (Rev. 9:10) to mean 150 years of unchecked conquest by the Muslim hordes, on the year-day theory.

The book of Daniel gives us a passing glimpse of the organisation of the underworld. There we read of demons of special ability, put in charge of Satan's interests in Persia and Greece. They are called the Prince of Persia and the Prince of Greece. Later we read in Revelation 9:11 of the king over the bottomless pit, named Abaddon. A king is the head of an organised dominion. He has officers to carry out his government, and subjects to obey him.

Abaddon is Hebrew, and literally means destruction. Apollyon is Greek, and means the destroyer. Why does this difference, small as it looks, appear in these meaningful titles? And why does the Hebrew name come before the Greek? The Jew is more guilty than the Gentile. So the Hebrew title Abaddon, destruction, asserts judgment on Judah in its revolt against God. It states that judgment with force, and states its certainty and finality… The order in grace as in judgment is the Jew first, then the Gentile. The Greek name Apollyon, the destroyer, shows Satan's character toward the Christian world, as his other title shows his link with Judaism.

Revelation 9:11 shows that this name means the same as Apollyon, "the destroyer." The same verse describes him as "the angel of the bottomless pit." The name is perhaps not so much one of the names of Satan as his character personified. It occurs six times in the Old Testament. Three of those link it with hell (sheol): Job 26:6; Proverbs 15:11; Proverbs 27:20. One links it with death — "Destruction and Death say," Job 28:22. One links it with the grave, Psalm 88:11. In all these passages, and in Job 31:12, it is translated "destruction."

John reveals that their king and leader is the angel of the bottomless pit (the abyss)… Satan's chief angel, the angel of the abyss, governs this destructive army. The vengeance falls on those who bear the name of the people of God (Jews), but who now, sadly, have turned away from Him. Satan's tricks and temptations made them fall from their high position. Now he, whose servants they have become, is their vengeful enemy and tormentor. So it always goes when his cunning traps his prey. Yet he is only a blind instrument carrying out the just judgment of God.

These symbolic locusts were under the direction of a king whose name means "The Destroyer." He is described as "the angel of the bottomless pit." This shows that these locusts are an organised force. A controlling destructive power directs them, just as in nature the locust swarms of countless millions act like a well-directed army. The destroyer directs this woe, yet it does not bring men to death, for death flees from them. It brings instead the destruction of everything that makes life on earth worth living. It means darkness and torment of a spiritual kind.

But the word does not mean ceasing to exist. The angel of the bottomless pit bears the name Apollyon, or Abaddon, the destroyer. But he can destroy nothing. It is written, "O Israel, you have destroyed yourself, but in me is your help."

In Revelation, Satan, or one of his chief agents, carries the name Apollyon, that is, the Destroyer (Revelation 9:11). The meaning of that name stands in contrast to the name of Jesus, the Saviour of men. Satan destroys what is good, but Jesus destroys nothing except what is evil.

The trumpets fall into two clear groups. The first four, which we have already looked at, share much the same character. The other three are of a completely different kind, and they are marked out as "woe trumpets." A proclamation comes before them, announcing ahead of time the solemn and dreadful weight they carry...

Notice that the first four trumpet judgments dealt mainly with the circumstances of life, pictured by the trees, the rivers, the sun, moon, and stars. The last three trumpet judgments are far more severe and terrible, because, as we shall see, they fall on people themselves rather than on their circumstances. They bring woe to that special group called the dwellers on the earth — those who, like Cain, go out from the presence of the Lord and try to build a world without God.

The plague that the followers of Apollyon, "the destroyer," bring is not physical but moral. The locusts leave a spiritual desert behind them, and the scorpions torment the heart and conscience, but they destroy no physical life. This hellish swarm harms only the unbelieving Israelites, and its time is limited too, as the five months show.

Notice that in Rev. 9:12 we are told the first woe has passed and two more are still to come. Then the sixth angel sounds, and we get the description of the horsemen from the Euphrates. But not until Rev. 11:14 are we told that the second woe has passed, which clearly points back to those same horsemen in Rev. 9. So the whole scene — the mighty angel coming down from heaven, the little book that John takes and eats, the temple and worshippers measured, the court and city given up for forty-two months, the two witnesses with their testimony, death, resurrection and ascension — all of this forms part of the striking episode.

So far, the sad results of each blast have been worse than those of the one before. Each one lays bare the hand of God more clearly and declares that He is at work. The coming trumpet will be the same.

The golden altar is the one mentioned in Rev. 8:3, the altar of incense. The voice that comes from its four horns is, without doubt, the voice of God Himself. Because it comes from the four horns, it means that all the strength of the altar — a horn is a symbol of power — stands against the targets of the woe that follows... All that God is stands for His people who come to Him through Christ. But all that God is stands against His enemies, and men see it when He makes His judgments fall on the earth.

God always warns before He judges. He is giving you your warning tonight, friend. You will do well to be wiser than Belshazzar. He had his warning, but he did not listen to it; still, he had it. If he had listened, I think it might have ended differently for him, because God, although He does judge, loves mercy. Scripture calls judgment "His strange work" (Isa. 28:21). He loves mercy, He loves blessing. He loves to bless the soul.

A voice from the golden altar before God calls forth the sixth angel, or second woe judgment. This again reminds us that heaven directs all these judgments, and that God holds back evil in its full force until the moment for judgment has come.

In the tabernacle of old there were two altars. One stood outside in the court; the other inside in the holy place. … Now the golden altar derived its force and value from the brazen altar. Incense (the merits of Christ) burned on the golden altar every morning and evening, except on the yearly day of atonement. On that special day in the history of Israel, as on other occasions, the blood of the sacrificial animals was put on its four golden horns.

The angel sounds at the summons of Christ. The Lord is still hidden; but He is already occupied with the earth, where He has a people for whom He is interceding. (Compare Isaiah 30:18.) A voice is heard from the four horns of the golden altar, or the altar of incense (Exodus 40:26-27), from the altar of intercession. … The intercession does not apply to the moral condition or to the spiritual conflicts of those who profit by them. It applies to the display of God's judgments, which will in time bring about the deliverance of an earthly people.

The golden altar is the one mentioned in Revelation 8:3, the altar of incense. The voice that comes from its four horns is, without doubt, that of God Himself. Coming out from the four horns, it will mean that all the strength of the altar (a horn is a symbol of power) is against the objects of the coming woe… All that God is, is in favour of His people who approach Him through Christ; but all that God is, is against His adversaries, and He shows it when He causes His judgments to fall upon the earth.

"The golden altar" is the altar of incense, or intercession. It stood before the throne of grace, the mercy seat, with only the veil between. In the picture it is the same place where the angel offered up the prayers of the saints. It is from the horns of this altar, showing that it is in answer to the prayers, that the command to loose the angels in the river Euphrates goes out. This surely shows that the fulfilment primarily in view is future. … No saint could ever have desired such a scourge. Nor could the prayers of the saints in the present age ever have taken such a form. But when Christ is judging the earth, and the saints cry to God to avenge them of their enemies, such a scourge fits their requests exactly, and may be let loose in answer to them.

The horns had no special connection with the offering of incense. They were for the blood of atonement. That blood was put on them either to make atonement for the altar itself, or for the sin of the high priest or of the congregation of Israel. A voice of judgment from these horns … is so different from the usual pleading on behalf of the sinner. It speaks of the altar being defiled, or of guilt for which no atonement could be found.

It is the voice of the Lord, no doubt, that is heard from the horns of the golden altar. But what a solemn sound this is — above all, coming from there? For ordinarily that altar is the special witness of His all-prevailing intercession. From there the incense rose up before God.

"The golden altar" is the altar of incense, the altar of intercession. It stood before the throne of grace, the mercy seat, with the veil between. In the picture it is the same place where the angel offered up the prayers of the saints. The command to loose the angels in the river Euphrates comes from the horns of this altar, which marks it as an answer to the prayers. That surely shows the fulfilment mainly in view is future… No saint could ever have wanted such a scourge. The prayers of saints in the present age could never have taken such a form. But when Christ is judging the earth, and the saints cry to God to avenge them on their enemies, such a scourge may fittingly be let loose in answer to their requests.

"Four" expresses universality. "Horn" denotes power. God's answer to the mingled prayers and incense that gathered around this altar puts forth the whole strength and power of the altar of intercession.

The horns had no special link with the offering of incense. They were for the blood of atonement, which the priest put on them either to make atonement for the altar itself, or for the sin of the high priest or of the people of Israel. A voice of judgment from these horns… is so different from the usual pleading on behalf of the sinner. It speaks of a profaned altar, or of guilt for which no atonement could be found.

The Lord first gives the word, and gives it to the holy angel. That angel then looses the four bound at the Euphrates. Evil can only act when and as far as the good allow. Some identify these four with the angels who held back the winds in Revelation 7. That idea is strange, because the contrast stands out, not the likeness. Here they are not restraining but restrained, which is nowhere said of the holy angels. There they stood at the four corners of the earth, as separate as they could be; here all are bound in the same spot.

These angelic ministers of judgment are under divine control; they cannot act without express command. The very hour when the Lord would deal in just retribution with the peoples who had turned away from Him… is noted with care, for that hour the angels were ready. We are not told what kept these angelic servants of God's providence from acting earlier. The hour of vengeance in the prophetic plan had not arrived.

Revelation names the Euphrates as the place where four angels are, or will be, bound. They will be loosed at the sixth trumpet. That lets loose the Eastern forms of satanic wickedness held in check until then. Viewing Palestine as the centre of God's dealings with the earth, the Euphrates was the barrier between East and West.

This time it is not the priest's offering of incense with the prayers of saints. This time a voice of divine authority comes from the altar. It commands the loosing of the four angels that had been bound in the Euphrates. They were ready to bring death upon men — not torment now, but death… This woe is limited, not merely to the day but even to the hour when it is carried out.

The destroying army was prepared beforehand, but held back until this time. The four angels were loosed, and they were prepared not "for an hour," but for the hour, and day, and month, and year, to kill the third part of men. Some have made clever calculations on the theory that in prophecy each day stands for a year. They try to show how long this woe lasted, and to fit it to recorded events in history. But "the hour, and day, and month, and year" do not mean how long the woe lasts. They mark the time when it begins. The outbreak of this woe had been fixed even to the very hour when it was to start.

These angels who carry out judgment are under God's control. They cannot act without a direct command. The very hour is marked out when the Lord, in just retribution, would deal with the peoples of the revived Latin empire who had abandoned the faith. For that hour the angels were prepared. We are not told what held these servants of God's providence back earlier. In the plan of prophecy, the hour of vengeance had not yet come. The sin of the empire had not yet risen to the height Scripture foretold. Now it has, and judgment, sharp and overwhelming, can wait no longer.

The angel again looses the four bound at the Euphrates. The evil can act only when the good allow it, and only as far as they allow. And the good, however much they may excel in strength, only do His commandments, listening to the voice of His word. It is strange to think that these four are the same as the angels who held back the winds in Revelation 7. What stands out is the contrast, not the likeness. Here they are not restraining but restrained, and that is never said of the holy angels. There they stood at the four corners of the earth, as far apart as they could be. Here all are bound in the same spot.

