There can be little doubt that the palm-bearing multitude and the 144,000 who are sealed are one and the same community. The evidence on this is fairly strong. But before it is detailed one obvious objection must be considered: How can the same assembly of people be represented by (a) a precise number of 144,000, and also by (b) a “great multitude which no man could number?” Isn’t this the plainest of all points of distinction?

This numbering is not an ordinary numbering. Reference to Exodus 30 is necessary. “When thou takest the sum of the children of Israel after their number, then shall they give every man a ransom for his soul unto the Lord when thou numberest them; that there be no plague among them” (Exodus 30:12). And twice it is added that this half-shekel payment is “an atonement for your souls.” In this sense the redeemed of Revelation 7 are a “multitude which no man could number”; for no man could “give a ransom unto the Lord” for them, no man can “make atonement for their souls,” because no man “can by any means redeem his brother nor give to God a ransom for him” (Psalm 49: 7); also, these were “numbered,” that is “ransomed,” already – by the blood of Christ.[30]

NOT TWO MULTITUDES

And now to identify this great multitude with the 144,000:

	(a)	It is important to observe that John did not see the 144,000; he only heard of their sealing. And then immediately he beheld the great multitude.
	(b)	The vision of the 144,000 is repeated later (ch. 14), but throughout the book there is no further mention of the great multitude.
	(c)	The details of ch. 14:1-5 are such as make certain the identification proposed here. What is written in ch. 14 of the 144,000 is the same as that written in ch. 7 of the multitude.

	Chapter 14: The 144,000	Chapter 7: The Great Multitude
	1. With the Lamb (v. 1).	Before the Lamb (v. 9).
	2. Before the throne (v. 3).	Before the throne (v. 9).
	3. They sung a new song (v. 3)	They cried: “Salvation to our God, and unto the Lamb” (v. 10).
	4. No man could learn that song (v. 3).	(Cp. Revelation 2:17.)
	5. Redeemed from the earth (v. 3).	Which no man could “number;” i.e. ransom or redeem (v. 9).
	6. These follow the Lamb (v. 4).	The Lamb shall be their shepherd (v. 17 R.V.).
	7. They are without fault (blemish) before the throne of God (v. 5).	These have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb (v. 14).

This correspondence is virtually decisive.

(d)         The two sections of chapter 7 are bound together by a detailed series of allusions to Israel’s deliverance from Egypt at Passover and to the ensuing wilderness journey:

	1.	v. 3	The sealing of the 144,000 with the name of God. Cp. the sign of the blood on the doorposts and lintel.
	2.	v. 4	The twelve tribes of Israel.
	3.	v. 9	“Palms in their hands.” The allusion is to the Feast of Tabernacles (Leviticus 23: 40), which celebrated the wilderness wandering.
	4.	v. 9	The great multitude. Cp. the mixed multitude[31], which left Egypt (Ex. 12: 38)?
	5.	v. 14	“These came out of the great tribulation” – Egyptian bondage.
	6.	v. 14	“The blood of the Lamb” – the Paschal Lamb.
	7.	v. 15 R.V.	“He that sitteth on the throne shall spread his tabernacle over them” – the Tabernacle in the wilderness, or (just possibly) the canopy of the pillar of cloud (Psalm 105 :39).
	8.	v. 16	“They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more” – manna, and water from the smitten rock, in the wilderness.
	9.	v. 17 R.V.	“The Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall be their shepherd, and shall lead them”- the blood sprinkled ark going before to guide Israel in the wilderness (Numbers 10:33; Psalm 80:1).

Details of this kind afford strong presumptive evidence that, throughout the chapter is speaking of the same class of people and not of two different groups.

TRIBULATION ENDING, REWARD IMMINENT

To what time should this vision of the palm-bearing multitude be referred? The answer suggested by a number of details is that the vision describes the saints shortly before their appearing before Christ in the day of glory. Behind them are the disciplines and trials of life in the world. Before them are the ineffable spiritual joys of the life everlasting. Evidence for this:

1. The parallels between Revelation 6, 7 and the Olivet Prophecy include:

		Revelation 7:9, 11, 16,17	Matthew 25:31, 32, 37
	(a)	A great multitude out of all nations.	Before him shall be gathered all nations.
	(b)	Before the throne, and before the Lamb.	Then shall he sit on the throne of his glory, and before him …
	(c)	All the angels round about the throne.	All the holy angels with him.
	(d)	They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more.	I was an hungered, and ye gave me meat … thirsty, and ye gave me drink.
	(e)	The Lamb shall be their shepherd.	As a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats.

To these may be added v. 10: “Salvation (Hosanna) to our God” and v. 9: “palms in their hands” with their echoes of Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem – which, as already mentioned, was itself a “dress rehearsal” of the Second Coming (see Zechariah 9:9-11).

2. The tenses in v. 14-17 are significant. “These are they which are coming out of the great tribulation … they did wash their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb … they are before the throne of God and they are serving him day and night … he that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them. They shall hunger and thirst no more … the Lamb shall be their shepherd, and shall lead them … God shall wipe away all tears.”

Their sanctification (through baptism) is past; their service is continuing from the past into the future; their deliverance is now about to take place; and their blessings of immortality all lie before them.

In particular, the words: “God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes” (quoted from Isaiah 25:8) can be read only as a figurative description of the matchless experience when, once and for all, this corruptible puts on incorruption.

Nearly all the details of the description of the palm-bearing multitude are of special interest. These can now be considered point by point.

“In the multitude of the people is the king’s honour” (Proverbs 14:28). Then what shall be said of the King whose people no man can number? Here are the fruits of God’s olive tree, including those of the wild olive, which, “contrary to nature,” has been grafted in. So Paul writes: “Blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in. And so all Israel (whether Jew or Gentile) shall be saved” (Romans 11: 25, 26).

HYMN OF PRAISE

Their doxology begins and ends with Amen to emphasize that what was promised is now about to be realized. It is identical with that of the angels, (ch. 5:13), save that here each separate word has the definite article, as though in an attempt to enumerate with separate and distinct emphasis all the wealth of blessing which the redeemed can now enjoy through the loving kindness of their God. There is actually a change of one word, “thanksgiving” being substituted for “riches.” In all respects the saints are now equal to the angels, save in this – that they have grounds for thanksgiving to God such as no immortal angels can ever know, for are they not even now being finally redeemed from the overpowering ever-present curse of sin and death?

TRIBULATION

These blessed ones are described as “coming out of the great tribulation.” The primary reference is, doubtless, to the escape of faithful Christians from doomed Jerusalem in A.D. 70. The identical Greek word is used in Moses’ prophecy of the horrors of that time (Deuteronomy 28:53, 55 LXX, where the A.V. has “straitness”). “For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be” (Matthew 24:21).

But other ideas crowd in. If weight be given to the figure, already worked out in much detail, of a wilderness journey, this “great tribulation” is the counterpart in the life of God’s people to Egyptian bondage. There can be little doubt what that is.

The parallel with the Olivet Prophecy, also demonstrated earlier, provides a further impressive idea. In the Last Days, Jesus asserts, for his saints there will be a special deliverance from tribulation: “Immediately after the tribulation of those days … shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven … and he shall send his angels … and they shall gather together his elect” (Matthew 24:29-31. See Chapter 15 – The Hundred and Forty-four Thousand (ch. 7) on this).

REDEMPTION

“They washed their robes, and made them white in (or, possibly, by means of) the blood of the Lamb.” The figure is one of the most graphic used in Scripture – scarlet sins washed away by the blood of sacrifice (Isaiah 1:18). In Jacob’s prophecy concerning Judah, the Messiah is described as “binding his (Gentile) foal unto the (Jewish) vine.” The prophecy then indicates how this Messiah from Judah shares in the redemption he has provided for his people: “he washed his garments in wine, and his clothes in the blood of grapes” (Genesis 49:11). At the other end of the Book, John enunciates it explicitly: “the blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth us from all sin” (l John 1:7). It is a salvation for all who will have it, whether it be a David, king of Israel, sinful but penitent (Psalm 51:7), or a Gentile new-born by faith into the commonwealth of Israel (Acts 15:9 R.V.). All such find a place in the Lamb’s multitudinous Bride who through the merits of the Bridegroom is “without spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing” (Ephesians 5:25-27).

It is not improbable that this profound passage in Revelation 7 is the basis of yet another allusion made in Hebrews to the Apocalypse: “How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God cleanse (7:14) your conscience from dead works to serve (7:15) the living God (the God of the Living Creatures)” (Hebrews 9: 14).

SERVICE IN GOD’S SANCTUARY

“Therefore are they before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple.” The word “temple” here is riot to be taken as implying a building in the normal sense of the term, for – even apart from the normal symbolism of the passage – the idea of a tabernacle is used in the next verse (R.V.). This “temple” is the inner sanctuary, corresponding to the Holy of Holies. The saints have access there through the blood of Christ because in his death the veil (Christ’s human nature) was rent in twain. Thus the saints are now presented before the throne of God (which is above the Cherubim and the ark of the covenant) and there they serve as priests “day and night.” This last phrase alludes to the morning and evening sacrifice, which symbolized the formal consecration of national Israel to the service of their God (Exodus 30:8; 1 Chronicles 9:33). It is this which Paul had in mind when he spoke of “our twelve tribes instantly serving God day and night” (Acts 26: 7), a service which was but a dim type of a fuller finer service offered by the true spiritual “Israel of God.”

GOD’S ISRAEL IN THE WILDERNESS

The prophecy continues in terms of the Feast of Tabernacles: “he that sitteth on the throne shall spread his tabernacle over them.” Quite a number of the other details chime in with this. There is the allusion to the palm branches, the cry of “Salvation” (Hosanna), and in the mention of “living fountains of waters” a reference to the ceremonial water-pouring, which at Tabernacles reminded Israel of the Smitten Rock (John 7:37, 38).

The spreading of God’s canopy over His people in the wilderness is celebrated by the Psalmist: “He spread a cloud for a covering: and a fire to give light in the night” (Psalm 105:39). The same blessing is promised in even greater fulness in the age to come: “And I will place them, and multiply them, and will set my sanctuary in the midst of them for evermore. My tabernacle also shall be with them: yea I will be their God, and they shall be my people” (Ezekiel 37:26b, 27). Is it this which Paul speaks of, when – in allusion to the weakness of his own mortality – he says: “Most gladly therefore will I glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may spread a tabernacle over me” (2 Corinthians 12:9 R.V.m)?

A GREAT MESSIANIC PROPHECY

The promise to these redeemed is: “They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat. For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters; and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes” (7:16, 17).

Several of these phrases are derived – with what appropriateness – from a wonderful Messianic prophecy in Isaiah 49. The entire chapter should be studied. It travels in a comprehensive sweep from Jesus in Gethsemane, contemplating his life’s work and effort apparently in ruins, to the glorious climax when he is able to rejoice in a vast multitude called out from Israel and the Gentiles to experience the marvels of God’s gracious salvation.

In the words: “they shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more,” is to be recognized the fulfilment of all that the Manna and the Smitten Rock foreshadowed in the wilderness (1 Corinthians 10:3, 4) – the fulfilment also of Christ’s own promise: “He that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst” (John 6:35). Those hungering and thirsting after righteousness find full satisfaction at last. It is an appropriate return from him whom, all unknowing, they fed when he was hungry and to whom they gave the cup of cold water when he was athirst (Matthew 25:35 and 10:42).

An interesting idea emerges from the words: “neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat.” This word “heat” (in Isaiah 35:7: “parched ground”) Gesenius dogmatically translates: “mirage.” There is marvellous appropriateness about this. The mirage of an oasis or pool leads the weary thirsty traveller on in hope. In the same way an anticipation of the nearness of the return of the Lord has buoyed up many a weary traveller to the Kingdom. What seemed so near in time has proved in fact to be remote. Many who thought to live to see the Kingdom established have gone to their sleep, some to a long, long sleep, but this prophecy in Revelation assures the faithful that the day surely comes when mirage will give place to reality, and faith to sight. And to make the assurance all the more emphatic, the phrase is introduced by a double negative: “no, never shall the sun light on them, nor any heat.”

LAMB AND SHEPHERD

Instead, “the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall be their Shepherd.” This astonishing paradox of a Lamb being a Shepherd also has its roots in Israel’s wilderness journey. It is the figure of God’s people being guided to the end of their wilderness wandering by the blood-sprinkled ark and cherubim leading the host through the trackless desert: “The ark of the covenant of the Lord went before them three days’ journey, to search out a resting place for them. And the cloud of the Lord was over them by day, when they set forward from the camp” (Numbers 10:33, 34; cp. Psalm 80:1).

The figure is continued by Jesus himself: “When he (the Good Shepherd) putteth forth his own sheep, he goeth before them, and the sheep follow him for they know not the voice of strangers” (John 10:4). And in the day when “David my servant shall be king over them, they all shall have one shepherd” (Ezekiel 37:24). But by contrast the angel of Death shall be the shepherd of those who are in honour and yet understand not the way of God (Psalm 49: 14 R.V., 20).

The thirst and the hardship of a life of weariness in a spiritual desert is to culminate in the most longed for of all satisfactions: “the Lamb shall lead them unto fountains of waters of life.” When Israel reached the end of their toilsome journey to the Land of Promise, the water from a Smitten Rock was no longer necessary, for now as soon as they were within their own promised borders, they experienced the joy of a new and permanent and abundant supply. “Then Israel sang this song, Spring up, O well; sing ye unto it: the (twelve) princes digged the well, the nobles of the people digged it, by the direction of the lawgiver” (Numbers 21: 17, 18).

