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This is the final scene that furnishes background information before the revelation of the seven bowl judgments. Again what John saw was mainly on the earth.
"The total scene in 14:14-20 closes the section on coming judgment (14:6-20) with a proleptic summary in anticipation of the more detailed account of the same in chapters 15-20 . . ."487
14:14 "And I looked"(Gr. kai idou) again marks a new scene and an advance to another important subject. The whole description is very similar to Daniel's prophecy of Messiah's second coming (Dan. 7:13-14). The cloud probably represents the glory of God, the shekinah. The person John saw was evidently Jesus Christ, though some commentators think he was an angel in view of verse 15. This seems clear since John saw Him wearing a victor's crown (Gr. stephanon) and holding a sharp sickle (Gr. drepanon oxy) with which He does the work of judging (cf. Mark 4:29). Since the sickle is sharp the reaper can do His work swiftly and completely.488"Son of Man"is a messianic title of Jesus Christ in Scripture (cf. 1:13; Dan. 7:13-14; Matt. 8:20; 24:30; 26:64; John 5:27). That He receives and follows the instructions of an angel (v. 15) does not imply His inferiority to an angel. It only indicates that an angel will signal God's proper time for judging, and then the Son will proceed to judge.
14:15 Another angel (cf. v. 9) came out of the opened heavenly temple (cf. 11:19; 15:5) and announced that the time to judge those living on the earth had arrived. Three previous angels (vv. 6, 7, 9) announced that judgment was coming, and now this one conveyed the command to execute it. The harvest was "ripe"(Gr. exeranthe).489The earth-dwellers during this late stage in the Tribulation were ready for judgment (cf. 19:11-21).490
"The harvest is an OT figure used for divine judgment (Hos 6:11; Joel 3:13), especially on Babylon (Jer 51:33). Jesus also likens the final judgment to the harvest of the earth (Matt 13:30, 39)."491
14:16 The Judge (John 5:27) then judged those on the earth. This judgment will occur at the end of the Tribulation (19:17-21). This is a proleptic description of what Revelation will describe further in its sequential unfolding of events.492
"The brevity of the statement dramatizes the suddenness of the judgment."493
14:17 The fifth angel in this group came out of the heavenly temple ready to execute judgment (cf. Matt. 13:30, 39-42, 49-50).
14:18 Another angel, the sixth in this chapter, came out from the golden altar of incense in heaven (8:3). This is probably an allusion to his responding to the Tribulation saints' prayers for vengeance from under the altar (6:9-10). His "power over fire"may indicate his authority to execute punishment. It seems clear from verse 19 that this angel was addressing the angel with the sickle, not Jesus Christ.
John saw a different crop here ready for harvest.
"Following the pattern of Joel 3:13, the scene furnishes two pictures of the same judgment for the same reason that Joel does, i.e., to emphasize the terror of it."494
The two reapings seem to describe a single judgment at the end of the Great Tribulation (19:15, 17-21). The vine may represent Israel and the wheat Gentiles.
14:19 The earth had yielded a crop of unbelievers that now, at the end of the Tribulation, would come into judgment. The angel took them from the earth to undergo judgment in God's great grape press (cf. Isa. 63:1-6; Lam. 1:15; Joel 3:13).
"In Biblical days grapes were trampled by foot in a trough which had a duct leading to a lower basin where the juice collected. The treading of grapes was a familiar figure for the execution of divine wrath upon the enemies of God."495
14:20 Since the city in view escapes this judgment, Babylon is evidently not the city in view. It is instead Jerusalem. The Old Testament predicted that a final battle would take place near Jerusalem, in the Valley of Jehoshaphat (i.e., the Kidron Valley just to the east of Jerusalem; Joel 3:12-14; Zech. 14:4; cf. Rev. 11:2). It seems probable that blood will literally flow up to the height of horses' bridles (about four and one-half feet) in some places in that valley. Obviously many people will have to die for this amount of blood to flow.
Blood came out from the wine press of God's wrath for a distance of 200 miles (lit. 1,600 stadia). Evidently this figure describes the judgment that will take place all over Palestine, not just in the Valley of Jehoshaphat near Jerusalem, at this time. Much of this action will take place in the Valley of Jezreel in northern Israel (i.e., the battle of Armageddon; 19:17-19). There God will put vast numbers of people to death (cf. Isa. 63:1-6). The blood will evidently drain out of the Jezreel Valley for a distance of 200 miles probably eastward down the Harod Valley to the Jordan Valley and south into the Dead Sea.
Many interpreters believe that what we read in this verse is simply a symbolic way of picturing a terrible judgment.496Amillennial interpreters generally take this description as picturing the blotting out of all humankind.
This chapter contains a prophetic preview of the major events yet future from John's perspective in his vision. That is, they deal with events leading up to the end of the Great Tribulation.
