Shabbat shalom kol beit Yisra'el and Mishpachah and welcome back to Part LV (55) of our study of the Book of Revelation and to the final segment of the third Interlude with the last three of the six malak (angel) messages.

By now, I hope, it is becoming very apparent just how important the malakim (angels) are to the maintenance of Yahweh's Universe. One thing I hope you are noticing, both when it comes to malakim (angels) and men, is the way Yahweh assigns so many of the tasks of the administration of the Creation to His created beings. Why, when He could have done most, if not all, of these tasks Himself supernaturally, did He delegate?

There's a very important theological and philosophical question and one that is a nightmare for the Calvinist world-view at any rate with its radical predeterminism. The more persons involved, angelic or human, the more agency must be invoked with the ever increasing capacity for simulaneously increasing love and the making of mistakes leading to the introduction of sin into the world. That's a nighmarish scenario for predeterminism which shuns responsibility for the way 'things are'. Indeed, if you take predeterminism to its logical conclusion, its god, in order to ensure the desired outcome, would never have created anyone or anything. Genuine love must be freely chosen to be 'love'. So all these supernatual and natural personalities add to the potential chaos of any genuinely free system that generates authentic love. That alone tells us so much about the wonderful, risk-taking and loving character of Elohim (God), a reminder to us that as creatures made in His image we too must take risks in order to both love and be loved! For there is nothing quite as effective in developping character as giving ones children responsibilities.

Last week we met the three malakim (angels) responsible for:

• 1. Calling for the reverential fear and worship of Yahweh with the reminder that the Besorah (Gospel) of both individual and communal salvation is still available even at this very late hour on the prophetic timetable - that no one is forced to take the Mark of the Beast or worship his image;

• 2. Announcing the fall of Babylon which in John's day was the Roman Empire and in our own is the arising Globalist totalitarian system; and

• 3. Warning believers in every generation to resist the pressures of the totalitarianism arraigned against the qodeshim (saints, set-apart ones), whether social, political or religious, because not to do so, and to compromise for some imagined relief from persecution, is to risk consignment to the place of never-ending torment for as long as Sheol/Hades/Hell is permitted to exist; and though it will one day in the distant future be cast into the lake of fire to be purged from the cosmos, when Yahweh reconciles all creatures to Himself, it is nonetheless a very real and terrible place that should never be regarded casually or indifferently.

The upshot of all this is that:

• 1. We have to be prepared to lay down our lives rather than compromise; and
• 2. We need to develop the habit of patient endurance by acknowledging and adapting it to the disciples' way of living.

But there are three more malakim (angels) or messengers for us to hear and understand which will give us the needed, rounded picture of the 'Revelation of the Third Interlude'. And clearly we need their sobering messages if we are at all to survive or overcome the final cycle of seven vial judgments. Well, actually, there are not three more but four more messages, because the six angelic appearances of this fifth vision on earth are made into seven by the Vision of the Son of Man in the centre! So these 7 are divided into a pattern or tavnith of '4 + 3'...as usual. We have considered the first three. The last four go together and are closely connected: the first two with the Harvest and the last two with the Vintage.

Turn then, would you, with me to the 14th chapter once more, beginning this time at the 11th verse. As ever, we shall be using a cosmetically-enhanced, messianised New King James Version (NKJV) as the ground text with modifications if we chance upon better translations. The only area of controversy in today's segment concerns a couple of insertions in the Greek text at verses 15 and 20 that are not to be found in the Aramaic. The first is clearly implied in the material that's actually there and the second, which speaks of the judgment of the wine-press being trodden "outside the city" of Jerusalem, may be deduced from Revelation 22:15. Originally, these two insertions were probably marginal notes that were later accidentally incorporated into the text, a practice that is known to have occasionally happened during manuscript copying. This material has been italicised and placed inside {curly brackets} in the online text I'm about to read to you. From this we can know two things, namely, that (a) the original meaning has not been changed, and that (b) there is therefore additional reason for Aramaic primacy when it comes to determining the content of the original New Testament text. Let's now read the segment:

"14 Then I looked, and behold, a white cloud (Mt.17:5), and on the cloud sat One like the (/'a' - NASB) Son of Man ('a human figure' - Barclay; 'Ben Adam' - RSTNE; 'one resembling a human being' - Moff.) (Dan.7:13; Rev,1:13; Mk.8:31), having on His head a golden crown (Rev.6:2; Ps.21:3), and in His hand a sharp sickle. 15 And another malak (angel) came out of the Temple ('Sanctuary' - JB; Sukkah/tent - RSTNE) (Rev.11:19), crying ('shouted' - Barclay) with a loud voice to Him who sat on the cloud, {'Thrust ('Put' - NASB, JB, ESV; 'take' - NIV; 'start using/use' - JNT/NRSV; 'Send [forth]' - HRV) in Your sickle (Joel 3:13; Mk.4:29) and reap, for the time has come for You to reap, for the harvest (Jer.51:33) of the earth is ripe (lit. 'has become dry'; 'the earth's crop is over-ripe' - NEB; 'fully ripe' - NRSV).'} [1] 16 So He who sat on the cloud thrust in ('applied' - KNT; 'swung' - NASB, NLT, NIV, JNT, NRSV, ESV, JBP, Barclay; 'put...to' - NEB; 'put forth' - HRV) His sickle ('set his sickle to work' - JB) on ('over' - NRSV; 'across' - ESV) the earth, and the earth was reaped ('harvested' - HRV).

