_THE LAMB ON THE MOUNT ZION AND THE HARVEST
AND VINTAGE OF THE WORLD._
REV. xiv.
The twelfth and thirteenth chapters of this book were designed to set
before us a picture of the three great enemies of the Church of
Christ. We have been told of the dragon, the principle and root of all
the evil, whether inward or outward, from which that Church suffers.
He is the first enemy. We have been further told of the first beast,
of that power or prince of the world to whom the dragon has committed
his authority. He is the second enemy. Lastly, we have been told of
that false spirit of religion which unites itself to the world, and
which, even more opposed than the world itself to the unworldly spirit
of Christianity, makes the relation of God's children to the world
worse than it might otherwise have been. The picture thus presented is
in the highest degree fitted to depress and to discourage. The thought
more especially of faithlessness in the Church fills the heart with
sorrow. The saddest feature in the sufferings of Jesus was that He was
"wounded in the house of His friends;" and there is a greater than
ordinary depth of pathos in the words with which the beloved disciple
draws to a close his record of his Master's struggle with the Jews:
"These things spake Jesus; and He departed, and was hidden from them.
But though He had done so many signs before them, yet they believed
not on Him: that the word of Isaiah the prophet might be fulfilled,
which he spake, Lord, who hath believed our report? and to whom hath
the arm of the Lord been revealed?"[375]
Even then, however, it was not wholly darkness and defeat, for the
Evangelist immediately adds, "Nevertheless even of the rulers many
believed on Him;" and he closes the struggle with the words of calm
self-confidence on the part of Jesus, "The things therefore which I
speak, even as the Father hath said unto Me, so I speak."[376] Thus also
is it here, and we pass from the dark spectacle on which our eyes have
rested to a scene of heavenly light, and beauty, and repose. The reader
may indeed at first imagine that the symmetry of structure which has
been pointed out as a characteristic of the Apocalypse is not preserved
by the arrangement of its parts in the present instance. We are about to
meet in the following chapter the third and last series of plagues; and
we might perhaps expect that the consolatory visions contained in this
chapter ought to have found a place between the sixth and seventh Bowls,
just as the consolatory visions of chap. vii. and of chaps. x. and xi.
found their place between the sixth and seventh Seals and the sixth and
seventh Trumpets. Instead of this the seventh Bowl, at chap. xv. 17,
immediately follows the sixth, at ver. 12 of the same chapter; and the
visions of encouragement contained in the chapter before us precede all
the Bowls. The explanation may be that the Bowls are the last and
highest series of judgments, and that when they begin there can be no
more pause. One plague must rush upon another till the end is reached.
The final judgments brook neither interruption nor delay.
In this spirit we turn to the first vision of chap. xiv.:--
And I saw, and, behold, the Lamb standing on the mount Zion, and
with Him a hundred and forty and four thousand, having His name
and the name of His Father written on their foreheads. And I heard
a voice from heaven, as the voice of many waters, and as the voice
of a great thunder: and the voice which I heard was as the voice
of harpers harping with their harps: and they sang as it were a
new song before the throne, and before the four living creatures,
and the elders: and no man could learn the song save the hundred
and forty and four thousand, even they that had been purchased out
of the earth. These are they which were not defiled with women;
for they are virgins. These are they which follow the Lamb
whithersoever He goeth. These were purchased from among men, a
first-fruits unto God and unto the Lamb. And in their mouth was
found no lie; they are without blemish (xiv. 1-5).
