SEPTEMBER 16 = REVELATION 19
COME TO THE WEDDING FEAST
And now we reach the final section of the book. This is where we find out who wins, what happens, and why it matters.
To begin with, after two chapters about Babylon the Great’s fall, we now see heaven’s reaction to it. (Apparently, just because everyone on earth agrees about something, it doesn’t necessarily mean that heaven is also in agreement with earth dwellers.) They do not say, “Woe, woe . . . In one hour your doom has come!” Instead, heaven’s multitudes say, “Hallelujah! The smoke from her goes up for ever and ever.”
The roar of a great multitude shouts in favor of God’s “true and just” judgments for condemning the one who corrupted the earth.
The 24 elders and the 4 living creatures we saw back in the early chapters of the book fall down and worship God.
A voice from the throne says,
“Praise our God, all you his servants, you who fear him, both great and small!”
And once again the great multitude, with that same sound of a roar of rushing waters and loud peals of thunder, shouts:
“Hallelujah! For our Lord God Almighty reigns. Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory! For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready. Fine linen, bright and clean, was given her to wear.” (Fine linen stands for the righteous acts of God’s holy people.)”
And now we turn a corner and add a very central word picture for the last chapters of the Revelation: the wedding of the Lamb and his bride. His bride has “made herself ready.” She is ready by means of righteous acts (in contrast to adultery with the kings of the earth).
And we hear the angel say,
“Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb!” And he added, “These are the true words of God.””
John is to write descriptions of all that is in this book, of course, but he is not told word-for-word what to write very often. This is one of those times, so we should give special attention to those words.
Blessed are those who are invited. People are blessed. More than happy. More than lucky. They are honored and happy and humbled and proud. You know, blessed!
Blessed are those who are invited. This is a wedding supper by invitation only. Let’s just say these are the ones who heard the invitation.
…invited to the wedding supper. … In that culture, a wedding supper lasted about a week. It was a honor to be invited, and it was an example of all-out hospitality in the early church. You eat, drink and sleep in celebration of the two people getting married. So heaven is perhaps best compared to this multiple-day feast and celebration.
The wedding supper is “of the Lamb.” He chose his bride, and this is his invitation to give. It is not the invitation from her, or even from him and his bride together. His bride is the one who is invited! (the analogy breaks down at some point, and millions of people being the bride is one of those points.)
These are the true words of God. They are the exact words that God wants to use to speak to us today. Today we hear formulas that have similar import: “This is the way.” “So be it.” “Amen and amen.” But this goes deeper than any of those. It is quoting the very words of God.
“At this I fell at his feet to worship him. But he said to me, “Don’t do that! I am a fellow servant with you and with your brothers and sisters who hold to the testimony of Jesus. Worship God! For it is the Spirit of prophecy who bears testimony to Jesus.””
John hears these, the very words of God, and he falls down in worship, much as he had done back when the voice like a trumpet told him to write down messages to the seven churches. And sure enough, he had heard the very words of God. But it was not God who had directly said it. Worshiping the messenger is not appropriate. So John is told don’t do that! Worship God!
By the way, here is a little detail of the wording here. There are two words used most often for “worship” in the New Testament. One of them is latruo, which has to do with serving someone, and the other is proskuneo, which means to kneel before, and kiss the hand toward someone. Many people count up the number of appearances of the word and declare that proskuneo is the most common word for worship in the New Testament. I would correct that to say it is the most common word in the Gospels, but not in the entire New Testament. It is found in the Gospels, because there was Jesus in the flesh to bow down before, as did the Magi, and the mother of James and John. Other than that, this is the only place that prokuneo appears outside of the Gospels themselves. And we see that here there is someone to bow down before (although John is wrong to bow before a mere servant of God, rather than God himself.)
Then the angel says a sentence that is worth consideration: The Spirit of prophecy bears testimony to Jesus. This is important to know. The point of a prophecy is not to predict the future. It is not to call to repentance. The point of prophecy is to tell about Jesus. To say what Jesus says. To proclaim the good news of Jesus, his coming, his life and teachings, his death, his resurrection, his ascension and reign, and his ultimate return. This is what the Spirit says. He never goes too far from that message, in its many applications and descriptions.
And at last! There He is! We have seen a rider on a white horse before, but this time the rider is not speaking blasphemies or going out to conquer. No, this one is named Faithful and True. A sharp sword comes from his mouth, which is used to strike down the nations. In other words, his words are true, and they bring healing or condemnation to every one who hears his words. He strikes down whole nations with his words. He condemns each individual. And he rules the nations with an iron scepter. He is the king above all kings, and the Lord over every lord.
Then we find out what’s for supper at the marriage feast of the Lamb: human flesh. Well, that’s awkward. But this is figurative language about retribution in imagery from heaven’s perspective.
And John sees the final battle. Perhaps this is at Armageddon, which was the location of all the armies gathering in an earlier chapter. The location is on the north side of what we know as Samaria, at a major crossroads of the Middle East, found at the hill of Megiddo. In Hebrew, Armageddon. The location is uninhabited but would provide a large open plain for doing battle.
The battle itself is not described here, though. Merely the outcome. Which is that capture of the beast and the false prophet (who were antichrists). They are thrown alive into the fiery lake of burning sulfur.
The rest of the vast army were killed with the sword that came from the mouth of the rider on the horse. And all the birds gorged themselves on their flesh. Of course, there was no one left to bury them. But this was a special punishment to ignore dead bodies.
Interestingly, there were special places in Jewish culture to allow a body to excarnate, so that the bones could be placed into a smaller box called a sarcophagus. The sarcophagus can then be placed in a tomb, or buried, or join with the thousands of stone boxes on the hillside of the Mount of Olives, where the families entrust that their loved one will be among the first to be taken up when Messiah arrives, in fulfillment of Scripture. But they missed when Messiah came the first time. May God have mercy on their souls.
May you and I speak with the Spirit of prophecy, and bear testimony about Jesus. Amen.
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