Revelation 19

V1. The first words, “after these things”, introduce a new section, which at the same time directly connects to what is previously said. When the judgment on Babylon is fully executed, there is an enormous reaction in heaven. All who are in heaven form a great choir and express as out of one mouth their great joy about God and His judgment on Babylon. The first word that John hears is “hallelujah!” For the first time in this book and in the whole New Testament you hear this word sounding. It is used sparingly.

The word means ‘praise Yahweh’. It is a call to worship God. Worship always has a cause. When you come to know something of Who God is, of His works and of His ways, and you come impressed by that, it touches your heart, it causes you to worship Him. This is what happens, for example, with Abraham when God told him about His plans with him and Sarah (Gen 17:17). Worship is not the experience of lofty feelings through music with ecstatic expressions.

The word appears four times in verses 1-6 and no further. In the Old Testament the word appears more often and especially in the book of Psalms. There it is always spoken out on the earth, while here it is said in heaven. The first time you find it in Psalm 104 (Psa 104:35). Psalm 104 speaks prophetically about the millennial kingdom. Here in Revelation 19 the time has come that the millennial kingdom is established and a visible content is given to ‘hallelujah’.

God is honored and praised as the One to Whom “salvation” belongs. The point here is the coming of the ultimate and full salvation of everything that He Himself had planned to save (1Pet 1:5). In that salvation His “glory” and His “power” become visible. This is the salvation He has worked with the power that belongs to Him.

V2. There is no doubt that His judgments are ”true” and ”righteous”. This is true for all judgments, but these characteristics are specifically praised in view of the judgment on “the great harlot”. The word ‘harlot’ emphasizes again her unfaithfulness which was great and deep. His truthfulness and righteousness become clear in the judgment on her who has sinned in such a general and specifically horrible way.

She “was corrupting the earth” as a whole, all men on it, “with her immorality” and she has made especially God’s “bond-servants” a target of her wickedness. She deserves the judgment in all areas. With the judgment because of her abuse of God’s bond-servants, God answers the supplication of the martyrs in Revelation 6 (Rev 6:10), who asked Him to avenge their blood. The day of vengeance has come (Isa 61:2).

V3. For the second time God is praised, this time because the judgment remains “forever and ever” and there will never again be a repetition of the performance of the great harlot. “Her smoke” is the smoke of the great harlot. The rising up of the smoke indicates that this judgment is a permanent remembrance (cf. Isa 34:8-10). A smoke that rises up to God speaks of the satisfaction that God’s love and holiness find in judgment. You see this in the sacrifices that speak of Christ. With regard to the judgment on the wicked, only an eternal punishment answers to God’s holiness.

V4. The elders and the living creatures are mentioned here for the last time. In Revelation 4, they are mentioned for the first time (Rev 4:4,6). They fall down before God to worship Him as Judge. They have also fallen down before Him as Creator (Rev 4:4) and as Savior (Rev 5:14). The judgment on Babylon is the cause to express themselves in an “Amen. Hallelujah!” (cf. Psa 106:48). ‘Amen’ is a confirmation of the judgments, an underlining of them. ‘Hallelujah’ draws the attention again to God as the One Who is worthy of praise.

V5. Then “a voice came from the throne”. All judgments have always come from the throne. With the judgment on the great harlot a point has been reached that the throne can call for to praise God. Everything God does will be to the glory and praise of His Name. Everything that He says and does reflects His glorious characteristics. And everything that is visible of God causes all who hear Him to praise Him. That also goes for His judgments. His judgments prove His righteousness, one of His many impressive characteristics.

The throne, the symbol of God’s government, calls “all … His bond-servants” to praise Him. It is a call to all who have served Him faithfully on earth, regardless of whether they have been ‘small or great’ therein. They have served Him with the fear of God. This fear is not being afraid of God, but reverence.

V6. For the third time John hears a voice. It is the voice that reminds him of three things: “a great multitude … many waters and … mighty peals of thunder”. It is not an unordered mixture of sounds, like a busy market place with screaming people and honking cars. There is harmony in the ‘great multitude’. The ‘many waters’ indicate an impressive and irresistible power. The ‘mighty peals of thunder’ are the all drowning out messengers that accompany the acceptance by God of His kingship.

The great multitude here includes all heavenly citizens, apart from the church which is mentioned in the next verse. For the last time, the “hallelujah” sounds and this time in relation to the acceptance by God of His kingship. He has begun to reign, which He does through His Son.