The first woe fell upon those in Israel who were not sealed. Scripture says this second woe falls upon "the third part of men." That expression is used in Revelation 12:4 for the sphere of the Roman Empire, which would take in professing Christendom.

The killing of the third of men does not mean the end of physical life only. It means the destruction of every confession of relationship with the only true God. What a dreadful picture of people who had once received the gospel, at least in name, and who stood out as God's church on earth!

Notice also that God has fixed the exact time of this "woe." The angels are prepared for the hour, day, month, and year. What striking proof that God always holds the reins of governments in His own hand, and that man can do nothing without His permission! How calmly then the believer may rest at all times!

A voice from the horns of the golden altar tells the sixth angel to loose the four angels held at the Euphrates. As a result a countless company of horsemen is set free. (Greek: twice ten thousand times ten thousand, that is, 200 million. The number points to the immense, countless hordes.) ... This river was both the boundary line of the old Roman Empire and the land of Israel. Forces had held back the flood of nations on the far side of the river. That restraint is now removed, so a great invasion takes place. Since the land of Israel is nearest, it will suffer first, but the revived Roman Empire is the target of these invading hordes.

This immense host is a number too vast for the human mind to take in. The mind is bewildered when it tries to grasp such an army. In number it goes far beyond anything ever seen on earth. God's unseen chariots are numbered in the same way (Ps. 68:17). May this lesson be written on our hearts: the seen and unseen powers of good and evil are all under the direct control of God.

It is not one army, but "armies," not a host, but "hosts." The plural is used rather than the singular because more than one invasion of the Beast's territory from beyond the Euphrates will be attempted, and will succeed.

The crowd of horsemen is given as the huge number of 200,000,000. This is clearly not a literal number. It shows the huge size of the armies used.

At the same time as these angels are loosed, that river is to be dried up "to prepare the way for the kings from the east." An army of 200,000,000 horsemen will then pour into Palestine, most likely meaning to invade and conquer Europe. We question whether the number given for this amazing army is only symbolic, for John says, "I heard their number."

The symbol of a mighty army of horsemen points to some unstoppable delusion of the devil. "Their power in their mouth" may show that this delusion will come with all the persuasive power of speech. ... As a result a third of mankind are killed. This probably does not mean physical death. It means that men are led into all the misery of apostasy — moral death to God.

The immense host, 200,000,000 in number, is completely in the hand of a Master. Its time, its work and its limit are measured out by eternal Wisdom, so that evil at its fullest development is servant to the good. The number is given special emphasis: "I heard their number." And yet it seems impossible for it to be literal, unless we take it, as some would, as describing angelic hosts — where, of course, all our reasoning is lost.

And a vast army of horsemen, a terrible display of human power and strength, pours in from the east across the scene of prophecy. ... And, my reader, if you are not caught up to meet Christ and be for ever with the Lord, you may see all this, and feel it in your own terrified soul!

The description of the horsemen and the horses must be symbolic. The horsemen had breastplates of fire, and of jacinth and brimstone, speaking of satanic energy and power and direction. The horses are one with their riders, for out of their mouths went fire and smoke and brimstone, and by these spiritual poison gases men were killed.

It is indeed a woe. A breastplate is normally a piece of armour that is wholly defensive. But these are of fire and jacinth and brimstone, so they bear an offensive character… This woe falls on the Gentile nations and the proud Roman Empire, which in its revived form will be the dominant political power on the earth in the last days.

The Greek word here means hyacinth, and as a colour that is a deep purple. In Rev. 9:17 the horsemen had breastplates of fire, jacinth, and brimstone, which seem to imply flashes of coloured light.

In the previous Woe we had locust and scorpion together, which stood for destruction and agony. Here horses take the lead — the aggressive and military agents of plunder and slaughter. Their heads "as heads of lions" give this army a certain majesty, courage, and boldness — the well-known marks of "the king of the forest."

These military expeditions are under Satan's direction. Out of the pit he supplies his agents with a defensive armour that no weapon of war can overcome. Here he arms the host with three offensive, destructive forces. Under that empire Christ was crucified, Jerusalem destroyed, and the Jews scattered. Its people are to suffer on earth, as far as men can, the agonies and torments of the lake of fire. Fire and brimstone are the symbols of unimaginable anguish (Rev. 14:10; Rev. 19:20; Rev. 21:8). With them comes "smoke," the moral darkness and delusion of the pit.

Here the "mouth" stands out, and not their tails only as in the locust judgment… Their breastplates are not as iron but of fire and jacinth and brimstone, carrying the very character of the lake of fire.

The horses appear to matter most, and the text dwells on them, though it describes their riders first — and only "breastplates of fire and hyacinth and brimstone." These match the "fire and smoke and brimstone" out of the horses' mouths. They are instruments of divine judgment, and that makes them invincible while they carry out their work. The horses have heads like lions; destruction comes with an open front — the judgment of God. So the human hands that direct it matter less: divine wrath is sure to find those who will carry it out.

Unbelief will discover nothing in it apart from man; but faith will connect all with God.

Fire and brimstone are the extreme form of judgment, the symbols of eternal punishment. Smoke, with its darkening power, works alongside them. These are the instruments of destruction… There is not only moral death, but physical. Vast destruction of life marks this woe, along with Satanic poison poured into souls. The wise will understand the details when it happens; for now we can only see them in outline.

The fire, smoke, and brimstone are separate plagues, but here they work together in the slaughter. Satan's judicial power inflicts the death that the mass are doomed to, and that makes it more dreadful than a sudden death by the sword. This is not simply human slaughter by the scientific methods of warfare, ancient or modern. The destructive forces of the pit are let loose on a "third part of men" who are killed. They are probably the worst in the empire, since a remnant is spared (v. 20) who still do not repent. Twice the three plagues are named, and twice as going out of the mouths of the horses. That repeated mention presses home two things. Satan's judicial power is at work. And the agents are not mere hired soldiers: Satan energises them, and they delight to kill. "Out of their mouths" shows the heart's diabolic pleasure in the work.

Fire and brimstone are the extreme form of judgment and the symbols of eternal punishment. Smoke has a darkening power. All three are the instruments of destruction... There is not only moral death, but physical. Vast destruction of life, besides Satanic poison poured into souls, marks this woe. The wise will understand its details when it happens; for now we can only gather them in outline.

As to the character of the second woe itself, it is not torment like the first, but destruction of life. ... It is the judicial power of Satan, as far as God permits that. It also goes far beyond the earlier woe in energy and in aggressive, destructive warfare.

The symbol of a mighty army of horsemen points to some irresistible delusion of the devil. "Their power in their mouth" may mean that this delusion will come with all the persuasive eloquence of speech. But behind the delusion is the power of Satan, symbolised by their tails being like serpents. The result is that a third part of men are killed. This probably sets out not physical death, but men led into all the misery of apostasy — moral death to God.

The "third part of men" appears again here, so we gather this woe from the east falls especially on what we have called the Roman earth. ... If the earlier woe applied more to the apostates of Israel who were not sealed, this one falls rather on the Gentile nations and the proud Roman Empire. In its revived form that empire will be the dominant political power on the earth in the last days.

The immense hosts, two hundred million in number, are perfectly in the hand of a Master. Eternal Wisdom has carefully apportioned their time, their work and their limit. Evil at its fullest development is a servant to the good... The riders' breastplates of fire and hyacinth and brimstone answer to the "fire and smoke and brimstone" out of the horses' mouths. They stand for divine judgment, of which these hosts are the instruments, and that judgment makes them invincible while their work is done. The horses have heads like lions. Destruction comes with an open front — the judgment of God. So the human hands that direct it matter less: divine wrath is sure to find its executioners.

Notice that mouth here is singular, though the word appeared twice just before as a plural, and that tails is plural. Mouth and tails, singular and plural, would say that one spirit drives them all, but that the teachings and lies of Satan are many and varied. "The power of the horses is in their mouth and in their tails." There is not only the open power of Satan, but in addition his secret, malicious and soul-destroying influence. Both are in view here. In the previous woe the power to injure was in the tail (v. 10). Here the power to destroy is in the mouth and tails (v. 19). There he is the liar. Here he is both murderer and liar.

The clause that puts the power in their mouth serves only as a link to what is still to be said about their tails. What comes out of the mouth of the horses did not show enough of their harmful and dreadfully destructive drive. That drive takes further shape in the symbol of the serpent — tails.

"Tails like serpents." The serpent was the creature the devil chose to hide in when he deceived Eve (Gen. 3:1). It is probably the only creature in the animal world condemned to stay degraded for ever, even during the long, worldwide blessing of the millennial days (compare Gen. 3:14 with Isa. 65:25). The serpent is another word for craft, deceit, trickery and cunning. The "tail" of the serpent expresses malignant influence, falsehood, mischief (Isa. 9:15; Rev. 12:4).

Further, the tails have "heads," showing that something intelligent directs this harmful influence. It pursues its purpose to injure with relentless, intelligent activity.

They killed by what they proclaimed, wherever it reached. It cost people their lives. They also had harmful teachings. Those teachings formed one power by which they did harm on the earth — they had heads on their tails.

As for the character of the second woe itself: it is not torment like the first, but destruction of life… That is, they spread poisonous error and left it behind them, and they did this with a more settled plan than in the locust-woe. The locusts in the first woe had scorpion-like tails and stings. The horses in the second had serpent-like tails, and those tails had heads. But they had power in their mouth also… It is the judicial power of Satan, as far as God permits that.

God's judgment comes first in this punishment, but Satan's power is in it too. The horses' tails are like serpents, and have heads, and with these they do hurt. Poisonous falsehood marks this time, when men are given up to believe a lie. Death, physical and spiritual, work together, and the destruction is terrible. But those who escape are not delivered from their sins.

"Their power in their mouth" may show that this delusion will come with all the persuasive eloquence of speech. But behind the delusion is the power of Satan, pictured by their tails being like serpents. As a result the third part of men are killed. This probably does not mean physical death. It means that men are led into all the misery of falling away from God, or moral death to God.

A humbling lesson, and one we need to remember! God has been sending judgment upon judgment. First He struck men's circumstances, then the men themselves — in this last case torment, and finally death itself. But it is in vain. Such is man after all this, that he repents not of his evil, either religiously or morally. Satan's last effort remains.

We never find that God's dealings in judgment produce reformation. In Egypt God dealt with Pharaoh, making His blows harsher and harsher. Did that soften his heart? No, it hardened it. Of judgment still to come, Revelation 16:11 tells us more. Men will curse the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores, and will not repent of their deeds.

"The works of their hands," of which they did not repent, is a phrase peculiar to heathen idolatry (Isaiah 2:8; Jeremiah 1:16; Psalm 115:4-7).

Here and elsewhere we learn a humbling truth. What "the progress of the age" is drifting towards, in the end, is the setting up of idolatry, in some shape or other, among the civilized nations of the earth. No doubt it will take some plausible and intellectual form, appealing to natural religious feelings, as it always does in its early stages. But God simply classes it with other heathen abominations.

