The Two Suppers
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Today we are going to take a look at the consummation suppers of Revelation: The Marriage Supper of the Lamb and The Judgement Supper of God. They are presented in contrast in chapter 19. What supper are you going to attend?
Revelation 19:6.
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.
The OT background for this is David’s psalm of thanks in 1 Chronicles 16:8-37, especially verse 31 ,“Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice, and let them say among the nations, “The Lord reigns!””
“Hallelujah” means “Praise God” in Hebrew. Why do we praise God? There are a lot of reasons. This sentence has two.
First, we praise God because he is the almighty. The theological term is “omnipotent”. The implications of an all-powerful God who is loving bring great comfort when we act on that truth.
Second, we praise God because he reigns. God does not have power, then check out. No, he is reigning now and will reign into eternity. We can often be tempted to take issue with his reign, especially with his timing, or when his judgement causes us discomfort. The challenge is to accept and praise him for his reign of our lives and this world.
Revelation 19:7-8.
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.
In chapter 18 we are called to rejoice in God’s judgments. Here we are called to rejoice in the coming of the marriage supper of the Lamb, and in his prepared bride with her righteous deeds.
The bride of Christ is the Church and Israel. Paul uses the bride analogy in 2 Corinthians 11:2. He writes, “For I feel a divine jealousy for you, since I betrothed you to one husband, to present you as a pure virgin to Christ.”
This idea is found in the OT in Isaiah 61:10 “I will greatly rejoice in the Lord; my soul shall exult in my God, for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation; he has covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself like a priest with a beautiful headdress, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.” and Hosea 2:19 “And I will betroth you to me forever. I will betroth you to me in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love and in mercy.”
Jesus uses a wedding to talk about being prepared for his coming in Matthew 25:1-13 in the parable of the ten virgins - five are ready for the wedding, and five are not. May we be the ones who are ready.
This is all based off of the Jewish marriage ceremony, so to get the full picture of what’s going on we need to understand how it works.
“The Jewish marriage had three parts: (1) the betrothal in which the formal engagement was agreed on, the bride price paid, and the couple legally became husband and wife; (This was done for us on the cross - we, the church, are betrothed to Jesus.) (2) the coming of the bridegroom to the house of the bride with his friends to get the bride and take her to his home; (This would represent Christ’s returning in the air for his church as seen in 1 Thessalonians 4:16) and (3) the wedding banquet. The wedding began with the groom going to the bride’s house to get her and bringing her back to his house for the wedding banquet. The festivities continued for a week or longer.” (This week would be Daniel’s 70th week during the tribulation. A challenge to this would be those who are saved during the tribulation would be late to the feast. The exact timing is unknown yet I think the Jewish wedding gives a good guideline.)
The idea of the clothing being granted and representing the righteous deeds of the saints reminds me of Ephesians 2:8–10 “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” This is a beautiful working with the Trinity in this life to prepare us for an eternity as the wife of Christ. This image as Christ’s wife is further developed in Revelation 21, which we will cover in a few weeks.
Revelation 19:9.
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.”
Blessed - the idea of being happy because of receiving divine favor. All are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb, but not all come. This reminds me of the parable of the wedding feast in Matthew 22:1-14 where the invitation was either ignored, or the guests who came were not prepared. May we be blessed and respond to the call and walk in the good deeds he has prepared to be our wedding garments.
Revelation 19:10.
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.
It is so easy to get off focus. Amazing things are happening all around John. He is worshipping God with all of heaven. And then we see his confusion come into the midst of this awesome time of worship. John begins to worship the angel rather than God. In many ways he is confusing the gift with the Giver.
The angel does not receive the worship and makes it crystal clear that they are both servants.
We are to worship God, for Jesus is fulfilling God’s promises.
Revelation 19:11.
11 Then I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse! The one sitting on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he judges and makes war.
Now we turn from the marriage supper of the Lamb to the great supper of God.
Both of these suppers are kicked off with the coming of Jesus. His first coming is one of sacrifice, paying the bride price. His second coming is one of judgment.
John sees a white horse, which symbolizes purity and vindication of Jesus’ judgments.
Who is Jesus? He is Faithful. He is True.
He is the only one who can truly wage just war.
Revelation 19:12.
12 His eyes are like a flame of fire, and on his head are many diadems, and he has a name written that no one knows but himself.
The theme of judgment is continued in the image of his eyes as flames of fire, for there is nothing hidden from his sight.
The right to judge is demonstrated in that he is wearing diadems, which are crowns of rule and authority. The OT background is Isaiah 62:2-3.
2 The nations shall see your righteousness, and all the kings your glory, and you shall be called by a new name that the mouth of the Lord will give.
