I saw the heaven opened, and behold, a white horse, and he who sat on it is called Faithful and True. In righteousness he judges and makes war.
Parallel Translations
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I saw the heaven opened, and behold, a white horse, and he who sat on it is called Faithful and True. In righteousness he judges and makes war.
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And I sawe heven open and beholde a whyte horsse: and he that sat apon him was faythfull and true and in ryghtewesnes dyd iudge and make battayle.
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And I sawe heauen open, and behold, a white horse, and he that sate vpon him, was called, Faithfull and true, and he iudgeth and fighteth righteously.
Examined in Scripture Analysis
Contradictions (3)
Questions where the Bible appears to say two different things, with the passages on each side set together.
Cross-references (21)
Passages linked to Revelation 19:11 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Psalms 96:13 before Yahweh; for he comes, for he comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world with righteousness, the peoples with his truth.
- Isaiah 11:3-5 His delight will be in the fear of Yahweh. He will not judge by the sight of his eyes, neither decide by the hearing of his ears; but he will judge the poor with righteousness, and decide with equity for the humble of the earth. He will strike the earth with the rod of his mouth; and with the breath of his lips he will kill the wicked. Righteousness will be the belt of his waist, and faithfulness the belt of his waist.
- Psalms 98:9 Let them sing before Yahweh, for he comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world with righteousness, and the peoples with equity.
- Psalms 50:6 The heavens shall declare his righteousness, for God himself is judge.
- Revelation 6:2 And behold, a white horse, and he who sat on it had a bow. A crown was given to him, and he came out conquering, and to conquer.
- Jeremiah 23:5-6 “Behold, the days come,” says Yahweh, “that I will raise to David a righteous Branch, and he will reign as king and deal wisely, and will execute justice and righteousness in the land. In his days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell safely. This is his name by which he will be called: Yahweh our righteousness.
- Psalms 45:3-7 Strap your sword on your thigh, mighty one: your splendor and your majesty. In your majesty ride on victoriously on behalf of truth, humility, and righteousness. Let your right hand display awesome deeds. Your arrows are sharp. The nations fall under you, with arrows in the heart of the king’s enemies. Your throne, God, is forever and ever. A scepter of equity is the scepter of your kingdom. You have loved righteousness, and hated wickedness. Therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness above your fellows.
- Isaiah 32:1 Behold, a king shall reign in righteousness, and princes shall rule in justice.
- Jeremiah 33:15 “In those days and at that time, I will cause a Branch of righteousness to grow up to David. He will execute justice and righteousness in the land.
- Isaiah 45:21 Declare and present it. Yes, let them take counsel together. Who has shown this from ancient time? Who has declared it of old? Haven’t I, Yahweh? There is no other God besides me, a just God and a Savior. There is no one besides me.
- Isaiah 63:1-5 Who is this who comes from Edom, with dyed garments from Bozrah? Who is this who is glorious in his clothing, marching in the greatness of his strength? “It is I who speak in righteousness, mighty to save.” Why is your clothing red, and your garments like him who treads in the wine vat? “I have trodden the wine press alone. Of the peoples, no one was with me. Yes, I trod them in my anger and trampled them in my wrath. Their lifeblood is sprinkled on my garments, and I have stained all my clothing. For the day of vengeance was in my heart, and the year of my redeemed has come. I looked, and there was no one to help; and I wondered that there was no one to uphold. Therefore my own arm brought salvation to me. My own wrath upheld me.
- Zechariah 9:9-10 Rejoice greatly, daughter of Zion! Shout, daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your King comes to you! He is righteous, and having salvation; lowly, and riding on a donkey, even on a colt, the foal of a donkey. I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim, and the horse from Jerusalem; and the battle bow will be cut off; and he will speak peace to the nations: and his dominion will be from sea to sea, and from the River to the ends of the earth.
- Hebrews 7:1-2 For this Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of God Most High, who met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him, to whom also Abraham divided a tenth part of all (being first, by interpretation, “king of righteousness”, and then also “king of Salem”, which means “king of peace”,
- Revelation 3:14 “To the angel of the assembly in Laodicea write: “The Amen, the Faithful and True Witness, the Beginning of God’s creation, says these things:
- Psalms 72:2-4 He will judge your people with righteousness, and your poor with justice. The mountains shall bring prosperity to the people. The hills bring the fruit of righteousness. He will judge the poor of the people. He will save the children of the needy, and will break the oppressor in pieces.
- Psalms 99:4 The King’s strength also loves justice. You establish equity. You execute justice and righteousness in Jacob.
- Revelation 1:5 and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. To him who loves us, and washed us from our sins by his blood—
- Revelation 4:1 After these things I looked and saw a door opened in heaven, and the first voice that I heard, like a trumpet speaking with me, was one saying, “Come up here, and I will show you the things which must happen after this.”
- Revelation 3:7 “To the angel of the assembly in Philadelphia write: “He who is holy, he who is true, he who has the key of David, he who opens and no one can shut, and who shuts and no one opens, says these things:
- Revelation 15:3-7 They sang the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, “Great and marvelous are your works, Lord God, the Almighty! Righteous and true are your ways, you King of the nations. Who wouldn’t fear you, Lord, and glorify your name? For you only are holy. For all the nations will come and worship before you. For your righteous acts have been revealed.” After these things I looked, and the temple of the tabernacle of the testimony in heaven was opened. The seven angels who had the seven plagues came out, clothed with pure, bright linen, and wearing golden sashes around their breasts. One of the four living creatures gave to the seven angels seven golden bowls full of the wrath of God, who lives forever and ever.
- Revelation 11:19 God’s temple that is in heaven was opened, and the ark of the Lord’s covenant was seen in his temple. Lightnings, sounds, thunders, an earthquake, and great hail followed.
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Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain The second place of this Chapter (as I said…
The second place of this Chapter (as I said verse 1) is of the victory gotten by Christ against both the beasts: in which first Christ is described as one ready to fight, unto verse 16, then is showed the battle to be begun, thence unto verse 18: lastly is set forth the victory unto the end of the Chapter. In this place do shine most excellent properties of Christ as our heavenly Judge and revenger, according to his person, company, effects, and names.
Properties belonging to his person, that he is heavenly, judge, faithful, true, just, in this verse, searching out all things ruling over all, to be searched out of none, verse 12, the trumpet, and the very essential word of God, verse 13.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain 11 And I saw heaven opened, and behold a…
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.
Ver. 11. And I saw heaven opened] i.e. He saw things done before his eyes, as it were; so do not we, but are left to conjectures. Here is showed, saith one, the foil of the beast, bearer up of the whore, and no question but now highly chafed with her fall. This is the last and noblest act of Christ’s riding, for the dragon and his vicars’ utter destruction. Thus he. Here is showed, saith another interpreter, in what state the Church shall be in, upon the ruin of Rome, even as people standing in arms under their General Christ Jesus for a time, till the last battle be fought, and the enemies destroyed.
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Behold, a white horse] Christ riding as an Emperor triumphing, and as a righteous Judge, Psa 9:8; Psa 96:10; Psa 96:13.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain The remaining part of this chapter is conceived more…
The remaining part of this chapter is conceived more fully to open what shall come to pass under the sixth and seventh vials, mentioned Rev 16:12,17, more especially the battle in Armageddon, mentioned there, Rev 16:16. There mention was made only of the armies’ being gathered together; here it is more fully described. At the beginning of the gospel, (saith a late learned annotator), John saw only a door opened, Rev 4:1. At the resurrection of the witnesses, he saw the temple opened, Rev 11:19. Here, after the ruin of Babylon, he seeth
heaven opened.
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And behold a white horse: John saw such a horse, Rev 6:2. Dr. More observes, that the horse with his rider signifies rule; and the white colour, prosperity and success. It appears that the rider was Christ, because he is called
Faithful and True, which agrees with Rev 1:5; and by the names in the following verses, Rev 19:13,16, given to him.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
William Burkitt 1703 · Public Domain Here we have a new and fresh vision, in…
Here we have a new and fresh vision, in which St. John saw heaven opened, and Christ represented as a great and victorious general, marching forth with a glorious army for his church’s enemies’ full and final destruction. This great general is first described from the place whence he comes, namely, from heaven; he is no earthly prince or potentate, but an heavenly monarch.
Next he is said to sit on a white horse, denoting victory, prosperity, and success; He is called faithful, and true, and righteous, because faithful in all his promises, true in his threatenings, righteous in all his dispensations towards his enemies; he will do them no wrong.
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Next, his eyes are said to be as a flame of fire: denoting his clear and piercing knowledge, and also his terror as a judge, his eyes being in wrath as a flame of fire, ready to consume his enemies.
And farther, to show his royal dignity, it is added, on his head were many crowns, which also denoted his many victories over his many and mighty enemies. And by the name which no man knew but himself, some understand the nature and essence, which is so incomprehensible and unsearchable, as that none but he who is true God is able to comprehend it fully, or reveal it perfectly. Others by his name understand his judgments and ways, by which he is known, as a man by his name.
Observe next, This great and mighty general is described from his vesture dipped in blood, which denotes the mighty overthrow of his enemies: the cruellest and proudest of them can expect nothing in the end from him, but extremity of wrath and deserved destruction, for they must all become his footstool.
And his name being called the word of God, speaks dread and terror to antichrist, who slanders, opposes, corrupts, and suppresses, and offers all manner of indignities to the word of God; exercises the utmost cruelties against the preachers and professors of it.
Observe farther, That after the description of this great and mighty general, follows next the description of his armies, his attendants and followers, namely, the holy angels and glorified saints, Rev 19:14. these also ride upon white horses, as their general before them, and are clothed in fine linen, white and clean.
Behold the comely conformity, and purity, and holiness, between the general and his soldiers, between Christ and his followers; they both appear on white horses, suitable to one another. Christ will admit none to be his followers that are not like him.
Next we have the weapon described, Rev 19:15. which Christ makes use of for the destruction of antichrist, and all his church’s enemies; and that is, a sword, a sharp sword, the holy scriptures, particularly the threatenings of the word, with which he will smite all the wicked nations that side with antichrist against him and his kingdom; dealing with his enemies as men do with grapes gathered into a wine-press, which they can easily crush.
Lastly, He is described by a new name of royal dignity and supreme power, being called King of kings and Lord of lords. And this name is said to be written on his vesture and on his thigh, partly for perspicuity, that all might take notice of it; and partly for permanency, to show that as long as himself lasts, which is for ever, so long shall his kingdom and dominion over all endure.
William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain No sooner was the marriage solemnized between Christ and…
No sooner was the marriage solemnized between Christ and his church by the conversion of the Jews than the glorious head and husband of the church is called out to a new expedition, which seems to be the great battle that was to be fought at Armageddon, foretold Rev 16:16. And here observe,
I. The description of the great Commander, 1. By the seat of his empire; and that is heaven; his throne is there, and his power and authority are heavenly and divine. 2. His equipage: he is again described as sitting on a white horse, to show the equity of the cause, and certainty of success. 3. His attributes: he is faithful and true to his covenant and promise, he is righteous in all his judicial and military proceedings, he has a penetrating insight into all the strength and stratagems of his enemies, he has a large and extensive dominion, many crowns, for he is King of kings, and Lord of lords. 4. His armour; and that is a vesture dipped in blood, either his own blood, by which he purchased this mediatorial power, or the blood of his enemies, over whom he has always prevailed. 5. His name: The Word of God, a name that none fully knows but himself, only this we know, that this Word was God manifest in the flesh; but his perfections are incomprehensible by any creature.
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II. The army which he commands (Rev 19:14), a very large one, made up of many armies; angels and saints followed his conduct, and resembled him in their equipage, and in their armour of purity and righteousness - chosen, and called, and faithful.
III. The weapons of his warfare - A sharp sword proceeding from his mouth (Rev 19:15), with which he smites the nations, either the threatenings of the written word, which now he is going to execute, or rather his word of command calling on his followers to take a just revenge on his and their enemies, who are now put into the wine-press of the wrath of God, to be trodden under foot by him.
IV. The ensigns of his authority, his coat of arms - a name written on his vesture and thigh, King of kings, and Lord of lords, asserting his authority and power, and the cause of the quarrel, Rev 19:16.
V. An invitation given to the fowls of heaven, that they should come and see the battle, and share in the spoil and pillage of the field (Rev 19:17, Rev 19:18), intimating that this great decisive engagement should leave the enemies of the church a feast for the birds of prey, and that all the world should have cause to rejoice in the issue of it.
VI. The battle joined. The enemy falls on with great fury, headed by the beast, and the kings of the earth; the powers of earth and hell gathered, to make their utmost effort, Rev 19:19.
VII. The victory gained by the great and glorious head of the church: The beast and the false prophet, the leaders of the army, are taken prisoners, both he who led them by power and he who led them by policy and falsehood; these are taken and cast into the burning lake, made incapable of molesting the church of God any more; and their followers, whether officers or common soldiers, are given up to military execution, and made a feast for the fowls of heaven. Though the divine vengeance will chiefly fall upon the beast, and the false prophet, yet it will be no excuse to those who fight under their banner that they only followed their leaders and obeyed their command; since they would fight for them, they must fall and perish with them. Be wise now therefore, O you kings, be instructed, you rulers of the earth; kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and you perish from the way, Psa 2:10, Psa 2:12.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain And I saw heaven opened,.... This vision refers not…
And I saw heaven opened,.... This vision refers not to the same time the first seal does, Rev 6:2 for though a white horse, with a rider on it, is seen here, as there; that respects the first times of the Gospel, this the latter part of the dispensation of it; nor to the war in heaven between Michael and the dragon, and their angels, Rev 12:7 that issued in the downfall of Paganism in the Roman empire, this will issue in the downfall of the Papacy in it; nor to the personal coming of Christ to the last judgment, of which an account is given in the following chapter; but to the battle at Armageddon, to which the sixth vial is a preparation, and which is finished under the seventh, Rev 16:13 and what is briefly hinted at there is at large related here; in which Christ, the General, and his armies, on the one hand, and the kings of the earth, with the beast and false prophet, and their armies, on the other hand, appear to give battle to each other: and the issue of the battle is particularly represented, in order to have a view of which, "John saw heaven opened": not literally, as at Christ's baptism, and at the stoning of Stephen, nor in a spiritual sense, by the blood of Christ, but visionally, as in Rev 4:1 and since heaven, often in this book, signifies the church on earth, a more glorious and comfortable state of the church may be designed; when her gates shall be opened continually, and not shut day nor night, to receive the forces of the Gentiles, and their kings, Isa 60:15 such a state as is referred to in Rev 11:19 to which visions this is contemporary; and it may denote a very glorious appearing of Christ, not in person, which will be after this, but in his kingdom and power, in defeating his enemies, and reigning spiritually with his saints: and it may also design the clear revelation and discerning John had of the following things:
and behold a white horse which, as in Rev 6:2 may be a symbol of the Gospel, and Gospel ministers, as there in the former, here in the latter part of the Gospel dispensation; signified by a horse, to denote the swift progress of the Gospel in the latter day, the majesty, power, and authority with which it will come, bearing down all opposition made against it; and by a white horse, to express the purity of the Gospel, and of its preachers and professors, and the peace it publishes, and gives, and the joy it brings, and the triumphs that will attend it.
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And he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True: that Christ is here meant, is evident from the description of his eyes, Rev 19:12 being the same as in Rev 1:14 and from his name, Rev 19:13 which is the peculiar name of the Son of God, Joh 1:1 and he sits upon, and is bore by, and rides forth in the Gospel, and the ministry of it, with glory and majesty, and prosperously, Psa 45:3 and the characters of faithful and true well agree with him; See Gill on Rev 3:7. See Gill on Rev 3:14. He is "faithful and true" to God, who appointed him a Leader and Commander of the people, and to them he is the Commander of: and these characters well suit him now, when he will accomplish all the glorious things spoken of the church, relating to her spiritual and happy state in the latter day, and serve greatly to recommend him as a General.
And in righteousness he doth judge and make war; which is to be understood not of the last judgment, though that will be executed in righteousness, and therefore is called the righteous judgment, yet in that day there will be no war, no opposition, the wicked will at once submit; but of Christ's judging of his people, and avenging their blood on their enemies, and the remainder of them among Papists, Pagans, and Mahometans; who will be gathered together at Armageddon in battle array against them, when there will be an utter discomfiture of them in righteous judgment; for as in times past the beast made war with the saints and witnesses, and overcame them, Christ will enable his people to make war with him and his accomplices, and overcome them, as the sequel of this vision shows, Christ being at the head of them, though not in person, yet in power.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain And I saw the heaven opened - This is…
And I saw the heaven opened - This is a new and peculiar opening of it, in order to show the magnificent expedition of Christ and his attendants, against his great adversary. And behold a white horse - Many little regarded Christ, when he came meek, "riding upon an ass;" but what will they say, when he goes forth upon his white horse, with the sword of his mouth? White - Such as generals use in solemn triumph. And he that sitteth on him, called Faithful - In performing all his promises. And True - In executing all his threatenings. And in righteousness - With the utmost justice. He judgeth and maketh war - Often the sentence and execution go together.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 11. A white horse] This is an exhibition…
Verse 11. A white horse] This is an exhibition of the triumph of Christ after the destruction of his enemies. The white horse is the emblem of this, and FAITHFUL and TRUE are characters of Christ. See Re 3:14.
