Good evening and welcome to EBible Fellowship's Bible study in the Book of Revelation.  Tonight is study #57 of Revelation, chapter 14 and we are continuing to look into 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.

In our last study we saw how the number “10,000” is reached when we add the 8,400 days of the Great Tribulation to the expected 1,600 day period of judgment.  It adds together to make a complete “10,000 days.”  It is an ideal number for God to complete the pouring out of His wrath, as He first gave the “cup” to the churches and then to the nations of the world.  Also, it is not until October 7, 2015 that the 10,000th day arrives.  That day is also the 1,600^th day.  In other words, October 7, 2015 is the 40^th “forty” since May 21, 2011 and October 7, 2015 is day number 10,000 since judgment began at the house of God back on May 21, 1988.  Of itself, that makes October 7, 2015 a very important and interesting date.  October 7 is 10,000 from the beginning of judgment.  October 6 of 2015 is day number “9,999” and October 8 is day number “10,001.”  It is only October 7 of 2015 that is exactly 10,000 days, so we would wonder if it is possible that God will complete the judgment which He started against the churches and congregations of the world.  Of course, the ultimate completion of the judgment on the world would be the destruction of this world, a literal and physical destruction that would follow the 1,600 days of spiritual judgment.  Then there would be the complete and utter destruction of the world and universe and the annihilation of all the unsaved people of the world and only God and His elect people would remain, as attention is turned to eternity future.

One other very significant thing about October 7, 2015 is that it is also the last day of the Feast of Tabernacles.  Remember that was the significant point about October 21, 2011.  It was “five months” from May 21 and it was the last day of Tabernacles.  But now God has given us a number in the context of “harvest” and Tabernacles and the feast of ingathering are held simultaneously, so when we say it is the last day of the Feast of Tabernacles, it is also the last day of harvest.  In that context God gives us the number “1,600” and if we add it to the day that God gives as the beginning of Judgment Day, May 21, 2011, and we go 1,600 days into the future, incredibly, the date falls on October 7, 2015, an extremely special day of the last day of the Feast of Tabernacles.  The 1,600^th day would be “40 x 40” or the completion of testing.  It is also the 10,000^th day since judgment began, as 8,400 plus 1,600 equals 10,000. 

But then we realize that it also happens to be the last day of “harvest” and the context of Revelation 14 is the harvest at the end of the world, plus it is the last day of the Feast of Tabernacles, the third and final feast the Bible says must be fulfilled and it can only be fulfilled through the destruction of the world.  This is because God relates the last day of the Feast of Tabernacles with other Biblical language which identifies with the last day at the end of the world.  We will look at that in a second, but just remember that God has fulfilled the other feasts, the Feast of Passover and the Feast of Pentecost.  These two feasts, plus the Feast of Tabernacles, were the three main feasts that the Lord says all the males of the children of Israel are to appear before Him in the place He would choose.  Spiritually, God fulfilled the significance of the Passover when Christ was hanging on the cross at the time of Passover.   And, spiritually, God fulfilled the significance of the Feast of Pentecost in 33 AD, when we read in Acts 2 that when the feast was “fully come” the Holy Spirit was poured out and God began to evangelize the world through the churches and congregations.  The third and final feast and, especially, “the last day” of that final Feast of Tabernacles relates to the end.  We find the phrase “the last day” eight times in the Bible.  Twice it is used in connection with the Feast of Tabernacles.  We find it mentioned once in Nehemiah 8:17-18:

And all the congregation of them that were come again out of the captivity made booths, and sat under the booths: for since the days of Jeshua the son of Nun unto that day had not the children of Israel done so. And there was very great gladness. Also day by day, from the first day unto the last day, he read in the book of the law of God. And they kept the feast seven days; and on the eighth day was a solemn assembly, according unto the manner.

The word “booths” is “tabernacles.”  In verse 18, it says, “from the first day unto the last day,” and since the Bible has so much emphasis on the end of this world, you would think that the phrase “the last day” would be very common, but it is only found eight times in the Bible.  It is found one time in the Old Testament, here in Nehemiah, in association with the last day of the Feast of Tabernacles.

Also, in the New Testament God uses the phrase to refer, again, to the last day of the Feast of Tabernacles, in John 7:37:

In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink.

Some people have tried to point to this verse to say, “Well, you see, God must still be saving because Christ is imploring people to come unto Him and drink.  It is a message that salvation is still available until the last day.”  But, if we do what God commands and we search the Scriptures for similar language, we find that in the context of the end of this world and the creation of a new heaven and new earth in Revelation 21, God makes a similar statement to what we just read in John 7:37.  It says in Revelation 21:1:

And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea.

