The Seventh Trumpet

sounds, and our souls are at once drawn from earth and its miseries to heaven and its joys. Heaven rejoices that the earth is
rescued from the hands of man and Satan, and that the Lord Jesus, the rightful heir, takes possession of it (Rev. 11:15-19).
The seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of His Christ; and He shall reign for ever and ever {Rev. 11:15}.
As usual, the elders who delight in the exaltation of the Lord, are in intelligent communion with God about the things of Christ; therefore we find that
the four and twenty elders, which sat before God on their thrones, fell upon their faces and worshipped God, saying, We give Thee thanks, O Lord God Almighty, which art, and wast; because thou hast taken to Thee Thy great power, and hast reigned {Rev. 11:16, 17}.
Observe that the living creatures are not noticed here in company with the elders.
The consequences and attendants upon Christ’s taking the judgment and government of the earth into His own hands follow the sounding of this trumpet.
Thy wrath is come {Rev. 11:18};
for He will come, in flaming fire taking vengeance, and must reign till He hath put all enemies under His feet.
The nations were angry {Rev. 11:18},
or, have been full of wrath; but now it is the time of the wrath of the Lamb.
Every eye shall see Him . . . and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of Him {Rev. 1:7}.
We also see that God’s servants the prophets, and the saints, are rewarded, and those that fear Him, both small and great; those that destroyed or corrupted the earth are destroyed; and the dead are judged. It is a brief sketch of the various acts of judgment during the reign of Christ, from the beginning of His taking the kingdom to the end.
The chapter closes with the account of the temple of God being opened in heaven, the ark of the testament seen, with the lightnings, voices, thunderings, an earthquake, and great hail. Happy for our hearts to find, that while judgment is poured out upon earth, the ark of the covenant is seen in heaven, witnessing to God’s faithfulness, and the everlasting stability of His people’s hope. The ark tells us of the mercy seat and the blood of sprinkling, which speaketh better things than that of Abel. This is rest. The precious blood, presented for us before God, always reminds us of entrance into the holiest and perfect peace, whatever may be the trouble and distress around. While looking thus by faith at our Lord Jesus at the right hand of God, presenting His own perfect sacrifice there on our behalf, we can not only cry, Come, Lord Jesus! but we realize that
“Faith almost changes into sight,
While, from afar, she spies
Her fair inheritance in light
Above created skies.
“Some rays of heaven break sweetly in
At all the opening flaws;
Visions of endless bliss are seen,
And native air she draws."