216 - The Marriage of the Lamb [B]

The Marriage of the Lamb. Revelation 19:6-8

Revelation chapter nineteen portrays the climax of the Tribulation which is the return of the Lord Jesus Christ in victory as the King of kings and Lord of lords. He will return in victory to destroy the works of Satan, He will destroy the armies of the Antichrist and the false prophet, He will wipe out and completely destroy the civilization of Babylon and all that is involved in the cosmic system in order to cleanse the world from sin and evil and establish His kingdom. That is the focus of chapter nineteen. The chapter itself begins with a prelude in the first eight verses that serves as a backdrop to the real focal point which is the return of the Lord Jesus Christ and His victory over the forces of Satan, beginning in verse eleven. In the first part of this section, vv. 1-10 which serves as the prelude, the first eight verses is comprised of four (or five) Hallelujahs.

As we get into the remaining part of the chapter we see some really interesting material biblically. We just get a summary of the action here in this chapter—the Lord Jesus Christ returns at the head of an army riding on a white horse, etc., and the focal point is really on who the Lord Jesus Christ is, as indicated through His dress and His character, and then it culminates in the destruction of the armies of the Antichrist and their punishment in the last four or five verses of the chapter. But this is just a summary. There are dozens of other places in the Old Testament as well as a couple of passages in the Gospels that give us much more information about what is going to transpire during this time when Jesus Christ actually returns to the earth. We don't see much about where He returns in this chapter as much as we see the manner in which He returns as he is going to establish the reign of God upon the earth.

We have looked at the four Hallelujahs at the beginning of the chapter. The first one relates to a praise to God for the destruction of religious Babylon in the first two verses. The words "honor" and "the Lord" included in the KJV and the NKJV are not in either the Critical Text or the Majority Text, and they are only in a very few MSS which happen to be those that were used as a basis for the KJV. Revelation 19:1 ^NASB "After these things I heard something like a loud voice of a great multitude in heaven, saying, 'Hallelujah! Salvation and glory and power belong to our God.'" The focal point seems to be the one who is sitting on the throne, who is God the Father. The Lord Jesus Christ is a distinct person, usually referred to as either "the Lord" or "the Lamb" which is the focus here in this chapter. Verse 2, "True and righteous are His judgments"—the judgments of the Father. At this stage the Father has not given over that judgment technically to the Son. He will not until the Son returns in victory, which is about to take place as the returning Son of Man, as depicted in Daniel chapter seven.   

The fourth Hallelujah. Revelation 19:6 ^NASB "Then I heard {something} like the voice of a great multitude and like the sound of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, saying, 'Hallelujah! For the Lord our God, the Almighty, reigns.'" This is a call to praise for the marriage supper of the Lamb, which is then introduced in the next verse. Verses 7-10 relate to this fifth call to praise God. The marriage supper of the Lamb is a really important doctrine because it is related to the church. We have not seen anything directly related to the church age believer since the end of the third chapter of Revelation. This is the next time, after chapter three, that we have a reference to the church, indicating again that the church is not going to be present on the earth during the time of the Tribulation. That certainly does fit in with the general pattern of marriage that we see in Jewish culture, which must be understood in order to capture what is taking place at this event, the marriage supper of the Lamb.    

Revelation 19:7 ^NASB "Let us rejoice and be glad and give the glory to Him, for the marriage of the Lamb has come and His bride has made herself ready." This is a call to all believers to rejoice and praise God. The voice that comes from the throne is the voice that is still speaking. It is unidentified, unclear; it is neither the Father nor the Son because that just doesn't fit with some of the things that are being said here. Three things are addressed to those who are praising God at the time. They are to be glad, they are to rejoice, and they are to give God glory. The first word is chairo [xairw], the normal word for joy or to rejoice, and this is in a present active subjunctive form. The first two of these verbs are in the same form—present active subjunctive, the last one is an aorist subjunctive, but they are all first person plurals. Part of the idiom of Greek language: you don't have a first person command but you would express that idea through the use of a subjunctive mood verb. It was expressed as an exhortation or challenge to a group of people where the speaker included himself within those who were to be addressed. E.g. Let us all be quiet. It has just as much an imperative force as a direct command for everyone to be quiet. So this is a first person command here and it includes the speaker. That is why the speaker cannot be the Father or the Son, a person of deity, because the person is including himself in the command and will also participate in giving glory to God. This is a time of tremendous celebration before the throne of God because the judgment of sin, the end of sin, the end of evil upon the earth is being presented; and at the same time it is the time for the marriage of the Lamb. This is the marriage of the Lamb, the Lord Jesus Christ, to the bride, His wife who is the church. This prepares the church to move into the Millennial period as those who will co-reign with the Lord Jesus Christ.

