Close-up (revisited) :
The 144,000 with Jesus!
14:1-5
Every subject brought up in chapter 14 has been discussed already, or will be given a fuller treatment later. But all these events seem to occur near the end. In terms of the book itself, we are still in between the trumpet and bowl judgments. It seems that we are generally speaking of the days of the seventh trumpet, when all the mysteries of God are being fulfilled. The Spirit is filling in more background pieces before the purely chronological story continues. One could easily suggest that chapter 14 is the least chronological chapter of the entire Revelation.
(14:1) At the opening we are on Mt Zion celebrating the arrival of the 144,000. Here is the completion of what started in chapter 7 with the sealing or saving of these Israelites. Jesus has visited them in the wilderness, protected them from the wrath of Satan who hates them. He has wooed them, and won them to Himself.
Let’s take a closer look at Mt Zion, where they stand. The name means “fortification”, and such it was in the days when it was conquered by David (II Samuel 5:7, II Chronicles 5:2), 1000 years before Jesus entered it on a donkey (Matthew 21:1-11). It was a Jebusite fortress on the southeast hill of Jerusalem, says Nelson, op. cit., where the Kidron and Tyropoeon valleys meet. Soon it came to mean not only the fortress but the hill on which the fortress stood. Then the city where the hill was located. Then the people who lived in the city, the children of Israel.
Isaiah in particular loved to speak of Zion, out of which shall go the law (Isaiah 14:32), into which shall flow the ransomed people of God (35:10). The Redeemer Himself will come to Zion (59:20). Zion shall be the source of good tidings for all (40:9) and on and on. Jeremiah mentions it a total of 32 times in his prophecy and his lamentation. Likewise Zechariah and several other prophets. Quite often the prophets speak of the “daughter” of Zion, and most of the time this is merely a synonym for daughter of Jerusalem, or Israel. All three names are found in Zephaniah 3:14.
The statements about Zion in the Gospels and epistles are quotes from these same prophets. The writer of Hebrews (12:22-24) alone stands out as bringing the term to one final stage of development. He sees Zion as God originally saw it, as the place where all the Redeemed, not just the Jewish elect, shall congregate, and in fact do meet even now. The Heavenly Jerusalem. The church. God Himself. This is Zion.
I say all of that to ask, where is Jesus, the Lamb, standing in Revelation 14:1? Is this a scene of Heaven? Then have we just had a rapture of the 144,000 from the wilderness? No Scripture elsewhere would support such a thing. Then has there been yet another Jewish/Christian Holocaust? When the 144,000 named the name of Christ, did they become targets for antichrist and did God have to take his hand of protection off of them, that they might gain a martyr’s crown? Do they have their triumphal entry as did the martyrs of chapter 7? Or is this a picture of earth just after the return of Jesus, as he is surrounded first by his Jewish elect? True, the voice of verse 2 is from Heaven, but is it wafting down to earth, from which the 144,000 were redeemed? Not a necessary point to make, as we have already observed that chapter 14 is out of order chronologically. Zion is a real place. Whether in the heavenly city or old Jerusalem, there is an entity known as Mount Zion.
Other items of interest about this meeting on the mountain:
(14:2) , the voice of many waters we have heard in 1:15, as the Voice of Jesus Himself. The harpers we discussed in 5:8, et al.
(14:3), The singers we have generally identified as the 144,000 Israelites, Jewish in every way. Now more details emerge. First, they have exclusive rights to their own new song of redemption. This seems to be different from the “new song” sung by the four living creatures and the 24 elders of 5:9, though redemption is the theme of both. A third song of Revelation is sung by martyrs mentioned in 15:2-4, probably the same group as in chapter 7.
(14:4), These Jews are virgins. Now there is much talk by the prophets about the “Virgin daughter of Zion”, for example in II Kings 19:21 and Lamentations 2:13. But in each case it is the talk of a father who is speaking by faith about a precious child, and a Father who has the power to transform from the “gutter-most” to the “uttermost”. In experience, Israel had not been a virgin! One could read a “father” interpretation into this passage too, especially coupled to Paul’s words in II Corinthians 11:2 about presenting the church to Christ “as a chaste virgin.” We of the church have been forgiven our non-virgin-like character. God has great plans for His people, to purify us, cleanse us, and make us into the image of His dear Son.
But in this passage is something else. There is a specific statement that these 144,000 “were not defiled with women”. This is literal virginity, not the spiritual kind we are all promised. Could it be that those who are forced to flee for their lives by the Holocaust set off by the antichrist, and then spared by the protection of Christ in the wilderness are young, or exceptionally holy people of Israel who have been waiting for the Kingdom of God, like the four Hebrew children of Daniel? Once they see and accept their Messiah, they follow Him, like the disciples of old, wherever He goes. And (14:5) like Nathanael in John 1:51, they are Israelites indeed in whom is no guile, persons who wanted from the beginning to know God’s plan for Israel, and when they find it, they follow it. Yes, all have sinned, but these are without fault because they have experienced Christ’s forgiveness.
