Fourth Section of the Seventh Seal
“The Great Day of Ail-Shaddai.”
Summary
The son of Man similitude, seen by John originally, in the midst of the seven lightstands, reappears in this chapter. As the Lamb that had been slain, he saw him take the seven-sealed scroll then unrolled, and which no man could open or “see”—ch. v. 6, 7; but in this chapter, as the Lion of the Tribe of Judah, who had prevailed to unroll the scroll, he sees him with a little scroll in his hand unrolled, or opened. He stands with his right foot upon the sea of the ten-horned dominion; and his left on the earth of the two-horned dragon power; burning with devouring fire: and roaring with the voice of a lion in the utterances of seven thunders; and in the annunciation, that there should be, chronically, no more time: but that in the days of the sounding of the seventh angel, or third woe, the mystery of the Deity as he had declared the good news to his servants the prophets, should be finished.
John, as a representative of his constituents, digests the little open scroll of seventh vial judgments. He is embittered in the execution of them, but sweetened by the results; for he executes on peoples, nations, tongues, and kings, the judgments written; and afterwards rejoices in “victory over the beast and over his image, and over his mark, and over the number of his name.”
See “Tabular Analysis,” pp. 109–112.
Translation
Apoc. x.
1. And I saw another powerful angel descending out of the heaven, p. 534 having been clothed with a cloud, and the rainbow upon the head, and his face as the sun, and his feet as pillars of fire.
2. And he had in his hand a little scroll which had been opened: and he placed his right foot upon the sea, and the left upon the earth, and he cried with a loud voice like as a lion roars: and when he cried, the seven thunders uttered their voices. 4. And when the seven thunders uttered their voices, I was about to write: and I heard a voice out of the heaven, saying, to me, Seal, the things which the seven thunders uttered, and write them not.
5. And the angel whom I saw standing upon the sea, and upon the earth, lifted up his hand to the heaven, and sware by him who lives for the aions of the aions, who created the heaven and the things in it, and the earth and the things in it, and the sea and the things in it, That the time shall not be longer: but in the days of the voice of the seventh angel when he shall sound, the mystery of the Deity shall also be finished, as he hath announced the glad tidings to his servants the prophets.
8. And the voice which I heard out of the heaven was again speaking with me, and saying, Go, take the little scroll which has been opened in the hand of the angel who stands upon the sea, and upon the earth. 9. And I went to the angel, saying to him, Give to me the little scroll. And he saith to me, take and eat it up; and it shall imbitter thy belly, but in thy mouth it shall be sweet as honey.
10. And I took the little scroll out of the hand of the angel, and I ate it up; and it was in my mouth as honey, sweet: and when I had eaten it, my belly was imbittered.
11. And he saith to me, Thou must again prophesy against many peoples, and nations, and tongues, and kings.
Exposition
The political death of the eastern Roman empire, and the transfer of its capital to the Ottoman Dynasty, interrupts the continuity of apocalyptic prophecy, as it did that of history. Having brought us down to the death of “the third,” the historian informs us of the grief and terror of “the rest of the men who were not killed by the plagues of the second woe; and who changed not from the worship of the dæmonials and idols;” and then bidding an everlasting farewell to the Greeks, carries the reader back over four hundred years to the consideration of the state of Rome, A. D. 1000.
Not so, however, with the apocalyptic prophecy. It does not p. 535 carry us back in this tenth chapter. It leaves the Euphratean Ottoman angel-power in possession of the Dragon throne; and takes no further notice of it for upwards of three hundred and sixty years. At the end of this period, it again invites our attention to “the great river Euphrates”—to the power so named, because it was the fourth angel “bound by the great river Euphrates,” as it is bounded eastwardly at this day. Our attention is called to it in ch. xvi. 12, as to a sign in the heavens of the coming of the Son of Man; in other words, as to the sign of the approaching descent of the powerful angel out of the heaven, having the rainbow upon the head. The water of this Euphrates is said to be dried up in preparation of the way of the Kings of a Sun’s risings—ἡ ὁδος των βασιλεων των απο ανατολων ἡλιον. The drying up of the water of a river is the destroying of the river; and consequently, of the power represented by the river. The fourth Euphratean angel-power, “the great destroyer,” is itself doomed to destruction; and its decadence is a great sign in the political aërial of the approaching descent of the RAINBOWED ANGEL, out of the heaven; in other words, of the manifestation of the sons of the Deity, the future kings who shall rule the earth and sea.
