Revelation 19:14; And the Armies Which Were in Heaven Followed

Revelation 19:14 (KJV)  And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean. 

When the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven, in flaming fire taking vengeance upon them that know not God and that obey not the Gospel, he does not come alone. He is married now, and his Bride is with him. Even before the flood, Enoch prophesied of this epiphany of the promised One, and said in Jude 14-15 (KJV)  And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints, To execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him. 

They are with Him now, therefore they must have been before; His saints follow in His train. The promise from the beginning was, that the seed of the woman should bruise the serpent’s head, and here it is emphasised that “He Himself treadeth the winepress of the wine of the anger of the wrath of the God, the All-Ruler.” He Himself is the Great Hero and Conqueror in this battle. But He is “Jehovah of hosts.” He has many under His command. The armies of the sky are His, and He brings them with Him, even “the called and chosen, and faithful.” (Revelation 17:14). [Joseph A. Seiss]

Indeed, the rider on the white horse is not alone as He descends from heaven – And the armies which were in heaven followed him…

This heavenly army, unlike their leader, has no armour because, being immortal, they are immune to injury. They are noncombatant supporters of the Messiah as He wages the war single-handedly (Lee, Beckwith, Seiss, Ladd). These are real armies and horses, not imaginary ones (Bullinger). The origin of the horses need not create a problem as they conceivably are a special creation of “The Word of God” for the purposes of this occasion. A literal understanding of them is in order just as a literal meaning for the other features in this sequence: the opening of heaven, the descent of Christ with His heavenly armies to do battle, the destruction achieved, the victory won, and the kingdom set up (Seiss).

Old Testament passages does refer to angels making up the armies of heaven (Psalm 103:21; 148:2; Luke 2:13).

Psalm 103:21 (KJV)  Bless ye the LORD, all ye his hosts; ye ministers of his, that do his pleasure. 

Psalm 148:2 (KJV)  Praise ye him, all his angels: praise ye him, all his hosts. 

Luke 2:13 (KJV)  And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, 

The association of angels with Christ at His second coming is also an established biblical teaching (Matthew 13:41; 16:27; 24:;30-31; Mark 8:38; Luke 9:26; 2 Thessalonians 1:7) (Ladd, Beasley-Murray). A factor that causes hesitation in identifying the armies as angels, however is the unlikelihood that they would be on white horses as their leader is (Johnson).

Limiting the armies of saints is appropriate. It does not deny the presence of angels on this occasion but concludes that the angels is not mentioned here. The saints will have a role in judgment during this important episode.

The verb “followed” provides a graphic picture of the celestial warrior with His armies seated on white horses following their Leader into the fray.

[Robert L. Thomas – Revelation 8-22 – An Exegetical Commentary, Moody, 1995, 388]