On the Revelation of Yahshua Christ, Part 24: The Wedding Supper of the Lamb

On the Revelation of Yahshua Christ, Part 24: The Wedding Supper of the Lamb

As we have already explained, in Revelation chapter 12 the apostle John saw a vision of a woman who had twelve stars, by which we should understand that collectively she represents the twelve tribes of the children of Israel, and she was being taken into the wilderness to be nourished for three-and-a-half times, which we had identified as the period of history during which the woman received the Gospel of Christ and then returned to Yahweh her God through Him. But then in another vision in Revelation chapter 17, John is taken back to the wilderness and sees that the woman is now a whore and that she has joined herself to the beast, which is the same beast system that had manifested itself in the various world empires by which she had been held captive during all the time of her punishment. Joining herself to the beast, the woman turned over her kingdom to the beast, as it states in that same chapter. As we also asserted, the woman was once freed from the beast, as it is described in Revelation chapter 13, but has now become a whore by joining herself to it, as she had a better opportunity to keep the Word of God in the Gospel. So for her failure, the whore must be judged, and Revelation chapters 18 and 19 briefly describe aspects of that judgment.

In the Old Testament there is presented a pattern of sin and the inevitably resulting punishment which modern man somehow supposes that he now has the ability to avoid by his own devices. The secular humanist believes that his own skill, knowledge and technology, as well as his own righteousness, can make him his own savior. So here in Revelation chapter 18, the whore was described as having had the same arrogant attitude reflected in the exclamation that “I sit a queen and I am not a widow and I have not seen grief.” For that, what happens to the woman was expressed in Proverbs chapter 16 where Solomon had written that “18 Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.” The Word of Yahweh God, when we realize its fulfillment in history, assures us that in spite of his modern devices, man shall indeed suffer punishment for his sins.

Discussing Revelation chapters 17 and 18, we had identified Mystery Babylon as the international world mercantile system, especially in its economic, political and religious aspects. In those chapters, the whore was described as sitting upon many waters, and the text itself identifies those as all of the peoples and nations of the world, most of which are actually beasts. The apostle Peter had described the aliens feasting together with Israelite Christians as “natural brute beasts, made to be taken and destroyed”, as the King James Version has it. This explanation that the many waters represent peoples is found in chapter 17 where we read: “15 … ‘The waters which you saw where the whore sits are people and multitudes and nations and tongues. 16 And the ten horns which you saw and the beast, these shall hate the whore and they shall make her desolate and naked and they shall eat her flesh and they shall burn her down with fire.’” So there we also learn that the very beast to which the woman is joined shall hate the woman and seek to destroy her.

It is evident in many ways in Scripture that Yahweh God often punishes sinners by their own devices, and that is certainly the case in this description of the woman. One place where this lesson is found is in chapter 11 of the Wisdom of Solomon, as Solomon is addressing Yahweh Himself and we read in our own translation: “15 And in return for the incomprehensible reasonings of their unrighteousness, in which wandering they were worshipping brute animals and worthless beasts, You sent upon them a multitude of brute creatures in vindication, 16 in order that they may know that by the things of which one sins, by those things he is punished.” Accepting all of the non-White and non-Christian nations of the world into a presumed community of nations or international fellowship is tantamount once again to the worship of beasts. The children of Israel, in both Old Testament and New, were commanded to be a separate and peculiar people unto God.

So today it is becoming more and more clear that White Christians, or former Christians, are indeed being punished with their own devices. The negros which they presumed to admit as their equals are burning down their once-glorious cities, crying for so-called “social justice” and “equity”, and demanding an end to the Rule of Law, which is perceived by them to be a White construct. In recent years these same beasts have openly espoused and promoted Communism and Critical Race Theory, which are both evil and blatantly anti-White concepts sprung from the mind of Satan, which is World Jewry. Then while the Jewish media and Jewish academics publish endless streams of propaganda aimed at convincing Whites that there is no true White race, at the same time it hypocritically decries Whites and blames all of the world’s perceived evils on them. Again, at the same time, not only the Jews, but also hordes of Arabs, Mexicans and various sorts of Orientals operate their syndicated criminal enterprises throughout all of the cities of the formerly Christian nations, and they do so with impunity. With all certainty it is fully apparent in modern history that the beast is tearing at the flesh of the Whore. Whites have worshipped negros and the other non-White races, and have elevated them into positions in a society which they could never have attained strictly on their own merit, and now they are being punished by their own devices.