This type also Jesus appropriated to himself: “the water that I shall give him shall become in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life” (John 4:14). God will wipe away (literally: anoint out) all tears from their eyes.[32] He will do it through the abundant gift of his Holy Spirit in the day of resurrection – “the oil of joy for mourning” – as these words from Isaiah 25: 8 abundantly prove, for does not Paul apply the same passage to the Day of Resurrection (1 Corinthians 15:54)?

[30] Yet another line of thought is suggested by Psalm 40:5 and its context, where God’s “wonderful works to usward” are assuredly His fashioning of new rnen in Christ out of old men in Adam (cp. Psalm 145:4-10).

[31] This mixed multitude must have been believing Gentiles, who for some time before the deliverance identified themselves with Israel (note Exodus 9:20, 21) by accepting circumcision and who at the last kept the Passover as Israelites (Exodus 12: 48).

[32] The Hebrew for “eyes” also means “fountains”!

The connection of Revelation 7 with its preceding chapter is close and obvious. Instead of going on immediately to describe the opening of the Seventh Seal, the development of the prophecy pauses to answer the aweful question with which Seal Six concluded: “Who shall be able to stand?” It will be noted later that there are similar characteristics about the development of the Sixth and Seventh Trumpets (ch. 10, 11).

The apostle saw four angels at the four corners of the earth (or Land), controlling the four winds. These winds (the first four Trumpets: see especially ch. 8:7, 8) were not to go forth in destruction against the earth, sea or trees until a certain 144,000 had been sealed unto God. That seems to be required by ch. 9:4 where the pointed contrast is made between “grass of the earth, and trees” and “those men which have not the seal of God in their foreheads.” In this passage, to attempt to make grass and trees symbolize any form of human organization is to import a distinct element of incongruity into the interpretation.

SPIRITUAL ISRAEL

It is important before going any further to recognize that the 144,000 sealed out of the twelve tribes of Israel are to be taken as referring to Israel after the spirit, i.e. saints, and not to literal Jews. The reasons for this are copious enough.

	(a)	Elsewhere in Revelation the symbolism of natural Israel is appropriated to describe the saints; e.g. “the bride, the Lamb’s wife” is described also in terms of a city, “the holy Jerusalem,” upon the gates of which are “the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel’s (21:9-12). And in Revelation 3:12 “the name of my God,” which is the Seal applied to the 144,000 (see ch. 14:1) is promised to the faithful in Philadelphia, most of who would assuredly be Gentiles.
	(b)	By contrast, in Revelation also, the name of Jew is denied to those who are the fleshly descendants of Abraham; ch. 2:9 and 3:9.
	(c)	The same obvious spiritual idiom is employed by Peter, James and Paul. The idea was well-recognized in the early churches. Peter’s 1st Epistle is written to “the elect who are sojourners of the Dispersion” (ch. 1:1 R.V.). All three terms used here were normally applied to Israel, and the second and third to the Jews not resident in Palestine. Yet nothing is more certain than that Peter wrote primarily to Gentiles, not Jews (e.g. 4:3; 1:14). The Epistle of James begins similarly, and again an attempt to apply his words literally to “the twelve tribes scattered abroad” breaks down almost before it has started (2:1; 5:14). Paul’s language in Galatians 6:15, 16 and Romans 9:6-8 and 2:28, 29 is conclusive.
	(d)	If the twelve tribes of Revelation 7 are the literal tribes, then to be consistent the numbers – 12,000 from each tribe – should also be taken literally. Yet it is unthinkable that that is how God has worked, choosing exactly 12,000 from each of the twelve tribes of Israel, but none at all from Dan (Samson? Judges 13:2; Hebrews 11:32).

LESSONS TO BE LEARNED

It will be convenient here to pause and note some of the spiritual lessons to be derived from the apparently arid list of 12,000’s catalogued in this chapter. Here is something other than wasted paper.

	(a)	First place is not accorded to Reuben, the first born, but to Judah, because from Judah came Christ who is “the First-fruits,” “the Beginning of the Creation of God,” “the Lion of the tribe of Judah.”
	(b)	There is no regard here at all to family arrangement (by contrast with every other similar list of these twelve names in Scripture), because the people typified here are they whose standing in the sight of God does not depend on natural relationship.
	(c)	Levi is catalogued along with all the rest, thus indicating the end of the Aaronic priesthood, which had made Levi separate, distinct and superior.
	(d)	The omission of Dan is significant. It has to be remembered that Dan was the first tribe in idolatry (Judges 17, 18), and idolaters are banned from God’s holy city (Revelation 22:15). Also Dan deserted the inheritance assigned to him. And of all the twelve tribes Dan was completely content to stay in captivity – there is no mention of Dan in the genealogies of 1 Chronicles 4-8.[26] The symbol of the tribe of Dan was a serpent (Genesis 49:17) when it should have been the eagle (Numbers 2:25); the destruction of the serpent is one of the main themes of Revelation (20:2, 10). Because of this serpent symbol it was traditional among the very early Christians to assert that in the Last Days Antichrist would arise from the tribe of Dan (cp. Genesis 49:17 and Jeremiah 8:16, 17). Is it just coincidence that so many of the men of the Kremlin have been – like Dan – apostate Jews, men happy in their estrangement from the Land, seeking to lose their nationality amongst the enemies of God and even working actively and powerfully for the destruction of the new state of Israel?
	(e)	Ephraim is omitted, but instead there is mention of Joseph, suggesting that only those out of Ephraim who are like their worthy progenitor will be fit for inclusion in the Lamb’s great multitude; cp. Ezekiel 37:16, 19.

THE SEALING

Bearing in mind that the 144,000 are symbolic of spiritual Israel, it now becomes a matter of some importance to interpret the sealing, which is commanded. Beyond all question the basis of this is to be sought in the similar passage in Ezekiel 9. (It will be demonstrated later on that this is just one item in a whole series of allusions to Ezekiel traceable in Revelation 7, 8). In Ezekiel 9 the prophet saw seven angels of destruction who were bidden withhold slaughter from Jerusalem until a mark had been set on the foreheads of “the men that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that be done in the midst thereof.” Then divine judgement went forth.

This Old Testament original is one of several cognate Scriptures, which has led to the sealed of Revelation 7 being described as taken from the twelve tribes of Israel.

PASSOVER DELIVERANCE

It is possible to go even further back in seeking the meaning of this sealing. Revelation 7 has also copious allusions to Israel’s deliverance from Egypt and subsequent wilderness journey. Before judgement fell upon Egypt, God’s elect were sealed by the blood of the Lamb, on lintel and doorposts, thus Succeeding generations of Jews would readily recognize this mark as the letter H of the Hebrew alphabet which almost by itself spells the name of God: . This is precisely how Revelation itself describes the sealing mark: “having his Father’s name written on their foreheads” (ch. 14:1). [27]

These Old Testament associations of the sealing of spiritual Israel dovetail beautifully with the New Testament emphasis: “And grieve not the holy spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption” (Ephesians 4:30). The powers of the Holy Spirit extant in the early church constituted the Father’s method of writing His name in the forehead of those set apart for Himself. It was the Holy Spirit of God, an earnest (Ephesians 1:13, 14) of full and certain redemption.

GOD’S PROVIDENCE – WHEN?

To what time in history shall this sealing of the 144,000 be assigned? The close connection between this vision and that of the Six Seals would suggest that just as the Seals were seen to have more than one fulfilment, so with this vision also. This is immediately emphasized by the mention of “the four winds of the earth,” in v. 1. Two passages are of special value here. The first is Zechariah 6:1-o where the fourfold cherubim-chariot is described as going forth from standing before the Lord of all the earth (cp. Chapter 10 – The Seals). But the language of Zechariah’s angel is: “These are the four spirits (R.V.: winds) of heaven.” Thus the four winds of Revelation 7 are seen to have intimate connection with the first Four Seals, since they were introduced by the four cherubim.[28] And since there is more than one fulfilment to the Seals, should not the same be true of chapter 7 also?

Ezekiel’s vision of the valley of dry bones has language with a similar ring: “Come from the four winds, O breath (or spirit), and breathe upon these slain, that they may live” (Ezekiel 37:9). There is here a hint that the four winds of Revelation 7 also have to do with Israel.

SAINTS IN THE FIRST CENTURY

The strongest reason of all for looking for a fulfilment of chapter 7 in the First Century is the undeniable parallel with Ezekiel 9, already mentioned. It needs only to be emphasized that Ezekiel 9 had primary reference to the first overthrow of Jerusalem (by Nebuchadnezzar). There is therefore clear reason to believe that its counterpart in Revelation 7 also has reference to the exercise of special Providence over the Lord’s people who would otherwise have been similarly involved in the A.D. 70 destruction of Jerusalem. Hence the description of them as coming out of the great tribulation.

That such Providential protection was extended to the saints in the troublous times just mentioned is well known. First, there was the warning given by Jesus himself: And when ye shall sec Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know that the desolation thereof is nigh … then … let them which are in the midst of her (R.V.) depart out … (Luke 21:20, 21).

To advise anyone to flee from a city already encircled by a besieging army sounds the height of absurdity; nevertheless this was the instruction, which the saints of those days received from their Lord. Nor was there any absurdity, for throughout the siege Titus, the Roman general, seems to have been actuated by an earnest desire to keep destruction of both life and property to a minimum – so much so that, according to Josephus, in the early days of the siege there were several opportunities for flight. At one time, for example, the siege of Jerusalem was as good as raised for a period of four days, so casual was the watch maintained by the Roman army. In another place Josephus writes (B.J. 2.20.1): After the first attack upon the city many of the most considerable of the Jewish folk forsook it as men do a sinking ship. Eusebius, the Christian historian, has this similar narrative: The whole body of the church at Jerusalem having been commanded by a divine revelation given to men of approved piety[29] there before the war removed from the city, and dwelt in a certain town beyond Jordan, called Pella; there those that believed in Christ having removed from Jerusalem, as if holy men had entirely abandoned the royal city itself, and the whole land of Judaea, the divine justice for their crimes against Christ and his Apostles finally overtook them, totally destroying the whole generation of those evil-doers from the earth (Eccl. Hist. 3.5).

Thus if the interpretation of Scripture by Scripture is of any value as a guiding principle in Apocalyptic study and if there is any force in its full confirmation by detailed and authentic history, one is led to conclude that the sealing of the 144,000 in Revelation 7 had at least a primary application to God’s Providential care for His own, when wrath and desolation and curse came upon the Holy City.

ANOTHER APPLICATION

But here it is needful to emphasize that such fulfilment was only primary. Once again, with Scripture as the key to unlock Scripture, the reverent student is led on further to conclude, on the basis of many indications, that a further fulfilment of far more force and far greater importance (to the saints of the last days) is just round the corner:

	(a)	Further consideration is asked of the correspondences listed earlier (see chapter 10) between Revelation 6, 7 and the Olivet Prophecy of Jesus. At least five of these belong to Revelation 7 and all save one go back to that part of the Olivet Prophecy which indubitably refers to the Last Days. Nor is the apparent exception any difficulty.
	(b)	The description of a great multitude with palms in their hands crying “Salvation” (Hosanna) is an obvious reminiscence of Jesus’ Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem, which in its turn was beyond all doubt intended as a kind of “dress rehearsal” of the Second Coming (Zechariah 9: 9, 10).
	(c)	The sealing of the 144,000 comes immediately before the breaking of the Seventh Seal, which is the last. Thereafter, nothing of the outworking of the Divine Purpose remains hidden. “The words are closed up and scaled to the time of the end” (Daniel 12:9).
	(d)	The angel with the seal of the living God is described as ascending “from the sun-rising” (R.V.). This immediately suggests Christ who is “the bright and morning star” (Revelation 22:16; 2 Peter 1:19; Luke 1: 78). If the objection were put: Why does it not say “Christ” or “the Lamb” or some other term to identify the Messiah expressly? Answer is immediately available in that dual fulfilment. The sealing of those to be saved from Jerusalem in A.D. 70 is not stated in Scripture to have been done by Christ in person (though it may have been!) but of the Second Coming this is described unequivocally in Matthew 24:31. Incidentally, this Matthew 24:31 explains why Revelation 7:3 reads: “until we have sealed the servants of our God.” The “we” includes Christ and his angels.
	(e)	The symbolism of the Passover throughout this chapter forms an easy link with Isaiah 26: 20, 21- “Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee: hide thyself as it were for a little moment until the indignation be overpast” – words which are demonstrably an allusion likewise to judgement and Passover deliverance in the Last Days.
	(f)	Isaiah 4, another prophecy which clearly has reference to the bringing in of Christ’s Kingdom, has several points of contact with Revelation 7 – the washing of filthy garments, the tabernacle of God’s people, the canopy (R.V.) of the pillar of cloud to protect from the heat – these are unmistakable.
	(g)	A similar set of allusions is to be traced in Ezekiel 37 – the four winds (v. 9), “they all shall have one shepherd” (v. 24), “my tabernacle shall be over them” (v. 27 R.V.m.). And the Last Day application of Ezekiel 37 none will dispute.
	(h)	The concluding words cited from Isaiah 25:8 bring the vision to the grand consummation: “God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.
	(i)	If the sealing is a symbol of the gift of the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 1: 13), Joel 2:28 and the use of that Scripture in Acts 2 definitely sanction an application both to the First Century and the Twentieth.
	(j)	The repetition of the vision of the 144,000 (14:1) suggests a second fulfilment; otherwise what is the point of it?

It follows then, that just as the Seals were found (from Scripture) to follow the pattern of the Olivet Prophecy in having reference both to the First Century and the Last so likewise this vision of the Redeemed has a double fulfilment And so also will be found to be the case with the Trumpets of chapters 8 and 9, soon to be considered.

