Revelation 19:6, commentary and pictures

The verse pictures an immense united shout of triumphant joy, sounding like a vast crowd and rushing water and crashing thunder, declaring that the all-powerful Lord God reigns supreme. That praise erupts because His judgments are true and righteous in condemning the corrupting power of Babylon, avenging the blood of His servants and vindicating His justice. It is a call to gladness and honor to Him because the marriage of the Lamb has come, His wife the church having made herself ready in clean white linen which is the righteousness of the saints washed in the blood of the Lamb. It belongs to the closing scenes of earth's history and the final crisis, the last merciful warning of Revelation 18 and 19 to be understood and proclaimed to all the world before judgments fall and every case is decided. Therefore it is to be met not with gloom but with hope and joy, with confident faith, entire obedience, cleansing from sin and thorough consecration, so that those who keep God's commandments and the faith of Jesus may share in that rejoicing.

Voice of Great Praise

The cry is that of a vast united chorus, sounding at once like a great multitude and like many waters and like mighty thunderings, lifted in triumphant joy because the all-powerful Lord reigns. Its volume portrays joyful unity in praising God as King, the same triumphant response that hails the Lord of hosts as the King of glory. The proclamation belongs to the joyful announcement that the marriage of the Lamb has come and His wife has made herself ready, and that those called to the marriage supper are blessed. It follows God's righteous judgment and the destruction of the corrupting power that persecuted His servants, and it leads into the celebration of the Lamb's marriage and the readiness of His people. In that setting it celebrates the victory of truth through the omnipotence of the Holy Spirit over evil, and it belongs to the closing scenes of earth's history with rejoicing and honor given to God.

The Alleluia is heaven's true harmony, called forth from all His servants and all who fear Him, both small and great. It ascribes salvation and glory and honor and power to Him, in contrast to a false harmony that exalts wrong and repudiates right. Those now active in proclaiming the last message of warning, who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus, belong to that rejoicing. It comes after praise for true and righteous judgments in judging the great whore that corrupted the earth and avenging the blood of His servants, with the elders and living creatures answering Amen Alleluia, and it leads to gladness and rejoicing and giving honor to Him because the marriage of the Lamb has come and His wife has made herself ready in fine linen clean and white, which is the righteousness of saints. The wife is the church obeying what God has spoken, granted to be arrayed in that clean white linen, and blessed are those called to the marriage supper of the Lamb, for these are the true sayings of God. The same Alleluia is the shout of the redeemed people as they ascend toward the New Jerusalem, their journey itself becoming praise to God alongside the angels' cries of Holy and their worship of the Lord God Almighty.

Omnipotent means having all power, almighty and all-powerful, and the multitude rejoices Alleluia because the Lord God's rule is triumphant and He reigns. The call is therefore to be glad and rejoice and give honor to Him because the marriage of the Lamb has come. His wife has made herself ready and is granted fine linen clean and white which is the righteousness of saints, and blessed are they called to the marriage supper of the Lamb, and these are the true sayings of God. The praise follows the judgment of Babylon, the vindication of God's righteous judgments, and the avenging of the blood of His servants, so His reign is celebrated as His judgment and justice are revealed in the final conflict where Satan's deception and apostasy are met by God's judgments. These events are to be viewed in harmony with heaven's work of preparing a people to stand, with hope rather than gloom. At the restoration of Israel in the earth made new, the redeemed praise God with that mighty, multitude-wide voice because the all-powerful Lord reigns, and this praise accompanies gladness and honor to God.

Place in Last Warning

The verse belongs to the testing truths of Revelation 18 and 19, which are the last call of mercy and message of warning to be sounded more fully to all the world. They are to be read and understood in connection with the approaching judgments of God and His coming vindication of His authority. All must read and understand them while God in mercy shows long forbearance and holds back His judgments until those who have not yet heard have opportunity to hear. Every minister now must read, discern, and give the messages of the nineteenth chapter, and those who occupy the position of watchmen on the walls of Zion must discern them and sound the trumpet with a certain sound, or sleeping souls will be quieted to sleep and the result will be eternal loss.

