Chapter 20

“Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb,” 19:9. Truly are they blessed; for “they shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat,” 7:16. They attain the promised blessing: “Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection,” 20:6. “And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away,” 21:4. So entranced was the apocalyptic seer at these symbols of the glorified redeemed, that he fell at his feet to worship the angel who showed him these things. But his fellow servant shrank back from the reception of homage, and pointed to God as the only object of adoration.

The union of the saints to Christ in the clouds of heaven being symbolized, they receive the gracious welcome: “Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world,” Matt. 25:34. But first it is necessary to redeem the “purchased possession” (Eph. 1:14), to reconquer the revolted province, which, since the fall, has been subject to “the god of this world” (2 Cor. 4:4), the “prince of the power of the air” (Eph. 2:2), to rescue it from the dominion of the usurper, and deliver it from its present mis-rule “up to God the Father” (1 Cor. 15:24), who will bestow it on One who is worthy to wear its crown. For when Daniel saw that “the judgment was set and the books were opened,” he also “saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like the Son of man came in the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him; and there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations and languages, should serve him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed,” Dan. 7:10, 13, 14. He comes, then, to dispossess the usurper, and to take possession of his kingdom. The next representation, then, symbolizes the coming of:

The King and his Armies.

“And I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse: and he who sat on him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he judgeth and maketh war. His eyes were like a flame of fire, and on his head were many diadems; and he had a name written which no one knew except himself. And he was clothed with a garment dipped in blood: and his name is called The Word of God. And the armies in heaven followed him on white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean. And from his mouth goeth forth a sharp sword, that he may smite the nations with it: and he will rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the wine-press of the furious wrath of God, the Almighty. And he hath on his garment and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS.” Rev. 19:11-16.

According to the significance of symbolic language, Christ is here represented as coming personally. The heavens open and he appears in resplendent majesty, in accordance with the predictions respecting his second advent. When the clouds of heaven had received the ascending Saviour, the shining ones who stood by said to the gazing disciples, “This same Jesus which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven,” Acts 1:11. “And they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory,” Matt. 24:30. “Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him,” Rev. 1:7.

The white horse of the King, and those of his armies, are symbols of the pomp and grandeur of their descent, and show that they will triumph in victory.

The names ascribed to the descending Monarch are applicable only to Christ. He was “the Faithful and True Witness” who commanded John to write “to the angel of the church of the Laodiceans,” (3:14); for he who commanded John to “write in a book and send it unto the seven churches” of Asia (1:11), was the One whom John saw “in the midst of the seven candlesticks, like unto the Son of man” (1:13), and who announced himself as “the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come—the Almighty,” 1:8. “The Word of God,” was the “Word” that was “in the beginning,” that “was with God,” and that “was God,” the same that was “in the beginning with God,” and which “was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth,” John 1:1-14. Jesus is “the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world,” (_Ib._, 29); and “the Lamb” “is Lord of lords and King of kings,” 17:14. It is “Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the Prince of the kings of the earth,” (1:5); and he alone is possessed of that incomprehensible “Name” which no man knoweth, and which he hath promised to write on “him that overcometh,” 3:12.

That the visible and personal coming of Christ, and not any providential interposition, is here symbolized, is self-evident. For, while no created object can adequately symbolize Him, it would derogate from the dignity of his character and position to be a symbol of some inferior object. In all mere providential interpositions, foreshown by symbolic imagery, the predicted events are represented by corresponding acts of symbolic agents. War between nations is symbolized by beasts, representatives of the nations, contending with each other. (See Dan. 8th chap.) Pestilence and famine are symbolized by analogous results, and not by Christ’s appearing. When, therefore, he is seen coming in person, it must symbolize his personal advent.

His eyes “as a flame of fire,” show his identity with the one “like unto the Son of man” in the “midst of the seven candlesticks” (1:13), the author of the message to “the church in Thyatira;” which “things saith the Son of God, who hath his eyes like unto a flame of fire, and his feet like unto fine brass,” 2:18.

