And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest. And he said to me, These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.
14. Sir ] Read, My lord: cf. Dan 10:16-17; Zec 4:5; Zec 4:13. In the latter place we have, as here, the heavenly interlocutor apparently assuming that the Seer ought to understand the vision without explanation.
thou knowest ] Cf. Eze 37:3.
which came ] More accurately, which come.
great tribulation ] Should be, the great tribulation: the article is strongly emphasised. It probably means, “ the great tribulation foretold by the Lord,” St Mat 24:21: cf. Dan 12:1. For a similar use of the art. cf. ch. Rev 1:7, “ the clouds.”
made them white in the blood ] A paradox something like that of Rev 6:16 fin. For the image, cf. perhaps Rev 1:5 (but see note there); certainly Rev 22:14 (true text), and probably St John 1Jn 1:7. Heb 9:14, which is sometimes quoted, is less closely parallel: there the image seems to be taken from ritual rather than physical cleansing.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest – The word sir in this place – kurie, lord – is a form of respectful address, such as would be used when speaking to a superior, Gen 43:20; Mat 13:27; Mat 21:30; Mat 27:63; Joh 4:11, Joh 4:15, Joh 4:19, Joh 4:49; Joh 5:7; Joh 12:21; Joh 20:15. The simple meaning of the phrase thou knowest is, that he who had asked the question must be better informed than he to whom he had proposed it. It is, on the part of John, a modest confession that he did not know, or could not be presumed to know, and at the same time the respectful utterance of an opinion that he who addressed this question to him must be in possession of this knowledge.
And he said unto me – Not offended with the reply, and ready, as he had evidently intended to do, to give him the information which he needed.
These are they which came out of great tribulation – The word rendered tribulation – thlipsis – is a word of general character, meaning affliction, though perhaps there is here an allusion to persecution. The sense, however, would be better expressed by the phrase great trials. The object seems to have been to set before the mind of the apostle a view of those who had suffered much, and who by their sufferings had been sanctified and prepared for heaven, in order to encourage those who might be yet called to suffer.
And have washed their robes – To wit, in the blood of the Lamb.
And made them white in the blood of the Lamb – There is some incongruity in saying that they had made them white in the blood of the Lamb; and the meaning therefore must be, that they had cleansed or purified them in that blood. Under the ancient ritual, various things about the sanctuary were cleansed from ceremonial defilement by the sprinkling of blood on them – the blood of sacrifice. In accordance with that usage, the blood of the Lamb – of the Lord Jesus – is said to cleanse and purify. John sees a great company with white robes. The means by which it is said they became white or pure is the blood of the Lamb. It is not said that they were made white as the result of their sufferings or their afflictions but by the blood of the Lamb. The course of thought here is such that it would be natural to suppose that, if at any time the great deeds or the sufferings of the saints could contribute to the fact that they will wear white robes in heaven, this is an occasion on which there might be such a reference.
But there is no allusion to that. It is not by their own sufferings and trials, their persecutions and sorrows, that they are made holy, but by the blood of the Lamb that had been shed for sinners. This reference to the blood of the Lamb is one of the incidental proofs that occur so frequently in the Scriptures of the reality of the atonement. It could be only in allusion to that, and with an implied belief in that, that the blood of the Lamb could be referred to as cleansing the robes of the saints in heaven. If he sheds his blood merely as other people have done; if he died only as a martyr, what propriety would there have been in referring to his blood more than to the blood of any other martyr? And what influence could the blood of any martyr have in cleansing the robes of the saints in heaven? The fact is, that if that were all, such language would be unmeaning. It is never used except in connection with the blood of Christ; and the language of the Bible everywhere is such as would be employed on the supposition that he shed his blood to make expiation for sin, and on no other supposition. On the general meaning of the language used here, and the sentiment expressed, see the Heb 9:14 note and 1Jo 1:7 note.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 14. Sir, thou knowest] That is, I do not know, but thou canst inform me.
Came out of great tribulation] Persecutions of every kind.
And have washed their robes] Have obtained their pardon and purity, through the blood of the Lamb.
Their white robes cannot mean the righteousness of Christ, for this cannot be washed and made white in his own blood. This white linen is said to be the righteousness of the saints, Re 19:8, and this is the righteousness in which they stand before the throne; therefore it is not Christ’s righteousness, but it is a righteousness wrought in them by the merit of his blood, and the power of his Spirit.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
John confessing his own ignorance, applies himself to this elder for instruction, who tells him: These were the souls of them that came out of great sufferings and persecution; but he addeth, that they were such as were washed in the blood of Christ. Suffering will not bring us to heaven without having our souls washed with the blood of Christ.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
14. SirGreek, “Lord.”B, C, Vulgate, Syriac, Coptic versions, and CYPRIANread, “My Lord.” A omits “My,” as EnglishVersion.
thou knowesttaken fromEze 37:3. Comparativelyignorant ourselves of divine things, it is well for us to look upwardfor divinely communicated knowledge.
camerather as Greek,“come”; implying that they are just come.
great tribulationGreek,“THE greattribulation”; “the tribulation, the great one,”namely, the tribulation to which the martyrs were exposedunder the fifth seal, the same which Christ foretells as about toprecede His coming (Mt 24:21,great tribulation), and followed by the same signs as thesixth seal (Mat 24:29; Mat 24:30),compare Da 12:1; including alsoretrospectively all the tribulation which the saints of allages have had to pass through. Thus this seventh chapter is arecapitulation of the vision of the six seals, Re6:1-17, to fill up the outline there given in that part of itwhich affects the faithful of that day. There, however, their numberwas waiting to be completed, but here it is completed, and they areseen taken out of the earth before the judgments on the Antichristianapostasy; with their Lord, they, and all His faithful witnesses anddisciples of past ages, wait for His coming and their coming to beglorified and reign together with Him. Meanwhile, in contrast withtheir previous sufferings, they are exempt from the hunger, thirst,and scorching heats of their life on earth (Re7:16), and are fed and refreshed by the Lamb of God Himself(Rev 7:17; Rev 14:1-4;Rev 14:13); an earnest of theirfuture perfect blessedness in both body and soul united (Rev 21:4-6;Rev 22:1-5).
washed . . . robes . . .white in the blood of . . . Lamb (Rev 1:5;Isa 1:18; Heb 9:14;1Jn 1:7; compare Isa 61:10;Zec 3:3-5). Faith applies tothe heart the purifying blood; once for all for justification,continually throughout the life for sanctification.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And I said unto him, sir, thou knowest,…. John replies in a very humble, modest, and respectful manner, to the elder, calling him “sir”, according to the usage of the eastern people; and it is observable, that this word is much used in his Gospel, and more than in any other book; see Joh 4:11. Some copies, and the Complutensian edition, read, “my Lord”; and so do the Vulgate Latin, Syriac, and Arabic versions. John confesses his ignorance, and ascribes knowledge to the elder, and desires information of him; for the sense is, that the elder knew who they were, and from whence they came, but he did not, and therefore desires that he would inform him; and so the Arabic version renders it, “and my Lord, thou art more learned”; that is, than I am, and therefore instruct me, as he accordingly did;
and he said to me, these are they which came out of great tribulation: seeing this company designs all the elect of God, that ever were, are, or shall be in the world; “the great tribulation”, out of which they came, is not to be restrained to any particular time of trouble, but includes all that has been, is, or shall be; as all the afflictions of the saints under the Old Testament; from righteous Abel to Zechariah; and all the troubles of the people of God in the times of the Maccabees, Heb 11:35; all the persecutions of the Christians by the Jews, at the first publication of the Gospel; and the persecutions under the Roman emperors, both Pagan and Arian; and the cruelties and barbarities of the Romish antichrist, during the whole time of the apostasy; and particularly the last struggle of the beast, which will be the hour of temptation, that will come upon all the world; and in general all the afflictions, reproaches, persecutions, and many tribulations of all the saints, and every member of Christ in this world, who in the new Jerusalem church state will be come out of them; which supposes them to have been in them, and yet were not overwhelmed by them, and lost in them; but, by divine support and assistance, waded through them, and were now quite clear of them, and never more to be annoyed with them; see Re 21:4.
And have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb; not in the blood of bulls and goats, which could not take away sin; nor in their own blood, their sufferings for Christ, on which they did not depend, knowing there is no comparison between them, and the glory revealed in them; nor in any works of righteousness done by them, which are imperfect and filthy, and need washing; but in the blood of Christ, which cleanseth from all sin. The “robes” which they washed in his blood may either design themselves, their consciences, which this blood purges from dead works; or their outward conversation garments, which have their spots, and need continual washing; or else the robe of righteousness, and garments of salvation, or their justification, which is by the blood of Christ, Ro 5:9. The act of washing from sin, by the blood of Christ, is sometimes ascribed to Christ himself, as in Re 1:5; but here to the saints, and designs the concern which faith has in the blood of Christ, which deals with it for justification, peace, and pardon, for the removing of sin from the conscience, and for cleansing from all impurity, both of flesh and Spirit: and the effect of this is, that their robes were “made white”; that is, that they were freed from all sin, were without fault before the throne, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing. This shows that these persons had no trust in themselves, or dependence on their own merits, and works of righteousness, but wholly trusted to, and depended on the blood and righteousness of Christ; which is the only way to come out of tribulation, and enter the kingdom.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
I say (). Perfect active indicative of , “I have said.” “To the Seer’s mind the whole scene was still fresh and vivid” (Swete) like in Joh 1:15 and in Re 5:7, not the so-called “aoristic perfect” which even Moulton (Prol. p. 145) is disposed to admit.
My lord ( ). “An address of reverence to a heavenly being” (Vincent), not an act of worship on John’s part.
Thou knowest ( ). “At once a confession of ignorance, and an appeal for information” (Swete), not of full confidence like in Joh 21:15ff.
They which come out of the great tribulation ( ). Present middle participle with the idea of continued repetition. “The martyrs are still arriving from the scene of the great tribulation” (Charles). Apparently some great crisis is contemplated (Matt 13:19; Matt 24:21; Mark 13:10), though the whole series may be in mind and so may anticipate final judgment.