Notice verse 4 ^NASB "And the twenty-four elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshiped God…" It is very clear when we get into the Greek text and some of the problems with the MSS that there are really only a couple of MSS that have a problem here. The vast majority (all but two) indicate that the 24 elders are giving praise because the Lamb has redeemed them. That means that the 24 elders cannot be angels; they are those who have been redeemed by the death of the Lamb. So they are a representative entity representing the church. The fact that there are 24 goes back to a similar situation in the Old Testament where, among all the Levites and all of the priests, there would be a group of 24 that would be on duty. Those 24 represented the entire body of Levites and priests. The idea also carried with it the implication of their priestly function during this particular time, and that is no longer apparent after this; they are never referred to again after the marriage of the Lamb. The rile shifts from a priestly role to a ruling and reigning role as the church will be ruling and reigning with the Lord Jesus Christ during the Millennial kingdom. This is what you and I are being prepared for today.

So in verse 7 there is a call to celebrate because the marriage of the Lamb has come, "and His bride has made herself ready." These two verbs are both in the aorist tense which indicates past action, so what they are stating is not is not that the marriage of the Lamb is happening then but it has happened; it has taken place, it has already been accomplished, so that now something different is going to be focused on and that is the invitation to come to the marriage supper of the Lamb, verse 9. We have to understand the difference between the marriage and the marriage supper and what these indicate. 

Revelation 19:8 ^NASB "It was given to her to clothe herself in fine linen, bright {and} clean; for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints." What is the fine linen? It is clean and bright, it has been cleansed, white—always a picture of holiness; it is the righteous acts of the saints. It is viewed corporately. This is the divine good that has been produced in the history of the church in church age believers that comes together as the adornment of the bride at the marriage of the Lamb.

The Jewish customs related to marriage are quite informative, and even though the initial audience of the book of Revelation were not Jews the writers were, and all of the Hebrew Scriptures, all the background was Jewish and oriented around Jewish marriage customs. So we need to understand what was involved in a Jewish marriage, a Jewish wedding and that which preceded it in terms of the betrothal.

The first step was the betrothal, and this would take place at least a year before the wedding itself. Many times the bride and groom never met before the wedding itself. The betrothal pictures the period of the church during the church age when the church has been betrothed to the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ has paid the bride price, the dowry, by His death on the cross. It was that purchase price paid by Christ on the cross that is equivalent to the bride price. At the ascension He left, and this also fits the pattern that would be seen in a Jewish wedding ceremony. We see this betrothal alluded to in Matthew 1:18. During the time between the arrangement of the wedding and the wedding itself the groom would leave, and it was the groom's responsibility to prepare for having a wife—having a home, taking the financial responsibility for the family and for the marriage—and it was often not known precisely when the wedding itself would take place. The bride would be waiting for the groom until he came to fetch her. This also fits the pattern of Scripture. John 14:1-3 ^NASB "Do not let your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father's house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, {there} you may be also." This is a great Rapture passage because what Jesus is saying is that He is going to go to the Father's house (heaven), to prepare a place for the church (the bride), and He will come again and receive the bride to Himself "that where I am, {there} you may be also." Where He is is in heaven, until the second coming. This indicates that He is going to be taking the bride to the place He has prepared, which is in heaven, not on the earth.

Once he has prepared things the next thing is for him to come and to get his bride. At times this was not going to be announced and it will be something of a surprise. He will come accompanied by his friends in order to bring her back to his home. What is interesting is that in 1 Thessalonians 4:14 Paul says, ^NASB "For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus." That is, when Jesus comes at the Rapture for those who are alive and remain He will be bringing with Him those who have preceded us in death. It is the father of the groom in a Jewish marriage who determines the timing, and secondly, the groom has to have completed the abode. That fits the biblical pattern: only the Father knows when the timing will be; the Lord Jesus Christ prepares a place for the bride. [15] "For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. [16] For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of {the} archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. [17] Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord."