This tenth chapter carries us forward in vision to this great crisis of the world; even to “that great day of the Deity who is All-powerful.” “Behold,” saith the Spirit, “I COME AS A THIEF”—ch. xvi. 15. The rainbowed angel is the Spirit’s symbol in that coming. It represents him in “that great day”—“the great and terrible day of Yahweh;” when he shall “roar out of Zion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem; and the heavens and the earth shall shake; and he shall be the hope of his people, and the strength of the children of Israel”—Joel ii. 31; iii. 16.
The time of this vision is the concluding period of that division of the seventh trumpet termed the “sixth vial.” The rainbowed angel is developing “in his chambers, with his doors shut about him; and hidden as it were for a little moment” (Isai. xxvi. 20) under that vial; and before the gathering of the kings of the earth, and of the whole habitable into the place called in the Hebrew tongue ARMAGEDDON.” From this obscurity he emerges, and descends with burning and destructive effect upon the nations of “the earth” and “the sea.” His advent being before the conclusion of the sixth vial, he has all the work of the seventh vial as “his work before him”—Isai. xl. 10; lxii. 11. We are now living under the sixth vial, contemporarily with the drying up of the fourth Euphratean angel-power, and the diplomatic operation of the unclean p. 536 spirits of dæmons like frogs. The next event is the development of the powerful angel of this tenth chapter. It is therefore not in the past, as nearly all the commentators of the world imagine; among whom stands out conspicuously the author of the Horæ Apocalypticæ. But we need not waste time and space in the consideration of their theories. The things represented by the scene are yet future. We have, therefore, no historical illustration to offer. Hence, my business will be to analyze the symbols, and reduce them by the process to their literal signification, that we may know “what the Spirit saith,” by the vision, “to the ecclesias.”
But before proceeding to this analysis, I remark, that the position of this sceno-dramatic vision in the apocalypse is admirable. Having disposed of the Greek division of the apostasy by the death of its sovereignty; and having likewise by the first four trumpets previously eclipsed the luminaries of the Latin West—the Spirit now sets strikingly before us, that all-powerful organization which will result from the Nave of the Deity opened in the heaven, with the ark of his covenant in the midst, as revealed in ch. xi. 19. In the eighteenth verse of this chapter, the resurrection of the saints, their judgment, and consequent recompense, are set forth. These, in their spiritual relations, constitute “the Nave,” or the Most Holy Heavenly, within the veil; no longer flesh and blood, but spirit, as Jesus now is; for they are to be “like Him” (1 John iii. 2). Being thus identified with him, and “glorified together,” and in the free reception of all things with him (Rom. viii. 17, 52) only not equal to him in rank, (Eph. i. 22; Col. i. 18) the saints are also “the ark of the covenant in the nave.” This being all developed in the hidden chambers (Isai. xxvi. 20) into which the outer world has no admission, the doors being shut against it, they are apocalyptically “in the heaven,” though standing upon the globe. In this secret place of the Highest, they are in preparation, or being prepared for manifestation—for the επιφανεια and αποκαλυψις, epiphany and apocalypse, of Rom. viii. 19, and 2 Thess. ii. 8.
When thus prepared in the chamber under all the circumstances indicated in the phrase, “Behold I come as a thief” (ch. xvi. 15), they stand forth in manifestation as the “powerful angel descended out of the heaven, clothed with a cloud; a rainbow upon the head; his face as the sun, and his feet as pillars of fire.” This is the Strong Man of Ps. xix. 5; in other words, “the Spirit and the Bride” of Apoc. xxii. 17, who in this glorious manifestation are “one,” as the head, and the body, and the life, are one. As a bridegroom, p. 537 he will have come out of his chamber; and as a strong man he will rejoice for the race he has to run.
