After this I looked
After John had seen the vision of Christ, in the midst of the
golden candlesticks, with seven stars in his right hand; after he
was bid to write what he had seen, and what were, and should be
hereafter; and after he had by order written the seven epistles
to the seven churches, he looked about him to see what else he
could, having his desires and expectations raised of seeing more,
and other things, for the eye is never satisfied with seeing;
though this is to be understood, not of looking with the eyes of
his body, but with the eyes of his mind; of his beholding things
in a visionary way, as the prophets did, whence they are called
"seers", and their prophecies "visions": how long this was after
the first vision is not certain, it may be but a few minutes; and
it is to be observed, that as the first chapter of this book,
with the vision in it, is the preface or introduction to the
church prophecy delivered out in the seven epistles; so this and
the following chapter, with the vision therein, contain the
preface or introduction to the book prophecy exhibited in the
opening of the seven seals of the sealed book:
and behold, a door [was] opened in heaven:
not in a literal sense, as the heavens were opened at Christ's
baptism, and at Stephen's martyrdom, but in a figurative sense;
and the phrase is to be understood of a discovery of things that
were, or were to be in the church of God, which in this book is
oftentimes signified by "heaven": and it must be conceived as
done in a visionary way, just as Ezekiel, in the visions of God,
was brought to Jerusalem, and the temple there, and in at a door
was shown all the abominations committed in the court and temple;
so John, in a visionary way, through an opened door, had a scene
of things in the church presented to him, as follows:
and the first voice which I heard [was], as it were, of a
trumpet
talking with me;
this voice is not called the first voice with respect to any
other voices that were to follow; but it designs the former
voice, the voice that John heard behind him, when he saw the
first vision; and this, as that, was clear, loud, and sonorous as
a trumpet, so that he thoroughly heard, and rightly understood
what was said; it was the same Person that made the following
representation of things as did then, even he who is the Alpha
and the Omega, the Lord Jesus Christ, the author of the whole
revelation; the "first" is left out in the Arabic version: the
allusion is to the blowing of trumpets at the opening of the door
of the temple;
``every day there were one and twenty soundings of a trumpet in the temple, three (Myrev txytpl) , "at the opening of the doors", and nine at the daily morning sacrifice, and nine at the daily evening sacrifice F6.''And one of them was called the great door of the temple; and he that slew the daily sacrifice, did not slay till he heard the sound of that door when it was opened F7; so here at the opening of the door in heaven, in the church, of which the temple was a type, the voice of the Son of God is heard as the sound of a trumpet, talking loudly and familiarly to John:
which said, come up hither;
from the isle of Patmos, where he was, up to heaven; not into the
third heaven, where Paul was caught up, but rather up into the
Gospel church, the Jerusalem which is above; though this, as
before, is to be understood in a visionary way, in like manner as
Ezekiel was lifted up by the Spirit between the earth and the
heavens; and so John, in a vision, was called up from Patmos into
the air, where he had a representation of the church made unto
him:
and I will show thee things which must be
hereafter;
in the world, in the Roman empire, and in the church of God, to
the end of the world; not but that there were some things shown
him, as before, in the church prophecy, which had been, and were,
and which was done to give him a complete view of things from
first to last: and these things were shown in the following
visions of the seals, trumpets, and vials, and by the Lord Jesus
Christ, who talked with him, and to whom this revelation was
given to show unto his servants; and it was of things that "must"
be, because determined and resolved upon in the unalterable
purposes and decrees of God.