Just as the interlude between the sixth and seventh seals assured the recipients of Revelation that the people of God are safe from the eternally destructive effects of God’s wrath, so also between the sixth and seventh trumpets we are reminded of God’s protective hand on His people. But in the trumpet interlude we also learn that God’s protection during these days of tribulation does not mean isolation, for the people of God must bear a prophetic witness to the world.

‘After this’, after the events of chapter 6, come the events of chapter 7. Or do they? It is dangerous to assume that the order in which John writes is the order in which the things he describes will happen; and here we have a notable example of that danger. For chapter 6 describes what is surely a ‘harming of the earth’; yet ‘after this’ we come to a vision in which the earth has not yet been harmed (7:3). Chapter 7 may follow chapter 6 in John’s visions, but it does not seem to follow it in the order of actual events

1. Divine judgments. Wars, famine, pestilence, the overthrow of kingdoms, and the universal wreck of all earthly things. The particular judgments to which these winds refer are, I think, those mentioned in the sixth seal, at the close of the sixth chapter, and whose fearful operations are represented by the seven trumpets in the eighth chapter. 2. All events and influences unfavourable to the cause of Christ. The wind of persecution; the wind of false doctrine; the wind of delusion and wild fanaticism; the wind of temptation; the wind of infidelity; the wind of open profanity and blasphemy; the winds of affliction, adversity, and distress; by all of which the Church is frequently assailed. These things are called “winds,” because they produce agitation and commotion—breaking the branches, blasting the fruits, and uprooting the trees of God’s spiritual vineyard. They are called “four” winds, to show their universality, their wide-spreading desolation. They are called winds of the “earth,” because earth is the scene of their operation—they are for ever excluded from heaven; their coming from the four cardinal points at once shows their violence, rage, and fury.

Well, who is this Angel? Why, the Lord Jesus Christ, the uncreated Angel of the Covenant, to whom the figurative language of the text applies to the very letter. This Angel is described—(1) By the point of His ascension. “And I saw another Angel ascending from the east.” This was literally true of Christ; He came from the east, and hence He is called the East, or, as it is commonly rendered, “the Day-spring from on high.” But His ascending from the east shows the favourable nature of His mission and character. The east is the great fountain of light, life, fruitfulness, purity, and joy; so this Angel, Christ, is called the Sun of Righteousness, that visits our world with healing beneath His wings. He is that bright, shining Sun, that never sets, but whose heavenly radiance always beams upon His Church, giving salvation, light, beauty, and joy. (2) By credentials He bears

They are “clothed with white robes.” 1. It is the raiment of heaven (Mark 16:5; John 20:12; Acts 1:12). 2. It is the raiment of purity and perfection. 3. It is the raiment of triumph. It is given to him that overcometh (chap. 3:5)