by J. Flanigan (Northern Ireland)
“He was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood ... on His vesture and on His thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS,” Rev 19.13, 16.
This great chapter is introduced with four Hallelujahs. They are the only
Hallelujahs in the New Testament, which indicates the greatness of the event.
The King is coming, and the Hallelujahs are His heralds announcing His advent.
It was kind of God to entrust the writing of Rev.19 to the man who wrote Jn.19.
In that chapter in John’s Gospel Pilate had called, “Behold your King,” and the
same cry is so appropriate in Rev.19. But in Jn.19 the apostle had seen the King
in shame, falsely accused and derided. The King had been crowned with thorns and
robed in mocking purple. He had been tried and unjustly condemned by a Roman
Governor. John had seen Him nailed to a cross, bereft of His garments and called
by Pilate, “The King of the Jews”. In Rev.19 things are different. “Behold your
King!” He comes now in garments of glory, adorned with many diadems, to be
acknowledged by all as King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
This chapter synchronises with other great chapters, such as Is.63, Ps.24, Matt.25. These chapters focus on differing aspects of the King’s advent and its relevance to Israel and to the nations, but Rev.19 occupies us with the King Himself, the glory of His Person. When Gabriel announced to Mary the miraculous conception and birth of her Child, he said, “He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto Him the throne of His father David: and He shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of His kingdom there shall be no end, Lk.1.26-33. Now we are to see the fulfilment of that word. “The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of His Christ; and He shall reign for ever and ever,” Rev.11.15.
For the second time in the Revelation heaven is opened. Earlier, in ch.4, it had been opened to call John up into glory. From his sad and lonely exile and from the barrenness of Patmos he had been transported into the opened heaven. It is a picture of the rapture of the saints, called away from the scene of their earthly pilgrimage to be with Him whom they have loved. It is, in symbol, the call of the Bride to the Father’s house and to the marriage of the Lamb.
Now the Bride is seen again, in company with her Bridegroom as together they come out to be manifested to the world. It is the day of the gladness of His heart, and this is part of the reason for the four Hallelujahs, S.ofS.3.11. They mark the joy and the preciousness of the occasion for Him.
The Bride is suitably arrayed in wedding garments. She wears the finest of
fine linen, clean and white. It is symbolic, denoting the righteousnesses of the
saints, who have loved the Saviour, and lived for Him, and waited for Him and
for this day. The Bride has a righteousness by imputation, and she has too, a
righteousness of practical living while absent from Him, her Beloved.
Attention is now drawn to the King’s vesture. The sight is akin to Is.63, in
that His garments are stained with blood. But also on His vesture His royal Name
and title are written. The blood of His enemies and the greatness of His Name
combine to make His vesture radiant with glory.
A problem arises in that the King’s garments are here stained with blood prior to any engagement with His enemies. This has led some to believe that this is His own blood, the blood of the cross. But such interpretation is error, there is no reference to Calvary here. As in Is.63 this is the blood of His foes. Others think that the description is anticipatory, looking ahead to the certain victory. However, this is not the first time that the King has engaged in battle with the enemies of the Lord, and perhaps there may be an allusion to past triumphs. Was He not the Captain of the Lord’s hosts, with drawn sword, who appeared to Joshua? (Jos.5.14-15). Was it not He who “in the ancient days, in the generations of old, cut Rahab (Egypt) and wounded the dragon”? (Is.51.9). And has He not already brought to nought the might of those earlier empires, Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Greece, and Rome? The King is already a proven Warrior and Conqueror and now He comes with the memorials of former triumphs upon His vesture. The mighty empire of the Beast and His confederates is now about to be vanquished as were the others.
The King has many names and titles. The Beast has an array of names too, but they are names of blasphemy, Rev.13.1; 17.3. The names of the Lord Jesus are all glorious. He has of course, a Name that no man knows but He Himself. It is both futile and irreverent to speculate. We must bow in wonder and in adoration before Him of whom He said Himself, “No man knoweth the Son, but the Father,” Matt.11.27. He has glories inscrutable and unknowable so that His saints delight to sing:
He is called “Faithful and True.” What a rebuke to men when He comes again! For three busy years of ministry the Faithful and True had brought the glad tidings to them. Why did they not believe Him? Why did they so callously reject Him who in faithfulness and truth had delivered the Gospel to them?
Not only so, but “His name is called The Word of God.” He is God’s Word, God’s only Word, His last Word, to men. He is the Alpha and the Omega. God has nothing to say outside of Him. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” All things were made by Him and yet, in wondrous grace, the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. For thirty-three years He was the full expression of the character and heart of God in our world. Why did they not receive Him? When He comes in power and glory He will bear this Name, “The Word of God,” a reminder to men of the glory of the One whom they rejected.
Then, on His vesture and on His thigh, that great Name is written, “King of Kings and Lord of Lords.” It was usual for the sword to be carried on the thigh, Ps.45.3. Here the Conqueror’s sword proceeds out of His mouth. It is the sword of His powerful Word, and on His thigh He bears the Name which portrays His rights to the kingdom. “King of Kings”! He is the Son of David, Heir to the throne. He is the Lion of the tribe of Judah. “He must reign”, says Paul, 1Cor.15.25.
And so, from the swaddling bands of true humanity, and the linen towel of real humility, and the purple robe of mockery, to the blood-stained garments of victory, we trace the pathway of our Beloved back to the glory from whence He came, and then to the throne. But wherever, however, we view Him, we must say, “All thy garments smell of myrrh, and aloes, and cassia,” Ps.45.8. The fragrance of the ivory palaces is ever and always upon Him whom we love. —Concluded