Bible Commentaries
Revelation 6

Verse 10

How Long?

Revelation 6:10.

The words ’How long?’ occur frequently in Scripture, and are spoken in various ways—

(1) As from man to man;

(2) as from man to God;

(3) as from God to man.

I.The passages in which the words are between man and manmay be briefly noticed. They are such as, Job 8:2, ’How long will you speak these words?’ Job 19:2, "How long will you vex my soul?’ Psalms 4:2, ’How long will you turn my glory to shame?’ Psalms 63:3, ’How long will you imagine mischief against a man?’ They are the complaint of the troubled against his troublers, and of the righteous against the wicked. Strange interchange of words between man and man! But we do not dwell on this. We come to the other two, in their order.

II.The words as from man to God.Looking up to God, man breathes the deep-drawn sigh, ’How long?’ Let me note the chief passages—Psalms 6:3, ’My soul is sore vexed—but You, O Lord, how long?’ Psalms 13:1, ’How long will You forget me, and hide Your face? How long shall I take counsel in my soul, and sorrow in my heart? How long shall my enemy be exalted over me?’ Psalms 35:17, ’How long will you look on?’ Psalms 64:10, ’How long shall the adversary reproach?’ Psalms 79:5, ’How long will You be angry?’ Psalms 89:46, ’How long will You hide Yourself?’ Psalms 90:13, ’Return, O Lord, how long?’ Psalms 94:3-4, ’How long shall the wicked triumph?’ Habakkuk 1:2, ’How long shall I cry?’ Revelation 6:10, ’How long, O Lord, do You not judge and avenge our blood?’ These are the chief passages in which the expression occurs. Instead of dwelling on each of these in succession, let me thus sum up and classify their different meanings. It is the language of—

(1) Complaint.It is not murmuring or fretting—yet it is what the Psalmist calls ’complaining.’ The righteous man feels the burden and the sorrow and the evil that have so long prevailed in this present evil world, and he cries, "How long?" Have these not lasted long enough? Would that they were done! In this complaint there is weariness, and sometimes there is sadness—almost despair—when unbelief gets the upper hand. Creation groans. Iniquity overflows. Death reigns. The wicked triumph. God seems to forget the earth and to hide His face. The saint ’’groans within himself, waiting for the adoption, the redemption of the body.’ ’Woe is me,’ he says ’that I dwell in Mesech!’ Yes, we that yet are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened. We daily cry, ’How long?’ We are oppressed, and oftentimes cast down. We are not desponding—yet we cannot laugh with the world.

(2) Submission.While impatience sometimes rises, yet the cry does not mean this. It is really a cry of submission to a wise and sovereign God. It is the cry of one putting all events, as well as all times and seasons, into His hands, as Jesus did in Gethsemane. When we pray for deliverance, or plead for the Lord’s coming, we do not mean to be impatient—but simply to utter our weariness—to unbosom ourselves to a gracious God. While we say—How long? We say also—Not my will, but Yours be done. We utter our own conscious helplessness, and put all into the hands of God.

(3) Inquiry.In all the passages there is an implied question. It is not merely—Oh that the time would come! But—When shall it come? We may not ’know the time how long,’ but we ask earnestly, with the prophet—How long shall it be to the end of these wonders? We are warranted in asking, for God has given the prophetic word, that our inquiries may be stimulated and directed. The disciples inquired, and Christ answered fully (Matthew 24:3-4).

(4) Expectation.It is the voice of faith, and hope, and longing desire. The present is dark, the future is bright. God’s word is sure concerning the coming glory; and so we, looking for and hastening to that glory, and depressed with the evil here, cry out day by day, ’How long?’ When will the day dawn? When will the kingdom come? When will the glory break forth? Faith hears the voice of the Beloved, and says, ’Make haste;’ it hears His ’Behold, I come quickly!’ and it says, ’Even so, come, Lord Jesus!’ We ’look for and hasten (unto) the coming of the day of God’ (2 Peter 3:12).

