And I saw, and behold, a white cloud, and on the cloud one sitting like [the] Son of man, having upon his head a golden crown, and in his hand a sharp sickle.
The warnings are over and the action begins. John sees someone seated on a cloud, crowned, holding a sharp sickle. Who is this Reaper, why is He named by this particular title, and what kind of judgment does a harvest picture?
Two details fix who this is — how He arrives, and the title He carries. Both point back to His rejection on earth.
Both the manner of His coming — on the cloud — and the title — the Son of man — make the person of the Reaper unmistakable. It is the rejected Jesus. The Jews refused Him when He was presented to them as the Messiah, so He took up the wider title of the Son of man (see Psalm 8, Matthew 16:20, 27). Under that title all things are put under His feet. The "golden crown" speaks of His royal dignity. It speaks too of the glory of that divine righteousness by which everything will be tested and judged. The "sickle" announces the immediate object of His return.
The title is not decoration. God hands judgment to the very One men despised as a man.
He will judge in the very nature in which men treated Him as nothing. He will judge not only as God, though He is God, but as Man — the Man once utterly despised and rejected. Though He is the Son, He was willing to share in flesh and blood, and so become Son of man. Man will face judgment from the Man he hated to death.
One small word matters here. He sits on the cloud, and the cloud's colour says something about the judgment that follows.
The cloud showed the presence of God. Its whiteness showed the pure and spotless character of the judgment that the presence of God must now bring. One like the Son of Man sat on that cloud — not in it, as though it hid Him, but in full view — crowned, with the sickle of judgment in His hand.
Commentators differ here. Others read the cloud as partly hiding Him: "His sitting on a cloud points to some measure of obscurity: though He is acting directly, yet the world will not fully realize it" (L. M. Grant).
The crown is real royalty. But it marks only the first stage of His reign.
Gathering in is not the question here. One like the Son of Man is seen with the crown of gold: King of righteousness, not yet revealed as King of peace, which will certainly follow in its own time (Heb. 7:2).
He is the Judge, yet in this vision He does not move first.
All judgment is given to the Son of Man, as we know. He acts as mediator. So He puts in His sickle when the word of direction reaches Him from the inner sanctuary through an angel, and the earth is reaped.
The chapter closes with two images of judgment, and they are not the same. The difference decides how you read the sickle in verse 14.
The harvest and the vintage are the familiar pictures used for God's closing dealings. The harvest is judgment that separates; the vintage is wrath that spares nothing. In the harvest the wheat is sorted out from the weeds. In the vintage only the weeds are in the prophetic scene, and they are the subjects of the Lord's righteous vengeance.
The harvest separates, so some writers see a gathering side to the reaping. It touches people alive on earth, not the dead. Commentators differ here too: Kelly, quoted above, denies that any gathering in is in view.
It is the Son of man… crowned with a golden crown, and with a sharp sickle in His hand. With it He gathers to Himself the fruit of His own sowing… It is clearly the end of the age of Matthew 13, when the wheat is gathered into the barn, and the next action shows us the weeds under the wrath of God… There is no idea here of the resurrection of the dead, or of anyone being taken to heaven. It is the gathering of the living righteous — reaping the wheat.
- Rejected. The Reaper is the same Jesus men refused. The title "Son of Man" was the name of His humiliation; now it is the name of His authority.
- Crowned. The gold crown is genuine royal dignity. He comes first as King of righteousness; King of peace still follows.
- Revealed. He sits on the white cloud. Its whiteness marks the spotless character of what He is about to do. Commentators differ on whether the cloud displays Him or partly hides Him.
- Directed. Even as Judge He waits for the word from the sanctuary before the sickle moves. The judgment is God's, carried out by the Man.
- Separating. The harvest sorts wheat from weeds; the vintage that follows spares nothing. The sickle of verse 14 belongs to the harvest, and the harvest comes first.
And another angel came out of the temple, crying with a loud voice to him that sat on the cloud, Send thy sickle and reap; for the hour of reaping is come, for the harvest of the earth is dried.
Revelation 14 ends with two pictures of how God will close the world's history: a harvest and a vintage. Verse 15 starts the first one. A voice from the temple calls to the crowned figure on the cloud: the time to reap has come.
The order comes out of the temple, not the throne. One writer says that difference matters.
