In the Fifth Seal John saw “souls under the altar.” It is the altar of burnt offering in the heavenly sanctuary (ch. 4, 5). Revelation 8:3 has a reference both to it and to the golden altar of incense in the Holy Place. This figure of souls under the altar is easy of interpretation. In the Tabernacle and Temple service the blood of the burnt-offering was poured out at the base of the brazen altar (Leviticus 1:5). And “the life (or soul) of the flesh is in the blood” (Leviticus 17:11); hence the Fifth Seal represents the lives of martyrs given as a testimony to their faith. There can be little doubt that Paul used the same figure concerning himself: “I am already being poured out as an offering, and the time of my departure is at hand” (2 Timothy 4:6; Philippians 2:1 7).

MARTYRS OF THE OLD COVENANT

But what martyrs are referred to? Several lines of evidence point to the conclusion that these are the saints who died for their faith, or in their faith, under the Old Covenant (cp. Genesis 4:10):

	(a)	The normal Apocalyptic phrase: “the testimony of Jesus” (ch. 1:9 and 12:17 and 19:10) is modified here to “the testimony which they held.” These men died with faith set on the coming of their Messiah, but not knowing him as Jesus.
	(b)	“How long, O Despot!” This title for God or Jesus is highly appropriate in the mouths of faithful witnesses of Old Testament times cp. the aged Simeon, the last of them (Luke 2:29), who used the same mode of address.
	(c)	“White robes were given unto them.” These white robes undoubtedly represent the provided righteousness of Christ. Here, then, are saints who receive that garment of righteousness after the end of their testifying! This would indeed be a mystery (in the modern sense of the term) were it not for such verses as these: “And for this cause he is the mediator of a new covenant, that a death having taken place for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first covenant, they that have been called may receive the promise of eternal inheritance” (Hebrews 9:15). “If Christ be not raised … ye (and all others who died with faith in him, e.g. Abraham) are yet in your sins” (1 Corinthians 15:17); “and to declare his righteousness because of the passing over of sins done aforetime (under the Old Covenant) in the forbearance of God” (Romans 3 :25).
	(d)	The parallel with the prophecy of Jesus is hardly to be missed: “Wherefore, behold, I scud unto you prophets, and wise men, and scribes: and some of them ye shall kill and crucify: and some of them shall ye scourge in your synagogues, and persecute them from city to city: 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” (Matthew 23:34, 35).[23] The Zacharias referred to here is doubtless the prophet whose violent death is described in 2 Chronicles 24:20, 21. Jesus cited him along with Abel because 2 Chronicles is the last book of the Hebrew Bible and thus Abel and Zacharias would be a convenient way of referring to all the martyrs under the Old Covenant.
		1 Thessalonians 2:15, 16 reads very similarly, but this is to be expected because Paul was writing with Matthew 23 in mind.
	(e)	v. 11: “To them it was said that they should rest yet for a little season … “ In particular, this finds a parallel in the case of Daniel, one of the Old Testament saints: “Thou shalt rest, and stand in thy lot at the end of the days” (Daniel 12:13).
	(f)	In view of the copious allusions to Revelation already traced in the Epistle to the Hebrews, it is permissible to see in these words of v. 11 the origin of another idea in that Epistle: “And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise, God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect” (Hebrews 11:39, 40). The correspondence here is remarkable. The Old Testament saints who died in faith answer to the “souls under the altar.” Those to be made perfect correspond with “their fellow-servants and their brethren that should be killed as they were”. Both passages emphasize that the two classes are to be glorified together, as in 1 Thessalonians 4:17 also.
	(g)	v. 10: “O despot, holy and true.” Somewhat unexpectedly, the word “true” here is not the word which stands in contrast to “false” but that which is set over against “type” or “shadow” (compare John 15:1: “I am the True Vine”). The appropriateness of this to an Old Testament context is immediately obvious. The “despot”-ism of Christ is typified in the Old Testament in many places and often in the experience of these very “souls” who so cried out. David is an outstanding example, and one of his psalms (89:33-52) reads like a commentary, written in advance, on this Fifth Seal. The passage should be studied in detail.
	(h)	The blood of the martyrs cries for vengeance on “them that dwell on the earth.” Evidence has already been furnished (ch. 11) for reading this: “Them that dwell in the Land,” i.e. the Jews. In any case, “them that dwell on the earth” is an insipid redundancy. Would anyone call for vengeance on “them that dwell in heaven”7 Where else could their adversaries be except on the earth? And if a symbolic meaning be sought, “heaven” would be more appropriate than “earth.” Once again the relevance of Matthew 23:35, 36 is emphasized. On the other hand, if these “slaughtered saints” under the altar were Gentile Christians of the early centuries there would be little point in this allusion to Jews in Palestine.

OTHER MARTYRS

The phrase “their fellow-servants and their brethren,” now seen to apply to the New Testament martyrs, calls for careful examination. Is this a twofold reference to the same class, i.e. their fellow-servants who are also their brethren? Or are two distinct classes among the New Testament saints indicated? In this latter case it would be necessary to interpret them as Gentile Christians and Jewish Christians respectively. The repetition of the possessive pronoun favours this second view.

On this interpretation one would be led to look for a persecution of both Gentile and Jewish Christians in the First Century “a little season” (v. 11) before divine vengeance fell on the nation, which had dealt so ruthlessly with God’s martyrs of earlier generations.

JEWISH HOSTIL1TY

This is precisely what the New Testament and also First Century historians say: “But before all these, they shall lay their hands on you and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues, and into prisons, being brought before kings for my name’s sake. And ye shall be betrayed both by parents, and brethren, and kinfolks and friends; and some of you shall they cause to be put to death. And ye shall be hated of all men for my name’s sake” (Luke 21:12, 16, 17). The Book of Acts indicates a Jewish origin for almost all the Gentile persecutions, which overtook Paul, and there are a number of New Testament indications that most of the slanders, which brought so much trouble on the Christians in other parts of the empire, were similarly Jewish-inspired.

In his “Antiquities of the Jews” (20:9:1) Josephus tells of the unlawful condemnation of James the brother of Jesus: “So he (Ananus the high priest) assembled the Sanhedrin of the judges, and brought them the brother of Jesus, who was called Christ, whose name was James, and some of his companions; and when he had formed an accusation against them as breakers of the law, he delivered them to be stoned.” Also in his “Wars of the Jews,” in the middle of a detailed narrative of all that befell Jerusalem in A.D, 70: “These things happened to the Jews to avenge James the Just, who was brother of him that is called Christ, whom the Jews had slain notwithstanding his pre-eminent justice.” And Hegesippus, the later Christian historian, similarly: “So admirable a man was James, that even the wisest part of the Jews were of opinion that this was the cause of the immediate siege of Jerusalem, which happened to them for no other reason than the crime against him’’ (Eus. Eccl. Hist. 2.23).

GENTILES ALSO

But there was Gentile persecution too. John himself was in Patmos in the reign of Nero for that very reason. In Rome Paul and Luke had probably just died for their faith. Peter was to go the same way very soon afterwards. The Christians in Rome were called upon to face all kinds of bestialities. “The Christians to the lions” (I Peter 5:8) was one of the more enviable fates meted out to them.

The persecution was taken up in various parts of the empire. Peter’s 1st Epistle is full of allusions (1:6, 7 and 2:19 and 3:14-17 and 4:12-19) to similar trials besetting the Christians in “Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia” (I Peter 1:1).

As the prophecy of the Fifth Seal indicates, it was “a little season” after these storms broke over the hapless heads of the Christians, that, in A.D. 67, the Jewish War boiled up and after an uneasy lull culminated in the horrors of the siege of Jerusalem. Israel had filled up the cup of its iniquity.

FURTHER FULFILMENT

The significance of this Seal is not yet exhausted. Good reason was found for seeking an application of the first four Seals to the Last Days also. It would be strange if this were not also true of the Fifth Seal, as it certainly is of the Sixth.

That there will be a repentance of Israel (in part) in the Last Days is clearly testified by many prophets. The exposition of Revelation 11 will demonstrate that that remnant of Jewish believers will also have to face grievous persecution. But so also, quite possibly, will the faithful remnant among the Gentiles. It has already been suggested (ch. 10) that the entire Olivet Prophecy will have a further fulfilment in the time of the end, and without question the early portion of that prophecy has much to say about persecution (Matthew 24:9-12).

Thus the Fifth Seal also fits into the pattern, already suggested, of a Twentieth Century recapitulation of this Seal prophecy which had its primary fulfilment almost immediately after it was written in the First Century. And in this case the “little season” of the prophecy is the short period (of 31 years?) that will elapse before these final troubles give place to the reign of Christ in person.

[23] Doesn’t the word “fulfilled” in Revelation 6:11 imply an earlier prophecy on this theme?

It should now be possible to reconsider the same portion of Revelation 6 as a prophecy yet to be fulfilled the third time, the “continuous-historic” fulfilment here being regarded as the second. Since, however, the problem is now one of interpreting prophecy in advance it will not be possible to do so with anything like the same degree of exactness. What follow must be regarded as suggestions only, suggestions supported by Biblical evidence.

Looking for a further fulfilment of these Seal visions is not unreasonable. The very close parallel between this part of Revelation and the Lord’s Olivet prophecy is sufficient in itself. Here, of course, is the reason why John’s gospel has no record of that discourse of the Last Days which occupies such a prominent place in the synoptic gospels – the Book of Revelation is John’s equivalent (and much more!) of that important prophecy.

Again, the breaking of the Seals of the scroll now in the hands of the Lamb (5:7) can only mean that the revealing of the contents of the Book of Life is not far behind. It is details such as this which show that any A.D. 70 or continuous-historic application of the Seals is at best only a primary and subordinate fulfillment – just as a hundred prophecies in the Old Testament had their basis in imminent developments in the prophet’s own times but a much more dramatic reference to more distant and more important events concerning Messiah. When detailed consideration comes to be given to the Sixth Seal the truth of this principle will be more evident than ever.

THE EXHORTATION: “COME”

Each of the Seals is introduced by a voice saying: “Come.” But only in the ease of the first is the voice described as “a voice of thunder.” This means that it is the voice of God (John 12:29; Psalm 29, especially verse 3). It is the roar of the Lion of the tribe of Judah (5: 5).

Quite apart from the dubious manuscript evidence, the reading: “Come and see” is hardly admissible, for John did not “come and see.” The next verse begins: “And I saw.” The door was already opened in heaven. His task was to observe and record that which took place there. Nor can “Come and see” be an exhortation to “hasten unto the coming of the day of God” (as the A.V. of 2 Peter 3:12 mistakenly has it). It is possible to “hasten the coming” of that day (see Appendix on this) by one’s “holy way of life and godliness.” But otherwise it is a matter of “patient waiting.”

It is even doubtful whether the solitary imperative: “Come,” was addressed to the apostle, for the three main sections of the prophecy are each introduced with a heavenly voice which is pointedly described as speaking directly to John (1:10; 4:1; 10:8); but not so here.

Then what is the meaning? It could express the longing of the New Creation (as in Romans 8:18-22) for the coming of the heavenly kingdom. Or perhaps it represents a four-fold appeal in the last days to Israel that they turn to God and through His Messiah find the rest for their souls, which they so desperately need (Joel 2:12-18; see chapter 2 in “The Time of the End” for fuller treatment of this topic). Or this “Come…Come…Come … Come … “could represent the urgent longing of saints in Christ to see these dire events take place because they are seen as the necessary prelude to “the manifestation of the sons of God.”

ISRAEL’S TIME OF TROUBLE

Once again it is necessary to insist that the main application of the Seals is to events in the Land (see comment on verse 4 in chapter 11). For most readers it will require no proving that the Last Days immediately preceding the coming of the Lord will be characterized by War, Famine and Pestilence in Palestine. God will gather “all nations against Jerusalem to battle” (Zechariah 14:1). Palestine, so often the cock-pit of warring nations, will be devastated from end to end, and all the evils that go with war will find their foulest and almost their last expression there.

Here is the seven-fold chastisement of Israel for their stubborn rejection of God and His Christ. So few Jews see the return to the Land as a fulfilment of Old Testament prophecy and as preparing the way for the true realization of the Hope of Israel. Instead, the building of the State of Israel is seen as the work of dedicated enthusiasts devoted to a political ideal. As such it must not only prove a failure, but also merit the retribution of heaven:

“And if ye will not be reformed by me by these things, but will walk contrary unto me; then will I also walk contrary unto you, and will punish you yet seven times for your sins. And I will bring a sword upon you that shall avenge the quarrel of my covenant: and when ye are gathered together within your cities, I will send the pestilence among you; and ye shall be delivered into the hand of the enemy. And when I have broken the staff of your bread, ten women shall bake your bread (for the entire nation) in one oven, and they shall deliver you your bread again by weight: and ye shall eat and not be satisfied. And if ye will not for all this hearken unto me: then I will walk contrary unto you also in fury; and I, even I, will chastise you seven times for your sins” (Leviticus 26:23-28).

Once again the words of the prophet will become a desperate reality: “I will break the staff of bread in Jerusalem: and they shall eat bread by weight and with care; and they shall drink water by measure, and with astonishment” (Ezekiel 4:16). “We get our bread with the peril of our lives because of the sword of the wilderness. Our skin is black like an oven because of the terrible famine” (Lamentations 5: 9, 10). Such is the fell work of the rider of the Black Horse, when “all faces gather blackness” (Joel 2:6). Nevertheless the immediate mention in the third Seal of oil and wine not being “hurt” may be intended to echo the reassurance in Joel that when Israel repents “the Lord will answer and say unto his people, Behold, I will send you corn, and wine, and oil, and ye shall be satisfied therewith: and I will no more make you a reproach among the nations” (2:19).

A WIDER FULFILMENT

However, since the prophets also make it plain that “the slain of the Lord shall be at that day from one end of the earth to the other” (Jeremiah 25: 33), and since the cup of God’s wrath is to be given to “all the kingdoms of the world which are upon the face of the earth” (25: 26), there is reason to believe that this third fulfilment of the Seals will not be restricted to Palestine only. “And it shall come to pass in that day, that a great tumult from the Lord shall be among them,” as it was “in the day of Midian” (Judges 7:22; Isaiah 9:4).

The phrase: “to him it was given … that they should kill one another,” will find fulfilment not only in world-wide conflict but also in civil war everywhere. In nearly every nation in the world there exist stresses, racial conflicts, class hatreds and antagonisms, such as now make this expectation a fearful possibility. With a big proportion of the world’s population living near starvation level and with underprivileged nations desperately eager to assert themselves, it needs no vigorous use of the imagination to picture some of the chaotic and ghastly by-products of a Third World War. With the collapse of civilization there will come such a resurgence of the depressed and exploited masses in all parts of the world as will more than amply fulfil the passages of Scripture quoted.

FAMINE AND PESTILENCE

Again, the restrictions put by another World War on the normal transportation of food supplies, together with the critical conditions already created by the rapid increase in the world’s millions, will mean famine on a vast scale and the rocketing of food prices – “a measure of wheat for a penny.”

Neither is anything more certain than that Pestilence also will take terrific toll of human life. Disease has always been a concomitant of war. In the war that is to come the breakdown of the complex machinery designed to cope with the health problems of this complicated modern civilization will mean an anarchy in which diseases will travel fast and unhindered. To this foul prospect must be added the grim spectre of bacterial warfare – a probability in any future world war, which the more spectacular bomb and rocket have tended to push into the background of the popular imagination.

