Let us be glad, and rejoice, and give honour to
him
The saints particularly; the converted Jews will call upon one
another to express their gladness at the glorious display of
Christ's kingly power and authority, and at the destruction of
his enemies, and the happy and comfortable state of his church
and people; and to rejoice in him as the Lord their righteousness
and strength, and to give him the honour and glory of salvation,
and to return him thanks for all the benefits they shall have
received from him, particularly on account of what follows:
for the marriage of the Lamb is come;
that is, of Christ, the Son of God, with the Jewish church more
especially; there was a secret betrothing of all the elect to
Christ before the world began; and there is an open espousal of
every individual of them at conversion; but the public and
general solemnization of the nuptials will not be until the new
Jerusalem church state takes place in the personal reign of
Christ, hereafter mentioned, ( Revelation
21:1 Revelation
21:2 Revelation
21:9 ) but here, and as previous to that, there will be a
very general and open marriage of Christ with the people of the
Jews, who have long rejected and forsaken him; for if the
conversion of a single person may be called a marriage with
Christ, much more the conversion of such members; and which is
often prophesied of under this metaphor of a marriage, as in (
Isaiah 62:4
Isaiah 62:5 )
( Hosea
2:19 ) . And now the time will be come for the accomplishment
of it, the evidence of which follows:
and his wife hath made herself ready,
or "dressed herself"; by decking herself with jewels, and putting
on her wedding garment provided for her, and given to her by her
husband, the Lamb, as appears from the next verse: this
preparation will lie partly in the number of converts that will
be brought into the Jewish church, which she will receive and
clothe herself with, as with the ornament of a bride, ( Isaiah 49:18
) and partly by the exercise of the several graces of the Spirit
upon Christ, comparable to the jewels of a bride, with which she
will be adorned for her husband; and also by putting on the robe
of his righteousness, hereafter mentioned, which the old Jewish
synagogue rejected, and therefore was cast off, ( Romans 10:3 ) (
Matthew
22:12 Matthew
22:13 ) . The Arabic version reads, "the marriage of the Lamb
is now come with his spouse, prepared for him"; and the Ethiopic
version, "the marriage of his Lamb is come, and the wife is
prepared"; and that her preparation is not by her own merits and
works of righteousness, but by the grace of her husband, is clear
from the following verse. Mr. Daubuz, by "the marriage of the
Lamb", understands the first resurrection, and the state of the
church at that time; and by "the fine linen", the dress of the
church, next mentioned, the incorruptible body of the saints
compared to a garment, ( 1
Corinthians 15:53 ) ( 2
Corinthians 5:2-4 ) and by those who are afterwards said to
be "called to the marriage", the converted nations in a mortal
state: but all the saints will share in the first resurrection;
besides, as yet the beast and false prophet are not destroyed,
which must be before the first resurrection, as the following
vision shows.