"17 Then another malak (angel) came out of (Rev.11:19; 14:15; 15:6; 16:17) the Temple which is in heaven ('heavenly temple' - NEB), he also having a sharp sickle. 18 And another malak (angel) came out from the altar (Rev.6:9; 8:3,5; 16:7), who had power ('authority' - KNT, NEB, HRV, NRSV, ESV; 'power to destroy the world with' - NLT; 'had charge of' - NIV; 'command' - JBP; 'controls' - Barclay) over fire (Rev.16:8) [2], and he cried with a loud cry to him who had the sharp sickle, saying, 'Thrust in ('Go to work with' - KNT; 'Send forth' - HRV) your sharp sickle (Joel 3:13; Mk.4:29; Rev.14:15) and gather the clusters ('cut all the bunches' - JB; 'grape-harvest' - NEB) of the ['fruit from the' - KNT] vine of the earth, for her grapes ('its clusters' - NEB) are fully ripe ['for judgment' - NLT].' 19 So the malak (angel) thrust ('swung' - NASB, NIV, JNT, NRSV, ESV, JBP, Barclay) his sickle into the earth and gathered ('loaded' - NLT) the ['clusters from the' - NASB] vine ('the whole vintage' - JB; 'the vintage' - NRSV) of the earth, and threw it into the great ('a huge' - JB) winepress of the wrath ('anger' - KNT) of Elohim (God) (Rev.19:15; Is.63:2ff.; Rev.19:15). 20 And the winepress (Is.63:3; Joel 3:13; Rev.19:15) was trampled ('trodden' - KNT, JB) {outside the city} [3] (Heb.13:12; Rev.11:8), and blood came ('gushed' - Moff.) out of the winepress, up to the horses' bridles, for one thousand six hundred furlongs (Gk. 'stadia' [4] - NIV, NRSV, ESV) ('about 200 miles' - KNT, NASB, JNT; NEB, JBP, Barclay, Moff.; 'about 180 miles' - NLT; about 300 kilometers - NIV-fn; '1,200 'est'das' [5] - HRV) (Gen.49:11; Dt.32:14)" (Rev.14:14-20, NKJV).

So let's begin, as we usually do, by painting the big picture with broad strokes before we get into details and little strokes, and then summarise. You will see in a minute how scripture is actually structured to encourage us to do this. What is the bigger picture? What ought this segment call to mind to the one who knows his or her scriptures? Turn with me, if you would, to the 3rd chapter of the navi (prophet) Joel, beginning at verse 9:

"Proclaim this among the nations:
Prepare for war!
Rouse the warriors!
Let all the fighting men draw near and attack.
Beat your plowshares into swords
and your pruning hooks into spears.
Let the weakling say,
'I am strong!'
Come quickly, all you nations from every side,
and assemble there.

Bring down your warriors, O Yahweh!


'Let the nations be roused;
let them advance into the Valley of Jehoshaphat,
for there I will sit
to judge all the nations on every side.
Swing the sickle,
for the harvest is ripe.
Come, trample the grapes,
for the winepress is full
and the vats overflow -
so great is their wickedness!'
(Joel 3:9-13, NIV)

Here the grape harvesting and wine pressing are used as a metaphor for judgment in the context of the eschatological (end time) war. Consider also the navi (prophet) Isaiah in chapter 63, beginning at the first verse:

"Who is this coming from Edom,
from Bozrah, with his garments stained crimson?
Who is this, robed in splendour,
striding forward in the greatness of his strength?

'It is I, speaking in righteousness,
mighty to save,' [says Yahweh].

Why are your garments red,
like those of one treading the winepress?

'I have trodden the winepress alone;
from the nations no one was with Me.
and trod them down in My wrath;
their blood spattered my garments,
and I stained all my clothing.
For the day of vengeance was in My heart,
and the year of My redemption has come.
I was appalled that no one gave support;
so My own arm worked salvation (deliverance) for Me,
and My own wrath sustained me.
I trampled the nations in My anger;
in My wrath I made them drunk
and poured their blood on the ground"
(Is.63:1-6, NIV).

Here, Yahweh treads the wine-vat in His fury, pressing out the life-blood of the peoples. Edom here represents the spirit of Esau because none of the nations have the spirit of Jacob! Not one. Every single nation is in apostasy when this judgment takes place. No nation backs up Yahweh's judgment. This is conclusive proof that 'Kingdom-Now' theology is false, the teaching of neo-conservative American evangelicals that the Kingdom will be ushhered in by Christians through the exercise of political power. The opposite is true. Indeed, because they have chosen to do evil, they are rendered 'drunk' - senseless - in their actions, hardly the picture of a godly Christian administration, is it? Consider the stupidity and insanity...if not downright evil...coming out of government degrees these days! Yahweh is sending "strong delusion" - 'drunkenness' - everywhere. Listen to the insanity of the 'woke' postmodernist crowd. As Paul testified to the Thessalonians:

"They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. For this reason Elohim (God) sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie and so that all will be condemned who have not believed the truth but have delighted in wickedness" (2 Thess.2:10-12, NIV).