III.The words as from God to man.I note the following instances—Exodus 10:3, Exodus 16:28, ’How long will you refuse to humble yourself?’ Joshua 18:3, ’How long will you be slack to go in the possess the land?’ 1 Kings 18:21, ’How long halt you between two opinions?’ Psalms 82:2, ’How long will you judge unjustly?’ Proverbs 1:22, Proverbs 6:9, ’How long, you simple ones, will you love simplicity?’ Jeremiah 4:14, ’O Jerusalem, wash your heart from wickedness, that you may be heard—how long shall your vain thoughts lodge within you?’

Taking up these words of God as spoken to different classes, we would dwell on the following points—

1. Long-suffering.Jeremiah’s words to Jerusalem are the words of a patient God, ’not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.’ He is the infinitely patient God, as such most unwilling to smite. He speaks in pity to the sinner, ’how long will you not be saved?’—like Jesus weeping over Jerusalem.

2. Admonition.How long halt you between two opinions? How long shall you be of deciding? How long of trusting me? How long will you treat me as a false God, and do injustice to my grace?

3. Entreaty.How long, you simple ones, will you love simplicity? God beseeches man. He entreats him to give up his sin—to come and be saved. How long will you refuse my love?

4. Earnestness.God’s words are all sincere. They are not the language of duplicity or pretense. He means what He says, and He says what He means. ’You will not come to me!’ ’How often would I have gathered your children!’ ’O that you had known!’

5. Sorrow.It is not at random that God says, ’How long?’ His are not mere words of course. ’It grieves Him at His heart.’ Every moment’s continuance in unbelief is vexing and grieving the Spirit.

6. Upbraiding.As He upbraided Israel with being slack to go in and possess the land, so He upbraids us. There is the land, the kingdom, why do you not go in? The door is open—the way is clear.

7. Warning.As He warned the judges and princes in Israel, so does He warn us. How long will you deal unjustly? He said to them. How long will you persist in your unrighteousness and unbelief? He says to us. The day of grace is ending. The day of wrath is coming. Be warned. Flee from the wrath to come!

Verse 11

The Recompense of Martyrdom.

Revelation 6:10-11.

The chief symbols in this chapter are horses—expressing the external, visible human (or earthly) agencies employed in the scenes and events predicted. Here it is not angelic forces that are at work, but human. In like manner, it is not angels who open the seals, but he Lamb. Angels blow the trumpets, and pour out the vials; but everything relating to the seals belongs directly to the Lamb—the Lion of the tribe of Judah. This chapter, then, is peculiarly connected with Him; it begins with His opening of the seals, and it ends with His infliction of wrath. The Son of God has much to do with earth and its nations, even though seated at the Father’s right hand. ’His eyes behold the nations—let not the rebellious exalt themselves’ (Psalms 66:7). He is Judge and King of earth; the holder of the golden scepter, and the wielder of the iron rod.

We speak of ’Providence’ when we should speak of Christ. As He walks among the seven golden candlesticks, so does He go to and fro among the thrones of earth; for the kings of the earth are as responsible to Him for service in their appointed spheres as are the ministers of the churches. Because this is the day of the fourth Gentile empire, the dispensation of election and of the Church’s pilgrim state, therefore some strangely conclude that the responsibility of kings and nations to serve the Son of God does not exist! As if, because Scripture foretells the persecution of the Church, therefore kings do not sin in persecuting her, but rather fulfill God’s will! As if, because the church’s state in this dispensation is that of being trodden down, therefore it is the duty and vocation of earthly rulers to tread her down! ’We will not have this man to reign over us’ is the wild shout of earth’s nations and kings; for they know that He claims supremacy, and that supremacy they hate. Christ’s supremacy in the State is as true and real a thing as His supremacy in the Church. The full development of that supremacy over kingdoms man resents and resists; and many Christians seem to think it a carnal doctrine, unworthy of men who believe in the church’s heavenly calling. Yet is the full development of that supremacy that is to make earth a holy, peaceful, glorious kingdom; and it is for that development that we pray, ’Your kingdom come.’

This, no doubt, is the day of the Church’s tribulation and persecution. Hence we find in our text reference to the martyrs—their death and testimony. But in their death they testify to Christ as Prince of the kings of the earth, the avenger of their blood upon those rulers that had slain them. Their ’souls’—even when separate from the body—are seen under the altar, as if all gathered there, as one by one they passed from the fire, or the sword, or the torture. The place of ’martyr gathering’, is the altar of God. The place of ashes and of blood, is the place where they lay.

