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Okay, we left off last week in chapter 14 last week but I felt that the wheels of the bus got a bit bogged down in the mire of information after the teaching.
So I want to step back just a minute and refresh ourselves about what we are reading and where we are at in the book.
Revelation 14. Part IV
January 21st 2018
Meat
Prologue (Rev. 1)
Letters to the seven churches (Rev. 2–3)
The throne room and the scroll with seven seals (Rev. 4–5)
Judgments and vignettes
Seal judgments (Rev. 6)
144,000; the multitude (Rev. 7)
Trumpet judgments (Rev. 8–9)
The angel and a little scroll (Rev. 10)
Two witnesses (Rev. 11)
A pregnant woman and the dragon (Rev. 12)
Two beasts (Rev. 13)
144,000 on Mount Zion; three angels; harvest of the earth (Rev. 14)
Bowl judgments and the battle of Armageddon (Rev. 15–16)
A woman on the beast and the fall of Babylon (Rev. 17–18)
The Millennium and the Last Judgment (Rev. 19–20)
A new heaven and new earth (Rev. 21)
Epilogue (Rev. 22)
So try not to despair – our study of this book is almost like the teacher and the student must experience all the judgments and vignettes themselves before the new heaven and new earth settles in upon them, right?
So, in here in chapter 14 we are examining the three angels and their messages and this third angel has given us the harvest of the earth.
So we read last week (and covered)
15 And another angel came out of the temple, crying with a loud voice to him that sat on the cloud, Thrust in thy sickle, and reap: for the time is come for thee to reap; for the harvest of the earth is ripe.16 And he that sat on the cloud thrust in his sickle on the earth; and the earth was reaped.17 And another angel came out of the temple which is in heaven, he also having a sharp sickle.18 And another angel came out from the altar, which had power over fire; and cried with a loud cry to him that had the sharp sickle, saying, Thrust in thy sharp sickle, and gather the clusters of the vine of the earth; for her grapes are fully ripe.
Before we move on to the last two verses here we might ask ourselves, “What are the differences between these two reapings? To what are they referring?
Obviously there is a difference being presented here as verses 15-16 give us a “dry” grain ripening and harvest and verse 18 gives us a fruit wet grape ripening.
Some commentators suggest that the first reaping is a reaping of the righteous and the second a reaping of the unrighteous.
Others say that both are of the unrighteous.
Preterist Steve Gregg writes,
“Many expositors believe that the reaping of verses 14-16 has to do with the salvation of the believers, or their gathering to safety (the escape of the Judean Christians to Pella in A.D. 66-70), while the vintage vision of verses 17-20 depicts the judgment upon the city of Jerusalem in A.D. 70.”
Here Greg is quoting from J. Stuart Russell, who believes that verses 14-16 are “the fulfillment of the prediction of Jesus found in Matthew 24 when He says,
“The Son of Man shall send His angels, and they shall gather together His elect from the four winds.”
Also it’s a little odd here that an angel gives the Son of Man wearing a crown instructions, but Greg notes:
That “the angel simply represents the church praying in obedience to Christ, who commanded that believers “pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.”
This may be a bit of a stretch but it could make some sense.
Last two verses:
Revelation 14:19 And the angel thrust in his sickle into the earth, and gathered the vine of the earth, and cast it into the great winepress of the wrath of God. 20 And the winepress was trodden without the city, and blood came out of the winepress, even unto the horse bridles, by the space of a thousand and six hundred furlongs.
So let’s break these passages down and try to give them some reasonable application.
In verse 15-16 The Son of God is told by the angel to thrust in his sickle and we are told He does and the earth is harvested.
The Greek term translated earth here is Gahay and so we know that this refers to the land or area and not the whole world like kosmos would mean.
Now notice something here. The angel tells Jesus to reap by thrusting in his sickle and Jesus does. Why would this be? What kind of harvest is this that Jesus is doing? In my estimation He is reaping the faithful from the land first and BEFORE the destruction that is about to follow.
This dry reaping to me is of consumable good fruit of the land being harvested where there is no shedding of blood and which is in contradistinction to the reaping of the grapes or vine to come which is wet or bloody.
Remember when Jesus was describing to his apostles what to look for in the end of the age in Matthew 24 and Luke 21 that he instructed them to get out of Jerusalem when certain signs presented themselves.
This suggests that those who followed those instructions were in the land when Jesus came and dry harvested his own, with some of them not experiencing death but in the bloodless twinkling of an eye (as Paul said).
