REVELATION 19
The opening verses of this chapter impress upon us the profound interest of heaven in the assembly. It is that which leads to a threefold “Hallelujah” over the judgment of the great harlot. And, on the other hand, we see the joy of heaven over the marriage of the Lamb having come, and His wife having made herself ready.
I put it to my own heart, and to yours, Are we sensitive as to things that corrupt the assembly?
[p. 193] Heaven is very sensitive as to such things, so that there is an immense outburst of praise when the corruption falls under judgment. Are we sympathetic with that feeling? Have we such a sense of what the assembly is — as the wondrous company called out in the day of Christ’s rejection, to be indwelt by the Spirit, and to be the vessel in which the love of God and the perfections of Christ are to be set forth — that we can rejoice in the thought of everything that has corrupted it being brought under judgment?
The time for the public judgment of all that is false and idolatrous in the christian profession has not yet come, but the judgment of such things should be in our souls morally now. Great jealousy should be awakened in our hearts by everything that is of a corrupting nature. The assembly is cherished in the heart of Christ according to all the thoughts of divine love, and if we have seen what it is as cherished there it will make us very jealous in regard of corrupting influences. And we shall be ready to say, Hallelujah, when we see such influences brought under judgment morally. If I see a Christian awakened by divine grace to judge, and escape from, some corrupting influence that has acted on him, or that has contaminated his associations, I may well say, Hallelujah!
Heaven has such a sense of the glory and beauty of the assembly — of what it is to be as the Lamb’s wife and as the tabernacle of God — that there is a mighty “Hallelujah” there when that which embodies every corruption has been judged. Men on earth will be full of dismay at the desolation of Babylon, because she has succeeded in binding up with herself the glory and prosperity of the world, but heaven will rejoice. God’s judgment of her will cause His salvation and [p. 194] glory and power to appear. He is coming in to deliver His creation from every evil influence, and He deals first with the great harlot. To rid the earth of such a thing is really God’s salvation as well as His glory and power.
We have to begin by judging all the elements of Babylon in our own hearts. I do not believe that there is a corruption in christendom of which I could not find the germ in my own heart. For instance, vanity and the disposition to seek honour or glory on earth where Christ is rejected and dishonoured, are the very essence of Babylon. If “the pride of life” works in me I have to judge it as Babylonish. We have to flee from all that is idolatrous. I do not need to worship an image or a piece of bread to be an idolator; many other things may come in and rob God of the place in my heart which is due to Him.
At Corinth men were speaking with tongues, not to edify the saints, but as a kind of glory for themselves. Paul corrects that by exhorting them to follow after love, which would not think of distinction for self, but of the good of others. And he encourages them to prophesy, which is to speak in such a way that consciences are set in the presence of God, and searched by His word. To prophesy as in 1 Corinthians 14 does not mean speaking of future events, but bringing to bear on saints what is of God, so that intelligent spiritual exercise is produced. I cannot set another in the presence of God if I am not there myself. To prophesy one must be with God, and when there man’s glory withers up, and that destroys the root of Babylon.
Paul was a characteristic bit of the holy city; he was marked by transparency and divine light and glory, and the entire absence of self-exaltation. He says, “I shall most gladly spend and be utterly spent for your souls”. What for? To get a place, or be well thought of by the saints? No! “If even in abundantly loving you I should be less loved” (2 Corinthians 12: 15). That is not Babylon. By way of contrast look at Diotrephes! “Who loves to have the first place among them” (3 John 9). He was really a bit of the “great harlot”.
It is God’s salvation and glory and power when any corrupting influence comes under judgment. It will do so actually very soon, but the light of God is thrown upon things now that they may be judged morally. Think what the effect would be if every corrupting principle were judged in the souls of God’s people now! All saints would be drawn together in holy love, and in separation from what is evil. The characteristics of the assembly — holiness, truth, and unity — would come into evidence. Christ as Lord and Head would have His place. The Holy Spirit would be ungrieved. Everything that is of God would shine; the divine nature would be in activity, knitting all together.
“And a second time they said, Hallelujah. And her smoke goes up to the ages of ages”. It would appear that there will be some abiding witness of God’s righteous judgment of the harlot. Something that will correspond with the last verse of Isaiah. All through the millennium there will be a witness of God’s judgment on the wicked.
The elders and the four living creatures add their “Amen, Hallelujah”. It is the last action and utterance of the elders in this book. And, finally, a voice out of the throne says, “Praise our God, all ye his bondmen, and ye that fear him, small and great”. The circle of praise is very wide in verse 1; it is a [p. 196] smaller circle in verse 4; and, finally, it is One voice in verse 5. Christ is the first to praise when redemption is accomplished, the assembly takes up the note, followed by “the great congregation” of Israel, and, finally, “all the ends of the earth” (Psalm 22:22; Psalm 22:25; Psalm 22:27). But here the order is reversed.
