- This is the final in the Revelation series, and in the entire study called "Through the Bible Q & A." Click on "store" to order a copy of the full day by day entries.Look for more of my work on a companion website, soon to be established. Sermon.net is the site, but I'll give more details when we are "open for business." Thanks!
1. Revelation 19:7. Are we given the time of this marriage feast?
Only in the books of some Bible scholars. All we know for sure here is that a wedding invitation is going out to the people of God. They, the true people of God, hear the invitation and make themselves ready, like the 5 wise virgins, for the bridegroom to come and feast with them, and they with Him.
The next thing we know, the heavens are being opened and Jesus returns. There is great warfare. No time for a supper at the moment. When the dust settles, God’s people celebrate in the New Jerusalem.
I know, I know. Popular preachers believe there is a feast in Heaven, before Jesus comes. And who is invited? The ones already there? Not the so-called “tribulation saints” still hanging on to life through unimaginable pain and suffering? Would Jesus have a feast without these who have endured the worst trials in earth’s history?
You see how far a popular theory will take you into strange territory.
- Revelation 19:10. Explain the last line in this verse.
First we must see who is talking here. Who is the “he” of 19:10? Look back through 19 and even 18 and most of 17, and you will not discover the “he” until you arrive at the beginning of the chapter. “He” is one of the seven angels who had poured out a bowl of judgment. Though the actions of the angel are prophetic and still future, he comes out of the scene of prophecy, walks over to John, and gives him a guided tour of the fall of Babylon, also future.
He is not talking the entire time. He doesn’t need to. The scenes are vivid and John is captivated by earthly horrors and heavenly rejoicings. Oh my, what a time!
After the final hallelujahs and the invitation to the Supper, the angel talks again, summarizing: “These are the true words of God.”
John sensed that this phase of the revelation was finished, and in appreciation and awe for this heavenly guide, he simply must bow down and worship. Immediately he is rebuked, and the angel makes some curious comments.
He says that, as an angel, he is on a par with the church as far as the testimony of Jesus is concerned. I am your partner in all of this, John. We both just worship God.
Then, “The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.” We all hold the testimony of Jesus, right, John? That message of Jesus is the very essence of all prophecy. Keep focused on Jesus, John, not just on things you have seen.
Maybe that is why John started his book, “The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave to him to show to His bond-servants…”
- Revelation 20: 2. How are spirits “bound”?
Again, a question that has no Biblical answer. We know how to bind bodies, but the binding of spirits is beyond us. I think of Paul the apostle, on his way to Jerusalem, talking about how he was “bound in the spirit.” There is a force that can take hold of the human – or demonic – spirit, and lead it in whatever direction is necessary. It is a restraining, a compelling, a directing.
Here we see one angel, a spirit being, taking authority over the fallen angel, and restricting his movements and direction for 1,000 years. One minute he is the great dragon threatening all of mankind. The next he is powerless to move. It is a clear revelation to us that “greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world!”
- Revelation 20:5. When does the first resurrection occur?
At the beginning of the Millennium, the righteous are raised from their graves and gathered from the four corners of the earth, to live and even reign with Christ for 1,000 years.
- Revelation 20:8. Who are Gog and Magog?
The only time we read of these two names together is in Ezekiel 38. There, Gog is a person, namely the prince of Rosh, Meshech, and Tubal. Magog is the land he rules. Van Impe and others have suggested – strongly – that all of these names connect to Russia. Rosh is an early name for Russia, they say. Meschech could be Moscow, the western capital of Russia. Tubal could be the eastern capital, Tobolsk.
Ezekiel sees them coming from the “remote parts of the north,” to an Israel “restored from the sword” with “un-walled villages”, yet living securely. Could this be a picture of the latter part of the 1,000 years? If so, Ezekiel matches up with Revelation.
Satan, ever the enticer, convinces people all over the earth that are disgruntled with the Kingdom reign, to assemble in the far north. These men who have for some reason turned their back on the Lord of the Kingdom, he convinces that they have the power to come down and take over the city. They actually surround the “camp” of the saints. But fire comes down on them all, and the devil is history.
There is a difference in John’s version in the identity here. John calls the “four corners of the earth” Gog and Magog. The exact connection between Ezekiel’s vision and John’s thus becomes a little blurred. But I believe there is a connection.
- Revelation 20:11. How could earth and heaven “fly away”?
It is the final judgment. God’s people have had to stand before the judgment seat of Christ 1,000 years earlier. But now the rest of the dead are raised to receive their final judgment. We see a great white throne, and someone sitting upon it, and immediately the earth and heaven are gone.
The language is poetic here, but the underlying reality is found in 2 Peter 3:10. “… the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up.”
Similar talk is found in the “ending” passages of Revelation: 6:12-17, 16:17-21
- Revelation 20:13. Judged by works? Where does faith come in here?
These are men who could not or did not claim the work that Christ did for them, in forgiving all their sins if they would only come to Him. Those who reject Christ’s work have only their own works to claim. Can we assume that all who stand in that day to face this judgment, based on their own works, will have their names erased from the book of life? Dreadful thought. But if all have sinned, and sin keeps us from His Presence…
- Revelation 21:6. Why aren’t the letters red here (in red-letter editions)?
Verse 5 mentions that it is the One sitting on the throne who is speaking. This is generally believed to be the Father. Though Father and Son are one, the words do not specifically belong to the Son and therefore the translators felt that Jesus should not be credited with them.
Red letter editions are not “inspired”, by the way. Human judgment enters in when determining where Jesus speaks.
- Revelation 21:16. How large is the New Jerusalem?
The NASB concludes that the city is 1,500 miles in three directions! Length, height, and width. The City turns out to be a monstrous cube.
Other translations use the “stadia” measurement or the original “furlongs.” The few who have used miles come up with numbers ranging from 1,200 to the NASB’s 1,500.
I mean, it really doesn’t matter, does it? How we should long to see that City, and to live there with Jesus. In His Father’s house are many dwelling places. Oh, indeed!
- Revelation 22:1. Where in Scripture do we find this river and this tree?
Everyone knows that the Garden of Eden had a river flowing through it, which divided up and became the Tigris and Euphrates and two others. The tree of life was there too, right in the middle.
But did you know that this same arrangement is found in Ezekiel 47? A river flows from “the house”, a river giving life to everything in its pathway. And by the river are all kinds of trees. Revelation says all kinds of fruit from the one tree. We’ll have to see how that works later…
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