THE LORD’S ELECT PROTECTED

Thanks to the detail of our Lord’s Olivet Prophecy and the full narrative of Josephus it is possible to trace with exactitude how in the First Century the Lord’s elect were sealed and preserved from misery and harm. Any such precision is impossible to the one who attempts to anticipate how the elect of the Twentieth Century will be sealed unto a like preservation. Matthew 24:31 is explicit that, as in the days of Lot, so also at the Coming of the Lord the angels will be used to bring the Lord’s people to safety. The suggestion may be hazarded with a fair degree of confidence that in A.D. 70 events were manipulated by angels, all unseen, so as to provide a suitable opportunity for saints in Jerusalem to escape to Pella. It may well be that in the Great Day soon to come the saints will similarly be unaware of the unseen presence of angels.

Isaiah 26:20 suggests a parallel between the Passover and the Last Day. Exodus 12:23 makes it clear that wherever there was the blood of the Lamb on the door, there a protecting angel hovered or “passed over,” and would not “suffer the Destroyer to come in.” Yet so far as the record goes none of those angels was seen either by Israelite or Egyptian. It would seem that similarly in the Last Day some kind of protection will be contrived by angels working invisibly on behalf of those are who the Lord’s own.

What kind of protection, and where? Two Scriptures suggest a possible explanation: “And the Lord shall create upon all the dwelling-place of mount Zion and upon her assembly, a cloud and smoke by day, and the shining of a flaming fire by night: for because of all the Glory there shall be a defence” (Isaiah 4:5, 6). “For in mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance, as the Lord hath said, even among the remnant whom the Lord shall call” (Joel 2:32).

INDIVIDUAL DECISION

There is one principle, which can be established with a fair degree of probability: The safety to be provided will be one to be accepted or rejected at will. All the available Scriptures point to this conclusion. The Israelite could put the blood on his door or could refrain from so doing, as he chose. Lot’s family was given the option of clearing out of the city or not, as they pleased; and even after that, human volition still entered in -”remember Lot’s wife.” In A.D. 70 no Christian was taken by the lock of his head and dragged from the doomed city willy-nilly.

Likewise at the Lord’s return, some virgins will answer the call only when they think they have equipped themselves to meet the Bridegroom. On another occasion Jesus said: “One shall be taken, and the other left.” “Left where, Lord?” Jesus replied: “Those who are spiritually dead will be left to the vultures.” His earlier words: “Remember Lot’s wife,” seem to require this interpretation (Luke 17:32-37).

“Be ye like men that wait for their lord … that when he cometh they may open unto him immediately” (Luke 12:36). What is the point of that last word if it is not to imply or emphasize reluctance on the part of some to “open unto him?”

[26] Revelation 7:4 “all the tribes of Israel.” But Dan is omitted. Therefore Dan must have ceased to be one of the twelve tribes by this time. Note the parallel in the twelve apostles.

[27] Note how both Abram and Sarai had the Divine Name written into their own! ABRM became (in Hebrew) ABRHM, and SRY became SRH. The point is not so readily perceptible in the Anglicised forms.

[28] Note also that v.2: “the seal of the living God” means “the seal of the God of the Living Creatures.”

[29] Is it proper to see in these phrases an indication of a further warning revelation given through Spirit-guided elders of the church at Jerusalem?

Once again the reminder is necessary that the application of this part of Revelation to the First Century is a much easier proposition than the interpretation of it with reference to the end of the age. That it should be so applied hardly admits of doubt. The evidence already submitted is adequate to shew this. And there is plenty more to follow. But even if the student is reasonably sure that he is interpreting the symbols according to Biblical usage (and some doubt regarding this is not unseemly now and then), to use these Scriptures in order to anticipate events still in the future is an exceedingly precarious business, never to be attempted with any degree of confidence, much less of dogmatism. So this chapter is necessarily a mixture of Biblical illustration and surmise as to its outworking.

The events described in these Trumpets are the results of great clouds of incense coming up before God. These are like thc importunate prayers of the widow in the parable (Luke 18:1-8), for Jesus was careful to set that exhortation, that “men pray and not faint”, in a context which is all about his Second Coming (17:20-37; 18:8).

The outcome of these prayers – “voices, and thunderings, and lightnings, and an earthquake” – are described once again in Revelation 16:18, where the setting belongs (past all argument) to the Last Days. The words describe a mighty theophany, as at Sinai (Exodus 19:16, 18), and also the titanic effects of God’s judgement, as this evil generation will yet experience them.

This angel, casting fire to the earth, and the seven trumpet-blowers with him suggest the “seven shepherds and eight principal men” who are to “waste the land of Assyria with the sword, and the land of Nimrod in the entrance thereof: and he shall deliver us from the Assyrian, when he cometh into our land, and when he treadeth within our borders” (Micah 5: 5, 6).

JUDGEMENTS ON ISRAEL AND ON THE WHOLE WORLD

The Biblical evidences of a final desolation of Israel in the Last Days need not be repeated here. But this Micah passage seems to imply that when the Land is overrun, the enemy of Israel will be punished there in the very place where his triumph has been most complete and savage.

But, since, equally plainly, the final judgements of God are to be visited on the whole earth, it would be unwise to insist on a restricted reference of these Trumpets to the Land of Israel only, or even to the countries round about Israel.

It is rather remarkable that the language of the First Trumpet – “hail and fire mingled with blood” – is used in Isaiah, first to describe the “overflowing scourge” with which God afflicted His wayward people, and then even more powerfully regarding the divine deliverance which He provided for the sake of the faithful remnant in the days of Hezekiah (28:2; 30:30). The counterpart to this in the day of Christ is not difficult to discern.

The destruction of trees was seen to have both a literal and a figurative element. All who have any interest in the developing state of Israel have been impressed with the efficient and industrious way in which the mountainsides are being re-planted, so that within a generation barrenness has been replaced by maturing forests. In a way it is sad to think that these splendid attempts to re-clothe the nakedness of the hills of Israel are all to be brought to nought, but their present glory and promise is of small account compared with what is to be when the verdant splendour of the Holy Land is renewed by the blessing of Heaven (Isaiah 35:1, 2).

However, the more fundamental application of this Trumpet will be in a manner comparable to the fulfilment of Christ’s own figure of “green tree and dry tree” – in the nation of Israel, all being alike destined for “burning” (Luke 23:31; cp. Jeremiah 7:20).

FIRE IN JERUSALEM?

The “great mountain burning with fire” has already been given good Biblical reference to the downfall of Jerusalem and its temple in A.D. 70. Today, in the place of the temple, on the very site, stands the Moslem Dome of the Rock. How the fanatical forces of hyper-orthodox Jewry would love to see that centre of false religion burnt to the ground. Yet they dare not attempt it. But it is readily conceivable that the confusion of some acute Israel-Arab crisis in the near future might well provide the excuse or the cover for their incendiarism. This is only a guess. The fulfilment of this vivid symbol may take a completely different form, with more immediate relevance to the destruction of life and ships in the sea. Judgement on the ships of Tarshish is a distinctive feature of certain prophecies (Isaiah 2:16; Psalm 48:7).

Amos 7:4 has a very remarkable allusion (in the context of “locusts;” see the Fifth Trumpet) to “the Lord God contending by fire … and it devoured the great deep, and would have eaten up the Land (R.V.)” – LXX: “the Lord’s portion.” It is difficult to say how the primary fulfilment of this prophecy came about. A giant meteorite falling into the Sea of Galilee? It goes on to foretell that “the high places of Isaac (where Isaac was offered – the Rock!) shall be desolate, and the sanctuaries of Israel shall be laid waste.”

Zephaniah has the same association of ideas: “I will consume the fowls of the heaven, and the fishes of the sea, and will bring the wicked to their knees (N.E.B.) … and I will cut off the remnant of Baal from this place (the temple)” (1:3, 4).

THE WRATH OF HEAVEN

It is important to observe that all the first five trumpets find the source and origin of their dramatic action in the sky:

1. Hail and fire mingled with blood cast upon the earth.
2. A burning mountain cast into the sea.
3. The falling of a great star burning like a lamp.
4. Sun, moon and stars smitten; unnatural darkness.
5. A star fallen from heaven to earth. This is introduced by an angel flying in mid-heaven.

SPACE WARFARE?

There may or may not be connection between these features and the fact that between them Russia and America have something like a thousand pieces of hardware orbiting this globe. Of course almost nothing is known publicly about the purpose of this mighty army of sputniks – “the host of the high ones on high” (Isaiah 24:21) – but it may be taken as certain that many (most?) of them have a much more sinister purpose than that of harmless highly useful telecommunications. And it is readily conceivable that in the heat of a Jew-Arab crisis Russia may not be loth to use Israel as a guinea-pig regarding some of these scientific toys in the way that America used Japan at the end of World War II, and has more recently used Vietnam.

The “great star falling from heaven, burning as a lamp,” is perhaps to be understood as a reference to the Star of David, which is now known in all the world as the symbol of the state of Israel. In modern times, Israel has let go all hope of the appearance of a divine Messiah, and has blasphemously substituted itself instead as the Messianic State and Nation. So it would not be inappropriate that there should be a dramatic rebuke of such a perversion of Old Testament truth. The figure of a falling star is the more fitting by contrast with the true Messiah, the “Bright and Morning Star” (Revelation 22:16).

On the other hand, if the Third Trumpet is to have a less restricted application than this, the effect of turning all the waters to bitterness may well be one of the fiendish ideas of modern war, which has already been seriously explored. Dumping a large consignment of LSD in a city reservoir would be a trivial school-boy joke by comparison. There could be no easier way of winning a war than by poisoning the enemy’s water supply overnight.

The darkening of sun, moon and stars may similarly have a more literal fulfilment than has been thought possible hitherto. At the crucifixion of Jesus there was a period of unnatural darkness. Several Scriptures suggest the possibility of a similar phenomenon when he comes again (Zechariah 14:6; Joel 2:2; Matthew 24:29; Isaiah 5:30). Again one is left guessing as to the means by which this might come about, whether by natural causes-such as the dense pall of smoke from the burning forests or from volcanic eruptions- or by supernatural means as at the crucifixion.

THE SAME THEME IN ISAIAH

On this theme Isaiah 13 is specially impressive. Misled by the opening verse, commentators generally have sought to apply the whole of this prophecy to Babylon. In fact, most of it (v. 2-16?) refers primarily to God’s judgement on Israel brought through the instrumentality of the Assyrians (often called Babylon in Isaiah). Only at verse 17 does the wrath of the Lord turn to “punish the stout heart of the king of Assyria” (10:12); “Howl ye, for the day of the Lord is at hand; it shall come as a destruction from the Almighty. Therefore shall all hands faint, and every man’s heart shall melt (this is Luke 21:26): and they shall be afraid: pangs of sorrows shall take hold of them; they shall be in pain as a woman that travaileth (this is Paul’s figure of the day of the Lord, in 1 Thessalonians 5: 2, 3) … For the stars of heaven and the constellations thereof shall not give their light: the sun shall be darkened in his going forth, and the moon shall not cause her light to shine (the Fourth Trumpet) … Therefore I will shake the heavens, and the earth shall remove out of her place (Revelation 8:5), in the wrath of the Lord of hosts and in the day of his fierce anger … their houses shall be spoiled, and their wives ravished (this is Zechariah 14:2)” (Isaiah 13:6-16).

Thus the Fourth Trumpet is seen as an integral part of the impressive drama of events in the end of the age. It presents an ominous picture of the eclipse of Israel, to be followed – as one Messianic prophecy after another makes clear-by a breath-taking rehabilitation when the King of Israel sits on his throne.

It is now time to consider the Seals in detail. It is important always to have in mind the triple fulfilment of this part of Revelation, which has been argued for in the two preceding chapters:

a. A.D. 70. The Fall of Jerusalem.

b. The “continuous-historic” application (“Eureka”).

c. The Last Days and the Coming of the Lord.

In what follows the second of these will be omitted. It has already been excellently done elsewhere. (For those without the time to give detailed consideration to the three large volumes of “Eureka,” “Notes on the Apocalypse” by C.C.W. will be found most valuable. It is an admirable digest of the bigger work.)

As details in the Seals are expounded attention will focus chiefly on the fulfilment in and around A.D. 70, for the very simple and obvious reason that it is far easier to make a job of expounding a fulfilled prophecy than one, which is yet to be fulfilled. Where a future fulfilment is concerned, precision and fullness of detail in the exposition are hardly possible – at least, not with the confidence one could wish. The Holy Spirit’s gift of “interpretation” is not, alas, extant in these days.

“The four horsemen of the Apocalypse” introduce the first four Seals. These are the angel-drivers of the cherubim-chariots of the Lord – “the chariots of Israel and the horsemen thereof” (2 Kings 2:11, 12, 6:17; 13:14; 1 Chronicles 28:18; Psalm 18:10). Here, immediately, is a strong suggestion that these visions have reference to dramatic events connected with Israel.

The cherubim-chariot was seen by Ezekiel (ch. 1) at the beginning of the Captivity in Babylon, and by Zechariah (6:1-8) at the end of the Captivity Do not these facts suggest that the mention of the four horsemen again in Revelation 6 is intended to direct interpretation to the beginning and end of Israel’s “captivity” in the times of the Gentiles?

THE SECOND SEAL

In the waste howling wilderness of varied and contradictory interpretations of Revelation, Seals 2, 3 and 4 stand out as an oasis of some sort of unanimity. The same can hardly be said for the First Seal. So, for the sake of having feet on terra firma at the start, a beginning is made here on Seal 2.

When the second of the four cherubim says “Come” (for the reading “Come and see” is doubtful) there appears a red horse, “and power was given to him that sat thereon to take peace from the earth, and that they should kill one another.” Symbolic of this war-like character is the “great sword” that was given him.