"Another angel came out of the temple." Another — that is, different from the angels already named in this chapter (verses 6, 8, 9). The throne stands for God's rule as governor; the temple means His immediate presence. In the second main part of Revelation, from chapter 11:19, the judgments are harsher than the earlier ones. The reason is the evil being dealt with: it is sharper, more open, more daring, more blasphemous, and both religious and worldly. So judgment comes out from God's own presence, that is, the temple. God's nature as light is roused to action.
The angel does not just announce. He presses for action, and he gives his grounds. The ESV calls the harvest "fully ripe"; the older wording is that the grain has dried out past its season.
The angel from the temple cries "with a loud voice." It is a call for the divine Reaper to act at once… He gives two reasons why the Son of Man should start gathering the harvest right away. First, the appointed hour of final dealing has come. Second, the harvest was fully ripe — even "dried up."
The wait before this hour is not indifference. God first uncovers what He is about to strike.
Evil must first show itself on earth in full before judgment can be shown in full. God lays bare, first of all, the thing He strikes. In that state the harvest of the earth is ripe… So God's apparent tolerance of the evil is only the needed first step of the judgment itself.
The same principle reaches into today. No one can date the hour, but anyone can watch the crop.
God is full of goodness and patience. He strikes only when sin has come to the full. He is still seeking souls while it is still the acceptable day, the day of salvation. No one knows the day when He will rise up to take the spoil. But who will say that the harvest is not ripening for the sickle, and that the grapes of the vine of the earth are not filling out for the day of His wrath?
The ESV reads "Put in your sickle"; older translations read "Send your sickle." One writer builds on that older wording.
"Send Your sickle and reap." The Son of Man does not reap in person. He oversees the work. He reaps through others. The actual reapers are the angels (Matt. 13:39).
Two very different actions close the chapter. Two farming images mark the difference.
This vision is built on the idea of a harvest: that is, it is a judgment that separates (verses 14-16). Some must be thrown away, and some will be gathered in. Perhaps we may compare what the Gospels say — "one will be taken and the other left... so will it be on the day when the Son of Man is revealed." (Luke 17.) The next judgment is a different kind of dealing. It is the vintage of the earth, not its harvest. There is no good here, and so no separation.
Some ask whether this is the same harvest Jesus spoke of in Matthew 13. One writer marks out the differences.
There seem to me to be several clear differences. As to place: in Matthew the field is the world; in Revelation it is "the earth," in its limited, prophetic sense… In short, Matthew 13 takes in the rapture of the heavenly saints. Revelation 14 looks only at God's dealings with the earth, and verse 15 is one of its closing scenes.
Cutting grain is not the same as destroying it.
With the sickle, we see His judgment as His act to bring out fruit for His eternal glory. He cuts down the grain in order to separate the wheat from the chaff. So the harvest is not pure wrath that destroys everyone alike. It separates the good from the bad. Reaping is not destruction; it is gain for the great Reaper.
- The hour — the reaping starts on a set schedule; the appointed time of final dealing has come.
- The ripeness — God strikes only when sin is full. He first lets the evil show itself.
- The call — it comes from the temple, God's immediate presence. That marks a harsher judgment than the ones before.
- The sickle — the Son of Man superintends the work; angels are the actual reapers.
- The separation — the harvest divides wheat from chaff and gathers in what is good. The vintage that follows spares nothing.
And he that sat on the cloud put his sickle on the earth, and the earth was reaped.
The One seated on the cloud obeys the angel's call in verse 15 at once. One short sentence raises three questions: what a harvest pictures, who is kept and who is thrown away, and whether one stroke means one moment.
The Son of Man acts on a word brought to Him. One writer notes where that word came from and how wide the field is.
The earth is what is reaped. So it is men as men who are in view — not the Jewish nation in particular. Second, the angel who cried to Him who sat on the cloud, "Put in your sickle, and reap," came out of the temple. So the judgment would follow the revealed character of Him whose home that temple was. Keep these points in mind, and it is easy to see that this judgment separates. It gathers the wheat into His barn and burns up the chaff with unquenchable fire.
The verse shows no delay. One writer explains what that speed does and does not tell us.
The result is instantaneous, but that is in the vision only. We must not take these actions to mean one brief moment of divine power. The visions show events as completed in a single act. Yet those events may run over a long time and use many agencies. The visions sum up the finished results in a few short words. Other parts of Scripture unfold the details, which are just as important to know.
The tool in His hand tells you what kind of action this is.
This is not the carrying out of judgment, moral or physical; otherwise the text would have named a sword. But reaping the harvest calls for a sickle. It is "sharp" so that it may do its full work. And it is in the "hand" of the Reaper, who is about to begin the separating work: the wheat stored, the tares gathered in bundles.
