Revelation 7:9

The Praise of the Great Multitude of the Redeemed, Rev_7:9-17

9. of all nations, and kindreds, &c.] Lit. out of every nation, and tribes, and peoples, and tongues.

white robes] Cf. Rev_3:5, Rev_6:11.

palms] Opinions differ as to the meaning of this image, whether we are to compare the Pagan use of the palm-branch as a symbol of victory, given e.g. to winners at the public games, or the Israelite custom of bearing branches of palm, as of other sacred trees, at the Feast of Tabernacles: see Lev_23:40, and cf. St Joh_12:13. Although Jewish rather than Gentile imagery is to be expected in this book, the former view seems on the whole more reasonable, as it gives a more obvious and a more appropriate meaning to the symbol.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

After this - Greek,” After these things” - Μετὰ ταῦτα Meta tauta: that is, after I saw these things thus represented I had another vision. This would undoubtedly imply, not only that he saw these things after he had seen the sealing of the hundred and forty-four thousand, but that they would occur subsequently to that. But he does not state whether they would immediately occur, or whether other things might not intervene. As a matter of fact, the vision seems to be transferred from earth to heaven - for the multitudes which he saw appeared “before the throne” Rev 7:9; that is, before the throne of God in heaven. The design seems to be to carry the mind forward quite beyond the storms and tempests of earth - the scenes of woe and sorrow - the clays of error, darkness, declension, and persecution - to that period when the church should be triumphant in heaven. Instead, therefore, of leaving the impression that the hundred and forty-four thousand would be all that would be saved, the eye is directed to an innumerable host, gathered from all ages, all climes, and all people, triumphant in glory. The multitude that John thus saw was not, therefore, I apprehend, the same as the hundred and forty-four thousand, but a far greater number the whole assembled host of the redeemed in heaven, gathered there as vistors, with palmbranches, the symbols of triumph, in their hands. The object of the vision is to cheer those who are desponding in times of religious declension and in seasons of persecution, and when the number of true Christians seems to be small, with the assurance that an immense host shall be redeemed from our world, and be gathered triumphant before the throne.

I beheld - That is, he saw them before the throne. The vision is transferred from earth to heaven; from the contemplation of the scene when desolation seemed to impend over the world, and when comparatively few in number were “sealed” as the servants of God, to the time when the redeemed would be triumphant, and when a host which no man can number would stand before God.

And, lo - Indicating surprise. A vast host burst upon the view. Instead of the comparatively few who were sealed, an innumerable company were presented to his vision, and surprise was the natural effect.

A great multitude - Instead of the comparatively small number on which the attention had been fixed.

Which no man could number - The number was so great that no one could count them, and John, therefore, did not attempt to do it. This is such a statement as one would make who should have a view of all the redeemed in heaven. It would appear to be a number beyond all power of computation. This representation is in strong contrast with a very common opinion that only a few will be saved. The representation in the Bible is, that immense hosts of the human race will be saved; and though vast numbers will be lost, and though at any particular period of the world hitherto it may seem that few have been in the path to life, yet we have every reason to believe that, taking the race at large, and estimating it as a whole, a vast majority of the whole will be brought to heaven. For the true religion is yet to spread all over the world, and perhaps for many, many thousands of years, piety is to be as prevalent as sin has been; and in that long and happy time of the world’s history we may hope that the numbers of the saved may surpass all who have been lost in past periods, beyond any power of computation. See the notes on Rev 20:3-6.

Of all nations - Not only of Jews; not only of the nations which, in the time of the sealing vision, had embraced the gospel, but of all the nations of the earth. This implies two things:

(a)That the gospel would be preached among all nations; and,

(b)That even when it was thus preached to them they would keep up their national characteristics.

There can be no hope of blending all the nations of the earth under one visible sovereignty. They may all be subjected to the spiritual reign of the Redeemer, but still there is no reason to suppose that they will not have their distinct organizations and laws.

And kindreds - φυλῶν phulōn. This word properly refers to those who are descended from a common ancestry, and hence denotes a race, lineage, kindred. It was applied to the tribes of Israel, as derived from the same ancestor, and for the same reason might be applied to a clan, and thence to any division in a nation, or to a nation itself - properly retaining the notion that it was descended from a common ancestor. Here it would seem to refer to a smaller class than a nation - the different clans of which a nation might be composed.

And people - λαῶν laōn. This word refers properly to a people or community as a mass, without reference to its origin or any of its divisions. The former word would be used by one who should look upon a nation as made up of portions of distinct languages, clans, or families; this word would be used by one who should look on such an assembled people as a mere mass of human beings, with no reference to their difference of clanship, origin, or language.

And tongues - Languages. This word would refer also to the inhabitants of the earth, considered with respect to the fact that they speak different languages. The use of particular languages does not designate the precise boundaries of nations - for often many people speaking different languages are united as one nation, and often those who speak the same language constitute distinct nations. The view, therefore, with which one would look upon the dwellers on the earth, in the use of the word “tongues” or “languages,” would be, not as divided into nations; not with reference to their lineage or clanship; and not as a mere mass without reference to any distinction, but as divided by speech. The meaning of the whole is, that persons from all parts of the earth, as contemplated in these points of view, would be among the redeemed. Compare the notes on Dan 3:4; Dan 4:1.

Stood before the throne - The throne of God. See the notes on Rev 4:2. The throne is there represented as set up in heaven, and the vision here is a vision of what will occur in heaven. It is designed to carry the thoughts beyond all the scenes of conflict, strife, and persecution on earth, to the time when the church shall be triumphant in glory - when all storms shall have passed by; when all persecutions shall have ceased; when all revolutions shall have occurred; when all the elect - not only the hundred and forty-four thousand of the sealed, but of all nations and times - shall have been gathered in. There was a beautiful propriety in this vision. John saw the tempests stayed, as by the might of angels. He saw a new influence and power that would seal the true servants of God. But those tempests were stayed only for a time, and there were more awful visions in reserve than any which had been exhibited - visions of woe and sorrow, of persecution and of death. It was appropriate, therefore, just at this moment of calm suspense - of delayed judgments - to suffer the mind to rest on the triumphant close of the whole in heaven, when a countless host would be gathered there with palms in their hands, uniting with angels in the worship of God. The mind, by the contemplation of this beautiful vision, would be refreshed and strengthened for the disclosure of the awful scenes which were to occur on the sounding of the trumpets under the seventh seal. The simple idea is, that, amidst the storms and tempests of life - scenes of existing or impending trouble and wrath - it is well to let the eye rest on the scene of the final triumph, when innumerable hosts of the redeemed shall stand before God, and when sorrow shall be known no more.

And before the Lamb - In the midst of the throne - in heaven. See the notes on Rev 5:6.

Clothed with white robes - The emblems of innocence or righteousness, uniformly represented as the raiment of the inhabitants of heaven. See the notes on Rev 3:4; Rev 6:11.

And palms in their hands - Emblems of victory. Branches of the palm-tree were carried by the victors in the athletic contests of Greece and Rome, and in triumphal processions. See the notes on Mat 21:8. The palm-tree - straight, elevated, majestic - was an appropriate emblem of triumph. The portion of it which was borne in victory was the long leaf which shoots out from the top of the tree. Compare the notes on Isa 3:26. See Eschenberg, Manual of Class. Literally, p. 243, and Lev 23:40; “And ye shall take you on the first day the boughs of goodly trees, branches of palm-trees,” etc. So in the Saviour’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem Joh 12:12-13 - “On the next day much people took branches of palm-trees, and went forth to meet him, and cried, Hosanna.”

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Rev_7:9-17

A great multitude, which no man could number.

The saints in heaven

I. What John saw and heard.

1. A great multitude of all nations. When John was on earth he saw but few believers. The Church was like a lily in a field of thorns--lambs in the midst of wolves; but now quite different--thorns are plucked away--the lilies innumerable. Every country had its representatives there--some saved out of every land. All were like Christ, and yet all retained their different peculiarities.

2. Their position. They stood before the throne; yea, nearer than the angels, for they stood round about. This marks their complete righteousness. In Christ they stand, not in themselves. Nearer than angels; the angels have only creature-righteousness--these have on Creator righteousness. If you are ever to be near God, you may come freely to Him now. Why keep so far away?

3. Their dress--white robes and palms. They have all the same dress, there is no difference. It is the garment of Christ. Awakened persons are sometimes led to cry, O that I had never sinned! but here is something better than if you had never sinned.

4. Their song. The substance of it. Salvation. They give God all the glory. The effect of it: it stirs up the hearts of the angels (verses 11, 12). How do you feel when you hear of others being saved and brought nearer to God than you? Do you envy and hate them, or do you fail down and praise God for it?

II. Their past history. Two particulars are given. Each had a different history; still in these two they were alike.

1. They had washed their robes. You think to go to heaven by your own decency, innocency, attention to duties. Well, you would be the only such one there: all are washed in blood.

2. They came out of great tribulation. Every one that gets to the throne must put their foot upon the thorn. The way to the crown is by the Cross. We must taste the gall if we are to taste the glory. Go round every one in glory; every one has a different story, yet every one has a tale of suffering. One was persecuted in his family, by his friends and companions; another was visited by sore pains and humbling disease, neglected by the world; another was bereaved of children. Mark, all are brought out of them. It was a dark cloud, but it passed away: the water was deep, but they have reached the other side. Not one of them blames God for the road He led them--Salvation is their only cry.

III. Future history.

1. Immediate service of God. Here we are allowed to spend much of our time in our worldly callings. We shall spend eternity in loving God, in adoring, admiring, and praising God. We should spend much of our present time in this.

2. Not in the wilderness any more. At present we are like a flock in the wilderness, our soul often hungry, and thirsty, and sorely tried. Learn to glorify Him in the fires, to sing in the wilderness. This is the only world where you can give God that glory.

3. Father, Son, and Spirit will bless us. (R. M. McCheyne.)

Humanity in heaven

I. Humanity in heaven form one vast community. This fact implies--

1. The marvellous success of the gospel.

2. The impartiality of the gospel.

3. The socialising power of the gospel.

II. Humanity in heaven are distinguished in position. Stood before the throne. This indicates--

1. The highest service.

2. The highest honour.

3. The highest integrity.

III. Humanity in heaven are glorious in appearance.

1. Perfectly sinless. White robes.

2. Completely triumphant. Palms.

IV. Humanity in heaven are delightful in employment. Singing is worship in its perfect form. The song is--

1. Redemption in its theme.

2. Grateful in its purpose.

(1) To God as the author of salvation.

(2) To the Redeemer as the medium of salvation.

3. Enthusiastic in its spirit.

4. Contagious in its effect.

V. Humanity in heaven are perfect in bliss.

1. Freedom from all evil.

(1) No more sin.

(2) No more suffering.

(3) No more sorrow.

2. Enjoyment of all good.

(1) Divine service.

(2) Divine fellowship.

(3) Divine care. (B. D. Johns.)