Yet not only have strange new diseases been discovered but also it is reported that the biggest obstacle in the way of successful germ warfare – the problem of how to produce very rapid multiplication of bacteria without loss of virulence – has now been surmounted. “And this shall be the plague wherewith the Lord will smite all the people that have fought against Jerusalem; their flesh shall consume away while they stand upon their feet and their eyes shall consume away in their holes, and their tongue shall consume away in their mouth” (Zechariah 14:12). With very considerable plausibility it has been suggested that the horrific picture described here is the result of modern germ warfare – bubonic plague or some ghastly fruit of modern scientific devilry.[21]

“A RECRUDESCENCE OF BARBARISM”

“Power was given unto them to kill with the sword, and with famine, and with pestilence, and with wild beasts of the earth.” It is unlikely that the last phrase in the words just quoted should be taken literally. Almost identical words are used in Ezekiel 34:25 – “I will cause the evil beasts to cease out of the land” – this in a context which makes it only too plain that the reference must be to Israel’s enemies in the day of their re-colonisation of Palestine, i.e. the Arabs. Ever since 1948 Arab nations have been eager, like so many savage hungry wolves, for an opportunity to mangle the corpse of the State of Israel.

The same idea may well be generalized to apply to conditions that will prevail as soon as the threatened collapse of civilization comes all over the world. There will be a recrudescence of barbarism – “the wild beasts of the earth” – which will be quelled by no power on earth save by the Lord Himself returned in power and great glory. He who sent a great herd of swine headlong into the abyss will readily repeat the miracle and restore sanity to a naked, pitiable Israel now willing to sit at I-lis feet.

BLESSING IN THE MIDST OF CURSE

“See thou hurt not the oil and the wine. ‘ If these words are intended to carry a figurative meaning, then just as there was a means of escape and safety provided for those who were Christ’s at the time of the fall of Jerusalem, so will it be also in the days to come. There is no lack of indication of a special provision for the well-being of God’s people in the day of wrath. “Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee: hide thyself as it were for a little moment, until the indignation be overpast. For, behold, the Lord cometh out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity: the earth also shall disclose her blood, and shall no more cover her slain” (Isaiah 26:20; cp. Matthew 6:6). “For thou hast been a strength to the poor, a strength to the needy in his distress, a refuge from the storm, a shadow from the heat, when the blast of the terrible ones is as a storm against the wall” (Isaiah 25:4). “Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man” (Luke 21: 36).

Precisely how such protection will be provided is not clear, but the experience of the faithful remnant in the time of Noah and of Lot and of Rahab and of Hezekiah reinforces the Scriptures already quoted as to the fact of it.

The vision of the destroying angels, Death and Hell, in the Fourth Seal is introduced by the fourth of the Cherubim, the Eagle. “Thither will the eagles be gathered together,” Jesus had foretold, with reference to the time of his return (Luke 17:37). The eagle mounts up at God’s command (Job 39:27): “Her young ones also suck up blood: and where the slain are, there is she” (v. 30).

The Old Testament allusion is important here: “Wherefore hear the word of the Lord, ye scornful men, that rule this people which is in Jerusalem … Your covenant with Death shall be disannulled, and your agreement with Hell shall not stand; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, then ye shall be trodden down by it” (Isaiah 28:14, 18). After three of the shortest and most successful wars in all human history, and with “safe” boundaries facing Syria, Jordan and Egypt, there is a swagger and a confidence about the modern Israel, which must before long find its proper level.

FOUR HORSEMEN – THE FOURTH PART

There is a fairly plain hint, also, in this Fourth Seal that these visions are not to be taken chronologically but as different aspects of one mighty expression of judgement: “And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth (Land) to kill with the sword, and with famine, and with pestilence, and with the beasts of the earth (Land)” (6:8). To whom is this authority committed? – to “Death and Hell?” or to the four Cherubim? The mention of “fourth part” is decisive in favour of the latter suggestion. Four cherubim bring four expressions of heaven’s wrath on the four quarters of the Land These judgements all operate together.

Is it possible that this emphasis on four is intended also to recall the repeated enigmatic prophecy of Amos 1, 2?: “For three transgressions and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof.” The idiom means “three plus one, equals four,” and not “three plus four, equals seven.” And the eight-times repeated recompense comes on Israel and Judah as well as on all the Arab countries round about, “two years before the earthquake” (1:2) which is described in the Sixth Seal.

THE WHITE HORSE

Once again, the rider on the white horse is considered last of the four. The resemblance between this rider and the one described in Revelation 19:11 ff. can hardly be accident, yet there are significant differences.

The white horse is not the symbol of peace. This is hardly possible, since the rider in chapter 19 goes forth with his army to make war and to “tread the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.” The invariable symbolic meaning of the horse in Scripture is that of war.

On the head of the “Faithful and True” rider in chapter 19 there are already “many crowns;” he is already King of kings, and he goes forth not to conquer but to punish. By contrast with these details, in the First Seal “a crown was given unto him,[22] and he went forth conquering and to conquer,” having a bow in his hand. Is there here a suggestion of Jesus becoming King of the Jews, conquering them by means of his “bow,” the word of instruction concerning him (see previous chapter on this)? Here is God’s final, and at last successful, appeal to Israel through His Word and by the eloquence of much adversity and through the work of an Elijah-like prophet who will “turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers” (Malachi 4:5, 6). See “Last Days,” chapter 7, and “End of the Age,” chapter 2.

There can be no doubt that the last days are to see a repentance of Israel, at least in part (“conquering and to conquer”) immediately before the coming of the Lord. Most probably, the complete crash of all Jewish hopes, when the brilliant new State of Israel is overwhelmed, will drive to reliance upon God those who through all their generations, and especially in this century, have been remarkable for their reliance upon their own cleverness and industry.

At such a time there will come Christ’s peaceful conquest of the hearts of all the nation which hitherto has utterly rejected him. “They shall look unto me whom they pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for the Only Son” (Zechariah 12:10). In this sense his arrows will be sharp in the heart of those who were once the enemies of the King (Psalm 45:5).

[21] On the other hand it may be that what is depicted here is the effect of radiation following the use of nuclear devices.

[22] John sees the crown given. The rider is not wearing it when he appears.

It is now time to consider the Seals in detail. It is important always to have in mind the triple fulfilment of this part of Revelation, which has been argued for in the two preceding chapters:

a. A.D. 70. The Fall of Jerusalem.

b. The “continuous-historic” application (“Eureka”).

c. The Last Days and the Coming of the Lord.

In what follows the second of these will be omitted. It has already been excellently done elsewhere. (For those without the time to give detailed consideration to the three large volumes of “Eureka,” “Notes on the Apocalypse” by C.C.W. will be found most valuable. It is an admirable digest of the bigger work.)

As details in the Seals are expounded attention will focus chiefly on the fulfilment in and around A.D. 70, for the very simple and obvious reason that it is far easier to make a job of expounding a fulfilled prophecy than one, which is yet to be fulfilled. Where a future fulfilment is concerned, precision and fullness of detail in the exposition are hardly possible – at least, not with the confidence one could wish. The Holy Spirit’s gift of “interpretation” is not, alas, extant in these days.

“The four horsemen of the Apocalypse” introduce the first four Seals. These are the angel-drivers of the cherubim-chariots of the Lord – “the chariots of Israel and the horsemen thereof” (2 Kings 2:11, 12, 6:17; 13:14; 1 Chronicles 28:18; Psalm 18:10). Here, immediately, is a strong suggestion that these visions have reference to dramatic events connected with Israel.

The cherubim-chariot was seen by Ezekiel (ch. 1) at the beginning of the Captivity in Babylon, and by Zechariah (6:1-8) at the end of the Captivity Do not these facts suggest that the mention of the four horsemen again in Revelation 6 is intended to direct interpretation to the beginning and end of Israel’s “captivity” in the times of the Gentiles?

THE SECOND SEAL

In the waste howling wilderness of varied and contradictory interpretations of Revelation, Seals 2, 3 and 4 stand out as an oasis of some sort of unanimity. The same can hardly be said for the First Seal. So, for the sake of having feet on terra firma at the start, a beginning is made here on Seal 2.

When the second of the four cherubim says “Come” (for the reading “Come and see” is doubtful) there appears a red horse, “and power was given to him that sat thereon to take peace from the earth, and that they should kill one another.” Symbolic of this war-like character is the “great sword” that was given him.

Difficulty in accepting the application only to the Jewish War in Palestine during the First Century, may be occasioned by the words: “to take peace from the earth;” the phrase seems to require a much wider fulfilment. Luke 21:23 elucidates: “There shall be great distress in the land and wrath upon this people” i.e. in the Land of Palestine. The word used here is identical with the word “earth” which comes several times in Revelation 6. Thus “the wild beasts of the earth” may be the (figurative) wild beasts of Palestine – these to be interpreted later – and “the kings of the earth” may be the kings of Palestine – as will also be shewn in due course. This ambiguity about “earth” and “land” is really a Hebraism carried over from the Old Testament where eretz can likewise bear either of these two meanings.[19]

“It was given to him that sat on the red horse to take peace from the Land, and that they should slay one another.” The tumult, rapine and savagery, which filled Palestine from end to end from A.D. 67 to 70, were more than adequate fulfilment of the divine judgement foretold here. It has been well observed that the phrase: “that they should slay one another” carries with it a probable implication of civil war – every man against his fellow. And so in truth it was during those years of madness and misery, as Josephus abundantly testifies. The Jews suffered more from the hands of their own countrymen than they did from the Romans. Vespasian’s words when the Roman armies had begun their campaign were: “If we stay a while we shall have fewer enemies, because they (the Jews) will be consumed in this sedition.” This was said after his commanders had themselves agreed “the providence of God is on our side, by setting our enemies at variance against one another” (B.J. 4.6.2).

THE THIRD SEAL

The black horse of the Third Seal signifies Famine. So also does “the pair of balances (weigh scales) in his hand.” The voice accompanying the rider’s appearance reinforces this impression: “A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny.” The penny here is, of course, the Roman denarius (whence the d. in £. s.d.), which in those times carried a much higher value than it does today. A comparable sum in these days would be £3 or more (Matthew 20:2).

The cry indicates famine prices for food, at something like ten to fifteen times the normal prices for those days. Once again the finest commentary on these words is the narrative of Josephus. When a vast number of Jews was shut up by Vespasian’s armies inside Jerusalem, there were no fears of shortage of food, such were the stocks stored away in the city But the rival factions of Eleazar the son of the high priest and John of Gischala and Simon the captain of the Idumeans were so bitter in their mutual enmities that they burnt one another’s stocks of grain The ensuing famine was one of the horrors of world history. Josephus, although himself a hard-bitten campaigner, accustomed to all kinds of revolting sights and experience, was obviously much distraught by the evidence which came to him in the Roman camp outside Jerusalem of the maniac excesses of the defenders and of the bitter extremes of suffering which they brought upon themselves not only by the unrelenting fierceness of their opposition to the Roman armies, but even more by their mad internecine hatreds. The reader should most certainly consider Leviticus 26: 24-26, Ezekiel 4 and the extracts given in chapters 18, 20, and 22 from Josephus’ “Wars of the Jews.”

But whilst this Seal speaks of wheat and barley at famine prices, it goes on to say, “see thou hurt not the oil and the wine.” The use of “hurt not” in ch.7: 3 and 9:4 requires here the meaning that there shall be no lack of oil and wine. But in the literal sense there certainly was a lack of these commodities in Jerusalem at the time spoken of. Nor will it do to regard these words as an indication that only the poor would suffer and not the rich, for Josephus makes plain that the rich suffered, if anything, more than the poor, through being suspected of hoarding.

Scripture suggests a different approach. “Thou anointest my head with oil; my cup (of wine) runneth over.” The Samaritan Saviour poured oil and wine on the wounds of the one he came to save. Thus the words of the Seal indicate that its rigours were not to come upon the elect in Christ in this time of trouble. One need now only mention the familiar fact of the escape of the Christians from beleaguered Jerusalem to indicate the fulfilment. “Friends of Jesus, they alone to Pella fled.” Here is another parallel with the Olivet prophecy: “When ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies … then let them which be in the midst of her depart out … “ (Luke 21: 20, 21). “When ye shall see the abomination of desolation stand in the Holy Place, then let them which be in Judea flee to the mountains” (Matthew 24:15, 16; cp. Job 5:19).

THE FOURTH SEAL

The Fourth Seal describes, “a pallid horse, and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed after him.” The colour of the horse is deathly, and this is the character of the rider’s work – he is the Angel of Death, called in chapter 9:1I Abaddon or Apollyon, that is, the Destroyer.

“And power was given unto them to kill with sword, and with famine, and with pestilence (R.V.m.), and with the wild beasts of the earth.” The very language used here is confirmatory of the restricted Jewish application which is now being suggested for this part of the prophecy, for – as already observed – the words are verbatim from Ezekiel 14:21 LXX which describes “my four sore judgements on Jerusalem.” These same four judgements are also set out in Moses’ catalogue of curses to come on disobedient Israel – the sword, pestilence, the enemy, and famine (Leviticus 26:25, 26; cp. also 2 Samuel 24:13). With all this compare Matthew 24:22: “And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved.” The student will be interested to observe that in the restoration of Israel to divine favour these are the very curses which are singled out as being now ended: Ezekiel 34:28, 29 and 36:14, 29, 30.

GRIM FULFILMENT

The figures given by Josephus of those who fell in the struggle against the Romans, and especially in the siege of Jerusalem, appall even the modern reader, accustomed as he is to the violence of the Twentieth Century. Even case-hardened Titus, the Roman general, was aghast and, raising his hands to heaven, called God to witness that it was none of his doing but brought rather upon the Jews by their own fanatic folly; Isaiah 28:17,18 and 5:13,14.

The finest commentary on the First Century fulfilment of Seals 2, 3, 4 is unquestionably Josephus’ “Wars of the Jews.” The reader is strongly urged to read in connection with the foregoing brief exposition Books V and VI of that masterpiece of ancient literature.

THE FIRST SEAL

The problem of the First Seal, apparently so much out of character with those that follow, can now be considered: “And I saw, and behold a white horse: and he that sat on him had a bow; and a crown was given unto him: and he went forth conquering and to conquer” (Revelation 6:2).

In the primary fulfilment of this prophecy there are three alternatives, which suggest themselves, each of which is attractive in its own way.

1. Bullinger points to the identity of language here with Revelation 19:11, 12 which describes Christ going forth as the conqueror of his enemies: “And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war. His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns; and he had a name written, that no man knew, but he himself” (Revelation 19:11, 12). Stress is then put on the parallel between the Seals and the Olivet Prophecy. If, says this expositor, Seals 2, 3, 4 find their counterpart in Matthew 24:6, 7, then the First Seal corresponds to Matthew 24:4, 5: “Take heed that no man deceive you. For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many.” In other words, the First Seal is a prophecy of spreading apostasy in the early church or of some false Messiah of the First Century. And since that era is notorious for the number of false Messiahs who appeared in Jewry, this explanation becomes very attractive.

2. A second possible explanation also is supported by arguments of some consequence:

	(a)	the other seals expounded thus far represent judgements upon Israel, and their introduction by the cherubim strongly reinforces the suggestion that the First Seal must be like the others in this respect.
	(b)	“A crown was given him, and he went forth conquering and to conquer.” These words, with which the preceding explanation does not harmonize too obviously, now take on very considerable point if the rider on the white horse represents Vespasian.

