Saying, hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the
trees,
&c.] That is, as yet, for their commission was not
contradicted, nor taken away by Christ; and at the time
appointed, at the blowing of the several trumpets, they let loose
the winds, and let in the Goths, Hans, and Vandals, the Saracens
and Turks into the empire, and after that poured out the vials of
God's wrath upon the Romish antichrist: this retarding of them
was but in appearance, that there might be an opportunity to show
to John what care would be taken all along of the church of
Christ, and true servants of the living God:
till we have sealed the servants of our God in their
foreheads;
the servants of sin, Satan, and the beast of Rome, were took no
notice nor care of; they were the persons to be hurt by the
winds, signified by the earth, sea, and trees, even idolaters,
small and great; but "the servants of our God", who serve him
with grace in their hearts, from a principle of love, in the
exercise of faith, without servile fear, and with reverence and
godly fear, in righteousness and true holiness, and with a view
to his glory; and are worshippers of him in spirit and in truth,
being followers of the Lamb, whithersoever he goes; and so are
the servants of his God, and their God; the sealing of them does
not design the sealing of them with the seal of election, this
was done in eternity; nor with the seal of the Spirit, which is
common to all the saints in all ages; but it denotes the hiding
and concealing, and so securing the saints amidst all the
calamities of the empire, and throughout the whole time of the
Romish apostasy, from first to last; and respects the time when
the church fled into the wilderness, and was hid, and nourished
with the hidden manna, for a time, and times, and half a time, (
Revelation 12:14 ) .
Christ set a mark upon them, as was upon the houses of the
Israelites, when the destroying angel passed through Egypt, and
destroyed the firstborn in it; and as was upon the foreheads of
those that sighed and cried in Jerusalem, when orders were given
to slay young and old, ( Exodus 12:23
) ( Ezekiel
9:4 ) . Christ will have a people in the worst of times; he
knows who are his, and he will take care of them; he has his
chambers of protection to hide them in, till the indignation is
over past: the sealers, "we", are either Father, Son, and Spirit,
who are all jointly concerned for the welfare of the eject; or
Christ and his ministering angels that attend him, whom he
employs for the good and safety of the heirs of salvation: the
seal with which these are sealed is the seal of the living God,
the foreknowledge, love, care, and power of God; and the name of
God, even Christ's Father's name, and their Father's name, in
their foreheads; the new name of children of God, by and under
which they are known and preserved by him: and this is said to be
"in their foreheads", in allusion to servants, who used to be
marked in their foreheads; hence they are called by Apuleius
F3 "frontes literati"; and by Martial,
a servant is called "fronte notatus" F4: but then these were
such who had committed faults, and this was done by way of
punishment F5; wherefore it can hardly be thought
that the servants of God should be sealed, in allusion to them:
but rather with reference to the mitre on the high priest's
forehead, as some think; or it may be to ( Ezekiel 9:4 ) , and
shows, that though these persons were hid and concealed from men,
they were well known to God and Christ; nor were they ashamed to
make a public and open confession of Christ before men, as did
the true and faithful witnesses of Christ, the Waldenses and
Albigenses, in the midst of the greatest darkness of Popery, and
of danger from men; and who seem to be chiefly intended.