The scene of the vision is "the mount Zion," that Zion so often spoken
of both in the Old and in the New Testament as God's peculiar seat, and
in the eyes of Israel famous for the beauty of its morning dews.[377] It
is the Zion in which God "dwells,"[378] the mount Zion which He
"loved,"[379] and "out of which salvation comes."[380] It is that "holy
hill of Zion" upon which God set the Son as King when He said to Him,
"Thou art My Son; this day have I begotten Thee."[381] It is that Zion,
too, to which "the ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come with
singing; and everlasting joy shall be upon their heads."[382] Finally,
it is that home of which the sacred writer, writing to the Hebrews,
says, "Ye are come unto Mount Zion, and unto the city of the living
God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable hosts of angels, to the
general assembly and Church of the first-born, who are enrolled in
heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made
perfect, and to Jesus the Mediator of a new covenant, and to the blood
of sprinkling, that speaketh better than that of Abel."[383] Upon this
mount Zion the Lamb--that is, the crucified and risen Lamb of chap.
v.--stands, firm, self-possessed, and calm.
There is more, however, than outward beauty or sacred memories to mark
the scene to which we are introduced. Mount Zion may be "beautiful in
elevation, the joy of the whole earth, on the sides of the north, the
city of the great King."[384] But there is music for the ear as well
as beauty for the eye. The mount resounds with song, rich and full of
meaning to those who can understand it. A voice is heard from heaven
which seems to be distinguished from the voice of the hundred and
forty and four thousand to be immediately spoken of. We are not told
from whom it comes; but it is there, _as the voice of many waters, and
as the voice of a great thunder, and as the voice of harpers harping
with their harps_. Majesty and sweetness mark it. It is the music that
is ever in God's presence, not the music of angels only, or glorified
saints, or a redeemed creation. More probably it is that of all of
them together. And the song which they sing is _new_, like that of
chap. v. 9, which is sung by "the four living creatures and the
four-and-twenty elders, who have each one a harp, and golden bowls of
incense, which are the prayers of the saints." That song the Church on
earth understands, and she alone can understand. It spoke of truths
which the redeemed alone could appreciate, and of joys which they
alone could value. There is a communion of saints, of all saints on
earth and of all who fill the courts of the Lord's house on high. Even
now the Church can listen with ravished ear to songs which she shall
hereafter join in singing.
Standing beside the Lamb upon Mount Zion, there are _a hundred and
forty and four thousand, having the Lamb's name and the name of His
Father written on their foreheads_, in token of their priestly state.
We cannot avoid asking, Are these the same hundred and forty and four
thousand of whom we have read in chap. vii. as sealed upon their
foreheads, or are they different? The natural inference is that they
are the same. To use such a peculiar number of two different portions
of the Church of God would lead to a confusion inconsistent with the
usually plain and direct, even though mystical, statements of this
book. Besides which they have the mark or seal of God in both cases on
the same part of their bodies,--the forehead. It is true that the
definite article is not prefixed to the number; but neither is that
article prefixed to the "glassy sea" of chap. xv. 1, and yet no one
doubts that this is the same "glassy sea" as that of chap. iv. Besides
which the absence of the article may be accounted for by the fact that
the reference is not _directly_ to the hundred and forty and four
thousand of chap. vii. 4, but to the innumerable multitude of chap.
vii. 9.[385] We have already seen, however, that these two companies
are the same, although the persons composing them are viewed in
different lights; and the hundred and forty and four thousand here
correspond, not to the first, but to the second, company. They are in
full possession of their Christian privileges and joys. They are not
"in heaven," in the ordinary meaning of that term. They are on earth.
But the two companies formerly mentioned meet in them. They are both
sealed, and in the presence of the Lamb.
The character of the hundred and forty and four thousand next claims
our thoughts.
1. They were _not defiled with women, for they are virgins_. The words
cannot be literally understood, but must be taken in the sense of
similar words of the Apostle Paul, when, writing to the Corinthians,
he says, "For I am jealous over you with a godly jealousy: for I
espoused you to one Husband, that I might present you as a pure virgin
to Christ."[386] Such "a pure virgin" were the hundred and forty and
four thousand now standing upon the mount Zion. They had renounced all
that unfaithfulness to God and to Divine truth which is so often
spoken of in the Old Testament as spiritual fornication or adultery.
