Revelation 14 (NRSV)
1 Then I looked, and there was the Lamb, standing on Mount Zion! And with him were one hundred forty-four thousand who had his name and his Father’s name written on their foreheads. 2 And I heard a voice from heaven like the sound of many waters and like the sound of loud thunder; the voice I heard was like the sound of harpists playing on their harps, 3 and they sing a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and before the elders. No one could learn that song except the one hundred forty-four thousand who have been redeemed from the earth. 4 It is these who have not defiled themselves with women, for they are virgins; these follow the Lamb wherever he goes. They have been redeemed from humankind as first fruits for God and the Lamb, 5 and in their mouth no lie was found; they are blameless.
6 Then I saw another angel flying in midheaven, with an eternal gospel to proclaim to those who live on the earth—to every nation and tribe and language and people. 7 He said in a loud voice, “Fear God and give him glory, for the hour of his judgment has come; and worship him who made heaven and earth, the sea and the springs of water.”
8 Then another angel, a second, followed, saying, “Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great! She has made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.”
9 Then another angel, a third, followed them, crying with a loud voice, “Those who worship the beast and its image, and receive a mark on their foreheads or on their hands, 10 they will also drink the wine of God’s wrath, poured unmixed into the cup of his anger, and they will be tormented with fire and sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. 11 And the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever. There is no rest day or night for those who worship the beast and its image and for anyone who receives the mark of its name.”
12 Here is a call for the endurance of the saints, those who keep the commandments of God and hold fast to the faith of Jesus.
13 And I heard a voice from heaven saying, “Write this: Blessed are the dead who from now on die in the Lord.” “Yes,” says the Spirit, “they will rest from their labors, for their deeds follow them.”
14 Then I looked, and there was a white cloud, and seated on the cloud was one like the Son of Man, with a golden crown on his head, and a sharp sickle in his hand! 15 Another angel came out of the temple, calling with a loud voice to the one who sat on the cloud, “Use your sickle and reap, for the hour to reap has come, because the harvest of the earth is fully ripe.” 16 So the one who sat on the cloud swung his sickle over the earth, and the earth was reaped.
17 Then another angel came out of the temple in heaven, and he too had a sharp sickle. 18 Then another angel came out from the altar, the angel who has authority over fire, and he called with a loud voice to him who had the sharp sickle, “Use your sharp sickle and gather the clusters of the vine of the
-1- earth, for its grapes are ripe.” 19 So the angel swung his sickle over the earth and gathered the vintage of the earth, and he threw it into the great wine press of the wrath of God. 20 And the wine press was trodden outside the city, and blood flowed from the wine press, as high as a horse’s bridle, for a distance of about two hundred miles.
1. Symbols
a. 144,000 = Israel/ the church (see Rev 7:1-8)
b. Virgins = ritual purity for battle (see Deut 23:9–10; 1 Sam 21:5–6) or those who have not defiled themselves by “fornicating” with the great harlot of Rev 17 (i.e., worshipping idols)
c. Sickle = the harvest of judgment commonly anticipated in the Bible (see Mark 4:26–29; Matt 3:12; Luke 3:17; 10:2; John 4:35; Rom 1:13; Isa 18:5; 24:13; Jer 51:33; Hos 6:11; Joel 3:13)
2. Vision
A. The Judgment of the Creator
1. That God will judge is good news.
Rev 14:6-7 Then I saw another angel flying in midheaven, with an eternal gospel to proclaim to those who live on the earth—to every nation and tribe and language and people. He said in a loud voice, “Fear God and give him glory, for the hour of his judgment has come; and worship him who made heaven and earth, the sea and the springs of water.”
2. However we do—or don’t—understand them, God’s judgments are “true and just.”
Rev 16:7; 19:2; cf. 15:3-4; 19:11
3. God’s judgment is God setting-things-right
Rev 14:8 Then another angel, a second, followed, saying, “Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great! She has made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.”
Rev 22:2b …On either side of the river is the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, producing its fruit each month; and the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations.
Rev 22:3a Nothing accursed will be found there any more…
-2- “A permanent state of injustice would mean that God is neither true nor just, and in the narrative world of Scripture as a whole, that simply cannot be.”1
“If God is faithful—meaning, if God is God—then Babylon cannot stand.”2
“A nonindignant God would be an accomplice in injustice, deception, and violence.”3
“We could not bear to live in a world where wrong is taken lightly, where right and wrong finally make no difference. In such a world, we—what we do and what we are—would make no difference. Spare me a gospel of easy love that makes of my life a thing without consequence… God could not simply decide not to count without declaring that we do not count.”4
“[I]t is very important for those who have little or no direct experience of injustice not to criticize those who cry out for, and then celebrate, the justice of God.”5
4. God gives every chance to repent
• Five of the seven churches are exhorted to repent (see Rev 2-3)
• The “tribulations” seem aimed, at least in part, at inducing repentance—and this fact is repeated (Rev 9:20-21; 16:8-9, 10-11)
• Even Jezebel, who commits some of the sins that the book condemns the most harshly, was given time to repent but refused (Rev 2:20-21)
• In this chapter of three angelic proclamations (Rev 16), there is a progression: (1) the gospel is preached to everyone; (2) the defeat of evil is announced to everyone; (3) those who persist in following the beast are warned.
