Good evening and welcome to EBible Fellowship's Bible study in the Book of Revelation.  Tonight is study #52 of Revelation, chapter 14 and we are continuing to look at Revelation 14:20:

And the winepress was trodden without the city, and blood came out of the winepress, even unto the horse bridles, by the space of a thousand and six hundred furlongs.

This is the imagery God is giving us of the Day of Judgment at the time of harvest, the final spiritual harvest of this world, so we can understand the winepress being trodden as a picture of the wrath of God.  In the Book of Isaiah, the Lord Jesus was viewed as being trodden in a winepress when He experienced the wrath of God.  God uses the same language in Lamentations 1:15 as He speaks of treading under foot Judah, “the daughter of Zion,” and that also typified the spiritual judgment of the churches and congregations.  So we are very familiar with this type of language in relationship to God’s judgments.

But why does the Lord speak of blood coming out of the winepress, “even unto the horse bridles, by the space of a thousand and six hundred furlongs”?  What is the point of telling us this?  Why did He not just say, “The blood came out of the winepress and overflowed?  Why did He mention the “space of a thousand and six hundred furlongs?”  And why did He use the word “furlongs” as the distance that it traveled? 

We are going to try to understand some of these things.  I do not know if we will understand them fully.  We do know that God does define in the Bible what “blood” represents in a couple of places.  One of these places is in Leviticus 17:11:

For the life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul.

I just want to make one comment.  The Hebrew word that is translated as “life” is Strong’s #5315 (neh-fesh) and it is the same word translated as “souls” in the same verse.  It is the identical Hebrew word and it is the word that is used at the very beginning, in Genesis 2:7:

And JEHOVAH God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.

So “soul” is the same word used in Leviticus 17:11, where it says, “the life of the flesh,” and it could say, “the soul of the flesh.”  They are interchangeable.  “And I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul.”  The last word “soul” is, again, the same word.

Then it goes on to say in Leviticus 17:12-14:

Therefore I said unto the children of Israel, No soul of you shall eat blood, neither shall any stranger that sojourneth among you eat blood. And whatsoever man there be of the children of Israel, or of the strangers that sojourn among you, which hunteth and catcheth any beast or fowl that may be eaten; he shall even pour out the blood thereof, and cover it with dust. For it is the life of all flesh; the blood of it is for the life thereof: therefore I said unto the children of Israel, Ye shall eat the blood of no manner of flesh: for the life of all flesh is the blood thereof: whosoever eateth it shall be cut off.

The word “life,” which is used twice in verse 14 is the same word.  God is connecting together in a very strong way “blood” with the “life” or the “soul” of man.  That is why when the Lord Jesus offered up Himself in the atonement, He gave his “life.”  He shed his blood and He gave His “soul” for the sins of His elect people and this is why the atoning work of the Lord Jesus Christ satisfied the Law’s demand for justice.

This word is used in one other place, in Deuteronomy 12:23-24:

Only be sure that thou eat not the blood: for the blood is the life; and thou mayest not eat the life with the flesh. Thou shalt not eat it; thou shalt pour it upon the earth as water.

By the way, this is one of the reasons why even in the New Testament (in the Book of Acts) when the early church held a counsel trying to determine what Laws they should give to the churches, rather than the Law of Moses, one of the very few Laws they decided to retain was to abstain from blood.  It says in Acts 15:19-20:

Wherefore my sentence is, that we trouble not them, which from among the Gentiles are turned to God: But that we write unto them, that they abstain from pollutions of idols, and from fornication, and from things strangled, and from blood.

This was drawing from the Laws we just read about in Leviticus and Deuteronomy that declared that the “life” or the “soul” was “in the blood” and one was not to eat the blood.  It is something forbidden to man because there is such an important spiritual element or distinction in the blood and God wanted to make sure that picture was not distorted in any way.  How does it help us to understand that the “life” or the “soul” is in the blood?  Let us go back to Revelation 14:20:

…, and blood came out of the winepress…

And who was in the winepress?  It is the wicked people of the world.  Remember what was said in Joel 3, because Revelation 14 is the commentary on this verse in Joel 3:13:

Put ye in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe: come, get you down; for the press is full, the fats overflow; for their wickedness is great.

