Revelation-Part 41
| By: Dr. Robert Thomas; ©2002 |
| Revelation chapter 19 reveals five songs. Who sings each? What is the purpose of each song? Dr. Thomas paints a glorious picture of a heavenly “praise service”. |
The Seventh Bowl: Part Six of Intercalation #1, Celebrating the Fall of Babylon
The final segment of Intercalation #1, an interlude within the seventh-bowl account that has been our subject of study for the last five months, divides itself into five songs (Revelation 19:1-2, 3, 4, 5, 6-8) and a command for John the author of the book to write (Rev. 19:9-10). All this comes on the heels of John’s completed description of the fall of Babylon in Revelation 17–18. The whole segment relates either directly or indirectly to the downfall and destruction of that great city. As will be described in more detail below, the first four songs celebrate God’s judgment of the city. The fifth song celebrates God’s coming reign on earth, a reign that could come only after Babylon’s defeat. Finally, an angel instructs John to write about the blessing that will come to those invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.
The First Song (Rev. 19:1-2)
The first song celebrates God’s judgment of the harlot Babylon and His avenging of the blood of His servants. The singers are a large crowd, probably composed of angels. This song contains the first of four occurrences of “hallelujah” in this chapter (see verses 3, 4, and 6 for the other three). It transliterates a Hebrew expression found twenty-four times in the Psalms, an expression whose meaning is “praise the Lord.” Use of the comparable expression in the Psalms is generally in connection with the punishment of the wicked, as it is here. Psalm 104:35 is similar to Revelation 19 because it includes words about both judgment and praise to the Lord: “Let sinners be consumed from the earth, and let the wicked be no more. Bless the LORD, O my soul. Praise the LORD!”
The earlier part of this first song celebrates the arrival of God’s salvation, glory, and power. The victory of God’s Kingdom coming on earth coincides with the removal of all that stands in its way, including the beast and Babylon. Verse 2 assigns a reason for praise to God. His true and righteous judgments have spelled the end of this city which has “corrupted the earth with her fornication.”
The Second Song (Rev. 19:3)
The same singers are the source of the second song. The second “hallelujah” that begins this song heightens the emphasis on praise to the Lord. This time the reason for the praise is that the city’s destruction is final, complete, and irreversible. The ascending smoke referred to is an allusion to the fire that will destroy Babylon (see 17:16; 18:8, 9, 18; see also 14:11). This is the finishing touch to the description of Babylon’s collapse. The flames that destroy the physical city will, of course, burn out in due time, but the spiritual devastation of the city and the evil for which she stands will be eternal.
The Third Song (Rev. 19:4)
Singers of the third song are different. The twenty-four elders and the four living beings at this point add their positive response to the first two songs of praise for the demise of
Babylon. The object of their worship is “God who sits upon the throne.” Each time one or both of these groups has sung in Revelation (see 4:8, 11; 5:9-10, 11-12, 14; 7:11; 11:17- 18), their song has touched on a central theme of the book. All those themes are implicit in their brief two-word song here: “Amen, Hallelujah.” The elders and the living beings are in concurrence with the celebration over the downfall of Babylon.
The Fourth Song (Rev. 19:5)
Positive identification of the voice that sings the fourth song is impossible from the information available. Though it comes “from the throne,” it is not the voice of God or of the Lamb. The identity of the singer must remain unknown, but whoever it is has authority in commanding God’s servants to praise “our God.” The servants of God addressed are those who piously fear Him. The call extends to people of all levels of intellectual capacity, social standing, spiritual progress, and whatever other categories men use to group themselves, that is, “small and great” servants of God.
The Fifth Song (Rev. 19:6-8)
The first four songs have looked back at the fall of Babylon, but the fifth song looks forward to praise God for His coming reign on earth. Still a celebration of the fall of the great city, this song celebrates by anticipating the ultimate results of that fall. God has judged the great harlot, and the marriage of the Lamb has come because the bride has readied herself. John has heard the voice of a great multitude in 19:1, but the voice of this song has even more fullness: “as the voice of a great multitude and as the sound of many waters and as the sound of loud [peals of] thunder” (19:6). Though not specifically identified, the song in this case apparently comes from heavenly voices of an angelic chorus as in 19:1.
The stated reason for this “hallelujah” is “our Lord God Almighty has begun to reign” (19:6b). The song, of course, is anticipating what will have occurred with the beginning of Revelation 20 in the initiation of the millennial Kingdom on earth. Heavenly songs throughout the book are typically proleptic in looking back at events from a future time that has not yet arrived in the chronological sequence of earthly events (for example, Rev. 11:15).
The proleptic song continues with an exhortation of joyfulness and a recognition of God’s glory (19:7a). Glory is due God because “the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has prepared herself” (19:17b). This announcement again adopts a future perspective in viewing the marriage of the Lamb and the readying of His bride as past events. In the New Testament Christ is the bridegroom and the church is the bride (2 Cor. 11:2; Eph. 5:25ff.; Rev. 3:20; 19:9; 21:2, 9; 22:17). Rejoicing over the marriage of the Lamb sets the tone for extended descriptions of the Lamb’s bride in 19:8 and chapters 21–22.
Though the time and place of the marriage have not been subjects agreed upon by all, the greatest probability is that the wedding itself takes place in heaven after the taking up of the church into heaven as Christ returns to initiate the punishments of Daniel’s seventieth week on earth. Subsequent to that, however, the wedding feast will transpire throughout the temporal kingdom of the millennium and the eternal kingdom thereafter. At the marriage of the Lamb the church will comprise Christ’s bride, but since Israel will appear with the church in the New Jerusalem, which is also Christ’s bride, by that point those composing His bride will apparently have increased in number (see Rev. 21:12, 14).
The fifth song continues with a description of the bride’s preparation of herself: “and it has been granted to her that she clothe herself in bright, clean fine linen, for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints” (19:8). The dazzling whiteness of the bride’s garments symbolizes the inward purity of God’s people collectively, a purity imparted by God. But the bride responds to that divine provision through her performance of “righteous deeds.”
Blessing on the Attendees at the Marriage Supper (19:9-10)
One of the angels with the seven bowls, who was the spokesman beginning at 17:1, speaks again in 19:9 to instruct John to write about the blessing on those invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb. Some have supposed that the invited guests are the same as the bride, that is, the church. Yet since other redeemed people besides the church will live in the millennium—portrayed as the wedding feast in this passage—it seems best to identify the wedding guests with saved individuals other than members of the church, the body of Christ. The angel concludes this part of his role by verifying that “these words are the true [ones] of God” (19:10a), by which he is certifying the validity of all spoken throughout the intercalation begun at Revelation 17:1.
John reflects how overwhelmed he is at the profound truths received from this angel by falling before him to worship him, but the angel forbids such action. He declares that only God is worthy to be worshiped and that the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy (19:10b).
We too are overwhelmed at what the angel revealed to us through John’s writing. To think that some day God will rid the world of the worship of false gods (Revelation 17) and of rampant materialism (Revelation 18) is beyond our highest anticipations. The thought moves us to join the heavenly songs of celebration that John heard at the close of the 17:1–19:10 intercalation. But it also moves us to remove ourselves from participation in the kinds of activities represented by the great city Babylon. The people of God need to be pure, clothed in white as it were, to be a suitable bride for the Lamb. May we through the righteous deeds He enables us to perform draw others to trust the Lamb for their salvation.
Note: For more details about the five heavenly songs and the marriage supper of the Lamb under the seventh-bowl judgment, see my discussion in Revelation 8–22 (Moody Press, 1995), pages 353-380. To order this volume, you may contact Grace Books International at (800) GRACE15 or www.gbibooks.com.
