Revelation 14:17-20

17Another angel came out of the temple in heaven, and he too
had a sharp sickle. 18Still another angel, who had charge of
the fire, came from the altar and called in a loud voice to him
who had the sharp sickle, "Take your sharp sickle and gather
the clusters of grapes from the earth's vine, because its grapes
are ripe." 19The angel swung his sickle on the earth, gathered
its grapes and threw them into the great winepress of God's
wrath. 20They were trampled in the winepress outside the
city, and blood flowed out of the press, rising as high as the
horses' bridles for a distance of 1,600 stadia.


14:17-18 - John notes that another angel came out of the Temple in
heaven, and he too hard a sharp sickle. In so doing, he returns to the
theme of judgment. Although the spreading of the gospel and the overcoming
of the saints is the primary focus of this Revelation, running concurrently
is the idea of the cutting off of apostate Israel. In Genesis 21 we see how
Isaac was recognized as the child of the promise of the covenant. Before that
could happen, however, it required the excommunication of Hagar and her
son Ishmael. In his letter to the Galatians, Paul compared the Old Covenant
and the physical nation of Israel to Hagar, the slave woman, and Ishmael; he
also compared the New Covenant and the Church to Sara, the free woman,
and Isaac, the child of promise. He wrote: "Now you, brothers, like Isaac,
are children of promise. . . Get rid of the slave woman and her son, for the
slave woman's son will never share in the inheritance with the free woman's
son. . . Therefore, brothers, we are not children of the slave woman, but of
the free woman" (Gal. 4:28-31). In that passage, Paul makes clear that old
Jerusalem, the capital city of apostasy, had been cast out from the Covenant.
The Church was now the legitimate heir of the promises of God that had
been made to Abraham. Christians are the true children of the heavenly
Jerusalem.

At first glance, it may appear that this angel with the sharp sickle has come
to do the same work as the previous angel, but it quickly becomes apparent
that this is not the case. Here, though, John goes all the way back to Rev.
6:9-11, when the saints were gathered around the golden altar of incense,
offering up their prayers for the destruction of their enemies. An angel had
taken the bowl containing the prayers of the saints, filled it with the fire of
the altar and threw it to the land (Rev. 8:3-5). Now, John sees that same
angel, the one who had charge of the fire. This angel who has the power
of the fire burning on the altar, comes from the altar of the saints’ prayers in
order to hand down judgment. He is bringing the historical, physical
response to the prayers of the saints. This angel also wants a harvest, but it
is the harvest of the grapes of wrath. The third angel calls to the second
angel, the one with the sickle, and tells him to take his sharp sickle and
gather the clusters of grapes from the earth’s vine, because its grapes
are ripe. God’s vineyard is now ripe for judgment. "Now I will tell you
what I am going to do to my vineyard: I will take away its hedge, and it will
be destroyed . . . I will make it a wasteland" (Is. 5:5-6).

14:19-20 - Israel, God’s vineyard, has been judged and found wanting.
Judgment is now at hand: The angel swung his sickle on the earth,
gathered its grapes and threw them into the great winepress of God’s
wrath. This creates the substance that will be poured from the cups in
chapter 16. Verses 15-19 make six references to the land (earth). Combined
with the imagery of the vine, there is an emphasis that this is a judgment on
the land of Israel. When considering the extensive Old Testament references
to Israel as the vineyard, it doesn’t seem possible that John would have used
this language without meaning to communicate the judgment of Jerusalem
and Israel. The imagery for this particular passage comes from Isaiah
63:1-6, in which God is described as a man, whose robe is stained red crushing grapes in a winepress.

They were trampled in the winepress outside the city , and the blood
flowed for a distance of 1,600 stadia. The number 1,600 is very symbolic
as are most numbers in Revelation. It emphasizes the land: four squared (the
land), times ten squared (largeness). 1,600 is slightly larger than the length
of Israel. The whole land of Israel, then, is represented as overflowing with
the blood of the coming judgment. The flowing blood reaches as high as the
horses’ bridle, reminding the reader of the Pharaoh’s horses during the
Exodus (Ex. 14:23, 28; 15:19). Old Israel had become apostate like Egypt,
and now her horses would be swimming in the blood of judgment. The
winepress was outside the city because in the Old Testament sacrificial
system, the bodies of the sacrificial animals would be burned outside the
camp. The winepress of judgment that would purify the land would be
outside the city as well.