Revelation
19:1-21
God is a God of Justice and of Vengeance. He says in Scripture that “Vengeance
is Mine,” (Deut. 32:35, Rom.
1 After these
things I heard a loud voice of a great multitude in heaven, saying, “Alleluia!
Salvation and glory and honor and power belong to the Lord our God! 2 For true and
righteous are His judgments, because He has judged the great harlot who
corrupted the earth with her fornication; and He has avenged on her the blood
of His servants shed by her.” 3 Again they
said, “Alleluia! Her smoke rises up forever and ever!” 4 And the
twenty-four elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshiped God who
sat on the throne, saying, “Amen! Alleluia!”
The
rejoicing is on behalf of His salvation (and the glory, honor and power that
God has in relation to that), the destruction of
If we as
Christians are to be like God, we are not to be tolerant of sin. We can judge
things to be absolutely right and absolutely wrong, not based on our feelings
or prejudice, but based on what God has revealed as right and wrong. The first
and greatest sin that the “mega phone”
(loud voice) in heaven rejoices in judgment over is the judgment of the great
harlot who corrupted the earth with fornication. As we have seen, this is not
sexual immorality, but false worship.
What does
that tell us should be our attitude of false religions which are clearly
against the Word of God?
5 Then a voice
came from the throne, saying, “Praise our God, all you His servants and those
who fear Him, both small and great!” 6 And I heard,
as it were, the voice of a great multitude, as the sound of many waters and as
the sound of mighty thunderings, saying, “Alleluia! For the Lord God Omnipotent
reigns! 7 Let us be glad
and rejoice and give Him glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His
wife has made herself ready.” 8 And to her it
was granted to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright, for the fine linen
is the righteous acts of the saints. 9 Then he said
to me, “Write: ‘Blessed are those who are called to the marriage supper of the
Lamb!’ ” And he said to me, “These are the true sayings of God.” 10 And I fell at
his feet to worship him. But he said to me, “See that you do not do that! I am
your fellow servant, and of your brethren who have the testimony of Jesus.
Worship God! For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.”
The voice from the throne is different than the voice heard in Rev. 18:4 from heaven, as this one is not God’s voice, but rather from one of the angels, elders or creatures around the throne, for he says “Praise our God.” We see that throughout the entire time of the Tribulation, despite the rapture of the church and the arrival of more in heaven during the Tribulation, the Marriage Supper of the Lamb has still not taken place.
But according to Jewish custom, two-thirds of the marriage had taken place! According to John F. Walvoord, Jewish marriages had three aspects:
1) A payment of a dowry is made, and the only way to end this future marriage would be through a divorce;
2) At a later point, the bridegroom and his friends would go to the house of the bride and escort her back to his home (see Matt. 25:1-13);
3) The bride and groom would go to his home and have guests to the marriage supper, one which would sometimes last for days (see John 2).
This points directly to the three aspects of Christ and the church:
1) salvation
2) the Rapture and
3) the final consummation of church to Christ at the marriage
supper when Christ will partake of the fruit of the vine (Matt 26:29).
The outpouring of worship is in such sharp contrast to chapters 16-18 that John gets confused on who it is that is speaking with him. He falls at the feet of one of the elders, who also has “the testimony of Jesus,” who is a “fellow servant and of your brethren.” The elder immediately refuses worship since he is a human like John.
However, Jesus frequently received the worship of people
(Matt. 8:2,
If the
bride is the church, and the Lamb is the Son of God, who then are those who are
called to the marriage supper of the Lamb. This blessed beatitude must be those
who are saved, but are not the “church,” in the strictest sense of the word.
They are those who perhaps never reached the age of accountability, those saved
by faith before
Allusions
of this can be found in Song of Solomon, the parable of the virgins in Matt. 25
and Psalm 25 below.
11
So the King will greatly desire your beauty;
because He is your Lord, worship Him… 15 With gladness
and rejoicing they shall be brought; they shall enter the King's palace. 16 Instead of Your
fathers shall be your sons, whom You shall make princes in all the earth. 17 I will make
Your name to be remembered in all generations; therefore the people shall
praise You forever and ever.