Who commits wickedness, but the wicked?  It is the wicked people, the unsaved inhabitants of the earth in the Day of Judgment that are cast into the winepress.  Billions of people are under the wrath of God and God is treading them in the winepress of the fierceness of His anger and it is their blood (their life or their souls) that is in view as it overflows the winepress and begins to go forth unto the horse bridles by the space of these 1,600 furlongs.

What are we trying to understand about this?  I think the answer is that the “blood” is pointing to the “lives” of the wicked and it is the wicked at a certain point in time.  Remember the statement at the end of Revelation 19:15:

…and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.

It is as though Christ is in the winepress and He is stomping the life (or the blood) out of all the unsaved inhabitants of the earth.  Their blood comes out, but where are they?  They are still in the winepress, but their “blood” or their “life” begins to flow out.  I believe the imagery is pointing to the extension of their lives all the while they are under the wrath of God.  In other words, the 1,600 furlongs is a spiritual number pointing to “1,600 days,” and there is a very strong likelihood that the 1,600 days is the duration of Judgment Day, or the complete time the unsaved people of the world are under the wrath of God.  After reaching “1,600 furlongs,” the blood will cease to flow.  It does not extend to “1,601” furlongs or any further than the “1,600 furlongs.”  We will discuss what could be meant by “furlongs” a little later, but I think this is the idea behind the blood coming out of the winepress and why God is implying that it is flowing forth, even unto the horse bridles.

The “horse bridles” is also an unusual picture.  Of all the things God could have said, why would He not have said the blood came out of the winepress “even unto Jerusalem,” or “even unto the saints of God”?  Why did He pick “horse bridles”?  And why is the word “horse” singular, but “bridles” is a plural word?    And, of course, why is the space up and until the horse bridles?  Why is the space of “1,600 furlongs” given, which can only be understood as a distance between the winepress and the horse bridles? 

I am not saying we will understand everything completely, but in order to understand these things, we are going go to do what we always do: we are going to search the Bible to find similar words and similar passages and allow the Bible to complete the picture for us and allow God to instruct us as we compare Scripture with Scripture.

We do know that Christ does not come in judgment alone.  He is the Judge of the earth, but, again, and again, we read in the Bible that He comes with “ten thousands of his saints.”  Christ comes with all the holy angels and this means He comes with all the “holy messengers,” because the word “angels” ought to be translated as “messengers.”  Yet, here in Revelation 14, it is just Christ that is mentioned, the one that is seated upon the cloud and the one that is treading the winepress.  But if we go back to Revelation 19, it says in Revelation 19:14:

And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean.

This would be all of God’s elect, His saints.  Then it says in Revelation 19:15:

And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.

So, here, too, Jesus is treading the winepress alone, but where are the saints?  They are on horses.  The armies in heaven that follow Him are on white horses.  They are witnesses and willing participants, in the sense that they agree with God and they agree with the righteous judgment of God; they agree that God’s Law is perfect and must be satisfied, so there they are as Christ gets into the winepress and begins to tread under foot the unsaved people of the earth.  The picture we are left with in Revelation 19 is that the armies of God (perhaps as many as 200 million) are on these glorious white horses, to indicate that God’s people are spotless and without sin.  The armies are “clothed in fine linen, white and clean.”  They are all covered by the righteousness of Christ and, therefore, without sin, and they are waiting for Christ to finish His work as Judge of the earth and to complete the harvest as He treads the wicked in the winepress.  We can see the relationship between Revelation 19 and Revelation 14:20, as the blood begins to pour out and goes unto the “horse bridles,” or unto where God’s elect are positioned.  I think this is one way of understanding it.  We do know that God has told us several times that His people come with Him in judgment and they are likened to “horses” and to “horsemen” in a few places.  It says in Joel 2:2:

A day of darkness and of gloominess, a day of clouds and of thick darkness, as the morning spread upon the mountains: a great people and a strong…

These are the people of God and it goes on to describe them, in Joel 2:4-5:

The appearance of them is as the appearance of horses; and as horsemen, so shall they run. Like the noise of chariots on the tops of mountains shall they leap, like the noise of a flame of fire that devoureth the stubble, as a strong people set in battle array.