3 You shall be a crown of beauty in the hand of the Lord, and a royal diadem in the hand of your God.
Though he is revealing himself to all, he is still a mystery, for he is God and who can know the depths of him except his Spirit (1 Corinthians 2:9-10).
Revelation 19:13.
13 He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood, and the name by which he is called is The Word of God.
Some think this is his blood, shed of the cross, which took on the wrath of God. I think that it is the blood of the judged, given the context of the passage, especially in light of Revelation 14:19-20; 19:15. Also the OT background of Isaiah 63:2-3 makes a strong case for it being the blood of the judged.
2 Why is your apparel red, and your garments like his who treads in the winepress?
3 “I have trodden the winepress alone, and from the peoples no one was with me; I trod them in my anger and trampled them in my wrath; their lifeblood spattered on my garments, and stained all my apparel.
His name is the Word of God. This brings to mind John 1:1–2 “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God.” and John 1:14 “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.” What an awesome God we serve.
Revelation 19:14.
14 And the armies of heaven, arrayed in fine linen, white and pure, were following him on white horses.
Who are these armies? I believe it is two armies.
The first army is the host of heaven, which is a angelic army. The references for that would be Matt. 13:40–42; 16:27; 24:30–31; 25:31–32; Mark 8:38; Luke 9:26; 2 Thess. 1:7; Jude 14–15. You are welcome to take a look at those on your own time.
The second army is all the saints since Revelation 17:14 puts us with him. That is us, Church. Because we are with him, wearing white clothing and riding white horses, this makes it clear that we share in the purity and vindication with Christ.
Revelation 19:15-16.
15 From his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron. He will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty.
16 On his robe and on his thigh he has a name written, King of kings and Lord of lords.
There are two OT backgrounds for verse 15. They are Isaiah 11:3-4; 49:2.
3 And his delight shall be in the fear of the Lord. He shall not judge by what his eyes see, or decide disputes by what his ears hear,
4 but with righteousness he shall judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth; and he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked.
2 He made my mouth like a sharp sword; in the shadow of his hand he hid me; he made me a polished arrow; in his quiver he hid me away.
Jesus, the Word of God, who spoke the world into existence, will bring judgment by the word of his mouth. Today, when you hear his word, do not harden your heart. For he is the King of kings and Lord of lords, worthy of all praise and glory.
Revelation 19:17-18.
Revelation 19:17–18 (ESV)
17 Then I saw an angel standing in the sun, and with a loud voice he called to all the birds that fly directly overhead, “Come, gather for the great supper of God,
18 to eat the flesh of kings, the flesh of captains, the flesh of mighty men, the flesh of horses and their riders, and the flesh of all men, both free and slave, both small and great.”
The OT background is Ezekiel 39:4; 39:17-20, the prophesy against Gog and Magog.
4 You shall fall on the mountains of Israel, you and all your hordes and the peoples who are with you. I will give you to birds of prey of every sort and to the beasts of the field to be devoured.
17 “As for you, son of man, thus says the Lord God: Speak to the birds of every sort and to all beasts of the field: ‘Assemble and come, gather from all around to the sacrificial feast that I am preparing for you, a great sacrificial feast on the mountains of Israel, and you shall eat flesh and drink blood.
18 You shall eat the flesh of the mighty, and drink the blood of the princes of the earth—of rams, of lambs, and of he-goats, of bulls, all of them fat beasts of Bashan.
19 And you shall eat fat till you are filled, and drink blood till you are drunk, at the sacrificial feast that I am preparing for you.
20 And you shall be filled at my table with horses and charioteers, with mighty men and all kinds of warriors,’ declares the Lord God.
Beale writes: “The invitation to come “to the great supper of God” is a “macabre parody” of the invitation to come “to the supper of the Lamb’s wedding.” The connection between the two feasts is suggested by the occurrence of (“to the supper”) in both 19:9 and 19:17; the link implies that judgment is but the other side of the coin of salvation.”
I pray that we all receive the invitation to the marriage supper of the Lamb.
Revelation 19:19-21.
19 And I saw the beast and the kings of the earth with their armies gathered to make war against him who was sitting on the horse and against his army.
20 And the beast was captured, and with it the false prophet who in its presence had done the signs by which he deceived those who had received the mark of the beast and those who worshiped its image. These two were thrown alive into the lake of fire that burns with sulfur.
21 And the rest were slain by the sword that came from the mouth of him who was sitting on the horse, and all the birds were gorged with their flesh.
Amen. There is an end to the wicked. Jesus is coming! Are we ready for it? Have we responded to the invitation we all have received? It is easy to respond - confess Jesus as Lord, believe that God raised Jesus from the dead and you will be attending the marriage supper of the Lamb. I look forward to seeing you all there.