PUBLIC-DOMAIN CHRISTIAN BOOK
The Expositor's Bible: The Book of Revelation
Milligan, William · 125,235 words · 164 reading sections
_The First Six Trumpets._
Such is the strange but dire picture of the judgment of the fifth Trumpet; and we have, as usual, in the first place, to look at the particulars contained in it. As in several previous instances, these are founded upon the plagues of Egypt and the language of the prophets. In both these sources how terrible does a locu…
679 wordsSECTION 62_The First Six Trumpets._
Whether the period of _five months_, during which these locusts are said to commit their ravages, is fixed on because the destruction caused by the natural insect lasts for that length of time, or for some other reason unknown to us, it is difficult to determine. There is a want of proof that a locust-plague generally …
784 wordsSECTION 63_The First Six Trumpets._
The judgment itself is founded, as in the others already considered, upon thoughts and incidents connected with Old Testament history. The first of these is the river Euphrates. That great river was the boundary of Palestine upon the northeast. "In the same day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy see…
697 wordsSECTION 64_The First Six Trumpets._
The last two verses of chap. ix., which follow the sixth Trumpet, deserve our particular attention. They describe the effect produced upon the men who did not perish by the previous plagues, and they help to throw light upon a question most intimately connected with a just interpretation of the Apocalypse. The question…
732 wordsSECTION 65_The First Six Trumpets._
Again, the three Woe-Trumpets are directed against "them that dwell on the earth."[227] But, as has been already said, it is a principle of interpretation applicable to all the three series of the Seals, the Trumpets, and the Bowls, that traits filling up the picture in one member belong also to the other members of th…
406 wordsSECTION 66_First Consolatory Vision._
[197] Chap. iv. 8. [198] John ii. 4; xii. 27. [199] John v. 27. [200] Smith's _Dictionary of the Bible_, INCENSE. [201] Ps. l. 15. [202] Chap. vi. 10. [203] Comp. p. 103. [204] Exod. ix. 23-25. [205] Matt. xxi. 21. [206] Zech. iv. 7; Ps. xlvi. 2. [207] Jer. li. 25. [208] Exod. vii. 20, 21. [209] Isa. xiv. 1…
655 wordsSECTION 67_First Consolatory Vision._
1. Like almost all else in the Revelation of St. John, the vision is founded upon a passage of the Old Testament. "And when I looked," says the prophet Ezekiel, "behold, an hand was sent unto me; and, lo, a roll of a book was therein.... Moreover He said unto me, Son of man, eat what thou findest; eat this roll, and go…
885 wordsSECTION 68_First Consolatory Vision._
2. In what character does the Lord appear? As to the answer to this question there can be no dubiety. He appears in judgment. The rainbow upon His head is indeed the symbol of mercy, but it is sufficiently accounted for by the fact that He is Saviour as well as Judge. So far is the Apocalypse from representing the idea…
696 wordsSECTION 69_First Consolatory Vision._
Thus looked at, we have good ground for the supposition that the little book-roll contained indications of judgment about to descend on a Church which had fallen from her high position and practically disowned her Divine Master; while at the same time it assured the faithful remnant within her that they would be preser…
736 wordsSECTION 70_First Consolatory Vision._
3. The effect produced upon the Seer by eating the little roll is also in accord with what has been said. _It shall make thy belly bitter_, it was said to him, _but in thy mouth it shall be sweet as honey_; and the effect followed. _It was in my mouth_, he says, _sweet as honey: and when I had eaten it, my belly was ma…
523 wordsSECTION 71Chapter Viii.
[231] Ezek. ii. 9; iii. 4. [232] Comp. chaps. vi. 11; xx. 3. [233] Rom. ix. 28. [234] Comp. chaps. i. 3; xxii. 7, 10, 18, 19. [235] Chaps. i. 7; xiv. 14-16. In chap. xi. 12 "the cloud" is the well-known cloud in which Christ ascended, and in which He comes to judgment. [236] Matt. xxiv. 30; Mark xiii. 26; Luke xxi…
776 wordsSECTION 72Chapter Viii.
