Revelation 19:6-9
Then I heard something like the voice of a great multitude and like the sound of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, saying, “Hallelujah! For theLord our God, the Almighty, reigns. Let us rejoice and be glad and give the glory to Him, for the marriage of the Lamb has come and His bride has made herself ready.”It was given to her to clothe herself in fine linen, bright and clean; for fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints. Then he said to me, “Write, ‘Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.’” And he said to me, “These are true words of God.”
Let us pray.
Father, You created all things so that Your Spirit might prepare a Bride for Your Son. Pour out that Spirit on Christian and Tara as they begin their life together. Fill them with joy and song, so that their marriage might be a sign now of the marriage feast to come. Through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, ever one God, age after age. Amen.
“Let us rejoice and be glad, for the marriage of the Lamb has come and the bride has made herself ready. Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage Supper of the Lamb.”
The date was chosen before the foundation of the world. Messengers have spread into the highways and byways delivering invitations. Guests are assembled. At long last, it’s the wedding day of the Lamb.
We expect a bride in white, a bridegroom in the first-century equivalent of a tux and the apocalyptic equivalent of an orange bow tie. Where we expect a bridegroom, we see a rider on a white horse. Where we expect a tux, we see a blood-spattered robe. He’s not carrying a fashionable cane, but wielding a double-edged sword that extends from his mouth. He charges ahead to smite the nations, to rule them with a rod of iron, to tread the winepress of the wrath of God, and to slaughter kings whose flesh will be consumed by the birds of the sky.
Instead of a bride, we see a city that descends from heaven sparkling like jasper, made of gold so pure that it’s transparent as glass. Her foundation stones are precious gems, her pearl gates open day and night to receive the tribute of kings. As soon as she’s in focus, she’s a garden, with a river running through, the fruit of the tree of life forever ripe for picking, its leaves green for the healing of nations.
Come to the marriage feast. But we don’t see a bride and a groom. Through John’s eyes, we see a warrior and a city.
As was said in another context: This looks not like a nuptial.
Yet it is the nuptial, the wedding feast toward which all history moves.
Continue here.
Peter J. Leithart is President of Theopolis.