And they washed ( ). First aorist active indicative of , old verb, to wash, in N.T. only Luke 5:2; Rev 7:14; Rev 22:14. This change of construction after from to is common in the Apocalypse, one of Charles’s Hebraisms, like in 1:6 and in 2:20.
Made them white (). First aorist active indicative of , to whiten, old verb from (verse 13), in N.T. only here and Mr 9:3. “Milligan remarks that robes are the expression of character and compares the word habit used of dress” (Vincent). The language here comes partly from Ge 49:11 and partly from Exod 19:10; Exod 19:14. For the cleansing power of Christ’s blood see also Rom 3:25; Rom 5:9; Col 1:20; 1Pet 1:2; Heb 9:14; 1John 1:7; Rev 1:5; Rev 5:9; Rev 22:14. “The aorists look back to the life on earth when the cleansing was effected” (Swete). See Php 2:12f. for both divine and human aspects of salvation.
In the blood of the Lamb ( ). There is power alone in the blood of Christ to cleanse from sin (1Jo 1:7), not in the blood of the martyrs themselves. The result is “white,” not “red,” as one might imagine.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
I said [] . Lit., I have said. Rev., renders by the present, I say. See on cried. Joh 1:15.
Sir [] . Add mou my, and render, as Rev., my Lord. An address of reverence as to a heavenly being. See on Mt 21:3.
Which came [ ] . The present participle. Hence, as Rev., which come.
Out of great tribulation [ ] . Lit., out of the tribulation, the great (tribulation). Rev., properly, gives the force of the article, “the great.” See on Mt 13:21.
Have washed [] . The aorist tense. Rev., correctly, they washed. Only here and Luk 5:2, on which see note. For the New Testament words for washing, see on Act 16:33.
Made them white. Compare Isa 1:18; Psa 51:7; Mr 9:3. Milligan remarks that robes are the expression of character, and compares the word habit used of dress.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1) “And I said unto him,” (kai eireka auto) “And I replied (responded) to him; John was the beholder of the heavenly scene, the writer of this book, who was told to write what he heard and saw, Rev 1:19.
2) “Sir thou knowest,” (kurie mou, su oidas) “Lord, master, or sir, as one of the twenty-four (24) knowledgeable elders, representing Israel and the church, you understand,” or know, Rev 4:4; Dan 12:9-10; Rev 19:7-9.
3) “And he said unto me,” (kai eipen moi) “And he explained to me,” the elder from among the twenty-four, referred to in previous verse yet speaks.
4) “These are they which come out of great tribulation,” (houtoi eisin hoi erchomenoi ek tes thlipseostes mega les) “These are those having come out of the tribulation the great,” of their own accord, or by reason of their own preparation, to escape the things coming upon the earth, the living saints, the church raptured, Luk 21:36; Heb 9:28; Rev 19:7-9.
5) “And have washed their robes,” (kai eleukanon autos) (kai eplunan tas stolas auton) “And washed their stole-robes,” made them clean – they in the robes, washed the robes, kept themselves clean with separate living and holy service, Luk 21:34-36; Romans 12-1, 2; 1Co 9:27.
6) “And made them white,” (kai eleukanan autas) “And whitened them,” made them to be morally and doctrinally pure or clean; Being in the Lord, a child of God is called upon, challenged to keep his fleshly garments clean, and useful as one in the blood of the Lamb, 1Jn 1:7; Rev 19:8; Rom 12:1-2; 2Co 11:2.
7) “In the blood of the Lamb,” (en to hainati tou arniou) “in the blood of the Lamb,” Because they were themselves redeemed by or in the blood of the Lamb; one is to cleanse himself being in the blood to have white inoffensive garments, and offer service in the church, 2Co 7:1; Jas 4:8; Eph 3:21.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
(14) And I said unto him . . .The form in which the answer of the seer is given shows how completely the elder had anticipated his thoughts; for he describes his reply as instantaneous. And I have said, My Lordthe language is that of reverent regard, but not of worship (see Rev. 19:10; Rev. 22:8-9)thou knowesti.e., it is for thee to tell me: thy knowledge and thy view-point is higher than mine; thou knowest: it is thine to speak, and mine to hearken.
And he said to me . . .Read, And he said to me, These are they who come (the present tense is used: these are those coming) out of the great tribulation. They are those who come, not all at once, but gradually. The saints of God are continually passing into the unseen world, and taking their place among the spirits of just men made perfect. They come out of the great tribulation. Are we to limit the expression to the special and peculiar afflictions of the last great trial? There is no doubt about the emphasis which the definite article (unfortunately, ignored in our English version) gives: it is the great tribulation; but while there may yet be in store for the Church of Christ trials so great that they may be called, in comparison with those which went before, the great tribulation, it yet seems out of harmony with the spirit of the Apocalypse and the complexion of this vision to limit the phrase to some special season of trial. Is not the great tribulation the tribulation which those must encounter who are on the side of Christ and righteousness, and refuse to receive the mark of worldliness and sin on their heart, conscience, and life? In all ages it is true that we must through much tribulation enter the Kingdom of God; and the vision here is surely not of those who will come safe out of some particular trials, but of the great multitude from every age and every race who waged war against sin, and who, in the midst of that protracted conflict, endured the great tribulation which is to continue until Christs return. And they washed (not have washed, for the washing was done during their earthly life) their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. The imagery is to be found in the Gospel and in the Epistle (Joh. 13:8-11; and 1Jn. 1:7); its use here and in Rev. 1:5 (if the reading washed is to be preferred to loosed) points to a common authorship: the emblem of the blood which washes white, or cleanses, is not used with such distinctness elsewhere in the New Testament. It is, in St. Johns lips, but a following out of the twice-repeated words which he quotes from John the Baptist at the opening of the Gospel, when he proclaimed Christ to be the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. In that Lamb of God those who came out of great tribulation found the forgiveness and the spiritual power which gave them confidence and hope in the midst of lifes war and lifes weariness; for the man who knows that he is forgiven and that he is being helped to holiness is the man who thinks no fiery trial strange, but rejoices in the knowledge that his salvation is of God.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
14. Sir The Greek is the original of our sir, and in modern Greek is used for that word. But Bengel, Hengstenberg, and Alford consider it here as a more reverent my Lord, approaching nigh to the attempt at worship in a future passage or two.
Thou knowest The Greek thou, here expressly inserted, implies emphasis upon it. The knowledge to answer those questions is in thee, not in me. And the words imply a request for answer which the seer was too modest to make.
Out of great tribulation The epithet great is emphatic, by being placed with its article after the noun, which our English idiom does not permit. Yet it is done with proper names, as Alexander the Great; and similarly this is tribulation the great. But what tribulation is here meant? Some say the “great tribulation” of Mat 24:21, just preceding the judgment-day. But plainly, this company robed in white is that of Rev 7:9, which embraces all the redeemed. The great tribulation is, therefore, the battle of probationary life under pressure of the world, the flesh, and the devil. Those fine lines of Wesley, therefore,
Who are these arrayed in white,
Brighter than the noonday sun,
Foremost of the sons of light,
Nearest the eternal throne?
so far as they represent these as martyrs or special sufferers for Christ seem to be a mistake. All Christians are these martyrs.
Washed their robes Purified their characters. This is a very vivid image of sanctification through the atonement. It illustrates how deep the doctrine of the atonement maintained in the apocalypse. But we must look through the intense imagery at the literal fact, and not allow our imagination to be lost in the imagery. There is no literal robe, no literal washing the robe in blood. What is true is, that Christ died for our sins, and through the merit of his atonement the Holy Spirit is bestowed upon us, giving us power to resist temptation, to repress our disordered affections, and bring all into obedience to the law of Christ. And that is sanctification.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
“These are those who are coming out of the great tribulation, and they washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.”
The elder answers his own questions. All through the present tribulation and the greater tribulations to come Christians will be dying, but now they know that they need not fear. For it is to this that they will come.
‘Those who are coming’, the present participle. We may be intended to read it as ‘the coming ones who have come’. It is quite probable that this scene occurs after the resurrection, and includes all God’s people, for they are now not ‘under the altar’ (Rev 6:9) but active in Heaven. Thus it could include those who have been ‘raptured’ (1Th 4:17). The present tenses need not militate against this, for the vision could be revealing the future situation of those who are at present ‘coming out of great tribulation’. But the primary lesson of the passage is to those who must face tribulation, (and we must remember that even today many Christians around the world do face great tribulation), assuring them of their final guaranteed place in Heaven.
‘The great tribulation’. As mentioned above this refers to the period that John is forecasting as soon to come for the people of his day, and the definite article (‘the’) refers back to the message to the church at Thyatira. This is not specifically the ‘great tribulation’ spoken of by Jesus, for that referred to events in Palestine. It is looking at what John will later describe in more detail, the great tribulation which would necessarily affect the church in the near future through both persecution and tumultuous events.
John wants God’s people to know that although such great tribulation is coming, and persecution is coming for them, they need not be afraid because of Whose they are. This ‘great tribulation’ is thus wider in scope than tribulation already experienced by the churches. Later in the book we will indeed see the great tribulation that the world must face, and would face constantly through the ages. Christians also must experience some of its effects. But we know from this chapter that they are under God’s protection.
We can compare how Jesus Himself spoke of the tribulation that would come on the Jews through the ages (Luk 21:24). Thus tribulation will come to the church, to the world and to the Jews. (It has nothing directly to do with a ‘Great Tribulation’ at the end of the age which as such is not specifically spoke of in Scripture. But tribulation is the lot of both the church and the world, especially in the Near and Middle East, and there will no doubt be tribulation towards the end. ‘To the end wars and desolations are determined’ (Dan 9:26)).
