19:01-14

Hallelujah

 

Revelation 19:1-6:  And after these things I heard a great voice of much people in heaven, saying, Alleluia; Salvation, and glory, and honour, and power, unto the Lord our God: 2 For true and righteous [are] his judgments: for he hath judged the great whore, which did corrupt the earth with her fornication, and hath avenged the blood of his servants at her hand. 3 And again they said, Alleluia. And her smoke rose up for ever and ever. 4 And the four and twenty elders and the four beasts fell down and worshipped God that sat on the throne, saying, Amen; Alleluia. 5 And a voice came out of the throne, saying, Praise our God, all ye his servants, and ye that fear him, both small and great. 6 And I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thunderings, saying, Alleluia: for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth.”

 

            This passage in Revelation is the Great New Testament Hallel.  The Hallel is the high praise of God sung by worshippers.  The word literally means: ‘praise the Lord!’  The Psalms 145-150 were sometimes called “the Hallel” and were sung together as praise to God.  Numerous Psalms contain the words: “Praise the Lord,” that is, “Hallelujah!”  There are other songs of praise throughout the Old Testament that contain the word.

            This is the voice of those who are rejoicing with the true Jerusalem who has been delivered of her mortal enemy and is preparing for the wedding feast as in Isaiah 66:10:

Rejoice ye with Jerusalem, and be glad with her, all ye that love her: rejoice for joy with her, all ye that mourn for her.  (Isaiah 66:10)

            Isaiah 24:14-23 as a hallel is similar to the passage in Revelation 19 because they are rejoicing over the destruction of the wicked.  Isaiah 25 continues this theme.  Isaiah 26 is a “song,” that is, a Psalm, of praise for the doom of the wicked and the vindication of the righteous.[1]

 

 

 

The Angel is Daniel[2]

 

Revelation 19:10:  “And I fell at his feet to worship him. And he said unto me, See [thou do it] not: I am thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren that have the testimony of Jesus: worship God: for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.”

 

            In Daniel 11:40 the “man clothed with linen” tells Daniel of the things that will happen at “the time of the end.”  The end” refers to the “time, times and dividing of times” at the end of the 490 years  which was described in Daniel 9:24-27 when the city and the sanctuary would be destroyed.  Its end shall come with a flood, and to the end there shall be war; desolations are decreed.” 

            At that time,” (of the end Daniel 12:1), there was to be the greatest time of trouble ever to have come upon that nation since it was a nation.  But Daniel’s book of prophecy was to be sealed until “the time of the end”, (verse 4).  During the New Testament times, the people knew that it was the “time of the end” and saw the fulfillment of Daniel’s prophecies coming to pass. 

            But Daniel, himself, did not understand the prophecy, for it was sealed.  When he asked about these things, he was told: “Go your way, Daniel, for the words are shut up and sealed until “the time of the end”, (verse 9).  Again in Daniel 12:13, which ends the book of Daniel, he is told: “But go your way till the end; and you shall rest, and shall stand in your allotted place at the end of the days.  Again, “the time of the end” and “the end” refers to the “time, times and dividing of times,” after the end of the 490 years, when the city and the sanctuary were to be destroyed.

            Daniel was promised that he would “stand in thy lot at the end of the days” (KJV).  The word for ‘lot’ is gôral, which is the word used to describe the tribal and family allotments of land which was apportioned to them as their inheritance.  It is used figuratively to indicate a person’s portion or destiny in life.  It would seem, therefore, that Daniel was promised that he would return, after his sleep of death, his rest, to stand in his lot, or place of destiny in the end of the fleshly nation.

            Was he brought back to the earth for this time of the end?  No, but John was caught up to the heavenlies where Daniel was.  Revelation 19:10 tells us that the “angel” or “messenger” who had accompanied John the revelator was:

A fellow servant with you and your brethren who hold the testimony of Jesus: worship God: for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. (RSV).

 

            In other words, “the brethren who hold the testimony of Jesus” are the prophets.  Daniel had the testimony of Jesus when he foretold the coming of the Messiah in Daniel 9:25.  (See also Introductory Article “Daniel in the Book of Revelation”.)

