Revelation 19

Revelation 19:1-10

Section 3. (Revelation 19:1-10.)The Marriage of the Lamb. The harlot is now judged. The judgment of the whole earth is at hand. Before it comes, we are permitted a brief vision of heavenly things, and to see the heirs of the kingdom now ready to be established in their place with Him who is about to be revealed. A voice sounds from the throne: Give praise to our God, all ye His servants -ye that fear Him, small and great." It is not, of course, a simple exhortation to what in heaven can need no prompting, but a preparation of hearts for that which shall furnish fresh material for it. The response of the multitude shows what it is: “Halleluiah! for the Lord our God, the Almighty, reigneth.” The power that was always His, He is now going to put forth. Judgment is to return to righteousness.

Man’s day is at an end, with all the confusion that his will has wrought. The day of the Lord is come, to abase that which is high and exalt that which is low, and restore the foundations of truth and righteousness. The false church, that would have antedated the day of power, and reigned without her Lord, has been already dealt with; and now the way is clear to display the true Bride. “The marriage of the Lamb is come, and His wife hath made herself ready.” But the Church has been some time since caught up to meet the Lord: how is it that only now she is “ready”? In the application of the blood of Christ, and the reception of the best robe, fit for the Father’s house assuredly, if any could be, she was then quite ready. Likeness to her Lord was completed when the glorified bodies of the saints were assumed, and they were caught up to meet Him in the air. The eyes from which nothing could be hid have already looked upon her, and pronounced her faultless: “Thou art all fair, My love: there is no spot in thee.” What, then, can be wanting to hinder the marriage? A matter of divine government, not of divine acceptance; and this is the book of divine government. Earth’s history has to be rehearsed, the account given, the verdict rendered, as to all “deeds done in the body.” Every question that could be raised must find its settlement: the light must penetrate through and through, and leave no part dark. We must enter eternity with lessons all learnt, and God fully glorified about the whole course of our history. What follows explains fully this matter of readiness: “And it was given unto her that she should array herself in fine linen, bright and pure; for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.” We see by the language that it is grace that is manifest in this award. We learn by a verse in the last chapter how grace has manifested itself: “Blessed are they that have washed their robes (R.V.), that they may have right to the tree of life, and enter in through the gates into the city.” But what could wash deeds already done? Plainly no reformation, no “water-washing by the Word” (Ephesians 5:26). The deed done cannot be undone; and no well-doing for the future can blot out the record of it. What, then, can wash such garments? Revelation itself, though speaking of another company, has already given us the knowledge of this: “They have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb” (Revelation 7:14). Thus the value of that precious blood is found with us to the end of time, and in how many ways of various blessing! It is not, then, the best robe for the Father’s house: that robe never needs washing. It is for the kingdom, for the world, in the governmental ways of God with men, that this fine linen is granted to the saints. Yet they take their place in it at the marriage supper of the Lamb; for Christ’s love it is that satisfies itself with the recognition and reward of all that has been done for love of Him. This is what finds reward; and thus the hireling principle is set aside. “And he saith unto me, Write, Blessed are they that are bidden to the marriage supper of the Lamb!” Blessed indeed are they that are bidden now! Alas, they may despise the invitation. But how blessed are they who, when that day comes, are found among the bidden ones! I leave for the present the question of who exactly make up the company of those that form the Bride; but the Bride assuredly sits at the marriage supper, and the plural here is what one could alone expect in such an exclamation as this. There seems, therefore, no ground in such an expression for distinguishing separate companies as the Bride and the “friends of the Bridegroom.” The latter expression is used by the Baptist in a very different application, as assuredly he had no thought of any bride save Israel. “And he said unto me, These are the true words of God.” Of such blessedness, it would seem, even the heart of the apostle needed confirmation. Then, as if overcome by the rapture of the vision, “I fell down at his feet,” says John, “to worship him. And he saith unto me, See thou do it not: I am a fellow-servant with thee and with thy brethren that have the testimony of Jesus: worship God: for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.” All prophecy owns thus and honors Jesus as its subject. All that own Him the highest only, the most earnestly refuse other honor than that of being servants together of His will and grace. How our hearts need to be enlarged to take in His supreme glory! and how ready are we in some way, if not in this, to share the glory which is His alone with some creature merely! Rome’s coarse forms of worship to saints and angels is only a grosser form of what we are often doing, and for which rebuke will in some way come; for God is jealous of any impairment of His rights, and we of necessity put ourselves in opposition to the whole course of nature as we derogate from these. “Little children, keep yourselves from idols.”