In the next verses we begin to read of the next harvest – the harvest of sorrows.
Verses 17-18 where it says:
Revelation 14:17-18 And another angel came out of the temple which is in heaven, he also having a sharp sickle.
18 And another angel came out from the altar, which had power over fire; and cried with a loud cry to him that had the sharp sickle, saying, Thrust in thy sharp sickle, and gather the clusters of the vine of the earth; for her grapes are fully ripe.
Here we do not have Jesus doing the harvest but His angels, which is consistent with all He said would occur in the last day when the harvest of souls would take place – that the angels would be reaping and casting into the fire.
In Matthew 13:39, Jesus says, “The harvest is the end of the age, and the harvesters are angels.”
So now verse 19-20 again:
Revelation 14:19 And the angel thrust in his sickle into the earth, and gathered the vine of the earth, and cast it into the great winepress of the wrath of God.
Right now we now a few things right off the bat. The ANGEL thrust in his sickle into the earth and Gathered THE VINE of the earth and CAST IT INTO the GREAT WINE PRESS OF THE WRATH OF GOD!
So certainly this is a vision of heavenly judgement upon a people. What people?
The destruction of Israel prior to the siege of Jerusalem is pictured as the crushing of grapes during the grape harvest.
This symbolism is not without precedence:
Here, as in Isaiah 5:7, Israel is symbolized as a vineyard; and as is the case in Lamentations 1:15, and the slaughter of the Israelites is represented as grapes being crushed in a winepress.
This imagery is clearly presented in Isaiah 63:1-3:
Who is this coming from Edom, from Bozrah, with his garments stained crimson? Who is this, robed in splendor, striding forward in the greatness of his strength? “It is I, proclaiming victory, mighty to save.” Why are your garments red like those of one treading the winepress? “I have trodden the winepress alone; from the nations no one was with me. I trampled them in my anger and trod them down in my wrath; their blood spattered my garments, and I stained all my clothing.
The Talmud records the following claim:
“For seven years did the nations of the world cultivate their vineyards with no other manure than the blood of Israel.”
So in my estimation, the grape vine harvest of sorrows depicted here was upon the Nation of Israel.
And verse 20 adds more, saying:
20 And the winepress was trodden without the city, and blood came out of the winepress, even unto the horse bridles, by the space of a thousand and six hundred furlongs.
Let’s first address the description that says the winepress was trodden without or outside the city.
Without question the CITY is Jerusalem, called “the great city” in Revelation 11:8 but is also referred to as “Sodom and Egypt in other places.
I think that the reason the phrase outside the city is used is because historically and all the way back through the history of the Nation of Israel the wicked are destroyed outside the city as that is where the accursed and unclean things are taken for disposal.
For example, we know that the Valley of Hinnom outside Jerusalem is where human sacrifices take place in Old Testament times. And that is was a burning trash dump in Jesus’ day.
We also know that even the carcasses of sacrificial animals, whose blood the high priest carries into the Holy of Holies on the Day of Atonement, were carried outside the city walls to be burned.
So, there is an illusion to wickedness being outside the city and there being associated with death.
The writer of Hebrews reminds us that Jesus is crucified outside the city in order to identify with sinful people. In other words, “The One who knew no sin becomes sin for us, and the blessed Son of God becomes a curse: “
We also recall the passage, “For the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the most holy place by the high priest as a sin offering are burned outside the camp.”
Some interpreters see this as a reference to the Old Testament purification laws in Leviticus 8:17 where the unclean are taken outside the camp.
And of course there is the reference to the end-time gathering of the wicked around the city of Jerusalem which we can read about in Psalm 2:2 and 6; Daniel 11:45; Joel 3:12-14; Zechariah 14:1-4 and even in the apocalyptic book of 1 Enoch 53:1.
If this is a reference to the Day of the Lord, it likely speaks of the Valley of Jehoshaphat, which according to Jewish tradition is the part of the Kidron Valley between the Temple Mount and the Mount of Olives.
This is where Joel prophesies that the judgment of nations will take place (Joel 3:12-14). Additionally, Zechariah places the final battle on the outskirts of Jerusalem (Zechariah 14:1-4).
20 And the winepress was trodden without the city, and blood came out of the winepress, even unto the horse bridles, by the space of a thousand and six hundred furlongs.
Wait, isn’t the harvest of grape vines? How does blood come out of the winepress?
See the problem with zealous biblical literalism. In any case we now realize that in the culmination of the age that the harvest of sorrow blood was (or will be) shed.
