Good evening and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the Book of Revelation.  Tonight is study #18 of Revelation chapter 19 and we are going to be reading Revelation 19:15:

And 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.

This verse describes the Lord Jesus Christ in the Day of Judgment.  It says, “And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations.”  Earlier we learned that His name was called “The Word of God,” and this verse follows up on that statement because this verse pictures the “Word” coming out of the mouth of the Lord Jesus Christ.  He is the “Word made flesh” and He is the very essence of the Bible and, therefore, God pictures this sharp sword protruding from His mouth.  The reason for that is because the “sword” also typifies the Bible.  It says in Hebrews 4:12:

For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword…

The Word of God is “quick” or “alive.”  It is “powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword” and, therefore, “out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword.”  It is the Word of God and it goes on to say in our verse, “that with it he should smite the nations.”  Here, God is indicating that it is the written Word of God, the divine revelation of the Scriptures, which God uses as an instrument of wrath in order to apply the punishment that the Law of God demands for sin.  It is as though the Lord Jesus Christ is coming to punish the unsaved people of the earth and the instrument of punishment is the Bible itself: with the Bible, He should smite the nations.

The word “smite” also relates to a “sword,” if we look at Luke 22:49-50:

When they which were about him saw what would follow, they said unto him, Lord, shall we smite with the sword? And one of them smote the servant of the high priest, and cut off his right ear.

It is the same word “smite” used in association with a “sword.”  When you have a sword in a battle, you smite with it and here we see that an individual had his ear cut off, so it was a “sharp sword.” 

We also find the word “smite” in Revelation, chapter 11, concerning the two witnesses.  It says in Revelation 11:5-6:

And if any man will hurt them, fire proceedeth out of their mouth, and devoureth their enemies: and if any man will hurt them, he must in this manner be killed. These have power to shut heaven, that it rain not in the days of their prophecy: and have power over waters to turn them to blood, and to smite the earth with all plagues, as often as they will.

Keep in mind that the “two witnesses” are a figure God uses to represent “the Law and the prophets” or Moses and Elijah – Moses typified the Law and Elijah, the prophets.  In the verses we just read, notice it speaks of fire devouring their enemies and it was Elijah that called down fire from heaven.  Also, it mentions that it rained not in the days of their prophecy and in the time of Elijah there was a period of time when it did not rain.  It also mentions turning water into blood and who is known for doing that in the Bible?  It was Moses, as God turned the water of Egypt into blood through Moses.  So we see that what is said of the “two witnesses,” we can see in historical references to Moses and Elijah.  These things happened during their period of ministry and that is because they typify the Law and the prophets, which in turn is a representation of the Word of God, the Bible.  In this context, it is God’s Word, the Bible, as it witnessed and gave its testimony within the churches and congregations during the church age, the period of time that covered 1,955 years.  We will not get into that, but when the “two witnesses” are killed, it is referring to the end of God using His Word within the churches and congregations.  It was the end of the power and authority of the Bible in the churches and this took place at the beginning of the Great Tribulation, back on May 21, 1988.

But, notice that the “two witnesses” had the power to “smite the earth with all plagues, as often as they will,” and that is because the Word of God, the Bible, had the power to “smite.”  It could always cut to condemnation.  It could always cut to judgment, as well as to bring life.  It is “quick” or “living” and God used His Word to save during the day of salvation, or He could use the other side of the “sword” to slay or to “smite.”  For instance, God could “smite” churches throughout the church age if they went astray and crossed the boundary into “another gospel.”  The Word of God would cut them off and “smite” them – churches and, sometimes, entire denominations.  It was the Word of God that smote the corporate churches, as God opened up the information that the church age was over and the Holy Spirit had come out of the midst.  At that point the Word of God smote all the churches.  The entire church world was smitten to death by the declaration that came forth from the Bible.  It was the time when the Bible was unsealed to reveal a “dead corporate church” and God’s Word smote the churches and congregations.

Every true believer understands and knows the church age is over and they are not to be within a corporate church.  They are to remain outside of the churches and congregations because the Bible has explained that every denomination and corporate church in the world was killed by the Word of God, the Bible.

In a similar way, God has now smitten the nations, as it says of the sharp sword in our verse in Revelation 19:15: “that with it he should smite the nations.”  The nations are the Gentiles and it was the Gentiles that overcame the churches, at the allowance of God.  God permitted it.  Satan and his forces took control of the churches and congregations of the world, but at the end of the Great Tribulation, the table was turned.  Now God smites the nations.  He smites “Gog and Magog.”  He destroys Satan and his emissaries that came against God’s temple, the corporate churches. 

Let us look at the next part of our verse in Revelation 19:15:

… and he shall rule them with a rod of iron…

This is a very important and significant statement the Lord is making and it is stated a few times in the Bible.  First of all, we should realize that a “rod” is a word that identifies with the Word of God, the Bible.  Remember, it said in Psalm 23, “Thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.” 

It says in Isaiah 11:1-4:

And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots: And the spirit of JEHOVAH shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of JEHOVAH; And shall make him of quick understanding in the fear of JEHOVAH: and he shall not judge after the sight of his eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of his ears: But with righteousness shall he judge the poor, and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth: and he shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked. And righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins, and faithfulness the girdle of his reins.