When the great harlot has been judged, the bride comes into view. There is a vast “Hallelujah” to celebrate the fact that “the Lord our God the Almighty has taken to himself kingly power”. The One in whom all God’s rights as “the blessed and only Ruler ... the King of those that reign, and Lord of those that exercise lordship” (1 Timothy 6: 15) will be asserted, is about to come forth in victorious power. But before He does so “the marriage of the Lamb” is celebrated in heaven. The bride whom He has wooed and won by His suffering love, and by all that has been made known of Him by the Spirit while He has been hidden in heaven, will be united to Him. The interval between His death and His appearing has been productive, through divine grace and power, of the bade, and of those post-rapture saints who will be among the “Blessed” as “called to the supper of the marriage of the Lamb”.
By suffering love He has won the heart of His bride, and in royal glory He will own and display her. But she is first of all for Himself; it is “the marriage of the Lamb”, and “his wife has made herself ready”. There is an analogy with Psalm 45, but what we get here is more personal and intimate. The bride is not seen here as made ready for display, but ready for Him. Her thought is to be agreeable to Him, to suffice for His heart. In Ephesians 5 the assembly is viewed as the wife of the Christ, the Anointed Man; it is there the [p. 197] last Adam and the true Eve. But here He is “the Lamb” — the meek and holy Sufferer who went into death for the glory of God. In having His wife He gets the answer to what He suffered as the Lamb. Then I think the fact that the assembly is “the bride, the Lamb’s wife”, indicates that she is suitable to Him in that character. She has been prepared to suffer meekly in the presence of the power of evil. To be like a lamb is to be not much accounted of in this world; it is not men of that type who get to the top here. Men took advantage of the lamb-like character of Christ to deprive Him of everything. He suffered it meekly, “and was as a sheep dumb before her shearers”, and it is in the character of “the Lamb” that He gets a wife. The saints are called to patient suffering, and thus they become suitable in spirit for companionship with the Lamb.
Having “made herself ready” probably signifies that the judgment seat is passed. She has had His estimate of everything, and she is perfectly with Him as to all that did not answer to His mind in the responsible course here. Nothing remains on her but what He approves, and what has value and beauty in His eyes.
“And it was given to her that she should be clothed in fine linen, bright and pure; for the fine linen is the righteousnesses of the saints”. Her adornment is all of grace, for it was “given to her”; but it is a beauty which had come out here by the Spirit of Christ in the face of difficulty and contrariety. There is a clothing — “of wrought gold” (Psalm 45: 13), which is, I suppose, the new creation side — what is divinely wrought on the line of purpose, in answer to Christ having been made sin for us (2 Corinthians 5: 21). But what we have here is rather the “raiment of embroidery” (Psalm 45: 14); it is what has been worked out stitch by stitch as saints have brought forth “the fruit of the light in all goodness and righteousness and truth” (Ephesians 5: 9). In that sense the bride is making her wedding dress now. It is the outcome of the presence of the Spirit, and the result of His activities in the saints. Of course, the clothing “of wrought gold” and the “raiment of embroidery” ever go together.
We have to take up now the exercise of making ourselves ready; we should always have in view being suitable to Him. “Wherefore also we are zealous, whether present or absent, to be agreeable to him” (2 Corinthians 5: 9). One who is in the embrace of the love of Christ comes to the judgment “that they who live should no longer live to themselves, but to him who died for them and has been raised”. There is an answer of affection to the love of Christ, and the righteousness of living to Him is recognized. It is owned to be righteously due to Him that we should live to Him. There is really a bridal touch about every bit of true righteousness, for it is the act of one espoused; it flows from affection for Christ. One can understand, in the light of this, how “the righteousnesses of the saints” become the marriage attire of the Lamb’s wife; such raiment is suitable to the occasion.
When the love of Christ is known, movements of response begin, and they will all be gathered up to constitute the adornment of the bride. It is sweet to think of it. No one can tell the value to Christ of a little act that flows out of affection for Him. How delighted Jehovah was in Old Testament times with every bit of response from His people! “I remember [p. 199] for thee the kindness of thy youth, the love of thine espousals, when thou wentest after me in the wilderness” (Jeremiah 2: 2). They went after Him; that was what He remembered. These things should turn us to the Lord with desire that His love may be in freshness and power in our hearts, so that responsive affections may bring forth “righteousnesses” in us.
