Revelation 19 The Marriage - The Army - And The Great Sacrifice

The Last Battle 

Everyone in Heaven is losing their minds rejoicing and praising God for all this. In the midst of the celebration, John sees a white horse with Jesus riding out on it. Again, he's got the flames for eyes going and the sword coming out of his mouth. But this time, he's wearing lots of crowns and his robe is dipped in blood. All the heavenly armies are there, too. They've got their white clothes and white horses and they're following Jesus in triumph. An angel tells everyone to gather for God's supper. But before this big dinner party can happen, John spies the Sea Beast and his armies. Jesus and his heavenly squadron get rid of the Beast pretty quickly. They toss him into a Lake of Fire. All the other host of evil ones are killed with Jesus' sword. 

The scene of this vision is laid in heaven. John heard a great voice of much people saying, "Alleluia; Salvation, and glory, and honor, and power, unto the Lord our God." While this scene shows the interest all heaven takes in these wondrous scenes of earth, it is doubtless intended specially to represent the joy and thanksgiving of God's people who have "gotten the victory over the beast, and over his image, and over his mark, and over the number of his name." 

The marriage of the Lamb which was about to take place was a special theme of joy on this occasion. It says, "These are the true sayings of God." They are almost too glorious to be believed; still, they are no idle dreams of fancy: they are true, yea "the true sayings of God." 

Jesus also appears on a white horse with armies following him. His mission "to judge and make war." The description of his person, his names, and his attributes, unmistakably proclaim him the Son of God. He is the "faithful and true," the name by which he made himself known to the churches of Philadelphia and Laodicea. "His eyes as a flame of fire" denotes omniscience; and as a searcher of all hearts he made himself known to the church of Thyatira. "Many crowns" are a symbol of supreme sovereignty and doubtless signify his many victories. "And he had a name written which no man knew but he himself." He had names by which he might be known to mortals; but he had one name that no created intelligence could understand: it was known only to him. His "vesture dipped in blood" refers, not to the blood of atonement, but to the blood of his enemies sprinkled upon his raiment in treading the winepress of God's wrath, and denotes that he was going forth to the dread work of vengeance. His name is also called "the Word of God," which, when used as a personal appellation in the Scriptures, always signifies Jesus Christ. 

The Supper of the Great God is next, also called the Great Sacrifice. The symbol is that of vast slaughter on a battle-field, which gathers all the birds of heaven and the beasts of the forest to the prey. The enemies gathered for this battle were "the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies," together with the false prophet. This is the grand confederacy of wickedness formed under the mission of the three unclean spirits that went forth, not only unto the kings of the earth, but also into the whole world. This is not a literal collecting of armies, hence not a literal slaughter upon a battlefield, nor a literal assembling of carrion birds; but it is a symbolic representation of the final and eternal destruction of the allied powers of sin. They were gathered together for the purpose of overthrowing the church of God and anticipated a complete victory in the battle of Armageddon; but the sudden appearance of Jesus Christ to rescue his bride results in their complete overthrow.