These words are usually interpreted as an indication of the martyr's death of the people mentioned in the book...
These words are usually interpreted as an indication of the martyr's death of the people mentioned in the book. But the apostle's words can also be understood more broadly: all Christians in general can be called those washed in the blood of Christ, if only they have walked their path to the end and finally been freed from the power of evil and sin weighing over the fallen world. The white robes of these people clearly recall the white robes of the Savior Himself, in which He appears both to John in the vision and earlier to the apostles on the Mount of Transfiguration. People in white robes are people who have become like Christ, who have become as He is, living the same fullness of the life of the Kingdom that He bears, each in his own measure, of course.
Now at last they will see what they desired all their lives: the triumph of the Kingdom in all its fullness, the final transfiguration of the world and its deliverance from every power of evil. Strictly speaking, the opening of the seventh seal marks the beginning of this final transfiguration of creation. For the world, transfiguration is inseparable from shocks and cataclysms on a universal scale, not because God wants seriously and finally to punish His creation, but because the evil in which the fallen world lies will not simply let it go.
The connection between the transfiguration of the world and the coming cataclysms is shown to the apostle with complete clarity. He sees that the prayers of the saints, rising before the Throne of glory as fragrant incense, turn for the world into sacrificial fire that brings catastrophes and disasters. What is sanctification for God and for God's people is death and destruction for the world lying in evil. Of course, there is no fault of God here: the issue is only the incompatibility of evil and God's presence, of sin and sanctification, which was well known even before the coming of Christ. Already in those times believing Yahwists knew: such a combination can lead only to defilement, and defilement to destruction and death.
Something similar now happens on a universal scale: the Kingdom at last opens to the world in all fullness, sanctifying it, while the world, not fully cleansed from the sin in which it remains, defiles the holy thing that is the Kingdom and is destroyed, perishing in its former quality. Of course, God did not plan or desire this destruction; He wants the world to be transfigured without any catastrophes or cataclysms. But for the world such calm and organic transfiguration proves impossible because by the moment history ends it has not been completely cleansed.
And judging by the fact that God puts the final point before its complete cleansing, one has to think that, sadly, complete cleansing is impossible for the fallen world at all; otherwise God would have done everything for that possibility to be realized. He does not want the sinful world to perish; He wants the world to be saved and become His Kingdom. But the freedom given by God to the human being, and therefore in part to the world, has another side, which leads to the tragedy of the end of history so vividly described by John.
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7:13 And one of the elders - What stands, Rev 7:13-17, might have immediately followed the tenth verse;but that the praise of the angels, which was at the same time with that of the "great multitude," came in between. Answered - He answered St. John's desire to know, not any words that hespoke.
7:14 My lord - Or, my master; a common term of respect. So Zechariah, likewise, bespeaks the angel, Zec 1:9; Zec 4:4; Zec 6:4. Thou knowest - That is, I know not; but thou dost. These are they - Not martyrs; for these are not such a multitude as no man cannumber. But as all the angels appear here, so do all the souls of the righteous who had lived from the beginning of the world.Who come - He does not say, who did come; but, who come now also: to whom, likewise, pertain all who will come hereafter. Out of great affliction - Of various kinds, wisely and graciously allotted by God to all his children. And have washed their robes - From all guilt. And made them white - In all holiness. By theblood of the Lamb - Which not only cleanses, but adorns us also.
7:15 Therefore - Because they came out of great affliction,and have washed their robes in his blood. Are they before the throne - It seems, even nearer than the angels. And serve him day and night - Speaking after the manner of men; that is, continually.In his temple - Which is in heaven. And he shall have his tent over them - Shall spread his glory over them as a covering.
7:16 Neither shall the sun light on them - For God is there their sun. Nor any painful heat, or inclemency of seasons.
7:17 For the Lamb will feed them - With eternal peace and joy; so that they shall hunger no more. And will lead them to living fountains of water - The comforts of the Holy Ghost; so that they shall thirst no more. Neither shall they suffer or grieve any more; for God "will wipe away all tears from their eyes."
