“Then I looked, and behold, on Mount Zion stood the Lamb, and with him 144,000 who had his name and his Father’s name written on their foreheads. And I heard a voice from heaven like the roar of many waters and like the sound of loud thunder. The voice I heard was like the sound of harpists playing on their harps, and they were singing a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and before the elders. No one could learn that song except the 144,000 who had been redeemed from the earth. It is these who have not defiled themselves with women, for they are virgins. It is these who follow the Lamb wherever he goes. These have been redeemed from mankind as firstfruits for God and the Lamb, and in their mouth no lie was found, for they are blameless. Then I saw another angel flying directly overhead, with an eternal gospel to proclaim to those who dwell on earth, to every nation and tribe and language and people. And he said with a loud voice, ‘Fear God and give him glory, because the hour of his judgment has come, and worship him who made heaven and earth, the sea and the springs of water.’ Another angel, a second, followed, saying, ‘Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great, she who made all nations drink the wine of the passion of her sexual immorality.’ 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, 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. 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.’ Here is a call for the endurance of the saints, those who keep the commandments of God and their faith in Jesus. And I heard a voice from heaven saying, ‘Write this: Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.’ ‘Blessed indeed,’ says the Spirit, ‘that they may rest from their labors, for their deeds follow them!’ 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. 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.’ So he who sat on the cloud swung his sickle across the earth, and the earth was reaped. Then another angel came out of the temple in heaven, and he too had a sharp sickle. 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.’ 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. 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 Righteous Response to Evil

As we’ve looked at things over the last few weeks, navigating the timeline has gotten a bit complicated. For the most part, what we read from John’s initial encounter with Christ on the island of Patmos, on through the seven churches, and up until the end of chapter 10 all seems to move sequentially, one event to the other. Revelation 11, describing the two witnesses, may fall sequentially as well, but there’s some debate around where the forty-two months during which the holy city is trampled, and the 1,260 days that the witnesses prophesy falls during the seven years of the tribulation. Chapter 12 absolutely breaks the chronological nature of things, as we witness events outside of mortal space and time, and how they intersect with what we’ve read so far. And then, chapter 13 seems to reach back to earlier in Revelation, and inform us on the rise of the beast who was permitted to kill the two witnesses in Revelation 11, bringing us parallel with the timeline we’ve seen play out so far. Chapter 14 almost seems to realign with what I’ll call the main timeline, but it also deals with things that have come before and things that will come after this moment. And this drives home an important reminder – that understanding the timeline, the chronology, the sequence of events, while helpful, is not the primary purpose of Revelation – this is not a book about tracking the order of what is unfolding, rather it’s a book about Jesus, and the highest priority is understanding what it says about Him, His position, His nature, and our relationship with Him. As we look at the passage in greater depth, it’s clear how the image of the Lamb and the 144,000, the angelic messengers, and the harvest, can all have a place in the timeline of the tribulation, but these are also events that in many ways transcend time and space. Jesus and His glory are eternal, the warnings of the angels, while apt for the moment we see them spoken in Revelation, are relevant and crucial at any time, and the judgment of God that we see illustrated so graphically, is not something that has been idle, but has been building, perfectly measured, and perfectly just, as humanity has pressed on in our sinful rebellion.

1. A Declaration of Victory

“Then I looked, and behold, on Mount Zion stood the Lamb, and with him 144,000 who had his name and his Father’s name written on their foreheads. And I heard a voice from heaven like the roar of many waters and like the sound of loud thunder. The voice I heard was like the sound of harpists playing on their harps, and they were singing a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and before the elders. No one could learn that song except the 144,000 who had been redeemed from the earth.”