This is the fulfillment of that same pattern of sin and punishment illustrated in the Old Testament. Yahweh God sent the children of Israel to Egypt, where they were enslaved. Apparently this punishment was merited for what the eleven brothers had done to Joseph, and Joseph both ruled over and delivered them from famine, so they were not punished until after his passing. But once Yahweh decided that the children of Israel should be freed, the Egyptians were punished in turn for what they had done to them. So the children of Israel were humbled, and at that point they were freed as God punished those who had humbled them. Later, in the books of the prophets, the Assyrians were employed as the rod of Yahweh’s anger, and at a fitting point Israel was released from captivity to turn and destroy Assyria, which they accomplished not many decades longer than a hundred years after going into captivity. In turn, the Babylonians took Judah captive, and Yahweh chose to punish Babylon several decades later. All of these events are a subject of prophecies in Isaiah and elsewhere. But now we are at a point in history where the children of Israel, in spite of the Gospel, which is the news of their redemption from those same captivities, have turned from their God once again to wander into whoredom, and they are being punished by her own devices, they are being being destroyed by their own false ideals of liberty, fraternity and equality. Jews, Arabs, Negros, Mexicans and Orientals do not share those same ideals, unless they want something from the Whore.

But we must not forget that it is the Dragon which has always given its power to the beast, and with this understanding, and the identification of the Jews as the collective Dragon, or Satan, how could the relationship of the White race with the Jew be described more succinctly? The international Jews have always hated the White nations, and they have endeavored to destroy them both from within, with Sodomy, fornication and other sins, and from without, with all of the the wars of the bankers which they have consistently instigated. This is the war which the Dragon has made against the woman throughout history, of which the woman is warned in Genesis 3:15 and Revelation chapter 12. But even today most of the children of Israel reject those warnings, since the Dragon has also provided her Bible teachers these past several centuries. So while the beast has greatly profitted from the White Christians who have conducted business with it, from the sweat of White brows and the innovation of White minds, the Dragon would still gladly destroy the Whore, just as the Assyrians and Babylonians and all of the nations in league with them had once also sought to destroy the ancient children of Israel.

The children of Israel had conducted commerce with the surrounding nations when they were warned not to do so, as we have read earlier in this commentary from Hosea chapter 2: “7 And she shall follow after her lovers, but she shall not overtake them; and she shall seek them, but shall not find them: then shall she say, I will go and return to my first husband; for then was it better with me than now. 8 For she did not know that I gave her corn, and wine, and oil, and multiplied her silver and gold, which they prepared for Baal. 9 Therefore will I return, and take away my corn in the time thereof, and my wine in the season thereof, and will recover my wool and my flax given to cover her nakedness.” So this was a significant reason for the punishment of the ancient Israelites, and it is the reason for the punishment of the Whore here in the Revelation, as we also saw that Mystery Babylon had been clearly associated with international commerce in Revelation chapter 18. The ancient children of Israel prepared the goods which they had profitted for Baal, as we read in Hosea, and it remains true, that commerce with alien nations also leads to the acceptance and reverence of their false gods. For this Christians are forced to tolerate the modern so-called secular society, so that the world may be at peace with all of the idols of the demons. So like the Baal worship of old, today Christians are committing the same idolatry while even worshipping the Jews themselves, who are descended from the ancient enemies of Christ, and who still hate Christ, and they even hate Yahweh God the Father, to this very day.

As we witness the beast tear at the flesh of the Whore, Babylon is already falling, and White Christians must eventually hear and heed the call to “Come out of her, My people…” But to come out of Babylon requires a separation from all of those who are about to be punished, which are the non-White, non-Christian nations. Not all of the children of Israel can do that until the fall of Babylon is complete. That all of the nations other than Israel shall be punished, we shall establish from the words of both Christ and the prophets as we discuss the latter portions of this chapter. Earlier in this commentary we also discussed at length the fact that White Europeans are the people of Yahweh, the Body of Christ, which we had elucidated from the histories of the empires prophesied in Daniel and elsewhere. Now here in Revelation chapters 19 and 20, we see the ultimate fate of both the dragon and the alien multitudes, all of whom have advanced themselves towards the Christian peoples of Europe, America, and wherever else the members of the Body of Christ are found. This is the separation of the sheep and the goats, the wheat and the tares of which we read in the Gospel of Matthew.

In prophecies of their redemption Yahweh has promised that He will sanctify His people. Sanctification means separation and devotion to the purposes of God, just as it is described in Exodus chapter 19, that Israel would be a separate people. Yahweh God is not mocked, and His words shall indeed be fulfilled. One such promise is found in Ezekiel chapter 37: “26 Moreover I will make a covenant of peace with them; it shall be an everlasting covenant with them: and I will place them, and multiply them, and will set my sanctuary in the midst of them for evermore. 27 My tabernacle also shall be with them: yea, I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 28 And the heathen shall know that I the LORD do sanctify Israel, when my sanctuary shall be in the midst of them for evermore.” As we hope to discuss in our commentary for Revelation chapter 20, that promise of sanctification at the end of Ezekiel chapter 37 is also coupled to a subsequent description of the invasion of the hordes of Gog and Magog against the Camp of the Saints in chapters 38 and 39, which is something that the world is currently experiencing. But once the Whore is punished, those who are called to come out of Babylon, those of the children of Israel who heed that call and are sanctified, shall in turn punish the punishers, as we shall see here later in Revelation chapter 19.

