Rejoice: The Reign and Wedding of the LORD | Revelation 19:6 Meditation

Sometimes it takes people over a year to prepare for their wedding day. From the venue to the guest list to the colors to the food to the flowers to the music… there are so many preparations to be made.

If we prepare so much for weddings in this age, how much more should we prepare for the Great Wedding Banquet of Christ and His Bride (the Church) after the LORD consummates His everlasting, end-time reign?

Let us prepare ourselves as God prepares us for our Big Day.

1. Text
2. C4C Translation
3. Commentary
4. Memorization

Text

6 καὶ ἤκουσα ὡς φωνὴν ὄχλου πολλοῦ καὶ ὡς φωνὴν ὑδάτων πολλῶν καὶ ὡς φωνὴν βροντῶν ἰσχυρῶν λεγόντων,
Ἁλληλουϊά,
ὅτι ἐβασίλευσεν κύριος
ὁ θεὸς [ἡμῶν]2 ὁ παντοκράτωρ.¹

6 Then 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. [NIV]²

Translation

And I heard a sound like a great crowd and a sound like great waters and a sound like mighty thunderclaps saying: “Hallelujah, the Lord God, the Almighty, has begun to reign.”

Sounds, Great

The word I translate sound (φωνή | phōnē) appears three times in this verse; I do not think this is a coincidence. So, while other translations opt for “voice” of a great multitude, (Rev 19:6, NIV; Rev 19:6, NRSV; Rev 19:6, HCSB; Rev 19:6, NASB) and for the “roar” of waters (Rev 19:6, NIV; Rev 19:6, ESV), I preferred to make this repetition more apparent.

For similar reasoning, my translation also reflects the repetition of the adjective I translate great (πολύς | polys).

Hallelujah

Apparently, this passage is the inspiration for Handel’s famous Hallelujah Chorus in his “Messiah.”³

Hallelujah is a transliterated Hebrew loanword ( הַלְלוּ־יָהּ) that literally means, “praise Yahweh (YHWH)”.⁴ It combines the (second-person, plural, masculine imperative form of) verb הָלַל (hālal), which is הַלְלוּ (hallelu) and יָהּ (yāh), which is short for Yahweh (YHWH)⁵ — the name of the LORD (this is why LORD is capitalized in English translations cf. Ex 34:5-6, HCSB, Ex 34:5-6, NIV).

Hallelujah appears over 20x in the Old Testament, but only in the Psalms (e.g., Ps 104:35, HCSB cf. Ps 104:35, NIV). The term appears only four times in the New Testament — in the fourfold Hallelujah of Revelation (Rev 19:1, 3, 4, 6).⁶

Almighty

Except for once in 2 Corinthians (2 Cor 6:18), the word translated Almighty (παντοκράτωρ | pantokratōr) is used in the New Testament only in Revelation (Rev 1:8; 4:8; 11:17; 15:3; 16:7, 14; 19:6, 15; 21:22). It is used much more frequently in the (LXX — Greek translation of the) OT and other Jewish writings.⁷

Roman Emperor Domitian (reigned AD 81 -96)⁸ gave himself the title, “Our Lord and God.”⁹ In contrast, John emphasizes that it is the LORD who is the Almighty. It is He who “holds all things in his control.”¹⁰

Saying (Wrongly?)

In the Greek, the participle translated saying does not seem to plausibly agree in gender/number with any previous noun. This means that John may be breaking grammatical rules for emphasis and to indicate that this passage alludes to Old Testament passages which also begin with say (e.g., 1 Ch 16:31, Ps 96:10; Is 52:7; Ex 15:1 cf. Ex 15:18) as he does when introducing other Old Testament allusions (cf. Rev 1:10b–11; 4:1; 10:4, 8; and 14:7.)¹¹

Begun to Reign

The LORD reigns throughout all times. However, it seems best to take the verb (βασιλεύω | basileuō) as an inceptive or ingressive aorist, which refers to the beginning (i.e., inception) of a certain state or condition.¹² In this case, God has established His reign in a special, eschatological (end-time) sense “when the powers of evil are destroyed and the kingdom of God becomes a visible reality.”¹³ Opting for “begun to reign”¹⁴ reproduces the inceptive aorist of the same verb reign in Rev 11:17:¹⁵

We give thanks to you, Lord God Almighty,
the One who is and who was,
because you have taken your great power
and have begun to reign.(NIV)¹⁶

Commentary

For more context on the book of Revelation, please see the earlier post on the frequently misinterpreted passage: Revelation 3:20

Join in Exultation!