When the Jewish rebellion broke out, Vespasian was given command of the punitive expedition organized by the Romans. The campaign was barely begun when Nero died by his own hand. There followed the short disturbed period of Galba, Otho and Vitellius, and then the Roman army pressed Vespasian to accept Imperial dignity. So leaving Titus in charge of the Roman army in Palestine, he went off to Rome to assume the reins of government. Meantime Titus concluded the campaign successfully and thus brought much initial lustre to the new reign: “a crown was given unto him: and he went forth conquering and to conquer.”

The chief difficulties in the way of this interpretation are (i) it gives no weight to the designed resemblance to the picture of Christ in ch. 19:11; (ii) the lack of any suitable fulfilment of the First Seal on similar lines in the Last Days.

3. The two objections just raised become the strength of this third interpretation-that the white horse and its rider represent the Gospel going forth conquering Judaism in the First Century.

THE GREAT ENEMY OF THE TRUTH

There can be no question that the Gospel’s biggest enemy in the very earliest days was not Rome but Jerusalem. The fanatical hatred of entrenched Judaism was a constant source of anxiety and pain to Paul and his fellow apostles. It ranks as the main problem in Acts, Romans, Galatians, Ephesians, Colossians, 1 Thessalonians, 1 Timothy and also John’s Gospel. To this list may be added several of the Letters to the Churches in Revelation.

One of the major results of the destruction of Jerusalem was that Judaism ceased to be the powerful obstacle to a successful preaching of the Gospel, which it had been thus far. “Conquering, and to conquer” – when the Jewish War began, much headway had already been made by the Truth against recalcitrant Jewry; after the war was concluded, opposition dwindled away, for the chief stronghold – the temple – was gone overnight. “If ye have faith and doubt not … ye shall say to this mountain (Mount Zion and its temple), Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and it shall be done” (Matthew 21:21). It was!

There can be no objection to interpreting the rider on the white horse as being Christ himself, for what was done by his men was really being done by him; compare: “Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?” See also Matthew 10:40.

This suggestion, that the First Seal symbolizes the Gospel’s conquest of Judaism, is in harmony with the exposition of the next three Seals already suggested, since – like them – it constituted a divine judgement on Jewry.

The other detail, not yet considered – “he that sat on him had a bow” – also finds a ready interpretation on this line. Let it be remembered that whilst Revelation is written in Greek it is essentially a Hebrew book, packed with Hebrew idiom (e.g. in Seal 2: “to him that sat thereon it was given to take peace from the earth” is a normal Hebraism for “to him it was appointed …”). In Hebrew the word for “law” and the word for “teacher” are both derived from the verb, which means, “to fire arrows.” Hence, the bow would appear to the Hebrew mind as a fit symbol for the teacher or instructor. This idea is illustrated by the following: “They bend their bows to shoot their arrows, even bitter words” (Psalm 64:3); “he bade them teach the children of Judah the song of the bow” (2 Samuel 1:18). The fitness of this idea in this third explanation of the First Seal will be immediately obvious.[20]

In harmony with this also is the word by which these Seals are introduced: “And I heard as it were the noise of thunder, one of the four living creatures saying, Come” (as already mentioned, the reading “Come and see” must be disallowed on textual grounds). That the voice is “as it were the noise of thunder” identifies it as a divine invitation (John 12:29; Exodus 19: 16, 19, and many more). Is this the beckoning of God to the instruments of His judgement that they are to hasten with their fell work7 Or is it the last divine appeal to a nation which has hardened its heart and stiffened its neck, determined to live and die in complete reliance on its ability to save itself, both politically and spiritually? The preaching of the Gospel was the proclaiming of the Spirit’s message through the Bride; and that message was: “whosoever will, let him take of the water of life freely.” The very period, which saw the climax of the divine judgements on the Jews, saw also-the climax of the divine appeal to Jews by means of the gospel to use their opportunity of salvation before it was too late. The poignant suffering endured by the Jews throughout that terrible war with Rome concluded the most intense divine appeal to be made to them for hundreds of years.

CHRONOLOGICAL FULFILMENT?

This review of the first Four Seals might appropriately conclude with an observation of some importance for the understanding of later sections of Revelation.

The Seals – and, as will be seen by and by, the Trumpets also – are not necessarily to be read as having successive fulfilment. This is in fact suggested by the different order of the same four horses in Zechariah 6. So far as the first (and third) fulfilments of Revelation are concerned, there can be little doubt that the Seals are to be regarded as being fulfilled together, particularly in the period A.D. 67-70. It is felt necessary to stress this point because the thinking of many on this middle section of Revelation has tended to be dominated by the idea of successive visions with chronologically successive fulfilments. Whilst this approach may yield good results for the “continuous historic” interpretation the point needs to be emphasized that such a view of the Revelation visions is not required by any explicit statement of the prophecy, nor is the idea necessarily implicit in it. The Seals are given in order, one to seven, because from the very nature of the case it would have been impossible to describe them all simultaneously.

In Zechariah 12-14 the phrase “in that day” is repeated fifteen times. It requires only a cursory consideration of these prophecies to realize that this is the prophet’s way of introducing a series of “snapshots” of dramatic happenings, which will take place at the time of the end. But the expositor has yet to be found who would insist that the various segments of these three chapters will find their fulfilment in the chronological order in which they appear. Similarly in Revelation there should be no attempt to force the interpretation into the straitjacket of chronological development. As the exposition proceeds a good deal of Biblical evidence will come to light to prove the importance of this assertion.

[19] The Greek word ge is translated in the New Testament “land” more than 40 times and in the LXX O.T. more than 1,000 times.

[20] Expositors who insist that the rider had a bow but no arrozos are being too clever. Of course bow implies arrows, otherwise why mention it? If a man is described as wearing black shoes, does this mean he has no shoelaces?

There can be little doubt that the palm-bearing multitude and the 144,000 who are sealed are one and the same community. The evidence on this is fairly strong. But before it is detailed one obvious objection must be considered: How can the same assembly of people be represented by (a) a precise number of 144,000, and also by (b) a “great multitude which no man could number?” Isn’t this the plainest of all points of distinction?

This numbering is not an ordinary numbering. Reference to Exodus 30 is necessary. “When thou takest the sum of the children of Israel after their number, then shall they give every man a ransom for his soul unto the Lord when thou numberest them; that there be no plague among them” (Exodus 30:12). And twice it is added that this half-shekel payment is “an atonement for your souls.” In this sense the redeemed of Revelation 7 are a “multitude which no man could number”; for no man could “give a ransom unto the Lord” for them, no man can “make atonement for their souls,” because no man “can by any means redeem his brother nor give to God a ransom for him” (Psalm 49: 7); also, these were “numbered,” that is “ransomed,” already – by the blood of Christ.[30]

NOT TWO MULTITUDES

And now to identify this great multitude with the 144,000:

	(a)	It is important to observe that John did not see the 144,000; he only heard of their sealing. And then immediately he beheld the great multitude.
	(b)	The vision of the 144,000 is repeated later (ch. 14), but throughout the book there is no further mention of the great multitude.
	(c)	The details of ch. 14:1-5 are such as make certain the identification proposed here. What is written in ch. 14 of the 144,000 is the same as that written in ch. 7 of the multitude.

	Chapter 14: The 144,000	Chapter 7: The Great Multitude
	1. With the Lamb (v. 1).	Before the Lamb (v. 9).
	2. Before the throne (v. 3).	Before the throne (v. 9).
	3. They sung a new song (v. 3)	They cried: “Salvation to our God, and unto the Lamb” (v. 10).
	4. No man could learn that song (v. 3).	(Cp. Revelation 2:17.)
	5. Redeemed from the earth (v. 3).	Which no man could “number;” i.e. ransom or redeem (v. 9).
	6. These follow the Lamb (v. 4).	The Lamb shall be their shepherd (v. 17 R.V.).
	7. They are without fault (blemish) before the throne of God (v. 5).	These have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb (v. 14).

This correspondence is virtually decisive.

(d)         The two sections of chapter 7 are bound together by a detailed series of allusions to Israel’s deliverance from Egypt at Passover and to the ensuing wilderness journey:

	1.	v. 3	The sealing of the 144,000 with the name of God. Cp. the sign of the blood on the doorposts and lintel.
	2.	v. 4	The twelve tribes of Israel.
	3.	v. 9	“Palms in their hands.” The allusion is to the Feast of Tabernacles (Leviticus 23: 40), which celebrated the wilderness wandering.
	4.	v. 9	The great multitude. Cp. the mixed multitude[31], which left Egypt (Ex. 12: 38)?
	5.	v. 14	“These came out of the great tribulation” – Egyptian bondage.
	6.	v. 14	“The blood of the Lamb” – the Paschal Lamb.
	7.	v. 15 R.V.	“He that sitteth on the throne shall spread his tabernacle over them” – the Tabernacle in the wilderness, or (just possibly) the canopy of the pillar of cloud (Psalm 105 :39).
	8.	v. 16	“They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more” – manna, and water from the smitten rock, in the wilderness.
	9.	v. 17 R.V.	“The Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall be their shepherd, and shall lead them”- the blood sprinkled ark going before to guide Israel in the wilderness (Numbers 10:33; Psalm 80:1).

Details of this kind afford strong presumptive evidence that, throughout the chapter is speaking of the same class of people and not of two different groups.

TRIBULATION ENDING, REWARD IMMINENT

To what time should this vision of the palm-bearing multitude be referred? The answer suggested by a number of details is that the vision describes the saints shortly before their appearing before Christ in the day of glory. Behind them are the disciplines and trials of life in the world. Before them are the ineffable spiritual joys of the life everlasting. Evidence for this:

1. The parallels between Revelation 6, 7 and the Olivet Prophecy include:

		Revelation 7:9, 11, 16,17	Matthew 25:31, 32, 37
	(a)	A great multitude out of all nations.	Before him shall be gathered all nations.
	(b)	Before the throne, and before the Lamb.	Then shall he sit on the throne of his glory, and before him …
	(c)	All the angels round about the throne.	All the holy angels with him.
	(d)	They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more.	I was an hungered, and ye gave me meat … thirsty, and ye gave me drink.
	(e)	The Lamb shall be their shepherd.	As a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats.

To these may be added v. 10: “Salvation (Hosanna) to our God” and v. 9: “palms in their hands” with their echoes of Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem – which, as already mentioned, was itself a “dress rehearsal” of the Second Coming (see Zechariah 9:9-11).

2. The tenses in v. 14-17 are significant. “These are they which are coming out of the great tribulation … they did wash their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb … they are before the throne of God and they are serving him day and night … he that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them. They shall hunger and thirst no more … the Lamb shall be their shepherd, and shall lead them … God shall wipe away all tears.”

Their sanctification (through baptism) is past; their service is continuing from the past into the future; their deliverance is now about to take place; and their blessings of immortality all lie before them.

In particular, the words: “God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes” (quoted from Isaiah 25:8) can be read only as a figurative description of the matchless experience when, once and for all, this corruptible puts on incorruption.

Nearly all the details of the description of the palm-bearing multitude are of special interest. These can now be considered point by point.

“In the multitude of the people is the king’s honour” (Proverbs 14:28). Then what shall be said of the King whose people no man can number? Here are the fruits of God’s olive tree, including those of the wild olive, which, “contrary to nature,” has been grafted in. So Paul writes: “Blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in. And so all Israel (whether Jew or Gentile) shall be saved” (Romans 11: 25, 26).

HYMN OF PRAISE

Their doxology begins and ends with Amen to emphasize that what was promised is now about to be realized. It is identical with that of the angels, (ch. 5:13), save that here each separate word has the definite article, as though in an attempt to enumerate with separate and distinct emphasis all the wealth of blessing which the redeemed can now enjoy through the loving kindness of their God. There is actually a change of one word, “thanksgiving” being substituted for “riches.” In all respects the saints are now equal to the angels, save in this – that they have grounds for thanksgiving to God such as no immortal angels can ever know, for are they not even now being finally redeemed from the overpowering ever-present curse of sin and death?

TRIBULATION

These blessed ones are described as “coming out of the great tribulation.” The primary reference is, doubtless, to the escape of faithful Christians from doomed Jerusalem in A.D. 70. The identical Greek word is used in Moses’ prophecy of the horrors of that time (Deuteronomy 28:53, 55 LXX, where the A.V. has “straitness”). “For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be” (Matthew 24:21).

But other ideas crowd in. If weight be given to the figure, already worked out in much detail, of a wilderness journey, this “great tribulation” is the counterpart in the life of God’s people to Egyptian bondage. There can be little doubt what that is.

The parallel with the Olivet Prophecy, also demonstrated earlier, provides a further impressive idea. In the Last Days, Jesus asserts, for his saints there will be a special deliverance from tribulation: “Immediately after the tribulation of those days … shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven … and he shall send his angels … and they shall gather together his elect” (Matthew 24:29-31. See Chapter 15 – The Hundred and Forty-four Thousand (ch. 7) on this).

REDEMPTION

“They washed their robes, and made them white in (or, possibly, by means of) the blood of the Lamb.” The figure is one of the most graphic used in Scripture – scarlet sins washed away by the blood of sacrifice (Isaiah 1:18). In Jacob’s prophecy concerning Judah, the Messiah is described as “binding his (Gentile) foal unto the (Jewish) vine.” The prophecy then indicates how this Messiah from Judah shares in the redemption he has provided for his people: “he washed his garments in wine, and his clothes in the blood of grapes” (Genesis 49:11). At the other end of the Book, John enunciates it explicitly: “the blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth us from all sin” (l John 1:7). It is a salvation for all who will have it, whether it be a David, king of Israel, sinful but penitent (Psalm 51:7), or a Gentile new-born by faith into the commonwealth of Israel (Acts 15:9 R.V.). All such find a place in the Lamb’s multitudinous Bride who through the merits of the Bridegroom is “without spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing” (Ephesians 5:25-27).

It is not improbable that this profound passage in Revelation 7 is the basis of yet another allusion made in Hebrews to the Apocalypse: “How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God cleanse (7:14) your conscience from dead works to serve (7:15) the living God (the God of the Living Creatures)” (Hebrews 9: 14).

SERVICE IN GOD’S SANCTUARY

“Therefore are they before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple.” The word “temple” here is riot to be taken as implying a building in the normal sense of the term, for – even apart from the normal symbolism of the passage – the idea of a tabernacle is used in the next verse (R.V.). This “temple” is the inner sanctuary, corresponding to the Holy of Holies. The saints have access there through the blood of Christ because in his death the veil (Christ’s human nature) was rent in twain. Thus the saints are now presented before the throne of God (which is above the Cherubim and the ark of the covenant) and there they serve as priests “day and night.” This last phrase alludes to the morning and evening sacrifice, which symbolized the formal consecration of national Israel to the service of their God (Exodus 30:8; 1 Chronicles 9:33). It is this which Paul had in mind when he spoke of “our twelve tribes instantly serving God day and night” (Acts 26: 7), a service which was but a dim type of a fuller finer service offered by the true spiritual “Israel of God.”

GOD’S ISRAEL IN THE WILDERNESS

The prophecy continues in terms of the Feast of Tabernacles: “he that sitteth on the throne shall spread his tabernacle over them.” Quite a number of the other details chime in with this. There is the allusion to the palm branches, the cry of “Salvation” (Hosanna), and in the mention of “living fountains of waters” a reference to the ceremonial water-pouring, which at Tabernacles reminded Israel of the Smitten Rock (John 7:37, 38).