Difficulty in accepting the application only to the Jewish War in Palestine during the First Century, may be occasioned by the words: “to take peace from the earth;” the phrase seems to require a much wider fulfilment. Luke 21:23 elucidates: “There shall be great distress in the land and wrath upon this people” i.e. in the Land of Palestine. The word used here is identical with the word “earth” which comes several times in Revelation 6. Thus “the wild beasts of the earth” may be the (figurative) wild beasts of Palestine – these to be interpreted later – and “the kings of the earth” may be the kings of Palestine – as will also be shewn in due course. This ambiguity about “earth” and “land” is really a Hebraism carried over from the Old Testament where eretz can likewise bear either of these two meanings.[19]

“It was given to him that sat on the red horse to take peace from the Land, and that they should slay one another.” The tumult, rapine and savagery, which filled Palestine from end to end from A.D. 67 to 70, were more than adequate fulfilment of the divine judgement foretold here. It has been well observed that the phrase: “that they should slay one another” carries with it a probable implication of civil war – every man against his fellow. And so in truth it was during those years of madness and misery, as Josephus abundantly testifies. The Jews suffered more from the hands of their own countrymen than they did from the Romans. Vespasian’s words when the Roman armies had begun their campaign were: “If we stay a while we shall have fewer enemies, because they (the Jews) will be consumed in this sedition.” This was said after his commanders had themselves agreed “the providence of God is on our side, by setting our enemies at variance against one another” (B.J. 4.6.2).

THE THIRD SEAL

The black horse of the Third Seal signifies Famine. So also does “the pair of balances (weigh scales) in his hand.” The voice accompanying the rider’s appearance reinforces this impression: “A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny.” The penny here is, of course, the Roman denarius (whence the d. in £. s.d.), which in those times carried a much higher value than it does today. A comparable sum in these days would be £3 or more (Matthew 20:2).

The cry indicates famine prices for food, at something like ten to fifteen times the normal prices for those days. Once again the finest commentary on these words is the narrative of Josephus. When a vast number of Jews was shut up by Vespasian’s armies inside Jerusalem, there were no fears of shortage of food, such were the stocks stored away in the city But the rival factions of Eleazar the son of the high priest and John of Gischala and Simon the captain of the Idumeans were so bitter in their mutual enmities that they burnt one another’s stocks of grain The ensuing famine was one of the horrors of world history. Josephus, although himself a hard-bitten campaigner, accustomed to all kinds of revolting sights and experience, was obviously much distraught by the evidence which came to him in the Roman camp outside Jerusalem of the maniac excesses of the defenders and of the bitter extremes of suffering which they brought upon themselves not only by the unrelenting fierceness of their opposition to the Roman armies, but even more by their mad internecine hatreds. The reader should most certainly consider Leviticus 26: 24-26, Ezekiel 4 and the extracts given in chapters 18, 20, and 22 from Josephus’ “Wars of the Jews.”

But whilst this Seal speaks of wheat and barley at famine prices, it goes on to say, “see thou hurt not the oil and the wine.” The use of “hurt not” in ch.7: 3 and 9:4 requires here the meaning that there shall be no lack of oil and wine. But in the literal sense there certainly was a lack of these commodities in Jerusalem at the time spoken of. Nor will it do to regard these words as an indication that only the poor would suffer and not the rich, for Josephus makes plain that the rich suffered, if anything, more than the poor, through being suspected of hoarding.

Scripture suggests a different approach. “Thou anointest my head with oil; my cup (of wine) runneth over.” The Samaritan Saviour poured oil and wine on the wounds of the one he came to save. Thus the words of the Seal indicate that its rigours were not to come upon the elect in Christ in this time of trouble. One need now only mention the familiar fact of the escape of the Christians from beleaguered Jerusalem to indicate the fulfilment. “Friends of Jesus, they alone to Pella fled.” Here is another parallel with the Olivet prophecy: “When ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies … then let them which be in the midst of her depart out … “ (Luke 21: 20, 21). “When ye shall see the abomination of desolation stand in the Holy Place, then let them which be in Judea flee to the mountains” (Matthew 24:15, 16; cp. Job 5:19).

THE FOURTH SEAL

The Fourth Seal describes, “a pallid horse, and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed after him.” The colour of the horse is deathly, and this is the character of the rider’s work – he is the Angel of Death, called in chapter 9:1I Abaddon or Apollyon, that is, the Destroyer.

“And power was given unto them to kill with sword, and with famine, and with pestilence (R.V.m.), and with the wild beasts of the earth.” The very language used here is confirmatory of the restricted Jewish application which is now being suggested for this part of the prophecy, for – as already observed – the words are verbatim from Ezekiel 14:21 LXX which describes “my four sore judgements on Jerusalem.” These same four judgements are also set out in Moses’ catalogue of curses to come on disobedient Israel – the sword, pestilence, the enemy, and famine (Leviticus 26:25, 26; cp. also 2 Samuel 24:13). With all this compare Matthew 24:22: “And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved.” The student will be interested to observe that in the restoration of Israel to divine favour these are the very curses which are singled out as being now ended: Ezekiel 34:28, 29 and 36:14, 29, 30.

GRIM FULFILMENT

The figures given by Josephus of those who fell in the struggle against the Romans, and especially in the siege of Jerusalem, appall even the modern reader, accustomed as he is to the violence of the Twentieth Century. Even case-hardened Titus, the Roman general, was aghast and, raising his hands to heaven, called God to witness that it was none of his doing but brought rather upon the Jews by their own fanatic folly; Isaiah 28:17,18 and 5:13,14.

The finest commentary on the First Century fulfilment of Seals 2, 3, 4 is unquestionably Josephus’ “Wars of the Jews.” The reader is strongly urged to read in connection with the foregoing brief exposition Books V and VI of that masterpiece of ancient literature.

THE FIRST SEAL

The problem of the First Seal, apparently so much out of character with those that follow, can now be considered: “And I saw, and behold a white horse: and he that sat on him had a bow; and a crown was given unto him: and he went forth conquering and to conquer” (Revelation 6:2).

In the primary fulfilment of this prophecy there are three alternatives, which suggest themselves, each of which is attractive in its own way.

1. Bullinger points to the identity of language here with Revelation 19:11, 12 which describes Christ going forth as the conqueror of his enemies: “And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war. His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns; and he had a name written, that no man knew, but he himself” (Revelation 19:11, 12). Stress is then put on the parallel between the Seals and the Olivet Prophecy. If, says this expositor, Seals 2, 3, 4 find their counterpart in Matthew 24:6, 7, then the First Seal corresponds to Matthew 24:4, 5: “Take heed that no man deceive you. For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many.” In other words, the First Seal is a prophecy of spreading apostasy in the early church or of some false Messiah of the First Century. And since that era is notorious for the number of false Messiahs who appeared in Jewry, this explanation becomes very attractive.

2. A second possible explanation also is supported by arguments of some consequence:

	(a)	the other seals expounded thus far represent judgements upon Israel, and their introduction by the cherubim strongly reinforces the suggestion that the First Seal must be like the others in this respect.
	(b)	“A crown was given him, and he went forth conquering and to conquer.” These words, with which the preceding explanation does not harmonize too obviously, now take on very considerable point if the rider on the white horse represents Vespasian.

When the Jewish rebellion broke out, Vespasian was given command of the punitive expedition organized by the Romans. The campaign was barely begun when Nero died by his own hand. There followed the short disturbed period of Galba, Otho and Vitellius, and then the Roman army pressed Vespasian to accept Imperial dignity. So leaving Titus in charge of the Roman army in Palestine, he went off to Rome to assume the reins of government. Meantime Titus concluded the campaign successfully and thus brought much initial lustre to the new reign: “a crown was given unto him: and he went forth conquering and to conquer.”

The chief difficulties in the way of this interpretation are (i) it gives no weight to the designed resemblance to the picture of Christ in ch. 19:11; (ii) the lack of any suitable fulfilment of the First Seal on similar lines in the Last Days.

3. The two objections just raised become the strength of this third interpretation-that the white horse and its rider represent the Gospel going forth conquering Judaism in the First Century.

THE GREAT ENEMY OF THE TRUTH

There can be no question that the Gospel’s biggest enemy in the very earliest days was not Rome but Jerusalem. The fanatical hatred of entrenched Judaism was a constant source of anxiety and pain to Paul and his fellow apostles. It ranks as the main problem in Acts, Romans, Galatians, Ephesians, Colossians, 1 Thessalonians, 1 Timothy and also John’s Gospel. To this list may be added several of the Letters to the Churches in Revelation.

One of the major results of the destruction of Jerusalem was that Judaism ceased to be the powerful obstacle to a successful preaching of the Gospel, which it had been thus far. “Conquering, and to conquer” – when the Jewish War began, much headway had already been made by the Truth against recalcitrant Jewry; after the war was concluded, opposition dwindled away, for the chief stronghold – the temple – was gone overnight. “If ye have faith and doubt not … ye shall say to this mountain (Mount Zion and its temple), Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and it shall be done” (Matthew 21:21). It was!

There can be no objection to interpreting the rider on the white horse as being Christ himself, for what was done by his men was really being done by him; compare: “Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?” See also Matthew 10:40.

This suggestion, that the First Seal symbolizes the Gospel’s conquest of Judaism, is in harmony with the exposition of the next three Seals already suggested, since – like them – it constituted a divine judgement on Jewry.

The other detail, not yet considered – “he that sat on him had a bow” – also finds a ready interpretation on this line. Let it be remembered that whilst Revelation is written in Greek it is essentially a Hebrew book, packed with Hebrew idiom (e.g. in Seal 2: “to him that sat thereon it was given to take peace from the earth” is a normal Hebraism for “to him it was appointed …”). In Hebrew the word for “law” and the word for “teacher” are both derived from the verb, which means, “to fire arrows.” Hence, the bow would appear to the Hebrew mind as a fit symbol for the teacher or instructor. This idea is illustrated by the following: “They bend their bows to shoot their arrows, even bitter words” (Psalm 64:3); “he bade them teach the children of Judah the song of the bow” (2 Samuel 1:18). The fitness of this idea in this third explanation of the First Seal will be immediately obvious.[20]

In harmony with this also is the word by which these Seals are introduced: “And I heard as it were the noise of thunder, one of the four living creatures saying, Come” (as already mentioned, the reading “Come and see” must be disallowed on textual grounds). That the voice is “as it were the noise of thunder” identifies it as a divine invitation (John 12:29; Exodus 19: 16, 19, and many more). Is this the beckoning of God to the instruments of His judgement that they are to hasten with their fell work7 Or is it the last divine appeal to a nation which has hardened its heart and stiffened its neck, determined to live and die in complete reliance on its ability to save itself, both politically and spiritually? The preaching of the Gospel was the proclaiming of the Spirit’s message through the Bride; and that message was: “whosoever will, let him take of the water of life freely.” The very period, which saw the climax of the divine judgements on the Jews, saw also-the climax of the divine appeal to Jews by means of the gospel to use their opportunity of salvation before it was too late. The poignant suffering endured by the Jews throughout that terrible war with Rome concluded the most intense divine appeal to be made to them for hundreds of years.

CHRONOLOGICAL FULFILMENT?

This review of the first Four Seals might appropriately conclude with an observation of some importance for the understanding of later sections of Revelation.

The Seals – and, as will be seen by and by, the Trumpets also – are not necessarily to be read as having successive fulfilment. This is in fact suggested by the different order of the same four horses in Zechariah 6. So far as the first (and third) fulfilments of Revelation are concerned, there can be little doubt that the Seals are to be regarded as being fulfilled together, particularly in the period A.D. 67-70. It is felt necessary to stress this point because the thinking of many on this middle section of Revelation has tended to be dominated by the idea of successive visions with chronologically successive fulfilments. Whilst this approach may yield good results for the “continuous historic” interpretation the point needs to be emphasized that such a view of the Revelation visions is not required by any explicit statement of the prophecy, nor is the idea necessarily implicit in it. The Seals are given in order, one to seven, because from the very nature of the case it would have been impossible to describe them all simultaneously.

In Zechariah 12-14 the phrase “in that day” is repeated fifteen times. It requires only a cursory consideration of these prophecies to realize that this is the prophet’s way of introducing a series of “snapshots” of dramatic happenings, which will take place at the time of the end. But the expositor has yet to be found who would insist that the various segments of these three chapters will find their fulfilment in the chronological order in which they appear. Similarly in Revelation there should be no attempt to force the interpretation into the straitjacket of chronological development. As the exposition proceeds a good deal of Biblical evidence will come to light to prove the importance of this assertion.

[19] The Greek word ge is translated in the New Testament “land” more than 40 times and in the LXX O.T. more than 1,000 times.

[20] Expositors who insist that the rider had a bow but no arrozos are being too clever. Of course bow implies arrows, otherwise why mention it? If a man is described as wearing black shoes, does this mean he has no shoelaces?

The last three Trumpets are introduced by the vision of “an angel (R.V.: eagle) flying in the midst of heaven, saying with a loud voice, Woe, woe, woe, to the inhabiters of the earth by reason of the other voices of the trumpet of the angels, which are yet to sound” (8:13). Because of this, and by reason of the special severity of these judgements, Trumpets 5, 6 and 7 have come to be known as the Three Woes.

This mention of an eagle-angel has some interesting and informative associations in other parts of the Bible:

Hosea 8:1: “Set thy trumpet to thy mouth, as an eagle against the house of the Lord, because they have transgressed my covenant, and trespassed against my law.” This passage can surely be regarded with confidence as the Old Testament basis of the verse in Revelation now under consideration. Thus the student is steered yet again to seek an application of the Trumpets to the righteous retribution of God against His people.