That was also the pattern of sin and punishment in the ancient world, that the children of Israel were used by Yahweh to punish their punishers, once they were removed from their sin. So we read in Isaiah chapter 10, where Samaria had already fallen and Yahweh promised to punish Judah in the same manner and says in part: “11 Shall I not, as I have done unto Samaria and her idols, so do to Jerusalem and her idols? 12 Wherefore it shall come to pass, that when the Lord hath performed his whole work upon mount Zion and on Jerusalem, I will punish the fruit of the stout heart of the king of Assyria, and the glory of his high looks.” Then a little further on, speaking of what was to ultimately come upon Assyria: “16 Therefore shall the Lord, the Lord of hosts, send among his fat ones leanness; and under his glory he shall kindle a burning like the burning of a fire. 17 And the light of Israel shall be for a fire, and his Holy One for a flame: and it shall burn and devour his thorns and his briers in one day; 18 And shall consume the glory of his forest, and of his fruitful field, both soul and body: and they shall be as when a standardbearer fainteth.”

Here, as we commence with Revelation chapter 19, we shall see that same pattern of punishment repeated once again:

XIX 1 After [as it did at the start of chapter 18, the manuscripts of the MT following Andreas of Caesareia have “And after”] these things I heard like a great sound [the manuscripts of the MT following Andreas of Caesareia have only “heard a sound”] of many multitudes in heaven, saying “Praise Yah! Salvation and honor and power are of our God! 2 Because His judgments are righteous and true, since He has judged the great whore who has ruined the earth with her fornication! And He has avenged the blood of His servants from her hand!”

As we have asserted, the Whore represents Israel in apostasy from God. But here the reference to the whore also seems to be referring to the beast, to Mystery Babylon or the system of global commerce and governance, and that is also true. This we read in Revelation chapter 17, after the beast was described as having seven heads: “9 Thus is the mind having wisdom: The seven heads are seven mountains, where the woman sits upon them. And there are seven kings: 10 five have fallen, one is, another has not yet come, and when he should come it is necessary that he remains a short time. 11 And the beast which was and is not even he is the eighth and is from of the seven, and goes into destruction.” So just as the waters represented peoples and nations, the seven mountains represent the empires of world history. While we have not discussed it yet, that eighth kingdom is the world’s central banking system, which now rules all of the nations, but which hides in plain sight as very few people understand its power and influence over all world governments.

But the Whore, the people of Israel, having joined herself to the beast, has become “one flesh” with the beast. So while at the beginning of John's vision of the Whore, at the beginning of chapter 17, the Whore and the beast are distinguished, now here they are no longer distinguished. When we discussed the previous chapters we had already cited Paul of Tarsus in this respect, where he wrote in Ephesians chapter 5: “‘31 For this reason shall a man leave father and mother and shall join to his wife, and the two shall be for one flesh.’ 32 This mystery is great, and I speak for Christ and for the assembly.” Paul was talking about relations between husband and wife, and also the relationship between Christ and the assembly, meaning the assembly of the children of Israel who have turned to Christ. Israel is meant to be the wife of Yahweh, and a separate people not joined to any beast. So long as Israel commits idolatry, she is a whore. It may also be speculated, that one of the mysteries of iniquity is the fact that without the whore, the beast would have no real power at all. The dragon has always ruled through the cooperation of influential men whom it is able to compromise and corrupt in one way or another. Adam's compromise was the second sin in the Garden of Eden, fornication being the first. All of the world empires that the dragon had come to control had their beginning as Adamic nations.

The multitudes in heaven are different than the nations and peoples upon which the whore sits. These were already described by John in Revelation chapter 7, as being the hundred and forty four thousand of the firstfruits, mentioned again in Revelation chapter 14, or the innumerable multitude of Israelites who had washed their robes in the blood of the Lamb during the trials which came upon the Roman world. Surely these are also among those who were mentioned in chapter 6 where John wrote of the Lamb: “9 And when He opened the fifth seal, I saw beneath the altar the souls of those who had been slain on account of the Word of Yahweh and on account of the testimony which they had. 10 And they cried out with a great voice, saying “How long, Holy and True Master, do You not judge and exact vengeance for our blood from those dwelling upon the earth?” These martyrs were given white robes, and those who died in the subsequent trials had washed their robes and made them white, as it was described in chapter 7. Now here in chapter 19, following the fall of Mystery Babylon, the same innumerable multitude which cried out for vengeance is depicted as celebrating that vengeance as its time has finally arrived. So now they continue to celebrate:

3 Then they spoke [C has “said”] a second time: “Praise Yah, that her [the manuscripts of the MT following Andreas of Caesareia have “the”] smoke ascends for the eternal ages!”

Rather than the phrase “Praise Yah” the popular Bibles have the untranslated word Alleluia, or in Greek, ἁλληλουϊά (Strong’s # 239) which is better transliterated as Halleluyah. The Hebrew lexicon in Strong’s Concordance says that the term is “of Hebrew origin [imperative of 1984 and 3050]; praise ye Jah!…” So here we have actually translated ἁλληλουϊά after its literal meaning, Praise Yah!, the shortened form of the Name of Yahweh which is also found in certain of the Psalms. For example in the 68th Psalm we read, from the King James Version: “4 Sing unto God, sing praises to his name: extol him that rideth upon the heavens by his name JAH, and rejoice before him.” The word ἁλληλουϊά appears for a third time in verse 4, where we also translated ἀμήν, another transliteration of a Hebrew word into Greek, which means truly.

