Sunday School Notes: Revelation 19:19-21

¹⁹ And I saw the beast and the kings of the earth and their armies gathered together to make war against the one sitting upon the horse and against his army. ²⁰ And the beast was seized and with him the false prophet who did the signs in his presence by which he deceived those who received the mark of the beast and who worshiped his image. While alive the two were thrown into the lake of fire which burns with sulphur. ²¹ And the rest were killed by the sword coming out of the mouth of the one sitting on the horse. And all the birds ate to satisfaction from their flesh.

John’s attention is now drawn to the armies of the earth gathering to battle with the beast against Jesus and his people. The verb tense used of the gathered armies. In the Greek it is a perfect passive participle, meaning this gathering is something that was done to them in past time: “having been gathered together.” The implication of the verb tense is that they did not gather of their own volition. Not that they objected to being gathered together to fight against the Lord. They are, after all, acting according to their sinful desires. But this is not their plan. They are being gathered for battle by someone else.

A comparison between verse 19, 16:13-14, and 17:12-14 indicates that these are speaking of the same event. Armies are gathered for battle against the Lord in all three instances, and 17:12-14 makes it very clear that this is God’s plan. He is the one who is orchestrating this whole event for His glory, and for the vindication of His people. Also, we mustn’t miss the fact that these passages are related. If these are speaking of the same event, that affects our understanding of how we should read not just this passage but Revelation as a whole. The significance is further underscored by the fact that 20:7-10 also appears to relate the same event. This confirms that Revelation ought not to be read as if each vision is a scene in a movie, with each scene progressing forward in sequence. To borrow an analogy, Revelation should be viewed more like a televised sporting event. There are multiple cameras watching the same game with the producer in the control room deciding which camera to broadcast at any one time. Should something significant happen (a goal, a touch-down, a foul), they will show a replay. That replay will repeat the same event from different camera angles. One might be a distant shot, another might be a close up in slow motion. Another might be from an overhead angle with the commentators describing the significance of each move. But each replay will be of the same event, showing something a little different each time.

Ezekiel 38 is relevant here and in Chapter 20. This passage is a prophecy against Gog and Magog. God speaks of leading out the armies and horses of Gog (vv. 2-9). They will eventually go up against Israel, but there will be earthquakes and mountains thrown down as God brings a sword against Gog (vv. 17-23). “Then they will know that I am the Lord.”

Things don’t go well for the beast and the false prophet. The ESV says that they are “captured.” This is a legitimate rendering of the Greek, but I think “seized” or “captured” is better. We are not talking about a kidnapping here. What happens to the beast and the false prophet is judicial action, and “arrested” or “seized” conveys that more accurately than “captured.” This is the God of the universe bringing judgment against the culture and the power behind it. The beast is the “false messiah,” the object of the culture’s worship. It was from the beast that “Babylon” drew her power and authority. The “false prophet” is the second beast, the one who acts as the beast’s disciples and prophets. This beast draws the people into idolatry that they might worship and serve the beast (see Revelation 13). But their power is not without limit, and their authority will last only a short time. Justice is coming for them.

The beast and the false prophet are thrown into the lake of fire. But they are not consumed by the fire. This sentence in Greek begins with zōntes, “while living.” These two are thrown alive into the lake of fire. The punishment and torment they face is conscious punishment and torment. And if this is the same torment as we saw in 14:9-11 (and I believe it is), it will last forever, day and night. This point is underscored in 20:10 which explicitly states that the beast and the false prophet are tormented in the lake of fire day and night forever. The point is they are not simply annihilated. They are not consumed by the fire and gone forever. They endure conscious eternal punishment.

This sounds like cruel and unusual punishment to us, which really only goes to demonstrate that we do not grasp how terrible sin is. Even as Christians, we recognize sin is bad, and we repent and are sorry for our sin. But we still don’t get how deeply offensive sin is to God. If we did, we wouldn’t do it. In light of that, it’s good to consider the eternal conscious punishment of the beasts and, as we will see, all who follow them. It was God who established the “eye for an eye” justice system. In other words, God’s law says that the punishment should fit the crime. If we apply that same principle to sin, we understand that the only punishment that fits the crime for sin is eternal conscious torment in the lake of fire. And the only sacrifice that could truly atone for the sins of men is the death of the Second Person of the Trinity, God the Son. That’s how bad sin is. And that’s how gracious God is.

What of the rest? John has seen the demise of the beast and the false prophet, but what of their followers, the “armies” of the beast? Verse 21 tells us that they are killed by the sword coming from the rider’s (i.e., Jesus’s) mouth. We noted before that this sword is symbolic of verbal judgment. Jesus proclaims judgment upon them and they are judged. The text tells us that these armies are consumed by birds. What does this image tell us about the end of the earth-dwellers? Are they not also consumed in the lake of fire, or are they just destroyed?

First, the symbolism of the birds consuming the flesh of the armies goes back to Ezekiel 39:4. Still within the context of God’s judgment against Gog and Magog, God says that He will give them to the birds of prey and beasts of the field to be devoured. Culturally, leaving the dead unburied was considered disrespectful back then, and that feeling still exists today. Human civilization has a long history of burying or burning their dead and not leaving bodies to birds and beasts. As creatures made in the image of God, we recognize that image in our fellow humans and as a result accord our dead the dignity they deserve. In 11:9-10 we saw the two witnesses left for dead in the street as a sign of ultimate disrespect. We can also look at 1 Kings 14:11, part of a prophecy against Jeroboam where God says those who follow him and die in the city will be eaten by dogs, and those who die in the country will be eaten by birds. Deuteronomy 28:26 has a similar curse for disobedient Israel: if they disobey the Lord they will be defeated by their enemies and their dead bodies will be food for the birds and beasts. So the symbolism of being consumed by birds is one of disrespect. They are under the curse of God and deserve no special regard or honor.

As to the ultimate end of the earth-dwellers, 20:15 gives us a more pointed idea of what happens to them: They too are thrown into the lake of fire. This is another example of two passages looking at the same thing from different angles. Here we are shown that these people are under the curse of God. But 20:15 will make it clear that they suffer the same end as the beast and the false prophet.

Next time, Lord willing, we’ll begin looking at chapter 20.