The Bible reveals to us that the wicked are like “stubble.”  Who is it that burns up the stubble?  It says in Obadiah 1:18:

And the house of Jacob shall be a fire, and the house of Joseph a flame, and the house of Esau for stubble…

Jacob and Joseph picture the true believers or God’s saints and “Esau” pictures all of those that are not saved and not chosen, just as Jacob was chosen and Esau was not chosen.  The great army in view in Joel, chapter 2, is burning up the wicked.  The army is like a “flame of fire” that devours the stubble, just as the figure of Jacob and Joseph.    In Revelation, chapter 9, we know it is describing Judgment Day as the “three woes” get under way and the Lord speaks of “locusts” that come forth in the Day of Judgment and they are God’s great army, typifying true believers, and it says in Revelation 9:7:

And the shapes of the locusts were like unto horses prepared unto battle; and on their heads were as it were crowns like gold, and their faces were as the faces of men.

The locusts are likened to “horses.”  Then a little further on, in Revelation 9, the elect are typified by 200 million and it says in Revelation 9:16-18:

And the number of the army of the horsemen were two hundred thousand thousand: and I heard the number of them. And thus I saw the horses in the vision, and them that sat on them, having breastplates of fire, and of jacinth, and brimstone: and the heads of the horses were as the heads of lions; and out of their mouths issued fire and smoke and brimstone. By these three was the third part of men killed, by the fire, and by the smoke, and by the brimstone, which issued out of their mouths.

So the “horses” and the “horsemen” both typify God’s elect.  Yes, that is how God speaks of His people.  He speaks of them as “horsemen,” but He also speaks of them as the “horse” itself.  He does that in Zechariah 10:3:

Mine anger was kindled against the shepherds, and I punished the goats: for JEHOVAH of hosts hath visited his flock the house of Judah, and hath made them as his goodly horse in the battle.

God is using this kind of figure in Revelation, chapter 9, where the 200 million horsemen, which typify the saints, and the “horses” that breathe forth fire, smoke and brimstone also typify the saints.  I think that is why the word “horse” (singular) is used in Revelation 14:20, where it says, “and blood came out of the winepress, even unto the horse bridles,” and, yet, the “bridles” are plural and that is because the “horse” is pointing to the “body of Christ.”  God gives that sort of illustration in the Epistle of James.  It says in James 3:1:

My brethren, be not many masters, knowing that we shall receive the greater condemnation. For in many things we offend all. If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man…

I think the “perfect man” refers to the Lord Jesus.  Then it goes on to say in James 3:2:

…and able also to bridle the whole body.

Christ has formed His “body” of the elect; He is the head and He has brought in “members,” or everyone He has saved and they become part of the “body of Christ.”  Here God uses the word “bridle” and that is a related word, Strong’s #5468, to our word in Revelation 14:20, which is Strong’s #5469, and that word is used in James 3:3:

Behold, we put bits in the horses' mouths, that they may obey us; and we turn about their whole body.

The word “bits” is the plural of the word “bridle” in our verse.  Now God goes on to speak of a ship and the little helm that steers the ship and He relates it to the tongue being “a little member.”  Remember, the “perfect man” is able “to bridle the whole body,” so the idea is that Christ puts “bits” in the mouths of His people and keeps them under full control of His will to do the things that God would have us to do; He wills in us to will and to do of His good pleasure. 

While it is not perfectly understandable (and I recognize that), but that word “bridle,” which is not used that often in the Bible, is used here with the idea of controlling “the whole.”  It is also used in connection with the ship and the helm and the horse and the bridle.  We do know that ships typify the churches and it is the teachings in the churches that give direction to the course that the church body takes, and I think that is basically the idea. 

So when we are reading that the blood flows unto the horse bridles, it is God’s horse and in this description He gives in Revelation 14 it would point to all the elect.  Since it is all the elect, it points to more than one bridle.  There are bridles in the mouths of all of God’s people because all of us are doing the will of God; we desire to serve Him.  He is Lord and we submit to Him and are broken and contrite before Him and before His will.