The saints in heaven

There is no good reason why this graphic picture of the heavenly land should be in our hands except for some practical purpose. The Bible is a practical book. The Bible comes to put the seen where it belongs, and give the unseen a chance to get hold of us, lest, in wilful near-sightedness, we miss altogether the eternal realities with which lies our chief concern. Linger in the vestibule we must for a time, but how? With faces averted from the cathedral entrance, indifferent to what lies beyond, or intent upon the grander thing that lies before us, for whose revelation we wait with expectant heart? In this picture--

(1) Heaven is nothing if it be not realistic. It has a local habitation as well as a name. So had it to all Bible-men of faith. How real to them i

(2) Again, what catholicity in heaven! Of the covenant mercies of the Jewish tabernacle it was hard for a Gentile to get a glimpse; to sit down as one of the true Israel was his only as by reluctant concession to an alien. But this exclusiveness lingers not even to cast a shadow. No barrier of race nor of high or low, of early or late, intervenes to hinder that they come into that high fellowship of God-like catholicity.

(3) But, though so catholic, there is a discrimination of character which makes them one, which also gives to heaven an air of exclusiveness. They are white-robed, all of them, and not one robe made white by any process save one. The fact and the manner of it are both significant. There are no notes of discord in the song they sing--no praises but of One and the efficacy of His atoning blood, Rejecting Christ as the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world, be it by Jew or Gentile, is turning away from Him who opens and no man shuts, shuts and no man opens. It is to reject the only means of blanching character to snowy whiteness, the only condition of sins forgiveness.

(4) Note the contrasts to their former condition. (H. C. Haydn, D. D.)

The human population in heaven

I. Its numbers are too great for calculation.

1. A reproof to all sectarianism.

2. An encouragement to all Christly work.

3. A response to all philanthropic desires.

4. An attestation of benevolent Creatorship.

II. Its variety includes all the races of mankind.

1. Our highest aim should be to become true men.

2. Our highest love should be for men.

III. Its gloriousness transcends all description.

1. Their position.

2. Their attire.

3. Their blessed rest.

IV. Its engagements are rapturous in devotion. Salvation includes restoration from ignorance to true knowledge, from impurity to holiness, from bondage to soul liberty, from selfishness to benevolence, from materialism to genuine spirituality, from the reign of wrong to the reign of right. (D. Thomas, D. D.)

The redeemed in glory

I. The redeemed in heaven are exceedingly numerous.

1. We might infer from some passages of Scripture that very few persons would be saved.

2. We might infer from the present aspect of society that very few persons would be saved.

II. The redeemed in heaven are greatly diversified.

1. The society of heaven will be greatly diversified. From all ranks and conditions in life.

2. The service of heaven will be greatly diversified.

III. The redeemed in heaven are highly exalted.

1. They have access to the throne of God.

2. They have fellowship with the Lamb of God.

IV. The redeemed in heaven are perfectly happy.

1. Perfectly holy.

2. Perfectly safe. (J. T. Woodhouse.)

The redeemed in heaven

I. The great number of the redeemed. It is in the highest degree probable that the number of the redeemed will finally exceed the number of the lost. For consider--

1. The vast number of children that die.

2. The predictions of Scripture, that a time is coming when the whole earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the Lord.

3. Jesus Christ is represented as ultimately to be a conqueror.

II. The extensive variety of the redeemed. Every geographical barrier which now separates people from people will be swept away; every national antipathy will be extinguished, and every denominational peculiarity will be at an end.

III. The beautiful appearance of the redeemed. The white robe is an emblem of the moral purity which characterises the redeemed in heaven. Faith in Christ is the grand and the only specific for moral purification. Its efficacy is the same for men of all generations and of all climes.

IV. The delightful song of the redeemed. The glories of God, as displayed in the works of His hand, will furnish the occasion of growing wonder and delight. Then, too, we believe that mysteries of Providence will be disclosed. And yet, glorious as will be the discoveries that God will afford of His works in creation, and of His ways in providence, it will still be salvation that will be the keynote of rejoicing to the Church triumphant. And who will be the objects of their praise? God and the Lamb. (Charles Hargreaves.)

The great multitude

The vision of pent-up judgment begins this chapter; then the sealing and the ingathering. Our text is the result of the ingathering, as seen in heaven.

I. The numbers. A great multitude, which no man could number. The three thousand at Pentecost were a large number, but this is greater. The hundreds and thousands, both in Judea and throughout the Gentile world, at Corinth, Rome, Ephesus, Philippi, and other places, were specimens of the great ingathering; but here we have the aggregate, the summing-up of all. Like Israel, they cannot be numbered for multitude; they are like the stars of heaven, or the sand which is by the sea-shore.

II. The nationalities. Every people furnishes its quota to this great assembly; every tribe has its representatives here; every region, every colour, every language, every kingdom, every people, every age and century. It is the general assembly and Church of the first-born. Here all nationalities meet in one great heavenly nationality, without jealousy or distrust; all one in Him who redeemed them by His blood.

III. The posture. Standing before the throne, and before the Lamb. They stand. It is the posture of triumph and honour; having done all, they stand (Eph_6:18). Not bowed down, nor kneeling, nor prostrate, their erect posture indicates the high position to which they have been brought; and especially is this honour apparent when we see them standing before the throne, and before the Lamb, in the very presence of the King.

IV. The raiment. They are clothed with white robes.

1. It is the raiment of heaven (Mar_16:5; Joh_20:12; Act_1:12).

2. It is the raiment of purity and perfection.

3. It is the raiment of triumph. It is given to him that overcometh (Rev_3:5).

4. It is the festal dress. At the marriage-supper this is the raiment provided; the bride sits down at the table in the Kings pavilion arrayed in fine linen, clean and white (Rev_19:8).

V. The Badge. They had palms in their hands. The palm is the symbol of gladness and of victory. Here it is specially used in reference to the feast of tabernacles, the gladdest of all Israels festivals (Lev_23:40). The true feast of tabernacles, the memorial of our desert sojourn and earthly pilgrimage ended for ever, the saints shall celebrate in the New Jerusalem. The days of their mourning shall be ended; their everlasting joy begun.

VI. The shout. They cry with aloud voice, Salvation to our God that sitteth on the throne, and to the Lamb. (H. Bonar, D. D.)

What they wear and do in heaven

I. How shall i begin by telling you of the number of those in heaven? One of the most impressive things I have looked upon is an army. Standing upon a hillside you see forty thousand or fifty thousand men pass along. You can hardly imagine the impression if you have not actually felt it.

II. Their antecedents--of all nations, and kindreds and tongues. Some of them spoke Scotch, Irish, German, English, Italian, Spanish, Tamil, Burmese. I suppose, in the great throng around the throne, it will not be difficult to tell from what part of the earth they came. In this world men prefer different kinds of government. The United States want a Republic. The British Government needs to be a Constitutional Monarchy. Austria wants Absolutism; but when they come up from earth, they will prefer one great monarchy--King Jesus ruler over it.

III. The dress of those is heaven. It is white! In this world we had sometimes to have on working-day apparel. Bright and lustrous garments would be ridiculously out of place sweltering amid forges, or mixing paints, or plastering ceilings, or binding books. When all toil on earth is past, and there is no more drudgery, and no more weariness, we shall stand before the throne robed in white. On earth we sometimes had to wear mourning apparel--black scarf for the arm, black veil for the face, black gloves for the hands, black band for the hat. But when these bereavements have all passed and no more sorrow to suffer, we shall put off this mourning and be robed in white.

IV. The symbols they carry.

V. The song they sing. In this world we have secular songs, nursery songs, boatmens songs, harvest songs, sentimental songs; but in heaven we will have taste for only one song, and that will be the song of salvation from an eternal death to an eternal heaven, through the blood of the Lamb that was slain. (T. De Witt Talmage.)

Heaven

I. The redeemed of the Lord is their station above: brought not merely to the same world in which their Saviour dwells, to the same kingdom, to its metropolis, to the palace, to the Court, but into the very presence chamber of the King, and stationed before His throne. Not that throne of grace before which on earth they bowed in penitence, brokenness of heart will then for ever pass away; not the throne of judgment around which they will gather at the last day, they will have passed from that; but the throne of glory--to behold God face to face--to see him as He is--not merely by an intellectual apprehension, but by the eyes of the glorified body. They stood before the throne; a word importing holy confidence, consciousness that they are welcome.

II. The appearance of this multitude.

1. Clad in white robes importing their complete justification and acceptance with God. We have only to look at the scene before us to see the indispensable necessity of the Divinity of Christ, to constitute the efficacy of the atonement. These two stand or fall together. If there be an atonement for sin, it must of necessity make way for as clear a display of Divine justice as well as mercy, in the salvation of the redeemed, as if they had suffered the penalty of their transgressions in their own proper person, and had sunk under their guilt down to the lowest hell. There must be an equivalent by the atonement, whatever it be. I do not mean a money equivalent; but there must be a moral equivalent. It would be no atonement if a way were not made for the manifestation of Divine justice, as clear and as impressive as it would have been if the whole redeemed had sunk under the chains of their transgressions. Look, then, to the redeemed, and think of countless myriads washed in the blood of the Lamb; and who must that Lamb be but, in another view of His nature, the Son of God, equal with the Father? But the expression imports another thing with respect to the redeemed: their entire sanctification. Their robes are washed in the blood of the Lamb; their sanctification is effected by the work of the Holy Spirit; the Holy Spirit is granted through the mediation of Jesus Christ; the Holy Spirit uses as the means of our sanctification the great truths presented in the atoning sacrifice of the Cross; and therefore our sanctification is effected by the blood of Christ, as well as our justification.

2. Palms in their hands. Heaven will be the sweeter for the power of contrast. We, in the enjoyment of victory, shall think of the conflict.

III. The number--a multitude which no man can number. Add these things together--the fruits of the Fathers eternal love, of the Sons redeeming work, and the Spirits sanctification; think of the answer of the prayers of the righteous in every age who have wrestled with God for the outpouring of His Spirit: and then say whether the multitude will not be greater than can be numbered.

IV. Their variety--of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues. Various are the systems of Church polity, and the rites and the ceremonies and the usages, that distinguish and divide Christians now; and, alas! not merely for poor human nature, but for poor renewed nature--the party spirit, the bitterness, the strife, to which these differences give rise! But one heaven shall contain them all. Why cannot we be more one now since we shall certainly be one hereafter?

V. Their occupation. They are before the throne. They are presented to us in an act of praise. The adoration of God, the service of God, fellowship with God, will be the felicity of the redeemed. We must never let drop that idea. We are to see God; His servants shall serve Him, and they shall see His face. We shall see God in Christ. Such appears to be our eternal occupation, mingled with the other occupations in which we engage. Just look at the theme of their praise--salvation. If salvation be little thought of on earth, it is much thought of in heaven; if it is the lowest in mens pursuits here, it is the highest in their enjoyments there. Think of the object of their praises: not only God, but the Lamb. What an argument for the Divinity of Christ!--that in the heavenly world He is presented as occupying the same seat of dignity, surrounded with the same worshippers, receiving the same homage as the Father! Look at the harmony of their praise. Iris one song. Yes, we shall be harmonised in heaven, if we are not upon earth. Notice, lastly, the rapture of their praise--they sing with a loud voice. Hosannahs will be changed into hallelujahs. And that sung not with dulness, as we too often now worship God; not with coldness, as if our praises came from lips of ice; no, but with rapture of hearts too full to hold their bliss. The song will never cease and never tire. I have a question to ask you: Will you be there? Will you join that multitude? Will you swell that choir and anthem? (J. A. James.)

