Today we're looking at the first part of Rev 19. We'll be looking at verses 1-10.
This is the last part of a two-and-a-half chapter vision we've been examining, which has been all about the Fall of Babylon.
We know in history, the fall of Babylon occurred around 539 bc when the Persian Empire took over. And we know that the Babylonian empire had killed and oppressed a lot of people before that during their reign, including a lot of YHWH's people. They took over Judah and demolished the Solomon's temple there in 586 bc, and killed and exiled almost all the Jews, except for a few poor people that were allowed to stay and work the land, and also Jeremiah the prophet for some reason. The Babylonians had been allowed to invade Judah by God bc He had tried everything to get His people to stop worshipping other gods and oppressing the less privileged and overworking the land, but they kept persisting in their sins and mocking every prophet who warned them. So this takeover was allowed bc of idolatry. But nonetheless, Babylon had a lot of blood on its hands, and needed to be judged for its sins as well. So it fell swiftly when the time came.
Well, fast forward to the end times, and the Revelator potentially John is seeing the fall of a whole entire evil network that he calls Babylon - he typifies the system of injustice that's at work in the world, and foresees its final judgement by God. After that, the poor wont be oppressed any more. Greed won't be allowed to enslave others. The arrogant and undeserving lesser Elohim of the second heaven won't deceive human image-bearers of God into worshipping them any longer. The day of the victory of good and right is coming soon.
Then right after the beast / Babylon system is judged, John hears this: After this I heard what sounded like the roar of a great multitude in heaven shouting:
“Hallelujah!
Salvation and glory and power belong to our God,
for true and just are his judgments.
He has condemned the great prostitute
who corrupted the earth by her adulteries.
He has avenged on her the blood of his servants.” And again they shouted:
“Hallelujah!
The smoke from her goes up for ever and ever.” The twenty-four elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshiped
God, who was seated on the throne. And they cried:
“Amen, Hallelujah!”
Then a voice came from the throne, saying:
“Praise our God, all you his servants, you who fear him, both great and small!”
Then I heard what sounded like a great multitude, like the roar of rushing
waters and like loud peals of thunder, shouting:
“Hallelujah!
For our Lord God Almighty reigns.
Let us rejoice and be glad
and give him glory!
For the wedding of the Lamb has come,
and his bride has made herself ready.
Fine linen, bright and clean,
was given her to wear.”
(Fine linen stands for the righteous acts of God’s holy people.) Then the angel said to me, “Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb!” And he added, “These are the true words of God.”
At this I fell at his feet to worship him. But he said to me, “Don’t do that! I am a fellow servant with you and with your brothers and sisters who hold to the testimony of Jesus. Worship God! For it is the Spirit of prophecy who bears testimony to Jesus.” (or: the testimony if Jesus IS the spirit of prophesy)
We're seeing in Rev 19:1-10 the saints praising and glorifying God's rule and reign as King, and the predicted full reunification of Christ and His righteous people at the end of history.
Let's look at it a little bit at a time:
1-2 After this I heard (there's that common phrase again, a shift to the next thing John observes in his vision) what seemed to be the loud voice of a great multitude in heaven, crying out, “Hallelujah! (that's the Greek transliteration of the Hebrew word for Praise the Lord) Salvation and glory and power belong to our God, for his judgments are true and just; for he has judged the great prostitute who corrupted the earth with her immorality, and has avenged on her the blood of his servants.”
This is the whole assembly of the saints praising God at the end of days because He has accomplished salvation for His people. There was a corrupt, powerful prostitute entity ruining lives all over the earth and only God could take it out. And He did. The description of the Babylon entity as having "corrupted the earth" should remind us of chapter 11, an earlier cycle where it was announced that the time had come to 'destroy those who destroy the earth.' And both of these spots in Rev should remind us of Jeremiah 51:25 where God says to Babylon: "I am against you, you destroying mountain, you who destroy the whole earth."
