Project 119: Revelation 19:1-10
| Project 119 | Amy Hirsch
The Greatest Celebratory Meal of All
I love birthdays. I enjoy celebrating my own, of course, but I also love celebrating other people’s birthdays, especially over meals. Our birthdays are reminders that the Lord has granted us another year of life. I appreciate being able to sit down over a nice meal and celebrate something like that with people I love.
We have a celebratory meal here in Revelation 19:1–10. It’s not just a meal celebrating birthdays, though. Instead, this meal is called the marriage supper of the Lamb. It’s the celebration of God’s defeat in Christ over sin, death, and the grave. Evil has been forever vanquished, and in response, God’s people are called to praise Him and join together for this monumental meal.
This marriage supper isn’t just mentioned in Revelation; the Old Testament prophets looked forward to a day when sin and death would be no more, to a day when God’s people would gather together on His mountain for a feast, to a day when they would declare, “Behold, this is our God; we have waited for him, that he might save us. This is the Lord, we have waited for him; let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation” (Isaiah 25:9). This Old Testament banquet imagery is coupled with the Jewish wedding customs. After the period of betrothal, the bride would prepare herself on the wedding day. The groom would come to her house and escort her back to his home to consummate their marriage and celebrate with the wedding feast.
One day, Christ will return and bring His Bride, the Church, home. And on that day, all of God’s servants will praise Him, great and small (Revelation 19:5). We will cry out “Hallelujah” as we enter into His presence clothed in fine white linen, “the righteous deeds of the saints” (Revelation 19:8). And we will celebrate together with a meal that will commemorate the dawning of a new day when sin and death are forever defeated. I expect it will be a meal that will be much richer than any earthly birthday meal, because rather than celebrating another year of life on earth in our frail and mortal frames, we, the saints, will be celebrating the end of evil, the end of sin, and even the end of death in our glorified bodies. We’ll feast together with our Groom, the Lord Himself, and we will see Him face to face as we begin what C.S. Lewis calls “Chapter One of the Great Story which no one on earth has read: which goes on forever: in which every chapter is better than the one before” (C.S. Lewis, The Last Battle).
Revelation 19:1-10 (ESV):
After this I heard what seemed to be the loud voice of a great multitude in heaven, crying out,
“Hallelujah! Salvation and glory and power belong to our God, 2 for his judgments are true and just; for he has judged the great prostitute who corrupted the earth with her immorality, and has avenged on her the blood of his servants.”
3 Once more they cried out,
“Hallelujah! The smoke from her goes up forever and ever.”
4 And the twenty-four elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshiped God who was seated on the throne, saying, “Amen. Hallelujah!” 5 And from the throne came a voice saying,
“Praise our God, all you his servants, you who fear him, small and great.”
6 Then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude, like the roar of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, crying out,
“Hallelujah! For the Lord our God the Almighty reigns. 7 Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his Bride has made herself ready; 8 it was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure”—
for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints.
9 And the angel said to me, “Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.” And he said to me, “These are the true words of God.” 10 Then I fell down at his feet to worship him, but he said to me, “You must not do that! I am a fellow servant with you and your brothers who hold to the testimony of Jesus. Worship God.” For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.