In righteousness he doth judge and make war.] The wars which he wages are from no principle of ambition, lust of power, or extension of conquest and dominion; they are righteous in their principle and in their object. And this is perhaps what no earthly potentate could ever say.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain Rev 19:11-16. And I saw heaven opened — This…
Rev 19:11-16. And I saw heaven opened — This is a new and peculiar opening of it, in order to show the magnificent expedition of Christ and his attendants against his great adversary; and behold a white horse — Many paid little regard to Christ when he came meek and lowly, riding upon an ass: but what will they say or think, when he comes forth upon his white horse, with the sharp sword of his mouth? The white horse, on which Christ is represented as riding, was intended to denote his justice and holiness, and also that victory and triumph should mark his progress. And he that sat on him was called Faithful — In performing all his promises; and True — In executing all his threatenings; and in righteousness — With the utmost justice and equity; he doth judge and make war — Often the sentence and execution go together. His eyes were as a flame of fire — Gloriously bright and piercing. He is described in such characters as are appropriated to him in this book, and in the ancient prophets; and on his head were many crowns — In token of his numerous conquests, and the many countries now become the kingdoms of our God and of his Christ. And he had a name written upon them that no man knew but himself —
The praise of his mediatorial undertaking being ineffable and incomprehensible, and his person mysterious and wonderful, Jdg 13:18; Isa 9:6. Hence we read, Mat 11:27, No man knoweth the Son but the Father. And he was clothed with a vesture of pure white, emblematical of his holiness; and dipped in blood — In token of his sufferings; or rather, as some think, of the blood of the enemies already conquered. See Isa 63:1, &c. And his name is called, The Word of God — Because he spoke every thing into being, and revealeth his Father and his Father’s will to mankind. In other words, he has this name because he is that glorious and Divine Person, said, Joh 1:1-2, to have been in the beginning with God, and to be himself God; and who was the great medium of divine revelation in all ages. And the armies which were in heaven — The heavenly hosts; followed him — As being most willingly and entirely under his command; upon white horses — All the inhabitants of heaven being pure and holy. and all in a state of joy and triumph. And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword — Signifying that his word is quick and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword; that with it he should smite the nations — That he was now about to use it in a strict execution of justice on his enemies; and he shall rule them — Who are not slain by his sword; with a rod of iron — That is, if they will not submit to his golden sceptre; see on Psa 2:9; and he treadeth the wine-press of the fierceness — Του θυμου, of the indignation; and wrath of Almighty God — Signified, probably, by the blood which stained his garments. The metaphor signifies that he shall subdue the proudest of his enemies with as much ease as men crush grapes by treading them under their feet. And — To the everlasting confusion of his enemies, and the perpetual joy of his friends and followers; he hath on his vesture and on his thigh — Or on the part of the vesture which was upon his thigh; a name written — Different from that mentioned above; KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS — To show that he was really possessed of a just dominion over all the princes and kingdoms of the earth; a dominion which the eastern monarchs, and after them the Roman emperors, unjustly attempted to acquire and establish, and a title which, with great vanity, they assumed to themselves. It was usual of old, for great personages in the eastern countries to have magnificent titles inscribed on, or affixed to, their garments.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain And I saw heaven opened - He saw a…
And I saw heaven opened - He saw a new vision, as if an opening were made through the sky, and he was permitted to look into heaven. See the notes on Rev 4:1.
And behold, a white horse - On the white horse as a symbol, see the notes on Rev 6:2. He is here the symbol of the final victory that is to be obtained over the beast and the false prophet Rev 19:20, and of the final triumph of the church.
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And he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True - He is not designated here by his usual and real name, but by his attributes. There can be no doubt that the Messiah is intended, as he goes forth to the subjugation of the world to himself. The attributes here referred to - faithful and true - are especially appropriate, for they are not only strongly marked attributes of his character, but they would be particularly manifested in the events that are described. He would thus show that he was faithful - or worthy of the confidence of his church in delivering it from all its enemies; and true to all the promises that he has made to it.
And in righteousness he doth judge - All his acts of judgment in determining the destiny of people are righteous. See the notes on Isa 11:3-5.
And make war - That is, the war which he wages is not a war of ambition; it is not for the mere purpose of conquest; it is to save the righteous, and to punish the wicked.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain Behold a white horse. The titles and character given…
Behold a white horse. The titles and character given to him that sat on this white horse, shew that hereby was represented Jesus Christ, called also here the word of God, ver. 13; and ver. 16, and he hath on his garment and on his thigh written: King of kings and Lord of lords, &c. (Witham) --- And he that sat, &c. The heavens open and St. John sees Jesus Christ, the Son of God, descending, seated on a white horse. He is known by the peculiar appellations of faithful and true. Faithful, in protecting his servants; and true, by always keeping strictly true whatever he promises. (Pastorini)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain behold a white horse; and he that sat upon…
behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him--identical with Rev 6:2. Here as there he comes forth "conquering and to conquer." Compare the ass-colt on which He rode into Jerusalem (Mat 21:1-7). The horse was used for war: and here He is going forth to war with the beast. The ass is for peace. His riding on it into Jerusalem is an earnest of His reign in Jerusalem over the earth, as the Prince of peace, after all hostile powers have been overthrown. When the security of the world power, and the distress of the people of God, have reached the highest point, the Lord Jesus shall appear visibly from heaven to put an end to the whole course of the world, and establish His kingdom of glory. He comes to judge with vengeance the world power, and to bring to the Church redemption, transfiguration, and power over the world. Distinguish between this coming (Mat 24:27, Mat 24:29, Mat 24:37, Mat 24:39; Greek, "parousia") and the end, or final judgment (Mat 25:31; Co1 15:23). Powerful natural phenomena shall accompany His advent [AUBERLEN].
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 11. Heaven opened—The seer, expecting the apocalyptic exhibition closed…
11. Heaven opened—The seer, expecting the apocalyptic exhibition closed at Rev_19:9, is magnificently surprised as he looks upwards and beholds the visible firmament opening, and through its portals the divine array descending to the earth.
White horse—Note on Rev_6:2.
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Faithful and True—Being the faithful impersonation of truth.
In righteousness—Thus he is living truth and righteousness. And in that cause does he judge and make war. Yes, he does judge, and is judge, in the broad Scripture sense of king; but this is not his judicial action. That appears in Rev_20:11.
Make war—He so overrules the wars of the world as to bring out the ultimate triumph of right.
III. THIRD AND LAST OVERTHROW—OF THE ARMIES OF ANTICHRIST, Rev_19:11 to Rev_20:3.
This last sublime victory is now to be achieved. The capital of antichrist was taken, 14-16; his harlot was destroyed, xvii; and now comes the final destruction of all the forces and champions opposed to truth and righteousness, preparatory to the introduction of the universal reign of holy peace. That these three great successive phases of historical progress evolve through centuries, is required by the whole structure of the apocalypse, based, as that is, on the imageries of Daniel’s visions. The three phases succeed in the order given, yet, no doubt, each preceding phase laps into its successor. This last—”the great moral battle of the world”—doubtless in a measure includes the preceding two, and carries the whole process of advancing knowledge, truth, and righteousness to the millennial culmination.
On this important passage we may note, 1. We do not agree with Alford in identifying the rider of the white horse here with that in Rev_6:2. But it conclusively follows, that if that is symbolical, so is this. There is no more reason for supposing the personage is corporeally “present” in one case than in the other. 2. Nor is there any more reason for supposing a corporeal riding out of heaven on a literal live horse here, than to suppose a corporeal dragon in chap. 12, flung by Michael from the sky to the ground. That downfall is, no doubt, allusively drawn from the pre-terrene fall of the angels; just as this is drawn allusively from the real post-terrene second advent yet to come. The dragon is a real person, namely, Satan; yet this, his phenomenal apparition, is a symbol; just so the Messiah is a real person, while this, his phenomenal presentation, is a symbol. And so fallacious is Gebhardt’s argument, that the man-child’s ascension was real, and so, therefore, this descent of the same must be literal. The man-child was real, but his infantile snatching up, in chapter 12, was symbolical, based on his real ascension. See notes chap. 12. 3. The phantasy that this is a picture of Christ’s real coming to “judge the quick and dead,” is contradicted on the entire face of the passage, and by every detail of its particulars. It is not a judicial scene, but a military. It is not a court, but a battle. The leader is not here a judge in the judiciary sense, but a general and a conqueror. Can it be for one moment seriously believed that there will be literal horses in heaven, on which Christ and his saints will sit astride, and ride down to the earth? 4. What confirms this view is, that it is the last battle in a serial emblematic war; the last third of a regular symbolic campaign. The enemy’s capital has been captured, his harlot has been exposed and destroyed. But the chief leaders—the dragon, the beast, and the false prophet—with their armies, are yet in the field. This is simply a clear narrative, under due symbol guise, of their overthrow, arrest, and consignment to durance vile. 5. What settles this view finally and conclusively is, the fact that at the close of the battle and the imprisonment of the last great rebel, (Rev_20:3-6,) we have the trophies of victory and the repose and full enjoyment of conquest. The world is cleared of rebels and devils; the imparadised martyr “souls” are enthroned with Christ in exaltation, and rule over its broad area; and for a symbolic thousand years not a traitor dares lift a warlike head. When, at the close of that period, the ancient rebel re-rebels, the world’s status is fixed forever.
The grand judicature takes place, and the portals of eternity are opened. 6. This picture is, then, symbolical. The horses and the riders on horseback are the impersonations of the cause, and of the champions of truth, righteousness, and human happiness, headed by Him who is the Word of God, the Truth itself. His enemies are the agencies of evil, the obstructive forces to the Gospel, to human progress, to universal Christianization, peace, and civilization. But the leader in the advance is divine; heavenly auxiliaries form his retinue; the enemies are paralyzed, and victory crowns the day. If any one doubts whether this battle of right against wrong, of the true against the false, of Christ against antichrist, is really in hopeful progress, let him consider a few facts.
Three or four centuries ago this our American continent was covered with the howling forests, inhabited by savage pagans, with their horrid Satanic rites and diabolical cruelties. It is now being overspread with churches, schools, and universities. At that time the sea was navigated by a feeble craft, and liable to be overrun with piracies. Europe was wrapped in ignorance, the press was uninvented, Christendom was ruled by the absolute pope, and yet the Turks were threatening Vienna, with a great possibility of establishing Mohammedanism as the religion of the western world. Asia was ruled by pagan or Mohammedan, and locked against all Christian missions, had there been life enough in Christianity to send one.
Africa was an unexplored pagan blackness. And thus two or three centuries ago the four quarters of the globe were covered with a solid midnight, save a few rays of twilight dawn in Europe. Picture as great a change for the better through our next three centuries, and say if the heavenly battle is not in progress! Thus is our Apocalypse the book of hope and triumph.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain The Victory of the Rider on the White Horse,…
The Victory of the Rider on the White Horse, Rev_19:11-21
11. heaven opened] Eze_1:1; St Mat_3:16, and parallels, St Joh_1:51; Act_7:56; Act_10:11. Something more seems to be implied than in Rev_4:1; the “door” through which the seer was called up is not sufficient to let out this mounted army, or “the chariot of paternal Deity” which appeared to Ezekiel.
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a white horse] Rev_6:2, where see notes. Here, at least, there is no doubt about the interpretation.
and he that sat upon him] Had better not be separated in punctuation from the previous clause: “behold a white horse, and he that sat upon him, [who was] called,” &c.
called] There is some, but not sufficient, authority for omitting this word.
Faithful and True] Rev_3:14; also Rev_1:5, Rev_3:7.
in righteousness] Isa_11:4.
make war] In Psa_45:3-5 (4–6) we have the same mixture as here of the Bridegroom with the triumphant Warrior. Compare St Chrysostom on Rom. xiii. 12, “Fear not at hearing of array and arms … for it is of light that the arms are.… As the bridegroom goes forth with joyous looks from His chamber, so doth he too who is defended with these arms; for he is at once soldier and bridegroom.”
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (11) And I saw heaven opened . . .—Better,…
(11) And I saw heaven opened . . .—Better, And I saw the heaven opened (not “opening,” but set open, already opened, as in Rev_4:1), and behold a white horse, and (behold) one that sitteth upon him called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judgeth and warreth. The description reminds us of the opening of the first seal. Again we have the white horse, and the rider. That early vision of a conquering Christ had been first a hope and then a despair, as age after age interposed its obstacles to the manifestation of the sons of God; but now, with added splendour, the vision is renewed: the hopes of the waiting shall not perish for ever. Once more the victorious rider appears, and His name dispels all fear, though the vision has been long in tarrying. At the end it speaks and does not tarry (Hab_2:1-4), for He who rides upon the heavens, as it were upon a horse, has His name Faithful and True (Heb_10:23; Heb_10:36-38). This name combines two characteristics: fidelity to promises, trustworthiness; and the power to satisfy every legitimate desire which has been awakened in the hearts of His people; for in Him all hopes find repose, and every ideal is realised. He is further pictured as a warrior. This warrior bridegroom carries us back to Psalms 45, where a similar combination of marriage joy and martial triumph is found. Righteousness marks His progress in war, as faithfulness is manifested towards those who trust Him (Isa_11:4-5). Here is comfort on the threshold of a vision of deliverance. The book has shown us war, conflict, confusion: the passions of men surging against one another, and dashing like vain waves against God’s immutable laws; the world history is written in blood. We blame men for these cruel and desolating wars; but another question rises imperiously, Why does an all-good ruler allow these heart-breaking scenes? If earth’s groans pain and trouble us, do they not grieve Him? Where is He that He permits all this? The answer is, “In righteousness He judges and makes war.” The worked-out history of the world will make this plain. The righteousness of God is being revealed: all will see it one day; but now the just must live by faith in Him who is faithful and true, and who preserves the germ of all divine life in the history of the world.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white…
And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse. A new vision now opens, which is, however, part of the preceding series, commencing at Rev_13:1. The destruction of certain forms of evil typified by Babylon and the harlot has been declared; the final overthrow of the dragon has vet to be related, though there may be no such separation in the actual infliction of these punishments as there necessarily is in the relation of them. The warfare now to be described must be understood to be that which is taking place between the hosts of Christ and Satan throughout the period of the world"s existence. The heaven opened. (cf. Rev_4:1) A similar figure has been already employed in the first seal vision. (Rev_6:2) It has been pointed out that the same image is employed at the beginning and at the end of the description of the warfare between Christ and the devil. He who is the First and the Last, the Alpha and Omega, (Rev_1:8) rides forth conquering and to conquer. (Rev_6:2) And he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war. Even the participial construction here employed connects this account with Rev_6:2. "Faithful and True" are the titles applied to our Lord in Rev_3:14, which see. In righteousness he cloth judge; cf. Isaiah"s prophecy of Christ: "But with righteousness shall he judge the poor"; (Isa_11:4) cf. ver. 2 of this chapter. The purposes of this expedition are "to judge and make war.
Vers. 11-21. "King of kings, and Lord of lords.
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In this paragraph we have a marvellously vivid sketch of a mighty conflict, in which the most high God, in the Person of his Son, goes forth to war and victory. Strange as it may seem to speak of God being engaged in a struggle, it is clear that what we call "good" is in the world with its legion forces, and that what is evil is also here. Both are at work. They are necessarily opposed. God must be on the side of good. Hence the war. Probably we have reason to believe that God could, if he pleased, terminate in a moment all that is opposed to his infinitely holy nature. But he does not see fit to do this. We do not know why, except as he tells us. It may be that in and by the conflict lessons are to he taught which otherwise could not be learnt. Any way, while this strife lasts, it is the Lord"s controversy, which will be brought to an issue in "the battle of the great day of God Almighty." Not that we are to look for the literal fulfilment of such words in a material contest headed by the Messiah in person leading an army! No, no! nothing so sensuous. God"s battle is a silent one. Its weapons are not carnal. Though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh. The forces which have to be subdued are spiritual. Hence the war must be spiritual too. The forces which have to be subdued are:
(1) Worldly power and policy in every unrighteous form.
(2) False religious systems of every kind.
(3) Varied false and corrupt forms of Christianity itself.
(4) Sin and crime, whether open or secret.
These are the adverse forces which are sketched in this book. These are the evils which are manifest in the world. And it is against them that the mighty conflict is going on. But by whom it is to be headed, and to be so conducted that the victory is sure what human intellect can solve the problem? what human foresight peer into the future? what human strength grapple with the foes? Woe be to us if the whole were left in human hands! But it is not so. The apostle sees heaven opened, and lo! he sees above, the Lord and Leader in this mighty conflict. Concerning him and it the paragraph gives us replies to five questions.
I WHO IS THE LEADER, AND WHAT IS HIS NAME? This question receives here a threefold answer. Surely no student of Scripture can fail to see that here is a vision of the Lord Jesus Christ, although neither the personal nor the official name is given. But we are told:
1. He has a name which no one knoweth but he himself. There are aspects of his nature which are known to us, or it would be impossible to reverence and love him. But there are other aspects which to us are unknown. There are fathomless depths in his own infinite nature. "No one knoweth the Son but the Father.
2. He has a name which is known. A name which expresses at once his relation to God and to man. "His name is called The Word of God." This is the name in which the beloved apostle so much delights. (Joh_1:1-5) The "Word;" the expression of thought. The Lord Jesus as "the Word" is the revealed expression of the mind of the invisible Father.
3. He hath also a title expressive of kingly authority, of supremacy over all earthly names of kings, and Lord of lords." "All kings shall fall down before him." His monarchy shall put all else into the shade. "The might of the Gentile, unsmote by the sword, Hath melted like snow in the glance of the Lord!
II WHAT ARE THE ATTRIBUTES OF THIS LEADER? They are such as absolutely to qualify him for the work here assigned to him.
1. His eyes are as a flame of fire. Here his omniscience is set forth as that which no sin, no sinner, can escape.
2. He is called Faithful. The Faithful One, in whom fidelity is embodied as its archetype, its source.
3. He is True. The Truth. The Substance. These attributes bespeak the almightiness and essential Godhead of the Son. Creatures have them partially and derivatively; he, infinitely and independently.
