And I saw an angel standing in the sun; and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the fowls that fly in the midst of heaven, Come and gather yourselves together unto the supper of the great God; (Revelation 19:17)
The gruesome alternative to eating at the marriage supper of the Lamb (v. 9) is to be eaten by the fowls of heaven at the “supper of the great God.” Those who do not voluntarily accept God’s gracious invitation to be present at the one must respond to His imperative summons to the other.
Fowls.
This invitation to the “fowls” warns the assembled hosts of the wicked as to the fate that impends for them (see on ch. 16:15-17). It is couched in the graphic Oriental phraseology of a challenge to personal combat (cf. 1 Sam. 17:44-46). To be devoured by the scavengers of the skies constituted one of the curses for disobedience pronounced by Moses in his valedictory address to the people of Israel (Deut. 28:26). John’s phraseology in Rev. 19:17, 18 appears to be based on God’s words to the heathen nations of earth as recorded in Eze. 39:17-22 (cf. Jer. 7:32, 33).
Standing in the sun.
Perhaps the blinding light of the sun is here descriptive of the glorious light of the divine presence (cf. 2 Thess. 2:8, 9; Rev. 6:15-17). Thus the angel who issues the challenge of ch. 19:17 would be standing next to Christ, as in ancient combat an armor-bearer would be near his lord.