I would refer to Luke 7: 38 as an illustration of “righteousnesses”. The woman’s tears, her washing His feet, her wiping them with the hairs of her head, her anointing with myrrh, all told that “she loved much”; and her love brought forth a beautiful cluster of righteous acts. Then in Luke 8: 3 we read of certain saints by name, “and many others, who ministered to him of their substance”. He had become their glory, and I do not think it would be too much to say that they were His glory. (Cf. 2 Corinthians 8: 23). Such things as they did constitute “righteousnesses”, and the Lamb will delight to see His wife adorned with them.
In Psalm 45: 10, 11, we read, “Forget thine own people and thy father’s house; and the king will desire thy beauty”. This suggests another aspect of righteousness. The beauty of separation to Himself is very attractive to Christ. Then it is righteousness to love the saints; the root of it is that we love the One to whom they belong. When Christ is the Object of the heart, all the activities begin to be in relation to Him; self drops out, and something of the true character and beauty of the bride appears.
Every little act of service, every kindness begotten by the love of Christ, every prayer for His interests, every time we eat the Lord’s supper as maintaining [p. 200] what is due to Him, we are adding to those “righteousnesses” which will adorn the Lamb’s wife in the day of His marriage. I was deeply touched by the inscription on a monument erected in memory of two martyred women in Scotland. It said that they died “to maintain the rights of Christ in His assembly”. So far as that was true it was a noble act of righteousness. One can understand how suitable it is that the bride should come out in the adornment of such acts in that glorious coming day. To maintain what is due to Christ as Lord and Head in relation to the assembly will cost something. It will mean reproach; it will mean going with a few instead of with a crowd; but it will come out all right in another day.
“The righteousnesses of the saints” are not legal righteousnesses, but things done in relation to One we love. “All glorious is the king’s daughter within” (Psalm 45: 13) refers to what she is in the royal apartments before she is brought forth publicly. The moral beauty of the assembly is under the eye of Christ now, but it is hidden from the world.
Those “called to the supper of the marriage of the Lamb” would include, I suppose, Old Testament saints, and all those saints in heaven who are not of the bride. Every family in heaven will be deeply interested in Christ and the assembly. They will be “blessed” as made to participate in the joy of the occasion.
“The spirit of prophecy is the testimony of Jesus”. That gives us the key to all prophecy; it is the testimony as to the kind of man that will do for God. This is most important. People who study prophecy often get taken up with events, and miss the spirit of it. JESUS is the Man that God will have to be in [p. 201] evidence, and every kind of man that is contrary to Jesus will have to go out. Take all the nations that appear in prophecy as subjects of divine judgment! Each of them is characterized by some feature, or features, that do not at all correspond with Jesus. That is why they come under judgment. Who are going to be blessed? The meek, the humble, the merciful, the gracious, the righteous — those who are like Jesus! The Name Jesus speaks of all that He was in lowly grace and obedience here — the Man delightful to God. “The life of Jesus” is a life in Manhood which is the perfect answer, in conditions such as this world presents, to the glory of God. The whole spirit of the prophetic word is the testimony of that Man. God is going to displace every other man, and bring in universally what will be according to Jesus. To see this makes all prophecy, in a sense, very simple, and gives it great attractiveness to those to whom the Name of Jesus is sweet. It is our privilege to be amongst the “brethren who have the testimony of Jesus”.
The coming in of Jesus meant glory to God in the highest; He would maintain that at all cost. And it meant peace on earth, for in Jesus there was no discordant element, no lawless will seeking freedom to pursue a course of sin. And it meant good pleasure in men, because He would have a generation after His own order. God would have us to hold the testimony of Jesus. All the pride and glory of man will have to go out; and lowliness, obedience, dependence, confidence, love to God and love to man, and every other grace and moral beauty that was seen in Jesus, will come in. The glory of the Son of man is that He would fall as “the grain of wheat” into the ground [p. 202] and die that He might bear much fruit. He will, through His death, fill the scene with fruit for God — fruit of the same character and order as Himself. The love revealed in His death becomes the seed of life in human hearts, so that a generation may be brought forth like Him.
The Word came forth once “full of grace and truth”. God put Himself very near to men so that men might come under the influence and attraction of His grace, and in receiving the Word might have the right to be children of God. But now the same Person comes forth in victorious power for the execution of judgment on his enemies (verses 11 - 16). It is very solemn to think of the Lord being “faithful and true” in such a connection. There will be nothing arbitrary about the judgment of God; it will be in faithfulness and righteousness, the necessary subjugation and setting aside of what is contrary to God.