(1) The word "temple" misleads. The term employed in the original does not mean the Temple-buildings as a whole, but only their innermost shrine or sanctuary, that part known as the "Holy of holies," which was separated from every other part of the sacred structure by the second veil. No doubt, so far as the simple act…
699 wordsSECTION 73Chapter Viii.
(4) It cannot be denied that almost every other expression in the subsequent verses of the vision is figurative or metaphorical. If we are to interpret this part literally, it will be impossible to apply the same rule to other parts; and we shall have such a mixture of the literal and metaphorical as will completely ba…
703 wordsSECTION 74Chapter Viii.
If the explanation now given of the opening verses of this chapter be correct, we have reached a very remarkable stage in these apocalyptic visions. For the first time, except in the letters to the churches,[251] we have a clear line of distinction drawn between the professing and the true portions of the Church of Chr…
884 wordsSECTION 75Chapter Viii.
The vision now proceeds:-- And I will give power unto My two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days, clothed in sackcloth. These are the two olive trees, and the two candlesticks standing before the Lord of the earth. And if any man desireth to hurt them, fire proceedeth out …
1,206 wordsSECTION 76Chapter Viii.
Having spoken of the persons of the two witnesses, St. John next proceeds to describe the power with which, amidst their seeming weakness, their testimony is borne; and once more he finds in the most striking histories of the Old Testament the materials with which his glowing imagination builds. In the first place, _f…
863 wordsSECTION 77Chapter Viii.
Nor is that all, for their _dead body_ (not _dead bodies_[265]) is treated with the utmost contumely. It lies in the broad open street of _the great city_, which the words _where also their Lord was crucified_ show plainly to be Jerusalem. But Jerusalem! In what aspect is she here beheld? Not as "the holy city," "the b…
670 wordsSECTION 78Chapter Viii.
If so, what a picture does it present!--the degenerate Church inviting the world to celebrate a feast over the dead bodies of the witnesses for Christ, and the world accepting the invitation; the former accommodating herself to the ways of the latter, and the latter welcoming the accommodation; the one proclaiming no u…
718 wordsSECTION 79Chapter Viii.
The two consolatory visions interposed between the sixth and seventh Trumpets are now over, and we cannot fail to see how great an advance they are upon the two visions of a similar kind interposed between the sixth and seventh Seals. The whole action has made progress. At the earlier stage the Church may be said to ha…
827 wordsSECTION 80Chapter Viii.
2. The song of the four-and-twenty elders. We have already had occasion to notice that song of the representatives of redeemed creation in which the four living creatures celebrated "the Lord, God, the Almighty, which was and which is and which is to come."[278] The song now before us, sung by the representatives of th…
792 wordsSECTION 81Chapter Viii.
(3) The verses under consideration afford a marked illustration of St. John's love of presenting judgment under the form of the _lex talionis_. The nations were "roused to wrath," and upon them God's "wrath came." They had "destroyed the earth," and God would "destroy" them. In studying the Apocalypse, all peculiaritie…
620 wordsSECTION 82_The First Great Enemy Of The Church._
[242] Zech. ii. 1, 2. [243] Ezek. xl. 2-5. [244] Zech. ii. 5. [245] Chap. xxi. 15, 17. [246] John vii. 4. [247] Ver. 2. [248] Isa. i. 13, 14. [249] John ix. 34. [250] John ix. 35. [251] Chaps. ii. 24; iii. 1, 4. [252] Comp. Matt. xxii. 14. [253] Dan. vii. 25. [254] Dan. ix. 27. [255] John xvi. 33. [256] Z…
655 wordsSECTION 83_The First Great Enemy Of The Church._
And a great sign was seen in heaven; a woman arrayed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars: and she was with child; and she crieth out, travailing in birth, and in pain to be delivered. And there was seen another sign in heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having se…
795 wordsSECTION 84_The First Great Enemy Of The Church._
Such is the general conception of the first paragraph of this chapter. The individual expressions need not detain us long. The woman's raiment of light has been already spoken of. Passing therefore from that, it need occasion no surprise that He who is Himself the Giver of light should be represented as the _Son_ of li…
