BIG IDEA: Believers Battle like the Lamb, not like Babylon.
In verse 11, we see an image of Jesus on a white horse signaled hope to believers terrorized by the triumphant white horses of Roman officers who served the Beast and the Horns. In contrast, Christ is said to be totally Faithful and True (i.e., His righteous character is the basis for judgment, ensuring that creation is justly restored to righteous (right) relationships, as we saw in 19:2.
Verse 12 assures believers that: 1) Jesus still walks with His churches to restore creation despite whatever monstrous, short-lived regimes pop up. 2) Christ’s many crowns represent His global sovereignty over Satan’s limited crowns depicted as political heads and horns in Revelation 12 and 17. 3) Faith lets us see the world through Christ’s purifying eyes of fire which expose the spiritual warfare occurring behind all threats to peace.
Ancient Judaism believed Messiah would enter the battlefield in clean white armor, charge His enemies, stomp them like grapes in a winepress, and emerge with a robe soaked in their blood. The odd thing about John’s Revelation is that Jesus rides out of heaven and shows up for battle in an already blood-stained robe! So, a discerning reader must ask: “Whose blood is that?" It seems reasonable to me that this is the blood He shed on the cross! Revelation, therefore, is correcting ancient misunderstandings of who Jesus is and how Jesus operates!
Instead of letting creation be crushed by the consequences of our rebellion, The Lamb stepped into our world to ride against the dark powers with a robe stained in His own blood (i.e. At the cross, Jesus already won the war through willing, self-sacrificial death as a ransom for many).
Our text also presents us with armies of heaven adorned in the non-bloody wedding gowns they had previously received, connecting all this with the wedding supper in 19:1-10.
Let’s prepare for our marriage supper by putting on the fine linen of justice, kindness, and truth already granted to us by The Lamb. Let’s pull our chairs up to His table, follow the Rider on the white horse, and live like the victory is already secure and that our King of kings and Lord of lords has the final word. And while we rejoice in the justice He will bring and the evils He will conquer, let’s also pray for the conversion of unbelievers and seek to love them into the kingdom of God.