Verse 16 ends one scene. Verses 17-20 open another with a very different tone.
It is a vision grounded on the idea of a harvest: that is, it is a separating judgment. Part must be thrown away, and part will be gathered in… The next judgment has a different character. It is the vintage of the earth, not its harvest. There is no good, and therefore no separation here. In the harvest there was; but at the vintage you find a more serious state. It is not the genuine vine, but the "vine of the earth."
One writer looks at what the Reaper gains by this stroke.
With the sickle, we see His judgment as His acting to bring forth fruit for His eternal glory. He cuts down the grain with the object of separating the wheat from the chaff. So the harvest is not pure wrath that destroys mankind without distinction. It separates the good from the bad. Reaping is not destruction, but for the benefit of the great Reaper.
They agree the reaping separates. They do not all weigh the two sides the same way. Some put the emphasis on those who are kept:
It is the Son of man, making the cloud His chariot, crowned with a golden crown, and holding a sharp sickle in His hand. With it He gathers to Himself the fruit of His own sowing… There is no idea here of the resurrection of the dead, or of anyone being taken to heaven. This is the gathering of the living righteous — reaping the wheat.
Another writer keeps the harvest of blessing and this reaping apart:
There is no actual execution of judgment in the harvest. That comes in the vintage. And this harvest is not the finishing of the firstfruits… That harvest is one of blessing, reaped when the millennial kingdom is set up. The harvest here is one of discriminating judgment before the kingdom is established.
- Word — He reaps at a word carried out of the temple. So the judgment matches the revealed character of the God who dwells there.
- Sickle — The tool is a sickle, not a sword. This is separating work. The field is the earth — people in general, not one nation.
- Separation — Harvest divides; the vintage that follows does not. Wheat is stored, tares are bundled; reaping serves the Reaper, it is not blind destruction.
- Scope — One sentence covers what may take a long time and many agencies. The vision gives the result; other parts of Scripture give the steps.
- Difference — Commentators differ on the balance. Some see the living righteous gathered to Him. Others read this reaping as judgment that clears the ground before the kingdom comes.
And another angel came out of the temple which [is] in the heaven, he also having a sharp sickle.
A second figure with a sickle now appears, and the scene shifts: the reaping of verses 14–16 is over, and what follows is not a harvest but a vintage. Where he comes from and what he carries set the character of the rest of the chapter.
The chapter closes with two acts that look alike. They differ in what each does with the crop.
If we sum up this series, we have here the harvest and the vintage. These are the two great forms of divine judgment at the close. The harvest is the judgment that tells the just and the unjust apart. The vintage pours out unmixed wrath on apostate religion, "the vine of the earth," the object of God's special hatred.
That is why a second sickle appears. The first one sorts; this one does not.
The harvest does not actually carry out judgment. The vintage does that… The harvest here is judgment that separates, and it comes before the kingdom is set up. The reaping is done with judgment in view.
Revelation traces judgment to two places. Moving from one to the other marks a rise in severity.
The throne and the temple, both in heaven, are the two sources of judgment on earth… The throne shows the exercise of divine government. The temple points to the immediate presence of God. In the second main part of this book, from chapter 11:19, the judgments are more severe than the earlier ones. The evil to be dealt with is sharper, more open, daring and blasphemous, and it is religious as well as worldly. So judgment comes out from the very presence of God, that is, from the temple. The nature of God as light is stirred into action.
Verse 15 also had a call from the temple. Kelly weighs the words added here.
This goes farther. For the harvest the call came out of the temple; here it comes out of the temple in heaven. It is not only wrath on earth but wrath from heaven. And another angel comes out from the altar — the place of human responsibility, where God shows Himself to sinners in the sacrifice of Christ, judging sins, yet in grace. All the more terrible is His vengeance on the earth's religious people who despise Christ and the cross in what they do, if not in what they say.
The angel is not named. Dennett takes this reaper to be the Son of man Himself, shown here under a different symbol.
The first question is about the angel who appears here to carry out judgment. There can be no doubt that He too is the Son of man, though He is not named. As we read elsewhere, the Father has committed all judgment to the Son, and has given Him authority to execute judgment, because He is the Son of man (John 5:22-27). But here He is seen only as an angel… because He comes as the divine instrument of God's will in judgment on the vine of the earth. So in this case He comes out from the temple for this purpose, from God's immediate presence.
The verses that follow name what this sickle gathers: the vine of the earth.
