This morning we will be finishing out chapter 14 and I’ll be honest, I have not been looking forward to this passage. It is intense, bold, and graphic in its portrayal and description of God’s wrath and judgement. It is hard to read, even harder to perceptualize, and almost impossible to get out of your mind.
God is gracious. I think any believer in Jesus Christ has come to this conclusion. We do not get what we fully deserve and we praise God for that. But what about people that refuse Jesus? What about people that have heard the gospel and simply wash their hands of it. It could be a myriad of reasons for their rejection; stubborn, angry, rebellious, self-righteous, prideful, or arrogant. Whatever the reason, they deny God and have settled to simply remain neutral, doing nothing with God, only doing what they desire. For these, what does God do with them?
Think back to when you were in your early teens. Those years where you were testing the boundaries and the authority of you parents. Say you dad asks you to mow the lawn. You ignore him. The next day he asks again. You ignore him. He asks again and this time he is very clear in his demand that you mow the lawn. This time you tell him no. How would this have gone in your house? It would not have ended well in my house. We did not have time outs or groundings, if you were blatantly disobedient, you received a thorough correction to the backside. It was not out of anger, but just the opposite, it was out of a deep, deep love. A love that cares about the importance of discipline and what great effect it can have on a life. People seem to disassociate our earthly fathers with our heavenly father. That somehow our earthly father has the right and responsibility to discipline us swiftly after one or two rebellious acts, but that God somehow owes us limitless opportunities to tell Him no, refuse Him, and well, just thum our nose at Him. But God out of His endless love for us, must and will discipline us for our blatant disobedience and willful rejection of His only Son that He sent her as a sacrifice to save the wolrd from its sin.
What we see happening today in our study verses is a culmination of God offering countless opportunities for people to believe. Since the beginning of the great tribulation the people of the planet have seen numerous earthquakes, countless disasters, suffered famine, disease, the darkening of the sun, had the 144,000 preach the gospel, had the 2 great preachers bring the gospel, and in the midst of all of this, they not only rejected Jesus, but they instead accepted the antichrist and took His mark. By this time, it is apparent that God could keep doing this forever and He would continue to get the same result. So here we find ourselves this morning in Revelation 14:14-20 and God is finished with this stiff-necked, arrogant, rebellious people. Today He will move in judgment and unleash His wrath.
“14 Then I looked, and behold, a white cloud, and seated on the cloud one like a son of man, with a golden crown on his head, and a sharp sickle in his hand. 15 And another angel came out of the temple, calling with a loud voice to him who sat on the cloud, “Put in your sickle, and reap, for the hour to reap has come, for the harvest of the earth is fully ripe.”16 So he who sat on the cloud swung his sickle across the earth, and the earth was reaped.
17 Then another angel came out of the temple in heaven, and he too had a sharp sickle. 18 And another angel came out from the altar, the angel who has authority over the fire, and he called with a loud voice to the one who had the sharp sickle, “Put in your sickle and gather the clusters from the vine of the earth, for its grapes are ripe.” 19 So the angel swung his sickle across the earth and gathered the grape harvest of the earth and threw it into the great winepress of the wrath of God. 20 And the winepress was trodden outside the city, and blood flowed from the winepress, as high as a horse's bridle, for 1,600 stadia."
14:14-16 – “Then I looked, and behold, a white cloud, and seated on the cloud one like a son of man, with a golden crown on his head, and a sharp sickle in his hand. 15 And another angel came out of the temple, calling with a loud voice to him who sat on the cloud, “Put in your sickle, and reap, for the hour to reap has come, for the harvest of the earth is fully ripe.”16 So he who sat on the cloud swung his sickle across the earth, and the earth was reaped.”
The scene is one of Jesus upon a cloud, His crown of Glory is upon His head and He is holding a sickle. I think we all know what a sickle is, a long curved blade on a handle and it is used in a swinging motion to cut down wheat at ground level when it is time for it to be harvested. An angel comes out of temple and declares that it is time. The earth is fully ripe and the time to harvest is at hand. Put in your sickle and reap. Jesus swung the sickle across the Earth and the Earth is reaped. This reaping symbolizes the seven bowl judgements that will be coming in chapter 16. The Lord Jesus Christ is mowing down those that reject His salvation like a harvester cutting grain.
This is a grim event in God’s Word. The people that refused God will be cut down. There is no more hope for them, and God has no choice but to remove them and in doing so they will be cast into an eternity separated from Him...without God. They will be cast into the eternity that was declared by the third angel in our study yesterday. “And another angel, a third, followed them, saying with a loud voice, “If anyone worships the beast and its image and receives a mark on his forehead or on his hand, 10 he also will drink the wine of God's wrath, poured full strength into the cup of his anger, and he will be tormented with fire and sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. 11 And the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever, and they have no rest, day or night, these worshipers of the beast and its image, and whoever receives the mark of its name.” Rev 14:9-11
14:17-19 - “17 Then another angel came out of the temple in heaven, and he too had a sharp sickle. 18 And another angel came out from the altar, the angel who has authority over the fire, and he called with a loud voice to the one who had the sharp sickle, “Put in your sickle and gather the clusters from the vine of the earth, for its grapes are ripe.” 19 So the angel swung his sickle across the earth and gathered the grape harvest of the earth and threw it into the great winepress of the wrath of God.
The first reaping, the grain harvest, represents the seven bowl judgements. The second reaping here in this passage, the grape harvest, symbolizes the judgement of Armageddon. Here we see another angel appear from the temple and he also has a sharp sickle. Yet another angel appears, not from the temple but from the altar, and announces that it is time for the next harvest. This reaping revolves around the image of grapes. The harvest time is ready, the grapes are ripe. The grapes symbolize the unbelievers upon the Earth, in their reckless rebellion towards God, there is nothing else that can be done for them. They are ready to be cut down. All of the enemies of God who survive the seven bowls judgements will be gathered like grape clusters from the earth.
The angel moves His scythe into action and the grapes are harvested and promptly thrown into “the great winepress of the wrath of God.” A winepress was a large basin where men would tread upon the ripe grapes. They would hold on to ropes above them and stamp their feet vigorously, crushing the grapes and releasing the juice. The juice would then run into containers on the sides of the large basin.
14:20 - And the winepress was trodden outside the city, and blood flowed from the winepress, as high as a horse's bridle, for 1,600 stadia.”
The bloodbath of the battle of Armageddon will be staggering. The death will be so widespread that the blood will come out of the winepress and will run four feet deep (as high as horse’s bridle) and 200 miles (1600 stadia). The devastation of the war of Armageddon will be a scene that the world has never seen and will never see again.
Join me again tomorrow as we continue our study of Revelation and start chapter 15 where we will look at the setup for the delivery of the seven bowls of God’s wrath.
God bless your time in His Word today ~ Dan
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