Revelation 14:13

Revelation 14:13. And I heard a voice out of heaven saying, Write, Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth. Those that ‘die in the Lord' are obviously in contrast with the followers of the beast spoken of in Revelation 14:11, and the verb used in the original, not ‘fall asleep' but ‘die,' seems to imply the thought of the troubles and persecutions in the midst of which they died. The verb is several times used of Jesus in the Fourth Gospel; and the words ‘in the Lord' here added to it may be intended to denote that the death referred to was such a death as His. The expression therefore does not bear that sense of quiet falling asleep in Jesus which we generally assign to it. It rather brings out the fact that in Him His people meet persecution and death; and that, although they are not all actually martyrs, they have the martyr spirit. ‘From henceforth.' What is the time to which these words point? Is it the moment when the harvest of the earth is to be reaped? In that case we must connect them with ‘Blessed,' while they are obviously connected with the verb ‘die.' Yet we cannot speak of dying after the ‘harvest' It seems better, therefore, to understand the words as referring to the beginning of the Christian age, and onward to the end (comp. Matthew 26:64). During all that time the 144,000 are being gathered in amidst the temptations of Babylon and the opposition of the beast. To the faithful during all that time, therefore, the consolation of these words is given; and their meaning is, that they who ‘die in the Lord' are ‘blessed,' not because at death they enter into the immediate possession of the heavenly reward (a point upon which no direct information is afforded), but because they are set free from the difficulties and trials and sorrows which, were they left here to continue the struggle, they would have to meet. Instead of being longer troubled they enter into rest (comp. 2 Thessalonians 1:7). Hence accordingly the following words.

Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours, for their works follow with them. Those who thus die are blessed because ‘they rest from their labours;' they have that rest from toil and suffering which they cannot obtain here below. And how comes it that they thus rest? Because their ‘works (an entirely different word from ‘labours') follow with them.' Their Christian character and life, giving them a meetness for the rest, follow with them. They enter into heaven fitted for its joys.