Throw Out the Lifeline

Bible Study Lessons

BIBLE CLASS NOTES

by Bill Thornhill

The Revelation of Jesus Christ

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter fourteen rather naturally divides into four paragraphs dealing with the two subjects of the Lamb on Mount Zion and the one hundred forty-four thousand. The first paragraph is composed of verses 1 – 5; the second verses 6 – 13; the third verses 14 – 16; and finally, the fourth in verses 17 – 20. In the previous chapters John has revealed there was an evil triad of enemies facing the church, the Dragon, the Sea Beast, and the Land Beast. The Dragon has been identified as Satan, arch-enemy of God and man, the Sea Beast as the Roman Empire, and the Land Beast as the Caesars manifested in Nero Caesar the first and most vicious of the Roman persecutors of Christianity.

The natural question would be, Will the church survive an all-out attack from such formidable enemies? The Christians of the 1^st Century wondered the same thing. Consequently, John addressed the fears of the saints by assuring them God had not forgotten them. He emphasized that though many would suffer martyrdom, the Kingdom would survive all hurled against her by the Dragon and his beastly envoys. This section of the Book of Revelation was designed by the Lord to give comfort and provide reasons for confidence in the coming victory of the saints in spite of all opposition.

We now turn to the 1^st paragraph of this chapter, vs. 1 – 5, Then I looked, and behold, a Lamb standing on Mount Zion, and with Him one hundred and forty-four thousand, having His Father’s name written on their foreheads. And I heard a voice from heaven, like the voice of many waters, and like the voice of loud thunder. And I heard the sound of harpists playing their harps. They sang as it were a new song before the throne, before the four living creatures, and the elders; and no one could learn that song except the hundred and forty-four thousand who were redeemed from the earth. These are the ones who were not defiled with women, for they are virgins. These are the ones who follow the Lamb wherever He goes. These were redeemed from among men, being firstfruits to God and to the Lamb. And in their mouth was found no deceit, for they are without fault before the throne of God. John saw Mount Zion, the mountain on which the great Temple of Herod stood. Standing on the Mount is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. The Lamb is our Christ who has appeared previously (5:6) bearing the marks of having been slain. In 6:1, he appeared as the One having the power to open the scroll with seven seals. The Lamb stood on Temple Mount-Mount Zion.

Standing with the Lamb on Mount Zion were 144,000 who had the name of the Lamb’s Father written on their foreheads. (See Hebrews 12:18-24.) These are Jewish saints of God who were previously identified in chapter seven. Their mark showed ownership and was designed to inform all that these people belonged to Yahweh. They did not attempt to hide that they were saints of God, inasmuch as they wore the mark in the most prominent place of the body, the forehead.

As John continued to describe this scene, he began by telling what he heard rather than what he saw. He heard a voice he described as being as sweet and melodic as the music from the elegant harp, and at the same time, its volume was like the roar of thunder or of a mighty cataract. The host of 144,000 Jewish martyrs stood before the throne of God singing. Their standing before the throne of God symbolizes their place of acceptance and security. They constituted a huge chorus singing a new song. The word new, kainen, here means “superior, new to the possessor, novel, heretofore unheard of, of higher excellence.” Hence, the song was not one known to the singers down through the centuries, but was ode, oden, being sung for the first time. No one else could learn and sing this song because no one else had suffered, endured, and conquered through Christ as these saints. The song, the word of which was not revealed, was sung by those who had been redeemed from the land. “Redeemed” is egorasmenoi, from the verb, agorazo, meaning to buy, redeem, or acquire by the payment of a ransom. These had been bought back from the evil kidnapper, Satan, and the price paid was the blood of the Lamb.