This is a radical shift from where we last left off. The beast is the very embodiment of human sin, he the servant of Satan, the enactor of the enemy’s will, his number is an ultimate example of mortal wickedness and corruption, and chapter 13 ends by drawing our focus to this fact. Chapter 14 begins by snapping from the lowest point, to the highest, showing us a contrast of good against evil, and the response of righteousness to the wickedness that is flourishing across the earth. Throughout the course of Scripture Jerusalem is referred to by multiple names. The earliest of these seems to be “Salem,” in Genesis 14, but we also see it called “Jebus,” while occupied by the Jebusites, and “the city of David,” after the city was delivered into David’s hand. At times it is also referred to as “the holy city,” and, as we see in today’s passage, “Mount Zion.” Zion has become a troublesome word in today’s society, so I’d like to take a further look at this and make sure we understand the gravity of what’s happening. If someone says that they’re “anti-Zionist,” you can understand that they’re essentially anti-Jew. These are those who would push to see the nation of Israel removed and, not to paint with too broad a brush, but in most cases, the Jewish people displaced if not outright erased. To be a “Zionist” on the other hand can end up having a whole range of implications. To some, it simply means that they believe that Israel has a right to exist as a nation, the same way any other country does. Others will say that Israel has a right to exist as a nation because they have a Biblically affirmed right to the land, even to this day. Even in this there is a spectrum, while some will say that it’s right to support Israel in a general sense, while others will have an almost radical, dogmatic insistence that the Christian must support Israel in every endeavor, and protect them at all cost, no matter what. All of these stances (and many more that take on a variety of similar angles and approaches) could fall under the heading of “Zionist,” when discussed in the world today – if there’s one thing we’re really good at, it’s taking a word and muddying the meaning. It is always important to understand what the Bible is truly saying and not what we can form it into meaning by today’s standards, but given how confusing and controversial “Zion” can be in modern day, there’s an even greater need for a pause to establish clarity here. What Zion seems to call us back to is the eternally promised holy city, what is spoken of in Isaiah 11:6–9,

“The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat, and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together; and a little child shall lead them. The cow and the bear shall graze; their young shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. The nursing child shall play over the hole of the cobra, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder’s den. They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea.”

And Psalm 48:1–3,

“Great is the LORD and greatly to be praised in the city of our God! His holy mountain, beautiful in elevation, is the joy of all the earth, Mount Zion, in the far north, the city of the great King. Within her citadels God has made himself known as a fortress.”

To be clear, this is not necessarily what Zion means every time we see it used in Scripture. Lamentations 1:6 says,

“From the daughter of Zion all her majesty has departed. Her princes have become like deer that find no pasture; they fled without strength before the pursuer.”

And Micah 3:9–12 says,

“Hear this, you heads of the house of Jacob and rulers of the house of Israel, who detest justice and make crooked all that is straight, who build Zion with blood and Jerusalem with iniquity. Its heads give judgment for a bribe; its priests teach for a price; its prophets practice divination for money; yet they lean on the LORD and say, ‘Is not the LORD in the midst of us? No disaster shall come upon us.’ Therefore because of you Zion shall be plowed as a field; Jerusalem shall become a heap of ruins, and the mountain of the house a wooded height.”

There are instances of Zion being used to illustrate purity and holiness, and those where it’s used just as Jerusalem sometimes is, to describe the city in its sin and brokenness, but we know that in today’s passage it is being used to show something grand and spiritual here because of the presence of Jesus and the 144,000. These are those we read of in Revelation 7:4,

“And I heard the number of the sealed, 144,000, sealed from every tribe of the sons of Israel…”

And in today’s passage, we learn even more about them. The beast is surrounded by slaves, those who sinfully worship the king of sin. Christ is shown surrounded by His servants, sealed and righteous, following Him wherever He goes. We read that their song comes from heaven, further affirming that this Mount Zion we read of is no earthly place, but a heavenly height. This description of their collective voice carries similar language to the descriptions of voice of God, where we see in Revelation 1:14–15,

“The hairs of his head were white, like white wool, like snow. His eyes were like a flame of fire, his feet were like burnished bronze, refined in a furnace, and his voice was like the roar of many waters.”

And in John 12:27–32,

“‘Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? “Father, save me from this hour”? But for this purpose I have come to this hour. Father, glorify your name.’ Then a voice came from heaven: ‘I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.’ The crowd that stood there and heard it said that it had thundered. Others said, ‘An angel has spoken to him.’ Jesus answered, ‘This voice has come for your sake, not mine. Now is the judgment of this world; now will the ruler of this world be cast out. And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.’”

But the voice that John hears coming down from the mountain, that roars like water, and rumbles like thunder doesn’t seem to be the voice of the Lord, but is rather the combined voices of the 144,000 joined together in worship and exultation. And despite its volume and intensity, it’s not discordant or chaotic, it’s beautiful and melodic, falling on his ears like notes from a harp. This is worship that is perfect and refined, coming from those who are blessed and sealed by God to worship Him as no one else can.

“It is these who have not defiled themselves with women, for they are virgins. It is these who follow the Lamb wherever he goes. These have been redeemed from mankind as firstfruits for God and the Lamb, and in their mouth no lie was found, for they are blameless.”

