Revelation Chapter 19

UNIVERSAL REJOICING (Rev 19:1-10)

Brother Shallieu’s thoughts on Verse 3: “And again they said, Alleluia. And her smoke rose up for ever and ever.”

For the “much people in heaven” to repeat “Alleluia” indicates they will be pleased—even thrilled—to see the judgment rendered. Not satisfied to say once, “Alleluia . . . he hath judged the great whore,” they, on second thought, exclaim again, “Alleluia”! This is the spirit of prophecy. Christians should sympathetically imbibe the same spirit themselves and rejoice for that time when the saints, previously persecuted, are vindicated and honored and their betrayers and persecutors are revealed and abased. Note the glory given to God for executing this judgment.

Her “smoke” is to arise “for ever and ever” in the sense that the memory of the deeds of the great whore will be perpetuated forever. The thought is not that in the future the people’s minds will be continuously occupied in this direction but that, when the occasion so demands, the past activities of the great harlot will be restored to the attention of men and angels. It is likely this will be accomplished by means of spirit-supervised visual aids and the replay of historical events that have transpired on this planet in its present sin-cursed condition. The deleterious and ravaging effects of sin as the result of disobedience to God’s counsel and commandments will be demonstrated for educational purposes.

Smoke is the evidence that God’s judgment of Babylon has taken place. Normally the smoke would dissipate, but in this case the smoke is to remain “for ever and ever,” i.e., to the ages of ages. A tombstone in a cemetery is a lasting reminder or evidence of someone who has departed this life. Likewise, figuratively speaking, this “tombstone cloud in the sky” will always be there; its epitaph will commemorate how and why the symbolic woman died.

One might ask why the account does not state more plainly that the memory of the woman and her deeds will be continued forever and ever.

Answer: If made too plain, the Book of Revelation would be understood by more people. Truth is only for the chosen, who hunger and seek for it as for hid treasure (Prov. 2:1–5).

In the Kingdom when representatives of the nation’s go to Jerusalem to worship the Lord, and for other purposes, they will be shown the burial ground of Gog, the immense horde from the north quarters that in the near future will invade the Holy Land with the intent to destroy Israel. It is written that this enemy will itself be destroyed when the Lord goes forth to fight for His people as in the days of old. This literal cemetery will be so large and extensive that it can be likened to Flanders Field in France, where so many young Americans who have died in action since World War I have been buried. Likened by the Prophet Ezekiel to a city of the dead, the cemetery is prophetically designated “Hamonah” (the burial ground of Haman- or Hamongog— Ezek. 39:15,16).

The Prophet Isaiah (66:24), treating the same subject from a completely different standpoint, states the matter thus:

“They [all flesh] shall go forth, and look upon the carcasses of the men that have transgressed against me: for their worm shall not die, neither shall their fire be quenched; and they shall be an abhorring unto all flesh.”

(Innumerable bodies in various stages of decay will be seen strewn over the countryside before burial (here are the immortalized “worm[s]”); their obvious stench (“an abhorrence to all”—RSV) will be apparent in the countenances of passersby and in the masked faces of those who are engaged in burying the dead. This digression and analysis afford a better appreciation and understanding of how the “smoke of her burning” (Rev. 18:9,18) will rise up forever and ever.)

This prophetic verbal description, which uses an ancient vocabulary and limited terminology, can be translated or explained more clearly. Whereas, simply stated, the Ezekiel account tells that the fate of the forces of Gog and his confederates will be evidenced by the existence of a literal graveyard with nonvisible corpses buried beneath the earth, the Isaiah account suggests that a theater will be there, on location, where an audiovisual program will preserve for posterity the events incidental to Israel’s deliverance in Jacob’s Trouble by means of supernatural miracles (earthquake and “fire”—Ezek. 38:19,22). The action that befalls Israel’s enemies, leading up to and including their burial in the cemetery, will be photographically recorded and frozen, as it were, on tape.”

We move on to Verse 4 in our next post.