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Governments Smiting the
Nations Out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.—Revelation 19:15 Our text refers to the final work of the harvest. Early in the nineteenth chapter of Revelation, at verse seven, we are introduced to the marriage of the Lamb, when “his wife [the elect saints] hath made herself ready.” Then the final scenes of the age ensue. In Revelation 14:20, the treading of the winepress is referred to. There it is said to take place “without the city,” at some place where the clusters of the vine of the earth are gathered for the occasion. A comparison with Joel chapter three suggests that location is the Valley of Jehoshaphat. In other words, it is at Israel where God will hold this final judgment over the nations. Presumably this coincides with the invasion of Israel by Gog and his allies described in Ezekiel chapters 38 and 39. Probably the ongoing campaign of Arab nations against Israel, which commenced with Israel’s War of Independence in 1948 and has endured in fits and starts since then, will come to a head at that time also. All of this induces us to see in our opening text a description of the intense judgments which bring the present harvest of the Gospel age to a close. The Rod of Iron That text speaks of two particular weapons in this offensive by our Lord Jesus and his heavenly “armies.” One is a sword proceeding from his mouth; it represents the sword of truth and righteousness as bringing the judgments against the nations, whose campaign against Israel is in conflict with those standards. The second weapon is a “rod of iron,” which as a strong and inflexible weapon, will break the nations gathered against Israel: “As the vessels of a potter shall they be broken to shivers” (Revelation 2:27). Psalm 2:9 augments the illustration by saying “thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.” Both symbols describe the outcome as a substantial defeat of the coalition of nations riled up by the adversary to (unwittingly) oppose the incoming kingdom of Christ.
The breaking of this coalition of nations does not mean that all governmental
authority will perish in this conflict. Zechariah 14:16 speaks of those who are
left “of all the nations which came against Jerusalem.” Other texts refer to
kings (rulers) and nations who bring offerings to the Lord during Christ’s
kingdom (compare Revelation 21:24 and Isaiah 66:20). Utter anarchy in the
fullest sense would be counter-productive to the welfare of the world which God
intends to bless during the kingdom thus inaugurated: “Surely the wrath of man
shall praise thee: the remainder of wrath shalt thou restrain” (Psalm 76:10). Since 1914 The texts discussed apply to the final judgment against the nations, directly bringing us into the kingdom. However, a process of judgment against the nations of Christendom has been proceeding for some time. In a sense it commenced with the Napoleonic wars at the opening of the nineteenth century. But this preceded the judgments of the second advent, which bring a “time of trouble” unprecedented in previous world history, after our Lord Jesus at his return stands up as “Michael” (Daniel 12:1). That trouble commenced with World War I and continued through World War II. It includes a variety of lesser conflicts, and the approaching climactic conflict of Armageddon. All of this commenced in 1914, just forty years following the return of Christ in 1874 at the close of the 1,335 days of Daniel 12:12. Thus for forty years, the forepart of the present harvest period, there was a period of opportunity for the harvest work to proceed before the intense disruptions broke forth. In this we have a parallel to the forty years following the first advent of Christ, from 29 A.D. to 69 A.D., before the Roman legions took Jerusalem the following year, took Masada three years after that, and crushed the Bar Kochba rebellion several decades after that. During those forty years there was an opportunity for the gospel of Christ to reach out to all the towns of Israel, gathering the elect before the storms of trouble broke out with great force. Our Lord warned his disciples that they would scarcely have time to go “over the cities of Israel [with the message of Christ] till the Son of man be come [in the judgments closing that age]” (Matthew 10:23). From the days of the Babylonian Empire, when Israel lost its national independence, seven prophetic “times” passed over Israel. A prophetic “time” is a period of 360 years; seven of these is 2,520 years. During this time Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, Rome, and the nations which arose in its aftermath, exerted control over Palestine. That time of national punishment ended in 1914. So it was appropriate that with that year commenced the judgment against many nations, leading to the restoration of Israel as a nation again. As Israel lost its national independence during the seventy years God allotted to Babylon, it is noteworthy that the nation of Israel was born again through a process of seventy years, from 1878 to 1948. In 1878, as a consequence of the treaty concluding the war between Russia and Turkey, equal protection of the laws was extended to all people under the rule of the Ottoman Empire. This meant that Jews were now permitted to purchase property and settle in the land of Israel, and that year saw the establishment of Petah Tikvah. Seventy years later, in 1948, Israel became a sovereign nation again.
