Rev 14:15-20 | JFB | STEP | 15. Thrust in-- Greek, "Send." The angel does not command the "Son of man" ( ), but is the mere messenger announcing to the Son the will of God the Father, in whose hands are kept the times and the seasons. thy sickle-- alluding to , where also it is "sendeth the sickle." The Son sends His sickle-bearing angel to reap the righteous when fully ripe. harvest-- the harvest crop. By the harvest-reaping the elect righteous are gathered out; by the vintage the Antichristian offenders are removed out of the earth, the scene of Christ's coming kingdom. The Son of man Himself, with a golden crown, is introduced in the harvest-gathering of the elect, a mere angel in the vintage ( ). is ripe-- literally, "is dried." Ripe for glory.

‏ Revelation of John 14:15-20

15. Thrust in--Greek, "Send." The angel does not command the "Son of man" (Re 14:14), but is the mere messenger announcing to the Son the will of God the Father, in whose hands are kept the times and the seasons.

thy sickle--alluding to Mr 4:29, where also it is "sendeth the sickle." The Son sends His sickle-bearing angel to reap the righteous when fully ripe.

harvest--the harvest crop. By the harvest-reaping the elect righteous are gathered out; by the vintage the Antichristian offenders are removed out of the earth, the scene of Christ's coming kingdom. The Son of man Himself, with a golden crown, is introduced in the harvest-gathering of the elect, a mere angel in the vintage (Re 14:18-20).

is ripe--literally, "is dried." Ripe for glory.

16. thrust in--Greek, "cast."

17. out of the temple ... in heaven--(Re 11:19).

18. from the altar--upon which were offered the incense-accompanied prayers of all saints, which bring down in answer God's fiery judgment on the Church's foes, the fire being taken from the altar and cast upon the earth.

fully ripe--Greek, "come to their acme"; ripe for punishment.

19. "The vine" is what is the subject of judgment because its grapes are not what God looked for considering its careful culture, but "wild grapes" (Is 5:1-30). The apostate world of Christendom, not the world of heathendom who have not heard of Christ, is the object of judgment. Compare the emblem, Re 19:15; Is 63:2, 3; Joe 3:13.

20. without the city--Jerusalem. The scene of the blood-shedding of Christ and His people shall be also the scene of God's vengeance on the Antichristian foe. Compare the "horsemen," Re 9:16, 17.

blood--answering to the red wine. The slaughter of the apostates is what is here spoken of, not their eternal punishment.

even unto the horse bridles--of the avenging "armies of heaven."

by the space of a thousand ... six hundred furlongs--literally, "a thousand six hundred furlongs off" [W. Kelly]. Sixteen hundred is a square number; four by four by one hundred. The four quarters, north, south, east, and west, of the Holy Land, or else of the world (the completeness and universality of the world-wide destruction being hereby indicated). It does not exactly answer to the length of Palestine as given by Jerome, one hundred sixty Roman miles. Bengel thinks the valley of Kedron, between Jerusalem and the Mount of Olives, is meant, the torrent in that valley being about to be discolored with blood to the extent of sixteen hundred furlongs. This view accords with Joel's prophecy that the valley of Jehoshaphat is to be the scene of the overthrow of the Antichristian foes.