In our introduction we talked about the need to study the prophecies of Daniel, along with those of other prophets, in order to understand Revelation. In today's passage John quotes both Daniel and Zechariah in reference to the return and the reign of the Lord Jesus Christ. "'Look, He is coming with the clouds;' and, 'every eye will see Him, even those who pierced Him;' and all peoples on earth 'will mourn because of Him.' So shall it be! Amen." (Revelation 1:7)
It's at this point that we must clearly fix in our minds the difference between two events: the calling up of the church from the world (often referred to as "the rapture of the church"), and the event known as the Second Coming of Christ. There is a period of time which separates these two monumental happenings. As we are going to establish in this study, Christ will call His church out of the world either at some point prior to the beginning of the Great Tribulation, or at least before the dreadful final half of the seven years of the Great Tribulation. His return to the earth, known as the Second Coming, will occur at the end of the seven years of the Great Tribulation.
The prophecies John quotes in today's passage refer to the Second Coming of Christ. The Bible doesn't tell us that when Christ calls the church out of the world, "every eye will see Him". In fact, many theologians propose that the rapture of the church will take the form of a sudden mass disappearance. The Bible certainly doesn't tell us that "all peoples on earth will mourn" when the rapture of the church takes place. If this were so, then we'd find every citizen of earth repenting who is left behind to endure the Great Tribulation, but that's not how things play out. There are people who will come to Christ during the Great Tribulation, as we will learn later on in this book. But there are far more who will choose to follow the Antichrist and who will "curse the name of God". (Revelation 16:9,11) Those who are going to mourn when they see Christ returning to reign over all the earth are those who have, at every opportunity, refused to bow their hearts and their knees to Him. He is the last person they ever want to see. His appearance means nothing but an inescapable judgment for them.
The first verse that John quotes comes from the seventh chapter of the book of Daniel. In this prophecy Daniel saw the Son of God being given authority over the earth by God the Father. It is Christ's coronation day, so to speak, when He is crowned King of kings over all the earth forever. "In my vision at night I looked, and there before me was one like a son of man, coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into His presence. He was given authority, all nations and peoples of every language worshiped Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and His kingdom is one that will never be destroyed." (Daniel 7:13-14) Daniel saw one who looked like a son of man (like a human being) approaching the very throne of God and being honored by God with an everlasting kingdom. Who could this be other than Christ? What human being other than Christ could approach God as an equal and be honored by God with a kingdom that will never end?
The people of Old Testament times clearly understood this prophecy to be about the Messiah, for when Jesus quoted this passage in reference to Himself during His trial before the Sanhedrin, the high priest tore his robes in a rage and declared Him guilty of blasphemy and worthy of the death penalty. (Matthew 26:65) The high priest knew Daniel was talking about the Messiah, and he knew Jesus was claiming to be the Messiah by quoting Daniel's words in reference to Himself. In using the words of Daniel's prophecy, John is reminding the world that a day is coming when Christ will reign over it forever in complete holiness. We can either be prepared to bow reverently at His feet, or we must be prepared to suffer the consequences of our refusal to let Him be Lord of our lives.
There is another type of mourning that will take place on the day Christ returns to the earth. In our passage today John quotes the prophet Zechariah, and in this passage of Zechariah the Lord promises to give Israel an eternal peace from all her enemies. On the day when He fulfills this promise, the Lord says, "I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and supplication. They will look on Me, the One they have pierced, and they will mourn for Him as one mourns for an only child, and grieve bitterly for Him as one grieves for a firstborn son." (Zechariah 12:10) In that day the people of Israel will mourn, not because they are lost like those who have rejected Christ, but because during the end times they have accepted Christ as Savior. They will mourn the knowledge that at one time the religious leaders of their nation rejected and pierced the One who came to His own people and was not received by them. (John 1:11) This is no way means that the Jewish people were any more responsible for the death of Jesus than were the Gentiles. Every human being on the face of the earth (past, present, and future) is responsible for the death of Jesus because every human being has sinned and fallen short. (Romans 3:23) All peoples of the earth were spiritually responsible for nailing Jesus to the cross. In addition, all peoples of the earth were legally responsible for nailing Jesus to the cross, for it took both the Jewish religious leaders and the Gentile Roman government to sentence Jesus to death and to carry out the death penalty on Him.
So we see that all those who were left behind at the rapture of the church will have a reason to mourn at the Second Coming of Christ. Those who persisted in rebellion all their lives, and who refused to repent even in the end times, will mourn because judgment is at hand. Those of the nation of Israel who have come to Christ during the Great Tribulation will experience sadness over the way the Messiah was treated at His first advent. And lastly, those Gentiles who didn't come to Christ until the Great Tribulation will feel sorrowful that they didn't accept Him before the darkest days the world has ever seen came upon it. They will experience grief that they wasted so many years of their lives living in sin and rebellion before, in the midst of the terrible plagues of the last days, they recognized the end times for what they were and at last gave their hearts and lives to the Lord. They will wish they had lived for Him and had gone to be with Him at the rapture of the church.
Why is John talking about the Second Coming of Christ at this point in the book of Revelation? Since this event will not take place until the end of the seven years of the Great Tribulation, why does he speak of it before he even tells us about the Great Tribulation? Because he wants everyone to get his or her heart right with the Lord before the rapture of the church, so that they will not be present on the earth during the terrible plagues of those final seven years. John quotes the prophecies of Daniel and Zechariah as a warning to those who are rejecting the holy Son of God. He knows time is short because Christ has told him so. We have been living in the last days ever since Christ ascended to the Father, and no prophecies remain to be fulfilled before Christ calls His church out of the world. This could happen at any moment, and when it does, the events connected with the Great Tribulation are going to begin to take place swiftly. Those years are going to be a dreadful time to be on the earth. That time is going to be so bad that, as the saying goes, we wouldn't wish them on our worst enemy. Those days are going to be so dark that they will either drive people to their knees in submission and worship or they are going to drive those with evil hearts even further away from the Lord. The choice is up to each individual, and John presents that choice to us from the very beginning of the book of Revelation: we can either accept the love and salvation offered to us by the One who gave everything He had to pay the penalty for our sins, or we can reject the sacrifice He made and bear the penalty ourselves.
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