A glimpse of the redeemed in glory

I. Who are there?

1. A multitude. The region is not solitary. Once it was. The period was when God was all in all. There was the throne, and the great I AM sat upon that throne. But there was no world beneath it, and no multitude before it. And even after the sons of God were made, it was long before any of our race was there. When Abel found himself before the throne, he found no human comrade there. But thus it is not now. There is a multitude--so many, as to give the region a friendly look of terrestrial brotherhood--so many, that the affinities and tastes which still survive will find their counterparts--so many, that every service will be sublimed, and every enjoyment heightened, by the countless throng who share it.

2. A mighty multitude. A great multitude, which no man could number. Not a stinted few--not a scanty and reluctant remnant; but a mighty host-like Gods own perfections, an affluent and exuberant throng--like Immanuels merits, which brought them there, something very vast, and merging into infinity.

3. A miscellaneous multitude. Of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues. For many ages one nation supplied most of the inhabitants. But Jesus broke down the partition wall; and since His gospel went into all the world, all the world has contributed its citizens to the New Jerusalem. All kindreds and people are there--men of all aptitudes and all instincts--men of all grades and conditions. And there, suffused with sanctity, and softened into perfect subjection, we may recognise the temperament or the talent which gave each on earth his identity and his peculiar interest. Blended and overborne by the prevailing likeness to the Elder Brother, each may retain his mental attributes and moral features; and in the dimensions of their disc, and the tinting of their rays, the stars of glory may differ from one another.

4. A multitude who once were mourners. These are they which came out of great tribulation. To live in a world like this was itself a tribulation--a world of distance from God--a world of faith without sight--a world of wicked men; but they have come out of that tribulation. To have had to do with sin was a terrible tribulation--from the time that they were first convinced of it, all along through the great life-battle, contending with manifold temptations--contending with their own carnality and sloth, their pride and worldly-mindedness, their unruly passions and sinful tempers: but they have come out of that tribulation also.

5. And they are a multitude who shall form an eternal monument of the Redeemers grace and power. Such are the human inhabitants of heaven.

II. But what is it that they do there?

1. They celebrate a victory. They have palms in their hands. They are overcomers.

2. They serve God. Adoration at the throne, activity in the temple--the worship of the heart, the worship of the voice, the worshiper the hands--the whole being consecrated to God--these are the service of the upper sanctuary. Here a week will often see us weary in well-doing; there they are drawn on by its own deliciousness to larger and larger fulfilments of Jehovahs will. Here we must lure ourselves to work by the prospect of rest hereafter: there the toil is luxury, and the labour recreation--and nothing but jubilees of praise, and holidays of higher service, are wanted to diversify the long and industrious Sabbath of the skies.

3. They see God. He that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them; or, as in Rev_22:4, They see His face.

4. They follow the Lamb. The Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters. Even in heaven something of the mediatorial economy survives. Even where they see God, they follow the Lamb, and a close and conspicuous relation continues to subsist betwixt the Redeemer and His ransomed. He remains the Leader of His blood-bought company; and whilst He prescribes their occupation, He is the immediate source of their blessedness.

5. And--just to complete the glance--there are some things which there they never do. They do not want, they do not weary, and they do not weep. (James Hamilton.)

The redeemed in heaven

I. The text presents the redeemed in heaven as forming one blessed and glorious society. Man is formed for society, which not only furnishes some of his sweetest enjoyments, but is necessary to call forth the powers of his mind. Without it the best purposes of his being would be defeated; the benevolent principles of his nature would be rendered useless. His pleasures, from having no kindred soul to share them, would cease to please. Hence society is eagerly sought as essential to our happiness; but the pleasures which it is fitted to yield are greatly impaired by a variety of disagreeable circumstances, arising out of the imperfection of the present state. But it is otherwise with the society of heaven. There the honey is without the sting, and the rose without the thorn, and attachment and intercourse without any detraction or alloy. Their opportunities of intercourse are ample, and the pleasures which flow from it are of the purest kind. Here it is with difficulty that we can select from the crowd a few with whom we are disposed to unite in intimate fellowship; hut there are to be found all the great and the good who ever existed in the universe of God. Their intercourse is free and unreserved. The caution and concealment which we often find it necessary to observe in our correspondence with one another, are, amongst them, altogether unknown. One common principle of sympathy is diffused throughout the whole; and whatever each has to communicate finds a response in every bosom, and awakens a reciprocal emotion in every soul. Their attachment for one another is also sincere and ardent.

II. In the text the redeemed in heaven are represented as a society of vast amount. Heaven is not to be viewed as a thinly peopled country, or a place of narrow and confined dimensions, containing only a few inhabitants. We are taught to conceive of it as a large and extensive empire, teeming everywhere with a happy and active population. When we think of the number who, during the long period of the Old Testament dispensation, lived and died in the faith of the Messiah to come--and of the still greater number who, since His coming, have believed in Him to the saving of the soul--the whole, taken collectively, will be found to be a countless multitude. To those who are now in the world of glory we must add the multitude who shall believe in the Son of God ere the gospel dispensation comes to a close; and then, who shall be able to calculate their amount?

III. In the text the redeemed in heaven are represented As collected from the varieties of the human race. Heaven is not the destined dwelling-place of any one class only of the human race. The gospel reveals a common salvation, and opens a path to heaven for all the diversities of the human race. Many have already come from the east, and from the west, and from the north, and from the south, and have sat down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven; and every day is adding to their number. No power shall prevent the universal diffusion of the gospel when the time to favour Zion, even the set time, is come. Scepticism and infidelity shall find a grave. Pagan superstition shall pass away as the mist which rolls up the mountains side disappears before the rising glory of the summer morn. Then all the ends of the world shall remember, and turn unto the Lord; and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before Him: for the kingdom is the Lords, and He is the Governor among the nations. He shall take to Himself His great power and reign.

IV. In the text the redeemed in heaven are represented as in the immediate presence of their God and Redeemer. Even in this dark and distant world the people of God enjoy His gracious presence. To them He manifests Himself as He doth not unto the world. He blesses them with the knowledge of His character, and with a sense of His love; but here they see Him only obscurely. They see Him through the medium of His Word and ordinances, as in a mirror, darkly. It is otherwise in heaven. There He gives displays of His glory, of which the Shekinah, the bright shining cloud in which He appeared of old in the holy of holies, was but a faint and feeble emblem. There He is beheld, not in the dim vision of faith, but clearly, as with our bodily organs we behold the sun shining in the firmament. Even in heaven it is true, that as to His essence, God will be for ever unseen and unknown. But there He manifests Himself by such external tokens as show that He is near. The beams of His glory are so diffused over all that happy land, that all its inhabitants have the clear and intimate perception of His presence, and a full and distinct consciousness of abiding in it. They feel themselves to be walking continually in the brightness of His face!

V. The text represents the redeemed in heaven as distinguished by spotless holiness. From all that was imperfect in their character here below; from all that was wrong in their temper or disposition; from all that was feeble in their love and devotion; from all that was displeasing to the view of others, they are entirely and for ever freed. They appear without fault before the throne of God.

VI. In the text the redeemed in heaven are represented as enjoying the honours and bliss of a triumph. (D. M. Inglis.)

Society in heaven

1. There is nothing which is so distressing to an earnest man as the thought which sometimes rises in his mind, that here we are bound together in families and nations; that after death all such relations cease; that all becomes individual and solitary. If St. Johns teaching is true, this teaching is false. 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: but all is harmonious amidst diversity. In that company the one word which is connected with the Divine name is Salvation; salvation from the curse that men have made for themselves.

2. The sight of this multitude from every nation and kindred must have been a lesson to the missionary of that day, may be a lesson to the missionary of this, tending to abate his pride, but also--why do I say but, why not therefore:--his despair. He sometimes tries to console himself with thoughts of Gods mercy to those who are ignorant, and have had no means of knowing better. But then he sees that the heathens among whom he goes are actually brutalised and corrupted; no tolerance of their religion can make that fact less appalling to him. And then, when he thinks how few can ever hear his preaching, how few can understand the sounds he utters, he begins to doubt if God has not deserted His own world. But it is not so. His converts may be few. He may have little power of making himself intelligible. But He of whom the missionary speaks, He who has sent him, has His ways of making Himself intelligible, has His ways of bringing people of every nation, and tongue, and clime, through much tribulation, to knowledge of the Lord who died for them and is ever with them, to a knowledge of His Father and their Father.

3. I am aware how easily a captious bystander, knowing nothing of the real anguish of a missionary, or of his real inspiration, may turn what I have said into an argument why he may be indifferent to the work, seeing it will be performed without him. In hours of unutterable sorrow, voices of consolation have come to you, you knew not from whence. In times of temptation, when your souls were balancing on the edge of a precipice, some old sentence has been brought back to you from the field of sleep, some house or tree has served to pour forth strange warnings or encouragements. Why may not those whispers have been borne from those who spoke them of old to the ear, not as now to the heart? Why may not elder patriots and martyrs be echoing Christs own words in the ears of their brothers, in lonely dungeons which no friend in the flesh can approach, at the stake when no visible smile may greet them, when Gods name is used to condemn them--Be faithful unto death, He will give you the crown of life. And why may not these same be the teachers and evangelists of the lands for which they wept and bled below?

4. There is one thought more in connection with this subject which I dare not suppress. In the calendar of a great part of Christendom All Saints Day is followed by All Souls Day. We may remember that the angels of God rejoice over one sinner that repents, because God rejoices. We may be sure that He, without whom a sparrow does not fall to the ground, does not lose sight of a soul which He has made. We may be sure, therefore, that all saints care for all souls. Their affections, their powers of sympathy and blessing, are not limited as ours are by circumstances of time and space. They are limited only by that love of God, the height and depth and length and breadth of which they are as incapable of measuring as we are, but which flows forth to them, and in them, and through them everlastingly. (F. D. Maurice, M. A.)