As a third witness we have the same metaphor used by the navi (prophet) Jeremiah in the 25th chapter, verses 15-16 and 28-31:

"This is what Yahweh, the Elohim (God) of Israel, said to me: 'Take from My hand this cup filled with the wine of my wrath and make all the nations to whom I send you drink it. When they drink it, they will stagger and go mad because of the sword I will send among them....But if they refuse to take the cup from your hand and drink, tell them, 'This is what Yahweh-Elohim says: You must drink it! See, I am beginning to bring disaster on the city that bears my Name, and will you indeed go unpunished? You will not go unpunished, for I am calling down a sword upon all who live on the earth, declares Yahweh-Elohim.'

"Now prophesy all these words against them and say to them:

"'Yahweh will roar from on high;
He will thunder from His qadoesh (holy, set-apart) dwelling
and roar mightily against His land.
He will shout like those who tread the grapes,
shout against all who live on the earth.
The tumult will resound to the ends of the earth,
for Yahweh will bring charges against the nations;
He will bring judgment on all mankind
and put the wicked to the sword,'"
declares Yahweh" (Jer.25:15-16,28-31, NIV).

I could go on. Judgment is also symbolised by the harvest mentioned by Jeremiah and Joel:

"This is what Yahweh-Elohim, the Elohim (God) of Israel, says: 'The Daughter of Babylon is like a threshing floor at the time it is trampled; the time to harvest her will soon come'" (Jer 51:33, NIV).

"For you also, O Judah, a harvest [of destruction] is appointed" (Hos.6:11, NRSV).

And finally, as far as this segment's 'big picture' is concerned, recall Yah'shua's (Jesus') own parable of the wheat and tares (weeds), especially Mark 4:29 and Matthew 13:39-42 for both there, and here, the Messiah is the reaper at the final judgment using malakim (angels) as His instruments. Moreover here, in Revelation 14, it is Christ who treads the winepress, more of which I will say in chapter 19, verse 15, which tells us that "a sharp two-edged sword is coming out of His mouth, so that with it He can strike down the nations. He will rule them with an iron rod, and He will tread the winepress of the wine of His anger of the wrath of Almighty Elohim (God)" (Rev.19:15, KNT). So the imagery is unmistakable and impossible to misinterpret.

So now to some important details. The first observation we need to make about today's segment is how the Son of Man stands out as the centre of the whole seven, thus dividing the 6 malakim (angels) into two 3's. The last 4 form two pairs. The first of each pair is seen with a sharp sickle in his hand, while the second of each pair gives forth his mitzvah or command for the sickle to be used. In the first pair, the Harvest (grain-gathering) of the earth is reaped; in the second pair, the Vintage (grape harvest) of the earth is gathered. This should immediately alert us to the annual sequence of harvests and gatherings of the divine moedim (appointments), beginning with the Barley and Wheat Harvests in the spring and summer (Yom haBikkurim and Shavu'ot, respectively) followed by the Grape Harvest in the autumn (Sukkot). The grapes ripen prior to Sukkot or the Feast of Tabernacles which is a huge clue as to when this terrible period of judgment is going to begin - the Second Coming and Judgment are all autumn (fall) events. We know what time of the year He's coming back!

I think it's probably worth our pausing here to consider an important feature of the Book of Revelation because this is a wonderful testimony as to its divine origin. I don't normally talk about this kind of technical material, otherwise this course would be twice as long as it already is; but I think this would be a good time to make you aware of the heaven's divine marking here. I love looking for heavenly signatures because it's a sure way to authenticate a composition, just as the artist's signature identifies the painting in whose corner it sits. To be sure, some of this can be faked but not on such a vast scale.

Now I don't consult this source very often (because I find it mostly useless and unedifying) but the other day I opened up my copy of Peake's Commentary of the Bible which was obligatory reading for both teachers like myself and our students by the Examining Board for those wishing to take the Advanced Level Religious Studies course which I briefly taught in Oxford. This volume was compiled by liberals and atheists with an agenda hostile to Christianity, who do not believe in the supernatural at all; they very deliberately try to make the Book of Revelation, like the rest of the Bible, out to be a semi-randomly assembled document written by multiple authors, redacted many times over a long period of time. They're not out to just identify portential issues but to actively create them. They believe, like most sceptics, that Revelation is is full of anachronisms and contradictions. This volume has been more or less continuously in print since 1962 and is called Peake's Commentary of the Bible. It's full of idle and quite useless speculation designed to denigrate Holy Writ.

Anyway, the other day I opened the commentary on today's segment, more out of curiosity than anything else, and shook my head at its preposterous claims. It was like reading one of Kipling's Just So children's stories pretending to be all grown-up. Never assume that all intelligent, intellectual people are right. As the great Afro-American economist Thomas Sowell rightly observed, some of the most disasterous political and economic decisions have been made by intellectuals who simply are lacking in the broader, diffuse picture of things, focussed as they are on just one or two areas of specialisation. Now please don't get me wrong: I am all for sound scholarship! We are the poorer without it in our understanding of Scripture. Just don't assume that the craniacs are always right. Most of the time they aren't. Most of the scholars of the first century AD - the Pharisees and Scribes (Torah-teachers) - weren't right either because they were dedicated to their own religious and political agendas. They totally missed the Messiah when He was staring them right in the face! So don't be intimidated by them - ther'e a lot of arrogance in that community. Find sound scholars with the big picture who are authentic believers and who genuinely love people. I share many of them with you in my own findings. And it's not only 'liberal' scholars who are to blame. Often conservative scholars have denominational agendas too.

