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Grace & Peace: Revelation 56

Douglas Wilson on

“After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands; And cried with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb. And all the angels stood round about the throne, and about the elders and the four beasts, and fell before the throne on their faces, and worshipped God, Saying, Amen: Blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honour, and power, and might, be unto our God for ever and ever. Amen. And one of the elders answered, saying unto me, What are these which are arrayed in white robes? and whence came they? And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest. And he said to me, These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore are they before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple: and he that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them. 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” (Rev. 7:9–17).

Having heard the number of 144,000, John turns, looks and sees this innumerable host. The earlier number is specifically cited as being numbered as Israel, and this throng is from all nations, peoples, languages, etc. Some believe this necessitates taking them as distinct groups. I follow the other view which takes the symbolic number of Israel as representing the innumerable host of the Church. The previous group was sealed on earth and the latter group is saved in Heaven.

So this great multitude is dressed in white, symbolizing purity, and they are holding palm branches, which symbolizes victory. Dressed this way, and holding their palms, they stood before the throne and the Lamb, and they cried out. How loud might an innumerable host be? They cried out in order to ascribe salvation to God, the God who was seated on the throne, as well as to the Lamb. At that point the angels, the 24 elders, and the four living creatures all prostrated themselves in order to worship God. And they said Amen: Blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honor, and power, and might, be unto our God for ever and ever. Amen.

One of the 24 elders asked John if he knew the identity of the great crowd. He confessed that he did not. The elder says that they are the ones who came out of the great tribulation. If this crowd is identified with the church through the ages, this means the great tribulation refers to something bigger than the tribulation that was to befall Jerusalem in just a few years. Although the fall of Jerusalem is a theme of Revelation, the composition of the very global crowd appears to preclude that reading.

They came out of the great tribulation—the church militant—and are those who washed their robes white in the blood of the Lamb. They are now the church triumphant, palm branches in hand. They are before the throne, and the one who sits on the throne dwells among them as Emmanuel. This is plainly the company of the saved. They will not hunger or thirst anymore. The sun shall not beat down on them, or any heat. The Lamb will feed them, and lead them to waters, and God will wipe away every tear.

One more thing should be mentioned, which is that this section of Revelation is rich in references from the prophet Isaiah.

“They shall not hunger nor thirst; Neither shall the heat nor sun smite them: For he that hath mercy on them shall lead them, Even by the springs of water shall he guide them” (Is. 49:10).

“He will swallow up death in victory; And the Lord God will wipe away tears from off all faces; And the rebuke of his people shall he take away from off all the earth: For the Lord hath spoken it” (Is. 25:8).

“And the Lord will create upon every dwelling place of mount Zion, And upon her assemblies, A cloud and smoke by day, And the shining of a flaming fire by night: For upon all the glory shall be a defence. And there shall be a tabernacle for a shadow in the daytime from the heat, And for a place of refuge, and for a covert from storm and from rain” (Is. 4:5–6).

In short, this is the language of salvation that applies to all God’s people.

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Grace & Peace: Revelation 55

Douglas Wilson on

“At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore” (Ps. 16: 11)

“And I heard the number of them which were sealed: and there were sealed an hundred and forty and four thousand of all the tribes of the children of Israel. Of the tribe of Juda were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Reuben were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Gad were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Aser were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Nepthalim were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Manasses were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Simeon were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Levi were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Issachar were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Zabulon were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Joseph were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Benjamin were sealed twelve thousand” (Rev. 7:4–8).

So now we come to the 144,000. Before getting to what that number represents, we should first consider how it was derived. A basic military unit in ancient Israel was a chiliad, a thousand men (Num. 31:4-5). If you take the number of tribes, which is 12, and square that number, you get 144. Multiply by a thousand, and you have a symbolic number for the host of Israel.

