Revelation 7:15-17 Therefore are they before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple… The crucial word of the passage is just the one no person would so think of, viz., "therefore," indicating the connection between life here and hereafter, and showing that the nexus is never broken. I. THAT THEIR SUBMISSION TO A SACRIFICIAL LIFE HAS ITS REWARD IN BESTOWAL OF DIVINE POWER. He that sitteth upon the throne shall spread His tabernacle over them." It is paradoxical that a sacrifice is the way to a throne and strength. It would be peculiar in any sphere but one. The heart, however, only gains power as it ceases to be free. We must be imprisoned by the mighty power of love before we can be free. How is it refined ladies as hospital nurses can go through scenes which would make men blush? Because they are bound in the fetters of an intense love of humanity. II. THEIR TEMPORARY CRUSHING OF WILL WAS REWARDED BY ITS BEING MADE CHROMIC AND HABITUAL. "Came out of great tribulation," therefore "Serve Him day and night in His temple." The popular idea that calamities of life are sent to prepare us for heaven by way of contrast is pre-eminently false. They are rather sent to prepare us for the life of heaven by resemblance. Heaven is veritably service. A little girl of my acquaintance was the subject of protracted suffering, and, questioned as to her conception of its purpose, surprised me by replying, not in the direction of contrast, but in that of resemblance. "Don't you know," said she, "I am preparing to be a ministering spirit?" It is coming out of great tribulation which fits us for service. I am much impressed by the fact that the Children of Israel never journeyed when the cloud rested over the tabernacle. Nor should we; but rather rest until the cloud be lifted. III. THEIR SACRIFICIAL LIFE WAS REWARDED BY THEIR RECEIVING A NEW ORGAN OF VISION, viz., a sacrificially pure heart. "They have washed their robes," and have a front pew; "Therefore are they before the throne." If our spirits be bathed in suffering, we shall ever after regard it not as accidental, but as habitual. Sacrifice is the type after which the world is climbing, as illustrated in Abraham on Moriah, Jacob at Bethel, and Moses in Midian. We go to Christ through Egypt and the wilderness of Sinai. We do not expect — or should not — to get new robes, but washed robes. Creation now waits for the seventh morning, which will come when men have "washed their robes in the blood of the Lamb." (G. Matheson, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: Therefore are they before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple: and he that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them. |
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