Revelation 14

An Interlude: The Song of the 144,000

14:1 Then I looked, and here was the Lamb standing on Mount Zion, and with him were one hundred and forty-four thousand, who had his name and his Father’s name written on their foreheads.

In this chapter, there will be seven announcements made during the middle of the Great Tribulation. All of these announcements look forward to the results of the seven bowl judgments which will come upon the earth in the last half of the Great Tribulation. John is seeing the results that the bowl judgments will cause. He is actually seeing the results before he sees the actual judgments. This should give him confidence that even though the bowl judgments are terrifying, all of the 144,000 will be saved.

The Lamb of God is Jesus. He will be standing on Mount Zion. The 144,000 Jewish evangelists will be standing with Him. They will all have a new name, meaning a new character. Their new character is that of the new birth. The Father's name will be written on their foreheads, because they belong to God the Father. 

14:2 I also heard a sound coming out of heaven like the sound of many waters and like the sound of loud thunder. Now the sound I heard was like that made by harpists playing their harps,

John heard a sound coming out of heaven. It sounded like the waves of a mighty ocean. He also heard loud thunder. He also heard the sound of harps, meaning there will be music in heaven.

 14:3 and they were singing a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and the elders. No one was able to learn the song except the one hundred and forty-four thousand who had been redeemed from the earth.

The harpists were playing a new song that had never been heard. They were playing the song with their harps before the throne of God. The four living creatures and the 24 elders were listening to this new song. No one was able to learn the new song except for the 144,000 Jewish witnesses. They had been redeemed from the earth. 

 14:4 These are the ones who have not defiled themselves with women, for they are virgins. These are the ones who follow the Lamb wherever he goes. These were redeemed from humanity as first fruits to God and to the Lamb,

More details are given about the 144,000. They will be virgins who have never defiled themselves with fornication. They follow Jesus wherever He goes. They were redeemed from humanity by the atonement of Christ. They are the first fruits of the Great Tribulation, meaning that more fruit will follow. Many more Jews and Gentiles will be saved by the testimony of the 144,000 witnesses.

14:5 and no lie was found on their lips; they are blameless.

The 144,000 were not liars. They were not sinless, but blameless. All who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ are blameless, because He took the sin of the believers upon Himself.

Three Angels and Three Messages

14:6 Then I saw another angel flying directly overhead, and he had an eternal gospel to proclaim to those who live on the earth – to every nation, tribe, language, and people.

This is the second announcement. Since the church never took the gospel to the whole world, God will send an angel to proclaim it to every person who lives on earth. Therefore, no one in the Great Tribulation will have an excuse for not believing in the Lord Jesus Christ. Many who have never heard the gospel will hear it from a flying angel. This gospel message will go to every family in every nation in every language.

14:7 He declared in a loud voice: “Fear God and give him glory, because the hour of his judgment has arrived, and worship the one who made heaven and earth, the sea and the springs of water!”

The angels speak in a loud voice so that every person on the planet can hear them. They tell all of the people on earth to give God the glory. This angel warns them about the bowl judgments to come. The angels call on all people to worship the Creator God instead of the created angel. The created angel is Satan.

14:8 A second angel followed the first, declaring: “Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great city! She made all the nations drink of the wine of her immoral passion.”

 A third announcement will be made by a different angel. He will announce to the world that Babylon has fallen. Babylon will be the capital of the world during the reign of the Antichrist during the Great Tribulation. This city will not fall until a later bowl judgment. Again, John is seeing the results of the bowl judgments before they will be individually revealed.

14:9 A third angel followed the first two, declaring in a loud voice: “If anyone worships the beast and his image, and takes the mark on his forehead or his hand,

Another angel makes a fourth announcement. He is warning everyone in the world about the eternal consequences of accepting the mark of the beast. 

14:10 that person will also drink of the wine of God’s anger that has been mixed undiluted in the cup of his wrath, and he will be tortured with fire and sulfur in front of the holy angels and in front of the Lamb.

Those who take the mark of the beast will have to encounter the bowl judgments of Revelation 15-16.