Deuteronomy 28:49: “The Lord shall bring a nation against thee from far, from the end of the earth, as the eagle flieth; a nation whose tongue thou shalt not understand; and he shall besiege thee in all thy gates…” The entire passage to the end of v. 61 should be read. Its reference to the Roman overthrow of Jerusalem can hardly be questioned.

Matthew 24:28: “For wheresoever the carcase is, there will the eagles be gathered together.” The context here – warnings against being deceived by false prophets-demands as the meaning of this passage: “If you shew yourself to be spiritually dead, you will surely get the vultures round you.” The primary reference is undoubtedly to the Ecclesia, but a similar application of the same principle to the covenant-peoyle of Israel can hardly be denied. Spiritually dead and corrupting by A.D. 70, Israel was left to the eagles till nothing remained save a valley full of dry bones.

EAGLE OR ANGEL?

The interesting textual problem as to whether the A.V. or R.V. reading of 8:13 is correct is best solved amicably in favour of both. The best manuscripts certainly read “eagle;” but a comparison with other passages makes it equally clear that an angel is referred to. “And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel …” (14:6). Here the phraseology is precisely the same, only this time the reading “angel” is indubitable. And the word “another” picks out this passage as an echo of 8:13.

The conclusion indicated is, then, that the angel of 8:13 is one in the character of an eagle; such is the nature of the commission entrusted to him. Cp. 19:17, 18: “And I saw an angel standing in the sun (compare “in midheaven”) and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the fowls that fly in the midst of heaven, Come and gather yourselves together unto the supper of the great God; that ye may eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of captains ….”

“WOE, WOE, WOE”

Josephus has a most interesting story (B.J. 6:5:3) markedly reminiscent of this passage. He tells how for seven years before Jerusalem was destroyed a respectable citizen took to going about the city, crying aloud: “A voice from the east, a voice from the west, a voice from the four winds, a voice against Jerusalem and the Holy House, a voice against the bridegrooms and the brides, and a voice against this whole people … Woe to the city, and to the people, and to the Holy House.” He was brought before the Roman procurator, yet he never desisted even though his bones were laid bare with flogging. At the great Feasts his efforts were redoubled amongst the immense crowds. Finally he died in the siege, struck by a mighty sling-stone from the Romans, and crying to the last; “Woe, woe, woe.”

It is not without significance that the eagle-angel is described as “flying in mid-heaven.” The original word actually denotes the expanse of space between heaven and earth. It is readily seen to be a reminiscence of the occasion of David’s numbering of the people and the wrath that came on Israel because of it. David, it will be remembered, chose as punishment three days of pestilence as preferable to three months of war or three years of famine. “And David lifted up his eyes and saw the angel of the Lord stand between the earth and the heaven, having a drawn sword in his hand stretched over Jerusalem … “ (1 Chronicles 21:16). The resemblance to this in Revelation 8:13 encourages yet further the idea that the remaining Trumpets are God’s “woes” against a sinful Israel.[36]

FULFILLED TOGETHER

It can hardly be hair-splitting to draw attention to the odd phraseology at the end of Revelation 8:13: “ … the other voices of the trumpet (not trumpets) of the three angels which are yet to sound.” This strange use of the singular where a plural would normally be used is neither, so far as one can tell, a Greek idiom nor one of John’s many Hebraisms. Is it intended to suggest by this means that the three remaining Trumpets are, in character and intention, one and the same? If so, there is here further emphasis on the synchronous rather than the serial or consecutive character of these judgements. In other words, they are to be regarded as describing different aspects of the same merited affliction, rather than successive phases of divine judgement spread over a long period of time.

Even so, due weight must be assigned to the indisputable fact that a sharp line is obviously intended to be drawn between the first four Trumpets and the last three.

In the First Century fulfilment this answers to the distinction between the sporadic tumult, rebellion and war which filled Palestine from end to end for three and a half years from A.D. 67, and the final horrific phase represented by the siege of Jerusalem itself. The difference in character between the judgements of ch. 8 and those of ch. 9 supports such a suggestion. When attention is turned to the Last Day fulfilment of these Trumpets a further similar and appropriate suggestion will be submitted.

JESUS INTERPRETS

“And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star from heaven fallen to the earth” (9:1 R.V.). This is an echo, surely, of the Third Trumpet and its description of the Star Wormwood; so this also is to be interpreted of Israel now cast out from covenant relationship with God.

Attention is drawn again, more closely, to the unexpected similarity between certain details of this Fifth Trumpet and words of Jesus to his disciples:

		Luke 10:18-20	Revelation 9:1, 3, 4
	1.	I beheld Satan fallen as lightning (Isaiah 14:12: the morning star) from heaven.	A star from heaven fallen to the earth.
	2.	Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions.	Unto them was given power as the scorpions of the earth have power.
	3.	Nothing shall by any means hurt you.	…that they should hurt…only those men which have not the seal of God in their foreheads.
	4.	Your names are written in heaven.	(The Lamb’s Book of Life?)

A broad hint, often overlooked, as to what Jesus meant when he spoke of “Satan fallen as lightning from heaven” is available in an earlier verse in Luke 10: “And thou, Capernaum, which are exalted to heaven, shall be thrust down to hell” (v. 15). Like the words just quoted, these form another reference to Isaiah 14 – and Jesus most astonishingly applies them to Capernaum! Thus he defines whom he meant by “Satan”: the stubborn and unspiritual adversaries of his own Galilee.[37]

And now, in Revelation 9, he applies the same language over again in a more generalized form to the entire nation and its city, which had rejected so signally and with such consummate folly the gospel of their salvation. His saints were to triumph over the scorpions of persecution, but they were to suffer torment indescribable. His saints were to be specially preserved unto life everlasting, but they were to be just as specially singled out for the worst of all tribulations. His saints were to have their names inscribed in the Lamb’s Book of Life, but they were to be given over to wretchedness, torture and death.

THE ABYSS

“And to him (i.e. to the angel sounding the Fifth Trumpet) was given the key of the bottomless pit.” This abyss is easily identifiable from other Scriptures where the same word is used.

Luke 8:31, 33: “And they (the demons) besought him that he would not command them to go out into the deep (abyss; Mark: out of the country) … and the herd ran violently down a steep place into the lake, and were choked.”

Romans 10:7: “Who shall descend into the deep (abyss)” – which is itself the New Testament equivalent of Deuteronomy 30:13: “Who shall go over the sea for us?” Clearest of all are Revelation 13:1 and 11:7 where the Beast coming up “out of the sea” is also described as “coming out of the abyss.”

A SWARM OF LOCUSTS

Hence the great locust invasion which is now pictured as symbolic of the ravaging Roman armies which came from across the sea, from “out of the country.” That the locusts represent armies is clear from the words: “it was commanded them that they should hurt … only those men which have not the seal of God in their foreheads.” This allusion back to ch. 7:3 is an undeniable link. If the exposition of that chapter was on right lines the Trumpets too (and this one in particular) must have similar reference.

The smoke and darkness accompanying this locust invasion (v. 2) are reminiscent of Old Testament language which describes the scattering of Israel: “So will I seek out my sheep, and will deliver them out of all places where they have been scattered in the day of clouds and thick darkness” (Ezekiel 34:12 RVm.). Comparison should also be made with Isaiah 9:18, 19 which likewise associates the same figure of smoke and darkness with the day of wrath against Israel. Further, the smoke of Sodom “went up as the smoke of a furnace” (Genesis 19:28), and in Revelation 11:8 Jerusalem is spoken of as “Sodom.”

A serious difficulty may be felt in the command to these locusts that they should not kill, but only torment (v. 5). However, it would seem that the policy of Titus throughout the siege of Jerusalem was to exercise the utmost clemency possible. For months the attack on the city was not pressed with characteristic Roman vigour and efficiency, Titus apparently entertaining for a long time the hope that eventually the Jews would come to a more reasonable frame of mind and realize frankly the hopelessness of their situation.

“But now out of the hope he had that he should make the Jews ashamed of their obstinacy, by not being willing, when he was able, to afflict them more than he needed to do, he did widen the breach in the wall, in order to make a safer retreat upon occasion; for he did no, think they would lay snares for those that did them such kindnesses. When, therefore, he came in, he did not permit his soldiers to kill any of those they caught, nor to set fire to their houses either; nay, he gave leave to the seditious, if they had a mind, to fight without any harm to the people, and promised to restore the people’s effects to them; for he was very desirous to preserve the city for his own sake, and the temple for the sake of the city” (Josephus B.J.5.8.1).

LOCUST SYMBOLISM

The representation of this locust horde is clearly a composite one, intended by the graphic association of different figures of speech to make more vivid the harrowing character of the judgement in store for God’s people:

	(a)	They sting as scorpions.
	(b)	They are like horses going into battle.
	(c)	They have, “as it were,” crowns like gold,
	(d)	and breastplates of iron,
	(e)	teeth like lions,
	(f)	wings sounding like chariots in battle;
	(g)	yet they have hair like women.
	(h)	Their leader is called the Destroyer.
	(i)	Their power to hurt continues for five months.

Some of these details present little difficulty, the figure employed being so plain in its meaning, and indeed involving sometimes a large element of the literal as well as the figurative. For instance, the reference to horses and chariots (designed to connect up with the Sixth Trumpet) is an obvious indication of the great reliance put by the Romans on cavalry; an exceedingly large proportion of the army they brought against Jerusalem consisted of horsemen. More information will be offered on this point in Chapter 22. The “crowns like gold” and the “breastplates of iron” (Daniel’s fourth empire?) are easily read as allusions to the defensive armour of the Roman soldiers, the former especially being a reference to the head-pieces of polished metal as they glistened and glittered in the sun. Josephus actually makes reference to these accoutrements. Similarly, the “teeth like lions” are an indication of the irresistible strength of the Roman legions.

The stings like scorpions are possibly allusions back to the time when rebellious Israel in the wilderness was smitten by the God-sent plague of fiery serpents (Numbers 21:6-9). Then whoever looked to the brazen serpent on the pole lived. Likewise on this occasion the afflictions came only on those who had not the seal of God in their forehead, on those, that is, who had not looked in faith to Christ “lifted up” for the salvation of men (John 3:14).

Perhaps it is worthwhile, also, to note that the word “scorpion” is almost identical with the Greek word for “scatter.” Certainly it was this “locust” horde with their scorpion stings which accomplished the scattering of the once “holy people.”

But what shall be said about the “hair like women”? Here is a difficulty of some magnitude.

	(i)	Is it possible that this is a reference to the sexual perversions practised by the Roman soldiers? See Romans 1:24, 27.
	(ii)	Or is Jeremiah to be used here as interpreter (51:27)?: “Cause the horses to come up as the rough caterpillars” (i.e. as the hairy locusts, a particularly destructive and repulsive kind).
	(iii)	Alternatively, is there here an allusion to 1 Corinthians 11:10? A woman’s hair is a symbol that she is under authority “because of the angels.” In like fashion these Roman armies were led on by a divinely appointed leader, an angel.

THE DESTROYING ANGEL

Apollyon is described as “the angel of the abyss.” It must be a literal angel that is intended – a destroying angel, an angel of death. There is nothing fanciful about taking these words of v. 11 in the most literal sense possible. The angel who slew the firstborn in Egypt is called the Destroyer (Exodus 12:23). The angel who punished Israel in the wilderness is called the Destroyer (1 Corinthians 10:10). The angel who afflicted Israel with pestilence in the time of David is spoken of as destroying (1 Chronicles 21:12, 15, 16; compare what was suggested on Revelation 8:13). And since these Roman armies were undoubtedly God’s armies (see Matthew 22:7) little difficulty should be found in the idea that the destroying legions were invisibly led by one of the Almighty’s angels of evil.[38]

FIVE MONTHS

There remains to be considered the outstanding and precise detail (twice mentioned) of the period of this locust invasion – five months. It has been observed that the months May to September inclusive, i.e. five months, are the normal season during which Palestine is liable to experience the inroads of locusts. Thus regarded, the five months is seen to be a remarkable touch of verisimilitude, emphasizing the likeness of this great army to a horde of locusts.

But the resemblance is much more close than this. Whilst the troubles associated with the fall of Jerusalem were spread over several years, the duration of the actual siege, once it began in earnest, was from April 14th to September 8th, a period of precisely five lunar (and therefore Jewish) months.

THE RIGOURS OF THE SIEGE

The effect of this locust invasion is given in graphic phrases: “In those days shall men seek death, and shall not find it; and shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them.” How true these words became in A.D. 70 is easily demonstrated, if demonstration be needed. Josephus’ description of the rigours of famine, endured by those who were secure from Roman violence behind impregnable city walls, is harrowing to the imagination. They were not slain; yet what torments they suffered!

        “It was now a miserable case, and a sight that would justly bring tears to your eyes how men stood as to their food, while the more powerful had more than enough, and the weaker were lamenting for want of it, but the famine was too hard for all other passions, and it was destructive to nothing so much as it was to modesty; for what was worthy of reverence otherwise was in this case despised; insomuch that sons pulled the very morsels that their fathers were eating out of their mouths, and what was still more to be pitied, so did the mothers do to their infants, they were not ashamed to take from them the last drops that might preserve their lives; and while they ate after this manner, yet were they not concealed in so doing: but the seditious everywhere came upon them immediately, and snatched away from them what they had gotten from others; for when they saw any house shut up, this was to them a signal that the people within had gotten some food; whereupon they snatched what they were eating almost from their very throats, and this by force; the old men, who held their food fast, were beaten, and if the women hid what they had within their hands, their hair was torn for so doing; nor was there any commiseration shown to either the aged or to the infants, but they lifted up children from the ground as they hung upon the morsels they had gotten, and shook them down upon the floor” (B.J.5.10.3).