As we discussed back when they first appeared in chapter 7, the 144,000 are just one more debated topic in Revelation. There are some who hold the number to be symbolic, somehow representing the church as a whole, or a specific group of believers. However the text reads fairly straightforward, and by all accounts the 144,000 seems to be a literal number pertaining to a unique group of Jewish, male, virgins. They are singled out through their heritage, and their purity – this is not to say that those who have husbands and wives are somehow impure, but consider what Jesus said to His disciples in the aftermath of His teaching on marriage and divorce in Matthew 19:10–12,

“The disciples said to him, ‘If such is the case of a man with his wife, it is better not to marry.’ But he said to them, ‘Not everyone can receive this saying, but only those to whom it is given. For there are eunuchs who have been so from birth, and there are eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by men, and there are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. Let the one who is able to receive this receive it.’”

As well as what Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 7:6–11,

“Now as a concession, not a command, I say this. I wish that all were as I myself am. But each has his own gift from God, one of one kind and one of another. To the unmarried and the widows I say that it is good for them to remain single, as I am. But if they cannot exercise self-control, they should marry. For it is better to marry than to burn with passion. To the married I give this charge (not I, but the Lord): the wife should not separate from her husband (but if she does, she should remain unmarried or else be reconciled to her husband), and the husband should not divorce his wife.”

The covenant of marriage is a beautiful thing, the permanence of the union between a man and woman is precious, and something that the world has fought adamantly to devalue and destroy – but there is also something to be said for living a life that is entirely set upon Christ, with no allegiance to a wife, and no devotion to children, living for God and God alone, not through force of vows, but through sincere conviction and spiritual calling. So the 144,000 are special in their song and in their service, but they are also called firstfruits – “These have been redeemed from mankind as firstfruits for God and the Lamb.” Scripture also tells us that Jesus stands as a firstfruit in His resurrection, saying in, 1 Corinthians 15:17–21,

“And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied. But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead.”

So while the 144,000 certainly stand marked uniquely apart from other believers, they also embody something that is the hope of all who know salvation in Christ – that in Him we may be found living in Truth, no lie found in our mouths, blameless before God through the blood of the Lamb. This image, the radiant and glorious King upon the holy mountain, surrounded by the foremost of His devoted servants is the lofty response of righteousness in the face of evil, a juxtaposition against the dark and wickedness of the beast, a declaration of the imminent victory of the Lamb of God.

2. A Warning of Judgment

“Then I saw another angel flying directly overhead, with an eternal gospel to proclaim to those who dwell on earth, to every nation and tribe and language and people. And he said with a loud voice, ‘Fear God and give him glory, because the hour of his judgment has come, and worship him who made heaven and earth, the sea and the springs of water.’”

Shifting focus from the image of the Lamb and His 144,000 standing in triumph on the holy mountain, we see three angels come forth with three messages for the people of the earth. There has been tremendous suffering on the earth, and there is still greater suffering to come, but the message that we see from the first angel is one of great hope, despite its dire warning. We often think of the gospel as something for those who aren’t saved, it’s the good news of Christ, that those who are lost might come to redemption in Him, but the gospel is more than just a message of salvation – it’s a message of eternal life. The good news of God, that He who has made all of creation is worthy of worship is eternally true and this is offered to the whole world. The language echoes back to Revelation 11:9–10,

“For three and a half days some from the peoples and tribes and languages and nations will gaze at their dead bodies and refuse to let them be placed in a tomb, and those who dwell on the earth will rejoice over them and make merry and exchange presents, because these two prophets had been a torment to those who dwell on the earth.”

And calls ahead to Revelation 17:15,

“And the angel said to me, ‘The waters that you saw, where the prostitute is seated, are peoples and multitudes and nations and languages.’”

To those who took part in the celebration of the death of the two witnesses, those who prop up Babylon, source of perversion to the entire world are given a final opportunity to turn and repent. The hour of judgment has come, the judge is at the very gates, and just as Lot stood as a beacon of righteousness in the midst of Sodom, as Moses preached the truth of God to Pharaoh, as Christ came to fulfill prophecy and bring life to a lost and dying world, there is this final offer – worship God, fear Him as only He is worthy to be feared, give Him the glory that only He is due, and live – or, face His judgment, the judgment that you have earned. God doesn’t owe the world another warning, He didn’t owe us anything to begin with – we chose war, we transgressed, and He offered us a path of peace. And here, before that path closes, before the door is sealed, He makes a final appeal that some of mankind may yet be saved.

“Another angel, a second, followed, saying, ‘Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great, she who made all nations drink the wine of the passion of her sexual immorality.’

John wrote in 1 John 2:15–17,

“Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.”