14:11 And the smoke from their torture will go up forever and ever, and those who worship the beast and his image will have no rest day or night, along with anyone who receives the mark of his name.”

Anyone who takes the mark of the beast will be tortured in Hell and in the Lake of Fire forever. This is the last call of grace to the earth before the bowl judgments occur.

14:12 This requires the steadfast endurance of the saints – those who obey God’s commandments and hold to their faith in Jesus.

God gives a message to the saints who will be suffering in the Great Tribulation. He warns them to endure in their belief in Jesus. He warns them to obey God's commands.

14:13 Then I heard a voice from heaven say, “Write this: Blessed are the dead, those who die in the Lord from this moment on!’” “Yes,” says the Spirit, “so they can rest from their hard work, because their deeds will follow them.”

A voice from heaven will give a sixth announcement. A special blessing will be given to those who are martyred for their faith during the Great Tribulation.

14:14 Then I looked, and a white cloud appeared, and seated on the cloud was one like a son of man! He had a golden crown on his head and a sharp sickle in his hand.

John looks into the future and sees Jesus coming in the clouds, just as the prophet Daniel predicted. The Son of Man was the name of the Messiah in the book of Daniel. It was the name in which Jesus called Himself while He was on earth. He has a golden crown on His head, because He is returning as Lord of lords and King of kings. He also has a sharp sickle in His hand because He is going to separate the wheat from the tares. He is coming in judgment against a world that has rejected Him, called Him demon-possessed, humiliated Him, and crucified Him on the cross.

14:15 Then another angel came out of the temple, shouting in a loud voice to the one seated on the cloud, “Use your sickle and start to reap, because the time to reap has come, since the earth’s harvest is ripe!”

Another angel makes an announcement. The Messiah is about to reap the harvest. It is the responsibility of the believer not to reap, but to sow the seed in the field. The seed is the Word of God. The field is the world. Jesus is the one who will reap the harvest.

14:16 So the one seated on the cloud swung his sickle over the earth, and the earth was reaped.

Notice that Jesus, not the church, does the reaping.

14:17 Then another angel came out of the temple in heaven, and he too had a sharp sickle.

Another angel comes out of the temple in heaven.The temple has to do with the Old Testament and Israel. Those who have come against the nation of Israel to destroy them are about to get the sharp edge of the sickle

14:18 Another angel, who was in charge of the fire, came from the altar and called in a loud voice to the angel who had the sharp sickle, “Use your sharp sickle and gather the clusters of grapes off the vine of the earth, because its grapes are now ripe.”

The grapes are those Gentile armies who are trying to exterminate all of the Jews at Petra.

14:19 So the angel swung his sickle over the earth and gathered the grapes from the vineyard of the earth and tossed them into the great winepress of the wrath of God.

All of the soldiers of this Gentile army thought that they were going to exterminate the Jews. Instead, a sharp sickle comes down from heaven, reaps them like a sickle cutting off grapes, and throws them into an extremely large winepress. 

14:20 Then the winepress was stomped outside the city, and blood poured out of the winepress up to the height of horses’ bridles for a distance of almost two hundred miles.

The Lord Jesus Christ is in that winepress. The winepress is outside of the city of Jerusalem. The gentle Jesus is going to stomp on all of these Gentile soldiers just like they were grapes. When He stomps on them, the blood will gush out of their bodies and stain His garments. There will be so much blood from this literal foot stomping, that it will cover over 175 literal miles. The blood will be as deep as a horses bridle.

There are many liberals today who mock, scoff, and laugh at this, but they are underestimating the power of God. God can do anything, even if skeptics think that He cannot. His power is unlimited. He can make statements like this and actually make them happen.

If these skeptics are alive when Christ returns, and if they do not believe in Him, then they may find themselves in this winepress. The Book of Zechariah predicted that all nations of the world will come against Israel. When they do so, they will find themselves in this winepress. Instead of the Antichrist one world army stomping the Jews, the Messiah will stomp the army. This is what happens when an entire world wide army attempts to break the Abrahamic Covenant and attempt to exterminate the Jews. They receive the same penalty which they wanted to inflict upon Israel.