THE Bible deals in mighty and striking contrasts, and so does every aggressive moral book, but pre-eminently does the Bible. It is sin versus righteousness, good versus evil, life versus death, destruction versus salvation; and the living personifications of these two great principles, stand out clear and strong,—Jesus Christ the Saviour of men, and Satan the great adversary and destroyer. Ever and again God brings before us the destinies of those who walk in the two paths, whose lives are molded by the principles. The chapter of our study this week is one of mighty contrasts.
Our last chapter dealt with sin and its results, this with righteousness and its fruits. Our last chapter dealt with Babylon and her children, and the awful doom which awaited them; this deals with the saints of God who have suffered from the Babylonian oppressions through all the ages. Let us learn —
The Answer of the Text
1. After the sentence upon Babylon, what did John hear?
After these things I heard as it were a great voice of a great multitude in heaven, saying. Rev. 19:1. Note 1.
2. What did they say?
Hallelujah; Salvation, and glory, and power, belong to our God: for true and righteous are His judgments; for He hath judged the great harlot, her that corrupted the earth with her fornication, and He hath avenged the blood of His servants at her hand. And a second time they say, Hallelujah. Verses 1-3. Note 2.
3. What reference is made to Babylon's doom?
And her smoke goeth up forever and ever. Verse 3. Note 3.
4. What chorus of praise was offered by others?
And the four and twenty elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshiped God that sitteth on the throne, saying, Amen; Hallelujah. Verse 4. Note 4.
5. What voice came from the throne?
And a voice came forth from the throne, saying, Give praise to our God, all ye His servants, ye that fear Him, the small and the great. Verse 5. Note 5.
6. What did the prophet then hear?
And I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thunders, saying, Hallelujah: for the Lord our God, the Almighty, reigneth. Let us rejoice and be exceeding glad, and let us give the glory unto Him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and His wife hath made herself ready. 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. Verses 6-8. Note 6.
7. What words was he bidden to write?
And he saith unto me, Write, Blessed are they that are bidden to the marriage supper of the Lamb. And he saith unto me, These are true words of God. Verse 9. Note 7.
8. What regard did he show the angel?
And I fell down before his feet 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 hold the testimony of Jesus: worship God: for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. Verse 10. Note 8.
9. What was the next vision disclosed to him?
And I saw the heaven opened; and behold, a white horse, and He that sat thereon called Faithful and True; and in righteousness He doth judge and make war. And His eyes are a flame of fire, and upon His head are many diadems; and He hath a name written which no one knoweth but He Himself. And He is arrayed in a garment sprinkled with blood: and His name is called The Word of God. And the armies which are in heaven followed Him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and pure. And out of His mouth proceedeth a sharp sword, that with it He should smite the nations: and He shall rule them with a rod of iron: and He treadeth the wine-press of the fierceness of the wrath of God, the Almighty. And He hath on His garment and on His thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS. Verses 11-16. Note 9.
10. What did he then see and hear?
And I saw an angel standing in the sun; and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the birds that fly in mid-heaven, Come and be gathered together unto the great supper of God; that ye may eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of captains, and the flesh of mighty men, and the flesh of horses and of them that sit thereon, and the flesh of all men, both free and bond, and small and great. Verses 17, 18. Note 10.
11. What awful scene followed?
And I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against Him that sat upon the horse, and against His army. And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought the signs in his sight, wherewith he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast and them that worshiped his image: they two were cast alive into the lake of fire that burneth with brimstone: and the rest were killed with the sword of Him that sat upon the horse, even the sword which came forth out of His mouth: and all the birds were filled with their flesh. Verses 19-21. Note 11.
Note and Comment
1. AFTER THESE THINGS.—The first part of the 19th chapter follows logically after the 18th. Through all the ages Babylon has been the oppressor of the children of God. The earth has truly belonged to the Lord and to His children, but Babylon has been its possessor. Now the doom of Babylon is pronounced. A mighty angel declares that the great apostate and oppressive system will be found no more at all, cast down forever.
Christ our Lord has come, and has taken His people to the mansions which He has prepared for them in heaven. And the great multitude, the voice of which John heard, are those who came forth from their graves to the resurrection of life. John 5:29; 1 Cor. 15:51-54.
2. HALLELUJAH.—Praise to Jehovah. In all their earthly pilgrimage God's children have ascribed praise to the Master. Even when they have gone down in death, suffering untold agonies, still have they said by faith, "Salvation, and glory, and power, belong to our God." That now is past, and they are seeing the righteous judgment of God upon the iniquitous system of the ages. It was asked by the "father of the faithful," Abraham, "Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?" And now the faithful children of all ages, looking upon the righteous sentences which God has meted out, declare, "True and righteous are His judgments." It is not God's delight to execute vengeance. His wrath is only against sin. It is never against the human who does not identify himself with sin. God loves the sinner, loved him so much that He gave His only-begotten Son to die to save him from sin; but when, under the strongest persuasions to the contrary, men will identify themselves with sin, they by that very act become a part of sin itself, and must be destroyed with it, as those who corrupt the universe.
