11:16 {29} And the four and twenty elders, which sat before God on their seats, fell upon their faces, and worshipped God,
(29) As before in Re 7:11. This giving of thanks is altogether of the same content with the words going before.
11:16-18 The four and twenty elders, which sat before God. These heavenly princes, in some way identified with the work of redemption, join in worship and praises. The mystery of God has been finished in the days of the voice of the seventh angel (Re 10:7). The eighteenth verse will sufficiently explain why this also should be called a woe trumpet. It is the trumpet of judgment.
11:16 And the four and twenty elders - These shall reign over the earth, Rev 5:10. Who sit before God on their thrones - which we do not read of any angel.
11:14-19 Before the sounding of the seventh and last trumpet, there is the usual demand of attention. The saints and angels in heaven know the right of our God and Saviour to rule over all the world. But the nations met God's wrath with their own anger. It was a time in which he was beginning to reward his people's faithful services, and sufferings; and their enemies fretted against God, and so increased their guilt, and hastened their destruction. By the opening the temple of God in heaven, may be meant, that there was a more free communication between heaven and earth; prayer and praises more freely and frequently going up, graces and blessings plentifully coming down. But it rather seems to refer to the church of God on earth. In the reign of antichrist, God's law was laid aside, and made void by traditions and decrees; the Scriptures were locked up from the people, but now they are brought to the view of all. This, like the ark, is a token of the presence of God returned to his people, and his favour toward them in Jesus Christ, as the Propitiation for their sins. The great blessing of the Reformation was attended with very awful providences; as by terrible things in righteousness God answered the prayers presented in his holy temple now opened.