They had renounced all sin. In the language of St. John in his first
Epistle, they had "the true God, and eternal life." They had "guarded
themselves from idols."[387]
2. They _follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth_. They shrink from no
part of the Redeemer's life whether on earth or in heaven. They follow
Him in His humiliation, labours, sufferings, death, resurrection, and
ascension. They obey the command "Follow thou Me"[388] in prosperity
or adversity, in joy or sorrow, in persecution or triumph. Wherever
their Lord is they also are, one with Him, members of His Body and
partakers of His Spirit.
3. They are _purchased from among men, a first-fruits unto God and
unto the Lamb_. _And in their mouth was found no lie; they are without
blemish._ Upon the fact that they are "purchased" it is unnecessary to
dwell. We have already met with the expression in chap. v. 9, in one
of the triumphant songs of the redeemed. Nor does it seem needful to
speak of the moral qualifications here enumerated, further than to
observe that in other parts of this book the "lie" is expressly said
to exclude from the new Jerusalem, and to be a mark of those upon whom
the door is shut,[389] while the epithet "without blemish" is
elsewhere, on more than one occasion, applied to our Lord.[390]
The appellation "a first-fruits" demands more notice. The figure is
drawn from the well-known offering of "first-fruits" under the Jewish
law, in which the first portion of any harvest was dedicated to God,
in token that the whole belonged to Him, and was recognised as His.
Hence it always implies that something of the same kind will follow
it, and in this sense it is often used in the New Testament: "If the
first-fruit is holy, so is the lump;" "Ep?etus, who is the
first-fruits of Asia unto Christ;" "Now hath Christ been raised from
the dead, the first-fruits of them that are asleep;" "Ye know the
house of Stephanas, that it is the first-fruits of Achaia."[391] In
like manner the mention of the hundred and forty and four thousand as
"first-fruits" suggests the thought of something to follow. What that
is it is more difficult to say. It can hardly be other Christians
belonging to a later age of the Church's history upon earth, for the
end is come. It can hardly be Christians who have done or suffered
more than other members of the Christian family, for in St. John's
eyes all Christians are united to Christ, alike in work and martyrdom.
Only one supposition remains. The hundred and forty and four thousand,
as the whole Church of God, are spoken of in the sense in which the
same expression is used by the Apostle James: "Of His own will He
brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of
first-fruits of His creatures."[392] Not as the first portion of the
Church on earth, to be followed by another portion, but as the first
portion of a kingdom of God wider and larger than the Church, are the
words to be understood. The whole Church is God's first-fruits; and
when she is laid upon His altar, we have the promise that a time is
coming when creation shall follow in her train, when "it shall be
delivered from the bondage of corruption into the liberty of the glory
of the children of God,"[393] when "the mountains and the hills shall
break forth before the Redeemer into singing, and all the trees of the
field shall clap their hands."[394]
Why shall nature thus rejoice before the Lord? Let the Psalmist answer:
"For He cometh, for He cometh to judge the earth: He shall judge the
world with righteousness, and the people with His truth."[395] This
thought may introduce us to the next portion of the chapter:--
And I saw another angel flying in mid-heaven, having an eternal
gospel to proclaim over them that sit on the earth, and over every
nation, and tribe, and tongue, and people; and he saith with a
great voice, Fear God, and give Him glory; for the hour of His
judgment is come: and worship Him that made the heaven, and the
earth, and sea, and fountains of waters.
And another, a second angel, followed, saying, Fallen, fallen, is
Babylon the great, which hath made all the nations to drink of the
wine of the wrath of her fornication.
And another angel, a third, followed them, saying with a great
voice, If any man worshippeth the beast and his image, and
receiveth a mark on his forehead, or upon his hand, he also shall
drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is mingled unmixed in
the cup of His anger; and 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 goeth up unto ages of
ages: and they have no rest day and night, they that worship the
beast and his image, and whoso receiveth the mark of his name.
Here is the patience of the saints, they that keep the
commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus. And I heard a voice
from heaven saying, Write, Blessed are the dead which die in the
Lord from henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest
from their toils; for their works follow with them.