Verse 2 here ends by saying God "avenged on her (Babylon) the blood of His bondservants" - this is prob another reference to Jezebel. The same verbiage is used in 2 Kings 9 where God speaks through the prophet "I will avenge the blood of my servants the prophets and the blood of all the Lord’s servants shed by Jezebel."
All this is an answer to the prayer of the saints in Rev chap 6 when they pray, how long o Lord until You avenge our blood? Another OT hyperlink here is Ps 79:10: "Before our eyes, make known among the nations that you avenge the outpoured blood of your servants."3 Once more they cried out,
“Hallelujah! The smoke from her goes up forever and ever.”
John is quoting Isaiah 34:10 "[Edom's destruction] will not be quenched night or day; its smoke will rise forever." Now John's using a poetic phrase that originally described the downfall of an adversary to God's people, to describe another, future, more complete downfall of another adversary of God's people. We also saw John say this back in Rev 14:11 where an angel announced a warning - if anyone follows the beast and worships him and receives his mark, those people will be part of that rising smoke too. As a human, designed to worship, you share in the fate of whoever you follow and worship. So choose wisely. Some people say the smoke rising forever and ever means eternal punishment for the beast and prostitute and some others, other people say the imagery is actually meant to convey a permanence - death has died period forever. All that's left is this thin stream of smoke - a sign of the goneness of evil. Another chapter in Isaiah that contains the prediction of the death of death is ch 25, and it also interestingly contains an end-times feast just like Rev 19 contains both. So the death of death and the eschatological celebration supper with the Lamb are linked. Btw, Isaiah 24-27 is often called the "little apocalypse of the OT.
4 And the twenty-four elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshiped God who was seated on the throne, saying, “Amen. Hallelujah!”
Throughout the entire book of Rev, we're reminded of this throne room scene where elders and creatures surround the throne of God where the Lamb is, and a big part of the elders' role is to worship. (We've discussed the debated identity of these elders in other episodes, but basically some people think it's all humans, some ppl think it's elohim/angels, some think it's a mix. We also discussed the creatures which are often labeled Seraphim, which are heavenly beasts that have a lot going on with their visual appearance, that attend to God and surround His throne).
The phrase "Amen. Hallelujah" has a rich history. Amen is a Hebrew word that contains a trust and willingness to accept and to follow. Hallelujah is a bit like "all hail King YHWH" and it also contains the word for shine, in command form. Abiram Publication's Biblical Dictionary says this: "The verb הלל (halal) means to shine (what exited stars do) or praise and cheer (what exited souls do)." So, when we say Hallelujah, we're saying, Shine, exude, express praise for God.
This phrase that combines the two - "Amen. Hallelujah!" - points to Psalm 106:48. In Ps 106, just like here in Rev 19, God's people are rejoicing after God delivers them from nations that oppressed them. I've been impacted the past couple weeks meditating on this idea of the elders and saints worshipping and praising during this final battle. I feel like it relates to something God's teaching me in my own life: I'm being invited to get good at praising Him in the midst of the battle. There's been a lot of warfare and challenges - around and against me, and others close to me - and the invitation in front of us is to worship here and now. Right there in the presence of my enemies, so sit at the table with Jesus and eat and commune and tell Him thank You and tell Him how awesome and beautiful and victorious He is. There are such gnarly things going on in many of our lives and certainly on the world stage, and they may not slow down any time soon, so are we gonna be a people who praise and exalt God today? or are we waiting till life feels stress-free.
What if we get good at shining and radiating and exuding praise to YHWH amidst - or should i say above - the tumultuous events of our day.
5 And from the throne came a voice saying,
“Praise our God,
all you his servants,
you who fear him,
small and great.”