This all-powerful angel is not only strong, but he is a Man of War. יהוה איש מלחמה Yahweh ish milkhāmah, says Moses; יהוה שמו Yahweh shemo; “HE WHO SHALL BE is a man of War; YAHWEH is his Name—Exod. xv. 3. This angel of the tenth chapter is this same Yahweh-Warrior, styled in a multitude of places, יהוה צבאות, Yahweh Tz’vaoth, HE WHO SHALL BE HOSTS. The “HE” is the Eternal Spirit “who created the heaven, and the things that therein are, and the earth, and the things that therein are, and the sea, and the things that are therein”—ch. x. 6; and the “hosts,” Jesus and his Brethren. The phrase is very incorrectly rendered in the English version, “the Lord of hosts:” but Yahweh does not signify Lord; nor is it in the construct case. It is absolute, and signifies simply, with Tz’vaoth, hosts, not of hosts. YAHWEH Tz’vaoth, is a title chosen by the Spirit to intimate that at a certain time appointed he would be apocalypsed in hosts. He has been manifested in One, styled “His Holy One” and “the Holy and the Just One”—Acts iii. 14; but he is also to be manifested in “hosts” of holy and just ones, after the same manner. This multitudinous manifestation of the Spirit by spirit is the basis of the symbols of the Apocalypse, as I have already shown in the first volume of this work. The Son of Man similitude is identified with multitude by “his voice,” which is “as the sound of many waters”—ch. i. 15; “many waters” in this book signifying “peoples and multitudes, nations, and tongues”—ch. xvii. 15; hence Ezekiel, who saw the same hosts in symbol, speaks of the voice, or noise, as “the noise of great waters, as the voice of strong ones, שדי, shaddai, the voice of speech, as the noise of a host”—ch. i. 24; and Daniel who saw the same multitude says, “the voice of his words like the voice of a multitude”—ch. x. 6.
In the tenth chapter of the Apocalypse are set forth these seen of Ezekiel, Daniel, and John, as the rainbowed angel. He is herein ready for action—the strong and mighty warrior prepared for combat with the Man-Image seen by Nebuchadnezzar in his dream. Here, then, are two men, representing two belligerent powers—the one, that of the Kingdom of Men; the other, that of the Kingdom of the Deity. Nebuchadnezzar’s Image was the aggregation into one symbolic man, of a multitude of powers contemporary with many generations; so this one powerful angel is an aggregation into One Body, named Yahweh Tz’vaoth, of all saints accounted worthy of coöperation with the Lord Jesus in the execution of “the p. 538 judgment written.” “Judgment,” says Daniel, “was given to the saints;” and this rainbowed angel is their symbol, representing their aspect in the possession of judicial power, and ready to “destroy them who corrupt the earth”—ch. xi. 18.
This, then is the “ALL-POWERFUL LORD GOD, who is, and was, and is to come”—ch. xi. 17; in “the Omega” and terminal manifestation of the Eternal Spirit. This manifestation is yet in the future—it is “to come;” and therefore, it is spoken of in ch. xvi. 5, as one that “shall be;” for “Shall be is his name”—Yahweh shemo.
The symbol of these “hosts” is styled “an angel,” because the Spirit incorporate in them has a mission; which is to “take the kingdom, and to possess the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven”—Dan. vii. 18, 27; or, as it is expressed in Apoc. xi. 15, “the kingdoms of this world,” that they may be the kingdoms of this powerful angel, styled there, “our Lord and his Christ” or YAHWEH ELOHIM.