V7. The mighty choir of voices with a multiple sound cries out to itself to be happy and to rejoice and to give God glory. The reason is that “the marriage of the Lamb has come”. This happy event is now on God’s program. Now the false bride, the great harlot, has been judged, the time has come for the wedding of His Son.

Before the millennial kingdom of peace public comes, the wedding has to take place first. Then the bride can publicly follow the Bridegroom on His side to reign with Him. That is God’s purpose. What is remarkable, however, is that it is His wedding. At every wedding on earth, the attention is drawn to the bride. Here it is different. All attention is focused on Him.

The bride is here called “His wife”. Yet she remains the bride forever (Rev 21:2). She is wife and bride (Rev 21:9). That she is forever bride means that she will forever keep the glory as bride for the heart of the Lord Jesus. She will never put off her wedding robe. She is arrayed in it and “has made herself ready” to be His wife. The next verse describes what her robe consists of.

V8. The robe consists of “the righteous acts of the saints”. There is nothing unrighteous on that robe. But, you may say, the saints have also committed unrighteous deeds, not only righteous ones, haven’t they? Exactly because of that the judgment seat of Christ is so important (Rom 14:10; 2Cor 5:10). As soon as the church has been caught up, your life, and the life of every believer, will be judged in all its particularities in God’s light. You will appear there in a glorified body. Therefore, it can have nothing to do with eternal judgment. The Judge is none other than your Savior, Who gave His life for you. How then could you still perish?

To purpose of the revelation before the judgment seat is to show you God’s judgment of your life. You will then know fully as you have been fully known (1Cor 13:12). You first need to know how you have been judged by the Lord to be able to judge or reign over other people. Everything you have done in the body, will be revealed, even all the motives of your heart (1Cor 4:5). You will only love Him more as a result (cf. Lk 7:47).

Maybe you will see righteous acts in the robe of which you did not think they were righteous acts. Conversely, things may be absent of which you thought them to be an important contribution to the robe. The question for you and me is now: To what extent do I contribute to the beauty of that robe? Will there probably be acts that will be consumed by the fire (1Cor 3:15), which will cause that there will be nothing left for the robe?

If we speak about our righteous acts, then we speak about the side of our responsibility. Through our deeds we may or may not contribute to the robe. But there is also the other side, which is the side of God’s grace that has worked in us, so that we may do good deeds. In a song it is written: ‘Whatever good that we have done, it was all achieved through Your grace.’ That reflects well what is written here, that the robe has been “given” to her. That determines you that everything you have contributed to that robe is ultimately the work of God’s grace.

When the bride appears on the scene, her brilliance will be great. What she wears is given to her by God. What she shows are the purity and cleanness of God Himself (cf. Eze 16:14). “Fine linen” is a precious textile, more precious than the linen with which the angels are clothed (Rev 15:6). Mind the contrast with the robe of the great harlot (Rev 17:4; 18:16).

Now read Revelation 19:1-8 again.

Reflection: In which way do you contribute to the wedding robe?

V9. For the fourth time (out of seven times) John is ordered to write “blessed” (Rev 1:3; 14:13; 16:15; 20:6; 22:7,14). This ‘blessed’ is related to those who are invited to partake of “the marriage of the Lamb”. The only element of the wedding that is mentioned here is the marriage supper.

The invitees cannot possibly be unbelievers. Neither are they the believers from after the rapture of the church, for they haven’t got their glorified bodies yet. Their resurrection will only take place after the appearance of the Lord (Rev 20:4). Nor can they be the bride. A bride is not invited.

The invitees can be none other than the Old Testament believers, the friends of the Bridegroom (Jn 3:29; Mt 9:15). Among the invitees are people like John the baptist, Abraham and Sarah, Moses, Deborah, Elijah, Daniel, all together men and women of God for whom we have deep respect. Isn’t it an unimaginable and inconceivable grace of God that you and I are allowed to be a part of the bride when you compare yourself to such people?!

Then John receives a confirmation that everything is true. It seems like it’s too good to be true. He can hardly believe his eyes. It seems as if that’s the reason why it is told to him once more as an explicit emphasis that they are nothing but the “true words of God”. There need not to be any doubt that he sees or hears right.

V10. John is so impressed by the scene that he falls down to worship the heavenly messenger. The angel corrects John immediately and says that he must not worship him, but God. God alone is worthy of worship. That is what the Lord Jesus also said to the devil during the temptations in the wilderness (Mt 4:10).

