And the remnant were slain with the sword of him that sat upon the horse, which sword proceeded out of his mouth: and all the fowls were filled with their flesh. The remnant; that is, the adherents of the beast, the "armies" of Revelation 19:19. (For this description of Christ, see Revelation 19:11, Revelation 19:15.) Spiritual death is inflicted upon those who have proved themselves hostile to God. The last sentence emphasizes the nature of the punishment by the reference to the indignity offered to their bodies after death.
HOMILETICS
Revelation 19:1-9 (coupled with Revelation 18:20)
Rejoicings over the fall of Babylon.
When we put side by side the lament of the kings, merchants, and seamen, with the rejoicings of the great multitude in heaven over Babylon's fall, the effect is very strange. At first sight there seems an incongruity between them. We are taught in the Word that there is such deep sympathy between heaven and earth, and that there are emotions of tenderest pity felt in heaven towards man below. And yet in this series of symbolic visions we have the representation that heaven is made glad by that which brings wailing on earth. How is this to be accounted for? Observe:
I. WHO ARE THE REJOICING ONES? "A heavenly hallelujah celebrates the first act of the final sentence upon the antichristian powers which served as Satan's instruments. At each crisis in the Apocalypse we find a similar hymn of praise (Revelation 4:8; Revelation 5:9; Revelation 7:10; Revelation 11:15; Revelation 15:3; Revelation 16:5)." £ An unknown voice—possibly from "him that sitteth upon the throne;" this would seem to be the more appropriate conclusion, as the word is in the form of a mandate. The song itself comes:
II. WHAT IS IT WHAT FURNISHES MATERIAL FOR SONG?
1. "He hath averaged the blood of his servants," etc. (Revelation 19:2.) This one expression, "the blood of his servants," carries with it a tale of fearful import. It would include:
2. "He hath judged the great harlot." This great harlot, Babylon, corrupted the earth. Whether the iniquity thus specified assumed the commercial or the ecclesiastical form, in either case it was a huge system of iniquity, of apostasy, whereby either "the priest" or "mammon" sat in the seat of God. The seventeenth chapter points to the former; the eighteenth chapter, to the latter. And surely when apostasy from God is exposed in all its ugliness, and branded with everlasting shame, that is enough to cause a mighty shout of joy to peal forth from the mighty host above. What has so often made pleasure a forbidden thing? Apostasy! What has befouled commerce? Apostasy! What has dragged the banner of science in the mud and the mire? Apostasy! What has made even religious forms a stumbling block and a shame? Apostasy! And surely it will be a festive day alike for earth and heaven when this gilded and bedizened demon shall be stripped exposed and slain.
3. The dew fall of so much evil is the prelude to the salvation. (Revelation 19:1, "The salvation … unto the Lord our God.") By this is meant not so much that aspect of salvation which belongs to the forgiveness of sins—that had been long ago enjoyed; but that which pertains to deliverance from the burden of evil in many and every form. After long and weary conflicts with iniquity, after seeming to be almost smothered with the weight of outside ungodliness, after the voice of the righteous was all but drowned in the confusion and roar of Babylon—then comes the deliverance! Their great foe is forever dead. "Alleluia!"
4. The Lord God hath taken the kingdom. (Revelation 19:6.) Hath showed himself to be King indeed, as he was before King by right of his enthronement in heaven; i.e. the Lord Jesus Christ, who now is exalted "a Prince and Saviour," shall then be acknowledged as King. And certainly the universal acknowledgment of Jesus as Lord may well call forth a shout of praise from all the blest in heaven!
5. The Church is prepared for her Lord. (Revelation 19:7, Revelation 19:8.) The Lord God will not only crush sin in the world, but will also purge it out of the Church; and all unclean rags of Babylon the great, some of which may be found in the purest Church on earth, shall be burnt up. "In fine linen, clean and white," the bride of Christ shall shine. In the seventh verse this is looked at from one point of view, and in the next verse from another. In the former, as an act of personal preparation for the appearing of the Bridegroom; and in the latter, as a grant from the grace of God. These are the two aspects of Divine truth which always coalesce—human effort and the grace of God.
6. The Lord cometh to claim his Church. "The marriage of the Lamb is come." These words, like many others with which we have met in the course of our expositions, overleap the intervening distance and events, and glance onwards to the outcome. The fall of Babylon will be one of the preliminaries to heaven's great bridal day! And then, then the mutual rejoicing! "Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb." This is the festive scene which is descried in the distance, as that to which the evolution of things is pointing. It is sketched in Revelation 22:1-21. Between now and then are the binding and loosing of Satan, the victory over Gog and Magog—and after these things the New Jerusalem appears. And each incident as it occurs is a new pledge of the nearing of heaven's great triumphal feast. But we have not gone far enough yet in interpreting the spirit of this chapter. We have seen what we may call the momenta, of the joy—the items which furnish the material of it. We have yet to ask—
III. ON WHAT GROUNDS DOES THAT JOY REST WHICH THUS EXPRESSES ITSELF IN SONG? All these events which prompt the joy do so because they are, to the eye of renewed creatures, the expression and development of the infinite perfections of God. Here they see our God unveiling his purposes of grace. It is in him and in his holy will that all these events have their unity and their continuity. "The salvation, and the glory, and the honour … unto the Lord our God." Glancing over the paragraph, we find that there are no fewer than five different manifestations of the Divine perfections.
1. There is a manifestation of power. (Revelation 22:1.) The power belongs to God. In him is the origin of force; its eternal and exhaustless fount. Even when Babylon is at the height of its pride, he can hurl it down and cast it forever away. Is it not matter for infinite joy to know that evil is not strong enough to perpetuate itself? "Though thou make thy nest among the stars, from thence will I bring thee down, saith the Lord."
2. There 's a manifestation of equtity. "He hath judged … he hath avenged" (Revelation 22:2). "He will render to every man according to his deeds."
3. There is a manifestation of grace. (Revelation 22:8.) "To her was granted"—as a free gift. It is the glory of the Divine sovereignty to enrich out of the aboundings of grace, and thus to do exceeding abundantly for us above all that we ask or think.
4. There is a manifestation of the Divine mercy. For he hath conferred salvation on those who were ready to perish; and hath, of his own pity to the unworthy, made them fair, though he found them foul.
5. There is a manifestation of faithfulness. Of faithful adhesion to all the promises; of perpetual continuation in faithful love to the bride whom he will come to claim as his own. This union is forever! The tie between the Redeemer and his redeemed shall never be dissolved, but shall outlive the "wreck of matter, and the crash of worlds."
Note: The one lesson which the unrolling ages teach us is—God. There is a profound truth hidden in pantheism, albeit it perverts the truth which alone gives it its plausibility. All events—in the town, the city, the empire, the world—are hastening on the unfolding of God, and writing new pages of that unfinished and unfinishable Name! Hence the deep meaning in the prophecy so oft repeated, "The glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it." It is not in heaven that we shall find God; it is in the eternally unfolding manifestation of God that the righteous will find their heaven, and the theme for a song that will be ever new.