Hello everyone and welcome back to Deeper Waters. I realize it’s late tonight but I had company over so some of you no doubt aren’t reading this until the morning. That’s fine. We are continuing our Trinitarian Commentary and tonight, we’re going to be in Revelation 19. It’s hard to believe that we’re nearing the end of the Bible. First I ask for the usual prayer requests. I ask that you pray for my character that I will grow to be more Christlike and especially get a lot of my thinking under control. I also ask for prayers for my financial situation. I finally ask for prayers in a third related are in my life. Now that I’ve mentioned my requests, it’s time to honor the request of you, the reader, and get to the blog. We will look at Revelation 19:6-9.
6Then I heard what sounded like a great multitude, like the roar of rushing waters and like loud peals of thunder, shouting:
“Hallelujah!
For our Lord God Almighty reigns.
7Let us rejoice and be glad
and give him glory!
For the wedding of the Lamb has come,
and his bride has made herself ready.
8Fine linen, bright and clean,
was given her to wear.” (Fine linen stands for the righteous acts of the saints.)9Then the angel said to me, “Write: ‘Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb!’ ” And he added, “These are the true words of God.”
Weddings are always festive times and in the Jewish world, a wedding was quite the celebration. Remember we read about the wedding at Cana in John 2 and that was certainly a celebration where there would be wine to last everyone for a week. Now in this book as we near the end, we hear about the wedding of the Lamb.
Once again, the imagery is striking. We do not expect to hear about a Lamb getting married, but we are. Now the reason we are using this text tonight is not because it speaks of the deity of Christ, but this is an important forerunner to an upcoming text.
Unlike weddings in America, in this one, we see the bride first. She is given fine white clothing to wear. We are also told that this white represents the righteous acts of the saints. In order to be a fitting bride for the groom, the Lamb, she must be pure and holy.
The imagery however of a wedding supper can indicate the high status of the Lamb as such a feast was thought to take place in the end, such as is seen in Matthew 8 where all will be gathered to a great feast but those who are not righteous would be cast out. This is referring to a major eschatological event.
I ask that my readers for now simply keep this passage in the back of their minds. I can assure them I do want to give a contrast to another passage that is just ahead, but for now, we must leave it as it is. When we continue our study, we will see the relevance.
That study will continue tomorrow.
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