Notice that if we are Biblical literalists that we have to explain how an angel is harvesting grapevines but blood comes out.
But now we read some other things and must explain them too – either literally or as imagery or symbolism present by and through Hebrew idiom.
What do we read:
20 And the winepress was trodden without the city, and blood came out of the winepress, even unto the horse bridles, by the space of a thousand and six hundred furlongs.
Literal? Representational? A mix? And who gets to say?
A literalist MUST conclude that at this harvest that
Grapevines are harvested by angels.
That the winepress was outside the city.
That blood came out of the winepress.
That the blood was as high as the horse bridles and that
It ran the space of a thousand and six hundred stadia (the King James says, furlongs).
When we are talking about religion almost everything in the scripture has been calculated out by some literalist or another and this is no exception.
So I am borrowing from what someone figured out – why? Because its what the Word of God says. And these are the calculations of Revelation 14:20:
One “stades,” in Rome at the time, is about 0.92 furlongs; a furlong is an eighth of a modern mile.
So 1600 stadia was 200 Roman miles, but it works out to 183.93 modern miles.
(The author then does some calculations of conversions to radial measurements for convenience which I won’t include here.)
At this point he says, “now we need the height in order to calculate the volume.
Unfortunately, “as high as the horses’ bridles” isn’t an accurate measurement, but the bridle of a horse is typically between four and six feet from the ground. Call it 5 feet for simplicity.
(And using more calculations he reaches a figure of 971,150.4 feet.) Then he says:
Now, we go ask a European high school student what the formula is for the volume of a cylinder, and we find out that it is pi * the radius squared * the height. So, pi * 971150.4^2 * 5 = 1.481470008 x 10^13 cubic feet.
There are 28.3168466 liters in a cubic foot, giving us 4.195055897 x 10^14 liters of blood.
With delight, the author now says:
“Now, let’s turn this into people!”
I think we can safely assume that the winepress is only squeezing out blood; it is after all a divine winepress, so it should be able to discriminate.
The human body contains approximately 5 liters of blood, so we can divide our total volume of blood by 5, and get 83,901,117,930,000 crushed people required in order to create this amount of blood.
This is about 11,800 times the current population of the planet Earth, by the way.
I suppose the biggest lesson to take from this is to put a check on our biblical literalism – especially when it comes to the Book of Revelation.
Now, interestingly, the Jordan River is 251 kilometers long which is exactly 1,600 stadia.
In the words of a Cambridge University Astronomer, one Fred Hoyle, “three different units bearing that name stade were in use: the itinerary stade, used in measuring the distance of a journey and equal in length to about 157 meters; the Olympic stade of 185 meters; and the royal Egyptian stade of 210 meters.”
He says, since we are calculating the length of a river, one must use the itinerary unit.
ON BOARD
Converting 1600 itinerary stadia to kilometers is a simple calculation: 1600stadia X 157m/stadia X 1 km/1000 m = 251.2 km.
Therefore 1600 itinerary stadia is equivalent to 251.2 km, the exact length of the Jordan River!
So in verse 20, John sees blood flowing like wine as high as the horses’ bridles for 1,600 stadia.
This flood seems to be a metaphor of the destruction of Israel because as we know, floods and rivers and oceans passing beyond their boundaries are often used in the Bible as a metaphor for an invading army ( which again you can see in Jeremiah 46:7-8; 47:1-2; 51:55-56; Ezekiel 26:3; Daniel 11:10, 40; Nahum 1:8).
Also hyperbole (like that found in verse 20) in which blood is said to flow “as high as a horse’s bridle for 1,600 stadia” is not uncommon in Hebrew sacred texts and historical accounts of the time.
In fact, the idea of blood “flowing up to a horse’s head at an extreme distance” seems to have been a fairly common Jewish expression describing “a great slaughter” as we see nearly identical imagery in 1st Enoch, the Midrash and Talmud.
1 Enoch 100:2-3, which is of course not canonical but certainly part of Jewish writings and is dated anciently, reads,
“From dawn until the sun sets, they shall slay each other. The horse shall walk through the blood of sinners up to his chest; and the chariot shall sink down up to its top.”
It is believed this writing came to be about 300BC.
Then in the Jewish Midrash, which are commentaries on scripture we read the following as it speaks of the invasion of Hadrian which happened well after Jerusalem was destroyed:
“They [the Roman army under Hadrian] slew the inhabitants [the Jewish rebels of Bethar] until the horses waded in blood up to the nostrils, and the blood rolled along stones of the size of forty se’ ah and flowed into the sea [staining it for] a distance of four miles.”15
Concerning the same war, the Midrash also says,
“He [Hadrian] immediately surrounded them [the Jewish rebels] with his legions and slaughtered them, so that their blood streamed [to the coast and stained the sea] as far as Cyprus.”