‘They washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.’ These are not the white robes given to overcomers. These are representative of their own inner and outward appearance. While these garments had been somewhat marred, they are now pure and clean. But how did they wash them? Not through baptism for baptism is never directly stated to be a washing. (To John the Baptiser and Jesus it is a picture of the lifegiving activity of the Spirit in operation like the rain in nature. To Paul it is a dying and rising again in Christ. Neither see it as washing). Rather the washing here is ‘the washing of water by the word’ which sanctifies and cleanses (Eph 5:26), and ‘the washing of regeneration’ (Tit 3:5). It is the new birth that cleanses the people of God, followed by their receiving and obeying the word of God. This is why the church as the bride of Christ will wear garments which represent ‘the righteous doings of the saints’ (Rev 19:8), for true faith results in true action. It is this new birth that has made them fit to stand before God.
Furthermore they have used a special whitener, they have been ‘made white in the blood of the Lamb’. The blood is not seen as washing but as adding extra whiteness. In the words of Isa 1:18, ‘though your sins be as scarlet they shall be as white as snow’. It is ultimately through Christ’s death that they are fitted for the Father’s presence.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Rev 7:14. They which came out of great tribulation, That is, faithful confessors, who had endured in the cause of true religion.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
DISCOURSE: 2510
THE FELICITY OF THE GLORIFIED SAINTS
Rev 7:14-17. These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore are they before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple: and he that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them. 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.
THE more light and knowledge God has communicated to us, the more ready shall we be to confess our ignorance, and to receive instruction from those who are qualified and appointed to teach us. Unsanctified knowledge indeed will puff us up with conceit; but that which comes from God, will lead us to God with deeper humility. The Apostle John was distinguished above all the Apostles by special tokens of his Masters favour; insomuch that he was called the Disciple whom Jesus loved. Nor was he less distinguished by the multitude of revelations that were given to him. In the chapter before us he records a vision which he had of the heavenly world, wherein he saw all the hosts of heaven, and heard the anthems which they sang before the throne of God. Being interrogated by one of the celestial choir respecting the persons whom he had seen, Who they were? and, Whence they had come? he modestly declined offering any opinion of his own; and, in hopes of obtaining information from him, confessed the superior intelligence of this divine messenger. The desired information was immediately imparted: he was told, in the words we have just read, Whence they came; How they came thither; and The nature and extent of their felicity. Taking this therefore as the distribution of our subject, we shall shew, respecting the glorified saints,
I.
Whence they came
[Perhaps the persons whom the Apostle saw, were those who had suffered martyrdom for the sake of Christ [Note: Rev 6:9-11.]. But it is through much tribulation that every one must enter into the kingdom of heaven. Persecution indeed does not rage equally at all times, or affect all in an equal degree: but all who will live godly in Christ Jesus must suffer it. It is necessary that they should endure it, not only to prove the sincerity of their faith, but to accomplish, in many other respects, the gracious purposes of God towards them. Besides, there are numberless other troubles, which are peculiar to the true Christian, and are more afflictive than the most cruel persecution. The temptations of Satan are often like fiery darts that pierce the soul, and inflame it with a deadly venom. The body of sin and death, which even the most exalted saints carry about with them to the latest hour of their lives, often drew from the Apostle tears and groans, which his bitterest enemies never could extort. He could rejoice and glory in the sufferings which they inflicted; but a sense of his indwelling corruptions broke his spirit, and humbled him in the dust. There is yet another source of tribulation, which, when opened, overwhelms the soul with inexpressible anguish. The hidings of Gods face were the chief ingredient of that bitter cup, which so distressed our adorable Saviour, that his soul was sorrowful, even unto death. Nor are any of his followers so highly privileged, but they at times cry out by reason of dereliction, and feel a grief too big for utterance. Hence then may it be said of all that are in heaven, That they came thither through much tribulation; or, as it is spoken by the prophet, That the third part, the chosen remnant, are brought through the fire [Note: Zec 13:9.].
But as they are a remnant only who partake of that glory, while by far the greater part are left to perish in their sins, it will be proper to inquire,]
II.
How they came thither
[Though tribulation is the way to heaven, and, when suffered for the sake of Christ, is the means of advancing us to higher degrees of glory, or, as the Apostle says, worketh out for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, yet is it by no means meritorious in the sight of God: if our trials were ever so great, ever so long continued, and ever so patiently endured, they would not expiate our guilt, or purchase the remission of one single sin. Nor is repentance, however deep, at all more available for the removal of our guilt. As well might the Ethiopian hope to change his complexion, or the leopard to wash away his spots in water, as we to cleanse our souls from the stains they have contracted, even though we could bathe them in rivers of tears. But though neither the tears of penitence, nor the blood of martyrdom, can avail for the washing of our robes, there is a fountain opened for sin and for uncleanness, a fountain in which sins of a crimson dye may be made white as snow. The blood of the Lamb of God was shed for this very purpose, and is ever effectual for this end. And if we could ask of every saint that is in heaven, How came you hither? Whence had you this white robe? there would be but one answer from them all; all without exception would acknowledge that their own righteousnesses were as filthy rags; and that they washed them white in the blood of the Lamb. This is noticed in the text as the express reason of their being exalted to glory; they washed their robes in the blood of the Lamb; therefore are they before the throne of God. And, if ever we would go thither, we must go in the same way, and be found in Christ, not having our own righteousness, but his.
That we may be stirred up to seek a participation of their privileges, let us consider,]
III.
The nature and extent of their felicity
While we are in this world we can form but very inadequate conceptions of what is passing in heaven. But respecting the glorified saints the text informs us, that,
1.
They serve God
[Heaven is not a scene of inactivity, but of constant diligence in the service of God. As God dwelt visibly in the temple, and the chambers of the priests surrounded him on every side; and as the priests ministered before him in white garments, all in their courses attending upon him by day and by night, so he is represented as seated on his throne in heaven; and all his saints being made priests unto him, they surround his throne clothed in white robes, and minister unto him, not in rotation, but all together, with incessant watchfulness. They once were prevented by their infirmities, and by the very necessities of nature, from glorifying him so continually as they would have wished; but now their powers are enlarged, and they can serve him without weariness and without distraction. Now also they have a freedom from every thing that could at all abate their happiness in his service. When they were in the flesh they had many wants yet unsupplied, and many trials that were grievous to flesh and blood. If they had lost their desire after earthly things, yet they hungered and thirsted after God, and felt many painful sensations by reason of their distance from him. But now every trial is removed: the sun of persecution no longer lights on them; nor do the fiery darts of Satan any longer wound their souls [Note: Rev 21:3-4.]. Hence their services are unintermitted, and their happiness is unalloyed.]
2.
God serves them
[Both the Father and Christ delight to minister to their happiness. The Father has long pitied them, as a parent pities his dear afflicted infant; and, rejoicing with them in the termination of their trials, now wipes the tears from their eyes, and receives them to his everlasting embraces. The Lord Jesus too, who, though on his throne, is yet as a Lamb that has been slain, delights to minister unto them [Note: Luk 12:37.]. Once, as the great Shepherd of the sheep, he sought them out, and brought them home on his shoulders rejoicing, and fed them in green pastures, and made them to lie down beside the still waters. The same office does he still execute in heaven, where his widely scattered flock are collected, as one fold under one Shepherd [Note: Joh 10:16]. There he feeds them in far richer pastures than they ever saw below, and leads them from the streams, to the living fountains of consolation and bliss. Incessantly does he give them brighter discoveries of all the Divine perfections as harmonizing, and as glorified, in their salvation; and incessantly does he refresh them with the sweetest tokens of his love, and the most abundant communications of his joy.]
Infer
1.
How patient should we be in all our tribulations!
[Tribulation is but the way to our Fathers house: and can we repine at the difficulties of the way, if we only consider whither it is leading us? Besides, while every trial brings us nearer to our journeys end, it leaves one trial less to be endured. Be patient, then, and hope to the end.
2.
How earnest should we be to obtain an interest in Christ!
[Nothing but his blood can cleanse us from sin; nor can we ever be admitted to the marriage-supper without a wedding garment. Let us go then to the fountain; let us wash and be clean.]
3.
How diligent should we be in seeking heaven!
[Will not the blessedness of heaven repay us? Will it not be time enough to rest when we get thither? Let us then press forward with all our might.]
Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)
14 And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest. And he said to me, These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.
Ver. 14. Which came out of great tribulation ] It is but a delicacy that men dream of to divide Christ and his cross. The bishop of London, when he had degraded Richard Bayfield, martyr, kneeling upon the highest step of the altar, he smote him so hard on the breast with his crosier staff, that he threw him down backward, and brake his head so that he swooned; and when he came to himself again, he thanked God that he was delivered from the malignant Church of Antichrist, and that he was come into the true Church of Christ militant, and I hope shall be anon with him in the Church triumphant. (Acts and Mon.)