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8:1 And when he had opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven - Such a silence is mentioned but in this one place. It was uncommon, and highly observable: for praise is sounding in heaven day and night. In particular, immediately before this silence, all the angels, and before them the innumerable multitude, had been crying with a loud voice; and now all is still at once: there is an universal pause. Hereby the seventh seal is very remarkably distinguished from the six preceding. This silence before God shows that those who were round about him were expecting, with the deepest reverence, the great things which the Divine Majesty would farther open and order. Immediately after, the seven trumpets are heard, and a sound more august than ever. Silence is only a preparation: the grand point is, the sounding the trumpets to the praise of God. About half an hour - To St. John, in the vision, it might seem a common half hour.
8:2 And I saw - The seven trumpets belong to the seventh seal, as do the seven phials to the seventh trumpet. This should be carefully remembered, that we may not confound together the times which follow each other. And yet it may be observed, in general, concerning the times of the incidents mentioned in this book, it is not a certain rule, that every part of the text is fully accomplished before the completion of the following part begins. All things mentioned in the epistles are not full accomplished before the seals are opened; neither are all things mentioned under the seals fulfilled before the trumpets begin; nor yet is the seventh trumpet wholly past before the phials are poured out. Only the beginning of each part goes before the beginning of the following. Thus the epistles begin before the seals, the seals before the trumpets, the trumpets before the phials. One epistle begins before another, one seal before another, one trumpet especially before another, one phial before another. Yet, sometimes, what begins later than another thing ends sooner; and what begins earlier than another thing ends later: so the seventh trumpet begins earlier than the phials, and yet extends beyond them all. The seven angels which stood before God - A character of the highest eminence. And seven trumpets were given them. - When men desire to make known openly a thing of public concern, they give a token that may be seen or heard far and wide; and, among such, none are more ancient than trumpets, Lev 25:9; Num 10:2; Amo 3:6. The Israelites, in particular, used them, both in the worship of God and in war; therewith openly praising the power of God before, after, and in, the battle, Jos 6:4; Ch2 13:14, etc And the angels here made known by these trumpets the wonderful works of God, whereby all opposing powers are successively shaken, till the kingdom of the world becomes the kingdom of God and his Anointed.
These trumpets reach nearly from the time of St. John to the endof the world; and they are distinguished by manifest tokens. The place of the four first is specified; namely, east, west, south, and north successively: in the three last, immediately after the time of each, the place likewise is pointed out.forth of the second woe: but the trumpets were given to him and the other six together; (as were afterward the phials to the seven angels;) and it is accordingly said of all the seven together, that "they prepared themselves to sound." These, therefore, were not men, as some have thought, but angels, properly so called.
8:3 And - In the second verse, Rev 7:2 the "trumpets were given" to the seven angels; andin the sixth, Rev 7:6 they "prepared to sound." But between these, the incense of this angel and the prayers of the saints are mentioned; the interposing of which shows, that the prayers of the saints and the trumpets of the angels go together: and these prayers, with the effects of them, may well be supposed to extend through all the seven. Another angel - Another created angel. Such are all that are here spoken of. In this part of the Revelation, Christ is never termed an angel; but, "the Lamb." Came and stood at the altar - Of burnt - offerings. And there was given him a golden censer - A censer was a cup on a plate or saucer. This was the token and the business of the office. And much incense was given - Incense generally signifies prayer: here it signifies the longing desires of the angels, that the holy counsel of God might be fulfilled. And there was much incense; for as the prayers of all the saints in heaven and earth are here joined together: so are the desires of all the angels which are brought by this angel. That he might place it - It is not said, offer it; for he was discharging the office of an angel, not a priest. With the prayers of all the saints - At the same time; but not for the saints. The angels are fellowservants with the saints, not mediators for them.
8:4 And the smoke of the incense came up before God, with the prayers of the saints - A token that both were accepted.
8:5 And there were thunderings, and lightnings, and voices, and an earthquake - These, especially when attended with fire, are emblems of God's dreadful judgments, which are immediately to follow.
8:6 And the seven angels prepared themselves to sound - That each, when it should come to his turn, might sound without delay.But while they do sound, they still stand before God.