“And after these things I heard a great voice of much people in heaven, saying, Alleluia; Salvation, and glory, and honour, and power, unto the Lord our God: For true and righteous are his judgments: for he hath judged the great harlot, which did corrupt the earth with her fornication, and hath avenged the blood of his servants at her hand.

And again they said, Alleluia. And her smoke rose up for ever and ever. And the four and twenty elders and the four beasts fell down and worshipped God that sat on the throne, saying, Amen; Alleluia.

And a voice came out of the throne, saying, Praise our God, all ye his servants, and ye that fear him, both small and great. And I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thunderings, saying, Alleluia: for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth. Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready. And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints.

And he saith unto me, Write, Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb. And he saith unto me, These are the true sayings of God. And I fell at his feet to worship him. And he said unto me, See thou do it not: I am thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren that have the testimony of Jesus: worship God: for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.”- Re 19:1-21 (KJV)

Hallelujah — praise ye Jehovah, frequently rendered “Praise ye the LORD,” stands at the beginning of ten of the psalms (106, 111–113, 135, 146–150), hence called “hallelujah psalms. It is a combination of the word for praise/show light/be boastful about (halal/haw-lal) - and the shortened form of Yahweh(Yah) – rendered Alleluia in the NT. It is a Hebrew word – first occurring in Psalm 106. If you read Psalm 106 (we recommend reading all 10 referred here) you will start to understand why He is worthy of all praise. The story that begins there finds its fulfilment here, in this section of the 4 Fold Hallelujahs.

Three of them - bookend the judgement and fall of the evil and city that both deceived the world, and drank the blood of His servants. Note that her smoke rises forever and ever – it’s a permanent reminder! If there ever was an indication of the severity of this deception and His wrath – here it is. He is not content with merely wiping this city out in an hour, but prohibits it from ever – ever being inhabited. Not only that, her burning never stops! Read Isaiah 34:10 - “ It shall not be quenched night nor day; the smoke thereof shall go up for ever: from generation to generation it shall lie waste; none shall pass through it for ever and ever.” In fact, the events of Isaiah 34:1-10 exactly parallel Rev 19! It will give you chills to see the prediction of the Sword and the slaughter predicted there, and what we see in Rev 19, verses 11-21. Here the righteousness of the judgements and vengeance of the LORD are praised.

The next Alleluia is in response to a direct command from the Throne – directed to His servants and those that fear Him. Not everyone is called to be His servant – whether they be small or great. Take for example - the office of High Priest - “And no man taketh this honour unto himself, but he that is called of God, as was Aaron. So also Christ glorified not himself to be made an high priest; but he that said unto him, Thou art my Son, to day have I begotten thee.” - Heb 5:4-5 Smallest to greatest indeed !! It’s the same for prophets… false prophets died – by stoning at the hands of the people or by the hand of God! For the rest of us – it is sufficient for us to fear (respect/reverence) Him, keep His commandments, and Praise Him for His Grace for electing us!

The Alleluia also introduces us to a new concept. The Marriage Supper of the Lamb. Revelation is the only place we find it mentioned – though the concept of Marriage as symbolizing the covenant relationship between God and His people goes back to the Old Testament. We see a figure of it in God (Abraham) sending the Spirit (His Trusted Servant) to bring back a Bride for His Son from among his kin. In Jeremiah 16 He is almost tearful at the unfaithfulness of His betrothed, and asks Hosea to take a harlot to wife to let His people know what they have done!

Christ uses the marriage feast in the parables of the 10 bridesmaids(Matt 25:1-13), and the marriage feast thrown by a King (Matt 22:1-4). He calls Himself the Bridegroom ( Matt. 9:14; Mark 2:19, 20; Luke 5:34), and John the Baptist calls himself the friend of the Bridegroom (John 3:29). Here we are told that there is actually a Marriage Supper of the Lamb and there is a blessing on those invited (just like the parable in Matt 22).

Which brings up a good point. Christ is the groom, the Bride is the church – who are the guests that are blessed by being invited? Some commentators are of the view that it is not uncommon for apocalyptic language to speak metaphorically, in which sense, the church is both Bride and guest – and this is the majority opinion – which we do not have a problem with. Another interesting view is that the guests are Israel – and they are the ones going Hallelujah - just as John rejoiced! (And that is why we led off this weeks discussion with the fact that Hallelujah is a Hebrew word! Well, we shall see when we get there!

There is another group of invitees to another supper of God in this chapter - “And I saw an angel standing in the sun; and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the fowls that fly in the midst of heaven, Come and gather yourselves together unto the supper of the great God;” - (Re 19:17) This supper is definitely prepared by the Lamb (read Rev 19:11-21) – but the invitees are fowl – and the dinner is the armies of the world and the beast.

Yes, we need to reverence our God – but all Praise to Him from delivering us from this wrath!

Hallelujah!