And made them white ] Other blood stains what is washed in it; this blood of the spotless Lamb whitens and purifies.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Rev 7:14 . (“Sir”) the respectful address of an inferior to his superior in age or station, the being conceived as angelic beings (as in Dan 10:17 ; Dan 10:19 ; Dan 10:4 Ezr 4:3 , etc.) “Thou knowest” (and I fain would know also). The great distress is plainly the period of persecution and martyrdom (Rev 6:11 ) predicted ( e.g. , Mat 24:21 , from Dan 12:1 ) to herald the final catastrophe. It is still expected by Hermas ( Vis. ii. 2. 7, iv. 2. 5, 3. 6); but he less religiously attributes the white garments ( i.e. , purity of soul) to the virtues. As the crisis with its outcome ol faith and loyalty in all nations (Rev 7:9 ) is to be world-wide, this passage seems to imply, altnougn in a characteristically vague and incidental fashion ( cf. Rev 5:9 , Rev 14:6 , etc.), the idea of Mar 8:10 . But the situation of the Apocalypse is so acute, that mission operations are at a standstill. Instead of the gospel invading and pervading the pagan world, the latter has closed in upon the churches with threatening power, and in the brief interval before the end practically nothing can be looked for except the preservation of the faithful. Those who come out of the great distress” are further described as having washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb; which portrays their character and conduct and at the same time explains the secret of their triumphant endurance. “Mehr gedacht als geschaut ist das Bild” (J. Weiss). The great thing is not to emerge from trial, but to emerge from it with unstained faith and conscience. And this is possible, not to man’s unaided efforts, but to the sacrificial power of Christ, the experience of which forms the last line of defence in the struggle. The confessors and martyrs owed their moral purity to what they obtained through the sacrifice of Jesus. But moral purity became in this case something more intense (as the context and the emphatic language of this verse imply) than the normal Christian experience of forgiveness and holiness. By a turn of thought which is developed later by Ignatius and Tertullian ( Scorp. xii. sordes quidem baptismate abluuntur, maculae uero martyrio candidantur), it is suggested that in their martyrdom ( cf. Dan 12:10 ) these saints were able to make the redeeming power of Jesus peculiarly their own; the nature of their cruel sufferings identified them especially with their Lord. It is noticeable that the mystic union of the individual Christian with Christ mainly comes forward ward in the Apocalypse ( cf. Rev 14:13 ) when the martyrs and confessors are mentioned, as if the writer held that such an experience alone could yield the deepest consciousness of communion with One who was conceived essentially as a Lamb who had been slain, a faithful witness , etc. ( cf. Titius, 216, 217). On the high respect for martyrs, of which this forms an early trace, see Weinel, 142 144. At the same time it is to the blood of the Lamb , not to their own blood, that they owe their bliss and triumph; redemption, not martyrdom, is the essential basis of their deliverance. People might be redeemed without becoming martyrs; as, for example, either recreant Christians or those who happened to die a natural death. But no one could be a martyr without having the strength of redemption behind him.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
Sir. Most texts read “My lord”.
knowest. See App-132.
which came = who come.
out of. App-104.
great, &c. = the great, &c. Compare Mat 24:21. See Jer 30:5-7. Dan 12:1. Nothing to do with Christ’s sufferings and death on the cross.
have. Omit.
washed. Greek. pluno. Only here. App-136. Septuagint uses in Psa 51:2, Psa 51:7 for Hebrew. kabas. These wash “their own robes” the standing of works, not of grace. For latter see 1Co 6:11.
in = by. i.e. by virtue of, the en being here the efficient cause. App-104. See Rev 1:5; Rev 5:9, and App-95, note 2, “washing in blood”.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
tribulation
The great tribulation is the period of unexampled trouble predicted in the passages cited under that head from Psa 2:5 to Rev 7:14 and described in Revelation 11-18. Involving in a measure the whole earth Rev 3:10 it is yet distinctly “the time of Jacob’s trouble” Jer 30:7 and its vortex Jerusalem and the Holy Land. It involves the people of God who will have returned to Palestine in unbelief. Its duration is three and a half years, or the last half of the seventieth week of Daniel. (See Scofield “Dan 9:24”). Rev 11:2; Rev 11:3 The elements of the tribulation are:
(1) The cruel reign of the “beast out of the sea” Rev 13:1 who at the beginning of the three and a half years, will break his covenant with the Jews (by virtue of which they will have re-established the temple worship, Dan 9:27 and show himself in the temple, demanding that he be worshipped as God; Mat 24:15; 2Th 2:4.
(2) The active interposition of Satan “having great wrath” Rev 12:12 who gives his power to the Beast Rev 13:4; Rev 13:5.
(3) The unprecedented activity of demons Rev 9:2; Rev 9:11 and
(4) the terrible “bowl” judgments of Revelation 16.
The great tribulation will be, however, a period of salvation. An election out of Israel is seen as sealed for God Rev 7:4-8 and, with an innumerable multitude of Gentiles Rev 7:9 are said to have come “out of the great tribulation” Rev 7:14. They are not of the priesthood, the church, to which they seem to stand somewhat in the relation of the Levites to the priests under the Mosaic Covenant. The great tribulation is immediately followed by the return of Christ in glory, and the events associated therewith Mat 24:29; Mat 24:30.
See “Remnant” Isa 1:9.
(See Scofield “Rom 11:5”). “Beast” See Scofield “Dan 9:24” See Scofield “Rev 19:20” “Armageddon” Rev 16:14. See Scofield “Rev 19:17”.
Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes
The Noble Army of Martyrs
And he said to me, These are they which come out of the great tribulation, and they washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.Rev 7:14.
The Revelation of St. John is a magnificent spectacular prophecy. It sets forth great principles in bold and brilliant pictures. It uses the bitter experiences which befell Christian hearts in dreadful persecutions, as the means of showing forth the Divine providence and purpose of deliverance. With the blood of present martyrdoms for a symbol, it depicts the struggle and woe of a world at strife. And with the white light shining in the Christian faith, it shows forth the blessed consummation of victory, the triumph of the Christ. It is one of the most stirring of writings. It moves the heart because it is so filled with the pathos and the tragedy of those days of bloody persecution in which it was written. Without tears, says Bengel, it was not written; without tears it cannot be understood. It is a set of dazzling pictures, wherein, says Herder, the great poettheologian, are set forth the rise, the visible existence, and the general future of Christs Kingdom, in figures and similitudes of His first coming to terrify and to console.
In the passage which stands as the text, we have one of our glimpses of the victory which in those days of tribulation and anguish must have seemed so very remote and hard to believe. The innumerable throng in white robes, with palms in their hands, wear and bear the symbols of triumph. They stand forth in the din and clash of the contending forces depicted in this book, the happy participants in the glory and the purity of the victorious Lamb. Their white robes mean holiness. Their waving palms mean victory. The two symbols standing together set forth the triumph of holiness. That is the burden of the whole book. It is the glorious message which shines down to us from all these stormy pictures. The victory of the good, the end of strife in the purification of the worldthis is the great thought poured out of the heart of that mystic utterance of the beloved Apostle. Victory through struggle and tribulationthat is the outcome of the world and the creation, prophesied in this vision of the multitude in white robes.
But the form and suggestions of the vision bring to the mind not alone the victory, but the means as well. In the very thought of a victory, there is also the thought of a battle. Winning comes only of striving. The creation is to make its way to this victory through struggle. And the same thought which carries the mind to the consummation of toil and suffering carries it back also to the weariness and the pain and the conflict out of which that end has been wrought. Lo, a great multitude, clothed in white robes, and with palmsThese are they which come out of the great tribulation. There is a long look ahead in these words. But there is also a long look backward, as they, in one sentence, not only forecast the future but sum up the past.1 [Note: J. C. Adams, The Leisure of God, 219.]
It is told of Robert Burns that he could never read the closing verses of this chapter without tears. It is no wonder. The poet is a man of larger heart, of broader and keener sympathy than other men, and with a corresponding power of expression. What all men feel he feels more, and can express better. All of us feel that in this and like words of the Holy Book, something in our hearts is met; a something which we may never have been able to define or uttera faint vision of blessednessa belief that at some time, we know not when, in some world or region we know not where, the brightest of those things which the soul can desire or conceive is possible to Man 1:2 [Note: J. Laidlaw, Studies in the Parables, 271.]
I
The Tribulation
1. Perhaps a more literal rendering of the original Greek would be friction, the rubbing which goes to make the fine polish, or the exquisite edge. And so we might render the text: These are they which come out of the refining processes of great friction. But the translators word tribulation is both apt and striking. Its original meaning is full of interest. It is derived from the tribula or tribulum which was used to crush the straw and separate the grain from the chaff. In its spiritual application it means chastening, the purification of the desires, the removal, through discipline of the soul, of what mars its progress, and the power of assimilating fresh influences of good. There are different kinds of tribulation. It may be the crushing on the wheel, or the stake of fire, or the slow, patient application of daily trials. It may be sheer savagery, or it may be the mere wear and tear of common life, some crushing burden, some hidden struggle against temptation, or grinding care, or sad bereavement, such as may possibly come, or it may be some slight misunderstanding, or misrepresentation, or the weariness and painfulness of commonest details.
I remember often, when a boy in my fathers barn, turning round by the handle of the fanners the big wooden fan inside, which by its motion created an artificial wind, blowing away, from the confused mixed stuff from the threshing-floor poured into its funnel, the chaff and broken bits of straw, and passing through the clean, assorted grain in a heap by itself. This instrument is very ancient in its form and use. It is a legacy from the Romans, and was called by them tribulum. It is from the Latin name of this instrument that our English word tribulation comes. The early Christians compared a trial or trouble to a passing through the tribulum or fanners, in order that by it their nature might be winnowed, that they might be sifted as wheat, and all their chaff blown away; and therefore they called it a tribulation when it had that effect. They said that we must through many tribulations enter into the Kingdom of God; and they were taught that this was not an evil but a good, that sanctified affliction to the believer was gain and not loss. It was a tribulation that separated the precious from the vile, that purified the nature of the believer, but preserved himself unhurt for the heavenly garner.1 [Note: H. Macmillan, The Touch of God, 150.]
2. But the text. speaks of the great tribulation. So it is not the general sorrow and perplexity of human life that is referred to here; we must not compare this text with such passages as that in which Eliphaz, the Temanite, tells us that man is born unto trouble, as the sparks fly upward. It is the tribulation which Christ foretold as the immediate result of His coming, the prospect of which was before Him from the first, making Him speak of His mission as one not of peace but of a sword, and which, in almost His last discourse in Jerusalem, He declared would be wider and greater than the world had ever known before. To the early disciples it took the form of persecution; and to this the text immediately refers, with this a great part of the Book of the Revelation is concerned.
The writer had lived through a period, perhaps more than one period, of persecution and martyrdom. He had seen the powers of this world employing all their resources to quench the light of Christ, and exterminate the hated sect which bore His name. He had seen or heard of dear friends slaughtered, Paul beheaded, Peter crucified, all or nearly all his fellow-apostles done to death, and a host of less known believers sacrificed to Romes fury and Romes lust. He had lived through days which it is difficult for us to imagine, when every Christian, in a sense, died daily, and when nearly every Christian household, like Egypt of old, had at least one dead: and he had watched them calmly facing all these terrors, and holding fast the faith with courage and patience which never faltered, and dying with triumphant hope when their hour came. He had seen all this, and now he looks up, and for a moment the veil of the unseen is drawn aside, and he has a vision of these once suffering saints in their glory, wearing the white robes of spotless souls, and waving the palm branches of victory. They have conquered in the earthly fight and received their reward, and they now serve God day and night in the inner temple. St. John speaks of them as a multitude which no man can number, out of all nations, kindreds, peoples, and tongues, all of whom had come out of great tribulation and been perfected, like the Master Himself, by their sufferings.
