Charles Ellicott Commentary Revelation 6:15-17

"And the kings of the earth, and the princes, and the chief captains, and the rich, and the strong, and every bondman and freeman, hid themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains; and they say to the mountains and to the rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: for the great day of their wrath is come; and who is able to stand?" — Revelation 6:15-17 (ASV)

And the kings . . .—Translate, And the kings of the earth, and the magnates, and the commanders of hosts, and the wealthy, and the strong, and every man, bond and free, hid themselves (going) into the caves and into the rocks of the mountains; and say to the mountains and to the rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of Him who sits upon the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: for the day, the great (day) of His wrath came (or, has come); and who is able to stand?

In the list of the great ones here we may notice the descending order—kings, magnates or statesmen, generals, rich men, strong men, bond and free men. The terror strikes into every class: monarchs and their advisers, the statesmen and diplomatists, the commanders of troops, the merchant princes, the men of ability, as well as the more obscure orders of society. Neither royalty, nor rank, nor force of arms, nor opulence, nor talent, nor strength, either of intellect or frame, avail in that crisis; neither does insignificance escape in that day when God brings to light the hidden things.

The tests of God are spiritual, as the weapons of God’s war are not carnal. Men who have relied upon wealth, rank, or power, have prepared themselves against one form of trial, but find themselves unarmed in the day of spiritual testing. Like Macbeth, they are unable to fight with the unexpected shape that haunts them. They would rather meet the bodily foe, “who would dare them to the desert with a sword.”

Thus in the final day of judgment the revealing of the spiritual order of all life will confound men whose minds have been blinded by their entire absorption in world-splendours and world-powers. Nor is it merely the unveiling of the forgotten spiritual order that will confound them. The advent is of a Person. It is more than the manifestation of the kingdom of Him who all this time had been King on His throne, and whom they had forgotten—it is the revealing of God’s Son from heaven. It is not without significance that He is described as the Lamb.

In that day of His wrath, it is not as a Judge who has laid aside the tokens of His humiliation and suffering: it is as the Lamb. He whom they now shrink from is He who came meek as a lamb, gentle, pure, and suffering on their behalf. He whom they now behold with dismay is He whom they treated with neglect, and whose love they spurned.

Who shall be (or, is) able to stand?—The thought is derived from Malachi 3:2, which spoke of a coming of the Lord. Every advent of Christ is the advent of One whose fan is in His hand, and who will thoroughly purge His floor. Whether it is His advent in the flesh, He tested men; or whether one of His advents in Providence—such as the fall of Jerusalem, the overthrow of Pagan Rome, the convulsions of the Reformation and Revolution epochs of history—He still tests men whether they are able to abide in faith and love the day of His coming; and much more, then, in the closing personal advent, when these visions will receive their fullest illustration, will He try men. “Who is able to stand?” It is the question of questions. Christ’s answer is: “Apart from Me you can do nothing.” “Let your loins be girded about and your lights burning, and you yourselves like men who wait for their Lord’s coming.”

And parallel is St. Paul’s advice: “Wherefore take unto you (not the weapons on which men rely, but) the whole armour of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and, having done all, to stand.”

This anxiety that his converts should be ready for the day of testing is continually appearing in his Epistles. Compare the recurrence of “the day of Christ” in Philippians 1:6 and Philippians 1:10, and the Apostle’s wish that the Philippians might be sincere and without offense until the day of Christ. St. John also expresses the desire that Christians should not “be ashamed before Him at His coming,” and “may have boldness in the day of judgment” (1 John 2:28; 1 John 4:17).

“Who is able to stand?” The question is answered in the next chapter. They shall stand who are sealed with the seal of the living God.

The sixth seal does not give us a completed picture. We see the great and awe-inspiring movements that are heralds of the day of wrath. The whole world is stirred and startled at the tread of the approaching Christ, and then the vision melts away; we see no more, but we have seen enough to be sure that the close of the age is at hand. Yet we are anxious to know something of those who have been faithful, pure, and chivalrous witnesses for truth and right, for Christ and God.

In that day, that awful day, the whole population of the world seems to be smitten with dismay; the trees, shaken with that terrible tempest, seem to be shedding all their fruit; the trembling of all created things seems to be about to shake down every building. Are all to go? Are none strong enough to survive?

We heard that there were seven seals attached to the mystic book that the Lion of the tribe of Judah was opening; but this sixth seal presents us with the picture of universal desolation. What is there left for the seventh seal to tell us? The answer to these questions is given in the seventh chapter, which introduces scenes that may either be taken as dissolving views, presented in the course of the sixth seal, or as complementary visions.

And those scenes show us in pictorial form that the Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptation: that in the midst of the time of the shaking of all things, when all might, majesty, strength, and genius of men is laid low, and every mere earth-born kingdom is overthrown, there is a kingdom that cannot be shaken. The germ of life was indestructible, and ready to break forth in fruit again: an ark, which sheltered all that was good, moved ever secure over the desolating floods:—

“I looked: aside the dust-cloud rolled,
The waster seemed the builder too;
Upspringing from the ruined old
I saw the new.

“’Twas but the ruin of the bad—
The wasting of the wrong and ill;
Whate’er of good the old time had
Was living still.”