Hallelujah! Revelation 19 Series

Revelation 19:1 After this I heard what sounded like the roar of a great multitude in heaven shouting: (Hallelujah! Salvation and glory and power belong to our God)

THE BRIDE VS THE HARLOT

Why are they saying “Hallelujah!”?

1. Because the Harlot is judged.

2. Because we are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb (and we are the Bride ☺)

Why would the host of heaven rejoice over such massive destruction of a city, a system and a multitude of people?

This is related, I think, to the Revelation 5, where no one was found worthy to open the scrolls-to release the judgment of God and to hand over ownership of the earth back to God. John weeps convulsively because no one was found worthy. In Chapter 19, we have the flip-side of that. The entire Host of Heave rejoices because God’s wrath has been poured out, and “the kingdom of this world is become the Kingdom of our LORD and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever”.

Hallelujah!

All of the rebellion, the filth, the hurt, destruction, war, famine, pestilence, suffering, evil and tyranny of this world have now been destroyed. It has come to an end. It is over. Finally.

Hallelujah!

There will be no more suffering or sin or tyranny, or crying or pain anymore forever.

Hallelujah!

The Meaning of the world

Halle-means Praise

Lu- means you (really ye, or y’all)

Ja- is the shortened name for God, Jaweh

Praise You the LORD

We are exhorted and exhorting to praise God because the end of evil on earth is come & the beginning of the righteous reign of God has begun

And the marriage supper of the Bride and the Groom is announced

And This Bride is a sharp distinction from the Harlot of Revelation 17 & 18

In Contrast is the Bride of Christ, who has gone through a process of preparation for the wedding.

I like the way Jerry Shirley put it:

We need to prepare for this marriage, and go thru 4 beauty treatments before the big day!

1. Justification: inner beauty [at salvation]

2. Sanctification by:

• Scriptures = “washing of water by the Word”

• Supplication = prayers of repentance

• Suffering = we don’t like this one as much, but He uses it to knock off the rough edges sometimes / conform us to image of Christ / it is on the fires of suffering that the dross is removed!

Examples:

Moses on backside of desert / David running for his life from king Saul like an animal / Peter being sifted like wheat / Paul being beaten, stoned, imprisoned…anyone used greatly of God has been sanctified by God, partly thru suffering.

3rd treatment: *glorification—a new body! [at rapture]

4th: Then there’s the actual *consummation at the judgment seat of Christ / our one on one interview w/ Jesus Christ, where we will be judged / rewarded, much will be burnt up by fire!

[on the positive side: all our faults and failures will also go up in smoke! The final beauty treatment is over, and we will be presented to the bridegroom w/out spot or blemish!]

THE BRIDE AND EARTHLY MARRIAGE

There is another side to this-the Wedding Feast of the Bride & the Lamb.

I think the point of this passage is not the Marriage-at this point it is only an invitation. I think the point is to draw a contrast between the Bride of Heaven (that’s us) and the Harlot of Revelation 18. Babylon, the Harlot, was the haunt of every evil creature and demon. She was a prostitute, adulterous-which means she was married, yet was still a prostitute. The Bride is not like that.

At this point it may be helpful to draw out the image a bit more.

24 Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.

25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her 26 to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, 27 and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. . . . — 30 for we are members of his body. . . . 32 This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church. Ephesians 5:24-32

Marriage is an institution which most people in India, I think, still understand. But it is a city under fire. Even setting aside that the definition of marriage is changing all over the world; we allow people to marry who have never married before, nor is it only a matter of many marriages ending before life ends. The issue is not just divorce rates, but that many more people than any other time since records have been kept are waiting to marry, and many never marry, but only cohabitate-or live together.