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.