Bible Commentary (1871–1879 Edition)
Be who Rode upon the While Horse. EEVELATIOX XIX. JAe Fuwk Called to the Great Slaughter.
ten " who " give their power unto the beast." free and bond—specilied In eh. 13. IG, as "receiving the mark of the beast." The repetition of flesh (in the Greek It Is plural : masses offlesh) five times in this verse, marks the gross c«»viaii<.(/ of the followers of the beast. Again, the giving of their flesli to the fowls to eat, is a righteous retribution for their not suffering the dead bodies of Christ's witnesses to be put in graves. I'J. gathered together—at Armageddon, under the sixth vial. ¥or " their armies" in B and Andreas, there is found " His armies" in A. war—So Andreas. But A, B, read, "the war," v/z., that foretold, cli. IG. U ; 17. i. 20. and with him, &c.—A reads, "and those with him." Breads, "and he wlio was with him, the false prophet." miraclesG'cefA, " ilie miracles" unknown name also is written on His forehead; as the liigli priest had "Holiness to the Lord" inscribed oh Ihe mitre on his brow. John saw it as "written," but Knew not its meaning. It is, tlierel'ore, a name which in all its glorious signihcancy can be only understood when the union of His saints with Him, and His and their joint triumpli and rein, shall be perfectly maniiesled at Uie final cousumiuatiou. 13. vesture diypftl in blood -Isaiah ().'J. 2 is alluded to here, and in y. 10, end. There the blood is not His own, but that of His foes. So here the blood on His "vesture," reminding us of tlis otvii blood shed for even the ungodly who trample on it.
Is a premonition of the shedding of Ihuir blood in righteous retribution. He sheds the blood, not of the godly, as tl.e harlot and beast did, but of the blood-stained ungodly, Including them both. TUe Word of God—who made the world, is He also who under the same character and attributes shall make it anew. His title, Hoii of God, is appli-
(lit., "signs ") recorded already (ch. 13. H) as wrought by the second beast before (lit., in sight of) the first beast. Hence it follows the second beast is identical with t!ie false prophet. Many expositors represent the first beast to be the secular, the second beast to be the ecclesiastical power of Rome; and account for the change of title for the latter from the "other beast" to the "false prophet," is because by the judgment on the harlot, the ecclesiastical power will then retain nothing of its former character .save the power to deceive. I think it not uhlikely that the false prophet will be the successor of the spiritual pretensions of tlie Papacy; whilst the beast in its last form as the fully-revealed Antichrist will be the secular representativean<l embodimentof the fourth world-kingdom, Rome, in its last form of intensified opposition to God. Cf. with this prophecy, E/.ekiel 38. 39; Daniel 2. 34, 35, 44; U. 44, 45; cable, in a lower sense, also to His people ; but " the Word Of God" indicates His incommunicable Oodliead, joined to His manhood, which He shall then manifest in glory. "The Hi ide does n<jt fear the Bridegroom; her love casteth out fear. She welcomes Him; she cannot be happy but at His side The Lamb [v. 9, the aspect of Christ to His people at His coiningj is the symbol of Christ in His gentleness. Who would be afraid of a lamb? Even a little chihl, Instead of being scaied, desires to caress it. There
Is nothing to make us afraid of God but sin, and Jesus is the Lamb of God that taketh away the uii of the world. What a learful contrast is the aspect whicli He will wear towards His enemits! Not as the Bridegroom and the Lamb, but as the [avenging] judge and warrior stained in the blood of His enemies." 14, tlieariuies ... in licaveii —Cf. "the horse-bridles," ch. H. 20. The glorified saints whom God " will bring with " Christ at His advent; cl. ch.
