Revelation 19:1-6

Welcome back after a two-week break. As it turns out, it was event-filled for me: my father-in-law came from NC for a visit (and left a week later), the world changed again (which it seems to be doing with increasing rapidity), and I ran out of my diabetes meds. They are at the pharmacy now, and I need to go pick them up, but I had to wait until payday to do so. That’s been my two weeks off! I got sleep, I got sick, I got better, and I need a vacation from my vacation, as usual. Thank you for your patience while I gave my “opening monologue.” I do mean welcome back.

If you are just joining us, you are joining us at the best part of the book. Almost all the violence is now done. There is just one more battle, and we will see that when we get to verses 11-21. It is the war that will end all wars forever. I know, they said that about WWI, and then the one after that. This one really will. You will see when we get there.

To begin with, let us remind ourselves of the context of what is happening at this point in future history. The beast and his world system have been thrown down, and we will see that in a few moments. The reasons have been given to us in the last little bit of chapter 18. Now, the celebration of all of creation begins in earnest. Forgive me, I am a child of the ‘70s and ‘80s, and I grew up reading DC comics. (Marvel also, but tonight’s analogy comes from Aquaman.) At the end of the movie with Jason Momoa as Aquaman, Arthur (Momoa’s character) has to fight the main bad guy, the “pureblood” son of the previous king. (Arthur, like yours truly, is a half-breed, half-Atlantean and half-human.) Everyone wants (for reasons that were given throughout the film) Arthur to win the fight. He does. There is this moment of silence. The camera pans across the faces of the clearly stunned Atlanteans. It lasts for about 10 seconds. Then, as one, they all break into a cheer that shakes the buildings in Atlantis. This is that level of jubilation.

That is where we begin with chapter 19. This passage is theologically known as “The Fourfold Hallelujah.” As is normal with Scripture, it is a list of four praises of God with more than four reasons. There are at least five, and I’m not going to get into the gematria of what it all means (because gematria has no biblical value), but I will say that there is a numeric structure in Scripture that may be involved. The book of Revelation itself is built on a “heptadic” structure. Ἑπτά is the Greek word for seven, and the book has a seven-themed nature. How many churches received a letter, for example? Seven. A project was begun once upon a time to discover how many groups of seven things there are in the book by students of Chuck Missler. To my knowledge, it has nearly reached 100 and is still ongoing under his Koinonia House replacement, Ron Matsen. You can find all this at a khouse.org, I think. I first saw this more than 10 years ago, so that’s kind of impressive and mind-blowing.

I broke the text down as follows:

KV6b: The Lord God Almighty Reigns

6: 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.”

1-2: The First Hallelujah – Salvation, Glory, Power

3-4: The 2nd & 3rd Hallelujah – God’s Perfect Justice

5-6: The Fourth Hallelujah – The Lord God Almighty Reigns

What we see now is what I once heard described as “a thunderous ovation of praise.” (I think it was Carman, There Is A God.) God is being worshipped because of who He is, and also for what He has done. What He has done here is nothing but self-evident and glorious. It has other things about it that will come out in the text, so we will consider it then. So let’s get into it.

KV6b: The Lord God Almighty Reigns

I noticed that this bit of text had me singing songs I had heard in my past. I can hear Michael W. Smith singing “The Lord God Almighty Reigns.” I’m not alone. The writer of an article in one of my hard-copy commentaries, The Expositor’s Bible Commentary on Revelation, explains that he hears Handel’s “Hallelujah Chorus” when he reads this section of Scripture. I tend to hear that in the account of Christ’s birth and the angels singing praise while the shepherds looked on, but that’s me. I have said for most of my life that life has a musical score. Mine is the Benny Hill chase theme (Yakkety Sax). Some people I have met have the theme from The Empire Strikes Back. Others have other things. Music seems foundational to creation at times like this, because it is a theme of praise, and we all have sung hymns or songs of praise. We’ll say more about it momentarily. Let’s get into the text.

1-2: The First Hallelujah – Salvation, Glory, Power

This is a continuation of the response of heaven from the last chapter, 18. It is the expansion and result of the final destruction of the whore of Babylon, who was drunk with the blood of the saints.

Much else of what I could say in my introduction is dealt with in the text, so I will deal with it there. Let’s get into it.