There's a voice coming from the throne: some people think it's Jesus speaking, others think it's an angel (or other heavenly creature) near the throne. The statement made from the throne here is confirming and assenting the previous Amens and Hallelujahs from the elders and creatures as well as the Hallelujahs and songs from the great multitude right before that! The instruction is a confirming one: Praise God all you his bond-servants, you who fear him, small and great. The concept of God's people being His servants was first mentioned in verse 2: God avenged the blood of His bond-servants on Babylon. A bond-servant back in the day was someone who used to be obligated to serve their master for a certain time, then after that tome was fulfilled they pledge themselves further to that master willingly. They choose to stay a servant. So here, it's people who have chosen to be and stay faithful to God, and serve Him with their lives. This idea of bond-servants of God is also seen in the second half of Rev 11 (the seventh trumpet). They sing a similar song there, let's read Rev 11:16-18: And the twenty-four elders, who were seated on their thrones before God, fell on their faces and worshiped God, saying:
“We give thanks to you, Lord God Almighty, the One who is and who was, because you have taken your great power and have begun to reign. The nations were angry, and your wrath has come. The time has come for judging the dead, and for rewarding your bond-servants the prophets and your people who revere your name, BOTH GREAT AND SMALL— and for destroying those who destroy the earth.”
So this is another specific reference to servants of God who revere/fear Him, both great and small.
Psalm 134 and 135 kinda start like that: "Praise the Lord all you servants of the Lord.."
There are other mentions of believers being God's servants elsewhere in the book of Rev as well - in the letter to Thyatira, Jesus talks about how a Jezebel type person is leading HIS SERVANTS astray. In Rev 7 the people with God's seal on their foreheads are called "the servants of our God." And in chapter 22 we're going to see the phrase bond-servant again as the future is revealed: "The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and HIS SERVANTS will serve him. They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads." It's all about loyalty, allegiance and obedience to God. Have you pledged yourself as a life-long bondservant to Christ? Paul introduces himself as such in some of his new testament letters, so does James, and maybe others that I'm forgetting. So the question we can ask ourselves is, is this our primary identity, like it was for our forerunners in the faith?
6 Then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude, like the roar of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, crying out
“Hallelujah! For the Lord our God the Almighty reigns.
I mentioned earlier that a lot of this section of chap 19 can be mapped back onto chapter 11; here's another example: "the voice of a great multitude like the roar of many waters and the like sound of peals of thunder" here sounds a lot like 11:19: lightning, rumbling, peals of thunder, etc, which are phrases that John is using from Ezekiel. Some people think this great multitude is all angels, other people think it includes mostly or all human saints. And what do they say here in verse 6 (which many scholars consider to be the end of a segment which is vv1-6)? They say [sing] Hallelujah, Hallelujah, for the Lord God Almighty reigns! - The phrase can be found in the Psalms, Jeremiah, 1 Chron, and Zechariah, and it's pretty much always about God establishing His Kingship after defeating his enemies. Literally REIGNING as King.
Here's what Beale says about the phrase: "Although in one sense God's reign is timeless, in another sense it is truly fulfilled in the created universe only as a result of His final judgement of Babylon and can thus be said to have 'begun.' This is supported by the parallel in 11:17: 'we give thanks to Thee O Lord God the Almighty... bc Thou.. hast begun to reign.' In fact, the verse is also a development of 11:15: 'The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord, and of His Christ; and He will reign forever and ever.' Often our praise of God is focused on what He has done for us - whether our salvation or things related to our daily lives. Yet here the praise of the saints is centered on who God is and what He has done entirely entirely apart from the circumstances of our individual lives - the fact that His judgements are righteous and true, the fact that He has judged the harlot, and the fact that He reigns over all. While there is nothing wrong with our praising God for what He has done in our lives - it is always a good thing to acknowledge His faithfulness and providential mercies toward us - how often do we step back and thank Him simply for who He is andwhat He has done in the wider context of His creation, and what He has done simply for the glory of His name?"
So that's what many scholars call the first section of the chapter. Verses 1-6.
(Although there are scholars prefer to include vv 7-8 in the section).