"That they should not worship demons," not "devils" as older translations have it. Demon worship here is different from the worship of lifeless idols made of various materials. Demons are living spiritual beings who dread a judgment to come (Matthew 8:28-29). The abyss is their proper home (Luke 8:31). They are a class of wicked spirits (Revelation 16:14). Satan is their leader, "the angel of the abyss" (Revelation 9:11). In the lands called Christian, people will yet practise, openly and everywhere, the Gentile idolatry Paul condemned so sternly (1 Corinthians 10:20-21).

What were they, these idol-images? Simply matter — silver and gold — shaped by men's hands! Mouth and eyes are there all right... But the idol gives no response to his worshipper by word or look. He takes in nothing. He does not hear the voice that cries to him. He does not smell the incense or the sacrifice. He can stretch out no hand to help, and no foot of his will stir to bring relief. What can these senseless deities do but degrade the men who bow before them into beings as senseless?

Idolatry has taken over the whole scene. The rich have their gods of gold and silver. The middle class have theirs of brass and stone. The poor have their own as well: idols of wood. The worship and the conduct of the worshippers must always match. If people give up God, who is light and love, for Satan, a murderer and a liar, Satan stamps his own character on his followers and worshippers. Verse 20 gives their religion; verse 21 shows their deeds.

We must not think that demon activity has stopped. The call is: "Do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God." 1 John 4:1. This agrees with the statement that "in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons." 1 Timothy 4:1... The world and the professing church are plainly ripening for these things.

The whole scene is given over to idolatry. The rich have their gods of gold and silver. The middle class have theirs of brass and stone. Even the poor have their idols, made of wood. The kind of worship and the behaviour of the worshippers must always match. reason

Revelation uses another word for sorceries: pharmakeia. It refers to drugs — "to stupefy with drugs" — and then to any system of sorcery by spells... Sorcery ranks with the grossest of sins, and the same word describes the professing church in mystical Babylon. Galatians 5:20 translates it "witchcraft."

"Thefts." The bonds of society are loosened. All mutual respect for each other's rights is completely gone, even in the most sacred relationship. What follows? Greed will lure on the mass of men "not killed" to enrich themselves at the expense of society. "Each one for himself" is the order and motto of these coming days. Some respect for property and for other people's goods may still exist, but theft will be part of the settled life and history of these terrible times. A world without God, given up judicially by Him, and Satan received as its prince and ruler!

"The rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent," and so on. A humbling lesson, and one we most need to remember! God has been sending judgment after judgment. First on men's circumstances, then on the men themselves — torment in this case, and at last death itself. But it is in vain. After all this, man is still what he is: he does not repent of his evil, in religion or in morals. Satan's last effort remains.

Notice, too, the awful moral condition that will characterise the people of this day. God is refused, idols are accepted in His place; all ties between man and man are broken, and the flesh runs riot in every kind of abominable sin. And this is the outcome of modern progress and civilisation! This is what perfected methods of education produce, and enlightened laws meant to improve government and reform society! Remember, this revived Roman empire, where this "woe" falls, is the expression of man's highest ideal — the outcome of all his striving to perfect the human race. Look at the result!

The close of Revelation 9 showed us rebellious men whose depravity and self-will could hardly go further. Chapter 10 opens with a vision of an Angel of unusual majesty and glory. He announces a speedy end to God's mysterious dealings with the earth. So before the final blow falls, God in His mercy gives solemn and ample warning.

Things are drawing to a close. The half-week of sorrow (three and a half years) is nearly over. Its last hours show the world in mad, open rebellion against God. They also show His saints, on whom the Beast and the Antichrist pour out their fury. But before the Gentile and Jewish apostates and those they have fooled drink the last dregs of the Lord's vengeance, this comforting vision breaks through the dark clouds of judgment. It is a stern reminder to the world. Despite the rage of the wicked, the government of the earth is the Creator's just claim, and He is about to make that claim good in power. The vision is also well fitted to strengthen and comfort believers, especially suffering saints. The same power that will crush the enemy lifts the sufferers to honour.

This is the personal description of this mighty angel. Several of its details point us to the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. He is clothed with a cloud. A cloud is often connected with the divine presence, and so with our Lord... On the mount of transfiguration a cloud overshadowed both Him and His disciples (Matt. 17; Luke 9); and when He ascended up into heaven a cloud received Him out of the sight of His own (Acts 1)... In Revelation 4 the rainbow is around the divine throne; here it is on the angel's head. The rainbow is the symbol of God's everlasting covenant with the earth (Genesis 9:12-13). None, therefore, but a Divine Person could wear the rainbow on His head. The last two features, the face like the sun and the feet like pillars of fire, are almost exactly the same as those given in Revelation 1:15-16. There can be no doubt, then, that this mighty angel is Christ.

"Another strong angel" takes our thoughts back to Revelation 5:2. The only thing the two have in common is the word "strong." The earlier text speaks of a created being given great might. This passage shows us an uncreated Being of divine majesty and power. It is the Lord Himself. We have had already a vision of the Lord in angelic, priestly intercession (Rev. 8:3); here He asserts in angelic power His undisputed claim to the dominion of the earth.

A mighty angel comes down out of heaven, the source of His action. He is clothed with a cloud, the special sign of Jehovah's majesty (Isa. 19:1). None but He has the right to come clothed like that. Further, the rainbow is on His head. He occupies Himself with divine mercy toward the creation. It is no longer a matter of the rainbow around the throne. Here a further step is taken. He approaches the earth. He asserts His undeniable claim to all creation, because it is His by right. "And His face was as the sun," with supreme authority; "and His feet as pillars of fire," with firmness of divine judgment.

The tenth chapter clearly shows that Christ is soon to assert His own rights in the earth. He will declare that He is the only Potentate, the King of kings and Lord of lords... John saw a mighty angel standing for Christ in this way because the time for Christ's actual return had not yet come. The vision surely tells us this: however hardened, unbelieving and unrepentant men may be, Christ is Lord of all. He is soon to lay claim to all, and so events will move fast.

The strong angel's descent to earth signals the close of God's providential dealings. The scene of action is now openly on earth, not in heaven... The rainbow on his head is the same rainbow John saw before (Rev. 4:3). There it encircled the throne and its majestic Occupant; here it rests on the head of the angel, with all its many colours and glories. In the middle of these scenes of judgment God's remembrance of mercy is constant and unfailing. The bow in the cloud, that ancient token of divine goodness (Gen. 9), reappears here, just at the time and season when it is most needed.

From Revelation 10 to 11:14 is a parenthesis. It begins with a Mighty Angel, clothed with a cloud, a rainbow on His head, His face like the sun, and His feet like pillars of fire. In this description there can be no mistake. Here we have the Lord Himself in angelic form. When He appears it is indeed the beginning of the end.

So we have again the Lord in angelic appearance. Before, He appeared as high priest; here He is the angel with royal claim… He approaches the earth, and He asserts His undeniable claim to all creation as His by right… It is no sealed-up book now, but a little one and open: sea or earth are alike His.

In Revelation 5 the Lord holds a closed, seven-sealed book in His right hand. Here the angel holds an open book. Why closed in the one and open in the other? In the first, the Lamb discloses the purposes of God one by one, purposes never revealed before. In the second, "the book is open as part of well-known prophecy, and now brought to a direct issue on known ground." This is also a "little" book, small compared with the larger book of chapter 5, which was so full that it was written on both sides.

It is not a sealed book like the one in Revelation 5, whose contents no one could know until the seals were broken. This book is open, and its contents were already known. Christ's action in taking possession of the earth and the sea — and all that earth and sea represent — is pictured by His right foot on the sea and His left foot on the earth. The prophetic writings had surely made this known already. (See, for example, Psalm 72; Isaiah 11; 25; 60; Zechariah 14, and countless other passages.)

The angel set His right foot on the sea, and His left foot on the earth. In Scripture the sea often pictures the mass of nations in an uncivilised state. The earth speaks of the ordered part of the world that has had the light of God, whether in Judaism or Christendom. So the earth is the part of the world that prophecy applies to above all. This leads us on to the time when Christ will publicly assert His rights over the whole world.

Three times in this vision the angel stands on the sea and the earth, and each time the sea is named before the earth, while elsewhere in this book the order is reversed. Is it chance or divine precision that the right foot comes down on the rebellious nations and peoples, and the left on the professed scene of light and government? How firm the tread of the angel! How complete the action! How thorough the subjugation of all to Him!

The Angel stood with His right foot on the sea and His left on the earth. That is, He dominates the whole world — both the unstable, turbulent masses and the more stable, organized kingdoms. So He dominates the entire scene, though for a short time yet He does not display His supremacy, and men do not acknowledge it.

Notice the thought underneath: what the servant of God gives out as prophecy or teaching, he must first eat, digest and absorb himself. Nothing does more spiritual harm than to proclaim and parade our knowledge of truth that we have not yet really made our own in meditation, in prayer, in experience. Gaining fresh truth is sweet and thrilling as honey. But once we digest and absorb it inside, it always displaces flesh and self and the world, and that is a bitter process.

Along with the act of the angel we have His voice of majesty and power, causing intense terror throughout the whole earth (Hosea 11:10; Joel 3:16). It is the voice of Christ. "He sends out His voice, His mighty voice" (Ps. 68:33). We have here the roar of the lion of the tribe of Judah. Chapter 5 names Him this way alongside the Lamb, in that magnificent heavenly scene. But there we see the Lamb acting; here the Lion.

"Does a lion roar in the forest, when he has no prey? Does a young lion cry out from his den, if he has taken nothing? … For the Lord God does nothing without revealing His secret to His servants the prophets. The lion has roared; who will not fear? The Lord God has spoken; who can but prophesy?" (Amos 3.) I cannot help seeing this passage from the prophet as an illustration, in several ways, of the vision before us. Again, in the Old Testament thunder always stood for God's authority in judgment. We are called to hear this dreadful announcement of God's judgments.

The angel's cry was a cry to Jehovah, and it is answered at once. The answer is one of power and judgment. Thunder is God's voice in judgment, the expression of His authority in it (1 Sam. 7:10; Ps. 18:13; Job 26:14). "The seven thunders" indicate a full and perfect response to the angel's cry. "The seven" gives precision and definiteness to the answering voices of the thunders. This was not a crash like natural thunder. These thunders gave clear expression to the mind of the God of judgment; they "uttered their own voices."

It is the voice that comes first, the voice of Judah's Lion, as "suddenly His anger kindles." The seven thunders answer it — the full divine voice, the whole government of God in action. But what they say must find its meaning at a later time.

His voice, too, was of the highest power and majesty. Its echo was the seven thunders, which surely speak of further acts of judgment. God makes the seals, the trumpets and the bowls all public, but by express command the thunders go unrecorded. It is a solemn thought. Many details of the divine judgments are revealed, yet there will be judgments beyond anything made known to us.

The thunders spoke clearly, but John is not allowed to write their words (v. 4). So we do not need to know what was said.

