An Exposition of Revelation .pdf

that there should be no longer delay; but in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he is
about to sound trumpet, the mystery of God also is finished, as he announced the glad news to his own
bondmen the prophets." There was no more to be any lapse of time allowed. God would terminate the
mystery of His present seeming inaction in the public government of the earth. Now He may allow the
world, with slight check, to go on in its own way. Men may sin, and, as far as direct intervention is
concerned, God appears not, whatever be the interferences exceptionally. But the time is coming when
God will surely visit sin, and this immediately and effectually when no toleration can be for anything
contrary to Himself. Such is the blessed age to which all the prophets look onward; and the angel here
swears that the time is approaching. There is going to be no more delay; but in the days of the voice of
the seventh angel, when he shall sound trumpet as he is about to do, the mystery of God also should be
completed (lit. "and was finished the," etc.). The mystery here is, not Christ and the church, but God's
allowing evil to go on in its present course with apparent impunity. Its end is now anticipated. His
direct reign is at hand (Rev. 11: 15).
"And the voice which I heard out of the heaven [was] again speaking with me and saying, Go,
take the little book that is open in the hand of the angel that standeth on the sea and on the earth. And I
went off unto the angel, saying to him to give me the little book. And he saith to me, Take and eat it
up; and it shall make thy belly bitter, but in thy mouth it shall be sweet as honey. And I took the little
book out of the hand of the angel, and ate it up; and it was in my mouth sweet as honey; and when I
had eaten it, my belly was made bitter. And they say [or, he saith] to me, Thou must prophesy again as
to peoples and nations and tongues and kings many." The meaning of this soon appeals more clearly.
There is a kind of appendix of prophecy where he renews his course for especial reasons. It is what
may be called the second volume of "the things which are about to be after these," and begins with
Rev. 12 and onward.
Meanwhile notice the evident contrast between the little book which the prophet here takes and
eats, and the great book we have seen already sealed up with seven seals. It was sweet as honey to the
taste that the true and all-worthy King should reign; but how bitter to the feelings that judgment
unsparing should fall on the mass of the Jews, and yet more on proud Christendom, both apostate and
worse. Why a little book? and why open? A little book, because it treats of a comparatively contracted
sphere, already familiar in the prophets; and open, because things are no longer described in the
mysterious guise in which the Seals and yet more the Trumpets arrayed them. All is going to be plain
for what comes out here. Is it not the case accordingly in Rev. 11? The language is ordinary, with
figures rather than symbols.
Revelation 11.
"And there was given to me a reed like a rod, saying, Rise, and measure the temple of God, and
the altar, and those that worship therein. But the court which is without the temple leave out, and
measure it not; for it is given to the Gentiles, and they shall' tread under foot the holy city forty-two
months." Their treading down is soon to come to an end; and Jerusalem appears in the foreground.
This is the centre of concern now, while the Beast may ravage there, though his own sphere be in the
western world "And I will give* to my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred
[and] sixty days, clothed in sackcloth." Their task is for a time comparatively short — for three years
and a half. "These are the two olive trees, and the two lamps that stand before the Lord of the earth."
The witnesses are two, not because necessarily limited to two only, but as giving an adequate
testimony according to the law. It is not the Messianic order yet.
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