And I saw, and behold a white cloud, and on the cloud I saw One
sitting like unto a Son of man, having on His head a golden crown,
and in His hand a sharp sickle.
And another angel came out from the temple, crying with a great
voice to Him that sat on the cloud, Send forth Thy sickle, and
reap: for the hour to reap is come; for the harvest of the earth
is fully ripe. And He that sat on the cloud cast His sickle upon
the earth; and the earth was reaped.
And another angel came out from the temple which is in heaven, he
also having a sharp sickle.
And another angel came out from the altar, he that hath power over
fire; and he called with a great voice to him that had the sharp
sickle, saying, Send forth thy sharp sickle, and gather the
clusters of the vine of the earth; for her bunches of grapes are
ripe. And the angel cast his sickle into the earth, and gathered
the vine of the earth, and cast it into the winepress, the great
winepress, of the wrath of God. And the winepress was trodden
without the city, and there came out blood from the winepress,
even unto the bridles of the horses, as far as a thousand and six
hundred furlongs (xiv. 6-20).
The first point to be noticed in connexion with these verses is their
structure, for the structure is of importance to the interpretation. The
passage as a whole, it will be easily observed, consists of seven
parts, the first three and the last three being introduced by an
"angel," while the central or chief part is occupied with One who, from
the description, can be no other than our Lord Himself. In this part it
is also obvious that the Lord comes to wind up the history of the world,
and to gather in that harvest of His people which is already fully or
even overripe. There can be no doubt, therefore, that we are here at the
very close of the present dispensation; and, as five out of the six
parts which are grouped around the central figure are occupied with
judgment on the wicked, the presumption is that the only remaining part,
the first of the six, will be occupied with the same topic.
In this first part indeed we read of _an eternal gospel proclaimed
over them that sit on the earth, and over every nation, and tribe, and
tongue, and people_; and the first impression made upon us is that we
have here a universal and final proclamation of the glad tidings of
great joy, in order that the world may yet, at the last moment,
repent, believe, and be saved. But such an interpretation, however
plausible and generally accepted, must be set aside. The light thrown
upon the words by their position in the series of seven parts already
spoken of is a powerful argument against it. Everything in the passage
itself leads to the same conclusion. We do not read, as we ought, were
this the meaning, to have read, of "the," but of "an," eternal gospel.
This gospel is proclaimed, not "unto," but "over," those to whom it is
addressed. Its hearers do not "dwell," as in both the Authorised and
Revised Versions, but, as in the margin of the latter, "sit," on the
earth, in the sinful world, in the carelessness of pride and
self-confident security. Thus the great harlot "sitteth upon many
waters;" and thus Babylon says in her heart, "I sit a queen, and am no
widow, and shall in no wise see mourning."[396] There is no
humiliation, no spirit of repentance, no preparation for the Gospel,
here; while the mention of the "earth" and the fourfold division of
its inhabitants lead us to think of men continuing in their sins, over
whom a doom is to be pronounced.[397] Still further, the words put
into the mouth of him who speaks "with a great voice," and which
appear to contain the substance of the gospel thus proclaimed, have in
them no sound of mercy, no story of love, no mention of the name of
Jesus. They speak of _fearing God and giving glory to Him_, as even
the lost may do,[398] of the _hour_, not even the "day," _of His
judgment_; and they describe the rule of the great Creator by bringing
together the four things--_the heaven, and the earth, and sea, and
fountains of waters_--upon which judgment has already fallen in the
series of the Trumpets, and is yet to fall in that of the Bowls.[399]
Lastly, the description given of the angel reminds us so much of the
description given of the "eagle" in chap. viii. 13 as to make it at
least probable that his mission is a similar one of woe.
In the light of all these circumstances, we seem compelled to come to
the conclusion that the "gospel" referred to is a proclamation of
judgment, that it is that side of the Saviour's mission in which He
appears as the winnowing fan by which His enemies are scattered as the
chaff, while His disciples are gathered as the wheat. There is no
intimation here, then, of a conversion of the world. The world stands
self-convicted before the bar of judgment, to hear its doom.