Things are drawing to a close. The three and a half years of sorrow are nearly spent, but their last hours show the world in mad and open rebellion against God, and against His saints, on whom the Beast and the Antichrist unleash their fury. Before the Gentile and Jewish apostates and those they have fooled drink the last of the Lord's vengeance, this comforting vision breaks through the dark clouds of judgment. It is a stern reminder to the world that, despite the raging of the wicked, the government of the earth is the just claim of the Creator. He is about to make that claim good in power. But the vision is also perfectly fitted to strengthen and comfort believers, and especially suffering saints. The same power that will crush the enemy raises the sufferers to honour.

The "seven thunders" are the perfection of God's intervention in His judgment, answering the voice of the angel. God keeps sealed those things which John then sees; He will not allow John to write. God allows the thunders to speak, to show that all His power must intervene in answer to this cry of Christ.

"The lion has roared; who will not fear? The Lord God has spoken; who can but prophesy?" (Amos 3). I cannot help seeing this passage from the prophet Amos as an illustration, in several ways, of the vision we are examining. Again, in the Old Testament thunder was constantly how God expressed His authority in judgment. God calls us to hear this dreadful announcement of His judgments. John was about to write, but a voice from heaven forbids it. He was not to communicate the details of what God was going to do now.

The prophet was about to record the words of the thunders. He heard and understood. This vision is full of voices. That of the angel of the thunders, and another "out of heaven." This was a voice of authority... Those communications, unrevealed to us, were to be sealed. It was not the time to make them known. The exact meaning of these revelations remains undisclosed; probably they appear in the later communications that deal directly with the end.

The seer receives two commands: first, to seal up the sayings of the thunder; second, not to write them (compare Dan. 8:26; 12:9)... Sealing these prophetic revelations supposes that the end is a long way off. If the end is near, then the prophecies are not to be sealed. In one case the words are sealed, for the end is far off (Dan. 12:9); in another the sayings are not sealed, for the end is near (Rev. 22:10).

It is the opening voice of the Lion of Judah, whose anger is quickly kindled. The seven thunders answer it — the full divine voice, the whole government of God in action. But what they say has to find its meaning at a later time.

I know of nothing that gives the soul more freedom in reading this book than this sealing up. It speaks of the care and love and foresight that has shut away in the book all we were not to see... But how sweet it is to rest in the love that sealed them to us and opened them to John. How sweet to be free of jealousy or grudging against Him who has made the difference.

It is a selected revelation. We have not recorded in it all that God has revealed during these 4,000 years to His people... Paul writes of having heard unspeakable words, which it is not possible for a man to utter (2 Cor. 12:4). John heard the voice of the seven thunders, but was forbidden to record what they said (Rev. 10:4). And the same apostle tells us that Jesus did many other signs in the presence of His disciples, which are not written in this book. But these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in His name.

The angel lifts up His hand to heaven and swears by the living God, the Creator of heaven, earth and sea and everything in them, that there should be delay no longer (v. 6). He is one with God, so that this is really God swearing by Himself. He had done this when showing grace to Abraham and his seed (Hebrews 6:13-14); now He does so when executing the judgment that subdues all things under Him.

If we are right to identify this "mighty Angel" with our Lord, then in swearing "by Him who lives forever and ever" He was swearing by Himself, just as when God gave the promise to Abraham. That was an oath for blessing. This is an oath for judgment. Both are equally unchangeable.

Many imagine it means that time was then to end and eternity to begin. But that is not the sense at all... The meaning is that God would no longer let time run on before He stepped in and dealt with the course of this world. Eternity was not to begin at once. There was simply to be no more passing of time before His last summons to the world.

It is not "no longer time," as the Authorised Version has it and the Revised Version keeps it. The translators corrected their blunder by putting "delay" in the margin instead of "time." Either the text or the margin is right, for both cannot be. After the angel's oath is fulfilled, at least a thousand years run their course before time ceases and eternity opens. So it cannot mean that there will be no longer "time."

It is Christ come down, after His long season of patience at the right hand of God, to take possession of His rightful inheritance. Notice this too. He gained the title through His redemption work, yet He takes possession by right of the Creator's sovereign claim. That is why He lifts up His hand to heaven and swears by the eternal God, the universal Creator. It is creation's Lord who has given the title, and now He comes to make it good.

He takes the earth, not by right of His work on the cross, which is not mentioned here. He takes it as the One whom God has resolved to set over the works of His hands — God acting in His sovereign rights as Creator and "possessor of heaven and earth." In the fifth chapter, where God appeared as Judge, Christ was seen as the Lamb slain. In the fourth chapter, where God appeared as Creator, the Lamb was not seen.

God's patience and long endurance had held back the full stroke of divine judgment. But the evil was appalling, and chapter 9 ends by exposing a complete lack of repentance. This was now hastening the climax, which would come when the seventh trumpet sounded. At last the cup of man's iniquity was full.

Now, however, this mystery of God is about to be finished. God, by His Son, the Heir of all things, will wrench the government of the world out of Satan's iron grasp and shut him up as a prisoner in the abyss for 1000 years... Evil is tolerated and allowed today, despite many checks that keep it from reaching its full height. Then God will punish it openly. The mystery is at an end. Christ is about to reign.

In this passage the mystery of God is this: for long ages God has not stepped in publicly in the affairs of men. The wickedness of men has grown, with no public check from God. God has let men indulge their desires, reach their ambitions, and grow in their rebellion against Him and in their persecution of His people. During the ages God's people have been tortured on the rack, banished from their homes, and martyred at the stake, and God, it might seem, has not interfered. All this — which has been called the silence of God — is a great mystery. But it can be explained. In Scripture a "mystery" is not something that no one can explain. It is something known only to those let in on it. While this mystery lasts, believers have the open book of prophecy, foretelling the blessing that will come when God steps in publicly. So the lamp of prophecy has lit up the darkness of the ages and let the believer into the mind of God.

We must in no way connect the mystery in Revelation 10:7 with the mystery that filled so much of Paul's ministry. That one is the heading up of all things in Christ. Its present aspect is that God has given Him to be head over all things to the Church, which is His body, the fulness of Him who fills all in all (Ephesians 1, 3; Colossians 1, 2). There are other mysteries, such as that of godliness (1 Timothy 3:16), and of lawlessness (2 Thessalonians 2:7). In Revelation the mystery is God staying passive while evil goes on and prospers. That would be a still greater mystery if revelation had not told us this: His silence, which He speaks of in Psalm 50, and His holding back will come to an end.

God does check evil to some extent, partly through human government and partly through His own providential dealings. It is a great mercy that such restraints exist. Still, no government can root out the influence of evil, and good is misrepresented, so it has little influence. That is what seems so mysterious a thing to us, when we know God and how He hates evil.

The real force of the words "when he shall begin to sound" is "when he shall sound, as he is about to do." This, with the expression "there shall be no longer delay," fixes the time. It is just before the seventh trumpet, when "the kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ" (Revelation 11:15). Then "the mystery of God" will be finished.

This is indeed glad tidings proclaimed to His prophets of old, not declared by them (although they did that too, as their books testify), but to them: "For the Lord GOD does nothing without revealing his secret to his servants the prophets" (Amos 3:7). This is God's decree: He will step in publicly for His afflicted saints. He will crush the power of evil. He will drive the usurper Satan out of the earth, which he has so far been allowed to ruin morally and physically. And He will set up the world in more than its first beauty and order. The same blessed hope, with added glories, is our strength today.

There has been an apparent long delay. Now there will be "no more delay." Man's day has run to its end. Though in cloud and storm, the day of the Lord is dawning at last. Then the mystery of God is finished... Meanwhile evil keeps on and seems to win, and by this the heirs of glory are disciplined. Now at last all is cleared up. The mystery of God had to be a mystery while patience did its perfect work. Now it is finished forever. The glory of God shines like the sun. How fully faith is justified! The murmur of doubt is silenced forever.

The prisoner of Patmos again hears the voice from "the Heaven," the dwelling of God. John's limbs may have been chained, and the waves may have dashed against his rocky prison. But the island was no lonely place for a man whose soul was taken up with the visions of God... He is commanded to go to the angel and take the little opened book out of his hand. He obeyed at once. The Speaker was none other than God Himself, and so his obedience was prompt and unquestioning. The majesty of the angel held no terrors for John.

Notice the clear contrast. The prophet here takes and eats a little book. We have already seen a great book sealed with seven seals... Why a little book? And why open? It is little, because it deals with a narrower sphere, one already familiar in the prophets. It is open, because things are no longer described in the mysterious dress that the Seals, and even more the Trumpets, put on them. Everything is going to be plain in what comes out here.

The book has been shut up until now, but it is shut up no longer. Its contents are clearly connected with what the angel does here. They have to do with the earth alone, not with heaven as well, as the seven-sealed book does. This should lead us to see what the book is. Old Testament prophecy has just this character: it opens up earthly things to us, not heavenly ones. Its promises belong to Israel, the earthly people (Rom. 9:4), and it deals fully with the millennial kingdom and the upheavals that are its birth-pains.

What is in the opened book will become the subject of John's testimony to peoples, nations, tongues and kings. But if God sends His servant to prophesy, He will first make him fit for the service. So John must first eat the book (compare Ezekiel 3:1-3). He must take in and digest these divine communications before he can rightly pass them on to others. Surely a lesson for God's servants in every age.

Note the thought underneath it all. What the servant of God gives out, as prophecy or as teaching, he must first eat, digest and absorb himself. Nothing is more spiritually ruinous than to announce and show off knowledge of truth we have not yet made our own in meditation, in prayer, in experience.

There is no sweeter passage in all Scripture than what God has revealed about the showing forth of His blessed Son. Prophetic truth is usually sweet and attractive to those whose interest in it is just waking up. But if it is followed through, if the book is really eaten, it leads to self-judgment and to separation from evil. That will always be bitter. There is not one of us who readily takes the place God's Word would put him in during this time of Christ's rejection. So the point here is that God's truth makes demands.

The meaning of this soon becomes clearer. There is something like an appendix of prophecy, where he takes up his course again for special reasons. We may call it the second volume of "the things which are about to be after these," and it starts at Revelation 12.

We are dealing with symbols here. The prophet eating the book is no harder to understand than Jeremiah eating the words of the LORD (Jer. 15:16). To eat is to make the thing one's own, to take it into one's being (John 6:49-58). The Christian prophet eats the scroll and finds it both sweet and bitter. This reminds us of a similar symbolic act by the Jewish prophet (Ezek. 2:8; Ezek. 3:1-3). The first effect of the prophetic message, the scroll in the mouth, was sweetness — the sweetness of honey. But then you weigh the revelations and think over the judgments they announce, and the next effect is bitterness and sorrow. Prophecy both gladdens and saddens. It announces both joy and grief.

Notice the clear contrast between two books. Here the prophet takes and eats a little book. Earlier we saw a great book sealed with seven seals. It was sweet as honey to the taste that the true and all-worthy King should reign. But how bitter to the feelings that unsparing judgment should fall on most of the Jews, and still more on proud Christendom, both apostate and worse. Why a little book? And why open? It is a little book, because it deals with a fairly narrow field, already familiar from the prophets. It is open, because things are no longer described in the mysterious disguise that the Seals, and still more the Trumpets, put on them.