What is the vine of the earth? It is the organisation that bears fruit, or that ought to bear it (that is the idea of it), claiming to be connected with God, as His planting in the earth. Israel was the vine brought out of Egypt. Christ on earth was the true vine… But here it is the vine of the earth. It takes its character and growth from the earth, yet claims to hold the religious place by succession there. The true saints have gone on high, or are a persecuted remnant of individuals.
Two questions remain: when does this fall, and on whom?
The two closing scenes of the previous chapter are the harvest and the vintage. Both assume that the Lord has come. The white cloud on which the divine Reaper sits shows His presence… Under the figures of the harvest and the vintage, the one judged is not Babylon, the organised religious system in direct opposition to God. It is the world at large, and the Lord Himself judges it.
- Sickle one sorts. The harvest of verses 14–16 tells the just and the unjust apart; it does not yet carry out judgment.
- Sickle two strikes. The vintage pours out unmixed wrath on apostate religion.
- Source. This angel comes from the temple, not the throne: judgment moves from God's government to His immediate presence — wrath not only on earth but from heaven.
- Reaper. He is not named, but the Father has given all judgment to the Son, because He is the Son of man.
- Target. The crop is the vine of the earth — the system that claims God's place on earth and bears no fruit for Him.
And another angel came out of the altar, having power over fire, and called with a loud cry to him that had the sharp sickle, saying, Send thy sharp sickle, and gather the bunches of the vine of the earth; for her grapes are fully ripened.
A second angel steps out from the altar in heaven, with power over fire, and calls to the angel holding the sickle. Two questions press here: why does the order to reap come from an altar, and what is this "vine of the earth"?
The chapter closes with two pictures of judgment set side by side. They are not the same.
In the next judgment, God deals in a different way. It is the vintage of the earth, not its harvest. There is no good, and therefore no separation here. In the harvest there was separation; but when you come to the vintage, the state is worse. It is not the genuine vine, but the "vine of the earth." The Lord Jesus is the only true vine; and if we are fruit-bearing branches, it must be by abiding in Him.
The altar is not new to this book. What happened at it earlier explains the urgency here.
Then "another angel" is seen coming "out of the altar, having power over fire." This is the brazen altar, the altar of judgment. The loud and urgent cry of the souls of the martyrs under the altar for righteous vengeance (Rev. 6:9-11) was only partly answered. Now God will bring the full measure of judgment on their enemies. The brazen altar speaks of acceptance (Lev. 1), and, with the blood upon its horns, of forgiveness (Lev. 4:34). But it is a holy altar, and so it demands the judgment of sin. The altar angel "called with a loud cry." It was a loud, commanding, urgent call, and one that would allow no delay.
The altar where God met sinners in mercy is where the order for judgment now comes from. That is what makes the judgment so severe.
Another angel comes out from the altar. The altar is the place of human responsibility. There God shows Himself to sinners in the sacrifice of Christ, judging sins but in grace. So His vengeance is all the more terrible on the earthly religious people who despise Christ and the cross in deed if not in word. This angel has authority over the fire, the sign of detecting and consuming judgment.
Kelly also notes where the angel with the sickle came from: "the temple that is in heaven." So this is "not only wrath on earth but from heaven."
The vine is a picture with a long history behind it.
Israel of old was the vine brought out of Egypt (Ps. 80:8) — the Lord's fruit-bearing system on earth. After centuries of cultivation and care the vine only produced "wild grapes" (Isa. 5:2-4)… So God set Israel aside, and Christ the true Vine took its place. He alone could and did bear fruit (John 15). The mark of a true disciple is not simply to be a branch in the vine (Judas was that), but to be a fruit-bearing branch. The expression "the vine of the earth" takes in the whole religious system in the coming crisis, not Judaism only.
So what is this vine, exactly? One writer defines it and names who will stand at its centre.
It is the fruit-bearing organisation, or what ought to be one (that is the idea of it), openly connected with God as His planting in the earth… But here it is the vine of the earth. Its character and growth are of the earth, yet it claims the religious place on earth by succession. The true saints are gone on high, or are a persecuted remnant of individuals. I have no doubt the Jews will be the centre of that system then, but they will be mixed up with Gentiles… and the apostate Gentiles will be fully joined with it all.
Nothing is cut before its time. The reason given for the sickle is the ripeness of the fruit, and ripening takes patience on God's side.
This is not the harvest, but the vintage, gathering and treading grapes fully ripe. Now Satan works by sowing weeds, and God bears with it until the iniquity is full… It is a fleshly, Satanic, earthly religion… It may be apostate Jews and apostate Gentiles. But now they are fully ripe. They have unmixed judgment — wrath without any mercy.
