REVELATION 6
The chapters which we now enter upon — 6 to 19 — give us much detail as to what will occur between the close of the church period and the introduction of “the fulness of times” which we speak of as the millennium — the thousand years of Revelation 20: 4. We should value the favour in which God has taken us into His confidence as to the future. It is intended [p. 96] to have a sanctifying effect in separating us even now from all that is so soon coming under divine judgment. And it is also intended to develop in our hearts a sympathetic interest in the saints who will be found in witness here after we are gone. God’s work in them, and their faithfulness under tremendous pressure, has a voice for us. The church will be kept “out of the hour of trial which is about to come upon the whole habitable world to try them that dwell upon the earth” (Revelation 3: 10). We shall not be in the great tribulation, but we may have to face increasing difficulties in the last days, and there is great comfort and moral support in seeing how God can and will secure His saints and sustain them even in a much darker and more terrible time than our own. No doubt this book will be of immense comfort to the suffering saints after the church is gone.
The opening of the first four seals will be followed by certain events not unlike things which have been previously seen in the history of the world. They may surpass in intensity anything that has yet taken place, but they will be similar in character. A great conqueror first appears, who achieves success by the ability to strike at a distance through the air; he has a bow. Then when the second seal is opened one comes who has a great sword, and he takes peace from the earth; men slay one another. He is followed by one with a balance, and a voice in the midst of the four living creatures speaks of food at famine prices. “Do not injure the oil and the wine” seems to suggest that the poor will suffer most under this infliction, as is always the case in famine. Those who can get luxuries do not feel it so keenly as others. Then a pale horse comes when the fourth seal is [p. 97] opened whose rider is Death, and hades follows with him. He has authority given “over the fourth of the earth to slay with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and by the beasts of the earth” — what God calls, “My four sore judgments” (Ezekiel 14: 21). All this would correspond with Matthew 24: 6 - 8.
There are often foreshadowings of prophetic events before the actual fulfilment. God allows things to take place which indicate the character of what is about to come on a much greater scale. But whatever correspondence there may be between events that happen now, and those of which prophecy speaks, we must beware of thinking there is anything more than an analogy. The fulfilment of Revelation 6 and the following chapters belongs to a future day when the church period is over.
From what John saw when the fifth seal was opened we learn that God will still have saints on earth at the time to which this chapter refers, and that they will be the subjects of persecution and martyrdom. This corresponds with what the Lord said in Matthew 24: 9. People think that the world is too advanced in liberal sentiment ever to tolerate persecution again! Just as they thought before 1914 that arbitration, treaties, alliances, and understandings between nations had made war almost impossible! But war with all its desolations came, and persecution of saints will come, probably on a scale more dreadful than the world has yet seen. The terrible visitations following the opening of the first four seals will not affect men in the way of humbling them and turning them to God. They will slay His servants who have His word, and who hold the testimony.
“[p. 98] I saw underneath the altar the souls of them that had been slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held”. This is of deep interest, because it shows that God will secure something for Himself still after the assembly has gone. Christ having come in, there will never be a time when He is not maintained here in testimony until He appears in glory. This world will never be a scene of universal grief for God; He will always have Christ under His eye in some family of saints. For every family named of the Father will be marked by the love of righteousness and the hatred of lawlessness, and this is Christ characteristically. He was slain for the word of God, and for the testimony, and the saints referred to in Revelation 6: 9 will follow in His steps. Think of the pleasure God will have in them! The bringing of different companies of saints into view is specially found in connection with the opening of the seals. The administration of the Lamb secures this; it is the precious and widespread fruit of redemption.
God will have a people prepared to take up His testimony here after the assembly is translated. When God was about to bring Christ in He prepared a company to receive Him. When He was about to send the Spirit and to form the assembly He prepared a company for that great new departure. And when the removal of the assembly, which is the vessel of testimony today, calls for a new family of witnesses, He will prepare those who will be ready to step into the gap. The rapture of the church might be used to bring at once into evidence a new body of witnesses for God. We know from 2 Thessalonians 2: 7 - 12 that these will not be from amongst those who have heard the present truth and have not believed it, nor [p. 99] received the love of it, but have found pleasure in unrighteousness. Such will come, by the just judgment of God, under the power of the lawless one who is to be revealed. They will believe what is false, and be judged. How far persons in Christendom have come under the guilt of not believing the truth is known only to God. Many who live in nominally Christian countries may never have heard the gospel of the grace of God or any true preaching of Christ. But there is no “larger hope” for those who have heard, and have not believed.
We can see much “working of error” today. Spiritualism, Theosophy, Christian Science, and many plausible perversions of Scripture by which millions are being turned from the truth. It is a time of many antichrists, and we know thereby that it is the last hour. To value “the word of God” and to hold His testimony in presence of such conditions will become increasingly difficult. The first intimation as to saints who succeed the assembly in witness here is that they are a persecuted and martyred company. Their souls are seen underneath the altar; they have “been slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held”.