How sweet it is to our taste when God communicates some new truth to us! We rejoice in it like people who have found hidden treasure. But all truth is death to the natural man. So when the Holy Spirit applies it inside us, we find it bitter in its working and effects.

Notice the thought underneath. Whatever the servant of God gives out as prophecy or teaching, he must first eat, digest and absorb himself. Nothing does more spiritual damage than to announce and parade knowledge of truth we have not yet made our own in meditation, in prayer, in experience. Gaining fresh truth is sweet and exciting as honey. But once we digest and absorb it, it always displaces flesh and self and the world, and that is a bitter process. This is so even when, as here, the little book concerns judgment that is to fall on others and not on oneself.

If the book is really eaten, it leads to self-judgment and to separation from evil, and this will always be bitter. God's truth makes demands. If you set out in earnest to walk in the truth revealed, you too will know something of its bitterness. Receive the prophetic testimony, walk in the power of what is revealed there, and you can no longer enjoy the things you used to enjoy.

The Bible — to widen the application — is not a book of information to gather and then repeat. It is the voice of God to the soul that reads it. So you must hear it for yourself before you can rightly pass on what you have heard... Take Ezekiel and John as examples: we are not qualified to be living channels of divine truth until we have made it our own.

The prophet eating the book is no harder to understand than Jeremiah eating the words of the Lord. To eat is to make the thing one's own, to take it into one's own being. The Christian prophet eats the scroll and finds it both sweet and bitter. This reminds us of a similar symbolic action by the Jewish prophet Ezekiel. The first effect of prophetic communication — the scroll in the mouth — was sweetness, the sweetness of honey. But when you weigh the revelations and think about the judgments they announce, the next effect is bitterness and sorrow. Prophecy both gladdens and saddens, as it contains announcements both of joy and grief.

Notice the clear contrast between the little book which the prophet here takes and eats, and the great book we have already seen sealed with seven seals. It was sweet as honey to the taste that the true and all-worthy King should reign. But how bitter to the feelings that unsparing judgment should fall on the mass of the Jews, and still more on the proud Christian world. Why a little book? and why open? It is little because it deals with a fairly narrow sphere, already familiar in the prophets. It is open because things are no longer described in the mysterious dress that the Seals, and still more the Trumpets, wrapped them in.

Does this not show that the truth of all God is going to bring in — the unfolding of coming glories — is indeed sweet to our taste? And yet it involves the setting aside of the flesh, and the utter judgment of all that the flesh craves. We have to discover that as believers the flesh is still in us. So the truth, however sweet to the taste, brings bitter exercises as it uncovers the true character of our own hearts.

If followed up, if the book is really eaten, it leads to self-judgment and to separation from evil. This will always be bitter. Not one of us finds it easy to take the place that God's Word would put him in during this time of Christ's rejection. And so the point here is that God's truth makes demands.

If God sends His servant to prophesy, He will first make him fit for his service; and so John must first "eat" the book. He must take in and digest these divine communications before he can pass them on to others in the right way… The truth must first become our own by inward application. Only then can we be taken up and used to testify of it to others. To try to "prophesy" before we have "eaten" and "digested" will only expose our nakedness in front of the enemy.

So the thought of the end of God's ways is sweet to the taste and glorious to think about. But men are wilful and blind, and Israel in particular. That is what makes judgment necessary before God can reach His end, and the thought of it gives sorrow to the heart. We look ahead, and it is "with joy and sorrow mingled," and so we enter to some degree into the spirit of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Notice the thought underneath this. What the servant of God gives out, whether prophecy or teaching, he must first eat and digest himself. Nothing does more spiritual damage than to announce and parade our knowledge of truth. It is truth we have not yet made our own in meditation, in prayer, in experience.

If God sends His servant to prophesy, He will first qualify him for that service. So John must first "eat" the book (compare Ezekiel 3:1-3). He must take in and digest these divine communications before he can rightly pass them on to others. This is surely a lesson for God's servants in every age... To try to "prophesy" before we have "eaten" and "digested" will only expose our nakedness in front of the enemy.

As believers we have to discover that the flesh is still in us. So the truth, however sweet to the taste, brings bitter exercise with it. It shows us the true character of our own hearts. We must judge not only the world around us, but the flesh within us... When we have judged the flesh, the Lord can use us as witnesses to others. So John, after passing through these exercises, is told, "You must again prophesy about many peoples and nations and languages and kings."

This is work with a deeply felt bitterness about it, because most people will not believe. Yet for a true prophet there is a sweetness no one can dispute.

John was to use the knowledge he had gained. Until now his prophecies had been the contents of the sealed book, whose judgments Christ had then first unfolded. But the contents of the open book he had now eaten were to form at least a part of the prophecies he had still to deliver. He had received divine understanding of the book of prophecy, and now he was to be its interpreter.

Twice the book is spoken of as "open." So in this short chapter we get things that were spoken and yet sealed, not to be published. We also get things which, though open, the prophet had to eat before he passed them on to others. Even in the solemn matter of judgment there is a time to keep silence and a time to speak.

If this is Old Testament prophecy that is now "open," we can see why John has at this point to "prophesy again" — not "before," but "over." That is, "concerning many peoples and nations and tongues and kings." He is to take up the theme of the old prophets. He does not simply echo their predictions; he adds to them a testimony that completes them and closes them.

There is an appendix of prophecy here, where he renews his course for special reasons. We may call it the second volume of "the things which are about to be after these." It begins with Revelation 12 and runs on from there.

So in Revelation 10 it is God's prophetic testimony as to many peoples and nations and tongues and kings, but neither the gospel nor the church as now.

"Rise and measure." John had been a passive but deeply interested watcher of the scenes shown under the earlier Trumpets. But now Israel, his own nation, is in question, and he is told to "rise." God's command stirs him into action. It is more than a mere question of posture.

The prophet now receives a reed like a staff, to measure the temple of God with it. A reed might suggest weakness, and in fact everything that is of God lies under that reproach at the time in view. But the words "like a staff" suggest the opposite thought. This measuring shows God's care for His people. To unbelief that care is a mystery, for His people seem exposed to the same ups and downs as other men. Yet it is a staff you may lean on with fullest confidence.

Once again the language is symbolic. A measure of length may suit a temple or an altar, but it cannot apply to worshippers in a literal sense. The thought seems to be that God examines these three and takes account of them. He ignores the outer court, since it lies under Gentile feet. This shows, we gather, that God is going to support what is of Himself among His people Israel here on earth.

The events of this chapter concern the period after the church is gone and before the Lord's appearing. So the temple must be the one the Jews will build, while still in unbelief, after they return to their own land. Still, we find a true remnant inside the corrupt nation... The word used here for temple means the house itself, including the holy place and the most holy place. It is not the other word sometimes used, which covers the whole set of sacred buildings together with the court.

The force of the figure does not require a material temple standing in Jerusalem at that time. Yet prophecy demands the building of a stone temple, and the rebuilding of Jewish life, both civil and religious, in that deeply solemn period between the church being caught up (1 Thess. 4:16-17) and the Lord's appearing (Jude 14, 15).

The altar, I think, means the bronze altar outside; the golden altar stood inside the temple. "Those who worship there" are people marked by nearness to God. The altar was where a person truly came near to God, and they have come near Him. It was the place of the burnt offering, which marked the acceptance of the person. So here we see God owning a certain number of people on the earth as able to draw near to Him.

In fact these worshippers had no access into the holy place. But we are taught here that God regarded them as belonging to it, even though they could not enter. So the remnant truly have a priestly character before Him.

Jewish worship stopped in the past and will start again in the future. Christian worship comes in between. Christians have no place of worship on earth; they enter no temple here. Their one and only place of worship is the most holy place in the sanctuary above (John 4:21, 23, 24; Heb. 10:19-22). Their sacrifices are praise to God and practical kindness to others (Heb. 13:15-16).

Here we have the same word as in chapter 8:3. God says, "I will grant authority to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy" — the word means power, or effectiveness. These things are not given in any order at all; but there is adequate testimony: two lampstands, two olive trees. These witnesses have the power of Moses and Elijah.

The hostile powers act without hindrance, yet God does not let them defile the city without raising up a witness against them. Verse 3 speaks of this witness... Outwardly the witnesses are marked by the deepest humiliation, shown by their sackcloth. Inwardly they are marked by a shining light, which God gives and keeps burning. The picture comes from Zechariah 4, except that here each witness is an olive tree and a lampstand. The olive tree supplies the oil, and the oil feeds the light. God is the God of the earth, and though the holy city is trampled down He has not given up His claim to the earth. So before He makes good that claim in irresistible power, He maintains His witness in the face of the enemy.

Note next how long their prophetic testimony lasts. It will be a thousand two hundred and sixty days... The two periods coincide, both being three years and a half... These three and a half years are the last half of Daniel's seventieth week (Daniel 9:25-27). This is the period of Antichrist's terrible rule in Jerusalem, backed and sheltered by all the power of the last head of the Roman empire. At the close of that period Christ will come in glory.

The Lord speaks of days here, not of forty-two months. It seems He does this to mark how much He values their testimony. He makes as much of it as He can. He does not sum it up together, as He does when He speaks of the beast (Rev. 13:5). Lovingly He speaks of the time as days, as though He were counting them all out.

Their days of testimony are counted one by one. Theirs is not an on-and-off testimony. It goes on daily till the allotted period is finished, and not a day longer.

People have made countless guesses about the number of witnesses... Others, with more reason and with some support from Scripture, suppose that Moses and Elijah are the two witnesses... The number of the witnesses is meant to convey a full and adequate testimony... Jewish law, and here we stand in Jewish circumstances, called for two witnesses to give valid evidence (Deut. 17:6; 19:15).

I see no proof at all that either Elijah or Moses is one of the two witnesses. The two witnesses stand in the same moral position as those two men, but there is no proof that they are the same people.

Being clothed in sackcloth may show that their message is one that calls aloud for repentance.

They stand apart from everyone around them, mourning over the terrible falling away of the nation they love, and everyone rejects them. Sackcloth is a fitting emblem of their testimony.

They are compared to two olive trees and two lampstands. This reminds us of Zechariah 4, where the prophet sees a vision of a seven-branched golden lampstand fed by two olive trees. The two lampstands speak of their clear and capable testimony. The two olive trees show that the Spirit of God gives this testimony all the support it needs.

In Zechariah there is one lampstand, all of gold, with its bowl, its seven lamps, its seven pipes, and an olive tree on either side. That is perfect unity and full development... The two anointed ones the prophet saw point in their fullness to the offices of Christ as King and Priest. These are the great means of giving and keeping divine light in "the world to come." Here we have only a testimony to these things. So there were two witnesses, the smallest testimony the law would accept. The oil here goes with mourning, not with joy. And the witnesses wear the sackcloth of affliction, not the garment of praise.