1.—The Clothing with Cloud
The angelic symbol is περιβεβλημενον νεφελην, one who hath been clothed with a cloud. Hence, there was a time when this clothing had not been developed. Understanding that the nucleus of the symbol is “the Lord the Spirit,” who is “the resurrection and the life,” we may perceive, that there is an epoch, or point of time, when the Spirit had not as yet clothed himself with the cloud. In symbolic language, cloud is representative of a mighty host. Thus, in addressing Gog, the Spirit saith: “Thou shalt be like a cloud to cover the land, thou, and all thy bands, and many peoples with thee”—Ezek. xxxviii. 9. This is a very ample cloud, widespread as the Holy Land; and composed of “a great company, and a mighty host”—verse 15. So also, in Jer. iv. 7, 13, speaking of the lion of Babylon, the destroyer of the Gentiles, he says, he should come against Judah “as clouds, and his chariots as a whirlwind.” Cloud signifies the same sort of thing in the scene before us; that is, a host or multitude. The point of time when the Spirit is not clothed with this multitudinous cloud, is from his first touching ground at his coming to the completion of the judgment of his household. How many months may be occupied in this judicial cleansing of the house, I am not prepared to say. In ch. xi. 18, it is styled, “the time of the dead that they should be judged;” but how long the time of their judgment may be, is not revealed. It will not be the work of an instant; for the dead in Christ have p. 539 first to be brought out of their graves; and then gathered by angelic agency from one end of heaven to the other—Matt. xxiv. 31. After this “gathering together unto the Lord Jesus Christ”—2 Thess. ii. 1; the risen dead, and the contemporary living, of the household, have all to give account of themselves to the Deity—Rom. xiv. 12. This is “the dead, small and great, standing before the Deity; and being judged out of those things written in the books, according to their works”—ch. xix. 11. Whosoever of them cannot give a scripturally good account of themselves, are rejected, and expelled into the darkness of the outer world of “the earth” and “the sea,” where they will in body receive things evil—2 Cor. v. 10; and “of the flesh reap corruption”—Gal. vi. 8; but, on the other hand, those whose account of themselves is deemed good, they will receive in body things which are good, and “of the Spirit reap life everlasting.” This is their quickening, transformation, or change, “in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump;” that is, the seventh, to which the rainbowed angel belongs—1 Cor. xv. 52. This is their being “clothed upon with their house which is from heaven,” not from the grave; a clothing in which, in relation to each one so clothed, “mortality is swallowed up of life”—2 Cor. v. 2-4.
Here, then, is work for an epoch, but of how long a duration, I cannot tell. This, however, we may know, that the accepted will be a host—“a great multitude which no man can number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, who stand before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands”—ch. vii. 9. This is the host symbolized by the cloud. The Spirit clothes himself with them all, when, by their quickening, they become spirit, on the principle, that they who have been born of the spirit are spirit—John iii. 6. And how could we better symbolize this Spirit-Host than by “a powerful angel clothed with a cloud”—a great cloud of witnesses, of whom, in the days of their flesh, “the world was not worthy?”
2.—The Rainbow
Now, over or upon the head of this angel, John saw “the rainbow.” Before ιρις, all the recent editors of the text insert ἡ, the, which is no doubt correct, as having special reference to the rainbow in ch. iv. 3. This is the symbol of the covenant, and inseparably connected with the throne. Upon this sat one like a jasper and sardine stone; and, as the rainbow was round about the throne, p. 540 it was also over Him who sat thereon. The occupant of the throne is the Spirit, and those to whom he says, “he that overcomes will I grant to sit with me in my throne;” so that the rainbow arches over all such. The Spirit-Host is the pillar of cloud between the Cherubim, which reflects the light of the divine countenance, and develops the bow. This token of the Abrahamic covenant is well and appropriately placed over “the Head” of the Angelic Spirit-Host, seeing that in Him all the fullness dwells; and that, in the days of his flesh, his blood was the blood of that covenant brought into force by His death; and by which all the individuals of the cloud were sanctified—Heb. ix. 15; x. 10. Arching over this symbol, it signifies that the angel is a company of kings and priests, related to the rainbowed throne—the throne covenanted to David and his seed.
The rainbow occurs only twice among the symbols of the Apocalypse; once in the fourth chapter, and again in the tenth. When seen by the scribe instructed for the kingdom of the heavens, it reminds him of “the covenants of promise,” in which he has become interested by adoption into “the Commonwealth of Israel,” when he put on Christ by immersion, as “the obedience of faith”—Eph. ii. 12; Gal. iii. 27, 29; Rom. xvi. 26. The rainbow token in a scene reminds him, that the symbol with which it is associated, has to do with the Holy Land, and the Kingdom, of which the land is the territory. It suggests, that the things signified by the symbol are connected with the avenging of the holy—Dan. viii. 14; when the covenant with Jacob, and the covenant with Isaac, and the covenant with Abraham, has been remembered; and the land also—Lev. xxvi. 42.