In the 4^th and 5^th verses John continued his description of the beauty and holiness of these beloved saints. John was not deprecating marriage as is commonly charged by the few Muslims who read the Bible and that with little understanding of what they are reading. This expression, not defiled with women, for they are virgins has nothing whatsoever to do with human sexuality and the relationship between husband and wife. That is sanctified of God as is made abundantly clear in Genesis 1:27-28. There are several strands of biblical imagery involved here, and we need to consider the most outstanding of these. The concept of a person’s defiling himself with women is the concept of whoredom, which in the Bible is looked on as a sin. Whoredom is set forth in the Scriptures as being equivalent to apostasy. (See: Isaiah 1:21; Jeremiah 2:20-3:11; Ezekiel 16:15-43.) Look at the case of Hosea who was commanded to marry a woman (Gomer) who became a harlot. After her harlotry he found her in slavery, bought her back, and gave her a home as long as she lived. This is precisely what God did with Israel after the Assyrian and Babylonian captivities. Our text speaks of those who lived spiritually pure lives; they never engaged in the apostate activities of Israel. They lived faithfully in his service and suffered martyrdom rather than recant the blessed Lord. John emphasized all this by calling these holy ones virgins. The word “virgin” is frequently used in the Old Testament to speak of the people of Zion, those who had been chosen to be the very special people of God. The prophets spoke of the virgin daughter of Zion (2Kings 19:21, Isaiah 23:12; 37:22; Jeremiah 14:17; 18:13; 31:4 & 21; Lamentations 1:15; 2:13). Zion was the virgin daughter of God when she remained faithful to him, and this was the case with the 144,000 martyrs. As a virgin is pure, and remains pure after marriage so long as she is true to her husband, so these Jewish brethren were pure because they were free from all machinations in which the Jewish nation involved itself in fighting against Christ and his Kingdom. Hence, religious fidelity is here symbolized as virginity. This highly symbolic statement is the Spirit’s way of saying these Christians had not compromised their faith, as had the Israelites when they committed fornication with the Moabite women in the wilderness.

The sect in the early church known as “Judaizers” wanted to mingle the Gospel with certain rituals of the Law of Moses they considered vital. The ritual of circumcision was among the most prominent of these. They were spiritual fornicators.

That this is the only proper interpretation of this language is made abundantly clear by the second part of the 4^th verse. If it be objected this passage refers to more than just the Jewish Christians because of the use of the word men found therein, we make only two comments. (1) The word men here mean people and has no other meaning. (2) The identification of these people is found in the words firstfruits to God and to the Lamb. These words can describe only the Jewish Christians who were indeed firstfruits, the aparce, the first portion, and the earliest of the harvest of Christians.

The word “firstfruits” in the Bible speaks essentially of the very earliest and finest portion of the harvest sacrificed to God at the beginning of every gleaming. God claimed this portion as his exclusive property since he had given the increase. (See: Exodus 22:29; 23:16 and 19; Leviticus 23:9-21; Deuteronomy 18:4-5; Nehemiah 10:35-37.) These people were the first-generation Jewish Christians. John used the word in the very same way that James used it when he spoke of the Christians to whom he was writing as a kind of firstfruits of His creatures (James 1:18).

The final frame of the description of the faithful 144,000 found in the 5^th verse is that there was no guile or deceit found in them. They were the very opposite of their chief opponents, the Dragon and the Beasts, whose mouths fairly dripped with lying and deceit. These disciples did not change the truth of God for a lie. Zephaniah prophesied of these very people when he spoke of the remnant of Israel in 3:12-13.

John said these martyrs stood without fault before the throne of God. This was the case because they had been cleansed by the blood of the Lamb.

At this point we are ready to study the proclamations of the three angels in the 6^th through the 13^th verses. The announcements, or proclamations, of the angels involve the final judgment coming on the city of Jerusalem and the system of Judaism known in those days. John not only heard the proclamations and saw the activities of the three angels in this paragraph; he also received a command from a voice in heaven. We should look at these events in the order in which they occurred. In the 6^th and 7^th verses, Then I saw another angel flying in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach to those who dwell on the earth – every nation, tribe, tongue, and people – saying with a loud voice, Fear God and give glory to Him, for the hour of His judgment has come; and worship Him who made heaven and earth, the sea and springs of water. John has not spoken of an angel since he spoke of the seventh angel sounding his trumpet in 11:15. Here he speaks of another angel. Although the word “another” does not appear in the Textus Receptus, we take this to mean the messenger of whom John speaks in this passage is not the one sounding the seventh trumpet. The “other” angel is not the sounding angel, but has a mission within the overall charge of the angel sounding the seventh trumpet. This messenger flies in mid-heaven, or mid-sky carrying with him a message to be preached to those who dwell in the land of Israel, and to all others regarding the events about to occur. Notice the nature of the message; it is everlasting (aionion). This word possibly connotes two ideas, the first being the message will never be changed; the second being it will never disappear. Furthermore, it is to be preached. This “gospel,” so far as the work of this angel is concerned, is not to be argued, defended, or even explained; it is merely to be announced! This “gospel” was not the message of salvation brought by Christ, but a message of salvation from persecution and martyrdom.