To show you just how precise the Book of Revelation is by presenting you with a clear mark of its divine inspiration, I am borrowing a chart made by E.W.Bullinger, the late and very brilliant Victorian-era Anglican scholar whose works I often consult, which shows how this segment is arranged or structured. Please be aware that the whole of the Book of Revelation is so organised, and on multiple levels too, an alalysis that has taken scholars generations to unpack.

You will notice immediately that there are five basic 'layers' that repeat, mirror-like, with ever increasing complexity. Scholars call these structures chiasms from the Greek word khiasmos meaning a crosswise arrangement (the picture is the Greek letter chi that looks a bit like our 'X'). They're present elsewhere in the nevi'im (prophets) and in the psalms too so they are by no means limited to the Book of Revelation. This makes the Book of Revelation one of the most complicated arrangements of a Scriptural text ever when every part is taken together and laid out like a giant jigsaw puzzle. Many of the apparent 'repetitions' of scripture are therefore quite deliberate because as a tool for enhancing memory they are most effective. And, remember, the Bible was was written to be memorised at a time when hardly anyone owned books and few were literate. So the same material or theme is repeated but using different words at least twice.

For instance, let's take the first two verses of Psalm 32:

"Happy the man
---whose fault is forgiven,
------whose sin is blotted out;
Happy the man
---whom Yahweh accuses of no guilt,
------whose spirit is incapable of deceit!"
(Ps.32:1-2, JB)

So looking at the structure of Revelation 14:14-20, what do we see? We see that the Harvest and Vintage are reaped and gathered, respectively, by the Son of Man and by the 5th malak (angel), but - note this - they are recorded under the 4th and 6th malakim (angels), as shown in the structure.

"Then I looked, and there was a white cloud, and sitting on the cloud one like a Son of Man, He had a gold crown on His head, and a sharp sickle in His hand" (Rev.14:14, KNT).

Yah'shua (Jesus) tells us Himself in Matthew's Gospel that He, as Son of Man, is the Sower (Mt.13:37); and now here, in the Book of Revelation, we are told that He is also the Reaper. This is the very last time the title is used in the Bible because there is no more reaping after this. This connects the Saviour with the earth, and is therefore used of this 'harvest of the earth'. When the title, 'Son of Man', was first used in the day of His humiliation (Mt.8:20), He had nowhere to lay down His head. But now, in the day of His Judgment, that same head is found to be wearing a crown of gold! So this Title is only ever used in connection with the earth, never with heaven, where it finds its first reference in Psalm 8:4. Please note what that psalm says:

"You have given Him dominion over the works of Your hands; you have put all things under His feet, all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea, whatever passes along the paths of the seas. O Yahweh, our Sovereign, how majestic is Your Name in all the earth!" (Ps.8:6-9, ESV).

So, to underline the point, whenever you come across the title, 'Son of Man', it always refers to the Master Yah'shua (Jesus) in connection with His dominion in the earth. And, as here, it is used of His second coming, and refers to the judgment which He is 'there and then' to exercise. This title is used 84 times in the Messianic Scriptures (New Testament) but is never once used by Paul in his epistles to the various congregations (churches). Have you ever wondered why? The reason for that is that it has nothing to do with the messianic communities (churches)! Nevertheless it appears 80 times in the four Gospels and in Acts. Why? Because there we have Christ on the earth and there He is presented as 'King-in-Residence', as it were. And when the King is present, so also is His Kingdom (Mt.3:2; 4:17; Mk.1:15). And here, in Revelation 14, we have the King returning a second time to take up residence on the earth, bringing with Him the 144,000 from all the ages past and present. When this title is therefore used, the Messiah is always on earth. And that's our final destiny, as earth-bound resurrected beings, not as disembodied spirits in heaven floating about 'out there'. When He returns, heaven and earth unite as one, never to be separated again as they were after the Fall. The Son of Man and the Son of Elohim (God) become One, like the two Kingdoms - the one visible and the other invisible - that He rules.

This is therefore a critically important passage to understand. Whereas He had no place to lay His head at His first coming (Mt.8:20), now He has the golden crown of Dominion and Rulership on His head (Rev.14:14). Both references are connected (a) with His 'head' and (b) with the 'earth' where now His Throne is placed and is occupied. This Title is one of two related titles, the other being the "Son of Elohim (God)" which points to His rulership in heaven. Listen to His own explanation in the Gospel of John:

"I tell you the truth, a time is coming, and has now come, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of Elohim (God) and those who hear will live. For as the Father has chayim (life) in Mimself, so He has granted the Son to have chayim (life) in Himself. And He has given Him authority to judge [on the earth] because He is the Son of Man" (John 5:25-27, NIV).