The spreading of God’s canopy over His people in the wilderness is celebrated by the Psalmist: “He spread a cloud for a covering: and a fire to give light in the night” (Psalm 105:39). The same blessing is promised in even greater fulness in the age to come: “And I will place them, and multiply them, and will set my sanctuary in the midst of them for evermore. My tabernacle also shall be with them: yea I will be their God, and they shall be my people” (Ezekiel 37:26b, 27). Is it this which Paul speaks of, when – in allusion to the weakness of his own mortality – he says: “Most gladly therefore will I glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may spread a tabernacle over me” (2 Corinthians 12:9 R.V.m)?

A GREAT MESSIANIC PROPHECY

The promise to these redeemed is: “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” (7:16, 17).

Several of these phrases are derived – with what appropriateness – from a wonderful Messianic prophecy in Isaiah 49. The entire chapter should be studied. It travels in a comprehensive sweep from Jesus in Gethsemane, contemplating his life’s work and effort apparently in ruins, to the glorious climax when he is able to rejoice in a vast multitude called out from Israel and the Gentiles to experience the marvels of God’s gracious salvation.

In the words: “they shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more,” is to be recognized the fulfilment of all that the Manna and the Smitten Rock foreshadowed in the wilderness (1 Corinthians 10:3, 4) – the fulfilment also of Christ’s own promise: “He that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst” (John 6:35). Those hungering and thirsting after righteousness find full satisfaction at last. It is an appropriate return from him whom, all unknowing, they fed when he was hungry and to whom they gave the cup of cold water when he was athirst (Matthew 25:35 and 10:42).

An interesting idea emerges from the words: “neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat.” This word “heat” (in Isaiah 35:7: “parched ground”) Gesenius dogmatically translates: “mirage.” There is marvellous appropriateness about this. The mirage of an oasis or pool leads the weary thirsty traveller on in hope. In the same way an anticipation of the nearness of the return of the Lord has buoyed up many a weary traveller to the Kingdom. What seemed so near in time has proved in fact to be remote. Many who thought to live to see the Kingdom established have gone to their sleep, some to a long, long sleep, but this prophecy in Revelation assures the faithful that the day surely comes when mirage will give place to reality, and faith to sight. And to make the assurance all the more emphatic, the phrase is introduced by a double negative: “no, never shall the sun light on them, nor any heat.”

LAMB AND SHEPHERD

Instead, “the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall be their Shepherd.” This astonishing paradox of a Lamb being a Shepherd also has its roots in Israel’s wilderness journey. It is the figure of God’s people being guided to the end of their wilderness wandering by the blood-sprinkled ark and cherubim leading the host through the trackless desert: “The ark of the covenant of the Lord went before them three days’ journey, to search out a resting place for them. And the cloud of the Lord was over them by day, when they set forward from the camp” (Numbers 10:33, 34; cp. Psalm 80:1).

The figure is continued by Jesus himself: “When he (the Good Shepherd) putteth forth his own sheep, he goeth before them, and the sheep follow him for they know not the voice of strangers” (John 10:4). And in the day when “David my servant shall be king over them, they all shall have one shepherd” (Ezekiel 37:24). But by contrast the angel of Death shall be the shepherd of those who are in honour and yet understand not the way of God (Psalm 49: 14 R.V., 20).

The thirst and the hardship of a life of weariness in a spiritual desert is to culminate in the most longed for of all satisfactions: “the Lamb shall lead them unto fountains of waters of life.” When Israel reached the end of their toilsome journey to the Land of Promise, the water from a Smitten Rock was no longer necessary, for now as soon as they were within their own promised borders, they experienced the joy of a new and permanent and abundant supply. “Then Israel sang this song, Spring up, O well; sing ye unto it: the (twelve) princes digged the well, the nobles of the people digged it, by the direction of the lawgiver” (Numbers 21: 17, 18).

This type also Jesus appropriated to himself: “the water that I shall give him shall become in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life” (John 4:14). God will wipe away (literally: anoint out) all tears from their eyes.[32] He will do it through the abundant gift of his Holy Spirit in the day of resurrection – “the oil of joy for mourning” – as these words from Isaiah 25: 8 abundantly prove, for does not Paul apply the same passage to the Day of Resurrection (1 Corinthians 15:54)?

[30] Yet another line of thought is suggested by Psalm 40:5 and its context, where God’s “wonderful works to usward” are assuredly His fashioning of new rnen in Christ out of old men in Adam (cp. Psalm 145:4-10).

[31] This mixed multitude must have been believing Gentiles, who for some time before the deliverance identified themselves with Israel (note Exodus 9:20, 21) by accepting circumcision and who at the last kept the Passover as Israelites (Exodus 12: 48).

[32] The Hebrew for “eyes” also means “fountains”!

The connection of Revelation 7 with its preceding chapter is close and obvious. Instead of going on immediately to describe the opening of the Seventh Seal, the development of the prophecy pauses to answer the aweful question with which Seal Six concluded: “Who shall be able to stand?” It will be noted later that there are similar characteristics about the development of the Sixth and Seventh Trumpets (ch. 10, 11).

The apostle saw four angels at the four corners of the earth (or Land), controlling the four winds. These winds (the first four Trumpets: see especially ch. 8:7, 8) were not to go forth in destruction against the earth, sea or trees until a certain 144,000 had been sealed unto God. That seems to be required by ch. 9:4 where the pointed contrast is made between “grass of the earth, and trees” and “those men which have not the seal of God in their foreheads.” In this passage, to attempt to make grass and trees symbolize any form of human organization is to import a distinct element of incongruity into the interpretation.

SPIRITUAL ISRAEL

It is important before going any further to recognize that the 144,000 sealed out of the twelve tribes of Israel are to be taken as referring to Israel after the spirit, i.e. saints, and not to literal Jews. The reasons for this are copious enough.

	(a)	Elsewhere in Revelation the symbolism of natural Israel is appropriated to describe the saints; e.g. “the bride, the Lamb’s wife” is described also in terms of a city, “the holy Jerusalem,” upon the gates of which are “the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel’s (21:9-12). And in Revelation 3:12 “the name of my God,” which is the Seal applied to the 144,000 (see ch. 14:1) is promised to the faithful in Philadelphia, most of who would assuredly be Gentiles.
	(b)	By contrast, in Revelation also, the name of Jew is denied to those who are the fleshly descendants of Abraham; ch. 2:9 and 3:9.
	(c)	The same obvious spiritual idiom is employed by Peter, James and Paul. The idea was well-recognized in the early churches. Peter’s 1st Epistle is written to “the elect who are sojourners of the Dispersion” (ch. 1:1 R.V.). All three terms used here were normally applied to Israel, and the second and third to the Jews not resident in Palestine. Yet nothing is more certain than that Peter wrote primarily to Gentiles, not Jews (e.g. 4:3; 1:14). The Epistle of James begins similarly, and again an attempt to apply his words literally to “the twelve tribes scattered abroad” breaks down almost before it has started (2:1; 5:14). Paul’s language in Galatians 6:15, 16 and Romans 9:6-8 and 2:28, 29 is conclusive.
	(d)	If the twelve tribes of Revelation 7 are the literal tribes, then to be consistent the numbers – 12,000 from each tribe – should also be taken literally. Yet it is unthinkable that that is how God has worked, choosing exactly 12,000 from each of the twelve tribes of Israel, but none at all from Dan (Samson? Judges 13:2; Hebrews 11:32).

LESSONS TO BE LEARNED

It will be convenient here to pause and note some of the spiritual lessons to be derived from the apparently arid list of 12,000’s catalogued in this chapter. Here is something other than wasted paper.

	(a)	First place is not accorded to Reuben, the first born, but to Judah, because from Judah came Christ who is “the First-fruits,” “the Beginning of the Creation of God,” “the Lion of the tribe of Judah.”
	(b)	There is no regard here at all to family arrangement (by contrast with every other similar list of these twelve names in Scripture), because the people typified here are they whose standing in the sight of God does not depend on natural relationship.
	(c)	Levi is catalogued along with all the rest, thus indicating the end of the Aaronic priesthood, which had made Levi separate, distinct and superior.
	(d)	The omission of Dan is significant. It has to be remembered that Dan was the first tribe in idolatry (Judges 17, 18), and idolaters are banned from God’s holy city (Revelation 22:15). Also Dan deserted the inheritance assigned to him. And of all the twelve tribes Dan was completely content to stay in captivity – there is no mention of Dan in the genealogies of 1 Chronicles 4-8.[26] The symbol of the tribe of Dan was a serpent (Genesis 49:17) when it should have been the eagle (Numbers 2:25); the destruction of the serpent is one of the main themes of Revelation (20:2, 10). Because of this serpent symbol it was traditional among the very early Christians to assert that in the Last Days Antichrist would arise from the tribe of Dan (cp. Genesis 49:17 and Jeremiah 8:16, 17). Is it just coincidence that so many of the men of the Kremlin have been – like Dan – apostate Jews, men happy in their estrangement from the Land, seeking to lose their nationality amongst the enemies of God and even working actively and powerfully for the destruction of the new state of Israel?
	(e)	Ephraim is omitted, but instead there is mention of Joseph, suggesting that only those out of Ephraim who are like their worthy progenitor will be fit for inclusion in the Lamb’s great multitude; cp. Ezekiel 37:16, 19.

THE SEALING

Bearing in mind that the 144,000 are symbolic of spiritual Israel, it now becomes a matter of some importance to interpret the sealing, which is commanded. Beyond all question the basis of this is to be sought in the similar passage in Ezekiel 9. (It will be demonstrated later on that this is just one item in a whole series of allusions to Ezekiel traceable in Revelation 7, 8). In Ezekiel 9 the prophet saw seven angels of destruction who were bidden withhold slaughter from Jerusalem until a mark had been set on the foreheads of “the men that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that be done in the midst thereof.” Then divine judgement went forth.

This Old Testament original is one of several cognate Scriptures, which has led to the sealed of Revelation 7 being described as taken from the twelve tribes of Israel.

PASSOVER DELIVERANCE

It is possible to go even further back in seeking the meaning of this sealing. Revelation 7 has also copious allusions to Israel’s deliverance from Egypt and subsequent wilderness journey. Before judgement fell upon Egypt, God’s elect were sealed by the blood of the Lamb, on lintel and doorposts, thus Succeeding generations of Jews would readily recognize this mark as the letter H of the Hebrew alphabet which almost by itself spells the name of God: . This is precisely how Revelation itself describes the sealing mark: “having his Father’s name written on their foreheads” (ch. 14:1). [27]

These Old Testament associations of the sealing of spiritual Israel dovetail beautifully with the New Testament emphasis: “And grieve not the holy spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption” (Ephesians 4:30). The powers of the Holy Spirit extant in the early church constituted the Father’s method of writing His name in the forehead of those set apart for Himself. It was the Holy Spirit of God, an earnest (Ephesians 1:13, 14) of full and certain redemption.

GOD’S PROVIDENCE – WHEN?

To what time in history shall this sealing of the 144,000 be assigned? The close connection between this vision and that of the Six Seals would suggest that just as the Seals were seen to have more than one fulfilment, so with this vision also. This is immediately emphasized by the mention of “the four winds of the earth,” in v. 1. Two passages are of special value here. The first is Zechariah 6:1-o where the fourfold cherubim-chariot is described as going forth from standing before the Lord of all the earth (cp. Chapter 10 – The Seals). But the language of Zechariah’s angel is: “These are the four spirits (R.V.: winds) of heaven.” Thus the four winds of Revelation 7 are seen to have intimate connection with the first Four Seals, since they were introduced by the four cherubim.[28] And since there is more than one fulfilment to the Seals, should not the same be true of chapter 7 also?

Ezekiel’s vision of the valley of dry bones has language with a similar ring: “Come from the four winds, O breath (or spirit), and breathe upon these slain, that they may live” (Ezekiel 37:9). There is here a hint that the four winds of Revelation 7 also have to do with Israel.

SAINTS IN THE FIRST CENTURY

The strongest reason of all for looking for a fulfilment of chapter 7 in the First Century is the undeniable parallel with Ezekiel 9, already mentioned. It needs only to be emphasized that Ezekiel 9 had primary reference to the first overthrow of Jerusalem (by Nebuchadnezzar). There is therefore clear reason to believe that its counterpart in Revelation 7 also has reference to the exercise of special Providence over the Lord’s people who would otherwise have been similarly involved in the A.D. 70 destruction of Jerusalem. Hence the description of them as coming out of the great tribulation.

That such Providential protection was extended to the saints in the troublous times just mentioned is well known. First, there was the warning given by Jesus himself: And when ye shall sec Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know that the desolation thereof is nigh … then … let them which are in the midst of her (R.V.) depart out … (Luke 21:20, 21).

To advise anyone to flee from a city already encircled by a besieging army sounds the height of absurdity; nevertheless this was the instruction, which the saints of those days received from their Lord. Nor was there any absurdity, for throughout the siege Titus, the Roman general, seems to have been actuated by an earnest desire to keep destruction of both life and property to a minimum – so much so that, according to Josephus, in the early days of the siege there were several opportunities for flight. At one time, for example, the siege of Jerusalem was as good as raised for a period of four days, so casual was the watch maintained by the Roman army. In another place Josephus writes (B.J. 2.20.1): After the first attack upon the city many of the most considerable of the Jewish folk forsook it as men do a sinking ship. Eusebius, the Christian historian, has this similar narrative: The whole body of the church at Jerusalem having been commanded by a divine revelation given to men of approved piety[29] there before the war removed from the city, and dwelt in a certain town beyond Jordan, called Pella; there those that believed in Christ having removed from Jerusalem, as if holy men had entirely abandoned the royal city itself, and the whole land of Judaea, the divine justice for their crimes against Christ and his Apostles finally overtook them, totally destroying the whole generation of those evil-doers from the earth (Eccl. Hist. 3.5).

Thus if the interpretation of Scripture by Scripture is of any value as a guiding principle in Apocalyptic study and if there is any force in its full confirmation by detailed and authentic history, one is led to conclude that the sealing of the 144,000 in Revelation 7 had at least a primary application to God’s Providential care for His own, when wrath and desolation and curse came upon the Holy City.

