This being so, I proceed further to notice, that the power commanding John to rise up, gave to him “a reed like to a rod.” The use he was ordered to make of it shows that it was a measuring reed. “Rise up,” said the voice of the Spirit, “and
In this we find John in a like situation with Zechariah. They are both in the presence of an angel, and both asleep.
Zechariah does not aid us here. He was briefly informed, that the two olive branches emptying the golden oil through the two golden pipes into the bowl, were “the two Sons of Oil standing before the Lord of all the earth.” They represented Sons generated by the Golden Oil, or “word of truth” — the “unction from the Holy One, which teacheth of all things, and is the truth” (1 John 2:20,27). They stand before the Lord, al-adon, or before the Ruler of all the earth.
We have seen in ch. 7, that the judgments of the first four trumpets were restrained until the work of sealing the servants of the Deity should be sufficiently advanced. The tempests that were to wreck the state, and dash it in pieces upon the rocks, were not to blow until there should be a community of faithful ones developed, who should be able to read the signs of their times aright, and be able to instruct others. This is implied in their being “sealed in their foreheads”.
An angel, in a symbolic sense, represents a class of agents executing a mission to which they have been appointed. We have seen this use of the word in ch.
The phenomena of the fourth trumpet are thus briefly sketched by Mr. Elliott: “The vision has passed; the fourth angel sounds. Hitherto, though its land, its sea, and its frontier rivers and fountains of waters have been desolated, yet the sun has still continued shining on the Western Empire as before. But now at length this too is affected. To the extent of a third part of its orb, it suffers eclipse. The shadow falls over the Western Empire.
“For the understanding of the prophecies,” says Sir Isaac Newton truly, “we are, in the first place, to acquaint ourselves with the figurative language of the prophets; which is taken from the analogy between the world natural, and an empire or kingdom considered as a world politic.”
The following is Mr. Elliott’s summary of the phenomena of the vision. “Which,” he inquires, “is the new scene of judgment? ‘The third of the rivers,’ it is said, ‘and the fountains of waters.’ It begins where yon mighty river to the North forms the ancient limit between barbarian Germany, and the Illyrian, or Middle Praefecture of the Roman Empire. Mark the portentous meteor that glares over it; like a blazing torch trailing its red line of light behind it in the Northern sky!
On account of the luminaries in the natural heaven governing the day and the night (Gen. 1:14-18), all luminaries in the symbolical language signify ruling powers; and the light itself is well employed to signify the edicts, laws, rules, or directions that proceed from them for the good of their subjects. Thus of the Great King, styled the “Day Star,” and “the Sun of Righteousness,” it is said in Psalm 119:105, “Thy word is a light unto my path;” and in Hos. 6:5, “Thy judgments are as the light.”
The following is Mr. Elliott’s sketch of the phenomena of this vision. “A pause ensues. Then presently there is heard another trumpet- blast of judgment.