Good evening and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the Book of Revelation.  Tonight is study #22 of Revelation chapter 19 and we are going to read Revelation 19:17-21:

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; That ye may eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of captains, and the flesh of mighty men, and the flesh of horses, and of them that sit on them, and the flesh of all men, both free and bond, both small and great. And I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against him that sat on the horse, and against his army. And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone.  And the remnant were slain with the sword of him that sat upon the horse, which sword proceeded out of his mouth: and all the fowls were filled with their flesh.

I will stop reading there.  It is continuing in this chapter to describe the Day of Judgment.  God has likened Judgment Day to a battle or a war and Christ is going forth with His army to meet the enemy forces of Satan (the beast) and his army that consists of the unsaved, the kings of the earth.  The picture is the glorious kingdom of heaven and Christ seated on a white horse and followed by the vast army of elect that are dressed in fine, white linen and seated upon white horses; they are going forth to meet the evil kingdom of Satan and the enemies of God.  It is a tremendous picture of the greatest of battles taking place on the battlefield of this world and Jesus is the victor.  He is the triumphant conqueror that destroys the enemy and that is what happened on May 21, 2011.  Christ won the battle and the war and it is continuing, in a sense, throughout the entire period of Judgment Day.  It can be viewed as if the battle continues until the very last day when there will the utter and total destruction of all the enemies of God.

Let us take a closer look at Revelation 19:17:

And I saw an angel standing in the sun…

The Apostle John is being given this revelation from God and He saw an angel standing in the sun and then it says in Revelation 19:17:

… 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;

The “angel” is speaking with authority and power and He commands the fowls to go forth to devour the dead, the enemies of God.  As is the case in many places in the Book of Revelation, the “angel” is Christ and He speaks with the full authority of God.  That is why it says He is “standing in the sun.”  In the Bible, the “sun” represents God.  Let us go back and look at this in Psalm 84, because I often refer to it without reading it.  It says in Psalm 84:11:

For JEHOVAH is a sun and shield…

JEHOVAH God is like a “sun.”  Christ is God and Christ is likened to the sun and we know that because He is the Light of the world.  Here, the “angel” is standing in the sun and He is completely identified with the sun because the sun represents God. 

The word “standing” is also translated as “abode” in John 8:44, where it said they “abode not in the truth.”  It is translated as “appointed” in Acts 17:31, where it says that He has “appointed a day,” and it is referring to the appointed Day of Judgment.  It is also translated a few times as “established,” like in Romans 3:31, where it said “established the law.”  It is also translated as “set” a few times and it has to do with that which is “placed” and “established” and “endures” and “continues.”  In our verse in Revelation 19:17, the angel is “abiding” in the sun or the angel is “established” in the sun or in God Himself, so the angel is completely identified with God. 

Then it says, “and he cried with a loud voice,” and the word “voice” is “phone” and the word “loud” is a derivative of “megas,” so it is “megas – phone” or “great voice” and, of course, this is the voice of God or the Word of God.  It goes on to say in Revelation 19:17:

… 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;

The fowls represent those which feed upon the “dead.”  We have to be careful because when God judged the churches and congregations, we read language of “fowls” that fed upon the dead carcass of the corporate church.  In Deuteronomy 28, God lays out the blessings of obedience, as well as the curses that would come with disobedience and it says a lot about mankind and the corporate bodies, like Israel of old and the New Testament churches and God is talking about both in this chapter.  The blessings of obedience covers only about 14 or 15 verses and then God goes into a long discussion about the curses of disobedience because of the nature of man and the unfaithfulness of the corporate bodies that God had created to be the outward representatives of the kingdom of God on the earth.  In the Old Testament, the nation of Israel was constantly rebellious and unfaithful and in the New Testament the corporate churches were constantly rebellious and unfaithful.  It says in Deuteronomy 28:26:

And thy carcase shall be meat unto all fowls of the air, and unto the beasts of the earth, and no man shall fray them away.