The praise of a great multitude like many waters and thunder proclaiming that the all-powerful Lord reigns belongs to the closing scenes of earth's history now being lived and accompanies the Lamb's marriage and the readiness of His people. The chapter belongs to the events of the final crisis and will surely be fulfilled as God's last warning is proclaimed to the world. It shows the end of these things toward which the last message of warning is sounding, as prophetic history comes to its perfect end when Christ sees the travail of His soul and is satisfied in God reigning supreme and His people praising Him and made ready. The same chapter belongs to the picture of Christ's final triumph and reign on earth, in which the beast and false prophet are cast into the lake of fire before Satan is bound for a thousand years and the wicked are raised for final destruction.

The great multitude praises God after the seven last plagues have been poured out and the ministers of vengeance have completed their work, proclaiming that the omnipotent Lord reigns. The next scene joins this triumph to the song of Moses and the song of the Lamb. The praise also stands after the final judgment when the dead small and great have stood before God and been judged from the books according to their works. Then the sea and death and hell have given up their dead, and death and hell with all not found in the book of life have been cast into the lake of fire which is the second death. After these things a voice from the throne calls all God's servants small and great to praise God, and a voice like a great multitude and many waters and mighty thunderings answers with praise because the all-powerful Lord God reigns, giving salvation and glory and honor and power to the Lord our God.

Marriage of the Lamb

The great shout that the all-powerful Lord reigns rises as the voice of a vast multitude, like many waters and like mighty thunderings, and it belongs to the joyful announcement that the marriage of the Lamb has come and His wife is ready. That proclamation calls for gladness and rejoicing and giving honor to Him, and those called to the marriage supper are blessed. The call to rejoice and honor God is tied to being ready for the supper, to being rightly related to God and helping others to be so. The same praise accompanies the bridal feast and song of praise to the Lamb.

His wife has made herself ready and is granted to be arrayed in fine linen clean and white, and the fine linen is the righteousness of the saints. The wife is the church obeying what God has spoken, with character cleansed and made white and washed white in the blood of the Lamb. This presents the possibility open to all God's servants, that through Christ character may be cleansed and made white and prepared to share in the marriage. The gladness follows true and righteous judgments, with elders and living creatures answering Amen Alleluia, and leads to rejoicing because the marriage is come.

Blessed are those called to the marriage supper of the Lamb, and these are the true sayings of God. That blessing belongs to those who are laborers together with God and complete in Christ, at the blessed hope of uniting with the redeemed when Christ comes. Then a voice from the throne calls all His servants small and great to praise God, and the multitude answers like many waters and thunderings with Alleluia because the all-powerful Lord reigns.

The redeemed rejoice with Christ as He brings His bride home to the Father's house to share the supper. The marriage hall is prepared, and the King calls His own to the feast. Christ has prepared the supper and invites people to join, and His people accompany Him as called and chosen and faithful.

Readiness is open to all, requiring surrender to God, cleansing from sin, a new heart, washed robes of character made white in His blood, and kept garments so as not to be exposed in shame. The joyous shout belongs to those thus washed, heard in the great day when every case is brought up in review before God and it is too late for anything to be changed. Those never converted and unlike Christ will hear it around them while confessing they alone are to blame.

Final Triumph Over Evil

The alleluia follows God's true and righteous judgments upon the corrupting power that persecuted His servants. He has judged Babylon and judged the great whore that corrupted the earth with fornication, avenged the blood of His servants, and vindicated His justice. The elders and the living creatures answer with Amen Alleluia, and this vindication leads into gladness and rejoicing over the Lord God's almighty reign and the readiness of His people.

The chapter portrays Christ's final triumph and reign on earth. In it the beast and the false prophet are cast into the lake of fire. Afterward Satan is bound for a thousand years, then the wicked are resurrected, and Satan and the wicked are finally destroyed.