1: 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 very first thing to notice is that this is a new scene. It begins with the classic literary signal, the Greek words, Μετὰ ταῦτα. “After these things.” John has used this throughout this book to tell us this is the beginning of something new in terms of concept.
John hears something. His description is that it is the loud [μεγάλην, mega, loud in terms of volume] voice [φωνὴν, feminine, accusative, singular noun meaning “sound,” sometimes translated “voice”] of a great multitude. Think of how we have unison readings in worship sometimes. Now, imagine everyone is shouting with joy, the same words. There are myriad beings here in heaven. Add all of those unison shouts together, and you might be able to imagine the volume level. All of these beings are heavenly beings. This is maybe the first victory cheer of the winning army of angelic beings over the prince of darkness. They know they have won.
What is the first thing they say? A Hebrew word: Hallelujah. In Greek, the word is transliterated directly: ἁλληλουϊά. It is a compound word in Hebrew made up of halal, that is, praise, and Yah or Jah specifically. It is the same name as the God who met Moses in the burning bush. Its direct equivalent in English is “Praise the Lord.” You can really see this in Psalms 113 through 118, known as the Egyptian Hallel, or the songs of praise about Egypt, referring to the successful extraction of Israel, a type of God’s people in the Old Testament, from Egypt, a type of the world under the Antichrist in the Old Testament. If I’m not mistaken (and I may be, I did a lot of reading on this, and I was only able to verify this when I searched the word in my electronic lexicon), this is the only use of the word Hallelujah in the New Testament.
What else do they say? Salvation [σωτηρία], glory [δόξα] and power [δύναμις], all words we have seen before, and they attribute all of these things as belonging to God Himself. And it is true. Take a moment sometime to consider all of the attributes of God. He alone has all of them. We don’t have any of them hardly at all, and it is proof to me that we were broken in humanity’s fall into sin, or leap, if you ask me.

2: BECAUSE HIS JUDGMENTS ARE TRUE AND RIGHTEOUS; for He has judged the great harlot who was corrupting the earth with her immorality, and HE HAS AVENGED THE BLOOD OF HIS BOND-SERVANTS ON HER.”

Here we have the introduction of all capital letters, which, as all scholars of the Bible will tell you, is a quote from the Old Testament. In this case, it is from Psalm 19:9, which says, “The fear of the LORD is clean, enduring forever; The judgments of the LORD are true; they are righteous altogether.” The point of that Psalm is to extol the Lord for all of His power and glory, and that includes his wrath and judgment. Given the context we ended with in the previous chapter, this is relevant to the study, so I mention it, like John does here.
The phrase following the Old Testament Quote is telling us that God’s judgment is on the whore of Babylon, who was corrupting the earth with her immorality. You know, I thought for a moment of other ways to say that, and it seemed to me the most efficient way of saying it. Good on John. I need to mention that there is a nuance of the Greek here, that word for “corruption” is in the past tense, she used to corrupt continually. Commentator Karl Auberlen (1824-1864) says, “Instead of opposing and lessening, she promoted the sinful life and decay of the world by her own earthliness, allowing the salt to lose its savour…” We can see this corruption all around us. From inflated grocery prices to the constant idiots that seem to get into power, do all kinds of wrong stuff, and somehow get re-elected (and I’m pretty sure there is some cheating going on, but I have no proof), to the mental games the teachers are running on school children. At some point in history, this will end, rather unceremoniously, completely, and from what we have seen throughout the judgments, terribly for those who are experiencing them. Why?
Because He will avenge the blood of His bond-servants on that whore. This has been promised since the time of Moses, who wrote in Deuteronomy 32:43, “The fear of the LORD is clean, enduring forever; The judgments of the LORD are true; they are righteous altogether.” Citing the known and demonstrated character of God, Moses explains that Yahweh will judge the world in uprightness and will preserve His servants, though they may die for their faith in Him, as the Tribulation Saints will. His promise is continued in 2 Kings 9:7, which says, “You shall strike the house of Ahab your master, that I may avenge the blood of My servants the prophets, and the blood of all the servants of the LORD, at the hand of Jezebel.” Those who shed the blood of the servants of God will see the vengeance of God upon themselves, and it will be very horrifying. We have already seen how terrible it is in the very book we study now.

We saw the details of that destruction last time we studied together. It will be terrible for the enemies of God. His servants will be avenged, and avenged properly. Thanks be to God. Praise the Lord. Hallelujah indeed.

3-4: 2nd & 3rd Hallelujah – God’s Perfect Justice

There are differences in the Hallelujahs, but we will deal with that as we go through the text.

3: And a second time they said, “Hallelujah! HER SMOKE RISES UP FOREVER AND EVER.”

Here we see the second Hallelujah. Spoken again by the multitude of Heaven, they tell us that this judgment is PERMANENT. There is an Old Testament quote again, and it is from Isaiah 34:10, which says, “It will not be quenched night or day; Its smoke will go up forever. From generation to generation it will be desolate; None will pass through it forever and ever.” If we were to look at that whole passage for context, it is speaking of the Day of the Lord. Verse 8 of that text reads, “For the LORD has a day of vengeance, A year of recompense for the cause of Zion.” That is this day in future history. Specifically, in a little bit of time, the Lord Jesus Christ will lead His own conquering army to win the very last battle in the very last war that will ever be fought. That we will see in this very chapter, and it is one of the most moving and powerful passages I have ever read.
The greater meaning of the words used here is that this judgment is permanent. First, the city became a burning, smoking hole. Those fires symbolize not only the complete destruction of the city, representative of the entire beast system, and it is FINAL. Babylon will NEVER rise again. And the fire and burning itself is representative of what the Lord Jesus called Gehenna, representative of hellfire.