Babylon was the very embodiment of this, of worldly desire, of the pride of life – it was the pillar and the idol that the sinful leaned upon and adored, and it has been destroyed. The identity of Babylon (as the name is symbolic), is another debated topic in Revelation, and something we’ll revisit when we see its fall in greater detail in Revelation 18, but for now, the true name of the city is irrelevant. The first angel calls the world to turn to God, the second tells them that their idol has been destroyed, and then a third comes to give warning of the condemnation that many have brought upon themselves.

“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, 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. 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.’”

We talked last week about the mark on the right hand or the forehead – the thing to which your actions or your thoughts are devoted to and governed by. Jesus teaches during the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 6:24,

“No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.”

The fact that this is almost always translated as “money,” can leave some people with too narrow a scope of what is being said. Yes, you cannot serve God and money, but the word used, “mamonas,” isn’t just about money, it’s about wealth. Small distinction, I know, but there is a difference. Money is a singular idol, wealth is an entire system. If money is the fruit on the tree, then wealth is thousands of reaching and twisting roots that keep the tree standing. You cannot serve God and the world, you cannot obey worldly cultures and institutions, you cannot worship what man has made and worship God at the same time – and this is what the angel warns. If you’ve bowed down to the beast, if you’ve made yourself a slave to sin incarnate, if you’ve taken his mark upon your mind or upon your hand, then you have made your eternal decision. Paul writes in Romans 6:23,

“For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

We will either receive payment for what we have earned through our allegiance to the world, or we will know the glorious gift of redemption in Christ – but not both. This third angel’s warning is a final reminder, God is not mocked, His mercy is not to be treated with contempt, and those who have made themselves His enemies will reap the eternal fruit that they have sown.

3. A Display of Wrath

“Here is a call for the endurance of the saints, those who keep the commandments of God and their faith in Jesus. And I heard a voice from heaven saying, ‘Write this: Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.’ ‘Blessed indeed,’ says the Spirit, ‘that they may rest from their labors, for their deeds follow them!’”

After the messages of the three angels we’re told that this serves as a call for the endurance of the saints. This makes sense, as Jesus repeatedly calls the seven churches to endure, and the world is only growing more and more murderously hostile against God and subsequently, His people – but this part about the blessed dead is interesting. On the surface, we could take this to refer to martyrs – Revelation hasn’t failed to paint those who die in obedience to the Lord in a positive light, and those who stand before the persecution of the beast and die rather than forsake Christ would be called blessed indeed. I don’t have a problem with this, but I think that something more is going on as well. Paul writes in Colossians 3:1–4,

“If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.”

Those who remain on the earth as we read Revelation 14 have the exact same choice we have today – we can live a life of sin, a life that’s in step with the world, a life that ends in death, or we can die, we can crucify our flesh, we can become dead to the world, and we can know true, eternal life in Christ. Jesus says in John 12:23–26,

“… The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. If anyone serves me, he must follow me; and where I am, there will my servant be also. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him.”

“Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on”? Yes, yes in the face of persecution of the antichrist, under the pressure of the wicked world to bow down and receive the mark of the beast those who die, those who die to their flesh, who know the rest and peace of salvation in Christ are most assuredly blessed indeed.

“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. 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.’ So he who sat on the cloud swung his sickle across the earth, and the earth was reaped.”

There can be some debate on the identity of this figure, but it’s considerably more subdued than many of the other arguments that spring up from Revelation. The general consensus is that here, we’re seeing Jesus. This is partly because of the “son of man,” language which plays directly off of the wording of Daniel 7:13-14, and the title that Jesus repeatedly uses for Himself in the gospels. There’s also the matter of the golden crown – we’ve seen multiple angels given multiple symbols of authority, but to specifically carry an image like a “son of man” and wear a golden crown seems distinct and set apart from anything angelic we’ve seen, and supports that this is Christ. There’s also the fact that He acts as harvester – yes, we see an angelic harvester come shortly after this, but Jesus comes as the first harvester, and His role in this ties back to what John the Baptist said of Him in Matthew 3:11–12,

“I baptize you with water for repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”

The timing of Christ’s return, “the rapture” as it’s commonly known in the church is one of if not the most divisive topics in Revelation – if you’re someone who holds to the idea of a “pre-wrath” rapture, this seems to be a fitting moment for that. I admit, I have ideas, but not a firm stance on the timing of Christ’s return – I only know that He is coming back, and I’m less concerned with the timing, comforted by the assurance that He will return. That being said, what we’ll see soon from the second harvest seems to fit fairly well with the parable that Jesus gives in Matthew 13:47–50,

“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was thrown into the sea and gathered fish of every kind. When it was full, men drew it ashore and sat down and sorted the good into containers but threw away the bad. So it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come out and separate the evil from the righteous and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

If we understand these passages in conjunction with one another, it could make sense that we’re witnessing Jesus claiming those who belong to Him, reaping the “ripe harvest,” before the angel comes to gather the grapes of wrath.

