All is now ready. The King has been crowned. The final judgments of God against a rebellious world have been poured out in preparation for the return of the King. The great prostitute has been judged, she who has enticed the nations and led them down the path to eternal destruction. However, heaven does not wait expectantly in silence for this event, for waves of praise echo through the halls of the heavenly realm. Heaven's joy cannot be muted. It rings out from the many to the few; it starts with the judgment of the great prostitute, proceeds to the marriage of the true bride and climaxes with the return of the King with His bride to defeat Satan, the usurper, to take up His due authority and establish His rightful kingdom upon the earth.
Revelation 19:1-21:
| 19:1 | After these things I heard something like a loud voice of a great multitude in heaven, saying, “Hallelujah! Salvation and glory and power belong to our God; |
| 19:2 | BECAUSE HIS JUDGMENTS ARE TRUE AND RIGHTEOUS; for He has judged the great harlot who was corrupting the earth with her immorality, and HE HAS AVENGED THE BLOOD OF HIS BOND-SERVANTS ON HER.” |
| 19:3 | And a second time they said, “Hallelujah! HER SMOKE RISES UP FOREVER AND EVER.” |
| 19:4 | And the twenty-four elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshiped God who sits on the throne saying, “Amen. Hallelujah!” |
| 19:5 | And a voice came from the throne, saying, “Give praise to our God, all you His bond-servants, you who fear Him, the small and the great.” |
| 19:6 | Then I heard something like the voice of a great multitude and like the sound of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, saying, “Hallelujah! For the Lord our God, the Almighty, reigns. |
| 19:7 | “Let us rejoice and be glad and give the glory to Him, for the marriage of the Lamb has come and His bride has made herself ready.” |
| 19:8 | It was given to her to clothe herself in fine linen, bright and clean; for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints. |
| 19:9 | Then he *said to me, “Write, ‘Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.’ “And he *said to me, “These are true words of God.” |
| 19:10 | Then I fell at his feet to worship him. But he *said to me, “Do not do that; I am a fellow servant of yours and your brethren who hold the testimony of Jesus; worship God. For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.” |
| 19:11 | And I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse, and He who sat on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and wages war. |
| 19:12 | His eyes are a flame of fire, and on His head are many diadems; and He has a name written on Him which no one knows except Himself. |
| 19:13 | He is clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called The Word of God. |
| 19:14 | And the armies which are in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, were following Him on white horses. |
| 19:15 | From His mouth comes a sharp sword, so that with it He may strike down the nations, and He will rule them with a rod of iron; and He treads the wine press of the fierce wrath of God, the Almighty. |
| 19:16 | And on His robe and on His thigh He has a name written, “KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.” |
| 19:17 | Then I saw an angel standing in the sun, and he cried out with a loud voice, saying to all the birds which fly in midheaven, “Come, assemble for the great supper of God, |
| 19:18 | so that you may eat the flesh of kings and the flesh of commanders and the flesh of mighty men and the flesh of horses and of those who sit on them and the flesh of all men, both free men and slaves, and small and great.” |
| 19:19 | And I saw the beast and the kings of the earth and their armies assembled to make war against Him who sat on the horse and against His army. |
| 19:20 | And the beast was seized, and with him the false prophet who performed the signs in his presence, by which he deceived those who had received the mark of the beast and those who worshiped his image; these two were thrown alive into the lake of fire which burns with brimstone |
| 19:21 | And the rest were killed with the sword which came from the mouth of Him who sat on the horse, and all the birds were filled with their flesh. |
For our study, this is divided into three sections: first, praise for the judgment of the great harlot, second, praise for the marriage of the Lamb and, third, the return of the King.
The Praise for the Judgment of the Great Harlot
The stage shifts again. What John has just seen concerning the judgment of the Great Prostitute has been viewed on the earth. Now he is suddenly returned to the courts of heaven where he hears a great crowd loudly praising God. They call out, “Hallelujah,”—Hebrew for “Praise the LORD”—stating that salvation, glory and power belong to our God! The reason is given in the next verse, which incorporates two quotes from the Old Testament. The great crowd says that salvation, glory and power belong to our God because His judgments are true and righteous. This is a quote from Psalm 19:9,
| “The fear of the LORD is clean, enduring forever; The judgments of the LORD are true; they are righteous altogether." |
The LORD’s judgments are true and righteous. They are because He has judged the great prostitute who was corrupting the earth with her immorality! They then add a quotation from Deuteronomy 32:43, which is the last verse of a song of Moses, a song he gave to the people before they entered the land.
