Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Revelation 7:9

THE FOURTH VISION.

The People of God Coming Out of the Great Tribulation Which Is Coming on the Church ( Rev 7:9-17 ).

‘After these things I saw, and behold, a great multitude which no one could number, out of every nation, and of all tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb arrayed in white robes, and palms in their hands.’

‘After these things’ usually infers a new vision. This vision is clearly in the future as far as John is concerned, and later than the vision of the one hundred and forty four thousand, for these stand ‘before the throne’. They are in Heaven. The multitude consists of any (or all) of those who have been sealed who have died or otherwise been taken up.

The countless number is in deliberate contrast to the symbolic one hundred and forty four thousand. The 144,000 indicated the exactness with which God has numbered His own, and their relationship with the true Israel as sons of the Promise. The multitude which no man can number demonstrates the vast numbers who will have served Christ, even to death.

The description confirms Jesus’ words that the Gospel would be preached ‘to all nations’ (Mar 13:10), to ‘the whole world’ (Mat 24:14). When Tacitus, the Roman historian, describes the deaths of Christian martyrs under Nero he speaks of ‘a great multitude’, under Domitian there was an even greater multitude, and since then certainly a multitude which no one could number. But the inference is that God has them numbered and yet they are innumerable.

‘Standing before the throne and before the Lamb’. They are there to receive the rewards due to them for faithful service prior to sharing Christ’s throne, and to be ‘confessed before the Father’. They stand before the throne of the Father, in contrast with the Lamb Who stands in the midst of the throne (Rev 5:6), for He alone can share the Father’s throne (Rev 3:21). Indeed they have received their white robes indicating their heavenly standing (Rev 3:5). As the palms indicate it is a time of celebration, of victory, and of acclamation of the Messiah (Joh 12:13).

(Much is sometimes made of the difference between sitting and standing. But distinguishing between standing and sitting must be limited to the fact that we stand, for example, to work and celebrate, and we sit to reveal authority and to enjoy rest. It does not necessarily say anything about status. It is true that the twenty four elders sit on thrones in the presence of ‘the One Who sits on the throne’ because of their privileged position (Rev 4:4), but they fall before the throne, both in submission, and when they carry out their priestly duties (Rev 4:10; Rev 5:8).

Jesus Christ is seen as both sitting at God’s right hand (Mar 16:19; Col 3:1; Heb 10:12) and as standing there (Act 7:55-56). In Revelation He stands in the midst of the throne (Rev 5:6). One day we will share His throne, but not the Father’s throne. Thus while we may one day sit in the Father’s presence on the throne of Christ, as the elders do on their thrones, we also stand before Him as Christ did ready for service. (Of course we must recognise that all this is symbolic and not press it too literally).

We are told later (Rev 7:14) that these are ‘the coming ones out of the great tribulation’. This is in order to provide an incentive to the church in the face of the coming tribulation anticipated by John’s visions and his letters to the churches. They are not necessarily all martyrs, for some will suffer tribulation and die naturally, but they have all suffered tribulation.

The ‘great tribulation’ is that referred to in Rev 2:22 (the definite article referring back to that previous reference – a pattern in Revelation), and is thus experienced to some extent by the churches. It is not the same as that in Mat 24:21, for that great tribulation was on the Jews in Palestine where it was seen as God’s punishment for their failed response to Him. That one could be escaped by fleeing to the mountains. (These three references are the only references to the term ‘great tribulation’ in Scripture).

The tribulation here is not primarily for Christians. It has in mind the sufferings of the world in the chapters to come, and Christians are to some extent protected from it. That is why those in Thyatira were warned that they may lose that protection if they did not repent (Rev 2:22). But Christians do have to face the wrath of the world, even though they escape the wrath of God, and the world was clearly giving them a hard time. John has this very much in mind. As Jesus said, ‘in the world you have tribulation. But be of good cheer. I have overcome the world’ (Joh 16:33).

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

The Martyrs of the Tribulation Gather around the Throne of God If the opening of the sixth seal (Rev 6:12-17) symbolizes the onset of the Great Tribulation Period, then Rev 7:9-17 describes the great multitude of saints who stand before God’s throne who were martyred during this tribulation. The passage of Scripture that reads, “These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb,” (Rev 7:14) most likely means that not every saint was taken in the pre-tribulation rapture of the Church. It also likely means that many people will be saved in the midst of the hardships of the Tribulation Period. The verb “come out” may refer to the Rapture, but it is better to be interpreted as those who are martyred during the Great Tribulation Period.

Rev 7:14 Comments – Many people will be saved during this Great Tribulation period; for God’s wrath will be clearly demonstrated to all mankind. Only those whose deep depravity moved them to rebel willing against God do not repent, but rather they curse God because of these terrible plagues (see Rev 9:20-21; Rev 16:11).

Rev 9:20-21, “And the rest of the men which were not killed by these plagues yet repented not of the works of their hands, that they should not worship devils, and idols of gold, and silver, and brass, and stone, and of wood: which neither can see, nor hear, nor walk: Neither repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts.”

Rev 16:11, “And blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores, and repented not of their deeds.”

Rev 7:17 “and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes” – Comments – In his book I Visited Heaven, Julius Oyet, says, “It is not saying that Jesus will come down from His throne with a handkerchief or towel in His hands then begins to wipe our faces one by one. Otherwise this could take thousands of years. The glory of the Lamb just instantly dries up everyone’s tears at once.” [75]

[75] Julius Peter Oyet, I Visited Heaven (Kampala, Uganda: Bezalel Design Studio, 1997), 41.

Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures

The doxology of the countless multitude:

v. 9. After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes and palms in their hands;

v. 10. and cried with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God, which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb.

v. 11. And all the angels stood round about the throne and about the elders and the four beasts, and fell before the throne on their faces and worshiped God,

v. 12. saying, Amen: Blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honor, and power, and might be unto our God forever and ever. Amen.

Here is a scene of victory and triumph: After this I saw, and, behold, a great multitude which no man was able to count, out of every nation and from all tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white garments and palms in their hands. Here is the antitype of the Feast of Tabernacles, the Christian Church in the vestments of victory, ready to celebrate the joyous festival of the final entrance into glory. When the end of all tribulation will be at hand and the Kingdom of Glory will be revealed, then the innumerable multitude of the blessed, from every nation and tribe and people and language will be assembled before the throne of God. There they will stand, erect, confident, triumphant. For they will not appear in the garments of their own righteousness, but in the white vestments of the righteousness of Christ imputed to them by faith, Isa 61:10. In their hands they will hold palms, tokens of joy and of victory, all in honor of the Lord and of the Lamb, Psa 16:11.

John heard also their hymn of praise: And they shouted with a mighty voice, saying, Salvation to our God, that sits upon the throne, and to the Lamb. Here is the great chorus of the saints in bliss, not that of a quiet anthem, but that of a mighty shout, breaking forth from innumerable hearts that are filled with emotion. They ascribe their salvation, the bliss which they enjoyed, altogether and alone to God the Father, whose counsel of love prepared the salvation of the world, and to the Lamb, whose vicarious suffering earned salvation for the world. It is the eternal “All Glory Be to God on High” that here is brought out, the hymn of praise which will rise with unabated power, world without end.

When the praise of God is sung, the angels cannot remain silent: And all the angels stood around the throne and the elders and the four living beings, and fell down before the throne upon their faces and worshiped God, saying, Amen, praise and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever, Amen. As in chap. 5:11, the angels are pictured as surrounding the throne and the elders and the cherubs, a great cloud of witnesses of the heavenly bliss. When the doxology of the perfected saints had come to an end, these blessed spirits took up the refrain and, with irrepressible ecstasy, enlarged upon it. With their Amen they agreed to the song of the elect, for it is one Spirit that lives in the congregation of Christ and in the hosts of the heavenly halls. As they praised the Lord before the opening of the seals, so their voices are raised in glorious harmony now that the fate of mankind has been unfolded. The divine wisdom was shown in the means devised by the Triune God to redeem fallen mankind; the divine power and might brought about the deliverance of mankind through the instrumentality of the Savior; and so thanksgiving, praise, and glory must be given to Him by the multitude of the perfected believers in bliss, by the hosts of heaven, throughout all eternity. This is most certainly true.

Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann

Rev 7:9 . , . . . The entire vision, Rev 7:9-17 , follows, of course, upon what precedes, but it is throughout, as to its significance, inseparable from what precedes; against De Wette, who calls the vision proleptical or ideal, because here John [2317] “looks forward from the developments which he beholds in the earthly world, to their blessed fulfilment,” in connection with which nothing further is to be asked than how the saved enter heaven, whether through death, or otherwise. But even though the vision, as to its contents, be proleptical, nevertheless, wherever it occurs, its meaning and force must be determined by the connection of the entire Apoc.; and this corresponds to the parallelism in which the second vision of ch 7 stands to the first. [2318]

, . . . In contrast with the multitude out of Israel represented by a definite number (Rev 5:4 sqq.), the great concourse from every people, and all tribes and tongues, appears here as innumerable. The contrast required by the text cannot be explained away by the fact, that, if the one hundred and forty-four thousand be identified with this great multitude, the innumerability becomes relative, with which then it is regarded as harmonizing that John, Rev 7:4 , heard the number of the sealed, because they were innumerable by him: [2319] this expedient, however, is not allowed by the words, Rev 7:9 , . . . ; cf. with reference to the

, Rev 7:2 . The remark of De Wette also, that Rev 7:4 , by its numerical statement, presents the idea of election with the antithesis of reprobation, while Rev 7:9 refers only to the attaining of salvation without this antithesis, is inapplicable, because the idea of election lies alike in the text in both passages; since, just as the one hundred and forty-four thousand are out of Israel ( . . . ., . , . . .), so the innumerable multitude are out of all nations ( . .). The essential distinction is in the fact that the horizon, which in Rev 7:4 comprised only Israel, now includes absolutely all nations and races, Gentiles and Jews, humanity in its totality. This is stated by the second formula with its four categories, which also comprises all sides in its enumeration. [2320] [See Note LIV., p. 258.]

, . . . There is no difficulty in the use of the plural with a collective; [2321] but also the irregularity of using the nom. , and thus throwing the clause .

out of the construction, while the next words, , . . . , recur to the original structure of the sentence ( ), is not inadmissible in the idiom of the Apoc. The standing before the throne of God and of the Lamb [2322] points to the eternal communion with God and the Lamb, [2323] whose heavenly glory and blessed joy are also expressed by white robes, [2324] and palm-branches in the hands of those who have finished their course. There is no foundation for the inference from the of a heavenly feast of tabernacles as the festival of the eternal harvest-home; [2325] but when, also, in Rev 7:15 ( ), a reference is found to the dwelling in tabernacles, and, in connection with Rev 7:17 ( ), to the fact that [2326] during the feast of tabernacles, a priest daily drew water from the wells of Siloah in order to sprinkle it beside the altar, something entirely foreign is introduced. [2327] But on the other side, also, the reference to the palm-branches, which the victors in the Grecian games bore with their palm-garlands, [2328] is excessively specific. [2329] It is entirely sufficient, without any more special reference, to regard the palm-branches as a sign of festal joy. [2330]

. . The strength of the cry, besides being peculiar to the heavenly beings, [2331] corresponds to the impulse of their joy and gratitude. [2332]

, . . . They sing praises as those who have become complete participants of salvation; and this they ascribe to their God, who sits upon the throne, as the ultimate author, and the Lamb as the mediator. The is not victory in general, [2333] but the entire sum of the salvation which the blessed now perfectly possess, since they have been removed from all want, temptation, sin, and death, and have come into the presence of their God. [2334] Improperly, Grot, explains metonymically, viz., “thanks for the salvation received.” The thanksgiving, however, occurs from the fact that the ascribe the given them, to their God as .

[2317] Cf. Rev 11:15 sqq., Rev 14:1 sqq., 13, Rev 15:2 sqq.

[2318] See general remarks on ch. 7.

[2319] Hengstenb.

[2320] Cf. Rev 5:9 .

[2321] Winer, p. 480.

[2322] Cf. Rev 7:15 ; Rev 22:3 .

[2323] Grot., who refers this, in general, to the great number of Christians in Syria, remarks on , . . .: “i.e., having a mind not sunk to earth, but raised to heaven.”

[2324] Cf. Rev 6:11 .

[2325] Cf. Vitr., Eichh., Heinr., Hengstenb., Bhmer.

[2326] Cf. Winer, Rwb. , ii. 9.

[2327] Against Vitr., Hengstenb., etc.

[2328] Pausanias, Arcad. , 48: .; in Wetst.

[2329] Against Ew., etc.

[2330] Cf. Joh 12:13 ; 1Ma 13:51 .

[2331] Cf. Rev 7:2 .

[2332] Cf. C. a Lap.

[2333] Eichh.

[2334] Cf. Rev 7:9 ; Rev 7:15 ; Rev 21:4 .

NOTES BY THE AMERICAN EDITOR

LIV. Rev 7:9 .

“Where the mercy and love of God are praised, Christians are represented as an innumerable multitude” (De Wette, Gebhardt). Beck, however, urges the distinction from those mentioned in Rev 7:3-8 : “This appearance forms manifestly a contrast with what precedes. For: 1. The definite one hundred and forty-four thousand is opposed by the innumerable multitude. 2. is contrasted with . 3.Rev 7:14 . The must have passed through the great tribulation in contrast with the elect secured therefrom already before its beginning (Rev 7:2 sqq.). 4. Finally, there is a contrast in the placing of the great multitude in heaven (Rev 7:9 , ), while the theatre in the preceding Rev 7:3 is the earth. Here, then, those appear who have passed through the visitation of judgment, and suffered, although they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb; i.e., they have availed themselves of the cleansing efficacy offered in Christ (Rev 7:14 ), for participation in which they were not aroused until by persecution. Cf. 1Co 3:12-15 . Of the death of martyrs, which has been conjectured, nothing is here said. By the side, therefore, of the sealed first-fruits, appear those who have not been purified until by the tribulation. From them proceeds an innumerable multitude of triumphing conquerors. To the apostolic, Christian, germinal Church, to the elect from the Divine-covenant people, there is added the elect from all humanity. Since, however (Rev 7:3 sqq.), the people of God itself is distinguished according to tribes, and, from these tribes, the sealed are taken only as a selection, and thus, also, among the tribes (Rev 7:9 ) are comprised those who belong to the people of God, i.e., Jews and Christians, in like manner, the includes the entire heathen world. Therefore, after the great period of tribulation (Mat 24:21-29 ), and through it, a collection of the saved still continues, from all humanity, without distinction of religion, whether heathen, or Jewish, or Christian (cf. Rom 2:7-10 ), as well as without distinction of political relations ( ) and languages ( ). For, since there is no section of the human world that does not furnish its contingent to those saved from the great tribulation, an innumerable multitude is formed, although relatively the elect are few (Mat 20:16 ).”

Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary

DISCOURSE: 2509
THE WORSHIP OF HEAVEN

Rev 7:9-12. After this, I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands; and cried with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb. And all the angels stood round about the throne, and about the elders and the four beasts, and fell before the throne on their faces, and worshipped God, saying, Amen: Blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honour, and power, and might, be unto our God for ever and ever. Amen.

