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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadWilliam Burkitt Notes and Observations - Revelation 14:9 - 14:9
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Observe here, the great and special care which Almighty God takes to warn men and women of those dreadful plagues which should most certainly come upon the heads of idolaters: a third angel followed, crying with a loud voice.
O how good is God in that he does always premonish before he punishes, warns before he strikes, and advises all not to partake with others their sins, lest they be partakers of their plagues!
Observe, 2. A most dreadful denunciation of the wrath of God, against all those who shall worship the beast and his image, that is, submit to the enjoined idolatry, and receive his mark in their foreheads or hands, that is, yield obedience to the beast as a servant, and openly own subjection to him as his slaves.
Lord! what a dreadful guiltiness is it to follow antichrist, and to continue obstinate in idolatry, after God has sent one angel after another, minister after minister, to acquaint them both with their sin and danger?
Observe, 3. The denunciation itself in the several parts of it,
1. They shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, that is, for their sin shall partake of severe judgments, the effects of God's wrath.
Mark, Here is wine for wine, for the wine of Babylon's fornication, here is the wine of the wrath of God; the former wine was not so sweet, but the latter shall be as sharp.
2. Here is the quality of this wrath, it is poured out without mixture: its being poured out shows the abundance of it, and without mixture shows that it is without the least drop of mercy to allay the extremity of their torment.
3. It is called a cup of indignation, thereby intimating, that it is not the correction of a father, which is accompanied with lenity and love, but the vengeance of a judge that designs utter destruction.
4. Here is the effect of their drinking of this cup of the Lord's indignation, their being torment with fire and brimstone: which expression denotes these sinners' torments to be most exquisite, both intolerable and interminable, and their punishment both easeless and endless.
5. It is here said, that this their torments to be in the presence of the holy angels, before whom they had sinned, in worshipping the beast; they shall see them, but none shall help them.
6. The eternity as well as the extremity of their torments is here set forth: their smoke ascends for ever and ever; the torments of hell are here set forth as most acute and exquisite, and as endless and easeless, they have no rest day nor night, nor a moment's ease.
It is well observed by Mr. Mede, that there is not a more terrible description of punishment in the whole book of God, than is here denounced against those idolaters which adhere to the beast; the smoke of their torment, that is, the fire and smoke wherewith they were tormented, ascendeth up for ever and ever, and they have no rest day nor night.
And if the church of Rome, or Papal Babylon, be here intended, and not Pagan, as most Protestents believe and affirm, then this shows that those of her communion, living and dying in a firm adherence to the chief doctrines of Popery, and framing their lives by them, after they have had, or might have had, sufficient means to convince them of their error and idolatry, so expose their salvation to extreme hazard and danger.
Blessed be God for our happy reformation, from the idolatry and superstition, from the tyranny and oppression, and the intolerable yoke, of the church of Rome. God grant we may be reformed in our lives as well as in our religion, otherwise our damnation is as sure as theirs is great, for the holiest doctrine and purest worship will be of no avail to impure worshippers and unholy livers; it matters not what church or what communion a bad man is of, for it is certain he cannot be saved by any.