This gospel was first for those who dwell on the earth. As pointed out previously, the reference to the earth here is in reality to those who dwelt in the land of Israel. Actually, the message was to, as the Textus Receptus literally says, the ones sitting over the land. This identified the Jewish rulers, or authorities, who had steadfastly resisted Christ and the Gospel while relentlessly attempting to eradicate all Christians. These were the people who were to be afraid.

The message was, Fear God… Notice in the gospel command these concepts: First they were to fear God. The word “fear” is phobethete, denoting to stand in terror, to tremble, to be afraid. Secondly, they were to give glory to God. The angel commanded those who were not going to fall under the judgment of God when it came on Jerusalem, to praise, extol, honor and reverence him. This passage declared Yahweh was to be feared and honored because the hour of His judgment has come. The time had arrived for the sentence to be carried out against this wicked and rebellious people. This was, perhaps, the message spoken by the voice of the seven thunders John was not permitted to write. But even here, no date and time were given.

Furthermore, the messenger announced those of the land and Christians all over the Empire were to “worship,” proskusate, lean forward and kiss the hand of God; pay homage and show reverence to the all-powerful Elohim who made the creation in which we live.

In the 8^th verse we are introduced to a second angel (messenger) with a message which intensifies what the first angel said, And another angel followed, saying Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she has made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication. In the former proclamation the angel said the hour of God’s judgment had come, and this one identified those on whom the judgment would fall. An ordinary Roman or even Jewish citizen reading this language would surely have thought it was the rantings of the apocalyptic writers of the Jews at that time. The ancient city of Babylon had long since fallen. But to the Christians of the 1^st Century it was a very meaningful statement which again illustrates the great value of symbolic writing.

At this juncture we stop and ask, what is that great city? In the context of the Bible, it must be one of three: Babylon, Jerusalem, or Rome. Since Babylon of Chaldea no longer existed, it must be either Rome, or Jerusalem. Many students of Revelation will immediately opt for Rome. Certainly, all those who accept the late date for the Apocalypse must do so since, by the end of the 1^st Century, Jerusalem had already been destroyed by Titus. The matter is a little more complicated because this is the first mention of the city of Babylon in the Revelation. Those of us who accept the early date for the writing of the book have no difficulty assigning this symbolic name to Jerusalem. A proper understanding of which city is symbolized will, to a large degree, determine the interpretation of the remainder of the book.

The word “Babylon” occurs in the New Testament twelve times. Of this number, the word is found four times in Matthew’s genealogy of Jesus, once in Acts 7:43, in which Stephen giving his defense before the high priest, quoted Jeremiah 25:9-12 regarding Judah’s being carried away to Babylon. The other instance, outside Revelation, is 1 Peter 5:13 to which we will give more attention later. The remainder of the uses in the New Testament is found in Revelation, and is six in number, with this being the first.

When the Apostle Peter wrote his first epistle, he described the church as she who is in Babylon (1 Peter 5:13). Peter wrote to the pilgrims of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia. To what did he refer when he spoke of “she who is in Babylon”? Although God chose Peter to be the first messenger of the Gospel to the Gentiles, (Acts 15:7) he did not consider himself an apostle to the Gentiles. We do not imply that the Roman church was a strictly Gentile church, for it was not, as demonstrated in the second chapter of Paul’s letter to her. Based on the information we have in the New Testament, we would expect the Babylon of which Peter spoke to be the city of Jerusalem. Peter lived and worked for Christ in Jerusalem. In the passage from which we quoted Peter sent greetings to the brethren of the Dispersion from Mark, whom he called his “son.” This is without a doubt a reference to John Mark, the author of the Book of Mark, whose home was in Jerusalem (Acts 12:12; 15:22-40). Peter also mentioned that his amanuensis was Silvanus, who also lived in Jerusalem (1 Peter 5:12). One is on much safer ground to take the position Peter is referring to Jerusalem metaphorically when he sent greetings from she who is in Babylon. “She” was the church and “Babylon” was Jerusalem.

Moreover, when we get to the 17^th and 18^th chapters of the Revelation, the evidence that Babylon was Jerusalem is nothing short of overwhelming. In the latter part of the 8^th verse, the angel told why Babylon that great city was fallen. This section of the sentence is based on Jeremiah 51:7, in which the prophet , speaking of literal Babylon said, Babylon was a golden cup in the LORD”S hand, that made all the earth drunk. The nations drank her wine; therefore the nations are deranged. The words the wine of the wrath of her fornication is a peculiar addition to the statement made by Jeremiah. The wine of wrath she would drink was the suffering to come because of her spiritual fornication.