The great multitude

It is a refreshing thing to look away for a moment from the strife and uncharitableness of human systems and conclusions, each disposed to narrow heaven within its own pale and party, and to behold a multitude, such as no man could number, entering by the gate into the everlasting city. But whilst we may justly rejoice in being able to appeal from human judgment to Divine, in having the authority of Scripture for not only assigning vast capacity to heaven, but for regarding it as the home of an interminable throng, we are to take heed that we lower not the conditions of admission, as though the entrance must be easy, because a great multitude shall be there. The great, the solemn truth remains, that there shall enter into the city nothing which defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie, but they that are written in the Lambs book of life. And a glance at the context should suffice to keep down any rising thought that, because there shall be a great multitude in heaven, and, therefore, perhaps, numbers whom their fellow-men never expected to be there, some may find admission who have taken no pains to secure so great a blessing. So far from there being anything for you to reckon upon, ye who are not striving after a moral fitness for heaven, in the alleged vastness of the multitude which is to occupy heaven, there is much to admonish and warn you: if ye know nothing of the great tribulation, of the warfare with the world, the flesh, and the devil, ye may forfeit your places: but those places will not stand empty: God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham; and He will not be reduced through the want of faithful disciples to the admitting into His presence the rebellious and unclean. Yea, and over and above there being a warning to us in the fact that heaven shall be peopled to the full, even should we ourselves come short of the inheritance, is it not an animating thing to be told of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, as contributing to the occupancy of the majestic abode? Oh, glorious society which shall thus be gathered from all ages, all ranks, all countries! There is beauty in diversity, there is majesty in combination. Even now it is felt to be an ennobling, inspiriting association, if the eminent of a single Church, the illustrious of a solitary country, be gathered together in one great conclave. How do meaner men flock to the spot; with what interest, what awe, do they look upon persons so renowned in their day; what a privilege do they account it if they mingle awhile with sages so profound, with saints so devoted; how do they treasure the sayings which reach them in so precious an intercourse. And shall we think little of heaven when we hear of it as the meeting-place of all that hath been truly great, for of all that hath been truly good; of all that hath been really wise, for of all that hath yielded itself to the teachings of Gods Spirit, from Adam to his remotest descendant? But it is not merely as asserting the vastness of the multitude which shall finally be gathered into heaven that our text presents matter for devout meditation. We are not to overlook the attitude assigned to the celestial assembly, an attitude of rest and of triumph, as though there had been labour and warfare, and the wearied combatants were henceforward to enjoy unbroken quiet. They stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands. Not that by repose we are to understand inactivity, for Scripture is most express on the continued engagement of every faculty of a glorified saint in the service of the Creator and Redeemer. The great multitude stand before the throne--the attitude implying that they wait to execute the commands of the Lord; and they join in a high song of praise and exultation, Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb. No idleness then, though there is perfect repose. But rest, as opposed to anything that is painful or toilsome in employment--repose, as implying that there shall never again be weariness, exhaustion, difficulty, or danger, notwithstanding that there shall be the consecration of the whole man to the work of magnifying the Lord. What an attractive, what an animating view of heaven is that of its being a state of repose, as contrasted with our present state of warfare and toil--the white robe in place of the whole armour of God; the palm in place of the sword in the hand. For--let the course of the Divine dealings with any member of the Church be the very smoothest that is compatible with a state of probation, still, compassed about as we all are with infirmity, called upon to do many things to which we are naturally disinclined, which we can neither perform without painful effort nor omit without sinful neglect; exposed to temptations from the world, the flesh, and the devil--indeed it were hard to understand how any believer could often be other than weary and heavy laden. It is not that he would give up the service of God, but that he would be able to serve God without weariness. It is not that he would be released from the struggle with corruption, but that he would have no corruption to struggle with, the final touches of sanctification having been given, so that he is without spot or wrinkle, or any such thing. And such a state of repose awaits us in heaven. There is another distinguishing feature of the heavenly state which may be gathered from our text. You cannot fail to observe that, though the great multitude is collected from all nations and tribes, there is perfect concord or agreement; they form but one company and join in one anthem. The redeemed are to constitute one rejoicing company. Nay, and the representation may almost be said to go beyond this. How are they to constitute this one company, associated by close ties, and joining in the same song, unless they are to know one the other hereafter? When Christ speaks of many as coming from the east and the west, He speaks also of their sitting down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob. But this were apparently no privilege, unless they are to know these patriarchs. It argues a heart still bound up in selfishness, if it be little to us that, admitted into heaven, we are to be freed from all petty bounds and distinctions, and to form part of one close but countless community. The soul should be stirred within us as we think of patriarchs, and prophets, and priests, and kings--of apostles, confessors, and martyrs; of the illustrious, not by earthly achievements which too often dazzle by a false glare; but the illustrious in the fight of faith--and not only of the illustrious whose names go down in Christian biography, the precious legacy of age to age; but of that unknown, that unremembered multitude, the good, the godly, of successive generations, who, in the quiet privacies of ordinary life, have served their God and their Redeemer--for he, saith Christ, that overcometh shall inherit all things--oh, I say, the soul should be stirred within us as we think of such an assembly, and hear ourselves invited to join it, and are told that we may have the friendship of each and every one in the interminable gathering. (H. Melvill, B. D.)

All saints

Is not this a strengthening, elevating thought--this of that countless multitude which wilt one day stand before the throne? How often we are tempted to be out of all heart. The worlds seems so strong, and the Church seems so weak--Christianity itself almost a failure, unable to enlist the affections of men, at least of the men of this generation, impotent to contest the battle-field of the earth with the powers which are arrayed against it. Put away from you thoughts like these. They are the pleas of our indolence, the outcomings of our unbelief. They may be few here or few there! but let them all be gathered into one, and they will constitute an innumerable company. God would not be satisfied with less. He will have no solitudes, no vacant thrones in heaven, but infinite multitudes to be sharers in His blessedness, to declare to all creation and through all eternity the wondrous counsels of His love. And then what thoughts arise in the heart as we contemplate not the numbers only, but the quarters from which all these will have been gathered--from all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues. Those who were divided here by all which could divide, who were separated from one another by immense distances of time, of space, of culture--barbarians to one another here--yea, those who were kept asunder by far sadder barriers than these, those who misunderstood, perhaps mutually anathematised one another, shall yet, being one in Christ, one in their faith and love to Him, stand together before the throne, and exchange the long alienations and miserable discords of earth for the blessed concords of heaven. Think, too, from other points of view, what a marvellous company will that be! Think of all that will be there, and--awful thought!--of all that will not be there. Not there many who have walked in the full blaze of gospel light, who, knowing much, have loved not at all; whose places, therefore, for there were places for them if they had shown themselves worthy of them, shall know them not; while there will be found in that wondrous company not a few who, amid much darkness, superstition, and error, have been true to the central truth of all, have clung to Jesus with full affiance of heart; and when it shall be inquired with something of wonder why this one or the other is so near to the throne, He loved much, or She loved much, will be the key and explanation of all. (Abp. Trench.)

The saved a great multitude

Looking through a large library the other day, I came upon an old collection of tracts, printed some two hundred years ago, and one of them, written by an Oxford professor, bore the wonderful title, Moral reflections upon the number of the elect, proving plainly that not one in a hundred thousand, probably not one in a million, from Adam to our time, shall be saved. (W. Baxendale.)

Salvation to our God … and unto the Lamb.

The song of the Church in heaven and on earth

The work of redemption by Christ fills the Church in heaven and earth with wonder, gratitude, and joy; Salvation to God, and to the Lamb. God Himself rejoices in the work of redemption. When He made the world, He rested, and was refreshed--all was very good; when the scheme of His providence shall be wound up, He will rejoice in all His works; but He delights more in the work of redemption than in those of creation and providence; for these are only subservient to this illustrious display of Himself. The saints in heaven and on earth rejoice in the work of redemption, and praise God for it: Salvation to God and to the Lamb. They sing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb; the wonders of creation, and providence, and grace. On earth the saints praise God with many imperfections. How can they sing the Lords song in strange land? But they sing in faith, in hope, with sincerity, and with true gladness of heart. The same principle which influences the saints in heaven to rejoice in the increase of their own number, operates in the saints on earth, when Sion breaks forth on the right hand and on the left. They rejoice, therefore, when they hear that the Word of the Lord runs and is glorified over all the earth. The holy angels rejoice in the salvation of sinners by the Lamb (verse 11). God reveals as much of His plan of grace towards sinners of Adams family to the angels as fills them with wonder and love. They rejoice in this work, because they rejoice in God Himself as the author of it. The joy of angels in relation to the work of the redemption of sinners is continually upon the increase. They rejoice in the additions dally made to the glory of Christ--in the new crowns set on His head, the new victories of His grace over Satan and sin--the now evidences of the Divinity of His religion--and with the Church shall sing a new song, when nations are born at once, and a people in a day! The work of redemption is a proper foundation for joy. In heaven they sing for ever of it; on earth, all who know it admire and adore God who hath abounded in it in all wisdom and prudence. It is the chief of His ways. The work of salvation by Christ gives wonderful displays of God, and therefore is a foundation of joy and wonder. In this stupendous work of redemption God is seen as a God of infinite mercy. His mercy flows in the atonement of His Son, for He is a just God, as well as merciful, and a Saviour. The salvation of sinners greatly exalts the character of the Saviour. Each person in the Godhead has His own distinct part in salvation and His own distinct glory. The glory belongs to the eternal Three, but the Lamb is the chief subject of praise by the Church. (The Christian Magazine.)

The worship of heaven

Heavens worship is the worship of praise. Prayer Is not offered there. The ordinance, Every one that asketh receiveth, does not extend to heaven. Heavens tenants are always receiving; but they receive everything without asking. The spiritual discipline of asking is not needed in heaven. Complaint is not heard there; deprecation is not heard there; intercession is not heard there. Gods attributes are celebrated in chant and song. If the spirits in heaven were disembodied there would still be worship; but it would be silent worship--worship in affection; worship in volition. But if corporeal form shelter human souls there, and the faculty of utterance be given to those forms, surely that faculty must be consecrated to the purposes of devotion. There are bodies, and there is utterance. The praise of heaven is common--not solitary. There are no mere listeners there--all worship. And this praise is melodious. It is not praise in common speech, or ordinary language. There is music as well as voice. There are harmony and melody. The celestial congregation do not speak praise--they sing praise. It is known to all, moreover, that the worship of heaven is neither localised nor limited to seasons. There is incessant worship. The worship of the Paradise regained corresponds with the worship of the Paradise lost. All the ground is hallowed; every day is a holy day; every hour a season of worship; and worship is always in season. Is it possible for us men ever to be engaged in this worship? What are the qualifications of redeemed men for the worship of the skies? Capacity, qualification even for the worship of the skies, is involved in all that constitutes your salvation; involved in your new birth; involved in the position which you occupy as justified before God; involved in your sanctification.

1. A saved man has a capacity for the worship of heaven in his personal holiness, and in the knowledge of God with which that holiness is associated. Born with a sinful nature, and going astray from the beginning of life, he could not always see God in himself. Conscience then was smarting; but the wound is healed. Memory was then burdened with a load of transgression; but that load is taken away. Sin in various forms had dominion in that heart; but the dominion of sin is for ever destroyed.

2. Glorified saints have ability to worship in ever increasing knowledge of God; for in all celestial objects God is seen, and seen in those objects more and more.

3. The saved in heaven are capable of celestial worship through the influence over them of superior spirits. Before redeemed men rank angels and seraphs; and rising above them are thrones, dominions, principalities, and powers. All these worship, and they excite, and they encourage the saved man to worship. To be silent would be to imprison his own heart, and to fetter his own mind.

