Revelation 17 presents a lurid picture of a gorgeously arrayed harlot riding on a scarlet beast, which is readily identifiable with the Beast of the sea already described in chapter 13. The harlot’s confidence is the prelude to her downfall. The Beast has ten horns that represent ten kings accepting his authority. This confederacy turns against her and ravages her to destruction. They then turn against ‘the Lamb” but are overcome. Chapter 18 expands the brief intimation of the harlot’s destruction into an awe-inspiring description of pomp and circumstance being swept away into oblivion.

THE GREAT APOSTASY

This section of Revelation is usually regarded as one of the least problematical of the whole book. The harlot is Babylon, that is, Catholic Rome priding itself on its independence, power and influence, and glorying in persecution of the faithful. All this is to meet with a dramatic and well-merited judgement in the Last Days when desolation and fiery destruction put a final end to an evil history.

On the strength of this Scripture there have been many confident expectations of a sensational increase in Papal power in the Last Days. Speculation has often run on to forecast a grand alliance between the church of Rome and the dominant political powers of the world against the authority of Christ when he is revealed in divine glory.

The daring character of these speculations is hard to match in all the history of the interpretation of Bible prophecy. Especially is this seen to be so when re-consideration is given to the interpretation (which usually goes with it) of Revelation 13 – the Beast of the sea and the two-horned Beast of the earth; for by far the commonest exposition of chapter 13 equates its details about these Beasts with the Catholic church and the Holy Roman Empire. One is left guessing as to how the Babylonian harlot riding the Beast and then ravaged by the ten kings can represent the Papacy controlling the Roman church and then destroyed by those who are themselves subject to it. Indeed, how harlot and Beast can both be identified with the apostasy of Rorme deserves the name Mystery nearly as much as the woman in the vision! And the Biblical grounds for the sublime expectations that the Papacy will yet come to new heights of power and will somehow form a wondrous Entente Cordiale with the forces of God-less communism are remarkable for their obscurity.

There has been a great deal of wishful thinking and ill-founded guesswork associated with the “exposition” of this part of Revelation. To a greater extent than is commonly realized the anti-papal assertions of orthodox Protestant commentators have been uncritically accepted, usually more out of personal inclination than by reason of clear-cut Biblical support. Yet would it not be strange indeed if those who share so many of the blatant errors of Catholic dogma should prove to be the most dependable guides in the interpretation of the most complex of all Bible prophecies?

IS BABYLON A FALSE RELIGION?

It is necessary, then, to get back to bed-rock by enquiring first of all what evidence there is for the almost universal assumption that “Babylon”, the harlot on the Beast, represents apostate Christianity. A careful examination of Revelation 18 fails to bring to light a single detail, which signifies a false religion. Even the familiar phrase “bodies and souls of men” has to be given a very un-Biblical Protestant flavour (immortal souls!) before it can be effectively interpreted regarding the spiritual despotism of Rome. It is true that there are several indications that the “Babylon” described here is a persecuting power – “in her was found the blood of prophets and of saints” – but this is not necessarily an identification mark of the apostasy, for the same was true also of Judaism and pagan Rome.

The name Babylon is no help here, either, for in the Old Testament there is remarkably little emphasis on the religious character of that ancient city and empire. Instead, the prophets denounced Babylon over and over again as “the golden city” which preyed on lesser nations and sucked their material prosperity to itself. The long chapters in Isaiah (13, 14, 47) and in Jeremiah (50, 51) which foretell retribution on Babylon, carry hardly any phrases which can be read as a reprobation of false worship (four in nearly 200 verses!). And even if they did, honesty should compel the student to see a drastic difference between a pagan religion which had no connection whatever with divine truth and a spiritual system which claims to have a monopoly of truth, whilst being at the same time a wholesale perversion and corruption of the way of salvation. Then why should one Babylon be regarded as a prototype of the other when the most essential resemblances arc missing?

Further, it will be demonstrated by and by that many of the vivid phrases used in chapter 18 to describe the splendour of Babylon are taken straight out of Ezekiel’s description of the commercial prosperity of Tyre (Ezekiel 26, 27). What compatibility with or appropriateness to the spiritual perversions of Rome arc to be found in ancient Tyre?

But the Beast, who with his allies “hates the whore, and makes her naked and desolate”, has a most emphatic description of false religion used regarding him. A re-reading of Revelation 13 makes this fact abundantly evident.

Indeed, when it comes to citing point-blank evidence from the text that Babylon stands for a false religious system, Christian in name only, the most pointed expression appears to be: “Mother of Harlots and Abominations of the Earth.” It is true that language of this kind is used in the Old Testament regarding idolatrous Israel (e.g. Ezekiel 16 and 23, time after time), but in all such places the reason for language of this character is on the surface-the abominable pagan practices adopted by the Chosen People at such times involved not only spiritual infidelity but the actual practice of ritual fornication and promiscuity. With hardly an exception this is the background to Old Testament usage and to most in the New Testament. In the First Century a high proportion of the converts made were called out of a life of precisely this character. To them this symbolism in Revelation would have specially significant overtones.

Summing up so far, it would appear that the evidence to support an application of chapters 17, 18 to the splendour and inevitable destruction of the Catholic Church is decidedly meagre. Is there really justification for the supremely confident reference of this prophecy to Papal Rome? A little more diffidence and caution would surely be appropriate.

But, then, the same sentiment is just as germane to any alternative interpretation.

OBVIOUSEY ROME?

It would seem almost inescapable that this part of Revelation was framed with primary reference to the city of Rome, whatever further interpretation may evolve from that basic idea: “The seven heads (of the Beast) are seven mountains, on which the woman sitteth” (17:9). “The woman which thou sawest is that great city, which reigneth over the kings of the earth” (17:18). Could any early Christian, reading his copy of the Apocalypse for the first time, think of anything but Imperial Rome?

The references to persecution (18:20, 24; 19:2) also come in very appropriately, for at the time when Revelation was first given (whether the early date 66 or the late 95 be adopted), Rome was busy harassing the Christians.

The allusion to Babylon at the end of 1 Peter may possibly point to Rome: “She that is at Babylon, elect together with you, saluteth you; and so doth Marcus my son” (1 Peter 5:13). The plain references in this epistle to persecution make it almost certain that the date is the time of the emperor Nero. Also, John Mark is known to have been in Rome about that time (2 Timothy 4:11). And since there is excellent external evidence that Peter was put to death in Rome in the Nero persecution, there is here a conjunction of details suggesting that the early believers may have understood “Babylon” to be “pagan Rome”.

The copious Biblical allusions, scattered throughout Revelation 18, to imperial Babylon and commercial Tyre, the purpose of which is so difficult to evaluate as long as eyes are kept on papal Rome, are now seen to be intensely relevant. The Rome of the emperors was in all essential respects the contemporary counterpart of the massive grandeur and resourceful brilliance of Babylon and Tyre.

Thus, to the early Christian the prophecies in Revelation concerning the Harlot on the Beast may have suggested Rome, the queen of the world, their declared enemy. And to them the Beast, commanding the allegiance of the kings of the world, would be the Empire. These early brethren would then infer that in due time God would bring judgement on the persecuting city by causing it to be ravaged by the nations of the Empire. This happened. Indeed, it happened more than once – in 410, by the Visigoths led by Alaric; and in 455, by Gaiseric and his hordes. But it has to be conceded that in each case these invaders did not belong to the Empire, but came from outside it. Neither did they utterly destroy the city, as the language of Revelation 18 seems to require.

A NEW LINE OF INVESTIGATION

The obvious next task of the Twentieth-Century expositor would appear to be to identify the counterpart of Rome and Empire in the Last Days. But first another altogether astonishing line of investigation suggests itself.

Reference has already been made to the mosaic of Old Testament phrases employed in the vivid description of the destruction of Babylon. When these are followed up with care, an unexpected result emerges. The following tabulation will demonstrate:

HOW APPLY TO ROME?

Two of these three groups of passages present a problem. Why should prophecies originally about Tyre and Jerusalem be given a further application to the apocalyptic Babylon? In the First Century the commercial dominance of Tyre was already gone. It had been very largely taken over by New Tyre – the city of Carthage, founded by Phoenicians. Indeed, but for the Punic Wars Carthage would have displaced Rome from its proud position as the world’s chief city. So Rome’s appropriation of Carthaginian prosperity and influence might make intelligible the use of prophecies about the downfall of commercial Tyre.

But this still leaves unexplained the undoubted allusions to Jeremiah’s prophecies about Jerusalem.

The idea must be rejected out of hand that the New Testament uses passages from the Old without any regard to context or original meaning and simply because the words “happen to fit” the new occasion for which they are being employed. All that is known about the inspiration of the

Scriptures and about the marvellous inter-relation of widely separated parts of the Bible makes such a drastic solution to the problem altogether unacceptable.

A JEWISH BABYLON

Then is it possible that here is a lead to another completely different identification of the Harlot? When this working hypothesis, that “Babylon” is Jerusalem, is tried out, a quite surprising number of details fall together into a harmonious pattern of a marked Biblical character. These are best exhibited in a verse-by-verse commentary on the two chapters.

DIFFICULTITIES

The fore-going are the most important details which can be cited in support of this unusual thesis which identifies “Babylon” with Jerusalem. Many of these are impressive. But there are difficulties also. The name Babylon itself is a problem. So also is the long series of allusions to the Babylon and Tyre prophecies in the Old Testament. What is the relevance of these to a denunciation of Jerusalem?

A possible explanation appears to be on these lines: the early church regarded itself as the true Israel of God (1 Peter 2:5-10; James 1: 1; Galatians 6:16, etc.). It took to this idea in a really big way. Thus any enemies of the Truth of Christ whether Jew or Gentile, were regarded as in the same category as the enemies of ancient Israel. In this way there would be considerable fitness in re-reading the prophecies about judgement on Israel’s oppressors as being prophecies also of God’s later judgements on the persecutors of the faithful in Christ.

It may be appropriate also to enquire why in Luke 10:15, 18 Jesus applies to contemporary Jewish resistance to the gospel an Old Testament prophecy about Babylon (Isaiah 14:12,13,15).

It is time to sum up. So far as a primary First Century reference goes a choice has to be made. The Beast answers to the Empire, and

the Harlot represents either the Apostasy (already well entrenched whilst the apostles were alive) in Rome the capital, or Judaistic

Jerusalem, carried by the Beast and yet ravaged by it. The last suggestion runs fairly smoothly most of the way, and may commend

itself to those who insist that the Old Testament allusions must be found room for. But certain difficulties still remain.

Especially there is the problem of the much more important application of this prophecy to the Last Days. This must now be attempted in the next Chapter.

AN IMPRESSIVE CONTRAST

There is something grotesquely familiar about the main events in this next vision. The dragon is brought to naught and buried in the abyss, where he is chained and sealed. Nevertheless, after a time he comes forth again and manifests himself to his disciples who are as the sand of the sea for multitude! But there are, happily, significant differences – it is not his disciples who are seen enthroned and blessed, neither does he ascend up to heaven; instead, he is cast into a Gehenna of fire.

In Revelation 12 the prototype of this dragon is fairly evidently the opposition of pagan Rome to the gospel (the Apocalypse was itself revealed at a time when Rome was persecuting the Truth of Christ). In the Last Days the counterpart to this great antagonist is probably scientific rationalism, which dominates human thought and activity today as much as the power of Rome ever did. It is the pagan religion of the Twentieth Century, making unlimited claims, working all kinds of signs and lying wonders, accepted in blind faith by millions, who now begin to rejoice in its promises of pie in the sky when this world is dead.

This wretched philosophy will receive a set-back at the coming of the Lord, which may at first seem like its final annihilation. The return from heaven of one whose name is called “The Word of God” will be the conclusive answer to the derisive question which the Serpent has put so confidently ever since Eden: “Yea, hath God said?” The fact of the existence of an Almighty God who has been ceaselessly active through all human history will be vindicated by the dramatic events in which His Son is manifest to the world. Satan’s bigoted anti-God activities will be chained, and those who now set their seal to the fact that God is true (John 3:33) will rejoice in the restraint put upon God-dishonouring thought and activity.

A LITERAL THOUSAND YEARS?

The heavenly kingdom, which now takes over the realm of the Serpent, is called in Revelation, The Thousand Years. This phrase has been almost universally read with a dogmatic literalism which is somewhat surprising in a community which has just as dogmatically insisted that the Book of Revelation is given in a multiplicity of signs and symbols requiring to be given a proper Biblical interpretation. Occasionally the question has been heard: “If prophetic periods in the Bible have to be interpreted on the basis of a day representing a year, why is it that the Thousand Years is given such a literal meaning?” But no answer to this inconsistency is ever supplied. Perhaps the idea of a Messianic reign of 360,000 years is deemed to be self-confuting.

More positively, the argument from the symbolism of the Genesis week of Creation is considered adequate support: Six thousand years of the rule of man, to be followed by a thousand years of rule by God’s Messiah. Quite apart from the fact that the most conservative archeologists are convinced that Adam was created more than six thousand years ago, there is something a trifle unsatisfactory about this analogy with Genesis 1. Is not the correspondence between the two ideas somewhat thin?

SEVEN DIVINE EPOCHS

A more probable and more satisfying development of this idea of a week of Creation emphasizes the Covenants of God rather than a rigid chronological time-table. To the Almighty people are more important than calendars. Certainly it is remarkable that God’s Covenants of Promise mark off human history into six epochs:

1. Adam to Noah.

2. Noah to Abraham.

3. Abraham to Moses.

4. Moses to David.

5. David to Jesus.

6. Jesus to Christ (the Second Coming).

The Kingdom now comes in as the appropriate climax of the sequence.

7. Christ to God (1 Corinthians 15: 28).

The symbolism of a Thousand Years now takes on a special appropriateness. The Revelation is very largely expressed in terms of the symbolism of the sanctuary. All the visions introducing the seven-fold sections and much else besides have this basis. In harmony with this the thousand suggests a link with 10 x 10 x 10 cubits, the dimensions of the Holy of Holies, which are again alluded to in the description of the new Jerusalem: “The length and the breadth and the height of it are equal” (21:16).

Considerations such as these suggest that the “Millenium” of Revelation 20 is an apocalyptic phrase for the Kingdom, rather than a hard-and-fast chronological period[78] of precisely one thousand years. At first it will be a Holy Kingdom in a world not fully consecrated.

Another detail suggesting the same conclusion is the expression: “they lived, and reigned with Christ a thousand years”. It is understandable that “they lived” should be a Greek aorist, for this phrase indicates the instantaneous gift of immortality. But the verb “reigned” also is in aorist tense where the continuous form of the verb would surely be expected if emphasis on the long duration of the Millenium was intended. Here the meaning appears to be: “they were made immortal, and became kings to reign in the kingdom.”

REBELLION – WHEN ?

For the sake of continuity, it is desirable to resume this exposition with a consideration here of the ultimate fate of the Dragon and his allies (20:7-10). The section that follows is reprinted from Chapter 13 of “The Last Days” (by this writer)

At the end of the millenial reign of Christ there will be a mighty rebellion against his authority. Such a conclusion seems to be perfectly clear and obvious from either a casual or a careful reading of Revelation 20. And for that reason in the minds of many it has taken on something of the character of a “First Principle” of the Faith.

Nevertheless there are big difficulties about such a conception. For instance:

A SERIOUS PROBLEM

To sum up so far, the position regarding the Gog-Magog rebellion of Revelation 20 is this:

On the one hand, the text is explicit that “when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, and shall go out to deceive the nations … Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle … and they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city (Jerusalem).” Apparently nothing could be plainer.

Nevertheless, on the other hand, there are copious Scriptures (already quoted) and various associated problems and difficulties, which seem to rule out the possibility of such a rebellion.

Can it be, then, that Scripture contradicts itself? God forbid!

A CONTRADICTION HARMONIZED

The only alternative, therefore, is that a re-scrutiny of the evidence will reveal reconciliation between the two. A harmonization must be possible. No Bible student worth his salt should be content to affirm adherence to cither view without being prepared to give fair consideration to the other. Such a synthesis, the present writer believes, is possible by a re-interpretation of certain details in Revelation 20.

Familiarity with the phrases of the beloved King James Version often has the effect of hiding from students of Scripture the fact that quite a number of words in the original text have perfectly valid alternatives. “Exhortation” is also “consolation”; “hell” is “the grave”; “spirit” is “breath”; “tribe” in the Old Testament is also “rod”; “boy” is also “servant” (like the French “garçon”). The list is a long one.

In this Gog-Magog passage no less than three of these ambiguities occur. “Earth” may also be “the Land (of Israel)”; this double meaning is common in both Old and New Testaments. And “saints” may be “angels” or “Israel, the holy people”. Also – and most important of all – the word translated “expired,” “finished,” “fulfilled” (vv. 3, 5, 7) may also carry the sense of “accomplished,” “achieved,” thus giving this key phrase the meaning: “when Christ’s millenial kingdom has become fully established”.

OTHER EXAMPLES

This last point is so important that it is not to be accepted without substantial evidence. Here, then, are examples of the use of the same Greek word elsewhere in the New Testament or in the Septuagint Version of the Old Testament:

Coming back to Revelation 20, a possible meaning is now seen to be this: The power of Sin is restrained during the period (seven years? forty years?) of the establishment of the Kingdom. Then comes the great Gog-Magog rebellion. Here Revelation 20 is strictly parallel with Psalm 2: “The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord, and against His Anointed, saying, Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us (cp. the “great chain” of Revelation 20:1) … Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion (the beloved city – Revelation 20:9).”

