1 After these things I heard a loud voice of a great multitude in heaven, saying, "Alleluia! Salvation and glory and honor and power belong to the Lord our God! 2 For true and righteous are His judgments, because He has judged the great harlot who corrupted the earth with her fornication; and He has avenged on her the blood of His servants shed by her." 3 Again they said, "Alleluia! Her smoke rises up forever and ever!" 4 And the twenty-four elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshiped God who sat on the throne, saying, "Amen! Alleluia!" 5 Then a voice came from the throne, saying, "Praise our God, all you His servants and those who fear Him, both small and great!" 6 And I heard, as it were, the voice of a great multitude, as the sound of many waters and as the sound of mighty thunderings, saying, "Alleluia! For the Lord God Omnipotent reigns! 7 Let us be glad and rejoice and give Him glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready." 8 And to her it was granted to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright, for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints. 9 Then he said to me, "Write: 'Blessed are those who are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb!' " And he said to me, "These are the true sayings of God."
We have seen a great multitude in Heaven shouting before in Revelation, one in Chapter 5, the angels and then in chapter 7, the martyrs. The word Hallelujah or Alleluia means Praise God. The original version of the Bible, Hallelujah only appears here in the Book of Revelation. The multitude are praising God because the woman has been defeated, the religious system, and the city have been judged and destroyed. Judged because she corrupted the world and sins will be judged, all sin will be judged.
The mentioning of the smoke rising up for ever and ever is interesting. For it to continually to produce smoke, would mean it will never have a chance to recuperate. Thus, it will never heal and rebuild, it will never rise up again.
"For ever and ever" is mentioned in Revelation 6 times:
1. The saints reigning.
2. Torment of the wicked! (YIKES)
3. The smoke as mentioned here
4. God and Christ reigning.
5. God living. (We know this)
6. Worship of God and the Lamb.
Notice we have yet not heard about the wedding or the wedding supper of the Lamb until now. This mentioning of the wedding negates the theory that the wedding supper will take place in the air after Christ raptures the saints. Which means the saints will spend the 7 years, during the tribulation, in heaven with Christ immediately after the rapture and before the wedding supper of the Lamb.
The twenty-four elders we had talked about in past blogs as well as the four living creatures. Their singing represents the entire Church and the whole of nature worshiping God. A beautiful picture!
Then there is a call to the servants to praise God. Who are the servants? In Revelation there were two kinds of people who are called servants, the prophets seen in Chapter 10:7 Chapter 11:18 and Chapter 22:6, and the martyrs, seen in Chapter 7:3, and Chapter 19:2. The prophets and the martyrs are those who have witnessed for God. The prophets with their voices, the martyrs with their lives. The small and the great is probably those Christians who are not prophets and/or martyrs, and yet, we are still called.
Then, there is the final shout of praise in verse 6.
Following is the marriage of the Lamb to his bride. The actual union of Jesus Christ and his Church. Why a "marriage"? It has always seemed strange to me to be "married" to Christ but, Barclay in his book, The Revelation of John; volume 2, brings out 5 points and the basis of a marriage which brings better understand to the word.
1. It is a relationship between the Christian and Christ.
2. There is love.
3. There is an intimate communion.
4. There is joy
5. There is fidelity.
Verse 7 mentions the "bride or wife" has made herself ready. Who or what is the bride? The bride is the Holy city or the New Jerusalem. so, if this is the bride then, all who go to New Jerusalem will be the bride.
Specifically:
1. The Old Testiment saints. See Heb 11:10-16
2. The early church. See Heb 13:14
3. All Christians See Rev. 3:12 and Heb. 12:23
4. The 144,000 See Rev chs 7, 12, 14
5. The tribulation saints See Rev chs 6,7,15,20
(these all have been mentioned in the blogs)
It will include all of these to make the bride, not just one group of people. So, by this definition, "the Church" is not the bride completely, it includes all those mentioned in the New Jerusalem, all 5 of those mentioned above. Amen and Hallelujah!
Verse 8 the mention of the fine linen, white as contrasted to the red and gold of the whore. The mention of the righteousness of the saints leads credit to the fact that the bride is made up of the saints of ALL ages from Abel to the very last one in the first resurrection or all who will live in New Jerusalem.
In verse 9, we are all called to the marriage supper, all who are a part of New Jerusalem are to partake. We do not know much about the feast, it is only mentioned here in verse 7 and verse 9.
Matthew 22 and 25 are parables of a marriage feast and is not connected to the feast mentioned in Revelation. These parables are used to teach, using a common event that people can associate with to understand the concept. There is some question concerning Psalms 45 and the queen mentioned there being the bride. But, it is clear that it is an earthly king which is being married there. In addition, the church is never called a queen.
Blessing and Peace be on you all,
Calabash
References:
The Dake's Annotated Reference Bible
The Revelation of John Vol 1&2; Wm Barclay
Lectures on Revelation; Ironside
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