ANOTHER APPLICATION

But here it is needful to emphasize that such fulfilment was only primary. Once again, with Scripture as the key to unlock Scripture, the reverent student is led on further to conclude, on the basis of many indications, that a further fulfilment of far more force and far greater importance (to the saints of the last days) is just round the corner:

	(a)	Further consideration is asked of the correspondences listed earlier (see chapter 10) between Revelation 6, 7 and the Olivet Prophecy of Jesus. At least five of these belong to Revelation 7 and all save one go back to that part of the Olivet Prophecy which indubitably refers to the Last Days. Nor is the apparent exception any difficulty.
	(b)	The description of a great multitude with palms in their hands crying “Salvation” (Hosanna) is an obvious reminiscence of Jesus’ Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem, which in its turn was beyond all doubt intended as a kind of “dress rehearsal” of the Second Coming (Zechariah 9: 9, 10).
	(c)	The sealing of the 144,000 comes immediately before the breaking of the Seventh Seal, which is the last. Thereafter, nothing of the outworking of the Divine Purpose remains hidden. “The words are closed up and scaled to the time of the end” (Daniel 12:9).
	(d)	The angel with the seal of the living God is described as ascending “from the sun-rising” (R.V.). This immediately suggests Christ who is “the bright and morning star” (Revelation 22:16; 2 Peter 1:19; Luke 1: 78). If the objection were put: Why does it not say “Christ” or “the Lamb” or some other term to identify the Messiah expressly? Answer is immediately available in that dual fulfilment. The sealing of those to be saved from Jerusalem in A.D. 70 is not stated in Scripture to have been done by Christ in person (though it may have been!) but of the Second Coming this is described unequivocally in Matthew 24:31. Incidentally, this Matthew 24:31 explains why Revelation 7:3 reads: “until we have sealed the servants of our God.” The “we” includes Christ and his angels.
	(e)	The symbolism of the Passover throughout this chapter forms an easy link with Isaiah 26: 20, 21- “Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee: hide thyself as it were for a little moment until the indignation be overpast” – words which are demonstrably an allusion likewise to judgement and Passover deliverance in the Last Days.
	(f)	Isaiah 4, another prophecy which clearly has reference to the bringing in of Christ’s Kingdom, has several points of contact with Revelation 7 – the washing of filthy garments, the tabernacle of God’s people, the canopy (R.V.) of the pillar of cloud to protect from the heat – these are unmistakable.
	(g)	A similar set of allusions is to be traced in Ezekiel 37 – the four winds (v. 9), “they all shall have one shepherd” (v. 24), “my tabernacle shall be over them” (v. 27 R.V.m.). And the Last Day application of Ezekiel 37 none will dispute.
	(h)	The concluding words cited from Isaiah 25:8 bring the vision to the grand consummation: “God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.
	(i)	If the sealing is a symbol of the gift of the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 1: 13), Joel 2:28 and the use of that Scripture in Acts 2 definitely sanction an application both to the First Century and the Twentieth.
	(j)	The repetition of the vision of the 144,000 (14:1) suggests a second fulfilment; otherwise what is the point of it?

It follows then, that just as the Seals were found (from Scripture) to follow the pattern of the Olivet Prophecy in having reference both to the First Century and the Last so likewise this vision of the Redeemed has a double fulfilment And so also will be found to be the case with the Trumpets of chapters 8 and 9, soon to be considered.

THE LORD’S ELECT PROTECTED

Thanks to the detail of our Lord’s Olivet Prophecy and the full narrative of Josephus it is possible to trace with exactitude how in the First Century the Lord’s elect were sealed and preserved from misery and harm. Any such precision is impossible to the one who attempts to anticipate how the elect of the Twentieth Century will be sealed unto a like preservation. Matthew 24:31 is explicit that, as in the days of Lot, so also at the Coming of the Lord the angels will be used to bring the Lord’s people to safety. The suggestion may be hazarded with a fair degree of confidence that in A.D. 70 events were manipulated by angels, all unseen, so as to provide a suitable opportunity for saints in Jerusalem to escape to Pella. It may well be that in the Great Day soon to come the saints will similarly be unaware of the unseen presence of angels.

Isaiah 26:20 suggests a parallel between the Passover and the Last Day. Exodus 12:23 makes it clear that wherever there was the blood of the Lamb on the door, there a protecting angel hovered or “passed over,” and would not “suffer the Destroyer to come in.” Yet so far as the record goes none of those angels was seen either by Israelite or Egyptian. It would seem that similarly in the Last Day some kind of protection will be contrived by angels working invisibly on behalf of those are who the Lord’s own.

What kind of protection, and where? Two Scriptures suggest a possible explanation: “And the Lord shall create upon all the dwelling-place of mount Zion and upon her assembly, a cloud and smoke by day, and the shining of a flaming fire by night: for because of all the Glory there shall be a defence” (Isaiah 4:5, 6). “For in mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance, as the Lord hath said, even among the remnant whom the Lord shall call” (Joel 2:32).

INDIVIDUAL DECISION

There is one principle, which can be established with a fair degree of probability: The safety to be provided will be one to be accepted or rejected at will. All the available Scriptures point to this conclusion. The Israelite could put the blood on his door or could refrain from so doing, as he chose. Lot’s family was given the option of clearing out of the city or not, as they pleased; and even after that, human volition still entered in -”remember Lot’s wife.” In A.D. 70 no Christian was taken by the lock of his head and dragged from the doomed city willy-nilly.

Likewise at the Lord’s return, some virgins will answer the call only when they think they have equipped themselves to meet the Bridegroom. On another occasion Jesus said: “One shall be taken, and the other left.” “Left where, Lord?” Jesus replied: “Those who are spiritually dead will be left to the vultures.” His earlier words: “Remember Lot’s wife,” seem to require this interpretation (Luke 17:32-37).

“Be ye like men that wait for their lord … that when he cometh they may open unto him immediately” (Luke 12:36). What is the point of that last word if it is not to imply or emphasize reluctance on the part of some to “open unto him?”

[26] Revelation 7:4 “all the tribes of Israel.” But Dan is omitted. Therefore Dan must have ceased to be one of the twelve tribes by this time. Note the parallel in the twelve apostles.

[27] Note how both Abram and Sarai had the Divine Name written into their own! ABRM became (in Hebrew) ABRHM, and SRY became SRH. The point is not so readily perceptible in the Anglicised forms.

[28] Note also that v.2: “the seal of the living God” means “the seal of the God of the Living Creatures.”

[29] Is it proper to see in these phrases an indication of a further warning revelation given through Spirit-guided elders of the church at Jerusalem?

Revelation chapter 8 begins: “And when he had opened the seventh seal … I saw the seven angels which stood before God; and to them were given the seven trumpets.”

It is reasonable (though not absolutely necessary) to regard the Seventh Seal as having an application in conformity with the preceding six. If then there is good reason for interpreting the first six seals with regard to the First Century the same key should unlock the meaning of the Seventh, that is, of the Trumpets. And if the first six seals apply to the Last Days, so also the Seventh.

Similarly, if ch. 7 with its vision of the Sealed Multitude has a dual application of the kind just mentioned, one would naturally expect the same to be true of chapters 8, 9 because of the close interlocking of phrases: e.g. compare ch. 7:3 with 8:7, 8 and 9:4.

There is, perhaps, a hint of more than one fulfilment in the opening phrase of the introductory vision: “And when (literally: whenever) he opened the seventh seal…,” as though implying an element of doubt as to when the seventh Seal would be opened, i.e. the fulfilment of this part of Revelation may be looked for immediately (“things which must shortly come to pass”) or at some long deferred crisis.

A DAY OF ATONEMENT

A study of other details in this introductory passage brings to light some more features of a similar character. Some of these spring out of a realization that this opening vision of the incense-offering angel is couched in terms which belong to the Day of Atonement ritual:

	(a)	“Silence in heaven.” The allusion is to “the whole multitude of the people praying without” at the time of the High Priest’s entering into the sanctuary. Cp. Psalm 65:1 (a Psalm for the Day of Atonement); Habakkuk 2:20.
	(b)	“Silence in heaven about the space of half an hour.” It is only with reference to the period the High Priest was in the sanctuary that this detail makes sense.
	(c)	“Another angel … having a golden censer.” According to some authorities, it was only on the Day of Atonement that a golden censer was used.[33]
	(d)	“There was given unto him much incense.” It is also asserted that an extra large quantity of incense was used on the Day of Atonement – doubtless because of Leviticus 16:12, 13 which required that the High Priest enter into the Holy of Holies clothed (so to speak) in a dense cloud of incense.
	(e)	“That he should offer it … upon the golden altar which is before the throne.” That the altar of incense, normally separated from the Holy of Holies by the veil, should be spoken of as “before the throne” probably implies that the veil has been penetrated-which thing took place only on the Day of Atonement.
	(f)	The sounding of seven trumpets (v. 6) by specially appointed priests (cp. 1 Chronicles 15:24; 2 Chronicles 29:25-28) was an integral part of the recognized ceremonial for the Day of Atonement.
	(g)	On the day of Atonement the High Priest also read from the Law in the hearing of all the people, as he stood at the east gate of the priests’ court. To this might correspond the angel of Revelation 10:2 with the little book which he imparts to John.
	(h)	Ch. 7:3: “the sealing of God’s servants.” The Jews had a strange tradition, the meaning of which is not quite clear, that on the Day of Atonement every Jew is sealed in one of three Books – the Book of Life (Revelation 5: 1?), the Book of Death, or another Book which was to be opened on the following Day of Atonement.

NO GLORY – NO ACCEPTANCE

There are two noteworthy facts about these allusions to the Day of Atonement. The first is the striking absence of any mention of the shining forth of the Shekinah Glory or of the High Priestly blessing of the multitude. This would suggest that the transaction is closely associated with something specially displeasing to God, namely the unworthiness of Israel. Instead there is a casting of fiery judgement upon the Land. The prayers of the saints on behalf of Jerusalem, whether offered by the Lord’s disciples (Matthew 24:22) or by the nation (“saints” = the holy people, as in Daniel 8:24), are not effective to avert this judgement

THE MESSAGE OF AMOS

This angel is described, rather peculiarly, as “standing upon the altar.”[34] Such a phrase occurs in only one other place. “I saw the Lord standing upon the altar” (Amos 9:1). There can be little doubt that Revelation 8:3 makes a deliberate reference to this passage. The context there is instructive. Amos sees the vision of the Lord in the temple at the time of the earthquake in the reign of king Uzziah. It is probable that Isaiah saw the same vision (comparison should be made between the details of Amos 9 and those of Isaiah 6 and 2).

Amos was commissioned to denounce upon Israel a threnody of judgement. The prophet foretold earthquake disaster, men trying to hide from the wrath of God in the bowels of the earth, and being afflicted by His anger even in captivity. Yet he was emphatic (v. 8, 9) that the faithful remnant would be protected. Then suddenly a dazzling picture of the blessings of Messiah’s reign dissipates the gloom.

The parallel with Revelation 6, 7, 8 is remarkably close. Revelation 6: 12-17 describes earthquake and judgement; 7:1-8 describes protection for God’s faithful remnant; and 7: 9-17 gives a promise of the Kingdom. With mention of the angel standing beside the altar (Revelation 8:3), the visions of gloom are resumed.

WRATH UPON ISRAEL

In all this there is a strong suggestion that the trumpet visions, soon to follow, have to do with divine retribution and chastisement of Israel in the First Century and in the Last Days.

A further argument strengthens this conclusion.

The sealing of the servants of God (Revelation 7:3) was seen to be an idea drawn from Ezekiel. It is actually only one of a series of allusions, which can be traced:

		Ezekiel	Revelation
	(a)	7:2. “The end is come upon the four corners of the land.”	7:1. “Four angels standing on the four corners of the earth (Land).”
	(b)	9:2. Seven men to smite Israel.	7:2. “Four angels (the first four of the seven; ch. 8:2) to whom it is given to hurt the earth and the sea. “
	(c)	9: 4. The faithful sealed in their foreheads	7:3, 4. The faithful sealed in their foreheads.
	(d)	9:8. “They went forth … and I was left.”	8:1. “The seventh seal … silence in heaven about the space of half an hour.”
	(e)	9:8. Ezekiel’s prayer for mercy.	8:3. “the prayers of the saints offered before God.”
	(f)	9:9. The prayer rejected.	The judgement goes forward uninterrupted.
	(g)	10:2. Fire scattered over the city.	8:5. Fire scattered on the earth (Land).
	(h)	10:4,18,19. The “glory” departs from Israel (accompanied by“voices, thunderings, lightnings”; 1:13, 14, 24).	8:5,6. “voices, thunderings, lightnings,an earthquake” and the sounding of the trumpet – the end of the covenant made at Sinai (Exodus 19:18, 19).

A correspondence such as this is no accident, and can point to only one conclusion: the Trumpets represent divine judgements on Israel, just as did the prophecies of Ezekiel.

Yet one further connection between ch. 8 and what preceded can be indicated before going on to consider the Trumpets in detail. The first four Trumpets, as distinct from the three Woes, are “the four winds of the earth” (ch. 7:1) which in turn are identified by Zechariah 6: 5 R.V. as the fourfold cherubim chariot, i.e. the four horses of Revelation 6. So once again a similar interpretation to that of Revelation 6 is called for.

When chapter 8 is examined in detail it will be seen that its connections with the rest of Scripture similarly point time after time to the Land of Israel as the setting for the terrible events described.

The seven trumpets are given to “seven angels which stand before God.” Are these the seven who, with Christ as eighth, constituted the “seven shepherds and eight principal men” of Micah 5:5? The phrase “which stand before God” immediately suggests the angel Gabriel (Luke 1: 19).

THE SOUND OF A TRUMPET

It is a pertinent question to enquire why this further series of symbolic judgements should be introduced by the sounding of trumpets. That the introductory vision is one of the Day of Atonement does not exhaust the figurative meaning to be attached to the Trumpets.

A review of the main ideas associated with trumpets in the Bible brings to light the following:

	(a)	Summons to God’s people to assemble before Him; Numbers 10: 1-10; Matthew 24:30.
	(b)	Hence, their special use at the Feast of Trumpets on the first day of the seventh month; Leviticus 25: 9; Psalm 81:3.
	(c)	This in turn was a type of the Day of Resurrection; 1 Thessalonians 4:16; Revelation 11: 15, 18; 1 Corinthians 15: 51, 52.
	(d)	Special use also on the Day of Atonement; Joel 2:15; Isaiah 58:1.
	(e)	A warning of approaching war; Ezekiel 33:1-6, and many others.
	(f)	To assemble an army; Numbers 31: 6; 2 Chronicles 13: 12, 14; Judges 3: 27, and many others.
	(g)	The coronation or approach of the King; 1 Kings 1: 34, 39; 2 Kings 9:13 and 11 :12, 14; hence Psalm 98:6. With this also connect:
	(h)	The coming of the Ark (the Presence of God the King); 1 Chronicles 15:24, 28 and 16:6, 42. A special example of this is:
	(i)	The destruction of Jericho; Joshua 6:4-20; 2 Corinthians 10:4-8.

Of these (d) has already been mentioned. (e) is also appropriate in view of the warring armies to be described in Trumpets 5 and 6. (f) also has a bearing on the same two Trumpets especially, since they mention the summoning of angels of war (however one interprets these).

In the light of the suggestion already made (and to be reinforced and reiterated) that this part of Revelation also has at least a double fulfilment with reference to (1) the destruction of Jerusalem, (2) the judgements of God in the Last Day, the “Jericho’s Judgement” context is especially apposite, particularly in the light of ch.11: 19 where the Seventh Trumpet has mention of the ark of God’s covenant (Joshua 6:8) and also of earthquake. It is almost as though 1st Century Jerusalem, spoken of in ch. 11:8 as spiritual Sodom and Egypt, is here being likened to Jericho, fit only for utter destruction.

JERICHO – A TYPE OF JUDGEMENT AND VICTORY

But again, Jericho figures in an elaborate type of the redemption of God’s people at the consummation of the ages. The student should note the significance of the following sequence:

1. Israel in bondage.
2. Brought forth through the Blood of the Lamb.
3. Baptized in the cloud and in the sea.
4. Given a Law from heaven.
5. Sustained by divinely-provided food and drink.
6. A long toilsome wilderness journey
7. Then follow the details to be found in Joshua, all of them pre-figuring the glorification of the saints and their entering upon their eternal inheritance.
8. Joshua (Jesus) the Leader.
9. The crossing of Jordan.
10. Jordan cut off at Adam.
11. Twelve old stones left in Jordan and twelve new ones brought out of it.
12. The Ark the Alpha and Omega.
13. Circumcision – the old nature done away with.
14. Manna no longer necessary.
15. In the crossing, 2,000 cubits between the ark and the main body.
16. Jubilee trumpets used.
17. Victory over Jericho divinely given, on the Sabbath, by “the Lord of all the earth.”
18. The extermination of adversaries.
19. Judgement on the unworthy amongst God’s People.

