Sunday School Notes: Revelation 19:1-8

¹ After these things, I heard [something] like the loud noise of a great crowd in heaven saying, “Alleluia! Salvation and glory and power belong to our God, ² for His judgments are true and just. For He judged the great prostitute who corrupted the earth with her sexual immorality, and He avenged the blood of His servants from her hand. ³ And a second time they said, “Alleluia! And her smoke rises up forever and ever.” ⁴ And the twenty-four elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshiped God who sits on the throne, saying “Amen! Alleluia!” ⁵ And a voice came out from the throne saying, “Praise our God all His servants and those who fear Him, the small and the great.” ⁶ And I heard [a noise] like the sound of a great crowd, and like the sound of many waters, and like the sound of mighty thunders saying, “Alleluia! For the Lord our God, the Almighty, reigns. ⁷ Let us rejoice, and let us be extremely joyful, and let us give Him the glory, for the marriage celebration of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready. ⁸ And it was given to her such that she be clothed with fine linen. For the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints.

In chapter 18 we saw the negative aftermath of Babylon’s fall: the fleeing of God’s people, and the lamenting of kings, merchants, and seafarers as they watch the city burn from afar. Chapter 19, however, focuses on the positive aftermath. First there is the recognition that the judgment of the great prostitute, Babylon, was completely the work of the Lord’s hands, according to his justice and righteousness. Next John hears the call to the marriage feast of the Lamb. At last the Bridegroom will receive his Bride, the church. Of course, the marriage feast is invitation-only. Finally, John sees Jesus riding on a white horse, ready to do battle against the two beasts and the kings of the earth who stand opposed to him. This is the battle promised in chapter 16, and it is a landslide victory for the Lamb. The beasts are cast into the lake of fire, the kings and their armies are slain.

John now hears a noise that he describes as like a great crowd in heaven. This is the first of a couple of similes John uses, reminding us that this is a vision. The things he is seeing and hearing do not have a direct correlation to things we would be familiar with, so he has to draw a close comparison. While this sounds like a great crowd, it is a single voice speaking a single message.

Right off the bat there are a couple of things to note about the original Greek. First, the ESV says, “Hallelujah,” whereas the Greek is allēlouia, commonly rendered in English as “Alleluia.” What’s the difference? “Hallelujah” is the most common English transliteration of the Hebrew (a better transliteration would be Halleluia, but English translations often like to transliterate the Hebrew yod–the “y” sound–as a “j”), whereas “Alleluia” is the Greek transliteration of the Hebrew, which means “praise God.” The King James version has “Alleluia” here, keeping with the Greek, but modern editions tend to replace it with the Hebrew form. The reason for this is, no doubt, because the Hebrew is the original form of the phrase, and it helps the reader see the connection between the Old and New Testament uses.

Second, the words “salvation, glory, and power” all have the definite article in the Greek (“the salvation, the glory, and the power.” I take this to indicate that God is the one from whom true salvation, glory, and power come. Babylon offered salvation, glory, and power, but it was a counterfeit. That city ended up in ruins. Only the Lord gives real and lasting salvation. Only God is truly glorious. God alone has real power.

Why does the voice make this declaration? These are true statements about the source of real salvation, glory, and power, and Revelation has noted similar things before. Jesus is “faithful and true” (3:14), and the Lord is holy and true (3:7; 6:10). In the “song of Moses” prior to the seven bowls, John sees seven angels and “those who had conquered the beast, its image, and the number of his name” singing “just and true are your ways” (15:3–a preview of this vision, perhaps). But the words have a specific meaning in the context of these visions. God has judged the great prostitute, and in so doing He has shown His salvation for His people, as well as His glory and power. The prostitute corrupted the earth with her sexual immorality (a similar form of the verb “to corrupt” is used in Jeremiah 51:25 speaking of literal Babylon), and God has judged her for that. He has also, through that judgment, avenged the blood of His people. This reminds us of the saints under the altar in 6:10, crying out “how long?” The Lord is here fulfilling the promise He made then. God is faithful both to His word and His people.

There is another shout of praise to God. Babylon’s smoke ascends for ever and ever! The destruction of Babylon is an eternal destruction. It resonates not just in the present but throughout eternity. We saw similar language to this in 14:11 speaking of the torment of those who worship the beast and receive its mark. The verse said that the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever, and they have no rest day or night. This is not speaking solely of Babylon, but of all those who follow after her and the beast upon which she rides. As we will see, just as the Lord’s people enter into eternal rest, the torment of the lost is likewise eternal, a point underscored by the use of both “for ever and ever” and “day and night.”