OTHER SCRIPTURES

Other Psalms besides Psalm 2 suggest submission to Christ only until forces can be rallied to make effective resistance to this resented King of the Jews. “As soon as they hear of me, they shall obey, the strangers shall yield themselves unto me.” Note the margin: “shall yield feigned obedience” (Psalm 18:44, and so also Psalm 66:3 and 81:15).

A further suggestion may be advanced here in harmony with the foregoing. The only passage in the Bible with any sort of resemblance to the words of Revelation 20 about Satan being shut up in the abyss is to be found in Isaiah 24:22, 23. “And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall punish the host of the high ones that are on high, and the kings of the earth upon the earth. And they shall be gathered together, as prisoners are gathered in the pit, and shall be shut up in the prison, and after many days, they shall be visited. Then the moon shall be confounded, and the sun ashamed, when the Lord of Hosts shall reign in mount Zion and in Jerusalem, and before his ancients gloriously.”

This comes at the end of a vivid prophecy of divine judgement in the Last Days.

If the two passages do actually describe the same thing, then here is further evidence that the Satanic rebellion of Revelation 20 comes immediately after the beginning of the Millenium and not at its close.

Ezekiel 38 also can now be read as the precise equivalent of Revelation 20. In an earlier chapter (Chapter 37) Biblical reasons were advanced for applying the Gog-Magog invasion to a time after the enthronement of the Messiah. The details of Revelation 20:9 correspond exactly with those in Ezekiel: “And they went up on the breadth of the Land (Ezekiel 38:9) and compassed the camp of the saints about (‘my people of Israel dwelling safely’), and the beloved city; and fire came down from God out of heaven and devoured them” (precisely as in Ezekiel 38:22).

This easy harmonization with other prophetic Scriptures provides additional confirmation of the validity of the interpretation proposed. Also, the picture now presented is entirely according to what might be expected. When a war-shattered world has licked its wounds and begins to realize that the Land of Israel is the headquarters of a new Power which now proclaims the hated Jews as the head of the nations and not the tail, there will be no great lapse of time before the authority of this King of the Jews is challenged. Ezekiel 38 and Revelation 20 tell of the fate of this last attempt, early in Christ’s reign, to proclaim “Glory to Man in the highest”.

[78] This is not to say that the reign of Christ will not last for precisely one thousand years. There may be a literal fulfilment also, but this should not be insisted on.

The first of the final awesome visions seen by the apostle John is taken up almost entirely with a description of Jesus as the heavenly Warrior, asserting his own divine authority against all adversaries. He rides a horse, and not an ass, in token of this fact. It is a white horse to signify that “he doth judge and make war in righteousness”. The very brevity of this allusion to one of Isaiah’s greatest Messianic prophecies can mislead the reader into a mistaken assumption that both verbs “judge” “make war,” mean the same thing. Yet the Old Testament originally foretells that “with righteousness shall he judge the poor … he shall smite the oppressor[74] with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked” (11:4). It is for this latter reason that “out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword.”

The mention of “eyes as a flame of fire” supplies another point of contact with the description of the heavenly High Priest at the beginning of Revelation. But whereas this power of unerring discernment was employed then to discriminate between worthy and unworthy in the ecclesias, it serves now to distinguish between friend and foe. When Solomon, who could have been such a wonderful prototype of the Messiah in his glory, came to the throne, there were men like Shimei and Joab who openly declared loyalty but who were secret rebels. The divine wisdom and insight given to him to cope with such situations were mediocrity itself by comparison with the incisive infallibility of judgement which Jesus was able to exercise even in the days of his flesh and which will be even more evident in the time of his glory.

There are certain important differences to be observed between Jesus the high priest and Jesus the kingly warrior. In Revelation 1 no crown is described save the high-priestly tiara of seven stars in his right hand (according to Isaiah 62:3), but in the end of the Apocalypse he wears many diadems because now he is not only priest but also King of kings.

Also, in place of the priestly robe reaching to his feet he wears a garment, which is stained with blood. This is because he treads “the winepress of the fierceness and wrath[75] of Almighty God” (19:15). The double allusion to Isaiah 63:3 is not to be missed. Nor should the help, which Revelation 19 supplies for the interpretation of Isaiah, be neglected. Those who believe that when the Lord comes from Edom with dyed garments from Bozrah he is making his first approach to his capital in Zion should note that in Revelation he already wears many crowns and already bears the title: King of kings.

A DIFFICULTY RESOLVED

In another respect Revelation throws light on an apparent contradiction in Isaiah 63. “I have trodden the winepress alone, and of the peoples there was none with me” appears to be at variance with: “I will trample them in my fury,” for the word “trample” always implies a multitude. Revelation 19 eludicates simply with its description: “And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean” (v. 14). Although, in the treading of the winepress, the blood comes, figuratively, “even unto the horses’ bridles” (14:20), those who follow the King of kings, whether angels or glorified saints, remain unstained. The blood is only on the raiment of the Messiah, for the judgement lies with him alone. When Isaiah 63 says: “of the peoples there was none with me,” the words must be understood as having reference to the tribes of Israel. Very frequently in the Old Testament the word “peoples” is used with this meaning (see concordance).

MESSIAH’S TITLES

The one who leads this army of God is given four different names in quick succession, thus emphasizing that all the diverse aspects of the grand purpose of God have their fulness in him.

1. He is “Faithful and True”. The words “faithfulness and truth” describe the unfaltering Covenants of Promise. Both words are used copiously in the Old Testament in this sense. The only place in the prophets where these terms occur together has a specially appropriate context: “O Lord, thou art my God; I will exalt thee … thy counsels of old are faithfulness and truth. For thou hast made of a city an heap; of a defenced city a ruin … Therefore shall the strong people glorify thee, the city of the terrible nations shall fear thee …” (Isaiah 25:1-3).

2. “His name is called The Word of God.” Scripture quotes his self-identification as “I that speak in righteousness”. In this vision there goes out of his mouth a sharp sword, “that with it he should smite the nations”. It is “the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God”. Now he speaks the word of power, and judgement ensues. As preacher and prophet, as healer and example he was “the Word made ~7esh” in the days of his weakness, but now in the time of his power he is the glory and justice and sovereignty of God.

3. “He hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, King of kings, and Lord of lords.” It is a title of Almighty God (Deuteronomy 10: 17) which the Son inherits, yet it is noteworthy that the title which goes with this in the words of Moses – “God of gods” – is not also passed on. Again there is marvellous aptness about the attribution of such a title to Christ in this prophecy. “Of a truth it is that your God is the God of gods, and the Lord of kings”, confessed Nebuchadnezzar to Daniel when he learned how “the Stone cut out of the mountain without hands” was to smash for ever all human rule and dominion (Daniel 2:47, 45). Very impressive also is the contrast with the Beast who has ten satellite kings willing to yield to him all their power and strength. Yet one has to read only a few verses further in Revelation 19 to learn how this Beast who deems himself a king of kings is vanquished by the Lord’s Christ and cast into the lake of fire.

It is not difficult to see why this title of majesty should be written “on his thigh”. The steward of Abraham swore loyalty to his master’s will by putting his hand under his thigh (Genesis 24:2, 3), and so also Joseph with his aged father (Genesis 47:29, 31). Similarly, “all the princes, and the mighty men, and all the sons of David gave the hand under Solomon” (1 Chronicles 29:24). So there is indication in this symbol that ultimately all kings will humbly accept the authority of Christ.

But why should the royal name be written “on his garment”? The psalm, which described the marriage of the Lamb, has this eloquent passage: “The sceptre of thy kingdom is a right sceptre. Thou lovest righteousness, and hatest wickedness (only Jesus has truly done both!): therefore God, thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows. All thy garments smell of myrrh, and aloes, and cassia” (Psalm 45:6-8). It is in this way that the name of majesty is written on his raiment – by the holy anointing oil which was first compounded for God’s High Priest (Exodus 3(1:23-32) and which speaks of suffering as well as glory – properly so, for this man now honoured as King of kings first wore a royal robe in his suffering (Luke 23:11) and saw men cast lots for his vesture as he hung on a cross, acclaimed as King of the Jews.

This title “King of kings, and Lord of lords” applied to the Messiah presents something of a problem inasmuch as in its only other occurrence it is a title of Deity. There need be no problem. This phenomenon – the sharing of the same title by both Father and Son – is common enough in the prophetic Scriptures.[76]

4. “On his head were many crowns, and he hath a name written which no one knoweth (that is at the time of writing Revelation), but he himself.” Again, the contrast with the Beast is inevitable, for he bears upon his seven heads the names of blasphemy. This might suggest that the Messianic title referred to here is “Holy to Jehovah,” the name which the high-priest bore on his forehead (Exodus 28:36). Yet even though this involves the unutterable Covenant Name (which to this day Jews always replace by Adonai), it is hardly correct to describe it as a name, which others do not know.

Then, since “name” is inevitably and inextricably associated in Scripture with “character” and “power”, it is perhaps more likely that this unrevealed name of Messiah signifies wondrous powers committed to him for the searching judgement and beneficent rule which he is to practice (compare 2:17 and 14:3).

SCAVENGER BIRDS

The immediate work of this King of kings is to assert the authority and judgement of God over the Beast and his confederates. This is proclaimed by one of the Thunder angels making in a loud voice a dramatic call to all the carrion birds in creation to accept God’s invitation to a mighty feast.

Here is one of the best demonstrations that could be sought, that the visions of the Book of Revelation are not to be regarded as set out in chronological order.

This gathering of the birds of prey is, of course, a symbolic way of picturing the titanic destruction of the forces of evil. What a ghoulish contrast it forms with the marriage supper of the Lamb! The description is taken almost verbatim from Ezekiel’s prophecy (39:17-20) of the destruction of Gog-Magog and the ten-king confederacy, which comes against a restored Israel in the Last Days.

Certain interesting and useful conclusions follow from this fact. Unless it be assumed that the citation of Ezekiel 39 is haphazard – an assumption which would cut right across all experience of New Testament usage of Old Testament authority – there is here a clear identification of Gog-Magog with the Beast and the False Prophet (19:19). Also, because of the close connection between this passage in ch. 19 and the Sixth Thunder (14:18 20), which itself employs the familiar words of Joel 3:13, confirmation is thus supplied for the equation of Joel 3 with Ezekiel 38, 39. Again, since Revelation 19:17, 18, 21 is very evidently symbolic and not at all literal in its meaning, any literal interpretation of the corresponding details in Ezekiel is suspect. This suggests that it would be highly unwise to take other similar details in that passage – bows and arrows, burial of the slain, burning of weapons – in a dogmatically literal fashion. With such a lead supplied by Revelation, a certain caution is right and proper.

EZEKIEL’S CONFEDERACY OF TEN?

A further unexpected conclusion, which follows from this equation with Ezekiel 38, 39, concerns the ten kings with the Beast and the False Prophet. It is only possible to find a total of ten allies in Gog’s confederacy by including “Sheba and Dedan and the merchants of Tarshish” (and omitting “Rosh” – for which transliteration the evidence has always been hopelessly inadequate).[77] For a number of years now the utterly unconvincing nature of the identification with Britain has been evident enough. Perhaps the change in the political scene in the quarter-century just past may make some students more ready to consider this alternative hinted at in Revelation 19.

AFTER MESSIAH’S COMING

The time of fulfilment of Ezekiel 38 is also suggested. The common assumption that the invasion from the north is to take place before the coming of the Lord is challenged by the facts in Revelation, for this is a “war with the Lamb” (17:14), “against him that sat on the horse, and against his army” (19:19). Also, at the time of the conflict there are already “on his head many crowns” (19:12), and his name is “King of kings, and Lord of lords”. This suggests strongly that Ezekiel 38 is to be fulfilled after the coming of the Messiah – as indeed the sequence in Ezekiel 37, 38 pointedly indicates. The quotation from Psalm 2 in this vision has the same implication: “he shall rule them with a rod of iron”, for this prophecy is to be fulfilled when “the kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against his anointed, saying, Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us. He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision … Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion” (v. 2-6). Here, as has long been recognized, every phrase requires a fulfilment after Messiah’s kingdom has been proclaimed in Jerusalem.

PROPHETIC JUDGEMENT

The figurative language of the Second Vision (19:19-21) in which the overthrow of human opposition to Christ is described has several variations but its theme and mode are the same. In Revelation 19:20: “These both (i.e. Beast and False Prophet) were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone” – it is the sea of Sodom, appropriate to a civilization steeped in wickedness. Ezekiel 38:22 has this: “And I will plead against him with pestilence and with blood; and I will rain upon him and upon his bands, and upon the many people that are with him, an overflowing rain, and great hailstones, fire and brimstone.” In Daniel 7:11, “the beast was slain, and his body destroyed, and given to the burning flame;” whilst Isaiah’s version is this: “And the Lord shall cause his glorious voice (the Word of God and an angel with a loud voice) to be heard, and shall shew the lighting down of his arm, with the indignation of his anger, with scattering and tempest, and hailstones … For Tophet is ordained of old; yea, for the king it is prepared; he hath made it deep and large: the pile thereof is much wood; the breath of the Lord, like a stream of brimstone, doth kindle it” (30:30, 33).

A terrible judgement, truly!

[74] Reading aritz = oppressor, for eretz = earth.

[75] See ch. 26.

[76] Reference may be made to a study of this in The Testimony (May 1969: “The Man My Fellow”). See also the notes on Revelation 1:8.

[77] More detail on this in “The Time of the End,” Chapter 18.

The harlot is variously described as sitting on many waters (17:1), on the Beast (v. 3), on seven mountains (v. 9), and as being in the wilderness (v. 3). These are all symbolic. The only item (the third) which one might be disposed to read literally is carefully picked out for interpretation: “and they are seven kings” represented by the seven heads of the Beast. “Sitting upon many waters” is probably to be taken as a Hebraism for “dwelling beside many waters” – as the original Babylon did, in a literal sense (Jeremiah 51:13; cp. Nahum 3:8, 2:8). These waters, so verse 15 interprets, represent many “peoples and multitudes, and nations, and tongues” with which the harlot is closely associated. The form of the Greek text suggests that these four terms be taken as two pairs with a distinction of reference.

BABYLON – FALSE RELIGION?

The “fornication” of the harlot and the kings of the earth is almost universally taken to mean the allurement of spiritual apostasy (though why specially with kings?). It is true that in Ezekiel and Hosea Israel’s apostasy is described as fornication, but (as already explained) this figure was inevitable because of the literal fornication and promiscuity, which was associated with the crude fertility cults Israel, took up. On the other hand the same vigorous language is used about Nineveh, the capital of the Assyrian empire (Nahum 3: 4), and also with reference to Tyre in a time of restoration to serve the Lord!: “she shall return to her hire, and shall commit fornication with all the kingdoms of the world. And her merchandise and her hire shall be holiness to the Lord”!!! (Isaiah 23:15-18). A clear-cut example such as this demonstrates that the language of Revelation may be economic in its emphasis rather than religious. That such a slant should perhaps be given to the interpretation is supported by the long series of allusions to ancient Tyre and ancient Babylon, listed in Chapter 34. It is noteworthy that in all the anti-Babylon prophecies in the Old Testament there is only one allusion to its false religion,[65] and that is a detail which appears to have little relevance to papal perversions: “Bel boweth down, Nebo stoopeth” (Isaiah 46:1). Even the worship of the golden image (Daniel 3) was essentially an acknowledgement of Nebuchadnezzar as supreme lord of the empire. There is a corresponding lack of religious emphasis in Revelation 17, 18. In fact, the real picture of anti-Christ religion is in Revelation 13 – reverence given to the Beast. And accordingly many expositions apply the details there to the papacy. But this approach runs into serious trouble in ch. 17, where the Beast and his ten kings ravage Babylon, the mother of harlots. Papacy versus papacy? Dog does not eat dog!

ROME OR JERUSALEM?

What would seem to be a clear identification comes in the words: “And the woman which thou sawest is that great city, which reigneth over the kings of the earth.” Here the present tense “reigneth” (literally: “hath a kingdom”) requires reference to some dominant city familiar to John’s readers. The obvious answer seems to be Rome. But then those interpreters enthusiastic about a papal reference of this prophecy run into difficulties. For Roman authority was not spiritual, but based on military might. Also, the word “earth” or “Land” is rather odd, for the usual word to describe Roman civilization is the Greek oikoumene.

In A.D. 66, the well-supported early date for the writing of Revelation, Jerusalem also was a city which “had a kingdom over the kings of the Land.” Indeed, not only was Jerusalem a city with special authority over the various tetrarchies adjoining Judaea, but also the temple had an amazing degree of authority over Jewish communities in all parts of the Roman Empire. The details of verse 15 present no problem here. The two phrases: “people-and multitudes,” and “nations-and-tongues” (as indicated by the Greek text) refer to the inhabitants of Palestine with close allegiance to Jerusalem, and the Jews of the dispersion (perhaps including also Gentile sympathizers).

Again, “the seven heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sitteth”. Since everyone knows that Rome was built on seven hills, this is usually taken as the clearest possible indication that the harlot is to be equated with Rome. Yet a little reflection casts some doubt on this identification. Are the hills of Rome – the highest of them only 150 feet! – Such bold drastic geographical features as to warrant the description: “mountains”? Reference to a city like Jerusalem would be much more appropriate. “Mountains” is the only word to describe that city and its surroundings.

SEVEN KINGS

A more important consideration is that Revelation itself gives the seven mountains a symbolic reference: “and they are (i.e. represent) seven kings: five are fallen, one is (at the time when John wrote), and one is not yet come.” With reference to Rome these details are a serious headache. One explanation would refer these heads to the various forms of government tried by Rome throughout its history, but then one is left wondering what these had to do with the theme of Revelation, and why Rome should be identified in this peculiar way. Another explanation, with a better attempt at reality, refers to the sequence of emperors. But this runs into serious numerical difficulties. Those who adopt the late date of Revelation find that Domitian was the tenth (or perhaps twelfth) Caesar. The early date gives less trouble. Nero was the sixth in the sequence. But he was not the sixth out of seven, for the complete list of emperors is nearer seventy than seven.