If we understand the word wrath (thumon) as it is used in the 10^th verse as the wrath of God, we see the wine of Jerusalem’s (Babylon) fornication is also the wine of God’s wrath being poured out on her. When her judgment came she would experience the wrath of God just as she did in the days of Jeremiah and Ezekiel when she played the harlot with the nations around her.

It was now time to hear the message of the third angel who said with booming voice, If anyone worships the beast and his image, and receives his mark on his forehead or on his hand, he himself shall also drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out full strength into the cup of His indignation. He shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. And the smoke of their torment ascends forever and ever; and they have no rest day or night, who worship the beast and his image, and whoever receives the mark of his name. Here is the patience of the saints; here are those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus. (Vv. 9-12) These verses certainly lend themselves to being a strong warning for the saints. The mark of the Beast was not a literal mark, but referred to those who swore allegiance to Caesar. Remember, there was a great incentive to receive the mark of the Beast, because no commerce could be conducted without it. This would motivate some to return to the ways of the Jews as they had a legally recognized religion in the Roman Empire. This was one of the causes for the Hebrew’s Christians desiring to return to the law. In Matthew 24:9-13, Jesus warned that the pressures would be so great Christians would return to their old ways.

In the 10^th verse, John warned that one could not attempt to follow Christ while wearing the mark of the Beast. If one received the mark of the Beast he would drink of the wine of the wrath of God. This means he would be a partaker of the destruction coming on Israel and Jerusalem. This language is based on Jeremiah 25:15. The concept is they would experience the wrath of God as a potentate would drink the cup of wine at a wine festival in that it would bring misery and pain. The angel also told John that it would be poured out full strength. There would be no holding back, or easing, of the wrath of God to come on the nation and her capitol.

In the latter part of the 10^th verse, the wrath poured into the cup which was to receive God’s indignation is described. The angel told John what to expect when the wrath was poured out. This torment with fire and brimstone is reminiscent of the terrible punishment on Sodom, Gomorrah, and the five cities of the plain of Genesis in chapters 18 and 19. The fire and brimstone represent a punishment that cannot be calmed or quelled. The punishment was approved by the Lamb of God, and the holy messengers, whether heavenly or earthly, were witnesses of it.

In the 11^th verse the angel told John, And the smoke of their torment ascends forever and ever; and they have no rest day or night, who worship the beast and his image, and whoever receives the mark of his name. Many students of Revelation want to literalize the language and make it refer to some sort of an on-going eternal punishment, since the words forever and ever are used. The smoke of their torment they attribute to Gehenna, and having literalized both the smoke and its ascending forever, they come up with an eternal hell. While no thinking Bible student would deny that there is an eternal punishment for the wicked, this verse must be kept in its context of the destruction of those who wore the mark of the Beast. The Holy Spirit did not suddenly shift from a discussion of the devastation coming on those displayed the mark of the Beast to a discourse on the eternal punishment of the wicked. Staying in the context of the warning of the third angel, we notice the 11^th verse is an intensification of the figures for punishment already used in the 10^th verse. This language is based upon Genesis 19:28. In our context we have the same kind of language. This figure is an enlargement of Isaiah 34:9-10 which prophetically depicted the desolation of the nation of Edom. Edom is not still literally burning. However, since she had never been restored to her former glory her smoke ascends forever, and the fire is not quenched night or day. So it is with those who wore the mark of the Beast. They are not literally burning. Notwithstanding, neither Rome nor Jerusalem have ever been restored to their former glory, nor will they ever be.

This is the same punishment the Hebrews writer said would come on those who defected from Christ. Observe Hebrews 10:26-29. Those who sinned willfully among the Hebrews Christians were those who went back to Judaism and thus wore the mark of the Beast and his image. Metaphorically, the smoke of the torment of the apostate Christians and Jews arises to this day, and shall forever. This torment was to come to those who worship the beast and his image, and whoever receives the mark of his name. While this language may be nothing more than a parallelism, the same thing restated in different words, it seems John spoke of two classes of people. He referred first to those who worshiped the Beast and his image, the apostate Jewish nation, and secondly, to those Christians who received the mark of his name.

Lastly, in the 12^th verse we have the final phase of the third angel’s message. The angel proclaimed that the patience of the saints was the very thing which caused the saints to endure, keeping the commands of God and the faith of Jesus. The saints would need great endurance in the days immediately ahead, and this message would give them not only the endurance they would need to continue in service to Christ, but to die for him if necessary. This is the reason the Voice from heaven gave John the message in the next verse.