His “many crowns” are symbols of his sovereignty. Rome undivided and mistress of the world, when symbolized by the seven-headed and ten-horned dragon, is represented with the crowns on the heads, which were the seven successive kinds of government by which its sovereignty was enforced, 12:3, and 17:9, 10. But when its imperial had given place to its decem-regal form, and it is to be shown under the government of ten contemporaneous kingdoms, “the crowns,” the symbols of sovereignty, are represented as encircling the “horns” of the beast, 13:1. So, when “the King of kings” cometh, to take to himself his great power, and to reign, and “the kingdoms of this world are become those of our Lord and of his Christ” (11:15, 17), He, “the head of all principality and power” (Col. 2:10), at whose name “every knee should bow” (Phil. 2:9), is shown the wearer of “many crowns.”

“Come, then, and, added to thy many crowns, Receive yet one, the crown of all the Earth, Thou who alone art worthy! It was thine By ancient covenant, ere nature’s birth; And thou hast made it thine by purchase since, And overpaid its value with thy blood.” _Cowper’s Task._

His “vesture dipped in blood” is symbolic of his coming to tread “the wine-press of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God” (19:15), when he shall “smite the nations,” and “rule them with a rod of iron,” (_Ib._) Thus Isaiah prophesied: “Who is this that cometh from Edom, with dyed garments from Bozrah? this that is glorious in his apparel, travelling in the greatness of his strength? I that speak in righteousness, mighty to save. Wherefore art thou red in thine apparel, and thy garments like him that treadeth in the wine-fat? I have trodden the wine-press alone; and of the people there was none with me: for I will tread them in mine anger, and trample them in my fury; and their blood shall be sprinkled upon my garments, and I will stain all my raiment. For the day of vengeance is in my heart, and the year of my redeemed is come. And I looked, and there was none to help; and I wondered that there was none to uphold: therefore mine own arm brought salvation unto me; and my fury, it upheld me. And I will tread down the people in mine anger, and make them drunk in my fury, and I will bring down their strength to the earth,” Isa. 63:1-6.

The “armies” which follow him, symbolize the attending saints and angels who will accompany his advent. They are all “clothed in fine linen, white and clean,” which constituted the wedding garments of those who were called to the marriage-supper of the Lamb, and which was worn by those who had washed their robes, and made them white in his blood, (7:14); “for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints,” 19:8. The righteous being caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air (1 Thess. 4:17), “when Christ, who is our life shall appear,” they will “appear with him in glory,” (Col. 3:4); so that “the Lord my God shall come and all the saints with thee,” Zech. 14:5. “Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousand of his saints, to execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him,” Jude 14, 15.

Not only saints, but angels also, will attend his coming. For “when the Son of man shall come in his glory,” there will be “all the holy angels with him,” Matt. 25:31. “He cometh in the glory of his Father, with the holy angels,” Mark 8:38. “The Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels,” 2 Thess. 1:7.

The “sharp sword,” going out of his mouth, must be a symbol of his word. He speaks, and it is done, Psa. 33:9. “For the word of God is quick and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart,” Heb. 4:12. As “he shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked,” (Isa. 11:4); and as “the Lord shall consume” “that Wicked” one “with the spirit of his mouth” (2 Thess. 2:8), it follows that the sword proceeding out of his mouth is a symbol of the words he shall speak for their destruction; for with it he smites the nations, 19:15. And this he does when he comes to “rule them with a rod of iron” (_Ib._) and tread them in “the wine-press” of the wrath of God. This brings us to the object of his coming, which is to “judge and make war,” 19:11.

And first, “To judge.” This proves, that Christ’s second advent is here symbolized; for, as before quoted, he is to “judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and kingdom,” 2 Tim. 4:1. This is at the sounding of the seventh trumpet, for then is “the time of the dead that they should be judged,” 11:18. “With righteousness shall he judge the poor, and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth,” when he “shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked,” Isa. 11:4. “Let the heavens rejoice, and let the earth be glad; let the sea roar, and the fulness thereof. Let the field be joyful, and all that is therein: then shall all the trees of the wood rejoice before the Lord: for he cometh to judge the earth: he shall judge the world with righteousness, and the people with truth,” Psa. 96:11-13. He cometh “to execute judgment upon all,” Jude 15.

To “make war.” That this is another object of his coming, is shown by:

The Final Conflict.

