Apocalisse 7:2 Commento

The things contained in this chapter came in after the opening of the six seals, which foretold great calamities in the world; and before the sound of the seven trumpets, which gave notice of great corruptions arising in the church: between these comes in this comfortable chapter, which secures the graces and comforts of the people of God in times of common calamity. We have, I. An account of the restraint laid upon the winds (Rev 7:1-3). II. The sealing of the servants of God (Rev 7:4-8). III. The songs of angels and saints on this occasion (Rev 7:9-12). IV. A description of the honour and happiness of those who had faithfully served Christ, and suffered for him (Rev 7:13, etc.).

INTRODUCTION TO REVELATION 7 This chapter contains a vision seen at the end of the sixth, and at the opening of the seventh seal, which expresses the security of the saints in all ages following, the praises of angels and men on that account, and the happiness of all the people of God in the millennium state. First, a vision of four angels is seen restraining the winds from blowing on the earth, sea, and trees, Rev 7:1; then of another angel, described by the place from whence he came, the east; by what he had, the seal of the living God, and by his cry to the four angels not to hurt the earth, sea, and trees, until the servants of God were sealed, Rev 7:2, and then follows the number of the sealed ones in general, Rev 7:4, and the particular number of them out of each tribe of Israel, Rev 7:5. After which is another vision of all the elect of God together, described by the numberless multitude of them; by their descent from all nations; by their position and situation before the throne, and the Lamb; by their habit and attire, and by their loud cry, ascribing salvation to God, and to the Lamb, Rev 7:9, who are joined by all the angels around them, worshipping God, and ascribing glory to him, Rev 7:11. And next is described the happiness of this numerous company, in the thousand years' reign, introduced by some discourse which passed between John, and one of the elders, Rev 7:13, who are said to be before the throne, to serve God continually, and to have his presence, Rev 7:15, to be free from everything troublesome and distressing, Rev 7:16, and to be fed by the Lamb, and to be led by him to fountains of living water, and to have all their tears wiped away from them, Rev 7:17.

And I saw another angel,.... Not Constantine, who came from the eastern parts to the empire, with the true knowledge of God, and the authority of God to propagate it; and who repressed the four angels, or evil spirits, contention, ambition, heresy, and war, from doing the mischief they otherwise would; and sealed the saints, by giving them a platform of doctrine at the council of Nice, as Brightman and others think. But the uncreated angel, the angel of the covenant, the Lord Jesus Christ; for who but he should have the privy seal of heaven, who is the angel of the great council, as the Septuagint render Isa 9:6 and who could speak in such an authoritative manner to the four angels, "saying, hurt not the earth", &c. but he who is the head of all principality and power? and who should seal the servants of the Lord, but he who has them in his hands, and keeps them by his power, so that none of them shall perish? And to him agrees all that follows: ascending from the east; from Judea, from Zion, from whence Christ, as the salvation, or Saviour of Israel, came, Psa 14:7; and whose name is the east, as some render Zac 3:8; he is the dayspring from on high, the sun of righteousness, who rose from the east, the place of the rising sun, and brought light, life, and joy to his people, when he came to seal them. Compare with this Eze 43:1. Having the seal of the living God; having the impress of deity upon him, being the brightness of his Father's glory, and the express image or character of his person; having a testimony, an authentic proof and demonstration of his being the Son of God, of his being the true and living God; as also a commission from God, as Mediator, being sealed by him; and having all power and authority from him, to seal and secure the people which were given unto him, and for which purpose he now came: to which may be added, that Christ has the Spirit, with his gifts and graces, without measure, by which the saints are sealed unto the day of redemption; and moreover has likewise the seal of the book of life, or of eternal election, in his hands; the elect are chosen in him, and the book of life, in which their names are written to eternal life, is in his keeping, and is therefore called the Lamb's book of life. The Jews speak (a) of the east gate of one of the palaces they suppose above, which they say is shut all the six days, and on the sabbath day is opened, and the governor of this palace has two ministers, one on his right hand, and one on his left, and two seals in their hands, , "the seal of life", and the seal of death, and all the books of the world, before them; an, some are sealed to life, and some to death, with which this passage may be compared. They speak also of an angel that presides at the eastern part of the heavens, who receives the prayers of the Israelites, whose name they call "Gazardia" (b), as this same angel is said to offer up the prayers of the saints, Rev 8:3. And he cried with a loud voice to the four angels; to show his power and authority over them, they being his creatures and ministers; and to express his great concern for his people, his care of them, and affection for them; and to signify the danger they were in through the calamities that were coming on, should they not be sealed: to whom it was given to hurt the earth and the sea: they had a commission from God to let loose the winds, or to bring on wars, devastations, calamities, and plagues, of various sorts, upon the Roman empire, now Christian; and on the seat of the beast, not only on the continent, but upon the islands also, even upon all the nations, tongues, and people subject to the see of Rome. (a) Zohar in Exod. fol. 100. 1. (b) Zohar in Exod. fol. 79. 2.