It’s been a while since the 24 elders and the four creatures were mentioned, but they reappear in verse 4. We recall that the 24 elders represent the 12 tribes of Israel and the 12 Apostles: Old Testament and New Testament believers. The four creatures represent all the created order–creatures from all four corners of the world. These fall down and worship God who is on the throne. This is reminiscent of the heavenly throne room scene in chapters 4 and 5, where these same elders and creatures declared God’s holiness and worthiness to receive glory, honor, and power. They also declared the worthiness of the Lamb who has ransomed people from every tribe, tongue, people, and nation.

Then there’s another voice, this time from the throne–perhaps it is the Lord himself, though it could be one of the creatures near the throne speaking for the Lord. We have seen both scenarios before in Revelation. The fact the voice says “Praise our God” does not preclude it being Jesus, since Jesus referred to God as “my God and your God” in John 20:17), identifying himself with his co-heirs while remaining uncreated himself.

Either way, the voice exhorts all God’s people to praise Him, both small and great. No-one is to be left out. Every one of God’s people should sing His praises, regardless of social status. All of us have a voice, and each voice is significant when offered in praise of the Lord.

Following this, John hears an incredible noise. The fact this noise speaks words indicates it’s another voice, but “voice” is insufficient to fully describe what John hears. While it proclaims a single message, the voice sounds like a multitude of voices, like a crowd of people. But even that doesn’t do justice to what he hears. This crowd-voice also sounds like many waters, perhaps like the rushing waters of a waterfall. It’s also like strong thunders–not just one thunder, but a plurality of them. The way John struggles to find an earthly noise to compare with what he hears indicates to us that this is not a natural voice. Each of these descriptions also have biblical precedent. In Daniel 10:6, the prophet sees a man in linen with a face like lightning whose voice is “like many waters.” Also in Revelation 1:15, John says that Jesus’s voice is “like many waters.” There’s also a voice from heaven that speaks like many waters and loud thunder in Revelation 14:2.

This voice declares “the Lord our God, the Almighty, reigns,” echoing a similar phrase from Psalm 97:1. Perhaps more significantly, this ties back to Revelation 11:17, and the proclamation at the seventh trumpet. We recall that the seventh trumpet ushered in the Lord’s return. Clearly, therefore, 11:17 was another preview of what John saw in chapter 18.

The voice continues in verse 7 to proclaim that the marriage feast of the Lamb has come. In light of this, God’s people should celebrate and rejoice. This is the Big Day, the happiest day in the believer’s life. It is the fulfillment of all the promises God has made to His people, and should, therefore, be the cause of great jubilation.

The bride and bridegroom analogy for God and His people didn’t originate in the New Testament, but goes back to the Old Testament. Isaiah 61:10 talks about God clothing the believer in garments of salvation and a robe of righteousness, the way a bride and bridegroom adorn themselves. It is a picture of an intimate relationship, quite the opposite of the relationship between the great prostitute and her clients, as we’ve noted before. Isaiah 54:5 and Hosea 2:16-20 paint a similar picture. It’s interesting to note that in all these Old Testament examples, God is the bridegroom, whereas in Revelation 19, Jesus, the Lamb, is the bridegroom. In Revelation, Jesus takes the role that was ascribed to God in the Old Testament. That would be extremely audacious, even blasphemous, if he were not worthy to do so because he is God.

The bride “makes herself ready”–is this some form of works-salvation, where God’s people have to do works in order to be ready for Christ, the bridegroom, to be acceptable to him? We need to remember the context. Babylon has fallen. Who are those that make up Christ’s bride? They are the ones who have overcome (chapters 2 and 3). They endured and did not fall to the prostitute. They have kept their garments clean (3:4). But how were they able to do this? Isaiah 61:10 says that the Lord clothes His people with garments of salvation. Revelation 6:11 shows the Lord giving His people a white robe with which to dress themselves. And here in verse 8, the voice tells John that it is given, or granted by God that the bride clothe herself. In other words, the bride cannot clothe herself of her own volition. She is not purified from within. The bride has to be given garments of righteousness, and it must be granted to her by the Lord to clothe herself. Even her place in the supper party is by invitation only.

We’ve seen “fine linen” or “pure” linen a couple of times before in Revelation as a description of the clothing worn by God’s people. Aside from 6:10-11, we saw in 7:9 the great multitude before the throne wearing white robes. The explanation given in 7:14 is that these people have come out of the “great tribulation” (perhaps a reference to what we’re seeing in chapter 19). These people have washed their clothes white in the blood of the Lamb. This is a counter-intuitive picture since blood stains, not cleans. But this is the power of Christ’s blood. Just as with the woman with the flow of blood in Luke 8:43-48, whose touch should have defiled the Lord but instead is cleaned, so Christ’s blood doesn’t soil but purifies.

This “fine linen” represents “the righteous deeds of the saints.” Again, not that the saints earned their robes by their own works. Rather, their enduring faith, which is a gift of God (Ephesians 2:8-9; Philippians 1:29), produces the fruit that shows to whom they belong.

We will continue starting with verse 9 next time.