“And I saw an angel standing in the sun; and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the birds flying in the midst of heaven, Come! gather yourselves to the great supper of God; that ye may eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of commanders, and the flesh of the mighty, and the flesh of the horses, and of those who sit on them, and the flesh of all, both free and bond, both small and great. And I saw the wild beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered to make war with him, who sat on the horse, and with his army. And the wild beast was taken, and with him the false prophet, who wrought signs in his sight, with which he had deceived those who received the mark of the wild beast, and those who worshipped his image. These two were cast alive into the lake of fire burning with brimstone. And the rest were slain with the sword of him who sat on the horse, which sword goeth forth from his mouth; and all the birds were filled with their flesh.” Rev. 19:17-21.

The contest being between the Lord and his armies on the one part, and the wicked nations on the other, the angel seen standing in the sun and performing an important act in connection with the Lord’s army, must represent one of his attending angels; for the acts to be performed are to be by their instrumentality: “In the end of this world, the Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity; and shall cast them into a furnace of fire,” Matt. 13:40-42.

His crying to the fowls of heaven to come and sup on the bodies of the slain, is indicative of the certainty of victory and of the entire overthrow of those who war against the Lamb. As birds gather on fields of slaughter to feast on the slain, so a cry to “all the fowls of heaven” is expressive of the extent and thoroughness of the destruction to be inflicted. It is the same cry which is made in Ezekiel, 39:17, when the armies of Gog are slain on the mountains of Israel. The beast and the kings of the earth symbolize the various governments in the world. The “beast” is that which had seven heads and ten horns (13:1, and 17:3), and was a symbol of Rome in its decem-regal form. It was said of this beast, it shall “go into perdition,” (17:8); so that under some manifestation, it must continue till the end of the world: the earth being “reserved unto fire against the day of judgement, and perdition of ungodly men,” 2 Pet. 3:7. As only in its divided form, the Roman empire continues till then, the beast is here significant of the divisions represented by its ten horns—the governments of modern Europe. “These shall war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them: for he is Lord of lords and King of kings; and they that are with him are called and chosen and faithful,” 17:14.

“The false prophet,” which is taken with the beast, is described as the one “that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast and them that worshipped his image,” v. 20. This identifies him as the two-horned beast of Rev. 13. (13:11-17). The two-horned beast being a representative of the Eastern Roman empire, when that was subverted by the Turks it became the seat of the false prophet,—the Mahometan hierarchy.

The kings of the earth must be the remaining governments which are not represented by those two. By their subsequently warring with the Lamb, it follows that the previous resurrection and translation of the saints does not produce a cessation of all government. Those events may not be apparent to all eyes; or they may serve only to madden the unbelieving, and to make them more desperate in their infidelity.

They gather their armies to war against the Lamb. They resist his authority. They will not have Him to reign over them. They are instigated to oppose him by “unclean spirits like frogs” (16:13), which are the spirits of devils [_demons_, understood by the Jews to be spirits of the wicked dead] working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty, _Ib._ v. 14. This is when Christ is to “come as a thief;” and they are to be gathered “into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon,” 16:15, 16. This was the name of the valley at the foot of Mount Megiddo (Judg. 5:19), which was famous as a valley of slaughter. In it Jehu fought against Ahaziah and Joram, and slew both the kings of Israel and Judah, 2 Kings 9:27. It was afterwards memorable for the death of king Josiah, when Pharaoh-necho fought against him, (2 Kings 23:29); so that the mourning as “in the valley of Megiddon,” became a proverbial expression in Israel for great mourning, Zech. 12:11,12. It is therefore significantly applied to the final battle.

Thus do “the kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord, and against his Anointed;” but “He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh; the Lord shall have them in derision.” For the decree has gone forth: “I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession. Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel,” Ps. 2:2-9. In this victory the saints, also, have a part; for it is written: “He that overcometh, and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations, and he shall rule them with a rod of iron; as the vessels of a potter shall they be broken to shivers: even as I received of my Father,” 2:26, 27.

As thus predicted, in this final conflict the nations are smitten, 19:15. Those symbolized by the beast and false prophet are cast alive into the burning flame; _i.e._, the individuals constituting the bodies of those beasts are cast therein: their governments cease when taken by the Lamb and his armies. This is in accordance with what Daniel saw, who “beheld, even till the beast was slain, and his body destroyed and given to the burning flame,” Dan. 7:11.