We will look at that term “fray them away” because it will come up in another verse we will look at later. 

But, let us also go to Psalm 79, a Psalm of Asaph, and it says in Psalm 79:1-3:

O God, the heathen are come into thine inheritance; thy holy temple have they defiled; they have laid Jerusalem on heaps. The dead bodies of thy servants have they given to be meat unto the fowls of the heaven, the flesh of thy saints unto the beasts of the earth. Their blood have they shed like water round about Jerusalem; and there was none to bury them.

Here, the type or picture is clearly the corporate church because God is speaking of Jerusalem and He mentions the temple and the saints and the “heathen” would be the Gentiles or the forces of Satan that come against the camp of the saints at the time of the end and they overcome them, as we read in the Book of Revelation.  And the “fowls” fed upon their dead carcases because they are under the judgment of God and they are spiritually killed, so the “fowls” are basically evidence that they are “dead,” because the “fowls” are birds of prey that feed upon carcases.  They do not feed upon the living, but upon the dead.  So when you see “fowls” flying overhead, it is an image, perhaps, of a desolate land and you see vultures circling above in the sky and you know there is a dead corpse there.  It could be a horse or dead animal of some kind or even a dead man because their presence is revealing there is “death” and that is the point God wants to emphasize with the use of the word “fowls.”  When we read about “fowls,” it involves the spiritually dead.  It involved the spiritually dead churches during God’s judgment upon them throughout the Great Tribulation or it involves a spiritually dead world when God transitioned the judgment from the churches to all the nations.

In Jeremiah, chapter 7, we read similar language.  It is a chapter which describes judgment upon Judah and, therefore, it is an historical parable that points to the judgment upon the New Testament churches at the time of the end.  It says in Jeremiah 7:32-34:

Therefore, behold, the days come, saith JEHOVAH, that it shall no more be called Tophet, nor the valley of the son of Hinnom, but the valley of slaughter: for they shall bury in Tophet, till there be no place. And the carcases of this people shall be meat for the fowls of the heaven, and for the beasts of the earth; and none shall fray them away. Then will I cause to cease from the cities of Judah, and from the streets of Jerusalem, the voice of mirth, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride: for the land shall be desolate.

Do you see how God ties all this together?  They are “dead” and, therefore, their carcases are given for meat for the “fowls” of the heaven and then we see that very familiar language that was also in Revelation, chapter 18, where it says, “the voice of mirth, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride” is gone or removed.   That has to do with the Gospel and the removal of God’s Spirit in salvation and that is what makes a land “desolate.”

Notice that it also said, “And the carcases of this people shall be meat for the fowls of the heaven, and for the beasts of the earth; and none shall fray them away.”  This is what we read back in Deuteronomy 28.  Why does God say that?  Well, it reminds us of what happened in the Book of Genesis in regard to Abram when He received a vision from God and God instructed him to make an offering.  It says in Genesis 15:10-11:

And he took unto him all these, and divided them in the midst, and laid each piece one against another: but the birds divided he not. And when the fowls came down upon the carcases, Abram drove them away.

The birds of prey could tell there was “death.”  There were dead animals on the ground so they came down to land upon the carcases and Abram was present to prevent them from feeding upon the animals he had sacrificed and he “frayed” them away.  Maybe he took a piece of clothing and waved it in the air, but however he did it, they would then fly away and they could not feed upon the dead carcass.

