Return of the Messiah
Chapter 19 of Revelation contains a scene of the return of the Messiah together with a great multitude, composing of saints and angels, moving from heaven down to the earth.
Then the saints will triumph over Babylon, and sing their songs of thanksgiving to God because of his judgements on her; and a battle between the Messiah all his enemies, with the beast and false prophet both cast alive into the lake of fire and brimstone.
Revelation 19
1 And after these things I heard a great voice of a multitude of people in heaven, saying, “Alleluia! Salvation and glory and honor and power, unto the Lord our God, — this multitude is in heaven, composing of saints and angels, saying “Alleluia!” an Hebrew expression which signifies “praise ye the Lord,”
— since the great harlot has received her judgment, John heard the songs of the righteous and saints rejoicing at her overthrow, and a mighty angel had expressed her ruin in the strongest terms, with reasons accompanied;
2 for true and righteous are His judgements: He hath judged the great whore who corrupted the earth with her fornication, and hath avenged the blood of His servants at her hand.” — his judgements, the Lord, our God, his sentences are just and true; they have been rendered in accordance with God’s righteous judgements.
3 And again they said, “Alleluia!” And her smoke rose up for ever and ever. — by the words “Praise ye the LORD” as in Psalms 106:1;
— hallelujah! the great harlot is cast into the abyss of fire and brimstone; as smoke rose, she was burned with fire; it looks as if Rome, like another Sodom and Gomorrah, would sink into a sulphurous burning lake.
4 And the four and twenty elders and the four living beings fell down and worshipped God who sat on the throne, saying, “Amen! Alleluia!” — the scene is still in heaven in the presence of the twenty four elders and four living creatures, who worship God, assent to what had been before said, and join in praising the Lord.
5 And a voice came out of the throne, saying, “Praise our God, all ye His servants, and ye that fear Him, both small and great.”
— and ye that fear him, both great and small, whether greater or lesser believers, fathers, young or old; Jews or Gentiles, or of whatsoever nation, kindred, or people; from Psalms 115:13, “He will bless them that fear the Lord, both small and great.”
6 And I heard, as it were, the voice of a great multitude, and the voice of many waters, and the voice of mighty thunderings, saying, “Alleluia! For the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth. — the voice of a great multitude; still in heaven;
— even of all the servants of the Lord, and them that fear him, small and great; a vast multitude of converted Jews and Gentiles, from all parts of the world, who in answer to the voice out of the Throne, God’s Throne in heaven, came with songs, dances and energy, lift up their voices in praise to God, both for their own redemption, and for the downfall of Babylon;
— saying, Alleluia; or praises the twenty four elders and four living creatures, the 144,000 and the great multitude; and this is the fourth time the same word of praise “Alleluia!” is used in this context.
7 Let us be glad and rejoice and give honor to Him, for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and His wife hath made herself ready.” — for the marriage of the Lamb is come; that is, of Christ, the Son of God, with the Church more especially;
— first was a secret betrothing of all the elect before the world began; and there is an open espousal of every individual of them at conversion; but the public and general solemnization of the nuptials will not be until now before the personal reign of Christ;
— the bride, moreover, is clothed in the most gorgeous wedding-garment, all pure white and shining with brilliancy. It is a pure, precious dress of honor, the dress of a bride worthy to ruin with him.
8 And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white; for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints.
— “the marriage of his Lamb is come, and the wife is prepared” and that her preparation is by her own merits and works of righteousness; the context is still in heaven;
— these saints are those that passed God’s judgement; and are found justified, also because of their excellency; so other Scripture uses the word in the plural: the Targum on Zechariah 3:4 paraphrases the text, “I will clothe thee” זכוך, “with righteousnesses.”
9 And he said unto me, “Write: ‘Blessed are they that are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb.’” And he said unto me, “These are the true sayings of God.”
— and he saith unto me, write; what follows, because of the importance of it, and that it may be regarded and remembered:
— the person speaking is either the voice from the Throne, Revelation 19:5 or the angel that attended John all along, and showed him this revelation, Revelation 1:1 asking John to write them down.
10 And I fell at his feet to worship him. But he said unto me, “See that thou do it not! I am thy fellow servant and one of thy brethren, who hold to the testimony of Jesus. Worship God! For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.”
— so this is the angel speaking, one of the ministering spirits or angels; he being a servant of the same Lord as John; for angels are not to be worshipped.
11 And I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse; and He that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He doth judge and make war.
— this is Christ on a white horse, with a sword (verse 15 below: “a sharp two edged sword”), not with a bow that the beast had, conquering and to conquer; will fully execute judgement to the utter destruction of all his enemies.