IN the book of the Revelations of St. John there is more spoken of heaven than in all the inspired volume besides. But so greatly are the circumstances diversified, that, though the subject be ever so often brought under our review, it will always be found to wear a different aspect, and to afford fresh matter for profitable consideration. Indeed so important are those different circumstances, that we should suffer a great loss, if we did not successively fix our attention upon them as they arise. The passage before us might afford us a just occasion for entering into the subject at large; because we behold here the worship both of the saints and angels: but we prefer noticing some particulars which distinguish this individual passage; and for that purpose shall set before you under one head the worship of heaven, and then the instruction to be derived from it.
Let us notice, then,

I.

The worship of heaven

We behold it here,

1.

As commenced by the glorified saints

[There was of them a multitude which no man could number, out of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues. Previous to this period the Gospel had spread throughout all the Roman empire, and more especially if we consider the time spoken of as being after the accession of Constantine to the imperial throne, and to the Christian faith. The sealing of the hundred and forty-four thousand is supposed to refer to the peaceful state of the Church at that period. Doubtless, during the three first centuries of the Christian era, incalculable numbers of souls had embraced the faith, and been exalted to glory: and those added to all that had been found faithful to their God under the Mosaic dispensation, and to all the Lords hidden ones, whether infant or adult, in every nation under heaven from the beginning of the world, must have gradually swelled the number to a multitude countless as the sands upon the sea-shore.
These all stood before the throne, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands. Perhaps the robes, as well as the palms, were emblems of triumph: or they might denote their perfect purity, being cleansed from all their guilt in the fountain of Christs blood, and washed also from all defilement by the sanctifying efficacy of his Spirit. We are told this indeed in the verses immediately following our text: Who are these that are arrayed in white robes? These are they who have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb [Note: ver. 13, 14.]. The palms in their hands proclaim them victors in the spiritual warfare. Whilst on earth, they sustained many and arduous conflicts: but they overcame their enemies, and were more than conquerors through him who loved them.

But do they trace in any respect their salvation either to their own strength or goodness? No, not in any degree: they all without exception ascribe their salvation to God, as the great Original, from whose wisdom, and goodness, and power it has proceeded; and to the Lamb, who purchased it for them through his own most precious blood. This is their one unvaried song: and they sing it with a loud voice, as glorying in a salvation so dearly bought, and so freely given.]

2.

As continued by the angelic hosts

[The situation of the angelic hosts is worthy of particular attention: they are round about the throne indeed, as well as the redeemed; but in an exterior circle, and more remote from the common centre; for they are round about the elders and the four beasts. They, though spotless, have but a creature-righteousness, whilst the redeemed, though guilty, possessed the righteousness of the Creator himself; and therefore are counted worthy of a nearer access to him than the angels are able to attain.

Nor is their attitude less worthy of remark; for they, though sinless, fell upon their faces before the throne, accounting no posture too humiliating for creatures however exalted, whilst occupied in the worship of their God.

Unable to join in the song of the redeemed as applicable to themselves who have never fallen, they yet add their hearty Amen to all that the redeemed have uttered, acknowledging that all possible praise is due to God and to the Lamb for such marvellous displays of their power and grace. At the same time they vie with the saints in all suitable expressions of adoration and love to their beneficent Creator; viewing with exquisite delight all the Divine perfections as visible in the works of creation, and as exhibited with yet brighter splendour in the stupendous mysteries of redemption. Every term whereby they can evince their gratitude, they accumulate, with an ardour which no words can adequately express; and then add again their Amen, as concentrating in itself all that with the utmost efforts of their nature they are able to convey.]
Slight as is this view of the heavenly worship, it will suffice for the present occasion, if we duly attend to,

II.

The instruction to be derived from it

It will be found well calculated to teach us,

1.

Our obligations

[If we call to mind the faculties with which we are endowed, so far superior to all other creatures, and inferior to the angels alone, we shall see that we also have reason to adore our God for the blessings of our creation, as well as the angels themselves. And for the wonders of redemption, we are altogether on a par with those who are already before the throne. The same stupendous efforts have been made for us, as for them. For us was Gods co-equal and co-eternal Son sent into the world, as well as for them. For us He lived, and died, and rose again, as well as for them. To us is salvation offered, as freely as ever it was for them; and for us it shall be alike effectual too, if only we embrace it as they did. The only difference between them and us is, that they are put into possession of that which is kept in reserve for us, against the time ordained of the Father for us to possess it. We have the same aid afforded to us that was effectual for them; and the very instant the work of grace is perfected in us, we shall be summoned to the very place that is now occupied by them, and to all eternity shall unite with them in the same blessed employment of singing praises to God and to the Lamb.
We can conceive somewhat of their obligations: let us then in theirs view and acknowledge our own also.]

2.

Our duties

[The robes of the redeemed are emblematic of their purity, as the palms in their hands are of the victories which they gained. But how did they attain their purity? By continued applications of the blood and Spirit of Christ to their souls. And how did they gain their victories, but by fighting manfully in the strength of Christ? Behold then how we must be occupied whilst sojourning here below. We must day and night wash in the fountain that was once opened for sin and for uncleanness: our very holiest services, no less than our grossest abominations, must be purged from guilt by the blood of Christ. At the same time we must mortify the whole body of sin by the influence of the Spirit of Christ: the one labour of our life must be to grow up into the Saviours image, and to purify ourselves, even as he is pure. But whilst striving after these things we shall have many conflicts to maintain: we have enemies to encounter both without and within; and we must fight manfully against them all; nor ever for a moment relax our efforts, till Satan and all his hosts are for ever bruised under our feet. It was not by mere inactive wishes that any of the saints in glory triumphed, but by warring a good warfare. And in like manner must we also fight a good fight, and finish our course, and keep the faith even to the end, if ever we would attain the crown of righteousness that fadeth not away.]

3.

Our encouragements

[Which among the heavenly hosts did not once feel the same discouragements that we experience? But God in his tender mercy carried on and perfected his work in their souls: and he is equally willing to accomplish in us also all the good pleasure of his goodness, if we will look to him, and commit our cause into his gracious hands. He will not leave us or forsake us, any more than he forsook and abandoned them: and in our weakness is he willing to perfect his own strength, as much as he ever did in theirs. There is no trial to which we can be subjected, that was not experienced by them in their day; nor was there any succour afforded to them, that shall not be dispensed to us also in the hour of need. They in their day envied those who had gone before them, as you do them: and in a little time will others arise to envy you, when your warfare shall be finished, and your blessedness be complete. Remember that He who sitteth on the throne is as much interested for you as ever he was for them; and that the Lamb is as tender over you as ever he was over them. Only rest on a promise-keeping God, and he will never fail you. He has promised that none shall pluck you out of his hands but that he will preserve you unto his heavenly kingdom: and faithful is He who hath called you; who also will do it.]

Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)

(9) After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands; (10) And cried with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb. (11) And all the angels stood round about the throne, and about the elders and the four beasts, and fell before the throne on their faces, and worshipped God, (12) Saying, Amen: Blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honour, and power, and might, be unto our God forever and ever. Amen.

If we admire, as that we cannot but admire, and at the same time bless God for the gracious manifestation made to John, for the Church’s consolation, in the foregoing representation of God’s care over his tribes of Israel, in sealing them; with what thankfulness ought we, of the Gentile Church, to bless God for the discovery made here, of the innumerable body of Christ’s members, gathered Out of all the varieties of the earth. Here is evidently the whole Church of Christ, beheld by John in a vision, even the bride, the Lamb’s wife. Such, as will be seen in reality, in that day when the Lord will make up his jewels. And it should seem to have been intended by way of confirmation, through the medium of John, to convince the Church, by so plain and palpable a testimony, that both Jew and Gentile form but one and the same Church in Christ. They are no more than one. So saith Christ, and blessed it is to know it m y dove, my undefiled, is but one; she is the only one of her mother; she is the choice one of her that bare her, Son 6:9 . And this seems to have been particularly designed also for the greater joy of the Church, through John; because, as John had seen Christ seal Israel, and nothing had then been said, concerning the sealing of the Gentile Church; here his mind should be refreshed immediately upon, with the representation of the whole Church, both Jew and Gentile, when brought home to glory. Instead of sealing, which was a most gracious act, before a time of persecution, John shall now see the whole Church after all sorrows are over, when palms of victory, and white robes, shall show, that their troubles are ended. And, instead of an hundred and forty and four thousand of head only he shall behold a multitude of all Israel, Jew and Gentile, which no man could number; to show, that Christ’s triumphs shall bear a suitable correspondence to the Almightiness of his Person and offices; nations, that is, some of all nations, shall be blessed in him, and all nations Shall call him blessed.

The best service I can render the Reader, in looking together with him over this most precious scripture, will be, I conceive, to gather out some few of the more special and leading particulars of it, and one by one, offer some remarks, as may be supposed, were particularly intended for them.

And, first. John observes, that this blessed society he saw consisted of a multitude, which no man could number, Such views give us a most pleasing consideration, that although the Church of Christ, compared to the world of ungodly, is but as the remnant of Jacob, in the midst of many people, and therefore called, by Christ himself’, a little flock: Luk 12:32 yet, when the whole redeemed of the Lord comes to be gathered into one, they will form an immense body, and such a multitude as no man can number. Paul, speaking of the Church, saith: ye are come to an innumerable company of Angels, Heb 12:22-23 . And our Lord himself speaks of his mansions in his Father’s house, as being many, Joh 14:2 . But it is a blessed thought, that though no man could number them, Jesus can. All his flocks must again pass under the hand of him that telleth them, Jer 33:13 . All the Father hath given him, shall come to him, Joh 6:37 . Jesus hath all their names in his book of life, Rev 21:27 . And he said, that as a good Shepherd, he calleth them all by name, Joh 10:3 . Sweet thought, to the least, and weakest lamb, in Christ’s fold! However unknown, or unnoticed by the flock, the Great Shepherd both knoweth them, calleth them by name, feedeth them, watcheth over them, and will bring them home to his fold. As it was in coming out of Egypt, so it will be in bringing in to heaven; not an hoof belonging to God’s Israel will the Lord leave behind.

Secondly. This multitude is to be gathered out of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues. And consequently, Christ hath a people in all places; otherwise they could not be said to be gathered out. Here opens a most blessed subject to contemplate. And, I very particularly desire the Reader to bear with me, and hear me with patience, upon this very interesting subject. I find cause to bless God, for whit he hath here said of the Gentile Church in this place, as I no less would bless him, for what he had before said and done, in sealing the Jewish Church; for I confess, that I am inclined to think, that in both instances, there was a special design of the Lord in it. I beg indulgence to explain myself.

By sealing Israel, before their long oppressed state, under the despotism and delusion of the false prophet in the East, took place, we have seen the watchful eye of God over his Church. And by this further manifestation to John, concerning the whole Church, both Jew and Gentile, we no less see, how the Lord hath secured the present, and everlasting interests of all his people. But under both we are led to conclude, that both Jew and Gentile were alike to be gathered from the varieties of the earth. What a thought it is, that the seed of Christ should be thus dispersed over the whole world! And what a thought again follows upon the heels of the former, like wave after wave, in the sea; how the Lord’s purposes are accomplished. His thoughts not our thoughts, neither his ways our ways! I cannot but admire this plan of infinite wisdom the more, because, for all the eastern world there is no prophecy in this whole book of the Revelation, except in this part. Surely, one might suppose, in so large a tract of the inhabited globe, some respect would be had, in a book of this kind, to those who peopled the East; and especially, As it was in the East that all the glorious transactions, of man’s recovery from the fall, by Christ, was accomplished. But without an eye to what is here said, as referring to them, we have none. From the subsequent parts of those prophecies, to the end of the ruin of Antichrist, everything that is said, refers to the Western world. Hence, therefore, this becomes a precious testimony to the recovery, in after days of the Lord’s appearing for his people. This view was evidently designed to show the Church, that God hath sealed Israel; and that, from hence also, his Gentile Church should arise; and both be fully known to be the Lord’s, when the purposes of God were accomplished.

I would beg to add one word more, upon this gathering of Christ’s Church from the varieties of the earth; namely, how blessedly it teacheth us of the safety of God’s children, wheresoever they are. Jesus hath marked his sheep. And he will assuredly bring them all home to his fold. Let no child of God, therefore, ever despond, from any situation, or exercise of life. As the day is, the strength shall be. Thousands now in glory, were once, when upon earth, encompassed, as we are, with difficulties, and exercised with temptations. They who have entered into rest, have triumphed over all. If the poor, tried, tempted, and exercised child of God, here upon earth, could see the multitude now before the throne, and could hear their account of the Lord’s grace, concerning them, while here below; how would it animate, and encourage his mind? He would learn, that what he now feels, they once felt, what he encounters, they once endured. These things would help him, through grace, to go on. And, being encompassed with so great a cloud of witnesses, he would lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset him, and rim with patience the race that is set before him, looking unto Jesus, the Author, and Finisher of his salvation! Heb 12:1-2 .

Thirdly. There is one feature more of this multitude John saw, which is strikingly descriptive. They are said to have been standing before the throne, and before the Lamb! Here we plainly discover, that the throne of God is one, and that Jesus is in the midst of the throne. And we no less discover, from what is said of the Church standing before the throne, that this is both the everlasting safety, and the everlasting happiness of the redeemed. It is our distance from this throne of God, which is the sad cause of all our misery. We live below our privileges. We have too little actings of faith upon the Person of Christ Jesus. Perfect love casteth out fear. If we love Christ because he first loved us, we shall soon apprehend the blessedness of always living to him, and living upon him. In his presence is fulness of joy, and at his right hand are pleasures forevermore!

Fourthly. They are said to be clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands. Intimating that they had overcome by the blood of the Lamb, and were therefore crowned with the emblems of victory There is somewhat very interesting in this account. Jesus hath made all his redeemed kings and priests, to God, and the Father; therefore, as such, they stand before him, both in their royal, and priestly garments. But the sweetest view is, that these robes of white, implied both their sanctity in Christ, and their everlasting freedom from all sin. Oh! the unspeakable felicity of such a state of holiness and sanctification, and that forever in Christ?

Fifthly. Their hymn of praise is beautiful. Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb. Let the Reader from hence observe, how the Church gives her acknowledgments unitedly to all the Persons of the Godhead, as being the joint Authors of all her mercies in redemption. And, when it be considered, that all the Persons of the Godhead alike concurred in that vast design, the song of tribute becomes sweet, and suitable, in being addressed to the Holy Three IN One. God the Father Set forth Christ as a propitiation through faith in his blood. God the Son gave himself an offering, and a sacrifice to God, for a sweet swelling savor. And God the Holy Ghost, through whom that offering was made is the great cause of regeneration, in making the redeemed the happy partakers, by grace, of those unspeakable mercies. Hence the song of salvation to God, that is, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, as God; and the Lamb, that is, the God-Man Mediator, Christ Jesus.

Sixthly. Though the Angels are said to fall before the throne on their faces, and to have worshipped God, saying Amen; yet they sung not of their salvation; for having, through God’s grace, kept their first estate, they needed not salvation. But only as participating in the Joy of the Church of God, and rejoicing in the glories of the Lord, they enter with an holy ardor of affection, into all that belongs to the Church’s welfare, and therefore, put their hearty Amen to the heavenly hymn. And the sevenfold praise that follows, is descriptive both of their views of God’s glory, and their happiness in it. Blessings say they, for God is blessed in himself, and blessed in his Church and people; yea, is their blessedness, and the fountain of all blessedness. And Glory, because God is the glory of his people. His glory is in himself, and of himself; and his glory is great, in the salvation by Christ, Psa 21:5 . Wisdom, is another of his distinguishing attributes, and most eminently displayed in the salvation by Christ. For Christ himself is both the wisdom of God, and the power of God to salvation, 1Co 1:24 . Thanksgiving: most suitably is this added, for if heaven, in the hierarchies of the place, could be supposed possible to be silent in the contemplation of God’s love to the Church, in all that relates to it, the very stones of the earth might be supposed to cry out. Honor is also brought into the vast account. For as God, he is to be honored; and as God in Christ to be everlastingly beheld as the sole source of all honor; and the Lord will take to himself honor, in the destruction of all the foes of our salvation. Power is eminently displayed in salvation, since nothing but the wisdom of God could have contrived it, and nothing but the power of God accomplished it. And Might, to bear up the whole government, in all the departments of nature, providence, grace, and glory. Well might the heavenly host, therefore, catch fire at the Church’s song, and join in, with all their powers, to swell the loud Chorus of praises to God and the Lamb. Reader! Shall you and I join our feeble notes to the same? Yes if so be we know, that we have redemption through Christ’s blood, even the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his grace.

Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

9 After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands;

Ver. 9. A great multitude ] All the faithful from the apostles to the end of the world. In all ages there were some that sought righteousness; neither was it ever so hard with the Church as the host at Nola (in the story) made it; who when he was commanded by the Roman censor to go and call the good men of the city to appear before him, went to the church yards, and there called at the graves of the dead, O ye good men of Nola, come away, for the Roman censor calls for your appearance; for he knew not where to call for a good man alive. In the very midst of Popery there were many faithful witnesses, and more of such as (like those two hundred that went out of Jerusalem after Absalom) went on in the simplicity of their hearts, and knew not anything, 2Sa 15:11 . (Anton. di Guevara.)

Clothed with white robes ] See Trapp on “ Rev 3:4 “

And palms in their hands ] In token of victory over all spiritual enemies. This was hinted at by those palms engraved in Solomon’s and Ezekiel’s temple.

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

9 17 .] The great multitude of the redeemed in heaven . The opening of the sixth seal introduced the coming of the Lord. The first vision of the episode revealed the gathering together of the elect from the four winds. But before the seventh and last seal can be opened, and the book of God’s purposes be unrolled, not only must all things on this earth be accomplished, but the whole multitude of the redeemed must be gathered in to the joy of their Lord. Then, and not till then, shall we know even as we are known, and read the mystery of God’s ways without hindrance. Accordingly, in this sublime vision we are admitted to a sight of the finished state of glory, in which the seventh seal shall be opened. After these things (see above on Rev 7:1 . The term indicates separation from that which went before, and introduces a second and distinct vision in the episode) I saw, and behold a great multitude, which (construction, see reff.) no one could (the past represents the classical : not that the attempt was actually made, but that if made it was sure to fail) number, out of every nation (see ch. Rev 5:9 ) and (all) tribes and peoples and tongues (observe, that this very specification, of a multitude without number, carries us on past the first or millennial resurrection, indicated in the two former parables of Mat 25 (see notes there), and past the final judgment sublimely described at the end of that chapter: is the point at which our vision takes up that prophecy. We have , in their robes of righteousness, made white in the blood of the Lamb, already, Rev 7:15-17 , in the midst of those pleasures for evermore which always stand in Scripture for a description of the employments of the life everlasting) standing before the throne and before the Lamb (by these words the vision is fixed as belonging to that heaven itself which has been previously described, ch. 4. The celestial scene becomes filled with this innumerable throng: its other inhabitants remaining as before) clothed in white robes (see ch. Rev 6:11 , note: and below, Rev 7:14 ), and palm-branches in their hands (bearing the palm-branch was a mark of festal joy, cf. Joh 12:13 ; 1Ma 13:51 ; and this practice extended beyond the Jews, cf. Paus. Arcad. 48, . Remember also Virgil’s “palm, pretium victoribus,” n. v. 111. As regards the palm- branch being also called , we have the authority of Pollux (Wetst.), ): and they cry (the pres. expresses their unceasing occupation) with a loud voice, saying, Salvation ( , the praise of our salvation: the ascription of the salvation which we have obtained) ( be ) to our God who sitteth on the throne and to the Lamb .

Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament

Rev 7:9 . . . . curious and irregular change from singular to plural. = erect, confident, triumphant. For the white robes, see on Rev 6:2 (the number of the martyrs being now completed). Certain religious processions in Asia Minor consisted of boys robed in white and bearing crowns of leafy boughs (Deissm. 368 f.); and in some Asiatic inscriptions is associated with the palm branch, which in one case is placed alongside of the meta or goal ( C. B. P. ii. 496). The carrying of palm-branches was a sign of festal joy in the Greek and Roman (= victory at the games Liv. x. 47, Verg. Aen. ver 109), as well as in the Jewish world ( 1Ma 13:51 ; 2Ma 10:7 ), accompanied by the wearing of wreaths of green leaves. For the robes, see Liv. xxiv. 10: “Hadriae aram in coelo, speciesque hominum circum earn cum candida ueste visas esse”. Here = “scilicet de antichristo triumphales” (Tertullian). For the numberless multitude, see Enoch xxxix. 6, where “the righteous and the elect shall be for ever and ever without number before” the messiah, in the mansions of bliss; white raiment and crowns of palm in Herm. Sim. viii. 2 4.

Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson

Revelation

THE PALM-BEARING MULTITUDE

Rev 7:9

The Seer is about to disclose the floods of misery which are to fall upon the earth at the sound of the seven trumpets, like avalanches set loose by a noise. But before the crash of their descent comes there is a lull.

He sees angels holding back the winds, like dogs in a leash, lest they should blow, and all destructive agencies are suspended. In the pause before the storm he sees two visions: one, that of the sealing of the servants of God, the pledge that, amidst the world-wide calamities, they shall be secure; and one, this vision of my text, the assurance that beyond the storms there waits a calm region of life and glory. The vision is meant to brace all generations for their trials, great or small, to draw faith and love upwards and forwards, to calm sorrow, to diminish the magnitude of death and the pain of parting, and to breed in us humble desires that, when our time comes, we too may go to join that great multitude.

It can never be inappropriate to look with the eyes of the Seer on that jubilant crowd. So I turn to these words and deal with them in the plainest possible fashion, just taking each clause as it lies, though, for reasons which will appear, modifying the order in which we look at them. I think that, taken together, they tell us all that we can or need know about that future.

I. Note the palm-bearing multitude.

Now the palm, among the Greeks and Romans, was a token of victory. That is usually taken to be the meaning of the emblem here, as it was taken in the well-known hymn –

‘More than conquerors at last.’

But it has been well pointed out that there is no trace of such a use of the palm in Jewish practice, and that all the emblems of this Book of the Revelation move within the circle of Jewish ideas. Therefore, appropriate as the idea of victory may be, it is not, as I take it, the one that is primarily suggested here. Where, then, shall we look for the meaning of the symbol?

Now there was in Jewish practice a very significant use of the palm-branches, for it was the prescription of the ritual law that they should be employed in the Feast of Tabernacles, when the people were bidden to take palm-branches and rejoice before the Lord seven days.’ It is that distinctly Jewish use of the palm branch that is brought before our minds here, and not the heathen one of mere conquest.

So then, if we desire to get the whole significance and force of this emblem of the multitude with the palms in their hands, we have to ask what was the significance of that Jewish festival. Like all other Jewish feasts, it was originally a Nature-festival, applying to a season of the year, and it afterwards came to have associated with it the remembrance of something in the history of the nation which it commemorated. That double aspect, the natural and the historical, are both to be kept in view. Let us take the eldest one first. The palm-bearing multitude before the Throne suggests to us the thought of rejoicing reapers at the close of the harvest. The year’s work is done, the sowing days are over, the reaping days have come. ‘They that gather it shall eat it in the courts of the Lord.’ And so the metaphor of my text opens out into that great thought that the present and the future are closely continuous, and that the latter is the time for realizing, in one’s own experience, the results of the life that we have lived here. To-day is the time of sowing; the multitude with the palms in their hands are the reapers. Brother! what are you sowing? Will it be for you a glad day of festival when you have to reap what you have sown? Are you scattering poisoned seed? Are you sowing weeds, or are you sowing good fruit that shall be found after many days unto praise and honour and glory? Look at your life here as being but setting in motion a whole series of causes of which you are going to have the effects punctually dealt out to you yonder in the time to come. That great multitude reaped what they had sown, and rejoiced in the reaping. Shall I? We are like operators in a telegraph office, touching keys here which make impressions upon ribbons in a land beyond the sea, and when we get there we shall have to read what we have written here. How will you like it, when the ribbon is taken out of the machine and spread before you, and you have to go over it syllable by syllable and translate all the dots and dashes into what they mean? It will be a feast or a day of sadness. But, festival or no, there stands plain and irrefragable the fact that ‘whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap,’ and he will not only have to reap it, but he will have to eat it, and be filled with the fruit of his own doings. That is the first thought.

Turn to the other one. That palm-bearing multitude keeping their Feast of Tabernacles reminds us of the other aspect of the festival in its original intention, which was the commemoration of all that God had done for the people as they passed through the wilderness, and the rejoicing, in their settled abode, over ‘the way by which the Lord their God had led them,’ and over the rest to which He had led them. So the other idea comes out that they who have passed into that great Presence look back on the darkness and the dreariness, on the struggles and the change, on the drought and the desert, on the foes and the fears, and out of them all find occasions for rejoicing and reasons for thankfulness. There can be no personal identity without memory and the memory of sorrows changes into joy when we come to see the whole meaning and trend of the sorrow. The desert was dreary, solitary, dry, and parched as they passed through it. But like some grim mountain-range seen in the transfiguring light of sunrise, and from the far distance, all grimness is changed into beauty, and the long dreary stretch looks, when beheld from afar, one unbroken manifestation of the Divine love and presence. What was grim rock and cold ice when we were near it is clothed with the violets and the purples that remoteness brings, and there shines down upon it the illuminating and interpreting light of the accomplished purpose of God. So the festival is the feast of inheriting consequences, and the feast of remembering the past.

There is one other aspect of this metaphor which I may just mention in a sentence. Later days in Judaism added other features to the original appointments of the Feast of Tabernacles, and amongst them there was one which our Lord Himself used as the occasion of setting forth one aspect of His work. ‘On the last day, that great day of the feast,’ the priests went down from the Temple, and filled their golden vases at the fountain, brought back the water, and poured it forth in the courts of the Temple, chanting the ancient song from the prophet, ‘With joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation.’ And our Lord in His earthly life used this last day of the feast and its ceremonial as the point of attachment for His revelation of Himself, as He who gave to men the true living water. In like manner, the expansion of my text, which occurs in the subsequent verses, refers, as it would seem, to the festival, and to our Lord’s own use of it, when we read that the ‘Lamb which is in the midst of the Throne shall be their Shepherd, and shall lead them to the fountains of living waters.’

So the emblem of the feast brings to our mind, not only the thought of retribution and of repose, but also the thought of the abundant communication of all supplies for all the desires and thirsts of the dependent and seeking soul. Whatsoever human nature can need there, it receives in its fullness from Jesus Christ. The Rabbis used to say that he who had not seen the joy of the Feast of Tabernacles did not know what joy meant; and I would say that until we, too, stand there, with the palms in our hands, we shall not know of how deep, fervent, calm, perpetual a gladness the human heart is capable.

II. Note their place and attitude.

They stand before the Throne, and before the Lamb. Now it would take me too far away from my present purpose to do more than point, in a sentence, to that remarkable and tremendous juxtaposition of the ‘Throne’ and the ‘Lamb,’ which Lamb is the crucified Christ. What did the man that ventured upon that form of speech, bracketing together the ‘Throne’ of the Divine Majesty and the slain Lamb ‘who is Christ, think about Christ that he should sever Him from all the multitude of men, and unite Him with the solitary God? I only ask. I leave you to answer.

But I turn to the two points – ‘before the Throne and the Lamb,’ and ‘standing’; and these two suggest, as it seems to me, the two thoughts which, though we cannot do much to fill them out, are yet all-sufficient for illumination, for courage, and for hope. These two are the thought of nearness and the thought of service. ‘Before the Throne and the Lamb’ is but a picturesque way of saying ‘to depart and to be with Christ, which is far better.’ I do not enter upon any attempt to expound the manner of such nearness. All that I say is that it is a poor affair if we are to let flesh and sense interpret for us what is meant by ‘near’ and ‘far.’ For even here, and whilst we are entangled with this corporeal existence and our dependence upon the conditions of time and space, we know that there is nearness mediated by sympathy and love which is independent of, which survives and disregards, external separation in space. Every loving heart knows that where the treasure is, there the heart is, and where the heart is, there the man is. And the very same thing that knits us together, though oceans wide between us roll, in its highest form will knit the souls that love Jesus Christ to Him, wherever in space they and He may be. Here we have five senses, five windows, five gates. If our ears were different we should hear sounds, shrill and deep, which now are silence to us. If our eyes were different we should see rays at both ends of the spectrum which now are invisible. The body hides as much as it reveals, and we may humbly believe that when the perfect spirit is clothed with its perfect organ, the spiritual body – that is to say, the body that answers to all the needs of the spirit, and is its fit instrument, then many of those melodies which now pass by us unheard will fill our senses with sweetness, and many of these flashing lustres which now we cannot gather into visual impressions will then blaze before us in the perfect light. We shall be near Him, and to be with Christ, however it is mediated and we cannot tell how, is all that you need, for peace, for nobleness, for blessedness, for immortality. Brethren! to have Christ with me here is my strength; to be with Christ yonder is my blessedness. They are ‘before the Throne of God and the Lamb.’ I do not believe that we know much beyond that, and I am sure that we need nothing beyond it, if we rightly understand all that it means.

But I said there was another idea here, and that is implied by the words, they stood before the Throne,’ and is further drawn out in the expansion of my text which follows it as interpretation: ‘Therefore are they before the Throne of God, and serve Him day and night in His Temple.’ What the nature of the service may be it boots not to inquire, only let us remember that the caricature of the Christian heaven which has often been flung at Christian people as a taunt, viz., that it is an eternity of idleness and psalm-singing, has no foundation in Scripture, because the New Testament conception unites the two thoughts of being with Christ and of service for Christ. Remember, for instance, the parable of the pounds and the talents, in which the great law is laid down. ‘Thou hast been faithful over a few things; I will make thee ruler over many things,’ and mark how here ‘these . . . that came out of great tribulation’ are not only in His presence, but active in His service. We have the same blending still more definitely set forth in the last chapter of this book, where we read of ‘those who serve Him, and see His face’; where the two ideas of the life of contemplation and rapt vision, and of the life of active service and joyful employment are welded together as being not only not incompatible, but absolutely necessary for each other’s completeness.

But remember that if there is to be service yonder, here is the exercising ground, where we are to cultivate the capacities and acquire the habitudes which there will find ampler scope and larger field. I do not know what we are here in this world for at all, unless it is to apprentice us for heaven. I do not know that there is anything that a man has to do in this life which is worth doing unless it be as a training for doing something yonder that shall more entirely correspond with his capacities. So what kind of work are you doing, friend? Is it the sort of work that you will be able to carry on when you pass beyond all the trivialities of this life? I beseech you, remember this, that life on earth is a bewilderment and an enigma for which there is no solution, a long piece of irony, unless beyond the grave there lie fields for nobler work for which we are being trained here. And I pray you see to it that your life here on earth is such as to prepare you for the service, day and night, of the heavens. How can I drive that home to your hearts and consciences? I cannot; you must do it for yourselves.