So why is the title, 'Son of Man' never applied to the Messianic Community (Church)? Is it, as Bullinger and others mistakenly claim, because the Messianic Community (Church) is not subject to the terrors of the Great Tribulation, because it has been allegedly whisked away, or raptured, to heaven? No. 'Son of Man' isn't applied to the Messianic Community (Church) because as a title it doesn't represent the full manifestation and glory of the Kingdom of our Father - that can only happen when Christ is physically present in glory as the Son of Elohiom (God) too! And He won't be present until He returns to inaugurate the Millennium.

This distinction between the Son of Man and the Son of Elohim (God), as also between the Messianic Community (Church) and the Kingdom of Elohim (God), has been confused, in part, I think, because of the way we now think...or rather, don't think. What do I mean by that? What I was a boy at British boarding school in the 1960's and early 70's, and certainly when my parents were youngsters between the two World Wars, the Anglican Harvest Festival was very important indeed. It was even more important before the First World War. You see, that terrible conflict from 1914 to 1918 sent so many country workers to their deaths and as a result many lovely centuries-old traditions died out. People no longer have the instinctive feel for the joy of harvest as once they did. That certainly would not have been true for a first-century audience for whom the harvest meant the difference between life and death, as they read about harvest-time, on the one hand, and vintage-time on the other. This is what they worked for, sweated for, every year of their lives, for whom crop failures would have meant famine and starvation. This is why I get so upset whenever food that has been laboriously grown, whether in our own garden or elsewhere, is taken for granted and wasted. Someone who buys food in the supermarket has a completely different view of food to someone who has dug the earth, planted the seeds, watched lovingly over their growth, watered, weeded, been anxious about the weather, and finally harvested themselves.

The more work you persaonally put in, the more worth you have for the food you eat. Food is life. Food is the blood, sweat and tears of those who worked the ground and harvested. Harvest time, then, is the moment of joy for hard-working farmers and country folk in general when the long months of sowing, tending, watering, pruning and protecting are at last complete. Now it's time for celebration. And even if many of John's readers lived in cities, nobody in those days and in those cultures was far from the land and its habits. Those of us living in cities in particular who take for granted all the produce in our shops need to remind ourselves, and teach our children, to be grateful for the hard work of farmers and market gardeners. Without such an appreciation, what is being said in today's segment will be under-appreciated. So the harvest and the vintage are meant to be occasions of great, uninhibited joy.

I still remember the little country churches where everybody gathered at the Harvest Festival to give thanks for the harvest and vintage. At the altars were beautiful displays of vegetables and fruits. Everyone attended, believers and unbelievers alike, because everyone in those local communities shared in the toil and knew what the harvest meant for their survival and prosperity. And that is what we are supposed to do in the summer and autumn (fall) festivals of Messianic Israel too - at Shavu'ot (Weeks) and at Sukkot (Tabernacles), because this is the season of the harvest of souls too which is what the harvest festival symbolises; and that is the difference between simcha (joy) in the presence of Father and the misery and torment of those cast into hell. It's all a matter of the satisfaction or shame we feel as we present the fruit of our Kingdom labours before Him.

It is therefore to be regreted that when this segemt of the Book of Revelation is read out, the focus tends only to be on the 'hell' or terrifying judgment part, namely, the Son of Man, Yah'shua (Jesus) Himself, executing Yahweh's wrath with His sickle (vv.14-16) and a malak (angel) from heaven gathering up the 'grapes of wrath' which are understood to be the wicked nations who are about to suffer divine punishment. But the harvest imagery here, and the natural implications it would carry, tell another story. Yes, of course, there is a harvest of wrath, but that's not the whole, or even the main, story line jere. The previous chapter (13) warned Yahweh's people against worshipping the Beast, and the next chapter (15) will see those same people with victory won, singing the New Song by the Sea of Glass. The big question is this: how have they come from the one place to the other? And the answer, accordinmg to John, by themselves becoming the harvest, the vintage, of Yahweh! You see, these are images, first and foremost of final salvation (what to us still is 'salvation-future'), not of condemnation. This is good news!

But this isn't any old sort of 'salvation' and certainly not the kind you mostly here in Protestant churches - and this is where the Book of Revelation, yet again, becomes a sifter of false dotrine from the true. This is a salvation-through-suffering theology because that's the only kind of biblcial salvation there is, ever was, and ever will be. Salvation may be free, as Protestant are all to eager to point out, but it also costs you everything you've got. It's free from Yahweh without charge, but the price you pay is your willingness to suffer and if necessary lay down your life for the One who purchased that salvation for you on the Cross. We are saved by grace - the undeserved loving-kindness of Elohim (God) - but grace is not cheap. It costs dearly. The grace given us by Christ is free as much the grace given by us to others must be free - freely received, freely given. Christ's grace cost Him everything, as must ours. Moreover, He tells us, we are only forgiven our trespasses toward Him as we forgive those who trespass against us (Mt.6:12; Lk.11:4; 1 Jn.1:9). Do you see the dynamic? - the divine tavnith (pattern)? The Book of Revelation makes absolutely sure that we do see the relatedness.