12 His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on His head were many crowns; and He had a name written that no man knew, but He Himself. — he is the King of kings, and Lord of lords; his eyes were as a flame of fire and on his head he had many diadems, many crowns;
— Greek, “diadems”: not merely (Greek, “stephanoi”) garlands of victory, but royal crowns, as King of kings, having a name written which no one knows but himself, and clothed with a garment bespattered with blood.
13 And He was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood, and His name is called, The Word of God.
— and clothed with a garment bespattered with blood, or else in the blood of his saints, he now comes to avenge; or rather in the blood of his enemies, with which he appears as stained; and his name is called “The Word of God”
— his name is The Word of God; a name none fully knows but himself; only this we know, that this Word was God manifest in the flesh; and was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood; the metaphor is taken from persons treading in a winepress, whose garments are stained with blood of grapes; see Revelation 19:15 below.
14 And the armies which were in heaven, clothed in fine linen white and clean, followed Him upon white horses. — see, the context is still in heaven; on its way to earth, upon white horses; with sharp swords instead of bows;
— they had served Christ in his Gospel, which some of them had preached, and all professed, and had maintained the purity of doctrines and practices, and now triumphed in Christ, and along with him, riding upon horses of the same colour with his, as being his princes and nobles, and whom he had made them kings as well as priests.
15 And out of His mouth goeth a sharp sword with which He shall smite the nations, and He shall rule them with a rod of iron; and He treadeth the wine press of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. — the context is still in heaven, but is moving toward the earth;
— “a sharp two edged sword” and with it he should smite the nations on the earth; and those that have adhered to Babylon, and have drunk of the wine of her fornication;
— and he shall rule them with a rod of iron; use them with the utmost severity; the phrase is taken out of Psalms 2:9 a prophecy of the Messiah.
16 And He hath on His vesture and on His thigh a name written: King of kings, And Lord of lords. — which will well suit him now when he shall be openly King over all the earth; the great army of heaven, consisting of the troops of all the elect, takes part in the triumph of their Conqueror;
— as KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS; to show that he was really possessed of an enormous dominion over all the princes and kingdoms of the earth as his mouth proceeds a sharp double-edged sword, that with it he should smite the nations, and himself will rule them with an iron rod.
17 And I saw an angel standing in the sun, and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the fowls that fly in the midst of heaven, “Come and gather yourselves together unto the supper of the great God, — this is in the second heaven or mid-heaven on its way to the earth;
— for not only will the corpses of the enemies of the Lord lie unburied on earth, in itself one of the worst misfortunes which men knew of, but their bodies should become the prey, the food of the birds, mainly the vultures that fly in the sky above.
18 that ye may eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of captains, and the flesh of mighty men, and the flesh of horses and of them that sit on them, and the flesh of all men, both free and bond, both small and great.”
— Come, gather yourselves to the great feast of God; that ye may eat their dead bodies made meat for the fowls of mid-heaven, that is, feeding on dead flesh; that they may eat the flesh of kings, the flesh of general, the flesh of mighty ones, the flesh of horses, of those that sit upon them, and the flesh of all free as well as of slaves, both small and great;
19 And I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies gathered together to make war against Him that sat on the horse, and against His army.
— and John saw the beast; or perhaps the remains of the papacy and her harlotry daughters perhaps, or their kings and which, though it may chiefly regard as the remains of their idolatry, or may take in any of those with Islamic zeal, which may join together in this battle; the beast will survive for a while after the downfall of his seat, Babylon, a combination of Rome and Islamic powers;
20 And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet who wrought miracles in his presence, by which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire, burning with brimstone.
— it seems like the beast, the Roman empire; and the pope, the false prophet were not destroyed until now; perhaps they fall earlier and captured but were not totally eliminated until now;
— both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone; which is the second death, Revelation 21:8. The severe punishment of antichrist, considered in both his capacities, civil and ecclesiastic, is expressed by being “cast into a lake of fire;”
— not just material fire, but the wrath of God, which will be poured out like fire, and will be “burning with brimstone” which, giving a nauseous stench, aggravates the punishment; the allusion seems to be to the place where Sodom and Gomorrah stood, which is become a sulphurous lake, and is an emblem of the vengeance of eternal fire.
21 And the remnant were slain with the sword of Him that sat upon the horse, whose sword proceeded out of His mouth. And all the fowls were filled with their flesh. — all the fowls were filled with their flesh; any remains are now eliminated; eaten by the fowls and hyenas feasting on them.