Revelation represents in symbol three particular institutions which have governed the Lord’s people for centuries during the Gospel age: the Dragon, Beast, and False Prophet. These symbols are introduced in the visions of Revelation, chapters 12 and 13, and then appear as the final triumvirate who unify for strength just before the seventh plague of Revelation 16. They are broken when that last plague is poured out, so that the “great city was divided into [those] three parts” again, and the “city of the nations” (Sinaitic manuscript)—referring to Babylon the Great (Christendom)—receives its final and devastating judgments from God. These three symbols are interpreted by many Bible students to represent the political governments, the Papacy, and a Protestant religious force connected with the Church of England. It is the first of these, the Dragon, where we find Satan’s control of the governments represented. There is a parallel to this in the visions of Ezekiel. After repeated prophecies about and against Israel, Ezekiel turns his attention to some of the surrounding nations. Three chapters (26 through 28) are devoted to Tyre, plus her sister city Sidon in the closing six verses of that section. Then four chapters (29 through 32) are devoted to Egypt. Here again is pictured the triumvirate of Revelation in different symbols. Tyre stands for Papacy, Sidon her sister city for the Protestant imitation of Papacy, and Egypt for the nations, particularly the western nations, which have ruled the Lord’s people during the Gospel age. In Ezekiel 29:3 Pharaoh, ruler of Egypt, is represented by the same symbol used in Revelation, namely a “dragon.” “Behold, I am against thee, Pharaoh king of Egypt, the great dragon that lieth in the midst of his rivers, which hath said, My river is mine own, and I have made it for myself.” Then comes a pronouncement of doom on Egypt—symbolically, we suggest, the nations of Christendom which advance against Israel in the final debacle: “I will put hooks in thy jaws, and I will cause the fish of thy rivers to stick unto thy scales, and I will bring thee up out of the midst of thy rivers, and all the fish of thy rivers shall stick unto thy scales. And I will leave thee thrown into the wilderness, thee and all the fish of thy rivers: thou shalt fall upon the open fields; thou shalt not be brought together, nor gathered: I have given thee for meat to the beasts of the field and to the fowls of the heaven.” (Ezekiel 29:4,5).
Pharaoh, the leader, would represent Satan, and Egypt his domain. The symbol
“dragon” refers to Satan as the ruler by usurpation of the kingdoms of this
world. Satan will cease to function in this role after the judgments incident to
Armageddon. Thus Isaiah 27:1 speaks of him as slain with the sword, as a dragon.
Satan personally, of course, will be bound during the Millennium, and be loosed
subsequently for a “little season” for the final testing of the world
(Revelation 20:1-3,7,8). He will then be a deceiver (serpent), an accuser
(devil), and an opposer (Satan). But never again will he be a dragon, in control
of nations. Revelation 20 Satan’s demise in every way is described in Revelation 20. In each of his roles—Dragon, Serpent, Devil, Satan—he is removed and represented as cast into a bottomless pit, sealed, and locked, showing the absolute loss of his ability to deceive the nations during the Millennium. But the first and central identification is his role as a dragon. Perhaps it is for that reason that verse four refers to judgment passed down against the thrones of earth. “And I saw thrones [of gentile rulers], and they sat upon them, and judgment [krima, sentence] was given unto them [handed down against them].” Thereafter the verse describes the replacement rulers, the saints who assume the kingdom and rule with Christ for the blessing of the nations formerly oppressed by the “dragon.” “This judgment against the ‘thrones’ of the present time, and against ‘the beast and the false prophet’ systems, follows speedily upon the introduction of this Millennial judgment reign. The thrones of the present dominion of earth will be ‘cast down,’ and the dominion transferred to the great Prophet, Priest, King and Judge, ‘whose right it is.’ ”—Reprints, p. 2609. Then will be fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah 14:12, “How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!” |