 

Spirit of Prophecy

 

Revelation 19:10.  “Worship God: for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy”.

            (See Commentary at 1:3 “What is Prophecy?”

 

            According to the traditions of the Jews, the Holy Spirit was the “Spirit of Prophecy“.  It was one of the five things that they considered to be lacking from the time of the Babylonian captivity.  The Holy Spirit is indeed “the testimony of Jesus:”

Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, [that] shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come. 14 He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew [it] unto you.  (John 16:13-14.)

 

            John, the Revelator, was indeed filled with the Holy Spirit of Prophecy, for he bore witness to the Word of God, and to the testimony of Jesus Christ.

 

Jesus the Conquering King

 

Revelation 19:14 RSV:  And the armies of heaven, arrayed in fine linen, white and pure, followed him on white horses.”

 

            In Revelation 19:11-21 we see Christ treading the grapes of God’s wrath, the sinners who have refused the deliverance from sin offered by the Word of the Gospel.  In the literal sense, they are slaughtering one another in a civil war; in the spiritual sense they are being slaughtered by reaping the harvest of their own sinful nature.  But even at this moment Christ has not come to steal, kill and destroy, but rather that they might have Life and that more abundantly.

            The prophecies of Zechariah were fulfilled in the coming of Jesus.  Zechariah 9:9 is quoted as having been fulfilled when Jesus rode into Jerusalem on an ass before his crucifixion, Matthew 21:5; John 12:15.  But in Zechariah 9:14 we find: “And the Lord shall be seen over them.”

            John saw “in the Spirit” what Zechariah had prophesied.  He saw the Lord “over them.”  Only those with spiritual insight could see what John saw.

            And in verse 16: “The Lord shall defend them…save them…as stones of a crown.” Then in Zechariah 14:4-8 it says that His feet shall stand upon the Mount of Olives, to the east of Jerusalem and the Mount shall be divided and living waters will flow from Jerusalem.  (See “Coming”, Commentary on Revelation 1:7.)  This passage, Revelation 19:11-21, is the description of the “coming with ten thousands of His saints.”  He slays His real enemies, the beast and the false prophet, then: “the rest were slain by the sword of him who sits upon the horse, the sword that issues from his mouth.”  This sword, of course, is the Gospel of salvation which offers them abundant life instead of death.  This is also the weapon that His army has, Ephesians 6:17 and Hebrews 4:12.  He saves His people for they are precious like the jewels of a crown. 

            Malachi also saw the redeemed ones as jewels:

And they shall be mine, saith the LORD of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels; and I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him. (Mal. 3:17)

            We see these jewels in the New Jerusalem, the Bride, in 21:10-21.  The spiritual concept of the “Mount of Olives” is evident when we look at the meaning of the word ‘Olives’.  It is the word zayith[3].  The basic meaning of the word is ‘brightness,’ ‘light,’ etc.  The fruit called ‘olives’ was so named because their oil was used for household lights.  The Mount of ‘Olives’ was so named because it was on the east side of Jerusalem from whence the lights of the heavens appeared to arise.  The basic meaning of ‘Mount of Olives,’ then, is ‘Mount of Light/Brightness.’  The real Mount of Olives then is the spiritual Zion, the Holy Mountain of God’s abiding presence, of which the literal ‘Mount of Olives‘ is only the type or shadow.

            In the passage: Revelation 19:11-21 we see the coming of the Lord in precise fulfillment of Zechariah‘s vision.  In the context of the fall of Babylon and the rejoicing of the saints for their deliverance from her persecution and the marriage supper of the Lamb, chapters 17, 18, through 19:10, we see that this “Rider on the White Horse” is the One Who has brought this victory, for the battle was a spiritual battle against the “beast” and the “false prophet” and their hoards.

            (See “Kingdom, Singular or Plural?” Commentary on Revelation 11:15.)


[1] See also Charles, Enoch, 47.

[2] I owe this insight to my son Stuart who shared it with me for this writing.

[3] See WS at 19:11.

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