The Wedding Feast

The first entry in this series can be found here.
The previous entry can be found here.

At a certain point in life, wedding invites become a regular occurrence, especially if you know a lot of people and are in the proper age range–or know people in the proper age range–when weddings commonly occur. Perhaps your fridge is covered in wedding invitations to the point you cannot get it open (think New Girl season 4 episode 1). This reality is so common that Jesus told a parable about wedding invitations in Matthew 22:1-14.

In fact, I received a wedding invitation this week. Similarly, in our text today, John highlights a specific aspect of life following the fall of Babylon:

Then a mighty angel picked up a stone like a large millstone and threw it into the sea, saying:

In this way, Babylon the great city
will be thrown down violently
and never be found again.
The sound of harpists, musicians,
flutists, and trumpeters
will never be heard in you again;
no craftsman of any trade
will ever be found in you again;
the sound of a mill
will never be heard in you again;
the light of a lamp
will never shine in you again;
and the voice of a groom and bride
will never be heard in you again.
All this will happen
because your merchants
were the nobility of the earth,
because all the nations were deceived
by your sorcery,
and the blood of prophets and saints,
and of all those slaughtered on earth,
was found in you.

After this I heard something like the loud voice of a vast multitude in heaven, saying:

Hallelujah!
Salvation, glory, and power belong to our God,
because His judgments are true and righteous,
because He has judged the notorious prostitute
who corrupted the earth with her sexual immorality;
and He has avenged the blood of His slaves
that was on her hands.

A second time they said:

Hallelujah!
Her smoke ascends forever and ever!

Then the 24 elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshiped God, who is seated on the throne, saying:

Amen! Hallelujah!

A voice came from the throne, saying:

Praise our God,
all His slaves, who fear Him,
both small and great!

Then I heard something like the voice of a vast multitude, like the sound of cascading waters, and like the rumbling of loud thunder, saying:

Hallelujah, because our Lord God, the Almighty,
has begun to reign!
Let us be glad, rejoice, and give Him glory,
because the marriage of the Lamb has come,
and His wife has prepared herself.
She was given fine linen to wear, bright and pure.

For the fine linen represents the righteous acts of the saints.

Then he said to me, “Write: Those invited to the marriage feast of the Lamb are fortunate!” He also said to me, “These words of God are true.” Then I fell at his feet to worship him, but he said to me, “Don’t do that! I am a fellow slave with you and your brothers who have the testimony about Jesus. Worship God, because the testimony about Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.”

Revelation 18:21-19:10

While it is true that the first part of this text could technically have been discussed with the previous entry, there is a good reason for taking the entire text together today.

• “the voice of a groom and bride will never be heard in you again” (18:23)
• “the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has prepared herself” (19:7)
• “Those invited to the marriage feast of the Lamb are fortunate!” (19:9)

In other words, those invited to this wedding are blessed, and the point is to draw a stark contrast with Babylon where there will be no more weddings. This wedding will make all other weddings appear insignificant. The main point of today’s text is that you are blessed if you are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.

Consider this your invitation!

The Contrast

Then a mighty angel picked up a stone like a large millstone and threw it into the sea, saying:

In this way, Babylon the great city
will be thrown down violently
and never be found again.
The sound of harpists, musicians,
flutists, and trumpeters
will never be heard in you again;
no craftsman of any trade
will ever be found in you again;
the sound of a mill
will never be heard in you again;
the light of a lamp
will never shine in you again;
and the voice of a groom and bride
will never be heard in you again.
All this will happen
because your merchants
were the nobility of the earth,
because all the nations were deceived
by your sorcery,
and the blood of prophets and saints,
and of all those slaughtered on earth,
was found in you (18:21-24)

There are a lot of interesting details here, but this portion of text clearly connects 17:1-18:24 and explains what the fall of Babylon looks like and why it had to fall. Babylon was discussed clearly in 17:1-18. The merchants were discussed in 18:9-20, especially verses 11-17. The slaughtered saints were discussed in 17:6 and 18:1-8. While it is worth noting that we still haven’t seen the end of the enemies of God in the book of Revelation (we see them in 19:17-21 and 20:7-15 [and technically also in 22:15]), this text serves to draw a contrast between the saints and the satanic world system.

The world system will experience no more rejoicing. The world system will never again see economic productivity. The world system will never again witness a wedding.

In a book full of symbolism, the questions of when and how this will come about are not primary. The point John wants to make is the difference between the lamentable state of the world and the unending joy of the saints.