4. Equity, too, is his. "In righteousness he doth judge and make war." In the integrity of his sway there is no flaw. In the rectitude of his decisions there is no defect. These are the names and titles; these are the attributes by which he is distinguished. "Gird thy sword upon thy thigh, O most mighty, and in thy majesty ride prosperously, because of truth, and meekness, and righteousness.
III HOW DOTH HE APPEAR IN GOING FORTH TO WAR? The characteristics here specified are three.
1. He is seen on "a white horse. So at the opening of the first seal. The white horse being the emblem of dignity, and of the peaceful triumphs he was about to win. There, however, he went forth at the beginning of his triumphs. Here he is seen going forth to a decisive and final conflict.
2. He is "arrayed in a garment sprinkled with blood. The question has been asked Is the blood his own, or that of his foes? We reply The symbolism is drawn from the responsive song in Isaiah 63, and we cannot question that here the blood intended is that of his foes. Not, of course, to be taken as otherwise than symbolic of the completeness of the victory he has achieved, having put all enemies beneath his feet.
3. On his head are many diadems. In allusion, perhaps, to the ancient custom of a conqueror wearing the diadems of the vanquished kings. If so, the figure is one of immense suggestiveness and power. The beast, or the ungodly world power, had seven heads seven kings or kingdoms. Of these, at the time of the writing of the Apocalypse, five had fallen Egypt, Assyria, Chaldea, Persia, Greece. Rome hath gone also since then. And as earthly crowns one by one are falling from kingly brows, he to whom the globe belongs shall bear the glory. The glory of Egypt is gone; but the men of Egypt shall rise again, and crown him Lord of all. So with other realms, empires, nations. All worldly glory must depart, to reappear no more, save as all honour gathers round his majestic brow. The world"s crown is waiting for Jesus! From every nation, kindred, tribe, and tongue, men shall exclaim"Take the kingdom, it is thine, King of kings, and Lord of lords!
IV BY WHAT METHODS DOTH CHRIST BRING THIS ABOUT? Andrew Fuller remarks, "Christ"s war is of a twofold kind spiritual... and providential." This is true. And though we need not regard the symbolism of this passage as a complete indication of the methods of Christ, yet there are three methods specified here.
1. By the sword, which may signify
(1) judgment, and also
(2) the Word which goeth forth out of his mouth.
In fact, both (1) and (2) may blend as one, as the Word of his mouth is living and mighty, and sharper than any two-bladed sword; this is the rod of his strength. The "sword of the Spirit is the Word of God.
2. By the armies of heaven. Some take these to be the glorified saints; others, the angels. But seeing this is a vision of a conflict which is to take place on earth, it would seem to be more in accordance with the analogy of Scripture and with the nature of the case, to regard these armies as the friends of the Saviour, who, first redeemed by him, afterwards cooperate with him, going forth under his direction to pursue the holy war. Thus they may include
(1) believers on earth;
(2) departed saints;
(3) angels, who minister to the heirs of salvation.
These, these make up the glorious armies of heaven. All who are working and warring for God are now enrolled therein, "clothed in fine linen, white and clean.
3. By stern and terrible judgments. Surely nothing less than this can be intended by the expression (ver. 15), "He treadeth the wine press of the fierceness of the wrath of Almighty God." Judgment is God"s strange work. But when it comes, it will be terrible. "That great and terrible day of the Lord.
V WHAT ARE THE ISSUES OF THIS MIGHTY CONFLICT? (Vers. 17-21). These may be grouped around four of the figures employed in the text the sword, the wine press, the rod of iron, the lake of fire. All images of terror, because the theme in hand is the Divine triumph over sin; and righteousness must often perhaps always have an aspect of terror with reference to sin. Hence the apparent severity of the symbolism. Infinitely pure love must be severe upon sin. Sinners may be renewed; sin must be expelled. Enemies may be reconciled; enmity cannot. And it is sin itself, as the foe alike of God and man, that is ultimately to be put to shame; and so must all who strive against God, and in final impenitence reject his grace. By the sword of judgment they will be smitten down. As grapes are crushed in the wine press, so will the enemies of God and the right be crushed. With a rod of iron shall they be ruled and be utterly powerless to resist when he riseth up in his day of final conflict. "The God of peace will bruise Satan under our feet shortly;" "He must reign till he hath put all enemies under his feet." Babylon hath already fallen. Next, the first beast is captured and thrown into the lake of fire; the second beast likewise, and they that worship his image. And thus one by one the foes are falling, till all things shall be subdued unto him. The whole creation will acknowledge the equity of the Great Supreme, and whether in joy or terror will own that Jesus Christ is Lord. Then, then the enemy shall be still as a stone. Temptation shall have sped forever. "Alleluia! Alleluia! the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth." Thus have we traced in outline the sketch which the Holy Ghost by the apostle"s pen hath given us, of the great Destroyer of evil as he is now enthroned in glory, preparing to overturn, and overturn, and overturn, till he shall come, in the glory of his majesty and might, and claim the kingdom as his own. "What shall we then say to these things?" Note:
1. How great is the mercy that heaven hath been "opened "for us to have such visions! We are not left to the adventurous flights of human speculation nor to the curious varieties of human guessing, nor even to the devout aspirations of philanthropic zeal. However decidedly any or all of these might tend in one direction, they could not even if they all coincided give us solid ground on which to rest. But here, here we have a firm rock on which we stand; here we fix our hopes; here we cast anchor; nor can our vessel ever be drifted from her mooring. "The glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it. And however we may have been disheartened by the tangled maze and troubled aspect of this world"s affairs, when we ponder over such visions as these, our hope revives. In him who is the Word of God, whose eyes are as a flame of fire, we see an amplitude of wisdom and a plenitude of power. In the blood-stained robes we see marks of a conflict already encountered, and pledges of a victory already secured. For such a Leader no mazes of evil can be too complex, no massing of power too strong. "Alleluia!
2. The vision shows us the grandeur of the strife between good and evil. When the everlasting Son of the Father takes it up as his own cause, it assumes new dignity. In an ancient battle it inspired God"s people when they were told, "The battle is not yours, but God"s;" and since that which was true in a material conflict cannot be less so in a spiritual one, we may well draw a holy inspiration for our contest with sin, in the thought that the King of kings, and Lord of lords, is the sole Leader in the fight. His honour is engaged. He hath it in trust from the Father to put down evil, and to gather home the redeemed. "In righteousness doth he make war!" Never was there such a holy war, never one on which such stupendous issues hung, as that one with which we are asked to identify ourselves.
3. It is an act of great condescension that, in going forth with his armies, our Saviour deigns to make use of human instrumentality. He would use us. He commands us to enter his army.
(1) Some are engaged on his side. And they find it their noblest joy and their highest honour to cooperate with their redeeming Lord. Let them not forget the garb in which the Saviour"s hosts go forthclothed in fine linen, white and clean.
(2) Some there are who have not yet openly espoused the Saviour"s cause. Let such remember that there are only two sides. "He that is not against us is for us;" here is what Vinet called "the tolerance of the gospel." "He that is not with me is against me;" here is what the same writer called "the intolerance of the gospel." Christ allows no neutrality. We are either siding with the armies of heaven or with the worshippers of the beast and his image. But let us remember that just in proportion to the severity of the defeat which awaits us if we are on the wrong side, is the greatness of the joy which will attend us if, through the Holy Spirit"s grace, we are won over to the side of Jesus. We go not a warfare at our own charges. We shall be well equipped for the most perilous expedition and the longest marches, and also furnished with wisdom and strength for the severest fight. And if we could but cause men to see the glory of the conflict, instead of having to plead with them to side with Jesus, the pleading would be heard from their side that they might have the privilege of fighting in the holy war!
Vers. 11-21. The four names of Christ.
There were three great enemies of Christ and his Church, each of which have been told of in the previous chapters of this book the dragon, the first beast, and the second beast, or the false prophet. In the immediately foregoing chapters we have had told the destruction that came upon them that worshipped the beast. Generally upon them all by the outpouring of the seven vials; and then, more particularly, upon the city Babylon, which was the seat and centre of the authority of the beast. Then there came the vision of the blessed in heaven a vision once and again given in this book, to reassure those on earth that, amid all the awful judgments of God upon their enemies, they, his faithful witnessing people here upon earth, should not be, were not, forgotten. Their bright, blessed condition in the presence of God is what is shown them for their comfort, their hope, their strength. That cheering vision having been given, the awful judgments upon the beast and the false prophet are next shown. We see the Lord summoning his armies, his eyes flashing in anger, the diadems on his head, the crimson vesture, the sharp sword, and the four names emblazoned thereon. Probably St. John had in view some near catastrophe on the enemies of the Church of his day, which supplies the groundwork of this vision. Or, as some affirm, the heathen nations who were slain, not so much by awful war as by the sword of the Spirit, and ceased to be heathen, and became Christian. For the kings these say are the heathen Goths, Vandals, and the rest who invaded the empire everywhere and destroyed Rome, but who soon became Christian and were received into the Church. Or, it may be, that the vision is all for the future. Who can tell? But the names of Christ, as here given, are for all time, and are full of instruction and help.
I THE "FAITHFUL AND TRUE." (Ver. 11) So was he:
1. In avenging his people. This is the thought suggested to those for whom St. John wrote. And so will he ever be.
2. In carrying out his purposes. It mattered not who or what withstood.
3. The past proves the righteousness of this name. His prophecies have been fulfilled. His promises made good. His precepts owned as just. Whoever disputes a verdict he has given? Who does not feel that, when he has spoken, the last word, be the subject what it may, has been said, and that there is nothing more to be said?
II THE UNKNOWN NAME. (Ver. 12, "And he had a name written, that no man knew, but he himself.") It was a written name, but illegible, incomprehensible, to all but himself. The names advance in majesty. "Faithful and True that is an august name, but it cannot be said to be incomprehensible, and known to none but himself. Glory be to him that we do know him by that name, and that the name is rightly his. But now the ineffable nature of the Son of God seems to be suggested. "Who by searching can find out God?" Christ is more than all our thought, than all we have understood or have imagined. In him are "unsearchable riches." Who knows what is the relation between him and the Father, and what the nature of the union in him of humanity and God? Who can understand the profound philosophy of the atonement, the Incarnation, the Resurrection?
"No man knoweth the Son but the Father so said our Lord; and this unknown name, written, though not read, endorses that sublime saying. And do we wonder that we cannot understand? Why, this we fail to do even with our fellow men if they be of higher nature than our own. Let us be glad and grateful that, whatever riches of grace and glory we have already known, there is an inexhaustible fountain and an unsearchable store yet remaining. And now a name more majestic still is given.
III "THE WORD OF GOD." (Ver. 13) This name refers to that "Word of God which is... sharper than," etc. (Heb_4:12) Also it points back to his name as given in Joh_1:1, "The Word, which in the beginning was with God, and was God." For the Word is the expression of the inner thought. And so Christ declares the mind of God; he is "the heart of God revealed." Hence "he who hath seen the Son hath seen the Father." Now, all this is true, or else he is what we would not even say. Si non Dens, non bonus so of old was it argued, and so it must be still. The doctrine declared by this name is, therefore, of infinite importance. All our conceptions of Christ, all our hope, all our salvation, depend on it. If he be not the very Word of God, then we have no Saviour and no hope. The last of these names is
IV "KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS." (Ver. 16) It is the battle of the ten kings against him to which he is on his way when St. John beholds him (vers. 18, 19). And now on his vesture and on the scabbard of his sword his thigh are emblazoned these majestic words, this title prophetic of victory for himself and those with him, but of utter defeat to those who dared to oppose him. But how blessed to humanity at large is this name and the fact that it declares! Vast is the power that monarchs wield, and alas, that it should be so! bad is the use that most of them have made of it. And so the days of kingship are it is said numbered. But there may be worse depositaries of power even than kings, seeing that others called by lowlier names have used it not much better. But it is blessed to know that, let kings and rulers do and be what they may, our Lord is "King of kings, and," etc. Meanwhile
(1) see that he rules in us;
(2) take the rich comfort there is in these names. S.C.
Vers. 11-21. The holy war.
There now opens to our view another scene of warfare. It is brief, comprehensive, and decisive. It is a view of the heavenlies. The conflict is between the heavenly and the earthly powers. It is a "representation of the conquest of the kingdoms to Christ, which, like all his conquests, is accomplished by the power of the truth, wielded by a faithful Church, and rendered efficacious by the power of his Spirit.
I THE COMBATANTS ARE DISTINCTLY BROUGHT TO VIEW, These are:
1. One called "Faithful and True Word of God." He is distinguished by symbols which indicate his Divine power and authority. He is "KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS." His visage corresponds to earlier descriptions: "his eyes are a flame of fire;" "on his head are many diadems;" his name is unknown but to himself; his garment is sprinkled with blood; from his mouth proceeds a sharp sword; his feet wend the wine press of the Divine wrath; he is seated on a white horse.
2. He leads forth an army also upon white horses, and clothed in "fine linen, white and pure" Thus is represented the Divine Captain, the Lord Jesus, leading forth his faithful ones to do battle against sin in its various guises.
3. On the other hand is represented the contending foes: "the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies." Against these Christ and his faithful Church wage war: war against sin foul, filthy sin beast;" and against all the spirit of error and untruth, "the false prophet;" and against all the powers of evil which by them inspired domineer over the life of men, and they wage war against whatever stands in opposition to the idea of "the Christ the King set upon the holy hill, of whom the psalmist sings. They are the enemies, the "foes" of David"s Son and Lord, which shall be made his "footstool.
II THE CONFLICT IS NOT DELINEATED. It has been already, and abundantly. We are to see in it all the contention long continued between the diverse elements, light and darkness, truth and error, righteousness and sin, Christ and Belial, the judgment of human conduct by the true standard of right, the life of Christ. This is the struggle now going forward.
III THE ISSUE IS A VICTORIOUS CONQUEST GAINED BY CHRIST AND HIS ARMY OVER ALL THE POWER OF THE ENEMY. "The beast was taken, and with him the false prophet." Their destruction is complete and final. They are cast alive, as in their activity, into a "lake of fire that burneth with brimstone.
IV THE INSTRUMENT OF WARFARE SUFFICIENTLY INDICATES THE NATURE OF THE STRIFE. In a few words is indicated the nature of the weapons (weapon), and so the nature of the strife. He smites the nations with the sword which proceeded out of his mouth: "The sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God." With this only weapon the "rest are killed.
V THE FINAL JOY OF ALL in the ascendency of the truth is indicated in the gathering of the fowls of the air to the supper of the great God, called by an angel standing where all can see in the sun. R.G.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain A white horse; and He that sat upon him…
Rev_19:11-16
A white horse; and He that sat upon him was called Faithful and True.
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The rider on the white horse and the armies with Him
I. John saw our Captain, the King of kings.
1. Let us notice His glorious state. Our Lord is here described as sitting upon a gallant steed, charging His foes upon a snow-white horse.
(1) This means that Christ is honoured now. In royal state our Jesus goeth forth to war, not as a common soldier, but as a glorious prince, royally mounted.
(2) By a horse is denoted not only honour, but power. To the Jews the employment of the horse in warfare was unusual, so that when it was used by their adversaries they imputed to it great force. Jesus Christ has a mighty power to-day, a power which none can measure.
(3) Here is symbolised swiftness, too. His word runneth very swiftly. The colour of the horse is also meant to denote victory. He comes to fight, but the fight is for peace; He comes as a conqueror, but it is as a delivering conqueror who scattereth flowers and roses where he rides, breaking only the oppressor, but blessing the citizens whom he emancipates.
2. John looked into the open vault of heaven, and he had time not only to see the horse, but to mark the character of Him that sat upon it. He says that He that sat upon him was called Faithful and True. By this you may know your Lord.
3. John still looked, and as he gazed with open eye he marked the mode of action and of warfare which the champion employed, for he says, In righteousness He doth judge and make war. Jesus is the only king who always wars in this fashion.
4. One other thing John saw, and that was His name. But here he seems to contradict himself. He says that He had a name which no man knoweth, yet he says that His name war the Word of God. Oh, but it is all true, for in such a one as our Master there must be paradoxes. No man knoweth His name. None of you know all His nature. His love passes your knowledge; His goodness, His majesty, His humiliation, His glory, all these transcend your ken. You cannot know Him. Oh, the depths!
II. His followers.
1. Christ has a great following--not one army, but armies, whole hosts of them, numbers that cannot be counted.
2. These that follow Him, you notice, are all mounted. They followed Him on white horses. They are mounted on the same sort of horses as Himself, for they fare as He fares: when He walks, they must walk; when He bears a cross, they must carry crosses too; but if ever He gets a crown, He cries, They shall be crowned too.
3. The armies of Christ followed Him on white horses. Look steadily at these white horses, and observe the armour of their riders. Cromwells men wore at their side long iron scabbards in which they carried swords, which oftentimes they wiped across the manes of their horses when they were red with blood. But if you look at these troops there is not a sword amongst them. They are not armed with lance or pike, and yet they are riding forth to war. Do you want to know the armour of that war? I will tell you. They are clothed in white linen, white and clean. Strange battle array this! And yet this is how they conquer, and how you must conquer too. This is both armour and weapon. Holiness is our sword and our shield.
4. Yet I have said they were all on horses, which shows you that the saints of God have a strength that they sometimes forget. You know not that you ride on a horse, O child of God; but there is a supreme invisible power which helps you in contending for Christ and for His truth. You are mightier than you know of, and you are riding more swiftly to the battle and more rapidly over the heads of your foes than ever you dream.