4 And the twenty-four elders fell down, and the four living creatures, and they worshipped Yahweh who sits upon the throne, saying: “Truly! Praise Yah!” 5 And a voice came out from the throne, saying: “Praise our God, all His servants, and [א and C want ‘and’; the text follows A and the MT] fear Him, small men and great men!”

So now the world, or society as we translate the word κόσμος, has been judged, or at least, the time of that judgement has come because it will not be described in greater detail until the end of this chapter, and the multitudes in heaven who are described as the servants of Yahweh, as well as the twenty-four elders, are pictured as celebrating that judgment. But the judgment is described as an avenging, which must therefore also encompass a retribution. But we must ask, upon whom is the retribution exacted? Later in this chapter, and in a parallel vision in Revelation chapter 20, it is clear that retribution is exacted upon kings and armies and nations. However both the nations upon whom retribution is exacted, and the identity of the servants of Yahweh God have already been revealed in the words of the prophets as well as in the parables of Christ, and that is where we must turn for our answers.

Only the children of Israel are ever called the servants of God in the Bible, in either the Old or New Testaments. The words of Yahweh through the prophet Isaiah concerning Israel, found in Isaiah chapter 41, were written as a reassurance after the Assyrian deportations of most of Israel and Judah, and the failed siege of Jerusalem by the Assyrians, where we read: “8 But thou, Israel, art my servant, Jacob whom I have chosen, the seed of Abraham my friend. 9 Thou whom I have taken from the ends of the earth, and called thee from the chief men thereof, and said unto thee, Thou art my servant; I have chosen thee, and not cast thee away.” This has never changed, as we may also read a similar promise in Jeremiah chapter 30: “10 Therefore fear thou not, O my servant Jacob, saith the LORD; neither be dismayed, O Israel: for, lo, I will save thee from afar, and thy seed from the land of their captivity; and Jacob shall return, and shall be in rest, and be quiet, and none shall make him afraid. 11 For I am with thee, saith the LORD, to save thee: though I make a full end of all nations whither I have scattered thee, yet will I not make a full end of thee: but I will correct thee in measure, and will not leave thee altogether unpunished.”

The children of Israel are still scattered, and they are scattered into every corner of the globe (pun intended). As we shall also read in Revelation chapter 20, up to the point where Babylon falls Yahweh employs all of these other peoples, all of these aliens, as a rod with which to punish His servant Israel for their whoredom. Yet also He promised to make a full end of the aliens, and not to make a full end of the children of Israel. These same sentiments are expressed by Yahweh God once again through the prophet Jeremiah at the end of chapter 46 of his prophecy. Even if the nations where Israel was scattered in the initial captivity may no longer exist as they once were, bastard remnants of them still exist, so it is arguable as to whether they have yet reached a “full end”. But Israel remains scattered until the return of Christ and the fulfillment of all of the prophecies of their gathering, so there are still many nations, other races of people, among whom Israel is scattered. As we shall discuss when we reach the latter portion of this chapter, a full end still awaits them.

In the Gospel of Luke, in the words of Mary as she stood before her expectant cousin Elizabeth, from Luke chapter 1 where she speaks of Yahweh God: “54 He has come to the aid of His servant Israel, to call mercy into remembrance, 55 just as He spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to his offspring for the age [or forever].” The New Covenant was made with none other than those who were party to the Old Covenant. In Ezekiel chapter 28 the Word of Yahweh states: “25 Thus saith the Lord GOD; When I shall have gathered the house of Israel from the people among whom they are scattered, and shall be sanctified in them in the sight of the heathen [or nations], then shall they dwell in their land that I have given to my servant Jacob. 26 And they shall dwell safely therein, and shall build houses, and plant vineyards; yea, they shall dwell with confidence, when I have executed judgments upon all those that despise them round about them; and they shall know that I am the LORD their God.” As we have said, further on in this chapter, it shall be investigated exactly what that judgement entails.

Like the words of Isaiah in chapter 41, the prophet Jeremiah wrote long after Israel and most of Judah were taken into Assyrian captivity. The Assyrian captivities of both kingdoms had ended, for the most part, by 701 BC and the failed siege of Jerusalem. Jeremiah began prophesying from around 627 BC, and Yahweh had still referred to Israel as His servant even as He spoke of their scattering in those passages from Jeremiah which we have just cited. Now here in Ezekiel, who began prophesying in the “fifth year of king Jehoiachin's captivity”, or around 592 BC, according to his own words, we see once again a promised regathering of Israel, and Israel is still considered the servant of Yahweh. In the Gospel of Luke, in the inspired words of Mary the mother of Christ, Israel is still the servant of Yahweh, and no subsequent Scripture can honestly be interpreted in a manner so as to contradict any of these prophecies.