The loyal universe celebrates Satan's final defeat and the end of his ruinous work with a vast shout of praise and triumph like many waters and mighty thunder because the omnipotent Lord reigns. God's creatures are forever freed from his presence and temptations, including the inhabitants of other worlds and the delivered redeemed. The earth is delivered from evil with public vindication of God's righteousness once the wicked are destroyed.

The redeemed proclaim this reign at Christ's second appearing while the world is plunged in darkness and the wicked flee from His presence. Light is in every dwelling of the saints, they catch the first light of His coming, and having lived in close communion with God they are prepared for the communion of heaven and rejoice in the undimmed brightness of the King in His majesty. With uplifted heads, with the beams of the Sun of Righteousness shining upon them, rejoicing that redemption draws nigh, they go forth to meet the Bridegroom saying this is our God. He is admired by all who served Him as Lord of lords and King of kings, and they accompany Him as called and chosen and faithful.

The song first announced at Christ's birth swells through time as a worldwide growing echo of the angels' song of glory and peace. It will resound throughout the earth when the Sun of Righteousness arises with healing, when the great multitude proclaims that the all-powerful Lord reigns. Its voice like many waters is echoed in the voice of God giving the living saints the day and hour of Jesus' coming, which they understand while the wicked mistake it for thunder and earthquake. That same voice shakes heaven and earth at the deliverance of the saints, and the saints answer God's words with shouts of glory and hallelujah in triumph over the beast and its image.

The reign points to the coronation when Christ as Advocate and Redeemer becomes King of His redeemed subjects. Even the humblest who share in His work will share in its reward. The alleluia is the shout of the redeemed people as they ascend toward the New Jerusalem with praise to God, alongside angelic worship of the Lord God Almighty. At the restoration of Israel in the earth made new, this multitude-wide praise accompanies gladness and honor to God, as prophetic history reaches its perfect end with Christ seeing the travail of His soul and being satisfied.

Sovereign Ruler of Nations

The verse identifies the Lord God Omnipotent as the Ruler of the nations, to be regarded as such, with all kings, all rulers, and all nations His and under His rule and government.

He reigns with infinite resources at His command, owning the shields of the earth and giving salvation to kings. He has the king's heart in His hand to turn it wherever He will, and He watches with vigilance that never relaxes over those on whose actions hang the destinies of nations. He exercised this reign at the end of the seventy years at Babylon by moving upon Cyrus to discern the prophecies concerning himself. Through that moving Cyrus granted liberty to the Jewish people, furnished facilities for rebuilding the temple of the Lord at Jerusalem, and brought the captives again into the place from which they had been carried away.

His reign is triumphant, and the Alleluia of the great multitude like many waters and mighty thunderings celebrates the victory of truth through the omnipotence of the Holy Spirit over evil. That reigning calls to account those who insult Him by enforcing upon men the worship of the beast, so all who do so should be afraid. It exposes the persecutions Christians have endured at the hands of those under apostate control, showing that God overlooks and forgets nothing, that seeking to compel men to do evil is a most heinous sin in His sight, and that those who walk in the light of God's commands are vindicated and are not the ones to be maligned and persecuted. He reigns in spite of all man can do to tear down truth, so even when deceived men speak falsely of God, seek to make of no effect fifty years of experience, and loosen the foundation timbers of faith with fanciful, spiritualistic, pantheistic theories, His foundation stands sure and He knows those who are His.

He is the God of His people, tender and loving and ready to hear their prayers. His rule is consistent with His love and holiness, shown in giving His Son to redeem fallen humanity with an infinite love. Through Christ He reconciles the world to Himself, does not count people's trespasses against them, and provides propitiation through faith in Christ's atoning blood. In times of conflict He remains sovereign and a sure refuge who protects His people, and as Captain in the time of trouble before us and the unseen battle they will not be left a helpless prey to the devices of the enemy. His power moves from above to prepare a people to stand in the great day of His wrath before Christ comes, so they need not tremble or be afraid before the confederacy of evil.

Trust and Holy Readiness

These events are to be regarded in harmony with heaven's work of preparing a people to stand, with hope and joy rather than gloom and sadness. The praise follows the judgment of Babylon, the vindication of God's true and righteous judgments, and the avenging of the blood of His servants, and God's reign is celebrated as His judgment and justice are revealed. Heaven's joyful response to God's acts is not to be viewed with gloom but in harmony with heaven.