4: And the twenty-four elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshiped God who sits on the throne saying, “Amen. Hallelujah!”

The difference here is that though the 24 elders are saying a third Hallelujah for the same reasons as the second, they form a distinct group of heavenly beings. This is a key point of understanding: the 24 elders represent the church in heaven. Many commentators believe this is a special class of administrator angels that rule with God. I think that these reign with God is proof of who they are—called, justified, and glorified believers. These are the ones who are made Kings and Priests to God and the Lamb. Peter tells us that, “But you are A CHOSEN RACE, A royal PRIESTHOOD, A HOLY NATION, A PEOPLE FOR God’s OWN POSSESSION, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; for you once were NOT A PEOPLE, but now you are THE PEOPLE OF GOD; you had NOT RECEIVED MERCY, but now you have RECEIVED MERCY.” John tells us in chapter 20 and verse 6 of this book, “Blessed and holy is the one who has a part in the first resurrection; over these the second death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with Him for a thousand years.” There is only one group of people in Scripture who are named both priests and kings, and that is believers. I make this point that the difference in the heavenly citizens here is that these are redeemed humans, not angels. All creation here is in agreement that this is worthy of such jubilation over the soon-to-be-sealed victory by the God-Man, the Son of Man Himself, our Lord Jesus Christ.
These representatives of believers are joined in their praise by the four cherubim that surround the throne of God, who say, “Amen.” According to Vine, in his Expository Dictionary, it means, “‘it is and shall be so,’ and by men, ‘so let it be.'” It is also one of the names of God, and a title of Jesus. From all this, we can draw a very straight line to “He said it and He will do it.” He is the only One who can. And He has promised He will. He has made us a kingdom of priests and kings to reign with the Son, as the song says. He is worthy. He is.

Both of these hallelujahs can be seen to be rejoicing over the perfect justice of God. All of the evil that besets us in life, no matter its source, has but one origin, and it is with the snake that tempted Eve in the garden. God promised at that time that the seed of the woman would crush the head of the dragon. That is now about to happen, and only one thing must now happen before that. We will talk about that in detail next time. Here, what we see is the church echoing the perfect justice of God as He makes the Son’s enemies a footstool for His feet. Amen. So let it be.

5-6: 4th Hallelujah – The Lord God Almighty Reigns

As God closes the final chapter of the history of unredeemed, unrepentant humanity who only served evil and themselves (I know, it’s a form of the same thing), all of Creation joins the chorus of the last Hallelujah. Where am I getting that? From the text, but it will take a moment to get there. Let’s look at the text.

5: And a voice came from the throne, saying, “Give praise to our God, all you His bond-servants, you who fear Him, the small and the great.”

A voice comes from the throne. I do not think it is God, unless it is Jesus Himself leading the worship of Heaven, because the voice says to give praise to our God. The Lord Jesus would still recognize God the Father, and though it may be an angel or even a redeemed human, I like the meaningful conclusion, or denouement if you will, that this gives to the scene. Compare, if you will, the solemnity of the acts of praise of the Levitical priests in 1 Chr. 16:36, which says, “Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel, From everlasting even to everlasting. Then all the people said, ‘Amen,’ and praised the LORD.” That sounds a lot like verse 4 of our text this evening, yes? Or how about 1 Chr. 23:5, which says, “and 4,000 were gatekeepers, and 4,000 were praising the LORD with the instruments which David made for giving praise.” Is it just me, or is this reminiscent of the kind of worship in which we today meaningfully participate? It sounds like it to me. My wife and I have the extreme privilege of constructing and performing in most of the worship we have at our gathering. Beloved, this is a worship service beyond compare that is happening in the text before us. I can only think of one fitting word: Hallelujah!
I could go on! We could talk about how when the people of God gathered to worship in the Temple, 2 Chr. 5:13-14, which say, “in unison when the trumpeters and the singers were to make themselves heard with one voice to praise and to glorify the LORD, and when they lifted up their voice accompanied by trumpets and cymbals and instruments of music, and when they praised the LORD saying, “He indeed is good for His lovingkindness is everlasting,” then the house, the house of the LORD, was filled with a cloud, so that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud, for the glory of the LORD filled the house of God.”
Who is encouraged to worship here, specifically? All of His δοῦλοι, his slaves for the sake of love for Him! The NAS says “bond-servant,” and that is the meaning of the phrase. It also means that as Creator, we are His property, and it is a gladsome thing! Yes, we may have free agency or free will, but we must work within the confines that we are not our own. We forget that at times. A word to the wise is sufficient.
Then it says, “the small and the great [μικροὶ καὶ οἱ μεγάλοι].” Everything is in the plural, and because no number has been given, and the use of the word πάντες [all] has been invoked, we may assume it covers all of them (us). Some commentators view this as the difference between humans (small) and angels (great). I think there may be a similar range in both populations. In any case, it means ALL. The Servants of God, bound to Him by love for Him, and in the case of humanity, because He purchased us back from prison and set us free to serve Him alone, are herein commanded to worship Him and give praise to our God! Again, Hallelujah! But here are more elements involved in this worship. Next verse.

