Revelation 7:16

They shall hunger no more, nor thirst any more,.... The words are taken out of Isa 49:10, and will be true in a literal and corporeal sense.

(Isa 49:10). hunger no more--as they did here. thirst any more-- (Joh 4:13). the sun--literally, scorching in the East. Also, symbolically, the sun of persecution. neither . . . light--Greek, "by no means at all . . . light" (fall). heat--as the sirocco.

LET us think of this happiness, that we may be comforted in the prospect of it. All this is already enjoyed by tens of millions of the redeemed! Some of those who were very dear to us on earth, whose faith we desire to follow, are now forever with the Lord and this is their joyful portion—"They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore; neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat." Our comfort lies in the sweet reflection that we are journeying to this goodly land!

LET us think of this happiness, that we may be comforted in the prospect of it. All this is already enjoyed by tens of millions of the redeemed! Some of those who were very dear to us on earth, whose faith we desire to follow, are now forever with the Lord and this is their joyful portion—"They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore; neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat." Our comfort lies in the sweet reflection that we are journeying to this goodly land! This Divine inheritance is ours—we have the seal of the Holy Spirit upon our title deeds—we have tasted of the grapes of its Eshcol and we already rejoice in the light and warmth of its celestial city to which we draw near! In a little time we shall be actually within the gate of pearl and shall know, in an instant, infinitely more of its glory than an Apostle could teach us here below. We are like one who has, in his hands, the guidebook of a country to which he is journeying—he finds in it fair pictures of the scenery of the land and the architecture of the cities—and as he reads each page, he says to himself, "I am going there! This is what I shall soon behold!" It would be a wretched thing to have such a book in one's hands and to be entering upon a lifelong banishment from home and the home country! Then would we have to say, "This was my country, once, but I shall never see it again. Fair are its skies and lovely are its vales, but my eyes shall ache in vain to gaze upon them.

JORDAN is a very narrow stream. It made a sort of boundary for Canaan but it hardly sufficed to divide it from the rest of the world since a part of the possessions of Israel was on the eastern side of it. Those who saw the Red Sea divided and all Israel marching through its depths must have thought it no small thing for the Jordan to be dried up and for the people to pass through it to Canaan. The greatest barrier between Believers and Heaven has been safely passed.

JORDAN is a very narrow stream. It made a sort of boundary for Canaan but it hardly sufficed to divide it from the rest of the world since a part of the possessions of Israel was on the eastern side of it. Those who saw the Red Sea divided and all Israel marching through its depths must have thought it no small thing for the Jordan to be dried up and for the people to pass through it to Canaan. The greatest barrier between Believers and Heaven has been safely passed. In the day when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ we passed through our Red Sea and the Egyptians of our sins were drowned. Great was the marvel of mercy! To enter fully into our eternal inheritance we have only to cross the narrow stream of Death—and scarcely that—for the kingdom of Heaven is on this side of the river as well as on the other. I begin by reminding you of this because we are very apt to imagine that we must endure a kind of purgatory while we are on earth and then, if we are Believers, we may break loose into Heaven after we have shuffled off this mortal coil. But it is not so. Heaven must be in us before we can be in Heaven—and while we are yet in the wilderness we may spy out the land—and may eat of the clusters of Eshcol. There is no such gulf between earth and Heaven as gloomy thoughts suggest. Our dreams should not be of an abyss, but of a ladder whose foot is on the earth and whose top is in Glory. There would not be one hundredth part so much difference between earth and Heaven if we did not live so far below our privileges. We live on the ground, when we might rise as on the wings of eagles! We are all too conscious of this body. Oh, that we were more often where Paul was when he said, "Whether in the body or out of the body, I cannot tell: God knows"! If not caught up into Paradise, yet may our daily life be as the garden of the Lord.

WE cannot too often turn our thoughts heavenward, for this is one of the great cures for worldliness. The way to liberate our souls from the bonds that tie us to earth is to strengthen the cords that kind us to heaven. You will think less of this poor little globe when you think more of the world to come. This contemplation will also serve to console us for the loss, as we call it, of those who have gone before. It is their gain, and we will rejoice in it. We cannot have a richer source of consolation than this, that they who have fallen asleep in Christ have not perished; they have not lost life, but they have gained the fullness of it. They are rid at all that molests us here, and they enjoy more than we as yet can imagine. Cheer your hearts, ye mourners, by looking up to the gate of pearl, by looking up—to those who day without night surround the throne of their Redeemer. It will also tend to quicken our diligence if we think much of heaven. Suppose I should miss it after all! What if I should not so run that I may obtain! If heaven be little, I shall be but a little loser by losing it; but if it be indeed such that the half could never be told us, then, may God grant us diligence to make our calling and election sure, that we may be certain of entering into this rest, and may not be like the many who came out of Egypt, but who perished in the wilderness and never entered into the promised land. All things considered, I know of no meditation that is likely to be more profitable than a frequent consideration of the rest which remaineth for the people of God. I ask, then, for a very short time that your thoughts may go upward to the golden streets.

WE cannot too often turn our thoughts heavenward, for this is one of the great cures for worldliness. The way to liberate our souls from the bonds that tie us to earth is to strengthen the cords that kind us to heaven. You will think less of this poor little globe when you think more of the world to come. This contemplation will also serve to console us for the loss, as we call it, of those who have gone before. It is their gain, and we will rejoice in it.

They shall hunger no more - They shall no longer be deprived of their religious ordinances, and the blessings attendant on them, as they were when in a state of persecution. Neither shall the sun light on them - Their secular rulers, being converted to God, became nursing fathers to the Church. Nor any heat - Neither persecution nor affliction of any kind. These the Hebrews express by the term heat, scorching, etc.

They shall hunger no more - A considerable portion of the redeemed who will be there, were, when on earth, subjected to the evils of famine; many who perished with hunger. In heaven they will be subjected to that evil no more, for there will be no want that will not be supplied. The bodies which the redeemed will have - spiritual bodies 1Co 15:44 - will doubtless be such as will be nourished in some other way than by food, if they require any nourishment; and whatever that nourishment may be, it will be fully supplied. The passage here is taken from Isa 49:10; “They shall not hunger nor thirst; neither shall the heat nor sun smite them.” See the notes on that passage. Neither thirst any more - As multitudes of the redeemed have been subjected to the evils of hunger, so have multitudes also been subjected to the pains of thirst. In prison; in pathless deserts; in times of drought, when wells and fountains were dried up, they have suffered from this cause - a cause producing as intense suffering perhaps as any that man endures. Compare Exo 17:3; Psa 63:1; Lam 4:4; 2Co 11:27. It is easy to conceive of persons suffering so intensely from thirst that the highest vision of felicity would be such a promise as that in the words before us - “neither thirst anymore.” Neither shall the sun light on them - It is hardly necessary, perhaps, to say that the word “light” here does not mean to enlighten, to give light to, to shine on. The Greek is πέσῃ pesē - “fall on” - and the reference, probably is to the intense and burningheat of the sun, commonly called a sunstroke. Excessive heat of the sun, causing great pain or sudden death, is not a very uncommon thing among us, and must have been more common in the warm climates and burning sands of the countries in the vicinity of Palestine. […]