ORDER RESTORED
Opening Prayer
Without you Lord, where would I be? I would be desperately empty and lost. I cannot thank you enough for making me your child.
Read REVELATION 19:1-10
Threefold Hallelujah Over Babylon’s Fall
19 After this I heard what sounded like the roar of a great multitude in heaven shouting:
“Hallelujah!
Salvation and glory and power belong to our God,
2 for true and just are his judgments.
He has condemned the great prostitute
who corrupted the earth by her adulteries.
He has avenged on her the blood of his servants.”
3 And again they shouted:
“Hallelujah!
The smoke from her goes up for ever and ever.”
4 The twenty-four elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshiped God, who was seated on the throne. And they cried:
“Amen, Hallelujah!”
5 Then a voice came from the throne, saying:
“Praise our God,
all you his servants,
you who fear him,
both great and small!”
6 Then I heard what sounded like a great multitude, like the roar of rushing waters and like loud peals of thunder, shouting:
“Hallelujah!
For our Lord God Almighty reigns.
7 Let us rejoice and be glad
and give him glory!
For the wedding of the Lamb has come,
and his bride has made herself ready.
8 Fine linen, bright and clean,
was given her to wear.”
(Fine linen stands for the righteous acts of God’s holy people.)
9 Then the angel said to me, “Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb!” And he added, “These are the true words of God.”
10 At this I fell at his feet to worship him. But he said to me, “Don’t do that! I am a fellow servant with you and with your brothers and sisters who hold to the testimony of Jesus. Worship God! For it is the Spirit of prophecy who bears testimony to Jesus.”
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
Get ready to join heaven’s song. Listen to some – or all! – of Elevation Worship’s Paradoxology,* or sing the doxology, ‘Praise God from whom all blessings flow’.Chapter 18 ended with a ruined city: dark, unpeopled, silent (18:22–24). Chapter 19 begins with an explosion of praise as heaven obeys the command (18:20) to rejoice in God’s justice (vs 2,3). The destruction of ‘Babylon’, the symbol of human-centered opposition to God, is reason to celebrate.
The image of smoke (v 3) is not a literal eternal bonfire but a powerful apocalyptic metaphor from Isaiah 34:9,10. The meaning is clear: those who claim for themselves the glory and power that belong to God alone (vs 1,2; see also 18:7) will face God’s judgment and never ever rise again.
Once human-centered rebellion has gone, all God’s people (represented by the 24 elders, all his servants, a great multitude, vs 4,5,6) and creation itself (represented by the four living creatures) are free to worship God as they were originally created to do. They serve God (v 5), live under his rule (v 6) and worship him alone (v 10). But God has more in store!
He desires an intimate, committed relationship with his people (vs 7,8). He takes us, ragged Cinderella servants, and dresses us in the righteousness of Christ (see Ephesians 5:25; Colossians 1:22) so that we can be united in love with him forever.
Apply
The church is Christ’s bride. Let us rejoice, be glad, and give him glory!
Closing prayer
I am reminded Lord that you inhabit the praises of your people. Forgive me if I withhold my praise to you.
* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GsrgkyUXnsE
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