Once the the Millennium is established, the Feast of Tabernacle will be reinstated worldwide, but sacrifices, the foremost of which is the Passover, will also be incorporated in Jerusalem. The differentiation of nationalities are reduced in importance and so are the sexes; and so are Jews, Israelites or Gentiles; or a Court for the Women and another for the Gentiles, but only designated as Inner Court or Outer Court in the Ezekiel Temple in Jerusalem.
Zechariah 14
1 Behold, the day of the Lord cometh, and thy spoil shall be divided in the midst of thee.
— behold, the day of the Lord cometh, the Day of Judgement or the Lord’s Day; there is a parallel in Revelation “the Lord’s Day” of Revelation 1:10;
— and thy spoil that gained by the enemies in overcoming Jerusalem, that shall be divided in the midst of thee, the enemies then being at leisure and secure in the conquered city;
— further on “the Lord’s Day” is actually “the day of Judgement” (Encyclopedia Biblica, article “Lord’s Day”); in later years, when the Roman Catholic Church were getting so powerful this was reinterpreted to mean the day of Christ’s resurrection, Sunday; hence today, “the Lord’s Day” has presumptuously being transformed into a day of worship on Sundays.
2 For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle; and the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and the women ravished. And half of the city shall go forth into captivity, and the residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city.
— on the Day of Judgement, God will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle, the enemies being recruited from all countries of the world; and the city shall be taken and the houses rifled and the women ravished, a picture of an apparent complete overthrow of the Judah such as she experienced before the Chaldean captivity;
— and half of the city shall go forth into captivity, yielding to the power inspired by a Destroyer, and the residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city, some at least would remain faithful to the true God despite the ravaging of the enemies.
3 Then shall the Lord go forth and fight against those nations, as when He fought in the day of battle. — then the Lord shall go forth and battle against those nations as he fought like “at the Red Sea” which the Targum adds and on the many occasions when he went forth to fight with them and for them as King David and many others did.
4 And His feet shall stand in that day upon the Mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east; and the Mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west, and there shall be a very great valley, and half of the mountain shall remove toward the north and half of it toward the south.
— and on that day, God’s feet shall stand upon the Mount of Olives, this location being considered the center of the earth and the throne of the Lord as he makes ready for judgement, which is before Jerusalem on the east;
— and the Mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west, an earthquake having this effect as the earth trembled under the footsteps of the Almighty;
— and there shall be a very great valley; and half of the mountain shall remove toward the north and half of it toward the south, thus opening a road from Jerusalem straight toward the east.
5 And ye shall flee to the valley of the mountains, for the valley of the mountains shall reach unto Azal. Yea, ye shall flee as ye fled from before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah; and the Lord my God shall come, and all the saints with Thee.
— yea, ye ‘shall flee, like as ye fled from before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah, king of Judah; and the Lord, my God, shall come; his advent being looked for by his elect ‘with joyful expectation, and all the saints and holy angels with thee.
— and ye shall flee to the valley of the mountains for safe hiding-places; as in Isaiah 2:19 “And they shall go into the holes of the rocks, and into the caves of the earth, for fear of the Lord and for the glory of His majesty, when He ariseth to shake terribly the earth;”
6 And it shall come to pass in that day that the light shall not be clear nor dark. — on that day there shall be no light nor dark, cold nor frost, evidently said of the lights of heaven, the sun, moon and stars;
7 But it shall be one day which shall be known to the Lord — neither day nor night; but it shall come to pass that at evening time it shall be light;
— and it will be a day unlike any other, for it will be one continuous day, known only to the Lord, and there will be no more day nor night for there will be light even during the evening (‘e·reḇ); that is, from 6 pm to midnight.
8 And it shall be in that day, that living waters shall go out from Jerusalem, half of them toward the eastern sea and half of them toward the hinder sea; in summer and in winter shall it be.
— in both summer and winter, life-giving streams will flow from Jerusalem, half of them to the Dead Sea (but the Targum differs, saying it is the Persian Sea) in the east and half to the Mediterranean Sea in the west.
9 And the Lord shall be king over all the earth; in that day shall there be one Lord, and His name one.
— and the Lord will be the King of kings over all the earth. On that day there will be one Lord—his name alone will be worshiped; the Lord to be glorified wherever his Word is proclaimed.
10 All the land shall be turned as a plain from Geba to Rimmon south of Jerusalem; and it shall be lifted up and inhabited in her place, from Benjamin’s Gate unto the place of the First Gate unto the Corner Gate, and from the Tower of Hananeel unto the king’s wine presses.