"And I saw another angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the living God" He speaks of Elias the prophet, who is the precursor of the times of Antichrist, for the restoration and establishment of the churches from the great and intolerable persecution. We read that these things are predicted in the opening of the Old and New Testament; for He says by Malachi: "Lo, I will send to you Elias the Tishbite, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, according to the time of calling, to recall the Jews to the faith of the people that succeed them." And to that end He shows, as we have said, that the number of those that shall believe, of the Jews and of the nations, is a great multitude which no man was able to number. Moreover, we read in the Gospel that the prayers of the Church are sent from heaven by an angel, and that they are received against wrath, and that the kingdom of Antichrist is cast out and extinguished by holy angels; for He says: "Pray that ye enter not into temptation: for there shall be a great affliction, such as has not been from the beginning of the world; and except the Lord had shortened those days, no flesh should be saved." Therefore He shall send these seven great archangels to smite the kingdom of Antichrist; for He Himself also thus said: "Then the Son of man shall send His messengers; and they shall gather together His elect from the four corners of the wind, from the one end of heaven even to the other end thereof." For, moreover, He previously says by the prophet: "Then shall there be peace for our land, when there shall arise in it seven shepherds and eight attacks of men; and they shall encircle Assur," that is, Antichrist, "in the trench of Nimrod," that is, in the nation of the devil, by the spirit of the Church. Similarly when the keepers of the house shall be moved. Moreover, the Lord Himself, in the parable to the apostles, when the labourers had come to Him and said, "Lord, did not we sow good seed in Thy field? whence, then, hath it tares? answered them, An enemy hath done this. And they said to Him, Lord, wilt Thou, then, that we go and root them up? And He said, Nay, but let both grow together until the harvest; and in the time of the harvest I will say to the reapers, that they gather the tares and make bundles of them, and burn them with fire everlasting, but that they gather the wheat into my barns." The Apocalypse here shows, therefore, that these reapers, and shepherds, and labourers, are the angels. And the trumpet is the word of power. And although the same thing recurs in the phials, still it is not said as if it occurred twice, but because what is decreed by the Lord to happen shall be once for all; for this cause it is said twice. What, therefore, He said too little in the trumpets, is here found in the phials. We must not regard the order of what is said, because frequently the Holy Spirit, when He has traversed even to the end of the last times, returns again to the same times, and fills up what He had before failed to say. Nor must we look for order in the Apocalypse; but we must follow the meaning of those things which are prophesied. Therefore in the trumpets and phials is signified either the desolation of the plagues that are sent upon the earth, or the madness of Antichrist himself, or the cutting off of the peoples, or the diversity of the plagues, or the hope in the kingdom of the saints, or the ruin of states, or the great overthrow of Babylon, that is, the Roman state.

"Then I saw another angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the living God, and he cried out with a loud voice to the four angels to whom it was granted to harm the earth and the sea, saying, 'Do not harm the earth or the sea or the trees until the servants of our God have been sealed.'" The divine angel is said to come from the east, where the sun rises, but not from the west or the evening, symbolizing announcing of the Gospel and promises of blessings.

This was revealed long ago to Ezekiel concerning him who was clothed in a fine linen robe and who sealed the foreheads of those who mourned so that the righteous would not be destroyed along with the wicked, since the virtue of the saints is hidden and is unknown even to the angels. This is shown also here to the blessed [John], that a preeminent holy power encourages the avenging holy angels to do nothing until they might recognize the servants of the truth by virtue of their having been sealed. Although this has happened partially long ago when those who believed in Christ fled from the siege of Jerusalem by the Romans into very many destinations, the great James having showed to blessed Paul their great number, then, as has been said, this will especially occur at the coming of the antichrist when the seal of the life-giving cross will separate from the faithless the faithful who bear without shame and with boldness the sign of Christ before the impious. Therefore, the angel says, “Do not harm the earth of the sea or the trees, until we have sealed the servants of our God upon their foreheads.” Just as the creation, created for our sakes, shares in the torments with us who are being chastised, so too it will be made clean with the saints who are being glorified. Through these words we learn that the virtuous will require the power of angelic assistance before the arrival of the trials which come because of the seal of the Spirit which is given to us. [We learn further] that this seal will reveal its power to that extent that we add our own work to it, for everything remains without aid which by its own will wills not to be aided.

