p. 6 | The Redeemed Host

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Mar 7, 1911

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 38, No. 10.

The Redeemed Host

HE seer's vision of the seals was abruptly broken by the vision of chapter 7: 1-8, the supplementary prophecy belonging to the sixth seal, falling in time between verses 13 and 14 of chapter 6. "After these things I saw," begins a new vision. It does not imply that the things which he saw came in God's plan after the things already seen, but that the seeing comes after, altho sometimes, as in this vision, the new vision is really of subsequent occurrence.

The sixth seal shows the just wrath of God visited upon the world which for six thousand years had received from the hand of God life with all its blessings. It had repaid Him by strife, ingratitude, rebellion, and the perversion of every good gift. Now the time had come when the seed-sowing of centuries had become fully ripe, the harvest of the earth must be reaped.

But through the ages God has had His faithful witnesses to His life. His truth is the sufficiency of His all-saving grace. From the last generation, most trying of all, will come a loyal company, bowing only to His authority, represented by the sealed ones, twelve times twelve thousand. But that is not all. For the encouragement of His people must He show the reaping of the harvest of righteousness, the end of the struggle of the faithful witnesses, who through the long ages have nobly stood for God, His truth, and righteousness; and these form the encouraging topic of our lesson to-day.

The Answer of the Text

[The answers to the questions are from the American Revised Version. Omitting questions, and disregarding sometimes the capital at the beginning and the period at the close of an answer, the text may be read continuously. In notes and comments both versions are used without designation.]

1. After the sealing of the 144,000, what comprehensive vision was given John?

After these things I saw, and behold, a great multitude, which no man could number, out of every nation and of all tribes and peoples and tongues.

2. Where did they stand, and in what were they arrayed?

Standing before the throne and before the Lamb, arrayed in white robes, and palms in their hands.

3. What did they joyously acclaim?

And they cry with a great voice, saying, Salvation unto our God who sitteth on the throne, and unto the Lamb.

4. Who joined with them in holy worship?

And all the angels were standing round about the throne, and about the elders and the four living creatures; and they fell before the throne on their faces, and worshiped God.

5. What ascription of praise did they repeat?

Saying, Amen: Blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honor, and power, and might, be unto our God forever and ever. Amen.

6. What question was asked John, and what did he reply?

And one of the elders answered, saying unto me, These that are arrayed in the white robes, who are they, and whence came they? And I say unto him, My lord, thou knowest.

7. Who did the elder say they were?

And he said to me, These are they that come out of the great tribulation, and they washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.

8. Where is their place in God's universe?

Therefore are they before the throne of God; and they serve Him day and night in His temple; and He that sitteth on the throne shall spread His tabernacle over them.

9. What experiences are past forever?

They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; neither shall the sun strike upon them, nor any heat.

10. What marvelous change occurs in their career?

For the Lamb that is in the midst of the throne shall be their Shepherd, and shall guide them unto fountains of waters of life; and God shall wipe away every tear from their eyes.

Note and Comment

1. A great multitude.—The redeemed of God from all ages and generations, from all tongues and tribes, from all nations and governments. As God has witnessed to all, so from all will come witnesses for Him. His witnessing may be in sun and moon and stars, for they witness of His glory, and His glory is salvation to the heart that receives Him. Compare Ps. 19:1-6 with Rom. 10:18. "For the invisible things of Him since the creation of the world are clearly seen, being perceived through the things that are made, even His everlasting power and divinity; that they may be without excuse." Rom. 1:20. The thoughtful heart, reasoning from God's power and wisdom, manifested in the creation and controlling of suns and moons and stars, would also conclude that He is a being of infinite perfection in every attribute,—in love, justice, mercy. And so should we seek Him and find Him, for "He is not far from each one of us." Acts 17:27. The truth of God which condemns the repentant sinner is sufficient to save if received to save. "Who is wise, that he may understand these things? prudent, that he may know them? for the ways of Jehovah are right, and the just shall walk in them; but transgressors shall fall therein." Hosea 14:9. God can send an angel if He will, as He did to Cornelius the Roman centurion; or a dream, as He did to the heathen kings of Egypt and Babylon. Every soul will be without excuse in God's great day of judgment, for every soul will have had sufficient light to condemn, and the witnesses from every age will demonstrate that every soul has had sufficient light to be saved.

2. Before the throne.—God accepts them; they are acquitted before the Lamb. He prevailed, conquered, overcame for them. They have overcome in Him. White robes.—Washed and made clean in the blood of the Lamb. Rev. 1:5; 1 John 1:7. Palms.—Palm branches, a reminder of all the way in which God led them, and the blessings He bestowed. So the children of Israel came to the joyous Feast of Tabernacles with palm branches as a memorial season of the journeyings and deliverances in the wilderness. Even thus the redeemed host call to mind with rejoicings the goodness of God which led them through all the perils of the wilderness of this world.

