Revelation 19

¹ After this I heard what seemed to be the loud voice of a great multitude in heaven, crying out, “Hallelujah! Salvation and glory and power belong to our God, ² for his judgments are true and just; for he has judged the great prostitute who corrupted the earth with her immorality, and has avenged on her the blood of his servants.” ³ Once more they cried out, “Hallelujah! The smoke from her goes up forever and ever.” ⁴ And the twenty-four elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshiped God who was seated on the throne, saying, “Amen. Hallelujah!” ⁵ And from the throne came a voice saying, “Praise our God, all you his servants, you who fear him, small and great. ⁶ Then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude, like the roar of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, crying out, “Hallelujah! For the Lord our God the Almighty reigns. ⁷ Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his Bride has made herself ready; ⁸ it was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure”—for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints. ⁹ And the angel said to me, “Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.” And he said to me, “These are the true words of God.” ¹⁰ Then I fell down at his feet to worship him, but he said to me, “You must not do that! I am a fellow servant with you and your brothers who hold to the testimony of Jesus. Worship God.” For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.

Writing in The Atlantic, Ashley Fetters talked about the surprising popularity of Leonard Cohen’s 1984 song “Hallelujah.” She was reviewing Alan Light’s book, The Holy or the Broken: Leonard Cohen, Jeff Buckley, and the Unlikely Ascent of “Hallelujah.“ That is an entire book about how a song with a biblical title—even though the lyrics are, at times, very much not biblical—became a cultural phenomenon. When Leonard Cohen first submitted the song to the label they were not going to publish it. They hated it. They did not understand it. They did not know what to do with it. It was not even a prominent song on the album. It was the first track on the b-side of the album. And, for a good while, the song languished. Fetters writes that “‘Hallelujah’ has metamorphosed over the years from a cheesy, reverb-heavy B-side oddity on an album Cohen’s label rejected to a mystical, soul-stirring pop canticle that’s played today at just as many weddings as funerals.” She goes on to recount how this unlikely hit rose to prominence after Jeff Buckley covered it on an album in 1994. Since then, the song has exploded and has been covered by seemingly everybody and appears frequently on tv shows, in movies, and on tv singing competitions. Perhaps the two events that brought it the most prominence were Justin Timberlake’s version of it on live TV for a Haiti benefit and, oddly enough, the movie Shrek, where likely many people who had never heard the song heard it for the first time, especially children. The article reveals how even Leonard Cohen became a bit irritated with the seemingly obsessive performances of the song.[1] Hallelujah means, in essence, “Praise the Lord!”

By the way, that is not the only time that a biblical concept became a 1980’s pop hit. The year after Cohen released “Hallelujah” Mr. Mister released their song “Kyrie.” The chorus of the song prominently features the Greek words “Kyrie, eleison.” It is a fantastic song! “Kyrie, eleison” means, “Lord, have mercy.”

What is going on here? How do songs with prayer cries become hits? I suppose some might argue that they were just good songs. Maybe so. But I wonder: could it be that one part of the success of songs like this is because, having been created in the image of God and only truly being at rest in God (as Augustine says), our hearts connect deeply with these prayers? Put another way, maybe, oddly enough, even given the song “Hallelujah’s” at times non-biblical angles, our hearts connect to what they most desperately need and what we most definitely need is a Hallelujah!

John Newport makes the fascinating observation that “[t]he word hallelujah is used only in verses 1,3, [4], and 6 [of the book of Revelation] in the New Testament” and that in Hebrew it means “praise the Lord.”[2] How interesting! This word that is used so often in church culture is used so seldom in the New Testament. And yet it is one of the most beloved of all biblical words. Why? Why is it so prominent in our culture and why, specifically, does it appear in Revelation 19? It appears because Babylon has fallen and heaven now rejoices! It appears because “Hallelujah!” is the ultimate cry of celebration and of worship.

We celebrate and worship because of the greatness of God.

We have seen two chapters describing the fall of Babylon. Now we see the aftermath in Heaven.

¹ After this I heard what seemed to be the loud voice of a great multitude in heaven, crying out, “Hallelujah! Salvation and glory and power belong to our God, ² for his judgments are true and just; for he has judged the great prostitute who corrupted the earth with her immorality, and has avenged on her the blood of his servants.”

At the fall of Babylon Heaven explodes in joyful celebration. The latter half of verse 2 reminds us why: because she “corrupted the earth with her immorality” and because she shed “the blood of [God’s] servants.” The early interpreter the Venerable Bede observes of verse 2 that the two sins mentioned seem to encapsulate “every [type of] transgression.”[3]That is, to do evil and to persecute those who do good is to give oneself over to evil. Now she has been cast down and destroyed, so Heaven rejoices!

³ Once more they cried out, “Hallelujah! The smoke from her goes up forever and ever.” ⁴ And the twenty-four elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshiped God who was seated on the throne, saying, “Amen. Hallelujah!” ⁵ And from the throne came a voice saying, “Praise our God, all you his servants, you who fear him, small and great.