4. The serenity, the peace of mind which characterises the redeemed is another element of power for worship. The peace of God--that quietness of soul which, as you know, is essential to the highest worship, to adoration and to praise--keeps their hearts and minds; and there is no confusion of mind, no perturbation of soul. The troubled sea is an emblem of an unpardoned soul; but a sea of glass is a symbol of the glorified spirit. Understanding, reason, imagination, conscience, emotion, will, are all in their place, performing with accuracy and vigour the functions assigned to them. Here is no intellectual dulness or obliquity, no misguided or misplaced affection. The harp is strung and tuned, every string perfect, and the tension complete. The voice is strong, and sweet, and clear: there is no harshness, no lack of melody.

5. The equal development of every spiritual faculty and grace increases the capacity for worship. Inequality in our spiritual development is a great hindrance to worship. Here we often see narrow minds, feeble hearts, weak faith, fickle love, wavering hope, or broken utterance. In heaven the development is like that of a full-blown flower, or of perfectly ripe fruit.

6. Conscious identity is another element of power. Into the I am, and the I was, the glorified Christian fully enters; and the contrasts prompt him to worship. I was, he says, in danger--I am safe. I was a criminal--I am a righteous child. I was a sufferer--I am now without a tear, without a sigh. I was poor--I have now an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away.

7. They have qualification also in the knowledge of all things with which they need to be acquainted. Many a matter that we have here called a mystery will there be fully explained.

8. A mighty power in worship is that of love--the love of gratitude and the love of complacency. We mean a deep sense of obligation to God, and a thorough joy in God. (S. Martin, D. D.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

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.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

b. The number of NEW TESTAMENT SAINTS too great to be numbered, with song, Rev_7:9-10.

9. A great multitude—The question is debated, what do the above twelve tribes and this great multitude symbolize? Dusterdieck makes the former signify the natural Israel; Alford, the saints alive at Christ’s coming; Hengstenberg and Wordsworth identify both tribes and multitude as being, in fact, one body, and that the one Christian Church. Our view, as above stated, is, that they are the one universal Church, yet viewed under Old Testament and New Testament aspects. It is thus the twenty-four elders are representatives of the two-fold one Church, and these tribes and multitude are the constituency in mass of those twenty-four representatives. St. John thus is loyal to the old Church, from whom Christ sprang, yet expands the scope so as to take in the Church universal. And in this great multitude we are inclined to include, not only the redeemed since Christ, but all the redeemed before Christ without the pale of circumcision, even the patriarchal Church before Abraham, who was, in fact, a Gentile until he was circumcised. We find in the New Jerusalem a parallel to the twenty-four elders in the twelve apostolic names on its foundations, and its twelve tribal gates, Rev_21:12; Rev_21:14, where see notes.

No man could number—The twelve tribes could be definitely, though symbolically, numbered; but the universal Church is innumerable. Bengel finely remarks, “The sealed were a great number, and the number of angels in Rev_5:11 was greater, and of the horsemen in Rev_9:16, where there are hundreds of millions; still, these companies were capable of being numbered; but the one before us could neither John nor any one number.” The idea that few are saved is probably true of the present age of the world, but not of the millennial ages, or of the whole final number. Note on Rev_20:4.

Nations… tongues—The creational four.

Before the throne—The symbolic and temporary theophanic throne of this apocalypse, not the eternal throne of the eternal heavens. Yet this is symbolic of that, showing, in momentary exhibition, the eternal relations of things.

White robes—Emblems of spotless purity. Note on Rev_3:4.

Palms—Usually held here as emblems of victory. To this Hengstenberg objects as a pagan symbolism, palms being the prize of victors in palestric games. He maintains that the allusion is to the palms of the feast of tabernacles, (Lev_23:40,) which were a token of harvest joy at the autumn ingathering. The yearly labour, at this feast, was done, the fruit was stored, and the ease and enjoyment of winter commenced. This feast also commemorated the taking possession of the Promised Land, after the journey through the wilderness. Hengstenberg’s finding the allusion to be drawn from the festal palms is right, and there is a double reference to the joy of the arrival in Canaan and to the yearly harvest. But this festal joy was also a joy of victory; victory over the foes and obstacles of the wilderness sojourn, and over the difficulties and dangers of agriculture. And so these palms betokened victory in the pilgrimage and battle of life. The Israelite use of festal palms was earlier than the pagan, and was doubtless appropriated by the latter from the Hebrews. The palm may still, therefore, be held in our Christian hymnology as symbol of heavenly triumph over foes.

I asked them whence their victory came;

They, with united breath,

Ascribed their conquest to the Lamb,

Their triumph to his death.—Watts.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

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.

Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

7:9-17 The interlude’s second vision shows heaven with an innumerable crowd rejoicing because they are secure in Christ and all tears and sorrows have ended.

7:9 This vast crowd of believers (7:14) is too great to count, fulfilling God’s promises to Abraham (Gen 15:5; 17:4-5; Rom 4:16-24; Gal 3:29). • White robes (Rev 6:11) and palm branches (John 12:13) are ancient symbols of victory and success, adding to the celebration that occurs after God ends the hostile world.

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Rev 7:9. Μετὰ ταῦτα εἶδον, καὶ ἰδοὺ ὄχλος πολὺς—ἑστῶτες—περιβεβλημένους, κ.τ.λ.) 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 ὄχλος, 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 ὄχλος 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.—ἐκ παντὸς ἔθνους[84] καὶ φυλῶν καὶ λαῶν καὶ γλωσσῶν) 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 ἔθνος, 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 ὄχλος πολύς: Ah Vulg. Cypr. 272, 310, have ὄχλον πολύν. Ἑστῶτες, Ah Vulg. Cypr.: Ἑστώτων, C: Ἑστὼτας, B. Περιβεβλημένους, ABC:—μένοι, 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.

Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1860) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Rev_7:9. Μετὰ ταῦτα εἰδον, κ.τ.λ. 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]

ὌΧΛΟΝ ΠΟΛῪΝ, Κ.Τ.Λ. 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, Ο͂Ν ἈΡΙΘ. ΑὐΤ. ΟὐΔΕῚς ἨΔ.; cf. with reference to the ὋΝ

ΑὐΤΟΝ, 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 (ἐκ πασ. φυλ. νἱ. Ἰσρ., ἐκ φυλ. Ἰσυδ, κ.τ.λ.), so the innumerable multitude are out of all nations (ἐκ παντ. ἐθΝ.). 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.] ἙΣΤῶΤΕς

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

ἈΡΝΊΟΥ out of the construction, while the next words, ΠΕΡΙΒΕΒΛΗΜΈΝΟΥς, Κ.Τ.Λ., recur to the original structure of the sentence (ΕἾΔΟΝ ὌΧΛΟΝ ΠΟΛΎΝ), 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 φοίνικες of a heavenly feast of tabernacles as the festival of the eternal harvest-home;[2325] but when, also, in Rev_7:15 (σκηνώσει ἐπʼ αὐτούς), a reference is found to the dwelling in tabernacles, and, in connection with Rev_7:17 (ἐπὶ ζωῆς πηγὰς ὑδάτων), 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]

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

Ἡ ΣΩΤΗΡΊΑ, Κ.Τ.Λ. 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 ΣΩΤΗΡΊΑ 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 Ἡ ΣΩΤΗΡΊΑ metonymically, viz., thanks for the salvation received. The thanksgiving, however, occurs from the fact that the ΣΕΣΩΜΈΝΟΙ ascribe the ΣΩΤΗΡΊΑ given them, to their God as ΣΩΤΉΡ.

[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 ἐστῶτες, κ.τ.λ.: i.e., having a mind not sunk to earth, but raised to heaven.

[2324] Cf. Rev_6:11.

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

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

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

[2328] Pausanias, Arcad., 48: οἱ δὲ ἁγῶνες φοίνικος ἔχουσιν οἱ πολλοὶ στέφανον· εἱς δὲ τὴν δεξίαν ἐστὶ καὶ πανταχοῦ τῷ νικῶντι ἐστι θέμενος φοῖνιξ.; 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. ὄχλος πολύς

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. ἐκ παντὸς ἔθνους is contrasted with ἐκ πἁσῆς φυλῆς υἱῶν Ἰσραήλ. 3. Rev_7:14. The οἱ ερχόμενοι ἐκ τῆς θλίψεως τῆς μεγάλης 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, ἐνώπιον τοῦ θρόνου), 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 πᾶν ἔθνος 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 (λαῶν) and languages (γλωσσῶν). 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).

Meyer — Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament — English translation by Peter Christie, edited by Frederick Crombie (T&T Clark, 1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Rev 7:9 . ἔθν . κ . φ . curious and irregular change from singular to plural. ἑστῶτες = 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 νίκη 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.

The Expositor's Greek Testament, edited by W. Robertson Nicoll (1897–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

See before upon verse 4.

As Priests, Kings and glorious conquerors by martyrdom: which things are noted by their proper signs in this verse.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

no man--Greek, "no one."

of all nations--Greek, "OUT OF every nation." The human race is "one nation" by origin, but afterwards separated itself into tribes, peoples, and tongues; hence, the one singular stands first, followed by the three plurals.

kindreds--Greek, "tribes."

people--Greek, "peoples." The "first-fruits unto the Lamb," the 144,000 (Rev 14:1-4) of Israel, are followed by a copious harvest of all nations, an election out of the Gentiles, as the 144,000 are an election out of Israel (see on Rev 7:3).

white robes--(See on Rev 6:11; also Rev 3:5, Rev 3:18; Rev 4:4).

palms in . . . hands--the antitype to Christ's entry into Jerusalem amidst the palm-bearing multitude. This shall be just when He is about to come visibly and take possession of His kingdom. The palm branch is the symbol of joy and triumph. It was used at the feast of tabernacles, on the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when they kept feast to God in thanksgiving for the ingathered fruits. The antitype shall be the completed gathering in of the harvest of the elect redeemed here described. Compare Zac 14:16, whence it appears that the earthly feast of tabernacles will be renewed, in commemoration of Israel's preservation in her long wilderness-like sojourn among the nations from which she shall now be delivered, just as the original typical feast was to commemorate her dwelling for forty years in booths or tabernacles in the literal wilderness.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 9. A great multitude] This appears to mean the Church of Christ among the Gentiles, for it was different from that collected from the twelve tribes; and it is here said to be of all nations, kindreds, people, and tongues.