In Zechariah the thing itself is done; here there is only testimony to it... They stand before the Lord of the earth, the One to whom the earth belongs, to maintain His claim on it. They wear sackcloth because people resist that claim. Theirs is testimony enough in the power of the Spirit, a spiritual light in the darkness — a light that does not drive the darkness away.

It will be a testimony given at Jerusalem during Israel's Great Tribulation, but not worldwide. God will acknowledge it, for "only on the evidence of two witnesses or of three witnesses shall a charge be established" (Deuteronomy 19:15). It will not be a full testimony, as Zechariah's was, because instead of seven lamps there will only be two... Their light will support the weak remnant still living in Jerusalem before Christ's reign.

It is an adequate testimony to the state of Israel according to God — "two witnesses." God will also be among the remnant, without acknowledging the people as His own... In the "two," I do not go beyond the idea that it is an adequate testimony.

They are anointed ones, for they are olive trees, and so they testify in the power of the Holy Spirit. They are the two lampstands, so their testimony is the light from God in the darkness of that day. Standing before the Lord of the earth shows what their testimony is about: the claims of the coming Messiah as the rightful Lord of the earth... They are also two anointed ones. Besides the power of their testimony, this points to how Christ will come and take possession — as King and Priest, a Priest on His throne, like Melchizedek.

God is Lord over the earth. He will not let the times of the Gentiles last any longer... He had given the earth to the Gentiles (Daniel 2:37). His throne had judged Jerusalem and left it... But God will take back His place as Lord over the earth. The two witnesses testify to this lordship, to the Lord over the earth — not to the Father, or to the heavenly glory, or to the Lord of heaven.

The prophets stand before the Lord of the earth. They know whose presence they are in, and they endure because by faith they see Him, though human eyes cannot see Him.

The power of judgment comes out of their mouth. That is, their word brings judgment on their enemies, in line with their testimony, to devour those who would stop that testimony. They have great power in this way... This is great power. But they are in sackcloth — in sorrow and suffering. This power is only in their hand when they need it. And it is there only to secure and keep up their testimony, not to set aside the power of the beast itself.

Death is the certain portion of anyone who wants to harm the witnesses. Some will receive the testimony, and it may be many. Others — by far the greater number — reject the message with pride and scorn. Another group will try to harm the witnesses by violence or slander. Stern judgment falls on this last group. It does not fall on the crowd, but on one person at a time, as the opposition to the witnesses turns violent.

God is the God of the earth. Though the holy city is trampled down, He has not given up His claim to the earth. So before He makes that claim good in unstoppable power, He keeps His witness going in the face of the enemy. So much so that, for the whole time of their testimony, no one can touch them. It is their attackers who die, not them.

Notice here that the power of the two witnesses in Revelation shows itself in two kinds of signs. They shut heaven so that no rain falls, and they bring down fire from heaven; and if anyone wants to harm them, that is how he must be killed. That is Elijah. They strike the earth with every plague as often as they want. That is Moses.

This shows that it was not true Christian testimony... It was the very thing the Son would not do when He was on earth, and the thing He rebuked James and John for wanting (Luke 9:54-55). Here, instead, fire comes out of their mouth and devours their enemies. That is exactly right when God is about to take the place of Judge on earth. But the Lord does not take that place now. He is saving sinners... It would be foreign to Christianity, and against everything Christianity breathes, if a believer wished the death or injury of someone who opposed him with evil intent. Christianity shows that the victory grace gives us is to show love and kindness to an enemy.

This is not the grace of Christianity. It is the ministry of power in the manner of Elijah and Moses. The judgment must come because grace has had no effect, and its outcome will be blessing, for "when your judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world learn righteousness" (Isa. 26:9).

Some try to dodge the difficulty of the devouring fire that comes out of them by pointing to the final fiery judgment on God's enemies. But what could be weaker than such excuses? The true and full meaning is judicial power now, ongoing or occasional, against everyone who opposes them: like Elijah's among a people who had turned away from God, and like Moses' among a people oppressed and enslaved by the Gentiles. Their testimony is prophecy, not the gospel, so it is armed with judgment instead of breathing grace.

We may note here that the power of the two witnesses in Revelation shows itself in these two kinds of signs. They shut heaven so that no rain falls. They bring down fire from heaven. If anyone wants to harm them, he must be killed in this way. That is Elijah. They strike the earth with every plague as often as they wish. That is Moses.

In fact, those times match much of what you have in Moses and Elijah. There was idolatry in Israel then, and Elijah gave a remarkable testimony against it. God Himself punished His people, and the sky above them was like brass. So it will be again. The man who then controls Israel's future will turn away from God, and he will allow and enforce idolatry. Israel will again live under the authority of the nations, as they did in the days of Moses. Yet a little remnant will be set apart for God.

Elijah witnessed to a people in relation to God; Moses to a hostile power. In this way God would show how He will leave the people among whom the witness is given without excuse.

This does not mean that they are Moses and Elijah themselves. It means that their testimony has a similar character, and that God backs it as He backed the testimony of those two honoured servants long ago.

Here we find again the power of Elijah and of Moses. It is the proof that God takes up His relationship with His people once more, but in a sovereign way, through prophets as in earlier days — when His people were in Egypt, or cut off from the temple, as in the time of Elijah. This is always what God does when His people are in disorder and He returns to His relationship with them. The witnesses shut the heavens; they have authority over the waters and over the earth. The three things which we have seen to be objects of judgment (chapter 8) are now in their power.

Verse 6 gives them the same kind and extent of power that Moses and Elijah had. Elijah shut up heaven; Moses turned water to blood and struck Egypt with plagues. To this last there is no limit — every plague whenever they will. This is great power; but they are in sackcloth — in sorrow and suffering. This power is only in their hand in time of need. And it serves only to secure and maintain their testimony, not to set aside the power of the beast itself.

How useless to apply all this to witnessing Christians, in the West or the East, earlier or later! In practice their calling was not to resist evil, to love their enemies, to bless those who cursed them, to do good to those who hated them, and to pray for their persecutors. And the Lord Himself showed the pattern for this calling: their heavenly Father. He does not shut heaven so that no rain falls. He does the opposite, and sends rain in mercy on just and unjust alike, with no distinction between them.

This is not the grace of Christianity. It is the ministry of power in the manner of Elijah and of Moses. This judgment must come because grace has proved ineffective. And its outcome will be blessing, for "when your judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world learn righteousness" (Isaiah 26:9).

God preserves them despite the beast, till their work is done. But as soon as their testimony ends, God allows the beast to overcome them. It is just as it was with the Lord. The greatest pressure came against Him in His service.

The truth is simple. Take the word in its regular meaning and in harmony with the context, and God protects the witnesses for the whole 1260 days of their testimony. Then, once their mission is complete, and not before, God permits the beast to fight them, overcome them, and kill them.

The word is ἄβυσσος, literally 'without a bottom,' an abyss. The passages in Revelation show us that the abyss is where the Satanic powers are shut up. It is not where they will be punished. That place is the lake of fire.

This is the first mention of the Beast in these apocalyptic visions. He is named as one well known. In Daniel 7:2-3 and Revelation 13:1 the Beast, or Rome, rises from the sea. That is, it rises out of the struggling masses of mankind, out of a scene of anarchy and confusion... But our text says the Beast comes "up out of the abyss." So while its historical rise is human, its revival is satanic.

Next it is assumed that Revelation 11:7, "the beast that rises from the bottomless pit," means the beast who then rises from the bottomless pit. There is no proof of this. It is a characteristic, and not a date. Isn't it better to believe that he takes this character when Satan is cast down from heaven and is full of rage, and that the dragon then gives him his throne and great authority?

"It was allowed to make war on the saints and to conquer them." Some are killed — for example, the two witnesses. This could never have happened before. God never allowed His saints to be overcome.

The Beast has found his way from Rome to Jerusalem. Rome is the capital seat of Gentile power, both civil and religious. There he ravages and murders as he pleases. Yet both his power and the length of time he may use it are under divine control.

The Beast continues for at least seven years, but his power to persecute is limited to 1260 days, or forty-two months of thirty days each. The Beast is then allowed, at the close of his active career, to enter Jerusalem and kill the witnesses — "his last political act," as one has said.

Looked at from man's side, the beast had made war with them and "conquered them." Looked at from God's side, they have "conquered the beast."... God is always victorious in the end, and so are those who trust Him.

The words "where their Lord was crucified" make it clear that the scene of their testimony is Jerusalem. Whatever wrong has been done to the Lord's name at Rome, and however truly Rome may be pointed to in a secondary application, it would be an inexcusable twisting of the text to claim that any other city could be meant. It can only be the city where our Lord was actually put to death: Jerusalem.

"Where also their (not our) Lord was crucified." This clause rules out any symbolic application of the city to the Church. The Jerusalem of history is identified here by the crowning act of her guilt.

Jerusalem is seen in two very different ways: by its place in God's purposes, and by its actual condition. This chapter gives us both views. When it speaks of God's purposes, and of the guilt of the nations who trample the city down, it calls Jerusalem "the holy city." But here the city is seen in its spiritual state, under the power of "the beast that ascends out of the bottomless pit," and it is described as sunk in the deepest moral darkness.

Marked out for its lusts as Sodom, and for its cruelty to the people of God as Egypt, the city is no longer called the "holy" city but the "great" city — great even in its crimes.

Sodom has become a symbol of the world in its unrestrained lust and wickedness. There man drags himself down below the level of the animals, so that the cry of it goes up for God to step in and judge. Egypt is a symbol of the world with its splendid outward show. It supplies everything that serves man's pleasures and the appetites of the flesh. Yet Egypt itself is ruled by a degrading idolatry, which even enslaves the people of God if they fall under its power. All this may be great in man's eyes but it certainly is not holy.

Their bodies lie in the street. The malice of their enemies leaves them exposed and refuses them burial. But God allows it, so that the bodies stand as an open charge against those who have now finally rejected His righteous rule.

In verse 9 they profit from past experience. Because they allowed Christ to be buried, they will not allow burial to these witnesses. So it all happens in the open, and not out of sight as Christ's resurrection was (verse 12).

Jerusalem as it now is, the city we read about in the Bible and in our newspapers, is the city that "symbolically is called Sodom and Egypt, where their Lord was crucified" (Rev. 11:8). It is not a holy land. When people talk about going to "the holy land", we know what they mean. They want to go where Jesus walked and see Palestine. That is fine if they want to take a trip, but it is an unholy land.

There are three classes in this dark picture: (1) The beast who murders the witnesses. (2) Those "of the peoples, and tribes, and languages, and nations." They look at the bodies of the prophets, thrown out onto the street or the public places of the city, open to everyone's stares. They also show their hatred and scorn by forbidding the burial of the bodies, a shameful act. (3) "Those who dwell on the earth," the worst of the peoples of that day who had abandoned the faith. All the groups named here really live on the earth, but that phrase carries a moral meaning. They have turned their backs on Christianity. They firmly rejected the heavenly calling and chose the earth instead.

