Notes on the Apocalypse

by David Steele

15. And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations, and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the wine-press of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.

16. And he hath on his vesture, and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.

Vs. 11-16.—"Heaven opened" once more, allows the apostle to look upon Messiah the Prince going forth to fresh conquests. As he began, (ch. vi. 2,) so he continues, "in righteousness to judge and make war;" not as the ambitious tyrants who "destroy the earth," (ch. xi. 18.) He has here three names,—"Faithful and True, The Word of God, king of kings and Lord of lords; yet he has a "name written which no man knoweth but he himself."—His infinite essence and eternal generation are incomprehensible by angels and men.—He is, however, known by his mediatorial titles,—"faithful and true" to all covenant engagements; as the prophet of the church, he "declares the Father," making known the "word of God;" and his lordship is at once a warning to his enemies and security to his friends.—"On his head were many crowns," emblematical of his numerous victories over the princes of the earth, especially the "ten kings," (ch. xvii. 14.)—"His eyes as a flame of fire," going though the whole earth "in every place," (Prov. xv. 3;) render it impossible for his enemies to elude discovery. (Jer. xxiii. 24.)—His "vesture dipped in blood," refers to his victories over all his malicious and impenitent foes. (Is. lxiii. 1-3; Rev. xiv. 20.)—His "armies on white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean," are uniformed like their leader, (ch. xii. 7;) for "they that are with him are called, and chosen, and faithful," (ch. xvii. 14.)—The weapon with which he "smites the nations" that oppose him, is the "sharp sword," an emblem of his ruinous and avenging justice; for he "tradeth the wine-press of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God."—"On his thigh," where he wears his sword, there is a legible inscription, indicating his universal and rightful authority.

17. And I saw an angel standing in the sun; and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the fowls that fly in the midst of heaven, Come and gather yourselves together unto the supper of the great God;

18. That ye may eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of captains, and the flesh of mighty men, and the flesh of horses and of them that sit on them, and the flesh of all men, both free and bond, both small and great.

19. And I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against him that sat on the horse, and against his army.

20. And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire, burning with brimstone.

21. And the remnant were slain with the sword of him that sat upon the horse, which sword proceeded out of his mouth: and all the fowls were filled with their flesh.

Vs. 17-21.—The position of the "angel standing in the sun," and "crying with a loud voice;" represents, that Messiah's judgments would be visible to all the world; and the extent of the invitation to the "fowls," indicates the vast slaughter of his enemies. Babylon being "utterly burned with fire," (ch. xvii. 16, xviii. 8,) as a suitable punishment of an apostate church; the "flesh of kings, of captains, of mighty men," etc., as a sacrifice to divine justice, is given as a feast to the fowls of heaven. The allusion here is to the destruction of "Gog and Magog." (Ezek. xxxix. 17-20.) These enemies of the saints are to appear and be overthrown before the millennium; and although John borrows the names of these enemies, (ch. xx. 8,) they are not the same as those of Ezekiel; the one appearing before, the other after the thousand years. We have often found the enemies of the church called in the Apocalypse by the names of persecutors under the Old Testament;—Babylon, Egypt, etc.—We may consider the "fowls," the birds of prey, as symbolizing the kings who retaliate upon Babylon; (as in ch. xvii. 16;) or rather, as the Lord's people reclaiming their own, of which they had been unjustly and long deprived,—"spoiling the Egyptians." (Exod. xii. 36.)

Some suppose that the confederacy of the "kings of the earth" with the beast, (v. 19,) is a distinct attack from that mentioned in chapter seventeenth; (v. 14;) but perhaps it is safer to consider it as the same, only more distinctly and fully exhibited here. Indeed it seems, from the agency of the "false prophet," to be the same event as that under the sixth vial, (ch. xvi. 14;) preparing to the battle of Armageddon. The Lord Jesus as "captain of the Lord's hosts," and the army of heaven following him, all of them on white horses, appear to be on the one side; and the beast with the kings of the earth, instigated by the false prophet, on the other. The rank and file like their leaders are described as having "received the mark of the beast and worshiped his image." But the beast of the earth, (ch. iii. 11,) causes all ranks to receive the mark, and worship the image of the beast, (vs. 15, 16) The beast of the earth, the woman, and the false prophet, all mean the same thing; and that is, an apostate church in alliance with tyrannical civil powers, (ch. xvii. 3.) Now, if the great city Babylon, a symbol which comprises the whole antichristian confederacy, has been utterly destroyed, as appears in the eighteenth chapter, whence come these enemies bearing the same characters? The only solution of this apparent difficulty is by supposing as we have done, that this is a re-exhibition of what has been more obscurely symbolized, (ch. xiv. 20; xvi. 17; xvii. 16; xviii. 2, 8, 20,) in order more distinctly to point out the end of two principal leaders,—the "beast and the false prophet," the empire and church of Rome. "These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone."—"The remnant were slain." When the leaders were discomfited, the ranks were soon broken, and the whole army melted away. They were slain with Messiah's sword, the emblem of his justice, (ch. i. 16.)