I. The martyr cry.It is the widow’s cry, ’Avenge me of my adversary.’ It is the cry which we so often find in the Old Testament (especially the Psalms), and because of which some Christians have harshly concluded that the old saints were much more imperfect than we, and had a lower standard of morality and spirituality; forgetful that the Psalms objected to, are the words of the Son of God Himself; forgetful also of such a passage as that of our text, containing the feeling, not only of New Testament saints, but of the ’spirits of the just made perfect.’ The arguments used by some in arguing against ’the revengefulness of the Old Testament saints,’ are such as would, if true, condemn the verdict of the Judge, ’Depart, you cursed ones,’ and make the doctrine of future punishments inconsistent with Christianity—a relic of patriarchal barbarism or Jewish bloodthirstiness.

They called out in a loud voice, "How long, Sovereign Lord, holy and true, until you judge the inhabitants of the earth and avenge our blood?" This has been that long and bitter cry of the ages—not loud, indeed, but deep; the cry of the injured; the cry, not of mere personal feeling, but of righteousness trampled on, and all holy government subverted by the slaughter of the saints. It may seem ’narrow,’ or worse than ’narrow’—it may be called ’bigotry,’ or worse than bigotry—to sympathize with such sentiments; but there the words stand. Let modern sentimentalists tell us what they mean, or else boldly proclaim them false and cruel. The day is at hand when such sentimentalism shall be valued at what it is worth, and the great truths of a righteous law, and a righteous scepter, and a righteous Judge,and a righteous recompense,shall be acknowledged as at once the basis and the cornerstone of a happy universe.

II. The martyr HONOR.’White robes were given them.’ Each of these martyrs, as they passed from the persecution of earth, entered the holy presence with the cry, ’How long?’ and as the immediate answer to this, and the pledge of yet brighter things, white robes were given. White robes—the pledge of triumph and splendor—the pledge of eternal joy and song—the pledge of the festal and bridal day. What a contrast to the poverty of their clothing here, as they came out of prison—to the bloodstains and filth upon their earthly apparel! White robes! This is God’s immediate response to the beloved and honored band. They cry, ’How long?’ and He speaks to His angels, saying, ’Bring forth the best robe and put it on them.’ Such is the martyr honor and blessedness even now!

III. The martyr REST.They get immediate rest as well as honor. The apostle Paul says, ’And God will provide rest for you who are being persecuted.’ (2 Thessalonians 1:7). The fullnessof the rest, (Hebrews 4:9) is in reserve for the Lord’s revelation from heaven; but rest, meanwhile, is theirs. Rest, how sweet after the torture and toil of earth! It may be that there is peculiar rest for the martyr band; and yet there is rest for all who are the Lord’s, even though they may not have passed to it through the flames. ’Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from henceforth—Yes, says the Spirit, that they may rest from their labors; and their works do follow them’ (Revelation 14:13). They sleep in Jesus; not the sleep of unconsciousness or death, but the sleep of blessedness—the ’sleep of the beloved’—the ’rest’ of paradise—with Him who has ’rested’ from His toils and sufferings, and who bids them come and share His rest.

IV. The martyr HOPE.It is not expressly mentioned here. It is something which shall be given when the whole band is gathered—the whole martyr-band from the beginning. The seven epistles reveal that hope; and the three closing chapters of this book unfold it more fully. It is the hope of the first resurrection; of reigning with Christ; of entry into the celestial city; of the crown of life; of the inheritance of all things!

Prospects like these sustain, and comfort, and purify. We are to look into the future, that we may realize the details of this hope, as God has made them known. We may not be called to martyrdom; but we are all called to labor and suffering, to self-denial and self-sacrifice. The bright future of the Church, both between death and resurrection and after resurrection, throughout the everlasting ages, is meant to impact upon us here. With such a future, can we be worldly, or pleasure loving, or self-pleasing? Shall we live here—unworthy of our hope, unworthy of our place hereafter in the kingdom? Shall we turn aside from the path which the Master trod? Or shall we shrink from the crown of thorns—even if there were to be no crown of glory? Shall not the love of Christ constrain us to serve, at whatever cost, Him who bought us with His blood, and who has bought for us such a glory as that which shall so soon be ours?