Then these must also be the ones about whom Isaiah and Paul (Romans 9:27-28) are speaking when they say, “Though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, the remnant will be saved. For He will finish the work and cut it short in righteousness, because the Lord will make a short work upon the earth.” And Romans 11:15, “...at this present time there is a remnant according to the election of grace.” Paul lived during the days of a rejecting Israel, but anticipated their accepting of Christ one day, and compared it to a time of “life from the dead.” And, 11:25-26, “hardening in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. And so all Israel will be saved...the Deliverer will come out of Zion, and He will turn away ungodliness from Jacob.”
The Proclamation Angels
14:6-13
Next comes a 1-2-3 series of announcements by three different angels. I believe these things could be happening simultaneously, or at least in very close proximity to each other. I do not believe there need be any tie-in to the previous vision. The Jews who were touched by God’s grace are now safe with Him, whether in Heaven or on earth. That is a revelation all by itself.
Angel 1, Close-up, The Gospel Preached (14:6-7). At around that same time, we are hearing the announcing of the preached Gospel. As the law was committed to angels (Acts 7:53, Galatians 3:19) so has the Gospel been charged to them. We understand not the ministry of heavenly beings on the behalf of the spreading of the Good News, nor do we need to, but it is stressed elsewhere in the book that before messages of God come to us, they come to an angel ( Revelation 2:1 etc).
Jesus said that the Gospel will be preached in all the world, and then shall the end come (Matthew 24:14). We have taken that to mean the gradual preaching of Jesus through the centuries, and there certainly can be an application there. But it seems that this Gospel is going to be once and for all proclaimed to the entire planet just before His coming. The 144,000 Jews of verses 1-5 are no more tied in to that preaching than the angel who is making the proclamation. Here again men have theorized and speculated. But in fact these are separate snapshots. Snapshot one: The Jews mentioned in chapter seven, sealed by God, are now with Jesus! Snapshot two: The Gospel has been committed to the Church and will be preached by her, as it always has been. Here by the way, is another evidence that the Church is still alive and well.
Look at the message itself (14:7). Of course the Gospel is the Good News about what Jesus did, but tied to it in this last thrust will be the fact that this is the hour of judgment long foretold. Here is a call to fear and worship God before it is too late.
Angel 2, Close-up :Babylon Falls (14:8 ). Next we are seeing the actual fall of Babylon, as the visions keep coming one after the other. This fall is not specifically documented until chapter 18, but it is mentioned in passing here, giving us a good sense of the timing of this catastrophe. The seventh angel has sounded. Warnings are everywhere. Deep into the sixth seal. Last things are all in place. Only the final climactic bowl judgments still remain, and immediately prior to these last events, or even simultaneous with them, Babylon the Great is once and for all made to fulfill its destiny, spoken at least 2700 years ago.
Angel 3, A warning and a blessing (14:9-13). John has so far brought to mind images from his chapter 7, Matthew 24, and his chapter 18. Now he refers to chapter 13, and will soon move to 19 and 20. In tying together all these “loose ends” into one chapter, he lets us know just how short is the time span of the Revelation.
This passage, tied with 13:16-17, makes us wonder exactly how the worship and the mark of the beast are one. 13:16 seems to say there is no choice about receiving the mark. But here it is clear that the mark is given to all who worship the beast. So the concern of the believers in that day, and this, is that we not give our heart to Satan. The choice not to worship him and therefore receive that mark will result in proper identification being withheld. Without an id, one will make no financial transactions. Anywhere. The truly cashless society cometh. But the true church will be exempted from it by choice.
So our secular world will gradually be turned into a religious world after all! Yes, when life depends on it, people will give lip-service to nearly any creed. Witness the “church” of the Middle Ages, whose membership shamelessly went in and out of the Roman Church system depending on who was in charge of the sword. Of course, through it all, a remnant church survived, known only in Heaven. So it is today, and so it shall ever be to the end of the Tribulation and the world. These precious few are in fact being addressed in this chapter , as in 16:15 at the sixth bowl. It could well be that 14:12-13 is a part of that same message.