Joseph A. Seiss wrote in the late 1800s, “If
all the saved were actually the Bride, it would have been enough and more to
the point to say, ‘Blessed they that are called to be the wife of the Lamb.’ ”
Of course, all the allusions are simply that, allusions and not to be taken
grotesquely literally. It simply is to say that when the church is united in
heaven with Christ, those who in the Old Testament days looking forward, or
others who never got the opportunity to accept Christ, will look with great
blessedness to observe this “marriage” in heaven. Angels and other beings will
also be blessed at their attendance to this marriage. Peter wrote of this
distinction between the Old Testament saints and angels as they looked at the
church, “Of this salvation the prophets
have inquired and searched carefully, who prophesied of the grace that would
come to you, searching what, or what manner of time, the Spirit of Christ who
was in them was indicating when He testified beforehand the sufferings of
Christ and the glories that would follow. To them it was revealed that, not
to themselves, but to us they were ministering the things which now have
been reported to you through those who have preached the gospel to you by the
Holy Spirit sent from heaven--things which angels desire to look into”
(1 Pet. 1:10-12).
For those who say that prophecy is too
difficult to understand or that it should not be studied, we see that Jesus’
testimony, his own story, is both the fulfillment of prophecy and will fulfill
prophecy. Isa. 46:10 states that God declares the end from the beginning, and
the fulfilled prophecies show us that God is who He says he is. The spirit of
prophecy gives us the blessed hope and knowledge that God has been and always
will be victorious!
11
Now I saw heaven opened, and
behold, a white horse. And He who sat on him was called Faithful and True, and
in righteousness He judges and makes war. 12 His eyes were
like a flame of fire, and on His head were many crowns. He had a name written
that no one knew except Himself. 13 He was clothed
with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called The Word of God. 14 And the armies
in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, followed Him on white
horses. 15
Now out of His mouth goes a sharp
sword, that with it He should strike the nations. And He Himself will rule them
with a rod of iron. He Himself treads the winepress of the fierceness and wrath
of Almighty God. 16And He has on
His robe and on His thigh a name written: KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS.
Previously a white horse was named
in the “four horsemen of the Apocalypse” (Rev. 6:2). Here the true King of
Kings will ride down from heaven. He is the Logos of God, a phrase that John
made famous in his gospel. The armies in heaven are clothed in fine linen,
white and clean, indicating that we have nothing to fear from Satan any longer.
We will ride with Him in the battle, but He will win the victory. His robe is
dipped in blood, proclaiming His victory over death. Nations will still stand
during the Millennial reign of Christ, but at that time, He shall rule with
strength. His many diadem crowns will prove his kingship over all the earth,
much greater than the seven crowns of the dragon or the ten crowns of the
antiChrist. This King will be named Faithful and True and will have a name no
one but He Himself has ever known. A name signifies identity and descriptions
of who He is. Even the most learned theologian has never grasped the fullness
of who this Son of God and Son of Man is. Nothing will escape the notice of His
fiery eyes, nor will anything stand up to the sword of His mouth.
17
Then I saw an angel standing in the
sun; and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the birds that fly in the
midst of heaven, “Come and gather together for the supper of the great God, 18 that you may
eat the flesh of kings, the flesh of captains, the flesh of mighty men, the
flesh of horses and of those who sit on them, and the flesh of all people, free
and slave, both small and great.” 19 And I saw the
beast, the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war
against Him who sat on the horse and against His army. 20 Then the beast
was captured, and with him the false prophet who worked signs in his presence,
by which he deceived those who received the mark of the beast and those who
worshiped his image. These two were cast alive into the lake of fire burning
with brimstone. 21
And the rest were killed with the
sword which proceeded from the mouth of Him who sat on the horse. And all the
birds were filled with their flesh.
For those
who are saved, they are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb. For those
who are not saved, their dead bodies become the supper of vultures and birds of
the air. Whether a person is great or small on earth, free or slave, king or
peasant, all will face the same fate without Christ. The battle will be swift
but not instantaneous. There is a progression in this battle. While the rest
are killed with the sword, the beast and the false prophet are sent directly
into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second, spiritual death for
those without Christ. Jack Van Impe explains that it is
“The final place of punishment and torment for all
those who reject Christ (Revelation
It is our
Christian duty and commission to warn every person to not reject Christ and
thus be assigned to the
