And I saw the heaven opened, and behold, a white horse, and one sitting on it, [called] Faithful and True, and he judges and makes war in righteousness.
The book has been moving toward one moment: heaven opens, and the Rider comes out. Everything hangs on who He is — His name, His horse, and the way He now deals with the world.
Heaven had opened before, and this time is the last:
The heavens had already opened at His baptism by John, when He began His public ministry as God's anointed Servant. They opened again so that the dying Stephen might see the Son of Man in the glory of God. Now they were opening for the last time. The mighty Conqueror on the white horse returns to earth, no longer as the lowly Nazarene, but to claim His right, and to "strike down the nations, and rule them with a rod of iron."
This opening is for the world to see:
But now heaven is opened for far graver facts, of immeasurable weight for man, for the universe, and for the enemy. It is Christ Himself about to be displayed in His rights as King of kings and Lord of lords, and this in the face of the world.
The horse is a picture, not a prediction about cavalry:
The horse is always the symbol of power connected with the earth, and it has the colour of prosperity: it is a white horse. I trust no one would be so foolish as to imagine that, when this scene comes, it will be about literal horses. It is the symbol that passed before the prophet's eye, used to show certain realities that will take place later on... In the next chapter he does not see a white horse, but a throne, a symbol of an altogether different character. The throne is for rule, not conquest; the horse is for conquest, not a reign.
A rider on a white horse also appears in chapter 6. Commentators keep the two apart:
This horse does not come out of heaven, as the one in Revelation 19 does. Next, nothing said about the rider in Revelation 6 has to mean Christ. In Revelation 19, though, He is called Faithful and True, and He judges and makes war in righteousness. Of whom could this be said except One?
These names are not new titles. They describe what He had always been:
There was one seated on it called "Faithful." That is what He had always been, at any cost, to God, in the testimony of righteousness. He glorified God even to death, so that His name might be made good. He was obedient until it was given Him to rise up and take the power. He is also "true," so that the witness He gave of God was a perfect witness of all God was and all His thoughts.
Two comings, two very different errands:
Now notice the contrast with the purpose of His first coming. Then, "God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him" (John 3:17). Now, "in righteousness He judges and makes war." Grace marked His first appearing in this world. Righteousness, and therefore judgment, will mark the second... for the day of grace will have closed, and the era of righteous government will have begun.
His war is not one more war among many. It carries out the verdict:
He is called "Faithful and True," and everyone can see that this is what He is. In righteousness He judges and wars: His warring is itself a judgment. For this, His eyes pierce like a flame of fire; nothing escapes them.
The judgment here differs from the one in the next chapter:
The word mentions two kinds of judgment. One is the warrior judgment. The other is the judgment where the Judge sits as supreme and recognised authority. So Revelation 19 is the warrior judgment. In chapter 20 the judicial session begins. It is held when the power of the King has established His throne, and He sits there to judge.
The Rider does not come alone. Who rides with Him matters:
In the vision the prophet saw armies following Him out of heaven, clothed in fine linen. They are not angels. The text says that the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints... So they were in heaven before the way opened for Christ to come out in judgment. They had been caught up to meet Him earlier.
- Opened — Heaven opened at His baptism and for Stephen; here it opens a final time, and this time He comes out.
- Faithful — The names are earned, not awarded: He was faithful to God at any cost, even to death, before He ever rode out.
- Righteous — He came the first time to save, not to condemn. He comes now in righteousness, after the day of grace has closed.
- Warrior — Chapter 19 is judgment by conquest, a horse; chapter 20 is judgment from a seated throne. Conquest first, reign after.
- Followed — The armies behind Him wear the fine linen of saints. So they were in heaven before the heavens opened.
And his eyes are a flame of fire, and upon his head many diadems, having a name written which no one knows but himself;
A rider comes out of the opened heaven, and this verse describes Him before He acts. It gives three details: burning eyes, many crowns, and a name no one else can read.
