LION OR A LAMB?
Opening Prayer
I praise You, Sovereign Lord, that You do not take pleasure in the death of anyone. I choose to repent and live! (Ezekiel 18:32).
Read Revelation 19:11–21
The Heavenly Warrior Defeats the Beast
11 I saw heaven standing open and there before me was a white horse, whose rider is called Faithful and True. With justice he judges and wages war. 12 His eyes are like blazing fire, and on his head are many crowns. He has a name written on him that no one knows but he himself. 13 He is dressed in a robe dipped in blood, and his name is the Word of God. 14 The armies of heaven were following him, riding on white horses and dressed in fine linen, white and clean. 15 Coming out of his mouth is a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations. “He will rule them with an iron scepter.”[a] He treads the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God Almighty. 16 On his robe and on his thigh he has this name written:
king of kings and lord of lords.
17 And I saw an angel standing in the sun, who cried in a loud voice to all the birds flying in midair, “Come, gather together for the great supper of God, 18 so that you may eat the flesh of kings, generals, and the mighty, of horses and their riders, and the flesh of all people, free and slave, great and small.”
19 Then I saw the beast and the kings of the earth and their armies gathered together to wage war against the rider on the horse and his army. 20 But the beast was captured, and with it the false prophet who had performed the signs on its behalf. With these signs he had deluded those who had received the mark of the beast and worshiped its image. The two of them were thrown alive into the fiery lake of burning sulfur. 21 The rest were killed with the sword coming out of the mouth of the rider on the horse, and all the birds gorged themselves on their flesh.
Footnotes
a Revelation 19:15 Psalm 2:9
New International Version (NIV)
Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Reflect
Do you see Jesus as the Lion or the Lamb?These aren’t John’s musings on what God might be like. This is truth about Jesus that the Holy Spirit wanted recorded so that the world might know. Gentle Jesus meek and mild? True, Jesus, the Lord of lords and King of kings (17:14), is the Lamb who suffers in silence. But he is also the Lamb who wages war and the Rider of verses 11–16.
The Jesus we worship is the one who came as a tiny baby: who said, “Let the little children come to me”; who told us to love our enemies; who healed the sick and the blind and the penitent; and who gave his life as “the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). On the other hand nothing is hidden from his gaze (12). His law cannot be thrown aside without terrible consequence (15). Though there is no literal battle here – the victory is won by the word Jesus speaks (21) – we cannot avoid the fact that Jesus promises this judgment (Matthew 25:26–30).
Apply
Jesus has already won the victory. We know the end of the story. How can this truth affect the way you choose to live today? Does it give you confidence? Conviction?
Closing prayer
Lamb of God, I praise You for taking away my sins. Help me to live victoriously today.
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