III. The warfare. What is this warfare? There cannot be war without a sword, yet if you look all along the ranks o the white-robed armies there is not a sword amongst them all. Who carries the sword? There is one who bears it for them all. It is He, the King, who comes to marshal us. He bears a sword. But where? It is in His mouth! Yet this is the only sword my Lord and Muster wields. Mahomet subdued men with the scimitar, but Christ subdues men with the gospel. We have but to tell out the glad tidings of the love of God, for this is the sword of Christ with which He smites the nations. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
On His head were many crowns.
The Saviours many crowns
I. First, let every believing heart rejoice while it sees the many crowns of dominion upon His head. First and foremost there sparkles about His brow the everlasting diadem of the King of Heaven. His empire is higher than the highest heaven, and deeper than the lowest hell. This earth also is a province of His wide domains. Though small the empire compared with others, yet from this world hath He perhaps derived more glory than from any other part of His dominions. He reigns on earth. On His head is the crown of creation. All things were made by Him; and without Him was not any thing made that was made. His voice said, Let there be light, and there was light. It was His strength that piled the mountains, and His wisdom balances the clouds. Together with this crown of creation there is yet another, the crown of providence, for He sustaineth all things by the word of His power. Let Him once withdraw His hands, and the pillars of earth must tremble; the stars must fall like fig leaves from the tree, and all things must be quenched in the blackness of annihilation. On His head is the crown of providence. And next to this there glitters also the thrice-glorious crown of grace. He is the King of grace; He gives, or He withholds. The river of Gods mercy flows from underneath His throne; He sits as Sovereign in the dispensation of mercy. He reigneth in His Church amidst willing spirits; and He reigns for His Church over all the nations of the world, that he may gather unto Himself a people that no man can number who shall bow before the sceptre of His love. Methinks I hear one say, If this be so, if Christ hath these many crowns of dominion, how vain it is for me to rebel against Him. Believer, look to Christs thrice-crowned head and be comforted. Is providence against thee? Correct thy speech; thou hast erred; God hath not become thine enemy. Providence is not against thee, for Jesus is its King; He weighs its trials and counts its storms. Thy enemies may strive, but they shall not prevail against thee; He shall smite them upon the cheek-bone. Art thou passing through the fire? The fire is Christs dominion. Art thou going through the floods? They shall not drown thee, for even the floods obey the voice of the Omnipotent Messiah. Wherever thou art called thou canst not go where Jesus love reigns not. Commit thyself into His hands.
II. Christ hath many crowns of victory. The first diadems which I have mentioned are His by right. He is Gods only begotten and well-beloved Son, and hence He inherits unlimited dominions. But viewed as the Son of Man, conquest has made Him great, and His own right hand and His holy arm have won for Him the triumph. In the first place, Christ has a crown which I pray that every one of you may wear. He has a crown of victory over the world. For thus saith He Himself, Be of good cheer, I have overcome the world. I would that we could imitate Christ in our battle with the world. But alas, the world oftentimes gets the upper hand of us. Sometimes we yield to its smiles, and often do we tremble before its frowns. Have hope and courage, believer; be like your Master, be the worlds foe and overcome it, yield not, suffer it never to entrap your watchful feet. Stand upright amid all its pressure, and be not moved by all its enchantments. Christ did this, and therefore around His head is that right royal crown of victory, trophy of triumph over the entire forces of the world. Furthermore, the next crown He wears is the crown by which He has overcome sin. He has cast down every shape and form of evil, and now for ever stands He more than a conqueror through His glorious sufferings. Oh, how bright that crown which He deserves who hath for ever put away our sin by the sacrifice of Himself. And then again, Christ wears about His head the crown of death. He died, and in that dreadful hour He overcame death, rifled the sepulchre, hewed death in pieces, and destroyed the arch-destroyer. Glorious is that victory! Angels repeat the triumphant strain, His redeemed take up the song; and you, ye blood-bought sons of Adam, praise Him too, for He hath overcome all the evil of hell itself. And yet, once again, another crown hath Christ, and that is the crown of victory over man. Would to God that He wore a crown for each of you. Say, has His love been too much for you? Have you been compelled to give up your sins, wooed by His love Divine? Have your eyes been made to run with tears at the thought of His affection for you and of your own ingratitude? If this be the case with you, then you may yourself recognise one of the many crowns that are on His head.
III. The crowns of thanksgiving. Surely concerning these we may well say, On His head are many crowns. In the first place, all the mighty doers in Christs Church ascribe their crown to Him. Not a martyr wears his crown; they all take their blood-red crowns, and then they place them on His brow--the fire crown, the rack crown, there I see them all glitter. For it was His love that helped them to endure; it was by His blood that they overcame. And then think of another list of crowns. They who turn many to righteousness shall shine as the stars for ever and ever. What crowns shall theirs be when they come before God, when the souls they have saved shall enter paradise with them. What shouts of acclamation, what honours, what rewards shall then be given to the winners of souls! What will they do with their crowns? Why, they will take them from their heads and lay them there where sits the Lamb in the midst of the throne. But see, another host approaches. I see a company of cherubic spirits flying upwards to Christ, and who are these? The reply is, We lived on earth for sixty, or seventy, or eighty years, until we tottered into our graves from very weakness; when we died there was no marrow in our bones, our hair had grown grey, and we were crisp and dry with age. How came ye here? They reply, After many years of strife with the world, of trials and of troubles, we entered heaven at last. And ye have crowns, I see. Yes, they say, but we intend not to wear them. Whither are ye going, then? We are going to yonder throne, for our crowns have been surely given us by grace, for nothing but grace could have helped us to weather the storm so many, many years. I see the grave and reverend sires pass one by one before the throne, and there they lay their crowns at His blessed feet, and then, shouting with the infant throng, they cry, Salvation unto Him, etc. And then I see following behind them another class. And who are ye? Their answer is, We are the chief of sinners saved by grace. And here they come--Saul of Tarsus, and Manasseh, and Rahab, and many of the same class. And how came ye here? They reply, We have had much forgiven, we were grievous sinners, but the love of Christ reclaimed us, the blood of Christ washed us; and whiter than snow are we, though once we were black as hell. And whither are ye going? They reply, We are going to cast our crowns at His feet, and Crown Him Lord of all. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Many crowns
I. On His head is the crown of conquest of sin. This is the victory.
II. On His head is the crown of the conquest of sorrow. That reigned supreme.
III. On His head is the crown of the conquest of suffering.
IV. On His head is the crown of the conquest of Satan. No light conquest!
V. On His head is the crown of the conquest of death. (W. M. Statham, M. A.)
The royalty of the glorified Redeemer
I. The glory of the great Redeemer.
1. His essential majesty.
2. The grandeur and the equal diversity of His peculiar functions. There is no work so glorious, no prerogative so high, that it is not specifically ascribed to Him in the pages of inspiration.
3. The greatness of those obstacles He is represented to have overcome in the fulfilment of His exalted undertakings.
4. The completeness of His victories in themselves.
5. His resulting satisfaction and the fulness of His joy.
6. The same almighty power which displayed itself so illustriously in His personal conquests was, even in the earliest age, exhibited in the progress of His cause, and the preservation of His followers, in spite of the most aggravated injuries and most threatening dangers.
7. We must now turn, somewhat mere directly, to the spiritual consequences of redemption, whence the real value of that recompense the Saviour has attained for all His privations, humiliation, and sorrow. They are of every kind. His victories are those of pity and of wrath, of indignation and of tenderness, of insulted majesty avenging its own wrongs, and of mercy rejoicing against justice. They spread over every department of the Divine administration, extend to every diversity of power which menaces, or of impurity which would pollute, or of sorrow which would darken and afflict, diffusing their happy consequences through an unlimited territory and a never-ending duration.
II. Those obvious practical reflections the subject so forcibly suggests.
1. Let its contemplation teach us the sentiments we should habitually cherish respecting the power and glory of the Saviour.
2. Let us cultivate those associations which belong to His supremacy, for we cannot too highly exalt Him. Let us see, in all that is fair and good amidst the scenes that encompass us, the skill of His workmanship--the beauty of His image. Let the convulsions of empire and the vicissitudes of time instruct us to confide in that eternal presidency over the affairs of men, by which the ends of His redemption shall be finally secured. (R. S. McAll, LL. D.)
The supreme kingship of Christ
The supreme kingship of Jesus Christ as Mediator is manifestly the theme of our text. The ruling principle in the mediatorial empire is benevolence. The final purpose o! the mediatorial empire is the highest possible good of man. This Jesus is able to accomplish by reason of His infinite attributes of wisdom and of power.
I. Let us look, then, at the material universe. There are many kings in matter. The sun is the king of day; the moon is the queen of night. The planet, with its attendant satellites, exercises a kingly rule over them. Gravitation, subtle and invisible, yet permeating all things, and influencing all things in sea, air, and land, exercises a kind of kingly rule over everything within the range of its influence. Just as the British Empire has its colonies and dependencies in Africa, Australia, and America; each possessing its own governor and its own mode of government; each independent in its place, yet dependent upon the parent power; each supreme in its own locality, subject nevertheless to the higher supremacy of the Queen: so is it in this material creation. It is divided into miniature kingdoms, petty empires, and in each kingdom there is a king. Look at the bee-hive. There is congregated under that straw cone an empire. All the elements of a kingdom are found there. A queen rules within. Authority and subjection, rule and submission may be found under that covering. The same thing is true of the ant-hill. The naturalist assures us that order and harmony prevail in what appears to us confused chaos. There a kingly rule is recognised, submission to supreme authority is observed, and in these you have the elements of an empire. Lifting your eyes from the earth around you to the heaven above you, we are told that those heavens are divided into districts and groups of worlds, that in each group there is one system exercising a kingly rule over the rest. Far above all these petty kingdoms and minute empires is the King of kings and Lord of lords. He moulded every atom. He brightened every star. He fashioned every system. He appointed to each its boundary. He created all forces and originated all laws. From Him all things proceed. To Him all things tend. For Him all things exist. And around Him all things revolve. He is King of kings and Lord of lords in the material world. The disciples of a sceptical science have endeavoured to extort from nature evidence against her King. The geologist has dived into the depths of the earth, hoping to discover some strange hieroglyphics on the rocks of nature which would bear testimony against the King of nature. The astronomer has soared into heaven, and tried to get the very stars in their courses to fight against Him who made them. In fact, nature has been twisted and torn and disembowelled in order to obtain evidence against her Lord. Faithful to her mission, she moves on for the accomplishment of the great purposes for which her King has made her; so that, whether by her regular movement, or the occasional suspension of her laws, as in the case of miracles, she asserts the kingship of her Lord, and proves her obedience to her Master. This world materially considered is eminently fitted for Christ as Mediator. We can only conceive of three kinds of worlds. One in which there shall be nothing but purity, and consequently nothing but happiness; such is heaven. The second, a world in which there shall be nothing but sin, and consequently nothing but misery; such is hell. The third, a world in which there shall be an admixture of the two, good and evil, right and wrong; such is the world we occupy. This world, take it geologically, is not fitted for anything else than a mediatorial world. It is not fitted, as to its material construction, to be a heaven, a world of unsullied purity, and, consequently, a world of unmixed happiness. Lightnings and storms ruthlessly pursue their destructive and desolating course; the volcano belches forth its destructive lava, which carries desolation to cities and villages and fruitful plains. These things could not exist in a world of unsullied happiness and purity. We find the elements of ruin and destruction in the very material of which the world is constructed, and it is not fitted on that account to be a heaven. It is not fitted, on the other hand, to be a world of retribution and of unmixed evil. The sun shines here. The valleys smile with luxuriance here. Thrilling sensations of pleasure are experienced here. Scenes of loveliness spread themselves before the vision here. There is no sunshine in hell; no beauteous scenes are there; no sweet harmony there: but they do exist here. Why have we this admixture of destructive and benevolent forces stored up in the secret places of nature? These elements are necessary in order that the earth may be a fitting theatre for Jesus Christ to carry out His mediatorial purposes. He must have elements to appeal to mans fears, and He finds them in the destructive forces of nature. He must have elements to appeal to mans hopes, and He finds them in the benevolent forces of nature. The component parts of earth were adjusted, put together, with a view to redeeming purposes. All the elements of nature, all its laws, and all its forces have been made for Christ as Mediator, and are placed under His immediate control. He is King of kings and Lord of lords in the material world.
II. In the mental world Jesus Christ is King of kings. Earth has her crowned kings, monarchs surrounded with symbols of royalty; the crown, the sceptre, and the throne. The extent of their dominions varies, as does also the amount of power they wield. Some are despotic, arbitrary, and absolute; others are mild and paternal in their rule. Some are the mere tools of parties, and retain nothing akin to kingship but the symbol. While some of them happily and trustfully acknowledge the supremacy of Christ, there are others who recognise no authority higher than their own, and no power superior to their own. Nations are organised and held together, scattered or established on the one principle of subserviency to the empire of Christ. The ruling powers of earth exist for Him. Willingly or unwillingly they are His servants. Consciously or unconsciously they are carrying out His purposes. When they cease to be His instruments He often removes them, and brings others in their place. By Me princes rule, By Me kings reign and princes decree justice. Sceptics sneeringly say, Your Christianity has been in the world for eighteen hundred years, and this surely is time enough for it to subdue the world. The fact that it has failed to meet with universal acceptance throughout all the ages is proof enough that it is not the Divine religion you profess it to be. Our reply is, God feels no hurry. When man strongly desires to accomplish an object he often exercises haste. He is liable to so many contingencies. Unforeseen circumstances may arise to check his progress and to defeat his purpose. But God exercises no haste, nor doubts the issue. Eternity is before Him; endless ages are waiting for Him. But there are also uncrowned kings--men who never wore a crown, perhaps never saw one; but who, nevertheless, are the true kings of society, who possess minds of kingly proportions and imperial mould, who influence and move and control minds inferior to their own. There have been the founders of false religions, the originators of errors, like Buddha, Mahomet, Sabellius, Arius; and nearer our own times men like Tom Paine, Voltaire, Gibbon, Hume; and men of our own day like Strauss and Renan. These men possess kingly intellects, and wield a kingly power over many other intellects. They have set themselves up against the kingly rule of Christ. They have inspired millions with their errors. The battle they have waged with the King of Truth is fierce and desperate. It has been going on for ages. But this we know, Jesus is unchanging and immortal. His enemies in succession die and pass away, but He never dies. Let the kings of the earth, crowned and uncrowned, social rulers and mental rulers, set themselves against Gods anointed; let them join in an unhallowed conspiracy, and associate with them the whole mass of infernal powers, and rise up in rebellion against the kingly rule of Christ, all that they can do is but the menace of a puny worm against One whose frown is perdition. The Lamb shall overcome them. A reverent universe will then bow at the feet of His victorious Majesty, and creation shall become vocal with the song, The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign for ever and ever.
III. Jesus Christ is supreme in the moral world. Men are everywhere actuated by principles, passions, purposes, motives existing within them. These inward forces are in possession of the mastery; they exercise kingship. In the language of the Scriptures, they reign, they have dominion. Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness. The lust of power, the lust of money, the lust of pleasure, the lust of pride, the lust of envy, are the imperial powers which control men, bringing them into vile and degrading bondage, and hurrying them into wrong doing. Evil, when thus dominant, exercises a crushing sway over its victim. Some of you have been conscious of this. Some base passion has mastered you. And after a short conflict you had to beat a retreat and own yourself again mastered. But why? Because you faced the foe in your strength. Sin has but one master, one king, the Lord Jesus Christ. He destroys the works of the devil, and it is through Him strengthening you that you can be made victorious. However mighty evil may be when enthroned in the human heart, Jesus is mightier far. He is stronger than the strong man armed. Christ while yet on earth confronted and mastered moral evil under a variety of forms and circumstances. Look at Him against the grave of Lazarus. He saw in that grave evidence of the triumph of moral evil--a proof that sin had obtained kingship over human life, and reversed the destiny of man from life to death. His tears were shed over sin and its sad results as witnessed in that sepulchre. His contest was not with death but with moral evil. But there are moral laws as well as moral forces in the world. We will just mention one or two as an illustration. One law is this: that hardness is the inevitable result of resistance. Just as the anvil becomes hardened by every stroke of the hammer, the heart of man is hardened by every resistance it offers to the Divine Word and Divine Spirit. This is not an arrangement. It is a law in Gods moral empire, and this law explains to me what otherwise seems to be paradoxical in the history of Pharaoh. The penalty of hardness was inflicted by God, that is, by an inevitable law which He appointed; and in this sense it may be said that God hardened Pharaohs heart. But, on the other hand, Pharaoh did the wrong, the penalty of which is hardness. God neither compelled nor disposed him to resist. God is responsible for the law which inflicts hardness as the penalty of resistance; but Pharaoh alone is responsible for setting that law at defiance, and thereby incurring the penalty of hardness. Another great law in the mediatorial government of Jesus is that sin is its own punishment. Where there is wrong-doing there must be suffering. That is Gods law. And so we understand the declaration, Tophet is ordained of old; the breath of the Lord doth kindle it. God affixed suffering as the penalty of wrong-doing. But the wrong-doer alone is responsible for bringing himself under the dominion of that law. God has made it a law that fire should burn. If I foolishly thrust my hand into the flame I become a sufferer under the dominion of that law. God is responsible for the law: but who is responsible for my suffering? Certainly not God, but myself alone. Why does not retribution fall at once on transgressors? It is because the Mediator reigns. He is above law, superior to law. He restrains the action of the law of retribution. He holds back the penalty. But what right has Jesus Christ to interfere with the law and to delay retribution? This right is not based on His absolute sovereignty, but on His atonement. The kingly title of the Lord Jesus is written on His vesture. What kind of a vesture is it? It is not a kingly robe, but a priestly one. He is clothed with a vesture dipped in blood. His kingship is based on sacrifice. But this restraint will only be exercised for a time. Probation being over, the impenitent will be given up to the law of retribution.
