Revelation 19:11–21

19:11 The end has arrived with the judgment of Babylon and the marriage of the Lamb, but John recapitulates and gives us another picture of the final judgment. Heaven opens to signal a revelation from God (cf. Ezek. 1:1; Acts 10:11; Rev. 4:1). John sees a white horse (cf. Rev. 6:2), and the one sitting upon it, Jesus Christ, is identified as the one who is faithful and true (cf. 1:5; 3:7). The white horse points to Jesus’ rule and majesty as a great warrior. He is faithful to God and his promises, and believers can count on him to vindicate them and vindicate the truth. Jesus is coming on his horse for war. Many wars are unjust: a ruler rampages and ravages for selfish gain. But Jesus judges and makes war righteously (cf. Pss. 9:8; 96:13; 98:9), fulfilling the vision of the Messiah in Psalm 72 and Isaiah 11 (Ps. 72:2; Isa. 11:4). Righteous judgment includes both punishment and salvation; Jesus judges and wages war for righteous and good purposes, so that evil is removed from the earth and the shalom promised for creation is established.

19:12 How do we know Jesus judges and wages war righteously? Because his eyes are like a flame of fire (cf. 1:14; 2:18)—he sees beneath the surface, and hence his judgment is not superficial or mistaken. As Isaiah 11:3 says about the branch from David, “He shall not judge by what his eyes see, or decide disputes by what his ears hear.” His judgment accords with the truth, with the way things really are. He is also able to judge and triumph because of his kingly rule and strength; the “many diadems” on his head signify sovereign rule and authority. He not only sees what is right; he has the strength to enforce the right as sovereign ruler. The rider on the white horse is sovereign, for the name inscribed on him is known only by himself (cf. Prov. 30:4). In the ancient world, to know another person’s name was to exercise control over that person. Thus, the one who wrestled with Jacob did not disclose his name to Jacob (Gen. 32:29). Similarly, the angel of the Lord did not tell Samson’s parents his name, saying only that it was wonderful (Judg. 13:18). No one is able to control or manipulate the one on the white horse. Yet it is no contradiction that Jesus is also identified as having the names “King of kings and Lord of lords” (Rev. 19:16) and “The Word of God” (v. 13), for there is a sense in which we know Jesus and a sense in which he is hidden from us. He is both immanent and transcendent, near to us and hidden from us. We truly know God through Jesus Christ, but we do not know him exhaustively or fully.

19:13 The robe dipped in blood might suggest to some the atoning blood of Christ, but the context here is the second coming of Christ to judge the wicked. This fits with the OT background of Yahweh’s garments spattered with blood in the judgment of Edom: “Why is your apparel red, and your garments like his who treads in the winepress? ‘I have trodden the winepress alone, and from the peoples no one was with me; I trod them in my anger and trampled them in my wrath; their lifeblood spattered on my garments, and stained all my apparel’” (Isa. 63:2–3). The day is characterized as the “day of vengeance” for Edom but the “year of redemption” for Israel (Isa. 63:4). Edom in the OT often stands for all the kingdoms of the world (cf. Isaiah 34), and John’s appropriation of that theme is quite fitting. The judgment of the wicked, which stains Christ’s garment with blood, constitutes vengeance for the wicked, but at the same time signals redemption and deliverance for the people of God. Jesus is coming as the divine warrior to destroy his enemies and deliver his people (cf. Exodus 15; Deuteronomy 33; Judges 5; Habakkuk 3).

Jesus is also called “The Word of God,” which echoes John 1:1 while adding the words “of God.” God’s word is effective and powerful, unleashing his judgment upon the world (cf. Wisd. Sol. 18:15–16). We read in Psalm 33:6, “By the word of the LORD the heavens were made.” Isaiah says that God’s word does not “return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it” (Isa. 55:11). Jesus himself is God’s word, God’s message, to the world, expressing his message of both judgment and salvation.

19:14 The rider of the white horse is not alone but is accompanied by the armies of heaven wearing beautiful linen, white and pure, signifying righteousness and holiness (cf. 3:4; 7:9; 19:8). The army could consist of believers (17:14) or angels (Ps. 68:17; Dan. 7:10; Zech. 14:5; Matt. 16:27; Mark 8:38; Luke 9:26); perhaps both are included. They also ride white horses, designating goodness and purity. Although the picture of the battle here need not be literal, the point is clear: the forces of good are arrayed against the forces of evil.

19:15 The three descriptions found in this verse provide further evidence that Jesus is coming for judgment. First, from his mouth comes a sharp sword to strike the nations. The sharp sword stands for the word issuing from his mouth, showing the inherent power and effectiveness of Jesus’ words (cf. 1:16; 2:12). Isaiah 11:4 speaks similarly of the branch of David (cf. also Isa. 49:2): “He shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked.” We read in 2 Thessalonians 2:8 that Jesus will slay the man of lawlessness “with the breath of his mouth.” Second, Jesus rules over the nations with an iron rod (cf. Rev. 2:27; 12:5). Such rule fulfills the prophecy of Psalm 2, where God promises that the anointed Son of David, installed as king, will break his opponents with a rod of iron (Ps. 2:9; cf. Psalms of Solomon 17:23–24). Third, Jesus treads the winepress of God’s wrath (cf. Rev. 14:20). Again, the image is rooted in the OT, where God treads out the winepress in his wrath (cf. Isa. 63:2–3; Lam. 1:15; Joel 3:13). All three images indicate the last judgment is at hand.