Clothed with white robes] As emblems of innocence and purity. With palms in their hands, in token of victory gained over the world, the devil, and the flesh.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(9) After this I beheld . . .—Better, After these things I saw, and behold! a great multitude which no one was able to number, out of every nation, and (all) tribes, and peoples, and tongues, standing before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, and palm branches in their hands. “A great multitude:” We have just had the picture of the sealing of a multitude which could be numbered: now we have the picture of a countless throng. Who are these? Are they the same as the one hundred and forty-four thousand, or are they others? Our answer must be that this vision gives the climax of the previous one. The sealing represented the Passover of the Church: this vision represents its Feast of Tabernacles. The sealing assured us that in the midst of the severe times of testing there would be those who, wearing God’s armour, would come forth unscathed: this vision shows us the fruition of their labour and their rest after conflict. The sealing assured us that God’s hidden ones would be safe in trouble: this tells us that they have come safe out of it—they are those who have come out of the great tribulation (Rev_7:14). But how can the numbered of the one vision be the same as the numberless of the next? They are numbered in the first vision, as it is one of the assurances of their safety. In that vision the idea of their security in trial and danger is the main one. The servants or God are safe, for they are sealed and numbered; they are among those sheep of Christ whom He calls by name, whose very hairs are numbered; they are those whose reliance is not on self, but on their shepherd; and the sealing is the echo of Christ’s words, “they shall never perish;” they are the servants of God, known by Him and recognised by Him. But in the next vision, the expanding prospects of the Church and her final repose are shown to us. The idea of victory and peace, not so much safety in danger as freedom from it, is set forth; and then countless multitudes are seen; the numbered are found to be numberless; countless as the sand by the sea and as the stars in heaven, they are yet in the reckoning and knowledge of Him who “telleth the number of the stars and calleth them all by their names.” The numbering must not be understood to imply limitation. We have seen that it is a number which symbolises expansive energy and extensive success; it implies the real security and wide-spread growth of the Church of God; it has no limits; it gathers from every nation, and people; it welcomes all; where there is neither Jew, nor Greek, barbarian, Scythian, bond, nor free; its gates are open all night and all day to every quarter of the world—

“From earth’s wide bounds, from ocean’s farthest coast,

Through gates of pearl stream in the countless host,

Singing to Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Alleluia.”

The multitude are clothed with white robes, and carry palm branches in their hands. It has been thought that these are the emblems of victory; they doubtless are tokens of a triumph: it is the sacred rejoicing of the Israel of God. The imagery is drawn from the Feast of Tabernacles: just as the sealing reminded us of the protecting sign on the lintels of the houses of Israel in Egypt, so do these palm branches and songs of joy recall the ceremonies of the later feast. No imagery would be more natural to the sacred seer, and none more appropriate to his subject. The Feast of Tabernacles commemorated God’s care over them in the wilderness, and their gratitude for the harvest. The people forsook the houses, and dwelt in booths; the streets were full of glad multitudes who carried branches of palm, and olive, and myrtle; everywhere the sounds of rejoicing and singing were heard; “there was very great gladness” (Exo_23:16; Lev_23:43; Neh_8:14-17). The vision here shows us a far greater feast. “The troubles of the wilderness are ended, the harvest-home of the Church is come,” and God tabernacles (Rev_7:15) among His servants.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

After this I beheld,.... What follows is a distinct vision from the preceding one, and is not a continuation of that, as if the sealing of the Jewish believers was designed by the former, and the sealing of the Gentiles in this latter; whereas in this vision there is no mention made of sealing, nor was there, or will there be any need of it in the time it refers unto; and which is not the time of the Reformation; nor when the vials began to be poured out upon the seat of the beast; for though there were great numbers converted in many nations, kindreds, people, and tongues, yet not in all; nor do the characters of this great multitude, and the happiness they shall enjoy, seem to suit with persons in a state of mortality and imperfection, Rev 7:14; wherefore many interpreters understand this vision of the saints in heaven: but it rather respects the millennium state, or thousand years' reign of Christ with his saints on earth, with which all that is here said agrees; compare Rev 7:14 with Rev 20:4; and Rev 7:15 with Rev 22:3; and Rev 7:16 with Rev 21:4. And the design of this vision is to show to John, and every diligent observer, that after the seventh seal is opened, the trumpets are blown, and the vials poured out; during which time there will be a number sealed that will profess Christ; and at the close and winding up of all things, in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, Christ will descend, and all the saints with him; their bodies will be raised, and the living saints changed, and make one general assembly, who are shown to John here, as in Rev 21:9; to relieve his mind, and support his spirits, in a view of the calamities ushered in by the opening of the seventh seal.

And lo, a great multitude, which no man could number; which design all the elect of God in the new Jerusalem church state, the bride, the Lamb's wife, or the new Jerusalem descending from God out of heaven; these will appear to be a great multitude, not in comparison of the inhabitants that shall have dwelt upon earth, nor of the professors of religion in one shape or another; for, with respect to each of these, they are but a few, a seed, a remnant, a little flock; but as considered in themselves, and so they are many who are ordained to eternal life, whose sins Christ has bore, for whom his blood has been shed, and whom he justifies, and who are called by his grace, and are brought to glory; and who make up such a number as no man can number: God indeed can number them, but not man; for they are a set of particular persons chosen by God, and redeemed by Christ, and who are perfectly and distinctly known by them; their number and names are with them; their names are written in the Lamb's book of life; and God and Christ can, and do call them by their name; and when they were given to Christ, they passed under the rod of him that telleth them; and he will give an exact account of them, of every individual person, another day. But then they are not to be numbered by men; and they will be

of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, and therefore must consist both of Jews and Gentiles; these were not all nations, &c. but "of" all nations, some of all nations; and such God has chosen, Christ has redeemed, and the Spirit calls; God has not chosen all the Jews, but a remnant, according to the election of grace, nor all the Gentiles, but has taken out of them a people for his name; and so Christ has redeemed, by his blood, some out of every kindred, tongue, people, and nation, of Jew and Gentile: and hence the Gospel has been sent into all the world, and to all nations, for the gathering of these persons out of them; and when they are all gathered in, they will all meet together in the new Jerusalem church state, and make up the body here presented to view.

Stood before the throne and before the Lamb; the throne of God, and of the Lamb, will be in the midst of the new Jerusalem church; the tabernacle of God will be with men, and he will dwell, among them; and before the presence of his glory will all the saints be presented; and the Lamb will then present to himself his whole church, without spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; and they will behold his glory, and see him as he is: and as they are described before by their number, and their descent, so here by their position and situation, and, as follows, by their habit and attire,

clothed with white robes; agreeably to their princely and priestly characters: it was usual for princes and noblemen to be arrayed in vestures of linen, as Joseph was in Pharaoh's court; and the Jewish priests wore garments of linen, in their daily ministry and service; and in the thousand years' reign the saints will appear to be kings and priests, Rev 5:10; and accordingly will be clothed as such: and this may also be expressive of their entire freedom from sin by the blood of Christ, Rev 7:14; and their complete justification by his righteousness, which is sometimes compared to white raiment, and is called fine linen, clean, and white; and likewise their spotless purity and holiness, sanctification in them being now perfect, which was before imperfect: and these robes may also design their shining robes of glory and immortality; for they will now be clothed upon with their house from heaven, and will have put off mortality and corruption, and have put on immortality and incorruption, and appear with Christ in glory; for such will be the then state of things:

and palms in their hands; or branches of palm trees, as in Joh 12:13 as an emblem of their uprightness and faithfulness, which they had shown in the cause of Christ, even unto death, the palm tree being a very upright tree, Jer 10:5; or of their bearing up under a variety of pressures and afflictions, by which they were not cast down and destroyed, but bravely stood up under them, and were now come out of them; the palm tree being of such a nature, as is reported, that the more weight is hung upon it, the higher it rises, and the straighter it grows; see Psa 92:12; and chiefly as an emblem of victory and triumph over their enemies, as sin, Satan, the world and death, which they had been struggling with, in a state of imperfection, but were now more than conquerors over them; the palm tree is well known to be a token of victory. So Philo the Jew (f) says, the palm tree is , "a symbol of victory". Conquerors used to carry palm tree branches in their hands (g): those who conquered in the combats and plays among the Greeks, used not only to have crowns of palm trees given them, but carried branches of it in their hands (h); as did also the Romans in their triumphs; yea, they sometimes wore "toga palmata", a garment with the figures of palm trees on it, which were interwoven in it (i): and hence here palms are mentioned along with white garments; and some have been tempted to render the words thus, "clothed with white robes", and "palms on their sides"; that is, on the sides of their robes (k). The medal which was struck by Titus Vespasian, at the taking of Jerusalem, had on it a palm tree, and a captive woman sitting under it, with this inscription on it, "Judaea capta", Judea is taken. And when our Lord rode in triumph to Jerusalem, the people met him with branches of palm trees in their hands, and cried, Hosanna to him. So the Jews, at the feast of tabernacles, which they kept in commemoration of their having dwelt in tents in the wilderness, carried "Lulabs", or palm tree branches, in their hands, in token of joy, Lev 23:40; and in like manner, these being come out of the wilderness of the world, and the tabernacle of God being among them, express their joy in this way; See Gill on .

(f) Allegor. l. 2. p. 74. (g) A. Gell. Noctes Attic. l. 3. c. 6. Sueton. in Caio, c. 32. (h) Pausan. Arcadica, l. 8. p. 532. Alex. ab Alex. Genial. Dier. l. 5. c. 8. & l. 6. c. 19. (i) Isidor. Hispalens. Origen. l. 19. c. 24. p. 168. (k) Vid. Lydium de re Militare, l. 6. c. 3. p. 225.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

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.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

If we inquire who these were, we are told, Rev 7:14, by the best Interpreter: These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, & c. So that they do not seem to be the one hundred and forty-four thousand mentioned for preservation in and from the evil, Rev 7:4, but such as had escaped, or were not in or going into tribulation, but come out. The number of the former was determined; it is said of these, it could not be numbered. These were glorified ones, not militant; they

stood before the throne, and the Lamb, clothed with white robes; clothed in the habits of such as amongst the Romans had fought, and conquered, and triumphed; and to this end they are said to have carried

palms, the ensigns of victory,

in their hands.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number; after these things, I saw, and behold a great multitude, etc. Here, as in ver. 1, a fresh phase of the vision occurs. indicated by meta tauta , "after these things;" but not, perhaps, commencing (as so many writers think) an entirely new and disconnected vision. It is the immediate prelude to the opening of the seventh seal. (see Rev_8:1) Revelation 6 recounts the terrors of God"s judgments on the wicked, and especially those of the final judgment; but lest the godly should be dismayed and ask, "Who is able to stand" (on Rev_6:17) on that great day? it is revealed that the faithful are first selected and preserved. This occupies the first eight verses of Re 7. But all is not yet quite ready for the opening of the seventh and last seal. There is, besides those sealed on the last day, an innumerable company with whom the former are joined in one body; and a glimpse is afforded of their conjoint adoration and of that supreme bliss which is entered upon, but not described, under the seventh seal. The "great multitude which no man could number" includes, therefore, the hundred and forty-four thousand of ver. 4. They have escaped the terror of the final judgment of the world (see ver. 3), but have formerly experienced tribulation (see ver. 14). Of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues; out of every nation and all tribes and peoples and tongues.

The classification, as in Rev_5:9, is fourfold, symbolical of completeness in matters of creation. (see on Rev_5:9 Rev_4:6, etc.)