In the 13^th verse John received a command from the Voice to, Write: Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on. Yes, says the Spirit, that they may rest from their labors, and their works follow them. The dying in the Lord is this passage must refer to physical death or martyrdom because, if these saints were in the Lord, and they were, they had already experienced the spiritual death to the world. The message from the Voice in heaven had, as is so often said today, “good news and bad.” The bad news was there would be further martyrdom among the disciples. However, the good news was, those who died in the Lord from then on would be “blessed.” Those who saved their lives by accepting the mark of the Beast and his image would lose their lives forever. See Mark 8:35. Those who lost their lives being faithful to Elohim would be serenely happy from that time on. In experiencing martyrdom they would rest from their labors.

Furthermore, the Voice said, their works follow them, meaning the works resulting in their martyrdom, their faithfulness to Christ and keeping the commands of God would be imitated by others who would follow Christ in faithfulness.

In the third paragraph we have the reaping of the earth’s harvest in the 14^th through 16^th verses, Then I looked, and behold, a white cloud, and on the cloud sat One like the Son of Man, having on his head a golden crown, and in His hand a sharp sickle. And another angel came out of the temple, crying with a loud voice to Him who sat on the cloud, Thrust in Your sickle and reap, for the time has come for You to reap, for the harvest of the earth is ripe. So He who sat on the cloud thrust in His sickle on the earth, and the earth was reaped. This passage begins with a scene highly redolent of Daniel chapter seven. It also brings to mind the promise of Jesus in Matthew 24:30. The white cloud is a symbol of pure judgment. The One sitting on the cloud was one like the Son of Man. Since the word “like” here means what John saw bore a resemblance to the Son of Man, we are immediately aware that John saw a theophany of Christ. He wore a golden crown, the crown of victory made of the finest of earth’s metals, indicating he enjoyed a victorious reign over his Kingdom on earth, as well as in heaven, and was in the process of claiming victory over his enemies. In his hand he carried a sharp sickle. This symbol of the sickle bespeaks the harvesting of something. The Son of Man is about to harvest his enemies, or more likely his disciples.

It has been asked if this is a harvest of the enemies of Christ or bringing the Kingdom to a condition of security. We do not see any astronomical difference in these two things. At the same time the enemies of the Son of Man were harvested in judgment, the disciples were brought to a state of security. However, the remainder of the 15^th verse may help to answer the question. The word “ripe” is exeranthe, from the verb xeraino, meaning to dry up, parch, to be ripened, or to be withered. Metaphorically the word denotes complete readiness. The Old Testament background for this passage is Joel 3:9-13.

We find this language interesting for several reasons, one of which is it seems to be connected directly to Matthew 24:30-31. The Matthew passage says the Lord would gather the righteous, or the elect, from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other. Moreover, the gathering of grain (wheat) in the New Testament is used to designate those who are approved of God. For example, Matthew 3:12 and Luke 3:17. This is a reference to those who would accept him as Messiah and those who would not. The righteous were to be harvested out of the land of Israel. They were to flee into the wilderness because the hour had come for the Lord to take the righteous under his protection, gather them into his barns, so to speak, because the harvest of the land (Israel) had withered. There are two very important concepts to be noticed in this passage. The first is the sending in of the sickle image is connected with the feast of Pentecost in the Scriptures. Pentecost was a celebration of the grain harvest. As the Jews reaped at the time of Pentecost, so Christ was going to draw his people away from the perfidious land of Israel in order to preserve them during the time of carnage to come on the Jewish nation. The second important issue to be noticed is the harvest of the land had withered, it was absolutely ripe, as we noted in our definition of the word. The messenger told the One sitting on the white cloud it is now time to gather and preserve the saints living in Israel. We consider the grain, perfectly ripe, as being what needed to be preserved. Since the vineyard of Israel provoked in God so much wrath, (Matthew 21:33-46) it was time for Christ to harvest his people into safety.

In the 17^th through the 20^th verses we read, Then another angel came out of the temple which is in heaven, he also having a sharp sickle. And another angel came out from the altar, who had power over fire, and he cried with a loud cry to him who had the sharp sickle, saying, Thrust in your sharp sickle and gather the clusters of the vine of the earth, for her grapes are fully ripe. So the angel thrust his sickle into the earth and gathered the vine of the earth, and threw it into the great winepress of the wrath of God. And the winepress was trampled outside the city, and blood came out of the winepress, up to the horses’ bridles, for one thousand six hundred furlongs. Here we are introduced to two more angels. The one in the 17^th verse had a mission similar to the one in the 15^th verse; to command a harvest to begin. However, there is an important difference between verses 15 and 17. In verse 17 the sickle was not possessed by the One who is like the Son of Man sitting on a white cloud, but was in the possession of the messenger of that One.