Then, concerning the slaughter at Bethar, the Babylonian Talmud uses similar language, saying:
“These are the eighty [thousand] trumpets which assembled in the city of Bethar when it was taken and men, women and children were slain in it until their blood ran into the great sea. Do you think this was near? It was a whole mil away.”
Similar language is also found in the Apocalypse of Daniel, a ninth century AD pseudepigraphal work falsely purported to have been written by the prophet Daniel.
The first seven chapters of this book relay the history of the Byzantino-Arab wars of the eighth century A.D. in cryptic prophetic language.
In other words, chapters one to seven are essentially history masquerading as prophecy.
Thus the following excerpt describes the recent Byzantino-Arab wars in the following hyperbolic language:
“And in the streets of the Seven-hilled (city) [Byzantium] horses will be submerged, drowning in blood (The Apocalypse of Daniel 4:8).”
To prove the use of such hyperbole among Jews we read in 2 Kings 21:16
Moreover Manasseh shed innocent blood very much, till he had filled Jerusalem from one end to another; beside his sin wherewith he made Judah to sin, in doing that which was evil in the sight of the LORD.
In Ezekiel, Pharaoh is pictured as a sea monster dragged ashore by the Lord and killed.
Concerning Pharaoh’s death Ezekiel 32:6 reads, “I will drench the land with your flowing blood all the way to the mountains, and the ravines will be filled with your flesh.”
So, we have a nearly identical expression here in Revelation 14:20 and it is obvious this is a Hebrew expression.
What is interesting is that The Jordan, an emblem of all of Israel runs the length of the country and equals 1,600 stadia so this computation is both representative of all of Israel and God’s wrath upon it.
It is also of note that Josephus appeals to similar language, writing:
“Galilee was all over filled with fire and blood.”
Now, we note that a horse bridle is mentioned here in verse 20. It is just an open unattached reference to that height or should we wonder who is riding the horse where the blood reaches the bridle?
I think that scripture tends to suggest that there is a being on this horse and that it is Jesus.
First we recall that in Revelation chapter six we read of the four horsemen of the Apocalypse, and that one of them was white.
We read:
Re 6:2 And I saw, and behold a white horse: and he that sat on him had a bow; and a crown was given unto him: and he went forth conquering, and to conquer.
Back then I suggested that Jesus was the rider on this horse since the rider is wearing a crown and since He came forth to conquer.
Then in Revelation 19 we will read that Jesus’ garments are stained red from treading the winepress. The language therein seems to echo what we are reading here in chapter 14 as it says:
11 And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war.
12 His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns; and he had a name written, that no man knew, but he himself.
13 And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called The Word of God.
14 And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean.
15 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.
In these verses Jesus again rides on horseback with garments stained red with blood. His garments are red because he “treads the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God Almighty” in Revelation 19:15 as he had also done in Isaiah 63:3.
According to Isaiah 63:3, which says
“I have trodden the winepress alone; and of the people there was none with me: for I will tread them in mine anger, and trample them in my fury; and their blood shall be sprinkled upon my garments, and I will stain all my raiment.”
Jesus rides alone but it does explain why His garments are stained red in the Vision of Revelation 19.
If we accept that this is Jesus on the horse the fact that blood reaches His horses’ bridle (in this passage in chapter 14) we have understanding of how his garments are red in chapter 19 while sitting on top of His white horse.
Therefore, and summarizing this all up, far, far, far from depicting a literal “flood of blood over Israel in the first century,” Revelation 14:20 ultimately portrays Jesus coming in judgment on Israel as he rides on his white horse shedding blood up to his horse’s bridle as he “treads the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God Almighty.”
Bringing in a little more to wrap our chapter up, Josephus writes [concerning the Roman soldiers, after they had burned down the temple in Jerusalem],
“they ran every one through whom they met with, and obstructed the very lanes with their dead bodies, and made the whole city run down with blood, to such a degree indeed that the fire of many houses was quenched with these men’s blood” (The Wars Of The Jews, 6:8:5).
So with descriptions like this we have some support for the fulfillment of verse 20 here at the conclusion of chapter 14.
John Wesley (1703-1791) who, in his commentary on this passage, wrote:
“And the winepress was trodden – By the Son of God, Rev 19:15. Without [outside] the city – Jerusalem.