TERRIBLE DAYS SHORTENED

No wonder Jesus was constrained to exclaim: “Except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened” (Matthew 24:22). These words were no rhetorical flourish, but literal truth. The first great siege of Jerusalem, the graphic prototype of A.D. 70, by Nebuchadnezzar ended on precisely the same day of the year as did the siege of Titus, but it had lasted a whole year whereas this for the elect’s sake (i.e. by reason of the prayers of the faithful who yet regarded with reverence and affection the city of the Great King) was concluded within the astonishingly short period of five months.

The grim words of Revelation are echoed almost verbatim by Josephus: “So those that were thus distressed by the famine were very desirous to die, and those that were already dead were esteemed happy … Nay, the terror was so very great, that he who survived called them that were first dead happy, as being at rest already; as did those that were under torture in the prisons declare that those that lay unburied were the happiest.”

Could correspondence between prophecy and Jewish history be more impressive than that which meets the student of Revelation 9?

There is evidence that even in the First Century this Scripture was understood in the manner briefly set out here. One of the “visions” described in the (uninspired) “Shepherd of Hermas” has these words: “Behold I saw a great Beast like a whale (compare the beast of the sea; Revelation 13) and out of its mouth fiery locusts went forth. This beast came out so fiercely as if it could demolish the city at a blow … This beast is the emblem of the wrath to come.”

JEREMIAH AND REVELATION

A final and utterly conclusive proof that the foregoing interpretation is on the right lines comes from a consideration of the parallel between Jeremiah 8 and the Trumpets. This is the chapter to which Jesus referred four times in foretelling the casting off of Israel: v. 11 = Luke 19: 42; v. 12 = Luke 19: 44; v. 13 = Luke 20:10 and Matthew 21:19. In Revelation Jesus resumes his exposition of that prophecy:

	Jeremiah 8		Revelation 8, 9
v. 2	The idols “which they have loved, served, walked after, sought, worshipped.”	9:20	“Idols of gold, and silver, and brass, and stone, and wood; which can neither see, nor hear, nor walk.”
v. 3.	“Death shall be chosen rather than life.”	9:6	“Men shall seek death and shall not find it.”
v. 5.	“Why then is this people of Jerusalem slidden back by a perpetual backsliding? They hold fast deceit, they refuse to return”	9:20, 21:	“Yet they repented not of the works of their hands neither repented they of their murders etc.”
v. 7.	“The stork knoweth her appointed times … but my people doth not know …”	9:15.	“Prepare (the attacking army) for the hour and day and month and year.”
v. 14.	“The Lord God hath given us water of gall (wormwood) to drink.”	8:11.	“The star wormwood … and many men died, because the waters were made bitter”
v. 16.	“The snorting of his horses was heard … the whole land trembled at the sound of the neighing of his strong ones.”	9:9.	“The sound of many horses running to the battle.”
v. 17.	“I will send serpents, cockatrices among you … and they shall bite you.”	9:5.	“Their torment was as the torment of a scorpion when he striketh a man.”
v 20.	“The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved.”	9:5.	The end of the five months (it came in August), and only hopelessness.
v. 22.	“Is there no balm in Gilead?”		Saints in Pella (Gilead) pleading for Jerusalem, yet unable to save it (9:13)?
v. 19.	“The cry of the daughter of my people from a land that is very far off.”		Israel sold into captivity in far-off lands.
v. 19.	“Is not the Lord in Zion? Is not her King in her?”		Jerusalem rejected as God’s dwelling place. The Messiah no longer acknowledged there by any.

To deny the application of the Trumpets to the time of A.D. 70 in the face of such facts is to deny any validity at all to the principle of interpretation of Scripture by means of Scripture.

[36] There is much to be said for the view that in this remarkable episode in 1 Chronicles 21, the sin lay in the people rather than in David. But to analyse such an opinion pro and con here would involve too big a digression.

[37] Here is the Lord’s own answer to those who would quote his words in Luke 10:18 as proving the existence of a superhuman Devil.

[38] Angels to whom God commits the dispensation of evil; not wicked angels (Psalm 78:49 R.V.); there are no wicked angels.

It can now be shewn that the Sixth Seal continues the theme of the other five with a lurid figurative description of the complete overturning of the Jewish kosmos in Palestine. One allusion after another to other parts of Scripture confirms such a conclusion. It is worthwhile to catalogue them separately:

	(a)	Verse 12. In Scripture a great earthquake may signify the coming in of a new dispensation; e.g. Hebrews 12:26. Several prophecies in particular use this figure of an earthquake with regard to God’s judgements on Jerusalem. In Psalm 18:7 earthquake is the open token of the wrath of God for the rejection of His Son. Isaiah 2:10-22 is a vigorous pronouncement of divine chastisement of human pride. The basis or primary fulfilment of this prophecy is probably the great earthquake in the reign of Uzziah (Amos 1:1; Zechariah 14:5). But it would be definitely wrong to limit its scope to that only. The prophecy runs on into chapter 3, verse 1: “For, behold, the Lord, the Lord of hosts, doth take away from Jerusalem and from Judah the stay and the staff, the whole stay of bread, and the whole stay of water.” Clearly the doom Isaiah foretells concerns Jerusalem especially. “For Jerusalem is ruined, and Judah is fallen: because their tongue and their doings are against the Lord, to provoke the eyes of his glory” (3: 8). The very next verse speaks of the holy city as Sodom, a vigorous analogy used with force in Revelation 11:8. More than this, in various other ways there are marked resemblances here to the Sixth Seal. The catalogue of mighty men corresponds to that in Revelation 6:15: “The mighty man, and the man of war, the judge, and the prophet, and the prudent and ancient, the captain of fifty, and the honourable man, and the counsellor, and the cunning artificer, and the eloquent orator” (Isaiah 3 :2, 3); with this compare: “And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondsman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains” (Revelation 6:15). The last words quoted here echo Isaiah 2:19: “they shall go into the holes of the rocks, and into the caves of the earth, for fear of the Lord, and for the glory of his majesty,” whilst other words of Revelation 6: “every mountain and island were moved out of their places,” have a practical parallel in Isaiah 2:14: “the day of the Lord is upon all the high mountains and upon all the hills that are lifted up.” Since Isaiah 2 has specific application to Israel, it is reasonable in the light of these correspondences to apply the Sixth Seal also to Israel – and no more appropriate time than A.D. 70 can be found.
	(b)	Verse 12: “the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood.” These are Joel’s words, used by Peter at Pentecost thus: “This is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel: And it shall come to pass in the last days … the sun shall be turned into darkness and the moon into blood, before that great and notable day of the Lord come.” In this context, the judgements mentioned here must be the destruction of Jerusalem. But more on this passage later (cp. also Amos 8:8,9 and the context there). The same v. 12 has allusion also to Isaiah 50:3: “I clothe the heavens with blackness and make sackcloth their covering,” the context of which is the rejection of Christ and the consequent “divorcement” (v. 1) of Israel.
	(c)	Verse 13: The fig tree shaken of a mighty wind is an obvious figure of Israel enduring judgement; cp. especially Luke 13:6-9; Mark 11:13, 14. By itself this detail should settle the interpretation of the Sixth Seal.
	(d)	Verse 14: “the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together.” With this compare Hebrews 1:10-12 “(the heavens) shall perish … they shall wax old as doth a garment … and as a vesture shalt thou roll them up.” Here the idea, very probably, is that of the dissolution of Judaism. The very words: “departed as a scroll,” suggest the roll of the Law being put away as now fulfilled and finished with.
	(e)	“They said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us …” The words are directly from Hosea 10 8, which Jesus on his way to crucifixion applied explicitly to the Day of Wrath in A.D. 70 (Luke 23:30). Again, this detail by itself should be conclusive.
	(f)	Finally, in Jeremiah 4 a whole series of phrases can be traced resembling the words of the Sixth Seal. This in a chapter, which is a sustained condemnation and warning of Israel and Jerusalem:

		Sixth Seal	Jeremiah 4
	1.	Earthquake, every mountain moved out of its place.	I beheld the mountains, and lo, they trembled, and all the hills moved lightly (v. 24).
	2.	Sun black as sackcloth.	The heavens had no light (v. 23)…the heavens above are black (v. 28).
	3.	The face of him that sitteth on the throne, the wrath of the Lamb.	The presence of the Lord and his fierce anger (v. 26).
	4.	Hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains.	They shall go into the thickets, and climb up upon the rocks (v. 29).
	5.	Shaken of a mighty wind.	A dry wind of the high places…a full wind shall come…as a whirlwind (vv. 11-13).

PROPHECY AND HISTORY MATCH

The appropriateness of all the foregoing to the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70 needs little emphasis. But it is specially interesting to observe that the outstanding historians of the time – Tacitus and Josephus – both emphasize repeatedly that immediately prior to the last bitter troubles and final downfall of the city a whole series of most impressive and often inexplicable signs were seen. The temple shone at night time with unaccustomed brightness, its mighty doors opened noisily of their own accord, voices were heard, a star resembling a drawn sword (actually it was Halley’s Comet) hung over the city. How like the words of Jesus: “fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven.” Also, how like the language of the Sixth Seal.

It is interesting further to observe that at the time of the destruction of the city, “the kings of the earth” (i.e. of the Land, as in v. 4) and other leaders did literally hide themselves in the caves and rocks of the mountains. The leaders of the various factions, when driven from their strongholds, took refuge in secret caverns and limestone chambers beneath the city, and were only “winkled out” with difficulty by Roman soldiers.

Thus, the entire series of visions in the Six Seals hangs together as a vivid and even lurid prophecy of unerring judgement on Jerusalem and its people. Once again it should be observed that there is no distinct chronological sequence about the Seals. It cannot be said that the beginning of the fulfilmcnt of each one waits for the completion of fulfilment of its predecessor. The whole series applies to one particular epoch, without special reference to order of fulfilment. This important conclusion should be borne in mind since it suggests the possibility (at least) of a similar design about the Seven Trumpets and the Seven Vials.

THINGS TO COME

Whilst it is thus undeniably true that much of the language of the Sixth Seal has evident connections with the overthrow of Jewry by Titus, it is at least as evident that it is intimately connected in Scripture with the Last Day and the Coming of the Lord.

(a)	“The great earthquake” (v. 12) finds mention also in the Vials (Revelation 16:18), in direct association with the warning: “Behold I come as a thief.” Compare also Haggai 2:6, 7. This idea of an earthquake as a figure of the cataclysmic coming of the Lord is common in Scripture. Isaiah 2, already considered, is an undeniable example, for in 2 Thessalonians 1:9 Paul quotes part of v. 19 with reference to the coming of the Lord.[24]
	Joel 3:15, 16 (also of clear application to the Last Days) combines earthquake and signs in sun, moon and stars, as does the Sixth Seal: “The sun and the moon shall be darkened, and the stars shall withdraw their shining. The Lord also shall roar out of Zion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem; and the heavens and the earth shall shake: but the Lord will be the hope of his people, and the strength of the children of Israel.” Isaiah 24:20, 23 and 30:32 might also be considered.
	Of course, in the light of Zechariah 14:4 and the similar occurrences at the death and resurrection of Jesus (Matthew 27:51-54 and 28:2), the idea of a literal earthquake at the Lord’s return must not be lost sight of.
(b)	“The sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood, and the stars of heaven fell unto the earth” (v. 12, 13) are almost verbatim the words of Joel 2:10, 31, where the “Last Day” context is undeniable.
	The Lord’s Olivet Prophecy also provides forceful evidence here: “Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from the heaven, and the powers of the heaven shall be shaken: and then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven” (Matthew 24:29, 30). Yet another parallel is found in Isaiah 13. Here verse 6 speaks of “the day of the Lord”; and v. 13 reads like a detailed anticipation of the Sixth Seal: “Therefore I will shake the heavens, and the earth shall remove out of her place, in the wrath of the Lord of hosts, and in the day of his fierce anger.” Now to these points must be added v. 10, which also is Sixth Seal language: “For the stars of heaven and the constellations thereof shall not give their light: the sun shall be darkened in his going forth and the moon shall not cause her light to shine.”[25]
	It is important to observe that although this chapter is headed “The Burden of Babylon,” the first thirteen verses at least describe wrath against Israel. Then judgement on Babylon follows for the vicious part it plays in this operation.
(c)	“The fig tree casting her unripe figs” has obvious connections with the shooting forth of the fig-tree nation of Israel (Matthew 24:32; Hebrews 3:17). Observe here that the green figs appear “when summer is nigh” (Song of Songs 2:11, 13).
(d)	“The heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together, and every mountain and island were moved out of their places” (v. 14) is an echo of:
		(i)	Isaiah 34:4, which passage also has: “all their host shall fall down … as a falling fig from the fig tree” (Seal Six again!). It is the same chapter which speaks of “the indignation of the Lord upon all nations … the day of the Lord’s vengeance, and the year of recompense for the controversy of Zion.”
		(ii)	“Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away” (Matthew 24:32) where the context is undeniably the coming of the Lord.
		(iii)	“And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away” (Revelation 20:11). Again, the context is the same.

(e)	Also, “every mountain and island were moved out of their places” has a distinct parallel in Revelation 16:20, the Seventh Vial: “every island fled away, and the mountains were not found.”
(f)	Verses 16, 17: “The wrath of the Lamb, for the great day of his wrath is come.” No comment is necessary here.
(g)	Verse 17: “and who shall be able to stand?” The counterpart is in Luke 21:36: “Watch ye therefore, and pray always, in order that … ye may be able to stand before the Son of Man.” Cp. Malachi 3:2.

