Revelation 7:14-17

Revelation 7:14-17. The Seer does not say that he cannot answer the question, but he implies that the elder is better able to do so. He himself has no experience of the state described, and he cannot therefore speak of it as it should be spoken of. His language is peculiarly graphic, neither ‘I said' of the Authorised Version, nor ‘I say' of the Revised, but I have said, as given in the margin of the latter. The perfect tense has its appropriate power of bringing down to the present moment the feeling that is expressed. The wonder of that instant in the apostle's life is not a matter only of the past. It presents itself still as vividly to his mind as when he first uttered the words, and asked an explanation of the glorious spectacle (comp. note on John 1:15). The word knowest is to be understood in a far deeper sense than that of possessing information only. It is used in the sense of the word ‘know' in the Fourth Gospel, and expresses experimental knowledge (comp. note on John 4:32 and Revelation 3:17).

The answer to the question is next given, and its importance appears in the fact that it consists of three parts. The blessed company beheld by the apostle is first described in the words, These are they that come etc., and it must be at once obvious that the whole company, and not simply a portion of it, is thus alluded to. The terms of the description are peculiar and interesting, for the words ‘that come' are neither equivalent to the words ‘which came' of the Authorised Version, nor do they point only to the future. The idea, too, that the present tense is used because the redeemed are at that moment seen coming is not less to be rejected. They have been already represented as ‘standing before the throne' (Revelation 7:9). In these circumstances we can hardly separate the expression ‘they that come' from the designation of our Lord, ‘He that cometh,' in the Fourth Gospel. We have here, in short, another illustration of that identification of believers with their Lord which is so characteristic of the writings of St. John. Members of the Lord's body, they are one with Him in all His fortunes, and may be.fitly described by the same terms.

The great tribulation is that out of which they come. It is ‘the tribulation' of Matthew 24:21, and is surely universal, including Jewish as well as Gentile Christians in both passages. Nor are we to understand by it merely a special tribulation at the close of the world's history. It is rather the trials experienced by the saints of God throughout the whole period of their pilgrimage, at one time greater than at another, but always great.

Secondly, they washed their robes, and that too, it is obviously implied, in the blood of the Lamb. The idea of many ancient expositors that the martyrs washed their robes in their own blood may be at once rejected. But neither can we refer the ‘washing' to justification alone, and the ‘making white' of the following clause to sanctification. ‘Robes' are the expression of character (comp. the English word ‘habits'), not simply of legal standing, and lead us to the thought of the whole cleansing efficacy of the work of Christ, to its removal of the power of sin as well as to pardon, to new life imparted as well as to old transgressions forgiven (comp. Zechariah 3:4). In the view of St. John, water alone does not exhibit the special blessing of the New Covenant (comp. 1 John 5:6). The Old Covenant has water; the New has ‘blood,' and blood is life. What is here signified, therefore, is that these believers are made new creatures in Christ Jesus; they are alike justified and sanctified, when they are ‘washed' in the blood of Christ. Thirdly, they made their robes white in the blood of the Lamb. This is more than the mere result of the washing. It is the addition of a new feature. In the blood of the Lamb they made them not only clean but glistering, so that they shone with a dazzling brightness (comp. Hebrews 9:11-14).

Such being the persons spoken of, the place occupied by them is next described in two particulars; first, in the terms already employed in Revelation 7:9, and secondly, as the innermost sanctuary of the temple of God, the innermost recess of the heavenly abode. Then follows a description of the blessedness of the righteous in what seems to be seven particulars having reference to the future. Why we should have the future here instead of the present, as in the former parts of the vision, may be difficult to say. Probably it is because we pass at this point to a change of thought, not now to the place of blessedness, but to that blessedness itself which shall never end.

(1) He that sitteth, etc. (comp. Revelation 21:3). God shall be their constant shelter and defence especially shall He spread his tabernacle over them at the joyful feast of Tabernacles to be celebrated by all nations (Isaiah 4:5-6; Zechariah 14:16). (2) They shall hanger no more (Isaiah 49:10). (3) Neither thirst any more (Isaiah 49:10). (4) Neither shall the son strike on them nor any heat (Isaiah 49:10). (5) The Lamb shall as a Shepherd tend them (Psalms 23:1). (6) He shall guide, etc. (Isaiah 48:21). (7) God shall wipe, etc. (Isaiah 25:8). Before passing from these two consolatory visions we have still to notice the manner in which they are related to each other. In doing so it is important to observe, in the first place, that the second vision does not refer to Gentile, the first to Jewish, Christians only, and that the second class is not treated simply as an ‘appendix' to the first. We have already seen that the 144,000 embrace the whole Israel of God without distinction of Jew or Gentile. The same remark has to be made on the ‘multitude which no man can number.' In their statements as to the persons saved the two visions are identical. Nor is it difficult to see why the redeemed should be numbered in the one vision, and not in the other. In the one they are looked at as they are sealed by God, and He knoweth His own; He calleth them by their names; to His eyes they are a definite number. In the other they are seen by man, and man cannot count them; he beholds only a ‘great multitude, which no man can number.' Compare the promise to Abraham, ‘Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if thou art able to number them' (Genesis 15:5), with God's language to His afflicted people. ‘He thereth together the outcasts of Israel....He counteth the number of the stars; He calleth them all by their names' (Psalms 147:2; Psalms 147:4). The difference between the two visions, then, is to be sought not in any distinction between the persons referred to, but rather in the different circumstances in which the same persons are brought before us in each. In the first we behold the Church in her conflict; in the second in her victory. In the first, even though troubled on every side, she is safe; in the second her troubles have closed for ever. In the first she is tempest-tossed but her Lord is with her, and she is assured that she shall reach the haven of rest; in the second the haven has been reached, and she shall never again be exposed to the raging of any storm. Even in her time of trial God has marked her for His own; affliction may refine but cannot vanquish her; and the day is not distant when every trace of affliction shall yield to perfect, uninterrupted, endless joy.