If now attention can be coaxed away from Rome, to Jerusalem, in accordance with the remarkable details listed in Chapter 34, and in harmony with the general theme of the book, there is no problem. The seven mountains represent seven kings (i.e. kingdoms, as in Daniel 7:17). “Five are fallen” – Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Persia, Greece in turn all held dominion over Israel. “One is” – this is Rome at the time of the writing of the prophecy. “The other is not yet come” – the final despoiler of the Last Days. He continues only “a short space.”[66]

THE EIGHTH HEAD

If this seventh enemy be Russia, then who is the eighth, which the prophecy now speaks of? He is to be equated with the Beast himself: “The beast that was, and is not, even he is the eighth, and is of the seven.” This would appear to mean that he is like the preceding seven in character, being a hater and oppressor of God’s people. Yet in some essential respect he is not like them, or he would surely be included in the symbolism as an eighth head comparable with the rest. The seven are all world powers, supreme in the civilization of their time. This suggests perhaps an enemy of limited power, and yet supported by the resources of ten kings who “give their power and strength to the beast.”

A movement like in character to that of the Palestinians, supported by the ten Arab states, might answer to the description tolerably well, though at the time of writing there seems small likelihood of that lawless organization developing sufficient power and influence.

The easier identification with Russia has this difficulty, that ever since Russia’s pro-Arab policy was inaugurated, its “power and strength” has been given to “the ten kings” – and this is hardly what the prophecy says.

Some look to the European Common Market for a solution to this difficulty. But the prospect of the iron curtain being replaced by an entente cordiale is feasible only to the infatuated. Nor will it do to have the EEC suddenly obsessed with enthusiasm for the Catholic Church. “These shall hate the whore,” says the prophecy. And in all these guesses it should not be forgotten that Bible prophecy centres on Israel, not on European politics.

“ONE HOUR”

These ten kings “have received no kingdom as yet.” In other words, in John’s day they were not identifiable. Nor are they identifiable, so the prophecy implies, until the exciting events of the Last Days are already in train, for “they receive power as kings one hour with the beast.” To attempt to turn this “one-hour” into a significant time period is to manufacture difficulties.[67] The fairly obvious intention behind the expression is to emphasize that this build-up of hostility to “Babylon” is the divinely decreed counterpart to the hour of shame and suffering which Jesus suffered there. A glance at the concordance shews how impressively this expression is used over and over again, especially in John’s gospel, for the shame and tribulation of Christ. Its fourfold use about the downfall of Babylon adds one more to the long list of correspondences between Christ and anti-Christ.

At the time of writing it is easy enough to see how Arab hatred and resentment against Israel could bring ten Arab states together so that “they have one mind, and give their power and strength to the beast”. But, by contrast, there is a serious lack of reality about the interpretation so popular with many, which has all the nations of Europe suddenly consumed with eagerness to dedicate all their political, economic and military power to the service of the Pope.

THE ATTACK ON THE WOMAN

These ten kings are matched by the list of ten Arab powers given in Psalm 83:6-8. In that prophecy they reduce Israel to desperation and helplessness, so that – at last – there is frantic appeal to the God of the Fathers for help (v. 1 4, 13-18). The counterpart to this, in Revelation, could well be the attack on the harlot: “these shall hate the whore, and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and burn her with fire”-the picture is vividly described in Revelation 18. These details are precisely what is written of God’s judgements on harlot Jerusalem in Ezekiel’s terrific prophecy against the faithlessness of Israel: “they shall strip thee of thy clothes … and leave thee naked and bare … and they shall burn thine houses with fire” (16:39, 41).

All this because of the common natural hatred that is in these enemies against the harlot in their midst. “These have one mind (or, purpose)” – but it is really God’s purpose: “God hath put in their heart to do his mind and to come to one mind (the most astonishing thing in the world, that the quarrelsome Arabs shall all agree!), and to give their kingdom unto the beast, until the words of God shall be fulfilled”. Thus the anti-Christ Beast becomes a king of kings – but only for a very short time.

WAR WITH THE LAMB

The final picture, although it is mentioned before the destruction of the harlot, is one of war by the Beast and ten kings against the Lamb. This clearly presupposes the Second Coming (described in ch. 14) and the deliverance of the wrecked city of Jerusalem from the hands of the enemy. Its people, battered and helpless, have turned to God in their desperation.[68] The widow of Israel, pleading for help to One who has seemed hitherto to be an unjust Judge, is now given vengeance on her adversaries. The cry: “Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord” has its immediate response in a heavenly rescue operation.

The war waged against the Lamb by the Beast and his confederates appears to be foreshadowed in Daniel 8. There, the early part of the prophecy (v. 9-12) has details about the little horn, which seem to require reference to the Roman destruction of Jerusalem – what might be called the primary fulfilment of Revelation 17. The later explanation of this vision given to Daniel by the angel would appear to require a fulfilment in the Last Days. The parallel with Revelation 17 is quite striking: “And in the latter time of their kingdom, when the transgressors are come to the full, a king of fierce countenance and understanding dark sentences (diplomatic dissimulation?), shall stand up. And his power shall be mighty, but not by his own power (the kings giving power and strength to the Beast): and he shall destroy (or, corrupt) wonderfully and shall prosper, and practise, and destroy the mighty ones and the holy people (Israel; literally: the people of the saints) … he shall also stand up against the Prince of princes (the Messiah?), but he shall be broken without hand (i.e. by divine power; see Daniel 2:34).” This is what Revelation 17 says also, almost laconically: “These shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them”.

A MEANING FOR THE EARLY CHURCH

Ii is perhaps desirable to conclude this study, with its somewhat unconventional conclusions, with a reminder of the point, which has been made repeatedly in the earlier part of this exposition. The Book of Revelation shares the main characteristic of practically all other Bible prophecy about the Last Days. So the student needs to be constantly on the alert for signs of an earlier fulfilment. If the identification of “Babylon” with apostate Jerusalem is accepted as Biblically feasible, then it is not difficult to see how the early church would find in such vigorous visions as Revelation 17 prophecies which had a fulfilment in their own time. Then it was the Roman army? With copious support from various tributary kings in the Middle East,[69] which ravaged the adulterous city. And it was Rome, which, about the same time, made war with the Lamb in a cruel persecution of the Christian believers (compare the force of “Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?”). Indeed, Revelation 17 mentions the war against the Lamb before the destruction of the disloyal city! The Nero persecution came before the Jewish war.

RELEVANCE OF CERTATN DETATLS

It is this primary reference of the prophecy which helps to explain some of the details whicl1 otherwise would be quite baffling: “Rejoice over her ye holy apostles and prophets; for God hath avenged you on her” – in A.D. 70 this apostrophe to apostles and Spirit-guided prophets was not mere rhetoric, for quite a number of them were still alive. “In her was found the blood of prophets, and of saints, and of all that were slain in the Land” is language hardly appropriate to the Twentieth-Century Jerusalem, but it was bitterly relevant in the apostle John’s day. Similarly, the mention of “harpers, musicians, pipers, trumpeters” seems slightly pointless with regard to modern Jerusalem (or modern Rome either, for that matter), but its appropriateness to the temple, soon to be destroyed, is so manifest as to need no underlining. Another very clear example is this: “Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins”[70] (18:4). It is hard to give point to these words in any Twentieth-Century application, for there are no saints (to present knowledge) in modern Jerusalem,[71] and certainly not in the modern papacy. And if “Babylon” were taken to mean present corrupt civilization, it is well nigh impossible for the saints to make their escape. But the A.D. 70 force of these words is immediately obvious-they are the apocalyptic equivalent of: “when ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies … let them which be in Judea flee to the mountains, and let them which are in the midst of her (Jerusalem) depart out” (Luke 21:20, 21).

A point of a different character may occasion difficulty and perhaps needs to be tidied up. The prophecy goes on to say that “her smoke rose up for ever and ever” (19:3). How is this to be reconciled with the indisputable assurances of a Jerusalem that is to be glorified for all eternity?

The explanation is not difficult. It is the old wayward, rebellious, unspiritual Jerusalem, which was and is to be judged and which will vanish forever. Its place will be taken by a new Jerusalem which in every respect reflects God’s glory and manifests His praise. Time and again, “Babylon” is “that great city.” In its place there is to be “the holy city coming down from God out of heaven.”

ANOTHER IMPRESSIVE CONTRAST

[65] Plus three passing mentions of “graven images.”

[66] As in the Olivet prophecy and the visions of Daniel, the interim period between A.D. 70 and the Last Days is left as a gap without commentary (Chapter 27 – The Woman and The Dragon (ch. 12)).

[67] The equivalent phrase in Revelation 18:18 is: “In one day.”

[68] See “The Last Days” ch. 7 and “The Time of the End” ch. 2, 3, 5, 6.

[69] Many of them sent contingents to reinforce the army of Vespasian and Titus. The prospect of loot unlimited was, no doubt, something of an encouragement.

[70] A palpable Hebraism for “the punishment of her sins.”

[71] But apparently New Testament reading and “Jews for Jesus” are both making some headway in Israel.

“And I saw a new heaven and a new earth.” What the apostle actually saw was the new Jerusalem, a symbolic representation of the spiritual qualities of the Kingdom of Heaven now established on earth. To Peter this new heaven and earth meant “righteousness” (2 Peter 3: 13). To Isaiah they meant Paradise restored, a gracious way of life unspoiled by human selfishness (65:17-25). But to that prophet they also meant a society dedicated to the worship and honour of God, whilst sinners receive a punishment that is not only just but also is seen to be just (65: 20, 25).

“NO MORE SEA”

“And there was no more sea.” Since the wicked are described as being “like the troubled sea” (Isaiah 57:20), this is usually taken to mean “no more wicked.” But since the same truth is stated again a few verses further on (v. 8 and 22:15) much more fully and explicitly, it is difficult to see why such an obscure symbol should be brought in here. Two other alternatives deserve serious consideration.

Since this holy city now described is, in effect, the coming amongst men of the heavenly sanctuary so often alluded to in Revelation, the “sea” mentioned here could be the spiritual counterpart to the brazen sea, which was an essential feature of both Tabernacle and Temple of earlier days. The brazen sea was for priests on duty in the sanctuary to cleanse themselves from any defilement incidental to their activities there. Then if this city sanctuary has no “sea”, it must be because there is nothing in it to defile or hinder the fulness of service of those who are active there.

But the word “sea” has also a different connotation in Revelation. Its other meaning is best seen by listing a series of descriptions of the heavenly glory from different parts of the Bible: “And they saw the God of. Israel; and there was under his feet as it were a paved work of a sapphire stone and as it were the body of heaven in his clearness” (Exodus 24:10). “And above the firmament that was over their heads was the likeness of a throne, as the appearance of a sapphire stone: and upon the likeness of the throne was the likeness as the appearance of a man above upon it” (Ezekiel 1: 26). “And the likeness of the firmament upon the heads of the living creature was as the colour of the terrible crystal, stretched forth over their heads above” (Ezekiel 1: 22). “And before the throne was a sea of glass like unto crystal” (Revelation 4:6). “And I saw as it were a sea of glass mingled with fire: and them that had gotten the victory … stand on the sea of glass, having harps of God” (15:2).

A re-reading of these passages in their context makes certain that these descriptions all have to do with visions of the same heavenly glory. The last passage rules out any reference to the laver in the temple court, unless the phrase is re-translated to read: “beside the sea of glass”. But even then the other passages are hard to reconcile.

“The firmament”, “the terrible crystal”, “the sea of glass” – all seem to be descriptions of the sky, which at one time is sapphire blue, at another is shot with fire, as in a bright red sunset or stormy sunrise.

Thus the expanse of heaven is pictured here as the barrier between God and man. He is gloriously enthroned above the sky, whilst men have to be content with manifestations of heavenly glory in the cherubim who are the vehicles on earth of God’s Holy Spirit.

The conclusion follows that “no more sea” means the abolition of all space-time barriers and of all barriers of holiness between God and men: “The tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them; and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God”. Literally, the last phrase is: “And God with them (Immanuel!) shall be their God”. This is the most satisfying interpretation of all, and is more harmonious with the other allusions in Revelation (see also pp 41 and 42).

A CITY AND A BRIDE

This new Jerusalem is a City and at the same time a Bride bedecked for her wedding (21:2, 9, 10). What John saw in the vision was evidently a glorious city, its ornament and splendour so rich as to suggest the exquisite adornment of a girl on her wedding day. But would the idea of such a double description have been used if it had not already been employed by the prophet Isaiah?: “Put on thy beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city” (52:1). “Thou (Zion) shalt no more be termed Forsaken; neither shall thy land any more be termed Desolate: but thou shalt be called Hephzibah, and thy land Beulah: for the Lord delighteth in thee, and thy land shall be married. For as a young man marrieth a virgin, so shall thy sons (or, just possibly, thy Builder) marry thee: and as the bridegroom rejoiceth over the bride, so shall thy God rejoice over thee” (62:4, 5).

PROMISES NOW FULFILLED

This vision of the new Jerusalem is the first of seven distinct places where the rewards promised in the Letters to the Churches are seen to be anticipations of the divine glories described in the climax of Revelation (see also Chapter 3 – The Letters To The Churches (2) (ch. 3)).

The transcending blessedness of those who belong to, who are, this heavenly metropolis on earth is described in two ways, in both of which repetition takes the place of emphasis and explanation:

NEW AND HIGHER FACULTIES

What the dwelling of God with His immortal saints will mean in terms of personal experience is evidently past the powers of even a mighty angel or an inspired apostle to put into words. That which devout souls have craved and reached out for in the days of their weakness will become a normal everyday experience, a satisfying never-ceasing reality, like the warmth of sunshine on the wings of a butterfly newly-emerged from its chrysalis.

And the new and higher faculties with which the redeemed will find themselves endowed will be such as cannot be described in terms of present experience. Even this divine Apocalypse has to be content with a description in terms of the negation of every present tribulation. All this – death, sorrow, crying, pain – will be anointed out by the balm of God’s Holy Spirit, by the gift of personal immortality, and by the transcending experience of His own very Presence.

Time and again in this Revelation the Holy Spirit gropes for ways of making known the marvels of blessings to come, which present limitations bar the reader from understanding. The new Jerusalem is pictured as a city in which the length and breadth and height are equal (21:16). This is no human metropolis. It has had another dimension added to it. The song that the redeemed sing is one which none can learn save these who share the fellowship of the Lamb on mount Zion (14:1, 3). The new name received by “him that overcometh” can be learned only by “him that receiveth it” (2:I7).

It is not inconceivable that, added to the main comprehensible fact of immortality, there will be unlocked in the minds of the redeemed other faculties which have remained shut up and atrophied in the brain ever since a curse was put on the human race in Eden. Experts say that there are considerable areas of the human brain without any known function. And from time to time certain “freak” individuals have been known to possess startling and altogether abnormal mental powers and perceptions. Can it be that these are hints of possibilities to be unlocked in a glorious day when servants of the Lord step out into a work of fuller endowment such as they have hardly suspected the existence of?

BLESSINGS PAST DESCRIBING

A man who is colour-blind lives almost completely without appreciation of much of the loveliness of Nature or the world of art. One who is tone-deaf is shut out of a realm, which he knows exists for others but which, in this life, he can never enjoy. For him a Brahms symphony is just a long boring noise; and he would enjoy a Bach chorale just as well recited as sung. Such individuals know that there is something in life which they are missing and which no amount of effort and education can make good. But one day, by the grace of God, the first will stand in awe at the fiery splendour of a stormy sunrise or be charmed into speechlessness by the harmonies of colour in a Scottish glen, and the other will revel in the timbre of horn and ‘cello, and glory in his new-found ability to sing hymns by the hour to the God of his new creation. Then what of the man who comes from blindness to sight? And what must be the ecstatic shock to one who hears for the first time7

Imagine, then, for those blessed with a call to the marriage supper of the Lamb a like transformation even less susceptible of translation into words, because as yet outside the experience of all save Christ. Is it possible to conceive the addition of some sixth sense, some extra-sensory perception? What will it mean to move into a world of more than three dimensions? Even the Book of Revelation cannot describe these things in terms which present human limitation can grasp. All it can do is to say: All experience which you know now to be a disability will become only a painless memory, perhaps not even that. It can only tell of a city in which the height is fully equal to the length and breadth, of a song which no man can sing now, try as he will, of a new name not to be disclosed until the day when Christ bestows it.

“TRUE AND FAITHFUL”

“Write”, commands the voice, “for these things are true and faithful”. Three times (or is it four?) there is an instruction of this sort (14:13; 19:9; 21:5; 22:6, 10). It can only mean that, out of all the vitally important revelations made in this book, these are specially and outstandingly important. The phrase “true and faithful” implies the sure fulfilment of the ancient promises of God (see Chapter 37). That which the great voice had just spoken from heaven (v. 3, 4) assuredly involved this. It was now expressed in the most emphatic and comforting way possible.

THIRST ASSUAGED

“It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega.” Now, the sharing of the fountain of the water of life to his redeemed is the consummation of Messiah’s work. He who is “the Beginning of the Creation of God” (3:14) perfects his work in the ultimate spiritual satisfaction of those who overcome through him. Now he is not only Alpha but also Omega, “the First One and with the Last Ones” (Isaiah 41: 4). During the time of their pilgrimage he has saved them in hunger and thirst and hardship. But now all the springs and fountains (Isaiah 49:10; Revelation 7:16, 17) which have hitherto met their need become one mighty stream, inexhaustibly satisfying – a river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb (22: 1).