By faith believers facing obstacles and darkness can affirm that the all-powerful Lord reigns, pray and plead for His grace, and find a renewed experience of eternal realities. Trust in His reign and hope in the glory promised to overcomers strengthen them, making present conflicts and uncertainties small by comparison and giving assurance and hope. This truth is reason to look to God with confidence and trust. If they rely on Him and believe in Him and serve Him in preference to serving self, deciding to do His word in entire obedience, He will place them where He can bless them for His own name's glory and be a present help to them. When there is a heart to do His will, He causes them to know the truth and the doctrine, His presence includes everything as a sure refuge and never-failing Friend, and He assures His people that He stays with them and is with them.

His rule gives confidence that the work belongs to Him, that He can move human hearts, and that His warning message will not be sent in vain. It calls for going forward and sowing widely by faith, trusting Him with the results even when it is not clear which efforts will prosper. It gives assurance that the Lord wants His work to advance and that He can provide money, furnish rooms, and build up as readily as His armies tore down the walls of Jericho, laying formidable walls even with the ground. It calls for waiting on the Lord and resting all upon Him to bring it to pass, while knowing He does nothing without the cooperation of man, for God works and man works together. Yet He rules over His work so that refusing counsel and continuing forbidden methods brings its sure result, as shown when difficulties become settled and pronounced because counsel is refused and forbidden things are done, and as applied to refusal to heed counsel and to continuing in those choices.

God's all-powerful reign is the source of healing service, to be remembered by medical workers who must come to Him for their power of healing. Christ was the greatest physician who ever walked this sin-cursed earth. The Lord baptizes His people with His Holy Spirit to fit them for service that blesses others by restoring both spiritual and physical health to those who need healing among the sick and suffering. This truth calls every physician connected with His work to prepare for more effective and efficient service through thorough and entire consecration. They are to follow no other physician's philosophy or teaching unless it reveals the Saviour's meekness and lowliness and purity and clearness of principle, separating from all that does not bear the mark of the strictest justice and judgment.

The praise is the true harmony of heaven, called forth from all His servants and all that fear Him, both small and great, in contrast to false harmony that exalts wrong and repudiates right. This heavenly song is out of harmony with the tastes and desires of the unsanctified, so the wicked raised with the characters they formed in life and with unchanged characters cannot enjoy heaven's praise or companionship. Those now active in proclaiming the last message of warning, who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus, belong to that rejoicing surrounding the Lamb's marriage. It is glad, cheerful rejoicing and honor given to God because the Lord God omnipotent reigns, the voice of a great multitude expressing gratitude, faith, truth and confidence in God, with purity of motive, care for souls, prayer, labor and communicative goodness flowing from a yearning, hungering desire after God and from Christ abiding in the heart. This cheerful, holy obedience to all His requirements replaces coldness, weakness of principle, forced allegiance, surliness and discourteous conduct toward brethren, and replaces extra adornment in dress with holy, generous dispositions and heaven-born love toward one another. The praise that the Lord reigns is echoed in joyful shouts and glad expectation as worshippers look toward the soon-coming of their Saviour.

The joyous shouts belong to those who have washed their robes of character and made them white in the blood of the Lamb, proclaiming Alleluia because the Lord God omnipotent reigns. The shout is heard in the great day when every case is brought up in review before God, when it is too late for anything to be changed. Those who were never converted and remain unlike Christ will hear it around them while confessing that they did it themselves and no one else is to blame. Readiness requires surrender to God, cleansing from sin and a new heart, and kept garments so as to be ready rather than exposed in shame. The messages of the nineteenth chapter must be read, discerned, and given by every minister now, for the chapter applies to the closing scenes of this earth's history now being lived. Those who occupy the position of watchmen on the walls of Zion must discern these messages and sound the trumpet with a certain sound, or sleeping souls will be quieted to sleep and the result will be eternal loss.