The Conversation

After this I heard something like the loud voice of a vast multitude in heaven, saying:

Hallelujah!
Salvation, glory, and power belong to our God,
because His judgments are true and righteous,
because He has judged the notorious prostitute
who corrupted the earth with her sexual immorality;
and He has avenged the blood of His slaves
that was on her hands.

A second time they said:

Hallelujah!
Her smoke ascends forever and ever!

Then the 24 elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshiped God, who is seated on the throne, saying:

Amen! Hallelujah!

A voice came from the throne, saying:

Praise our God,
all His slaves, who fear Him,
both small and great!

Then I heard something like the voice of a vast multitude, like the sound of cascading waters, and like the rumbling of loud thunder, saying:

Hallelujah, because our Lord God, the Almighty,
has begun to reign!
Let us be glad, rejoice, and give Him glory,
because the marriage of the Lamb has come,
and His wife has prepared herself.
She was given fine linen to wear, bright and pure.

For the fine linen represents the righteous acts of the saints (19:1-8).

This is a conversation of praise, until the explanatory phrase at the end of 19:8. There are two primary groups of speakers: A numberless multitude (19:1-3, 6-8a) and the 24 elders and 4 living creatures (19:4); verse 5 seems to belong to God (a third speaker).

The multitude, Christians throughout space and time–the one, holy, catholic, apostolic church–praises God for avenging their blood (cf. 6:9-11) by judging Babylon. If this concept seems foreign or offensive to us, it might be because we’ve lived a life of relative ease in the West; the Psalms often read in a similar way (cf. Psalm 109 or 137). The multitude also notes that the smoke of Babylon’s doom ascends forever.

The 24 elders and 4 living creatures reply. And if we remember what we noted about these beings back in Revelation 4, they (the elders specifically) are the praise leaders of heaven (David appointed 24 priests in 1 Chronicles 24). Look what they do. They shout, “Amen! Hallelujah!” In other words, they agree with the sentiment but call for further praise; “Hallelujah” is Hebrew for the imperative, “Praise Yahweh!”

It’s great that God will avenge believers. But He’s already done so much more than that. This is why the heavenly worship directors call for further praise.

A voice from the throne can only be God–see Revelation 5:1–and he calls for God to be praised. This seems to be a pretty explicit claim for Christ’s divinity, and some support for the idea of Trinity. Note that the Lamb is not seated on the throne (5:6, 13). This would also indicate–when we connect it to the call for further praise–that Christ isn’t out to destroy his enemies (but we’ll look at this idea further when we come to 19:11-21).

As such, the multitude of Christians cry out further praise. God is king, his marriage has come, and his people–those praising him–are the bride (this image makes further sense of the portrait painted in 14:1-5; I will come back to 19:8b in the next post).

The Caution

Then he said to me, “Write: Those invited to the marriage feast of the Lamb are fortunate!” He also said to me, “These words of God are true.” Then I fell at his feet to worship him, but he said to me, “Don’t do that! I am a fellow slave with you and your brothers who have the testimony about Jesus. Worship God, because the testimony about Jesus is the spirit of prophecy” (19:9-10).

Why would John fall down at the feet of this angel and worship him? (This is the angel from 17:1, thus supporting the understanding that 17:1-19:10 is a complete unit.)

Sometimes, when we receive amazing news–when someone changes our whole outlook on things–we can hail them too highly. This is what is happening here. John is stunned at the final glory of the Church. The very bride of Christ. The intimacy. The peace. The unity. The love. The freedom from adversaries. It’s enough to melt our minds. John was so overcome with awe that he praised the messenger because of the glory of the message.

The angel says, “No!”

No matter how much we’ve been influenced by a certain speaker or teacher, we cannot give them the worship that is due to God alone. We cannot hold them above the Tradition of the Church. We cannot hold them above Scripture. We cannot hold them above Christ. When we find ourselves unduly elevating our favorite pastor or teacher or blogger or musician, we must repent and return to Christ. No matter how much a person has changed your life, the fact is that God is the one who used them to change your life. Apart from God, they could do nothing (John 15:5). Praise God!

What have you let get in the way of worshipping Jesus alone? Get rid of it and return to Jesus today!

Will you be a part of this heavenly marriage feast?

In this with you.

Soli Deo Gloria
Sola Fide
Solus Christus
Sola Scriptura

Thanks for reading.

The next entry can be found here.