There are doubtless other details that fit aptly into the same picture. In such a context the “Jericho” setting of the Trumpets suggests an interpretation of Revelation 8, 9 with reference to the Last Days, as well as to the destruction of Jerusalem. Similarly, paragraph (g) is very pointed, as suggesting the coming of Christ the King (see Revelation 11:15).

Perhaps also, in line with these ideas, it is permissible to see a special significance in the phrase: “The seven angels which had the seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound” (v. 6). It would almost seem as though a special effort on the part of even these angelic beings was necessary in connection with the work they were called on to do. Can it be just coincidence that it is of the fall of Jerusalem in A.D. 70 and of the fearful happenings at the Coming of Christ that Scripture says both of these are “a time of trouble such as never was” (Matthew 24:21; Daniel 12:1), and also, “the powers of heaven shall be shaken”?

Thus the prelude to the Trumpets brings before the Bible-minded student a large number of ideas, all of them clustering round two great crises in the divine purpose. It will be found that all the details that follow fall easily and scripturally into the same two moulds.

OUTLINE SCHEME

The general scheme of interpretation of the Trumpets, then, follows the same pattern as that of the Seals (the Trumpets are the Seventh Seal):

	(a)	Fulfilment immediately after the writing of Revelation, in the destruction of Jerusalem.
	(b)	The “continuous-historic” fulfilment, expounded in “Eureka,” applies the Trumpets to the break up of the Roman Empire by irruptions of Goths, Huns, Vandals, followed by the scourge of Saracen and Turkish invasions.
	(c)	A rapid, intensive recapitulatory fulfilment in the Last Days.

In this study attention is to be concentrated on the first and third of these. For obvious reasons it will not be possible to give the third interpretation in detail. One day, before long, readers of Revelation will waken up to find that it is being fulfilled again in their own experience.

PLAGUES OF EGYPT

The first (A.D. 70) fulfilment finds further support from a feature of the Trumpets, which may be considered before dealing with each in detail. The Trumpets have a number of allusions to the plagues of Egypt:

		Trumpets	Plagues of Egypt
	1.	Fire from the altar cast upon the earth.	Dust of the furnace (of the altar) sprinkled abroad.
	2.	Hail and fire.	Hail and fire.
	3.	Sea became blood.	Waters turned to blood.
	4.	Darkness.	Darkness.
	5.	Locusts.	Locusts.
	6.	Abaddon, the Destroyer.	The Destroyer (Exodus 12:23).
	7.	Men slain by angels.	The firstborn slain by angels.

These references to the Plagues, appropriate enough after the allusions in ch. 7 to the Passover and the wilderness journey, find an ominous echo in Deuteronomy 28: 59, 60: “Then the Lord will make thy plagues wonderful, and the plagues of thy seed, even great plagues, and of long continuance … Moreover He will bring upon thee all the diseases of Egypt which thou wast afraid of.” What else can be the point of these allusions to the plagues of Egypt if it be not to force on the attention of the reader that Revelation 8, 9 describe the fulfilment of this awful threat in Deuteronomy 28?

WHY REPETITION?

It may be urged as an objection against the view of the Trumpets now being advanced that if they merely recapitulate in different terms the judgements already made known by the Seals then this part of Revelation is fruitless repetition. Sufficient answer to such objection is to be found in the repetition of Joseph’s dreams and also Pharaoh’s and Daniel’s. Genesis 41: 32 supplies the reason: “And for that the dream was doubled unto Pharaoh twice; it is because the thing is established by God, and God will shortly bring it to pass” (Revelation 1:1). It is God’s way of being emphatic about anything. Jesus similarly recommends this form of emphasis to his disciples: “Let your communication be Yea, yea; Nay, nay” – in other words, say it twice.

In the detailed study of the first four Trumpets, which follows, attention will be concentrated first of all on the A.D. 70 fulfilment, and after that on the fulfilment that is yet future.

[33] This detail may not be taken as certain.

[34] ‘This is the literal translation. It is a familiar Hebraism for “beside the altar.”

THE FIRST TRUMPET

Hail and fire mingled with blood are cast upon the earth (the Land). A third of the trees and all the green grass is burnt up.

The contrast in Revelation 9:4 between grass and trees, and “those men that have not the seal of God in their foreheads” suggests that there is a markedly literal element about the language of these Trumpets. This feature will be found to run through the entire series.

OLD TESTAMENT CORRESPONDENCES

Practically every Biblical hint available for the interpretation of this First Trumpet insists on an application to God’s judgements against His own wayward people, the Jews.

Four passages are particularly emphatic and interesting.

1. Jeremiah 6. Phrase after phrase here anticipates the language of Revelation 8, 9, so much so that explanation by coincidence becomes too facile.

	v. 1:	“Blow the trumpet in Tekoa.”
	v. 17:	“Hearken to the sound of the trumpet.”
	v. 15:	“They have committed abomination … nay, they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush” (9:20, 21).
	v. 20:	“Your incense and offerings are not acceptable” (8:3-5).
	v. 22:	“A people cometh from the north country” (9:14-16).
	v. 23:	“They ride upon horses” (9:16).
	v. 26:	“O daughter of my people … bitter lamentation” (8: 11; reference to the trial of the bitter waters of jealousy? Numbers 5).

In the midst of this prophecy come the words: “For thus hath the Lord of Hosts said, Hew down her trees (RVm.), and cast a mount against Jerusalem: this is the city to be visited; she is wholly oppression in the midst of her” (Jeremiah 6:6).

Doubtless these things applied primarily to the destruction of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar in Jeremiah’s own day, but to limit the words to such a fulfilment only would be shortsighted indeed, especially in view of what is contained in the next chapter, now to be considered. It will be immediately recognized that here is a picture of another punishment of Jerusalem at a later date.

2. Jeremiah 7. Verse 11 was quoted by Jesus with reference to the abuses current in his own day, and which he himself inspected in the temple: “Is this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, even I have seen it, saith the Lord.” Verses 13, 16 continue: “And now, because ye have done all these works, saith the Lord, and I spake unto you, rising up early and speaking, but ye heard not; and I called you, but ye answered not … therefore pray not thou for this people.” It is worthwhile also to notice how closely verse 9 is echoed in the Sixth Trumpet (9:20, 21).

Now attention must be given to verse 20: “Therefore thus saith the Lord God; Behold, mine anger and my fury shall be poured out upon this place, upon man, and upon beast, and upon the trees of the field, and upon the fruit of the ground; and it shall burn, and shall not be quenched.” Is not this the language of the Trumpets, especially of the First?

3. Ezekiel 20:47: “Behold, I will kindle a fire in thee, and it shall devour every green tree in thee, and every dry tree: the flaming flame shall not be quenched, and all faces from the south to the north shall be burned therein.” These words also were taken up by Jesus on his way to crucifixion (Luke 23: 31). In his time, even when the people were enthusiastically crucifying him, the national tree was still green; there was still sap in it. By A.D. 70, forty years later, it was as dry as tinder and fit only for burning.

4. Zechariah 11:1, 2: “Open thy doors, O Lebanon, that the fire may devour thy cedars. Howl, fir tree; for the cedar is fallen; because the mighty are spoiled: howl, O ye oaks of Bashan; for the forest of the vintage is come down.” These words come at the beginning of a prophecy of the rejection of Jesus and of the divine retribution that must come because of this great national sin. Cp. also Jeremiah 21:14. The conclusions to be drawn from these passages would seem to be:

	(a)	the First Trumpet and details in the prophecies themselves require a repeat fulfilment, as in A.D. 70.
	(b)	reference is to be understood to literal trees.
	(c)	a figurative fulfilment is not excluded, but is rather required in addition to the other.

Thus it came to pass. The Roman War of A.D. 70 marked the end of national Jewry. The Jewish tree was burnt utterly. And in the final stages of the campaign by Titus point was put to this by the destruction of the literal trees in their thousands. Josephus tells how the vicinity of Jerusalem was- ravaged for miles around. Trees were felled indiscriminately to build engines of war and high platforms so that the attackers could fight on level terms with the besieged. And later the crucifixion of prisoners had to cease through lack of timber to make crosses. And partly because of these circumstances Palestine continued a treeless waste until the present century.

The hail of this Trumpet is an easily understood figure of heaven-sent destruction (Isaiah 28:2, where the primary reference is almost certainly to Sennacherib’s invasion). And the fire and blood have a similar meaning. Josephus wrote of the early part of Vespasian’s campaign: “Nor did the Romans leave off either by day or by night, burning the places of the plain and stealing away the cattle that were in the country, and perpetually killing whosoever appeared capable of fighting, and leading the weaker people as slaves into captivity, so that Galilee was all over filled with fire and blood” (B.J. 3.4.1).

PASSOVER TIME

Even the detail “green grass,” involving as it does an apparent tautology, is not without significance. Grass is not always green in Palestine, but only in the early spring. Thereafter it becomes dried, withered and scorched by the fierce heat of the sun and the hot winds from the desert. Hence the Bible figure: “All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field: the grass withereth, the flower fadeth: because the wind[35] of the Lord bloweth upon it” (Isaiah 40:7). The gospels mention the green grass at the time of the Passover (John 6:4, 10; Mark 6:39). Josephus is explicit that the immense loss of life amongst the Jews was occasioned by their being trapped by the Roman armies in Jerusalem at Passover time: “for they (more than two million people, he exaggerates) were come up from all the country to the feast of unleavened bread, and were on a sudden shut up by an army” (B.J. 6:9:3).

A THIRD PART

The recurring mention of “a third part” in this and other Trumpets creates a major problem of interpretation in this section of the book. There seem to be three Biblical ideas associated with this phrase, and each of them much akin to the others and to the exposition already put forward.

	(a)	In Ezekiel 5: 1-5 the prophet is bidden act the doom he is to pronounce upon his people. After shaving the hair of his head he is to divide it carefully into three parts, except for a mere few bound in the hem of his robe. These three parts are then consigned to summary destruction by fire or sword or scattering. The straightforward interpretation is then given in the rest of the chapter. The idea, is, plainly enough, that with the exception of the faithful remnant (cp. Ezekiel 9: 4; Revelation 7:3) the entire nation was to suffer from one of the three afflictions mentioned. Not all the horrors of apocalyptic judgement were to fall on all the people, but none was to come through unscathed, save those few who had the name of God written in their forehead.
	(b)	The familiar words of Ezekiel 21:27 speak of three over turnings of the kingdom. These can be identified fairly confidently as:
		1.	Babylonian Captivity.
		2.	The Roman destruction of Jerusalem.
		3.	The great crisis of the Last Days.
		Can it be, then, that this repeated mention of “the third part” is to remind the reader of a threefold ruin of the Holy City, the earliest being a type of the other two?
	(c)	In a prophecy of the Last Days Isaiah 19:24 speaks of Israel as being “a third with Egypt and with Assyria.” Whereas in history and in prophecy Israel was and will be a battle ground for Egypt (the king of the south) and Assyria (the king of the north), in the day of Messiah the three are to form a harmonious unit serving the Lord. This passage suggests “the third part” as being Israel itself in contrast to the warring forces of north and south that battle in (against?) the Holy Land. This idea is of special value in considering the Last Day fulfilment of the Trumpets. It will be dealt with later in greater detail.

THE SECOND TRUMPET

A burning mountain is cast into the sea. A third part of the waters become blood, and a third part of the ships and of living creatures in the sea are destroyed.

The “great mountain burning with fire” immediately recalls (as doubtless it was intended to do) an enigmatic prophecy made by Jesus. It was immediately after his acted parable of the cursing of the fig tree, by which he signified God’s rejection of fruitless Israel. When the disciples marveled Jesus went on: “Verily I say unto you, If ye have faith, and doubt not, ye shall not only do this which is done to the fig tree, but also if ye shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea, it shall be done” (Matthew 21:21). “This mountain” was Zion, before which he stood at that time, with its altar fire, which never went out. The Judaism entrenched in the temple was to be the greatest obstruction to the apostles’ preaching of the gospel. Your faith will move this hindrance from your path, foretold Jesus. And so it came to pass.

Jeremiah 51:25 has a similar though not identical, prophecy of a “destroying mountain” becoming a burnt out volcano and being rolled down from its high eminence. But this is Babylon, the enemy of God’s people. In the light of what is tentatively suggested in chapter 34, even this is not without its relevance.

But in what way was the sea turned into blood in the period under consideration? Once again Josephus supplies the answer. He tells of a tremendous encounter on the Sea of Galilee between a Jewish fleet and many ships commandeered by the Romans. In the fight the Romans slew ruthlessly. Even the drowning were shot dead by arrows. And the Jews forced to land were destroyed as they sought to come ashore. “One might see the lake all bloody, and full of dead bodies, for not one of them escaped. And a terrible stink, and a very sad sight, there was on the following days over the country. In this way thousands were slain” (B.J. 3:10:9). Likewise, on the Mediterranean coast, a fleet of the insurgents, turned pirate, was destroyed in a mighty storm. Many of these Jews slew themselves in despair rather than perish miserably at the hands of the Roman soldiers, a fate which actually befell those who managed to reach land. “The sea was bloody a long way, and the maritime ports were full of dead bodies … and the number of the bodies that were thus thrown out of the sea was 4,200” (B.J. 3 :9 :3).

THE THIRD TRUMPET

A burning star falls on “the rivers and fountains of water.” The waters are made bitter and in consequence many die.

A Biblical identification of the “rivers and fountains of waters” presents few difficulties. Several passages identify the Land of Israel.

	(a)	The picture in Revelation 7 of the wilderness journey of the redeemed is made to culminate in their reaching “fountains of waters of life” (7:17 R.V.). The figure of a literal Land of Promise is only too obviously behind the use of these words.
	(b)	Ezekiel 6:3: “Thus saith the Lord God to the mountains and to the hills, to the rivers (R.V.: water courses; better still: wadis) and to the valleys.” And the previous verse specifies “the mountains of Israel.”
	(c)	Ezekiel 36:4, 6 uses identical language of the land of Israel, in a context – let it be noted – which is definitely the Last Days.
	(d)	Joel 1:20: “the rivers of waters are dried up.” Once again it is the land of Israel in the Last Days.

It is not unlikely that there is a certain element of the literal about this symbol. “There was a star resembling a sword, which stood over the city (Jerusalem), even a comet, that continued a whole year” (B.J. 6:5:3). The phenomenon has since been identified by the astronomers as Halley’s comet.

It is rather remarkable that Isaiah’s prophecy (14:12) about Lucifer, the morning star, was appropriated by Jesus to describe the fate of his contemporaries who so stubbornly resisted his appeal. “I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven…. Thou, Capernaum, which art exalted to heaven, shak be thrust down to hell” (Luke 10:18, 14; more on this in Chapter 20). The Third Trumpet repeats the idea with vivid detail added. The retribution came, it need hardly be repeated, in the Roman War.

The bitterness that ensued after the fall of the star is mentioned in Jeremiah: “Behold I will feed them, even this people, with wormwood, and give them water of gall to drink. I will scatter them also among the nations” (9:15, 16). “Behold, I will feed them with wormwood, and make them drink the water of gall: for from the prophets of Jerusalem is profaneness gone forth into all the land” (23:15). And Jeremiah 6:26, already expounded in connection with the First Trumpet, has the same idea.

