Today the rebellious people of the earth, who have fought the Lord in their hearts all along, make an attempt to fight Him physically in battle. Their defeat is a foregone conclusion. Defeat is always a foregone conclusion when anyone fights against the Lord.
King Abijah of Judah once said to the ten northern tribes of Israel, "People of Israel, do not fight against the Lord, the God of your ancestors, for you will not succeed." (2 Chronicles 13:12b) A person referred to as "a man of God", probably a prophet, once warned King Amaziah of Judah that he was not in the Lord's will when he hired soldiers from Israel to increase his army. The prophet warned him he would lose any battle in which he used these soldiers. The ten northern tribes of Israel had fallen into idolatry and the Lord was not with them. The prophet said to the king, "Even if you go and fight courageously in battle, God will overthrow you before the enemy, for God has the power to help or to overthrow." (2 Chronicles 25:8) When the apostles were being persecuted for preaching the gospel, a wise scholar and Pharisee named Gamaliel stood up in the assembly of the Sanhedrin and urged the men not to mistreat the apostles. He reasonably advised that if the origin of the gospel message was of human origin, it would fail. He said it would fade away now that Jesus of Nazareth had been crucified. (Gamaliel did not believe Jesus had risen from the dead or that His followers had seen Him.) But Gamaliel was an intelligent man who could not deny the power and the miracles that accompanied the preaching of the gospel, so he warned the Sanhedrin that if the gospel message was of heavenly origin, "You will not be able to stop these men; you will only find yourselves fighting against God." (Acts 5:39)
Man, due to his inflated ego and his false sense of omnipotence, has dared to fight against Almighty God since the very beginning. When Adam and Eve tasted the fruit from the forbidden tree, they were fighting against God. When Cain killed Abel, he was fighting against God. When the people built the tower of Babel, they were fighting against God. The fight takes all sorts of different forms, such as disobedience, outright rebellion, idolatry, the denial that God exists, the belief that even if God exists He isn't worth worshiping, and the persecution of those who belong to the Lord. At the battle of Armageddon, those who harbor such wickedness in their hearts will be so lifted up in pride and self-confidence that they will think they can fight against the Lord not only in their hearts but with weapons in their hands.
In our text, the Lord Jesus Christ has just ridden out of heaven on His war horse with the armies of heaven following behind Him. At this point John tells us: "And I saw an angel standing in the sun, who cried in a loud voice to all the birds flying in midair, 'Come, gather together for the great supper of God, so that you may eat the flesh of kings, generals, and the mighty, or horses and their riders, and the flesh of all people, free and slave, great and small.'" (Revelation 19:17-18) People from all backgrounds and all economic classes are assembled for this battle. There are people from all walks of life who hate the Lord. This is the common denominator among them. This is why they have banded together. Because their defeat is certain, an angel calls to the birds of the air, saying, "Come and eat the carcasses of these rebels who fall in battle! You can eat the flesh of the common peasant or the flesh of the highest government officials. It's your choice. The banquet is about to be spread out for you."
I think there's something interesting in verses 17 and 18 that we don't want to miss. The birds understand the command that is given to them. They are going to obey the Lord by doing what He tells them to do. The entire created world and everything in it, other than man, operates according to the design and the commands of the Lord. The creatures do what God created them to do. It's only human beings who have the ability to refuse to be what God created them to be. Many of them do refuse. But the animal kingdom never fell from grace. The created world never fell from grace. Only man fell. Only man needed a Redeemer. And here in Revelation we see the ultimate refusal of the Redeemer when those who have rejected Him grow so wicked during the end times that they intend to fight Him in a military battle. Their hope is that they will defeat Him and put Him out of their lives and their consciences forever. They don't want His kingdom to come. They don't want Him to rule the world in righteousness and peace. They are saying what the men said in one of Jesus' parables, "We don't want this man to be our king." (Luke 19:14)
When a person rejects the Lord Jesus Christ, he is saying, "I don't want this man to be my king." When a person refuses the Lord's offer of salvation, he is saying, "I don't want this man to be my king." Those who will assemble for the battle of Armageddon have one thought on their minds: "We don't want this man to be our king."
Join us tomorrow as we delve more deeply into the subject of Armageddon and as we refer back to Old Testament prophecies about it.
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