That the case is fully made for an application of the Sixth Seal (at least) to both First Century and the Twentieth now hardly admits of argument.

The strength of the Biblical evidence for the two-fold application of the Sixth Seal to the destruction of Jerusalem and to the Last Days at the coming of the Lord is exhibited in the following summary of the evidence which has been cited:

	Seal Six	A.D.70	The Last Days
1.	Earthquake.	Matt. 24:7. Jer. 4:24.	Is. 2:19 (= 2 Thess. 1:9) Ez.38: 20; Is.24: 20; 30:32; Joel 3:16. Rev.16: 18; Hab.3: 6, 7.
2.	Sun black as sackcloth, moon as blood.	Joel 2:31 (Acts 2: 20); Jer. 4:28.	Joel 2: 10; 3: 15; Matt. 24: 29; Is.13: 10. Zech. 13:4.
3.	Stars fell.	Dan. 8:10.	Is. 34:4.
4.	Fig tree.	Luke 13:6-9 Mk.11: 14.	Is.34: 4; Mt.24: 32; Hab.3: 17.
5.	Shaken of a mighty wind.	Jer.4: 10-12; Ez. 1: 4.	Jer.51: 1 (Zech. 6: 5).
6.	Heaven parted as a scroll (of the Law).	Heb. 1: 11,12 Is.51: 6.	Is.34: 4; 13: 13; Matt. 24:35; Rev.20: 11.
7.	Mountains and islands moved.		Rev.16: 20; Is. 24:19.
8.	Chief captains (chilarchs).	Jn.18: 12.
9.	Kings of the earth (the Land).	Rev. 16:14.
10.	Hid themselves.	Is. 2:19 (see 3 :1,9).
11.	“Fall on us.”	Jer.4: 29. Hos.10: 8; Lk.23: 30.
12.	The wrath of the Lamb.		Rev.11 :18.
13.	The great day of His wrath.	Zeph.1: 14, 15	Is.13: 6,13.
14.	Who is able to stand?		Mal.3 :2; Lk.21:36. Nahum 1:6.

One or two brief comments may be added. Verse 15 describes the might of man in all its (seven-fold) fulness. Yet none of it can abide. The question: “Who is able to stand?” finds its satisfying answer in the next chapter, where the palm-bearing multitude stands before the Throne – and they prevail through no human resource whatever, but through “the blood of the Lamb.” The more this contrast is contemplated, the more impressive it becomes. The mighty men seek to hide in dens and rocks of the mountains, forgetting that even mountains flee away before the face of Him that sits on the throne, whereas these stand in serene joy and thanksgiving before the full blaze of divine glory: Those cry a frantic “Fall on us, and hide us,” but these with a loud voice say: “Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb.” Those endure the awful wrath of the Lamb, but these have every tear wiped away, and serve God day and night in His temple.

WHAT THE PROPHECY SIGNIFIES

The problem of the interpretation of the Sixth Seal is an extremely difficult OZIC It is a comparatively easy matter to use the copious Bible evidence available in order to establish that fulfilments should be looked for in both the First and Twentieth Centuries. But then how is one to answer the real problem: What do all these various details mean? It is not easy to particularise.

Certainly it may be said that an earthquake is an obvious Biblical symbol for the manifest wrath of God. Psalm 18, a quite outstanding Messianic prophecy, has these words: “Then the earth shook and trembled; the foundations also of the hills moved, and were shaken, because he was wroth” (v. 7). And since the sun, moon and stars were symbols of Israel in its very earliest days (Gcnesis 37:9), there is also a vivid representation of the eclipse of national Israel – as is made yet more evident by the allusion to first-ripe figs falling from the fig-tree. Such a catastrophe overtook Israel in A.D. 70, and it is a matter of the most elementary knowledge of Bible prophecy that such will just as certainly happen again in days not far ahead.

It has already been mentioned that the words describing men of war seeking sanctuary in underground caves and passages did actually have a literal fulfilment when Titus’s Roman army eventually forced its way into Jerusalem (Josephus’ “Wars of the Jews” 11:7:3 and 11:2:1). For the Last Days, comparison with Micah 7:17 and Isaiah 24:18 is tempting.

Nevertheless, since the rest of the language of this Seal is undoubtedly symbolic, this part of it also should be given a symbolic interpretation. However, it is not easy to particularise beyond saying that here is an evident representation of the consternation and helplessness of man’s might and last resource when face to face with the judgements of God in the era to which the Seal applies.

That there was also a kind of literal fulfilment of some of these things serves to provide an interesting illustration of the fact that the symbols of Scripture are apt at times to be so marvelously appropriate as to receive both literal and figurative fulfilment. Passages like Revelation 16:21; 2 Peter 3:10 and Isaiah 24:18-21 are further illustrations of the same kind of thing.

It may well be that other symbolic prophecies will also have a kind of literal fulfilment in the days to come – actual signs in heaven, literal pillars of smoke, and so on. To be dogmatic, either pro or con, on this matter would be foolish.

[24] Here is an interesting example of a prophecy with three separate and distinct fulfilments, and Biblical sanction for every one of them.

[25] “The Time of the End,” chapter 11, has a good deal more on this topic.

Seal	First Century	Continuous-Historic (as in “Eureka”)	Twentieth Century
1. Conquest	Christianity’s victory over Judaism	Gospel’s conquest of Paganism; 96- 180 A period of Peace	Conversion of Israel (in part) immediately before the Lord’s return
2. War	The Roman War; 67-70	Civil war and much bloodshed; 180-211	A time of trouble in Israel, such as never was
3. Famine		Great distress in Empire through famine; 220-235
4. Pestilence		War and pestilence throughout the Empire235 – 265
5. Persecution	Bitter persecution of Christians both in Judea and in the Roman Empire	Diocletian’s persecution of Christians303 – 313	Persecution of Jewish(and Gentile) saints just before the return of Christ
6. Destruction	Overthrow of of Jerusalem	Constantine emperor. The forces of the Empire now turned in judgement against Paganism 313 – 324	The wrath of the Lamb against all human pride and opposition

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THE FIRST TRUMPET

Hail and fire mingled with blood are cast upon the earth (the Land). A third of the trees and all the green grass is burnt up.

The contrast in Revelation 9:4 between grass and trees, and “those men that have not the seal of God in their foreheads” suggests that there is a markedly literal element about the language of these Trumpets. This feature will be found to run through the entire series.

OLD TESTAMENT CORRESPONDENCES

Practically every Biblical hint available for the interpretation of this First Trumpet insists on an application to God’s judgements against His own wayward people, the Jews.

Four passages are particularly emphatic and interesting.

1. Jeremiah 6. Phrase after phrase here anticipates the language of Revelation 8, 9, so much so that explanation by coincidence becomes too facile.

	v. 1:	“Blow the trumpet in Tekoa.”
	v. 17:	“Hearken to the sound of the trumpet.”
	v. 15:	“They have committed abomination … nay, they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush” (9:20, 21).
	v. 20:	“Your incense and offerings are not acceptable” (8:3-5).
	v. 22:	“A people cometh from the north country” (9:14-16).
	v. 23:	“They ride upon horses” (9:16).
	v. 26:	“O daughter of my people … bitter lamentation” (8: 11; reference to the trial of the bitter waters of jealousy? Numbers 5).

In the midst of this prophecy come the words: “For thus hath the Lord of Hosts said, Hew down her trees (RVm.), and cast a mount against Jerusalem: this is the city to be visited; she is wholly oppression in the midst of her” (Jeremiah 6:6).

Doubtless these things applied primarily to the destruction of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar in Jeremiah’s own day, but to limit the words to such a fulfilment only would be shortsighted indeed, especially in view of what is contained in the next chapter, now to be considered. It will be immediately recognized that here is a picture of another punishment of Jerusalem at a later date.

2. Jeremiah 7. Verse 11 was quoted by Jesus with reference to the abuses current in his own day, and which he himself inspected in the temple: “Is this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, even I have seen it, saith the Lord.” Verses 13, 16 continue: “And now, because ye have done all these works, saith the Lord, and I spake unto you, rising up early and speaking, but ye heard not; and I called you, but ye answered not … therefore pray not thou for this people.” It is worthwhile also to notice how closely verse 9 is echoed in the Sixth Trumpet (9:20, 21).

Now attention must be given to verse 20: “Therefore thus saith the Lord God; Behold, mine anger and my fury shall be poured out upon this place, upon man, and upon beast, and upon the trees of the field, and upon the fruit of the ground; and it shall burn, and shall not be quenched.” Is not this the language of the Trumpets, especially of the First?

3. Ezekiel 20:47: “Behold, I will kindle a fire in thee, and it shall devour every green tree in thee, and every dry tree: the flaming flame shall not be quenched, and all faces from the south to the north shall be burned therein.” These words also were taken up by Jesus on his way to crucifixion (Luke 23: 31). In his time, even when the people were enthusiastically crucifying him, the national tree was still green; there was still sap in it. By A.D. 70, forty years later, it was as dry as tinder and fit only for burning.

4. Zechariah 11:1, 2: “Open thy doors, O Lebanon, that the fire may devour thy cedars. Howl, fir tree; for the cedar is fallen; because the mighty are spoiled: howl, O ye oaks of Bashan; for the forest of the vintage is come down.” These words come at the beginning of a prophecy of the rejection of Jesus and of the divine retribution that must come because of this great national sin. Cp. also Jeremiah 21:14. The conclusions to be drawn from these passages would seem to be:

	(a)	the First Trumpet and details in the prophecies themselves require a repeat fulfilment, as in A.D. 70.
	(b)	reference is to be understood to literal trees.
	(c)	a figurative fulfilment is not excluded, but is rather required in addition to the other.

Thus it came to pass. The Roman War of A.D. 70 marked the end of national Jewry. The Jewish tree was burnt utterly. And in the final stages of the campaign by Titus point was put to this by the destruction of the literal trees in their thousands. Josephus tells how the vicinity of Jerusalem was- ravaged for miles around. Trees were felled indiscriminately to build engines of war and high platforms so that the attackers could fight on level terms with the besieged. And later the crucifixion of prisoners had to cease through lack of timber to make crosses. And partly because of these circumstances Palestine continued a treeless waste until the present century.

The hail of this Trumpet is an easily understood figure of heaven-sent destruction (Isaiah 28:2, where the primary reference is almost certainly to Sennacherib’s invasion). And the fire and blood have a similar meaning. Josephus wrote of the early part of Vespasian’s campaign: “Nor did the Romans leave off either by day or by night, burning the places of the plain and stealing away the cattle that were in the country, and perpetually killing whosoever appeared capable of fighting, and leading the weaker people as slaves into captivity, so that Galilee was all over filled with fire and blood” (B.J. 3.4.1).

PASSOVER TIME

Even the detail “green grass,” involving as it does an apparent tautology, is not without significance. Grass is not always green in Palestine, but only in the early spring. Thereafter it becomes dried, withered and scorched by the fierce heat of the sun and the hot winds from the desert. Hence the Bible figure: “All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field: the grass withereth, the flower fadeth: because the wind[35] of the Lord bloweth upon it” (Isaiah 40:7). The gospels mention the green grass at the time of the Passover (John 6:4, 10; Mark 6:39). Josephus is explicit that the immense loss of life amongst the Jews was occasioned by their being trapped by the Roman armies in Jerusalem at Passover time: “for they (more than two million people, he exaggerates) were come up from all the country to the feast of unleavened bread, and were on a sudden shut up by an army” (B.J. 6:9:3).

A THIRD PART

The recurring mention of “a third part” in this and other Trumpets creates a major problem of interpretation in this section of the book. There seem to be three Biblical ideas associated with this phrase, and each of them much akin to the others and to the exposition already put forward.

	(a)	In Ezekiel 5: 1-5 the prophet is bidden act the doom he is to pronounce upon his people. After shaving the hair of his head he is to divide it carefully into three parts, except for a mere few bound in the hem of his robe. These three parts are then consigned to summary destruction by fire or sword or scattering. The straightforward interpretation is then given in the rest of the chapter. The idea, is, plainly enough, that with the exception of the faithful remnant (cp. Ezekiel 9: 4; Revelation 7:3) the entire nation was to suffer from one of the three afflictions mentioned. Not all the horrors of apocalyptic judgement were to fall on all the people, but none was to come through unscathed, save those few who had the name of God written in their forehead.
	(b)	The familiar words of Ezekiel 21:27 speak of three over turnings of the kingdom. These can be identified fairly confidently as:
		1.	Babylonian Captivity.
		2.	The Roman destruction of Jerusalem.
		3.	The great crisis of the Last Days.
		Can it be, then, that this repeated mention of “the third part” is to remind the reader of a threefold ruin of the Holy City, the earliest being a type of the other two?
	(c)	In a prophecy of the Last Days Isaiah 19:24 speaks of Israel as being “a third with Egypt and with Assyria.” Whereas in history and in prophecy Israel was and will be a battle ground for Egypt (the king of the south) and Assyria (the king of the north), in the day of Messiah the three are to form a harmonious unit serving the Lord. This passage suggests “the third part” as being Israel itself in contrast to the warring forces of north and south that battle in (against?) the Holy Land. This idea is of special value in considering the Last Day fulfilment of the Trumpets. It will be dealt with later in greater detail.

THE SECOND TRUMPET

A burning mountain is cast into the sea. A third part of the waters become blood, and a third part of the ships and of living creatures in the sea are destroyed.