The basis of this language of judgement is that awe-inspiring ordinance of Numbers 5, the trial of the bitter waters of jealousy. A man suspecting unfaithfulness in his wife could bring her to the priest where she was given to drink the holy water of the Tabernacle mixed with dust of the floor of the sanctuary. And as she drank there was pronounced a most horrible curse against her fecundity. If she were guilty this was duly fulfilled; but if she were innocent, nothing befell.

Even so Israel, joined to the Lord by solemn covenant, had proved most unfaithful. Now here was her trial of the bitter waters. And the curse came into operation in all its frightfulness.

In the waters made bitter there is an impressive reversal of what Israel experienced (in a literal sense) at the very beginning of their life as a nation of God. When the People left Egypt, the bitter waters of Marah were made sweet when Moses thrust in a tree which the Lord shewed him (Exodus 15: 23-27). This strange experience was interpreted by the early church as a figure of the work of Christ. Service to God under the Law of Moses, hard and bitter as Egyptian bondage (Exodus 1:14), was made sweet by the Tree (the cross of Christ, 1 Peter 2: 24), and at the same occasion it was proclaimed: “I am the Lord that healeth thee.” The narrative continues: “and they encamped there by the waters” (Exodus 15:27).

But now in A.D. 70, with the salvation of God thrust aside and the cross of Christ execrated, there was and there has been throughout the centuries nothing but bitter waters for Israel, “and many men died because of the waters. “

THE FOURTH TRUMPET

Sun, moon and stars are darkened (by the smoke from the bottomless pit? Revelation 9:2).

It can easily be overlooked that the sun, moon and stars are used in Scripture frequently as symbolic of Israel; in fact the majority of passages where this figure is used support this point of view far more clearly than the idea often heard that the sun represents the ruling powers and the moon the ecclesiastical powers (for which, indeed, the evidence appears to be nonexistent).

	(a)	Joseph’s dream, where sun, moon and stars stand for his father, mother and brethren, i.e. the whole family of Israel.
	(b)	Revelation 12:1. The woman clothed with the sun and with the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars similarly represents the nation of Israel. From this starting point the chapter yields a coherent and highly relevant interpretation (ch. 27).
	(c)	Genesis 22:17: “I will multiply thy seed as the stars of heaven.”
	(d)	Jeremiah 31:36: “If those ordinances (sun, moon and stars; v. 35) depart from before Me, saith the Lord, then the seed of Israel also shall cease from being a nation before Me forever.”
	(e)	Joel 2:10: “The sun and moon shall be dark, and the stars shall withdraw their shining” – the final invasion of Israel in the Last Days (cp. ch. 3:15).
	(f)	Daniel 8: 10: “The little horn waxed great, even to the host of heaven; and it cast down some of the host and of the stars to the ground, and stamped upon them.”
	(g)	Amos 8:9: “I will cause the sun to go down at noon” is coupled with: “I will turn your feasts into mourning.”
	(h)	Luke 23:45: “And the sun was darkened and the veil of the temple rent in the midst.” Strange conjunction of phenomena in one verse except it is that both are symbolic of the same thing – the end of the Mosaic economy.

Revelation 8:12 says the third part of the sun, moon and stars were “smitten”. Is it just accident that the same word is used in the LXX of Isaiah 1: 5 and 9:13 concerning reprobate Israel?

All told there would seem to be a considerable preponderance of Biblical evidence in favour of interpreting this Fourth Trumpet on the same lines as the first three, i.e. with reference to God’s hammer – blows of wrath (Jeremiah 23: 29) in A.D. 70 against His rebellious people.

Manifestly the writings of the prophets have been ransacked for every available figure of speech to express in one form or another in this part of Revelation the idea of divine wrath – wrath inevitable, inescapable, condign, and complete – on a people who were now rejecting with haughty pride and stubborn hearts their last opportunity to turn away the anger of heaven.

It may well be, as in other Trumpets, the figurative had also a fair element of the literal. Tacitus and other writers of the period mention that the years A.D. 68-69 were made memorable by exceptionally impressive eclipses and terrific devastating storms.

[35] Cp. Revelation 7:1, which speaks of the first four trumpets as “the four winds of the earth”.

Once again the reminder is necessary that the application of this part of Revelation to the First Century is a much easier proposition than the interpretation of it with reference to the end of the age. That it should be so applied hardly admits of doubt. The evidence already submitted is adequate to shew this. And there is plenty more to follow. But even if the student is reasonably sure that he is interpreting the symbols according to Biblical usage (and some doubt regarding this is not unseemly now and then), to use these Scriptures in order to anticipate events still in the future is an exceedingly precarious business, never to be attempted with any degree of confidence, much less of dogmatism. So this chapter is necessarily a mixture of Biblical illustration and surmise as to its outworking.

The events described in these Trumpets are the results of great clouds of incense coming up before God. These are like thc importunate prayers of the widow in the parable (Luke 18:1-8), for Jesus was careful to set that exhortation, that “men pray and not faint”, in a context which is all about his Second Coming (17:20-37; 18:8).

The outcome of these prayers – “voices, and thunderings, and lightnings, and an earthquake” – are described once again in Revelation 16:18, where the setting belongs (past all argument) to the Last Days. The words describe a mighty theophany, as at Sinai (Exodus 19:16, 18), and also the titanic effects of God’s judgement, as this evil generation will yet experience them.

This angel, casting fire to the earth, and the seven trumpet-blowers with him suggest the “seven shepherds and eight principal men” who are to “waste the land of Assyria with the sword, and the land of Nimrod in the entrance thereof: and he shall deliver us from the Assyrian, when he cometh into our land, and when he treadeth within our borders” (Micah 5: 5, 6).

JUDGEMENTS ON ISRAEL AND ON THE WHOLE WORLD

The Biblical evidences of a final desolation of Israel in the Last Days need not be repeated here. But this Micah passage seems to imply that when the Land is overrun, the enemy of Israel will be punished there in the very place where his triumph has been most complete and savage.

But, since, equally plainly, the final judgements of God are to be visited on the whole earth, it would be unwise to insist on a restricted reference of these Trumpets to the Land of Israel only, or even to the countries round about Israel.

It is rather remarkable that the language of the First Trumpet – “hail and fire mingled with blood” – is used in Isaiah, first to describe the “overflowing scourge” with which God afflicted His wayward people, and then even more powerfully regarding the divine deliverance which He provided for the sake of the faithful remnant in the days of Hezekiah (28:2; 30:30). The counterpart to this in the day of Christ is not difficult to discern.

The destruction of trees was seen to have both a literal and a figurative element. All who have any interest in the developing state of Israel have been impressed with the efficient and industrious way in which the mountainsides are being re-planted, so that within a generation barrenness has been replaced by maturing forests. In a way it is sad to think that these splendid attempts to re-clothe the nakedness of the hills of Israel are all to be brought to nought, but their present glory and promise is of small account compared with what is to be when the verdant splendour of the Holy Land is renewed by the blessing of Heaven (Isaiah 35:1, 2).

However, the more fundamental application of this Trumpet will be in a manner comparable to the fulfilment of Christ’s own figure of “green tree and dry tree” – in the nation of Israel, all being alike destined for “burning” (Luke 23:31; cp. Jeremiah 7:20).

FIRE IN JERUSALEM?

The “great mountain burning with fire” has already been given good Biblical reference to the downfall of Jerusalem and its temple in A.D. 70. Today, in the place of the temple, on the very site, stands the Moslem Dome of the Rock. How the fanatical forces of hyper-orthodox Jewry would love to see that centre of false religion burnt to the ground. Yet they dare not attempt it. But it is readily conceivable that the confusion of some acute Israel-Arab crisis in the near future might well provide the excuse or the cover for their incendiarism. This is only a guess. The fulfilment of this vivid symbol may take a completely different form, with more immediate relevance to the destruction of life and ships in the sea. Judgement on the ships of Tarshish is a distinctive feature of certain prophecies (Isaiah 2:16; Psalm 48:7).

Amos 7:4 has a very remarkable allusion (in the context of “locusts;” see the Fifth Trumpet) to “the Lord God contending by fire … and it devoured the great deep, and would have eaten up the Land (R.V.)” – LXX: “the Lord’s portion.” It is difficult to say how the primary fulfilment of this prophecy came about. A giant meteorite falling into the Sea of Galilee? It goes on to foretell that “the high places of Isaac (where Isaac was offered – the Rock!) shall be desolate, and the sanctuaries of Israel shall be laid waste.”

Zephaniah has the same association of ideas: “I will consume the fowls of the heaven, and the fishes of the sea, and will bring the wicked to their knees (N.E.B.) … and I will cut off the remnant of Baal from this place (the temple)” (1:3, 4).

THE WRATH OF HEAVEN

It is important to observe that all the first five trumpets find the source and origin of their dramatic action in the sky:

1. Hail and fire mingled with blood cast upon the earth.
2. A burning mountain cast into the sea.
3. The falling of a great star burning like a lamp.
4. Sun, moon and stars smitten; unnatural darkness.
5. A star fallen from heaven to earth. This is introduced by an angel flying in mid-heaven.

SPACE WARFARE?

There may or may not be connection between these features and the fact that between them Russia and America have something like a thousand pieces of hardware orbiting this globe. Of course almost nothing is known publicly about the purpose of this mighty army of sputniks – “the host of the high ones on high” (Isaiah 24:21) – but it may be taken as certain that many (most?) of them have a much more sinister purpose than that of harmless highly useful telecommunications. And it is readily conceivable that in the heat of a Jew-Arab crisis Russia may not be loth to use Israel as a guinea-pig regarding some of these scientific toys in the way that America used Japan at the end of World War II, and has more recently used Vietnam.

The “great star falling from heaven, burning as a lamp,” is perhaps to be understood as a reference to the Star of David, which is now known in all the world as the symbol of the state of Israel. In modern times, Israel has let go all hope of the appearance of a divine Messiah, and has blasphemously substituted itself instead as the Messianic State and Nation. So it would not be inappropriate that there should be a dramatic rebuke of such a perversion of Old Testament truth. The figure of a falling star is the more fitting by contrast with the true Messiah, the “Bright and Morning Star” (Revelation 22:16).

On the other hand, if the Third Trumpet is to have a less restricted application than this, the effect of turning all the waters to bitterness may well be one of the fiendish ideas of modern war, which has already been seriously explored. Dumping a large consignment of LSD in a city reservoir would be a trivial school-boy joke by comparison. There could be no easier way of winning a war than by poisoning the enemy’s water supply overnight.

The darkening of sun, moon and stars may similarly have a more literal fulfilment than has been thought possible hitherto. At the crucifixion of Jesus there was a period of unnatural darkness. Several Scriptures suggest the possibility of a similar phenomenon when he comes again (Zechariah 14:6; Joel 2:2; Matthew 24:29; Isaiah 5:30). Again one is left guessing as to the means by which this might come about, whether by natural causes-such as the dense pall of smoke from the burning forests or from volcanic eruptions- or by supernatural means as at the crucifixion.

THE SAME THEME IN ISAIAH

On this theme Isaiah 13 is specially impressive. Misled by the opening verse, commentators generally have sought to apply the whole of this prophecy to Babylon. In fact, most of it (v. 2-16?) refers primarily to God’s judgement on Israel brought through the instrumentality of the Assyrians (often called Babylon in Isaiah). Only at verse 17 does the wrath of the Lord turn to “punish the stout heart of the king of Assyria” (10:12); “Howl ye, for the day of the Lord is at hand; it shall come as a destruction from the Almighty. Therefore shall all hands faint, and every man’s heart shall melt (this is Luke 21:26): and they shall be afraid: pangs of sorrows shall take hold of them; they shall be in pain as a woman that travaileth (this is Paul’s figure of the day of the Lord, in 1 Thessalonians 5: 2, 3) … For the stars of heaven and the constellations thereof shall not give their light: the sun shall be darkened in his going forth, and the moon shall not cause her light to shine (the Fourth Trumpet) … Therefore I will shake the heavens, and the earth shall remove out of her place (Revelation 8:5), in the wrath of the Lord of hosts and in the day of his fierce anger … their houses shall be spoiled, and their wives ravished (this is Zechariah 14:2)” (Isaiah 13:6-16).

Thus the Fourth Trumpet is seen as an integral part of the impressive drama of events in the end of the age. It presents an ominous picture of the eclipse of Israel, to be followed – as one Messianic prophecy after another makes clear-by a breath-taking rehabilitation when the King of Israel sits on his throne.

The last three Trumpets are introduced by the vision of “an angel (R.V.: eagle) flying in the midst of heaven, saying with a loud voice, Woe, woe, woe, to the inhabiters of the earth by reason of the other voices of the trumpet of the angels, which are yet to sound” (8:13). Because of this, and by reason of the special severity of these judgements, Trumpets 5, 6 and 7 have come to be known as the Three Woes.

This mention of an eagle-angel has some interesting and informative associations in other parts of the Bible:

Hosea 8:1: “Set thy trumpet to thy mouth, as an eagle against the house of the Lord, because they have transgressed my covenant, and trespassed against my law.” This passage can surely be regarded with confidence as the Old Testament basis of the verse in Revelation now under consideration. Thus the student is steered yet again to seek an application of the Trumpets to the righteous retribution of God against His people.

Deuteronomy 28:49: “The Lord shall bring a nation against thee from far, from the end of the earth, as the eagle flieth; a nation whose tongue thou shalt not understand; and he shall besiege thee in all thy gates…” The entire passage to the end of v. 61 should be read. Its reference to the Roman overthrow of Jerusalem can hardly be questioned.

Matthew 24:28: “For wheresoever the carcase is, there will the eagles be gathered together.” The context here – warnings against being deceived by false prophets-demands as the meaning of this passage: “If you shew yourself to be spiritually dead, you will surely get the vultures round you.” The primary reference is undoubtedly to the Ecclesia, but a similar application of the same principle to the covenant-peoyle of Israel can hardly be denied. Spiritually dead and corrupting by A.D. 70, Israel was left to the eagles till nothing remained save a valley full of dry bones.

EAGLE OR ANGEL?

The interesting textual problem as to whether the A.V. or R.V. reading of 8:13 is correct is best solved amicably in favour of both. The best manuscripts certainly read “eagle;” but a comparison with other passages makes it equally clear that an angel is referred to. “And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel …” (14:6). Here the phraseology is precisely the same, only this time the reading “angel” is indubitable. And the word “another” picks out this passage as an echo of 8:13.

The conclusion indicated is, then, that the angel of 8:13 is one in the character of an eagle; such is the nature of the commission entrusted to him. Cp. 19:17, 18: “And I saw an angel standing in the sun (compare “in midheaven”) and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the fowls that fly in the midst of heaven, Come and gather yourselves together unto the supper of the great God; that ye may eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of captains ….”

“WOE, WOE, WOE”

Josephus has a most interesting story (B.J. 6:5:3) markedly reminiscent of this passage. He tells how for seven years before Jerusalem was destroyed a respectable citizen took to going about the city, crying aloud: “A voice from the east, a voice from the west, a voice from the four winds, a voice against Jerusalem and the Holy House, a voice against the bridegrooms and the brides, and a voice against this whole people … Woe to the city, and to the people, and to the Holy House.” He was brought before the Roman procurator, yet he never desisted even though his bones were laid bare with flogging. At the great Feasts his efforts were redoubled amongst the immense crowds. Finally he died in the siege, struck by a mighty sling-stone from the Romans, and crying to the last; “Woe, woe, woe.”