Christ came not to send peace on earth but a sword; against the restless and resistless force of the new religion the gates of hell should not prevail. But polytheism could not be dethroned without a struggle; nor mankind regenerated without a baptism of blood. Persecution, in fact, is the other side of aggression, the inevitable outcome of a truly missionary spirit; the two are linked together as action and reaction. To the student of ancient history all this will appear intelligible, perhaps even axiomatic. The birth-throes of the new religion must needs be agonizing. The religion of the civilized world was passing through Medeas cauldron. Out of the cauldron there would come a new world, but not without fire and blood. Persecution, in short, is no mere incident in the life of the Church which might possibly have been avoided. Not so do we read either history or Christianity. Persecution rather was the necessary antagonism of certain fundamental principles and policies in the Empire of Csar and the Kingdom of Christ.
By a sure instinct the Church discerned in the death of the martyr the repetition, not the less real because faint, of the central Sacrifice of Calvary. As we behold the martyrs, writes Origen, coming forth from every Church to be brought before the tribunal, we see in each the Lord Himself condemned. So Irenus speaks of the martyrs as endeavouring to follow in the footsteps of Christ, and of St. Stephen, as imitating in all things the Master of Martyrdom. In the early Church the imitation of Christ, as a formal principle in ethics, played but a secondary part, so far, at any rate, as the average member was concerned. The martyrs and confessors alone were thought of as actually following and imitating Jesus; they alone were the true disciples of the Master. It was enough for the servant that he should be as his Lord.1 [Note: H. B. Workman, Persecution in the Early Church, 21, 51.]
3. It is impossible, however, to confine the application of the text to the martyrs of the first century. The Seer beheld a great multitude, which no man could number, out of every nation, and of all tribes and people and tongues; and he may have viewed as one great tribulation all the distresses that afflict the Christian generations. Just as the ten thousand lamps in a huge city blend their upcast rays into the cloud of red mist which invests it at nightfall, so the sorrows of Christs servants in all ages gather themselves into one great lurid mass before the view of the Seer. It is from the worlds great storm-centre of violence and whirling wrath that the children of light emerge into victory. The great tribulation. Common causes give rise to it. The stress and pain of the individual disciple is not peculiar to his own lot, but is part of a whole.
Some epochs may be marked by violent forms of persecution and distress, but in every age hostile tempers work against the outward happiness and well-being of Christs followers. The hounded apostle of the first century and the uncompromising confessor of the last stand beneath the same eclipse. There is under every form of government the same prejudice against the plain, pure ethic of Jesus Christ, the same tendency to pitiless rancour, the same sensibility to pain in the victims, the same subjection to death. This hostile temper works in one age by the engine of physical torture, and in another by sneer, slander, and social ostracism. The hot, bitter springs from which tears come are the same in all ages, and never run quite dry. That which the Seer here describes is a specific, undivided, palpitating pain running through the frame of Christs mystical body, filling up in all ages that which is behind of His sufferings.
It is quite the usual thing in the world for saintly men to be persecuted. It has been, as it were, agreed between God and His servants on one part, and the devil and his own on the other part, that the latter should persecute the former; that the good should suffer and be tortured, that the wicked should exercise upon them their malice, and that as long as they live in the world these should triumph, the others weep, and that after a short time all things be reversed. Let the wicked now raise up false testimonies, crushing them with affronts; let them be cast into prisons, exiled, covered with miseries as by a mantle; let them be loaded with all the misfortunes that can be devised, until they end this life by a sad death; all, all will be in the end the fulfilment of the arrangement assented to very long ago between the ancient serpent and man: She shall crush thy head, and thou shalt lie in wait for her heel. There is no need to fill pages with examples. It suffices for my purpose to say that no one can meditate on the life of any saintly man without discovering something of this, and in many of them a great deal; indeed, this fact has come to be so widely acknowledged that we ourselves do not hold a saint to be so who does not pass through all this.1 [Note: F. J. de Siguenza, The Life of Saint Jerome (ed. 1907), 374.]
4. The imagery of this book seems to suggest that the stages of the tribulation are so ordered that it achieves the ends of a great spiritual discipline. The convulsions which rend the earth are one and all determined by movements before the throne of God in heaven. The saints are sealed ere the restless forces of destruction rush forth upon their errands, and the trials which are to prove high qualities take place under the eye of a watching God and amidst the ministries of His messengers. The distracted world is not a sheer anarchy of diabolism, as the sufferers might be tempted to think. The Sovereignty in heaven directs the path of the storms, and the storms do not break till the elect of God are made ready for their ordeals. The appointed cycles of tribulation test the faithful as they tested Job in the ancient days. Scenes of disquiet and calamity cannot work the spiritual havoc one might fear, making religious faith all but impossible. Innumerable hosts come forth out of the great tribulation. It is indeed the very discipline that prepares Gods people for their triumph. As needful is it that the children of light before the throne should be tried and perfected by their keen and manifold distresses, as that they should be washed from their sins in the fountain opened for sin and uncleanness. It is because their fidelity has been verified in the struggles of the past that they are before the throne, to the praise and glory of Him who redeemed them. They are welcomed with tenderness and fostered with exquisite care because of all that through which they have passed. The waving of the palm branches would have been mere pantomime, and the ringing jubilations an empty stage-chorus, apart from the stress, conflict, and vicissitude over which the Lords people have triumphed.
The Rev. J. W. Dickson of St. Helens supplies the following among the obiter dicta dropped by Dr. Paton during his lectures at the Institute at Nottingham:When Richard Baxter was told that he would have a glorious reward because he had suffered so much in the cause of Christ, he replied that he didnt want any reward other than a little more persecution. He was not weary, but willing to have more of it, if God willed it. He gloried in tribulation, like Paul, and panted for more of it, resolutely assured that no foe could work anything upon him other than the will of God desired and permitted.1 [Note: John Brown Paton, by his Son (1914), 362.]
Presumably for most of us tribulation rather than ease constructs the safe road and the firm stepping-stone. Better to be taught with thorns of the wilderness and briars, than on no wise to be taught. Better great tribulation now than unexampled tribulation hereafter.
Good Lord, to-day
I scarce find breath to say:
Scourge, but receive me.
For stripes are hard to bear, but worse Thy intolerable curse;
So do not leave me.
Good Lord, lean down
In pity tho Thou frown;
Smite, but retrieve me:
For so Thou hold me up to stand
And kiss Thy smiting hand,
It less will grieve me.
Tribulation, that is, sifting: sifting reclaims and releases good from bad, while aught of good remains. Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless, afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.1 [Note: Christina G. Rossetti, The Face of the Deep, 235.]
II
The Triumph
1. They all come out of the great tribulation. Now they celebrate their triumph. Every one of them carries the palm of victory. Some reminiscence of the Feast of Tabernacles perhaps lies in the background of the picture. The Jews were accustomed to observe that season of rejoicing by putting up triumphal arches, camping out upon the tops of their houses in arbours of evergreens and waving branches of trees, thus testifying to their joy at escaping from the hand of Pharaoh, and from the terrible plagues which had blasted the country of their sojourn. This vision assures the exiled Seer that the life beyond the veil is a festival of victory. He had perhaps been tempted to look upon himself and his companions in tribulation as defeated, crushed, fatally discredited, and overthrown. But the victims of a pagan persecuting Imperialism are now seen to be victors, and they ascribe their salvation to God and to the Lamb, who Himself conquered sublimely at the cross in His apparent overthrow. They have risen above those judgments of wrath which a retributive Providence let loose for a time upon the world to desolate the adversaries of Christs Kingdom. They have triumphed over unseen hosts, leagued together against Gods elect and the cause they had at heart. Through faith they have prevailed against the wrath of Antichrist, and the great pagan empires are led captive to adorn their triumph. They have proved stronger than their own frailties in all the distresses appointed for the testing of their fidelity. By their contemporaries they were counted as filth and offscouring. They left the world as defeated men, unpitied as they were thrown to the wild beasts, scoffed at as the sword fell upon them; but they reappear in the realms of light more than conquerors.
The palm, among many of the ancient nations, was an emblem of victory. Hence its branches were used to adorn triumphal processions. The general whose victories the triumph was intended to celebrate carried a small branch of it in his hand, and was thus recognized as a conqueror. Therefore when the redeemed are described as having palms in their hands, we are reminded that they were once soldiers who were not ashamed to confess the faith of Christ crucified, but fought manfully under His banner, and by the strength of His arm completely conquered every enemy. The saints on earth indeed are warring the same warfare in which these glorified beings were engaged, and are continually obtaining victories in it; but then they must wait till all the days of their warfare are accomplished before they can have the triumphal chariot and the palm. The soldier never triumphs till the war is ended, and the enemy completely subdued. The saints in heaven have finished the painful conflict, and are now gone up for their reward to Jehovahs temple.