When the New Testament churches developed their “high places” and brought deceitfulness and falsehood into the churches and congregations, it was as though the “fowls” were descending because what does the Bible say about sin?  What is God’s response to sin in an individual?  “The wages of sin is death.”  What is God’s response to sin within a corporate entity?  They were bound in a works relationship with God.  For example, Israel of old was obligated to be faithful to God and the New Testament churches were obligated to be faithful to God.  God had warned that if they were unfaithful He would cut them off, but God put up with their unfaithfulness and gave them space to repent, which turned out to be the entire 1,955 years of the church age.  Throughout that time when the churches would be involved in sinful activity, instead of allowing the “fowls” to feed upon the spiritual death within the churches, God was present to “fray away” the vultures and keep them away from the carcass because it was not yet the proper time and season to end the church age.  God wanted to give “space” in order to save all the firstfruits and everything is worked out in its time, so God would continually “fray away” the assaults of Satan and his emissaries and cause them to flee or to leave a particular church or denomination over the course of the many centuries, until we got to the time of the end and it was the proper “time and season.”  God then came to visit and He sees there has been no repentance.  Now the “fowls” come as they had come for centuries, but this time God has left the churches and there is no man to fray them away.  So now they descend and there is none to fray them away.  What will develop?  Now, instead of one or two birds landing, they are all settling in on the carcass and devouring it and it is a sign to all the other birds to descend and feast.  It is a free meal.  There is no danger and they can eat all they can eat, so more and more come and the carcass begins to look bare, more and more. 

This is what happened to the New Testament churches from 1988 through the 23-year Great Tribulation period, as things got worse and worse.  At first, if you went into a church in 1988, there may have still been much meat on the carcass and it may not have been known to anyone that there was a problem because, perhaps, the pastor was still preaching much truth.  But given a few more years, Satan and his forces were overcoming more and more churches and the “fowls” were feeding more frequently and there was less and less truth found within them because of the devouring and there was none to fray them away. 

That is what God did with the churches and this is what God is now doing in the world.  If we go to Ezekiel, chapter 39, we read of “Gog and Magog” in chapters 38 and 39 and we are told in Revelation, chapter 20 that “Gog and Magog” identify with Satan and his loosing and the gathering of the nations (Gentiles) to battle.  Satan and his forces overcame the churches and they are the ones in view in Revelation 19, as the beast and the kings of the earth and their armies come against the Lord Jesus Christ and His armies of the elect.  “Gog and Magog” have come to the battle of Judgment Day, the final judgment of the world and they are defeated.  It says concerning Gog and Magog in Ezekiel 39:17-19:

And, thou son of man, thus saith the Lord JEHOVAH; Speak unto every feathered fowl, and to every beast of the field, Assemble yourselves, and come; gather yourselves on every side to my sacrifice that I do sacrifice for you, even a great sacrifice upon the mountains of Israel, that ye may eat flesh, and drink blood. Ye shall eat the flesh of the mighty, and drink the blood of the princes of the earth, of rams, of lambs, and of goats, of bullocks, all of them fatlings of Bashan. And ye shall eat fat till ye be full, and drink blood till ye be drunken, of my sacrifice which I have sacrificed for you.

Now, earlier in our study of Revelation 19, we saw that in the Old Testament God uses the word “sacrifice,” but in the New Testament He uses the word “supper,” but they are interchangeable.  They describe the same thing.

Then it goes on to say in Ezekiel 39:20-21:

Thus ye shall be filled at my table with horses and chariots, with mighty men, and with all men of war, saith the Lord JEHOVAH. And I will set my glory among the heathen, and all the heathen shall see my judgment that I have executed, and my hand that I have laid upon them.

The word “heathen” refers to the nations.  This is the judgment of God, the final judgment of mankind and, again, the “fowls” are feeding upon the dead.  The Holy Spirit is now gone out of the world and there is no fraying away the birds of the air.  Christ, the angel of God that was standing in the sun, is the one that called for them to come and feed upon the “dead” that are everywhere in the world.   They are all the unsaved and they are the billions of people in the world and they are food for the vultures or birds of the air.  Again, the “fowls” illustrate that the spiritual condition of the world is “death.”  When God shut the door to heaven and ended His salvation program, the Gospel light was put out all over the earth and it guaranteed the final destruction of unsaved mankind.  It brought death to all unsaved people, wherever they might be in the world.