Another thing we should take note of is the fact that the tribes are listed out of their usual order. The tribe of Judah comes first, the tribe of the Christ. The tribe of Dan is missing, and Joseph is listed as a tribe instead of Ephraim. Some have assumed that Dan and Ephraim, tribes that had a special problem with idolatry, are missing for that reason.

Among those who believe the book of Revelation was largely fulfilled in the first century, the common assumption is that the 144,000 is a number that symbolizes the full and complete number of Jewish Christians who escaped death when the city of Jerusalem was demolished in 70 A.D. This has the advantage of keeping the interpretation anchored in the first century, where the action of this book largely is.

But at the same time, there is an indication of a much more cosmic interpretation, which is that the number represents the entire number of the elect. The argument for this is that John heard the number 144,000, while in the next verse, John turned and looked and saw a multitude that no one could number. This appears to be the elect, and it also appears to be a visual representation of the symbolic number he had just heard. This is the approach I would favor.

Some think that it is odd that the Christian church would be listed by tribe, but it is symbolically fitting. There is a reason why Christ selected 12 apostles. The church is identified with the true Israel elsewhere (Gal. 6:16; Eph. 2:12).

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Grace & Peace: Revelation 53

Douglas Wilson on

“At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore” (Ps. 16:11)

“And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood; And the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind. And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places. And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains; And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?” (Rev. 6:12-17).

When the sixth seal is opened, we are dealing a dark apocalypse. It would be easy to place these events at the end of the world—since only the end of the world, we think, would have enough room for a disaster this size. But we tend to think this way because we do not let the Scriptures instruct us how disaster symbolism works.

First there is a great earthquake, which in Scripture is a regular way to indicate a divine visitation. For this, see Ex. 19:18, Is. 2:19, or Hag. 2:6. The language that follows is “decreation” language, language of destruction. This collapsing solar system imagery is common in Scripture, and always refers to the annihilation of a nation or city/state. Isaiah speaks this way of Babylon (Is. 13:1-10). Later Isaiah speaks of the destruction of Edom in the same way (Is. 34:4). Ezekiel speaks of Egypt’s fall with these terms (Eze. 32:7-8). Joel prophesies the end of Israel in the first century with this language (Joel 2:28-32). Amos does the same thing concerning the northern kingdom of Israel (Amos 8:9). And to top it off, the Lord Jesus quotes the passages from Isaiah in order to answer the questions about what was going to happen to Jerusalem (Matt. 24:29, 34).

In addition, John here uses Isaiah’s picture of stars falling like figs and of the heavens being rolled up like a scroll (Is. 34:4). And Christ Himself predicted that refugees from the fighting in Jerusalem would in fact seek refuge in caves and under rocks (Luke 23:28-31), and He was drawing on Hos. 10:8, Is. 2:10, 19, and 21 when He did this. Incidentally, Josephus tells us that this is exactly what happened (Wars 6.7.3).

The earthquake represents a revolution in government, an overthrow. The sun, moon, and stars represent the various dignitaries of the governmental firmament. Seven aspects of the created order are mentioned—earth, sun, moon, stars, sky, mountains, and islands. In addition, seven different kinds of men are mentioned—kings, great men, rich men, chief captains, mighty men, slaves, and free men. In short, the revolution accomplished here is total, and encompasses everyone.

This context helps to answer the objection that his kind of “cosmic destruction” language is kind of overdone if we are merely talking about the destruction of just one city. There are two answers to this. One is that the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. was horrific on its own terms, even if we were simply talking about it as a stand-alone event. “For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be” (Matt. 24:21). But the second thing to note is that Jerusalem is where God had set His name to dwell. These were the chosen people, this was the chosen city, this mountain was the chosen mountain. And in response to the prayer of the apostles, this mountain was plucked up and thrown into the sea (Matt. 21:21). It was the close of an aeon. The world was utterly transformed as a result. The transformation was so total, so complete, so massive, we can’t even see it.