In bygone days the prophet of the Lord had had to make urgent impassioned appeal to men to recognize their own best path of self-interest by their own personal appropriation of “the sure mercies of David”: “Ho, everyone that thirsteth, come ye to the waters” (Isaiah 55:1). It is a remarkable passage which, when properly read, offers water and bread somehow transformed into wine and fatness of a quality which no human wealth can purchase. Yet men hesitate to accept the heavenly offer. They would rather spend their money for that which is “not bread” and give their labour for what leaves them still hungry and thirsty.

True in Isaiah’s day, it was also a prophecy of the matchless appeal of the Son of God to a nation, which took only a year or two to decide that it wanted to have nothing to do with him. Six months before they delivered him to death, at the most impressive public moment of the Feast of Tabernacles, Jesus made a dramatic appeal to the vast crowd of worshippers assembled there: “If any man thirst, let him come unto me: he that believeth on me, let him drink … as the Scripture hath said” (John 7: 37, 38). But the nation turned away, and has been thirsty ever since.

Yet still the divine gift is available, though only the Lord’s remnant, faithful and true, have appetite for it. These know, even now, the refreshing of the fountain of water of life. They enjoy it now in abundance and freely, “without money and without price,” – for it is not to be bought, even with the highest human effort. This experience serves to slake present thirst, but also-by a strange divine paradox – to accentuate it, until the day when the river of water of life brings the supreme satisfaction – water not only to drink but to bathe in, and rejoice.

THE SPIRITUAL REALITY

What Scripture has said time and again in winsome figure is now repeated in solemn simple emphasis. “He that overcometh shall inherit these things, and I will be his God, and he shall be my son.” Here is the reality behind all the figures of speech. How often does the child of God yearn for a clearer vision of the Divine, for a deeper God-consciousness amid the pathetic trivialities of everyday life: “My heart and my flesh cry out for the living God.” This is the day of small things. Revelation promises a fulness, adequate appreciation of which can only be groped after as one sanctified figure of speech after another is pondered: “the tabernacle of God … He will dwell with them … God shall wipe away all tears … the water of life freely … I will be his God, and he shall be my son”.

The last phrase here represents the ultimate fulfilment of the New Covenant, but in place of Jeremiah’s “they shall be my people” is the far more intimate “He shall be my son”. God’s law is written in human hearts, and all know Him, from the least to the greatest.

THE REJECTED

How solemn is the contrast in which an eight-fold[83] catalogue of those raised for judgement arraigns the rejected now condemned to the second death! First in this list are the fearful and unbelieving. Some wonder that the former of these should be included in such an enumeration of human vices. Yet it has its rightful place. Fear of contingencies or human adversaries is forbidden to the disciple of Christ. “Fear ye not therefore,” said Jesus to the twelve (Matthew 10:26, 28, 31). He was giving a commandment, not just well-meant advice. On reflection, how evident it is that fear is a sin; for it carries with it the assumption that there are powers of evil in the world, which God cannot cope with. It assumes that Jesus did not mean what he said when he exhorted: “Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered” (Matthew 10:29, 30).

The special conjunction here with “unbelief” shews, however, that the warning in Revelation is primarily for those who are fearful of the duties and consequences of discipleship. This is the man who says: “I couldn’t live the life”. This is he who has at the back of his mind the uncomfortable query: “What will my friends and colleagues think about me?” These spineless attitudes spell fear in large capitals. They signpost the way to a gehenna of fire, a second and very long-lasting death.

The unbeliever who travels the road to a similar destiny is not the poor fool of an atheist or even the blinded patron of religious orthodoxy. He is the man who sees and knows the Truth in Christ, recognizing it for what it is, but who nevertheless prefers his life of worldly ambition to humble striving for the approval of Christ. Or maybe he would rather relax in selfish laziness or easy worldliness than bestir himself in the cause of the kingdom of God. The fearful and the unbelieving belong together.

The next group – the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters – have to be understood against the background of the world, which John belonged to; for the Apocalypse was for the First Century, as well as the Twentieth. All of these were almost commonplace members of the society to which the apostles preached, and have already achieved respectability once again in these Last Days. But today the real scope of these words is in the kind of application such as Jesus taught in the Sermon on the Mount. Hatred is murder, lust is adultery, eager wealth gathering is idolatry, Jesus said. Would he also have agreed that wire pulling is sorcery?

Last in the catalogue – a dubious honour! – come “all liars”. The mischief has been theirs from the first. And to this day “speaking lies in hypocracy” (1 Timothy 4:2), they still persuade that “ye shall not surely die.” Not only with this greatest out-and-out falsehood, but in a score of ways they lie by insinuation: “Yea, hath God said…?” Did He really say this? “Where is the promise of his coming?” Where, indeed? In the Bible! But who takes the Bible seriously today? If that is where his coming is promised, why take that seriously either? “Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ?” (1 John 2:22).

All such, who nurse atheism in their hearts, and foster it in the hearts of others, will also know the second death, the utter destruction that a lake of fire aptly symbolizes.

THE FIRE WHICH HURTS AND DESTROYS

There is, perhaps, another reason for the use of this graphic figure. Not that there is here any hint of eternal torments – that enthusiasm of the onetime hot-gospeller – for even death and hell are themselves to be cast into the lake of fire (20:14). Fire not only consumes utterly, it also sears with terrible torture in the process. So it may be that the real punishment of those rejected by the great Judge of all will be what they experience before the blackness of the darkness of the aions overpowers them. For a man to live just long enough into the kingdom of Christ to be able to realize and appreciate what he has thrown away through his own wilfulness, selfishness, or lack of faith, would probably be as fitting a divine rebuke as he could possibly receive. For such a man to see the blessedness of the saints in Christ and to reproach himself: “Fool, fool, fool,” that such a heavenly gift should have been spurned for the tawdry satisfactions of a world that is passing away, seems to be altogether fitting. “The sinner being an hundred years old shall be accursed.” To such every year, which he lives amidst the transcending spiritual blessings of Christ’s kingdom, will be a year of greater misery and curse. What a contrast with those for whom all things are made new!

Regarding these who are the subjects of the Holy Spirit’s searing censure in this place, one further question requires to be answered: Are these who are so roundly condemned unworthy baptized believers or unbaptized rejectors of Christ? One thing regarding them is certain – they are among those who rise from the dead, for they experience the second death, that is they die a second time. Is it possible to believe that this frightening list of fearful, unbelievers, abominable, murderers, whoremongers, sorcerers, idolaters and liars describe those who have been blessed with the fellowship of Christ? Some perhaps; but is it not evident that many of these must belong to the class of those who know the Truth and who yet turn their backs on it, preferring the comfortable evil of the world to the austerity of a life of faith in Christ?

[82] Why “tabernacle” when one would expect the word “temple” or some other suggestion of permanence?

[83] Eight is always the number of resurrection and a new beginning. Appropriate here?

To appreciate the drama associated with the next stage of the vision accorded to John, it is necessary by a quick recapitulation to see the panorama of Revelation as he saw it.

In the heavenly vision he had seen Christ exalted to the Father’s right hand, and the Book of Life committed to him. One by one the Seven Seals that kept secret its contents had been broken, each Seal being associated with a manifestation of wrath against Israel. Before the last Seal was broken, there came a pause for the “sealing” (in a different sense) of the Lamb’s faithful ones. Then the last Seal was broken. Surely now the Book would be laid open; now must be the return of the Lord and the resurrection of the dead. But no! Seven angels appear to sound blasts of divine wrath upon their trumpets – more wrath against Israel! Six of these follow one after another bringing retribution upon a race of stony-hearted rebels. Soon must come the Seventh and last, and then – John doubtless reasoned to himself – the Lamb’s Book of Life will be full open. Besides, had not his Lord foretold that his second coming would be “immediately after the tribulation of those days” (Matthew 24:31)? At any time, then, he could expect to see the revelation of Christ’s personal return from heaven to raise the dead and bring in his Kingdom.

THE RAINBOWED ANGEL

One can imagine, therefore, the eager excitement with which the prophet would anticipate the next stage in the Revelation he was witnessing.

“And I saw another mighty angel come down from heaven, clothed with a cloud: and a rainbow was upon his head, and his face was as it were the sun, and his feet as pillars of fire” (Revelation 10:1).

In almost all respects it seemed to be the Lord himself. Detail after glorious detail corresponded with the ineffable majesty of the Being he had beheld at the beginning of his visions. There was even about him the great rainbow from the heavenly throne. But it was not Christ’.

NOT THE MESSIAH

Many an expositor has been led by the resemblance between this rainbowed angel and the Lord to equate the two and to say: This is none other than the Lord himself. But a whole catalogue of reasons demands that this attractive idea be set aside.

THEN WHY LIKE HIM?

Whilst, then, it may be taken as tolerably certain that the rainbowed angel was not Christ, some reason must be found for the remarkable resemblances between him and his Lord. These similarities are worth picking out.

Why the strong likeness between the two visions?

Firstly, because this is a turning point, a moment of crisis, in the Revelation. John is keyed up to expect at this juncture the sight of his Lord returning to the earth in glory. Instead he is to learn that more time must elapse before the consummation of the divine purpose in Christ. So an angel endowed with such a fulness of glory communicates this important fact that John may recognize not only the importance but also the vital necessity of this new departure now about to ensue in the heavenly plan. Secondly, because his appearance is closely connected with the Seven Thunders – a sequence of additional revelations which have to do specifically with the coming of the Lord.

WHO WAS HE?

The undeniable parallel between Daniel and Revelation makes possible an intelligent guess as to the identity of the rainbowed angel. First, it may be taken as fairly certain that he is the same as the angel clothed in linen who spoke to Daniel in chapter 10 There verse 13 makes it plain that he is an archangel, but distinct from Michael. The words in verse 6 – “the voice of his words like the voice of a multitude” – have led some to the conclusion that here is an idealised picture of Christ and his glorified saints, but a careful reading of verses 12-14, 20, 21 will immediately supply insuperable difficulties in the way of full acceptance of such a view.

The best hint as to the angel’s identity (in Daniel) is in the words of verse 21: “I will shew thee that which is noted in the Scripture of truth.” Let comparison be made with Daniel 8:16 and 9:2, 22: “Gabriel, make this man to understand the vision … Yea, whiles I was speaking in prayer, even the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning … talked with me, and said, O Daniel, I am now come forth to shew thee.”

It was Gabriel also who declared to Zacharias, by the exposition of Old Testament prophecy, what was to be the mission of his son (Luke 1:17). And, very probably, it was Gabriel (as suggested by C.C.W.) who strengthened Jesus at the crisis of his temptation in Gethsemane, by the power of the Scripture of Truth already written beforehand concerning him.

With such facts and probabilities to work on, the suggestion may be hazarded with fair confidence that this rainbowed angel in Revelation 10 was also Gabriel intent on revealing to John the meaning of yet another Scripture of Truth[42]

THE CALL OF THE GENTILES

That the main purpose of the angelic appearance was to announce the casting off of Israel, in accordance with Bible prophecy, can hardly be doubted when other details in this chapter are studied.

It follows that this interim vision of Revelation 10 was to prepare the apostle John for a big extension of his prophetic work, especially in connection with the gospel going forth to the Gentiles. And in this fact lies the solution to several problems.

OTHER DETAILS HARMONIZE

Various other details in the chapter harmonize perfectly with the point of view being advanced here:

THE LITTLE BOOK

Since the little book lying open in the left hand of the angel was not, as John had originally expected, the Book of Life, it is pertinent to enquire precisely what it was. Here, as always, guesswork must be set aside in favour of the plain hints given in the Bible itself.

John was commanded to take the book and eat it. Its taste was sweet as honey, but it made his belly bitter. This was Ezekiel’s experience over again. It would be strange, then, if Ezekiel did not afford some hint as to what John’s little book contained: “And when I looked, behold, an hand was sent unto me, and lo, a roll of a book was therein: and he spread it before me, and it was written within and without: and there was written therein lamentations, and mourning, and woe … moreover he said unto me, Son of man, eat that thou findest; eat this roll, and go speak unto the house of Israel. So I opened my mouth and he caused me to eat that roll. And he said unto me, Son of man, cause thy belly to eat, and fill thy bowels with this roll that I give thee. Then I did eat it; and it was in my mouth as honey for sweetness” (Ezekiel 2:9, 10 and 3:1-4). “So the spirit lifted me up, and took me away, and I went in bitterness in the heat of my spirit” (3 14).

JOHN AND EZEKIEL

The parallel between the experience of the two prophets is plain enough. Both had to prophesy the downfall and desolation of their own nation because of disobedience. “Lamentation, mourning, and woe” was the theme of both-hence bitterness in the belly, even though the message had the honey sweetness of holy words from heaven (Psalm 19:10 and 119:103 and 40:8 mg.). It was the duty of each to foretell a time of scattering and downtreading, and to each were entrusted visions concerning Gentile nations during the period of Israel’s casting off. “John, thou – like Ezekiel – must prophesy again, this time not so much about thine own people Israel but concerning[46] many peoples and nations and tongues and kings.”

In such circumstances, who can doubt that the little book is the rest of the Book of Revelation being imparted unto John? It cannot be accident that the same expression about “peoples, nations, tongues and kings” meets the reader again in chapter 17:15. And even a casual reading of Revelation chapters 12-20 makes it abundantly evident that that part of the book has much to say about Gentile nations and powers.

WRITE THEM NOT

The most likely understanding of the Seven Thunders harmonizes with this conclusion. It is commonly overlooked that there is a seeming contradiction about the instructions given to John concerning the Thunders: “Seal up those things which the seven thunders uttered, and write then’ not.” But how can that which has not been written down be “sealed up”? Clearly “seal up” implies that what the Thunders uttered had been already written down. If this be so, “write them not” must be read as: “write not their meanings.”[47]

Now if the Thunders were already written, where were they written save in the little book that was being imparted to John?

The oversight referred to just now – the force of the command “seal up” – is also responsible for another mistaken conclusion about the Thunders, namely that there is no further mention of them in the Book of Revelation. If this were so, it would be strange indeed, for then the reader would be faced with the unique phenomenon of the mention of an obviously important item in the divine plan without a vestige of a hint to clear up the mystery in which it was enshrouded. But the name of this book is Revelation!

It is shewn in Chapters 6 and 29 that what the Seven Thunders uttered is given in detail in a later part of Revelation. Taking this conclusion for granted for the moment, it will readily be seen that that view harmonizes well with the idea that the little book given to John and containing the Thunders was none other than the rest of the Book of Revelation (or some particular portion of it). And just as the book given to Ezekiel for his eating was the “lamentation, mourning and woe” of his prophecy, so also here.

SPECIAL NOTE ON TIME NO LONGER (verse 6)

[41] A careful reading of Daniel 10,11,12 will make plain that it is the same unnamed angel who is speaking throughout.

[42] Gabriel means: “God’s strong one;’ hence Revelation 10:1 “a strong angel.”

[43] There is the possibility that “the time is not yet’, refers to the fulfilment of the seven thunders. The passage would read very smoothly this way, and further, this view would harmonize excellently with the command: “Seal up those things which the seven thunders uttered” (cp. Daniel 8:26 and 12:4, 9).

[44] Or does it signify wrath tempered with mercy?

[45] The third similar phrase “the sea, etc.” should be omitted, according to the best texts And this is obviously right, for the vision is

concerned with:

i. those in the heavenlies — saints in covenant with God through Christ.

ii. those on earth — the Jews, now thrust out from their spiritual privileges.

[46] Not, as A.V.: “before.”

[47] The instruction: “seal up,” in Daniel 8:26 and 12:4, 9, confirms this conclusion for in each of the instances there Daniel wrote the vision (chapter 8:3-14, 19-26 and 11:2-12:3), yet in the first of these “there was none to make it understood” (8: 27 RVm.), and in the second “none of the wicked shall understand, but the wise shall understand.” Similarly, then, concerning the “sealed up” thunders, it must be understood that they were written but not explained, and of them also it will be only “the wise” who “understand.”

Just as the Seventh Seal opens the way for the Seven Trumpets, so the Seventh Thunder – “a great voice out of the temple” (16:1) – gives the angels of the Seven Vials their commission.

A Biblical exposition of the Seven Vials is extremely difficult, partly because their final fulfilment appears to be still in the future and partly because of the complexity of the Old Testament allusions in this chapter. However, certain features stand out fairly clearly.

Revelation 15 describes seven angels having committed to them seven bowls, the contents of which are to be poured out in the temple. The contents of the bowls are not described, but instead are immediately interpreted: “the wrath of God”. The word used here is that which signifies hot anger, fierce indignation.

What part of the temple procedure is represented here? There would seem to be three possibilities:

1. The formal ceremony of water pouring at the base of the altar of burnt offering on the “great day” of the Feast of Tabernacles John 7:37). It is the end of the rota of feasts and observances prescribed in the Law of Moses, and thus could foreshadow the climax of the great redeeming work of Christ.

2. The pouring of sacrificial blood at the base of the altar. This was done with the blood of the burnt-offering. Revelation uses this figure for the self-consecration and martyrdom of God’s witnesses (6:9-11). But at the time of the Vials will not such trying experiences be past? The drink offerings of wine appear to have had a similar meaning.

3. These Vials are not poured out in the Sanctuary. So perhaps the meaning of the symbolism should be sought elsewhere. In the Sixth Thunder there is a “treading of the great winepress of the wrath of God” (14:18-20). The drinking of “the cup of the wine of the fierceness of God’s wrath” (16:19) confirms this. In the Vials, then, there is a wrath of God overflowing upon the various objects of His indignation.

THE VIALS – WHEN AND WHERE?

