Author: Daniel Burton

On the heels of chapter 18, we see the response of the throne room of heaven.  Throughout the course of Revelation 19:1-10, there is cause for celebration.  Evil’s defeat is secure as the justice of God comes to its fullness.  The prayers of the saints from earlier has come to fruition and the finality of God’s judgments, the sorting between the wheat and chaff, is completed and those who have remained faithful to the One True God can celebrate in the victory of Jesus Christ.  This chapter, and the chapters that follow, look as if they are wrapping up the defeat of goodness over evil.  But to view it as the climax of the story would be to miss the point of the Gospel entirely.  The thrust of the Gospel is not evil is defeated (though this is certainly a central piece) but rather is that God’s glory surpasses all things as He reigns throughout eternity and we, as recipients of the love of God, enter into the fullness of God’s presence for all eternity.  Revelation is not the climax of evil’s defeat but the birth of the bride of Christ’s relationship that will last forever.

While the wrath poured out in Revelation 16 represents the spiritual victory of the Lamb of God over the world and the last attempt for people to return to the one true God, Revelation 17 and 18 detail the total defeat of the Satan and the kingdom of Babylon.  Throughout the course of Revelation 17, John employs imagery that would be easily identifiable to the modern day reader, where the interpretation and implication could easily be understood.  Yet, as with most scriptures and prophesy in the bible, there are likely dual meanings.  The immediate understanding and context and the much larger scope as time comes to a conclusion.  Ultimately, the hearts of man and the desires of the flesh have no fundamentally changed throughout history.  While the technology and context changes, the temptation remains the same; to sell ourselves and our identity to the prostitute for momentary pleasure at the cost of our spiritual well being.  

While the wrath poured out in Revelation 16 represents the spiritual victory of the Lamb of God over the world and the last attempt for people to return to the one true God, Revelation 17 and 18 detail the total defeat of the Satan and the kingdom of Babylon.  Throughout the course of Revelation 17, John employs imagery that would be easily identifiable to the modern day reader, where the interpretation and implication could easily be understood.  Yet, as with most scriptures and prophesy in the bible, there are likely dual meanings.  The immediate understanding and context and the much larger scope as time comes to a conclusion.  Ultimately, the hearts of man and the desires of the flesh have no fundamentally changed throughout history.  While the technology and context changes, the temptation remains the same; to sell ourselves and our identity to the prostitute for momentary pleasure at the cost of our spiritual well being.  

At the end of a harvest, everything in the field is harvested in some form or another.  The outcome a harvest is largely dependent on what identity the thing being harvested holds.  For harvesting, there is the physical act of removing everything from where it is and then the sorting by its identity.  As the elders and angels declare the victory of God over all the world, they mark the beginning of the season of harvest.  The angels herald the coming of the harvest as it passes over all the earth.  First, the wheat are harvested and then the grapes.  While both are harvested, their fates could not be more different, each facing a different outcome than the other.  One thing becomes clear from chapter 14; everyone will face the harvest in some capacity.  Up until this point, God reveals his sovereignty as the King of Heaven, the ruler of creation, and even dictating what the dragon and demons can and cannot do. At the end of human kind, everyone will experience the fullness of God.  Some will experience the fullness of God’s eternal presence and blessing.  Others will experience the fullness of the God’s wrath.  The difference comes from who the son of man claims as His own.