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Grace & Peace: Revelation 52

Douglas Wilson on

“At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore” (Ps. 16: 11)

“And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held: And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth? And white robes were given unto every one of them; and it was said unto them, that they should rest yet for a little season, until their fellowservants also and their brethren, that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled” (Rev. 6:9–11).

There are only four horsemen and there are seven seals. This means that the last three seals represent the affliction that is coming down on Jerusalem in a different way.

The Old Testament teaches us that the blood of the sacrificial victims was poured out at the foot of the altar. “And the priest  . . . shall pour all the blood of the bullock at the bottom of the altar of the burnt offering” (Lev. 4:7). This is what was done with the burnt offering, which was an ascension offering, an offering of entire consecration. We are also taught in Leviticus that the soul (nephesh) of the flesh is in the blood. “For the life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul” (Lev. 17:11). So when we find the souls of the martyrs under the altar in Heaven, we are meant to think of this sacrificial imagery. This does not compete with the once-for-all sacrifice of Christ on the cross, but there is some sense in which the martyrs fill up the sufferings of Christ (Col. 1:24). This is because we are the body of Christ. When Saul was tormenting the saints on earth, the Lord Jesus asked him this from Heaven: “Why do you persecute me?” (Acts 22:7).

The martyrs were slain for two reasons. The first was the Word of God, and the second was their own testimony (marturia). From this exalted position under the altar of God, they cry out for judgment and vengeance. As true saints have always done, they leave this vindication in the hands of God, while urging Him to delay no longer than necessary. They are told to be patient and to wait until the full number of martyrs has come in. We can see they are righteous from the white robes they are given.

There are a number of indications that the persecution referred to here is the persecution of the first generation of Christians by the Jews. The martyrs cry out for vengeance against those who dwell upon the earth, which could be rendered as land.

In addition, Jerusalem had a reputation for dealing violently with prophets. “Nevertheless I must walk to day, and to morrow, and the day following: for it cannot be that a prophet perish out of Jerusalem” (Luke 13:33). The divine blow for this blood guilt was going to land upon Jerusalem, and upon the generation that had slain Jesus. “That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar” (Matt. 23:35). There is no reason to suppose that the cry for vengeance under the altar is changing the subject. And when Jesus told the parable of the unjust judge, He wrapped it up with language that sounds very much like the voices from underneath the altar. “And shall not God avenge his own elect, which cry day and night unto him, though he bear long with them? I tell you that he will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?” (Luke 18:7–8).

How long would the souls under the altar have to wait? Until the full number of martyrs had come in, and then God’s vengeance would fall upon Jerusalem. That happened in 70 A.D.

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Grace & Peace: Revelation #51

Douglas Wilson on

“At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore” (Ps. 16: 11)

“And when he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth beast say, Come and see. And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth” (Rev. 6:7–8).

The fourth seal is now opened, and as before, the next living beast cries out to come and see. John looked, and he saw a sickly green horse ride out. The word translated pale here is chloros, which means we shouldn’t lose the greenish tint to this pestilence. Death rides the horse, and Hades follows after. It is important for us to distinguish Hades from Hell. The former is the place of the dead, a place of shades. In the Old Testament it is called Sheol. Hell is the final judgment, the lake of fire, into which Death and Hades will eventually be cast. Hades and Hell are different because Hades is finally thrown into Hell (Rev. 20:14).

So Death rides the horse, slaying a fourth part of those before him, and Hades follows after, like a wagon meant to gather up the bodies. Death kills by four means—by the sword, by famine, by pestilence, and by wild animals. This passage contains an echo of Ezekiel 14:21, which is talking about the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians.

“For thus saith the Lord God; How much more when I send my four sore judgments upon Jerusalem, the sword, and the famine, and the noisome beast, and the pestilence, to cut off from it man and beast?” (Eze. 14:21).

The Romans were to bring upon Jerusalem exactly the same kind of judgment that Babylon had brought. They marched on it with the sword, besieged it with their army, shut them up to famine and pestilence within, and there were more than enough dead bodies for the ravaging dogs.

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