Hallelujah: The Lamb's Wedding Day

19:1-5Four hallelujahs

The word "Hallelujah" comes straight from Hebrew: hallelu, "praise," and Yah, a short form of Yahweh. WEB renders it "Praise Yah!" in the Psalms, and it opens or closes many of them, for example Psalm 104:35 and Psalm 146:1. In the New Testament it appears only here, four times in 19:1-6. It is the climax of the book's praise.

Look at why they sing. Not because the music is lovely, but because "true and righteous are his judgments." The great prostitute "corrupted the earth," and God "has avenged the blood of his servants at her hand." This is the answer to the question the martyrs asked in 6:10, and the people who asked it are now praising. They are not gloating over suffering. They are glad because evil no longer gets the last word, and because the one who rules has proved he is on the side of the wronged.

The second cry, "Her smoke goes up forever and ever," echoes Isaiah 34:10, where Edom's ruin never ends. The picture is of a judgment that is final. The twenty-four elders and four living creatures, who have worshipped around the throne since chapter 4, fall down and say, "Amen! Hallelujah!" A voice from the throne then calls the whole company in: "Give praise to our God, all you his servants, you who fear him, the small and the great!" No one is too small to be asked.

19:6-8The wife has made herself ready

The sound grows: "like the voice of many waters, and like the voice of mighty thunders." The voice of the risen Christ was "like the voice of many waters" in 1:15, and that sound is now the sound of his people. What they say is, "Hallelujah! For the Lord our God, the Almighty, reigns!" The Greek verb can carry the sense of taking up his reign. The kingdoms have not just changed hands; God has acted, and his rule is now clear to all.

Then comes the wedding. "The marriage of the Lamb has come, and his wife has made herself ready." Marriage is one of the oldest pictures of God's love for his people. "Your Maker is your husband" (Isaiah 54:5). "As a bridegroom rejoices over his bride, so your God will rejoice over you" (Isaiah 62:5). Jesus described himself as the bridegroom (Mark 2:19), and Paul wrote that Christ "gave himself up" for his people "that he might present the assembly to himself gloriously" (Ephesians 5:25-27).

Notice how the dress is described. "It was given to her that she would array herself in bright, pure, fine linen." Both halves matter. She does array herself, so her faithfulness is real; but the linen "was given." The "righteous acts of the saints" are what grace has grown in them. We cannot tell the whole story with only one half. In 7:14 the robes were washed and made white "in the Lamb's blood." She is clothed in what she did not buy and could not sew.

19:9Blessed are the invited

An angel tells John to write the fourth of seven sayings that begin with "Blessed" in this book: "Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb." The other six are at 1:3, 14:13, 16:15, 20:6, 22:7 and 22:14. This one sits exactly in the centre.

Look at the word "invited." It means called. No one earns a place at this table. They are the guests who said yes to a gracious invitation. Jesus told a parable about a king who gave a marriage feast for his son. The invited guests "made light of it, and went their ways, one to his own farm, another to his merchandise" (Matthew 22:5). So the king sent his servants out to the highways, and the hall was filled with guests "both bad and good." Notice the word "merchandise." It is the very trade that filled Babylon's harbours yesterday. Those who preferred the market missed the supper.

Isaiah had seen it from far off: "Yahweh of Armies will make all peoples a feast of choice meat, a feast of choice wines" and "he has swallowed up death forever" (Isaiah 25:6-8). Here is that table. Babylon had a cup and a banquet that left people emptier. The Lamb's supper is real food, and the guests will never again be hungry for what it cannot give.

19:10Worship God

John is so moved that he does something foolish. He "fell down before his feet to worship him." The angel pulls him up at once: "Look! Don't do it! I am a fellow bondservant with you and with your brothers who hold the testimony of Jesus. Worship God."

It is a strange moment in the middle of the glory, and it has a purpose. We are told it happens again in 22:8-9, so the book is determined that we notice. Heaven's most impressive creatures refuse worship. Peter did the same when Cornelius fell at his feet: "Stand up! I myself am also a man" (Acts 10:26). If even an angel will not take worship, no preacher, movement, experience or leader can. There is only one throne, and one Lamb.

Then the angel adds a sentence that is hard to translate: "the testimony of Jesus is the Spirit of Prophecy." Many scholars take it to mean that all true prophecy exists to bear witness to Jesus. That is what the risen Lord himself taught on the Emmaus road: "Beginning from Moses and from all the prophets, he explained to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself" (Luke 24:27). A prophecy that does not lead to Jesus has missed the point. So does a Bible study, if I may say so. This book is not given so we can chart the future. It is given so we will worship the Lamb.

And heaven is about to open again. Tomorrow the bridegroom appears as a rider on a white horse.