But the celebration and worship of heaven is not primarily fueled by the fall of Babylon. No, it is fueled by the greatness of the God who cast her down! Verses 1 and 2 show us four divine attributes in particular that are extolled in heaven.

• salvation (v.1)

• glory (v.1)

• power (v.1)

• justice (v.2)

God is both mighty and willing to save. He is the God of salvation.

God is glorious. We might think of “glory” as the manifestation of the perfection of His attributes. That is, take the attributes of God—His power, might, tenderness, compassion, love, wrath, etc.—see them in their utter perfection and imagine their combined presence emanating outward in resplendent light. That is God’s glory! It is overwhelming and powerful and life-altering to behold.

And God is powerful. He is omnipotent. This is the most self-evident in the list provided in Revelation 19, given what we have just seen with the destruction of Babylon in Revelation 17 and 18. Now power can match that of our great God!

And God is just. His justice is perfect. No one in Heaven or on earth will ever be able to look at God and say, “You were unfair. You were unjust.” His justice arises from His perfect righteousness.

One of the interesting realities of these attributes is that one can find them present in the natural world in pale and shadowy forms, but these shadows only result in highlighting the distance between our fallen world and the greatness of God. For instance, we may find inspiring instances of people “saving” others in this world: pulling them from burning houses and automobiles, performing emergency surgeries, CPR, pulling people back from the brink over which they are about to plummet. But these noble acts are so very different from God’s salvation. They are not certainties. They are frought with risk. And even when executed successfully one may question, at times, the motives of the one saving the other. But not so with God. He saves out of pure love and grace. It is who he is. There is no disconnect between His actions and His person. And He never fails. He is able to save perfectly those He saves and none will slip through His fingers that He intends to save.

We may find examples of glory on the earth: awe-inspiring peaks, raging seas, majestic sunsets, etc. But when we stand before the glory of God these will be seen to be exactly what they are: fallen and lightyears away from true, undiluted glory.

So, too, power. Earthly powers can impress and overwhelm human beings. We may tremble before mighty armies or even mighty figures. But with a snap of His fingers God can bring these powers to ruin!

Of the four attributes listed, perhaps justice is the most difficult to find on the earth. The courts often seem corrupt, as does the whole “system.” One meets countless individuals with seemingly legitimate stories of having suffered injustices for which there appears to be no correction on this side of heaven. But not so with God. He is perfect in His justice. His courts are indeed on the level. His scales are true. And He Himself is just with no mixture of error or partiality or injustice.

And for all of these reasons the people of God celebrate and rejoice and worship! It is for this that we say “Hallelujah!”

It begs the question: if true celebration and worship arises from a high view of God—a view that moves us to awe-inspired gratitude and demonstrative praise—what does indifference toward worship arise out of? Surely we must answer: it arises out of a small view of God. Our God is too small if we are not moved to worship!

In his song “Don’t You Want to Thank Someone?” Andrew Peterson sings:

Can’t you feel it in your bones
Something isn’t right here
Something that you’ve always known
But you don’t know why

‘Cause every time the sun goes down
We face another night here
Waiting for the world to spin around
Just to survive

But when you see the morning sun
Burning through a silver mist
Don’t you want to thank someone?
Don’t you want to thank someone for this?

It is a great question! It may be the only question that matters: as you live life and see a thousand evidences of God’s goodness and presence, do you not want to say “Thank you!”? Do you not want to praise Him? Do you not want to worship? Do you not want to celebrate! Surely we must! Surely we should!

We celebrate and worship because of the wedding to come.

But there is more. We celebrate and worship too because of a wedding to come. Having just seen this Heavenly eruption of praise and celebration and worship, we now find ourselves at a wedding.

⁶ Then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude, like the roar of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, crying out, “Hallelujah! For the Lord our God the Almighty reigns. ⁷ Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his Bride has made herself ready;

This is most fascinating indeed! Heaven rejoices “for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his Bride has made herself ready.” We have already seen that the Lamb is Jesus. And we will see that “his Bride” refers to the church, to followers of Jesus. Notice her appearance:

⁸ it was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure”—for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints.

She is clothed in simple purity. She is clothed in righteousness. Now let us recall the image of the Great Prostitute from Revelation 17:

⁴ The woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and jewels and pearls, holding in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and the impurities of her sexual immorality.

Do you see the difference? Craig Keener observes that “[t]he fine linen of the saints (19:8; cf. 19:14) contrasts with the fine linen of the prostitute (18:12, 16)” and that whereas “[h]igh-class prostitutes were known for their elaborate garb…the saints are dressed in wedding apparel beautiful to the groom, and this wedding apparel consists of their ‘righteous acts.’”[4] Next we see the blessed state of the wedding guests as well an interesting faux pas on the part of John:

⁹ And the angel said to me, “Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.” And he said to me, “These are the true words of God.” ¹⁰ Then I fell down at his feet to worship him, but he said to me, “You must not do that! I am a fellow servant with you and your brothers who hold to the testimony of Jesus. Worship God.” For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.