John forgets for a moment that the angel also is a creature. But the angel does not forget it. Good angels do not want honor for themselves, nor do committed disciples (Acts 10:25-26). Only evil angels, and also evil people, want people to honor them (Col 2:18). The angel puts himself on the level of John, not as an apostle, but as “fellow servant”. And he is not only a fellow servant of John, but also of all the “brethren” of John. Like him, these brethren have “the testimony of Jesus”. The brethren of John are believers from both the Old and the New Testament. The testimony of Jesus unites them.

‘The testimony of Jesus’ can mean the testimony ‘concerning’ Jesus, the testimony of which He is the substance. It can also mean the testimony ‘that comes from’ or ‘that goes out of’ Jesus, the testimony that He gave when He was on earth and which He continues to give, but through His servants. Whether it is about Him personally or about what He has said, everyone who has this testimony, that is, has accepted it, has life of God.

In the phrase “for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy” a significant characteristic of prophecy is given. Prophecy is not just foretelling the future. To know all kinds of things about the future may be food for your intellect, but it really is not food for your heart. Real benefit from a study of the future which the Bible tells us, is only the case if you see that in prophecy it is about the Lord Jesus.

Prophecy bears witness to Jesus. In prophecy it is all about Him. The name ‘Jesus’ indicates that He is the humiliated One. Prophecy shows that He Who was once on earth in humiliation and was rejected, will reign in glory. But it is the same Person. In prophecy it is all about Him and Him alone and not about knowledge of events.

V11. After a long parenthesis, running from Revelation 17:1-19:10, the historical thread is picked up here. In the parenthesis you have seen together with John the judgment on the great harlot and the great Babylon, followed by a description of the true bride and the marriage of the Lamb.

The section that now follows connects to Revelation 16:13-16, where the nations are gathered at Armageddon for battle. These nations return later in verse 19. The battle itself is described in verses 19-20 (cf. Rev 17:14), while in verses 17-18 the result of the battle is already given in advance. The rest of the verses (verses 11-16) are focused on Him Who as the only One fights, although there are armies that follow Him on His march against the gathered enemies.

To show John this interesting scene, heaven opens. The opening of heaven mocks all materialistic and rationalistic dogmas that assume that there is nothing beyond the visible. When heaven opens and Christ appears, clothed in war attire, there is no more denial of a super-terrestrial reality. God enters out of His world into the world of man (Mic 1:3). The Lord Jesus comes in majesty to the earth where He was once rejected to take His rightful place.

In the New Testament there is mention of an opened heaven five times (Mt 3:16; Lk 3:21; Jn 1:51; Acts 7:56; Rev 19:11), each time in connection with Christ. When heaven is opened before the face of John, he sees “a white horse” (cf. Rev 6:2), the sign of victory. On the horse he sees Someone Who is characterized by the names that He has. Those names indicate how He will operate. The work He does is to judge and wage war in righteousness.

He is called “Faithful and True”. These names characterize Him in the execution of God’s plan with the world (cf. Rev 3:14, where Christ is called by these names, in contrast to unfaithful Christianity). Judgment and war are the first acts with which He is going to execute God’s plan, but He will do that in a totally different way than man acts. He is the righteous Judge and “in righteousness He judges and wages war”.

V12. The description reminds of a description which you have come across at the beginning of this book (Rev 1:14). The Lord Jesus is described there in His assessment of the church for her unfaithfulness. He is described here as the One Who judges the unbelievers, namely the beast and the false prophet. The “many diadems” that He has on His head, go far beyond the ten crowns of the beast (Rev 13:1) and the seven of the dragon (Rev 12:3). With His royal dignity, no other can be compared. These many diadems show a dignity and glory that will be visible to all and will command admiration.

In addition He has “a name written” which will be readable by all, but of which He alone knows the profound meaning. Whatever will be seen and admired of Him, there will nevertheless be aspects of His Person that remain hidden for us, creatures. These are aspects that only He Himself and the Father know (Mt 11:27).

V13. His robe being “dipped in blood”, indicates that He will come to exercise revenge (Rev 14:20; Isa 63:1-4). The blood is that of His enemies, not of the martyrs and less of His own. Then you hear His name. That name is “the Word of God”. This name you also find in another writing of John (Jn 1:1,14). It means that He is the full and perfect revelation of God, in both His life on earth and in His eternal existence. He alone reveals both God’s love and God’s holiness and righteousness. He also judges as the Word. He does everything in accordance with God’s Word, because He Himself is the Word of God.

V14. The Lord Jesus will not appear alone. There will be armies that follow Him. These armies consist of all the glorified saints (Zec 14:5; Jude 1:14; Col 3:4; 1Thes 3:13). You can derive that from the description of their clothes (verse 8). Also angels will accompany Him (2Thes 1:7; Mt 25:31). The airspace is filled with a huge, dazzling army. What to John is an impressive spectacle, will be terrifying to everyone on earth.