In the spiritual realm there is no such thing as absolute and conclusive victory. We must not imagine that Adle Kamm spent her latter years in undisturbed tranquillity and peace. Like an Alpine climber, who before he can reach the topmost peak must make his toilsome way along the edge of a precipice, she had to strain every nerve in order to keep her footing. It is not surprising to learn that she had to fight many a hard and lonely conflict, and though she nearly always managed to meet her visitors with a smile, yet when night came, and she was alone, the almost intolerable suffering would sometimes wring from her bitter tears. Either from stoicism or pride she would hide this feeling from those whom she did not know well; and she never spoke of it to those who depended on her brave example for inspiration. On the 9th of November 1909 she wrote to Miss Schlumberger:
If you only knew, Lily, how strange it seems to me to have to struggle to live, when all the time I feel an irresistible longing to be with Jesus Christ. From month to month He becomes more wonderfully attractive to me, His Light seems more radiant, His words more living and deeper in meaning, and I feel so trustful, so happy, so joyful, that it is with real difficulty that I make myself stay here when I want to fly away, to throw off the burden of this suffering body, and to penetrate into that mysterious Beyond, to enter fully into the wonder of that intense Divine Love! Still, I am a very ordinary mortal, and it has been my habit ever since I was a child to put duty before inclination, and this view of things helps me more than I can say at this critical moment. Duty first! Those are my orders! and I must stick to my post and not neglect anything for that; I believe that I can live for a good while longer if only I am brave.1 [Note: A Living Witness: The Life of Adle Kamm (1914), 165, 169.]
2. Those who came out of the great tribulation are arrayed in white robes. Their attire, as well as the palms they carry, proclaim their victory. White robes suggest that they are in the act of triumph, and occupied in a scene of rejoicing. And in this respect also their robes have been washed and made white. In their unredeemed condition they were captives, not conquerors; slaves, not kings; rebels, not priests; miserable victims, not rejoicing sons. But now all this is changed. Heaven rejoices over them as the lost found and the dead come to life, and they share in the joy. But it is all founded on the blood of the Redeemer. No doubt their rest after toil and their bliss after pain are augmented by the past of their own history, yet the ground of all their joy and triumph is the blood of Christ. They overcame by the blood of the Lamb and for the testimony of Jesus. It was given them even when they suffered for His sake, and they were made more than conquerors through Him that loved them.
Often when generals have returned from battle they and the warriors have been clothed in white, or have ridden upon white horses. True, the Romans adopted purple as their imperial colour, and well they might, for their victories and their rule were alike bloody and cruel; but the Christ of God sets forth His gentle and holy victories by white; it is on a white cloud that He shall come to judge the world, and His seat of judgment shall be the great white throne. Upon a white horse He shall ride, and all the armies of heaven shall follow Him on white horses. Lo, He is clothed with a white garment down to the feet. Thus has He chosen white as the symbolic colour of His victorious kingdom, and so the redeemed wear it, even the newly born, freshly escaped out of the great tribulation, because they are all of them more than conquerors. They wear the victor garb and bear the palm which is the victor symbol.1 [Note: C. H. Spurgeon.]
(1) White suggests the immaculate purity of character of the redeemed. White signifies perfection; it is not so much a colour as the harmonious union and blending of all the hues, colours, and beauties of light. In the characters of just men made perfect we have the combination of all virtues, the balancing of all excellences, a display of all the beauties of grace. Are they not like their Lord, and is He not all beauties in one? Here a saint has an evident excess of the red of courage, or the blue of constancy, or the violet of tenderness, and we have to admire the varied excellences and lament the multiform defects of the children of God; but up yonder each saint will combine in his character all things that are lovely and of good report, and his garments will be always white to indicate completeness, as well as spotlessness of character.
What a miracle of grace! Yon clouds that walk in brightness beside the noonday sun transformed, transfigured by the marvellous processes of Nature from the briny sea, and the brimming river, and the standing pool, and the swampy meadow, and the foul marsh; but more marvellous the transformation when those who were sinners once walk in white beside the dazzling whiteness of the King of kings, and before the blaze of that great white throne on which He sits.2 [Note: J. Laidlaw, Studies in the Parables, 277.]
(2) These white robes of victory and purity are also the uniform of service. A uniform usually signifies service; the soldiers and the sailors uniform speaks of the particular service in which they are engaged. The nurses mantle, the scholars gown, the priests robes, all speak of special work. These are clothed after a special manner, and their distinctive clothing signifies honourable and responsible service. Their uniform is the sign of their responsibility, their clothes are symbols of their high calling. In the very beginning of this book, in its opening vision, which is a revelation of the Head of the Church, the risen Son of Man, even He, too, is revealed as specially clothed in the royal uniform of His Heavenly occupation. He is girt about the breasts with a girdlethat is to say, He is a Priest on active service. He is also a King, ruling from His throne in justice and in truth. He is the risen, glorious, acting Priest-King. His clothing symbolizes His office and His work. So, too, do those garments of the saints, those blood-washed garments of white. They mean honour, victory; yes, but also service. Therefore are they before the throne and serve Him. They are clothed for their Heavenly work. Thus, then, is it with the Church in Heaven, and that, too, is the calling of the Church below. We are called in Christ Jesus to co-operation in His vineyard, to understand His purpose, and to carry out His plans.
In Sartor Resartus Carlyle lays hold practically of this truth, and with his great imagination on bold wing, and with his wonderful humour coruscating and breaking out into lambent flame, he speaks of many things as clothes, and of the significance of clothes as seen in a great many things, and urges that however a man is clothed, such garments only mean responsibility and service. Rank, and honour, and titles, these are clothes in the thought of the great thinker. Social station, reputation, and privilege, these are a kind of clothing, or uniform, too. The judges office, the prophets calling, the kings throne, what are they all but symbols and garments? And so we speak about men being clothed with honour, clothed with authority, or clothed with power. And going off on the eagle wing of his magnificent imagination and sweeping through great circles of truth, he speaks even of Nature herselfwonderful and glorious Naturetripping forth in all the beauty of her summer raiment, or austere in her winter garments, as the time-vesture of God. But all such dress symbolizes something, and most of it calls to service and means responsibility. Apply this truth anywhere and you will find it true, but it is especially true in regard to the spiritual calling and honour conferred by Christ on Christian people. We are redeemed, honoured, crownedfor what? For enjoyment, for self-satisfaction, for indulgence, even refined and selfish indulgence in connection with religion? Never. We are redeemed, honoured, crowned, to serve.1 [Note: D. L. Ritchie, Peace the Umpire, 162.]
(3) White is also the colour of joy. Almost all nations have adopted it as most suitable for bridal array, and therefore these happy spirits have put on their bridal robes, and are ready for the marriage supper of the Lamb. Though they are waiting for the resurrection, yet are they waiting with their bridal garments on, waiting and rejoicing, waiting and chanting their Redeemers praises, for they feast with Him till He shall descend to consummate their bliss by bringing their bodies from the grave to share with them in the eternal joy.
One of Dr. Patons former students, who took notes of his lectures, gives examples of his teaching on the great themes of the ministry. Speaking of heaven, the doctor said: Fellowship with Godthat is heaven. The full consummation of what we know of heaven will be in heaven only; but heaven is not to be limited to the future life. Heaven is the perfect development and fulness of what we have the beginning of here. The fulness of joy and service and blessedness of what is in heaven, I know here and now in some measure. In part, but it is a part only. If we havent heaven here, we shall not have heaven yonder. Christ is now at the right hand of God, and I am walking in fellowship with Him here now. And He has called me, by faith, up into fellowship with Him yonder. I see only darkly, but then I shall see fully and unveiled. The veil gets thinner and thinner day by day. Heaven is simply the perfection and fulness of what I have here. Heaven can give me no more, and I dont want heaven to give me more. It has been a great mistake of evangelical preaching to put all joy in the future world. It is not so. It is not the sacrifice of this world to the next. It is the opposite. It is the great heaventhe eternal worldthat has come down to us. Heaven has sacrificed itself for this world. Heaven was in Calvary, or it was nowhere. Suffer with Christ now, and you reign with Him now. The more I suffer, the more I reign with Him now. We are born here into life eternaland thus into that promised heaven. But heaven is not our due because we suffer: it is a gracious gift of God.1 [Note: John Brown Paton, by his Son (1914), 368.]
3. How came they by their robes? They washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Their robes were white, like the white and glistering raiment of Christ when He was transfigured. The robes express their condition, as a purple robe expresses royalty, or filthy garments a condition of sin and misery. But it was not in love, or in any moral quality or virtue, that those robes were made white; it was in the blood of the Lamb. The figure of a washing, even of garments, in blood, is indeed a very strong one. In some Eastern countries of old, men who were oppressed with a sense of sin actually plunged their bodies into a stream or bath of animal blood, that their souls might be cleansed. But from such gross literalness we turn away. But let us never turn away from the truth which underlies the figure of garments made white by being washed in precious blood. There is cleansing for the soul in the atoning death of the Lord Jesus.
Now this is a material image which is used in the text, but of course no little child among us needs to be told that it is in some spiritual sense it must be understood. It is not in the literal sense that we are to understand these words. The human blood of Christ sprinkled upon us would not make our raiment white; and though it did, that would not bring us to heaven. Probably the Roman soldier who pierced the Saviours side with his cruel spear, would be (in the literal sense) sprinkled with His precious blood: but that would not save him: he remained, spiritually, after that exactly what he had been before. To have our robes made white in the blood of the Lamb means two things. It means that our sins are pardoned for the sake of Christs atoning sacrifice. And it means that our souls are made holy by the blessed Spirit Christ sent after He left this world. And there are two reasons why only those thus washed in the blood of Christ can be always before the throne of God. One is, They alone have a right to be there. The other is, They alone are fit to be there, and to be happy there.
One night, during that terrible winter in the Crimean War, Duncan Matheson, the evangelist, was returning, weary and sad, from Sebastopol to his poor lodgings in the old stable at Balaklava. He had laboured all day with unflagging energy, and now his strength was gone. He was sickened with the sights he had seen, and was depressed with the thought that the siege was no nearer an end than ever. As he trudged along in the mud knee-deep, he happened to look up and noticed the stars shining calmly in the clear sky. Instinctively his weary heart mounted heaven-ward in sweet thoughts of the rest that remaineth for the people of God, and he began to sing aloud the well-known scriptural verses:
How bright these glorious spirits shine!
Whence all their white array?
How came they to the blissful seats
Of everlasting day?
Lo! these are they from suffrings great,
Who came to realms of light,
And in the blood of Christ have washd
Those robes which shine so bright.