3.—The Face as the Sun
The face of the angel is identical with the countenance of the symbolic Son of Man in ch. i. 16—“his face as it were the Sun;” or, “his countenance as the sun shineth in his strength.” In the vision which Daniel saw of the same, “his face was as the appearance of lightning, and his eyes as lamps of fire”—ch. x. 6. Ezekiel saw the same brightness in his vision of the Elohim; “whose appearance was like burning coals of fire, like the appearance of lamps; . . the fire was bright, and out of the fire went forth lightning”—ch. i. 13. Fire and glowing brightness are symbols of the Spirit in intense and destroying activity. “Our Deity,” says Paul, “is a consuming fire.” The bright and fiery aspect of this apocalpytic p. 541 symbol, identifies it with spirit-manifestation. It is a symbol of which the Sun of Righteousness is a constituent; and hence the sunshine of his face. This symbolic fire and brightness John saw in vision, find their significance in part, in 2 Thess. i. 8; and ii. 8; where Paul speaks of the apocalypse of the Lord Jesus with a fire of flame, and consuming with spirit of his mouth, and destroying with the brightness of his presence. Hence, the fire and brightness of the symbol are indicative of the consuming and destroying characteristics of the hosts, which are glorified together with him, and invest omnipotence as a cloud.
4.—Feet as Pillars of Fire
The feet of the angel as pillars of fire. The import of this has been expounded in the first volume in treating of the feet of the symbolic Son of Man, which John says, were “like to fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace.” The feet are symbols of progress, of advance into the arena of conflict; and when in intense ignition, of terrible destruction in their career. Feet, without the adjunct of “pillars of fire,” are “beautiful,” and indicative of good; as, “How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace; that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation; that saith unto Zion, Thine Elohim reigneth!”—Isa. lii. 7. But the feet of the rainbowed angel are not beautiful; they are moving pillars of fire, dreadful and terrible in their desolating tramp; for wherever they tread, they kindle a fire that cannot be quenched. The rainbowed angel proclaims no good tidings, nor does he publish peace and salvation. His voice is not addressed to Zion. He is altogether a symbol of war, and destruction by the burning flame—Dan. vii. 9-11. He is a fiery stream issuing and coming forth from before the Ancient of Days; and his tread is the tramp of myriads, whose mission it is to slay the beast, destroy his body, and give it to the burning flame.
In the execution of this mission, he developes the judgments of the second and third angels of ch. xiv. 8-11; and of the scenes described from verse 14 to 20 inclusive. He is the Lord of lords and King of kings, having been clothed with the called, and faithful, and chosen; and prepared for combat with the Powers that be, whom he overcomes—ch. xvii. 14. He is the angel that enlightens the earth with his glory, and announces the fall of Babylon with a mighty voice—ch. xviii. 1, 2; and is the powerful Lord God, who p. 542 judgeth her, and burns her utterly with fire—ver. 8. As constituents of the cloud with which he has been clothed, are the people of the Deity, who have separated themselves from the Apostasy; the heaven, and holy apostles and prophets; for these are exhorted to reward her as she rewarded them, to give her torment and sorrow, and to rejoice over her fall; all of which implies their previous resurrection, judgment, and acceptance—ch. xviii. 4-8; 20, 24. Embodied as the rainbowed angel, they are seen again in ch. xix. 11-21, as the King of kings and Lord of lords, followed by the hosts of the heaven, prepared to smite the nations, and to tread the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of the All-powerful Deity. He is the angel standing in the sun, verse 17; and lastly, he is seen as the Binder of the Dragon, and the deliverer of the nations from the civil and ecclesiastical power of them by whom they are now deceived and oppressed. Such is the career of the powerful angel with “his feet as pillars of fire.”