IV. In the spiritual universe Jesus Christ is supreme. There is not a portion of the universe where His sway is not felt and confessed. There is not a locality abandoned. That dominion extends to the place of banishment, the abode of the lost. Kings many dwell in hell. Princely titles are given to them. They are designated principalities and powers, spiritual wickedness. They are masters in evil, but they are in chains. Jesus, while yet on earth, confronted some of these spiritual rulers, and proved His kingship over them by mastering them. His dominion extends also to heaven, the abode of the holy. Good spirits are subject to His kingship. The armies which were in heaven followed Him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean (verse 14). These constitute His retinue, accompanying Him in His march of conquest, sharing His toils, sympathising with His purposes, and aiding His triumphs. With outspread wings they are ever waiting His behests; ever ready to execute His purpose, whether of judgment or of mercy. His will is their rule, His word their law. What a pledge have we of the final triumph of truth! If Jesus is the King of all beings, all forces, all laws; if all power is given Him in heaven, earth, and hell; if He regulates and overrules all events, we need have no doubt of the issue. From the beginning He keeps one end steadily in view, the subjugation of moral evil, the destruction of the works of the devil. We have spoken to you of the kingship based on atonement, but we would remind you of the kingship based on power. The title is written not only on the priestly vesture, but also on His thigh. But why upon the thigh? The thigh is a symbol of power. It is the strongest place in a man. It is the place where the muscles congregate. The angel of the covenant touched Jacob on the thigh, and sent him limping all the way through life, to humble him, and to remind him how weak he was even in his strongest place when God touched him. Hence the kingship of Jesus is written on His thigh. Men who will not yield willing submission to His authority and the claims of His love shall be made to yield unwilling submission to His retributive justice. If the milder aspects of His kingly character fail to subdue them, He must turn upon them the sterner aspects of that character. If the kingship of the vesture fail to subdue you He must turn upon you the kingship of the thigh. If the revelation of His mercy and love fail to allure you, He must by a revelation of power break what refused to bend. We all must be the subjects of either the kingship of the vesture or the kingship of the thigh. (Richard Roberts.)
The crowned Christ
1. Christs perfect physical health and bodily beauty is a crown that attracts us. We read of His fatigue, hunger, and lack of sleep; but nowhere of inability to sleep, or of disgust of food, or of any physical infirmities.
2. There is the crown of intellectual wisdom. Not that, indeed, of scholastic and rabbinic lore; but there was marvellous maturity of mind, a balance of faculties, a felicity, aptness, and proportion about His mental development.
3. The crown of moral perfection rests on the head of Christ.
4. Divine love. When on earth there was in Christ this element which drew men to Him.
5. The crown of suffering.
6. Power to save. This is operative here and now as well as in the future life. (A. J. Lyman, D. D.)
Many crowns--Christ as King
I. To understand this passage we must compare it with a very similar passage in chap. 6., where is described the beginning of a conflict which is here drawing to a victorious end. There the Rider on the white horse, going forth conquering and to conquer, is followed by riders on red and black and pale horses--powers which were to destroy, hunt, kill. Here these riders have vanished. Now, the armies that were in heaven followed Him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean. There a crown was given to Him. Here He has many crowns, or rather diadems, upon His head. The same crown is still worn, but now it is glorified by many circlets, which have been added to it one by one. Each has been a diadem or crown of victory; each represents a new conquest over the powers of evil
III. Notice that the crown itself is the Kings by gift (chap. 6:2). This crown was given to Jesus at His Incarnation, when He came forth out of the heavenly places, conquering and to conquer. He had, indeed, before that day a crown which was His own by right and by inheritance. But that crown He laid aside. With infinite condescension He emptied Himself of all that glory (Php_2:6-8). Then He accepted this crown as a gift. Being already King of the angels, King of the universe, He now stooped to become King of humanity. But this world, to which He thus came to be its King, was a scene of rebellion. He had to win His sovereignty, to vindicate and prove His title. Opposition had to be crushed, mighty foes to be vanquished. Each of His achievements wins for Him another circlet in that golden crown. The glory at the end will be infinite, even as His humiliation was infinite.
III. There is an old reading which makes the text run thus: On His head were many crowns having names written, as though each circlet contained its own description. Well do we know the single words which would glitter on some of the brightest of the diadems--Suffered; crucified; dead; buried; descended into hell! Each of them sounds indeed, like a defeat, and yet each is, we know, a stupendous victory. Then will follow those two in which His triumph is openly displayed--He rose again from the dead; He ascended into heaven, etc.
IV. The tale is not yet completed. More circlets have yet to be added. The things which Jesus began to do and to teach up to the day when He was taken up, He left His Church to go on doing and teaching till the end of time. Not until all the kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ will the crown of Jesus be complete, and the many diadems have reached their full number. Lessons:
1. The duty of loyalty to our King.
2. Personal devotion to our King.
3. Each should do something for the spread of His kingdom.
(1) We ought to do it, because He is our King and the nations belong to Him of right.
(2) We shall be anxious to do it, in proportion as we realise the beauty of His character. (R. H. Parr, M. A.)
Christs kingly authority
I. Christ, in His mediatorial character, has a crown of supreme dignity.
II. Christ, as Mediator, has a crown of victory.
III. Jesus, as Mediator, has a crown of sovereign power. Unto Him is given all power in heaven and upon earth: as far as the bounds of creation reach, so far does His dominion reach.
IV. Christ, as Mediator, has a crown of sovereign right. He has not only the power to compel, but the right to demand the obedience of every creature; and it is the great distinction between those who are and those who are not His people, that while all the creatures of God, whether willingly or unwillingly, must execute Christs pleasure, those who are indeed His submit joyfully and heartily to His rule, and keep themselves ready to do or suffer whatever He requires of them, simply because He requires it.
V. Jesus, as Mediator, has a crown of judicial authority: The Father Himself judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment to the Son, etc. (Wm. Ramsay.)
The many crowns
I. It is most probable that special attention is hereby meant to be drawn: first, to that multiplicity of characters in which our Lord is set forth. Those words which we so glibly utter--Mediator, Advocate, Saviour, Redeemer, Intercessor--are not different words to represent the same thing. Every one has its own true and proper signification; every one gathers up into itself, and expresses a distinct and independent part of tits work for man. But, further than this, the Lord Jesus Christ is the only Being who possesses more than one Nature. These varied offices spring out of this further truth. They are the branches which grow out of the doctrine that He is at once the Root and Offspring of David, being both God and Man.
II. But there is a further interpretation to be given of the mystic crowns. It is a remarkable prophecy of Isaiah when addressing the spiritual Zion, that is, the Christian Church, Thou shalt also be a crown of glory in the hand of the Lord, making the diadem of Christ to be the company of His elect. So also St. Paul writes (Php_4:1; 1Th_2:19). The idea in all these passages is the same, that the disciples are the crown of the teacher. And, transferring this to our Blessed Lord, we get another, and perhaps the most blessed signification of the text, even this--that the crowning of the Redeemer, and His highest glory within the Heaven of Heavens, are the Churches which have been gathered unto Him, and the souls which have been saved through Him. Let us pause upon this thought in connection with the Mission work of the Church. Why should we take an interest in it? Why, with confessedly great calls upon us at home, must we contribute money and send men to labour beyond the sea? Now observe, first, that if there were no visible results to encourage us, we should still be bound to preach the gospel to every creature. The Church forgets one main purpose of its existence if it forgets this. But observe, secondly, that God does seem to have vouchsafed us a measure of success, at least, in proportion to our exertions and the short time during which the work has been carried on. And whilst there is a great dearth of men abroad, is there not also a great dearth of prayer at home? (Bp. Woodford.)
The crowns of Christ
[See Mat_27:29.] Contrasts often powerfully reveal truth. But never did the universe present a contrast so striking as that suggested by our texts. Yonder in Jerusalem is a despised Nazarene, forsaken by His friends, hated, mocked, scourged, crowned with thorns! Yonder in heaven is the same Being, gloriously apparelled, crowns of victory on His head, worshipped by myriads of radiant spirits as King of kings, etc.
I. The crown of thorns symbolised Christs submission to sin; the crowns of glory His triumph over sin. The world has often looked upon this most unnatural sight, this reversal of the true, Divinely-appointed order of things--the evil triumphing over the good. The Son of Heavens King is crowned with thorns and crucified; who will keep His laws or care for His sceptre now? The sharp thorns which pierced Him have healed many a wounded heart. His death has been a spring of life to the world. His shame has won immortal glory for countless redeemed souls.
II. The crown of thorns shadowed forth Christs love to men; the crowns of glory mens love to Him.
III. The crown of thorns showed that Christs kingdom is limited in its instruments; the crowns of glory that it is universal in its extent. The excited multitude would have made Jesus a King, and placed earthly weapons, soldiers, etc., at His disposal; but He thrust all these aside. He wore a crown of thorns to show that He was a King ruling not by force, but by influence, not by material instruments, civil power, etc., but by spiritual weapons, love, truth, etc. Universal dominion has been the dream of proud conquerors, Alexander, Napoleon; but they have traced their empires on shifting sands, to be obliterated by the next storm blast. But mans dream is Gods sober truth.
IV. The crown of thorns unfolded the transitoriness of Christs sufferings--the crowns of glory the eternity of His joy. Thorns! Perishable in their very nature. The many crowns point to the everlasting joys which thrill the Redeemers heart. His happiness is as permanent as His sovereignty. (T. W. Mays, M. A.)
The Redeemers crowns
To our Lord Jesus Christ belongs the crown of--
1. Royal descent.
2. Victory.
3. Empire.
4. Priesthood.
5. Every excellence.
6. Eternal glory. (Preachers Portfolio.)
Christ and His crowns
I. The regal crown.
1. The crown of universal proprietorship belongs to Christ.
2. The crown of universal dominion belongs to Christ.
II. The victors crown. The Redeemer proved Himself a conqueror in three respects: by His life, by His death, and by His resurrection.
1. He won the crown of unspotted obedience.
2. He won the crown of immortality.
3. He won the crown of championship over the grave.
III. The bridegrooms crown. The Church is to be presented as a chaste virgin to Christ. Then He shall see of the travail of his soul and be satisfied. Then shall another crown be added--the crown of universal adoration and gratitude. (The Study.)
The dignities of Christ
I. These dignities are of priceless value. What on earth does man regard as more valuable than a crown? But what are all the crowns of the world to the diadems that encircle the being of Christ?
II. These dignities are manifold. There is the dignity of an all-knowing intellect; of an immaculate conscience; of an absolutely unselfish love; of a will free from all the warping influences of sin, error, and prejudice.
III. These dignities are self-produced. All His dignities are but the brilliant evolutions of His own great soul.
IV. These dignities are imperishable. How soon the crowns worn by men grow dim and rot into dust! But Christs diadems are incorruptible; they will sparkle on for ever, and fill all the heavens of immensity with their brilliant lustre. (Homilist.)
The Saviour crowned
I. Whence it is that these honours accumulate upon Him.
1. From the essential dignity of His nature.
2. From the offices He sustains in the economy of salvation.
3. From the exploits He has won and the conquests He has achieved.
II. By what means we may contribute to multiply the honours of the Saviours name.
1. By our personal submission to His spiritual empire. We must all take side.
2. By consecrating an individual interest to His cause.
3. By taking part in the great institutions of the times in which we live. (M. Braithwaite.)
He was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood.--
The war in heaven
Who, then, is the being whom St. John sees in the spiritual world appearing eternally as a warrior, with his garments stained with blood, the leader of armies smiting the nations, ruling them with a rod of iron? St. John tells us that He has one name which none knew save Himself. But He tells us that He has another name which St. John did know; and that it is the Word of God; and He tells us, moreover, that He is called Faithful and True. And who He is all Christian men are bound to know. He it is who makes perpetual war, as King of kings and Lord of lords. He Himself is full of chivalry, full of fidelity; and, therefore, all which is base and treacherous is hateful in His eyes, and that which He hates He is both able and willing to destroy. He it is who makes perpetual war. He makes war in righteousness. Therefore, all men and things which are unrighteous and unjust are on the opposite side to Him, His enemies, and He will trample them under His feet. But the meek and gentle Jesus? That the Lord was meek and gentle when on earth, and is, therefore, meek and gentle in heaven, from all eternities to all eternities, there can be no doubt. But with that meekness and lowliness there was in Him on earth, and, therefore, there is in Him in heaven, a capacity of burning indignation against all wrong and falsehood, especially against that worst form of falsehood, hypocrisy; and that worst form of hypocrisy, covetousness, cloaking itself under the name of religion. For that He had no meek and gentle words; but, Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers I How shall ye escape the damnation of Gehenna? And because His character is perfect and eternal--because He is the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever--therefore we are bound to believe that He has now, and will have as long as evil exists, the same Divine indignation, the same Divine determination to cast out of His kingdom--which is simply the whole universe--all that offends, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie. The wisest of living Britons has said: Infinite pity, yet infinite rigour of law. It is so that the universe is made. I should add: It is so that the universe must needs be made, because it is made by Christ, and its laws are the reflection of His character--pitiful because Christ is pitiful; rigorous because Christ is rigorous. So pitiful is Christ that He did not hesitate to be slain for men, that mankind through Him might be saved. So rigorous is Christ that He does not hesitate to slay men, if needful, that mankind by them may be saved. I know but too well that most people find it very difficult, always have in every age and country found it most difficult to believe in such a God as Scripture sets forth--a God of boundless tenderness, and yet a God of boundless indignation. Mens notion of tenderness is too often a selfish dislike of seeing other people uncomfortable, because it makes them uncomfortable themselves. They hate and dread honest severity and stern exercise of lawful power; till it has been bitterly but truly said that public opinion will allow a man to do anything except his duty. Now this is a humour which cannot last. It breeds weakness, anarchy, and, at last, ruin to society. And then the effeminate and luxurious, terrified for their money and their comfort, fly from an unwholesome tenderness to an unwholesome indignation; and, in a panic of selfish fury, become--as cowards are too apt to do--blindly and wantonly cruel, and those who fancied God too indulgent to punish His enemies are the first and the fiercest to punish their own. Christian, says a great genius and a great divine--
If thou wouldst learn to love,
Thou first must learn to hate.
And, if any answer: Hate? even God hateth nothing that He hath made; then the rejoinder is: And for that very reason He hates evil, because He has not made it, and it is ruinous to all that He has made. Let every man go and do likewise. Let him hate what is wrong with all his heart, and mind, and soul, and strength, for so only will he love God with all his heart, and mind, and soul, and strength. Let him say, day by day--aye, almost hour by hour--Strengthen me, O Lord, to hate what Thou hatest and to love what Thou lovest; that so when that dread day shall come, when every man shall receive the reward of the deeds done in the body, whether they be good or whether they be evil, he may have some decent answer to give to the awful question: On whose side hast thou been in the battle of life? On the side of God and all good beings, or on the side of all bad spirits and bad men? (C. Kingsley, M. A.)
The grand review
When my text, in figure, represents the armies of the glorified as riding upon white horses, it sets forth the strength, the fleetness, the victory, and the innocence of the redeemed. The horse has always been an emblem of strength. When startled by sudden sight or sound, how he plunges along the highway! The hand of the strong driver on the reins is like the grasp of a child.
1. Therefore, when the redeemed are represented as riding on white horses, their strength is set forth. The days of their invalidism and decrepitude are past. O the day when, having put off the last physical impediment, you shall come to the mightiness of heavenly vigour! There will be hardly anything you cannot lift, or crush, or conquer.
2. The horse used in the text is also the emblem of fleetness. The wild horses on the plain, at the appearance of the hunter, make the miles slip under them, as with a snort they bound away, and the dust rises in whirlwinds from their flying feet, until, far away, they halt with their faces to their pursuer, and neigh in gladness at their escape. More swift than they shall be the redeemed in heaven. O the exhilaration of feeling that you can take worlds at a bound, vast distances instantly overcome--no difference between here and there!
3. The horse in the text is also a symbol of victory. He was not used on ordinary occasions; but the conqueror mounted him, and rode on among the acclamations of the rejoicing multitude. So all the redeemed of heaven are victors. Yea, they are more than conquerors through Him that hath loved them. My text places us on one of the many avenues of the Celestial City. The soldiers of God have come up from earthly battle, and are on the parade. We shall not have time to see all the great hosts of the redeemed; but John, in my text, points out a few of the battalions: And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses. Now, come on the battalions of the saved. Here passes the regiment of Christian martyrs. They endured all things for Christ. They were hounded; they were sawn asunder; they were hurled out of life. Here comes up another host of the redeemed: the regiment of Christian philanthropists. They went down into the battle-fields to take care of the wounded; they plunged into the damp and moulded prisons, and pleaded before God and human governors in behalf of the incarcerated; they preached Christ among the besotten populations of the city; they carried Bibles and bread into the garrets of pain: but in the sweet river of death they washed off the filth and the loathsomeness of those to whom they had administered. There is John Howard, who circumnavigated the globe in the name of Him who said: I was sick, and ye visited Me. Here goes Elliott, who once toiled for Christ among savages, saying to them: I am about the work of the great God. Touch me if you dare! Here comes a great column of the Christian poor. They always walked on earth. The only ride they ever had was in the hearse that took them to the Potters Field. They went day by day poorly clad, and meanly fed, and insufficiently sheltered. But a shining retinue was waiting beyond the river for their departing spirits, and as they passed a celestial escort confronted them, and snow-white chargers of heaven are brought in, and the conquerors mounted; and here they pass in the throng of the victors--poor-house exchanged for palace, rags for imperial attire, weary walking for seats on the white horses from the Kings stable. Ride on, ye victors! Another retinue: that of the Christian invalids. These who pass now languished for many a year on their couches. But I cannot count the interminable troops of God as they pass, the redeemed of all ages, and lands, and conditions. (T. De Witt Talmage.)