The same picture of His eyes appears at the start of the book. One writer points to a small change here.
Revelation 1:14 and Revelation 2:18 say that Christ's eyes are "as a flame of fire," but here the "as" of comparison is left out. "His eyes are a flame of fire." That is the divine omniscience which observes everything and searches out every hidden evil. In the earlier passages, that omniscience and the piercing judgments He carries out are attributes that describe Him. In our text they are in exercise. The action is here more intense.
Translations differ at this point. The ESV keeps the comparison — "like a flame of fire" — while others drop it and read "his eyes are a flame of fire."
Those eyes reach further than deeds:
The Warrior's eyes are like a flame of fire. In burning holiness they see into the character of every work, every motive, every secret thing.
The New Testament uses two different words for "crown." One writer separates them.
The New Testament shows us two kinds of crowns. First there is the monarch's crown (Greek, diadeema). Only the Lord Himself has the right to wear it. Then there is the victor's crown (stephanos). The Lord Himself wears this one too; He earned it as a Man who depended on God. The stephanos is also given to the Christian who is faithful.
Two other figures in Revelation wear diadems, and the numbers matter.
The saints in heaven have crowns (Rev. 4:4, 10), which express their royal dignity. But on the head of Christ rest diadems, showing His absolute and supreme authority. The dragon has diadems on his seven heads (Rev. 12:3), and the beast has diadems on his ten horns (Rev. 13:1). So both the dragon and the beast lay claim to supreme authority... Seven diadems on the dragon, and ten on the beast. But the "many" on the head of the conqueror Christ show that every form and kind of government belongs to Him.
Another hand once offered Him these kingdoms. One writer tells that history.
Satan had offered Him the power and glory of the kingdoms of the world. When He refused, Satan later handed them to his servants and slaves, the beast and the antichrist. The true Heir waited until the time set by His Father. Now, after sitting a long time at the right hand of God, He comes out, crowned with the many crowns, to take His inheritance.
One writer contrasts this hidden name with the name God gave Him as a reward.
It is quite true that He has a name given to Him, as we see in Philippians 2: "God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name." But here it seems not to be that name of Lord which we all confess. It is one "that no one knows but himself." He has a glory that is His very own. It is not the glory given to Him as His reward, and it cannot be shared with others. He has it in His own right as a divine person. This name seems to express what He really is in His own nature.
The name is written down, and one writer says that is the point:
In His humiliation His divine glory was still there, in depths of His person no one could measure. Now He is revealed in glory. But there always remained what no one could search or enter into — His own Person and nature. As revealing God, in grace or power, so as to make Him known, we know Him. But His Person as Son always remains unsearchable. His name is written, so that we know it is unknowable — not unknown, but unknowable.
One writer looks at the many crowns and names the qualities they answer to.
Blessed Lord, the only perfect display of the perfection of a man, dependent on God, was seen in You... We can place the crown for each of these on Your head alone: lowliness, patience, meekness, long-suffering, self-control, goodness. Has many a poor saint in his trials displayed some measure of these? Yes; and yet You excel them all.
- Eyes — what chapter 1 described as His character is now at work, reaching every deed, every motive, every secret thing.
- Crowns — the word is diadem, the monarch's crown. Only He may wear it. The victor's wreath is a different crown, and faithful believers receive it too.
- Many — the dragon wears seven and the beast ten; "many" means every form of government belongs to Him alone.
- Waited — He refused these kingdoms from Satan's hand. He waited for His Father's time, then came out to take His inheritance.
- Unknowable — the hidden name is not a reward. It is a glory His by right, written down so we know it cannot be read.
and [he is] clothed with a garment dipped in blood; and his name is called The Word of God.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
And the armies which [are] in the heaven followed him upon white horses, clad in white, pure, fine linen.
Heaven opens and the King rides out. Verse 14 pauses on the company riding behind Him. Who are these armies? And why do they carry no weapons?
