(please read the full notes)
BIG IDEA: The blood that cleanses the redeemed condemns the unrepentant.
In this chapter, John pulled together ancient prophetic portions of Isaiah 5-6, Isaiah 63 and Joel 3 to fill the Lamb’s followers with hope, not terror! He described a Babylon-like world where God surgically prunes ripe believers to safely store in heaven’s barn as He simultaneously prunes ripe sinners who, per the metaphors, will be intoxicated with, crushed beneath, and drowned by the sinful things they worship.
This event may be more surgical than sloppy since both angels used tiny pruning sickles rather than crop leveling scythes. Either way, we’re reading apocalyptic Revelation 14:14-20 Page 4 of 18 literature which means this event is REAL BUT NOT LITERAL. So, no bodies are going to be crushed to death in a physical winepress. This use of hyperbole (exaggeration) implied a hopeful reversal of Revelation 11 where unholy nations trampled their holy city, Jerusalem. Consider this: “How would this have comforted
believers after Rome trampled (crushed) their city and temple to dust?”
in this Revelation (apocalypse) of Jesus Christ where we keep finding THE CROSS watermark, John
was helping battle weary believers endure and overcome by not falling for Babylon’s (the world’s) seductions. That much is clear from his opening lines in verses 1-5 where 144,000 saints stood before the throne singing a new song which only those redeemed from the earth/mankind could learn. He also identified them as the first fruits of a greater harvest to come, presumably described here in verses 14-20 after the break in verses 6-13 where angels proclaimed the judgment side of the gospel.