His name is called the Word of God.--
The victory of the Word of God
The Word of God. What is it? where is it? is it at all? Has God spoken? If so, how has He spoken, and what is the word He has spoken?
I. What is a word? A word may be broadly defined as that which expresses thought. Now, thought is expressed to some extent by language, but only to some extent. It is also expressed by action. Action, therefore, is a word. Conduct is a word. Everything that man has made or done is a word, because it expresses thought, and expresses it sometimes much more effectively than any spoken or written language can. The artist can best express his thought by a picture; the sculptor, by a statue; the musician, by his music. Action is a word. Everything that man has done or made is a word, because it expresses thought. The houses we build, the factories, the ships, the churches, the clothes we wear, the movements we make, everything that man has made or done, from the easiest and simplest and most trifling thing up to the hardest and most complex--it all stands for thought, is the expression of thought, is resolvable back into thought--the word, the embodiment, the manifestation of thought. In the Book of Genesis it is said that God speaks it into existence. God said, Let there be light. Light is His word, the expression of His thought, and He speaks it. And God said, Let the sun, and the moon, and the stars, and the dry land, and living creatures appear; the sun, the stars, the living creatures--these are His words, the expression of His thought, and therefore it is said, Ha speaks them into existence. Is there any other word that God has spoken? Is there any other expression of His thought? In making up the inventory of the contents of the universe, we must not leave humanity out of the reckoning; and if the sun, the stars, the great globe itself, be the expression of thought, and constitute the word of the infinite God, must not human nature also be regarded as the word of the infinite God? Yes, man is Gods word as well as physical nature, expressing the thought of God. But that statement must be guarded, must be qualified. For nowhere in our ordinary life do we see what man is, and therefore cannot know from the study of the ordinary man what God is. We see much that is good and noble in the history of man, and we also see many things that are base and ignoble, and which our moral sense will not permit us in any wise to attribute to God; and looking upon these evil things in human history, we are forced to say, Some enemy hath done this, and the tares have sprung up with the wheat. But let our eyes somewhere see the perfect man, in whose humanity there is no flaw or blemish; then and there we shall see the perfect word of God, the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person.
II. And now, having found what in the broadest sense is meant by the Word of God, let us consider the victory of that word; and, first, as we see it in the forms and forces of the physical creation about us. Physical science, as we call it, is the dominant study to-day, and marvellous are the results which have been accomplished by it. Not only have we explored the earth and gathered its hidden treasures, but the heavens, and the waters under the earth, and all the forces of nature, we have gathered in golden chains around the feet of man. And yet if, as the result of all this, man is only becoming greater and richer in material products; if all the forces of nature which he has discovered and utilised are only giving him greater material growth and expansion, then, although to-day he can send his messages under the waters and across the seas, and the earth has been made to give its coal and iron and oil and mineral treasures to him, and the stars in their courses fight for him instead of against him, then I say that in spite of all these things he is just as much a prisoner--although, indeed, he is bound with golden chains--as in the days of Sisera and of Job; and, with the materialistic philosophy coming in to tell him that there is nothing but matter and force about him--no thought, no spirit, no heaven, no God--not even a prisoner of hope. Let us eat and drink and be merry, for to-morrow we die. But no! The physical universe about us is not merely matter and force; it is the word of mind. There is thought in it, through it, pervading it. It is the embodiment of the thought of God. And, looking at it in this way, then does human life become truly rich, and is crowned with many crowns. We are standing, not on the floor of a prison, with the walls of a prison around us, and the great sealed roof of a prison over our heads: we are living in the open of God, and There is not a bird that sings, There is not a flower that stars the elastic sod, There is not a breath the radiant summer brings, But is a word of God. But human nature as well as physical nature--the world of man as well as the world of nature--is the word of God. And in the perfect man Christ Jesus, as I have tried to show, we have His perfect word; and, oh, what victories that Word of God has wrought! The story of civilisation is the story of its triumph. All the best things in the world to-day, all the best and purest feelings that touch and sway, if they do not completely control, the heart of man--his highest conduct, his bravest deeds, his noblest sacrifices, his brightest hopes for the future, without which the future is cold and dreary and impenetrable darkness to him--that Word of God has inspired. By that Word of God we have been taught that we are sons of God; and, looking out upon the vast physical creation about us, or looking up through the moral and spiritual clouds above us, we have been able to say, Our Father, who art in heaven, Thine is the kingdom of the physical creation about us; Thine is the power that is working mysteriously in our human life for our good; Thine is the glory for ever! And, finding our fatherhood in God, we have found our brotherhood in one another; with the consciousness of that brotherhood we have been trying to live and perform our duties, and are trying, with many infirmities, to perform our duties to-day. Far as we yet come short of that ideal form of life, we are moving toward it, and will continue to move until at last, here or somewhere--it matters not, for everywhere we are in the open of God--here or somewhere we shall all come, in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto the perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Jesus Christ. (D. K. Greer, D. D.)
The Word of God
The Infinite Father has spoken two great words to His intelligent family. One word is Nature. The heavens declare His glory, etc. The other word is Christ. He is The Loges.
I. The word of absolute infallibility.
II. The word of exhaustless significance.
III. The word of almighty power.
IV. The word of universal interpretability.
Even the written words that make up what we call the Bible are frequently uninterpretable. Hence their renderings and meanings are constantly fluctuating, and often contradictive. But here is a word that stands for ever--the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever. This word is a Life. A Life a child can interpret, and the greater the life of a man, the more generous, truthful, loving he is, the more readily a child can read and understand him. Hence no life is so interpretable as Christs life. (Homilist.)
The four names of Christ
I. The faithful and true (verse 11). So was He:
1. In avenging His people.
2. In carrying out His purposes. It mattered not who or what withstood.
3. The past proves the righteousness of this name. His prophecies have been fulfilled. His promises made good. His precepts owned as just.
II. The unknown name. (Verse 12, And lie had a name written, that no man knew, but He Himself.) It was a written name, but illegible, incomprehensible, to all but Himself. The names advance in majesty. Faithful and True--that is an august name, but it cannot be said to be incomprehensible, and known to none but Himself. Glory be to Him that we do know Him by that name, and that the name is rightly His. But now the ineffable nature of the Son of God seems to be suggested. Who by searching can find out God? Christ is more than all our thought, than all we have understood or have imagined. Who knows what is the relation between Him and the Father, and what the nature of the union in Him of humanity and God? Who can understand the profound philosophy of the Atonement, the Incarnation, the Resurrection? No man knoweth the Son but the Father--so said our Lord; and this unknown name, written, though not read, endorses that sublime saying. And do we wonder that we cannot understand? Why, this we fail to do even with our fellow-men if they be of higher nature than our own. Let us be glad and grateful that, whatever riches of grace and glory we have already known, there is an inexhaustible fountain and an unsearchable store yet remaining. And now a name more majestic still is given.
III. The word of God (verse 13).
IV. King of kings, and Lord of lords (verse 16). (S. Conway, B. A.)
The armies which were in heaven followed Him.--
Armies invisible and distant on the side of the good
I. The hosts of heaven are interested in the moral campaign which Christ is preaching on this earth. They not only know what is going on on this little planet, but throb with earnest interest in its history. They desire to look into its great moral concerns. No wonder some in heaven are related to some on earth; they participate in the same nature, sustain the same relation, and are subject to the same laws. Here, too, stupendous events have occurred in connection with Him who is the Head of all Principalities, Powers, and that must ever thrall the universe.
II. The hosts of heaven lend their aid to Christ in his tremendous battles. If you ask me in what way they can render Him aid, I can suggest many probable methods. We know that one great thought struck into the soul of an exhausted and despairing man, can repeat and reinvigorate him. May it not be possible for departed souls and unfallen spirits to breathe such thoughts into the breasts of feeble men on earth?
II. you ask me why Christ should accept such aid as theirs, or the aid of any creature in His mighty struggles, I answer, not because He requires their services, for He could do His work alone, but for their own good. By it He gratifies their noblest instincts, engages their highest faculties, and gains for them their highest honours and sublimest joys.
III. The hosts of heaven are fully equipped for service in this martial undertaking on earth. It was customary in Oriental lands for soldiers of the highest rank to go forth to battle on steeds. It is a law of Christs kingdom that those only who are holy and pure can enter therein: hence these heavenly soldiers are furnished with white horses, the emblem of purity, and white linen also. No one in heaven or on earth will Christ allow to fight under His banner who are not qualified, both in capacity and character, for the work they undertake. (Homilist.)
He hath on His venture and on His thigh a name written, King of kings, and Lord of lords.--
The kingdom of Christ
I. The title here given to Christ.
1. Christs Godhead.
2. His dominion. The kings and lords of the earth exercise but a contracted authority. Not so Christ. His dominion is so great, that it comprehends all principalities and powers in heaven, as well as all thrones and dominions upon earth. Yea, even the devils in hell are subject to His sceptre, and are compelled to obey His commands.
II. The way in which that title is displayed.
1. Christs past victories. The Lord Jesus has already displayed His sovereignty over the whole earth, executing vengeance, whenever it was necessary, upon the heathen, and punishments upon the people, binding their kings with chains and their nobles with fetters of iron. How often, when the iniquity of a land has become full, has He sent one of His four sore judgments upon that land, the sword, or the famine, or the noisome beast, or the pestilence, to cut off man and beast! And then as to individual transgressors--Adonibezek and Goliath, Haman, Judas, and Ananias--all serve as so many beacons of His righteous indignation, and show that, notwithstanding all the opposition of pretended friends and avowed enemies, His cause has prospered and triumphed; so that in every generation the Lord Jesus has been known for the judgments He has executed, snaring the wicked in the works of their hands.
2. His future triumphs. Blessed be God, the prosperity of the ungodly, and the low estate of evangelical truth, shall not always continue as we now see them.
We may infer hence--
1. The happiness of Christs subjects.
2. The importance of knowing whether Christ is our King. (C. Clayton, M. A.)
King of kings, and Lord of lords
Let us consider over what the Christ is king--how many kings He holds in submission to Himself. This earth has been tyrannised over by usurping kings, under whose grievous yoke humanity has had to groan. It is a sad history, that of these kings of the earth. The ancient Romans had one dark page in their history--it was the annals of the kings. The story began very well, but it ended very terribly; and so deep and indelible was the impression left on the national feelings by the record of the history of the kings, that even when in later years the Commonwealth and Republic gradually developed into an Autocracy, not even Julius Caesar, not even Augustus, dared to assume the title of king. Caesar became an emperor--a king he dared not become. But there is a still darker page in the history of the world, the annals of its sins. Where is the man whose breast sin has not entered? And what a tyrant power sin is I not an abstract idea, not a mere name given to a phase of experience, but aa actual power exciting within us base desires, stimulating our neutral desires till they become base, perverting our reason, silencing our conscience, degrading our whole manhood, destroying our souls. We have indeed suffered many things from this kings tyranny; but to-night, as I survey the wondrous work of the Conqueror who has risen from His tomb, I rejoice to recognise Him as King of kings and Lord of lords, and first and foremost as King over this fearful tyrant. The rod of the oppressor is broken, and the staff of the shoulder the Lord Himself has undertaken for the human family. Sin shall not have dominion over you; for ye are not under the law, but under grace. O glorious message for those of us who have found all our strugglings and toilings and efforts futile! Now, when a king has asserted his supremacy over any conquered power, it is to the credit of that king that he should maintain that supremacy; and the practical thought I want to press home on your minds is this: If the Lord Jesus Christ has gained the right to be supreme over the powers of evil, within and without; if this is one of the royal crowns placed upon His brow; let us glorify Him by believing in His power, and let us with unwavering faith call upon Him to exercise His sovereign prerogative on our behalf. Dont you see what honour you put on Jesus when you claim that in virtue of His resurrection power you shall be enabled to do as He has done--put your foot on the neck of that which has previously tyrannised over you? When you approach sin, let there be no wavering, no holding back. Let us not approach the powers of darkness as uncertain of the issue of the conflict. Oh, children of God, when you are called to go into the midst of temptation, do you advance with palpitating heart, with inward misgiving? Very well; then thanks to yourself if you do fall, and fall again and again before the foe, if disaster follows disaster, and defeat, defeat. What! shall we rob Jesus of His rights by conquest? Is it a fact that He wears the royal crown upon His brow, which He has snatched from the head of the fallen dragon? Is it true that as sin reigned unto death, even so grace reigns by righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord? (Rom_5:21). Is it a fact that He holds this royal crown upon His brow? is He King of kings and Lord of lords? Is it true that He has trampled down transgression, and made an end of sin? Has this been the glorious result of His passion? Then you are not merely privileged to ask Him to help you, but to claim that sin shall not have dominion over you, and to look the enemy in the face with holy calm. Our blessed Lord before His passion makes this statement: Be of good cheer, I have overcome the world. Here is another dethroned monarch--and a very powerful one. Very few of us have not felt something of his sway. Very few of us have not bowed down before his throne, and yet, thank God, he too is conquered! A monarch, but a dethroned monarch. He has no longer the right to lord it over those whom Christ has made free. The man who is living in fellowship with Christ will survey the power of this world with the eye of holy jealousy, just as a loyal subject of Great Britain would be jealous of any person setting up his throne in any part of the dominions of Queen Victoria. But how much stronger would be such feelings in the heart of the Queens own son, partaker as he himself is of her rank and greatness! How his jealousy would burn against any pretender or usurper who should set himself up as a rival of the royal authority! Nor would he rest without doing all in his power to overthrow the obnoxious sway. Are we not sons of God, and heirs with Christ Himself of the glory of God the Father? Once again. He is supreme over that regal force within our nature which we call self. Yes, He has rightful supremacy over every one of us. He conquered Himself as the Son of man, that He might teach us how to conquer ourselves; but, further, our wilful self has been crucified in Him, that we might be in a position to learn the lesson of self-mastery. He conquered for us, that He may conquer in us; He died for all, that they who live should not henceforth live to themselves, but to Him who died for them, and rose again. Do you want to lead a happy, do you want to lead a powerful, a successful, a God-like life? The greatest of all obstacles to this you find to be the power of self. How are you to resist that power? Fix your eyes or, the King of kings and the Lord of lords, as St. John did (Joh_1:13-18). It is as we gaze at Him, and behold His glory, as one after another His perfections shine out on us, that we begin to abhor ourselves, to hate our selfishness, to find out that His will is better than self-will, His character is nobler than ours, and that to yield ourselves up to His control is better than to fight our own way, and thus He who once triumphed over Himself will triumph over us, King of kings, and Lord of lords! Then when He has asserted His royal rights as King over sin, King over the world, and King over Self, there is another force that now we may trust Him to do battle with--nay, He has done battle with already; and because of His victory, blessed be God, we need not fear to face the foe. Death is conquered! he is only now a tributary of Jesus, only the door-keeper who stands at the palace gate; and it is his duty to open the door whenever the Master sends the summons. There is a kindly look on his face now, and it is a friendly hand that he stretches out. If we have proved the power of Jesus Christ to raise us above sin, death has lost all its terror: the dying saint may stretch out his hand to welcome that dread janitor, who once seemed so stern, but is now become so kind; who smiles as one after another he gathers the children of God into the heavenly houses. (W. H. M. H. Aitken, M. A.)
Supremacy
What would intimidate any loyal Englishman, if he were quite satisfied and sure, and that too from personal interview, that the monarch of the realm was decidedly and unalterably his friend? Would he fear poverty? Would he fear enemies? Would he fear dangers? Would he fear reverses of fortune? Oh! no, he would say, The monarch is my friend, and he has all power to accomplish all I wish, and he is quite as willing as he is able. Now, I think this ought to rebuke our slavish fears--just to bear in mind, that our warmest friend is no less a being than the King of kings and Lord of lords.
I. It is the supreme Sovereign of the universe, the King of kings and Lord of lords, of whom it is expressly written, He doeth as seemeth Him good in the armies of heaven, existing in His own eternal self-existence, dependent upon no being, but making all dependent upon Himself, He holds all worlds at His command. He is the Maker of all worlds, and the Maker of all kings and lords too; therefore, He surely has a right to be King and Lord over them. Moreover, He is the moral Governor of the universe, and, consequently, all things in it are under His control; He even giveth power to get wealth, and, if He withholds that power, and lets us sink into poverty, He still acts as King of kings and Lord of lords; and it is your business and mine to say, Do as thou wilt with mine and me too.