It is not without significance that the eagle-angel is described as “flying in mid-heaven.” The original word actually denotes the expanse of space between heaven and earth. It is readily seen to be a reminiscence of the occasion of David’s numbering of the people and the wrath that came on Israel because of it. David, it will be remembered, chose as punishment three days of pestilence as preferable to three months of war or three years of famine. “And David lifted up his eyes and saw the angel of the Lord stand between the earth and the heaven, having a drawn sword in his hand stretched over Jerusalem … “ (1 Chronicles 21:16). The resemblance to this in Revelation 8:13 encourages yet further the idea that the remaining Trumpets are God’s “woes” against a sinful Israel.[36]

FULFILLED TOGETHER

It can hardly be hair-splitting to draw attention to the odd phraseology at the end of Revelation 8:13: “ … the other voices of the trumpet (not trumpets) of the three angels which are yet to sound.” This strange use of the singular where a plural would normally be used is neither, so far as one can tell, a Greek idiom nor one of John’s many Hebraisms. Is it intended to suggest by this means that the three remaining Trumpets are, in character and intention, one and the same? If so, there is here further emphasis on the synchronous rather than the serial or consecutive character of these judgements. In other words, they are to be regarded as describing different aspects of the same merited affliction, rather than successive phases of divine judgement spread over a long period of time.

Even so, due weight must be assigned to the indisputable fact that a sharp line is obviously intended to be drawn between the first four Trumpets and the last three.

In the First Century fulfilment this answers to the distinction between the sporadic tumult, rebellion and war which filled Palestine from end to end for three and a half years from A.D. 67, and the final horrific phase represented by the siege of Jerusalem itself. The difference in character between the judgements of ch. 8 and those of ch. 9 supports such a suggestion. When attention is turned to the Last Day fulfilment of these Trumpets a further similar and appropriate suggestion will be submitted.

JESUS INTERPRETS

“And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star from heaven fallen to the earth” (9:1 R.V.). This is an echo, surely, of the Third Trumpet and its description of the Star Wormwood; so this also is to be interpreted of Israel now cast out from covenant relationship with God.

Attention is drawn again, more closely, to the unexpected similarity between certain details of this Fifth Trumpet and words of Jesus to his disciples:

		Luke 10:18-20	Revelation 9:1, 3, 4
	1.	I beheld Satan fallen as lightning (Isaiah 14:12: the morning star) from heaven.	A star from heaven fallen to the earth.
	2.	Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions.	Unto them was given power as the scorpions of the earth have power.
	3.	Nothing shall by any means hurt you.	…that they should hurt…only those men which have not the seal of God in their foreheads.
	4.	Your names are written in heaven.	(The Lamb’s Book of Life?)

A broad hint, often overlooked, as to what Jesus meant when he spoke of “Satan fallen as lightning from heaven” is available in an earlier verse in Luke 10: “And thou, Capernaum, which are exalted to heaven, shall be thrust down to hell” (v. 15). Like the words just quoted, these form another reference to Isaiah 14 – and Jesus most astonishingly applies them to Capernaum! Thus he defines whom he meant by “Satan”: the stubborn and unspiritual adversaries of his own Galilee.[37]

And now, in Revelation 9, he applies the same language over again in a more generalized form to the entire nation and its city, which had rejected so signally and with such consummate folly the gospel of their salvation. His saints were to triumph over the scorpions of persecution, but they were to suffer torment indescribable. His saints were to be specially preserved unto life everlasting, but they were to be just as specially singled out for the worst of all tribulations. His saints were to have their names inscribed in the Lamb’s Book of Life, but they were to be given over to wretchedness, torture and death.

THE ABYSS

“And to him (i.e. to the angel sounding the Fifth Trumpet) was given the key of the bottomless pit.” This abyss is easily identifiable from other Scriptures where the same word is used.

Luke 8:31, 33: “And they (the demons) besought him that he would not command them to go out into the deep (abyss; Mark: out of the country) … and the herd ran violently down a steep place into the lake, and were choked.”

Romans 10:7: “Who shall descend into the deep (abyss)” – which is itself the New Testament equivalent of Deuteronomy 30:13: “Who shall go over the sea for us?” Clearest of all are Revelation 13:1 and 11:7 where the Beast coming up “out of the sea” is also described as “coming out of the abyss.”

A SWARM OF LOCUSTS

Hence the great locust invasion which is now pictured as symbolic of the ravaging Roman armies which came from across the sea, from “out of the country.” That the locusts represent armies is clear from the words: “it was commanded them that they should hurt … only those men which have not the seal of God in their foreheads.” This allusion back to ch. 7:3 is an undeniable link. If the exposition of that chapter was on right lines the Trumpets too (and this one in particular) must have similar reference.

The smoke and darkness accompanying this locust invasion (v. 2) are reminiscent of Old Testament language which describes the scattering of Israel: “So will I seek out my sheep, and will deliver them out of all places where they have been scattered in the day of clouds and thick darkness” (Ezekiel 34:12 RVm.). Comparison should also be made with Isaiah 9:18, 19 which likewise associates the same figure of smoke and darkness with the day of wrath against Israel. Further, the smoke of Sodom “went up as the smoke of a furnace” (Genesis 19:28), and in Revelation 11:8 Jerusalem is spoken of as “Sodom.”

A serious difficulty may be felt in the command to these locusts that they should not kill, but only torment (v. 5). However, it would seem that the policy of Titus throughout the siege of Jerusalem was to exercise the utmost clemency possible. For months the attack on the city was not pressed with characteristic Roman vigour and efficiency, Titus apparently entertaining for a long time the hope that eventually the Jews would come to a more reasonable frame of mind and realize frankly the hopelessness of their situation.

“But now out of the hope he had that he should make the Jews ashamed of their obstinacy, by not being willing, when he was able, to afflict them more than he needed to do, he did widen the breach in the wall, in order to make a safer retreat upon occasion; for he did no, think they would lay snares for those that did them such kindnesses. When, therefore, he came in, he did not permit his soldiers to kill any of those they caught, nor to set fire to their houses either; nay, he gave leave to the seditious, if they had a mind, to fight without any harm to the people, and promised to restore the people’s effects to them; for he was very desirous to preserve the city for his own sake, and the temple for the sake of the city” (Josephus B.J.5.8.1).

LOCUST SYMBOLISM

The representation of this locust horde is clearly a composite one, intended by the graphic association of different figures of speech to make more vivid the harrowing character of the judgement in store for God’s people:

	(a)	They sting as scorpions.
	(b)	They are like horses going into battle.
	(c)	They have, “as it were,” crowns like gold,
	(d)	and breastplates of iron,
	(e)	teeth like lions,
	(f)	wings sounding like chariots in battle;
	(g)	yet they have hair like women.
	(h)	Their leader is called the Destroyer.
	(i)	Their power to hurt continues for five months.

Some of these details present little difficulty, the figure employed being so plain in its meaning, and indeed involving sometimes a large element of the literal as well as the figurative. For instance, the reference to horses and chariots (designed to connect up with the Sixth Trumpet) is an obvious indication of the great reliance put by the Romans on cavalry; an exceedingly large proportion of the army they brought against Jerusalem consisted of horsemen. More information will be offered on this point in Chapter 22. The “crowns like gold” and the “breastplates of iron” (Daniel’s fourth empire?) are easily read as allusions to the defensive armour of the Roman soldiers, the former especially being a reference to the head-pieces of polished metal as they glistened and glittered in the sun. Josephus actually makes reference to these accoutrements. Similarly, the “teeth like lions” are an indication of the irresistible strength of the Roman legions.

The stings like scorpions are possibly allusions back to the time when rebellious Israel in the wilderness was smitten by the God-sent plague of fiery serpents (Numbers 21:6-9). Then whoever looked to the brazen serpent on the pole lived. Likewise on this occasion the afflictions came only on those who had not the seal of God in their forehead, on those, that is, who had not looked in faith to Christ “lifted up” for the salvation of men (John 3:14).

Perhaps it is worthwhile, also, to note that the word “scorpion” is almost identical with the Greek word for “scatter.” Certainly it was this “locust” horde with their scorpion stings which accomplished the scattering of the once “holy people.”

But what shall be said about the “hair like women”? Here is a difficulty of some magnitude.

	(i)	Is it possible that this is a reference to the sexual perversions practised by the Roman soldiers? See Romans 1:24, 27.
	(ii)	Or is Jeremiah to be used here as interpreter (51:27)?: “Cause the horses to come up as the rough caterpillars” (i.e. as the hairy locusts, a particularly destructive and repulsive kind).
	(iii)	Alternatively, is there here an allusion to 1 Corinthians 11:10? A woman’s hair is a symbol that she is under authority “because of the angels.” In like fashion these Roman armies were led on by a divinely appointed leader, an angel.

THE DESTROYING ANGEL

Apollyon is described as “the angel of the abyss.” It must be a literal angel that is intended – a destroying angel, an angel of death. There is nothing fanciful about taking these words of v. 11 in the most literal sense possible. The angel who slew the firstborn in Egypt is called the Destroyer (Exodus 12:23). The angel who punished Israel in the wilderness is called the Destroyer (1 Corinthians 10:10). The angel who afflicted Israel with pestilence in the time of David is spoken of as destroying (1 Chronicles 21:12, 15, 16; compare what was suggested on Revelation 8:13). And since these Roman armies were undoubtedly God’s armies (see Matthew 22:7) little difficulty should be found in the idea that the destroying legions were invisibly led by one of the Almighty’s angels of evil.[38]

FIVE MONTHS

There remains to be considered the outstanding and precise detail (twice mentioned) of the period of this locust invasion – five months. It has been observed that the months May to September inclusive, i.e. five months, are the normal season during which Palestine is liable to experience the inroads of locusts. Thus regarded, the five months is seen to be a remarkable touch of verisimilitude, emphasizing the likeness of this great army to a horde of locusts.

But the resemblance is much more close than this. Whilst the troubles associated with the fall of Jerusalem were spread over several years, the duration of the actual siege, once it began in earnest, was from April 14th to September 8th, a period of precisely five lunar (and therefore Jewish) months.

THE RIGOURS OF THE SIEGE

The effect of this locust invasion is given in graphic phrases: “In those days shall men seek death, and shall not find it; and shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them.” How true these words became in A.D. 70 is easily demonstrated, if demonstration be needed. Josephus’ description of the rigours of famine, endured by those who were secure from Roman violence behind impregnable city walls, is harrowing to the imagination. They were not slain; yet what torments they suffered!

        “It was now a miserable case, and a sight that would justly bring tears to your eyes how men stood as to their food, while the more powerful had more than enough, and the weaker were lamenting for want of it, but the famine was too hard for all other passions, and it was destructive to nothing so much as it was to modesty; for what was worthy of reverence otherwise was in this case despised; insomuch that sons pulled the very morsels that their fathers were eating out of their mouths, and what was still more to be pitied, so did the mothers do to their infants, they were not ashamed to take from them the last drops that might preserve their lives; and while they ate after this manner, yet were they not concealed in so doing: but the seditious everywhere came upon them immediately, and snatched away from them what they had gotten from others; for when they saw any house shut up, this was to them a signal that the people within had gotten some food; whereupon they snatched what they were eating almost from their very throats, and this by force; the old men, who held their food fast, were beaten, and if the women hid what they had within their hands, their hair was torn for so doing; nor was there any commiseration shown to either the aged or to the infants, but they lifted up children from the ground as they hung upon the morsels they had gotten, and shook them down upon the floor” (B.J.5.10.3).

TERRIBLE DAYS SHORTENED

No wonder Jesus was constrained to exclaim: “Except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened” (Matthew 24:22). These words were no rhetorical flourish, but literal truth. The first great siege of Jerusalem, the graphic prototype of A.D. 70, by Nebuchadnezzar ended on precisely the same day of the year as did the siege of Titus, but it had lasted a whole year whereas this for the elect’s sake (i.e. by reason of the prayers of the faithful who yet regarded with reverence and affection the city of the Great King) was concluded within the astonishingly short period of five months.

The grim words of Revelation are echoed almost verbatim by Josephus: “So those that were thus distressed by the famine were very desirous to die, and those that were already dead were esteemed happy … Nay, the terror was so very great, that he who survived called them that were first dead happy, as being at rest already; as did those that were under torture in the prisons declare that those that lay unburied were the happiest.”

Could correspondence between prophecy and Jewish history be more impressive than that which meets the student of Revelation 9?

There is evidence that even in the First Century this Scripture was understood in the manner briefly set out here. One of the “visions” described in the (uninspired) “Shepherd of Hermas” has these words: “Behold I saw a great Beast like a whale (compare the beast of the sea; Revelation 13) and out of its mouth fiery locusts went forth. This beast came out so fiercely as if it could demolish the city at a blow … This beast is the emblem of the wrath to come.”

JEREMIAH AND REVELATION

A final and utterly conclusive proof that the foregoing interpretation is on the right lines comes from a consideration of the parallel between Jeremiah 8 and the Trumpets. This is the chapter to which Jesus referred four times in foretelling the casting off of Israel: v. 11 = Luke 19: 42; v. 12 = Luke 19: 44; v. 13 = Luke 20:10 and Matthew 21:19. In Revelation Jesus resumes his exposition of that prophecy:

	Jeremiah 8		Revelation 8, 9
v. 2	The idols “which they have loved, served, walked after, sought, worshipped.”	9:20	“Idols of gold, and silver, and brass, and stone, and wood; which can neither see, nor hear, nor walk.”
v. 3.	“Death shall be chosen rather than life.”	9:6	“Men shall seek death and shall not find it.”
v. 5.	“Why then is this people of Jerusalem slidden back by a perpetual backsliding? They hold fast deceit, they refuse to return”	9:20, 21:	“Yet they repented not of the works of their hands neither repented they of their murders etc.”
v. 7.	“The stork knoweth her appointed times … but my people doth not know …”	9:15.	“Prepare (the attacking army) for the hour and day and month and year.”
v. 14.	“The Lord God hath given us water of gall (wormwood) to drink.”	8:11.	“The star wormwood … and many men died, because the waters were made bitter”
v. 16.	“The snorting of his horses was heard … the whole land trembled at the sound of the neighing of his strong ones.”	9:9.	“The sound of many horses running to the battle.”
v. 17.	“I will send serpents, cockatrices among you … and they shall bite you.”	9:5.	“Their torment was as the torment of a scorpion when he striketh a man.”
v 20.	“The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved.”	9:5.	The end of the five months (it came in August), and only hopelessness.
v. 22.	“Is there no balm in Gilead?”		Saints in Pella (Gilead) pleading for Jerusalem, yet unable to save it (9:13)?
v. 19.	“The cry of the daughter of my people from a land that is very far off.”		Israel sold into captivity in far-off lands.
v. 19.	“Is not the Lord in Zion? Is not her King in her?”		Jerusalem rejected as God’s dwelling place. The Messiah no longer acknowledged there by any.

To deny the application of the Trumpets to the time of A.D. 70 in the face of such facts is to deny any validity at all to the principle of interpretation of Scripture by means of Scripture.

[36] There is much to be said for the view that in this remarkable episode in 1 Chronicles 21, the sin lay in the people rather than in David. But to analyse such an opinion pro and con here would involve too big a digression.

[37] Here is the Lord’s own answer to those who would quote his words in Luke 10:18 as proving the existence of a superhuman Devil.

[38] Angels to whom God commits the dispensation of evil; not wicked angels (Psalm 78:49 R.V.); there are no wicked angels.

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