5.—The Little Opened Scroll
In the second verse of the tenth chapter, John says: “He had in his hand a little scroll which had been opened.”—βιβλαριδιον ανεωγμενον. This was not like the scroll John speaks of in ch. v., which was closed with a sevenfold sealing; “so that no man in the heaven, nor in earth, neither under the earth, was able to open the scroll, neither to look thereon.” This “little scroll” in the angel’s hand had been opened before John saw him. The opening had been completed before he took up his position upon the earth and sea. The opening of the little scroll is not represented in this chapter any more than the clothing of the angelic symbol with the cloud. These are processes accomplished in the secret place of the Most High; and before the angel presents himself before the nations as Judah’s lion. The opening of the little scroll, and the clothing with the cloud, belong to “the time of the dead when they are judged and rewarded”—when they stand before the Deity in the scene exhibited in ch. xx. 12-15. In this scene the three books, or scrolls, are opened. These are the scroll of the Seven Seals, the little scroll, and the scroll of life. Down to “the time of the dead,” the first is being unsealed and unrolled, as I have been expounding the operation in this volume. But when the apocalyptic developments reach this extraordinary and notable crisis of the resurrection, judgment, and quickening of the approved, whose names are written in the scroll of life, the mode of apocalyptic development is no longer as p. 543 during the centuries past. The manner of apocalyptic fulfillment is changed. This change of method will be so demonstrable, that all the Deity’s servants will see it; for they will be a part of it. The Spirit will have prevailed to open the seven-sealed scroll in creating the crisis which crowns the centuries; and in clothing himself with the cloud, or hosts, in, with, and by whom he destroys the Fourth Beast, and takes away the dominion of the other three. The supernatural element is now introduced, which wonderfully quickens and consummates the end. But the infusion of this into the situation does not supersede the free action of the enemy, and the counteraction of him by the symbolic angel upon seemingly ordinary principles. The scroll is opened, not to him, but to the saints, to whom the judgment is given. The Fourth Beast, or Nebuchadnezzar’s Image, which covers the whole area, will contend against them, as if they were a Zinghis or Tamerlane, until defeat and destruction on every side give mankind a practical understanding of the opening of the seven-sealed scroll.
The opening of the seven-sealed scroll in the giving a reward to the servants of the Deity is, to them, also, the opening of the “little scroll in the angel’s hand.” It is a little scroll of judgment: the scroll is little, not the judgment. The scroll unrolled is not long. The seven-sealed scroll, extending from John’s day to “the time of the dead,” is long. Upon its roll are inscribed judicial events extending over nearly eighteen centuries. This is not a little scroll, but a very long one. A scroll extended gives us the idea of length; and this is representative of time. A little scroll is a short time in which things written therein are to be accomplished—a period, say of forty years, according to the testimony of Micah vii. 14-17, in which “the nations shall see, and be confounded at all (this angel’s) might: they shall lay their hand upon their mouth, their ears shall be deaf. They shall lick the dust like a serpent; they shall move out of their holes like worms of the earth; they shall be afraid of YAHWEH OUR ELOHIM, and shall fear because of thee.” This is a short-time hand to hand conflict between the Seed of the Woman and the Seed of the Serpent, in which he gets bruised on the head—Gen. iii. 15. The rainbowed angel having come to the throne of judgment, and been crowned, received the testimony in receiving this little scroll, in which is written his mission. Being the king’s son, he succeeds to the throne, and is crowned; and the custom established in Israel was, to deliver to the crowned ruler the testimony, according to which he was to execute justice and judgment—2 Kings xi. 12. The little scroll is the finishing of the mystery of p. 544 the Deity, as he hath declared, announced, or testified, the glad tidings to his servants the prophets—ch. x. 7; and it is the rainbowed angel that hath to finish it. This short-scroll finishing of the mystery is the completion of the judgments written on the outer side of the seven-sealed scroll. It is, therefore, the concluding part of this scroll—that part, namely, which pertains exclusively to the saints, in the execution of the judgment given to them, by which they possess themselves of the kingdoms of the world.
This “little scroll” is the most important fragment of the apocalypse. It contains the catastrophy of the plot, without which all the rest would be of little interest to the believer. By the angel holding the little scroll “in his hand,” his power is identified with the execution of its contents, and the character of these is indicated by his voice. They are “the lightnings, and voices, and thunderings, and earthquake, and great hail,” of ch. xi. 19—the judgments of the seventh vial; which exhaust the wrath of Deity, and give victory to the saints, and rest for a thousand years—ch. xv. 2; xiv. 13; xx. 4.