The cry of the second angel corresponds to that of the first. It
proclaims the fall of Babylon and its cause. The deeply interesting
questions relating to this city will meet us at a later point. In the
meantime it is enough to observe that Babylon is described as _fallen_.
The Judge is not only standing at the door: He has begun His work.
The words of the third angel continue the strain thus begun, and
constitute the most terrible picture of the fate of the ungodly to be
found in Scripture. The eye shrinks from the spectacle. The heart
fails with fear when the words are read. That _wine of the wrath of
God which is mingled unmixed in the cup of His anger_, that wine into
which, contrary to the usage of the time, no water, no mitigating
element, has been allowed to enter; that _torment with fire and
brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of
the Lamb_; that _smoke of their torment going up unto ages of ages_;
that _no-rest day and night_, of so different a kind from the no-rest
of which we have read in chap. iv. 8--all present a picture from which
we can hardly do aught else than turn away with trembling. Can this be
the Gospel of Jesus, the Lamb of God? Can this be a revelation given
to the disciple whom Jesus loved, and who had entered so deeply into
his Master's spirit of tenderness and compassion for the sinner?
1. Let us consider that the words are addressed, not directly to
sinners, but to the Church of Christ, which is safe from the threatened
doom; not to the former that they may be led to repentance, but to the
latter that through the thought of what she has escaped she may be
filled with eternal gratitude and joy 2. Let us notice the degree to
which sin is here supposed to have developed; that it is not the sin of
Mary in the house of Simon, of the penitent thief, of the Philippian
gaoler, or of the publicans and harlots who gathered around our Lord in
the days of His flesh to listen to Him, but sin bold, determined, loved,
and clung to as the sinner's self-chosen good, the sin of sinners who
will die for sin as martyrs die for Christ and holiness. 3. Let us
observe that, whatever the angel may mean, he certainly does not speak
of never-ending existence in never-ending torment, for the words of the
original unhappily translated both in the Authorised and Revised
Versions "for ever and ever" ought properly to be rendered "unto ages of
ages;"[400] and, distinguished as they are on this occasion alone in the
Apocalypse from the first of these expressions by the absence of the
Greek articles, they ought not to be translated in the same way. 4. Let
us recall the strong figures of speech in which the inhabitants of the
East were wont to give utterance to their feelings, figures illustrated
in the present instance by the mention of that "fire and brimstone"
which no man will interpret literally, as well as by the language of St.
Jude when he describes Sodom and Gomorrah as "an example of eternal
fire."[401] 5. Let us remember that hatred of sin is the correlative of
love of goodness, and that the kingdom of God cannot be fully
established in the world until sin has been completely banished from it.
6. Above all, let us mark carefully the distinction, so often forced
upon us in the writings of St. John, between sinners in the ordinary
sense and the system of sin to which other sinners cling in deadliest
enmity to God and righteousness; and, as we do all this, the words of
the third angel will produce on us another than their first impression.
So far as the human being is before us we shall be moved only to
compassion and eagerness to save. But his sin, the sin which has
mastered the Divinely implanted elements of his nature, which has fouled
what God made pure and embittered what God made sweet, the sin which has
subjected one created in the nobility of the image of God to the
miserable thraldom of the devil, the sin the thought of which we can
separate, like the Apostle Paul, from the "I" of man's true
nature[402]--of that sin we can only say, Let the wrath of God be poured
out upon it unmingled with mercy; let it be destroyed with a destruction
the memory of which shall last "unto ages of ages" and even take its
place amidst the verities sustaining the throne of the Eternal and
securing the obedience and the happiness of His creatures.[403] If a
minister of Christ thinks that he may gather from this passage, or
others similar to it, a commission to go to sinners rather than to sin
with "tidings of damnation," he mistakes alike the Master whom he serves
and the commission with which he has been entrusted.