It may be remarked that this book is largely built up on the types of the tabernacle or the temple. The elders “round the throne” would answer to the holiest. The white-robed multitude of chapter 7 stand “before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple, and he that sits upon the throne shall spread his tabernacle over them”; this would answer to the holy place. Then another company of overcomers stand “upon the glass sea” (chapter 15), which evidently answers to the laver in the court of [p. 100] the tabernacle. And the souls of the company seen when the fifth seal is opened are “underneath the altar”. But, while observing this as an important feature in the structure of the book, we must be careful not to get these things before the mind in a material way. God presents to us under these figures great moral conceptions, and He would give us spiritual perception of what is conveyed in them.
Souls “underneath the altar” are in the place of the ashes. It suggests that they have been offered as burnt-offerings. Christ has been found in them morally; they have been marked by identification with the word of God, and by holding His testimony, and they have been slain for it. They form the first group of martyred saints after assembly testimony is over, but they will not be the last, for “it was said to them that they should rest yet a little while until both their fellow-bondmen and their brethren, who were about to be killed as they, should be fulfilled”. I believe God would have us to be intensely interested in those who will so soon succeed us in holding the place of testimony here. One of the great interests of this book is to see the various companies of saints that appear in the scene. We see the features of Christ, and of “the testimony of Jesus”, as they are maintained right through by God’s election and power in different families of redeemed ones.
There will be a great activity of sovereign mercy after the assembly is gone, and before the kingdom is established. We see this very plainly in chapter 7. We are not shewn in this book how these different groups of witnesses are called or by what means God effects His work in them. We may gather this, in some measure at least, from other [p. 101] parts of Scripture. For instance, it would appear from Matthew 6: 6, 23 that there will be a special testimony to the lost sheep of the house of Israel which will not be completed until the Son of man be come. And from Matthew 24: 14 we learn that “these glad tidings of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole habitable earth for a witness to all the nations, and then shall come the end”. This testimony will be rendered in such conditions of the world, and in such persecutions, as are in view in Revelation 6 - Revelation 19, as we may see by comparing the scriptures. In this book we find the product rather than the process of divine working. Certain things which are going on now may have in view the preaching of the glad tidings of the kingdom in a future day. I refer particularly to the widespread circulation of the Scriptures in almost all languages of the earth. It is bringing some light as to Christ before all nations. If the assembly were translated today there would be a good deal that God could use as preparing the way for succeeding testimony to all nations.
God will secure a continuation of Christ in testimony here right through. The sweet savour of Christ will be before God in those who cherish His word, and who hold the testimony. But it will call forth relentless enmity on the part of “them that dwell upon the earth”, and the saints will be martyred. They will be, as it were, offered on the altar of God. Not, of course, in any way as atonement, but as suffering to death in obedience and testimony. There will be a sacrificial sweet savour for God in their death, but so far as man is concerned their blood will call for vengeance. Hence the cry, “How long, O sovereign ruler, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge [p. 102] our blood on them that dwell upon the earth?” The marked contrast between this and Luke 23: 34 and Acts 7: 60 makes clear a change of dispensation. We are here on ground familiar in the Psalms, but not that of the present period, which is one of grace to all.
The “white robe” given to each one of this company seems to indicate a personal consciousness of divine approval — a special compensation accorded them during the interval of waiting for their public recognition in the kingdom.
The opening of the sixth seal is followed by a great upheaval, and the subversion of order and authority. The sun, moon, and stars are figurative of rule (See Genesis 1: 16 - 18) in various degrees of dignity — supreme, dependent, and subordinate. And the removal of mountains and islands indicates the unsettling of all that has seemed stable and abiding. Men do not realize that the stability of things in the world — politically and commercially — is only maintained while God pleases to maintain it for the good of His saints and of His creatures. So long as the assembly is here prayers will be continually ascending “for all men; for kings and all that are in dignity, that we may lead a quiet and tranquil life in all piety and gravity” (1 Timothy 2: 1, 2). I gather from this that God will, in answer to the prayers made in His house, maintain government in the world so long as the assembly is here. I believe that the saints — though they take no part in the politics of the world — are the most important factor in the maintenance of order and government. Their prayers are much more effective than votes. Everybody is beginning to feel that there are great forces of lawlessness ready to break out, but God will maintain in government [p. 103] a restraint upon those forces so long as the assembly is here. Kings and rulers owe the stability of their position to the fact that the people of God are praying for them. But when the assembly is gone, government will no longer be divinely supported, and the terrible disorder and anarchy that follows the opening of the sixth seal will come. We do not need to go outside Europe to see what it means for the sun to become black, and the moon as blood, and the stars to fall! God allows coming events to cast their shadows before them as a warning to men if they will but heed.
Under the inflictions which follow the opening of the sixth seal the conviction will be brought home to men that God and the Lamb are acting in wrath. What a solemn thing for Christendom, where God has so long been made known as a Saviour God! It is not that “the great day of his wrath” will have actually come; but it will have come in men’s guilty consciences. It is often so even now when dreadful catastrophes occur; the thought of God’s wrath rises in men’s minds. Man has a conscience after all; no power of Satan can take it quite away. And man’s conscience is ever a witness on God’s part against him.