(4) The ominous announcement. 1. “ Behold he cometh with the clouds"--1:7. The reference here is not to the second advent, or return of Christ, but to the coming events about to be delineated, as in the Lord’ s reply to Caiaphas, the high priest in Matthew 26:64 : “ Thou hast said: nevertheless I say unto you, Hereafter ye shall see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven.” This high priest would live to see the event here foretold, the fulfillment of which occurred in the figurative coming of Christ in the destruction of Jerusalem, as previously foretold in Matthew 24:1-51, and centuries before by the prophet Zechariah in chapter 14. The prophet referred to the destruction of Jerusalem as “ the day of the Lord,” and in Matthew 24:1-51 Jesus designated it as his coming. And Jesus told Caiaphas that he would live to witness it. The words behold he cometh are an announcement of warning, a call to expectancy, an alert to the impending developments. The added expression “with the clouds” is not to be literally taken for a material display of his bodily presence. In the description of God’ s judgment on Egypt, in Isaiah 19:6, the prophet said: “ Behold, the Lord rideth upon a swift cloud, and shall come into Egypt.” Also, in Ezekiel 38:16, the prophet said that the latter days God would come up against Israel “ as a cloud to cover the land.” And in Matthew 24:30, Jesus describes the events in the destruction of Jerusalem as “ the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.” This is precisely what Jesus told Pilate that he should see, and it is the meaning of Rev 1:7, pointing to the destruction of Jerusalem. 2. “ And every eye shall see him"--1:7. Both the impact and the import of the occurring events would be of universal knowledge. The siege and fall of Jerusalem would be known to the entire population of the Roman empire both Jewish and pagan. 3. “ And they that pierced him"--1:7. The act and the fact here declared refer not merely to the Romans who wielded and thrust the sword into the Lord’ s body on the cross, but also to the Jews who, through the officials of their nation, had performed the deed. The truth of this statement is affirmed by the officials of the Jews themselves in Matthew 27:25, and it is confirmed by the apostle Peter in Acts 2:23. 4. “ And all the kindreds (tribes) of the earth shall wail because of him"--1:7. The families of the Jews all over the Roman world are here mentioned. The Gentiles were never referred to as tribes; the tribes belonged to the Jews, who were dispersed into every part of the earth. Yet the events foretold of what would happen to their city and their nation, in Jerusalem and Judea, would become known wherever they were scattered, and all the Jews in every part of the earth would wail over this calamity. They would all mourn over the ruin of their city Jerusalem, and for the destruction of their system of Judaism, and for the overthrow of their theocracy in the demolition of their temple, and for the termination of their Jewish state-their national distinction and existence. And they would wail (or mourn) because of him, for it was in fulfillment of the fearful woes that he had pronounced against Jerusalem and which were figuratively ascribed to his coming. This piercing and mourning were the subjects of the prophecy of Zec 12:9-11; Zechariah 14:1, described as “ the day of the Lord.” The quotation of the first reference is made in John 19:37. These scriptural applications show that the fulfillment of the coming with the clouds in Revelation 1:7 was accomplished in the events of the fall of Jerusalem. These fulfilling events, at and after the destruction of Jerusalem, have unmistakable bearing on the contents of Revelation, and the period to which it belongs.