At this point, after the thought of that spirit of allegiance to the
beast which draws down such terrors upon itself, and before we reach the
central figure of the whole movement, we have some words of comfort
interposed. The meaning of the first part of them is similar to that of
chap. xiii. 10, and need not be further spoken of. The meaning of their
second part, conveying to us the contents of the "voice from heaven,"
demands a moment's notice. _Blessed_, exclaims the heavenly voice (at
the same time prefixing the command _Write_), _are the dead which die in
the Lord from henceforth_. It is difficult to determine the precise
point of time referred to in the word "henceforth." If it be the moment
of the end, the moment of the Second Coming of the Lord, then the
promise must express the glory of the resurrection. But, to say nothing
of the fact that "resting from labours" is too weak to bring out the
glory of the resurrection state, there is at that instant no more time
to die in the Lord. The living shall be "changed." It seems better,
therefore, to understand the words as a voice of consolation running
throughout the whole Christian age. In the view of "heaven" the lapse of
time is hardly thought of. All is Now. The meaning of "dying in the
Lord," again, must not be regarded as equivalent to the Scriptural
expression "falling asleep in Jesus." Not the thought of "falling
asleep" in a quiet Christian home, but of "dying" as Jesus died, is in
the Seer's mind; and not the thought of rest from work, but of rest from
_toils_, an entirely different and far stronger word, is in the answer
of the Spirit. Thus are believers blessed. Their life is a life of toil,
of hardship, of trial, of persecution, of death; but when they die, they
"rest." And their "works"--that is, their Christian character and
life--are not lost. They _follow with them_, and meet them again in the
heavenly mansions as the record of all that they have done and suffered
in their Master's cause.
The first three angels have accomplished their task. We now reach the
fourth and chief member in this series of seven, and meet with the Lord
as He comes to take His people to Himself, that where He is, there they
may also be. That it is the Lord who is here before us we cannot for a
moment doubt. The designation _like unto a Son of man_, the same as that
of chap. i. 13, itself establishes the fact, which is again confirmed by
the mention of the _white cloud_ and of the _golden crown_. _In His
hand_ He holds _a sharp sickle_, with which to reap. Thus also in
different passages of the New Testament our Lord speaks of the harvest
of His people, although in them He acts by His angels and Apostles.[404]
In one passage of the Gospel of St. John He acts by Himself.[405] The
glorified Redeemer is thus ready to complete His work.
_Another angel_ now appears, the first of the second series of three,
and styled "another," not by comparison with Him who sat on the white
cloud, and who is exalted far above all angels, but by comparison with
the angels previously spoken of at the sixth, eighth, and ninth verses
of the chapter. This angel is said to come _out from the temple_--that
is, out of the _naos_, out of the innermost shrine of the temple--and
the notice is important, for it shows that he comes from the immediate
presence of God, and is a messenger from Him. Therefore it is that he
can say to the Son, _Send forth Thy sickle, and reap_. "The Son can do
nothing of Himself, but what He seeth the Father doing."[406] Until
the Father gives the sign His "hour is not yet come;" and more
especially of the hour now arrived Jesus had Himself said, "But of
that day or that hour knoweth no one, not even the angels in heaven,
neither the Son, but the Father."[407] The day, the hour, the moment,
has now arrived; and, as usual in this book, the message of the Father
is communicated by an angel. The intimation that the hour is come is
grounded upon the fact that the harvest about to be gathered in is
_fully ripe_. The Revised Version translates "overripe;" but the
translation, though literal, is unhappy, and so far false as it
unquestionably suggests a false idea. God's time for working is always
right, not wrong; and it is perfectly legitimate to understand the
word of the original as meaning simply dry, hard, the soft juices of
its ripening state absorbed, and the time of its firmness come.[408]
Thus summoned by the message of the Father to the work, the Son enters
upon it without delay. "As He hears, He judges."[409] _He that sat on
the cloud cast His sickle upon the earth; and the earth was reaped._
The second angel of the second group of three next appears, having,
like Him that sat upon the cloud, "a sharp sickle;" and he too waits
for the summons to use it.