V15. He will strike down the nations with “a sharp sword” that comes “from His mouth”. He alone has a sword, the armies do not. With this sword He will execute judgment and He, Who is the Lamb, will pour out His wrath on His enemies (Rev 6:17). There is no mention of a fierce battle, there is no mention of any opposition. How could that be when the Lord of hosts appears in full armor and acts in power and majesty. His arm grants Him power and He does not need anyone’s help (Isa 59:16b-18; 63:3).

Although the armies are with Him He personally executes the judgment. After the execution of the judgment He will reign and they will also reign with Him. He does that like a shepherd herds his flock. The judgment is general and it spares nothing and no one, which is indicated by the treading of the “winepress”.

Now read Revelation 19:9-15 again.

Reflection: Mention some differences between the bride and the invitees.

V16. Once more a reference is made to a written name of the Lord Jesus and also to the place where that name is written. His name is written “on His robe”, which refers to His outward appearance. Clothes are what people see of one another. Clothes represent the conduct a person shows and which others observe. With Him, His name can be read from His deeds.

His name is also written “on His thigh”. The thigh is the place of power and strength. He who is struck on the thigh, is struck in his strength and will be limping (Gen 32:25,31). His name is the title that God also has (1Tim 6:15), yet another proof that the Lord Jesus is God. He is the “King” par excellence, the supreme Ruler. He is also the “Lord” par excellence, the supreme Lord.

V17. Even before the war has started – the war is described only in verse 19 –, the outcome is already announced. This result is announced by an angel standing in the sun. The sun forms the decoration, the background of his words. This decoration gives his words the power of the glory of Christ Himself, Who soon will shine like the Sun in the kingdom of peace.

All the birds of heaven are allowed to feast on the victims of the war. They are invited for this “great supper” God has prepared for them. This supper is in huge contrast to the marriage supper of the Lamb (verse 7). In the one supper you see a delicious supper in heaven, in the other supper you see a horrible supper on earth.

V18. The flesh that the birds is given to eat is mainly human flesh. There is furthermore only mention of “flesh of horses”. The emphasis of the word ‘flesh’ – this word is repeated five times – reminds that all human and natural strength can do nothing against God, for “all flesh is like grass” (1Pet 1:24-25). During their lifetime, these people were distinguished from one another by all kinds of ranks and positions. There is no such distinction in death. The birds only see corpses which means food for them. By being given as food to the birds means that they will have no burial. And having no burial means that these enemies will be given up to lasting disgrace (Rev 11:9; 1Sam 17:46).

The angel mentions the different categories to make clear that this supper has been effected by the judgment of God that He has executed without discrimination. His judgment has come on all these different ranks and classes and the horses of which they made use, because everything was in the service of sin. By the way, there will be another judgment where distinction will be made and where every person will be judged according to his deeds. That is the judgment before the great white throne (Rev 20:12).

V19. John sees how the beast and his followers with their armies are preparing for war against Christ and His own. Christ is the Captain, He is at the front. Their battle is mainly focused on Him. But also those who are with Him are the target of their hatred. They think in their arrogance that they are ready for war against the Lamb and His followers. In their audacity they fool themselves to be unconquerable and are blind for His almighty power.

V20. Without a single action of war, the two hostile captains are caught and thrown in hell, without them having died the bodily death. The beast, who is the political leader of antichristian Western-Europe, and the false prophet, who is the religious leader of apostate Israel, have no defense at all. In their lives they were closely connected and so they are in the judgment that Christ executes on them. The false prophet was the cunning henchman of the beast to deceive people to receive the mark of the beast and to worship his image.

It all seemed successful, but here all their bragging and every impression of invincibility (Rev 13:4) are utterly destroyed in one act full of impressive power. They form an exception to all other unbelievers. They are thrown into the lake of fire without any form of trial, while other unbelievers will first be sentenced before the great white throne. An opposite exception, in the circle of the believers, are Enoch and Elijah who as the only ones were caught up to heaven without dying.

V21. The enemy armies suffer a different fate than their two captains. The Lord Jesus kills them “with the sword”, that is His Word, that goes out of His mouth. By His Word He creates (Psa 33:6) and by His Word He shatters (Jer 23:29). After this judgment, the event happens what the angel called for in verse 17. There is so much to eat that all the birds are filled.

Now read Revelation 19:16-21 again.

Reflection: Which people are being judged in this portion and what is their judgment?