The word “rod” in verse 1 points to Christ: “And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots.”  Christ is also the Word made flesh, so in verse 4 God speaks of Christ smiting the earth, just as it said in our verse that He smites the nations.  Here it says, “and he shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth,” so, again, a sword comes out of His mouth, because the “rod of his mouth” is saying the same thing.  It is the Word of God, the Bible.  Then it says, “And with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked.”  It says in 2Timothy 3:16, “All scripture is given by inspiration of God,” and the word “inspiration” is a compound word in the Greek that means “God breathed.”  All Scripture is God-breathed, so this is basically Hebrew parallelism when it says, “and he shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked.”  It says the same thing using slightly different language.

Also, we see in Micah, chapter 7, how God uses the word “rod” to point to His Word.  It says in Micah 7:14:

Feed thy people with thy rod, the flock of thine heritage, which dwell solitarily in the wood, in the midst of Carmel: let them feed in Bashan and Gilead, as in the days of old.

Here, God says to feed His people “with thy rod, the flock of thine heritage.”  We know that Jesus said three times in John, chapter 21, “Feed my sheep.”  Here, God says, “Feed thy people with thy rod,” and this would relate to Psalm 23, the wonderful Psalm that pictures the people of God as sheep and Christ as the Shepherd; the Shepherd has the rod to guide and protect the sheep.  It is the “rod” that identifies with the Word of God and it is the Word that feeds the people of God spiritually. 

You know, we are aware of this, but we are nourished and we are sustained and strengthened when we turn to the Bible.  When God reveals truth to us and opens up Scripture to our understanding, then we are being fed spiritually through the Bible.  He is feeding us with His “rod.” 

But why does Revelation 19:15 speak of a “rod of iron”?  The Word of God is not “iron,” is it?  Well, iron is that which can identify with God’s wrath.  In His anger, He can make the heaven as “iron.”  It says in Leviticus 26:18-20:

And if ye will not yet for all this hearken unto me, then I will punish you seven times more for your sins. And I will break the pride of your power; and I will make your heaven as iron, and your earth as brass: And your strength shall be spent in vain: for your land shall not yield her increase, neither shall the trees of the land yield their fruits.

Here, God addresses those that are in rebellion against Him as they transgress His Laws.  Their punishment is that He will “make your heaven as iron.”  Now, what if you wanted to pray to God and the heaven was as “iron”?  What would that mean?  We are here on earth and God is in heaven and in between we would see this “iron” sky.  What would that tell us?  It would tell us that our prayers are not going to penetrate through the iron to reach the Lord.  Notice that God also says in verse 20, “for your land shall not yield her increase, neither shall the trees of the land yield their fruits.”  There will be no fruitfulness and what does fruit represent in the Bible?  It represents salvation and that is why God speaks of the early rain, the Latter Rain, the firstfruits and the final fruits of ingathering; they all point to his program of salvation.  Yet, if the heaven is “iron,” it could relate to there being no rain.  The rain could not get to us here on earth and our prayers could not reach unto God in heaven and there is no salvation. 

We see similar statements in Ezekiel 4:1-3:

Thou also, son of man, take thee a tile, and lay it before thee, and pourtray upon it the city, even Jerusalem: And lay siege against it, and build a fort against it, and cast a mount against it; set the camp also against it, and set battering rams against it round about. Moreover take thou unto thee an iron pan, and set it for a wall of iron between thee and the city: and set thy face against it, and it shall be besieged, and thou shalt lay siege against it. This shall be a sign to the house of Israel.

Notice how many times God used the word “against.”  He is “against” Jerusalem because it typifies the corporate church here and God was set against them when judgment began at the house of God.  He mentions an “iron pan,” and the son of man, Ezekiel the prophet, pictures God and he is to “set it for a wall of iron between thee and the city.”  The city is the object of God’s wrath and Ezekiel is to put an iron pan between him and the city God is set against.  What does the iron pan represent?  It is as though God has left them and abandoned them and cut them off.  He will not hear them.  He is not going to pity them or have mercy upon them as He pours out His wrath upon them.  That is where the “iron rod” comes into play in our verse in Revelation 19:15:

…… and he shall rule them with a rod of iron…

The rod relates to the Word of God, but it is “iron.”  Christ has conquered the kingdom of Satan (Babylon) and Christ has put down Satan and now rules over the nations, but He is not ruling in a benevolent way for the benefit of unsaved man.  He is ruling in order to punish the unsaved inhabitants of the earth, so He rules with a “rod,” the Word of God.  It is a “rod of iron” because the Word of God is proclaiming the end of God’s salvation program.  This means that wherever people are in all the nations, when they come to the Bible as an unsaved person (spiritually filthy), God has closed the door of heaven and ended His salvation program.  There is no more fruit for the land and the Tree will not give forth fruit.  So when that person comes to the Bible, it is like an “iron rod.”  The Word is “iron” for them because there is no more mercy or grace.  There is no leniency and no pardoning power.  There is no Gospel of salvation on the pages of the Bible.  They can read, and read, and read, and look here and turn there, but they are not going to find a Book or chapter or verse that can comfort and encourage them.  There is nothing at all that will penetrate the “iron” God has set up in His Word.  He has established that it is Judgment Day and the time of granting mercy has come to an end.  There is now judgment without mercy and that is why Christ is said to rule with a “rod of iron.”

That same word, which is a “rod if iron” to the unregenerate “Esaus” (those that were never elected to salvation), is at the same time spiritual nourishment for the people of God: “Feed thy people with thy rod, the flock of thine heritage.”  God is feeding His people with the “rod of iron,” but it does not have the same impact upon the ones that God has already saved.  It does not affect them that there is no more salvation, so they can come to the Word, the Bible, and be greatly blessed, encouraged, comforted and strengthened.  It means so much to each child of God.  It is our life and it is a great blessing to us and all these things apply to us, but none of these things apply to the unsaved people of the earth.