This summons is given by the third angel of the second group, of whom
it is said that he _came out from the altar, he that hath power over
fire_. The altar of this verse must be that already spoken of in chap.
viii. 3, where we were told that "another angel came and stood over
the altar, having a golden censer," an altar which we have been led to
identify with the brazen altar of chap. v. 9, beneath which were found
the souls of the Old Testament saints; and the "fire" over which this
angel has power must be the "fire" of chap. viii. 5, the fire taken
from that altar to kindle the incense of the prayers of the saints.
The angel is thus a messenger of judgment, about to command a final
and full answer to be given to the prayer that the Almighty will
finish His work and vindicate His cause. To this character,
accordingly, his message corresponds, for _he called with a great
voice to him_ (that is, to the second angel) _that had the sharp
sickle, saying, Send forth thy sharp sickle, and gather the clusters
of the vine of the earth; for her bunches of grapes are ripe_. A
vintage, not a harvest of grain, is here before us; and it is
impossible to doubt that it is the purpose of the Seer to draw a broad
line of distinction between the two. The latter is the harvest of the
good; the former is the vintage of the evil: and the propriety of the
figure thus used for the evil is easily perceived when we remember
that grapes were gathered to be trodden in the winefat, and that the
juice when trodden out had the colour of blood. The figure was indeed
one already familiar to the prophets: "Let the nations bestir
themselves, and come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat" (that is, The
Lord judges): "for there will I sit to judge all the nations round
about. Put ye in the sickle, for the vintage is ripe: come, tread ye;
for the winepress is full, the fats overflow; for their wickedness is
great;"[410] "Wherefore art Thou red in Thine apparel, and Thy
garments like him that treadeth in the winefat? I have trodden the
winepress alone; and of the people there was no man with Me: yea, I
trod them in Mine anger, and trampled them in My fury; and their
life-blood is sprinkled upon My garments, and I have stained all My
raiment. For the day of vengeance is in Mine heart, and My year of
redemption is come."[411] The figure is here employed in a similar
manner, for the angel _gathered the vine_ (not "the vintage," the
whole vine being plucked up by the roots) _of the earth, and cast it
into the winepress, the great winepress, of the wrath of God. And the
winepress was trodden without the city, and there came out blood from
the winepress, even unto the bridles of the horses, as far as a
thousand and six hundred furlongs_. In these words we have undoubtedly
the judgment of the wicked, and the last portion of them alone need
detain us for a moment.
1. What is meant by the statement that the sea of blood thus created
by the slaughter spoken of reached "even unto the bridles of the
horses"? The horses are those of chap. xix. 11-16, where we have again
a description of the final victory of Christ over all His enemies, and
where it is again said of Him that "He treadeth the winepress of the
fierceness of the wrath of Almighty God."[412] The same winepress
which meets us here meets us there. The battle and the victory are the
same; and the horses here are therefore those upon which He that is
called Faithful and True, together with His armies that are in heaven,
rides forth to conquest. The mention of "the bridles" of the horses is
more uncertain and more difficult to explain, but one passage of the
Old Testament helps us. In speaking of the glories of the latter day,
the prophet Zechariah says, "In that day shall there be upon the bells
of the horses (the bells strung along the bridles) HOLY UNTO THE
LORD."[413] The sea of blood reached to, but could not be allowed to
touch, these sacred words.