| Rejoice, O nations, with His people; For He will avenge the blood of His servants, And will render vengeance on His adversaries, And will atone for His land and His people. |
The immediate context of this song of Moses was his last address to Israel before his death, and the people departed to cross the Jordan River and enter the land under the leadership of Joshua. Moses has prophesied that they will depart from the LORD and that He would judge them. This song, the Song of Moses, would be a testimony to this judgment and a promise of restoration. As this song concludes, it does so with a promise that not only would the LORD judge His people for their sin, He would judge the nations for their treatment of His people. He would avenge them. The nations are called upon to rejoice with God’s people because He will do this. In heaven, John hears the great multitude praise God because He has fulfilled this prophecy; “HE HAS AVENGED THE BLOOD OF HIS BOND-SERVANTS ON HER.”
Again John hears the great multitude cry out, “Hallelujah.” This time the reason is that her smoke, i.e., the smoke of the destruction of Babylon the Great Prostitute, rises up forever and ever. This again is a quotation, this time from Isaiah 34:10. The context is the judgment of the nations by God in the last days. It is to be noted that the areas mentioned in this passage are the present-day Arab nations surrounding Israel, possibly indicating that the great prostitute is indeed the Muslim religion.
As the voice of the multitude dies down, John sees the twenty-four elders and the four seraphim around the throne fall down and worship God who sits upon the throne. He hears them add their voices to the multitude’s praise as they call out, “Amen! Hallelujah!”
Verse 19:5 is a transition verse. It takes us from the praise offered to God for His righteous judgment of the great prostitute in vengeance for His people to praise offered to the LORD God because He reigns and for the coming marriage of the Lamb. It is a call made from the throne by a voice for all God’s bondservants to praise Him whether they be small or great. In response to this call, the great crowd raises its voice again.
The Praise for the Marriage of the Lamb
The voices of the multitude roar out, like the roar of the booming surf or the roar of pealing thunder praising God for taking up His authority and reestablishing His reign on the earth. Next, the praise turns to the King. The call is to rejoice, be glad and give praise to God for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and the Bride is now ready. She is ready because her groom, the King of kings and Lord of lords, has redeemed her and cleansed her. Ephesians 5:25-27:
| 5:25 | Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her, |
| 5:26 | so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, |
| 5:27 | that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she would be holy and blameless. |
Because of His first advent and the sacrifice He offered of Himself, when He returns to rule, His bride may wear white linen, representing the righteous acts of the saints, the church, those who make up the Bride of Christ.
The voice speaking to John, probably the same angel who revealed to him the judgment of the great Prostitute and explained it, then tells John to write that those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb are blessed. There are two distinct groups of believers mentioned in this passage: first, the bride and, second, those who are invited to the marriage supper. They are not the same. The first group, the bride, is the church, the body of Christ. It includes all believers from Pentecost to the rapture. It includes both Jew and Gentile united together into one body. It includes all believers who are asleep in Christ, i.e., who have died and were resurrected at the rapture and believers who were living at the rapture and who have been translated or perfected and taken to be with their Lord. This group has been perfected both spiritually and physically, having the new nature. They can no longer be touched by sin, decay or death.
The second group, those invited to the marriage feast, includes all who have placed their faith in the coming King and survived through the period of the seven years of tribulation. While they are redeemed and have had their sin forgiven, they have not yet been perfected and are still subject to the old corrupt nature. They can be touched by sin, decay or death, but the promise of a new nature belongs to them. They, too, will someday be perfected.
There is yet another group. These are those who lived and died in faith either before the church age, i.e., Old Testament believers, or following the church age, in the seven years of tribulation. They will be resurrected at the beginning of the Kingdom and will reign with our Lord for 1000 years (Revelation 20:4). The question arises; are they to be considered part of the Bride or part of those who are blessed and invited to the marriage of the Lamb? It appears, to this student at least, that they are of the latter and not the former, although they too will have received the new body and new nature. However, it could well be the other option; we must wait for more revelation on this issue to be sure.
John’s wonder and astonishment overcome him, and he falls at this person’s feet in worship but is immediately reprimanded. The angel who was speaking to John says, “Do not do that.” He then explains that he is a fellow servant of John’s and of John’s brothers who witness to the true Messiah. John must worship God and God alone!