3. HER SMOKE GOETH UP FOREVER AND EVER.—This does not imply constant burning. It does not imply that Babylon shall exist in smoldering ruins forever. It does not imply a fire which will constantly burn throughout the endless ages. It should be interpreted in harmony with the sentence pronounced a little while before, "She shall be utterly burned with fire." Chapter 18:8. "Thus with a mighty fall shall Babylon, the great city, be cast down, and shall be found no more at all." Verse 21. Another prophet, in speaking of the same judgment, declares, "The day that cometh shall burn them up, saith Jehovah of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch." Mal. 4:1. And the psalmist, referring to those who have identified themselves with sin, declares, "But the wicked shall perish, and the enemies of Jehovah shall be as the fat of lambs: they shall consume; in smoke shall they consume away." And finally it is declared of the chiefest sinner of all, Satan, under the figure of the king of Tyre, in Eze. 28:18, 19: "Therefore have I brought forth a fire from the midst of thee; it hath devoured thee, and I have turned thee to ashes upon the earth in the sight of all them that behold thee. All they that know thee among the peoples shall be astonished at thee: thou art become a terror, and THOU SHALT NEVERMORE HAVE ANY BEING." The punishment is final and forever.
4. WORSHIPED.—The four and twenty elders, assistants of our Lord Jesus Christ in the sanctuary work of salvation, the four living creatures, God's agencies in the working out7of the great problem of man's saving from sin, who with the Master have fought and struggled against the enemies which would destroy, now triumph with the Master. They have triumphed in part through all the past; they now see the triumph complete. Even the prison-house of death has yielded its prey, and the children of God have come home. And they shout, "Amen! Hallelujah!" That is their response to the song of praise and deliverance which is sung by the saints of God.
5. GIVE PRAISE TO GOD.—It is a time for praise. There have been times of mourning and weeping and pleading through all the past. God's children have been in all ages in pitiful straits, persecuted, hunted, put to death by every conceivable means that hellish ingenuity could invent; they have lifted piteous hands to heaven and pleaded for divine interference, and yet God, for the perfecting of their faith and as an answer to the powers of darkness, has allowed the cruel oppression to go on. It is over now; and the voice comes forth from the throne, "Give praise to our God, all ye His servants, ye that fear Him, the small and the great." Triumph is forever assured.
6. THE VOICE OF A GREAT MULTITUDE.—And then there is the response to the voice from the throne; the great multitude, as the voice of many waters, as the voice of many thunders, responds to the call from the throne of God, "Hallelujah: for the Lord our God, the Almighty, reigneth." They have reason to rejoice. The long deferred marriage of the Lamb is to take place. His wife, the holy city, has made herself ready. She is arrayed in a different garment from any the people of earth have ever known. It is a living garment, white and bright and clean and pure, but it is the righteousness of the saints who possess her.
7. BLESSED.—All the Revelation is true. All that God has given is for us. But there are some things so precious that it would seem as tho even Deity felt He must doubly emphasize them to His children; and this is one of them: "Write, Blessed are they that are bidden to the marriage supper of the Lamb." That does not mean those who have rejected that invitation, but those who are bidden and who accept of the invitation with all that it implies, who have been willing to leave all things else that they may be at that supper, have been willing to submit to all the regulations, that they may be clothed with the garments fitted for that exalted occasion. Blessed are they that are thus bidden: "These are true words of God."
8. I FELL DOWN TO WORSHIP HIM.—We could understand, faintly, somewhat of the glow and the glory exhibited by that mighty angel of God, as he told John that message. We have seen men so filled with the message of God that they seemed almost glorified; and it is not difficult to understand how that mighty angel which told John those things, seeing the glorious triumph of God's work, appeared to John like an impersonation of Deity, and therefore he fell at his feet to worship him. But the angel, with the true humility of a faithful servant of God, knows that the glory which he possesses is not his own, and the message did not find its source in him, and he rebukes the worship. "I am only a fellow servant, John, with thee, and a fellow servant with thy brethren that hold the testimony of Jesus." On another occasion he told John that "I am a fellow servant with thee and with thy brethren the prophets." He is God's messenger, who through the ages of the past has ministered to the prophets—to Isaiah, to Jeremiah, to Ezekiel, to Daniel—the mighty angel Gabriel, Christ's angel. And he also brings this glorious assurance to those who are living in the last days and who follow the teachings of this book, that he is a minister to them, also; for not one of God's gifts shall be wanting when Christ shall take His children home at His coming. They shall then "come behind in no gift." 1 Cor. 1:7.