- Ripened. Judgment waits until the fruit is ready; God bears with evil until iniquity is full, and only then does He send the sickle.
- Requested. The cry comes from the altar, where the martyrs once pleaded for vengeance. Now God answers them in full.
- Refused. That same altar is where God met sinners in the sacrifice of Christ. So vengeance falls hardest on religion that despised the cross.
- Rootless. The vine of the earth claims God's place but bears no fruit for Him. Christ alone is the true Vine, and fruit comes only by abiding in Him.
- Reaped. Harvest separates good from bad; the vintage does not — it is wrath without mercy mixed in.
And the angel put his sickle to the earth, and gathered the vine of the earth, and cast [the bunches] into the great wine-press of the fury of God;
Revelation 14 ends with two scenes of judgment, and this verse belongs to the second. The picture raises three questions — what this vine is, why nothing is spared, and why the call to cut comes from an altar.
The chapter has already shown a harvest. Two pictures of the end stand side by side, and this is the harsher one.
The prophets and our Lord speak of two kinds of judgment. One is a judicial process that separates the wicked from the good. The other is a terrible outpouring of wrath against open and declared enemies… The harvest pictures the judicial inquiry: the wheat sorted from the tares, and each bound up in its own bundle. The winepress pictures the desolating and unsparing storm of God's anger that will devour His enemies.
The ESV reads "the grape harvest of the earth"; older translations read "the vine of the earth," and the writers below comment on that wording. A vine was God's picture for a people He planted and tended.
Israel of old was the vine brought out of Egypt (Ps. 80:8) — the Lord's fruit-bearing system on earth. After centuries of cultivation and care the vine produced only "wild grapes" (Isa. 5:2-4)… So God set Israel aside. Christ the true Vine took its place, and He alone could and did bear fruit (John 15). The mark of a true disciple is not just to be a branch in the vine — Judas was that — but to be a branch that bears fruit. And "the vine of the earth" is wider than Judaism: it takes in the whole religious system of the coming crisis.
So the target is religion with its roots in the earth. One writer names the place where this judgment falls, and separates it from the fall of Babylon earlier in the chapter:
"The vine of the earth" is the symbol of earthly religion in its last state of revolt against God. Christ, the Lord from heaven, is the true vine. This is the false vine, and the place of its judgment appears to be Jerusalem… Note too that this is a separate scene, and a later one than the fall of Babylon, which the same chapter has already given.
The order to cut comes from an angel at the altar, an angel with authority over fire. Where that order starts explains how heavy the wrath is.
Another angel comes out from the altar. The altar is the place of human responsibility, where God shows Himself to sinners in the sacrifice of Christ, judging sins but in grace. That makes His vengeance all the more terrible on the religious people of the earth, who despise Christ and the cross in deed if not in word. This angel has authority over the fire, the sign of detecting and consuming judgment.
Commentators differ over the identity of the reaper here. Some read the unnamed angel as the Son of Man Himself, veiled under the book's symbolism:
He is not named, but there cannot be a doubt that this is also the Son of man. As we read elsewhere, the Father has committed all judgment to the Son. He has given Him authority to carry out judgment as well, because He is the Son of man (John 5:22-27). But He is seen here only as an angel. That is not just the symbolic style of the book. He comes as the divine instrument of God's will in judgment on the vine of the earth. He is seen as the Son of man when the judgment concerns the Gentiles, but as an angel here, where the Jews are in view.
Another writer takes the change of figure at face value.
The angel with the sickle is not "one like the Son of Man." The reason may be that with the winepress everything is total judgment, the unmitigated suffering of the wrath of God. Nothing is said of any blessing coming out of it… A winepress was a large vat. Workers put the grapes in it and stamped around on them in bare feet to squeeze out the juice.
Nothing is cut before its time. The ripening is still going on now.
God is full of goodness and patience. He only strikes when evil has come to the full. He still seeks souls while it is still the acceptable day, the day of salvation… But who will say that the harvest is not ripening for the sickle? Who will say that the grapes of the vine of the earth are not filling up for the day of His wrath?
- Root — the vine of the earth is religion rooted in the earth, not in Christ the true Vine, where only branches that bear fruit count.
- Ripeness — God strikes only when evil has come to the full, and the day of salvation stays open while the clusters ripen.
- Fire — the order to cut comes from the altar, where God met sinners in the sacrifice of Christ; despising that mercy makes the vengeance heavier.