While it seems that Israel was later regathered to a great degree in Europe, and especially once they had accepted Christianity, that regathering also seems to be a process since they have never truly acted as one stick in the hands of Christ, always having been divided against one another. But Israel being alone in the wilderness, the execution of “judgments upon all those that despise them round about them” could not have yet taken place, as today the children of Israel are truly surrounded by all those who hate the Whore and who are tearing her flesh. So Revelation chapter 19 describes the fulfillment of that prophecy in Ezekiel chapter 28, as well as those in Isaiah and Jeremiah which we have also cited here.

The twenty-four elders are the patriarchs of Israel and the apostles of Christ, as they are revealed in the prophets and the Gospel, and as we had explained in relation to the earlier mentions of them in Revelation chapters 4 and 5. The throne here must be the same throne which John had described in those same chapters. Now they continue their praise:

6 And I heard like [the manuscripts of the MT following Andreas of Caesareia want “like”] a sound of many multitudes and like a sound of many waters and like a sound of mighty thunders saying “Praise Yah! For Prince Yahweh the Almighty reigns!

Where we read “Prince Yahweh”, we have followed the Codex Alexandrinus which has only κύριος ὁ θεὸς, the common formula found in the Septuagint and usually translated as “the Lord God”. The Codex Sinaiticus has ὁ θεὸς ὁ κύριος ἡμῶν, which we would translate as “Yahweh our God” or perhaps, for the reason of the revelation in the text here, “Yahweh our Prince”. Similarly we would translate the phrase as it appears in the traditional manuscripts of the Majority Text, ὁ κύριος ὁ θεὸς ἡμῶν, which only reverses the order of the titles from that of the Sinaiticus. The Majority Text manuscripts following Andreas of Caesareia have only ὁ θεὸς ἡμῶν, or “our God”.

So, speaking of one significant revelation which is made in this chapter, when translating this passage we chose to render κύριος ὁ θεὸς as “Prince Yahweh” in order to assert the fact that the Prince, as we have translated the word κύριος where it pertains to Christ, is indeed one and the same as Yahweh God, and this chapter is declaring that fact where Christ is later called both “the Word of Yahweh” and “King of Kings and Sovereign of Sovereigns”. As we have also already explained, Yahshua Christ is not a separate person from Yahweh God, but rather, He is the physical expression of Yahweh God in the world, the Father as the Son, and the Tabernacle of God set among men, as it is prophesied in Ezekiel chapter 37, in that same passage which we had earlier cited.

Where it says “King of Kings” and “Lord of Lords”, as the King James Version has it, it is referring to Yahshua Christ, to the Word of Yahweh sitting upon the horse, and Yahshua Christ is the Word made flesh, as He is described in the Gospel of John. But Yahweh had said in Hosea chapter 13 that “ 9 O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself; but in me is thine help. 10 I will be thy king: where is any other that may save thee in all thy cities? and thy judges of whom thou saidst, Give me a king and princes? 11 I gave thee a king in mine anger, and took him away in my wrath.” When the children of Israel demanded an earthly king, Yahweh told Samuel that they had rejected Him as king, in 1 Samuel chapter 8 where we read: “7 And the LORD said unto Samuel, Hearken unto the voice of the people in all that they say unto thee: for they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them.” Therefore later in Hosea Yahweh declared that “I will be thy king”, as we have just read. So if Yahweh is King, and if His Word is true, how could Yahshua Christ the Son be “King of Kings”, unless He truly is Yahweh God incarnate? It does not say “Kings of Kings” but “King of Kings”, and there could only be one. The children of Israel have not two or three Gods, but One.

This same argument may be made from a different aspect here in the passage which follows:

7 We should be glad and rejoice and give honor to Him, because the wedding-feast [א and the manuscripts of the Majority Text following Andreas of Caesareia what “wedding”] of the Lamb has come, and His wife has prepared herself! 8 And it is given to her that she is wrapped in clean bright linen. For the linen is the vindications of the saints [or sanctified ones]!”

The Greek word δικαίωμα (1345) is, according to Liddell & Scott, “…an act by which wrong is set right… a judgment, punishment, penalty… a plea of right… justification,” and according to Joseph Thayer’s Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament, “that which has been deemed right so as to have the force of law… what has been established and ordained by law, an ordinance… a judicial decision, sentence; of God — either the favorable judgment by which he acquits men and declares them acceptable to him, Romans 5:16; or unfavorable: sentence of condemnation, Revelation 15:4...” To that, in his lengthy definition Thayer later adds “2. a righteous act or deed…” citing this very passage and also Baruch 2:19, but with this last definition we must contend.

