Epaggelia

“A Great Voice of a Great Multitude” v1-2, Christ’s church, martyrs, prophets and priests, that is all God’s children give glory in God’s victory. This is reminiscent of the infinite crowd from Rev. 7:4-12. God has avenged his children of the terrible whore, without his servants needing to take vengeance into their own hands, since we will never be defeated by our enemy’s spite. Our Omnipotent God is capable of rendering vengeance since he is motivated by justice and love. Our job is to pray for the government & honor the Emperor, 1st Peter 2:17.

“Her smoke Goes Up Forever” v3-4, Jude speaks of Sodom suffering eternal fire, Jude v7. He is not referring to a literal flame burning through the centuries, rather he is helping us understand how permanent his judgment is and how the punishment he gives is eternal for our enemies. Isaiah 34:8-ff, holds a similar picture of Edom, with eternal smoke & brimstone, but in the same passage he describes nettles and thorns growing there along with animals living amongst them. Literally, both can’t be true, so figuratively what is meant? Utter defeat is rendered to God’s enemies, a defeat which the world will never fully recover from. From this event and into the future, governments built upon Ninevah (Iraq), Tyre & Edom (Jordan), Babylon (Iran), and yes Rome will never experience God’s blessings like they had them historically. “The Almighty Reigns” Pantokrator (Gk) shows an awe-inspiring power implying a relentless grip. His omnipotent hold was used against the iron army of Rome stomping across the civilized world and within a couple of centuries, God in Jesus Christ stopped them in their tracks.

“The Marriage of The Lamb” v7-10, This vision is directly from the happiness of the Lamb and the rejoicing of His saints which needs expressing! In Paul’s mind they were already married, and by God’s consent is shown with rejoicing over a victory that is bound up in their unity, of which nothing can separate them, Romans 7:1ff & Ephesians 5:22-33. “The Righteous Acts of the Saints” v8, The fine linen is representing purity of lifestyle. Our righteous acts are not scriptural worship in communion, or our doctrinal astuteness in our preaching, nor is it our bold evangelism producing baptisms. No, our righteous deeds, are the pure, holy and blameless lifestyles we act out in our daily lives from Monday to Saturday, giving service to the needy, lost widows & orphans of the world. This is pure religion, James 1:27. It is important to discern between worship & service in the Revelation, because God clearly does with the different symbols. Our prayers and praise are symbolized as harps & incense, whereas, our deeds are symbolized as fine linen. New Testament Christians were publicly known for their pure lifestyles. The next lesson to learn is our humility which the angel teaches John in v10, where John gets corrected from worshiping him. If an angel can state his station/position as just another servant, how much more should we be aware of our humble estate before God? See Matthew 18:3-4. “The Testimony of Jesus is the Spirit of Prophecy” God’s children are married to the Lamb, the unity which brings the privilege of sharing our faith in Christ, when we do that, we are acting as prophets of the future coming judgment the world will see and our own future deliverance and glory in God’s eyes, you’re acting like a prophet, 1st Corinthians 12:1-3.

“Faithful & True…The Word of God” v11-13, Jesus, the rider of the white horse in the first seal (Rev. 6:1) is the rider of this white horse which is already victorious and supported by armies (Christian saints). They actually don’t participate in the war against the beast and false-prophet, with a leader like Jesus, who needs to do anything? He IS the King of kings and Lord of lords. Notice the persecuting Empire (Beast) and Roman Emperor worship/religion (False Prophet) are taken captive and thrown into the “lake”, but not slain, as were all their followers,

“Ruling with a Rod of Iron, Stomping the Winepress” v15-21, The word “Ruling” in the Greek language actually means ‘shepherding’, and the “Rod”, is actually akin to a royal ‘scepter’, so we have this picture of a Royal Shepherd as the victorious Lamb, venting his anger in war as He stomps to victory! v21. This alludes to the very long time Rome’s influence continued in the face of the inevitable defeat God had worked out. The worldly people (birds) filling up on the flesh of the client-kings, generals, centurions & senators, succumbing to Rome’s power imploding. They are then slain! The war’s victory is assumed by the angel which calls the birds to eat on their corpses! See Psalm 94:1 & Romans 12:19