— the land will stretch out spaciously around Jerusalem—from Geba in the north to Rimmon in the south, with Jerusalem towering at the center and the commanding city gates—Gate of Benjamin to First Gate to Corner Gate to Hananel Tower to the Royal Winery—ringing the city full of people;
11 And men shall dwell in it, and there shall be no more utter destruction; but Jerusalem shall be safely inhabited.
— and men shall dwell in Jerusalem and there shall be no more danger nor any destruction, but Jerusalem shall be safely inhabited; never again will Jerusalem be destroyed; but will be a safe city.
12 And this shall be the plague wherewith the Lord will smite all the people who have fought against Jerusalem: their flesh shall consume away while they stand upon their feet, and their eyes shall consume away in their holes, and their tongue shall consume away in their mouth.
— and when the vials are poured out there shall be more plagues, whereby the Lord will smite all the people that have fought against Jerusalem, those who oppose the Kingdom and its work;
— their flesh shall rot away while they stand upon their feet, so that they would rot away in a living death, and their eyes shall consume away in their holes, and their tongue shall consume away in their mouth, all these punishments making them unfit for further attacks upon the city of God.
13 And it shall come to pass in that day that a great tumult from the Lord shall be among them; and they shall lay hold every one on the hand of his neighbor, and his hand shall rise up against the hand of his neighbor.
— and on that day there will be a great tumult, a confusion and panic; and everyone shall lay hold of his neighbor, and every hand fighting against another. Panic! Fellow citizens became soldiers fighting and killing each other—total terror!
14 And Judah also shall fight at Jerusalem, and the wealth of all the nations round about shall be gathered together: gold and silver and apparel in great abundance.
— and Judah also shall fight at Jerusalem, its citizens taking part in the warfare against the enemies threatening their lives; and the wealth of all the nations round about shall be gathered together, the treasures of the enemy, their most precious possessions, gold and silver and apparel, in great abundance.
— other translations say, even Judah shall fight against Jerusalem; this could only be possible if (a) there is a civil war; or (b) Jerusalem is composed of descending heavenly saints, of whom the Jews of Judea couldn’t even recognize the returning Messiah with his multitudes of Revelation 19; so they fight each other.
15 And so shall be the plague on the horse, on the mule, on the camel and on the ass, and on all the beasts that shall be in these tents, as this plague.
— and so shall be the plagues of of all their livestock and beasts throughout their camps, so that the defeat of the enemy would be complete in every way; that is, all the enemies of the Kingdom of God who persist in their enmity will inevitably be destroyed.
16 And it shall come to pass that every one who is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem, shall even go up from year to year to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, and to keep the Feast of Tabernacles.
— and everyone that survives of all the nations which came against Jerusalem, shall even go up from year to year to worship the King of kings, the Lord of hosts, and to keep the Feast of Tabernacles, to join with the Kingdom in its worship of the one true God.
17 And it shall be, that whoso will not come up of all the families of the earth unto Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, even upon them shall be no rain.
— and it shall be that whoever refuses to go up to Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, even upon them shall be no rain and all the other physical and spiritual blessings of the Lord being withheld from them.
18 And if the family of Egypt go not up and come not, upon whom there is no rain, there shall be the plague wherewith the Lord will smite the heathen who come not up to keep the Feast of Tabernacles.
— and if the family of any nation, representative of anyone who still refuses to go up to Jerusalem to keep the Feast of Tabernacles, there should have no rain, or the lack of rain would be its plague or infliction; there shall be the plague whereby the Lord will smite the nations that refuse to be received into the Kingdom and take part in its worship.
19 This shall be the punishment of Egypt and the punishment of all nations that come not up to keep the Feast of Tabernacles.
— this shall be the punishment of any nation that refuse to come and keep the Feast of Tabernacles; in opposing his Kingdom and refusing to accept his Word, entrench themselves behind a wall of their own foolishness and shut themselves out from the highest physical and spiritual blessings, but to keep the Feast of Tabernacles;
— and not Easter, which is a form of worshipping Astarte, one of the titles of the Chaldean goddess, the queen of heaven, the ancient Mesopotamian goddess of war, fertility and sex. She is featured in the Epic of Gilgamesh, and the “Ishtar Gate” was part of Nebuchadnezzar’s Babylon;
— nor Mithra or Mitra (the Sun-God whose birthday many drunks honor and celebrate on December 25th which they christianised as Christmas); Zeus and others; called “gods of the earth” in distinction from the God of heaven; and men shall worship these earthly gods, acknowledging their supremacy, everyone from his place today, Protestants or Catholics alike;
— those who rebel and continue to resist will be horsewhipped! Nar, those who continue to resist would suffer no less judgement by the sword, by famine, by pestilence and spending years in captivity to repent there.
For a foretaste of what those judgement would be like, see
Joel
A Prophecy of Esau and Jacob 