Paul of Tarsus, speaking of the Adamic man’s transgression of the law in Romans chapter 5, and the penalty of that transgression, wrote in part that “18 So then, as that one transgression [that of Adam] is for all men for a sentence of condemnation [κατάκριμα], in this manner then through one decision of judgment [δικαίωμα] for all men is for a judgment of life. 19 Therefore even as through the disobedience of one man [Adam] the many [his descendants] were set down as wrongdoers, in this manner then through the obedience of One [Christ] the many will be established as righteous.” So after the manner which Paul used the term δικαίωμα in Romans, where we may have rendered the word as vindication, and as we would also translate it in Baruch 2:19, we have vindications here where it is plural.

The American Heritage College Dictionary, Third Edition, has for vindication, in its secondary sense, “The defense, such as evidence or argument, that serves to justify a claim or deed.” Likewise, the Oxford English Dictionary defines the word, in its secondary sense, as “proof that someone or something is right, reasonable, or justified.” Here is the context of the entire Bible, from Genesis 3:15: that the children of Yahweh through Adam and Seth would be justified, and that all others, the children of Satan and his angels, are already condemned and shall ultimately be destroyed. That is the teaching of the parables such as that of the net or the wheat and the tares in Matthew chapter 13, and of the sheep and the goats, in Matthew chapter 25.

Now we shall repeat this passage one verse at a time, as there are other aspects which may perhaps be even more important, and which we must discuss at length:

7 We should be glad and rejoice and give honor to Him, because the wedding-feast of the Lamb has come, and His wife has prepared herself!

The children of Israel are the bride, the wife of Yahweh, and there can be no other, since Yahweh had only prophesied these things concerning the children of Israel. For example, we read in Isaiah chapter 54: “5 For thy Maker is thine husband; Yahweh of hosts is his name; and thy Redeemer the Holy One of Israel; The God of the whole earth shall he be called." If Yahweh is still the Redeemer of Israel, then Yahweh is still the Husband of Israel. Yahweh is indeed Husband and Redeemer of Israel, and therefore He is also Yahshua Christ. Evidently the children of Israel prepare themselves for Him by coming out of Babylon after it falls, and by repenting of their sins so that they could be fit to render vengeance, as it is described in Revelation chapter 18, and as Paul of Tarsus had told the Corinthians in 2 Corinthians chapter 10 to take “5… captive every thought into the obedience of the Anointed; 6 also being in readiness to avenge all disobedience, whenever you shall have fulfilled your obedience”, which we had cited at length in our discussion of that same passage in chapter 18 which concerns vengeance, where they were told “6 You return to her as she also had rendered, and you double twice the things according to her works. In the cup which she had mixed, you mix double for her!”

We have already cited this particular passage of Hosea in reference to the nature of the sins for which both ancient Israel and the Whore of the Revelation were punished, but now we shall cite it in a different aspect, in relation to this wedding-feast of the Lamb, where the Word of Yahweh said in Hosea chapter 2: “7 And she shall follow after her lovers, but she shall not overtake them; and she shall seek them, but shall not find them: then shall she say, I will go and return to my first husband; for then was it better with me than now.” In chapter 1 of Hosea, Yahweh had described the divorce of the children of Israel, the portion of Israel in the northern kingdom. Later, in Jeremiah chapter 33, it is revealed that He also divorced Judah, where it is asked whether “The two families which the LORD hath chosen, he hath even cast them off?” The divorce of Judah is further mentioned in Ezekiel chapter 23, about which we may read in part: “18 So she discovered her whoredoms, and discovered her nakedness: then my mind was alienated from her, like as my mind was alienated from her sister.”

[As a digression, after their own whoredom Adam and Eve had discovered their own nakedness.]

However in spite of their divorce, and in spite of all their sins, later in Hosea chapter 2, after Israel is portrayed as having said that “I will go and return to my first husband”, we read a promise of renewed marriage between Yahweh God and those same children of Israel which says: “19 And I will betroth thee unto me for ever; yea, I will betroth thee unto me in righteousness, and in judgment, and in lovingkindness, and in mercies. 20 I will even betroth thee unto me in faithfulness: and thou shalt know the LORD.” So it is demonstrated that the children of Israel, having accepted Christianity, are returning to Yahweh their husband, which can only be Yahshua Christ, and for that He has promised to be married to them once again, and forever. Paul of Tarsus certainly understood this aspect of the relationship of the scattered children of Israel to Yahweh their God as His bride, on which account he wrote to the Corinthians, in 2 Corinthians chapter 11: “2 For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.” So as we had said, when they returned to Yahweh in Christ they were returning to their first husband.

Later in the Revelation, in chapter 21, the city which descends from heaven is described as the wife of the Lamb. There we shall assert that the city which descends from heaven is a representation of the collective children of Israel, just as Mystery Babylon is described as a city but it is also the name of the Whore, and while the children of Israel were in apostasy they were represented as that city. The city descending from heaven has upon its gates the names of the twelve tribes of Israel, and no one else shall enter that city (Revelation 21:12)!