Now let's take a look at what we're calling the next section which is verses 7-10. This is going to be about Babylon's judgement, the establishment of God's reign, and the final union of God and His righteous people.
7-8 that same multitude is still singing/crying out) Let us rejoice and exult
and give him the glory,
for the marriage of the Lamb has come,
and his Bride has made herself ready;
it was granted her to clothe herself
with fine linen, bright and pure”—
(for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints). John is pulling this phrase "Rejoice and be glad" from Ps 118:24, a song
celebrating the coming Messiah. Jesus also used this phrase in Mt 5 when He
said "Rejoice and be glad for your reward in Heaven is great" if you get
persecuted and oppressed for your faith in Him.
"The marriage of the Lamb has come and the Bride has made herself ready" -
So we see a big glimpse into God's will here. This is the zoomed out heavenly priority: The Lamb, King Jesus, and His metaphorical Bride, the real Church aka faithful believers everywhere, will be together forever. The Bride has made herself ready - this is a reminder of the responsibility that we have to remain loyal and committed to Jesus and follow His ways. Bc we're engaged - the day is coming when we'll be united with King Jesus! So we can't be down here messing around, or wussing out when stress or hardship happens. The idea of an upcoming meal with God is a huge important theme that shows up throughout the whole Bible. The garden of Eden contains food provided by God for humans. In Gen 18, Abraham eats with God and angels. In Exodus manna is provided. In Jesus' ministry there's miraculous provision of food for the people following Him. Jesus establishes the sacrament of communion to His disciples. After He'a resurrected He breaks bread with a couple disciples and that's how they remember who He is. He shows up in the upper room during a meal. So many people this this end-times marriage supper of the Lamb will take place in the new Eden, once again provided and established by our Benevolent God.
If you happen to be in a season of life where you're saying, I can't see God's hand, is He working, is He even involved - well, did you eat food recently? This is how central His love is to our existence. "it was granted her to clothe herself in fine linen" - I love how this is phrased. It's not of our own accord that we get to be dressed in righteousness. It is granted to us. God gives us these clothes. But then it says TO CLOTHE HERSELF - you gotta put it on. Someone can make righteous linen available to you but they cant make you put it on. How do u put it on? It says "the righteous deeds of the saints" - you live right. You live God's way. You live out the salvation you've been handed.
(In my head I'm imagining this fine linen is white, not only because white clothing has represented similar ideas throughout the book like in a couple letters in ch 3, in ch 6, ch 7, but bc most notably, later here in ch 19 which we'll get to next episode, is the moment of the book where fine linen is explicitly tied to the color white).
[tell story about demon confrontation false high priestess occult / jewels]
dream
4:40 ish am Mar 17
I was visiting / hanging out with some Verve staff people a few started sharing concerns with me about 1 staff member, and that she had destroyed the last church she was at scene change to us all eating at a table and the staff member of concern offered me a gift; i knew to politely reject it (and not come into covenant with her) when i stood up i was standing face to face with her and i pointed my finger at her chest and and started rebuking witchcraft and idolatry she talked over me, mocked me, copied what i said but replaced Jesus' Name with the name of another god, she became really nasty but didnt / couldnt touch me at one point she said "you cant pray against me" implying because i wasnt on staff, and i said "in this case i can" - not sure how i knew that, but i was confident i declared His blood is our Holy provision / our life, and He is Lord then i woke up she had blonde hair, was pretty and feminine and a little bit soft/curvy, with perfect looking skin (i've heard other spiritual dreamers say this is Lilith, which many have tied to the entity we're watching fall here in this part of rev.) she wore a black dress with jewels all over it of different colors, especially on the chest - it was a bit old timey, with long sleeves. looked occult the jewels make me think she could be a priestess or high priestess in the occult, just bc the high priest in Judaism used to wear a breast plate of jewels
saiah 54...
