19:17-21 THE SUPPER OF THE BIRDS
“And I saw an angel standing in the sun; and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the birds that fly in the midst of heaven, ‘Come and gather yourselves together for the supper of the great God; that you 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 slaves, both small and great” (Revelation 19:17,18).
What a pathetic contrast there is between the “marriage supper of the Lamb” (v.9) and “the supper of the great God”! In the former, “many will come from the east and the west, and will take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 8:11 NIV). “The Master…will gird himself and have them sit down to eat and will come and serve them” (Luke 12:37). “In Your presence is fullness of joy; At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore” (Psalms 16:11).
However, for those who have stubbornly refused the offer there is only the fearsome prospect of being themselves the “main course”—for the birds and beasts who will feast on them! Their final fate shows that in its eternal results sin is the great equalizer. In this life there is a vast gulf between the honor and homage bestowed upon "kings,...captains, and...mighty men" and the contempt and dishonor shown to "small...and slaves." But they will all be equal in the bellies of the birds.
“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” (Revelation 19:19). This verse is linked directly to Revelation 16:13,14, which portrays “the spirits of devils, working miracles, which go forth to the kings of the earth, and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of the great day of God Almighty.” This is the Battle of Armageddon, the final attempt to exterminate God’s people (See 16:16 The Battle of Armageddon). However, in making war against the saints, they are actually making “War against Him who sat on the horse”, in other words against Jesus, the One who said, “Inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me” (Matthew 25:40).
Jesus never told His followers to defend themselves— to the contrary, He taught that we are to “turn the other cheek.” He told Peter, “Put your sword in its place, for all who take the sword will perish by the sword” (Matthew 5:39, 26:52). Paul counseled, “Do not avenge yourselves, but rather give place to wrath; for it is written, ‘Vengeance is Mine, I will repay’ says the Lord” (Romans 12:19). Now the day has come for the Lord to answer the prayer of the “souls under the altar” who cried out, “How long, O Lord, holy and true, until You judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?” (Revelation 6:10). Now Jesus, who has been despised and rejected, is coming, and the “lawless one” and his followers will be “consumed by the breath of His mouth and destroyed with the brightness of His coming” (2 Thessalonians 2:8).
“And the beast was captured, and with him the false prophet that worked miracles before him, with which he deceived those who had received the mark of the beast, and those that worshiped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone” (Revelation 19:20). As we saw in chapters 11:7-10 and 17:6-8, “the beast” in his final manifestation is not just an antichrist political system, but is an actual manifestation of Satan as he carries out his final deception by pretending to be Christ. Apparently Satan will fully possess a human being and appear as “the lawless one” who, “according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders” will deceive “those who perish” (2 Thessalonians 2:9,10). He is the last of the eight final kings of “Babylon the Great”—“the beast that was, and is not, is himself also the eighth, and is of the seven, and is going to perdition” (Revelation 17:11).
The “false prophet” is the miracle-working leader of the American Church-state alliance (See 16:13 The Unholy Trinity). These two have been the heads of the final “one-world government” which unites during the time of trouble and seek to enforce the worship of the beast through the mark and number of the beast. But now these two are the “first fruits” of those who will be destroyed in the lake of fire.