Chapter 15 concludes with the words: “and no man was able to enter into the temple, till the seven plagues of the seven angels were fulfilled.” Since the “temple” here is the inner sanctuary, the words appear to mean that the Vials, all seven of them, are to have their fulfilment before the saints are made immortal.

The words: “Behold, I come as a thief” (16:15) seem to be decisive that the Vials, like the Thunders (14:13, 14), belong to the time of the return of Christ. There are several indications, which will be mentioned as the exposition proceeds, that these just judgements will, in the main, be located in the Land of Palestine. Yet they are being poured out on the enemies of God, who have overrun and pour out the vials of the wrath of God upon the Land” (v. 1). Several Scriptures use remarkably similar language, and help to fix the application of this prophecy.

These seven angels are readily equated with the deliverers of Israel foretold in Micah 5:5: “And this man (the Messiah) shall be our peace, when the Assyrian shall come into our Land: and when he shall tread in our palaces then shall we raise against him seven shepherds, and eight principal men”. Here, instead of saying 7 +8=15, it is more in accordance with Bible idiom to say 7+1=8, the Messiah and his seven archangels.

Again, Daniel’s “Seventy Weeks” prophecy concludes with this description of the final half-“week”: “and upon the wing of abominations desolation, and until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolator” (9:27). It is another Old Testament anticipation of the Seven Vials.

Earlier, in the study of the Two Witnesses, it was shewn that there was close connection with Psalm 79, a prophecy of the tribulation of Israel in the Last Days. That psalm concludes with the words: “Pour out thy wrath upon the nations that have not known thee … for they have devoured Jacob, and laid waste his dwelling-place … And render unto our neighbours sevenfold into their bosom their reproach, wherewith they have reproached thee, O Lord” (79:6, 7, 12).

In this connection the similarities between the Trumpets and Vials are very striking and also important:

The Trumpets were seen to be the expression of God’s judgements on Israel. Now the same retributions are poured out on those who have ravaged Israel, and for very good reason: it is a rendering unto them of the reproach wherewith they have reproached the Almighty (compare Zechariah 1:15). This suggests that the final persecution of Israel during the 3½ years will be intended also as religious war – Jihad – a defiance of the God of Israel to whom the Jews will turn (as Psalms 79 and 83 clearly shew) in their extremity.

It will be recalled that the Trumpets are characterized by the frequent repetition of the phrase “one third of …” or “the third part of …” (explanation for this was offered in Chapter 18). Here in the Vials there is nothing to correspond to this, with the possible exception of verse 19: “the great city was divided into three parts”. But even here it is evident that all three parts are involved in judgement (see Revelation 18 and Chapter 34).

Also – with what appropriateness! – this punishment of Gentile oppressors is to take place primarily in the Land itself where the Gentiles will have wrought such havoc among God’s people and on the place made holy by patriarchs, prophets and His Son.

There are certain resemblances to the Seven Thunders, which reinforce these conclusions:

There is no suggestion that the Vials form a sequence or that their fulfilments follow in chronological order. It was seen earlier that Seals and Trumpets in their primary application were simply different aspects of the divine judgements falling on Israel, and the same seems to be true of the Vials in the Last Days, except that now it is the enemies of Israel who suffer the vengeance and wrath of Almighty God.

All the Biblical indications point to a fulfilment of the Vials in the Land of Palestine. The words of the Seventh Trumpet also serve to prepare the way for these Vials of wrath: “the nations were angry (with Israel?) and (therefore) thy wrath is come (in Thunders and Vials) … to destroy them which destroy the Land” (11:18). The copious evidence for this will be catalogued by and by. But first it is necessary to sketch in outline the probable order of development of events with regard to the Jews in the Time of the End.

PROBABLE DEVELOPMENTS

It is usually assumed that the war in Israel, which will herald the return of the Lord, will be the focus of a titanic struggle there between Russia and the Communistic bloc in the north and America and Britain holding the south. But this picture ignores altogether certain important facts.[58]

The Gog-Magog invasion of Ezekiel takes place after the coming of the Lord. The use of “dwelling securely” (Ezekiel 38: 8, 14; 34:28, 24, 25; Zechariah 14:11) would appear to be decisive on this point (but see also “The Time of the End” Ch. 18). As long as the state of Israel is ringed by hostile Arab states these words are a mockery of Israel’s condition.

There are many latter-day prophecies which give the Arab nations a superiority over Israel for which most prophetic interpretations make little or no allowance. For example, Psalm 83: 1-8 has a catalogue of Arab nations determined to cut off Israel from being a nation. Here “Asshur” may possible represent Russia in the background, supplying the sinews of war, but otherwise there is no sign of an irresistible colossus overwhelming the Jews. Ezekiel 35:10 pictures the Arabs – “mount Seir” – rejoicing that “these two nations and these two countries shall be mine, and we will possess it; whereas the Lord was there”. In Ezekiel 36:2, Edom (v. 5) gloats: “Aha, even the ancient high places (the Temple area) are ours in possession”. Zechariah 14:2 foretells the capture of Jerusalem: “The city shall be taken … half the city (i.e. half the population of the city) shall go forth into captivity’& (Deuteronomy 28:68). Jeremiah 31 has a long series of allusions to the return of Jacob and his family from Haran back to the Land, only to face the superior power of Esau (see v. 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 15, 19, 21), but all this is reiterated as a picture of the restoration of Israel in the Last Days (v. 12-14, 23-28). The old rivalry between Esau and Jacob is to find full expression once again in the Time of the End. Jacob tried to re-establish himself in the Land through his own efforts and cunning, but found that he was pitting his inadequate strength against an angel of the Lord. But when, instead, he turned to the power of prayer, he found to his astonishment that the hostility of Esau had evaporated. In “the time of Jacob’s trouble” (Jeremiah 30:7; same word in Genesis 32:7) the salvation of Israel will be in repentance, and in no other way. They will not see their Messiah until they say: “Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.” And they will only be brought to this point of contrition and dependence upon God when the State they have so laboriously carved out with their own hands crashes into hopeless ruin before the Arabs (of all people!), and Elijah the prophet appears, teaching them the true story of salvation (Malachi 4:4, 5). It is suggested, then, that a re-invigorated Arab League, well equipped with Russian tanks, planes, rockets and technicians, will one day win a massive and blood-thirsty victory over the new State of Israel, which at present holds them in contempt. Further, it seems likely that the 1260 days (= 42 months = 3½ years = the unused half-week of Daniel’s 70 weeks) will be the literal period of occupation of Israel by Arab and Russia, the West being too timid or too slow with its reaction against this aggression.

TWO IMPORTANT PASSAGES

There are two Scriptures of outstanding interest and power on this exciting development of the purpose of God. One is Revelation 11, where – according to the strong Bible evidence available – the Two Witnesses represent Israel in the Land, overcome by the Beast, so that their dead bodies (the “corpse” of national Israel) lies exposed for 3½ days (the “half-week” of the paragraph before this). The earlier exposition of Revelation 11 will have prepared the reader for this crisis in the Middle East.

The other Scripture is Psalm 79 – a lament of Israel when the nation is brought “very low”. The description is very telling. The invaders “have laid Jerusalem on heaps the dead bodies of thy servants have they given to be meat unto the fowls of the heaven (hence the appropriate retribution of Revelation 19:17, 18), the flesh of thy saints unto the beasts of the earth(the false prophet of Revelation which is also the beast of the earth; l3:11). Their blood have they shed like water round about Jerusalem (cp. the second vial – ‘the blood of a dead man’; the blood of the dead Jesus was ‘like water’; John 19:34); and there was none to bury them. We are become a reproach to our neighbours, a scorn and a derision to them that are round about us (cp. Revelation 11:10). How long, O Lord? wilt thou be angry for ever? (It is the appeal, at last, of the importunate widow of Israel in the day when the Son of man cometh: ‘Avenge me of mine adversaries’), shall thy jealousy burn like fire? Pour out thy wrath (in all seven vials) upon the heathen that have not known thee, and upon the kingdoms that have not called upon thy name. For they have devoured Jacob, and laid waste his dwelling place. O remember not against us the iniquities of our forefathers (repentance in Israel at last! and in the words that follow): let thy tender mercies speedily prevent us: for we are brought very low (see Deuteronomy 28:43) … Render unto our neighbours (the Arabs are Israel’s neighbours) sevenfold[59] unto their bosom (the seven vials) their reproach wherewith they have reproached thee, O Lord (this word ‘reproach’ is the same as Revelation 16:11, 21: ‘blaspheme’). So we will give thee thanks for ever: we will praise thy name to all generations (Israel’s true vocation- Psalm 78:4-realized at last).”

FUTURE FULFILMENT IN ISRAEL

A careful examination of Revelation 16 and related Scriptures reveals that a political and religious crisis such as this is the background to the Seven Vials. The evidence all through is entirely Biblical. From the very nature of the case, historical confirmation is not available, since these powerful events still lie in the future. Any historical application of the Vials – prophecies of what are already historical events – can be only in the nature of a primary fulfilment. The full realization of the Vials is yet to come, as will be even more strongly emphasized by the Biblical evidence listed below:

NO ACCURATE INTERPRETATION BEFOREHAND

Such an accumulation of evidence pointing to a local reference of the Vials to the Land of Israel is hardly to be ignored, especially since this is not history-book evidence but Biblical evidence, compiled by the most dependable of all methods of interpretation, that of comparing Scripture with Scripture.

But whilst the general scope of the vials of wrath is plainly discernible, it becomes one of the trickiest problems of interpretation of the Book of Revelation to assess the meaning of the symbolic details, which pile up as one vial follows another. Whereas there is fair confidence concerning the conclusions advanced thus far in this Chapter, there is much less with respect to the suggestions which now follow. This distinction should be borne in mind.

The importance of recognizing the difficulty, which attaches to interpretation beforehand of apocalyptic symbolism, needs emphasis here. Let the reader imagine himself back in the First Century and poring over the details of (say) Revelation 8, 9. Whatever scheme of interpretation of those chapters he now favours, let him ask himself how near to an accurate idea of the fulfilment his personal studies then would have led him. What sort of solutions then would he have propounded to the enigma of a great fiery mountain falling into the sea and turning one third of it to blood7 What identification would he have hit upon for the bottomless pit? How precise (or vague!) would have been the interpretation put on locusts with hair like women, crowns of gold, breastplates of iron, stinging tails like scorpions?

To illustrate in yet another way, consider the details of the Sixth Seal. Here, the reader is now reminded, all Biblical evidence points to a special reference to Israel sometime, somehow: “sun, moon and stars … black as sackcloth of hair … a fig tree with untimely figs … heaven rolled up as a scroll … great men of the nation hiding themselves in dens and rocks of the mountains … Fall on us and hide us from him that sits on the throne … the wrath of the Lamb.” Here, in any generation, the careful student of Holy Scripture can piece together the Old Testament allusions and conclude: Dramatic judgement on Israel. But to go further and enquire: “Precisely what events will bring the fulfilment of this prophetic symbolism?” must have landed the early believer in a morass of uncertainty. Even today, with the prototype of the terrific events of A.D. 70 familiar to the mind, it is almost impossible to clothe the future fulfilment of the Sixth Seal with present reality. A detailed interpretation – in the sense of translation into clear-cut political developments in the late Twentieth Century – is fraught with uncertainty. And so also with the Vials.

THE FIRST VIAL

The effect of the First Vial was “a noisome and grievous sore upon the men which had the mark of the beast.” In John’s day, the counterpart to the mark of the beast was the sign of Caesar’s authority stamped on the hand of his soldiers and on the foreheads of his slaves. In Hitler’s day it was the jack-boot, the swastika and the Hitler salute. When the Jews again come under the heel of a tyrant, they will doubtless be made to wear, once again, the distinguishing badge of the star of David, whilst the Beast’s devotees will have their own devilish insignia.

But those who treat the Jews as lepers and outcasts may find themselves literally transformed into lepers and outcasts. The “noisome and grievous sore” is identical with the “botch of Egypt” which Moses foretold for those who do despite to the law of God, it is the same as the leprosy of the book of Leviticus, it is the exact equivalent of Job’s “sore boils” and of the deadly disease which afflicted Hezekiah. Perhaps there will be a mysterious divinely imposed plague, which will fall upon the unclean conquerors of Israel who are themselves treated as unclean. Such would be fitting. It was when the plague of boils came on the Egyptians that the magicians, who hitherto had made some show of rivalling the wonders of Moses, were now no longer able to stand before him. This suggests a like experience for the oppressors when a greater Deliverer than Moses appears.

A similar affliction came deservedly on triumphant Philistines when they had the ark of God in their midst (1 Samuel 5:9). When the One whom that ark typifies is made manifest, something comparable (or worse) may be expected. Zechariah 14:12 suggest worse: “And this shall be the plague wherewith the Lord will smite all the pcople that have fought against Jerusalem; Their flesh shall consume away while they stand upon their feet, and their eyes shall consume away in their holes … And it shall come to pass that a great tumult from the Lord shall be among them” (see “The Last Days”, Ch. 13).

Among those who “withstood Moses” in Egypt were “Jannes and Jambres … men of corrupt minds, resisting the truth” (2 Timothy 3:8). The usual assumption that these were the Egyptian conjurors is a mistaken onc, for the names are Jewish. These were men who were prepared to take sides with the enemies of God’s people rather than acknowledge the Saviour He sent. The counterpart to this in the Last Days may prove to be the stubborn wilful resistance of rationalists to belief in the Messiah. These will prefer man-made worship of Man and of man’s achievements in science to any acknowledgement of God or God’s Messiah–the mark of the Beast rather than the name of God in their foreheads.

THE SECOND VIAL

The Second and Third Vials bring death to the seas and to the rivers and fountains of water. This is certainly the meaning of the symbol. To a Jew, nurtured in the Law, blood normally spelled Life, for “the life of the flesh is in the blood thereof.” But here, that there be no error, the waters become “as the blood of a dead man, and every living soul died.”

Zechariah 9:4 specifies a judgement on Tyre in the Last Days in a way which may well link up with the Second Vial: “Behold, the Lord will cast her out, and he will smite her power in the sea; and she shall be devoured with fire”.

Then does this Vial foretell the results of tremendous naval encounters in the eastern Mediterranean? It is difficult to foresee a time when it will not be in American interest to maintain a massive fleet in those waters. And, so powerful has the Russian navy become in recent years, there is already much talk of the Mediterranean becoming a Russian lake. Balaam’s mysterious Messianic prophecy has details which now shew signs of coming to life: “And ships shall come from Chittim, and shall afflict Eber, and he the enemy coming in ships) also shall perish for ever” (Numbers 24:24).

THE THIRD VIAL

Again, as in the Third Trumpet, “rivers and fountains of water” is a phrase which points, as it did there, to the Land of Palestine (cp. Ezekiel 6:3, and also Revelation 7:17, where the type of a wilderness journey requires that “fountains of water” be associated with the Land of Promise).

So also Isaiah 30:25. The prophecy speaks of a time when “the people shall dwell in Zion at Jerusalem; thou shalt weep no more: he shall be very gracious unto thee at the voice of thy cry… in the day when the Lord bindeth up the hurt of his people, and healeth the stroke of their wound (contrast here the First Vial)”. Embedded in this picture of future blessing: “there shall be upon every high mountain, and upon every high hill, rivers and streams of waters in the day of the great slaughter when the towers fall”. Since the context speaks of such abundant blessing on Israel, this must surely be the obverse side of the picture – judgement on Israel’s enemies. For them the conquest of the Land of Promise is to mean not “living fountains of waters” but the drinking of their own blood, i.e. self-destruction by some of the foul diabolical means in which the scientific staff of every “great” nation specializes in these days. This idea of the punishment of the nations by their own fiendish weapons is to be found over and over again in the prophets: Haggai 2:22; Zechariah 14:13; Ezekiel 38:21. It is implicit in the phrase: “as in the day of Midian;” Isaiah 9:4; Judges 7:22. It is enacted in type also: 2 Chronicles 20:23; Joel 3:12. It is not made clear how this tumult that is to be among them from the Lord will come about, but they who have found pleasure in the death of saints and prophets will now turn with equal zeal and efficiency to the destroying of their fellows.

SAINTS AND PROPHETS

But who are these “saints and prophets” whose blood is now brought upon them? Only in a very indirect way can these words be given application to Huguenots and other Protestant groups of past centuries, for they all held many of the most blatant errors of apostasy. For example, the 1120 A.D. Confession of Eaith of the Waldenses includes belief in immortal souls in paradise and in hell. The 1669 Confession of the Piedmontese churches proclaims belief in a personal devil, wicked angels and the doctrine of the trinity, and studiously avoids all mention of baptism. And certainly these pious communities of pre-Reformation times had no prophets of the Lord among them.

It is easily overlooked that the word “saints” is used in Scripture not only of God’s faithful remnant, not only of angels (as in Daniel 8:13; Zechariah 14:5; Jude 14), but also of God’s holy people of Israel (as in Exodus 19:6; Deuteronomy 7:6; Daniel 8:24 and 12:7 – the same Hebrew word). And since these Vials concern the Land of Israel, there is every likelihood of reference to the Jewish people in their last hour of tribulation. The parallel in Psalm 79, already demonstrated, finally settles this: “the flesh of thy saints have they given to the beasts of the Land.”

Neither does the word “prophets” present difficulty in this context. According to Malachi 4:5 God is to raise up amongst the Jews someone in the spirit and power of Elias[60] to lead the people back to God and to prepare them for the manifestation of their Messiah. Presumably this will be during the 32 years when there is the “drought” of divine affliction upon Israel in the Land. Thus the word “prophets” will apply to this “Elijah” and those who co-operate with him, for they will certainly suffer for their divine work as in the time of Jezebel (1 Kings 19:10). They are also prophets because, shortly before the coming of Jesus as King of the Jews, they experience the Last Day outpouring of the Holy Spirit foretold by Joel (2:28-32).