Stood before the throne, and before the Lamb; standing before, etc. We are carried back to the description given in Rev_4:1-4 and Rev_5:6-11. Clothed with white robes; arrayed in (Revised Version). See on Rev_4:4 and Rev_6:2 for white the emblem of victory and righteousness. And palms in their hands. Foinix , "palm," occurs in the New Testament only in this place and in Joh_12:13. Trench states that no symbol of heathen origin is used in the Apocalypse; and he connects the palm-bearing multitude with the celebration of the Jewish Feast of Tabernacles. Wordsworth and Hengstenberg take the same view; and there is much to be said in favour of it, though Alford and others connect the image rather with the Greek and Roman sign of victory. In the first place, the word is used by St. John in Joh_12:13, where doubtless it is connected with the celebration of the Feast of Tabernacles. Secondly, the use of such an image would more naturally occur to one so familiar with Jewish customs and ritual as the writer of the Apocalypse; and, moreover, the idea commemorated by this feast that of the enjoyment of rest and plenty, the possession of the promised Canaan after toil and delay is peculiarly applicable to the condition of those here described. Thirdly, the idea seems carried on in the mind of the writer, and referred to in ver. 15 in the words, "shall spread his tabernacle over them" (see Revised Version).

Vers. 9-17. The Church above, caught up out of the great tribulation.

We have before called attention to the fact that in this chapter we have, first, a part of the Church on earth, sealed in the tribulation; second, a part of the Church in heaven caught up out of it. The first and most natural inquiry concerning the second part of this chapter is, "At what point of time are we to fix the occurring of the glorious realities set forth in this vision?" And from the structure of the chapter the reply which is necessitated thereby is as obvious as the question itself is natural. It is evidently while the tribulation, the great one, is raging below that the blessed ones are seen in perfect calm. For this part of the vision comes, like the former part, not at the close of all things, but between the sixth and the seventh seals. Nor is this the only clue we have. In ver. 14 we read, "These are they which are coming out of the tribulation, the great one;" not, "These are they which came, as if all were past; nor yet," These are they which will come, as if all were future; but, "These are they which are coming." There is a continuous pouring in of them from the world of care to the realm of peace; and this will go on till all be gathered home. At the same time, it will be well for us to observe that this passage is not necessarily a picture of the glorified state, for that will not be ushered in until the second coming of the Son of God. However true it may be that there is as real a continuity between it and the state here described as there is between the latter and their earthly life, still we need not confound the two stages of the development of being. Very much harm has been done to the revealed doctrine of the blessedness of the righteous after death by so speaking of it as to leave no apparent room for the distinction between it and the state of glory which will begin at the reappearing. As yet, however, the unfoldings of this book have not brought us so far on. We are still only at the sixth seal. The new heavens and the new earth are not yet in view.

The great tribulation is not yet over. The Church of God is still a divided one, part on earth, and part in heaven. The first part shielded while in the midst of evil; the second part raised above it, caught up, while the tribulation is yet raging here, to the perfect calm that abides there. Hence the title of our present theme may be made even more specific, viz. A look at our friends who are already in heaven. The paragraph before us suggests seven questions.

I WHERE ARE THEY SEEN? Ver. 9, "Before the throne, and before the Lamb." These words give us no clue to the locality of heaven. This we do not need. Any part of "the Father"s house" is home to his children. But they give us what is of far greater interest and moment. They represent rather a state than a place. "Before the throne." More conscious than when clad in fleshly garments here of the immediate, all-surrounding, and all-pervading presence of God. "Before the Lamb." More directly in view of that Saviour whom having not seen they loved. The veil of sense and the limitations of earth no longer obstruct their sight or cripple their service. They are forever with their God, where they have wished and longed to be.

II WHAT IS THEIR APPEARANCE? They are seen "standing." This word is not redundant. It is no pleonasm. They stand, in token of subjection and of service to him that sitteth upon the throne. They have "white robes." "The fine linen is the righteousness of saints." They are "without fault" before the throne of God. They have "palms in their hands tokens these at once of honour and of victory. The struggle is over. The conflict ended. The victory won.

III WHENCE CAME THEY? "Out of every nation;" they are "of all tribes and peoples and tongues." The separation brought about by the sin and confusion of earth is done away in Christ. In heaven its effects disappear. There the barrier caused by diversity of tongues will cease. And the final union of all tongues and tribes in the heavenly state will present the true solution of the long-vexed question of the unity of the human race. Every land will yield its tribute of souls to Jesus, and will thus prove, in the common destiny of men, that God made of one blood all nations of men. In the immediate presence of God and the Lamb, "life"s poor distinctions" wilt disappear forever. It will be seen that Jew and Greek, bond and free, are all one in Christ Jesus.

IV HOW CAME THEY THERE? The answer to this question is twofold.

1. They came through the pathway of a common experience. "Out of the great tribulation." One and all have had tribulation in some form or other. But they have left it all behind. They are freed from it now. Note: The fact indicated here, that "the great tribulation" was one which touched "all nations, and kindreds, and peoples, and tongues," is of itself subversive of any theory which would limit it to a merely partial or local sorrow. The terms of the verse require us to regard the tribulation as widely extended both as to space and time. However great the differences which mark the lot of men on earth, all who reach heaven will do so through "many tribulations.

2. They reach heaven on the ground of a common redemption. The atoning sacrifice of the Lord Jesus availed for them all. The cleansing virtue of a Saviour"s grace purified them all. "They washed their robes;" i.e. in their earthly life they experienced this sanctifying grace. Note: Here is suggested a mighty theme for the preacher in connection with the death of Christ, viz.:

(1) That the death of Christ has a worldwide meaning.

(2) That it will have a worldwide efficacy as long as the race shall last.

(3) That it not only saves out of condemnation, but ensures a purifying power

(4) That therefore it will be the theme of universal song.] In that glorious world no impurity is seen.

V WHAT DO THEY MISS? (Ver. 16)

1. "They shall hunger no more," etc. They have no more the incumbrance of a bodily frame like this, demanding incessant attention. How often, when in this state, is the activity of the spiritual life interrupted by the demands of the fleshly life! In this respect, as well as others, the flesh lusteth against the spirit. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. But on high, such clogs burden the blessed ones no more.

2. They are free from unfavourable influences from without. Neither shall the sun smite them with its scorching blaze, nor any heat the quotation is from Isa_49:10, where the Greek word means the sirocco, or scorching blast, and the Hebrew word, the mirage. We may include both. They are subject to no influences to lower spiritual vitality; no illusion of a hollow and deceitful world will again appear to lure them away.

3. No tear shall be shed. God shall wipe every tear away. "Perhaps this," said a great preacher, "is the tenderest little sentence in the whole Bible (one of the greatest geniuses born in these islands said. he could never read it without a tear in his eye), "God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes. No more shall the mingled scenes of life and death agitate the soul. All dying shall be over. All sorrow have passed away. Blessed state, even if known mainly by such negatives as these!

VI WHAT DO THEY ENJOY?

1. The real presence of God. Ver. 15, "He... shall dwell among them." It is not possible to give the sense of these glorious words except by a paraphrase. They include

(1) the thought of a tent over them, and

(2) that of an abiding presence with them. (cf. Exo_40:34 Num_9:15 Lev_26:11 Isa_4:5, 6 Eze_37:27)

2. The Lamb... shall be their Shepherd. He who is in relation to God the sacrificial Lamb, will be in relation to his people their tender Shepherd. "He that hath mercy on them shall lead them.

3. They stroll be led by "fountains of the water of life. Here they had droppings from the stream; there they have the fulness of the fountain. Here the water of life reached them through earthen channels; there they shall be at the fountainhead! Entire satisfaction. Perfect security and repose.

VII How ARE THEY OCCUPIED? But one aspect of their occupation is given here. "They serve him day and night in his temple." The details of this service we must die to understand. Here we have presented to us the service of praise. Their song is to God and the Lamb. Their theme, "the salvation." And all the glory of it is ascribed equally to the Father and to the Son! We gather, indeed, one feature of this service it is unwearied: "day and night." Probably each believer has his favourite thoughts about the heavenly state. "My favourite conception of heaven," says one, "is rest." "Mine," says another, "is work." "Mine," says a third, "is love." "Mine," says a fourth, "is praise." What a mercy that they will all be realized; yea, all be infinitely surpassed!

We may gather up, in conclusion, several inferences from these glorious disclosures of the heavenly state.

1. For the doctrine of continuity in its grandest form and in its highest application we must come to the Word. of God. The life in God, begun here, is destined to live on without a break, and to know nothing but eternal advance! The life above is the continuation of one which was redeemed and renovated below.

2. Here, too, the true law of human progress is seen. It is not that the race shall advance while individuals become extinct, but that there shall be advance of the race by reason of and in the fact of the salvation of the individual.

3. Let us be supremely thankful to our Lord Jesus Christ that we are permitted to believe, not only in the progress of humanity, but also in our own.

4. It surely should be a great comfort to us to think of the blessed ones who are gone before, being thus caught up to this glorious life.

5. Let us magnify the grace of God in putting such honour on this little globe of ours, as to make it his nursery ground on which he rears iris plants for heaven. Here, here, the great work is going on of training characters which are to thrive forever in more genial climes. The state of blessedness which is to ripen in another world is one which is began here; and, the thought of attaining to such blessedness may well have elevating power.

Vers. 9-13. The Church triumphant.

The comfort of the former vision is heightened by a subsequent one. The host of God is sealed. Safety amidst judgment, is pledged. But greater things are reserved. The holy seer is permitted to witness the Church in its final triumph.

I THE FINAL TRIUMPHANT HOST IS INNUMERABLE. The former vision was limited, definite. It prepared the way for a larger view. The "little flock" has grown into an innumerable company. This is the true answer to the question, hitherto unanswered, "Lord, are there few that be saved?" To a Church in its incipient condition a small and feeble folk in the midst of ungodly thousands, the vision of a final host beyond count is of the utmost comfort. It has ever been so.

II THE FINALLY TRIUMPHANT CHURCH IS REPRESENTED IN ITS WIDE COMPREHENSION. It is "out of every nation." This is the true vision to be held before the eyes of the Church in her missionary labours. All tribes and all peoples and all tongues shall be finally found amongst the faithful and elect children.

III THE TRIUMPHANT CHURCH IS EXALTED TO THE UTMOST HONOUR. They stand "before the throne and before the Lamb." Thus is indicated their individual recognition; thus is fulfilled the word of their Lord"s promise.

IV THE CHURCH IS REPRESENTED IN ITS FINAL SANCTITY in white robes AND INVESTED WITH THE SYMBOLS OF TRIUMPHANT EXALTATION in their hands.

V THE VISION REVEALS THE REDEEMED HOST ASCRIBING ITS REDEMPTION TO GOD AND THE LAMB. It is the becoming burden of the eternal song. All is "of him.

VI THE CHURCH OF EARTH IS FOUND IN ALLIANCE WITH THE ANGELIC HOST OF HEAVEN. "All the angels were standing round about the throne.

VII THE UNITED CHOIRS OF EARTH AND HEAVEN ASCRIBE TOGETHER ALL GLORY, HONOUR, MIGHT, MAJESTY, AND DOMINION UNTO GOD FOREVER AND EVER. Nothing more likely to comfort and uphold the Church struggling in the waves of bitter cruel persecution than this gracious vision. To the Church in all ages this has been the lofty reach of joyful anticipation. R.G.

Vers. 9-12. The human population in heaven (No. 1).

"After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations," etc. There is one book, and only one, that presents to us humanity in heaven, and that is the Bible. This passage gives us a vision of unnumbered multitudes of men who once traversed this earthly scene of sin and sorrow, now in the bright world of the good. Of this human population in heaven four things are suggested.