The Return of the King
Then John sees the event that believers await with hope, the return of the King! He sees heaven opened. What is involved in this is not stated, nor is it crucial that we know. The crucial fact is that the King and all who come with Him now are about to leave the heavenly realm and return to the earth. The two stages we have been witnessing as we have studied the Book of the Revelation of Jesus Christ become one. The characters and players upon one stage march on to the other. The picture given is that of an army with its commander at the head going out to battle. The gates of the castle open wide, trumpets blaring announcing the beginning of the campaign. Out marches first, the king, followed by His army.
The King is described first. Twelve things are stated of Him.
| 1. | He sits upon a white horse. Throughout most of history, this is how victorious conquerors have been pictured. On His triumphal entry into Jerusalem prior to His rejection by His people and His death, He rode upon a donkey. He came to serve and die. This time, as He prepares to enter the city as the conqueror, the King of kings and Lord of lords, it is no donkey He sits upon, but the white horse of the conqueror! |
| 2. | He is identified by the description of Faithful and True. He is the true king, for He was faithful to God in all that he has ever done. He is the rightful sovereign of the earth and now goes to claim His inheritance. |
| 3. | His war and His judgment are righteous and just. In our day, much has been said about wars as unjustified or justified. Even those that are declared just seem to have, in the end, ulterior motives on the part of those who so declare them. His war is just and righteous. He comes to establish peace, righteousness and justice upon the earth. He is the rightful king, and His war is just! |
| 4. | His eyes are described as a flame of fire. This is the same description given of our Lord as was given in chapter one, verse 14. His gaze is sharp and piercing. He sees all. |
| 5. | However, unlike the description in chapter one, now He wears a crown, actually many crowns for He not only is the king of Israel but of every nation upon the earth. |
| 6. | The name He carries is known only to Him. We are not told the significance of this. That it is not known by any apart from Him might say, among other things, that He who wears this name is unfathomable. Although He is one of us, a descendant of Adam, our father, He is so much more as well; He is God incarnate. |
| 7. | 7. Verse 12 tells of His past accomplishments, for He is clothed with a robe dipped in blood. He has achieved His exalted position by first being the perfect sacrifice for sin. |
| 8. | His name is called the Word of God. This is the title He was given by John in the first verse of his gospel. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” When the eternal triune God is spoken of, they are usually identified as the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Our Lord is often called the eternal Son of God. It would be more accurate to describe them as; the Father, the Word and the Holy Spirit. He is now the Son of God, yet He was not always so. The title the Son of God is a human title referring to His being the Messiah. However, He has always, eternally been the Word of God, the visible expression of the person and nature of the Triune God. |
Before the description of the King continues, John gives a description of the host that accompanies the King as He comes to reclaim His throne. They are called the armies that are in heaven. These are the saints. They are dressed in clean, white linen, representing that they too are as righteous and pure as is their Commander. The troops of earthly armies have always practiced atrocities upon the populations they conquered, even when prohibited to do so by their leaders. These armies are different. Their war will be righteous and just. The description of the king continues with the last four statements.
| 9. | From His mouth proceeds a sharp sword with which He strikes down the nations. Again, this is the same description as in chapter one. Here we are told that it is with this sword that He defeats the nations. In verse 21, the armies of the earth who opposed His return were killed by this sword. This sword is His word. He needs no sword or spear, no gun or bomb, no weapon of mass destruction. He speaks the word, and they are gone! His word indeed is powerful, for it was His word that brought the very universe into existence, and it will be His word that takes it out of existence before the new creation is revealed. |
| 10. | He will rule the nations with a rod of iron. His justice when He rules will be swift and effective. The nations of the earth in His kingship will obey or else. Note how difficult it is in our age to get other nations of the world to comply with United Nations’ resolutions! Nations do what they wish regardless of what the world majority wishes. Not so when our Lord reigns! They will comply or face the rod. However, it also must be noted that He is just, kind and good. His justice will be swift and harsh but fair and proper. |
| 11. | He will tread the winepress of the fierce wrath of God. This has already been pictured in heaven by our Lord when He swung the sharp sickle over the earth. Now He carries this out. All who oppose Him will perish. All who trust in Him will be saved. Not only will the armies of the earth be destroyed, all those that opposed Him, although not a part of these forces arrayed against the Lord on the day of His return, will be brought before Him for judgment. He will separate the wheat from the weeds, the goats from the sheep. Those who believe will enter the kingdom, those who did not will not. |
| 12. | Finally, on His robe and thigh, this name is written, King of kings and Lord of lords. He will be the supreme ruler of all the earth, representing His Father on the earth as God intended on the sixth day of the creation onward. There will be other nations on the earth during the kingdom, other governments, kings and rulers, but over all these, He will be the King of all kings and the Lord of all lords. |
Before the battle, a symbolic announcement is made to the inhabitants of the earth. It is an announcement of doom to those who oppose the coming of the King of kings and Lord of lords. An angel stands in the sun; that is, he is positioned between the sun and the observers so that those who see him see him superimposed in the image of the sun. Although he speaks to all the carrion fowl of the air, the message is to the armies and supporters of the beast. The birds are called to a supper, to feast upon the carcasses of God’s enemies, whether they are the commanders or the troops, or the animals upon which they sit. The message to the enemy is simple: You and all with you are doomed! No quarter will be given!