Speaking of Yahshua Christ, John the Baptist is recorded as having said, in John chapter 3: “29 He having the bride is the bridegroom, but the friend of the bridegroom who stands and hears him rejoices in joy because of the voice of the bridegroom! Therefore this, my joy, is fulfilled.” But while John the Baptist first announced for Christ to be the bridegroom, Christ referred to Himself in that same manner later in the Gospel accounts. Thus we read in Matthew chapter 9: “14 Then the students of Iohannes came forth to Him saying: ‘For what reason do we and the Pharisees fast, but Your students do not fast?’ 15 And Yahshua said to them: ‘The sons of the bridechamber are not able to hunger for as long as the bridegroom is with them. But the days shall come when the bridegroom has been taken from them, and then they shall fast.’” Later in His parables, Christ had described Himself as the bridegroom once more, in the Parable of the Ten Virgins in Matthew chapter 25. Now here in the Revelation, it is revealed once again and rather explicitly that Yahshua Christ is Yahweh, who had promised that He would betroth Himself to the children of Israel, and at His return the wedding feast shall be celebrated in the manner in which it is described here.

There is a passage in Isaiah chapter 61 which contains a promise from Yahweh that is pertinent to this entire portion of the Revelation: the vengeance exacted upon Babylon, and also the nature of the white garments of the bride and her marriage to the Lamb, where the Word of Yahweh says: “6 But ye shall be named the Priests of the LORD: men shall call you the Ministers of our God: ye shall eat the riches of the [Nations], and in their glory shall ye boast yourselves. 7 For your shame ye shall have double; and for confusion they shall rejoice in their portion: therefore in their land they shall possess the double: everlasting joy shall be unto them. 8 For I the LORD love judgment, I hate robbery for burnt offering; and I will direct their work in truth, and I will make an everlasting covenant with them. 9 And their seed shall be known among the [Nations], and their offspring among the people: all that see them shall acknowledge them, that they are the seed which the LORD hath blessed. 10 I will greatly rejoice in the LORD, my soul shall be joyful in my God; for he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, he hath covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decketh himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorneth herself with her jewels.” Once again, we may also see that the promises are made to the literal descendants of the children of Israel, and not to some replacement “church”. Just as the children of Israel were rewarded with double for the sufferings of their ancient punishment, we see that same pattern here in Revelation chapter 18 and the punishment of the Whore.

Having been cleaned of her sin, the Bride is now given her wedding garments:

8 And it is given to her that she is wrapped in clean bright linen. For the linen is the vindications of the saints!”

It is the Bride alone who has the bright garments, and it is the children of Israel alone whose sins Yahweh had promised to cleanse in the words of the prophets. Here we perceive the true meaning of the Parable of the Wedding Garment, found in Matthew chapter 22, where one man who could not have been expected to have had a wedding garment, was expelled from the wedding feast for not having had a wedding garment!

There in that chapter we read: “1 And responding Yahshua again spoke in parables to them, saying: 2 ‘The kingdom of the heavens may be compared to a man who is a king, who has made a wedding-feast for his son. 3 And he sent his servants to call those who were invited to the wedding-feast, and they did not wish to come. 4 Again he sent other servants, saying Tell those who are invited: Behold, my dinner is prepared! My bulls and fatlings are sacrificed and all things are ready, come to the wedding-feast! 5 But they being uncaring departed, indeed one to his own farm, and another to his business, 6 but the rest seizing his servants assaulted and killed them. 7 And the king being angered and sending his armies destroyed those murderers and burned their city. 8 Then he says to his servants: The wedding-feast is ready, but those who were invited were not worthy. 9 Therefore go along the outlets of the roads, and as many as you should find invite to the wedding-feast! 10 And those servants having gone out into the roads gathered all whom they found, both the wicked and the good, and the wedding-feast had been filled with those dining. 11 Then the king upon entering to observe those dining saw there a man not clothed in a wedding garment, 12 and he says to him: Friend, how have you entered into here, not having a wedding garment? But he was silent. 13 Then the king said to the servants: Binding his feet and hands, cast him out into the outer darkness! There shall there be weeping and gnashing of teeth! 14 For many are called, but few chosen.”

Many are called but not necessarily by Yahweh God, as the servants had attempted to bring people into the feast who did not belong, but most of them apparently refused. Likewise today, in many of the churches, those who are invited are not worthy. That man simply could not have been one of the saints for whom Yahshua Christ had died in order to justify, because under the circumstances he could not have chosen to wear any special garment in advance. For this same reason Yahshua also said, as it is recorded in Matthew chapter 7: “21 Not all who say to Me ‘Prince, Prince!’ shall enter into the kingdom of the heavens, but he doing the will of My Father who is in the heavens. 22 Many shall say to Me in that day ‘Prince, Prince, have we not prophesied in Your name, and cast out demons in Your name, and have done many works of power in Your name?’ 23 And then shall I profess to them that ‘Never have I known you! Depart from Me, those who are working at lawlessness!’”