All the way throughout this remarkable book, and especially here, John is encouraging his readers to face the prospect of persecution in faith and to do sob with patience. And if it isn't as obvious as it ought to be, that goes for all relationships. If we're not willing to suffer for others, or to forgive the inescapable wrong that will be done to us in every relationship known to man, as we too wrong them, then how can we expect to receive anything good ourselves? This 'law of grace', if I can call it that, is built into the very fabric of creation and of relationships. And if we refuse to enter into relationships because we don't want to have to potentially endure suffering or forgive those who wrong us, then what is our destinty? Loneliness, whether apart from Elohim (God) or apart from one another. And if we ever find ourself in that lonely state, it is usually because we have chosen it. If you are seeking happiness and fulfillment by any other means, you will fail. It's guaranteed. Only the risk-takers succeed.

So when "one like a Son of Man" - which is an obvious allusion to Daniel 7 - is encouraged by the malak (angel) to "put in Your sickle and reap" (which is an obvious allusion to Joel 3), we should see this in terms of the faithful people who are, as Yah'shua (Jesus) Himself said of people, "white (or ripe) for harvest", ready to be saved:

"My food," said Yah'shua (Jesus), 'is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to finish His work. Do you not say, 'Four months more and then the harvest'? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest. Even now the reaper draws his wages, even now he harvests the crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together''" (John 4:34-37, NIV).

It's always harvest time for someone and we are to be ready at all times to harvest. And if persecution and martyrdom come, they are to be clearly understood by us not simply as the random and vicious attacks of a brutal régime, but as Yah'shua (Jesus) Himself using human wickedness as the means of bringing in the harvest. In other words, persecution and martyrom are instruments that He uses, and He rewards those willing to be thus used. And who are the ones willing to be thus used? The authentically saved for service, the one authentically born-again or spiritually-regenerated for witness, because the majority of believers aren't willing to be persecuted or martyred. On the contray, they want to be whisked away to some fantasy rapture-land. And as we're seeing, over and over again in the Book of Revelation, 'rapture', as it is today known, isn't even on offer. There is no promise of any 'rapture' escapism anywhere in the Bible. The promise is what is offered to those willing to suffer and lay down their lives for the truth if called upon to do so. That is the testimony of the Book of Revelation.

This truth is particularly striking in the image of the vineyard here. Vines, grapes, and the wine which they produce, are regularly seen in Scripture as an image of Israel, of Yahweh's people. Only when the grapes go wild is there a problem, as we see in Isaiah 5. Why, then, does John speak of the grapes being thrown into the winepress of Elohim's (God's) anger in verse 19?

To answer that question, we have to go back to yet another prophetic passage, this time Isaiah 63, where the royal figure who seems to be a development both of the Messiah of Isaiah 9 and 11 and of the Servant of Isaiah 42 and 53 is trampling down the grapes by Himself, getting His clothes spattered with juice in the process. In that case, He is bent on vengeance, on crushing and trampling the peoples who have ruined Yahweh's earth and enslaved His people. By itself that allusion might incline us to suppose that in this apocalyptic picture, too, collecting grapes and throwing them into a winepress might be a sign of the coming judgment.

But when John appeals to Isaiah 63 later in the book, the staining of the clothes of the Messiah is from His own blood (Rev.19:13-16; cp. 1:5)! Don't miss that vital point. We are told, again and again, that the Lamb has conquered through His blood, His sacriificial death (Heb.2:14), and that His followers are to conquer in the sme way (Rom.8:37)! So be careful what you read in the commentaries on today's segment! This points us to a strange oxymoron [6] which we have already met, namely, 'the anger of the Lamb'...who has ever met an angry lamb?! You see, somehow, the way in which Yahweh works salvation, and the way He works wrath, are intimately connected - because they meet on the Cross! Are you getting this? And because they meet, as well, in the martyrdom of Yah'shua's (Jesus') followers - they don't diverge with one lot being 'raptured' to safety and the other lot - the 'left behind' - being murdered. If you grasp this truth, they you have grasped the central mystery of the Cross: the winepress is where Elohim's (God's) wrath is being prepared, for Babylon and all Beast-worshippers to drink. But the wine itself is the lifeblood of the martyrs who are being harvested! And this, brothers and sisters, is the place where the wheat and the tares - the true and the false Christians/Messianics - are separated. Oh, and by the way, this is not the interpretation that the 'flesh' wants to hear, because the flesh wants to be raptured away from trouble, suffering, responsibility...and the need to forgive terrible oppression!

That this is what John has in mind is made even clearer when we consider that the winepress is being trodden "outside the city" in verse 20. Had this been a picture of Yahweh's judgment on unrepentant Babylon, or any other city, one would expect the winepress to be at the heart of the city; or perhaps, even, the whole city would become a great winepress for the avenging malak (angel), or even the Messiah Himself, to trample. But "outside the city", as we know from Hebrews 13:11-14, was already well known as a summary statement of where Yah'shua (Jesus) Himself was taken to be crucified! Do you remember?

"The Cohen Gadol (High Priest) carries the blood of animals into the Most Holy Place as a sin offering, but the bodies are burned outside the camp. And so Yah'shua (Jesus) also suffered outside the city gate to make the people qadosh (holy, set-apart) through His own blood. Let us, then, go to Him outside the camp, bearing the disgrace He bore" (Heb.13:11-13, NIV).