776 wordsSECTION 85_The First Great Enemy Of The Church._
The child is born, and is described in language worthy of our notice. He is _a son, a man-child_; and the at first sight tautological information appears to hint at more than the mere sex of the child. He is already more than a child: he is a man. There is a similar emphasis in the words of our Lord when He said to His…
727 wordsSECTION 86_The First Great Enemy Of The Church._
If our conception of the first six verses of the chapter be correct, it will be evident that the idea often entertained, that the verses following them form a break in the narrative which is only resumed at ver. 13, is wrong. There is no break. The progress of the thought is continuous. The combatants have been set bef…
765 wordsSECTION 87_The First Great Enemy Of The Church._
Several other passages of the New Testament are in harmony with this supposition. Thus it was that when the seventy returned to our Lord with joy after their mission, saying, "Lord, even the demons are subject unto us in Thy name," He, beholding in this the pledge of His completed victory, exclaimed, "I beheld Satan fa…
758 wordsSECTION 88_The First Great Enemy Of The Church._
One other expression of these verses may be noted: the _short season_ spoken of in ver. 12. This period of time is not to be looked at as if it were a brief special season at the close of the Christian age, when the wrath of Satan is aroused to a greater than ordinary degree because the last hour is about to strike. Th…
1,000 wordsSECTION 89_The First Great Enemy Of The Church._
The woman fled into the wilderness, but she was not permitted to flee thither without a final effort of Satan to overwhelm her; and in the manner in which this effort is made we again recognise the language of the Old Testament. There the assaults of the ungodly upon Israel are frequently compared to those floods of wa…
841 wordsSECTION 90_The First Great Enemy Of The Church._
One other point ought to be noticed in connexion with these verses. The helping of the woman by the earth seems to be the Scripture parallel to the difficult words of St. Paul when he says in writing to the Thessalonians, "And now ye know that which restraineth to the end that he may be revealed in his own season. For …
277 wordsSECTION 91Footnotes:
[285] Chap. xix. 20. [286] Gen. i. 16. [287] Chap. xxi. 12. [288] 1 John i. 5. [289] Comp. ver. 17. [290] Rom. viii. 29. [291] Matt. i. 20. [292] John i. 13. [293] Comp. John i. 4. [294] John viii. 44; 1 John iii. 12; Rev. xvii. 6 [295] Chap. ix. 10, 19. [296] Dan. viii. 10. [297] Ps. lxxiv. 13; Ezek. xxix.…
254 wordsSECTION 92Chapter X.
_THE SECOND AND THIRD GREAT ENEMIES OF THE CHURCH._ REV. xiii. We have seen that the main purpose of chap. xii. was to introduce to our notice the dragon, or Satan, the first great enemy of the Church. The object of chap. xiii. is to make us acquainted with her second and third great enemies, and thus to enable us t…
805 wordsSECTION 93Chapter X.
In both cases there is the same origin,--the sea swept by strong winds from every point of the compass, until the opposing forces rush upon one another, mingle in wild confusion, send up their spray into the air, and then, dark with the reflection of the clouds above and turbid with sand, exhaust themselves with one lo…
935 wordsSECTION 94Chapter X.
4. Particular attention must be paid to the fact that it is upon the beast in his _resurrection state_ that we are to dwell, for the whole earth marvels after the beast not previously, but subsequently, to the point of time at which the stroke of his death is healed.[343] In that condition, too, he is not thought of as…
834 wordsSECTION 95Chapter X.
The influence of the beast here spoken of is therefore confined to no party, or sect, or age. It may be found in the Church and in the State, in every society, in every family, or even in every heart, for wherever man is ruled by the seen instead of the unseen or by the material instead of the spiritual, there "the wor…
866 wordsSECTION 96Chapter X.
1. _The two horns like unto a lamb_ are unquestionably a travesty of the "seven horns" of the Lamb, so often spoken of in these visions; and the description carries us to the thought of Antichrist, of one who sets himself up as the true Christ, of one who, professing to imitate the Redeemer, is yet His opposite. 2. Th…
751 wordsSECTION 97Chapter X.