II. Now a word or two, in the second place, relative to the exhibition of His name. It is said to he written upon His vesture and upon His thigh. You will read, by looking a little higher up in the chapter, that His vesture was peculiarly marked, yea, and stained--the name was perfectly legible. It is said that He was clothed in a vesture dipped in blood. Does not this exactly agree with Isaiahs predictive inquiry, when he says, Who is this that cometh from Edom, with dyed garments from Bozra? and gives as the answer, I that speak in righteousness, mighty to save; and when the question is resumed, Why is Thine apparel red, and Thy garments like one that has trod the winepress? the answer is, I have trod the winepress alone, and of the people there was none with Me. Here then, I discover His official character. His vesture is dipped in blood, and He is clothed with this vesture down to His foot--the priestly robe, for He only is priest of our profession as Christians. Moreover, the name is written not only upon His vesture, but upon His thigh. Why was this? Was not one writing enough? Just for this express purpose, that His power might be held forth at every step. Wherever He steps, whether in providence or grace, absolute power goes forth with Him. Now what can a man do, as regards walking, running, or working, if the strength has gone out of his thighs? It is not so with our King. His strength is in His thigh--His name is written on His thigh--so that wherever He advances He is sure to be known as the King of kings, and Lord of lords. The power of Christ, as the eternal God, is conspicuous in all His movements, both in providence and in grace; by Him the worlds were made, and by Him they are sustained; yea, we are expressly told by the Holy Ghost (Joh_1:8). And this power is constantly put forth on behalf of His elect, blood-bought Church, inasmuch as He counts her interests His own. Cheer up, then, ye timid saints, your cause is not more yours than it is Christs; nay, nor so much, for if He could allow the injury or the ruin of His Church, the name which is written upon His vesture and upon His thigh would be tarnished, nay, forfeited, and He would no longer be owned King of kings and Lord of lords. But, it shall endure for ever, etc., (Psa_72:17). Yea, more, His name, emblazoned in glory, shall be the chorus of all the redeemed throng as long, as eternity shall roll on. Mark, I pray you, how, in the exercise of His prerogative, He subjects all beings to His will. He brings every thought into subjection to the obedience of Christ. Now, I ask, where is the king to be found that can do that? There are two ways in which He brings all beings into subjection, whether friends or foes. The first is by the omnipotence of His grace He brings every elect vessel of mercy to the knowledge of His will, to bow to His sceptre and live for ever; and of those rebels that would not that He should reign over them, He says, Bring them hither and slay them before Mine eyes.
III. Go on to mark that the highest expectations of the Lords family are encouraged. His name written on His vesture and on His thigh is legible to all His saints. They see Him the King and the Priest upon His throne. They witness the victories He has already realised--they mark the sacred and cheering fact, that He has spoiled principalities and powers, and has fulfilled what is said, O death, I will be thy plague; O grave, I will be thy destruction. The ancient promise has been accomplished by Him, and the serpents head is bruised. The grand victory was won upon Mount Calvary, by the glorious Captain of salvation, whom my text calls King of kings, and Lord of lords. And now what remains but that He shall still go on on His white horse of pure gospel truth, from conquering to conquer. Here take, for a moment, a twofold view of His overcomings. He is going forth from conquering that sinners heart to conquer another sinners heart--from conquering that corruption of the old Adam nature of the child of God, to conquer the next that rises and struggles within him. He will go on conquering and to conquer, until He has conquered every elect vessel of mercy, and transformed them to His own image. Nor is this all, His conquests and His peoples are one; for it is written concerning those that surround His throne, and walk with Him in white, that they overcame by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of His testimony. Well now, will you not buckle on your armour? Will you not furbish your sword? Will you not cry out for more help from on high to wield it? Will you not look in a menacing form at all your enemies? (J. Irons.)
Christs kingly office
The office of king belongs to Him by eternal right, inasmuch as He is the Son of God. The Father constituted Him heir of all things. Being the express image of His person, and the visible shining forth of His glory, it is He who is to all created being its Lord and Ruler and manifested King. We are the work of His hands: we, and all our world. We owe Him allegiance by the very fact of our birth and our being. And we are the kings of earth; in our hand hath He put all the tribes of His creation: in our hands all the wonders of capacity latent in His inanimate works. We, and all this oar dominion over which we reign, are His. And not we and our world only. There are hosts of happy spirits, rising through all the gradations of created glory, even to the very presence of God, and the skirts of the brightness which flows round and veils the eternal throne. These too, however lofty and holy, are His: Him they acknowledge as their King and Lord, by the very condition of their angelic being. Behold Him then, the Head over all things: the rightful and everlasting Sovereign of the universe of God. Such spectacle we might contemplate with adoration; with wonder, the more we thought, at His unapproachable majesty and power: but it has pleased Him to reveal to us greater things than these. The throne of majesty was not enough for Him: He must win a higher throne of love. To stand by the throne of God and rule, satisfied not the yearnings of His heart: He must come down among His own creatures, and endure the contradiction of sinners against Himself, and resist, striving unto blood: and fight and fall, but conquer while He fell, with the weapons of redeeming love. It was not enough for Him, to have created man in Gods image, after His likeness; to be the rightful Head by creative lordship over their nature, the wonder of His universe: but when that image was marred, He must Himself descend into the tabernacle of the flesh, and gain for Himself another and a closer headship and kingship--so that He is now not only the Son of God, but the Son of Man: has not only His supreme and undoubted rights over our nature ab extra, as its God and Creator, but also rights far more wonderful ab intra, inasmuch as He is its second head and righteous root, and blessed renewer in righteousness. Let us pursue a few of the grounds and details of this His sovereignty. He is King of man, inasmuch as He is the only man who has ever fulfilled manhood. He is our King also, because He is the Head of our common nature. He has taken unto His personal Godhead our whole and entire nature, as complete as it was in Adam, and as free from taint as it was when Adam was created in it; and on account of this His being the second root or head of our common nature, and on no other account, it is, that every man has a part in Christ, that we preach Christ the Saviour of the world, and call on all to look unto Him and be saved. He thus is rightful and undoubted King of that nature of ours, and of all that it has and rules, by virtue of His including it all in Himself, and standing before God as man; all we and our world being contemplated by the Father as existent solely in and because of, and as summed up in, Him. Advancing onward again with those new titles to kingship which He who by His own right was king, has been in the process of redemption pleased to make for Himself, we come to this one; that He has, besides His perfection in our nature, besides His headship over it, purchased it to Himself by the price of His own precious blood. Not only is He the light of the world, not only is He the second Adam, but He is the Redeemer. He became our representative, not in perfection only, not in entireness of bearing our nature only, but inasmuch as He bore our griefs and carried our sorrows, and bowed under the burden of the worlds guilt in His own body on the Cross, and came up out of death triumphant, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He might have the pre-eminence. God and evil, God and impurity, cannot exist face to face: nor can He permit an unconquered antagonist in that universe which He hath created. But because, in the eternal verities of God, who counts not time, but sees as present all that happens in all time, Jesus had suffered, had died, had risen again, man was spared, nature was spared: the sun was commanded to shine on the evil and on the good, and the rain to rain on the just and on the unjust. So that as we are told, in Christ all things consist, have their being: and to Him alone this existence of ours, and of things around us, this life and motion, and joy, and increase, is owing from moment to moment. Then, has He not a right to it all, as His? to us, and to all that is ours? to all that would have perished with us had He not died, but which is now preserved to us and to Him? And if He is a King, He has a kingdom. And what is His kingdom? In that wider sense in which we have treated of His sovereignty, it is the universe of God: all that ever was and is and shall be: but of that His kingdom we will not now speak. Let us rather tell of the issues of that lower and more limited kingdom, which He hath won here below among us, and see whether that have not for us a voice within our hearts, and a claim which grasps at the threads of our common motives and affections. Christ is the King of man. Who remembers this, who acts upon this, as he ought? Every man on earth is Christs subject: He is your King and my King, and the King even of the poor heathen who know Him not: for He hath bought us all for Himself: He is thus our rightful King: and it is a claim which He will not forego. All kings shall bow down before Him: all nations shall do Him service. But O, it was not for this that He won for Himself a kingdom; not for this, that the wheels of His chariot might crush down all that opposeth, that He might hear His enemies calling on the rocks to fall on them, and the hills to cover them; no, for He is, as we have seen, not only a King of right, but a King of righteousness to the sons of men. When Pilate asked Him in the hour of His deepest humiliation, Art thou a King then? in asserting His Kingship, He added, For this cause was I born and for this cause came I into the world, that I might bear witness unto the truth. There is no truth, but in Him: and whatsoever is true is His, part of His kingdom, and woven into His design, and blessed by His sanction, and matured by His fostering Spirit. Here is the Redeemers more glorious, more heavenly kingdom; the kingdom of truth, and purity, and holiness, and love. But the question arises, What is this truth of which He is speaking? Is it truth in science merely--is it truth in art--those subtle powers of harmonising with Gods creative laws, which seem as if they might and do exist where there is no deeper truth of heart and life? Is it, in a word, any of those outlying branches of truth, which seem as if they were rooted in earth for themselves, and got no life from the parent stem? Let us reply to this in His own words, I am the way and the truth and the life. It is He who has revealed to us the truth, and He has revealed it in Himself. And as He is the revelation and the fountain of truth, so in order to be a subject of His blessed kingdom of truth must a man enter into it by Him: by knowing Him and believing Him, and being knit unto Him, and living his common life by virtue of faith in Him. This process of self-renunciation, this acceptance of Him as King, and of His Spirit as guide of His life, must accompany all effectual entrance, with the will and the affection, into His kingdom of grace--all heirship of His kingdom of glory. Such a kingdom then is God establishing on earth among men: a kingdom of truth and mercy and love, of which His Son is the Head and King. Day by day He is calling its subjects out from among the falsehood and the strife which is the rule of life of this world. Among the nations, He is preparing it; in His own way, not in ours. He is still suffering the darkness to prevail over wide tracts of this earth: still permitting the oppressor to oppress, and the truth to be kept down: but it is that that truth, by trial and by sifting, may become purer and surer. And we look for a day when that His kingdom, which sprung not out of this world, shall yet be manifested in this world and rule over this world. But we are called on by our text to look forward further even than this. Its words treat of a time when Christs kingdom shall have passed altogether out of conflict into triumph, out of grace into glory. (Dean Alford.)
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Christ a King
This title is one of very extensive meaning. Other kings are usually content to wield the sceptre over an empire of private individuals. But instead of being king over individuals in a private capacity, our Lord claims to be the King of kings. Princes and monarchs of every degree of power are subject to His control. Before Him they all are required alike to bow, to pour forth their gratitude, and to offer a tribute of adoration.
I. Contemplate Him as the mighty God, the everlasting Father; as Him by whom the foundations of the earth were laid, and the work of whose hands are the heavens. Contemplate Him as invested with all the attributes and perfections of the Deity, and you will see that His control is illimitable, and that His government is without termination.
II. What is the practical use of this truth?
1. If Christ be the King of kings, the almighty Ruler of the universe, then we have confidence that all the dispensations of Divine providence will be such as to promote the general interests of His people.
2. If Christ be the King of kings and the Lord of lords, then we have confidence that He will so direct whatever pertains to our spiritual interests, as to promote and secure our growth in grace, and our final salvation.
3. If Christ be the King of kings and the Lord of lords, then the Church is safe.
4. If Christ be the King of kings and the Lord of lords, then individual Christians are safe.
5. If Christ be the King of kings and the Lord of lords, then His people have no occasion to be ashamed of their Lord, or of the principles of His government.
6. If Christ be so great a King, He ought to be feared. He wields all the machinery of nature, and can bid winds, lightnings, tempests, diseases, arrest, scourge, or destroy His enemies. He can turn against them the tide of human passions, and thus overwhelm them in dismay. Even our breath is in His hands; and subject to His control are all our ways. He has power to destroy both soul and body in hell.
7. He ought to be adored.
8. If Christ be so great a King, His enemies ought to tremble before Him. (J. Foot, D. D.)
The mark of the beast.--
The mark of the beast
In the eyebrows of some people there are one or two hairs that are thicker and longer than the others, and stand out like the whiskers of a cat. A good many persons have the round fold in the upper part of their ears ending in a blunt point, like the tip of an animals ear folded down. At school I knew a boy who had the strange power of moving his ears at will, like a dog or a rabbit; and there was one big lad who could contract the skin of his head so strongly that, by the mere power of his muscles, without moving his head, he could throw off a book laid upon it. Some people have great canine teeth, and others have their face and body covered all over with thick hair. These things are said by scientific men to be the signs of mans origin from the lower animals, and remain as traces in some persons of the stages through which all the human race has passed. The lower animals are our poor relations; and it ought not to be considered strange if we should retain many marks and proofs of the relationship. Every human being has the mark of the beast in him, to show that God has made all animal structures after the same pattern; and united together all His creatures, from the highest to the lowest, by ties of mutual resemblance and sympathy, so that they all might be able to live harmoniously together on the earth. But there is a mark of the beast that ought to make us ashamed--that does degrade us. It is the mark of sin in our souls which destroys the image of God within us, and reduces us to the level, nay, below the level, of the beasts that perish. For the dumb, irrational animals faithfully obey the instincts of their nature, and God can say of them, The stork in the heavens knoweth its appointed time; The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his masters crib; but of man He says, Israel doth not know, My people do not consider. The animals obey in every respect the will of God; they cannot but obey; but we are continually breaking His commandments, and doing things that are contrary to His will and to our own welfare. One of the marks of a beast is impatience and hasty rage if it does not get its own way. The reason is that dumb animals have no other way of expressing themselves; and you find that the more limited the power of utterance, the quicker and more violent is the temper. And when any of us yield to the temptation of indulging in rage and violence and impatience, we show very distinctly upon us the mark of the beast, and forfeit our glorious gift of gentle and dignified speech, and descend to the level of the beast. So, too, with falsehood and dishonesty. Wild beasts steal from one another and deceive one another without compunction, for that is their nature, and in the stern struggle of life they have to be selfish and to take care of themselves at the expense of others. But in us who have a high moral nature, such acts would be wrong. Such marks of the beast in us would degrade us in our own esteem and in the estimation of others. Wild beasts kill each other without any mercy or remorse. And alas! many human beings have this wild-beast nature in them. If they do not go the length of acts of bodily violence, they wound each other in their hearts and characters. They are guilty of many acts of unkindness and positive cruelty to each other. Animals rend the sick or lame animal. Wolves will devour the unfortunate wolf that is wounded in the pack; and, therefore, animals instinctively avoid their fellows when they are hurt in any way, and seek the loneliest solitude in which to suffer or die in peace. All human beings who act in the same way--who, when they discover a weakness or a failing in their friends and neighbours, hasten to crush them altogether; who, if they discern a pin-hole, wish to work it into a huge gap, and, if they can only get their fingers in, long to rend the piece asunder--all such persons have the mark of the beast. It is an awful truth, that the more the image of God disappears in us, the more do the marks of the beast manifest themselves. What is it that can remove the mark of the beast in man, and restore the image of God? The brute elements cannot drop out of mans character by a natural process, however favourable may be his environment; the human race of its own accord cannot grow better, as surely as the bud expands into the perfect flower. Scientific men themselves tell us that the natural process is not necessarily upwards to better things, but may, indeed, be downwards to worse; especially if the surrounding circumstances and conditions of life be degrading. And we might well despair of the future of our race, if it were left to the force of natural evolution alone to work out the beast in man, and let the ape and tiger die. It is here that the power of spiritual religion comes in. The regenerating forces of living Christianity can be trusted to raise and renew mankind. You know that loveliest and most instructive of all the fairy tales--the familiar story of Beauty and the Beast. You remember how the merchant was to be put to death for plucking the bunch of roses in the garden of the Beast, and how his youngest and fairest daughter, whom he loved the most, offered to take his place and suffer his doom. When Beauty first saw the frightful form of the Beast, she was dreadfully afraid, and shrank from him; but by and by, as she got to know him better, she began to feel pity for him, and was touched with his gentleness and kindness. At last she agreed to marry him; and then a wonderful thing happened. Instead of the ugly beast, she saw a handsome and graceful young prince, who thanked her with the tenderest expressions for having delivered him from the wicked enchantment that had transformed him into a beast. The moral of this lovely story, which is as old as the hills and as young as each child in our midst, is that it is love that changes the beast in us into the nobler human nature, that takes away all the marks of the beast in us, and transforms us into true men and women. And so, in the highest sense of all, is it not the pure, disinterested love of Jesus Christ, who consented to take our nature, and die in our room and stead, and who unites us to Himself by an everlasting union, that takes away all the marks of the beasts in us, the old, sinful, degraded nature, and transforms us into His own likeness by the renewing of our minds? United to Christ, we become new creatures; the image of God is restored in us; our faces shine as the face of Moses shone when he came down from his communion with God on the mount. It is said of the great St. Francis of Assisi, that he prayed earnestly on one occasion, that he might realise in his body, as well as in his soul, the sufferings of Christ; and immediately there appeared in his hands the prints of the nails, and in his side the wound of the spear, which he bore all the rest of his life, but carefully hid, for he did not wish to expose to the eyes of cold curiosity the secret which made him one with his Lord. But not in visible imprint, not in fleshly wounds, do we bear the signs of the cross; no, but in holy affections, in crucified tempers, in heavenly desires, in Christlike meekness and gentleness. The Brahmins of India have a mark upon their foreheads in honour of the god they worship, by which every one can distinguish them. And so those who love the Lord Jesus Christ and serve Him have a mark upon their foreheads, by which all men can take knowledge of them that they are keeping company with Him. They have what the high priest of old had inscribed upon the gold plate of his mitre, in a pure and candid and heavenly look, Holiness to the Lord. And as they grow in likeness to Christ, so this bright sign of their high calling will be more clearly seen, and their outward beauty will be as their inward grace. In the old creation we see how beasts of low type and cruel nature, that wallowed in the mire, were swept away, and creatures of higher organisation and gentler mood appeared on the earth in their place. The wonderful researches of geology have made us familiar with this significant fact, that after forms that were emblems of evil, there gradually rose others that were emblems of good; and the Bible tells us that the new creation will develop this progress on a higher plane; that eventually all serpent-forms of evil will be subdued, and the wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid, and a little child shall lead the most ferocious creatures. He who was with the wild beasts in the wilderness of the temptation will change the wilderness of mens souls, with its wild beasts of evil passions and tempers, into a fair and fertile garden, the home of gentle and holy graces. And John shows us, in his glorious vision in Revelation, those who had gotten the victory over the beast, and over his image, and over his mark, standing on the sea of glass as the symbol of their purity, and having the harps of God as the symbol of their harmony, and singing the song of Moses and the Lamb as the token of their triumph. They have obtained the final victory over the beast in man; they have risen completely out of the degradation of sin; they have had all the marks of the beast obliterated, and all the image of God restored in their glorified souls and bodies. (H. Macmillan, D. D.)