“Then another angel came out of the temple in heaven, and he too had a sharp sickle. 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.’”

Before we arrive at the second harvest, I want to take a moment to address this angel who comes out from the altar – the one who has authority over the fire. We read in Revelation 6:9–11,

“When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the witness they had borne. They cried out with a loud voice, ‘O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?’ Then they were each given a white robe and told to rest a little longer, until the number of their fellow servants and their brothers should be complete, who were to be killed as they themselves had been.”

And in Revelation 8:3–5,

“And another angel came and stood at the altar with a golden censer, and he was given much incense to offer with the prayers of all the saints on the golden altar before the throne, and the smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, rose before God from the hand of the angel. Then the angel took the censer and filled it with fire from the altar and threw it on the earth, and there were peals of thunder, rumblings, flashes of lightning, and an earthquake.”

The fifth seal wasn’t just a random glimpse under the altar, but showed us the prayers of the martyrs as an indication of the judgment that is to come. The censer that was flung to earth after the seventh seal and the silence in heaven was a herald of what is coming, a sign of the judgment that will be poured out later in God’s wrath. We now see the angel who presides over the holy fire of the altar of God come forth, and in the spirit of the prayers of the martyrs driving him, with the burning glory of God as his testimony, he relays a command to the angel who, like Christ, carries a sharp sickle.

“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. 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.”

There are historical accounts that claim this blood is to be attributed to human battles, the Roman’s war against the Jews, and the fall of Jerusalem. There are also those who will take the bloodshed to be extremely literal – both of these end up missing something though. The historical lens, which would be common from a preterist view of Revelation (interpreting that most if not all of what we’re reading happened prior to the fall of Jerusalem in 70 AD), fails to appreciate the gravity of the world’s sin under the wrath of God, if completely misses that the world is lost today that this position of rebellion and eternal judgment before God is exactly where many find themselves today. To think of this as only literally fails to appreciate the grave warning of the symbolism of what we’re seeing. To put it in perspective, to produce enough blood that it’s standing the height of a horse’s bridle for 1,600 stadia, would be about four to five feet deep for roughly 184 miles, it would take somewhere between sixty-eight and eighty-five trillion people. It’s estimated that only one hundred to one hundred-twenty billion people have ever lived. This is far, far more than any pointed exaggeration of blood on a battlefield, but it wouldn’t make sense to see this as literal blood produced through killing the wicked on the earth when the population numbers are so skewed. So then, what are we reading, and what does it mean? Genesis 15:13–16 says,

“Then the LORD said to Abram, ‘Know for certain that your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs and will be servants there, and they will be afflicted for four hundred years. But I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve, and afterward they shall come out with great possessions. As for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you shall be buried in a good old age. And they shall come back here in the fourth generation, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.’”

Romans 2:4–5 says,

“Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed.”

And 2 Peter 2:1–3 tells us,

“But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction. And many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of truth will be blasphemed. And in their greed they will exploit you with false words. Their condemnation from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep.”

The Amorites were not judged prematurely, but were permitted to pursue their sins to the full fruition of their judgment. The wicked, with hard, impenitent hearts are actively storing up the wrath of God for themselves as they persist in their rebellion. The false prophets, blaspheming the name of the Lord have not avoided their destruction, God has not forgotten His judgment against them. This is what we’re seeing in the blood – the stored up wrath that God has withheld until the proper time, poured out upon the world. And what we’re seeing is just a piece, just a sample – it’s a drop in the ocean, it’s a single star in an entire galaxy – it’s one moment in all of eternity. This judgment is vast, and it’s terrible, and for those who have chosen the path of rebellion, it’s only the beginning – because after the winepress we see the bowls, and after the bowls there is a final judgment, and after the final judgment there is the sentence. There is fire, there is weeping, there is gnashing of teeth and the smoke goes up forever and ever – because the offer of peace was rejected, the gift of forgiveness was spurned, and the warning of the three angels fell upon many deaf ears, hard hearts, and eyes that were filled only with the world. This is the response of righteousness in the face of evil, the movement of God against the beast and his slaves, the glorious wrath that is displayed against those who have chosen rebellion against a just and holy God.

Pastor Chris’ sermon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6yCq0WoUwg