The Gentiles and "those who dwell on the earth" rejoice over the silencing of this testimony. They little suspect that, in spite of the death of the witnesses, the prophecy is on the very eve of fulfilment... Here two classes stand apart: the nations or Gentiles, and the dwellers on the earth. Of the first, "some" — no doubt a vast majority — rejoice, and in their triumph will not even allow anyone to bury the bodies... These people love the world and live for it. So the witnesses' prophecy of a coming kingdom of righteousness and judgment is unbearable to them.

One of the judgments announced against the people of Jerusalem was that they should not be buried. Birds and wild animals would eat their bodies. Jeremiah 16:4. With God's two future witnesses in Jerusalem, the wicked will rejoice over their dead bodies and will not let anyone bury them. Then their joy turns to terror. They see them stand on their feet alive again, and watch them go up to heaven. Revelation 11:9-12.

The three and a half days mentioned twice (vv. 9, 11) are literal days. It is impossible to take them any other way. We stand on the eve of the events that close the last prophetic week. Probably not many days remain, much less years, before the Lord returns to take His power and kingdom to Himself. The four periods of time named in this chapter are literal and exact. They belong not to the historical past, but to the coming crisis.

The two witnesses suffer bitter rejection and apparent shameful defeat. Murdering them is not enough for their enemies. They leave their dead bodies on the street in Jerusalem... Other nations also watch these dead bodies for 3½ days, perhaps by means of television. There can be no doubt of their actual physical death.

In the sight of their enemies the two witnesses are raised from death and stand on their feet (v. 11). If they had buried them, they would not have seen this great sight. But they take a morbid delight in staring at the dead bodies. So they expose themselves to the terror of seeing them come to life.

The beast "makes war against them, and overcomes them, and kills them." The nations, peoples and languages see their bodies "in the broad street of the city." This wording inclines me to think that they are not only two persons, but a large body of people. Their power is of God (v. 3), and He places them as His witnesses.

This phrase does not simply mean people who live on the earth. It carries a moral force. It means people who are earthly-minded at the core, who do not rise above the earth in heart or in ways.

In Revelation, "the earth" seems to mean what we would call the civilised world — a region the light has reached and where it has at least outwardly stayed. Yet wherever the words "those who dwell on the earth" occur, they readily bear a moral meaning. They are a class who make an outward profession of the light. They even admit that the testimony in the word of God is true — both its witness to the present grace of the gospel and its witness to the coming judgment on the world. Still, their interests lie only on the earth.

There are three classes in this dark picture: (1) The beast who murders the witnesses. (2) Those "from the peoples and tribes and languages and nations," who look at the bodies of the prophets thrown out on the street of the city, exposed to the crude stares of the crowd. They show their hatred and scorn by forbidding the burial of the bodies — a shameful act. (3) "Those who dwell on the earth," the worst among the apostate peoples of that day… Bad as the beast and his allies are, these dwellers on the earth are infinitely worse. The nations deny burial to the bodies of the martyred witnesses; the earth-dwellers keep high and joyful holiday, and exchange gifts and congratulations over the killing of the prophets.

Sending presents or gifts on occasions of public joy is an old and universal custom (Proverbs 19:6; Esther 2:18; Esther 9:19-22). Death has silenced the voice of the witnesses, and this is the cause of the public rejoicing.

Unbelief likes present enjoyment. Anything that gets in the way of it and makes the conscience uneasy is hated and unwelcome.

The testimony of holy consistency and prophetic nearness to God is a constant torment to those whom that testimony confronts about their apostasy. A prophet like this is always a witness that, for all their pride and self-satisfaction, they have fallen away from God. That is torment, because they really have no peace with God, whatever they pretend.

These people love the world and live for it. The witnesses foretold a kingdom of righteousness and judgment, and to such people that prophecy is unbearable. So their joy is intense when news comes that the hated witnesses are dead and the dreaded testimony is silent.

The careless world opposes true witness to Christ in the gospel. But it stirs a specially fierce resentment and rejection in today's modernists, whose effort is to reduce the faith of Christ to a mere scheme for earthly improvement. They deny that it came from heaven, and that it leads to heaven. They simply cannot stand its truth; it torments them.

Their triumph is brief. Only three and a half days pass before a miraculous display of God's power terrifies them. It shows His acceptance of the fallen witnesses and His wrath against the men who destroyed them and gloated over it.

But their triumph is brief. Only three and a half days have passed. Then a miraculous display of God's power terrifies them. It shows His acceptance of the fallen witnesses, and His anger against those who destroyed them and celebrated over them.

The energy of life, eternal life, from God is put forth, and the witnesses rise in its power and stand on their feet. Their witness is finished and their trials are past. They stand in the strength and stability of a life that death cannot touch. The whole world watches this act of resurrection. The Gentiles who have turned away from God see it, and their own consciences admit that it is from God. The effect is terror and alarm.

This was what marked what entered them and set them on their feet — a Spirit of life. The point was not to present the Spirit as an object, but to show the character of this sudden event and its source. To say "the Spirit of life" here would have gone too far. That would have amounted to a declaration that the Holy Spirit came and dwelt in them; but that was not the point. It was simply that this living power, from God, changed the whole state of things.

However, this wicked folly of Israel's leaders makes them witness their own defeat. In the sight of their enemies the two witnesses are raised from death and stand on their feet (v. 11). If they had buried them, they would not have seen this great sight. But they took a morbid delight in staring at the dead bodies. So they expose themselves to the terror of seeing them come to life. These witnesses stand there long enough to impress men with the reality of their resurrection.

The three and a half days mentioned twice (vv. 9, 11) are literal days. It is impossible to regard them otherwise. We are here on the eve of the events that close the last prophetic week… There is no room or need to take the time as anything but literal. The four periods of time named in this chapter are literal and exact. They belong to the coming crisis, not to past history.

There may be a more literal fulfilment of this in the crisis. Even so, nothing in the reviving of the witnesses makes it strictly literal. On the contrary, the terms are mostly symbolic. "A spirit of life from God," though it may be applied that way, does not strictly describe a mere giving of life. It was, however, something different from a simple renewal of prophecy in sackcloth. The testimony now was by their public exaltation, not by their faithfulness under trial.

John then heard "a loud voice from heaven." This was the voice of Jehovah, or of someone He empowered. It spoke to the witnesses, now raised in bodies that are immortal and cannot decay. They stood in front of their enemies, and their enemies were overcome with fear. "Come up here." In Heaven they are to find their place and portion. What an answer to earth's scorn, reproach, and murder!

It is not merely in a cloud, as some translations read, but in the cloud. I think it was the cloud seen at the start of Revelation 10, the one that wrapped around the mighty angel. That cloud is the known, special emblem of Jehovah's presence. It received the witnesses. It proved that their Lord, the Lord of heaven as well as earth, was on their side. They went up to heaven right in front of their enemies.

We are to be caught up in the clouds; they went up in the cloud, not in a cloud. Only here and in Luke 9:34 do we read of people entering into the glory cloud, the cloud of the divine presence.

The public saw both things: the witnesses raised, and their triumphant departure from the scene of their testimony and suffering. In these two ways they differ from Christ and from the heavenly saints. No human eye saw Christ come out of the tomb, and only His disciples watched Him go up. There is not a hint that anyone on earth will see our coming resurrection and removal to heaven.

If they had buried them, they would not have seen this great sight. Instead they took a sick delight in staring at the dead bodies, so they left themselves open to the terror of seeing them come back to life. These witnesses stand there long enough to convince people that their resurrection is real. Then a great voice from heaven calls them to come up.

Earth throws them out. In our Lord's prophecy they appear as brothers of the King: hungry and thirsty, strangers, naked and sick and in prison. Heaven welcomes them with delight as people the earth was not worthy of — a gleaning after harvest, as it were, of wheat for God's granary. They have lost the blessing on earth; they have gained the blessing in heaven. Their light was put out for a time, so that it may shine in a higher place forever.

They suffer under the beast, but are caught up to a heavenly portion, not an earthly one. Their going up foreshadowed the speedy fall of the beast and his followers.

Under the sixth seal, the earthquake is without doubt a violent breakup of society, of all government and social order. But here, in the narrow and limited sphere before us, we judge that a literal earthquake is meant. It will destroy a part of the city and kill seven thousand — a complete number devoted to death. Jerusalem has been the scene of similar visitations in the past, as it will be in the future. An upheaval of the forces of nature, bringing destruction of life and property, exactly suits the case. It would press on the rest of the guilty inhabitants the solemn fact that God's intervention in judgment was a stern reality.

The hour of triumph for the witnesses was the hour when justice repaid the city where they had testified. That city had shed their blood without cause. We understand a "tenth" here as meaning a complete judgment. So the ten plagues on Egypt were the sum of God's completed judgments upon that land.

God devotes seven thousand here to death. That number reminds us of "the seven thousand in Israel" whom God had reserved for Himself (1 Kings 19:18) — again a link, by contrast, to the times of Elijah. We need not think of an exact company of just seven thousand, any more than the numbers in Revelation 7:4-8 and 14:3 are literal. What is before us is simply a full and perfect number, whether large or small.

The earthquake killed 7,000 persons — "names of men," as the text puts it here. That wording fits a history of doom for people who are asserting their greatness upon the earth.

The judgment then becomes alarming. The Spirit of God raises up the witnesses, and they go up to heaven. Then the rest, frightened but not converted, give glory to the God of heaven. But it is too late. No wonder the Lord says of that time that it is such as never was, and that unless those days are cut short, no one will be saved. There is alarm at the judgments disclosed, but no reception of the testimony. There is zeal for God, but not according to knowledge.

The shaking does some good, however. Those who were not killed were at least terrified enough to give glory to the God of heaven. Whether they were really brought to God in faith is another question.

It will be easier then for men to acknowledge God above in a vague way. It is harder to own Him as the Lord of the earth, who concerns Himself with what men do here below. The first might be only to regard Him as One seen in the distance... The worldly man can well allow the thought of God far off from himself, and this is just what we have here. They were alarmed by what was near. But there was no reception of the testimony, no conversion.

Until the conscience is thoroughly searched and the soul brought into the light, there can be no fellowship with God. They wish Him away from the scene of their interests. When terror overwhelms their souls, they are willing enough to "give glory to the God of the heaven," because that keeps Him at a distance. But the special testimony of this book is to God's right and title to the earth. That is the very question in dispute with these people who have abandoned Him. So until men recognise God's right and claim to the earth, further and severer judgment must come.

At chapter 10 we reach a pause in the prophecy of the seven trumpet judgments. The pause lets us see the ways of God in keeping a witness for Christ on the earth. That is during the solemn period of the sixth trumpet, the second woe. This parenthesis closes with the statement of Revelation 11:14 that the second woe has passed and the third woe is soon to come. This surely shows that the events described in it happen during the second woe, and that the third woe, the seventh trumpet judgment, follows at once. The details in this passage show that these events fall in the three and a half years just before Christ comes to claim His earthly kingdom.

The events shown between the sixth and seventh seals prepare the way for the seventh seal. The events in the parenthesis between the last two trumpets belong with the sixth trumpet and add to it. We see this because the announcement that the second woe has passed does not come until Revelation 11:14.

