In Revelation 14 we get a series of visions given to us, not in a chronological order, but as separate vignettes, or like pieces of a block puzzle which have to be fitted together.
In the first five verses we get a picture of the redeemed and martyred Jewish remnant. The fact that they stand on Mount Zion, that they sing a song peculiar to themselves and that none other could learn it, and that they constitute the firstfruits from the earth, enables us to identify them as Jewish. They had not defiled themselves with women; that is to say, they had kept themselves from the evil of the world. Their song is heard by the four living creatures and the elders; in other words heaven listens with sympathy and interest. Their song is of earthly redemption and deliverance.
Their martyrdom belongs to the third section of the book; that is to say, that which is still future, and only to begin after the Church has been raptured.
Another vision is given us in verses 6 and 7. An angel flies in the midst of heaven carrying the everlasting Gospel to preach to the earth-dwellers and to every nation and kindred and tongue and people. Nor are we left in doubt as to what that message is: “Fear God, and give glory to Him; for the hour of His judgment is come: and worship Him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters.” This was ever silently proclaimed by creation, as seen in Romans 1:2020For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse: (Romans 1:20) and Psalm 19:1-61<<To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David.>> The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament showeth his handywork. 2Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night showeth knowledge. 3There is no speech nor language, where their voice is not heard. 4Their line is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. In them hath he set a tabernacle for the sun, 5Which is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, and rejoiceth as a strong man to run a race. 6His going forth is from the end of the heaven, and his circuit unto the ends of it: and there is nothing hid from the heat thereof. (Psalm 19:1‑6).
To fear God, to give glory to Him, to worship Him as Creator, is the path of blessing when God presents Himself in that light.
In the Old Testament times, before Christ was revealed and His death had taken place, the earliest testimony must have been of this nature.
In this present dispensation it is the Gospel of the grace of God. With the rapture of the Church this ceases, and the gospel of the Kingdom will go out.
Here we have in these last days of tribulation the preaching of the everlasting Gospel, this time by angelic ministry, bringing before the dwellers on the earth the claims of God as Creator and Judge, which if bowed to will lead to right relation to Him.
Needless to say, God blesses all who are blessed solely on the ground of the atoning death of Christ. Such a ground was unknown to the men of faith in the Old Testament, save as it was dimly foreshadowed in type or set forth in prophecy as revealed by God to them; but all blessed under that dispensation, as under any other, are met by God alone on the ground of that one wondrous Sacrifice.
It appears as if the preaching of the everlasting Gospel is to be the last testimony of God in grace to man. So verse 8 succinctly informs us of the fall of Babylon. “That great city” in Revelation is identified with the Romish apostate system. Babylon, as Revelation 17 shows us in detail (we shall say more concerning it later on) a vast corrupt ecclesiastical system, notorious for her persecution of the saints of God on the one hand, and her bid for temporal power on the other, and this is none other than ecclesiastical Rome. “The city of the seven hills” is descriptive generally of Rome (see Revelation 17:99And here is the mind which hath wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sitteth. (Revelation 17:9)), for the actual city is well known as being built on seven hills.
“Hills” speak of pretension in this connection, and “seven” shows forth the complete arrogance of that pretension. There is only one system in the world than answers to the description, and that is Roman Catholicism. With the fall of Babylon the last profession of anything religious is gone, though that profession were a completely empty shell with no inward reality in it whatever.
The third angel follows with the clear testimony as to the doom of the worshippers and adherents of the beast. Following this is the encouragement to those who may have to seal their testimony with their blood in these truly awful times, that they are blessed or happy who henceforth die in the Lord.
Next we have the harvest and the vintage. The harvest speaks of that which is gathered at the end of the age. We know from Matthew 13 that in symbolical language the harvest will consist of wheat and tares—the former to be garnered, the latter to be burned; that it speaks of a time when the angels shall sever the wicked from among the just.
This reaping is seen in its execution at the judgment of the sheep and the goats as recorded in Matthew 25:31-4631When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory: 32And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats: 33And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left. 34Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: 35For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: 36Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me. 37Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink? 38When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee? 39Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee? 40And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me. 41Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels: 42For I was an hungred, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink: 43I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not. 44Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee? 45Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me. 46And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal. (Matthew 25:31‑46). The harvest results in the good. The evil is disposed of.
This reaping is done by the Son of Man Himself, using angels as His agents: “He shall send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other” (Matt. 24:3131And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other. (Matthew 24:31)).
In the reaping the angel, who calls on the Son of Man to reap with His sharp sickle, comes out from the temple. God's way is in the sanctuary (Psa. 77:1313Thy way, O God, is in the sanctuary: who is so great a God as our God? (Psalm 77:13)). It is the place of discriminating judgment.
The harvest is gathered for blessing; the vintage is trodden out for judgment. So we find in the vintage the angel comes out from the altar, and we are told he has power over fire. This speaks of desolating overwhelming judgments upon God's open enemies. These will be seen in the destruction of the beast and the false prophet, and their enormous armies, of God and Magog, and the King of the North, as well as in the destruction of many Jews during the great tribulation, especially in its closing moments, as we shall see in detail later. The winepress was trodden outside the city (Jerusalem), and blood comes out of the winepress even unto the horses' bridles by the space of 1600 furlongs, roughly speaking the length of the Holy Land. Armageddon will come under the vintage judgment.