What, then, are we to make the horrible sight of blood flowing out of the winepress, "as high as a horse's bridle, for about 200 miles" (Rev.14:20, KNT)? Now, as we all know, there have been many great battles and massacres in history after which horrified onlookers have reported rivers of blood, birds and animals choking in blood, and so on. The 1,600 stadia or approximately 2,000 miles or 3,000 kilometers, do roughly correspond to the length of the Promised Land; so what in all likelihood is being described here is either the literal cleansing of the entire Holy Land prior to Messiah's second coming or the cleansing of the whole of Messianic Israel, the people or quodeshim (saints, set-apart ones)...or both. Indeed, there may be multiple layers to the prophecy of this segment. Indeed, in view of the fact that the harvest is of the whole earth, and the vintage is of the whole earth, then it is not unreasonable to likewise conclude that the '~2,000 miles' or '~3,000 kilometers' represent the whole earth too. This is a global cleansing as one would expect of the events immediately preceeding the start of the Millennial Reign and marking the end of the previous æon or age. The cleansing is global, and the sickle is "sharp", meaning the cleansing will be accomplished without much difficulty.

Finally, may I draw your attention to the fact that all of this is a pre- or fore-announcement of the 6th vial or bowl of chapter 16, verses 12 to 16 that we have yet to come to, which describes the great Battle of Armageddon. It is specifically to this scene that Joel 3:12-15 refers where we read that "the winepress is full and the vats overflow" (v.13, NIV). And this is likewise closely connected with the first half of the verse which says:

"Swing the sickle, for the harvest is ripe" (Joel 3:13, NIV; cp. Zeph.3:8; Is.34:1-8).

"Out of His mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations. 'He will rule them with an iron scepter.' He treads the winepress of the fury of the wrath of Elohim (God) Almighty" (Rev.19:15, NIV; cp. Is.63:1-4).

And whilst the awful scene is, as I have said, global, the focus of attention is clearly Jerusalem and not Rome; it is Israel, not Italy, even though John certainly has the Roman Empire in focus for his day. This will hopefully also clarify the important end-time events surrounding chapters 3 and 4 of the Book of Isaiah which I cite a lot because they concern the Last Exodus and what must happen to the men and women alike, for these chapters describe a culling of the false male believers and a cleansing of the surviving female ones who are, for the most part, their widows:

"When Yahweh has washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion, and purged the blood of Jerusalem from her midst, by the spirit of judgment and by the spirit of burning, then Yahweh will create above every dwelling place of Mount Zion, and above her assemblies, a cloud and smoke by day and the shining of a flaming fire by night. For over all the glory there will be a covering. And there will be a tabernacle for shade in the daytime from the heat, for a place of refuge, and for a shelter from storm and rain" (Isa.4:4-6, NKJV).

This is not, as those mesmerised by Zionism suppose, a depiction of the literal Jerusalem today or in the near future, but is part of that overall description of global Christendom that has become so corrupted since the days the Book of Revelation was written. The carnal, fleshy disposition of the "daughters of Zion" (Is.3:16-17) must be burned out of them before the Chavurat Bekorot or Holy Order can arise in strength, and that must happen before Yah'shua (Jesus) returns. Only when we read the nevi'im (prophets) and the Book of Revelation in these terms will we finally grasp what is going on and what must yet happen to the so-called 'church'. Put bluntly, the lawless 'church' led by lawless men has to die before Torah-ovedient and Messiah-trusting Messianic Israel arises led by godly Christian Israelite men in which the purged, fleshy, allegorical 'daughters of Zion' outnumber the men seven-to-one, and together constitue the end-time 144,000.

The surviving believers will have no more to do with Christ under the title of "the Son of Man" than the Syro-Phoenician woman had anything to do with Him as "the Son of David". Why? Because what is today called the 'Church' will be gone...not raptured away into heaven but because it will cease to exist as a representative of Christ in any shape, size or form. Its male leaders who have not perished will have been killed in the slaughter, as Isaiah 3 prophesies, leaving a New and Final Generation of leaders fulfilling the criteria of the Book of Revelation as those who sing "the song of Moses the servant of Elohim (God) and the song of the Lamb" (Rev.15:3, NIV), who show "patient endurance" and "obey Elohim's (God's) mitzvot (commandments) and remain faithful to Yah'shua (Jesus)" (Rev.14:12, NIV; cp. 12:17).

Are you seeing the bigger picture now? Are you finally understanding how everything that I have been teaching you for the last 35 or so years neatly ties together...and in real time? The Book of Revelation is the key to our understanding of how everything now unfolds in regard to the fate of Christendom and the world. Everything is about to change; absolutely everything is about to be turned upside down and only those who have a solid grasp of, and live out, the Book of Revelation will be equipped to handle it. That is why I have been commanded to teach this course at this critical moment in time.