The third woe will come from God Himself, just as plainly as the first came out of the abyss on the wicked Israelites, and the second came from the vast powers of the east on the faithless west. For it is the seventh trumpet. This matters for understanding how the book is built. The seventh trumpet carries us down to the end in a broad but final summary.

The first woe was marked by Satan's power, and those who suffered it were Jews who had turned away from God. The second came through human hands, and it fell on the Roman empire. The last is God's own woe, and it falls on the nations in general, because it goes with the setting up of Messiah's kingdom.

This episode closes the second woe, which is the sixth trumpet. We are told that the seventh trumpet and third woe follow quickly, for there is to be no more delay, as we saw in Revelation 10:6. So there is hardly any gap between the resurrection and ascension of the witnesses and the final act. That act closes man's day and brings in the kingdom.

Those who are not killed give glory to the God of heaven. This is the unacceptable product of mere human fear, and nothing comes of it. God is claiming the earth, not only heaven, and His witnesses have died to affirm that claim. Men can allow Him heaven while they deny Him the earth. And judgment takes its course.

The third woe is the coming of the kingdom!

That great kingdom is no woe to the renewed heart. It will bring unspeakable blessing. But to the godless rebel it is the worst of all woes. Each such rebel must now face the exposure of all his stored-up guilt. The One he has despised and rejected will judge him — Jesus, the exalted Son of Man, the eternal Son of God.

In these respects the seventh trumpet is very like the seventh seal. It too is brief. It closes the trumpet-series of judgment — in fact the three special woes. And it opens into another condition of things. That condition is not woe at all, but the time long looked for.

It may seem a small difference, but it is not. "The kingdoms of this world" at once suggests many kings, many conflicting interests, international jealousies, and the like. "The kingdom of the world (or world-kingdom) of our Lord and of His Christ is come" means something else: one universal kingdom covering the globe, with every part of the earth brought under the rule of the One reigning monarch.

For now the kingdom is open to faith, and only believers value it. Its portion on earth is tribulation and waiting for the Lord... Instead of this we have an entire change... Someone may object that the Lord Himself in John 18 says His kingdom is not of this world. I reply that this misses the point. This world is never the source of His kingdom. But is it not destined to be its sphere? It was not His kingdom then, and that does not prove it will never be His kingdom at some future time.

In current missionary writing, few phrases are more common than "the conquest of the world for Christ!" Yet Scripture never uses such a phrase. The kingdoms of this world are indeed going to become "the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ" — but as the result of woes and judgments, not of the preaching of the gospel. There is a great difference between subduing the world to Christ and gathering people out of the world for Christ.

This phrase reminds us of Psalm 2:2: "The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord and against His Anointed." They have done this all along. But here their proud opposition is broken, and the reign of the Lord by His Anointed begins.

Heaven rejoices because the kingdom is near, not because it has actually been set up. When the kingdom is established in power, earth as well as heaven will unite in thanksgiving and song... Rejoicing marks the inhabitants of heaven — the angels and the redeemed. Meanwhile the earth is preparing to enter its last agony before the light of the millennial morning dawns and clears away the gloom.

This is not the brightest thought our souls can enjoy about the future. Still, the fact that the Lord Jesus is to take the throne of the world is a very great rest to the heart in all the present confusion... We shall not be subjects merely of Christ when He comes, but kings reigning with Him.

Revelation often mentions the twenty-four elders John saw in heaven. He saw them around the throne, sitting on thrones (not seats), dressed in white, with crowns of gold on their heads, and they worship God. In the Old Testament, when everything was in order, there were twenty-four courses, or groups, of priests. Each group had an elder as its head (1 Chronicles 24:7-18). The elders in Revelation are twenty-four in number, and may point back to them. The elders in heaven have harps and golden bowls full of incense, "which are the prayers of the saints" (Revelation 5:8). This shows that they act as priests. They are without doubt the redeemed, including both Old and New Testament saints.

"The kingdom of our Lord" here means the setting up of God's government in contrast with man's misrule. So in Revelation 11:16 we have "before" (enopion) the throne. This partly shows its moral force, for they were "round" the throne, chapter 4:4. In chapter 11 the elders are again in their own distinct place, as intelligent worshippers — not the living creatures... But the setting up of the governmental power of God draws them to prostrate worship, just as the celebration of creative glory had done in chapter 4.

We are again reminded that they sat on their thrones before God. The point is not so much that they were sitting there at that moment, although they were. It is that this shows their place in the presence of God. It is characteristic; the elders occupied thrones before God. What a view this gives of the exaltation of the glorified saints! They are gathered around the Eternal Presence, and seated on thrones themselves, for they are kings as well as priests. They look on at God's ways in governing the earth as spectators — adoring spectators.

"And the twenty-four elders fall down before Him who is seated on the throne and worship Him who lives forever and ever. They cast their crowns before the throne" (Revelation 4:10). That is in respect of creation. "And when He had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb" (Revelation 5:8). That is in relation to redemption... Then Revelation 11:16... This one is the climax. The kingdom of this world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ.

So here the last trumpet sounds, and heaven announces "the world-kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ." At once the twenty-four elders are on their faces, giving God thanks, because He had taken to Him His great power and had reigned. It is true that this must come through much sorrow for guilty men. For the sword of judgment has to clear the way, so that the sceptre of righteousness may have free course... But they knew well that man must come down with a crash. They also knew that in the kingdom of our Lord and of His Anointed he will be lifted up in the only true and lasting way.

The anticipation of the kingdom, and not the actual setting up of it, is the cause of the rejoicing in heaven. When the kingdom is established in power, earth as well as heaven will unite in thanksgiving and song. We repeat: heaven alone celebrates the kingdom as come. Rejoicing marks those who live in heaven — the angels and the redeemed. Meanwhile the earth is getting ready to enter its last agonies, before the light of the millennial morning dawns and drives away the gloom.

As it stands now, verse 15 has been given a very weakened turn: "The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ." The true force is: "The world-kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ is come." In my opinion this gives the verse a very different and weightier meaning. It is the world-kingdom; and why? Because this book has shown us from the very beginning that there was another order of kingdom altogether. In Revelation 1 John spoke of himself as a "brother and companion in tribulation, and in the kingdom and patience in Christ."

It is characteristic; the elders occupied thrones before God. See how high a place the glorified saints are given! They are grouped around the Eternal Presence, and seated on thrones, for they are kings as well as priests. They watch God's ways in the government of the earth — and they watch as worshippers.

The elders, who represent the redeemed, answer the many voices of the heavenly host with an act of deepest worship. Their normal place is enthroned and crowned before God. Twice in chapter 5 the elders fall down and worship (vv. 8, 14). Only here is it said, "They fell upon their faces, and worshipped God." Nowhere else do the elders bow this low. The occasion demands it.

The elders give thanks to Jehovah (Lord) God Almighty, a strong combination of divine titles. Jehovah is the self-existing One. God (Elohim) is, as such, the Creator. He is Almighty too, in power and in resources. Then His Being is declared eternal: "Who is" (eternal existence), and "Who was" in relation to the past. The Authorised Version adds "and art to come," but it should be left out, as the Revised Version and other translations leave it out. "To come" would be out of place in this doxology, because the kingdom, in its time and its eternal features, is here regarded as present. That dropped phrase does belong in Revelation 4:8.

They worship God as He was revealed in the Old Testament, that is, as Lord God Almighty (Jehovah Elohim Shaddai). The reason is that the question now is God's kingdom on earth.

It is interesting to observe that while the kingdom is that of our Lord and of His Christ, or Anointed (Ps. 2), yet He takes it, not they. Jehovah and Christ are distinguished here, yet they are united in taking the kingdom and in the reign that follows. That is why the pronoun is singular where you might expect a plural. It may well be called "your great power." The fullness of divine power, the might of the Eternal God, is put forth. The kingdom in its widest sweep takes in the heavens and the earth, and stretches on through time into eternity. It has been wrested from the grasp of the enemy. And "hast reigned" is the term used — so sure that it is spoken of as past.

This kingdom in its public power has been delayed, because Christ has been rejected (see Rev. 11:17). The delay lasts all the time that Christ is sitting at the right hand of God. It ends when He rises from the throne of His Father to judge. God has said, "Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool," Psalm 110. Still, it is true that the kingdom had already come in mystery, according to Matthew 13.

This is a general statement, and only a general one, of what follows when the kingdom is set up in power. So it reaches down even to the close of that kingdom, since the dead will not be judged until then.

The elders then come in, and, as usual, give the reasons for praise… Only now He had taken to Himself His great power and the kingdom. The nations were angry, but how uselessly! Jehovah's Messiah and Son would be set up in Zion; the dead would be judged, the prophets and the God-fearing rewarded, and the destroyers of the earth destroyed. It is the general statement of the close of God's ways; of judgment and of its effects; the government of God made good in its final results.

When Jehovah and His Christ take the kingdom to reign forever and ever, "the nations raged." That statement alone is enough to demolish the false idea that the gospel is going to convert the world. On that idea, the kingdom would come as the fruit of gospel effort, and the nations would be delighted to see it! Instead, the kingdom will be set up as the result of God's wrath coming.

The anger of the nations may include the gathering together of the kings of the earth, with their armies, under the leadership of the beast (Rev. 19:19), to make war against Christ as He comes from heaven with His army. It may also include the nations from the four quarters of the earth, gathered together by Satan at the close of the thousand years (Rev. 20:7-9).

The time of this world's activity is not the time of the dead. Among the dead there is no planning and no understanding. But when God's time comes, it is the time of the dead — and the time for them to be judged… I would not at all leave out those judged at the very end, the wicked dead.

"The time for the dead to be judged" carries us on in thought to the close of the kingdom (Rev. 20:12). The judgment of the nations (Matt. 25:32) comes at the start of the kingdom reign. The judgment of the world, the inhabited earth (Acts 17:31), runs through its whole course. The dead are judged after the earthly kingdom has passed away (Rev. 20:11-12).

Not a word here speaks of the saints caught up to heaven; it is a later hour… This says nothing about taking them to heaven. It speaks of rewarding them. No one can give that reward until the Lord Jesus appears publicly.

God gives the recompense of rest and glory to all His saints alike. But there are special crowns and rewards as well… So "the recompense" is not only God's answer to what His afflicted people go through here. It also takes in the different positions they will hold in the kingdom. That second kind of reward is measured by the faithfulness, suffering, and service of each saint.

"Those who fear Your name, both small and great." This last group takes in everyone of that kind who owns the Name of the Lord. No doubt there are many hidden ones in every age whose moral separation from the world is so weak that it is genuinely hard to call them saints. But there are people who fear the Name of the Lord in every rank and class of society.

The destruction of those who destroy the earth seems to be noted here not so much as judgment. It is noted rather to assure us that the damage will be repaired. That damage was done to what came out of His hands at the first, and He has never stopped caring tenderly about it, in spite of the evil He has allowed during "man's day."

Destroying those who destroy the earth clears the earth of evil. It makes room for those who are to be rewarded to have their place in the coming kingdom. The flood did the same: it destroyed those who destroyed the earth, and so prepared the way for Noah's place in the new earth of that day.