Revelation 14:19 Commentary and Bible Study

Instead of pleasant juice coming from these grapes, shockingly, it is blood that comes out of the winepress. This is not a happy scene of harvest but a scene of retribution (Isaiah 63:6; Jeremiah 25:30). The harvest of the earth has come. It is the end of the world, and the earth or rather the people of the earth are to be gathered together for judgment. God has delayed until this time so that the earth might be ripe for judgment. They are ripe in the sense that their wickedness has reached its completion, in the sense in which God spoke to Abraham when he said, ‘But in the fourth generation they shall come hither again: for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full’ (Genesis 15:16). Fearful things will be seen on earth just before the end. Wickedness will have developed so far that it cannot advance any further. Selfishness and pride will have reached a point where they have free reign, and God will look with disgust on the world and what man has made of it. For man’s sake, the whole creation will be harvested. This tired world will be folded up like a garment.God has a great winepress prepared for the unbelieving of this world. He himself will come and tread down the grapes of the earth. When he judges the world, it will be an act of his anger. Every tread of his foot will be an outpouring of wrath. All the wrath that has been held back for past ages will now find expression. It will be all the greater on account of his previous forbearance towards those who never repented and took advantage of his patience towards him. The wicked, in spite of all their boasted power, will be no more able to resist than the grapes that lie passive at harvester’s feet. But this is the beginning of their punishment, a punishment that will go on forever. It is expressed in terms of a harvest, but the Scripture tells us that it will continue forever. The winepress is said to be trampled outside the city. What city is referred to here? The last one to be mentioned is Babylon, but this is not the city spoken of here. Babylon is already fallen, but this city remains. The destruction that takes place is ‘outside the city’ because the city itself is holy. It is the city of Jerusalem. As the earthly Jerusalem had a place for the disposal and burning of refuse outside the city, so the flames of everlasting hell will be outside the heavenly Jerusalem. Heaven and hell will be completely separated. The slaughter of the wicked results in a vast sea of blood. Gill calls this a hyperbolic expression. There is no obvious Biblical significance of the number ‘one thousand six hundred’ used here. Perhaps the expression is used to describe something on a scale that has never been seen before in the history of the world.This verse brings to an end this scan of history which began at chapter 12:1. The trumpets have published God’s repeated warnings throughout the gospel age. For the most part, men have ignored them. They have become stronger and stronger until God’s patience finally runs out altogether and the world is ended.