And I saw another angel ascending from the east, etc. The Lord born in the flesh, who is the angel of great counsel, the messenger of the Father's will, visited us as the rising sun from on high (Luke 1), bringing the banner of the cross to mark the foreheads of His own.

And he cried out with a loud voice to the four angels. The great voice of the Lord is the sublime preaching: Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

And I saw another angel ascending from the rising of the sun, having the sign of the living God; and he cried with a loud voice to the four angels, to whom it was given to hurt the earth and the sea, saying: Hurt not the earth, nor the sea, nor the trees, till we sign the servants of our God in their foreheads. Christ is an angel because we know he announced the joys of the new life to the world, he about whom it is said, angel of great counsel. [Is. 9:6 acc. to LXX, where the verse is number 5.] The ascent from the rising of the sun meant here is the one by which, starting from the Resurrection itself, which sprang up like a new sun, he grew and filled up the whole world, and illuminated it with the evangelical teaching. With that voice he also prevented the noxious power of the four angels from doing harm, and destroyed it in both initiators and subordinates at the same time; whence Nebuchadnezzar also saw a stone cut out of a mountain without hands strike the aforesaid statue on its iron feet and break it in pieces. [Dan. 2:34] By this stone is represented the Lord Jesus Christ, begotten of Jewish stock without conjugal act, who struck the statue on the feet and made it fall, because he reached the extremity of the kingdom of the Romans with the preaching of the Word, and converted the aforesaid kingdoms of the world to rebuild them wholesomely. This same Mediator is said to have the sign of the living God, that is the mystery of the cross. By the fact that he says not “till I sign” but till we sign, he shows that there are in him many people through whom that mystery is being fulfilled. When he says in their foreheads, he indicates the inner forehead, for we smear both side posts with the blood of the Lamb, [Ref. to Ex. 12:5 et seq.] and it is no use for anyone to wear it on the outside if they do not also receive it on the inside, because faith without works is idle. [James 2:20 acc. to the Greek version.]

The four angels holding the four winds of heaven, Rev 7:1. The angel with the seal of the living God, and sealing the servants of God out of the twelve tribes, whose number amounted to one hundred and forty-four thousand, Rev 7:2-8. Besides these, there was an innumerable multitude from all nations, who gave glory to God and the Lamb, Rev 7:9-12. One of the elders shows who these are, and describes their most happy state, Rev 7:13-17.

The seal of the living God - This angel is represented as the chancellor of the supreme King, and as ascending from the east, απο ανατολης ἡλιου, from the rising of the sun. Some understand this of Christ, who is called ανατολη, the east, Luk 1:78. Four angels, to whom it was given to hurt - Particular agents employed by Divine providence in the management of the affairs of the earth; but whether spiritual or material we know not.

SEALING OF THE ELECT OF ISRAEL. THE COUNTLESS MULTITUDE OF THE GENTILE ELECT. (Rev. 7:1-17) And--so B and Syriac. But A, C, Vulgate, and Coptic omit "and." after these things--A, B, C, and Coptic read, "after this." The two visions in this chapter come in as an episode after the sixth seal, and before the seventh seal. It is clear that, though "Israel" may elsewhere designate the spiritual Israel, "the elect (Church) on earth" [ALFORD], here, where the names of the tribes one by one are specified, these names cannot have any but the literal meaning. The second advent will be the time of the restoration of the kingdom to Israel, when the times of the Gentiles shall have been fulfilled, and the Jews shall at last say, "Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord." The period of the Lord's absence has been a blank in the history of the Jews as a nation. As then Revelation is the Book of the Second Advent [DE BURGH], naturally mention of God's restored favor to Israel occurs among the events that usher in Christ's advent. earth . . . sea . . . tree--The judgments to descend on these are in answer to the martyrs' prayer under the fifth seal. Compare the same judgments under the fifth trumpet, the sealed being exempt (Rev 9:4). on any tree--Greek, "against any tree" (Greek, "epi ti dendron": but "on the earth," Greek, "epi tees gees").

from the east--Greek, "the rising of the sun." The quarter from which God's glory oftenest manifests itself.