Revelation 19:11-20

Section 4. (Revelation 19:11-21; Revelation 20:1-3.)The prostration, of the world-powers. We are now carried back to the earth, to see what in fact is mercy to the earth, in the complete humiliation of the power which has been so long holding it back from God, and therefore from blessing. For thus not only the “kings of the earth upon the earth” must be humbled, but he also who has assumed so long, and usurped with such apparent success, the title of “prince of this world.” Isaiah sees along with him all his rebellious following, and thus speaks of “the host of the high ones that are on high;” but in Revelation, according to its manner, Satan himself stands for the whole of this. They are summed up in him whose will they have implicitly obeyed and been molded by. For those that have manifested most their independence of God only thus show, not their liberty, but their complete subservience to another, whose service has in it no freedom at all, but most degrading slavery. The “stronger than he” has now come, and he is cast down, although this does not even yet end his history. The full tale of creature mutability has not even yet been told, and therefore the full end is not yet reached. But Christ has come, and His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom: through all, the reins of His power are not yet relaxed.

1. The prophecy pauses not further now to dilate upon the blessing. There is needed work to be done before we can enter upon this; and the work is the “strange work” of judgment. The vision that follows is as simple as can be to understand, if there are no thoughts of our own previously in the mind to obscure and make it difficult. And this is the way in which constantly Scripture is obscured. Revelation, as the closing book of the inspired Word, supposes indeed acquaintance with what has preceded it, and the links with other prophecy are here especially abundant. The kingdom of Christ is the final theme of the Old Testament, upon which all prophetic lines converge; and the judgment which introduces it is over and over again set before us. The appearing of the Lord, and His personal presence to execute this, are also so insisted on that nothing but the infatuation of other hopes could prevail to hide it from men’s eyes. In the New Testament the same thing faces us continually. As we are not considering it for the first time here, it will be sufficient to examine what is in the passage before us, with whatever connection it may have with other scriptures, needful to bring out fully the meaning of it. Heaven is seen opened, the prophet’s standpoint being therefore now on earth, and a white horse appears, the familiar figure of war and victory. It is upon the Rider that our eyes are fixed. He is called “Faithful and True,” -known manifestly to be that, -and in righteousness He judges and wars; His warring is but itself a judgment. For this His eyes penetrate as a flame of fire; nothing escapes them. Many diadems -the sign of absolute authority -are on His head. And worthily, for His name in its full reality -name expressing (as always in Scripture) nature -is an incommunicable one, beyond the knowledge of finite creatures.