TRUE TO TYPE

“And I heard (the angel of) the altar, saying, Even so, O Lord God Almighty, true and righteous are thy judgements.” It is the altar of burnt-offering (14:18) that symbolically (as in 6:10) has witnessed the offering of lives in sacrifice to God. As in 15:3 and 19: 2, 9, this word “true” contrasts reality with type and symbol. How right its use is here! These Vials use the language of the plagues in Egypt, of the destruction of Babylon by Cyrus (v. 12), and of the great victory of Deborah and Barak at Megiddo, but they speak of a deliverance and victory of which those events were only faint fore-shadowings.

This cry of the angel of the altar was in response to the word of the angel of the waters: “Thou art righteous, O Lord, because thou has judged thus”. The identification of this angel is not easy. He may be the angel of the Third Trumpet, after whose sounding the falling star Wormwood turned all the waters bitter (ch. 8:10, 11). Or he may be the angel of Daniel 12:7 who stood upon the waters of the river (which river? Tigris? Daniel 10:4) and declared that after a time, times and a half (3-l- years again!) “they have made an end of breaking in pieces the power of the holy people (saints, i.e. Israel).” Perhaps the two angels are one and the same.

It is specially significant that the divine name used by this angel is: “O Lord, which art, and wast.” The “and shalt be” which comes in chapter 1:4, 8 and 4:8 is neither in the original text here nor in ch. 11:17. In this last place the reason is obvious – in the Seventh Trumpet the kingdom is established and judgement has taken place; the purpose of God is no longer essentially a future purpose but one which has already found realization. Here in the field of judgement of the Third Vial the omission of “and shalt be” is appropriate because after the vials there is no more outpouring of divine judgement – in them the wrath of God is finished (ch. 15:1 R.V.).

THE FOURTH VIAL

The Fourth Vial describes the sun scorching men with great heat so that they blaspheme God because of the plague. Apt as this may be to Napoleon taking the horrors of war far and wide, it is still just as appropriate to the evil ambitions of any other power-hungry dictator. The Napoleonic wars were no more efficient than (say) World Wars I and II in their encouragement of atheism and blasphemy. If anything, the reverse was true. For in many parts of Europe the Napoleonic wars were followed by the biggest revival of religion the world has ever known, with the possible (if doubtful) exception of the Reformation. This Vial, then, must surely describe something so sensationally different and horrible as to provoke an inevitable reaction of blasphemy against the God of heaven. The precise form of fulfilment – still further – is largely a matter of guesswork.

SCIENTIFIC FRIGHTFULNESS

In these days of feverish scientific research it may well prove that either nuclear flash-burn or advances in laser-beam technique or the diabolical harnessing of specially orbited satellites or devices for concentrating the fierce heat of the sun in some horribly destructive way will bring a fulfilment of this Vial prophecy which it was beyond the power of an earlier generation even to imagine.

One detail after another in the Vial sequence chimes in with this concept. In the Sixth Vial, poured into the air (v. 17), there falls a great hail from heaven. Already the minds of all readers are prepared for a semiliteral fulfilment of these words, whatever further meaning may lie behind the symbolism. And the increasing recurrence of severe earthquakes in recent years raises in the mind the possibility that other aspects of the Sixth Vial will be found to be unpleasantly literal (v. 18).

Some of the other divinely inflicted agonies described on this page of Holy Writ suggest devilries devised for the nations through the prostituted powers of scientists harnessed to the cause of “Peace”. Is the “noisome and grievous sore” (v. 2) one of the effects of intense radiation following on thermo-nuclear fission? How else can waters over a wide area (v. 4) be contaminated with death save by the insidious fall-out of radioactive material after hydrogen bomb explosions? Such ideas, which Jules Verne himself would have laughed out of existence as absurd fantasy seventy years ago, are now sober possibilities for “the day when God wearies of mankind”.

A HORROR OF GREAT DARKNESS

Is it possible to equate the Fifth Vial with some similar grotesque development of “civilization”? Here is a darkness, which brings pains and sores on a blaspheming multitude. Is this some “back-room” device which has not been let loose yet? Or is it the portentous effect of a Velikovskian comet? There are other Scriptures, which lead the Lord’s watchmen to look for a day of unnatural darkness. “The sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light” (Mark 13:24). “A day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness” (Joel 2:2; and in three other places: 2.10, 31; 3:15). “And it shall come to pass in that day, that the light shall not be clear, nor dark; but it shall be one day that shall be known to the Lord, not day, nor night; but it shall come to pass that at evening time it shall be light” (Zechariah 14:6, 7). Other similar prophecies are Zephaniah 1:14, 15; Amos 8:9; Isaiah 13:9, 10; 5:30.

This is understandable enough in itself, since for comparison there is the period of intense darkness at the crucifixion of Jesus. Then, as in the plagues on Egypt, darkness was an expression of heaven’s anger. The point hardly needs to be underlined here! (cp. 15:7). The darkness of the Fifth Vial brings “pains and sores”, but no repentance. Perhaps there is connection here with a mysterious passage in Zechariah which has commonly been explained with reference to nuclear warfare: “Their flesh shall consume away while they stand upon their feet, and their eyes shall consume away in their holes, and their tongues shall consume away in their mouth” (14:12). Revelation says: “they gnawed their tongues for pain” (16:10).

SCORCHED WITH GREAT HEAT

But if Biblical resemblances go for anything, there is a more particular application for this vial. For the only place where Scripture has similar phraseology is in the parable of the sower!: “Some fell upon stony places where they had not much earth: and forthwith they sprung up, because they had no deepness of earth. And when the sun was up, they were scorched; and because they had no root, they withered away.” Jesus interprets thus: “ … the same is he that heareth the word, and anon with joy receiveth it; yet hath he (it, the word?) no root in himself, but dureth for a while: for when tribulation or persecution ariseth because of the word, by and by he is offended”.

Can there be any such meaning about the Fourth Vial? If the scope of these vials is the Land of Israel in the Last Days, then this one must surely be linked with the work of “Elijah” during the 31 years before the coming of the Lord. It would be against all normal experience for the work of even such a preacher to be uniformly successful, and since Revelation ch. 11 and 13 indicate a strong persecution at that time against those who do not carry the mark of the Beast, there may be a suggestion here that even the mission of “Elijah” will be only partially successful, the rest falling away from their acceptance of his message in the face of tribulation.

However, it seems more likely on the face of things, that this vial has reference to the enemies of Israel and to some extraordinary affliction, which is yet to be brought upon them.

One is tempted to look for some extraordinary expression of frightfulness in which men bring judgement on themselves. The language of the Vials begins to take on a marvellous literalness as the Twentieth Century runs its evil and diabolically clever course.

MESSIAH’S POWER

But ultimately the punisl1mcllt of wickedness rests with the Messiah. “In the heavens hath he set a tabernacle for the sun, which is as a Bridegroom coming out of his chamber, and rejoiceth as a strong man to run a race … there is nothing hid from the heat thereof” (Psalm 19:4-6). “The day cometh that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be as stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up … that it shall Icave them neither root nor branch” (Malachi 4:1). “The Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God … “ (2 Thessalonians 1:7, 8).

VIVID CONTRASTS

Certainly, the words of these Vials imply an impressive contrast with the experience of the saints; for, instead of being scorched by the sun and caused to blaspheme, “the sun shall not light on them, nor any heat…he that sitteth on the throne shall spread his tabernacle over them (RV)…and they cry with a great voice, Salvation to our God…” (7:16, 15, 10).

For the latter, instead of “living fountains of waters” (7:17), the fountains of water become blood (16:4); for the former, “neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat” (7:16), but those the sun scorches with fire and great heat (16:8,9); these celebrate the salvation of God with a great voice (7:10), but those are constrained to blaspheme his name (16:11); these come to a city which is lighted by the glory of God (21:23), but those belong to a kingdom full of darkness (16:10); these are blessed with a river of water of life (22:1), but the river of Babylon dries up, sending forth unclean spirits like frogs (16:12, 13); these are “arrayed in white robes” (7:9), but those walk naked, to their own shame (16:15). It as all part of a fuller contrast which runs right through the book, a contrast between Christ and anti-Christ, between Jerusalem and Babylon (see Chapter 34).

The details of the Fifth Vial also shew this in a more particular way. It is poured out upon the throne of the Beast, so that his kingdom is filled with darkness, and they gnaw their tongues for pain, blaspheming God. What is this but a parody of the Day of Atonement? Instead of the heavenly throne, associated with the cherubim and mercy seat (4:2,5,6, and 5:6), there is the throne of the Beast. Instead of a bowl of blood of the sacrifice to bespeak God’s mercy and forgiveness when sprinkled on the mercy seat, there is a bowl (vial) of the wrath of God. Instead of the shining forth of the Shekinah Glory in acceptance of the offering, there is darkness. Instead of the worshippers’ prayer of faith, these gnaw their tongues for pain. Instead of glad hymns and hallelujahs after the high-priestly benediction, these blaspheme God and repent not of their deeds.

ANOTHER O.T. PARALLEL

The Old Testament Scriptures help towards the identification of “the throne of the beast” which is affected in this Fifth Vial.

Isaiah 47 denounces “the virgin daughter of Babylon … without a throne (RV) … get thee into darkness, O daughter of the Chaldeans, for thou shalt no more be called, The lady of kingdoms” (v. 1, 5). The verbal contacts are sufficient in themselves to establish connection with the Fifth Vial: “upon the throne of the beast, and his kingdom was full of darkness”. More than this, verses 7, 8 of the same chapter are used so explicitly about Babylon in Revelation 18:7 as to make the identification certain.

Verse 6 of the same passage in Isaiah reads thus: “I (Jehovah) was wroth with my people (Israel), I have polluted mine inheritance (the Land), and given them into thine hand; thou didst shew them no mercy: upon the ancient thou hast very heavily laid thy yoke.” Here is an indication that the Babylon and Beast of Revelation may be the oppressors of the people and land of Israel. This is the true scope of the Seven Vials (for a further striking possibility, see Ch. 34). Attempts to apply them in a world-wide political sense are surely mistaken and misleading.

Possibly the phrase: “they blasphemed the God of heaven,” should be connected with the conclusion of Psalm 89: “Remember, Lord, the reproach of thy servants … wherewith thine enemies have reproached, O Lord, wherewith they have reproached (same word as ‘blasphemed’) the footsteps of thine anointed” (v. 50, 51). The rabbinic paraphrase of these words is: “They revile the tardiness of the footsteps of Thy Messiah”.

Although the kingdom of the Beast, i.e. his newly-conquered territory of Palestine, is to be filled with darkness, the Old Testament prototype requires that the Lord’s chosen continue to have “light in their dwellings” (Exodus 10:23). It is difficult to know what the counterpart of this will be in the Last Days, but it does seem to imply (like Isaiah 26:20 and Luke 17:26-32) that the Lord’s faithful ones will be spared from the worst of the affliction that comes upon the ungodly at that time.

[58] The section, which follows, is a very sketchy outline of prophetic interpretations given elsewhere. Readers are referred to: “The Last Days” ch. 1, 2, 7, 8 and “The Time of the End” ch. 2, 3, 5, 18.

[59] Cain was a splendid, detailed type of faithless Israel, and when he repented (Genesis 4:13 RVm.) sevenfold vengeance for him was appointed by God (v. 15).

[60] Not necessarily Elijah himself; John the Baptist was not Elijah in person, but was raised up to accomplish a similar work.

Just as Seals, Trumpets, Dramatis Personae and Thunders each had as prelude a further vision of the Elect or of the heavenly Sanctuary, so also the Seven Vials.

Seven angels appear, “having the seven plagues which are the last, for in them is finished the wrath of God.” But before anything is said concerning their mission, there is interpolated in parenthesis a wondrous vision of glorified saints rejoicing together in God’s great salvation.

The chief difficulty of this Revelation 15 is how to reconcile the last verse “no man was able to enter into the temple until the seven plagues were fulfilled”, with the earlier picture (verses 2-4) of the redeemed standing in the very presence of God “upon the sea of glass”. The simple solution is to read verses 2-4 as a parenthesis. The true reading of verse 4, “for thy judgements were made manifest,” requires some such solution, i.e. at the time this song is sung, the judgements were done with, finished.

THE SEA OF GLASS

“And I saw as it were a sea of glass mingled with fire: and them that had gotten the victory…” The primary idea here is undoubtedly that of “the sea of glass like unto crystal”, seen in the presence of the heavenly throne (Revelation 4:6), “the paved work of a sapphire stone”, seen at Sinai (Exodus 24:10), “the fiery stream which came forth from before the Ancient of days” (Daniel 7:10), “the firmament over the head of the cherubim, as the colour of the terrible crystal” (Ezekiel 1:22) – see Chapter 4 – The Heavenly Sanctuary (ch. 4).

This expanse beneath the heavenly throne, seen by so many of the prophets of the Lord, is, first and foremost, a symbol of the firmament of heaven separating the majesty of God from His earthly creation. But here the Redeemed “stand upon the sea of glass”. For them there is no longer any barrier to the glory of the divine presence, except the one fact (verse 8) that certain judgements – ”the seven last plagues” – must be poured out before the final consummation of all things.

Remembering, then, that the sea of glass is a symbol of the expanse of heaven, there is special point in the fact that it is now seen to be “mingled with fire”. Here, instead of the blueness of a calm azure sky (Exodus 24:10), the sky is “red and lowring”. Wherefore, “it will be foul weather today” (Matthew 16:3): the judgements of the Almighty go forth once again, and for the last time.

THE SONG OF MOSES AND THE LAMB

Whilst, then, for those who have no room in their hcarts for “the everlasting gospel” (14:6) there is judgement, bitter and severe, the saints stand serenely in the presence of the divine glory, “having the harps of God” to provide glad accompaniment to the Song of Moses and of the Lamb:

“Great and marvellous are thy works, Lord God Almighty;

Just and true are thy ways, thou King of Saints.

Who shall not fear thee, O Lord, and glorify thy name?

For thou only art holy:

For all nations shall come and worship before thee;

For thy judgements are made manifest.”

In this song of praise and rejoicing an astonishing number of Old Testament passages has been laid under contribution. Amongst them, impressive in their appropriateness, are Jeremiah 10:7 (where see also v. 10), Isaiah 66:23 (and its context) and Psalm 22:27, 28. But an enquiry of special interest is why this song should be designated: “the Song of Moses and of the Lamb.”

PASSOVER DELIVERANCE

The first answer is that this hymn of acclamation is the fulfilment of the wondrous type of deliverance through Christ, which was enacted when Israel, saved by the blood of the Passover Lamb, were brought out of Egypt. One detail after another suggests this idea that has been so obviously carried over from chapter 12.

In this fulfilment of a typical prophecy lies the explanation of the use here of the Greek word “alethinos”: “just and true are thy ways.” This word “alethinos” does not mean true in contrast to that which is false, but true in contrast to that which is only a type or foreshadowing (e.g. “I am the true vine.”). The appropriateness of the word in this context is now apparent.

THE PSALM OF MOSES AND THE LAMB

There is another special sense in which this song of the redeemed is “the Song of Moses and of the Lamb”.

There are distinct verbal connections traceable between Exodus 15 (the Song of Moses) and Psalm 118.

Psalm 118 was literally “the Song of the Lamb”. It, with Psalm 117 perhaps, was very probably the hymn sung by the Lord and his disciples at the Last Supper (Matthew 26:30), for it was part of the Paschal Hallel. And what Psalm could have been more appropriate? It speaks of the Lord’s Servant thrust out and oppressed, “chastened”, “given over to death.” Nevertheless, “I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the Lord. The Lord hath chastened me sore, but he hath not given me over unto death … The stone which the builders rejected is become the head of the corner” (both of those words “head” and “corner” are frequently used in the Old Testament of leaders of the people). The Psalm celebrates the glorious day when all shall say: “Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord”. It is indeed the Song of the Lamb, as well as the Song of Moses.

This Song speaks also of judgement upon the nations: “All nations compassed me about, but in the name of the Lord will I destroy them”. The resemblance with Revelation 15 is again unmistakable. “All nations shall come and worship before thee; for thy judgements are made manifest.” It is noteworthy that, whereas the judgements detailed earlier in Revelation were all couched in terms of the Old Testament’s prophetic judgements on Israel, time after time these Vials employ terms with the widest possible scope – all in accordance with the renewed commission given to John in 10:11: “Thou must prophecy again concerning many peoples, and nations, and tongues, and kings”.

“And the water thereof (of the great river Euphrates) was dried up, that the way of the kings of the cast might be prepared.” In the prophets the drying up of a river is a very evident symbol of the end of the political power of a nation. Egypt, Assyria, Babylon arc all the subjects of this kind of metaphor: Isaiah 37: 25 R.V; 19: 5-10; Jeremiah 51: 36; 50: 38; Zechariah10: 10, 11. The prophets use Euphrates specially as THE symbol of Babylon. The artificial drying up of the river by the soldiers of Cyrus, in order to facilitate the capture of Babylon, was well known even though there is no direct mention of it in the Scriptures. Accordingly, the drying up of Euphrates (v. 12) is speedily followed by the vision of the destruction of Babylon (v. 19, and ch. 17, 18). The two go together. Also here the counterpart to the men of Cyrus is “that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared”.