They to whom St. John writes, when a man said, ‘the city,’ immediately understood this. And blood came out of the winepress, even to the horses’ bridles – So deep at its first flowing from the winepress! One thousand six hundred furlongs – So far! At least two hundred miles, through the whole land of Palestine.
Wesley, like many today, tied this passage (Revelation 14:19-20) to Rev. 19:11-21, and rightly so.
Now this imagery is often referred to as the “Battle of Armageddon,” which authors like Tim Lahaye (and other Futurist authors) generally say will happen in the plain of Megiddo.
Author John Noe, on the other hand, notes that what the Bible refers to as a “battle on the great day of God the Almighty” (Rev. 16:14) would transpire “at the place that in Hebrew is called Armageddon” (which is derived from a reading of Revelation 16:16 which is coming for us).
What’s intriguing is in Hebrew Armegeddon is actually “Har-Magedon,” with “har” meaning “mountain” in Hebrew (“Armageddon” is based on the Greek rendering, since “h” is silent in Hebrew).
Therefore, this battle was to take place primarily on a mountain, NOT in a valley.
John Noe adds,
“The most likely case is that Revelation’s “Har” is Jerusalem. Geographically, Jerusalem sits on top of a mountain. To get there from any direction one must go “up to Jerusalem” (2 Sam. 19:34; 1 Ki. 12:28; 2 Ki. 18:17; 2 Chron. 2:16; Ezra 1:3; 7:7; Zech. 14:17; Matt. 20:17, 18; Mark 10:32, 33; Luke 18:31; 19:28; John 2:13; 5:1; Acts 11:2; 15:2; 21:12, 15; 24:11; 25:9; Gal. 1:17, 18).
Jerusalem is also called God’s “holy mountain” (Psalm 43:3) and also the “chief among the mountains” (Isa. 2:2-3; also 14:13; Exod. 15:17; Joel 2:32; 3:16-17)
Magedon/Megiddo” may also be of some comparative imagery.
A great slaughter once took place in the valley of Megiddo (as we read in 2nd Kings 9:27 and Zechariah 12:11).
Throughout ancient history, this valley was also a favorite corridor for invading armies and the scene of numerous famous battles as detailed in Judges 4-7; 1st Samuel 29-31; 2nd Samuel 4, 1st Kings 9:15; 2nd Kings 9-10; 22 and 2nd Chronicles 35).
So much blood was shed in this valley of Jezreel (or Megiddo) that it became a synonym for slaughter, violence, bloodshed, and battle or a battlefield and therefore a symbol for God’s judgment
This is why we read in Hosea 1:4-5:
“And the LORD said unto him, Call his name Jezreel; for yet a little while, and I will avenge the blood of Jezreel upon the house of Jehu, and will cause to cease the kingdom of the house of Israel. And it shall come to pass at that day, that I will break the bow of Israel in the valley of Jezreel.”
In our day, Armageddon has also become synonymous with and a symbol for the ultimate in warfare and conflict.
We might see it used here in scripture the way others use “Waterloo,” meaning the place back in 181 where this Belgium town was the battleground and scene of Napoleon’s final defeat.
Today, we have a saying that “some one” or some thing has met their “Waterloo.”
We don’t mean they have actually met that city in Europe. We simply mean, by way of comparative imagery, that they have met a decisive or crushing defeat, or their demise.
Perhaps Revelation employs the word Magedon/Megiddo in this same way?
This final description by Josephus also shows how the fulfillment of this prophecy could have taken place during the Roman-Jewish War of 67-73 AD, saying:
Now, this destruction that fell upon the Jews, as it was not inferior to any of the rest in itself, so did it still appear greater than it really was; and this, because not only the whole of the country through which they had fled was filled with slaughter, and [the] Jordan [River] could not be passed over, by reason of the dead bodies that were in it, but because the Lake Asphaltitis [the modern Dead Sea] was also full of dead bodies, that were carried down into it by the river. And now, Placidus, after this good success that he had, fell violently upon the neighboring smaller cities and villages; when he took Abila, and Julias, and Bezemoth, and all those that lay as far as the lake Asphaltitis, and put such of the deserters into each of them as he thought proper. He then put his soldiers on board the ships, and slew such as had fled to the lake, insomuch that all Perea had either surrendered themselves, or were taken by the Romans, as far as Macherus (Josephus, “Account of the Lake Asphaltitis,” War of the Jews 4:7:6).
We will stop here, open the phone lines, and take comments and questions.