Next day was wet and stormy, and when he went out to see what course to take, he came upon a soldier standing for shelter below the verandah of an old house. The poor fellow was in rags, and all that remained of shoes upon his feet were utterly insufficient to keep his naked toes from the mud. Altogether he looked miserable enough. The kind-hearted missionary spoke words of encouragement to the soldier, and gave him at the same time half a sovereign with which to purchase shoes, suggesting that he might be supplied by those who were burying the dead. The soldier offered his warmest thanks, and then said: I am not what I was yesterday. Last night, as I was thinking of our miserable condition, I grew tired of life, and said to myself, Here we are, not a bit nearer taking that place than when we sat down before it. I can bear this no longer, and may as well try and put an end to it. So I took my musket and went down yonder in a desperate state about eleven oclock; but as I got round the point, I heard some person singing, How bright these glorious spirits shine, and I remembered the old tune and the Sabbath School where we used to sing it. I felt ashamed of being so cowardly, and said, Here is some one as badly off as myself, and yet he is not giving in. I felt he had something to make him happy of which I was ignorant, and I began to hope I too might get the same happiness. I returned to my tent, and to-day I am resolved to seek the one thing. Do you know who the singer was? asked the missionary. No, was the reply. Well, said the other, It was I; on which the tears rushed into the soldiers eyes, and he requested the Scripture-reader to take back the half-sovereign, saying, Never, sir, can I take it from you, after what you have been the means of doing for me.1 [Note: J. Macpherson, Life and Labours of Duncan Matheson, 70.]
(1) Mere tribulation will not necessarily make the robes white. Tribulation, or affliction, or oppressioncall it which you willis overruled by a miracle of Divine grace so as to benefit the believer, but in and of itself it is not the cleanser but the defiler of the soul. Affliction of itself does not sanctify anybody, but the reverse. Afflictions of themselves arouse to an unwonted energy the evil which is in us, and place us in positions where the rebellious heart is incited to forsake the Lord. This will be seen if we consider the matter closely. The great tribulation is, under some aspects of it, a sin-creating thing, and if the victorious ones had not perpetually gone to the blood they would never have had their garments white. It was that alone that made and kept them white; they were familiar with the atonement and knew its cleansing power.
(2) It is the blood of the Lamb that washes out the stains and makes the garments white. How often did the martyrs have their garments stained and soiled when enduring a violent death in the arena; but in the very act of shedding their blood they became identified with Christ and so entered into the fruits of His victory. Robes that are washed in the blood would be expected to come out red; why should the result be so unlike the process? Because the process of sacrifice which makes me pure must leave no trace of itself. The blood which washes out my stains would, if perpetuated, be itself a stain. There can be no cross in my completed life. There is a shadow in its dawn, but not in its day. There is a struggle in faith; there is a struggle in hope; but there is no struggle in love. There are some cures which leave a scar; the disease is gone, but the red mark is left which tells of pain. Not all blood washes white. There are struggles in which I conquer, but from which I yet come down with the shrunk sinew; the battle is over, but, even in the daybreak, the wound remains. I have won the fight, but I have lost youths elastic spring; I halt upon my thigh. But the cross of Christ leaves on me no print of the nails. It heals its own scar. It dries its own blood. It wipes its own tears. It not only redeems, it restores my soul. It has no after-effectsno lameness, no sight of men like trees walking. There is no sense of langour, no feeling of soreness, no memory of pain. The cross of yesterday becomes the crown of to-day; the thorn of my winter is made the flower of my spring. The hearts bleeding is staunched when law is one with love.
(3) Each individual in the triumphal throng had to perform his part in cleansing his robes. They washed their own robes and made them white. Faith is a fact embedded deep in their history, for it links their present blessedness with their past experience. All-important and blessed record! We are not told where they were born, where they died, or in what style they lived, whether in royal palace or smoky hovel; whether in their natural characters they were brilliant or humble, wise or foolish. This only is recorded, and this of them allthey believed on Jesus; they trusted to His cross; they came guilty to the fountain which was opened there, and out of it they went, washed and white, to heaven. If anything in the experience of the redeemed on earth be meant beyond this, it is their renewed and continual application to His blood for the pardon and cleansing of every day. Washed once for all and in one sense clean every whit, they need yet daily to wash the feet from the soil of sin that cleaves to them through time. And it is characteristic of Christs redeemed ones that the nearer they get to heaven the more completely they depend on the atoning death of Christ; in all the world none but Christ, and in Christ nothing that absorbs them so much as him crucified.
While to those who are without, the necessary, the meritorious death of Christ remains the stumbling-block and stone of offence, the chosen point of attack, ever openly assaulted, ever secretly undermined, to those who are within, the Stone thus set at nought and rejected is still the head of the corner; it is still the tried stone, the sure foundation, the Rock whereof Faith speaks, Set me upon it for it is higher than I, Loves sure, abiding Pillar of remembrance, whereon Loves secret is written and graven with a pen of iron for ever. To them who believe Christ is precious. The death of Christ is that which most powerfully attracts the heart of man to God, and this because it is the strongest proof of love. Love kindles and calls forth love; We count that, says John of Wessel, to be the most lovable which we know to be the most loving. The love of Christ has achieved the greatest things, and hence must produce the most powerful effects; it has displayed the greatest devotedness, and consequently must possess the strongest attractive power.1 [Note: Dora Greenwell, The Covenant of Life (ed. 1898), 47.]
The Noble Army of Martyrs
Literature
Adams (J. C.), The Leisure of God, 219.
Alcorn (J.), The Sure Foundation, 195.
Bonar (H.), Light and Truth: The Revelation, 195.
Boyd (A. K. H.), Sermons and Stray Papers, 139.
Bradley (C.), Sermons, i. 1.
Bright (W.), The Law of Faith, 264.
Carter (T. T.), The Spirit of Watchfulness, 247.
Coates (G.), The Morning Watch, 373.
Foote (J.), Communion Week Sermons, 248.
Fraser (D.), Autobiography and Sermons, 209.
Greenhough (J. G.), Christian Festivals and Anniversaries, 176.
Hood (P.), Dark Sayings on a Harp, 331.
Johnston (S. M.), The Great Things of God, i. 309.
Laidlaw (J.), Studies in the Parables, 271.
Lynch (T. T.), Three Months Ministry, 73.
Maclaren (A.), Expositions: Epistles of John to Revelation, 331.
Matheson (G.), Searchings in the Silence, 77.
Morgan (J.), The Sacrament of Pain, 203.
Morrison (G.), The House of God, 175.
Ritchie (D. L.), Peace the Umpire, 157.
Ryle (J. C.), The Christian Race, 296.
Selby (T. G.), in The Divine Artist, 73.
Spurgeon (C. H.), Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, xxii. (1876), No. 1316.
Vaughan (J.), Sermons (Brighton Pulpit), New Ser., xiv. (1877), No. 1022.
Woodward (H.), Sermons, 366.
Christian World Pulpit, viii. 300 (A. Mackennal); lxvii. 387 (A. Whyte).
Church of England Pulpit, 1. 2 (H. D. Rawnsley).
Churchmans Pulpit: All Saints, xv. 431 (W. Bright).
Church Times, Oct. 23, 1914 (R. Keable).
Expository Times, xxi. 108.
Homiletic Review, xx. 142 (J. L. Withrow).
Fuente: The Great Texts of the Bible
thou: Exo 37:3
came: Rev 2:9, Rev 6:9-11, Rev 15:2, Rev 17:6, Joh 16:33, Act 14:22, Rom 5:3, 2Th 1:4
and have: Rev 1:5, Isa 1:18, Zec 3:3-5, Zec 13:1, Joh 13:8-14, 1Co 6:11, Eph 5:26, Eph 5:27, Heb 9:14, 1Jo 1:7
the blood: Rev 5:9, Rev 12:11, Heb 13:12, 1Pe 1:19
Reciprocal: Gen 22:8 – General Gen 49:11 – he washed Exo 19:10 – wash Lev 8:6 – washed Lev 8:30 – the anointing Lev 11:25 – and be unclean Lev 14:8 – wash his Lev 15:5 – General Lev 15:21 – General Lev 17:15 – both wash Num 8:7 – wash their Num 19:12 – He shall purify 1Sa 26:24 – let him deliver 1Ki 7:38 – ten lavers 2Ki 5:13 – Wash 2Ch 4:2 – a molten sea 2Ch 4:6 – but the sea Job 11:16 – Because Psa 15:1 – Lord Psa 30:11 – turned Psa 34:6 – saved Psa 34:19 – Many Psa 51:2 – Wash Psa 51:7 – whiter Psa 57:1 – until Psa 66:12 – but thou Psa 71:20 – which Psa 72:16 – of the city Psa 84:6 – Who Psa 90:15 – Make Psa 140:13 – the upright Psa 143:11 – bring Psa 149:4 – beautify Pro 13:19 – The desire Ecc 9:8 – thy garments Isa 1:16 – Wash Eze 36:25 – filthiness Dan 7:16 – one Dan 11:33 – yet Dan 12:10 – shall be Zec 1:9 – what Zec 1:19 – What Zec 3:4 – Take Zec 4:4 – What Mal 3:2 – like fullers’ Mat 1:21 – for Mat 5:4 – General Mat 6:13 – deliver Mat 24:9 – shall they Mat 26:28 – shed Mar 8:35 – will save Mar 9:3 – exceeding Luk 9:31 – spake Luk 15:22 – the best Luk 16:25 – likewise Joh 1:29 – Behold Joh 13:5 – to wash Joh 16:20 – your Joh 17:24 – I will Joh 19:34 – came Joh 20:12 – in Act 1:10 – two Act 7:10 – delivered Rom 3:24 – through Rom 4:25 – Who was Rom 5:15 – hath Rom 8:10 – but Rom 8:35 – shall tribulation 2Co 5:8 – present Gal 2:16 – we have Gal 3:11 – that Phi 1:23 – far 1Th 4:17 – and so 2Th 1:7 – who 2Ti 3:12 – shall Heb 4:9 – remaineth Heb 12:23 – the spirits Heb 13:23 – is set 1Pe 5:9 – the same 1Jo 5:6 – blood Rev 1:9 – companion Rev 3:4 – which Rev 4:4 – clothed Rev 6:11 – white Rev 7:9 – clothed Rev 14:13 – Yea Rev 19:8 – the fine
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Rev 7:14-17. The Seer does not say that he cannot answer the question, but he implies that the elder is better able to do so. He himself has no experience of the state described, and he cannot therefore speak of it as it should be spoken of. His language is peculiarly graphic, neither I said of the Authorised Version, nor I say of the Revised, but I have said, as given in the margin of the latter. The perfect tense has its appropriate power of bringing down to the present moment the feeling that is expressed. The wonder of that instant in the apostles life is not a matter only of the past. It presents itself still as vividly to his mind as when he first uttered the words, and asked an explanation of the glorious spectacle (comp. note on Joh 1:15). The word knowest is to be understood in a far deeper sense than that of possessing information only. It is used in the sense of the word know in the Fourth Gospel, and expresses experimental knowledge (comp. note on Joh 4:32 and Rev 3:17).