5. God’s love is freely given and freely accepted.
“God respects our free will and will never force us to turn to him… [I]f they eternally persist in such rejection, God will never violate their personality.”6
“God will judge, not because God gives people what they deserve, but because some people refuse to receive what no one deserves; if evildoers experience God’s terror, it will not be because they have done evil, but because they have resisted to the end the powerful lure of the open arms of the crucified Messiah.”7
1 Michael J. Gorman, Reading Revelation Responsibly: Uncivil Worship and Witness: Following the Lamb into the New Creation. Eugene, OR: Cascade Book, 2011: 157. 2 Joseph L. Mangina, Revelation. Brazos Theological Commentary on the Bible. Grand Rapids, MI: Brazos Press, 2010. 3 Miroslav Volf, Exclusion and Embrace: A Theological Exploration of Identity, Otherness, and Reconciliation. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1996. Amazon Kindle edition. 4 Richard John Neuhaus, Death on a Friday Afternoon: Meditations on the Last Words of Jesus from the Cross. New York: Basic Books, 2000. Amazon Kindle edition. 5 Gorman, Reading Revelation Responsibly, 157. 6 Bruce M. Metzger, Breaking the Code: Understanding the Book of Revelation. Nashville: Abingdon: 78-79. 7 Volf, Exclusion and Embrace. -3- 6. Being in hell is about being without God.
When the world “creates its own deities, it suffers the natural consequences of deifying the non-divine… because the rejection of the divine gift of life carries with it inherent deadly consequences.”8
B. The Response of the Creature
7. We must take sin seriously to appreciate grace fully.
“When one sins, something concrete happens: one’s hands may become stained, one’s back may become burdened, or one may fall into debt. And the verbal expressions that render the idea of forgiveness follow suit: stained hands are cleansed, burdens are lifted, and debts are either paid off or remitted. It is as though a stain, weight, or bond of indebtedness is created ex nihilo when one offends against God. And that thing that sin has created will continue to haunt the offenders until it has been engaged and dealt with.”9
“[F]orgiveness costs. Forgiveness is not forgetfulness, not counting their trespasses is not a kindly accountant winking at what is wrong; it is not a benign cooking of the books. In the world, in our own lives, something has gone dreadfully wrong, and it must be set right.”10
8. This word of judgment should is a warning for Christians not an invitation to judgment
Rev 14:12 Here is a call for the endurance of the saints, those who keep the commandments of God and hold fast to the faith of Jesus.
“[The visions of judgment’s] primary purpose, however, is not to instill fear but to provide a wake-up call for those who are sleeping, not merely through life, but through empire.”11
“Curiosity about what will happen to others is an idle distraction. That is God’s business.”12
John 21:20-22 Peter turned and saw the disciple whom Jesus loved following them; he was the one who had reclined next to Jesus at the supper and had said, “Lord, who is it that is going to betray you?” When Peter saw him, he said to Jesus, “Lord, what about him?” Jesus said to him, “If it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you? Follow me!”
9. We can and should hope for the salvation of all even if we cannot affirm it.
The Bible clearly teaches about hell; for example:
• The sheep will be separated from the goats (Matt 25:31-46); the accursed goats “depart from [God] into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels” (Matt 25:41);
• The wheat will go into Jesus’ granary/ barn, while the chaff/ weeds will be burned (Matt 3:12; 13:24-30);
8 Gorman, Reading Revelation Responsibly, 140. 9 Gary A. Anderson, Sin: A History. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2009: 4. 10 Neuhaus, Death on a Friday Afternoon. 11 Gorman, Reading Revelation Responsibly, 141. 12 Neuhaus, Death on a Friday Afternoon. -4- • The narrow gate leads to life, the wide gate to destruction (Matt 7:13);
• The evil will be thrown the furnace of fire, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth (Matt 13:50).
The Bible also repeatedly claims that “all” will be gathered-up/ reconciled/ have-God-in-them:
• Eph 1:b8-10 With all wisdom and insight he has made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure that he set forth in Christ, as a plan for the fullness of time, to gather up all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.
• Col 1:19-20 For in [Christ] all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of his cross.
• 1 Cor 15:28 When all things are subjected to him, then the Son himself will also be subjected to the one who put all things in subjection under him, so that God may be all in all.
1 Tim 2:3-4 This is right and is acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires everyone to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.
“Given the evidence of Scripture and tradition, we cannot deny that hell exists. We can, however, hope that hell is empty. We cannot know that, but we can hope it is the case.”13
10. We are dealing with mysteries that we have to leave to God; this is part of faith.
Isa 55:8-9 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.
Chapter 7 (“Violence and Peace”) of Miroslav Volf, Exclusion and Embrace: A Theological Exploration of Identity, Otherness, and Reconciliation. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1996.
Chapter 2 (“Judge Not”) of Richard John Neuhaus, Death on a Friday Afternoon: Meditations on the Last Words of Jesus from the Cross. New York: Basic Books, 2000.
13 Neuhaus, Death on a Friday Afternoon. -5-