III. Lastly, note their dress.

‘ Clothed with white robes’ – the robe is, of course, in all languages, the character in which, as the result of his deeds, a man drapes himself, that of him which is visible to the world, the ‘habit’ of his spirit, as we say and the word ‘habit’ means both custom and costume. ‘White’ is, of course, the heavenly colour; ‘white thrones,’ ‘white horses’ are in this book, and the white is not dead but lustrous, like our Lord’s garments on the Mount of Transfiguration, such white as sunshine smiting a snowfield makes. So, then, the dress, the habit of the spirits is of lustrous purity, or glory, to put it all into one word. But more important than that is this question: How came they by such robes? The expansion of our text, to which I have already referred more than once, and which immediately follows, answers the question. ‘They washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.’ ‘They washed’; then there is something for them to do.

‘The blood of the Lamb’ was the means of cleansing; then cleansing was not the result of their own effort. The cleansing is not the mere forgiveness, but includes also the making of the character, pure, white, lustrous. And the blood of the Lamb does that. For Christ by His death has brought to us forgiveness, and Christ by His imparted life brings to each of us, if we will, the cleansing which shall purify us altogether. Only we have something to do. We cannot indeed cleanse ourselves. There is no detergent in any soap factory in the world that will take the stains out of your character, or that will take away the guilt of the past. But Jesus Christ by His death brings forgiveness, and by His life imparted to us, will change the set of a character, and make us gradually pure. He has ‘washed us from our sins in His own blood.’ We have to wash our garments, and make them ‘white in the blood of the Lamb.’ He has brought the means; we have to employ them. If we do, if we not only trust Him for pardon, but accept Him for purifying, and day by day honestly endeavour to secure greater and greater whiteness of garments, our labour will not be in vain. If, and only if, we do that, and see stain after stain gradually fade away from the garment, under our hands, we may humbly hope that when we die there will be one more added to the palm-bearing, white-robed multitude who stand before the Throne and before the Lamb. ‘Blessed are they that wash their robes that they may have right to the Tree of Life,’ and may enter in through the gate into the City.

Fuente: Expositions Of Holy Scripture by Alexander MacLaren

NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Rev 7:9-12

9After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could count, from every nation and all tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, and palm branches were in their hands; 10and they cry out with a loud voice, saying, “Salvation to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.” 11And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures; and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, 12saying, “Amen, blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might, be to our God forever and ever. Amen.”

Rev 7:9 The great multitude mentioned in this verse is obviously different from the one hundred forty-four thousand which are mentioned in Rev 7:4. As the first group came from different tribes of Israel, this group comes from every tribe of the earth. It seems that these two groups represent the same group of people in two different senses. If Rev 7:1-8 refer to believing Jews, then Rev 7:9 refers to the people of God of all people groups (cf. Rev 5:9; Rev 11:9; Rev 13:7; Rev 14:6; Rev 17:15).

However, the fact that they are said to (1) have come out of the great tribulation (cf. Rev 7:14); (2) were standing before the throne (cf. Rev 7:9); and (3) they have white robes (cf. Rev 6:11) may identify them as the complete number of martyrs (cf. Rev 6:11; Rev 17:6; Rev 18:24; Rev 19:2; Rev 20:4).

“which no one could count” This may be an allusion to the promises to Abraham of abundant descendants.

1. dust of the earth Gen 13:16; Gen 28:14; Num 23:10

2. stars of heaven Gen 15:5; Gen 22:17; Gen 26:4; Deu 1:10

3. sand on the seashore Gen 22:17; Gen 32:12

4. a general statement Gen 16:10

“palm branches were in their hands” Some try to identify this with Lev 23:40 or Neh 8:15 as a sign of joy and triumph. Others relate it to the rituals of the Feast of Passover as in Joh 12:13 and still others, because this passage is linked to the Wilderness Wandering Period (cf. Rev 7:15-16), with the Feast of Tabernacles. The palm branches may simply be a symbol of victory.

Rev 7:10 “Salvation to our God” This is the normal Greek term for “salvation” (steria from sz), but it may be used in the sense of “victory” (NEB) or “have completely overcome.” Therefore, it could refer to (1) deliverance from the problems of life on earth or (2) spiritual, eternal salvation. The OT term (yasha) meant physical deliverance (cf. Jas 5:15). This same term is used in a series of blessings to God three times in Revelation (cf. Rev 7:10; Rev 12:10; Rev 19:1).

“and to the Lamb” Notice that the Messiah is blessed in the same way as YHWH. This stresses the divine essence of the Son.

Rev 7:11 Notice that several groups are differentiated.

1. the angels

2. the elders

3. the four living creatures

These groups are all connected to the throne room of God in heaven. They are separate from the 144,000 and the great multitude.

For “the elders” see SPECIAL TOPIC: ELDER at Rev 4:4.

Rev 7:12 “saying” Notice the sevenfold blessing to God (and Messiah, cf. Rev 7:10), which is similar to the sevenfold blessing of the slain lamb of Rev 5:12.

“Amen” Notice how it starts and concludes the blessing. See Special Topic at Rev 1:6.

Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley

After this. As Rev 1:19.

beheld. As Rev 7:1 (saw).

lo. App-133.

multitude. These are converts during the great tribulation.

no man = no one. Greek. oudeis.

kindreds. As Rev 7:4 (tribes).

people = peoples.

stood = were standing.

palms. Greek. phoinix. Only here and Joh 12:13. Compare the “great hosanna” of the Jews on the last day of “Tabernacles”.

Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

9-17.] The great multitude of the redeemed in heaven. The opening of the sixth seal introduced the coming of the Lord. The first vision of the episode revealed the gathering together of the elect from the four winds. But before the seventh and last seal can be opened, and the book of Gods purposes be unrolled, not only must all things on this earth be accomplished, but the whole multitude of the redeemed must be gathered in to the joy of their Lord. Then, and not till then, shall we know even as we are known, and read the mystery of Gods ways without hindrance. Accordingly, in this sublime vision we are admitted to a sight of the finished state of glory, in which the seventh seal shall be opened. After these things (see above on Rev 7:1. The term indicates separation from that which went before, and introduces a second and distinct vision in the episode) I saw, and behold a great multitude, which (construction, see reff.) no one could (the past represents the classical : not that the attempt was actually made, but that if made it was sure to fail) number, out of every nation (see ch. Rev 5:9) and (all) tribes and peoples and tongues (observe, that this very specification, of a multitude without number, carries us on past the first or millennial resurrection, indicated in the two former parables of Matthew 25 (see notes there), and past the final judgment sublimely described at the end of that chapter: is the point at which our vision takes up that prophecy. We have , in their robes of righteousness, made white in the blood of the Lamb, already, Rev 7:15-17, in the midst of those pleasures for evermore which always stand in Scripture for a description of the employments of the life everlasting) standing before the throne and before the Lamb (by these words the vision is fixed as belonging to that heaven itself which has been previously described, ch. 4. The celestial scene becomes filled with this innumerable throng: its other inhabitants remaining as before) clothed in white robes (see ch. Rev 6:11, note: and below, Rev 7:14), and palm-branches in their hands (bearing the palm-branch was a mark of festal joy, cf. Joh 12:13; 1Ma 13:51; and this practice extended beyond the Jews, cf. Paus. Arcad. 48, . Remember also Virgils palm, pretium victoribus, n. v. 111. As regards the palm-branch being also called , we have the authority of Pollux (Wetst.), ): and they cry (the pres. expresses their unceasing occupation) with a loud voice, saying, Salvation ( , the praise of our salvation: the ascription of the salvation which we have obtained) (be) to our God who sitteth on the throne and to the Lamb.

Fuente: The Greek Testament

Rev 7:9. After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb,

Our numbering can go a very long way, what, therefore, must be the countless hosts of the redeemed who are to be a great multitude, which no man could number? And what an infinite variety there will be among them, seeing that they shall not only be of all nations, but out of those nations they shall be of all kindreds, and people, and tongues, that is, all sorts and conditions of men, of every race, and of every age from the first century down to the last. Christs immeasurable redemption price must bring, to him a great reward. Isaiah long ago foretold that He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied; and it is no little result that will satisfy him for such travail of soul as he endured. This great multitude stood before the throne, and before the Lamb,

Rev 7:9. Clothed with white robes,

To set forth their purity, their victory, and their entrance into the marriage state, for such was the color usually worn on such occasions. Clothed with white robes, to show that they had entered into their rest, so that their garments were no longer soiled through their toil. They have reached their everlasting Sabbath, their week-day service is over for ever.

Rev 7:9-11. And palms in their hands; and cried with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God which sitteth upon, the throne, and unto the Lamb.

And all the angels stood round about the throne, and about the elders and the four beasts, and fell before the throne on their faces, and worshipped God, The angels form the outer ring. The elders, who represent the Church of the redeemed, are nearer to the throne of God than even the holy angels are. Nearest to God in heaven are those who have been redeemed from among men. How high a dignity how noble an estate awaits us by-and-by! But, all alike, both saved men and unfallen angels, fell before the throne on their faces, and worshipped God,

Rev 7:12-17. Saying Amen: Blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honour, and power, and might, be unto our God for ever and ever. Amen. And one of the elders answered, saying unto me, What are these which are arrayed in white robes? and whence came they? 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 his 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 gears from their eyes

This exposition consisted of readings from Matthew 3, and Mat 11:20-30; and Rev 7:9-17.

Fuente: Spurgeon’s Verse Expositions of the Bible

Rev 7:9. , –, …) A Middle reading:[82] whence some reduce the whole paragraph to the nominative, others to the accusative. The mixture of cases displeases Wolf: which indeed is frequent in this hook. Li this passage is described , a host of the blessed, to which there is a Simultaneum[83] with the sealing previously described, and with the subsequent trumpets, under which the plague does not touch those that are sealed. Into this place this falls, in its own order, after their happy departure from the world. Afterwards more companies of this kind are mentioned: ch. Rev 14:1, Rev 15:2, etc. The degrees of happiness are various and very different; but the lowest of them, speaking by comparison, is now above all need of cleansing.- [84] ) In such an enumeration, the other passages either have the plural number four times, or the singular four times: see notes on ch. Rev 5:9. In this passage alone the singular is put first, and then the plural three times, and not without reason. This multitude is led forth out of the whole human race. That race is one , all along from its origin: Act 17:26. But in progress of time, while Adam himself was alive, it was multiplied, and separated itself both into tribes and peoples, and languages.

[82] C and Rec. Text have : Ah Vulg. Cypr. 272, 310, have . , Ah Vulg. Cypr.: , C: , B. , ABC:-, Vulg. and Rec. Text.-E.

[83] See Append. of Technical Terms.-E.

[84] Vulg. has gentibus; h Cypr. 272, 310, tribu, populo, lingua. But ABC support Beng.-E.

Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament

Rev 7:9-10

3. A GREAT MULTITUDE SEALED

Rev 7:9-10

9 After these things I saw, and behold, a great multitude, which no man could number, out of every nation and of all tribes and peoples and tongues,–All these scenes appeared before John as he looked into heaven. They are “moving pictures” that represent something else. “After these things” means that after hearing the number sealed from the Israelites he saw this great multitude. Since they were out of every nation and all peoples, they must have been those sealed from the Gentile nations.

standing before the throne and before the Lamb, arrayed in white robes, and palms in their hands; –The scenes are still in heaven. The visions were opened in chapters 4 and 5 with God seated upon the throne and Christ as Lamb standing beside him. The setting for the visions have remained in heaven. John saw the multitude of the saved standing there. That indicates that their obedience was acceptable to God. The white robes represent their righteousness. (19:8.) The palms were an emblem of victory. This symbolic picture shows that those saved during the period here in view will be accepted at the judgment. Of course, the same will be true of those saved in all other ages or periods.

10 and they cry with a great voice, saying, Salvation unto our God who sitteth on the throne, and unto the Lamb.–John heard those he saw before God and Christ ascribing praise by attributing their salvation to God. That is what the redeemed will do when heaven is reached.

Commentary on Rev 7:9-10 by Foy E. Wallace

The innumerable multitude-Rev 7:9-10.

In this coordination of the apocalypse, the angels proclamation concerning the hundred and forty-four thousand was immediately followed by the heavenly scene in verses nine to seventeen. The vision here expands the hundred forty-four thousand of all the tribes of Israel, as the nucleus of the New Israel, the holy seed, the remnant according to grace–into the innumerable multitude. The revelation does not end with the number of them that were sealed in verse 4.

Rev 7:9 continues the vision with the words after this I beheld and, lo, a great multitude which no man could number of all nations and kindreds and people and tongues. It is the same company as the number of them that were sealed, the hundred forty-four thousand which were of all the tribes of Israel. But the multitude in Rev 7:9 were of all nations and kindreds and peoples and tongues, which signified that the new Israel was not the fleshly seed of the twelve tribes of Israel; but the spiritual seed–the holy seed–of all nations which no man could number. This was the symbol of innumerable multitude. It was identical with that innumerable company mentioned in Heb 12:22-23, designated the general assembly and church of the firstborn. It identified the hundred forty-four thousand of Rev 7:4, and Rev 14:1, with this great multitude and innumerable company ofRev 7:9 and Heb 12:22-23. So parallel are these passages that strong evidence is adduced from it that the Hebrew passage is an allusion to this Revelation scene of chapter 7, virtually equivalent to a direct quotation. This is assuredly possible in the premises of the prior date of Revelation, in which chronology it antedates the Hebrew epistle. The same evidential relation of other epistles to the apocalypse is indicated in other references and examples, all of which are internal evidences that Revelation is by no means the last book of the New Testament canon, but quite to the contrary-it bears an earlier date than several others, including Hebrews, Galatians, Second Peter (if not first), and even of the other epistles of John.

The multitude of Rev 7:9-10 were clothed in the white robes of victory, displaying palms of praise. There were the emblems of a triumphant march. (Joh 12:13) With a loud voice the vocal unison of the great company ascribed salvation to our God, from whom the salvation proceeded and unto the Lamb, by whom it was procured.

This salvation was not in the gospel sense of salvation from sin or in pardon or remission of sins, but was the state of deliverance and blessing. The Greek texts give the article which the English translations dropped, and in them it reads: the salvation of our God, a specific reference to coming out of the trials of persecution into the scenes of the throne.

Commentary on Rev 7:9-12 by Walter Scott

Rev 7:9. – Clothed with white robes. They had maintained the rights and claims of God against a rebellious and apostate world amidst circumstances, too, of unparalleled sorrow and affliction (Mar 13:19). Now God remembers and rewards their faithfulness, they are clothed with white robes, robes of righteousness (see Rev 19:8). Palm branches express the joy of complete deliverance (Lev 23:40; Joh 12:13). God had brought them safely through their awful period of appointed affliction termed the great tribulation (Rev 7:14, R.V.), and now they triumph in the triumph of their God. The palm is the only tree named in the construction of the millennial temple (Ezekiel 40; Ezekiel 41); is also named chiefly in connection with the Feast of Tabernacles, the last and closing joyous feast of Israel (Lev 23:40). The white-robed multitude is the only company in the Revelation said to have palms; the word occurs but once in the Apocalypse.

Rev 7:10. – They cry with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God Who sits upon the throne, and to the Lamb. Their struggles and trials are over. The throne before which they stand is now and forever their strength and security. The countless multitudes of these redeemed ones break out in one loud and united cry. What is the burden of this intense and thrilling cry? Salvation in its most comprehensive sense is ascribed to God and to the Lamb. Not a member of that redeemed host is silent. They cry with a loud voice. Sovereign grace has done its mighty work. It has gathered out of all lands and tongues a Gentile host beyond all human computation – each and all once dead in sins – and placed them saved and blest before Gods throne. How fitting then that the triumph of divine grace should be grandly celebrated and traced to the source – God in divine sovereignty, and to the Lamb, the expression of His love and grace.