12. 1 ; Joel 3. 9-17 ; Zechariah 12. ; 13. ; 14. Daniel (7. 8) makes no mention of the second beast, or false prophet, but mentions that " the little horn " has " the eyes of a man," i.e., cunning and intellectual culture; thisisnota feature of the first beast in ch. 13., but Is expre.ssed by the Apocalyptic " false prophet," the embodiment of man's unsancl ified knowledge, and the subtlety of the old serpent. The first beast is a political power; the second is a spiritual power—tlie power of ideas. But both are bMsts, the worldly Antichristian wisdom serving t!ie worldly AntiChristian power. The dragon is both lion and serpent. As the first law in God's moral government is that "judgment should begin at the house of God," and be executed on the harlot, the faithless Church, by the world-power with which she had committed spiritual adultery, so itls a second law that the world-power, after having served as God's instrument of punishment, is itself punished. As the harlot is judged by the beast and the ten kings, so these are destroyed by the Lord Himself coming in person. So Zephaniah ch. 1. compared with ch. 2, And Jeremiah, after denouncing Jerusalem's judgment by Babylon, ends with denouncing Babylon's own dyom. Between the judgment on the harlot, and the Lord's destruction of the beast, &c., will intervene that season in which earthly* mindedness will reach its culmination, and Antichrlstianity triumph for its short three and a half days during which the two witnesses lie dead. Then shall the Church be ripe for her glorification, the Antichristian world for destruction. The world at the highest development of its material .and spiritual power, is but a decorated carcass round which the eagles gather. It is characteristic, that Antichristaud his kings, in their blindness, imagine that they can wage war against the King of heaven with earthly hosts; herein is shown the extreme folly of Babylonian confusion. The Lord's mere appearance, without anj' actual encounter, shows Antichrist his nothingness;
17. H, "they that are with Him, called, chosen, lai Llilul ;" asal.so"His mighty angels." wUile and clean— OretA;, "pure." A, B, Vulyate, Syriac, and Cvpkian omit " and," Which OlUGEX and Andkeas retain, as JEngtish Version.
IS. out of Ills mouHi . . . sword—;Ch. 1. 16; 2. 12, 16.) Here in its avenginij power, 2 Thessalonians 2. 8, "consume witli the Spirit of His mouth" (Isaiah 11. 4, to which there is allusion here); not in its convicting and converting efficacy (Epliesians G. 17; Hebrews i. 12, 13, where also the
Judicial keenness of the sword-like word is included). The Father commits the judgment to the Son. lie gliall rule—The He is emphalical. He and none other, in contrast to the usurpers who have misruled on earth. "Kule," lit., "tend as a shepherd;" but here in a punitive sense. He who would have shepherded them with pastoral rod and with the golden sceptre of His love, shall dash them in pieces, as refractory rebels, with "a rod of iron." treadetli . . . wSne-press—(Isaiah iii. 3.) of the fierceness and wratU—So Andkeas reads. But A, B, Vulgate,
Coptic, and Okigen read, " of the fierceness (or Imdiiig indignation) of the wrath," omitting "and." AlnUgUty— The fierceness of Christ's wrath against His foes will be executed with the resources of omnipotence. IG. " His name written on His vesture and on His thigli," was written partly on the vesture, partly on the tliigh itself, at the part where in an equestrian figure the robe drops from the thigh. The thigh symbolizes Christ's humanity as having come, after the flesh, from the loins of David, and now appearing as the glorified "Son of man." On the other hand. His incommunicable Divine name, "which no man knew," is on His head (i). 12). [MenoCHius.] King of kings; cf. ch. 17. If, in contrast wiili v.
cf. the effect of Jesus' appearance even in His humiliation, John 18. 6. [Aubeklen.] had recelvefl—rather aa Greek, "received," once for all. them that worshipped
17j the beast being iu attempted usurpation a king of kings, the ten kingsdeliveriug their kingdom to him. 17. an Gi-eek, "one." lit the sun—so as to be conspicuous In sight of the whole world, to all tlie fowls—(Ezekiol lit., "them worshipping;" not an act once for all done, as the "received" implies, but those i?i the habit of "worshipping." These both were cast . . . Into a lake —
89. I7-2U.) and gather yourselves—A, B, Vulgate, tiyriac,
Greek, "... the lake of fire," Gehenna. Satan is subsequently cast into it, at the close of the outbreak which succeeds the millennium (ch. 20. 10). Then Death and Hell, as well those not found at the general judgment "written in the book of life ;" this constitutes "the second death." alive—a living death; uot mere anuihllatioit.
Coptic, and Andreas read," be gathered," omitting "and." of the great God—A, B, Vulgate, ISyriac, Coptic, and ANDREAS read, "Tle great supper (i. e., banquet) of God."
18. Contrast with this "supper," v. 17, 18, the marriagetapper of the Lamb, v. 9. captainsCrVee/c, "captains of tiioasauds," i. e., chit captains. The "kings" are "the