But His vesture is dipped in blood, for already many enemies have fallen before Him. And His name is called -has been and is, as the language implies -“The Word of God.” The Gospel of John shows us that in creation already He was acting as that; and now in judgment He is no less so. Is this revealed name anything else than His incommunicable one? It would seem not. The thought would appear to be in direct refutation of the skeptical denial of the knowledge of the Infinite One as possible to man. We cannot know infinity, but we can know the One who is infinite -yea, know Him to be infinite: know His name, and not know His name. The infinite One, moreover, Christ is declared here to be -no inferior God, but the Highest. In the power of this, He now comes forth; the armies that are in heaven following their white-horsed Leader, themselves also upon white horses, sharers with Him in the conflict and the victory, clothed in fine linen, white and pure. It is this fine linen which we have just seen as granted to the Bride, and which needed the blood of the Lamb to make it white. It is therefore undoubtedly the same company here as there; only here seen in a new aspect, even as the Lord Himself is seen in a new one. It is communion with Himself that is implied in this change of character. What He is occupied with, they are occupied with; what is His mind, is their mind: so, blessed be God, it will be entirely then. None then will be ignorant of His will; none indifferent or half-hearted as to it. Alas, now to how much of it are even the many willingly strangers! and it is the “willing ignorance” that is so invincible: for all else there is a perfect remedy in the word of God; but what for a back turned upon that Word? The Lord comes, then, and all the saints with Him. How impossible to think of a providential coming merely here! “When Christ, who is our life, shall appear,” says the apostle, “then shall ye also appear with Him in glory” (Colossians 3:4). “Know ye not that the saints shall judge the world?” he asks elsewhere. Judgment is now impending: “out of His mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it He may smite the nations.” So Isaiah: “He shall smite the earth with the rod of His mouth, and with the breath of His lips shall He slay the wicked” (Isaiah 11:4). It needs but a word from Him to cause their destruction; while it is judgment no less according to His word: it is that long and oft-threatened, slow to come, but at last coming in the full measure of the denunciation. Patience is not repentance. “And He shall rule them with an iron rod” -“shepherd” them, to use a scarcely English expression. This is, of course, the fulfilment of the prophecy of the second psalm, and decides against the still retained “break them” of the Revised Version. It is the shepherd’s rod -this rod of iron, used in behalf of the flock: as He says in Isaiah again, “The day of vengeance is in My heart, and the year of My redeemed is come; and I looked, and there was none to help, and I wondered that there was none to uphold: therefore Mine own arm brought salvation unto Me; and My fury, it upheld Me” (Isaiah 63:4-5). This is distinctly in answer to the question, “Wherefore art Thou red in Thine apparel, and Thy garments like him that treadeth in the wine-fat?” and to which He answers, I have trodden the wine-press alone." Here, also, “He treadeth the wine-press of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.” Would it be believed that commentators have referred this to the cross, and the Lord’s own sufferings there?* And yet it is so; though the iron rod, with which the treading of the wine-press is associated in this place, is something that is promised to the overcomer in Thyatira (Revelation 2:27) -“To him will I give power over the nations, and he shall rule them with a rod of iron, even as I received of My Father.” We have but, with an honest mind, to put a few texts together after this manner, and all difficulty disappears.
“And He hath on His vesture and on His thigh a name written -King of kings, and Lord of lords.” 2. Now, in terrible contrast to the invitation lately given to the marriage-supper of the Lamb, an angel standing in the sun bids the birds of the heaven to the “great supper of God,” to feast upon earth’s proudest, and all their following. Immediately after this, the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies, are seen gathered together to make war against Him who sits upon the horse, and against His army. We are no doubt to interpret this according to the Lord’s words to Saul of Tarsus -“Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me?” But we have seen the idol thrust into Jehovah’s temple, and know well that Israel’s persecutors rage openly against Israel’s God. They are taken thus banded in rebellion, and judgment sweeps them down; the beast and the false prophet that wrought miracles before him (the antichristian second beast of the thirteenth chapter) being exempted from the common death, only to be cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone, where at the end of the thousand years of the saints’ reign with Christ we find them still. The vision is so clear in meaning that it really has no need of an interpreter; and we should remember this as to a vision, that it is not necessarily even symbolic, though symbols may have their place in it, as here with the white horses of that before us, while the horses whose flesh the birds eat are not at all so. The “beast and the kings of the earth” furnish us with the same juxtaposition of figure and fact, the figure not at all hindering the general literality of fact. In these prophecies of coming judgment, the mercy of God would not permit too thick a veil over the solemn truth. This is the end to which the world is hastening now, and God is proportionally taking off the veil from the eyes upon which it has been lying, that there may be a more urgent note of warning given as it draws nigh. “Who hath ears to hear, let him hear.” 3. The judgment upon living men is followed by that upon Satan their prince, though not yet is it final judgment. This partial dealing with the great deceiver means that the end of man’s trial is not even yet reached. He is shut up in the abyss, or bottomless pit, of which we have read before, but not in hell (the lake of fire). As restraint, it is complete; and with the devil, the host of fallen angels following him share his sentence. This is not merely an inference, however legitimate.