John sees the battle in brief. Never have so great a mass of armies opposed each other. Never before has there been such a great war where one side had 100% casualties and the other not a single casualty. But so it is now. The beast has assembled his armies from all the earth to oppose the King from heaven and His army. The beast is seized, and the false prophet and they are cast alive into hell, the lake of fire. These two men are the first to enter hell. All other opposition is put to death by the simple spoken word of the King, Jesus Christ our Lord. The birds, the carrion fowl of the earth, feasted upon their carcasses.
This event, the return of the king, is also described for us in Zechariah 14:1-15.
| 14:1 | Behold, a day is coming for the LORD when the spoil taken from you will be divided among you. |
| 14:2 | For I will gather all the nations against Jerusalem to battle, and the city will be captured, the houses plundered, the women ravished and half of the city exiled, but the rest of the people will not be cut off from the city. |
| 14:3 | Then the LORD will go forth and fight against those nations, as when He fights on a day of battle. |
| 14:4 | In that day His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, which is in front of Jerusalem on the east; and the Mount of Olives will be split in its middle from east to west by a very large valley, so that half of the mountain will move toward the north and the other half toward the south. |
| 14:5 | You will flee by the valley of My mountains, for the valley of the mountains will reach to Azel; yes, you will flee just as you fled before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah. Then the LORD, my God, will come, and all the holy ones with Him! |
| 14:6 | In that day there will be no light; the luminaries will dwindle. |
| 14:7 | For it will be a unique day which is known to the LORD, neither day nor night, but it will come about that at evening time there will be light. |
| 14:8 | And in that day living waters will flow out of Jerusalem, half of them toward the eastern sea and the other half toward the western sea; it will be in summer as well as in winter |
| 14:9 | And the LORD will be king over all the earth; in that day the LORD will be the only one, and His name the only one. |
| 14:10 | All the land will be changed into a plain from Geba to Rimmon south of Jerusalem; but Jerusalem will rise and remain on its site from Benjamin’s Gate as far as the place of the First Gate to the Corner Gate, and from the Tower of Hananel to the king’s wine presses. |
| 14:11 | People will live in it, and there will no longer be a curse, for Jerusalem will dwell in security. |
| 14:12 | Now this will be the plague with which the LORD will strike all the peoples who have gone to war against Jerusalem; their flesh will rot while they stand on their feet, and their eyes will rot in their sockets, and their tongue will rot in their mouth. |
| 14:13 | It will come about in that day that a great panic from the LORD will fall on them; and they will seize one another’s hand, and the hand of one will be lifted against the hand of another. |
| 14:14 | Judah also will fight at Jerusalem; and the wealth of all the surrounding nations will be gathered, gold and silver and garments in great abundance. |
| 14:15 | So also like this plague will be the plague on the horse, the mule, the camel, the donkey and all the cattle that will be in those camps. |
We most often mentally picture our Lord as gentle and mild, forgiving and merciful. Nevertheless, He is also the righteous judge, the one who will execute the judgment of God upon a rebellious world, exacting vengeance for all the saints who have suffered under the hand of the enemy. Today we are not to oppose those who attack us. We are to turn the other cheek. However, we can be assured that the King and His bride will return. He will judge those who have opposed Him and avenge Himself on behalf of His followers.
