Revelation 19:1-8

Hallelujah!

1After 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,

2for 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." 3And again they shouted:

"Hallelujah!

The smoke from her goes up for ever and ever."

4The twenty-four elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshiped God, who was seated on the throne. And they cried:

"Amen, Hallelujah!"

5Then a voice came from the throne, saying:

"Praise our God,

all you his servants,

you who fear him,

both small and great!"

6Then 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.

7Let us rejoice and be glad

and give him glory!

For the wedding of the Lamb has come,

and his bride has made herself ready.

8Fine linen, bright and clean,

was given her to wear." (Fine linen stands for the righteous acts of the saints.)



Dig Deeper

One of the biggest mistakes that Christians can ever make is to think more highly of ourselves than we ought. It is the constant struggle for every preacher, for instance, to constantly be anchored to the fact that no matter how many great insights we have or lessons we give, that it all comes from God rather than our own abilities. It is easy, in fact, for any Christian to become impressed with themselves and think that their acts of service or the level of righteousness to which we have attained is of our own doing. Some teachers even feed into that by teaching this topic falsely. I recently heard one person who was teaching that righteousness is something that each Christian must attain to and for which they will be rewarded. In other words, the more righteously you act, the more rewarded by God you will be. He actually cited verse 8 of this passage, claiming that those who didn’t do acts of righteousness would be naked in heaven because they hadn’t earned their clothes.


The constant reminder of the Bible, however, is that we do not and cannot earn righteousness. "Salvation and glory and power belong to our God," and we are given the "fine linen" of righteous acts to wear. What does this mean for us? It means that everything act and work of goodness and righteousness that we do is a gift from God not a praiseworthy act in and of ourselves. A sober estimation of this will keep us grounded in the reality of our need to honor and praise God constantly.


19:1-2 - A careful reading of 18:24-19:6 will show the extreme similarities between this section and 11:15-19, which is the announcement of the Kingdom and the heavenly Temple to the whole world in the New Covenant. As this section is introducing the appearance of the Bride, it is clear that in John’s mind there is an equivalent between the opening of the Temple and the full establishment of the New Covenant.


The great multitude is in heaven shouting: Hallelujah! Salvation and glory and power belong to our God, for true and just are His judgments. The Church had prayed for Jerusalem’s destruction (Rev. 6:9-11) and now those prayers have been answered. Prophecies were intended for strengthening, encouragement and comfort (1 Cor. 14:3), and John’s readers were commanded to listen to this prophecy and take it to heart (Rev. 1:3). In describing the heavenly Church’s prayers against her enemies, John was rallying the saints on earth to do the same. Now that Jerusalem’s immanent doom has been guaranteed, John instructs the Church to worship and glorify God, not to mourn. In handing down His judgments, God has truly shown that His actions are righteous. Israel’s destruction is actually God’s righteousness on display in the physical world. He has condemned the great prostitute who corrupted the earth by her adulteries. He has avenged on her the blood of His servants. This is yet another symbolic connection between the great prostitute and Jezebel, the queen who had led Israel from the worship of God. God had ordered Elisha to instruct Jehu to take down Jezebel, saying: "I will avenge the blood of my servants the prophets and the blood of all the LORD's servants shed by Jezebel" (2 Ki. 9:22).


19:3 - The second refrain of the celebration song begins here as again, they shout Hallelujah! The cause for the praise is, again, the destruction of Jerusalem. The smoke from her goes up for ever and ever. This expression has been used three times before (Rev. 14:11; 18:2, 9) and is based on the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. The specific wording, however, comes from Isaiah’s description of the punishment of Edom (Isa. 34:10). It is no accident that John borrows quite liberally from both Old Testament denunciations of Israel, but also equally borrows from oracles against pagan nations. The point is that Jerusalem, once the covenantal people of God, had now become one of the very enemies of God.


19:4 - Present during this chorus are the twenty-four elders and the four living creatures. As discussed in 4:4-11, the twenty-four elders represent God’s people, while the four living creatures symbolize all the earthly creation. We are told that they fell down and worshiped God, who was seated on the throne. There is always a connection in biblical worship between proper praise of God and a physical activity that is appropriate to the godly fear and reverence that should be shown to the most high God. This is perhaps a point that we should pay attention to, as we live in a time when worship has become casual to the point of being irreverent.


19:5 - An unnamed voice came from the throne, saying: "Praise our God, all you his servants, you who fear him, both great and small." This command is given to the Church, the servants of God, who are continuing in their praise of God for His righteous act of the destruction of Jerusalem.


19:6-8 - We should not miss that the great multitude, the entire Church, speaks with the characteristic voice of the glory cloud: the roar of rushing waters and like loud peals of thunder. This confirms their identity as people that are in the glorious image of God. The crowd has praised God for His sovereignty, displayed in the destruction of Jerusalem. Now they praise Him for His wedding of the Lamb, for which the time time has come. The New Testament is full of exhortations to the Church to prepare herself as the glorious bride of Christ (Eph. 5:25-27; Jude 3, 24, etc.), but now John sees the Church in her glory and purity, having met her trials, and passed through the treat tribulations into her possession of the Kingdom as the Bride of Christ. The destruction of Jerusalem signified the Church’s full establishment as the new Temple, the faithful Bride. The bride has made herself ready, and fine linen, bright and clean, was given to her to wear. Linen has already been used frequently as a symbol (Rev. 15:6; cf. 3:4; 4:4; 7:9, 14), now John explicitly states that the linen symbolizes the righteous acts of the saints. Two important points are seen here about the sanctification of the Church. First it was given to her, as sanctification always is. Yet, second, she was still expected to make herself ready. This same concept is consistent throughout Scripture (Lev. 20:7-8; Phil. 2:12-13).



Devotional Thought

God expects His people to be holy and sanctified. It is a work that only He can make available to us, yet we must take hold of it and put it on. How much have you striven to be holy? Is it something you pray for without ceasing? The book of Hebrews tells us that "without holiness no one sees the Lord." Make a point to study the Scriptures to see what they say about holiness and to go after receiving the work of sanctification from god.