The Revelation of St. John the Divine

by A. H. Ames

Of this mediatorial kingdom of Christ, thus presented to us in symbol, so much is said in the Bible that only a few texts need to be referred to out of the many which might be cited. Our Lord himself said of it that the Father “hath committed all judgment unto the Son” (John v, 22). And again, “All things are delivered unto me of my Father” (Matthew xi, 27). And still again, “All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth” (Matthew xxviii, 18). So in Hebrew ii, 8, it is recorded, “Thou hast put all things in subjection under his feet.” And Paul has written, “Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power. For he must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet” (1 Corinthians xv, 24, 25).

2. The Opening of the Seals.—In the exercise of his sovereignty the mediating and atoning Lamb assumes the authority committed to him, and the history of redemption begins. We approach the heart of this wonderful book, and its great purpose begins to reveal itself. But the unfolding of that history has been so different from the conception of it that was possible even to an apostle that “blindness in part” would happen to us all if we had not the revelation of God’s plans made known to us in order to check despondency and animate to labor.

John was one of those to whom the Master had said, “Behold, I send you forth.” He had heard and has recorded the prayer of the great High Priest, “As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world.” He had received the great commission, “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations.” He had been taught that Christians were to be “the salt of the earth” and “the light of the world” and were to “occupy” until Christ comes again. What expectation more reasonable could he entertain than that redemption, proceeding from the heart of the Father, consummated in the sacrifice of the Son, and applied by the ever-abiding Spirit, would move forward without let or hindrance from its commencement to its glorious realization? And this is implied in the vision of the opening of the first seal: “Behold a white horse: and he that sat on him had a bow; and a crown was given unto him: and he went forth conquering, and to conquer.” The first stroke of God’s providence always drives the kingdom well forward. It is the subsequent ones that try men’s faith.

When the promise of the seed which should bruise the serpent’s head was given to Eve, and, following that, a son was born to her, was it not natural that, in the fullness of her faith, she should exclaim, “I have gotten a man from the Lord?”

When Almighty God, who had just beaten down Pharaoh and Amalek and written the law with his own fingers, said to Moses, “As truly as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord,” could the prophet have any doubt that the ark of the covenant would move triumphantly onward until it came to perfect rest in Canaan?

There is much to show that the apostles of Christ anticipated the speedy conquest of the world by his kingdom. The conversion of thousands at Pentecost, the multitude of accessions which followed, the obedience of a great company of priests, the appearance of miracles all conspired to foster this expectation. The morning hour of every reformation is bright and golden. It is later on that clouds gather and the skies darken. Painful realities soon shake men out of such sunny dreams, and banish such fond illusions as did the murder of Abel, the lusting after the fleshpots of Egypt, the imprisonment of Peter, the defection of Ananias, the martyrdom of Stephen and James. And as the pendulum of hope swings so easily to the extreme of despair, and every little Ai seems to our alarmed imagination a walled Jericho, nothing can be conceived more helpful to faith and courage than to learn that such things must needs be, and to be comforted at the same time with the assurance that, though in the world we shall have tribulation, yet Christ has overcome the world and we must not lose heart.

This is the purpose for which the visions accompanying the opening of the seals were given to John. The second seal signifies war; the third, famine; the fourth, pestilence; the fifth, martyrdom; the sixth, revolutions that seem to “shake the heavens, and the earth, and the sea, and the dry land.” These are strange instruments to do God’s will, [♦]unlooked-for messengers to perform his bidding. But not only all things, but all events as well, are under the sovereignty of Christ; and in spite of these obstacles, and perhaps by means of them, his kingdom moves forward. And when the seventh and last seal shall be broken, when every messenger shall have been delegated, when the last needed encouragement shall have been given and the last enemy destroyed, then will come the unbroken and eternal Sabbath of rest.

[♦] “unlookod” replaced with “unlooked”

3. The Sealed Elect.—The third part of this section comprises two visions: first, of the “hundred and forty and four thousand,” out of the twelve tribes of Israel, sealed in their foreheads; and, then, of a great multitude out of all nations and peoples, clothed in white robes and bearing palms in their hands. The purpose of these visions is to show that God’s ownership extends, not only to things and events, but to persons as well. “The Lord knoweth them that are his.”

There need not be any hesitation in interpreting these visions as referring to Jewish and Gentile Christians respectively. The same distinction between the two is made in chapter xiv, 1–6, where the hundred and forty-four thousand who stand on Mount Zion singing a song which no others could learn, namely, the song of Moses and the Lamb, are marked off from those in every nation and people to whom the angel flies with the everlasting Gospel.