Here the identification of the dried-up Euphrates is inseparably linked with the identification of the apocalyptic Babylon. The familiar equation of Euphrates with the power of Turkey depends on rigid geography. Yet no one dreams of giving “Babylon” a geographical interpretation. And it will be shewn by and by that Armageddon is not geographical either. But in any case to refer this prophecy to Turkey one has to go back in history to a time well antecedent to the events foretold in the vials-and especially the Sixth Vial. The incongruity does not seem to have been recognized as clearly as it might. The Turkish Empire was dried up over a period of more than four centuries in order that, about a hundred years after that drying up, Armageddon might take place. Can this be regarded as satisfactory? More than this, Turkey still exists in an area of crucial importance, but with very little contact with the Euphrates at all!

KINGS OF THE EAST

In the Old Testament “the children of the east” are invariably Arabs (Judges 6:2,3; Job 1:3; Jeremiah 49:28; 1 Kings 4:30) from across Jordan. But now they are kings. Those who have continued through the centuries a motley unorganized collection of Bedouin bands are become established kingdoms, able to wield considerable political power. They are, most probably, the ten kings[61] who “give their power and strength unto the Beast” in the war with the Lamb. There is a distinction here from “the kings of the whole world” who are to be gathered to “the battle of that great day of God Almighty”.

But there are other possibilities in the phrase “kings of the east”. This key word anatole is one with pointed Messianic associations (e.g. Luke 1:78, Zechariah 3:8, 6:12, Jeremiah 23:5). Yet those who envisage a “march of the saints” certainly do not contemplate them coming from beyond the Euphrates! There is no guarantee that in this place the word “east” symbolizes “Messiah’s coming”. It may simply mean “east”, as in scores of other places (New Testament and LXX).

A further idea on this is provided by a passage of exceptional interest in Isaiah 11:15, 16: “And the Lord shall utterly destroy the tongue of the Egyptiar1 sea, and with his mighty wind shall he shake his hand over the River, and shall smite it into seven streams, and cause men to march over dryshod. And there shall be an highway for the remnant of his people, which shall be left, from Assyria; like as it was to Israel in the day that he came up out of the Land of Egypt.”

Very frequently in the Old Testament (e.g. Isaiah 7:20; 8:7) “the River” means Euphrates. The reference to Assyria confirms this meaning here. But this drying up of Euphrates is to make the way clear for the return of God’s people. The comparison here with the deliverance from Egypt[62] strongly suggests, then, that “the kings of the east” are the Jews of the Diaspora (especially those three millions locked up in Russia). And perhaps the Messianic meaning of anatole should come in here after all.

There is, then, more than one Biblical possibility.

UNCLEAN SPIRITS LIKE FROGS

Appropriate to the figure of the drying-up of a river there is also the representation of evil influences in the simile of “three unclean spirits like frogs”. There is no evidence in the Bible to suggest identification with any modern political power, unless it be that of Egypt, for the only other Biblical allusion to frogs is in the plagues of Egypt. “Like frogs” may be primarily a way of linking the Vials more clearly with the plagues. So whilst this identification with Egypt is hardly to be insisted on, it is undeniably true that hardly any nation can be picked out in recent years, which has been more mischief-making, both internationally and especially in connection with Israel, than that ancient and dishonourable kingdom.

Jeremiah speaks of “evil going forth from nation to nation” (25: 32). This is the work of the frog-like spirits. They originate from “the dragon, the beast, and the false prophet”. If two of these represent the atheistic philosophy and dedicated communism associated with the power of Russia (though one cannot be sure about this identification) then it is easy to scan current affairs in this Twentieth Century and see the steady outworking of subtle policy as the chess-playing Russians patiently follow out their declared purpose of bringing western capitalism to ruin. The less emphasized purpose of world conquest is pursued by Russia with equal indefatigability. When there were signs in 1948 that the new left-wing state of Israel might be eager for Russian friendship, Soviet policy was slanted strongly in that direction. But when western influences prevailed in Israel, Russia was immediately ready for a complete switch of policy, however expensive it might prove to be, towards alliance with the Arab countries.

THE BATTLE OF THE GREAT DAY

At the time of writing it seems transparently obvious that within a very limited time the mischievous influence of this communist policy in the Middle East will gather the kings of the whole world (these are not to be confused with the ten kings who give their power and strength to the Beast, although they are included), to the battle of the great day of God Almighty.

This will be World War III. The troubles besetting the Land of Israel will be only a small part of a global conflict in which the fate of Israel will go almost unnoticed. The western powers will regard Israel as expendable. America, already war-weary after Vietnam and warily muttering: “Never again,” will be cautious to the point of pusillanimity about further entanglement in another remote little-nation war.

ARMAGEDDON

“And they (the unclean spirits like frogs) gathered them together unto the place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon.” Traditionally this passage has been interpreted in as literal a manner as possible. Har-Megiddo, on the edge of the plain of Jezreel, has been the location of several decisive battles in Palestine. But these, even the latest in 1917, all belonged to an era that, militarily speaking has gone forever. Let the reader try to conceive of “the kings of the whole world” being locked in decisive combat in that small area, and a literal fulfillment of the prophecy, such as has commonly been envisaged, is immediately ruled out. If it be argued that the plain of Jezreel is spacious enough to be a mighty international battle-ground, it is necessary to give a reminder that the prophecy mentions neither Jezreel nor plain. The venue is the Mountain of Megiddo.

These considerations suggest that, like all the rest of the chapter, the details here should be given a figurative interpretation. Is there not inconsistency in singling out one verse to be read literally when the other twenty are all regarded as figurative? Babylon is not given a literal geographic interpretation. Then why should Armageddon be so regarded?

If the special mention of “the Hebrew tongue” be taken as a hint to look carefully at the meaning of the name in Hebrew, several interesting possibilities arise. It could be “the mount of gathering together”, thus repeating in Hebrew what has just been said in Greek: “they gathered them together”. Another possibility is: “Utter destruction (as) at Megiddo”, with reference to Judges 4:15; 5:21 and Psalm 83:9. “A heap of sheaves in the valley of judgement” is another possibility this time with allusion to Joel 3:12, 13; and since the Thunders (14:15-19) make clear reference to the same Joel prophecy, this reading has much to commend it.

Amidst some degree of uncertainty regarding detail in these interpretations of future events, the main issue should not be lost sight of, that the judgements of God on the nations in the time of the end will involve a mighty conflict brought on through the insatiable encroachments of an imperialistic communism. It is not without significance that when Gideon and his faithful few wrought their deliverance near Megiddo, they did not need to do any fighting. The invaders fell to slaying each other. In “the day of Midian” that is to be (Isaiah 9:4 and 10:26; Psalm 83:9, 11), the same means of punishment will be employed.

“I COME AS A THIEF

In the middle of this sombre picture of a world given over to self retribution through its mutual antagonisms there comes a solemn warning to those whose dedication to Christ should keep them free from all this horror and from all worldly entanglements: “Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth…” These words are a grave reminder to the believer that, wherever he finds himself when the events develop, the time of his own personal judgement before the throne of the King now draws very near.

This familiar repeated figure of the Lord coming as a thief (3: 3; 1 Thessalonians 5: 2; 2 Peter 3: 10; Luke 12: 39) has been given such emphasis in the minds of some that the apparent contradiction between this and the Lord’s own description of his vivid coming in heavenly glory (Matthew 16: 27 and 24: 26-31; 2 Thessalonians 1: 8) has not even been observed. A proper understanding will find room for both, and this without postulating two “comings”. Indeed, if there is first of all a “secret” coming of the Lord, then his later appearance in glory is not a “coming” but a ‘‘manifestation’’. Yet the passages cited appear to describe an actual coming from heaven and not the open revelation of one who is already here.

Briefly, it may be suggested that the difficulty is to be resolved by emphasis, as in Revelation 3:3, on the words: “if thou wilt not watch, I will come on thee as a thief”. In other words, it is only to the listless or unworthy disciple that the Lord’s coming will be like that of a thief. To such that Day will reveal with horrifying suddenness that “even that which he thinketh he hath” has been “taken away”. The context of every one of the “thief” passages has precisely this admonition.[63]

“Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments.” There seems to be allusion here to a temple practice. The Talmud has this: “The Captain of the Temple visite´1 each guard, and burning torches were carried before him … If he observed that he slept, he smote him with his stick, and he had authority to burn his dress.”

The shame of the unprepared disciple emphasized here in Revelation 16:15 is most closely matched by the confusion and ultimate rejection of “virgins” who are caught unequipped for the very duty they have been called to-a preparedness to welcome the “Bridegroom” (Matthew 25 :1-13). The warning, truly, is most solemn and greatly needed in a generation which has been far too much influenced by the materialism of its contemporaries. Today the saints in Christ have pitched their tents towards Sodom (Genesis 13:12). Many have become permanent citizens in that city of shame, and their Lord’s solemn warnings go unheeded.

POURED INTO THE AIR

The outpouring of Vial Seven is “into the air”. In the past generation much has been made of the relevance of this phrase to the horrific development of aerial and rocket warfare in recent years. This has a high degree of appropriateness to the context: “the cities of the nations fell … and there fell upon men a great hail out of heaven, every stone about the weight of a talent.” Even the language of verse 20 is closely relevant to this theme, for whilst islands and mountains have not literally “fled away”, it is palpably true that oceans are no longer barriers to travel or to the transportation of armies, neither do mountain ranges provide the protection from invasion which once made them a great defensive asset.

There is, perhaps, a further implication. In a somewhat obscure passage (Ephesians 2:2) the apostle Paul refers to “the prince of the power of the air”, in a context which stresses the depravity of mankind. In many places in Greek literature the word “air” is used in the sense of “gloom”. This particular association of ideas is encouraged by the parallel passage in the twin epistle: “the power of darkness” (Colossians 1:13).

Perhaps, then, the Seventh Vial is introduced thus because it represents a climax of judgement against all the powers of evil. The “It is done” is spoken even before these titanic events take place. The mere fact that this angel of judgement has symbolically poured out his Vial, like blood at the base of the altar, means the inevitability of these grim events. There will be no Abraham to intercede on behalf of this godless cilivization which has long ago written its own indictment in the books of God.

“Behold, it cometh, and it shall be done” had been God’s word through Ezekiel concerning the destruction of Gog and his allies (39:8 R.V.). Now, in the Seventh Vial, that long-foretold vindication of heaven’s authority is accomplished. The change of tense of the verb is eloquent.

EARTHQUAKE

With the outpouring of the Seventh Vial “there were voices, and thunder, and lightnings; and there was a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the face of the earth”. It has been customary to interpret this and other earthquakes foretold in the prophets in a political context, as indicating a mighty upheaval in international affairs. This is another example of over-emphasis, in conventional interpretation, on politics. If indeed this is the meaning of the symbol, it has had vivid fulfilment already in the past fifty years.

A careful review of the earthquakes mentioned in Scripture reveals that with hardly an exception (if that), the context of the passage has to do with God-manifestation (Exodus 19:18; Ezekiel 38:20; Zechariah 14:4; Joel 3: 16; Amos 9: 1,5; Jeremiah 4:24; Psalm 68: 8; 77: 18; 114:7; Isaiah 2:10-22). Other examples in Revelation (6:12; 11: 19) clearly fall into the same category.[64] And this earthquake in the Seventh Vial follows immediately on “Behold, I come as a thief”, and is immediately followed by: “and great Babylon came in remembrance before God “. But before this, “the great city is divided into three parts”. This language corresponds exactly with Ezekiel’s pronouncement of doom on corrupt Jerusalem (5: 1 4) – one third burned with fire in the midst of the city, one third smitten with the sword, and one third scattered to the winds (cp. the suggestions about “Babylon” in Chapter 34).

DESTROYING HAIL

The “great hail out of heaven” may well be an anticipation of the callous villainy of aerial warfare, but in the Old Testament its associations are somewhat different. “And the Lord shall cause his glorious voice to be heard, and shall shew the lighting down of his arm, with the indignation of his anger, and with the flame of a devouring fire, with scattering, and tempest, and hailstones. For through the voice of the Lord shall the Assyrian be beaten down…” (Isaiah 30: 30, 31). As Jehovah saved His people by a miraculous intervention against the Northern Invader in Hezekiah’s reign, so He will do again when His Messiah is in Jerusalem.

Perhaps even more noteworthy was the destructive hail rained on the confederacy against the people of God when, led by Jesus-Joshua, they began the conquest of the Promised Land (Joshua 10: 11). This, too, will have its counterpart in the Last Days.

And the result? For the third time men are led to blaspheme God “because of the plague of the hail,” “because of their pains and their sores”. This contrasts strangely with other prophecies of the Last Days, which cause men to “know that my name is the Lord” (Jeremiah 16: 21; Psalm 83: 18; Ezekiel 38: 23; 39: 28). There are two ways in which this knowledge of God can come: either in the form of repentance, acknowledging His right to supremacy over all mankind; or in the experience of His anger because of a stubborn rejection of His authority. In the Vials it is the disastrous second alternative, which is chosen.

The Seventh Vial concludes with chapter 16 – and yet in a sense it doesn’t, for just as the Seventh Seal develops into the Trumpets, and the Seventh Trumpet into the Seven Dramatis Personae, and so on, so also the Seventh Vial unfolds into Seven Visions: “And I saw …” Hence chapter 17 begins with: “And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials (almost certainly the angel who had poured out the Seventh Vial), and talked with me, saying, Come hither (into the wilderness; 17: 3); I will shew thee … And I saw …”

The next dramatic section of the Apocalypse is about to be unfolded.

[61] Ten Arab kingdoms against Israel were repeatedly mentioned in the reports of the Six Days War, 1967.

[62] Note again the resemblance between the Vials and the plagues of Egypt.

[63] For a fuller discussion of this topic, see “The Time of the End”, ch. 16.

[64] Revelation 8: 5 may now be seen to add its witness to the Last-Day fulfilment of the Trumpets.

The best manuscripts have a strange beginning for Revelation 11: “And there was given me a reed like unto a rod saying…” as though the reed were the speaker. Probably there is a characteristic ellipsis here (very common in the gospels, not so common in Revelation), which the other family of manuscripts has interpreted correctly: “(the angel) saying…”

This reed may be a symbol of the Scriptures, which are the criterion by which the constituent parts of the new temple of God are selected. The word “canon” – rule, measure – which is usually employed to describe the inspired writings, is derived ultimately from a Hebrew word that means a rod. So there is certain appropriateness about such an interpretation.

A NEW TEMPLE

John was bidden: “Rise and measure.” That word “rise” may be regarded as carrying any one of several implications, but the most likely is that at the moment of utterance the apostle was lying on his face before the awe-inspiring vision of the rainbowed angel, by this fact symbolizing also – as Daniel and other prophets had done before him-a death and resurrection which must be his experience before the complete fulfilment of the vision he was to witness. Another possibility is that John is being bidden ascend to heaven to the heavenly sanctuary there (see v. 19).

The measuring of the sanctuary and altar means the inauguration of a new temple consisting of people. The last phrase of v. 1 requires this. “Measure … them that worship therein.” This is surely an explanation of the command to measure temple and altar, i.e. “Measure the temple of God and the altar, even them that worship therein” – the worshippers are symbolized by temple and altar.

The court that is immediately outside the Sanctuary, that is, the court of the Israelites (to which Gentiles did not normally have access) is now “cast out” (excommunicated; s.w. 3 John 10, Gal. 4:30; John 9:34). This is the symbol of Jewry bereft of fellowship with their God. Such a conclusion is demanded by the following words: “for it is given to the Gentiles, and the holy city shall they tread under foot forty and two months.” That the angel is here quoting the words of his Lord cannot be doubted: “And Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled” (Luke 21:24)[48]

Here, then, is a prophecy of the rejection of Israel, of summary judgement against Jerusalem, and of the gospel being committed unto others, Gentiles, instead.

A GOSPEL PARALLEL

Mark 11 provides an interesting commentary on this passage. In the last week of his ministry, to the accompaniment of the eager plaudits of Galilean pilgrims Jesus made his triumphal entry into Jerusalem as a king. They thought that now surely he would take to himself the title of King of the Jews; now, as Messiah, he would cast out the hated Gentiles and restore the glories of his great ancestor David. But instead of sweeping out the Gentiles and exalting the Jews, he went with angry mien into the temple and cast out the Jews who so defiled his Father’s House; neither would he “suffer that any man should carry any vessel through the temple,” i.e. through the court of the Gentiles. Instead, Matthew adds here with deep significance: “And the blind and the lame came to him in the temple, and he healed them” (21:14). Thus he exalted despised Gentiles to divine favour and fellowship whilst unspiritual rebellious Israel was thrust away. Revelation 11 uses similar symbolism for a similar purpose.

The language of this passage (11:2) is suggestive. “The holy city shall they tread underfoot” – it is beasts which trample underfoot. So also declares Daniel when prophesying of the same divine judgement (Daniel 8:10). And so also says John here, for within a few verses he makes his first mention of the Beast out of the abyss (v. 7).

The prophecy of the two witnesses, which follows, is a Scripture that has reduced scores of commentators to desperation. Here none may walk confidently. Even so, whilst certain difficulties will remain difficulties, when proper use is made of Biblical allusions in this chapter (a dominant factor which “continuous historic” expositors have studiously neglected here) the general tenor of the passage is discernible – so, at least, one would fain believe.

That these two witnesses represent a community, and not two persons, is indicated by the phrase, used three times, “their dead bodies” (v. 8, 9). For it is to be noted that in two out of the three occurrences the phrase is in the singular (“their dead body”; v. 8, 9a, Gk.); and the third time in the plural (v 9b). This is not inappropriate in symbolic description of a class of people, but would be hopelessly confusing if speaking of two persons.

THE JEWS – GOD’S WITNESSES

Next, and of crucial importance for the interpretation of this vision, the Witnesses can be identified as being the Jews. The evidence for this is astonishingly varied and copious, and all of it Biblical. There is no need to rely on what might be fortuitous historical resemblances.