19:16 The one who judges has a name inscribed on his robe and thigh: “King of kings and Lord of lords” (cf. comment on 17:14). Jesus has the authority and power to judge because he is the sovereign Lord over every other king and ruler. No one can ultimately frustrate his will or purposes. Those who oppose him will experience his wrath.

19:17 John then sees an angel standing in the sun, sheathed with its glory and standing over the earth. In a loud voice the angel summons birds to gather for a great supper prepared for them by God. The vision draws on the judgment of Gog and Magog in Ezekiel 38–39, in which birds are invited to gather for a sacrificial feast and eat the flesh and drink the blood of Israel’s enemies:

Speak to the birds of every sort and to all beasts of the field: “Assemble and come, gather from all around to the sacrificial feast that I am preparing for you, a great sacrificial feast on the mountains of Israel, and you shall eat flesh and drink blood. You shall eat the flesh of the mighty, and drink the blood of the princes of the earth—of rams, of lambs, and of he-goats, of bulls, all of them fat beasts of Bashan. And you shall eat fat till you are filled, and drink blood till you are drunk, at the sacrificial feast that I am preparing for you.” (Ezek. 39:17–19; cf. also Ezek. 39:4; Isa. 34:6; Jer. 46:10)

In Ezekiel the judgment is visited upon the enemies of Israel as the last judgment in history, paralleled closely by the angel’s summons here in Revelation 19.

19:18 As we see in Ezekiel 39, the birds are invited to gorge themselves on the flesh of human beings and horses (Ezek. 39:18, 20): kings, captains, mighty men, horses and their riders, and the remainder of mankind (cf. Rev. 6:15). The picture of human flesh being consumed by birds is a grisly way of depicting the destruction of those who reject Jesus Christ. In the ancient world, to remain unburied was a great dishonor, and such is the fate of those who reject Jesus Christ.

19:19 John looks in his vision and sees the enemies of Christ gathered to wage war against him. The beast, the kings aligned with him (cf. Rev. 17:12–14), and their armies are poised to fight the one riding on the white horse and his armies. Such a battle fulfills the words of Zechariah 14:2, “I will gather all the nations against Jerusalem to battle.” The rage against the Lord and his Christ spoken of in Psalm 2:2 comes to a climax here, and the last battle (polemos) noted in Revelation 16:14 is about to occur. What animates the beast and his kings is a hatred of the Christ.

19:20 The armies are facing one another and poised to fight, but the battle turns out to be ridiculously easy. Jesus seizes the beast and false prophet and casts them alive (cf. Num. 16:33) into the lake of fire and sulfur (cf. Dan. 7:11). As 2 Thessalonians 2:8 says, the Lord “will kill [the man of lawlessness] with the breath of his mouth and bring [him] to nothing by the appearance of his coming.” The power and the glory of the beast and the false prophet, though they seem remarkable, are no match for Jesus Christ.

The false prophet (cf. Rev. 16:13; 20:10) is the same figure as the second beast in 13:11–18, but the designation “false prophet” emphasizes his deluding power via signs and wonders and errant prophecies. In fact, John pauses here to note his signs and how they deceived those who received the mark of the beast and worshiped his image (cf. 13:13–15). This suggests that those led astray desired to be misled.

John encourages his audience to persevere to the end by portraying the final fate of the beast and the false prophet. The lake of fire is mentioned for the first time here, and it reappears several times in the concluding chapters (20:10, 14, 15) as a place of torment identified as the second death. The image of fire for final punishment is used elsewhere in the NT as well (Matt. 5:22; 13:40; 18:8–9; 25:41; Mark 9:43, 48; Heb. 10:27; Jude 7). Those who die the second death will never come to life, and thus all those who side with the beast and false prophet will regret forever that they were co-opted by them.

19:21 If the beast and false prophet are so easily disposed of, the rest of the armies are no problem. They are killed by the sword coming out of the mouth of the majestic warrior, Jesus, who sits on his white horse. In other words, his word is powerful and effective enough to wipe out his enemies (cf. 1:16; 2:12, 16; 19:5; cf. also Isa. 11:4; 49:2). It leaves carnage on the battlefield, and birds satisfy themselves with the flesh of those who are judged (cf. comment on Rev. 19:17 and Jer. 7:33; 16:4; 19:7; 34:20). The picture of the last judgment is apocalyptic; it is not a transcript of how the final judgment will play out. Nor is it necessary to think that birds will literally feast on human flesh. The language is a vivid way of speaking of the final judgment and eternal destruction of those opposing Jesus Christ.