THE ANSWER OF THE ANGELIC HOST.

Rev 7:11-12. – And all the angels stood around the throne, and the elders and the four living creatures, and fell before the throne upon their faces and worshipped God, saying, Amen: Blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honour, and power, and strength to our God, to the ages of ages. Amen. We have two distinct heavenly scenes in which the throne is the central figure here, and in chapter 5: 11, 12. In both scenes the angels form the outer circle around the throne. In these beatific visions we have the doxology of the angelic host in a sevenfold ascription of worship. In the former scene (Rev 5:11-12) the Lamb is the object of praise; in the latter vision (Rev 7:11-12) God is the object of adoration. The position of the angels in both scenes is around the throne, while the elders and living creatures form inner circles. The order in which these last, i.e., the elders and living ones, are presented differs in the two scenes. In the earlier one the elders form the innermost circle; in the later the living creatures are nearest the throne. The difference is easily accounted for. In the former the Lamb is in immediate view and the redeemed in Heaven (the elders) naturally gather around Him; whereas in the latter vision, God sitting on His throne, the symbol of universal sovereignty, would account for the near place of the living creatures who represent the executive authority of the throne. The Gentile crowd on earth had ascribed salvation to our God, but He is also the God of angels; hence they, too, in their place in the heavens say our God. To the cry of the exultant redeemed the angels, which are as countless as the redeemed host on earth, in whom they are so deeply interested, fall down and worship, saying, Amen. How profound their worship may be gathered somewhat from their position, they fell down upon their faces. The cry of the multitude is answered by the angels Amen. The terms in the angelic doxology differ in their order from that contained in chapter 5. There the last two terms, glory and blessing, are the first named in our chapter. There riches, here instead is thanksgiving. (W. Kelly, F. B. Hooper, Bishop Ellicott, and others in their respective works on the Apocalypse read verse 12 with the definite article before each noun, thus: The blessing, and the glory, and the wisdom, and the thanksgiving, and the honour, and the power, and the strength. Says an able writer: The force of the article is to express each quality in its highest degree and excellence.)

The two redeemed companies on earth in our chapter are the elect of Israel and the white-robed multitude of Gentiles. The companies in Heaven are the angels, the elders, and the living creatures. Neither of the last two take part in the celebration of praise. This is confined to the Gentile crowd on earth, and to the angels in Heaven. The special object of the whole passage (Rev 7:9-17) is the relation of the palm-bearing multitude to God and to the Lamb. This really is the burden of their cry, which the angels fully own by adding their Amen. (The first Amen is the answer to the cry of the saved multitude. The second Amen is a confirmation of the truth of their own praise.) The relation of the elders and living ones to God is disclosed in chapters 4 and 5, and hence in those portions their worship is appropriately introduced, not here.

Commentary on Rev 7:9-10 by E.M. Zerr

Rev 7:9. This verse verifies the comments at Rev 7:4, for here we have the same kind of persons referred to in other numerical terms. They also are said to be from all nations. etc.. which would prevent us from restricting the “twelve tribes” to the Jews. White robes signified a life of righteousness and palms are medals betokening their victory over “great tribulation” (Rev 7:14).

Rev 7:10. Salvation to our God means to ascribe salvation to Him, and unto the Lamb is combined in the praise because God perfects all plans through the Son.

Commentary on Rev 7:9-10 by Burton Coffman

Rev 7:9

After these things I saw, and behold, a great multitude, which no man could number, out of every nation and of all tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, arrayed in white robes, and palms in their hands;

After these things … See under Rev 7:1. The logic of the first vision of this chapter (Rev 7:1-8) coming first is inherent in the fact that two different states of Christians are in view: (1) their state on earth suffering persecutions and martyrdom, and (2) their state in heaven where they are eternally safe. The saints on earth are sealed with the Holy Spirit as a pledge of their ultimately receiving their inheritance; but the saints in heaven are not said to be sealed, for they have already received the great inheritance. The first vision (Rev 7:1-8) symbolized by the old Israel’s embattled condition during the wilderness wanderings suggests the similar condition of God’s church throughout the ages; and the second vision (Rev 7:9-17) shows them finally triumphant and redeemed. The imagery borrowed from the old Israel applies here to the new.

A great number which no man could number … This is the same group as that of the 144,000 (Rev 7:1-8). This is not contradicted by the number 144,000 being given there and the “innumerable” group here. The 144,000 is also an “innumerable” throng. “If they had been different groups, both would have been sealed,”[43] for both are servants of God. Those in heaven had already been sealed while upon earth. “This innumerable company are the whole church of God.”[44] However, this vision of them is not a view of them at a time when they are suffering persecutions, but a view of them as they appear eternally after the Second Advent of Christ. “The interpretation of most of Revelation pivots upon the proper identification of these two groups as one and the same.”[45] “This vision shows how the saints (the 144,000) are preserved, not delivered from death, but delivered by death.”[46]

The premillennial proposition that the sealing in this chapter can not be “fulfilled before the rapture of the church,”[47] has no support from the New Testament. We take the view of Strauss to be correct: “This picture is the church triumphant in heaven; they have prevailed over persecution and death because of the blood of the Lamb.”[48] The time of their sealing, not mentioned here, was that during their sojourn on earth after they obeyed the gospel.

Out of every nation … tribes … peoples … tongues … The worldwide, universal nature of the church is seen in this.

Standing before the throne and before the Lamb … This is in heaven and justifies the view that here we have a glimpse of the Church Triumphant. What better comfort could be provided for those who were confronted with suffering and martyrdom?

Arrayed in white robes … “Trench stated that no symbol of heathen origin is used in the Apocalypse.”[49] Therefore, we do not need to look to Babylon, Greece, or Rome for the origin of the “palms” carried by these white-robed saints. The citizens of Jerusalem spread the branches of palms before the Saviour upon his triumphal entry (Joh 12:13), a fact recorded by the author of this Apocalypse.

[43] Leon Morris, Tyndale Commentaries, Vol. 20, the Revelation of St. John (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1969). p. 114.

[44] Isbon T. Beckwith, op. cit., p. 542.

[45] R. C. H. Lenski, op. cit., p. 257.

[46] J. R. Dummelow, Commentary on the Holy Bible (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1937), p. 1079.

[47] Finis Jennings Dake, Revelation Expounded (Lawrenceville, Georgia: Finis Jennings Dake, 1950), p. 56.

[48] James D. Strauss, The Seer, the Saviour, and the Saved (Joplin, Missouri: College Press, 1972), p. 125.

[49] Trench as quoted by Plummer, op. cit., p. 209.

Rev 7:10

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

They cry with a great voice … The present tense indicates the constant and unceasing nature of this adoration.

Salvation unto our God … and unto the Lamb … The identification of the Lamb with God upon the throne is invariable throughout Revelation. The presence of Christ at the very center of universal power and authority is an essential Christian conception. The meaning of this first clause is that God has given salvation and is therefore praised for it. “It is characteristic of John to announce the final victory before it has occurred,”[50] his purpose, of course, being that of maintaining a high level of hope and encouragement among those who were suffering and facing a prospect of martyrdom. Such anticipations are called “proleptic visions.”[51]

[50] Charles M. Laymon, op. cit., p. 105.

[51] Ibid.

Commentary on Rev 7:9-10 by Manly Luscombe

9 After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could number, of all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, with palm branches in their handsAs in a movie, you move from one scene to another. Here is the fade to a new scene. The sealing has been completed. Now all nations stand before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, palms in their hands. Palm branches were laid on the path Jesus took in his entry into Jerusalem. (Mar 11:8; Joh 12:13) While the white robes represent our salvation in Christ, the palms are symbolic of our willingness to serve Him.

10 and crying out with a loud voice, saying, Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb! We are saved. Isnt that reason to rejoice? Do you still have the joy of your salvation? (Psa 51:12) They recognize the source of their salvation is not their own merit. Salvation belongs to God and to the Lamb. Salvation cannot come by any other. (Act 4:12; Joh 14:6)

Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary

The Redeemed

After these things I saw, and behold, a great multitude, which no man could number, out of every nation, and of all tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, arrayed in white robes, and palms in their hands; and they cry with a great voice, saying, Salvation unto our God which sitteth on the throne, and unto the Lamb.Rev 7:9-10.

1. The Letters to the Seven Churches of Asia end with the third chapter of the Apocalypse. The fourth and fifth chapters describe two great acts of worship. In the fourth chapter God is worshipped as the Creator. The four Cherubim, or Living Creatures, representing all created life, are seen in perpetual adoration of their Maker. The four-and-twenty Eldersthe patriarchs of the Old Covenant and the apostles of the Newfall down before the throne and worship God, saying, Worthy art thou, our Lord and our God, to receive the glory and the honour and the power: for thou didst create all things.

The fifth chapter introduces the great work of redemption. The Lamb appears in the midst of the throne, typical of the eternal Son, the Redeemer of the world. As He takes the Book of Doom from His Fathers hands, the four Living Creatures and the four-and-twenty Elders fall down before Him and sing a new song, the song of the redeemed. The angel chorus pours forth its chant of thanksgiving to the Lamb, and every creature in heaven and earth and sea joins in the act of adoration.

Then at the ninth verse of the seventh chapter this second great act of worship enters on a new stage. The congregation, which hitherto has been drawn from the twelve tribes of Israel, is now seen to be a great multitude which no man can number, and it is taken from every nation upon the earth.

2. The redeemed are at worship. Where are they? They are in heaven, no doubt. But heaven is not to be identified with the world to come. Life before the throne God says Swete is life wherever spent, if it is dminated by a joyful consciousness of the Divine Presence and Glory. And he adds that the present picture must be correlated with hat of chapters 21. and 22.

The text suggests, first, the number of the redeemed; second, their variety; and thin, their unitytheir unity being seen (1) in their position or standing; (2) in their character; (3) in their feeling; and (4) in their occupation.

I

The Number of the Redeemed

1. A great multitute, which no man could number. It is a vision. But St. John had some material to work upon. Says Harnack, The vigour and the variety of the forms already assumed by Christianity in these quarters are shown by the seven epistles to the Churches in the Johannine Apocalypse, by the whole tenor of the book, and by the Ignatian Writings.

Tacitus, the careful Roman historian, in writing of the persecution of the Christians, under Nero in 64 a.d., says of their number that they were a huge multitudeingens multitudo. The expansion of Christianity in the first years of its existence is one of the marvels of history. When it first began to be preached it was ridiculed and lampooned by the ablest satirists of the day. Every foul crime was charged upon its followers. The believers in the Christ were tortured, mutilated, thrown to wild beasts. Yet in spite of everything the church grew, grew and increased rapidly in numbers and in power.

Seventy years after the founding of the very first Gentile church in Syrian Antioch, Pliny wrote in the strongest terms about the spread of Christianity throughout remote Bithynia, a spread which in his view already threatened other cults through out the province. Seventy years later still the Paschal controversy reveals the existence of a Christian federation of churches, stretching from Lyons to Edessa, with its headquarters situated at Rome. Seventy years later again, the Emperor Deciusthe fierce persecutordeclared he would sooner have a rival emperor in Rome than a Christian bishop. And are another seventy years had passes, the cross was sewn upon the Roman colours.1 [Note: H. T. Sell, Studies in Early Church History, 150.]

2. But the vastness is the outcome of faith much more than of sight. In another place St. John states the impression which the physical eye receives: We are of God, and the whole world lieth in wickedness. The eye of faith is the eye of that God who invited Abraham to go out into the evening and count the number of the stars. It is the eye of that Christ of God who planted the mustard seed which grew into a great tree.

As their praise was erst not of men but of God, so now their number is known not to men but to God. So many as the stars of the sky in multitude, and as the sand which is by the seashore innumerable. I beheld, says St. John: and you with your eyes, I with mine (please God!) shall yet behold.1 [Note: Christina G. Rossetti, The Face of the Deep, 31.]

3. The text is an answer at last to the question, Are there few that be saved? Were we to answer that question by sight we should probably answer it quite otherwise, our judgment being formed partly from the state of our own heart, and partly from what we see around us. With our own heart we cannot be too stern. To it Christs answer is addressed, Strive ye to enter in. With our neighbour we cannot perhaps be too lenient. In any case our neighbour has a right to ask, Who made thee a judge or a divider over us? We do not know enough to form a judgment.

Who made the heart, tis He alone

Decidedly can try us;

He knows each chord, its various tone,

Each spring, its various bias.

Then at the balance lets be mute,

We never can adjust it;

Whats done we partly may compute,

But know not whats resisted.2 [Note: Robert Burns.]

It is recorded of Daniel Webster that he was travelling in a then uninhabited part of Western America which is now covered by great and populous cities. As he and a friend were exploring that vast solitude, Webster suddenly lowered his head and seemed to listen.

What are you doing? inquired his friend.

I am listening for the tramp of the coming millions! replied Webster, his face aglow with confidence in the future greatness of his country.

II

The Variety

1. The variety is as great as the number. What a distance St. John has travelled! It is a long way for his feet from the shores of Galilee to the isle that is called Patmos; but how much father for his heart, from his hope for the seed of Abraham to this assurance of all nations and tongues! There is nothing that some men seem so sure about as the limitation of our Lords outlook. It is true He was not sent in His lifetime on earth but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. But it was Christ, and not St. Paul, that enabled St. John to see the variety of the redeemed.

2. Every nation, and every variety of individual in every nation, every variety of gift and ministrysingers in choirs, nurses and doctors, visitors of the sick, priests, prophets, pastors, missioners, Bible-women, mothers, daughtersI, if I be lifted up, will draw all men unto me. These are of the redeemed now. They do not need to wait for death to find their place in St. Johns majestic vision. For all the saints who from their labours restyes, certainly, for Livingstone and Gordon and Shaftesbury, for Lawrence and Martyn and Duff and Grenfellbut also for the saints who are still bearing the burden and heat of the day. O blessed union, fellowship Divine! Next to the presence of God and the Lamb, says Hort, the highest blessing is the presence of them who follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth.

3. What an encouragement it is to the missionary! Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts. We are only now realizing that the gospel of Jesus Christ is the communication of the love of God to the hearts of men; that Christianity is a spiritual power and impulse stirring all that is great and noble in the soul, not only making righteousness a dream, but also making it a dream realized in hearts transformed into the image of God. Christianity is indigenous in every land and among every race because Christianity is the love of God out-flowing to menand than primal feeling of love every race knows. But it is only in this last generation that we have realized it. In times of strife Christianity was thought of as a system which put iron in the blood. When we pierced down to the heart of Christianity, felt its throb again, realized that it was the love of God shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, then the way opened out for the sending of the gospel to the heathen world, and the nations were moved at its approach, as if they, too, were prepared for its coming.

There never has been a day of opportunity like this in the history of the Church and the world. The way is open; the door is open; the hearts of the nations are open. Will the Churches rise to the great call which summons them? Will they, failing to obey Christ, and failing to communicate Him, themselves lose Him? Is the element of the heroic still vigorous in Christianity? Does Christ still stir the hearts of His people so that they are willing to die for Him?