The “great mountain burning with fire” immediately recalls (as doubtless it was intended to do) an enigmatic prophecy made by Jesus. It was immediately after his acted parable of the cursing of the fig tree, by which he signified God’s rejection of fruitless Israel. When the disciples marveled Jesus went on: “Verily I say unto you, If ye have faith, and doubt not, ye shall not only do this which is done to the fig tree, but also if ye shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea, it shall be done” (Matthew 21:21). “This mountain” was Zion, before which he stood at that time, with its altar fire, which never went out. The Judaism entrenched in the temple was to be the greatest obstruction to the apostles’ preaching of the gospel. Your faith will move this hindrance from your path, foretold Jesus. And so it came to pass.

Jeremiah 51:25 has a similar though not identical, prophecy of a “destroying mountain” becoming a burnt out volcano and being rolled down from its high eminence. But this is Babylon, the enemy of God’s people. In the light of what is tentatively suggested in chapter 34, even this is not without its relevance.

But in what way was the sea turned into blood in the period under consideration? Once again Josephus supplies the answer. He tells of a tremendous encounter on the Sea of Galilee between a Jewish fleet and many ships commandeered by the Romans. In the fight the Romans slew ruthlessly. Even the drowning were shot dead by arrows. And the Jews forced to land were destroyed as they sought to come ashore. “One might see the lake all bloody, and full of dead bodies, for not one of them escaped. And a terrible stink, and a very sad sight, there was on the following days over the country. In this way thousands were slain” (B.J. 3:10:9). Likewise, on the Mediterranean coast, a fleet of the insurgents, turned pirate, was destroyed in a mighty storm. Many of these Jews slew themselves in despair rather than perish miserably at the hands of the Roman soldiers, a fate which actually befell those who managed to reach land. “The sea was bloody a long way, and the maritime ports were full of dead bodies … and the number of the bodies that were thus thrown out of the sea was 4,200” (B.J. 3 :9 :3).

THE THIRD TRUMPET

A burning star falls on “the rivers and fountains of water.” The waters are made bitter and in consequence many die.

A Biblical identification of the “rivers and fountains of waters” presents few difficulties. Several passages identify the Land of Israel.

	(a)	The picture in Revelation 7 of the wilderness journey of the redeemed is made to culminate in their reaching “fountains of waters of life” (7:17 R.V.). The figure of a literal Land of Promise is only too obviously behind the use of these words.
	(b)	Ezekiel 6:3: “Thus saith the Lord God to the mountains and to the hills, to the rivers (R.V.: water courses; better still: wadis) and to the valleys.” And the previous verse specifies “the mountains of Israel.”
	(c)	Ezekiel 36:4, 6 uses identical language of the land of Israel, in a context – let it be noted – which is definitely the Last Days.
	(d)	Joel 1:20: “the rivers of waters are dried up.” Once again it is the land of Israel in the Last Days.

It is not unlikely that there is a certain element of the literal about this symbol. “There was a star resembling a sword, which stood over the city (Jerusalem), even a comet, that continued a whole year” (B.J. 6:5:3). The phenomenon has since been identified by the astronomers as Halley’s comet.

It is rather remarkable that Isaiah’s prophecy (14:12) about Lucifer, the morning star, was appropriated by Jesus to describe the fate of his contemporaries who so stubbornly resisted his appeal. “I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven…. Thou, Capernaum, which art exalted to heaven, shak be thrust down to hell” (Luke 10:18, 14; more on this in Chapter 20). The Third Trumpet repeats the idea with vivid detail added. The retribution came, it need hardly be repeated, in the Roman War.

The bitterness that ensued after the fall of the star is mentioned in Jeremiah: “Behold I will feed them, even this people, with wormwood, and give them water of gall to drink. I will scatter them also among the nations” (9:15, 16). “Behold, I will feed them with wormwood, and make them drink the water of gall: for from the prophets of Jerusalem is profaneness gone forth into all the land” (23:15). And Jeremiah 6:26, already expounded in connection with the First Trumpet, has the same idea.

The basis of this language of judgement is that awe-inspiring ordinance of Numbers 5, the trial of the bitter waters of jealousy. A man suspecting unfaithfulness in his wife could bring her to the priest where she was given to drink the holy water of the Tabernacle mixed with dust of the floor of the sanctuary. And as she drank there was pronounced a most horrible curse against her fecundity. If she were guilty this was duly fulfilled; but if she were innocent, nothing befell.

Even so Israel, joined to the Lord by solemn covenant, had proved most unfaithful. Now here was her trial of the bitter waters. And the curse came into operation in all its frightfulness.

In the waters made bitter there is an impressive reversal of what Israel experienced (in a literal sense) at the very beginning of their life as a nation of God. When the People left Egypt, the bitter waters of Marah were made sweet when Moses thrust in a tree which the Lord shewed him (Exodus 15: 23-27). This strange experience was interpreted by the early church as a figure of the work of Christ. Service to God under the Law of Moses, hard and bitter as Egyptian bondage (Exodus 1:14), was made sweet by the Tree (the cross of Christ, 1 Peter 2: 24), and at the same occasion it was proclaimed: “I am the Lord that healeth thee.” The narrative continues: “and they encamped there by the waters” (Exodus 15:27).

But now in A.D. 70, with the salvation of God thrust aside and the cross of Christ execrated, there was and there has been throughout the centuries nothing but bitter waters for Israel, “and many men died because of the waters. “

THE FOURTH TRUMPET

Sun, moon and stars are darkened (by the smoke from the bottomless pit? Revelation 9:2).

It can easily be overlooked that the sun, moon and stars are used in Scripture frequently as symbolic of Israel; in fact the majority of passages where this figure is used support this point of view far more clearly than the idea often heard that the sun represents the ruling powers and the moon the ecclesiastical powers (for which, indeed, the evidence appears to be nonexistent).

	(a)	Joseph’s dream, where sun, moon and stars stand for his father, mother and brethren, i.e. the whole family of Israel.
	(b)	Revelation 12:1. The woman clothed with the sun and with the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars similarly represents the nation of Israel. From this starting point the chapter yields a coherent and highly relevant interpretation (ch. 27).
	(c)	Genesis 22:17: “I will multiply thy seed as the stars of heaven.”
	(d)	Jeremiah 31:36: “If those ordinances (sun, moon and stars; v. 35) depart from before Me, saith the Lord, then the seed of Israel also shall cease from being a nation before Me forever.”
	(e)	Joel 2:10: “The sun and moon shall be dark, and the stars shall withdraw their shining” – the final invasion of Israel in the Last Days (cp. ch. 3:15).
	(f)	Daniel 8: 10: “The little horn waxed great, even to the host of heaven; and it cast down some of the host and of the stars to the ground, and stamped upon them.”
	(g)	Amos 8:9: “I will cause the sun to go down at noon” is coupled with: “I will turn your feasts into mourning.”
	(h)	Luke 23:45: “And the sun was darkened and the veil of the temple rent in the midst.” Strange conjunction of phenomena in one verse except it is that both are symbolic of the same thing – the end of the Mosaic economy.

Revelation 8:12 says the third part of the sun, moon and stars were “smitten”. Is it just accident that the same word is used in the LXX of Isaiah 1: 5 and 9:13 concerning reprobate Israel?

All told there would seem to be a considerable preponderance of Biblical evidence in favour of interpreting this Fourth Trumpet on the same lines as the first three, i.e. with reference to God’s hammer – blows of wrath (Jeremiah 23: 29) in A.D. 70 against His rebellious people.

Manifestly the writings of the prophets have been ransacked for every available figure of speech to express in one form or another in this part of Revelation the idea of divine wrath – wrath inevitable, inescapable, condign, and complete – on a people who were now rejecting with haughty pride and stubborn hearts their last opportunity to turn away the anger of heaven.

It may well be, as in other Trumpets, the figurative had also a fair element of the literal. Tacitus and other writers of the period mention that the years A.D. 68-69 were made memorable by exceptionally impressive eclipses and terrific devastating storms.

[35] Cp. Revelation 7:1, which speaks of the first four trumpets as “the four winds of the earth”.

No reader of the Apocalypse can miss the seven-fold features out of which it is constructed. There are seven letters to the Churches, seven Seals, seven Trumpets, seven Vials. These are self-evident.

There is also mention of seven Thunders (10:3, 4), but because of the instruction: “Seal up those things which the seven thunders uttered, and wrote them not,” it has commonly been assumed that nothing can be known about these awe-inspiring utterances, for the simple reason that nothing has been written. Yet the language plainly implies that something was written for it is only possible to “seal up” a message after it is committed to paper. The most reasonable view, then, is that when the “seven thunders uttered their voices” John wrote a description of the visions by which they were accompanied and the words that were spoken, but did not write the explanation of the message. Alternatively, “write them not” may mean “do not write these details just now but later.” One of these two interpretations must surely be accepted if only because, when the reader comes to chapter 14, he finds a seven-fold sequence of revelations each of which involves “an angel with a great voice,” that is, an angel with a voice like thunder, speaking on God’s behalf (see John 12:28, 29).[10] It may be well to list these, so as to make this point more evident.

	14:6,7:	“Another angel flying in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel… saying with a great voice, Fear God, and give glory to Him…”
	14:8:	“Another angel, saying (mightily with a strong voice: see 18:2), Babylon is fallen, is fallen.”
	14:9:	“the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image … the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God.”
	14:15:	“another angel came out of the temple, crying with a great voice, Thrust in thy sickle, and reap.”
	14:17:	“Another angel came out of the temple … he also having a sharp sickle.” This brief picture is expanded in ch. 19:17: “an angel standing in the sun; and he cried with a loud voice … Come and gather yourselves together to the supper of the great God …”
	14:18:	“Another angel came out from the altar … and cried with a great voice … Thrust in thy sharp sickle …”
	16:1:	“And I heard a great voice out of the temple saying to the seven (vial-bearing) angels, Go your ways, and pour out …”

Thus the seventh of these “thunders” opens up into the series of seven vial judgements, just as the seventh seal becomes seven trumpets.

This identification of the seven thunders means that the entire Apocalypse is now taken up with sequences of seven-fold judgements, except for chapters 12, 13 and the last few chapters, 17-22 or 19-22, according to whichever view of the scope of the vials is adopted. A re-examination of these sections discloses the existence of a seven-fold structure here also.

In chapters 12, 13, there are seven dramatis personae:

	12:1:	the woman clothed with the sun.
	12:3:	the great red dragon.
	12:5:	the man-child born to rule with a rod of iron.
	12:7:	Michael the archangel.
	12:10, 17; 13:7:	the other seed of the woman, the “saints.”
	13:1:	the beast out of the abyss.
	13:11:	the two-horned beast like a lamb.

And the concluding section of Revelation is made up of seven visions each introduced with the words: “And I saw …”

	19:11:	the rider on the white horse.
	19:19:	the warring armies.
	20:1:	the thousand years.
	20:11:	the great white throne.
	20:12:	the judgement.
	21:1:	new heaven and a new earth.
	21: 22:	the glory of the holy city.

With the exception of short sections coming between the groups of revelations already mentioned, the entire Book of Revelation is now seen to be composed of seven sections each of which is itself in seven parts.

Further examination brings to light that each of these unallotted sections is a vision of the heavenly sanctuary and each includes a hymn of praise. Also, each seven is divided into four and three by the mention of a heavenly voice.

Ch. 1:	the glorified High Priest.
	(Anthem: “Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood … to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen “)
Ch. 2:	FOUR LETTERS
	(Voice: He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the Churches.)[11]
Ch. 3:	THREE LETTERS
Ch. 4, 5:	the heavenly tabernacle and the Lamb with the Book of Life.
	(Anthem: “Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power.”)
Ch. 6:	FOUR SEALS
	(Voice: “How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood?”)
	THREE SEALS
Ch. 7:	the great multitude before the throne.
	(Anthem: “Amen: Blessing, and glory and thanksgiving, and honour, and power, and might, be unto our God for ever ever. Amen “)
Ch. 8:	FOUR TRUMPETS
	(Voice: “Woe, woe, woe, to the inhabiters of the earth …”)
Ch. 9:1l:	THREE TRUMPETS
Ch. 9:19:	the temple of God opened in heaven.
	(Anthem: “We give thee thanks, O Lord God Almighty, which art, and wast, because thou hast taken to thee thy great power, and hast reigned. “)
Ch. 12:1-9:	FOUR DRAMATIS PERSONAE
	(Voice: “Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ.”)
Ch. 12:13-13:18:	THREE DRAMATIS PERSONAE
Ch.14:1-5:	the Lamb and the redeemed on Mount Zion
	(Anthem: A new song before the throne, and no man could learn that song.)
Ch. 14:6-11:	THREE THUNDERS
	(Voice: “Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth. “)
Ch. 14:14 20:	FOUR THUNDERS
Ch. 15:	The temple of the tabernacle of the testimony in heaven opened.
	(Anthem: the Song of Moses and of the Lamb: “Great and marvelous are thy works, Lord God Almighty …”)
Ch. 1 6:1-4:	THREE VIALS
	(Voice: Thou art righteous, O Lord, which art, and which wast, because thou hast judged thus.”)
Ch. 16:8-18:24:	FOUR VIALS
Ch. 19:1-10:	The praising multitude.
	(Anthem: “Hallelujah: for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth.”)
Ch.l9: 11-20: 5:	THREE VISIONS
	(Voice: “Blessed and Holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection …”)
Ch. 20:7-22:5:	FOUR VISIONS

The conclusion (22:6-21) has a three-fold “I come quickly” and a threefold prayer for that coming. Only the Second Coming itself can complete this – the eighth – set of seven.

[10] Cp. also Exodus 9:28, where the Hebrew expression “voices of God” is translated “mighty thunderings.”

[11] These words are apparently deliberately dislocated from their usual place (v.26) in order to fill this role.

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