Revelation 19:1-21 - Homilies By D. Thomas

The Eternal in the universe, and his Representative to man.

"And after these things I heard a great voice of much people," etc. "Babylon" in this book I take as the symbol of moral evil on this earth, or, in other words, of all that is corrupt in human life. From its establishment on this globe, it has been "falling." It is "failing" now, and will continue to fall until its mighty mountain shall become a plain, and there will be found "no place" for it. In the preceding chapter the effect of its fall was seen. How the bad howled lamentations! and how the good shouted its jubilations! Looking at this chapter, not as a verbal critic, a prophetic interpreter, or as a sensuous pietist, but as a practical man, it suggests and portrays to me the Eternal in the universe, and his Representative to man. We have here—

I. A SYMBOLIC ASPECT OF THE ETERNAL IN THE UNIVERSE . How does he appear here? As receiving the highest worship. "After these things I heard [as it were] a great voice of much people [a great multitude] in heaven, saying, Alleluia," etc.

1 . The worship was widely extensive—" much people," "elders" ( Revelation 19:1-3 ), "beasts," "small and great," "a great multitude." In this worship, the "four and twenty elders," the representatives of the sainted dead who have reached the heavenly state, and the "four beasts" [living creatures], unfallen spirits through all ages and worlds, all these unite in the one grand "Alleluia," "Praise our God [give praise to our God]." Worship is the vital breath and inspiration of all holy intelligences. On the Eternal their eyes are fixed with supreme adoration, and their hearts with intensest love turned in impressive devotion.

2 . The worship was supremely deserved. "True and righteous are his judgments" ( Revelation 19:2 ). He is true and righteous, absolutely so in himself is he. "He is light, and in him is no darkness at all." Not one dark thought has ever passed through his infinite intellect, not one sentiment of evil has ever ruffled the immeasurable sea of his emotionality. The Father of lights is he; all the beams of holy thoughts and ideas stream from him, as rays from the central sun of immensity.

"O holy Sire, O holy Sire,

Sole Fount of life and light!

Thou art the uncreated Fire.

Burning in every pure desire

Of all who love the right."

Not only is he absolutely "true and righteous" in himself, but it is suggested that he is so in his procedure against the wrong. "He hath judged the great whore [harlot], which did corrupt the earth with her fornication, and hath [he hath] avenged the blood of his servants at her hand" ( Revelation 19:2 ). This "great whore" stands, I think, the same as Babylon, for the moral evil in the world. Her description is given in Revelation 17:1-18 . It suggests and illustrates three great evils in the world:

Is he not "true and righteous" in crushing such a moral monster, such a curse to the earth, so that her "smoke rose [goeth] up forever and ever" ( Revelation 17:3 ), which means utter destruction? Now, were he not "true and righteous," both in himself and in his procedure, who could worship him? Moral mind is so constituted, that to worship the false and the wrong would be an impossibility. You may urge me to do so with the threat of eternal damnation, but I could not bow my knee to such; nor ought I, if I could. But the worship of an immaculate God meets the moral cravings of my soul, and brings out all the faculties of my nature in harmonious play and rapturous delight.

3 . The worship was intensely enthusiastic. "Alleluia," "Praise our God," etc. "In the present episode," says Moses Stuart, "trichotomy as usual is plainly discernible. In the first division, all the inhabitants of the heavenly world are represented as uniting in a song of triumph and of thanksgiving on account of the righteous judgments of God which are about to be inflicted ( Revelation 17:1-4 ). In the second, a voice from the throne in heaven speaks, and requires of all his servants everywhere, renewed praise, which accordingly is shouted ( Revelation 17:5-8 ). In the third, a glorious prospect of suffering martyrs is disclosed. They will be guests at the marriage supper of the Lamb; the Church is indeed the Lamb's bride, and the exaltation of the Messiah is vividly sketched in the declaration of the angel interpreter, at whose feet John, in a state of astonishment, falls. Jesus, the angel declares, is the Object of worship by him; and therefore he (the angel) cannot claim the worship of his fellow servants, who, like him, are merely instruments in making known the prophecies respecting the triumph of redeeming grace (verses 9, 10)." The "Alleluias" seem to wax louder and louder as they are repeated, until they become as "the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thunderings [thunders]" (verse 6). The voice seems as loud as the vociferous noise of a mighty army when victory has been won, or as the boom of old ocean when lashed into fierce storm.

II. A SYMBOLIC ASPECT OF THE ETERNAL IN HIS REPRESENTATIVE TO MAN . "Let us be glad and rejoice [rejoice and be exceeding glad], and give honour to him [let us give the glory unto him]: for the marriage of the Lamb is come," etc. (verse 7). As Christ is in other places of the Bible represented as the "Lamb of God," and also as being wedded to his genuine disciples, the symbolic language here suggests him to our minds in some of his grand relations to mankind. He appears here:

1 . As the loving Husband of the true. "The marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready" (verse 7). By the true, I mean his genuine disciples, those of Christly character. In various places elsewhere, his relation to such is represented as the foundation to a building, as the root to a branch, as the head to a body. But his relationship here represented varies from these in at least three respects.

Observe:

"The more thy glories strike my eyes,

The lower I shall lie;

Thus while I fall my joys shall rise

Immeasurably high."

How sublimely blessed the condition of all genuine disciples of Christ! They are wedded to him; he is their spiritual Husband, and each can say, "I am his, and he is mine."

2 . As the triumphant Conqueror of the wrong. Earth is the arena of a tremendous campaign, the battle of the right against the wrong, of the true against the false, of the benevolent against the selfish. As a Chieftain in this grand moral campaign against wrong, the following points are suggested as worthy of note. Observe:

(a) "His eyes were [are] as a flame of fire" (verse 12). The eye is the best mirror of the soul; one glance reveals more of the inner self than the strongest words in the most affluent vocabulary. The eyes of this conquering Hero, riding forth victoriously on his white horse, are like a "flame of fire"—all pure, all searching, ablaze with an unquenchable fire.

(b) "On his head were [are] many crowns [diadems]" (verse 12). These crowns were the emblems of that empire of his, which is coextensive with the universe, and as lasting as eternity. They had names or titles written on them. "He had [hath] a name written, that [which] no man knew [no one knoweth], but he himself" (verse 12). They had a significance surpassing the interpretation of all minds but his. He is "the fulness of him that filleth all in all."

(c) "He was clothed [arrayed] with a vesture [garment] dipped [sprinkled] in blood" (verse 13). This is true of a worldly conqueror; he comes up from Edom, the scene of the campaign, with garments "dipped in blood." Of the spiritual warrior, it only expresses the vital expenditure of the struggle. The very life has been sacrificed to it. As to the followers he commands, who are they? Who are his battalions in this grand campaign? Who does this majestic Chieftain lead forth to battle? "The armies which were [are] in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean" (verse 14). Who knows the numbers of his armies? They may baffle all arithmetic to calculate; but their moral character is known. "They are clothed in fine linen, white and clean," exquisitely refined and spotlessly pure—sainted men and holy angels.