Year 0, Day 28: Revelation 19

Mourning turns to Joy

I am struck by the joy of the beginning of this chapter, and yet how it is mixed with such a horrible time of judgment at the end.  I suppose at the very least this is the struggle of faith within me.  I look longingly forward to the day when I and those in Christ with me will be made alive again in Christ and brought into the fullness of His glory. But humanly I also mourn the loss of those people who on that day will realize only too late that they were wrong.  It is such an exciting moment in one sense, but such a terrifying moment in a completely other sense.  Anyway, let’s get on with Revelation 19, shall we?

First Alleluia

Here we get several “Alleluias.”  Alleluia literally means “Praise God.”  The focus of this first Alleluia is on praising God because salvation, glory, and power belong to Him.

• Salvation is important because it should evoke our gratitude towards God. 
• Glory is important because it should evoke our reverence towards God. 
• Power is important because God’s power comes through his love and thus evokes our trust in God. 

True praise and worship of God should always include gratitude, reverence, and trust as a reflection of God’s salvation, glory, and power.  Now there’s a thought that I should have more often.  I wonder how often my worship – much less the corporate worship in which I participate – truly involves gratitude, reverence, and trust as much as it should?

In the first Alleluia God is praised because his judgment is right and true.  In this light, judgment should be understood as the inescapable consequence of sin.  This brings us back to my opening paragraph of this blog.  God is capable as a judge for three reasons.

• First, God is the only one who sees the innermost parts of a person. 
• Second, God is the only one who can judge with purity of mind and without prejudice.
• Third, God is the only one with the right wisdom to find an appropriate judgment and apply it. 

God is also praised for other reasons.  He is praised for judging the great prostitute.  Her great sin is corrupting others.  It is one thing to sin, but it is another thing to teach others and entwine them in sin.  He is praised a third time because through the judgment is the promise that God does not abandon his own.  In summary, John’s point is that between God and Rome – or in a more general sense, God and sin, God will outlast and get the last word.

Second and Third Alleluias

We move to the second and third Alleluias.  The second Alleluia reiterates the first: God is praised because the smoke from the great city will rise forever.  In other words, Rome will be destroyed and never rise again.  The Biblical reference that John likely draws from is Isaiah 34:9-10. 

After the angelic praise, the elders and the living creatures join in.  Since the elders likely represent the combination of the 12 patriarchs and the 12 apostles while the 4 living creatures represent nature, this can be seen as the church and nature coming together to praise God.  Also, notice that John incorporates all levels of service from the small to the great.  In this we can see that the ultimate way to follow God’s ways are: follow God, testify to his character (grace, love, mercy, power, salvation, etc), and choose God above all else.

Fourth Alleluia

The fourth Alleluia is thought of as the chorus of the redeemed, who are the bride of Christ and bought with His blood.  The marriage metaphor is legitimate for several reasons.  The best marriages are based on true love, intimate relationships, filled with joy, and based on fidelity.  When these are present in a marriage, the marriage thrives.  When these are present between us and God, faith thrives. 

This Alleluia gives God a specific title: Almighty {literally “pantokrator” in the Greek}.  Pantokrator is a word that means “the one who controls all things.”  This is a fitting title for John to lift up and remind the people to whom he writes – a people who are living in persecution and looking for relief.  This title demonstrates that in God we can have faith and confidence.  When the world rises up against us, it is good to remember that even those who rise up against us are still within God’s even larger realm of influence.

Notice that in this fourth Alleluia that the bride of Christ is dressed in fine linen.  The colors of the clothing of the righteous should be contrasted with that of the harlot from the last chapter.  The bride of Christ is seen in terms of holiness and purity while the harlot is described in colors signifying wealth, power, and nobility.  Especially in today’s world this contrast should not get lost.  Wealth, power, and nobility are nothing in God’s eyes when compared with holiness and purity.