Eternal judgment (14:9-11). Today’s church needs to brush up a little on the doctrine of eternal punishment. John pictures in these few verses two classes of people, as he does in his epistle, I John 5:19. “...we are of God, and the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one.” In John’s thinking, it is “we” and “the whole world.” John, the “son of thunder” (Mark 3:17) who had to learn love and compassion to temper his desire to see sin judged, now is given full vent to one message of his heart. For, those same two kinds of people who lived in the first century are seen fully blossomed and ripe for final judgment. One group (14:12-13) is called to glory, the other (14:9-11) to eternal shame.
But this is no mere slap on the wrist. This is eternal. This is full strength, verse 10. This is torment. Fire, brimstone (remember John, “shall we call fire from heaven?” Luke 9:54?) This is forever. Burned up and forgotten? Oh no, “no rest day or night.” Forever (14:11). Any doctrine of hell that does not measure up to this word of God is watered down so as not to offend. Beware of it.
14:12-13, a word of comfort. We have heard about this “patience of the saints” in 13:10. This is the true church, defined unmistakably again as keepers of God’s law and Jesus’ faith, remaining faithful amid unspeakably evil days. They are here given encouragement to carry on, even unto death. As the believers will be seeing people die all around them, and they will be thinking back on those words of the TV preachers who told them that nothing could ever defeat them, they will need this very word of encouragement: Death is not only acceptable, but it is now a blessing! You’ve worked hard. You’ve been faithful. Now come Home and rest! I’ll be waiting for you. I won’t forget what you did here.
Close-up:
The return of Jesus, two pictures
14:14-16 , 17-20
Finally in chapter 14, there is a graphic description of the return of Christ, which will be covered in much greater detail in chapter 19. This collection of end-of-all occurrences would not be complete without this most significant event of all.
First Jesus is seen as a harvester with a sickle (14:14-16). The imagery here is akin to that of the prophet Joel, whose third chapter is a treatise on God’s end time judgment of the nations. Joel 3 says God will gather all nations and bring them to the Valley of Jehoshaphat (Joel 3:2, 12). He assembles all these people groups to do His bidding, then he sits as judge. In fact, Jehoshaphat means “Jehovah is Judge.” Jewish tradition (Per Nelson) has it that this Valley is that part of the Kidron Valley between the temple and the Mt. of Olives. This would fit with Zechariah 14:3-5 : when Jesus returns to earth His feet will touch down on Olivet. From there , after the battle is over, it is a short walk to Jehoshaphat, where, as in Matthew 25, he assembles all the nations for the parceling out of rewards. “Put in the sickle,” says the record in Joel and John. This is harvest time.
It appears to me additionally that this first look at the harvest, with its absence of violence and blood, could easily be a picture of the rapture of the church. Oh yes, we still believe in the catching away of the Bride of Jesus from the Earth! Those who have misplaced it have not destroyed it. Jesus will come for His own. This could be that final harvesting of souls, when the dead in Christ rise, and those who are alive and remain rise up to meet Him (I Thessalonians 4:16-17). He comes on the clouds of Heaven both in Matthew 24:30 and here.
Though there are angels involved in this process, the Spirit pictures this operation as being done personally by the Son of God. He gathers us unto Himself before He continues His work of vengeance on the nations. We will see more of this in 19:11-14.
Revelation 19:15-18 is previewed next (14:17-20) . He appears now as a gatherer of grapes, with a similar sickle. The grapes are thrown into a winepress by an angel, and then Christ comes and tramples the press. But blood, and not grape juice, is pressured out of this cluster. This will be a time of unutterable violence and bloodshed. Jesus summons an angel to do this bloody business, yet His own Word, the Sword coming from His mouth, is employed also.
This same picture is told in Isaiah 63 , where the One “mighty to save” dressed in red-stained apparel, explains His unusual appearance in terms of a winepress He has trodden, alone. 63:6, “I have trodden down the peoples in My anger, made them drunk in My fury, and brought down their strength to the earth.” Isaiah speaks similarly of this in his 34th chapter, verses 1-4. More bloody details will come in chapter 19, as Christ confronts a waiting army.
Notes on 14:20. What are “furlongs” ? The word is stadios in Greek, and came to be the distance of the race course in the ancient stadiums, about 1/8 of a mile. So, 1,600 stadia would be nearly 200 miles, roughly the size of the land of Israel. Some commentaries place all this bloodshed near the city of Rome (aka Babylon), but it seems to me that Babylon’s fall is just before the coming of Jesus, caused by the antichrist and not directly by Christ, as is happening here. Regardless of the place of this final outpouring, the destruction is so immense as to be beyond our comprehension. 200 miles of blood!
And what about “horses” in battle? This can be (1) actual horses as we know them, still used in military ways in some parts of the world, or (2) those other horses, to whom we were introduced in 9:17 (see there) or (3) like the sickle, the harvest, the vine, and the winepress, merely a symbolic portion of the vision, meant to communicate to readers of all ages.
