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Brief Background
We have worked our way through the book of Revelation and are now almost to the end.
John the son of Zebedee was in exile on the isle of Patmos, and Yeshua revealed Himself to John there.
John was commanded to write to seven communities in Asia Minor (modern day Turkey).
Last week we began to cover the climax of Yeshua’s Return in Revelation 19.
We looked at the significance of coming on a white horse, the many crowns on Yeshua’s head, Yeshua’s robe drenched in the blood of His enemies and how He will rule the nations with an Iron Sceptre.
Today we will continue from 19:17 and look into the judgement of the leaders of the final world empire, the Beast and the False Prophet.
Judgement by Messiah
Let’s read Rev. 19:17-21
We start this passage with the call of an angel to the birds of the sky.
In the beginning of the chapter John is told by an angel to write down Rev. 19:9a “How fortunate are those who have been invited to the wedding banquet of the Lamb!” Now we are introduced to a second banquet.
However, this is a banquet that we do not want to attend.
Craig Keener writes:
The image of carrion birds feasting on the flesh of corpses killed in battle was a familiar one to ancient readers (1 Sam.
17:44-46; Jer.
16:4; Ezek.
29:5).
Given common Greek views of one’s image enduring in the realm of departed spirits, the only fate worse than death itself was death followed by lack of burial, in which one’s remains are devoured by animals.
Jewish literature also anticipated the wicked lying unburied in the end time, devoured by vultures and other animals (Sib.Or.
3.643-45).
I was just reading the story of David and Goliath in 1 Sam.
17:44-46 where the young man David boldly responded to the giant.
Another passage that is very similar is Eze.
39:17-20 .
This is the story of the ultimate destruction of Gog of Magog which we will cover in more detail in Rev. 20.
However, for the moment we shall read part of the judgement against this end time army.
In both of these examples, it is Adonai who is bringing about the judgement against a wicked nation that has set itself up against Beni-Yisrael.
The context is exactly the same as in Rev. 19.
Except this time it is revealed that the full and complete representative of Adonai is One who is called “the Word of God”, Yeshua the Messiah!
After spending the seven or so chapters discussing the Beast and the False Prophet, I am amazed how succinct is their demise and judgement.
We are told that the rulers of the earth, presidents, prime ministers and kings, align themselves with the final world empire, the Beast and against Yeshua and His army.
But it is way too late.
Yeshua captures the leaders of the final empire and throws them “alive into the lake of fire burring with brimstone.”
This lake of fire is a place of eternal judgement as we will find out in the next chapter.
Then without any fanfare, Rev. 19:21 simply states that, “The rest were killed with the sword coming out of the mouth of the One riding on the horse.
And all the birds gorged themselves with their flesh.”
Application for Today
How do we apply this to us today?
As I was reading through one of the commentaries, I found myself putting them down, and saying, “That’s not what it means!” and “That’s not how it happens!.”
The primary reason for this is that the first commentator could not get their head around the concept of Yeshua being a might warrior and bringing actual war.
I mentioned this last week, but this is exactly opposite of what the disciples felt.
Remember when a Samaritan village rejected Yeshua, James and John said, Luke 9:54 “Master, do You want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them?””
Now Yeshua rebuked them at that time, but does that mean that he will never come to judge?
On the contrary, Yeshua specifically states in John 5:22-23
So, we know that Yeshua will judge the living and the dead one day.
But we also know that He has commanded us to love our enemies in Matt.
5:43-44
Now I will admit that this is one of the hardest passages to put into practice.
I have wrestled with this when I have been seriously wronged.
It is hard to pray for people that spitefully use you and abuse you.
When my motorcycle was stolen I started out by praying something like this, “God you commanded me to love my enemies, but you did not say I had to like them.
Please pour firey coals on their head because of what they have done to me!”
Then a little later I prayed, “Well I don’t really want them to go to hell over this.
Instead could you hound them down with your angels and drag them into a congregation and convict them.”
And eventually my emotions realigned with my words, and I was actually able to pray for their salvation, and that they would come into the Kingdom of God.
Eventually I was able to pray, “Father, do not hold this theft against them on judgement day.”
You see Yeshua did this when He was hanging on the cross.
He said, Luke 23:34
I bring this all up because there is something in the last verse that really stands out to me.
The verse says, Rev. 19:21a “The rest were killed with the sword coming out of the mouth of the One riding on the horse.”
You see, none of those who were following Yeshua did any of the fighting.
Yeshua speaks the word, i.e. uses the sword of His mouth, and all of His enemies die.
When we attempt to exact our judgement, we often go too far, or not far enough.
Our ability to judge between good and evil was twisted in the Garden of Eden.
Yeshua is the only one who is worthy and able to measure out the correct balance of justice and mercy.
Rav.
Sha’ul says it this way in his letter to the Romans 12:14-21
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