Revelation 19:15; The Fierceness and Wrath of Almighty God
Revelation 19:15 (KJV) 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.
One of the most awful expressions in the Word of God, is that which the Psalmist utters with regard to these enraged and deluded kings, and this their expedition, where he says, “He that sittest in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision.” (Psalm 2:4) That laugh of God, who shall fathom it! How shall we even begin to tell its dread significance! From the depths of His eternal being, He so loved the world, as to give His co-eternal and only begotten Son for it. No gift was too precious in His sight, no sacrifice too great, to be made for its redemption.
For six thousand years He has been ordering His gracious Providence in heaven and earth for its recovery from sin and death. His prophets and His Son have laboured, wept and died, and the ministries of his sublimest servants have been unceasingly employed, to bring it to salvation. But now He laughs! What failure of love, what exhaustion of grace, what emptying of the sea of His infinite mercies, what decay and withdrawal of all kindly interest and affection must have occurred that there should be this laugh! The demonstrations of these confederates with the Beast are tremendous. The whole world moves with one heart, one aim, with all its genius and power concentrated on one end, and with all the potencies of Hell to nerve and help and guide it. Yet, Jehovah laughs!
What an infinitude of majesty and sovereign contempt does He thus express? The rebels are confident. They believe their leader invincible. They are sure of powers to handle all nature’s forces. They have no question about being able to cope with mortals or immortals, with men or gods. They despise alike the names and the sword of Him who rides the white horse, and all His heavenly cavalry. They deem themselves ready and equal for any emergency of battle even with Him who calls Himself Almighty. But God laughs! Oh, the disappointment and destruction which that laugh portends!
An angel stationed in the sun anticipates the coming result. With a great voice he cries to all the birds of prey that fly in mid-heaven to come to a supper on the flesh of kings, captains, mighty men, horses and their riders, free and bond, small and great. This tells already an awful story. It tells of the greatest of men made food for the vultures; of kings and leaders, strong and confident, devoured on the field, with no one to bury them; of those who thought to conquer Heaven’s anointed King rendered helpless even against the timid birds; of vaunting gods of nature turned into its cast off and mist dishonoured dregs. And what is thus fore intimated soon become reality. The Great Conqueror bows the heavens and comes down. He rides upon the cherub horse, and flies upon the wings of the wind. Smoke goes up from His nostrils, and devouring fire out of His mouth. He moves amid storms and darkness, from which the lightnings hurl their bolts, and hailstones mingle with the fire. He roars out of Zion, and utters His voice from Jerusalem, till the heavens and the earth shake. He dashes forth in the fury of His incensed amid clouds, and fire, pillars of smoke. The sun frowns. The day is neither light nor dark. The mountains mets and cleave asunder at His presence. The hills bound from their seats and skip like lambs. The waters are dislodged from their channels. The sea roll back with howling trepidation. The sky is rent and folds upon itself like a collapsed tent. It is the day from executing an armed world, a world in covenant with Hell to overthrow the authority and throne of God, and everything in terrified Nature joins to signalise the deserved vengeance. So the Scriptures everywhere represent. John saw it, but does not describe it. He only tells the result of what he beheld.
[Joseph A. Seiss, The Apocalypse – An Exposition of the Book of Revelation, Kregel, 1987, 440-441]