A people is upon thee loving death as thou lovest life, was the message of the Mohammedan of old to his enemy. Is there still in Christendom the spirit which loves death for Christs sake? If there be, then in this, the great day of opportunity, the tide of the worlds destiny will be turned towards the Lord Jesus Christ. And it will be turned. For the Spirit is still in the midst of the Church, and until the end adoring lips will cry

Now let me burn out for God.1 [Note: N. Maclean, Can the World be Won for Christ? 174.]

In the early days of New Zealand history, Governor (afterwards Sir) George Grey was walking, on a lovely Sunday afternoon, with Bishop Selwyn. They entered a tent, followed by a messenger bearing dispatches which had just arrived. One letter to the bishop brought the news of the death of Siapo, a Loyalty Islander, who had become a Christian, and was being educated at Auckland under the bishops supervision. Overcome with grief, Selwyn burst into tears. Then turning to the Governor, he exclaimed, Why, you have not shed a single tear! No, replied Grey, I have been so wrapped in thought that I could not weep. I have been thinking of the prophecy that men of every race were to be assembled in the kingdom of heaven. I have tried to imagine the joy and wonder prevailing there at the coming of Siapo, the first Christian of his race. He would be glad evidence that another people of the world had been added to the teaching of Christ. Yes, yes, said Selwyn, that is the true idea to entertain; I shall weep no more!

III

The Unity

The multitude that no man can number is a Society. Their robes have become white because every stain of selfishness has been washed from them by the blood of the Lamb. Their palms show that they have gotten the victory over those causes which have destroyed the unity of kindreds and nations here. There is no dull uniformity, no single tongue: all is harmonious amidst diversity. Here, some have glorified power to the destruction of meekness; some have pretended that meekness is incompatible with strength. There, all give glory to Him that sitteth on the throne, and to the Lamb. Here, men who are sealed in the Name of God have thought that they glorified that Name most by declaring His damnation of His enemies or theirs. In that company, the one word which is connected with the Divine Name is salvationsalvation from the curse that men have made for themselves.

All nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues.Never, since Babel, a unison; no longer, since the first Christian Pentecost, an inevitable discord: for ever and ever, a harmony. Babel dissolved the primitive unison into discord: Pentecost reduced the prevalent discord to contingent harmony, but reclaimed it not into unison. Unison is faultless: harmony is perfect. On earth the possibility of harmony entails the corresponding possibility of discord. Even on earth, however, whoever chooses can himself or herself keep time and tune: which will be an apt prelude for keeping eternity and tune in heaven.1 [Note: Christina G. Rossetti, The Face of the Deep, 231.]

A Canadian bishop has lately described what he saw and heard one night. He and some friends were on one side of a great Canadian river; a company of Christian Indians on the other. As the Englishmen gazed into the falling fire they heard a hymn across the river. This was succeeded by a hush. The song of the Red men across the water drew out a song from them, and that touched the Indians to a prayer whose measured tones just reached them across the water. O sweet communion of saints! What was the river between? asks the bishop. What, indeed? On one side there rose prayers and praises in the language of Milton and Shakespeare, of saints and sages; on the other, in words borrowed by the wild hunters from the glee of the waterfall or from the sighing of the pinewood. Yet once again the whole earth seemed to be of one language and of one lip. Out from the darkness there rose not a mere picturea reality. Not the white Christ, with the blood-drops trickling down; but the living Christ, radiant and mighty. The harp of language with its myriad chords rang out through the starry silence. Not the Indian and the English only. Not one language was quite absent from the chorus. No longer Hebrew, and Greek, and Latin. All nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues.1 [Note: Archbishop Alexander, Verbum Crucis, 126.]

Principal D. W. Simon illustrates (Twice Born, 194) the unity and diversity of the redeemed by quotations from the hymns of the world. First of all he shows how widespread is the acceptance of a hymn like Rock of Ages. Our English hymn-books, he goes on, teem with translations from the German, with translations from the Latin, with translations from the GreekJesus! Thy boundless love to me (German); Jesus! Thou joy of loving hearts! (Latin); O happy band of pilgrims (Greek). It is an illustration that might be worked out easily and with much effect.

1. They are one in their Position or Standingstanding before the throne and before the Lamb. Once they were strangers and foreigners; now they are fellow-citizens with the saints, and of the household of God. Once they were far off; now they are made nigh. Once they were afraid to draw near; now they have access with boldness. Happy are thy men, said the Queen of Sheba to Solomon, which stand continually before thee. Happy are they who stand before the throne and before the Lamb. It is this that marks the difference between the first vision and the second, between the worship of the Creator and the worship of the Redeemer. They who worship the Creator veil their faces with their wings; every one of the redeemed, however vast their number and various, is made nigh by the blood of Christ.

Longings for pardon, for rest, for peace are met by the simple acceptance of this Saviour, whose blood speaks peace to the conscience and whose love brings rest to the heart. So powerful is this sprinkled blood that it can carry a sinner into the holiest of all to hold communion at the Mercy-seat with a reconciled God and Father. One touch of this cleansing blood seals the soul for service. Its voicelike the sound of the waves on the shoreis ever speaking peace in a believers ear, sometimes loudly, sometimes less clearly, but always speaking. If a believer can do without the blood he is a backslider. At the Bush Moses was forbidden to draw nigh, but afterwards on the Mount he went up into the very presence of God. What made the difference? At the Bush there was no sacrifice.1 [Note: Reminiscences of Andrew A. Bonar, 134.]

2. In Characterarrayed in white robes. The white robes, we are afterwards told, are the righteous acts of the saints. They are an exchange for the filthy rags of selfishness and selfrighteousness. If still here, they may not be wholly white; but even here He sees them in their shield, and looks upon them in the face of His anointed, and He sees no iniquity in Jacob and no perverseness in His Israel. And yet it is no hollow, fictitious righteousness. Their will consents. They themselves have washed their own robesonly they have not washed them in their own blood; they have made them white in the blood of the Lamb.

It is related of Queen Victoria that one day she visited a paper-mill, the owner of which showed her through the works, and, not knowing who she was, took her, among other places, into the rag-room. When she saw the filthy rags, out of which the paper is made, she exclaimed, How can these ever be made white? Ah, lady! was the reply, I have a chemical process of great power, by which I can take the colour even out of these rags! Before she left, the owner discovered that she was the Queen. A few days after, the Queen found lying upon her writing-desk some of the most beautifully polished writing-paper she had ever seen. On each sheet were stamped the letters of her name, and her likeness. There was also a note from the mill-owner, asking her to accept a specimen of the paper, with the assurance that every sheet was manufactured out of the dirty rags she had seen.

3. In Feelingand palms in their hands. Archbishop Trench will have it that it is a feeling of joy. For the Apocalypse, he says, moves altogether in the circle of sacred imagery; all its symbols and images are derived from the Old Testament. And so he refers to the Feast of Tabernacles, when with branches of palm trees the people rejoiced before the Lord seven days. But the Seer of the Apocalypse was certainly familiar with the palm as a symbol of victory. And perhaps the two ideas are not so far apart. If it was joy, it was the joy of a great triumph, triumph over the world, the flesh, and the devil; the joy of being more than conquerors through Him that loved them. In the presence of Christ has always been fulness of joy, downward from the time in which your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day.

It is more natural to think that the mention of the palms here, together with the expression in Rev 7:15, He that sitteth on the throne shall spread his tabernacle over them, is intended to indicate that the redeemed are represented as keeping the Feast of Tabernacles. At that feast not only was it the custom for the faithful to dwell in booths or tents, but also in the festal solemnities to carry in their hands palm branches with myrtles and willows, in fulfilment of the charge in Lev 23:40 : Ye shall take you on the first day the fruit of goodly trees, branches of palm trees, and boughs of thick trees, and willows of the brook. These palm branches, or lulabs, as they were called, were borne in procession by the worshippers on each of the seven days of the solemnity, when they accompanied the priest to the pool of Siloam, as he went to draw water from thence, to bring it to the Temple and pour it out by the altar. So this great multitude which St. John sees bear palms in their hands when the Lamb is about to lead them to no earthly fountain or pool, but to living fountains of waters. This view seems also to obtain a further confirmation from the fact that the thought of the tabernacle feast is not unknown to the prophets of the Old Testament in connexion with the future of the Church of God, e.g., Zec 14:16. It was not merely that this feast formed the most joyous of all the festive seasons of Israel; it was rather that it was the feast of ingathering, a sort of harvest home, and was thus regarded as pointing forward to the final harvest when Israels mission should be completed, and all nations should be gathered unto the Lord.

The Feast of Tabernacles commences five days after the Day of Atonement and lasts seven days. Its observance is commanded in the Mosaic Law (Lev 23:34), and its purpose is there explained as to commemorate the way in which the Israelites dwelt in booths (sukkoth) during their journey through the wilderness.

Every Jew who owns a court or garden is required to erect a booth, or something more or less equivalent, and to dwell in itor at least have meals in itwhile the feast lasts. In order that the character of the original booth may as far as possible be retained, the modern counterpart is very lightly constructed. It must not be covered with fixed boards and beams or with canvas, but with detached branches of trees, plants, flowers, and leaves, in such a manner that the covering is not quite impenetrable to wind and rain, or starlight. The booths are adorned with garlands, flowers, and the like.

In the Synagogue the ancient and original character of the celebration as a Harvest Festivalthe Feast of Ingathering, or thanksgiving for the gathered produce of the fields and gardensis made prominent in various ways. The Synagogue itself is decorated with plants and fruits; and there are the palm-branch processions. The worshipper takes the palm-branch (lulab) in the right hand, and the ethrog or citron (fixed in a metal receptacle) in the left, reciting as he does so the following blessings:

(1) Blessed art Thou, O Lord our God, King of the Universe, who hast sanctified us with Thy commandments, and commanded us to take up the palm-branch.

(2) Blessed art Thou, O Lord our God, King of the Universe, who hast preserved us alive, sustained us, and brought us to enjoy this season.

These are lifted up during the recitation of the Hallel (Psalms 113-118) in morning prayer. At the end of the Musaf or Additional prayer, a procession is formed, and the worshippers with the citron and palm-branch, make a circuit while certain prayers called Hosannas (Hoshaanoth) are recited.

The joyous character of the festival finds its fullest expression on the seventh day, the popular name of which is Hoshana Rabba (The great Hosanna). It is so called because the exclamation Hosanna, and the Hosanna-processions are much more frequent than on the preceding six days. Seven processions take place round the whole Synagogue, a separate hosanna hymn being sung each time.

At the completion of the processions, the worshippers being now in their places, the lulab is laid aside and the willow-bunch taken up, and a few more poetical pieces are said. All join in the messianic hymn beginning A voice brings glad tidings, brings glad tidings, and says. Then with the utterance of a petition for forgiveness of sins each shakes or strikes the willow-bunch on the desk before him till its leaves fall off, and throws it away.1 [Note: W. O. E. Oesterley and G. H. Box, The Religion and Worship of the Synagogue, 397, 401.]

4. In Occupationthey cry with a great voice, saying, Salvation. Their occupation is worship, of course. All their life is worship. St. John cannot conceive any one of the redeemed otherwise occupied than in worshipping, whether he is in the home, or the field, or the market-place. But the special form of the worship that attracts his attention is praise. Their great cry is a song, and there is no discord in it. Every person of every tribe has a voice and sings in harmony with all the rest.

Their cry is the acknowledgment that their salvationthe salvation which they now tasteis due not to themselves, but to their God and to the Lamb. The salvation here must be taken in its most comprehensive sense, including every deliverancefrom the curse of law, from the power of sin, and from the perils of life. This is the voice of rejoicing and salvation which is in the tabernacles of the righteous, when the Lord, who is their strength and song, has become their salvation.

Salvation to our God, our salvation is unto, is wholly due to, our God. Salvation belongeth unto the Lord: it is all His, from first to last; every step of the way, and its termination. Yes, self-confidence, self-righteousness, self-exaltation, vanity, there, in heaven, in Gods presence, will be as impossible as they are natural and common here. The great multitude which no man could number of the ransomed and saved, standing in heaven before the throne of God, join with one voice in ascribing solely to Him and to the Lamb the praise of their salvation. And the Angels, in whose presence, while earth lasted, there was joy over every sinner, one by one, who repented, may well rejoice, with a joy accumulated and intensified, over the final ingathering of all who have been saved. Most of all, well may they echo the ascription of all glory to God and to the Lamb. Amen, even so; it is indeed He who hath kept us from our fall; it is indeed He who hath brought you back from yours!1 [Note: C. J. Vaughan, Lectures on the Revelation of St. John, 192.]

What are these lovely ones, yea, what are these?

Lo these are they who for pure love of Christ

Stripped off the trammels of soft silken ease,

Beggaring themselves betimes, to be sufficed

Throughout heavens one eternal day of peace:

By golden streets, thro gates of pearl unpriced,

They entered on the joys that will not cease,

And found again all firstfruits sacrificed.

And wherefore have you harps, and wherefore palms,

And wherefore crowns, O ye who walk in white?

Because our happy hearts are chanting psalms,

Endless Te Deum for the ended fight;

While thro the everlasting lapse of calms

We cast our crowns before the Lamb our Might.1 [Note: Christina G. Rossetti, Poetical Works, 212.]

The Redeemed

Literature

Alexander (W.), Verbum Crucis, 127.

Barry (A.), Sermons Preached at Westminister Abbey, 247.

Bonar (H.), Light and Truth: The Revelation, 190.

Brooke (S. A.), The Spirit of the Christian Life, 237.

Conn (J.), The Fulness of Time, 200.

Dearden (H. W.), Parochial Sermons, 55.

Gibson (E. C. S.), The Revelation of St. John the Divine, 105.

Grimley (H. N.), Tremadoc Sermons, 63.

Hyde (T. D.), Sermon-Pictures for Busy Preachers, i. 189.

Johnson (J. B.), A Commentary on the Revelation of St. John, 77.

Jones (J. S.), The Invisible Things, 220.

Maurice (F. D.), Lincolns Inn Sermons, ii. 267.

Milligan (W.), The Book of Revelation (Expositors Bible), 124.

Paget (E. C.), Silence, 208.

Romanes (E.), Thoughts on the Collects for the Trinity Season, 293.

Rossetti (C. G.), The Face of the Deep, 231.

Skrine (J. H.), The Hearts Counsel, 90.

Stone (S. J.), Parochial Sermons, 81.

Swete (H. B.), The Apocalypse of St. John, 99.

Trench (R. C.), Sermons Preached for the Most Part in Ireland, 360.

Vaughan (C. J.), Lectures on the Revelation of St. John, 191.

Christian World Pulpit, xliv. 174 (J. M. Wilson).

Churchmans Pulpit: All Saints, xv. 363 (J. S. Jones).