Those bright White linen garments serve as a proof of the justification of the saints, of those who were already saints, and only the children of Israel were ever sanctified by Yahweh and beckoned to wash their robes in the blood of the Lamb. So we read in Jeremiah chapter 33: “7 And I will cause the captivity of Judah and the captivity of Israel to return, and will build them, as at the first. 8 And I will cleanse them from all their iniquity, whereby they have sinned against me; and I will pardon all their iniquities, whereby they have sinned, and whereby they have transgressed against me. 9 And it shall be to me a name of joy, a praise and an honour before all the nations of the earth, which shall hear all the good that I do unto them: and they shall fear and tremble for all the goodness and for all the prosperity that I procure unto it.”

Then after a reference to the desolation of Judah, Yahweh makes another promise which evokes this chapter of the Revelation, that: “11 The voice of joy, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride, the voice of them that shall say, Praise the LORD of hosts: for the LORD is good; for his mercy endureth for ever: and of them that shall bring the sacrifice of praise into the house of the LORD. For I will cause to return the captivity of the land, as at the first, saith the LORD.” In light of that same passage from Jeremiah where Yahweh promised to cleanse the sins of Israel, we read later in Revelation chapter 22: “14 Blessed are they washing their garments, that it shall be their license to the tree of life and they may enter into the gates into the city.” The names of the twelve tribes of Israel are written on the gates of that city, and there are only twelve gates, so there is no entrance for anyone of another tribe.

This perspective of the Scriptures and the relationship between Yahweh and the children of Israel is also what Paul of Tarsus had explained in Romans chapter 7, after speaking about sin and the law, where he wrote: “1 Are you ignorant, brethren (I speak to those who know the law,) that the law lords over the man for as long a time as he should live? 2 For a woman married to a living husband is bound by law; but if the husband should die, she is discharged from the law of the husband: 3 so then as the husband is living, she would be labeled an adulteress if she were found with another man; but if the husband should die, she is free from the law, she is not an adulteress being found with another man. 4 Consequently, my brethren, you also are put to death in the law through the body of Christ; for you to be found with another, who from the dead was raised in order that we should bear fruit for Yahweh.”

The children of Israel, all of them, were liable to death for their collective national sins, and Yahweh released them from the law of the Husband by coming Himself as a man and dying, to release Israel from the law. For that purpose He promised them in Jeremiah chapter 31, in the same place where He promised the New Covenant, that they would never cease from being a nation. Not a “church”, which is a hoax, but a nation. But of course, while God cannot die He certainly did die in the body of Christ on the cross, which fulfilled the law of the flesh, and being an eternal spirit He was able to resurrect Himself again. This was the plan of Yahweh from the beginning, to show the children of Israel how important it is for Him to keep His law, as an example to them so that they follow suit. That is evident in the prophecies concerning betrothal in Hosea, and also where Yahshua Christ refers to Himself as the “Lamb slain from the foundation of the world”, in Revelation chapter 13. Since Yahweh planned this from the beginning of the world, it must have been fulfilled in accordance with the words of the prophets, where His plan was revealed.

Yahshua Christ is Yahweh God incarnate. A son cannot die on behalf of a father to free the father’s wife from the law. Neither can a son marry his father’s wife according to the law, as that is an abomination. Yahweh God is both Father and Son, and that is revealed here in the Revelation. The bride is the children of Israel, the bride of Yahweh, and here the fact that they have clean white garments stands as a proof of their vindication. When they are avenged, that act in itself is the Wedding Supper of the Lamb, in which they shall have a role to fulfill. Therefore the clean white garments must represent their having departed from sin, and also the fact that their sins have been cleansed in the blood of Christ. Without clean white garments, they have no role in the avenging. The first advent of Christ was the betrothal, which is only a promise of marriage. The return of Israel to Yahweh in Christ is an acknowledgment of the betrothal, but the consummation of the New Covenant and the wedding supper are not fulfilled until His return, which we are told at Acts 1:11 would be “in the manner which you have beheld Him going into the heaven.”

The wedding feast itself, as we shall see, is the destruction of all of the enemies and aliens among the children of Israel, so that the bride may be sanctified and cleansed in preparation for her union with the husband. So now we read:

9 And he says to me [א wants “And he says to me”, where the dialog would not be broken with that of the preceding verse]: “Write! Blessed are those invited to the dinner of the wedding-feast of the Lamb!” And he says to me: “These are true words from Yahweh!”

Only the children of Israel have ever been invited to this feast. Those without wedding garments are rejected and cast out. The wedding garments themselves must come from Yahweh God, and once His children repent of their sins, they may realize that they are already wearing a semblance of those garments in their bright White skin. The similarities of the language of the statements here with passages promising the marriage, redemption and the cleansing of the sins of Israel found in Isaiah, Jeremiah, Hosea, and Ezekiel leaves no doubt that the Revelation and the prophets are speaking to the same people about the same promises, and that they have indeed remained the people of Yahweh God throughout history.

Here we shall pause our commentary on Revelation chapter 19. Yahweh willing, next week we shall conclude this chapter with Violence of the Lambs. Or perhaps, speaking to the enemies of Christ, it should be titled “The Shoah that we Owe Ya”, and while that is also appropriate, I will probably refrain.