“The remnant” also are slain; so that there are none left alive on the earth of all the wicked. Thus Daniel interpreted to king Nebuchadnezzar his dream: “Thou sawest till that a stone was cut out without hands, which smote the image [representing the governments of earth] upon his feet, that were of iron and clay, and brake them to pieces. Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff of the summer threshing-floors; and the wind carried them away, that no place was found for them,” Dan. 2:34, 35. It will “break in pieces, and consume all these kingdoms” (_Ib._), according to the prediction: “The nation and kingdom that will not serve thee shall perish; yea, those nations shall be utterly wasted,” Isa. 60:12. “And this shall be the plague wherewith the Lord will smite all the people which have fought against Jerusalem: Their flesh shall consume away while they stand upon their feet, and their eyes shall consume away in their holes, and their tongues shall consume away in their mouth,” Zech. 14:12. “For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly shall be stubble, and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch,” Mal. 4:1. “Behold, the day of the Lord cometh, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate: and he shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it,” Isa. 13:9. Thus will the Saviour come “in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God, and obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ; who shall be punished with everlasting destruction, from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power, when he comes to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired in all them that believe in that day,” (2 Thess. 1:8-10): saying to the nations on his left, “Depart from me ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels,” Matt. 25:41. Thus will he “gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity, and shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth,” _Ib._, 13:41, 42. The destruction of all the wicked from the earth is followed by:

The Binding of Satan.

“And I saw an angel descending from heaven, having the key of the abyss and a great chain in his hand. And he seized the dragon, the old serpent, who is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, and cast him into the abyss, and shut him up, and set a seal over him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years were completed; and after that, he must be loosed a short time.” Rev. 20:1-3.

The angel descending from heaven, must be a representative of his own order; for at this epoch there are no other orders of beings for him to be a representative of. He therefore symbolizes the angels who are commissioned to “gather out of his kingdom all things that offend,” Matt. 13:41.

The “key,” “pit,” and “chain,” symbolize the instruments of restraint and confinement to which Satan is to be subjected; and his being bound and confined symbolize his restraint.

The “Dragon” is expressly called “that old serpent, which is the Devil and Satan.” With the appendages of heads and horns—symbols of political sovereignty—he is used in Rev. 12:3, as a symbol of the Roman civil power, under Pagan rule; and in verse 7, when divested of political insignia, of the pagan hierarchy. But now, as the beast, another symbol of Roman civil rule, has been cast into “the lake of fire and brimstone,” and the “remnant” are “slain with the sword” (19:21), there are no analogous powers remaining on earth for him to be a representative of, and consequently he is here represented as a symbol of himself.

Of his identity there can be no question: He is “that Old Serpent,” who, being “more subtle than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made” (Gen. 3:1), “beguiled Eve through his subtlety,” 2 Cor. 11:3. He is also the Devil, by whom our Saviour was tempted in the wilderness, (Matt. 4:1-12); and the Satan, whose working is “with all power and signs and lying wonders,” 2 Thess. 2:9. He is our adversary the devil, who, “as a roaring lion, walketh about seeking whom he may devour,” (1 Pet. 5:8); and against whom we are to guard continually, “lest Satan should get an advantage of us,” 2 Cor. 2:11.

Coëval with the fall, the promise was given that his head should in due time be bruised, and he is not ignorant of his doom; for when the legion saw the Saviour about to dispossess them of the two men among the tombs, they recognized him as “the Son of God,” and cried, “Art thou come hither to torment us before _the time_?” (Matt. 8:29); “and they besought him, that he would not command them to go out into the _deep_,”—the _pit_, or _abyss_, Luke 8:31. The epoch when he should be there confined, is also shown by Isaiah to be when “the Lord cometh out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity,” when “the earth also shall disclose her blood, and no more cover her slain,” Isa. 26:21. For “in that day the Lord with his sore and great and strong sword shall punish leviathan [the dragon], the piercing serpent, even leviathan that crooked serpent,” _Ib._ 27:1. This synchronizes with the slaying of the remnant with the sword, when Satan is bound and cast into the _abyss_, to continue there a thousand years.