The seven angels came out of the temple, having the seven plagues.
Angelic agencies of retribution
Note,
1. The instruments employed by God for executing His wrath upon sinners--angels, seven angels: not that He needs them, butHe is pleased to make use of them, and they are but instruments in His hand, who receive all their efficacy from the hand that uses them.
2. From whence these seven angels come, namely, out of the temple, more immediately from the presence of God, implying that they came forth to execute vengeance by God’s special directions, and consequently that the work was very well pleasing unto God which they went about.
3. How they are furnished, having seven plagues--namely, to inflict upon the idolatrous enemies of the Church.
4. In and after what manner these angels were apparelled and appeared.
(1) They were clothed in pure and white linen, to denote the holiness of their persons, as also theholiness of that work which they had then in hand.
(2) This clothing of theirs was girded to them, expressing thereby their great readiness for, and their great alacrity in, their work.
(3) The girdle wherewith they were girded was a golden girdle, exactly answering the habit of the high priest, when he entered into the holy of holies, to inquire of God, or came out with an answer from God.
5. From the whole learn, that when the Lord comes to pull down Babylon, as well as to build up Sion, He will appear in glory; the angels are God’s special ministers; when they go forth to pour out the vials of His wrath upon Babylon, they appear gloriously apparelled, glittering like the high priest, and girded with golden girdles. (W. Burkitt, M. A.)
Genuine discipline of soul
I. The source of genuine soul discipline. “After that (these things) I looked (saw), and, behold, the temple of the tabernacle of the testimony in heaven was opened.” The discipline, as we have seen, was of a painful character. It involved “seven angels” with “seven plagues.” Whence did it proceed? Not from secondary instrumentalities, fortuitous circumstances, or a heartless, rigorous fatality, but direct from the presence of the Infinite. The language here points to the inner compartment of the old Jewish tabernacle, known as the “Holy of Holies.” There the Jew regarded Jehovah as especially revealing Himself to them, and as communicating to them His ideas and plans. To a genuinely disciplined soul all influences from heaven tending to purify and ennoble are regarded as coming direct from the presence of the Great Father. Its inner eye, so to speak, is so opened and quickened that it glances into the very shrine of the Almighty.
II. The ministers of genuine soul discipline.
1. They are complete in number and qualification. “Seven angels” and “seven plagues.”
2. They go forth direct from His presence. “Came out of the temple,” etc.
3. They are divinely marked and attired as God’s priests. “Clothed (arrayed) in pure and white linen.”
4. They have a commission of severity. True soul-education involves pain. The very severity is a blessing.
III. The indispensability of genuine soul discipline. “No man (no one) was able to enter into the temple till the seven plagues of the seven angels were fulfilled” (should be finished). The idea suggested is that no man could enter into the shrine or into the immediate presence of God until the discipline had been fully accomplished. (David Thomas, D. D.)