1. Isaiah 44:8: “Have not I told thee from that time, and have declared it? ye are even my witnesses.” And again: “Bring forth the blind people that have eyes, and the deaf that have ears … Ye are my witnesses, said the Lord, and (Israel) my servant whom I have chosen … I have declared, and have saved, and I have shewed, when there was no strange god among you, therefore ye are my witnesses, said the Lord, that I am God” (43: 8-12).

2. The symbolism associated with these Witnesses – olive trees and candlesticks – is taken from Zechariah 4:11-14, which describes (in its primary application) the Jews at a time when they were coming back from captivity and making great efforts to re-colonize their Land.

3. Verse 14 is most emphatic: “The second Woe is past; and behold, the third Woe cometh quickly.” Then follows the Seventh Trumpet with its pictures of the Resurrection and the Kingdom. This bridge passage has been a sore trial to those who would anchor Revelation 11 to a period now long past. It requires that the prophecy be given reference to the end of this age.

4. The parallel, already established, with Luke 21:24, 25. There, Jesus goes on without pause to speak of the signs concerning the Last Days: “… and Jerusalcm shall be trodden down of the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled. And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon and in the stars … etc.” Likewise here, after the prophecy of the destruction of Jerusalem (in Seals and Trumpets), the vision moves at a leap to the Last Days, and what is to befall the Jews then.

5. The catalogue of miraculous phenomena that afflict their adversaries points clearly to Moses and Elijah.

6. “And their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our (R.V.: their) Lord was crucified.” The word “spiritually” here may mean “so described by the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament,” or it may refer to the spiritual character of “the great city.” The former of these ideas seems to be preferable. But which city is referred to? An impressive array of passages (Isaiah 1:9, 10 and 3:8, 9; Jeremiah 23:14; Deuteronomy 32:32; Ezekiel 23:3, 4, 8, 19) connects both Sodom and Egypt with the spiritual character of God’s own people. And the concluding phrase: “where also their Lord was crucified,” strongly confirms the identification.

7. Careful reading of Psalm 79 brings to light an impressive series of allusions which are made to it througl1out Revelation 11. The most obvious ones are set out here:

With such a correspondence so plainly established, two conclusions result:

8. Confirmation comes from a comparison with another Old Testament passage. Verse 11 continues: “And after three days and an half the spirit (breath) of life from God entered into them and they stood upon their feet.” This is so obviously from Ezekiel’s vision of the valley of dry bones, that the reader has to restrain himself from concluding the phrase, “they stood upon their feet, an exceeding great army” (37:10). There is strong presumption that since the dry bones, becoming first skeletons, then carcases, and at last living people, represent a resurrection of Israel in the Last Days, so also this resurrection of the two witnesses must have a like significance.

9. Isaiah 5 tells of the vineyard, which God had prepared for His “Beloved.” In spite of much effort and tender care it brought forth only wild grapes. Wherefore, “I will take away the hedge thereof, and it shall be burnt up (RVm.): I will break down the wall thereof, and it shall be trodden down … My people are gone into captivity because they have no knowledge: and their honourable men are famished, and their multitude dried up with thirst … Therefore is the anger of the Lord kindled against his people, and he hath stretched forth his hand against them; and the hills did tremble: and their carcases were as refuse in the midst of the streets (RV).” Then follows a description in vv. 26-30 of how this retribution is to come – nations coming from far, with horses and chariots (the Fifth and Sixth Trumpets!) roaring like lions (the Fifth and Sixth Trumpets!) and all this in a day of unnatural darkness (the Fifth Trumpet!!).

This marked resemblance between Revelation and Isaiah 5 is instructive. It ought at least to establish (if the point still needs to be established), that the two Witnesses are the Jews in the Last Days of God’s indignation against them when their new-born State of Israel, fashioned and cemented with blood, toil, sweat and tears, is seen to crumble in ruins.

This evidence should be sufficient to go on with. Now to the details.

THEIR PROPHESYING

These Witnesses, the Jews, prophesy. How do they prophesy? And what is their message? Isaiah 43, quoted above, answers these questions. They prophesy by their blindness and deafness. It is not the indestructibility of the Jews which makes them Jehovah’s true Witnesses, but their impermeability to His Truth. Through all the centuries, and still in this twentieth, they have remained blind and deaf to the message concerning Jesus, yet to this day they have continued as zealous custodians of a Torah they can make no sense of. Thus they testify to an undiscerning generation of Gentiles in these Last Days that God is, and that He rules in the kingdom of men.

Their prophesying in sackcloth might be symptomatic of the tribulation they have endured in all their history (Amos 8:10; Isaiah 37:1, 2; 50:3; Revelation 6:12); or it might signify the coming judgement, which the new state of Israel certainly heralds.

OLIVE TREES AND CANDLESTICKS

The witnesses are associated with puzzling symbolism. “These are the two olive trees, and the two candlesticks standing before the God of the earth.” The passage is almost verbatim from Zechariah 4. The essential difference is that here are two candlesticks instead of one. In Zechariah the olive trees are the two leaders, Joshua and Zerubbabel, who headed the return from Babylon. The candlestick there represents the prospective worship of God in the new temple whose foundations were then but newly laid. “Not by (human) might, nor by (human) power (is this work achieved), but by my spirit, saith the Lord” (cp. Revelation 11:11).

It may be asked in what sense can Israel, striving desperately against odds for the consolidation of a Jewish state, be said to fulfil this olive-tree, candlestick imagery? The answer is: At present, not at all. Modern Zionism is cursed with self-reliance. The Jews today are “children in whom is no faith.” And thus it would appear that the interpretation offered is not in accordance with facts. But another reading of Zechariah 4 helps. The candlestick there was symbolic of what lay in the future, the outcome of the efforts then being made to re-establish the temple and its service. Similarly in Revelation the mention of the olive-trees and candlesticks is designed to suggest that the day is not far distant when these witnesses who are now in sackcloth and persecuted will be the very people to lead the rest of the world in the worship and praise of God. Only when they have “ascended up to heaven” (v. 12) – i.e. into “the temple of God in heaven” (v. 19) – will they be able to function as “candlesticks.” “They shall call on my name, and I will hear them; I will say, It is my people, and they shall say, The Lord is my God” (Zechariah 13: 9). “In that day … I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and supplications” (Zechariah 12:10).

More than this, just as in the primary application of Zechariah 4 there is an intimate connection between the two olive trees and Zerubbabel and Joshua, the prince and priest designate of that troubled time, so also in Revelation 11. When God called Israel out of Egypt, they were intended to be “unto God a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation.” This divine destiny they never shewed any sign of fulfilling. But today the return of Israel to the land of their fathers is without doubt a forerunner of the glorious era when they will serve God in precisely this way after He has taken away their stony heart and has given them a heart of flesh.

In another way these two olive trees suggest the same idea. In Solomon’s temple the great cherubim were made of olive wood overlaid with gold (1 Kings 6:23). Hence, in the primary application of Zechariah 4 once again, the olive trees would represent the raw material from which the new cherubim for the new temple were to be fashioned. So also, today, the olive trees associated with God’s two witnesses in Revelation 11 represent the community from whom, in due course and through sore travail, the cherubim of glory for God’s eternal temple are to be fashioned.

This interpretation is reinforced by the phrase “the God (Lord) of the whole earth,” for a little concordance investigation will shew that invariably this expression is associated in the Old Testament with the cherubim. Always this is the context (e.g. Joshua 3: 11, 13; Zechariah 6: 5; Psalm 97: 2, 5).

WHY TWO?

But why two witnesses, and two candlesticks in place of the one in Zechariah 4? It is no easy matter to settle this question satisfactorily. Can it be that here is the same idea as is contained in the words of Ezekiel 37 (a chapter with other pointed links with the two witnesses): “Behold, I will take the stick of Joseph (the Diaspora?) which is in the hand of Ephraim, and the tribes of Israel his fellows, and will put them with him, even with the stick of Judah (the Jews in the Land?), and make them one stick and they shall be one in mine hand … and they shall be no more two nations; neither shall they be divided into two kingdoms any more at all” (v. 19, 22). By all means let the reader compare Jeremiah 11:16, 17, which also has a reference to Israel and Judah as an olive tree. In the glorious day foreshadowed here, the gross idolatry, which accentuated division in Israel from the time of Rehoboam, will be gone forever. Then the entire nation will enthusiastically hold up to the world the light of God’s truth and serve with reverence at His sanctuary.

MOSES AND ELIJAH

As already mentioned the miraculous phenomena, which afflict the witnesses’ adversaries, are all associated with Moses and Elijah. Taken together they teach one big lesson: “Him that blesseth thee I will bless; and him that curseth thee, I will curse.” “If any man will hurt them, he must in this manner be killed.”

These signs are not to be read as an indication of miraculous powers being vested in Israel in the Last Days. The remarkable powers mentioned are to be seen as the results of Israel’s “witnessing,” not as the punishments that they themselves inflict. To interpret otherwise is to miss completely the force of a graphic Old Testament idiom employed here. Compare the following:

“Therefore have I hewed them by the prophets; I have slain them by the words of my mouth” (Hosea 6:5).

“See, I have this day set thee over the nations and over the kingdoms to root out, and to pull down and to destroy and to throw down and to build and to plant” (Jeremiah 1: 10).

“Behold, I will make my words in thy mouth fire, and this people wood, and it shall devour them” Jeremiah 5:14).

The prophets did none of these things. But they prophesied the inevitability of these judgements. So also with the witnesses.

This having been said, it still remains amazingly apt that during the formative years of the new state of Israel, the Jews have been unceasingly a thorn in the side of their Arab neighbours. The steady success of Israel in spite of constant bitter opposition, the increasing flow of immigrants from scores of countries, the sharp constrict between Jewish advancement and Arab backwardness, and most of all the series of devastating Israeli victories, have served to add even sharper point to the graphic language in Revelation 11:5, 6. In this connection the expression: “as often as they wish,” has great force.

THE WITNESSES SLAIN

After a description of their witness and its effects comes the story of their destruction by “the beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit.” This is a remarkable anticipation of “the beast out of the sea” which is described in chapter 13. Since, as has been demonstrated, this chapter is dealing with events of the Last Days, the beast must be interpreted as being a great enemy of the people of God at that time. Comparison with what is written about the same beast in 17:12-14 makes such a conclusion inevitable. Thus the slaying of the witnesses requires an invasion of Israel and the complete destruction of the new homeland for the Jewish people.

The prophecy goes on to tell how for three and a half days the dead bodies of the witnesses lie around, none being allowed to bury them, and meantime there is much rejoicing and mutual congratulation among their enemies.

The inevitable enquiry arises: How is it that these carcases do not become the prey of ravenous birds, as happens later – appropriately – to the enemies of God’s people (Revelation 19:17-21)? Genesis 15:11 explains. As the covenant sacrifices were guarded by Abram, so now Israel continues to be preserved “for the fathers’ sakes.”

THREE DAYS AND A HALF

The period of three and a half days probably stands for three and a half years. This suggestion is made, not on the basis of “a year for each day,” but simply from the appropriateness of the imagery employed. To have said, “they shall see their dead bodies three years and a half” would have been to import into the prophecy too big an element of unreality. What dead bodies would lie exposed anywhere for three and a half years?

A further reason for this interpretation is that in the symbolism of this vision a close resemblance is being deliberately sought with the experience of Christ.

How appropriate that these two witnesses, a type of the nation which rejected and crucified their Messiah, should here be described in symbol as suffering he same sequence of experiences which were the lot of their Lord. Like him, they are despised and rejected; their witnessing goes for nought. Like him they are slain, raised again to the accompaniment of an earthquake, and ascend to heaven in the Cloud, their enemies being stricken with fear. This resemblance cannot be accidental.

The three and a half days, symbolic of three and a half years, now makes the designed “echo” of the experience of Christ the more realistic. This detail (as will be seen by and by) also links up very suitably with a corresponding prophecy in Daniel.

What is signified by the witnesses being killed but not buried? “They of the people and kindreds and tongues and nations … do not suffer their dead bodies to be put in graves” (v. 9). This seems to imply the overthrow of the state of Israel, but not the utter genocide of its inhabitants. The words suggest pressure brought to bear (by the Western powers?) to save them from utter destruction though not from savage maltreatment. Perhaps there is implication of an attempt at re-settlement elsewhere. Other prophecies (Zechariah 14:2; Isaiah 19:18-20; Joel 3:1-8, 19) paint a similar picture.

What is the relation of this three and a half year period to the forty and two months mentioned earlier in the prophecy (v. 2, 3)? In this very tricky problem, two points seem to be clear enough: (a) The two periods are not the same. One describes the time of the witnesses’ prophesying. The other describes the period of their symbolic “death.” (b) There must be some connection with the time periods of Daniel 7, 9, 12.

The Seventy “Weeks” prophecy of Daniel 9:24-27 seems to be particularly helpful, inasmuch as it specifies two consecutive periods of three and a half “days.” It is easily overlooked that, according to v. 26, Messiah is cut off at the end of the sixty-ninth “week.” Then v. 27 speaks of a final overthrow “in the midst of the (seventieth) week” – RV: “for the half week. “ In The Last Days, Ch. 5, 6, it was argued that this prophecy in Daniel 9 shares the characteristic feature common to the visions of ch. 2, 7, 8, 11, in having a big gap or interval between the main body of the prophecy and its culmination at the Time of the End.

Thus, linking Daniel 9 and Revelation 11 together, there is presented the picture of the People of God having a three and a half year witness and tormenting of their enemies, followed by their devastation by the Beast, and political “death” for a further three years and a half.

If the thesis discussed in the Appendix be accepted, then at the time when the Revelation was given there was still the possibility of this prophecy and these periods having fulfilment round about A.D. 70. This would explain why Daniel 9 speaks of “sanctuary” and “sacrifice.” These were, of course, in being in the First Century. In the Twentieth Century, corresponding devastation of what was the temple area seems to be indicated. Some have gone so far as to take Daniel 9, 12, Joel 2, and other prophecies in a perfectly literal way, insisting in their interpretations on the re-building of the temple in Jerusalem. It is to be hoped that these interpreters are incorrect, or there is surely a much longer lapse of time to the Lord’s Coming than the present world situation seems to warrant.

If this suggestion of three and a half years be accepted, then there is indication here of a lengthy enough occupation of Palestine by the enemy.

REJOICING ENEMIES

In the symbolism, to disallow the entombment of a dead body is the height of indignity and insult. Thus there is suggested the contumely and wretchedness, which is to come upon Israel in w-hat, more than at any period in their history, will be “the time of Jacob’s trouble.” Further, there will be great rejoicing among their enemies who are twice described as “them that dwell on the earth” i.e. “in the Land.” Who are these but the surrounding Arab nations? Ishmael was ever a mocker of Isaac, especially in times of misfortune. It was so in the days of Gideon, and of Hezekiah, and of Zedekiah, and in A.D. 70, and so it assuredly will be again (Judges 6: 1-3; Psalm 83: 3, 4; Obadiah 12; Jeremiah 48:42; Ezekiel 35:10 and 36:2). How appropriate too, are the words: “These two prophets tormented them that dwell in the Land.” The very presence of Jews in Palestine and, even more, of an Israeli state, has been smoke in the nose and a thorn in the side of all Arabs everywhere.

A SYMBOLIC ASCENSION

How shall the outcome of the resurrection of the witnesses be understood? “And they ascended up to heaven in the cloud (Acts 1: 9) and their enemies beheld them.” This is not a literal ascension to heaven like that of Jesus, because:

Hence this detail should be interpreted of the repentance of Israel (though not necessarily of the entire nation), which will probably immediately precede the coming of Christ. There can be little doubt that this ascension of the witnesses is the symbolic “receiving again” of those who for long years have been “cast off. “ The following passages bear on this interesting question:

Isaiah 40:3; Malachi 4:6; Zephaniah 2:3; Zechariah 12:10; Isaiah 59:20, Amos 5:15; Matthew 23:39 and 24:32; Romans 11: 15; Ezekiel 36:25 and 37:23; Acts 3:19 (R.V.); Isaiah 17:7, 8; Psalm 81:13, 14; Deuteronomy 30:1-3; 1 Kings 8:47; Leviticus 26:40-42; Jeremiah 4:12.

EARTHQUAKE – THE WRATH OF GOD

The earthquake that ensues “in that same hour” (v. 13) is no doubt to be taken as symbolic. It is a token of the wrath of God (Psalm 18:7; Job 9: 5, 6, Ezekiel 38: 18-20) because His People, now repentant, are used so despitefully. “The tenth part of the city fell, and in the earthquake were slain names of men seven thousand.” The “city” is now representative of human power and glory (as in chapters 17, 18). The implication is that its (symbolic) population is seventy thousand. This links readily enough with Bible symbolism for the Gentile nations. Always this seems to be the figurative association of the number 70; e.g. Deuteronomy 32:8 (with Genesis 10 and 46); Exodus 15:27 and 24:4, 9 (with Luke 9:1; 10:1); 70 years captivity; 70 weeks prophecy.

The peculiar phrase: “names of men,” is perhaps intended to emphasize that the manifestation of Heaven’s wrath described here has the effect of cowing even the bravest of men (Genesis 11:4; 2 Samuel 23:18). All human pomp and self-confidence now finds its proper level, for this symbolic earthquake is also a literal cataclysm at the coming of the Lord (Isaiah 2:17-21). “The second woe is past, and the third woe cometh quickly,” bringing with it the Resurrection and the Kingdom.

[48] The Greek Aorist: “it was given to the Gentiles”, may be used here with reference to the fact that had already been appointed by the Lord himself in his Olivet prophecy. It is to be noted also that “the times of the Gentiles” are defined here as the final 36 years of Israel’s tribulation.