I love how John doesn’t always understand completely what he is seeing or hearing. He uses language like this in those cases. “…I heard something like…” The brother was an Apostle of Jesus Christ, and he was just like we are. We don’t always understand, but we follow Christ anyway. He has the words of Eternal Life, right?
Anyway, He hears the voice of a great multitude, and the word here is NOT μεγά. It is rather, πολλοῦ, the masculine form of the adjective, which means great in degree or number, not in rank or position. It is the same for the “many waters,” in which case the adjective is neuter to match the nouns in both cases, and is πολλῶν; both are a form of πολύς. I know it’s a detail, but it’s a way you can tell what the adjectives and adverbs are referring to in terms of nouns and verbs. Sorry, I’m kind of detail-oriented. Not sorry.
John hears this great multitude of sound, sounding like many waters. He hears something like the sounds of mighty thunders (plural here because the Greek text is plural). Waters are on Earth. Thunder is in the heavens. Both earth and heaven proclaim that the Lord God Almighty reigns, as we see here.
The praise in response to this call to worship from the very throne of God is, “Hallelujah! The Lord our God, the Almighty, reigns. That fills my heart with praise. It doesn’t matter what I’m going through, even though I may be going through severity and loss. Or maybe I’m going through great trials of persecution. Think of the crowd that is here: maybe some were painfully and unjustly martyred for speaking of our Lord Jesus and how He came to save anyone who will turn to Him. Names like Tyndale, Huss, Polycarp, and Justin Martyr come to mind. Eleven out of twelve of the Apostles died martyr’s deaths. Look at what they went through. God was their strength through it, and He Himself preserved them. And now, they get to stand HERE. Christ never said it would be easy to follow Him. In fact, He said quite the opposite. He never promised a good life. He promised slow, torturous, painful death in taking up or our own cross to follow Him into death to self, and perhaps even literal death. What He promised is that at the end, it would be worth it. From this point in our future history, for us, and for all believers, it is worth it. We are now at the beginning of that part of the story. What goes beyond this? I don’t know a lot, but what I do know is in subsequent chapters, and we will look at what these say. For now, I know it is worth waiting for. Why? Because this is the very first time it says that “the Lord our God, the Almighty, reigns.” And He does now, and from this point, He always will, and it will be clearly seen again, because the war that has been going on from before humanity was created will be over, and God, who created all things, will be victorious.
This is a bit of speculation, but it may be that we, as the Bride of Christ, coming up next time, will take over the job of Lucifer, who is about to have his head crushed. There is only one event that will happen before that mission arc, so to speak. It is the Marriage of the Lamb. The Son of God will marry His chosen Bride, and we will see that in our very next study. After that, the Son will ride out at the head of His armies from Heaven and crush the head of the dragon. It’s my opinion, and I’m stating this at the outset, that He will not need our help. He will win, all by himself. We’ll see that next time.

Beloved, “My heart overflows with a good theme; I address my verses to the King; My tongue is the pen of a ready writer.” (Psalm 45:1). See? I can also quote the Old Testament. We have been witness here to the opening of the victory celebration festivities at nearly the very end of the prehuman war that has been raging longer than we have been around as a species. God has won, and His enemy is set for one last desperate stand, which we will see in a couple of weeks. Our Lord Jesus will single-handedly win against myriads of myriads of foes, after solemnifying His relationship with the Bride the Father chose for Him from before time began at the foundation of the world. His Bride will love her Husband. I’ve been to weddings before. This one will be a celebration for the ages. We will get to see it all. Praise the Lord, Hallelujah! Praise the King of kings and Lord of Lords! He is arriving on the scene in person! And my heart is overflowing with THAT good theme. THAT’S what I saw in the text.

Next time, we will examine verses 7 through 10, inclusive. Bible scholars refer to this text as the Marriage of the Lamb. We will be introduced to the Bride of Christ in truth. And do remember this is poetic language, but the point is SO much more than just poetry.