19:1 And after these things I heard a great voice of much people in heaven, saying, Alleluia; Salvation, and glory, and honour, and power, unto the Lord our God:
19:2 For true and righteous [are] his judgments: for he hath judged the great whore, which did corrupt the earth with her fornication, and hath avenged the blood of his servants at her hand.
19:3 And again they said, Alleluia. And her smoke rose up for ever and ever.
19:4 And the four and twenty elders and the four beasts fell down and worshipped God that sat on the throne, saying, Amen; Alleluia.
19:5 And a voice came out of the throne, saying, Praise our God, all ye his servants, and ye that fear him, both small and great.
19:6 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 thunderings, saying, Alleluia: for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth.
19:7 Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready.
[1] {wife} The "Lamb's wife" here is the "bride" # Re 21:9 the Church, identified with the "heavenly Jerusalem" # Heb 12:22,23 and to be distinguished from Israel, the adulterous and repudiated "wife" of Jehovah, yet to be restored # Isa 54:1-10 Ho 2:1-17 who is identified with the earth # Ho 2:23 A forgiven and restored wife could not be called either a virgin # 2Co 11:2,3 or a bride.
19:8 And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints.
[2] {righteousness} The garment is Scripture is a symbol of righteousness. In the bad ethical sense it symbolizes self- righteousness (e.g) # Isa 6:4,6 Php 3:6-8 the best that a moral and religious man under law could do). In the good ethical sense the garment symbolizes "the righteousness of God. . .upon all them that believe." ¯ See Note "Ro 3:21"
19:9 And he saith unto me, Write, Blessed [are] they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb. And he saith unto me, These are the true sayings of God.
19:10 And I fell at his feet to worship him. And he said unto me, See [thou do it] not: I am thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren that have the testimony of Jesus: worship God: for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. 19:11 And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him [was] called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war.
[3] {saw heaven opened} The vision is of the departure from heaven of Christ and the saints and angels preparatory to the catastrophe in which Gentile world-power, headed up in the Beast, is smitten by the "stone cut out without hands," # Da 2:34,35
19:12 His eyes [were] as a flame of fire, and on his head [were] many crowns; and he had a name written, that no man knew, but he himself.
19:13 And he [was] clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called The Word of God.
19:14 And the armies [which were] in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean. 19:15 And out of his mouth goeth 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 winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.
19:16 And he hath on [his] vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.
19:17 And I saw an angel standing in the sun; and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the fowls that fly in the midst of heaven, Come and gather yourselves together unto the supper of the great God;
[4] {Come} Armageddon (the ancient hill and valley of Megiddo, west of Jordan in the plain of Jezreel) is the appointed place for the beginning of the great battle in which the Lord, at His coming in glory, will deliver the Jewish remnant besieged by the Gentile world-powers under the Beast and False Prophet # Re 16:13-16 Zec 12:1-9 Apparently the besieging hosts, whose approach to Jerusalem is described in # Isa 10:28-32 alarmed by the signs which precede the Lord's coming # Mt 24:29,30 have fallen back to Megiddo, after the events of # Zec 14:2 where their destruction begins; a destruction consummated in Moab and the plains of Idumea # Isa 63:1-6 This battle is the first event in "the day of Jehovah" # Isa 2:12 and is the fulfilment of the smiting-stone prophecy of # Da 2:35
19:18 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 on them, and the flesh of all [men, both] free and bond, both small and great.
19:19 And I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against him that sat on the horse, and against his army.
[1] {make war} The day of Jehovah (called, also, "that day," and "the great day") is that lengthened period of time beginning with the return of the Lord in glory, and ending with the purgation of the heavens and the earth by fire preparatory to the new heavens and the new earth # Isa
65:17-19 66:22 2Pe 3:13 Re 21:1 The order of events appearsto be: (1) The return of the Lord in glory # Mt 24:29,30 (2) the destruction of the Beast and his host, "the kings of the earth and their armies," and the false prophet, which is the
"great and terrible" aspect of the day # Re 19:11-21 (3) thejudgment of the nations # Zec 14:1-9 Mt 25:31-46 (4) the thousand years, i.e, the kingdom-age # Re 20:4-6 (5) the satanic revolt and its end # Re 20:7-10 (6) the second resurrection and final judgment # Re 20:11-15 and (7) the "day of God," earth purged by fire # 2Pe 3:10-13 The day of the Lord is preceded by seven signs: (1) The sending of Elijah # Mal 4:5 Re 11:3-6 (2) cosmical disturbances # Joe 2:1-12 Mt 24:29 Ac 2:19,20 Re 6:12-17 (3) the insensibility of the professing church # 1Th 5:1-3 (4) the apostasy of the professing church, then become "Laodicea" # 2Th 2:3 (5) the rapture of the true church # 1Th 4:17 (6) the manifestation of the "man of sin," the Beast # 2Th 2:1-8 (7) the apocalyptic judgments # Re 11:18
19:20 And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone.
[2] {Beast} The Beast, Summary: This "Beast" is the "little horn" of # Da 7:24-26 and "desolator" of # Da 9:27 the "abomination of desolation" of # Mt 24:15 the "man of sin" of # 2Th 2:4-8 earth's last and most awful tyrant, Satan's fell instrument of wrath and hatred against God and the Jewish saints. He is, perhaps, identical with the rider on the white horse of # Re 6:2 who begins by the peaceful conquest of three of the ten kingdoms into which the former Roman empire will then be divided, but who soon establishes the ecclesiastical and governmental tyranny described in Dan 7., 9., 11.; Re 13. To him Satan gives the power which he offered to Christ. # Mt 4:8,9 Re 13:4 See "The great tribulation," # Ps 2:5 ¯ See Note "Re 7:14"
19:21 And the remnant were slain with the sword of him that sat upon the horse, which [sword] proceeded out of his mouth: and all the fowls were filled with their flesh.