After the final destruction of Babylon (Rev 18:21-24), John sees heaven rejoicing in exultation (Rev 19:1-5).¹⁷ Then, as in Rev 18:20, the those on earth join the heavenly rejoicing (Rev 19:6f.). The LORD’s “eschatological victory” is cause for celebration,¹⁸ and the church on earth is called to join in worship (Rev 19:5-7).¹⁹

Sound of Water

The sound of waters can allude to the four cherubim in Eze 1:24, but probably moreso to Ezek 43:2 (NIV): and I saw the glory of the God of Israel coming from the east. His voice was like the roar of rushing waters, and the land was radiant with his glory.²⁰

The LORD Reigns

As indicated above, “the LORD reigns” recalls several Old Testament passages (Ex 15:18; Is 52:7; 1 Ch 16:31 cf. Ps 97:1; Is 24:23; Mic 4:7).²¹

The End-Time Wedding (Banquet)

Rev 19:7-9 speaks of the “wedding of the Lamb.” As discussed in an earlier lesson on Jesus’ first sign: turning water into wine at a wedding, “the ‘wedding supper’ was a frequent figure for the coming messianic era.”²²

Jesus employs banquet  imagery when he tells His disciples that they would eat and drink with Him at His table in His kingdom (Lk 22:30). Moreover, Christ proclaims that, one day, people from around the world will join in the feast with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven (Mt 8:11).²³ In addition, in His parables, Jesus describes the kingdom of God with wedding imagery (Mt 22:1f., Mt 25:1f.).

Also, God’s people are often metaphorically depicted as a bride (Hos 2:19f.; Is 54:4-8; Is 62:5; Eph 5:25, etc.) and Jesus is described often described as the bridegroom (Eph 5:25; Mk 2:19-20; Jn 3:29).

Now the prophesied banquet in which the LORD would destroy death and the shame of His people forever is coming to fruition (Is 25:6, 8)²⁴

This is a great reason to rejoice and be glad (cf. 1 Ch 16:31; Ps. 31:7; 32:11; 70:4; 118:24; also Is 25:9)²⁵ and to give God glory (Rev 19:7).

Fine Linen: Righteous Acts

Finally, we read that bright and clean fine linen was given to the Lamb’s bride — and that the linen stands for the righteous acts of God’s holy people (Rev 19:8).

This recalls Is 61:10 in which the Servant of the LORD declares that the LORD:

has clothed me with garments of salvation
and arrayed me in a robe of his righteousness,
as a bridegroom adorns his head like a priest,
and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.(NIV cf. Ezek 16:7-14)²⁶

As we likely see here, and as I have argued before, faith and deeds are two sides of the same coin. True, saving faith necessarily produces godly works of mercy and obedience. The righteous acts here “follow salvation as the necessary proof that regeneration has occurred.”²⁷ We are not saved by godly works; godly works are a by-product of being saved (cf. Eph 2:8-10).

Those who remain faithful (Rev 2:10, 13; 13:10; 14:12; 17:14), continue to testify for Christ (Rev 1:9; 6:9; 12:11, 17; 20:4), persevere through hardship and persecution (Rev 1:9; 2:2–3, 19; 3:10; 13:10; 14:12), and keep God’s commands (Rev 12:17; 14:12), are said to have made themselves ready.²⁸

And yet they are also given fine linen to wear. This linen likely alludes to the that of the high priest who was to put on sacred, fine linen before entering the Most Holy Place to make a sacrifice for the people of Israel on the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur).²⁹

As Osborne points out:

Here we have the two sides of the Christian life described in Phil. 2:12–13. The believers “work out their own salvation” (= “prepared herself”) as God “works in them” (= God “has given her clothes to wear”).³⁰

Righteousness is bestowed (cf. Rom 3:21f.) and subsequently demonstrated. Let us prepare our righteous wedding garments

Memorization Tutorial (Video)

Memorize Revelation 19:6 after watching a brief tutorial based on the Memorize Any Bible Verse In Less Than Five Minutes Method below: