Scripture Daily

Context No. 783 of 4322 · Revelation

Context · Reflection

Revelation 19:17-21: in context

17I saw an angel standing in the sun. He cried with a loud voice, saying to all the birds that fly in the sky, “Come! Be gathered together to the great supper of God, 18that you may eat the flesh of kings, the flesh of captains, the flesh of mighty men, and the flesh of horses and of those who sit on them, and the flesh of all men, both free and slave, small and great.” 19I saw the beast, the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against him who sat on the horse and against his army. 20The beast was taken, and with him the false prophet who worked the signs in his sight, with which he deceived those who had received the mark of the beast and those who worshiped his image. These two were thrown alive into the lake of fire that burns with sulfur. 21The rest were killed with the sword of him who sat on the horse, the sword which came out of his mouth. So all the birds were filled with their flesh.

Revelation's last great battle turns out to be strangely brief. An angel standing in the sun calls all the carrion birds of the sky to what he grimly names the great supper of God, to feast on the flesh of kings and captains and warriors, of the horses and their riders, of the small and the great alike. It is the dark mirror of the wedding supper of the Lamb a few verses earlier, and the vision has set the two feasts side by side: you are a guest at one, or you are what is served at the other. Then the beast and the kings of the earth and their armies gather to make war on the rider on the white horse.

And the war is over almost before it begins. The beast is simply taken, captured, and with it the false prophet who had worked its signs and deceived everyone bearing its mark, and the two of them are thrown alive into the lake of fire. The rest fall by the sword that comes from the rider's mouth, which is to say by his word; he does not need a blade in his hand. For all the terror the beast had spread, its end is not a close-run thing. It is decisive and sudden. The power that seemed unbeatable, that had made the whole earth afraid, turns out to have a fixed and certain end the moment the rider appears, undone not by a greater army but by a word.

The beast that terrorized the earth was simply taken and undone by a word. What power in my world seems invincible, and can I trust that it too has a fixed and certain end?

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