Isaiah has long before anticipated what is here, as we have seen (Isaiah 24:21-23) “And it shall come to pass in that day that the Lord shall punish the host of the high ones on high, and the kings of the earth upon the earth. And they shall be gathered together as prisoners are gathered in the pit, and shall be shut up in the prison, and after many days they shall be visited. Then the moon shall be confounded and the sun ashamed; for the Lord of hosts shall reign in mount Zion, and in Jerusalem, and before His ancients gloriously.” Here the contemporaneous judgment of men and angels at the beginning of the Millennium is clearly revealed, and just as clearly that it is not yet final. The vision in Revelation is also clear. The descent of the angel with the key and chain certainly need not obscure the meaning. Nor could the shutting up of Satan mean anything less than the stoppage of all temptation for the time indicated. The “dragon,” too, is the symbol for the explanation of which we are (as in the twelfth chapter) referred to Eden, “the ancient serpent,” and then are told plainly, “who is the devil and Satan.” It is simply inexcusable to make the interpretation of the symbol still symbolic, and to make the greater stand for the less -Satan the symbol of an earthly empire, or anything of the sort. What plainer words could be used? which Isaiah’s witness also abundantly confirms. God has been pleased to remove all veil from His words here, and it does look as if only wilful perversity could misunderstand His speech. That after all this he is to be let out to deceive the nations is no doubt, at first sight, hard to understand. It is all right to inquire reverently why it should be; and Scripture, if we have learnt Peter’s way of putting it together, -no prophecy to be interpreted as apart from the general body of prophecy, -will give us satisfactory, if solemn, answer. The fact is revealed, if we could give no reason for it. Who are we, to judge God’s ways? and with which of us must He take counsel? It should be plain that for a thousand years Satan’s temptations cease upon the earth; and then they are renewed and successful -the nations are once more deceived. What makes it so difficult to understand is that many have a false idea of the millennial age, as if it were “righteousness dwelling” on the earth, instead of “righteousness reigning” over it. It is said indeed of Israel, after they are brought to God nationally, “My people shall be all righteous” (Isaiah 60:21); but that is not the general condition. The eighteenth psalm, speaking prophetically of that time, declares, “The strangers shall submit themselves unto Me,” which in the margin is given as “lie,” or “yield feigned obedience.” They submit to superior power, not in heart, and so it is added, “The strangers shall fade away, and be afraid out of their close places.” (Comp. Psalms 66:3; Psalms 81:15.) And Isaiah, speaking of the long length of years, says, The child shall die a hundred years old," but adds, and the sinner being a hundred years old shall be accursed" (Isaiah 65:20). So Zechariah pronounces the punishment of those who do not come up to Jerusalem to worship the glorious King (Zechariah 14:17). The Millennium is not eternal blessedness; it is not the Sabbath, to which so many would compare it. It answers rather to the sixth day than the seventh -to the day when the man and woman (types of Christ and the Church) are set over the other creatures. The seventh is the type of the rest of God, which is the only true rest of the people of God (Hebrews 4:9). The Millennium is the last period of man’s trial, and that is not rest: trial in circumstances the best that could be imagined -righteousness reigning, the course of the world changed, heaven open overhead, the earth filled with the knowledge of the glory of God, the history of past judgment to admonish for the future: the question will then be fully answered whether sin is the mere fruit of ignorance, bad government, or any of the accidents of life to which it is so constantly imputed. Alas, the issue, after a thousand years of blessing, when Satan is loosed out of his prison, will make all plain; the last lesson as to man will only then be fully learned!