Revelation 14:13

Blessing on the Faithful Dead, and the Harvest and the Vintage of the Earth, Revelation 14:13-20

13. Write See on Revelation 10:4.

Blessed are the dead&c. Two questions arise as to this verse, though its touching associations make us unwilling to raise questions about it. What is its relevance here?and why are the holy dead blessed "from henceforth"? i.e. probably, from the time foreshadowed by the last part of the vision. The answer to both probably is, that in those days a holy death will be the only escape from persecution and temptation, which "if it were possible should seduce even the Elect." Not only "for the Elect's sake the days shall be shortened," but even before they end, one and another of the Elect will be delivered from them. Even now it is a matter of thanksgiving when a Christian is delivered by death "from the miseries of this wretched world, from the body of death, and from all temptation," and much more then, when temptation is so much sorer that no Saint can dare wish to abide in the flesh. This seems better than supposing that the special blessedness of the dead of those days consists only in the interval being shorter before their "perfect consummation and bliss."

that they may rest The construction probably is, "who die that they may rest" the sense is, "Yea, they are indeed blessed, for the result, and the providential end, of their dying is, to bring them to rest."

and their works Read, for their works.

do follow them More accurately, follow with them: there is therefore hardly any resemblance to 1 Timothy 5:24-25. The meaning of the passage is much the same as 1 Thessalonians 4:15 we are not to think of the holy dead as if they missed (and as if the dead of the last days only justmissed) the glories of the Lord's coming: for they and their good works are kept by Him safe against that day, ready to share in its glories.