3. Salvation.—Why not salvation? for they are saved; but they are not saved by armies or States, or by their own power or righteousness or wisdom, or by church or council or priest, but by divine power; and hence they sing, "Salvation unto our God," the infinitely great, infinitely kind and loving Father. Our God.—Who gave His Son to die, and to the Lamb who died. There is no room here for creature glory or for division of the Godhead in the salvation of the race. The whole redeemed

host with immortal, God-anointed vision ascribe the salvation to both the Father and the Son, to our God and the Lamb.

4. All the angels standing.—The swift messengers of God ready to do instant service. The elders.—Our Lord's redeemed human assistants in His priestly work, during all the centuries the pledge of salvation to all who believe. (See on Revelation 4.) The living creatures.—God's organized cherubim and seraphim—mighty forces who have been systematically engaged in conquering and swinging into God's purposes all the complex powers and antagonistic combinations of earth. Now they can rejoice.

5. Saying.—Note the sevenfold ascription. Compare with 5:12 in the ascription to the Lamb, when all these wonderful attributes are classed under "the power," and as Bengel says "should be read as one word." The Lamb had conquered, by dying, all the wolves of blackness, all the tigers of hell. He was worthy to receive the power and riches and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing. Now that the great multitude of all ages and generations and tribes and tongues had conquered, it is seen that the great, infinite, loving heart of God has been above and in and through it all, and again to Him the sevenfold ascription of praise rises and swells from all who have been engaged with Him in the salvation of souls, that ascription buttressed before and behind by the joyous Amen, the mighty affirmation of the truth of God.

AMEN. Blessing and Glory and Wisdom and Thanksgiving and Honor and Power and Might be unto our God forever and ever. AMEN.

6. Of the elders.—One of those who had met and suffered the trials and tribulations as John had suffered and was suffering, asks John the question, that the fact might be more strongly impressed upon the seer. John did not attempt to tell; he might have recalled the mighty promises of God and the songs of chapter 5:9, 10, 13, but he preferred to hear the redeemed ones declare the mighty throng.

7. Out of the great tribulation.—We do not understand this great multitude as referring to those redeemed from some particular age, for they came out of every nation and of all tribes and peoples and tongues. The great tribulation would therefore include all tribulations of this old sin-cursed earth, the tribulation of the universe, costing the eternal sacrifice of the Son of God, and resulting in the fruitage of all the redeemed ones who have been cleansed in the blood of the Lamb; for we are assured that "all that would live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution." 2 Tim. 3:12. And thus "through many tribulations we must enter into the kingdom of God." Acts 14:22. And in the last conversation of our Saviour with His disciples, just before His prayer for their unity, He assures them, "In the world ye have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world." John 16:33. The great tribulation of Rev. 7:14, we conclude, differs from what is called in a more general way "great tribulation" in Matt. 24:21. The latter denotes a period of special tribulation—the greatest of the ages—of "the great tribulation" which covers all earth's travail of sin and sorrow.

8. Before the throne.—Redeemed by the mightiest sacrifice that a universe could offer, conquering by divine grace the mightiest of foes, by all the suffrages of a purified creation they are brought the nearest the throne of Love, who redeemed them by the Sacrifice Infinite. This vision we may well apprehend is at the time when all God's children are gathered home, when Christ our Lord at His second coming presents them as glad trophies of eternal victory. They hold glad rejoicing before the throne of the universe; the living tabernacle of ten thousand times ten thousands of angels is spread over them. They are His and His forever. Persecuted and hunted by all the demon spirits and demons incarnate, they are now saved forevermore.

9. No more.—The redeemed have entered a home in which there will be no longing forever for the best of the time that is past, for in that very best there has truly been sadness, and in the happiest moments fear. This has all given way to "quietness and assurance forever." Isa. 32:17. The evil things are no more. Hunger and thirst, cold and nakedness, are forever past. The scorching heat of sun-baked deserts or the cruel cold of wintry storms and blasts is no more. Fever and famine, hunger and want, prison and slavery, persecution and tribulation, will never-more come upon the heart. It is God and home forever.

10. The Lamb . . . shall be their Shepherd.—He has been the unseen Shepherd through all the past; He has gathered them from amidst the cruel mountains and high hills, from the beetling crag and the broken, jagged rock, from the thorny thicket and deep slough. He has snatched them from the jaws of the beasts of prey; and in the pitiless storms of "the cloudy and dark day," He has gone to their rescue. He has taken them from the foodless, waterless desert, and has led them to green fields. He has bound up the broken limbs, strengthened the weak and the sick, quietly led the feeble, carried the young. Through all earth's weary way has He led and watched by their side. His presence saved them and "bare them and carried them all the days of old." Now at last He has brought them home. Henceforth all the way will be fountains of waters; all the way, tearless and joyous eyes; all the way, glad voices, praising the God who saved, the Lamb who died to redeem.