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The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
B. W. Johnson 1891 · Public Domain 11–16. And I saw the heaven opened. This implies…
11–16. And I saw the heaven opened. This implies the opening of a new vision. See 4:1; 11:19. Where a former vision is continued the formula is “After these things.” We now have a series of pictures symbolizing the closing events that inaugurate the Millennium. The first of these is the one before symbolized by the angel that flies through heaven with the everlasting gospel, but now presented in a grand vision of the triumphant march of the Word of God. Behold a white horse. Always the symbol of conquest and triumph. See notes on 6:2. He that sat upon him called Faithful and True. It is the Lord, who comes as the Word of God. His conquests are effected by the word, but the march is really the march of Christ.
B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.
F. W. Grant 1903 · Public Domain Section 4. (Rev 19:11-21; Rev 20:1-3.)
Section 4. (Rev 19:11-21; Rev 20:1-3.)
The prostration, of the world-powers.
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We are now carried back to the earth, to see what in fact is mercy to the earth, in the complete humiliation of the power which has been so long holding it back from God, and therefore from blessing. For thus not only the "kings of the earth upon the earth" must be humbled, but he also who has assumed so long, and usurped with such apparent success, the title of "prince of this world." Isaiah sees along with him all his rebellious following, and thus speaks of "the host of the high ones that are on high;" but in Revelation, according to its manner, Satan himself stands for the whole of this. They are summed up in him whose will they have implicitly obeyed and been molded by. For those that have manifested most their independence of God only thus show, not their liberty, but their complete subservience to another, whose service has in it no freedom at all, but most degrading slavery. The "stronger than he" has now come, and he is cast down, although this does not even yet end his history. The full tale of creature mutability has not even yet been told, and therefore the full end is not yet reached. But Christ has come, and His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom: through all, the reins of His power are not yet relaxed.
1. The prophecy pauses not further now to dilate upon the blessing. There is needed work to be done before we can enter upon this; and the work is the "strange work" of judgment. The vision that follows is as simple as can be to understand, if there are no thoughts of our own previously in the mind to obscure and make it difficult. And this is the way in which constantly Scripture is obscured.
Revelation, as the closing book of the inspired Word, supposes indeed acquaintance with what has preceded it, and the links with other prophecy are here especially abundant. The kingdom of Christ is the final theme of the Old Testament, upon which all prophetic lines converge; and the judgment which introduces it is over and over again set before us. The appearing of the Lord, and His personal presence to execute this, are also so insisted on that nothing but the infatuation of other hopes could prevail to hide it from men’s eyes. In the New Testament the same thing faces us continually. As we are not considering it for the first time here, it will be sufficient to examine what is in the passage before us, with whatever connection it may have with other scriptures, needful to bring out fully the meaning of it.
Heaven is seen opened, the prophet’s standpoint being therefore now on earth, and a white horse appears, the familiar figure of war and victory. It is upon the Rider that our eyes are fixed. He is called "Faithful and True," -known manifestly to be that, -and in righteousness He judges and wars; His warring is but itself a judgment. For this His eyes penetrate as a flame of fire; nothing escapes them. Many diadems -the sign of absolute authority -are on His head. And worthily, for His name in its full reality -name expressing (as always in Scripture) nature -is an incommunicable one, beyond the knowledge of finite creatures. But His vesture is dipped in blood, for already many enemies have fallen before Him. And His name is called -has been and is, as the language implies -"The Word of God." The Gospel of John shows us that in creation already He was acting as that; and now in judgment He is no less so.
Is this revealed name anything else than His incommunicable one? It would seem not. The thought would appear to be in direct refutation of the skeptical denial of the knowledge of the Infinite One as possible to man. We cannot know infinity, but we can know the One who is infinite -yea, know Him to be infinite: know His name, and not know His name. The infinite One, moreover, Christ is declared here to be -no inferior God, but the Highest.
In the power of this, He now comes forth; the armies that are in heaven following their white-horsed Leader, themselves also upon white horses, sharers with Him in the conflict and the victory, clothed in fine linen, white and pure. It is this fine linen which we have just seen as granted to the Bride, and which needed the blood of the Lamb to make it white. It is therefore undoubtedly the same company here as there; only here seen in a new aspect, even as the Lord Himself is seen in a new one. It is communion with Himself that is implied in this change of character. What He is occupied with, they are occupied with; what is His mind, is their mind: so, blessed be God, it will be entirely then. None then will be ignorant of His will; none indifferent or half-hearted as to it. Alas, now to how much of it are even the many willingly strangers! and it is the "willing ignorance" that is so invincible: for all else there is a perfect remedy in the word of God; but what for a back turned upon that Word?
The Lord comes, then, and all the saints with Him. How impossible to think of a providential coming merely here! "When Christ, who is our life, shall appear," says the apostle, "then shall ye also appear with Him in glory" (Col 3:4). "Know ye not that the saints shall judge the world?" he asks elsewhere. Judgment is now impending: "out of His mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it He may smite the nations." So Isaiah: "He shall smite the earth with the rod of His mouth, and with the breath of His lips shall He slay the wicked" (Isa 11:4). It needs but a word from Him to cause their destruction; while it is judgment no less according to His word: it is that long and oft-threatened, slow to come, but at last coming in the full measure of the denunciation. Patience is not repentance.
"And He shall rule them with an iron rod" -"shepherd" them, to use a scarcely English expression. This is, of course, the fulfilment of the prophecy of the second psalm, and decides against the still retained "break them" of the Revised Version. It is the shepherd’s rod -this rod of iron, used in behalf of the flock: as He says in Isaiah again, "The day of vengeance is in My heart, and the year of My redeemed is come; and I looked, and there was none to help, and I wondered that there was none to uphold: therefore Mine own arm brought salvation unto Me; and My fury, it upheld Me" (Isa 63:4-5). This is distinctly in answer to the question, "Wherefore art Thou red in Thine apparel, and Thy garments like him that treadeth in the wine-fat?" and to which He answers, I have trodden the wine-press alone." Here, also, "He treadeth the wine-press of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God."
Would it be believed that commentators have referred this to the cross, and the Lord’s own sufferings there?* And yet it is so; though the iron rod, with which the treading of the wine-press is associated in this place, is something that is promised to the overcomer in Thyatira (Rev 2:27) -"To him will I give power over the nations, and he shall rule them with a rod of iron, even as I received of My Father." We have but, with an honest mind, to put a few texts together after this manner, and all difficulty disappears.
{*Where He was trodden down could not be the place where He treads down His adversaries, though their rejection of Him there is what calls for this judgment. The blood of Christ now speaks of better things than that of Abel but when the day of grace is past, it will call for vengeance on those who despise it. -S.R.}
"And He hath on His vesture and on His thigh a name written -King of kings, and Lord of lords."
2. Now, in terrible contrast to the invitation lately given to the marriage-supper of the Lamb, an angel standing in the sun bids the birds of the heaven to the "great supper of God," to feast upon earth’s proudest, and all their following. Immediately after this, the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies, are seen gathered together to make war against Him who sits upon the horse, and against His army. We are no doubt to interpret this according to the Lord’s words to Saul of Tarsus -"Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me?" But we have seen the idol thrust into Jehovah’s temple, and know well that Israel’s persecutors rage openly against Israel’s God. They are taken thus banded in rebellion, and judgment sweeps them down; the beast and the false prophet that wrought miracles before him (the antichristian second beast of the thirteenth chapter) being exempted from the common death, only to be cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone, where at the end of the thousand years of the saints’ reign with Christ we find them still.
The vision is so clear in meaning that it really has no need of an interpreter; and we should remember this as to a vision, that it is not necessarily even symbolic, though symbols may have their place in it, as here with the white horses of that before us, while the horses whose flesh the birds eat are not at all so. The "beast and the kings of the earth" furnish us with the same juxtaposition of figure and fact, the figure not at all hindering the general literality of fact. In these prophecies of coming judgment, the mercy of God would not permit too thick a veil over the solemn truth. This is the end to which the world is hastening now, and God is proportionally taking off the veil from the eyes upon which it has been lying, that there may be a more urgent note of warning given as it draws nigh. "Who hath ears to hear, let him hear."
3. The judgment upon living men is followed by that upon Satan their prince, though not yet is it final judgment. This partial dealing with the great deceiver means that the end of man’s trial is not even yet reached. He is shut up in the abyss, or bottomless pit, of which we have read before, but not in hell (the lake of fire). As restraint, it is complete; and with the devil, the host of fallen angels following him share his sentence. This is not merely an inference, however legitimate. Isaiah has long before anticipated what is here, as we have seen (Isa 24:21-23) "And it shall come to pass in that day that the Lord shall punish the host of the high ones on high, and the kings of the earth upon the earth. And they shall be gathered together as prisoners are gathered in the pit, and shall be shut up in the prison, and after many days they shall be visited. Then the moon shall be confounded and the sun ashamed; for the Lord of hosts shall reign in mount Zion, and in Jerusalem, and before His ancients gloriously."
Here the contemporaneous judgment of men and angels at the beginning of the Millennium is clearly revealed, and just as clearly that it is not yet final. The vision in Revelation is also clear. The descent of the angel with the key and chain certainly need not obscure the meaning. Nor could the shutting up of Satan mean anything less than the stoppage of all temptation for the time indicated. The "dragon," too, is the symbol for the explanation of which we are (as in the twelfth chapter) referred to Eden, "the ancient serpent," and then are told plainly, "who is the devil and Satan." It is simply inexcusable to make the interpretation of the symbol still symbolic, and to make the greater stand for the less -Satan the symbol of an earthly empire, or anything of the sort. What plainer words could be used? which Isaiah’s witness also abundantly confirms. God has been pleased to remove all veil from His words here, and it does look as if only wilful perversity could misunderstand His speech.
That after all this he is to be let out to deceive the nations is no doubt, at first sight, hard to understand. It is all right to inquire reverently why it should be; and Scripture, if we have learnt Peter’s way of putting it together, -no prophecy to be interpreted as apart from the general body of prophecy, -will give us satisfactory, if solemn, answer. The fact is revealed, if we could give no reason for it. Who are we, to judge God’s ways? and with which of us must He take counsel? It should be plain that for a thousand years Satan’s temptations cease upon the earth; and then they are renewed and successful -the nations are once more deceived.
What makes it so difficult to understand is that many have a false idea of the millennial age, as if it were "righteousness dwelling" on the earth, instead of "righteousness reigning" over it. It is said indeed of Israel, after they are brought to God nationally, "My people shall be all righteous" (Isa 60:21); but that is not the general condition. The eighteenth psalm, speaking prophetically of that time, declares, "The strangers shall submit themselves unto Me," which in the margin is given as "lie," or "yield feigned obedience." They submit to superior power, not in heart, and so it is added, "The strangers shall fade away, and be afraid out of their close places." (Comp. Psa 66:3; Psa 81:15.) And Isaiah, speaking of the long length of years, says, The child shall die a hundred years old," but adds, and the sinner being a hundred years old shall be accursed" (Isa 65:20). So Zechariah pronounces the punishment of those who do not come up to Jerusalem to worship the glorious King (Zec 14:17).
The Millennium is not eternal blessedness; it is not the Sabbath, to which so many would compare it. It answers rather to the sixth day than the seventh -to the day when the man and woman (types of Christ and the Church) are set over the other creatures. The seventh is the type of the rest of God, which is the only true rest of the people of God (Heb 4:9). The Millennium is the last period of man’s trial, and that is not rest: trial in circumstances the best that could be imagined -righteousness reigning, the course of the world changed, heaven open overhead, the earth filled with the knowledge of the glory of God, the history of past judgment to admonish for the future: the question will then be fully answered whether sin is the mere fruit of ignorance, bad government, or any of the accidents of life to which it is so constantly imputed. Alas, the issue, after a thousand years of blessing, when Satan is loosed out of his prison, will make all plain; the last lesson as to man will only then be fully learned!
F. W. Grant, The Numerical Bible (4th ed., 1903) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain saw heaven opened
saw heaven opened
The vision is of the departure from heaven of Christ and the saints and angels preparatory to the catastrophe in which Gentile world-power, headed up in the Beast, is smitten by the "stone cut out without hands". (Dan 2:34); (Dan 2:35).
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white horse
Contrast (Rev 6:2); (Psa 45:4).
Contrast (Mat 21:2-5).
Day of the Lord
(Day of Jehovah). (Isa 2:10-22); (Isa 4:1-6); (Isa 11:10-13); (Isa 13:9-16); (Isa 24:21-23); (Isa 26:20-21); (Isa 63:1-6); (Isa 66:15-24); (Rev 19:11-21).
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain The vision of the exalted Christ:
The vision of the exalted Christ:
v. 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.
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v. 12. His eyes were as a dame of fire, and on His head were many crowns; and He had a name written that no man knew but He Himself.
v. 13. And He was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood; and His name is called The Word of God.
v. 14. And the armies which were in heaven followed Him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean.
v. 15. And out of His mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it He should 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.
v. 16. And He hath on His vesture and on His thigh a name written, King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
Here the last door is opened, and the great Victor appears in person: And I saw heaven opened, and, behold, a white horse, and He that sat upon Him was called Faithful and True, and in justice He judges and wages war. His eyes were like a flame of fire, and on His head He had many diadems, having a name written which no one knows but Himself, and clothed with a garment bespattered with blood, and His name is called "The Word of God. " Every Bible-reader recognizes this man at a glance; for every feature of this picture is depicted and repeated again and again. The Lord Jesus Christ Himself appears here upon a white horse as the Victor, as the triumphant King. In that bloody battle for the souls of men He has proved Himself the stronger, He has conquered all the enemies of mankind, forcing them to acknowledge His power forever. Faithful He is, for He has kept His promise, as it was given even in the Garden of Eden after the Fall; true He is, to be trusted at all times implicitly, for He is a Rock upon whom our confidence may rest without wavering. He has brought about a decision in the just cause which He represented; He has overcome in the war which the enemies themselves began. The zeal of justice and of judgment shines from His eyes, and He has the power over all the diadems and crowns of the world, all kings and rulers being but clay in His hands. All the languages of the world cannot possibly express the unspeakable majesty of the name of the Lord, Mat 11:27. His garment is bespattered with the blood which He shed for the salvation of the world, Gen 49:11; Isa 63:2-3. Like the wounds in His hands and feet and in His side His blood-spattered garment is a witness of His triumph. One of the names which He proudly bears is "The Word of God," Joh 1:1. As the almighty Word of the Father He has revealed Himself in this war by the victory which He has won, by which world, death, and Satan are overcome and vanquished forever.
The Lord and His companions are further described: And the troops in heaven followed Him on white horses, clothed in white, clean, fine linen; and out of His mouth there proceeds a sharp sword, that with it He should smite the nations, and Himself will rule them with an iron rod, and Himself will tread the wine-press of the anger of the wrath of God Almighty; and He has upon His garment and upon His thigh a name written, "King of kings and Lord of lords. " The great army of heaven, consisting of the troops of all the elect, takes part in the triumph of the Champion. With white, clean, silk like linen the saints are clothed, as the Lord had promised them, chap. 3:5; for their garment is the perfect righteousness of their Savior. They can trust their Lord all the more implicitly since the sharp, two-edged sword of the Word proceeds out of His mouth. This is the Word with which the Lord will kill His enemies, Isa 66:16, and overcome all antichrists and adversaries, Isa 11:4; 2Th 2:8. Against them it is the Word of His wrath, with which He will rule as with an iron scepter, Psa 2:9. He it is that treads the wine-press of the wrath of God, of which the seer had spoken, Rev 14:19-20. Thus, in the final destruction of His enemies, the exalted Christ will reveal Himself as the King of kings and the Lord of lords, having divine power and glory from everlasting to everlasting.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 General Information:
General Information:
This is the beginning of a new vision. John begins to describe a rider on a white horse.
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Then I saw heaven open
This imagery is used to signify the beginning of a new vision. See how you translated this idea in Revelation 4:1 and Revelation 11:19 and Revelation 15:5.
The one riding it
The rider is Jesus.
It is with justice that he judges and wages war
Here "justice" refers to what is right. AT: "He judges all people and wages war according to what is right" (See: Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information)
His eyes are like a fiery flame
John speaks of the rider's eyes as if they shone like a flame of fire. (See: Simile)
He has a name written on him
You can state this in active form. AT: "Someone has written a name on him" (See: Active or Passive)
on him that no one knows but himself
"on him, and only he knows the meaning of that name" (See: Reflexive Pronouns)
He wears a robe that was dipped in blood
You can state this in an active form. AT: "Blood had covered his robe" (See: Active or Passive)
his name is called the Word of God
You can state this in active form. "Word of God" here is a metonym for Jesus Christ. AT: "his name is called the Message of God" or "his name is also the Word of God" (See: Active or Passive and Metonymy)
translationWords
heaven
horse
call
faithful
true
just
judge, judges
fire
crown
written
robe
blood
word of God
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 19:11–20:15 The drama moves into its climactic scenes: God’s…
19:11–20:15 The drama moves into its climactic scenes: God’s enemies are defeated and punished in two episodes (19:11-21; 20:7-10). Meanwhile, the faithful experience a 1,000-year resurrection (20:1-6) followed by the final judgment (20:11-15).
19:11-16 Then I saw: John describes a new vision of Jesus Christ as the holy warrior and conquering King (see 14:1; see also Exod 15:1-7; Pss 24:8; 78:49-50; Isa 59:16-17).
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19:11 The rider is both a judge and a righteous warrior (see Isa 11:1-5). He is named Faithful and True: He embodies God’s authenticity and reliability (see Rev 19:2; 21:5-6).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.