Was there anything then in St. John's own day that might have suggested the figure thus employed? Had he ever witnessed any spectacle that might have burned such thoughts into his soul? Let us turn to his Gospel and learn from it to look upon the world as it was when it met his eyes. What had he seen, and seen with an …
662 wordsSECTION 98Chapter X.
In speaking of the subserviency of the second to the first beast, the Seer had spoken of _a mark given_ to all the followers of the latter _on their right hand, or upon their forehead_, and without which no one was to be admitted to the privileges of their association or of buying or selling in their city. He had furth…
685 wordsSECTION 99Chapter X.
2. From this it follows that not the "name," but the "number" of the name, is of importance in the Apostle's view. The name no doubt must have a meaning which, taken even by itself, would be portentous; but, according to the artificial system of thought here followed, the "number" is the real portent, the real bearer o…
648 wordsSECTION 100Chapter Xi.
[336] Ver. 11. [337] Dan. vii. 2-8. [338] Chap. xiii. 3, A.V. [339] Chap. xiii. 3, R.V. [340] Chap. v. 6. [341] Heb. ii. 14. [342] Chap. xii. 12. [343] Vers. 3, 4. [344] Ver. 7. [345] Ver. 8. [346] Ver. 5. [347] Comp. p. 175. [348] Ps. cxiii. 5; Isa. xl. 25, xlvi. 3, 5. [349] Ver. 6. [350] John i. 14; Rev…
781 wordsSECTION 101Chapter Xi.
In this spirit we turn to the first vision of chap. xiv.:-- And I saw, and, behold, the Lamb standing on the mount Zion, and with Him a hundred and forty and four thousand, having His name and the name of His Father written on their foreheads. And I heard a voice from heaven, as the voice of many waters, and as the…
708 wordsSECTION 102Chapter Xi.
Standing beside the Lamb upon Mount Zion, there are _a hundred and forty and four thousand, having the Lamb's name and the name of His Father written on their foreheads_, in token of their priestly state. We cannot avoid asking, Are these the same hundred and forty and four thousand of whom we have read in chap. vii. a…
662 wordsSECTION 103Chapter Xi.
The appellation "a first-fruits" demands more notice. The figure is drawn from the well-known offering of "first-fruits" under the Jewish law, in which the first portion of any harvest was dedicated to God, in token that the whole belonged to Him, and was recognised as His. Hence it always implies that something of the…
696 wordsSECTION 104Chapter Xi.
And I saw, and behold a white cloud, and on the cloud I saw One sitting like unto a Son of man, having on His head a golden crown, and in His hand a sharp sickle. And another angel came out from the temple, crying with a great voice to Him that sat on the cloud, Send forth Thy sickle, and reap: for the hour to rea…
818 wordsSECTION 105Chapter Xi.
In the light of all these circumstances, we seem compelled to come to the conclusion that the "gospel" referred to is a proclamation of judgment, that it is that side of the Saviour's mission in which He appears as the winnowing fan by which His enemies are scattered as the chaff, while His disciples are gathered as th…
937 wordsSECTION 106Chapter Xi.
At this point, after the thought of that spirit of allegiance to the beast which draws down such terrors upon itself, and before we reach the central figure of the whole movement, we have some words of comfort interposed. The meaning of the first part of them is similar to that of chap. xiii. 10, and need not be furthe…
851 wordsSECTION 107Chapter Xi.
The second angel of the second group of three next appears, having, like Him that sat upon the cloud, "a sharp sickle;" and he too waits for the summons to use it. This summons is given by the third angel of the second group, of whom it is said that he _came out from the altar, he that hath power over fire_. The altar…
770 wordsSECTION 108Chapter Xi.