Fuente: The Great Texts of the Bible

a great: Gen 49:10, Psa 2:8, Psa 22:27, Psa 72:7-11, Psa 76:4, Psa 77:2, Psa 98:3, Psa 110:2, Psa 110:3, Psa 117:1, Psa 117:2, Isa 2:2, Isa 2:3, Isa 49:6-8, Isa 60:1-14, Jer 3:17, Jer 16:19, Zec 2:11, Zec 8:20-23, Rom 15:9-12

no man: Rev 5:11, Rev 11:15, Gen 13:16, Hos 1:10, Luk 12:1, Rom 11:25, Heb 11:12, Heb 12:22

of all: Rev 5:9, Dan 4:1, Dan 6:25

stood: Luk 21:36, Eph 6:13

clothed: Rev 7:13, Rev 7:14, Rev 3:4, Rev 3:5, Rev 3:18, Rev 4:4, Rev 6:11

palms: Lev 23:40, Joh 12:13

Reciprocal: Gen 12:3 – in thee Gen 28:14 – thy seed Exo 12:3 – take to Num 29:35 – eighth day 2Sa 22:1 – in 1Ki 6:29 – palm trees 1Ch 29:11 – is the greatness Neh 8:15 – palm Psa 72:16 – There Psa 115:14 – Lord Psa 145:10 – and thy saints Psa 146:2 – While I live Ecc 9:8 – thy garments Son 2:14 – for sweet Son 6:8 – General Isa 4:2 – them that are escaped Isa 35:10 – and sorrow Isa 42:12 – General Isa 49:12 – these shall Isa 49:13 – O heavens Isa 51:11 – the redeemed Isa 53:11 – see Isa 54:1 – break Isa 60:6 – they shall show Isa 60:8 – fly Isa 60:22 – little Isa 61:3 – the garment Isa 61:10 – for Jer 33:22 – the host Eze 16:10 – I girded Eze 40:16 – palm trees Eze 40:22 – palm trees Eze 41:18 – palm trees Eze 47:5 – waters to swim in Eze 47:22 – and to the strangers Dan 11:32 – shall be Zec 8:23 – out Mat 3:14 – I have Mat 22:10 – and the Mat 26:28 – shed Mar 9:3 – exceeding Mar 14:24 – which Luk 13:29 – General Luk 15:22 – the best Luk 20:36 – they are Joh 1:17 – grace Joh 1:29 – Behold Joh 11:52 – not Joh 12:24 – if Joh 14:6 – no Act 3:25 – all Act 4:12 – is there Rom 5:15 – hath Rom 5:19 – so by Rom 8:37 – Nay Gal 1:4 – from Gal 2:16 – we have Eph 5:27 – glorious 1Ti 3:16 – believed Heb 2:10 – many Heb 13:15 – the sacrifice Jam 1:9 – in Rev 4:2 – and one Rev 5:6 – a Lamb Rev 5:13 – every Rev 13:6 – and them Rev 14:1 – a Lamb Rev 19:14 – clothed Rev 22:19 – and from

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

THE SAINTS OF GOD

After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands.

Rev 7:9

These are the saints of God. They have been men and women like ourselves. They were diverse in character, they had come from all nations, they were equally diverse in experience, they had had helps, but they had had trials and difficulties. Many of them had their faults, but they are the saints of God. They are one in this, that their testimony is to the triumph of the Lamb.

There are two marks especially which are characteristic of the saints of God.

I. The purity of the saints.The first is their purity. Their victory may be over the passions of their own nature, it may involve struggle itself, but it is clear enough that purity is the mark of Gods saints. Yet we do wrong if we fail to recognise that in the Holy Scriptures that great word means something more than we generally associate with it. It does mean singleness of aim, it does mean sincerity of purpose: If therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. It is stated of those who are standing round the throne of God that they have washed their robes in the Blood of the Lamb. I take that to mean that in the self-sacrifice of the Blessed Lord they have so learned to love Him, to become one with Him, and to be imbued with His spirit, that their own selfish and sinful aims have lost all power over them, they have been cleansed from them, they have been washed from them, and realising the love of Christ Who loved them and gave Himself for them, they have found their home, their forgiveness, and their peace with God. And to this may we not each of us attain?

II. The purposefulness of the saints.The second mark of these saints of God is their purposefulness. No man can ever drift into sanctity. No man can go to sleep a sinner and wake up a saint. He may forget what is past, but he needs cleansing from it. No man can serve God without an effort. No man can do his duty without really meaning to. In all respects the best work in the world is done by men of purpose. Of course it involves self-discipline, it involves the restraint of foolish imaginations, it often means the curbing of many natural impulses; but is it not the case that too often we fritter away our best ideals and we never seem in any way to realise them? Our very energies fail us because we have not sufficiently concentrated our minds on any true end. But Gods saints have felt the constraining love of Christ.

Bishop G. W. Kennion.

Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary

A Great Multitude of Gentile Outcomers

Rev 7:9-17

INTRODUCTORY WORDS

We believe that the Church be raptured before the Tribulation, and that, therefore, the “great multitude” is another company, composed strictly of those saved after the Rapture of the Body of Christ.

We propose to give our Scriptural reasons for the Rapture of saints prior to the Tribulation,

1. The Rapture of the Church is before the Tribulation because saints are taught to look for Christ’s Corning, and not for the Tribulation that shall come to pass upon the earth. It is hardly necessary to dwell upon this proof. We all are familiar with those Scriptures which command us to “watch,” and “wait,” and “look,” and “love,” and “pray for,” and “wait patiently for” the Lord’s Return. We are commanded to live, looking for the Blessed Hope and Glorious Appearing of the great God and our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. How can we live looking, if we know that before Christ comes the Tribulation must come?

We know that in Paul’s day there were some that said that the “Day of Christ” had already come, and that Paul, in the Spirit, said, “That day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition.” However, Paul went on to say, “And the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God, and into the patient waiting for Christ.” They were not to wait for the apostasy, or for the revealing of the man of sin which shall mark the coming of the day of Christ, but for the Coming of Christ Himself.

2. The Rapture of the Church is before the Tribulation, because God hath not appointed us unto wrath. A good brother once told us that we proved ourselves unwilling to suffer for Christ’s sake when we wanted to escape the Tribulation. We replied that saints should be willing to suffer for Christ any suffering that the world might put upon them, but that the wrath of God could not fall upon those who are saved from wrath.

God will judge His people Israel, and allow Israel to pass into the Tribulation as a nation, because they have spurned His mercy and refused His grace. However, even to disobedient Israel God says, “Come, My people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee: hide thyself as it were for a little moment, until the indignation be overpast. For, behold, the Lord cometh out of His place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity” (Isa 26:20-21).

To Israel God will prepare the way for protection during the Tribulation. “And to the woman were given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness, into her place, where she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent.”

If God shelters certain of Israel during the Tribulation, think you that He will leave the faithful of the Church to pass through?

There is deep meaning in that expression, “Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man.”

3. The Rapture of the Church is before the Tribulation because the saints are continually SEEN IN HEAVEN during the Tribulation. We can hardly imagine that the “beast” of Revelation opens his mouth to blaspheme disembodied spirits. Yet Rev 13:6 tells us that he blasphemed “them that dwell in Heaven.”

The Bema, that is the judgment seat of Christ, before which we all must appear, is in Heaven.

The announcement of the rapture of the man-child, “caught up into Heaven,” precedes the pouring out of the vials of wrath.

The “marriage of the Lamb,” with the wife made ready, precedes the Coming of Christ into the earth.

The King’s wife, of Psalm forty-five, comes out of the ivory palaces with her Lord.

The great multitude of today’s study is a pre-revelation Rapture. They are seen in Heaven before the throne of God.

The four and twenty elders of Revelation five speak of having been redeemed unto God through the Blood of the Lamb. They, too, are In Heaven.

4. The Rapture of the Church is before the Tribulation because when Christ comes the saints come with Him. The saints come with Christ, because they had already gone to meet Him. He said, “If I go * *, I will come again, and receive you unto Myself.” He was not to come down to the Mount of Olives to meet them. They were to go up to meet Him. Christ is now preparing abiding places for His saints.

Paul speaks of the Lord descending from Heaven, and then he says, “The dead in Christ shall rise first: then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air.” This is plainly a Rapture before the Return of Christ to the earth.

Paul, likewise, in the Spirit, said, “Who died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with Him.”

Now, mark carefully, some other Scriptural statements. We have shown that the saints are with Christ. Now observe that Christ brings there back with Him. when He comes.

“When Christ, who is our Life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with Him in glory.” We come with Him because we have gone to Him.

“Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of His saints.” It would be impossible to come with Him if we had not gone to Him.

“The Lord my God shall come, and all the saints with Thee.” The word “saints” may include “angels,” but it certainly includes the redeemed who have been raptured.

5. The Rapture of the Church will precede the Tribulation because the resurrection of Rev 20:4, that follows the Tribulation, is only of the bodies of saints who receive not the mark of the beast or the number of his name. The Holy Spirit speaks of an out-resurrection. He tells us that the resurrection will be, “Every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at His Coming. Then cometh the end.”

The resurrection in Revelation twenty culminates, but does not begin the first resurrection.

We thank God for the assurance that when the storm of God’s wrath comes, we will be above the storm. We thank God that we have ever clung to the imminency of Christ’s Return, and have in no wise annulled the power of the Blessed Hope by causing the saints to say. “My Lord delayeth His Coming.”

I. THE DESIGNATION OF THE PERSONNEL OF THE GREAT MULTITUDE OF OUTCOMERS (Rev 7:9; Rev 7:13-14)

1. A multitude saved out of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues. It is most illuminating to see how the grace of God works in the. midst of tribulation darkness. In wrath, mercy is manifest; in judgments, such as the world has never known, great multitudes will turn to the Lord.

The scope of God’s grace is just as marvelous as the results of His grace. Not only will an innumerable multitude be saved, but that multitude will come from every nation, from every kindred, and from every tongue.

The Tribulation will be world-wide, and so, also, will the operations of grace be world-wide.

When Satan, and the antichrist, and the false prophet seek to enthrall the world, and capture it for sin, then God arises, and out of every nation He redeems unto Himself an innumerable host.

2. A multitude distinct from the saints of the present age. The elder said unto John, “What are these which are arrayed in white robes? and whence came they?” As John, on the Isle of Patmos, saw this vision, he was unable to discern the personnel of the mighty host. He saw none of the Old Testament worthies there. He saw none of the saved who were his own contemporaries-the saved of the early apostolic Church. Therefore, John answered, “Sir, thou knowest.” And the elder said to John, “These are they which came, out of great tribulation.”

3. A multitude which is designated by their particular rewards. Mark the omissions. There is nothing said here of crowns which are to be given to the faithful of this age; there is nothing said of their reigning with Christ as the reward of service. These people are a special group, and they have a special and distinct reward. They have palms in their hands. They stand before the throne of God, they serve Him day and night in His Temple, and He who sitteth on the throne dwells among them.

On the earth, they knew martyrdom: but now they “hunger no more, neither thirst any more; neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat.” The Lamb who is in the midst of the throne feeds them, and leads them to the fountain of Living Water, and God wipes away all tears from their eyes. To us, this is all full of glory.

The darkest period of the world’s history will be this culmination of sorrows, known as the Great Tribulation. Out of the throes of its anguish a great multitude will come. They were saved late, but they were saved at. tremendous sacrifice and cost. Their rewards are so matchlessly marvelous, that we cannot but rejoice for them. For the while they felt the keen edge of the sword of the antichrist; for a while they could neither buy nor sell in the marts of men; but now they are filled with joy. They see how their travail, by God’s grace, wrought out for them eternal bliss. They are saved and satisfied. They are redeemed and rejoicing. They hunger no more, they thirst no more. All tears are wiped away from their eyes.

II. WILL MANY BE SAVED DURING THE TRIBULATION (Rev 7:14)

Our verse says, “They which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the Blood of the Lamb.” This Scripture puts an end to all quibble. A great multitude are saved, because they have washed robes. A great multitude are saved out of the Great Tribulation, for the simple reason-they came out of it.

1. We have nothing to lead us to think that salvation ends at the Rapture of the Church. The Coming of Christ for His saints is not the end of the world; nor is it the end of saving grace. During the Millennial Reign of Christ the inhabitants of the earth will learn righteousness. The Children of Israel will become God’s messengers to the end of the world. If people will be saved during the thousand year reign, and if people are now being saved, why should they not be saved during the Great Tribulation?

We are not saying this in order to give stubborn Christ-rejectors of today the thought that they will find it easy to repent, and to be saved in the days of Tribulation. This is far from the truth. They who have wilfully turned themselves against Christ now, and they who follow after the antichrist then, will no doubt be given strong delusions that they may believe a lie.

There are, however, multitudes of people who are ignorant of the call of the Spirit now, and millions have not ever heard of Christ.

If some one asserts that the Spirit will be taken away, we reply that the Spirit’s restraining power, which has held back the manifestation of the man-of-sin, and the reign of lawlessness, will be taken out of the way. The Spirit will no longer block the progress of iniquity. He will step aside and permit Satan, and Satan-driven men, to have full sway. However, in the day of the antichrist’s power there will be great and mighty witnessing to the truth, and many will hear and heed. Those who reject the call of the antichrist, and refuse to bear his image, or his mark, will be terribly persecuted, even unto the death. However, thank God, there will be innumerable hosts who will gladly pay the price of martyrdom to heed the call and warning of the Lord, given through angels and God-sent men.

2. We have everything to lead us to believe that many will be saved after the Rapture of the Church. Many unsaved men and women will be startled when they find out that the saved are gone. Some who refuse to hear now will then take heed.

As long as people live in their natural bodies, they have an opportunity of salvation. We should not think of those who are saved in the Tribulation as having a second chance. Their opportunity is not a second chance it is a continued chance. The door of then opportunity of redemption has not been closed and then opened again.

The objective of all God’s judgments is to bring men to repentance. Nineveh was warned by Jonah that they might repent. The world was warned by Noah that it might repent. God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to a knowledge of the Truth.

We do not mean that when the iniquity of any person is full God may not give them over to a reprobate mind, for He does this very thing. When people harden their own hearts, God may, as in the case of Pharaoh, harden their hearts. However, of one thing we are sure-we have before us an innumerable company of people from every nation, kindred, tongue, and tribe, saved during and out of the Great Tribulation.

III. HOW SALVATION OPERATES DURING THE GREAT TRIBULATION (Rev 7:14)

Perhaps there are some who imagine that in one age people are saved by law; and, in another age, by grace. We answer unhesitatingly, that whether it be an age in which man is under law, or under conscience, or under promise, or under grace, or under the personal reign of Christ, salvation is always through the Blood of the Lamb. In Hebrews we read, “Without shedding of Blood is no remission.”

The Blood of Christ has been the theme of every age. It has been preached by Prophet, seen by Seer, sung by Psalmists, and proclaimed by preachers ever since the world began.

The Blood of Christ will be the theme of the redemptive message when Israel is saved at the coming of the Lord. We read in the Prophets, “In that day there shall be a fountain opened to the House of David and to the inhabitants of. Jerusalem for sin and for uncleanness.”

The Blood of Jesus Christ will be the theme of praise around the throne of God, even as it has been the theme of redemptive power here upon earth.

We present a significant Scripture, describing the words of those who gather around the throne. “And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for Thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by Thy Blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation.”

The sacrificial death of Christ is the only means by which sinners may be made white. These outcomers of the Great Tribulation are announced as having, “Washed their robes, and made them white in the Blood of the Lamb.”

IV. THE JOY OF THE ANGELS BECAUSE OF THE OUTCOMERS (Rev 7:10-12)

1. All Heaven broke loose with shouts of praise as the great multitude appeared in Glory clothed with white robes. Since there is joy in Heaven over one sinner that repenteth, what transcendent joy will there be when a great multitude which no man can number stands before the throne of God! The angles and the elders, and the four living ones all say, “Amen: Blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honour, and power, and might, be unto our God for ever and ever. Amen.”

Observe that the praise is not given to the outcomers who have washed their robes in the Blood of the Lamb. The magnificat is ascribed to God, Here is a vision which magnifies grace, and gives works no place in salvation.

2. Let us break loose with praise as sinners are saved. If there is joy in Heaven, there should be joy on earth. The prodigal’s brother had no heart to enter into the festivities that marked the return of the wanderer. He refused to have part in the music and the dancing. The elder son knew nothing of the compassion of the father for the prodigal, and, therefore, he knew nothing of the rejoicings of the father when the boy returned. Let us tune our voices to the key and pitch of Heaven’s praise.