- Judge — the reaper is an unnamed angel; some writers see the Son of man behind the figure, others do not.
- Wrath — the harvest separates, but the winepress does not. This is judgment with nothing held back.
and the wine-press was trodden without the city, and blood went out of the wine-press to the bits of the horses for a thousand six hundred stadia.
This verse closes the second of two judgments in the chapter: first a harvest, then a vintage. Three questions run through the commentators. What is crushed? Where does the crushing happen? And how far should we press the picture of flowing blood?
The harvest and the vintage are not one act told twice. One sorts. The other destroys. Even the place each angel comes from marks the difference.
The prophets and our Lord speak of two kinds of judgment. One is a judicial process that separates the wicked from the good. The other is a terrible outpouring of wrath on open and declared enemies... The picture of the harvest suggests a judicial inquiry, sorting the wheat from the weeds and binding it up in separate bundles. The picture of the winepress suggests a destroying, unsparing storm of God's anger that will devour His enemies. The angel who orders the harvest to begin comes out of the temple. That is a fitting place to call for a holy judgment that separates. But the angel in the vintage scene comes "out of the altar." That is the place of consuming judgment, and he has "power over fire," the symbol of devouring wrath.
The press crushes what the chapter calls the vine of the earth. That phrase has a long history, and it reaches wider than one nation.
Israel of old was the vine brought out of Egypt (Ps. 80:8) — the Lord's fruit-bearing system on earth. After centuries of care and cultivation the vine produced only "wild grapes" (Isa. 5:2-4)... So Israel was set aside. Christ the true Vine took its place, and He alone could bear fruit, and did (John 15)... The expression "the vine of the earth" takes in the whole religious system in the coming crisis, not Judaism only. The grapes are ripe for judgment.
Another writer names what is wrong with this vine, and why judgment waits.
This is not the harvest but the vintage: grapes that are fully ripe are gathered and trodden. Satan is at work now sowing weeds, and God bears with it until the sin is full. Christ is the true vine, and Israel is called a vine brought out of Egypt. But this one is called "the vine of the earth." It has no link with Christ risen and gone up into heaven. It is a religion of the flesh, Satanic and earthly... They have unmixed judgment — wrath without any mercy.
The verse does not name the city. One writer names it, and points to a prophet who describes the same scene.
The phrase "outside the city" clearly shows that the area around Jerusalem is the place of this unrelenting vengeance. Joel agrees, and so do Isaiah and Zechariah. Joel appears to join both the harvest and the vintage judgments in one passage (Joel 3:2-13). He names the valley of Jehoshaphat as the place where God will judge the nations, along with the apostate Jews who will be joined with them.
Writers differ on how far to press the number, and one of them measures it carefully.
Blood came out of the winepress, not wine or grape juice, but what the juice stood for. It rose to the depth of the horses' bits, and the stream of blood was nearly two hundred miles long. There may be measurements of the Holy Land that these figures fit, but nothing can be stated for certain. What it stands for is a vast destruction of human life over a limited area. What is said of this immense slaughter goes beyond anything ever known.
One writer uses this verse to correct a long-standing mistake about what the winepress means.
Some have said that the dark words "I have trodden the winepress alone" (Isaiah 63:3) were fulfilled in the garden where the Lord suffered. But the treading of the winepress is when the Lord comes to judge, not to suffer, as the connected text (Rev. 14:20) ought to have made plain... These prophecies do not describe agony. They describe vengeance. Not His bloody sweat with strong crying and tears, but His treading down the peoples in His anger, with their blood sprinkled on His garments.
Another writer names who falls when the press is trodden.
The vintage speaks of desolating, overwhelming judgments on God's open enemies. They will be seen in the destruction of the beast and the false prophet and their huge armies, of Gog and Magog, and of the King of the North, as well as in the destruction of many Jews during the great tribulation. Armageddon will come under the vintage judgment.
- Ripe — The grapes are gathered only when they are fully ripe. God bears with evil until the sin is full, then acts.
- Rootless — The press crushes "the vine of the earth": religion with no living link to the risen Christ, the true Vine.
- Unmixed — The harvest separates. The vintage does not. The angel comes from the altar with power over fire: wrath with no mercy in it.
- Outside — The press is trodden outside Jerusalem. Joel calls the place the valley of Jehoshaphat, where God judges the nations.
- Vengeance, not agony — The One treading the press is not the suffering Christ of the garden. He is the Lord come to judge, and Armageddon falls under this judgment.