The answer to the question is next given, and its importance appears in the fact that it consists of three parts. The blessed company beheld by the apostle is first described in the words, These are they that come etc., and it must be at once obvious that the whole company, and not simply a portion of it, is thus alluded to. The terms of the description are peculiar and interesting, for the words that come are neither equivalent to the words which came of the Authorised Version, nor do they point only to the future. The idea, too, that the present tense is used because the redeemed are at that moment seen coming is not less to be rejected. They have been already represented as standing before the throne (Rev 7:9). In these circumstances we can hardly separate the expression they that come from the designation of our Lord, He that cometh, in the Fourth Gospel. We have here, in short, another illustration of that identification of believers with their Lord which is so characteristic of the writings of St. John. Members of the Lords body, they are one with Him in all His fortunes, and may be .fitly described by the same terms.
The great tribulation is that out of which they come. It is the tribulation of Mat 24:21, and is surely universal, including Jewish as well as Gentile Christians in both passages. Nor are we to understand by it merely a special tribulation at the close of the worlds history. It is rather the trials experienced by the saints of God throughout the whole period of their pilgrimage, at one time greater than at another, but always great.
Secondly, they washed their robes, and that too, it is obviously implied, in the blood of the Lamb. The idea of many ancient expositors that the martyrs washed their robes in their own blood may be at once rejected. But neither can we refer the washing to justification alone, and the making white of the following clause to sanctification. Robes are the expression of character (comp. the English word habits), not simply of legal standing, and lead us to the thought of the whole cleansing efficacy of the work of Christ, to its removal of the power of sin as well as to pardon, to new life imparted as well as to old transgressions forgiven (comp. Zec 3:4). In the view of St. John, water alone does not exhibit the special blessing of the New Covenant (comp. 1Jn 5:6). The Old Covenant has water; the New has blood, and blood is life. What is here signified, therefore, is that these believers are made new creatures in Christ Jesus; they are alike justified and sanctified, when they are washed in the blood of Christ.Thirdly, they made their robes white in the blood of the Lamb. This is more than the mere result of the washing. It is the addition of a new feature. In the blood of the Lamb they made them not only clean but glistering, so that they shone with a dazzling brightness (comp. Heb 9:11-14).
Such being the persons spoken of, the place occupied by them is next described in two particulars; first, in the terms already employed in Rev 7:9, and secondly, as the innermost sanctuary of the temple of God, the innermost recess of the heavenly abode. Then follows a description of the blessedness of the righteous in what seems to be seven particulars having reference to the future. Why we should have the future here instead of the present, as in the former parts of the vision, may be difficult to say. Probably it is because we pass at this point to a change of thought, not now to the place of blessedness, but to that blessedness itself which shall never end.
(1) He that sitteth, etc. (comp. Rev 21:3). God shall be their constant shelter and defenceespecially shall He spread his tabernacle over them at the joyful feast of Tabernacles to be celebrated by all nations (Isa 4:5-6; Zec 14:16).(2) They shall hanger no more (Isa 49:10).(3) Neither thirst any more (Isa 49:10).(4) Neither shall the son strike on them nor any heat (Isa 49:10).(5) The Lamb shall as a Shepherd tend them (Psa 23:1).(6) He shall guide, etc. (Isa 48:21).(7) God shall wipe, etc. (Isa 25:8). Before passing from these two consolatory visions we have still to notice the manner in which they are related to each other. In doing so it is important to observe, in the first place, that the second vision does not refer to Gentile, the first to Jewish, Christians only, and that the second class is not treated simply as an appendix to the first. We have already seen that the 144,000 embrace the whole Israel of God without distinction of Jew or Gentile. The same remark has to be made on the multitude which no man can number. In their statements as to the persons saved the two visions are identical. Nor is it difficult to see why the redeemed should be numbered in the one vision, and not in the other. In the one they are looked at as they are sealed by God, and He knoweth His own; He calleth them by their names; to His eyes they are a definite number. In the other they are seen by man, and man cannot count them; he beholds only a great multitude, which no man can number. Compare the promise to Abraham, Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if thou art able to number them (Gen 15:5), with Gods language to His afflicted people. He thereth together the outcasts of Israel. . . .He counteth the number of the stars; He calleth them all by their names (Psa 147:2; Psa 147:4). The difference between the two visions, then, is to be sought not in any distinction between the persons referred to, but rather in the different circumstances in which the same persons are brought before us in each. In the first we behold the Church in her conflict; in the second in her victory. In the first, even though troubled on every side, she is safe; in the second her troubles have closed for ever. In the first she is tempest-tossed but her Lord is with her, and she is assured that she shall reach the haven of rest; in the second the haven has been reached, and she shall never again be exposed to the raging of any storm. Even in her time of trial God has marked her for His own; affliction may refine but cannot vanquish her; and the day is not distant when every trace of affliction shall yield to perfect, uninterrupted, endless joy.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
Instead of “they which came,” this would be better rendered, “they which are coming.” Notice again, the tribulation was already a reality when John wrote. ( Rev 1:9 ) We wash our robes in Jesus’ blood when we put him on in baptism. ( Act 22:16 ) Hailey notes the word washed is active, which indicates there is something for them to do. ( Rom 10:9-10 ; Act 2:38 ; Rom 6:3-5 ) Yet, in verse 10 they gave praise to God for salvation.
Fuente: Gary Hampton Commentary on Selected Books
7:14 And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest. And he said to me, {11} These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.
(11) The explanation of the vision, in which the angel tells first the acts of the saints, that is, their sufferings and work of faith in Christ Jesus, in this verse. Secondly their glory: both present, which consists in two things, that they minister to God, and that God protects them Rev 7:15 and to come, in their perfect deliverance from all annoyances Rev 7:16 and in participation of all good things which the memory of past hurts shall never be able to diminish Rev 7:17 . The cause efficient and which contains all these things is only one, the Lamb of God, the Lord, the Mediator, and the Saviour Christ Jesus.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
John did not know the identity of these individuals, so the elder told him who they were. They are "those who are coming out from the great tribulation." Jesus coined the term "the Great Tribulation" (Mat 24:15; Mat 24:21) and identified it as the second half of Daniel’s seventieth week (Mat 24:15-22; Mar 13:14-20; cf. Dan 9:27). Positioned as this vision is just before the midpoint of the Tribulation, before the Great Tribulation begins, the elder must have meant that this multitude came out of the Great Tribulation before it began. The Greek preposition ek ("out of") permits such an interpretation. Another possibility is that the elder meant that these saints came out during the Great Tribulation, which the Greek preposition allows but the placement of this vision between the sixth and seventh seals does not favor. A third view is that they departed after the Great Tribulation was complete. [Note: Rosenthal, p. 185.] This is unacceptable for two reasons. First, the Greek verb erchomenoi ("are coming") is a present participle indicating an ongoing departure. Second, this view makes an unwarranted distinction between the Great Tribulation and the outpouring of God’s wrath. God promised to keep Christians completely out of the Tribulation (Rev 3:10; 1Th 4:13-18; et al.), but these Tribulation saints come out of the first part of it while it is in progress. [Note: Smith, A Revelation . . ., p. 135.]
Washing their robes in the Lamb’s blood is a figure of speech for salvation (Rev 22:14; cf. Zec 3:4-5). Another interpretation is that "washed their robes" is a figurative expression picturing that they had purified their deeds (Rev 22:14; cf. Rev 19:8). This would make the entire passage (Rev 7:14-17) a description of faithful Tribulation saints instead of all Tribulation saints. The issue hinges on whether "robe" represents the believer’s garment of salvation or his good works here. Scripture uses "robe" both ways elsewhere. Since all the redeemed will eventually go into God’s presence, it seems unwarranted to limit this innumerable multitude to faithful saints. The fact that they died during the first half of the Tribulation does not necessarily mean that they were all martyrs who died for their testimony as believers. An amillennial interpretation is that this as a picture of all Christians who suffer in various ways for their faith. [Note: Beale, p. 433. See Richard Shalom Yates, "Studies on the Tribulation Saints," Bibliotheca Sacra 163:649 (January-March 2006)79-93; 163:650 (April-June 2006):215-33; 163:651 (July-September 2006):322-34, for a thorough study of Tribulation saints.]
"In modern thought, making anything white by washing it in blood is paradoxical and even shocking, but it was not so with John and those with an OT background. To them such washing denoted spiritual purity. Not just any blood would accomplish the cleansing. The blood of martyrs shed for the Lamb’s sake would not even do it. It had to be the blood of the Lamb’s great sacrifice to produce the whiteness (Rev 1:5; Rev 5:9; cf. Rom 3:25; Rom 5:9; Eph 1:7; Col 1:20; Heb 9:14; 1Pe 1:2; 1Pe 1:19; 1Jn 1:7) . . ." [Note: Thomas, Revelation 1-7, p. 498.]
The en ("in") has instrumental force here; Christ’s blood is what made their robes white. Contrast Rev 12:11 where dia ("because of") expresses the means of victory, namely, His blood and their faithfulness. Blood is a metaphor for violent death.