That brings us to the end of the Seven Shofar Judgments and the third Interlude. Yahweh's time is coming, and has finally come - Yahweh's nevi'im (prophets) are making contact with the advance wave of His presence right now as I speak. Yahweh is bringing His Torah-obedient, Messiah-trusting people safely home, not in ways that you have perhaps anticipated or hoped for, but in His way. Yahweh will take even the wickedness and rebellion of the world and make it turn to His praise and to the salvation of His people. And in the meantime His people are to be encouraged in their suffering. Don't give up. It's all Good News. Martyrdom itself will be part of Yahweh's purpose to bring His wise, healing order - which includes His relentless judgment on relentless sinners - to bear upon the world. As with the First Exodus from Egypt, the plagues which were inflicted merely served to heighten the glory of Elohim's (God's) eventual redeeming act. But that takes us into the next chapter for which we will assemble next week, Yah willing. Until then, may you be sober, awaken fully from your slumbers, and seize the day and its opportunities, is my prayer in Yah'shua's (Jesus') Name. Amen.

Endnotes

[1] The phrase "Take your sickle and reap, because the time to reap has come, for the harvest of the earth is ripe" is, for some reason, not to be found in the Aramaic and is not included by Roth (AENT), Lamsa, Murdock or Etheridge (yet is, surprisingly, included in the HRV). Because they follow the Greek text, other 'messianic' translations like the JNT/CJB, HRV, ISRV, Halleluyah Scriptures and RSTNE, include the additional material. In the Aramaic this complete phrase is only found in v.18 as applied to the second malak (angel, messenger); nevertheless it is clear that both the Son of Man and the second malak (angel) possess sickels and are reaping - the added phrase in the Greek must therefore be by way of clarification and should properly be italicised in the Greek translations, and is so, accordingly, italicised in our text.
[2] In contemporary Jewish belief certain malakim (angels) were considered to have power over the various elements (e.g. 1 Enoch 60:11-21). Gangiel was generally considered to be the malak (angel) over fire, but in the Testament of Abraham it is Purael (perhaps he Hellenised form of Uriel). Some of the rabbis considered that the origin of all malakim (angels) was in a fiery river mentioned in Daniel 7:10. In the Syriac Apocalypse of Baruch (6:4ff.): "I beheld and lo! four malakim (angels) standing at the four corners of the city, each of them holding a torch of fire in his hands. And another malak (angel) descended from heaven and said to them: Hold your torches and do not light them till I tell you" (late 1st century AD).
[3] The phrase, "outside the city" is not found in the Aramaic and is omitted by the AENT (but not, surprisingly, by the HRV); it is probably a later Greek clarification and should likewise be italicised in the Greek translations, and is so, accordingly, italicised in our text. Because they follow the Greek text, other 'messianic' translations like the JNT/CJB, HRV and Halleluyah Scriptures, include the additional material.
[4] A stadion was about 600 feet
[5] 1 est'da (Aram.) is about 202 yards
[6] A figure of speech with pointed conjunction of seemingly contradictory expressions

Acknowledgements

[1] Tom Wright, Revelation for Everyone - The New Testament for Everyone Commentary Series, Vol.19 (SPCK, London: 2011)
[2] E.W.Bullinger*, Commentary on Revelation (Kregel Classics, Grand Rapids, Michihan: 1984)
[3] David H. Stern, Jewish New Testament Commentary (JNT Publications, Clarksville, Maryland: 1992)
[4] ESV Study Bible (Crossway, Wheaton, Illinois: 2011)
[5] The NIV Study Bible (Zondervan, Grand Rapids, Michigan: 1995)
[6] Ed. J.R.Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (MacMillan, London: 1909)
[7] David Pawson, Unlocking the Bible: A Unique Overview of the Whole Bible (Collins, London: 2007)

*E.W.Bullinger was a brilliant Anglican clergyman and scholar whose works merit careful study by serious students of the Bible. He was, however, seriously in error in at least three main areas, namely, (1) he believed the 'Church' has been raptured before the Book of Revelation opens, (2) he believed that the 7 churches in Revelation 2-3 are 7, literal Jewish churches or assemblies yet to come, and (3) he believed in a pre-tribulation, pre-millennial rapture.

• 1. White horse - military aggression
• 2. Red horse - bloodshed
• 3. Black horse - famine
• 4. Pale Green/Blanched/Pallid/Sickly-looking horse - disease, epidemics

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• 5. Persecution & prayer
• 6. Tremour & terror

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  INTERLUDE I (Ch.7)
  (The 144,000 Redeemed)

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• 7. Silence in heaven, listening to prayers which are then answered in a final catastrophe: a severe earthquake I

• 1. Scorched earth
• 2. Polluted sea
• 3. Contaminated water
• 4. Reduced sunlight

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• 5. Insects and plague (for five months) (1st Woe)
• 6. Oriental invasion (200 million army) (2nd Woe)

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  INTERLUDE II (Ch.10-11)
  (The Malak with the Little Scroll)
  (The Two Witnesses)

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• 7. The Kingdom comes, the world is taken over by Yahweh & Yah'shua (Jesus) after a severe earthquake II (3rd Woe)

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  INTERLUDE III (Ch.13-14)
  (The First & Second Beasts)
  (The Lamb & the 144,000)
  (The Messages of the Three Malakim)

  ---

• 1. Boils on the skin
• 2. Blood in the sea
• 3. Blood from the springs
• 4. Burning by the sun

  ---

• 5. Darkness
• 6. Armageddon

  ---

• 7. Hailstorm (OB 368:11-12) and severe earthquake III, leading to international collapse