Afflicted city, storm-battered, unpitied:
I’m about to rebuild you with stones of TURQUOISE, Lay your foundations with SAPPHIRES,
construct your towers with RUBIES,
Your gates with JEWELS,
and all your walls with PRECIOUS STONES.
...
You’ll be built solid, grounded in righteousness,
far from any trouble—nothing to fear!
far from terror—it won’t even come close!
If anyone attacks you,
don’t for a moment suppose that I sent them,
And if any should attack,
nothing will come of it.
WHAAAT - the very jewels i saw in the demon's chest will end up trampled
on in the pavement of the people of God!
9 And the angel said to me, “Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the
marriage supper of the Lamb.” And he said to me, “These are the true words of God.”
I love this verse; the angel's like "make sure you write THIS down" - then announces a blessing and explicit invitation to a meal, and then he qualifies it with this high credential: "These are the true words of God." (which is similar to something an angel says in ch 21: "write for these words are true/trustworthy.") So this is being highlighted. Stamped as very important. This MARRIAGE SUPPER OF THE LAMB is central.
The metaphor has shifted a bit here - we were depicted as Christ's bride, now we're depicted as guests invited (in the greek: called) to the celebration meal. We've seen Jesus mention dining with His people before in the letter to Laodecia. The idea is: we're already betrothed to Christ, He has left to go prepare a home for us and when the time's right we'll be joined together, along with a big, multi-day feast / wedding celebration; that was the jewish custom at the time of writing.
10a Then I fell down at his feet to worship him, but he said to me, “You must not do that! I am a fellow servant with you and your brothers who hold to the testimony of Jesus. Worship God.”
This part always seems so random to me - John's about to worship an angel?? After seeing the glory of God so profoundly in all this? What the heck-iante. And it happens again in ch 22, although maybe that's more of a retelling or new "cycle" of the same set of events. So John randomly worships the wrong elohim, i guess... but I am realizing that it's important to look at the immediately preceding event that prompted this - the angel uttered "these are the true words of God" - something about a being with 100% conviction and very close proximity to the Truth and the Word (which are ultimately the person Jesus) speaking that, caused a holy awe in John so great that he fell. A proper response, it was just such a powerful moment that it was even hard to navigate apparently.
Some people say John maybe mistook the identity of this probably-shining figure. Other teachers remind us that it's really easy to start turning our reverence and deference towards other elohim, and that even though there are lots of impressive beings in the spirit realm we need to be careful; anyone can fall into idolatry of we're not.
In this way, maybe the readers of the letters and visions in Rev can relate with John, as we see in the beginning chapters so many of THEM were tempted to fall into idolatry.
10b For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. What does this sentence mean? GotQuestions.org: "Because of the construction of the clause in the original language (Greek), there are three common understandings of the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy:
1. Jesus is the substance of all prophecy, or, put another way, Jesus is the common theme among all prophecy.
2. All true prophecy bears witness about Jesus. Therefore, all prophecy should cause us to worship Him alone.
3. The message or testimony given by Jesus is the essence of true prophecy. Jesus is the Word, and no prophecy comes to us except through Him, ultimately pointing to God as the source of all true prophecy.
The NIV translates the angel’s statement as “It is the Spirit of prophecy who bears testimony to Jesus.” The NLT’s wording is “The essence of prophecy is to give a clear witness for Jesus.” The wording of both these translations prefers one of the first two interpretations, above. The third interpretation, however, seems to fit best within the context of Revelation 19:10. John is not to worship the angel but God alone. Since John was worshiping the angel in response to the prophecy given, the angel ensures that John understands Jesus is the source of the communication and He alone is worthy of the worship." So, in the context of an angel reminding John that they're both just fellow servants of Jesus, the angel says "the witness of Jesus is the spirit of prophesy." In other words, the angels and humans who are giving testimony to Jesus are prophetic.
In the similar cycle of this in ch 22, the angel says, "I'm a servant just like you and your companions the prophets, and all who keep the words of this book”