Their clothing tells us who they are. Revelation uses a different word for what angels wear.
The horse is a symbol of power, and the white horse of victorious, successful power. These armies that follow Him out of heaven, clothed in fine linen, are not angels. This very chapter says that the fine linen is the righteousness of saints. And here is the remarkable thing. Revelation 15 describes angels as "clothed in pure and white linen," but the word there is a different one. So the armies of heaven in Revelation 19 are the heavenly saints. I do not doubt that angels are in His train too, as other texts show, but this passage does not appear to speak of them.
An earlier verse describes those with Him as "called and chosen and faithful," and each of those three words points away from angels.
Angels are never "called," though they may be "chosen." Scripture calls them holy, but never "faithful." "Faithful" is a word that belongs to a man of God. It assumes he has faith and an object for that faith. "Called" does not fit an angel at all. Calling means that God brings a person out of one condition and raises him into a better one. This is never the case with an angel. Calling is the fruit of active grace on God's part toward man, and only toward him when fallen.
Earlier in the chapter the saints appear as a bride. Here the picture changes.
Here the saints in a glorified state follow the Lord out of heaven. They are not seen now as the bride. That would not have suited such a march. The King rides out to victory in the judgment of the wicked of the world, and there the saints follow Him as armies, not as bride. No doubt they include the guests as well. All the glorified saints of the Old and New Testaments take their place in His train.
The bride's linen and the armies' linen are the same, and that answers an objection.
Without it, someone might have said to the Lord, "Produce practical righteousness in your church, your wife, before you try to establish it in the world." The fine linen will be the evidence that He has produced it in the circle nearest to Him. And these same saints, who are the wife of the Lamb, will come out in this same "fine linen, white and pure" when He comes to judge and make war in righteousness.
They ride out with Him, but the text gives them nothing to fight with.
Scripture does not present them as executors of judgment, as Christ is. God has given all judgment to Him — not necessarily to us. So no sword comes out of our mouth. Scripture does not describe the saints or the heavenly hosts as dressed the way the Lord is. It says only that the glorified follow the Lord in victorious power, and nothing more. What makes this more striking is that the rod of iron is promised to us — not the sword.
Their white clothing still speaks, even though their hands are empty.
The text does not give these armies any weapons as they ride with the Lord of glory. But their white clothing reminds the world of the testimony they gave to the truth of God. That leaves the world no excuse when judgment falls.
A company cannot follow Him out of heaven unless it is there first.
The elders represent the saints as leaders of the royal priesthood. Revelation 4 to 19 shows them on high. There they first appear as the bride at the marriage of the Lamb. Then they go with Him as armies when He comes out from heaven to judge and make war in righteousness. So Scripture rules out the idea that we will be on earth, watching Him appear as the glorious Son of Man who comes to judge the living. On the contrary, we will appear together with Him when He appears in glory.
Riding in that train is a high honour, yet one writer refuses to make it the highest.
The saints come with Him when He comes to execute judgment. They are associated with Him in the glory He brings, and in something much better — the Father's house. While He is on the Father's throne, the church has no throne, but suffers with Him. When He takes His own throne, we shall be with Him, and share His glory when He appears. It is wonderful to be associated with Him in His glory, but better to be associated with Himself.
- Called — the riders are people, not angels. God's call lifts a person out of one condition into a better one, and no angel needs that.
- Clothed — their fine linen is the bride's linen. Christ produces practical righteousness in the circle nearest to Him before He establishes it in the world.
- Carried up — they follow Him out of heaven, so they were there first. We will not watch His appearing from earth; we appear with Him.
- Constrained — the text names no weapon in their hands. The rod of iron is promised to us; the sword stays with the Rider.
- Companions — sharing His glory that day is wonderful. Sharing Himself in the Father's house is better.
And out of his mouth goes a sharp [two-edged] sword, that with it he might smite the nations; and he shall shepherd them with an iron rod; and he treads the wine-press of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty.
