Revelation-Part 43

Contents

Events of the Seventh Bowl, #2 and #3: Armageddon

Following the outline furnished in last month’s column, we would like to continue by discussing the second and third events of the seventh bowl judgment. Those are the Sum­mons of the birds to a human feast (19:17-18) and the Slaughter of Christ’s human oppo­nents (19:19-21). We took note of the Rider on the white horse and the Rider’s armies last month, basing our observations on Revelation 19:11-16. Next in sequence of events come the events on earth concurrent with the second coming of Jesus Christ to this earth.

Summons of the Birds to a Human Feast (19:17-18)

The second event will be an angel standing in the sun who will issue a summons to all the birds of prey to come to a battlefield soon to be littered with the corpses of the King’s enemies (Rev. 19:17). In predicting this same battle Jesus used the word for “eagles” (or perhaps “vultures”) in Matthew 24:28 and Luke 17:37. A characteristic of vultures is how incredibly swift they are to discover and reach a prey. In light of that ability, the time be­tween the angel’s summons and the doom about to come is quite short.

The name assigned to the occasion for which the birds are gathered is “the great supper of God.” That name is a stunning title to describe the battlefield after the victory of the Rider on the white horse. It is a great supper given by God, a veritable feast for the vultures. In commenting on the habits of vultures and how carrion attracts them, Jesus said, “Wherever the corpse is, there the vultures will gather” (Matt. 24:28). Even one dead body holds a strong attraction for such birds. How much more will the multiplied dead cluttering the battlefield draw these birds of prey? The inspired writer presents a horrifying picture of human carnage with the purpose of emphasizing the greatness of Christ’s victory when He returns to earth. This kind of victory stands in conspicuous contrast to the wedding supper of the Lamb seen earlier in anticipation of Christ’s return for the faithful (Rev. 19:9). God responds graciously to those who respond to His call, but He must deal in severe judgment with those who do not. This is the battle at Armageddon anticipated in Revelation 16:14, 16 as part of the sixth bowl judgment.

The language describing this battle draws from Ezekiel 39:17-20. The same language de­scribes the battle in Revelation 20:8-9 also, but these two passages do not depict the same battle. Revelation 19:17-18 locates this scene at Armageddon; the one in 20:8-9 is at Jerusa­lem. Here the victims include the beast and the false prophet; the latter scene involves Satan himself. The enemies in this scene are the kings of the earth and their armies; those in the later battle will be the nations in the four corners of the earth. Christ’s means for achieving victory here will be the sword from His mouth; in the Jerusalem battle, fire from heaven will devour His enemies. The beast and the false prophet will go into the lake of fire as a result of this event; Satan himself will proceed into that lake after the later battle.

Food for the birds of prey will include all classes of mankind and every status of life (Rev. 19:18): kings, chiliarchs,^[1] strong ones, horses, those who sit upon them, and all others, both free men and slaves and both small and great. The sweeping reference of the word “all” refers to those who have accepted the mark of the beast and given their allegiance to the false Christ.

Slaughter of Christ’s Human Opponents (19:19-21)

The third scene of the seventh bowl is a brief description of “the battle of the great day of God Almighty” (Rev. 16:14) itself. The beast, the kings of the earth, and their armies gather to make war against the Rider and His army (19:19). By now the beast will have achieved worldwide supremacy and therefore is in the forefront of all earthly forces. “The kings of the earth” will include the ten kings who will be the beast’s allies, according to Revelation 17:12-14. They are the longstanding enemies of the Lord’s Anointed, according to Psalm 2:2. Their armies will consist of the entire number of the earth-dwellers or their representa­tives (see Rev. 13:3-4, 8, 16). They hope to assure the role of the beast as world leader by engaging the Rider and His army in battle.

The text does not disclose the occasion for or the scene of the battle. Possibly, the Rider—elsewhere referred to as the Lamb (Rev. 17:14)—will return to earth (19:11-16) to a spiritually revived Jerusalem (cf. 11:13), forcing the beast into action to quell such a spiri­tual awakening in his domain. The outcome of the encounter will never be in doubt as the beast and his false prophet are captured and cast alive “into the lake of fire that burns with brimstone” (19:20). Stern treatment of the beast by the Rider requires no justification, but the cause for the false prophet’s consignment to the lake does. The cause is his miracu­lous activity in promoting beast worship. The prophet will deceive only those who agree to accept the mark of the beast (13:16) and who worship the beast’s image (13:15), but that will be enough to assure his destiny of doom alongside the beast.

The fact that these two individuals will enter “the lake of fire that burns with brimstone” while still alive increases the horror of the picture. This means that the Rider will capture them on the battlefield without killing them and will send them off to their eternal destiny in full consciousness. That the two have superhuman capacities explains why they will enter the lake in advance of the rest of lost people, who will not enter the lake until the judgment of the great white throne at the end of the millennium (20:12-15). The beast has already experienced the healing of his death-wound (13:3, 12; 17:8, 11); his superhuman standing is a matter of revelation. For the false prophet to join him in this doom is perhaps surprising but not completely unexpected because of his sign-working powers. The lake of fire will be a place of punishment for individuals, not corporate entities such as empires. That fact certifies that these two will be members of the human race.

The lake of fire will be a real place, not a figurative symbol for something bad. The valley Hinnom, otherwise known as Gehenna, is a literal location near Jerusalem that prefigures that lake (see Matt. 5:22; Mark 9:43). Because no person has yet experienced the lake of fire, it is difficult to portray in human language the awful nature of such punishment. We can only note that a burning lake is God’s chosen imagery for visualizing an eternity sepa­rated from Himself.

In contrast to the beast and false prophet, the kings of the earth and their armies will lose their lives in this battle. “The rest” who were killed (19:21) include the defeated forces of the beast who have refused every opportunity to repent. It also must include all who choose to follow the beast instead of the Lamb. The exhaustive specification of different groups in Revelation 19:18 necessitates this conclusion. No effort to understand their deaths as anything other than military casualties is legitimate. The description does not tell the method used by the Rider to rid Himself of His enemies, but whatever it is, bloodshed will be widespread and lives will be lost (see Rev. 14:20). The scene closes with the fulfill­ment of the promise to the birds invited to the great supper of God: “all the birds were filled with their flesh” (19:21).

A realization that any person may be on the losing side in this battle of the great day of God Almighty is sobering and even frightening. It is enough to cause one to take radical steps to avoid the prospect of meeting so dreadful an end. Yet radical steps are unneces­sary. All that it takes to assure the wearing of an overcomer’s crown instead of succumbing to such a shameful death is to place trust in the Lord Jesus Christ for forgiveness of sin and everlasting life. In His death, He bore the punishment for all who rely on Him and Him alone for salvation. That means a future of bliss instead of the awful end pictured in the second and third events of the seventh bowl judgment.

Note: For more details on the final great battle connected with the second coming of Christ and for further description of the second and third events of the seventh bowl judg­ment, see my discussion in Revelation 8–22 (Moody Press, 1995), pages 392-401. To order this volume, you may contact Grace Books International at (800) GRACE15 or www.gbibooks.com.

NOTES

1. ↑ A chiliarch is the commander or chief of a thousand men (Webster’s New Twentieth Century Dictionary

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