2. What is meant by the space of "a thousand and six hundred furlongs,"
over which the sea extended? To resolve it simply into a large space is
at variance with the spirit of the Apocalypse; and to imagine that it
marks the extent of the Holy Land from Dan to Beersheba is both to
introduce an incorrect calculation and to forget who constitute the
hosts of wickedness that had been engaged in the battle. These were not
the inhabitants of Palestine only, but of "the earth," three times
mentioned in the description. They were "all the nations" spoken of by
the second angel of the first group, all that worship the beast and his
image and receive a mark on their forehead or their hand, referred to by
the third angel of the same group. They are thus the wicked gathered
from every corner of the earth. With this idea the figures 1,600
agree--four, the number of the world, multiplied by itself to express
intensity, and then by a hundred, the number so often associated with
evil in this book. Whether "furlongs," literally "stadia," are chosen as
the measure of space because, as suggested by Cornelius a Lapide, the
arena or circus in which the martyrs suffered was called "The
Stadium,"[414] it may be vain to conjecture. Enough that the sixteen
hundred furlongs represent the whole surface of the earth upon which the
wicked "sit" at ease, the universal efficacy of the sickle by which they
are gathered to their doom.
One other point ought to be more particularly noticed before we close
the consideration of this chapter. The harvest of the good is gathered
in by the Lord Himself, that of the wicked by His angel. The same lesson
appears to be read in the parables of the tares and of the drawnet. In
the former (although allusions in each parable may seem to imply that
angels take part in both acts) it is said that "at the end of the world
the Son of man shall send forth His angels, and they shall gather out of
His kingdom all things that cause stumbling, and them that do
iniquity."[415] In the latter we read, "So shall it be in the end of the
world: the angels shall come forth, and sever the wicked from among the
righteous, and shall cast them into the furnace of fire."[416] In like
manner here. The Son of man Himself gathers His own to their eternal
rest. It is an angel, though commissioned by Him, who gathers the wicked
to their fate. "And is there not a beauty and tenderness in this
contrast? It is as though that Son of man and Son of God who is the
Judge of quick and dead, the Judge alike of the righteous and of the
wicked, loved one half of His office, and loved not the other. It is as
though He cherished as His own prerogative the harvest of the earth, and
were glad to delegate to other hands the vintage. It is as though the
ministry of mercy were His chosen office, and the ministry of wrath His
stern necessity. One like unto the Son of man puts forth the sickle of
the ingathering; one of created, though it be of angelic, nature is
employed to send forth the sickle of destruction."[417]
FOOTNOTES:
[375] John xii. 36-38.
[376] Vers. 42, 50.
[377] Ps. cxxxiii. 3.
[378] Ps. ix. 11.
[379] Ps. lxxviii. 68.
[380] Ps. xiv. 7.
[381] Ps. ii. 6, 7.
[382] Isa. xxxv. 10.
[383] Heb. xii. 22-24.
[384] Ps. xlviii. 2.
[385] Comp. Lee in _Speaker's Commentary in loc._ The distinction
between the two references is there wrongly given.
[386] 2 Cor. xi. 2.
[387] 1 John v. 20, 21.
[388] John xxi. 22.
[389] Chaps. xxi. 27; xxii. 15.
[390] Heb. ix. 14; 1 Pet. i. 19.
[391] Rom. xi. 16; xvi. 5; 1 Cor. xv. 20; xvi. 15.
[392] James i. 18.
[393] Rom. viii. 21.
[394] Isa. lv. 12.
[395] Ps. xcvi. 13.
[396] Chaps. xvii. 1; xviii. 7.
[397] Comp. chaps. xi. 9; xiii. 7.
[398] Comp. James ii. 19.
[399] Chaps. viii., xv.
[400] They are so rendered in the margin of the Revised Version.
[401] Jude 7 (margin of R.V.).
[402] Rom. vii.
[403] Comp. p. 108.
[404] Matt. ix. 37, 38; xiii. 29, 30.
[405] John xiv. 3.
[406] John v. 19.
[407] Mark xiii. 32.
[408] Comp. the "dried up" of the margin of the Revised Version.
[409] John v. 30.
[410] Joel iii. 12, 13.
[411] Isa. lxiii. 2-4.
[412] Ver. 15.
[413] Zech. xiv. 20.
[414] Comp. 1 Cor. ix. 24.
[415] Matt. xiii. 41.
[416] Matt. xiii. 49, 50.
[417] Vaughan, _u. s._, p. 378.