In the 18^th verse a second messenger was presented who had power, authority, or right over the fire from the altar of incense. He controlled a destructive force and came out of the Temple from the altar of incense. The student will recall that earlier in the book fir was taken from the altar of incense and cast down upon the land (8:5-8). The second messenger, like the first, came from the presence of Yahweh, indicating his mission was approved by God. The second angel had a different kind of reaping here. The reaping of the grain was one of preservation, while this one, as we shall see, is one of destruction. Recalling our study of the word ges, or “land” in this work, we know the vineyard to be harvested was the land of Israel. (See also: Matthew 21:33-46; 22:1-14.) It was the people of a particular land who were to be harvested for the winepress, not the people of the whole earth.

In connection with the 18^th verse and the command received by the messenger to harvest, it is more than just interesting to note that in the Old Testament books of Jeremiah (2:21) and Ezekiel (17:7) the nation of Judah is likened to a vine. Hence, we can see the reaping of the grapes was the reaping of the vine of Judah, the Jews. The grapes of the vine were fully ripe, at their peak, so there can no longer be any delay in reaping the harvest of the vine. The sickle represents a force being sent, or unleashed, at a time in the good pleasure of God, for the reaping of the land.

In the 19^th verse we find the reaping. The word translated “thrust” is exebalen, denoting the messenger threw, or hurled, his sickle to do the harvesting. The word suggests violence in harvesting and not gently harvesting with great care, as one would expect in the harvesting of grapes. The messenger, the Roman army, gathered the vine (Israel), meaning, as God’s agent, they harvested Israel and with violence hurled the grapes (Israel) into the huge winepress of the wrath of God. The winepress as a metaphor for the destructive anger of God is found in Lamentations 1:15 in which the prophet Jeremiah in his ode of sorrow wrote, The Lord has trampled underfoot all my mighty men in my midst; he has called an assembly against me to crush my young men; the Lord trampled as in a winepress the virgin daughter of Judah. The winepress is a place of violence where grapes are destroyed; where God’s disobedient recalcitrant children were completely destroyed.

In the 20^th verse the figures intensify again. We notice again the metaphor for violence. The winepress was trampled, meaning the grapes who received the wrath of God were crushed. In New Testament times grapes to be used for wine were trampled in a trough with a kind of duct leading to a lower basin where the juice of the grapes, which bore a remarkable resemblance to blood, was collected for further processing. The blood of these grapes was not collected for future use; it was allowed to run out on the ground until it formed a lake of blood. Before we look at the length and depth of the sea of the blood of the grape, let us make two important observations regarding what is said in the very beginning of the verse. (1) The trampling of winepress was outside the city. This figure is used because the animals used in the atonement under the law of Moses were slain outside the city, and the remains of their carcasses and blood were burned outside the city (Hebrews 13:11-15). It is fitting this figure should be used for the destruction of Jerusalem because Jerusalem destroyed the physical life of Jesus outside the city (Matthew 27:32; Hebrews 13:12). (2) Of what “city” does John speak? The city earlier called Babylon the great, Sodom, and Egypt, the city where our Lord was crucified, none other than Jerusalem (11:8; 14:8).

The blood from the grapes in the winepress was as deep as horses’ bridles, approximately forty inches! It formed a pool of sixteen hundred furlongs in length. This metaphor of the blood being as deep as he horses bridles is a picture of devastation beyond imagination. The width of the pool of blood is not given, but the length was sixteen hundred stadion. The stadia was a unit of measure of approximately six hundred seventy feet. The length of this lake of blood was about 185 miles. If this figure does nothing else, it impresses us with the magnitude of the carnage during the Roman invasion. Josephus pictured the slaughter grotesquely when he said the Roman soldiers slew all they met in Jerusalem, and made the city run with blood, so much so, that the fires in many of the houses were quenched by the blood of those fallen. (Jewish Wars, 6: 406) The metaphor of the blood coming up to the bridles of the horses may have been gleaned from the destructive waters of the Red Sea drowning both the horses and riders when the Hebrews escaped Egypt.

The number sixteen hundred is 40 x 40, the number of judgment and penalty. In the days of Noah, the waters descended and ascended forty days and nights. Forty was also the number of years Israel wondered in the wilderness for refusing to obey God and invade Canaan when commanded. The pool of blood was the length of Israel from north to south.