“He judges and makes war in righteousness”. What is of God will overcome; it has been presented in testimony, and men have derided it; but it will overcome. Everything will be searched out by those eyes which are as a flame of fire. Now they are searching the assemblies, as we see in Revelation 2 and 3, but then they will search the nations.
The time has come in this chapter for diadems to be on His head. In chapters 12 and 13 diadems are on the heads of the dragon, and on the horns of the beast. But the prince of this world is now to be cast out publicly and manifestly. And all the power of the beast — the concentrated ability of man in the fullest development of his powers, energized by the dragon — is to be overthrown. It is all usurped power; kingly rights belong to Christ. The many [p. 203] diadems — symbol of supreme authority — — are on the brow of the Lord Jesus.
He comes forth in His divine majesty. He has an uncreated renown that no one knows but Himself. It speaks of His proper Personal divine glory which no creature could compass. His “garment dipped in blood” is a terrible contrast to the “myrrh and aloes, cassia”, which mark all His garments as bringing in the kingdom in precious fragrance. But this garment is necessary as preliminary to that; it speaks of unsparing judgment of all that is unsuited to His kingdom. The ground must be cleared. And I believe that every one who falls under the judgment will be convinced that he deserves it. The sharp two-edged sword that goes out of His mouth is now being used to search out everything in His saints, and to expose what is contrary to God (Hebrews 4: 12, 13). But it will be used then to smite the nations. I understand this to mean that conviction will be brought home to men; they will realize — perhaps for the first time — that they deserve the judgment. Their true state will be brought home to them by the sharp severity of that sword which will act then in divine judicial power.
This has been called the warrior judgment. It will be followed by the sessional judgment of Matthew 25, when the Son of man will sit upon His throne of glory, and all the nations shall be gathered before Him. This would indicate that the world will contain many people beside those who will be actively hostile to Christ under the beast and the kings of the earth. So that after the latter have been destroyed, the former will be judged according to their treatment of those whom the Lord speaks of as “My brethren”
— [p. 204] His Jewish brethren who will be the bearers of His world — wide testimony in that day. And the “sheep” of that judgment will inherit the earthly kingdom; while the “goats” will depart “into eternal fire, prepared for the devil and his angels”, their final judgment.
His shepherding the nations with an iron rod (verse 15) is in view of His taking possession of His inheritance. See Psalm 2: 8, 9, Revelation 2: 27. It is the exercise of authority in an indisputable way, so that He may have all that the Father has given Him. Then treading the winepress is the complete crushing of every element of rebellion and apostasy.
All this is connected with the assertion of those rights which pertain to the Lord Jesus Christ. He is “King of kings, and Lord of lords”. That is the true imperial idea. It is very blessed to see that every conception of dignity has come into being that it might be taken up by Christ. We get that in Colossians 1: 16. “By him were created all things, the things in the heavens and the things upon the earth, the visible and the invisible”. But the things specified are “thrones, or lordships, or principalities, or authorities”. They are conceptions of rule and dignity which did not originate with men at all. They have taken form as created by the Son of the Father’s love. Men may have usurped positions of dignity, or even been allowed of God to hold them, in His government of the world, but all such conceptions have been created “by him and for him”. He is “the head of all principality and authority”, and all will be taken up by Him, and every subordinate dignity will be derived from Him. “King of kings, and Lord of lords” is a divine conception of dignity. It may be imitated as far as possible by the beast; but it is a title which [p. 205] will never have its full realization until it is written upon the garment and upon the thigh of God’s Anointed.
The closing section of this chapter shews us that the appearing of Christ will be the occasion for the last desperate effort of the beast and the kings of the earth to resist His authority. There will be no uncertainty as to the issue of that conflict. If human armies meet there is a struggle to decide the victory, but there will be nothing like that in this battle. As to the lawless one, we are told, “Whom the Lord Jesus shall consume with the breath of his mouth, and shall annul by the appearing of his coming” (2 Thessalonians 2: 8). The beast and the false prophet will be taken, and without passing through death will be cast into the lake of fire; and the rest will be “slain with the sword of him that sat upon the horse, which goes out of his mouth”.
When His enemies came to take Him in the garden of Gethsemane, He said, “I am he”, and “they went backward and fell to the ground”. By the same power will all His adversaries perish in a day that is not far distant. The world in which we live will shortly be the theatre of these solemn actings of divine judgment. The knowledge of it is designed to have a profound effect upon us. “What ought ye to be in holy conversation and godliness? ... Be diligent to be found of him in peace, without spot and blameless” (2 Peter 3: 11, 14).