This verse tells us what Christ does when He comes in judgment. Three pictures fill it — a sword, a rod, a winepress — showing how He strikes, how He rules, and how far His anger goes.
The verse is not repeating itself. Each image carries a different weight:
There are three symbols of judgment in verse 15 of our chapter. (1) A sharp sword for immediate, judicial punishment, probably death. (2) A rod of iron for righteous, inflexible government. (3) The winepress of wrath for the guiltiest of all. This last one is the expression of "the most extreme wrath." The Almighty God is roused.
Notice who acts. The saints ride with Him, yet the judgment is His alone:
Saints may accompany the Lord but it is He, Himself, who will execute judgment. It is His mouth that will speak the word that, like a sharp sword will destroy the wicked. It is His hand that will wield the rod of iron... And His feet will tread "the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty" in unsparing judgment.
The weapon comes out of His mouth, not His hand. He strikes by speech alone.
First, there is the word of power set forth by the sharp sword going out of His mouth. If any must be destroyed, it is enough for the Lord Jesus Christ to speak. "He spoke, and it came to be." The judgment was executed.
And it is not a new word. He will judge by the same message He once spoke in grace:
The Lord's testimony was of grace, expressive of all that God was in grace to sinners. And when He comes again, He will come judging by it. Having given the mind of God, He returns to heaven; and then He returns as King to judge by the word which He had spoken.
The word behind "rule" means to shepherd. The iron rod is hard, but He holds it for the sake of the flock:
"And he will rule them with a rod of iron" — "shepherd" them, to use an expression that is hardly English. This is, of course, the fulfilment of the prophecy of the second psalm... It is the shepherd's rod — this rod of iron, used on behalf of the flock.
Christ promised this same rod earlier to believers who hold out. That tells us who rides behind Him:
To the church at Thyatira, Christ had said: "The one who conquers and who keeps my works until the end, to him I will give authority over the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron"... So those who overcome — real believers, as distinct from people who only claim to believe — are joined here with Christ Himself in the judgment of the nations foretold in the second psalm. The armies of heaven... are no other than these overcomers.
A harvest sorts the good from the bad. A winepress sorts nothing — it crushes. And it falls hardest on religious evil:
This is not the picture of the harvest, where the good is separated from the bad. It is the vintage — unsparing vengeance on evil, on religious evil that has grown into an open falling away from God... Again, the personal pronoun marks off the judgment as the work of the Lord alone. "I have trodden the winepress alone, and from the peoples no one was with me" (Isaiah 63:3).
Some have read the treading of the winepress as a picture of the cross. One writer rejects that, and gives a simple reason:
Would you believe that some commentators have applied this to the cross, and to the Lord's own sufferings there? Yet they have. And this in spite of the iron rod, which is linked here with the treading of the winepress, and which He promises to the overcomer in Thyatira.
The verse is terrifying, but it is not an ending. It clears the ground for a kingdom.
These few short sentences hold it all: the coming of Christ in judgment, the carrying out of God's vengeance, the setting up of His throne, the submission of all kings and all nations to His rule, and His supreme exaltation in the earth. It is the complete fulfilment of the second Psalm... Because of what man is, it is through judgment that the Lord will establish His kingdom and sovereignty over the whole earth.
- Word — the sword comes out of His mouth; He has only to speak, and it is done.
- Warning — the words He spoke in grace are the very words that will judge those who refused them.
- Rod — "rule" is a shepherd's word; the iron rod is unbending government held on behalf of the flock.
- Shared — Christ pledged that same rod to the overcomers at Thyatira, so the armies riding with Him are the saints.
- Winepress — not a harvest that sorts but a vintage that crushes. He treads it alone, and it opens the way to His kingdom over all the earth.
And he has upon his garment, and upon his thigh, a name written, King of kings, and Lord of lords.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.