2. What is meant by the space of "a thousand and six hundred furlongs," over which the sea extended? To resolve it simply into a large space is at variance with the spirit of the Apocalypse; and to imagine that it marks the extent of the Holy Land from Dan to Beersheba is both to introduce an incorrect calculation and …
563 wordsSECTION 109_The Seven Bowls._
[375] John xii. 36-38. [376] Vers. 42, 50. [377] Ps. cxxxiii. 3. [378] Ps. ix. 11. [379] Ps. lxxviii. 68. [380] Ps. xiv. 7. [381] Ps. ii. 6, 7. [382] Isa. xxxv. 10. [383] Heb. xii. 22-24. [384] Ps. xlviii. 2. [385] Comp. Lee in _Speaker's Commentary in loc._ The distinction between the two references is there…
679 wordsSECTION 110_The Seven Bowls._
It can hardly be doubted that the _glassy sea_ spoken of in these words is the same as that already met with at chap. iv. 6. Yet again, as in the case of the hundred and forty and four thousand of chap. xiv. 1, the definite article is wanting; and, in all probability, for the same reason. The aspect in which the object…
676 wordsSECTION 111_The Seven Bowls._
The _temple_ spoken of is, as upon every occasion when the word is used, the shrine or innermost sanctuary, the Holy of holies, the peculiar dwelling-place of the Most High; so that the seven angels with the seven last plagues come from God's immediate presence. But this sanctuary is now beheld in a different light fro…
727 wordsSECTION 112_The Seven Bowls._
All due preparation having been made, the Seven Bowls are now poured out in rapid and uninterrupted succession. As in the case of the Seals and of the Trumpets, they are divided into two groups of four and three; and those of the first group may be taken together:-- And I heard a great voice out of the temple, saying …
696 wordsSECTION 113_The Seven Bowls._
Another feature of these Bowls will at once strike the reader,--their correspondence to some of the plagues of Egypt: for in the first we see a repetition, as it were, of that sixth plague by which Pharaoh and his people were visited, when Moses sprinkled ashes of the furnace towards heaven, and they became "a boil bre…
674 wordsSECTION 114_The Seven Bowls._
Probably no part of the Apocalypse has received more varied interpretation than the first statement of this Bowl. Who are these _kings that come from the sun-rising_ is the point to be determined; and the answer usually given is, that they are part of the anti-christian host, part of those afterwards spoken of as _the …
1,053 wordsSECTION 115_The Seven Bowls._
Why Har-Magedon? There was, we have every reason to believe, no such place. The name is symbolical. It is a compound word derived from the Hebrew, and signifying the mountain of Megiddo. We are thus again taken back to Old Testament history, in which the great plain of Megiddo, the most extensive in Palestine, plays on…
1,256 wordsSECTION 116Footnotes:
Further effects of the last judgment follow. _Every island fled away, and the mountains were not found._ Effects similar, though not so terrible, had been connected with the sixth Seal. Mountains and islands had then been simply "moved out of their places."[442] Now they "flee away." Similar effects will again meet us,…
354 wordsSECTION 117_The Beast And Babylon._
REV. xvii. At the close of chap. xvi. we reached the end of the three great series of judgments which constitute the chief contents of the Revelation of St. John,--the series of the Seals, the Trumpets, and the Bowls. It cannot surprise us, however, that at this point other visions of judgment are to follow. Already w…
887 wordsSECTION 118_The Beast And Babylon._
The main questions connected with the interpretation of this chapter are, What are we to understand by the beast spoken of, and what by Babylon? The Seer is summoned by one of the angels that had the seven Bowls to behold a spectacle which fills him with _a great marvelling_. Thus summoned, he obeys; and he is immediat…
737 wordsSECTION 119_The Beast And Babylon._
While the points of difference between the beasts of chap. xiii. and chap. xvii. may thus without difficulty be reconciled, the points of agreement are such as to lead directly to the identification of the two. Some of these have already come under our notice in speaking of the differences. Others are still more striki…
965 wordsSECTION 120_The Beast And Babylon._
(3) _And the beast that was, and is not, is himself also an eighth, and is of the seven._ The reader will notice that the expression of the eighth verse of the chapter "and is about to come up out of the abyss," as also another expression of the same verse, "and shall be present," are here dropped. We have met with a s…
803 wordsSource & rights
Public domain in the USA; original historical text digitized by Project Gutenberg.
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Historical Christian writing; not Scripture.