Revelation 6:14

6:12-17 When the sixth seal was opened, there was a great earthquake. The foundations of churches and states would be terribly shaken. Such bold figurative descriptions of great changes abound in the prophecies of Scripture; for these events are emblems, and declare the end of the world and the day of judgment. Dread and terror would seize on all sorts of men. Neither grandeur, riches, valour, nor strength, can support men at that time. They would be glad to be no more seen; yea, to have no longer any being. Though Christ be a Lamb, he can be angry, and the wrath of the Lamb is exceedingly dreadful; for if the Redeemer himself, who appeases the wrath of God, be our enemy, where shall we find a friend to plead for us? As men have their day of opportunity, and their seasons of grace, so God has his day of righteous wrath. It seems that the overthrow of the paganism of the Roman empire is here meant. The idolaters are described as hiding themselves in their dens and secret caves, and vainly seeking to escape ruin. In such a day, when the signs of the times show those who believe in God's word, that the King of kings is approaching, Christians are called to a decided course, and to a bold confession of Christ and his truth before their fellowmen. Whatever they may have to endure, the short contempt of man is to be borne, rather than that shame which is everlasting.

14 . And the heaven departed ] i.e. parted asunder. The verb depart was so used (only in a transitive sense) in the Marriage Service until the last revision of the Prayer-Book, “till death us depart,” i.e. “till death part us.” Here we still have a reference to Isaiah 34:4 . The word for “scroll” is the same as that rendered “book” in c. v. &c. every mountain and island , &c.] Cf. Revelation 16:20 . There the convulsion is greater than here: and even there it does not imply quite so much as Revelation 20:11 —a fact to be remembered in the interpretation of this passage.

Two expressions more signifying the same thing. The first is used by the prophet, to signify the change God would make in the state of the Edomites, Isaiah 34:4 , as will appear by comparing what that prophet saith, with what Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Obadiah say, upon the same argument, Jeremiah 49:7-22 Ezekiel 35:1-15 . And every mountain and island were moved out of their places; all sorts of people shall be destroyed, or all the paganish religion shall be rooted out.

14. departed—Greek, "was separated from" its place; "was made to depart." Not as Alford, "parted asunder"; for, on the contrary, it was rolled together as a scroll which had been open is rolled up and laid aside. There is no "asunder one from another" here in the Greek, as in Ac 15:39, which Alford copies. mountain … moved out of … places—(Ps 121:1, Margin; Jer 3:23; 4:24; Na 1:5). This total disruption shall be the precursor of the new earth, just as the pre-Adamic convulsions prepared it for its present occupants.

Verse 14. - And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and the heaven was removed as a scroll when it is rolled up. The scroll - the parchment book or roll, which is spread out to read, and, when read, roiled up and put away. The passage is apparently founded upon Isaiah 34:4 . "The host of heaven shall be dissolved, and the heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll," etc. And every mountain and island were moved out of their places (cf. Isaiah 40:4 , "Every mountain and hill shall be made low;" also Jeremiah 3:23 , "Truly in vain is salvation hoped for from the hills, and from the multitude of mountains"). The enumeration of seven objects in vers. 12-14 seems to denote the all extending nature of God's judgment. Revelation 6:14

And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal - See the notes at Revelation 5:1 ; Revelation 6:1 . And, lo, there was a great earthquake - Before endeavoring to ascertain to what the sixth seal was designed to refer, it is proper, as in the previous cases, to furnish a particular explanation of the meaning of the symbols. All the symbols represented in the opening of this seal denote consternation, commotion, changes; but still they are all significant, and we are to suppose that something would occur corresponding with each one of them. It cannot be supposed that the things here described were represented on the part of the roll or volume that was now unfolded in any other way than that they were pictures, or that the whole was a species of panoramic representation made to pass before the eyes. Thus understood, it would not be difficult to represent each one of these things in a painting: as the heaving ground - the agitated forests - the trembling hills - the falling cities and houses - the sun blackened, and the moon turned to blood: (a) The earthquake, Revelation 6:12; "There was a great earthquake." The word used here denotes a shaking or agitation of the earth. The effect, when violent, is to produce important changes - opening chasms in the earth; throwing down houses and temples; sinking hills, and elevating plains; causing ponds and lakes to dry up, or forming them where none existed; elevating the ocean from its bed, rending rocks, etc.

As all that occurs in the opening of the other seals is symbolical, it is to be presumed that this is also, and that for the fulfillment of this we are not to look for a literal earthquake, but for such agitations and changes in the world as would be properly symbolized by this. The earthquake, as a symbol, would merely denote great agitations or overturnings on the earth. The particular character of those changes must be determined by other circumstances in the symbol that would limit and explain it. There are, it is said, but three literal earthquakes referred to in the Scripture: that mentioned in 1 Kings 19:11; that in Uzziah's time, Amos 1:1; Zechariah 14:5; and what took place at the Saviour's death. All the rest are emblematical or symbolical-referring mostly to civil commotions and changes. Then in Haggai 2:6-7; "Yet once, it is a little while, and I will shake the heavens and the earth, and the sea, and the dry land, and I will shake all nations, and the desire of all nations shall come; and I will fill this house with glory, saith the Lord of hosts." That is, there would be great agitations in the world before he came. See the notes on Hebrews 12:26-28. So also great changes and commotions are referred to in Isaiah 24:19-20; "The earth is utterly broken down, the earth is clean dissolved, the earth is moved exceedingly.