John’s bowing is understandable, but it is indeed a mistake. Only God is worthy of worship! Even so, this wedding is quite an amazing scene! And it is a scene that has been anticipated all throughout the New Testament. In John 3, John the Baptist said of Jesus:

²⁹ The one who has the bride is the bridegroom. The friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly at the bridegroom’s voice. Therefore this joy of mine is now complete. ³⁰ He must increase, but I must decrease.”

Jesus is the bridegroom. Jesus’ disciples are the bride. John is the “friend of the bridegroom.” Again, Jesus responds to a question from the disciples of John the Baptist in Matthew 9 and uses wedding imagery:

¹⁴ Then the disciples of John came to him, saying, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?” ¹⁵ And Jesus said to them, “Can the wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast.

Here again we see the bridegroom and bride defined as Christ and His church. In Matthew 25 we have an entire parable from Jesus drawing on this imagery:

¹ “Then the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom. ² Five of them were foolish, and five were wise. ³ For when the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them, ⁴ but the wise took flasks of oil with their lamps. ⁵ As the bridegroom was delayed, they all became drowsy and slept. ⁶ But at midnight there was a cry, ‘Here is the bridegroom! Come out to meet him.’ ⁷ Then all those virgins rose and trimmed their lamps. ⁸ And the foolish said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.’ ⁹ But the wise answered, saying, ‘Since there will not be enough for us and for you, go rather to the dealers and buy for yourselves.’ ¹⁰ And while they were going to buy, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the marriage feast, and the door was shut. ¹¹ Afterward the other virgins came also, saying, ‘Lord, lord, open to us.’ ¹² But he answered, ‘Truly, I say to you, I do not know you.’ ¹³ Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour.

In this parable, in addition to bridegroom and bride we see “the marriage feast” pictured. And perhaps the most well-known of these images is that of Paul in Ephesians 5:

²⁵ Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, ²⁶ that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, ²⁷ so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.

This is a critically important passage because in it Paul fleshes out what dynamics are at play in our preparation for the wedding. Christ, Paul says:

• sanctifies the church,

• cleanses the church,

• will present the church to Himself,

• will present the church “without spot or wrinkle or any such thing,”

• and desires the church to be “holy and without blemish.”

In other words, a wedding and a feast is coming. This imagery is used to speak of Christ’s ultimate union in glory with His redeemed church. But between now and this wedding and wedding feast, Christ is at work in us. And what is He doing? He is preparing us. He is cleaning us up. He is dressing us. He is getting us ready.

Last month I did three weddings in eight days. They were each different in their own way, and each wonderful. But there was one commonality in all of them: in none of them did the bride saunter down the aisle in ratty sweat pants with an unwashed Led Zeppelin t-shirt with no makeup and hair in all directions while eating a corndog. Not a single time! No, in fact, in every instance the bride had prepared herself to be presented to the groom! In each case the bride was radiant and beautiful and joyful! This is the picture we are seeing of the church before Jesus in the wedding feast of the Lamb.

And yet there is a problem with my analogy. A serious one…

We must be careful here. The point is not that you must clean yourself up so that you can come to Christ. No, the scriptures are clear: it is Christ Himself who washes His bride, prepares His bride, and ultimately presents His bride to Himself as holy and without blemish. Paul is not preaching moralisms. Neither is this great image of the wedding feast of the Lamb in Revelation 19. No, the scriptures give us an image of Christ dying for His church and Christ cleansing His church.

The fact is that in our fallen natures we are all naturally sauntering down the aisle in ratty sweatpants wearing an unwashed Led Zeppelin t-shirt with no makeup and hair in all directions while eating a corndog! Such is the slovenly indifferent state of our souls! Such is the indifferent heart of man! And we know this to be true. So if you read this scene in Revelation 19 and think, “Oh no! I am not fit to stand before Christ!”, fear not! It is Christ who makes you fit to stand before Him! Yes, we must repent and obey. I do not wish to minimize this at all. But understand that those advancements we make in growth and in holiness are advancements that God works in us through the Holy Spirit on the basis of the finished work of Christ on the cross.

Jesus loves His bride! Jesus prepares His bride! Will you come to Him and let Him do a work in you?

Repentance is when we come to Christ and acknowledge that we are not fit to stand before Him. It is when we acknowledge that we cannot change ourselves! It is when we cry out, “Jesus, dress me! Jesus, save me! Jesus, wash me in your blood and make me into what you would have me to be!”

Do not despair that you are not ready! Rather, rejoice that He is! He is ready! He is ready right now!

Come to the bridegroom and know that He can save you, redeem you, and prepare you!

Hallelujah!

 

[1] https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2012/12/how-leonard-cohens-hallelujah-became-everybodys-hallelujah/265900/

[2] John P. Newport, The Lion and the Lamb. (Nashville, TN: Broadman Press, , 1986), p.284.

[3] William C. Weinrich, ed. Revelation. Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture. Gen. Ed. Thomas C. Oden. New Testament XII (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2005), 298.

[4] Craig S. Keen, Revelation. The NIV Application Commentary. (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2000), p.451.