Revelation 7:16-17 They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat.… I. THE SHEPHERD. It is evidently the vision of a pastoral scene which is now in the eye of the Apostle of Patmos. 1. The description implies that there will be a continual remembrance on the part of the ransomed of the death and sufferings of their Shepherd. A Lamb slain! Strange symbol, in the place where suffering never enters, and death is unknown! 2. A second truth we may gather from this figure of the Lamb leading the ransomed in the heavenly world is, the perpetuity of Christ's exalted human nature. It is not as a kingly Shepherd He leads, but as one of the flock Himself — wearing their nature. He is, and ever will be "that same Jesus," unchanged and unchangeable. II. Let us pass now from the glorified LEADER to the glorified FLOCK. 1. All the joys of the ransomed flock will be associated with the love and companionship of their Shepherd. He feeds — He leads — He wipes away all tears from their eyes; and in a previous verse (15), under a different figure, it is said, "He that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them." Heaven would be no heaven without Jesus. "Leading" them, "feeding" them, — wiping the very tear-drops from their eyes. What figurative language could express more intimate fellowship and communion! The fellowship of the believer and his Saviour on earth — alas! how fitful, intermittent, transient! "In Thy presence there is fulness of joy." 2. This description would seem to denote an infinite progression in the joys and felicities of the ransomed flock. The Shepherd is seen leading them from pasture to pasture, from fountain to fountain, higher and yet higher up the hills of God. The heavenly pilgrim will be attaining ever new views of God — new unfoldings, and revelations of the Divine purposes — new motives for the ceaseless activities of his holy being. Heaven will thus, in the language of the old divines, be "a rest without a rest." "They rest." "They rest not." 3. The figurative language of the evangelist further indicates that there will be an unfolding of the Shepherd's wisdom and faithfulness in His earthly dispensations. God is represented as wiping away all tears from their eyes. As if, when they entered glory, some lingering tears were still there. As if the eye had not recovered from the night of earthly weeping. As in a forest, after a drenching thunder-shower, every bough, and blade, and leaf is dripping with rain; for a considerable time after the sun has shone out, and the sky is blue, and the birds of the grove are singing, the lingering drops gem the branches and sprinkle the sward. But the sun is up: and his genial rays are drinking up the moisture — nature's tear-drops. One by one they evaporate, slowly, gradually; and the refreshed forest rejoices, and basks in the sun's radiance. So with the great Sun of Deity in heaven. One by one earth's remaining tears vanish before the radiance of that Sun of Wisdom and Love. 4. Yet once more, this description would seem to indicate that there will be a variety and diversity in the joys of Heaven, suited to the various capacities and tastes of the redeemed. It is not to one fountain to which the Lamb is said to lead them; they are "living fountains of waters." Like the four-branched river in the first earthly Eden, there will be, from the one great river of Deity, streams which make glad the city of God. The pastures will be different. We delight to think of the flock of heaven — each member of it perfect in the full measure of its own bliss — but each under the Shepherd's eye, thus following the pasture, or climbing the mountain-steep, or browsing by the streamlet, it most loves. And yet all the fold, in these separate and distinctive ways, combining to glorify their Shepherd-King. (J. R. Macduff, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat. |
    |