I ITS NUMBERS ARE TOO GREAT FOR CALCULATION. "After this I beheld, and, lo, those things I saw, and behold a great multitude, which no man could number." The vastness of the population may be looked upon in four aspects. Here is:

1. A reproof to all sectarianism. Religious sects, which, alas! abound, even in Christendom, and which are a calumny on the gospel, nourish in the minds of their votaries the idea that heaven will be peopled mainly, if not entirely, by those within their own pale. Genuine religion knows nothing of sects. Men went to heaven by millions before churches or chapels existed.

2. An encouragement to all Christly work. The best men on earth are the men employed in a Christly spirit to make men Christly. They find the opposition so strong, the wicked so numerous, and their efforts apparently so unsuccessful, that they often lose heart. But let them realize that the human population of heaven, even in the days of John, was so vast that no arithmetic could calculate; that population has been increasing from that date to this, and will increase in future ages so that it may be that no human being will be found in the universe without a Christly heart. Hell is only a little cloud upon the azure of immensity, and that cloud may one day be blotted out; it is only one discordant note in the harmonies of God"s great empire, and that note will ultimately be hushed in eternal silence.

3. A response to all philanthropic desires. In every human soul, I presume, there is an instinctive desire for the well being of the race. True, this Divine instinct, like all others, is not only universally perverted, but dormant and submerged in depraved passions; but it is there, and awaits a resurrection. Here is the response to such an instinct.

4. An attestation of benevolent Creatorship. There is a theology popular, even in England in these days, which propounds the belief that the millions of mankind are doomed to bondage and blackness and darkness forever.

Such a damnable doctrine reveals the Creator as malevolent, and spreads a gloom of ghastly horror over all created things. No; love is the fontal source of all things.

II ITS VARIETY INCLUDES ALL THE RACES OF MANKIND. "Of all nations out of every nation, and kindreds of all tribes, and people, and tongues." All the men of this earth have their own little theatres of life and action. They are divided by space, by time, by physical relationship, by culture, by national distinctions, and thus become barbarians one to another. Now, from all these scenes and departments of life the human population in heaven is made up. The human population in heaven is not known as Britons, or Frenchmen, or Germans, etc., nor as those of noble or ignoble blood, nor as those speaking this language or that, but as one grand confederation and brotherhood, in which all distinctions are lost. Learn here:

1. That our highest aim should be to become true men. We should struggle out of social castes, religious denominationalisms, and national distinctions, and become true men, for these men alone populate heaven.

2. That our highest love should be for men. Not love for lords or ladies, or nobles, or even for sages and poets, nor even for country, but for men; reverence man everywhere, in whatever land we find him, in whatever condition; respect him because he is a man. A true man is the grandeur creature under the heavens. Let us all become such, and respect such, and such only.

III ITS GLORIOUSNESS TRANSCENDS ALL DESCRIPTION. "Stood standing before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with arrayed in white robes, and palms in their hands." Mark:

1. Their position. "Stood standing before the throne." This is an emblematic description of the highest dignity. Moral goodness, and that alone, is Divine dignity. The Divine throne is not material, it is spiritual; it is perfect moral excellence.

2. Their attire. "Clothed with arrayed in white robes." Life everywhere has its robes, its forms; robes which it makes for itself, which grow out of itself as foliage out of the vital sap. Souls have their robes, and holy souls have robes white with purity. All their manifestations are pure.

3. Their blessed rest. "Palms in their hands." The palms, Archbishop Trench considers, represents here not emblems of victory, but are emblems of rest.

IV ITS ENGAGEMENTS ARE RAPTUROUS IN DEVOTION. "And cried they cry with a loud great voice, saying, Salvation to unto our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb," etc. No doubt the engagements of this vast human population in heaven are very varied, according to their personal idiosyncrasies, capacities, and proclivities. But in every department there is worship, the Supreme is adored adored not formally or perfunctorily, but earnestly; they cry with a loud voice, "Salvation!" Restoration from their former earthly condition is the master theme. Ah! what is included in this salvation? It is restoration from ignorance to true knowledge, from impurity to holiness, from bondage to soul liberty, from selfishness to benevolence, from materialism to genuine spirituality, from the reign of wrong to the reign of right. This is the supreme theme of the saved in all worlds and forever, and ascribed to God and none other in heaven or earth. D.T.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

A great multitude - Of those who had happily finished their course. Such multitudes are afterwards described, and still higher degrees of glory which they attain after a sharp fight and magnificent victory, chap. xiv, 1; xv, 2; xix, 1; xx, 4. There is an inconceivable variety in the degrees of reward in the other world. Let not any slothful one say, "If I get to heaven at all, I will be content:" such an one may let heaven go altogether. In worldly things, men are ambitious to get as high as they can. Christians have a far more noble ambition. The difference between the very highest and the lowest state in the world is nothing to the smallest difference between the degrees of glory. But who has time to think of this? Who is at all concerned about it? Standing before the throne - In the full vision of God. And palms in their hands - Tokens of joy and victory.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

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.

Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

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.

William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

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 Adam’s 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 world’s 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.

William B. Godbey, Commentary on the New Testament (1896–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

9–10. After this I beheld. First he saw the vast company of those of the blood of Abraham who had been saved, and then he sees another company, not numbered, because they were so great that no man could number them. Of all nations and kindreds. The first multitude represented the Jews saved through Christ; the second, the countless multitude, represented the saved of all nations, the Gentile saints. Before the throne. In the vision they seem to stand before the throne and before the Lamb, to whom they ascribe the praises of their salvation. White robes. Victorious, triumphant. Palms in their hands. The symbol of joy. The palm branch was used at the feast of Tabernacles, the feast of thanksgiving.

B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.

General Information:

John begins to describe a second vision about a multitude praising God. This is a different group of people than the 144,000 people who become marked with seals. This vision also takes place after the Lamb opens the sixth seal and before he opens the seventh seal.

a huge multitude

"a huge crowd" or "a great number of people"

white robes

Here the color "white" represents purity.

Salvation belongs to

"Salvation comes from"

Salvation belongs ... to the Lamb

They were praising God and the Lamb. The noun "salvation" can be expressed with the verb "save." AT "Our God, who sits on the throne, and the Lamb have saved us!" (See: Abstract Nouns)

translationWords

nation

tribe

people group

throne

lamb

robe

palm

save

God

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

9–17. THE PRAISE OF THE GREAT MULTITUDE OF THE REDEEMED

9. καὶ ἰδού. A and Latins omit these words; C omits ἰδού.

ὄχλος πολύς. A and Latins read ὄχλον πολύν; Methodius reads καὶ εἶδον ἀπὸ πάσης γλώττης καὶ φυλῆς καὶ παντὸς ἔθνους πλῆθος πολύ, δ ἀριθμῆσαι αὐτὸ οὐδεὶς ἠδύνατο.

ἑστῶτες with אAP; ἑστῶτας B2, ἑστώτων C.

περιβεβλημένους. Text. Rec[275] reads περιβεβλημένοι with א°P 1 and Latins.

[275] Rec. Textus Receptus as printed by Scrivener.

φοίνικες. Tisch[276] reads φοίνικας with א*B2.

[276] Tischendorf: eighth edition; where the text aud notes differ the latter are cited.

9. μετὰ ταῦτα. The “great tribulation” itself is designedly not shown in the vision: “of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no not the angels in heaven.” It is not too much to say that the description of the terrors which herald its approach taxes human powers to their limits; it was the most the Seer or the Church could receive, more would have weakened the impression. Instead of describing a picture of the Great Tribulation we have the pause, in which the inner circle of the elect is sealed for safety, and the world forgets its fears; and then comes a glimpse of the bliss without end.

ὃν ἀριθμῆσαι αὐτόν. Rev 3:8.

ἐκ παντὸς ἔθνους καὶ φυλῶν καὶ λαῶν καὶ γλωσσῶν Cf. Rev 5:9 n.

ἑστῶτες is of course in apposition to ὄχλος πολύς, though supported by documents which read ὄχλον πολύν.

περιβεβλημένους is in apposition to the imaginary ὄχλον which might have been dependent on εἶδον: so is φοίνικας, if we take the accusative with Tischendorf.

στολὰς λευκάς. Cf. Rev 3:5, Rev 6:11.

φοίνικες. Opinions differ as to the meaning of this image, whether we are to compare the Pagan use of the palm-branch as a symbol of victory, given e.g. to winners at the public games; or the Israelite custom of bearing branches of palm, as of other sacred trees, at the Feast of Tabernacles: see Lev 23:40, and cf. St Joh 12:13. The palm-branch occurs frequently on the coins of the Herods; and the palm-tree on the Roman coins commemorating JUDAEA CAPTA (Madden’s Jewish Coinage): and although Jewish rather than Gentile imagery is to be expected in this book, the former view seems on the whole more reasonable, as it gives a more obvious and a more appropriate meaning to the symbol.

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

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 ver. 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 ἐδύνατο represents the classical ἂν δύναιτο: not that the attempt was actually made, but that if made it was sure to fail) number, out of every nation (see ch. 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: οἱ δὲ δίκαιοι εἰς ζωὴν αἰώνιον is the point at which our vision takes up that prophecy. We have οἱ δίκαιοι, in their robes of righteousness, made white in the blood of the Lamb, already, vv. 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. 6:11, note: and below, ver. 14), and palm-branches in their hands (bearing the palm-branch was a mark of festal joy, cf. Joh 12:13; Joh_1 Macc. 13:51: and this practice extended beyond the Jews, cf. Paus. Arcad. 48, οἱ δὲ ἀγῶνες φοίνικος ἔχουσιν οἱ πολλοὶ στέφανον· εἰς δὲ τὴν δεξιάν ἐστι καὶ πανταχοῦ τῷ νικῶντι ἐστιθέμενος φοῖνιξ. Remember also Virgil’s “palmæ, pretium victoribus,” Æn. v. 111. As regards the palm-branch being also called φοῖνιξ, we have the authority of Pollux (Wetst.), τοῦ μέντοι φοίνικος καὶ ὁ κλάδος ὁμωνύμως φοῖνιξ καλεῖται): and they cry (the pres. expresses their unceasing occupation) with a loud voice, saying, Salvation (ἡ σωτηρία, 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.

11,

Henry Alford, The Greek Testament (1849–1861) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

I saw. This vision belongs to heaven, while the sealing took place on earth.

Arrayed [περιβεβλημενοι] . See on chapter Rev 3:5.

Robes. See on chapter Rev 6:11.

"The ancient scriptures and the new The mark establish, and this shows it me, Of all the souls whom God hath made His friends. Isaiah saith that each one garmented In His own land shall be with twofold garments, 81 And his own land is this delightful life. Thy brother, too, 82 far more explicitly, There where he treateth of the robes of white, This revelation manifests to us." Dante, "Paradiso," 25, 88 - 96.

Palms [φοινικες] . Properly, palm - trees, but used here of palm - branches. Not a heathen but a Jewish image drawn probably from the Feast of Tabernacles. See on Joh 7:2.

Marvin R. Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament (1887–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.