Notes on the book of Revelations/Chapter 10

by John Nelson Darby

Layout 2

 

But before the third woe, or seventh trumpet, there is a large parenthetic revelation comes in; but it is still further angelic or providential^[1] ministration: nor is it, though it goes through manifestly the same scene, the account of the apostasy: which we have afterwards, but the same scene historically, as coming under the course of events as prophetically declared by God. There was much that announced God’s judgment against the state of things here entered into, that was not revealed. But though this was not a sealed book which the Lamb alone could open, but the progress of the course of historic events in Providence, yet was it specially in the hand of that mighty angel, and the dignity of his person was sustained.

The manifestations of the judgment of God connected with the utterance of His voice, and what followed on it, were not yet revealed. A voice from heaven sealed them up: for though the course of events went on, and was described, yet were there really principles in this, of such a character and weight in the eyes of Him who could bring in the name of Him that liveth for ever and ever, that it proved that delay should be no longer. And these things were to precede the accomplishing of the mystery of God, which should be when the seventh. angel was about to sound. In this way the little open book is very simple. It is not the mystery of iniquity, brought all out in its character, but it is the historic course of events—a picture of that scene, by itself, in which the mystery of iniquity, and all its important principles, and God’s acting on them are developed, in order to the filling up of that which is finished at the sounding of the seventh trumpet. It is thus a step lower in its nature than the great sealed book. That was held by Him that sat on the throne; and it was given to the Lamb, who alone could open it. It belonged to him by a title none else at all had : but this is in the hand of the angel, and it is given to the prophet. It was part of the course of progressive historic events. Its allusions, however, identify it with what comes after, as the beast out of the bottomless pit, &c. There was a further point. The prophet could look at external events, and describe them; but here, though the taste of the knowledge of this was sweet, yet, when he saw what it really conveyed, when he digested it, when the sympathies of his own soul were concerned in it, painful and trying things concerning the position and ruin-state of the Church^[2] were involved in it. Disorder and evil, and departure from God, and trial, connected with this in the saints. Ah! it was bitter in his belly. This term is ever used for the affections and inward thoughts of the man. Therefore, in the Church, the Holy Ghost is said to flow from the belly of the believer, because, it is not merely a communication of known events, but the Spirit, as an earnest of what belongs to ourselves, and therefore filling the soul; and, from our own association with the age the joy and testimony flow forth.

There was to be the wide-spread field of this testimony again resumed. This part of the testimony took the subject up afresh, and, though connected in fact, a full subject and scene of itself.

Thus, this little open book gave the historical account, when it assumed its place in external history, of the state of things under the great apostasy, in order to closing the whole scene as a history in the seventh trumpet; while the detail of the apostasy, its origin and source, before it was matter of the Church’s progressive history at all, the power and intent of Satan as manifested in it, were reserved for a distinct account, that is, all its moral workings and developments.

It is to be remarked, in addition, that the seventh woe is not given here at all. When the seventh trumpet sounds, there are voices in heaven celebrating the coming of the worldly kingdom of Christ: and the scene is described in very general terms, as embracing its introduction and results ; but the woe is not described. In truth, all the detail of circumstances is reserved for the accounts which would follow: but “delay no longer” is the thing here evidenced. I have only to add, that if the times that are are taken for the whole dispensation, then the twelfth chapter may be taken continuously^[3] for the acting of the agents, there described in their final conduct in the crisis; only, that it traces them downwards from the state of things in the heavens—that is, as objects of the judgment referred to in the seventh trumpet. In this case, the first act would be the taking of the saints out of the way; then the casting down of Satan; then, after persecution of the Jews, the last struggle, including the judgment of the beast, and the like. Otherwise the twelfth chapter is a tracing of the details of the source, principles, and actings of them, as in God’s mind, and that from their nature, object, and outset.

1. The rainbow round the head shewed its connection with the restoration of creation—the covenant with creation at the time government was instituted.
2. In the crisis, rather the apostate results of what was nominally the Church.
   In the seals the Lamb is concerned, and the saints are still liable to persecution; the trumpets are providential judgments on the evil, in which the saints are not found (often by wicked men on one another, as in Jewish history); then comes the display of the open enemies of the Lord Jesus Christ and their judgment, and in their full character, by the Son of Man himself.
3. But the historical continuance is then not immediate; but from the state of things consequent on the position of the parties, more particularly the flight of the woman into the wilderness, the previous verses being merely to shew what had brought the parties into this condition, that the strength of the man-child was not at first put forth but taken out of the way,—then there was a process by which the heavens were first cleared; and then that by which, after its full heading up against Christ, apostate power was put down. The thing to be noted here, as to order, is, that the war seems to be before the powers of heaven were changed, with which the fifth, sixth, and seventh seals must be compared. I do not see that the owning of the saints, in the fifth, involves the changing of the heavens. The sixth seems, however, to do so; and if we are so to read it, this changing of the heavens is, according to Matthew and Mark, immediately after the tribulation connected with the abomination of desolation, and, according to Joel, before the great and terrible day of the Lord come.
   The order which these passages would involve, as to the final crisis, would be this:—The three seals after the first, the beginning of sorrows: during this period the faithful witnesses on earth were liable to be killed, and the Gospel of the kingdom was preached among the Gentiles.
   The abomination of desolation is set up.
   The two witnesses are slain.
   A time of trouble such as never was since there was a nation.
   The dragon persecutes the woman.
   The woman flees.—Those in Judea flee to the mountains.
   The sixth seal opened: and, before the winds blow, the remnant are sealed, and the palm-bearing multitude on high seen clothed in white.
   The cry of the remnant on earth brings judgment down there; as the cry from under the altar in the fifth seal had brought on the sixth.
   Then come the trumpet-judgments in succession; the last involving the final judgment.
   The only point that remains is, when is Satan cast down? The twelfth chapter takes in the whole course of the book in its sources within, to introduce the last agents as objects of judgment announced in heaven on the seventh trumpet sounding. That chapter shews, as noticed, the first act to be catching clean out of the way Him who is to rule the nations; and the whole question all goes on after that. The next step is, not changing the heavens, but war there; and then the adversary and accuser is cast down. This is clearly before the last three and a half years, when there is tribulation, and before the tribulation and fleeing takes place; at least it seems to me so. The changing of the heavens is after that. I only state, then, as to this, that upon these passages, the casting down of the dragon, as to the crisis, seems to be some time previous to the setting up of the abomination, after the catching up of the saints, i.e. before or in the period of the four or five first seals.
   It is clear that the appearing of the Son of Man is subsequent to these changes in the heavens, from Matthew, Mark, Joel; and indeed the whole course and order of these mighty dealings of God’s judgment. The epiphany of His parousia destroys the man of sin. Isaiah xxiv. may be referred to here.