Worship

After the alleluias, John’s impulse is to worship the guide but he is forbidden to do so.  Worship is for God alone.  This may seem like a small issue, but it is a significant issue for Christianity.  When we revere something besides God, we essentially establish an intermediary between us and God.  Essentially what we do is supplant Jesus.  When we worship an angel (or another human being) what we actually do is to remove Jesus from His place of power as our intermediary.  It is through Jesus that we are saved and our worship should reflect this. 

Furthermore, in ancient times there was another issue.  The ancient world was filled with societies that had many gods.  The Roman Empire often made a point to include the gods of other nations into their own so that the conquered people would have an easier time merging into Roman society.  Thus, Christians were always fighting the impulse of new converts to make their former gods into angels so that they could continue to worship them in addition to the Christian God. 

This might seem strange to our modern ear, but we do the same thing all the time.  Rather than obey the call of God to forsake the things of the world, we try to include them so that we can avoid forsaking what we enjoy while still our earthly pleasures.  That will never lead us to the ways of God.  Yes, we don’t have to become ascetics living in the desert – but neither should we allow our faith to become so filled with the world that we can’t see God anymore.

Rider on the White Horse

Now let’s turn to the conquering Christ.  This is one of the favored stories in the Bible.  The White Horse is a sign of a conquering general.  Roman soldiers rode in victory parades upon white horses. 

• The rider is faithful and true.  Faithful means that he is able to be trusted.  True means both that his words are true as well as that he is real. 
• The rider is able to make war while remaining righteous.  Christ will not pervert justice – as many who among humanity who make war have a tendency to do. 
• The rider’s eyes blaze with fire.  This image has already been given to us in Revelation 1 and 2 and it stands for Christ’s victorious power. 
• The rider wears many crowns.  While it may seem strange for us today, in ancient days a conquering emperor would wear the crowns of the areas that they conquered.  Thus, this description of Christ indicates that he is victorious over many things – one might even say all things. 
• He has a name that only He knows.  This is most likely a testimony to the Hebrew belief that to know the name of another was to have power over them.  Thus, since nobody knows the rider’s name nothing holds any power over the rider. 
• The rider’s robe “has been dipped” in blood.  Literally the word for dipped is the word we translate in other places as “baptized.”  Also notice the tense of the verb: another perfect passive.  Not only is the robe baptized in blood, but it is baptized in blood by God’s own doing.

The question is whose blood?  If it is Christ’s blood, then this is a clear passage about of the plan of salvation.  Christ conquered death and hell through His blood, now He can conquer the world.  However, that is not the only source of blood in this passage.  If it is the blood of His enemies, this is a clear symbol of the conquering power of Christ. That is to say that in this story Christ is not the “Slain One” but rather the “Slayer.”  If this is the case, then John is borrowing from Isaiah 63:1-3.  Either interpretation can be justified.  Both interpretations give us different paths for contemplation.

We are told that the rider’s name is the Word of God.  This harkens us back to the opening words of the Gospel of John.  However, the meaning here is much more rich than a simple reference to the beginning of John’s Gospel.  Words bring life to ideas.  Thus, to call Jesus the Word of God is to literally say that Jesus is the plan of God brought to real life.  Jesus is the embodiment of God’s plan for the world.  Now there is a simple thought that cannot be spoken often enough.

This conquering Christ is the embodiment of the avenging wrath of God.  The armies of Heaven follow him.  The contrast between this stage of God’s plan and the scene in the Garden of Gethsemane are too great to miss.  In the Garden, when Christ came to die for our sake and conquer sin and death, Christ conquers without need of armed resistance.  In fact, Christ is abandoned and goes about the task alone.  Now, when Christ comes to conquer the world he brings a whole host of heaven with him.

As for the enemies of Christ, this grim picture is a retelling of Ezekiel 39:17-19. The point of this portion of the story is to demonstrate that all the enemies of God will be defeated and only Christ will remain absolutely powerful.  While the beast and those who follow are condemned, notice that nothing as of yet has been said of Satan – the great dragon – himself.

So today we have learned a few things.  Christ will rule.  Amen, come Lord Jesus.  Though I fear judgment myself and I fear the judgment of those in this world about whom I care – come Lord Jesus.  Only in you will the process of judgment be righteous and endurable.