Then it says in Revelation 21:4-6:

And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away. And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful. And he said unto me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely.

In this context where God is saying, “It is done,” and His plan for this world is complete and it is the time to grant His people new resurrected bodies and create the new heaven and new earth, why is God speaking of giving “unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely”?  It is because God’s people will drink of that water of life for evermore into eternity future; it is a call to drink of the truth of the Lord Jesus Christ and it is something the people of God will be involved in doing without end – there will never be a time when we have satisfied that thirst and we no longer need to drink of it.  So this is a perfect point for Christ to say, as we read in John 7:37, “In the last day, that great day of the feast,” (and that feast would be the Feast of Tabernacles) “Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink.”  Then God destroys the world, as we will see when we follow the phrase, “the last day,” and He brings in the things He has promised throughout the Scripture, as He has promised His people that this day would come, “the last day” and now His people will come to the Lord Jesus Christ and “drink” of Him and the fullness of joy, the fullness of truth and the fullness of God and to learn of God.  To know Him is eternal life, so the people of God will “drink” of that everlasting fountain on the last day.

It is interesting that of the eight references to “the last day” in the Bible, seven of them are found in the Book of John in the New Testament (and one in Nehemiah).  Let us go to John 12:48:

He that rejecteth me, and receiveth not my words, hath one that judgeth him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day.

It needs to be reiterated that May 21, 2011 began Judgment Day and, in a sense, it also began “the last day.”   It is a prolonged Judgment Day or a prolonged last day.  May 21, 2011 was a “last day” and October 7, 2015 is also a “last day,” and the Word of God is judging the unsaved inhabitants in “the last day” throughout this entire period of time.

At the time when Lazarus is about to be resurrected, the Lord used that occasion to speak to Martha.  It says in John 11:23:

Jesus saith unto her, Thy brother shall rise again. Martha saith unto him, I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day.

That was a true statement.  The resurrection is “the last day” of the earth’s existence.  We have a very likely 1,600 day period for judgment, all of which are considered “the last day,” but it is not until the very end of that period of time, on the final day, that the resurrection will take place.

We find the phrase “the last day” four times in John, chapter 6.  It says in John 6:39:

And this is the Father's will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day. And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day.

Then it says in John 6:44:

No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day.

Then, finally, it says in John 6:54:

Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day.

There are four references to the phrase “the last day” in the Book of John and it agrees with the resurrection of “the last day” and agrees with judgment when it says the Word “shall judge him in the last day.”  We cannot miss how God uses this language (and He does this often in the Bible) and He gives several Scriptures to make multiple points: “the last day” is the day of resurrection; “the last day” is the Day of Judgment; then He uses the same phrase in another way to help us learn that this other thing, too, identifies with resurrection day and with the Day of Judgment’ and in this case, it is the Feast of Tabernacles and “the last day.”  Two times of the eight times, it is used in association with the Feast of Tabernacles, that third major feast which must still be fulfilled.  Again, at the time of the Passover, God spiritually fulfilled that feast and it was at the time of “firstfruits” or the Feast of Pentecost that God spiritually fulfilled that feast.  So we would suspect that it would be at the time of the Feast of Tabernacles (and “the last day” of that feast) that God will spiritually fulfill the meaning of that feast for the purpose of which He has written about for that feast in the Bible and that is to identify with the end of the world.  The spiritual significance of that feast will be fulfilled when God destroys the world, so we can see that October 7, 2015 (not any other day) is the 40^th “40” since May 21, 2011 and the 10,000^th day of total judgment since May 21, 1988 and “the last day” of Tabernacles.  It is that day, not the day before or any other day.  That is “the last day” and that 10,000^th day happens to be the last day of the feast and the day that Jesus cried, “If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink.”  Can we not see the glorious call of God to His people at that time?  It is finally the time when all things that were written are completed and fulfilled.  Then we will turn our attention and enter into the joy of the Lord and look toward that wonderful, glorious eternal future that God has in store for His people.

We are going to move on, but we could spend a lot more time discussing some of these things that Revelation, chapter 14, has brought into focus, but time is pressing now.  We are now under a year away from October 7, 2015.  We need to move on.  It would be very nice, if it is in the Lord’s will, to complete the study in the Book of Revelation before that day comes.  Lord willing, as we get closer to that point, it is wonderful to think that we will be looking at Revelation 21, which speaks of the new heaven and new earth and the holy city and its measurements, or that we will be looking at Revelation 22, which also speaks about the new heaven and new earth.  As a matter of fact, it would be very appropriate, if it were the will of God and if we are correct about these things, for this Bible study to be studying the last Book and, perhaps, the last chapter of the last Book as we approach “the last day.”