AN ILLUSTRATION

One of the greatest thrills imaginable is to stand on a mountain top in the blazing light of the sun, and look far beneath you at a raging storm.

Under your feet the lightnings are flashing, and the thunders are rolling, while the clouds are dense and heavy. But these are all far below.

After a while the winds carry the clouds away and the storm is passed. The raindrops are glistening in the sun which now bursts upon the scene.

There is another storm which will fall upon this sin-cursed earth. It is the storm of Jacob’s trouble. It is the time of God’s indignation. It is commonly known as the Great Tribulation.

When from the throne of God, the lightnings and the thunders break loose, and the wrath of God falls upon a sin-cursed earth, thank God, we shall be above the storm! We will be with Him mid angels and archangels, gathered around the throne. A sea of glass will stretch out before us, glistening under the glory of the light of God.

Thank God, that He has not appointed us to wrath. We are the children of the light, and not of the darkness. Just now we. hare tribulation because of Satan’s wrath, but when God arises to shake terribly the earth, we will be caught up as Enoch was caught up, and dwell with them above the storm.

Fuente: Neighbour’s Wells of Living Water

Rev 7:9. This verse verifies the comments at verse 4, for here we have the same kind of persons referred to in other numerical terms. They also are said to be from all nations. etc.. which would prevent us from restricting the “twelve tribes” to the Jews. White robes signified a life of righteousness and palms are medals betokening their victory over “great tribulation” (verse 14).

Rev 7:10. Salvation to our God means to ascribe salvation to Him, and unto the Lamb is combined in the praise because God perfects all plans through the Son.

Comments by Foy E. Wallace

Verses 9-10.

The innumerable multitude–Rev 7:9-10.

In this coordination of the apocalypse, the angel’s proclamation concerning the hundred and forty-four thousand was immediately followed by the heavenly scene in verses nine to seventeen. The vision here expands the hundred forty-four thousand of all the tribes of Israel, as the nucleus of the New Israel, the holy seed, the remnant according to grace–into the innumerable multitude. The revelation does not end with “the number of them that were sealed” in verse 4.

Verse 9 continues the vision with the words “after this I beheld and, lo, a great multitude which no man could number of all nations and kindreds and people and tongues.” It is the same company as “the number of them that were sealed,” the hundred forty-four thousand which were “of all the tribes of Israel.” But the multitude in verse 9 were of all nations and kindreds and peoples and tongues,” which signified that the new Israel was not the fleshly seed of the twelve tribes of Israel; but the spiritual seed–the holy seed–of all nations “which no man could number.” This was the symbol of innumerable multitude. It was identical with that “innumerable company” mentioned in Heb 12:22-23, designated “the general assembly and church of the firstborn.” It identified the hundred forty-four thousand of Rev 7:4, and Rev 14:1, with this great multitude and innumerable company of Rev 7:9 and Heb 12:22-23. So parallel are these passages that strong evidence is adduced from it that the Hebrew passage is an allusion to this Revelation scene of chapter 7, virtually equivalent to a direct quotation. This is assuredly possible in the premises of the prior date of Revelation, in which chronology it antedates the Hebrew epistle. The same evidential relation of other epistles to the apocalypse is indicated in other references and examples, all of which are internal evidences that Revelation is by no means the last book of the New Testament canon, but quite to the contrary-it bears an earlier date than several others, including Hebrews, Galatians, Second Peter (if not first), and even of the other epistles of John.

The multitude of Rev 7:9-10 were clothed in the white robes of victory, displaying palms of praise. There were the emblems of a triumphant march. (Joh 12:13) With a loud voice the vocal unison of the great company ascribed salvation to our God, from whom the salvation proceeded and unto the Lamb, by whom it was procured.

This salvation was not in the gospel sense of salvation from sin or in pardon or remission of sins, but was the state of deliverance and blessing. The Greek texts give the article which the English translations dropped, and in them it reads: “the salvation of our God,” a specific reference to coming out of the trials of persecution into the scenes of the throne.

Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary

Rev 7:9. The vision now introduced is distinguished from the former by the fact that it belongs to heaven, while the sealing took place on earth. Those beheld stand before the throne and before the Lamb (comp. Rev 4:5-6; Rev 4:10, Rev 5:8, etc.), and the other particulars correspond. They are clothed with white robes, emblematic of priestly purity. They have palms in their hands, not palms of victory at heathen games, but palms of festive joy, especially of the least of Tabernacles. The whole scene appears to be modelled upon that of Joh 12:12, etc., even the great multitude here reminding us of that mentioned there.

This great multitude is out of every nation, the word nation being then enlarged and supplemented. The terms used are four, an indication of the universality of the host. But not Gentile Christians alone are included; Jewish Christians must also be referred to; a fact throwing a reflex light upon the vision of the sealing, and confirming the conclusion already reached, that the 144,000 are not to be confined to the latter class. Nor does the statement that this is a multitude which no man could number prove that it is a larger company than the 144,000, for these figures are to be understood not numerically, but symbolically and theologically.

Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament

St. John having had in the former verses a visionary view of the church militant, under the denomination of sealed ones, in these verses a prospect is given him of the church triumphant in heaven; a most magnificent description of which we have here before us.

Where note, 1. The triumphant church above is described by its multitude: A numberless number which no man can number; according to the promise made to Christ, of bringing many sons unto glory.

2. They are described by their variety; some out of every nation, tribe, people, and language, according to that of our Saviour, They shall come from the east, and from the west, and from the north, and from the south, and shall sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven. Mat 8:11.

3. They are described by their posture, they stand before the throne, and before the Lamb, as servants attending upon their Lord, a most happy station, and as such accounted by them; not that they stand perpetually gazing upon God, and doing nothing else, but they express their love unto him, by attending upon him, to execute his commands.

4. They are described by their habit: They are clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands; white garments import their dignity, their purity, their joy.

The saints’ dignity in heaven is great, they are kings and priests unto God; their purity great, being purified as he is pure; their joy great, being entered into the joy of their Lord, this joy being too great to enter into them.

Note farther, How these glorified saints do ascribe all their glory, happiness, and salvation, to Christ, and nothing to themselves, Salvation to our God, who sitteth upon the throne, and to the Lamb. Sancti quasi sanguine tincti, say some; “Many of these saints were martyrs, that shed their blood for Christ.”

But mark, Their garments were made white, not in their own blood, but in the blood of the Lamb.

Again, They are described with palms in their hands, as well as clothed in white. Now this denotes their victory, and the rewards of their victory. Palms were amongst the Roman ensigns of their victory. All the saints enter heaven with palms in their hands, having conquered sin, Satan, and the world, and the whole host of spiritual enemies.

Observe next, How the holy angels in heaven do join with these saints and martyrs in worshipping God, and adoring the Lamb, And all the angels stood round about the throne, and fell on their faces and worshipped God, Rev 7:11, concurring with the church in their congratulations, adding their Amen to what the palm-bearers had said, and much more of their own, ascribing blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honour, and power, and might, unto him for ever and ever.

Where note, how the triumphant church is made up of an innumerable company of angels, as well as saints: Hebrews 12 besides the spirits of just men made perfect, makes mention of an innumerable company of angels, as part of the church of the first-born. (Angeli opadtn Sancti Anadiain debent Christo, Mediatori, says one.)

And St. Paul, That in the dispensation of the fulness of times, he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth, even in him. Eph 1:10

Whence it appears, that though angels sinned not, yet Christ gathered them and us into one society, and is an head both to them and us.

Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament

John’s eyes are now lifted from the scene on earth to the one in heaven. Once again, the picture is of the redeemed, as we will see in verse 14, but this time God’s protective seal is not required because they are now around the throne. They wear white robes of purity and carry palm branches, which symbolize joy. Palms were used during the Feast of Tabernacles, which was a whole week of rejoicing. ( Lev 23:33-44 , esp. 40) Also, palms were used to line the path of the Lord’s triumphal entry. ( Joh 12:12-19 ) The multitude cannot be numbered by man and comes from every nation under heaven.

Fuente: Gary Hampton Commentary on Selected Books

Rev 7:9. After this I beheld, and lo, a great multitude This first refers to the happy and prosperous state of the church at the end of so many grievous persecutions and sufferings: for an innumerable multitude of all nations and tongues embraced the gospel, and are here represented as clothed with white robes, in token of their acceptance with God, and their sanctification through his Holy Spirit. And, as Sulpicius Severus says, it is wonderful how much the Christian religion prevailed at that time. The historians who have written of this reign relate how even the most remote and barbarous nations were converted to the faith, Jews as well as Gentiles. One historian in particular affirms, that at the time when Constantine took possession of Rome, after the death of Maxentius, there were baptized more than twelve thousand Jews and heathen, besides women and children. These converts from the tribes of Israel and from the Gentile nations are here represented as having finished their course, and as standing before the throne in robes of glory, and with palms in their hands as tokens of joy and victory; because if they were sincere converts, brought to possess, as well as profess, the religion of Jesus, and should continue in the faith grounded and settled, and not be moved away from the hope of the gospel, they would certainly be presented before the presence of the divine glory with exceeding joy, and obtain all the felicity here spoken of. Doddridge indeed supposes that only the sealing of these thousands expresses the progress of the gospel under Constantine; and that the innumerable multitude here spoken of were the spirits of good men departed out of this world, and then with God in glory: and especially those who had weathered the difficulties and persecutions with which the church had been tried during the first centuries of Christianity, when the civil power was generally active against it, and when probably many persecutions raged in various parts of the world, whose histories are not come down to us.

Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

9-12. Here we have the Gentile counterpart of the bridehood. They come up from every nation, tribe, people, and language, clothed in white robes, with palms of victory in their hands. Mat 24:14, Jesus says:

the end shall come when the gospel shall have been preached among all nations.

The Holy Ghost has always been shining on all the fallen sons and daughters of Adams race, giving them grace enough to save them, and administering the blood to cleanse them, if they will walk in the light. So even the heathen are left without excuse. (Rom 1:20.) Hence the glorious possibility of universal salvation, with or without the literal proclamation of the gospel. But the grandest privilege in the history of the universe is to be a member of the glorified BRIDEHOOD.

When Abraham wanted a wife for his son Isaac, he sent his sent, Eleazar, into Mesopotamia to select a bride for his son. He furnished the camel, jewelry, and the veil, and carried Rebekah to meet Isaac in the patriarchal home at Beersheba. Abraham emblematizes God the Father; Isaac, the Son; Eleazar, the Holy Ghost. When Ahasuerus, the Persian monarch, wanted a fair damsel on whom to confer the queenship of his universal empire, he sent couriers to search throughout the one hundred and twenty-seven provinces of his vast empire, and call out the beautiful damsels and bring them before him that he might make a selection. This transaction on the part of the heathen monarch emblematizes the Holy Ghost going with the gospel proclamation into every nation under heaven to call out the bride of Christ. The popular apprehension that the end of the gospel is the conversion of all the people in the world is incorrect. Peter, before the Jerusalem council, answers the question (Act 15:14):

God did visit the Gentiles to take out of them a people for His name.

So the great end of the Gospel Dispensation is the calling out of the bridehood. For this glorious honor and ineffable benediction God proposes to give all nations a chance. When that is done, then the end will come. The Holiness movement is preparing the work of the worlds evangelization with wonderful vigor. Bishop Taylor has twelve hundred, Hudson Taylor eight hundred, A. B. Simpson four hundred sanctified missionaries in the heathen field; while General Booth has fifteen thousand dispersed in forty different nations. Jesus says this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached to all nations for a witness unto them. So all will be left without excuse when they stand before the great white throne. Of course, God Himself is to decide when the gospel testimony to this wicked world is complete. Many nations which are now without the gospel received it in bygone ages. Hence, so far as we know, there is not the slightest reason why the Lord may not now descend and take His bride out of the world.

Fuente: William Godbey’s Commentary on the New Testament

Rev 7:9-17. The Vision of the Redeemed in Heaven.A great multitude is contrasted with the 144,000, which is a difficulty for the theory that the two visions refer to the same body of Christians.arrayed in white robes: cf. Rev 3:5, Rev 6:11. Charles thinks that these white robes represent the spiritual bodies which the martyrs receive before the final judgment.

Rev 7:11. throne, elders, living creatures: Rev 4:4; Rev 4:6*. The picture of heaven remains the same in all these chapters.

Rev 7:12. Cf. the sevenfold doxology in Rev 5:12.

Rev 7:14. out of the great tribulation: notice the emphatic article. The reference is not to tribulation in general but the tribulation, that which is connected with the day of the Lord.

Rev 7:15. shall serve him: in the ministry of worship.spread his tabernacle: i.e. the protection of Gods overshadowing presence.

Rev 7:17. unto fountains: unto lifes water-springs (Scott).

Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible

Verse 9

While robes, and palms; the emblems of victory and honor.

Fuente: Abbott’s Illustrated New Testament

7:9 After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, {7} which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, {8} stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands;

(7) See Geneva “Rev 7:4”

(8) As priests, kings and glorious conquerors by martyrdom: which is noted by the signs in this verse.

Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes

2. The salvation of the great multitude 7:9-17

There are a number of significant contrasts between the 144,000 and this great multitude that argue for two different groups even though some scholars have considered the two groups as one viewed from different perspectives. [Note: E.g., Beale, p. 424.] The number of the first group is not only smaller but definite whereas the number of the second group is larger and indefinite. People from the 12 tribes of Israel make up the first group, but people from every nation, tribe, people, and tongue compose the second. God prepares the first group for imminent peril on the earth, but the second group is victorious, secure, and at rest in heaven.

"This group, like the 144,000, is unhurt by the effects of God’s wrath, but for a different reason. They have at this point been removed from the earthly scene of the wrath and have no need of protective sealing. Someone might ask, ’Are the 144,000 the only ones who have maintained their composure under the first six seals?’ This vision responds to such a question negatively. A vast throng has turned to God during this period and have now passed into His immediate presence through death [cf. Rev 6:8]." [Note: Thomas, Revelation 1-7, p. 482.]

This pericope describes events transpiring in heaven.

"Without doubt it is one of the most exalted portrayals of the heavenly state to be found anywhere in Scripture." [Note: Mounce, p. 171.]

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)

John next saw another vision (cf. Rev 7:1; Rev 4:1). This vision seems to reveal things happening in heaven at the same time as what John saw happening on earth in Rev 7:1-8.

John saw an innumerable multitude of people in heaven before God’s throne. They came from every nation, tribe, people, and tongue on earth-Gentiles and Jews (cf. Rev 5:9; Rev 11:9; Rev 13:7; Rev 14:6; Rev 17:15; Gen 17:4-6; Gen 35:11; Gen 48:19). They stood clothed in white robes (flowing stoles, cf. Rev 6:11) symbolic of their righteousness and purity (Rev 7:14). This group appears to be the same as the one referred to earlier in Rev 6:9-11 (cf. Rev 7:14). These believers died either natural or violent deaths during the first half of the Tribulation. They have joined the angels in the heavenly throne-room that John saw previously (chs. 4-5; cf. Rev 7:11). Now they hold palm branches symbolizing their victory and joy (cf. Joh 12:13). They are worshipping and serving God in heaven before the Millennium. Amillennialists typically view this group as including the whole church, including the last generation of Christians, in heaven. [Note: E.g., Charles, 1:202; Beale, pp. 426-30; and Beasley-Murray, p. 145.]

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)