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Grace & Peace: Revelation 58

Douglas Wilson on

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

“And I saw the seven angels which stood before God; and to them were given seven trumpets. And another angel came and stood at the altar, having a golden censer; and there was given unto him much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne. And the smoke of the incense, which came with the prayers of the saints, ascended up before God out of the angel’s hand. And the angel took the censer, and filled it with fire of the altar, and cast it into the earth: and there were voices, and thunderings, and lightnings, and an earthquake. And the seven angels which had the seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound” (Rev. 8:2–6).

The seven seals of the scroll have been opened, and we come now to the next round—the seven trumpets. Seven angels stood before God (which would be standing before the throne), and each was given a trumpet (v. 2).

Another angel came, and because His functions at the altar are priestly in nature, most commentators assume that this is a representation of Christ in another of His offices. Another argument for this is that it would be odd for a mere creature to be presenting the prayers of the saints to God. That is reserved for our great High Priest. Still less would it be appropriate for a mere angel to answer those prayers.

At any rate, this angel comes and stands at the altar, carrying a golden censer. He is given much incense, which He mixes with the prayers of the saints, and presents it on the golden altar before the throne (v. 3). The smoke of the incense, mixed together with the prayers of the saints, ascend up to God from the hand of the angel (v. 4). And then, in an obvious answer to prayer, the angel fills up the censer with fire from the altar, and casts it all down upon the earth (v. 5). As a consequence, there was a dramatic impact on the earth—voices, lightning, thunder, and an earthquake (v. 5). With that preliminary judgment completed, the seven other angels prepared themselves to sound their trumpets (v. 6).

The prayers represented here are no doubt the prayers of the martyred saints who were under that same altar back at the fifth seal. They were crying out for vengeance, and were told to be patient for “a little season” (Rev. 6:11). That season of waiting is apparently now complete, and it is time for their prayers to be answered.

Given that the prayers being answered here are prayers from first century martyrs, we may conclude that this battery of judgment coming from the seven trumpets are judgments that are going to be falling on Jerusalem in the course of the Jewish War (A.D. 66-70).

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Grace & Peace: Revelation 57

Douglas Wilson on

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

“And when he had opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour” (Rev. 8:1).

We now come to the seventh and final seal of the scroll. Given the dramatic nature of what happened when the first six were opened, we are expecting some sort of earth shattering explosion when the final seal is broken. But . . . nothing. Nothing but silence.

There are two possible scriptural settings that may be in view here. One is that just a few verses down, an angel is going to offer up incense, and that incense is representative of the prayers of all the saints (Rev. 8:3). These prayers are offered up on the golden altar that is before the throne. A few chapters earlier, when the fifth seal was opened, things were not silent in Heaven when the souls under that altar were crying out to the Lord to avenge their blood. Now it appears that an angel has gathered up their prayers and is presenting them as incense, and everything is quiet for that formal presentation.

This appears to match the custom of the Temple. When Zacharias is serving in the Temple, during the time that the incense was being presented, the people were waiting outside quietly, silently praying. “And the whole multitude of the people were praying without at the time of incense” (Luke 1:10). “And the people waited for Zacharias, and marvelled that he tarried so long in the temple” (Luke 1:21). Here an angel is presenting their prayers in the form of incense, and that presentation takes about half an hour.

Another possible allusion is to the siege of Jericho. The opening of the seventh seal here is followed by the blowing of trumpets (Rev. 8:6), which is what happened when the walls of Jericho fell. Not only so, but prior to blowing of those trumpets, the Israelites marched around that fated city in silence. And so in both instances you have silence > trumpets > conquest of God’s enemies.

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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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