9. HEAVEN OPENED.—A new vision is disclosed to the prophet. Revelation is a book of symbols, and the symbols used of our Lord represent character, work, sacrifice, salvation. As before remarked, symbols were not used by the people of God as they were by the world, as for instance, in Greece. In the Grecian cosmogony, deity was symbolized by everything that was beautiful. In the Bible, symbols pertain to character, to work. For instance, in the first chapter of Revelation Jesus is depicted as walking among the seven candlesticks. This is designed to show His supervision over His churches, represented by the candlesticks. In these verses He is represented as a warrior. Not that He goes forth to fight with a material sword against those with material swords. He uses only spiritual weapons, but His spiritual weapons are not less potent, not less mighty. They are all-potent, all-conquering. The white horse represents purity in all His actions and all His deeds. And He that sat on the horse, Christ, is the Faithful and the True, and in all His warfare through all the past it has been in righteousness. There has been no compromise with evil. Evil has not been met with its own weapons; it has ever met the straightforward righteousness of God. His eyes as a flame of fire, showing their piercing depth, He sees through all things, discerns all motives; to Him all hearts are open. Upon His head are many diadems, showing the victories which He has won for us. A name written which no one knoweth but He Himself, represents the character which has been wrought out through all His sufferings, conflicts, and victories. No one knows the fulness of that character except Himself, because no one has experienced all that He has experienced.
His garment dipped in blood carries us back to Isa. 63:3, where Christ prophetically is represented as treading the wine-press of wrath alone, "and their life-blood is sprinkled upon My garments, and I have stained all My raiment." And yet He is the one who is "mighty to save." His name—one of His names—is called "The Word of God." He is the Word of God personified; all the commandments and precepts and promises have been wrought out in His living character and fulness. We learn in Rev. 17:14 that those with Him are called, chosen, and faithful. Here it is said they are upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and pure. God's battles are fought with clean hands and pure hearts. The sharp sword out of His mouth is the Word of God, and He comes as KING OF KINGS and LORD OF LORDS. That Word has been salvation to all who would accept it in the past, but to those who have utterly rejected it it will mean final and eternal destruction.
10. ANGEL STANDING IN THE SUN.—This angel announces the great, final slaughter to all those systems of men which have cursed the earth and those identified with them. It refers to the same time as does the 25th chapter of Jeremiah, where we are told that the slain of the Lord shall be from one end of the earth to the other. Before that final conflict takes place the great slaughter is announced. There will be no question regarding its outcome; the very birds of the heavens are invited to the feast before the slaughter takes place.
11. THEIR ARMIES.—In these verses we have the two parties to the conflict. All the earth is ranged under the beast—the beast and the kings of the earth, and their armies. They are all gathered together to war against Christ and His army. They do not see Him. They do not know how they are pitting themselves against Infinite Might. All that is visible of Christ is the few representatives, comparatively, that He has in the earth; those who stand for truth and God and righteousness, who count not their lives dear to themselves, if so be they can finish their course with joy; who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus, and count it all joy to suffer for His sake, if to that He calls them; who will not yield to the beast or his worship, or the reception of his mark. Against all these the beast, the kings of the earth, and their armies are enlisted. How unequal seems the conflict! Surely it would seem as if triumph were sure to the powers of apostasy. But back of all God's faithful band is the infinite might and power of righteousness. And in that last great conflict, such as has been witnessed before on a smaller scale, the very powers which unite to fight against God fight against each other, and the great slaughter predicted by Jeremiah, chapter 25:15-31, takes place at Jerusalem, the great center of strife. Those who survive this battle are slain by the sword of Him that sat upon the horse. As stated by the apostle Paul, "And then shall be revealed the lawless one, whom the Lord Jesus shall slay with the breath of His mouth, and bring to naught by the manifestation of His coming." 2 Thess. 2:8. And the chapter closes by declaring that "all the birds were filled with their flesh."
The closing events of this chapter are synchronous with those of the plagues of Revelation 16. They fall under the plagues. They are a part of the things which are there told in brief. It is useless for mortal pen to endeavor to describe in detail how these closing events will be carried out. There may be descriptions which seem almost contradictory, but which, in their development, may be literally true. One of the seemingly contradictory events may precede the other. In the awful intensity of the times which lie before us, when men are filled with wrath, event will follow event with wonderful rapidity, change will follow change. The only quiet calm there will be in this old earth at that time will be those who are resting upon God and upon His promises. They will wait His time; and when the opening heavens shall reveal8His coming, then, and not till then, will their expectations be fulfilled. Then shall they say, "Lo, this is our God; we have waited for Him, and He will save us: this is the Lord; we have waited for Him, we will be glad and rejoice in His salvation." Isa. 25: 9.