The third thing that takes place is the wedding ceremony itself. Only a few people were invited to a wedding ceremony. Prior to the ceremony the bride is prepared. She would go through a ritual immersion or cleansing, which indicates the purification of the bride. This is analogous to the purification of the church at the judgment seat of Christ where the dead works of believers are burned off, consumed in fire, and the bride is left clothed with gold, silver, precious stones, the works of righteousness that are done through the power of God the Holy Spirit. The wedding ceremony itself takes place after the purification, so for the church that means there is the Rapture, then the judgment seat of Christ, and then the wedding itself take place in heaven at some time during the events of the Tribulation on the earth. At the end of the Tribulation period the marriage of the Lamb has already taken place.

Following the marriage there would be a marriage supper or feast and this could last as many as seven days. It was an opportunity to celebrate the union of the two people who had just been married. Many more people would be invited to the feast than would be invited to the marriage ceremony itself. So we see all of these steps portrayed in the way the church is brought into its final union with the Lord Jesus Christ. The Father made the arrangements; the Son paid the bride price and purifies the church—Ephesians 5:25, 27.

Summary

·  It is crucial to mark the distinction between the wedding itself and the marriage supper. They are two different things.

·  There is an invitation to the marriage supper.

·  Then the Lamb will return; He will destroy His enemies.

·  After the destruction of the enemies and the purification of the earth, the judgment of the nations, there will be the marriage feast during a 75-day interval between the second coming and the beginning of the Millennial kingdom.

·  It is crucial to mark the distinction between the marriage of Yahweh in the Old Testament to Israel and the marriage of the church to Jesus Christ. These are two different relationships that are depicted in the Scripture.

·  In the Old Testament Yahweh is depicted as the husband of Israel. Jeremiah 3:14; Isaiah 54:5; Ezekiel 16:8.

·  The basis for this marriage is the bond of the covenant. But that covenant can be violated, broken through the unfaithfulness of the bride (Israel). Spiritual adultery is a biblical concept but what it refers to is idolatry and disobedience to God in the Old Testament context.

·  Isaiah 50:1 ^NASB "Thus says the LORD, "Where is the certificate of divorce By which I have sent your mother away? Or to whom of My creditors did I sell you? Behold, you were sold for your iniquities, And for your transgressions your mother was sent away." When God put away Israel in discipline and kicked them out of the land it wasn't a divorce, it was a separation. God is still faithful to His covenant with Israel; He has never cut them off completely.

·  Revelation 19:7, the marriage of the Lamb. This is not the marriage of Yahweh because Yahweh never put away Israel; there is no remarriage. The marriage here is the marriage of the Lamb to the church.

·  The church was not mentioned in the Old Testament at all; it was a mystery (hidden).

Ephesians 5:23-27 ^NASB "For the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ also is the head of the church, He Himself {being} the Savior of the body. But as the church is subject to Christ, so also the wives {ought to be} to their husbands in everything. Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her, so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she would be holy and blameless."

This then leads to the wedding invitation. Revelation 19:9 ^NASB "Then he said to me, "Write, 'Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.' And he said to me, 'These are true words of God.' [10] Then I fell at his feet to worship him. But he said to me, 'Do not do that; I am a fellow servant of yours and your brethren who hold the testimony of Jesus; worship God. For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.'" There are several times in Scripture there is an angel giving a message and somebody wants to fall down and worship the angel, and the angel says not to do that. But when the Lord Jesus Christ was on the earth and people would worship Him, He never said that, indicating that He understood that He was complete deity. That is why we must say that the voice that is coming out from the throne in this section is neither the Father nor the Son, nor the Holy Spirit, but is an angel in service to the Lord. In this verse the word "prophecy" is not talking so much about foretelling future events. Actually, prophecy is a term that has more to do with revealing God's will to man. The title of this book is the revelation from Jesus Christ, not about Jesus Christ. God gives this body of doctrine to Jesus Christ to reveal further to His servants. That is what is alluded to here in verse 10—"For the testimony of Jesus," referring back to the unveiling of this revelation, "is the spirit of prophecy [or the thought of prophecy]." That summarizes or ends this prelude to the return of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Illustrations