Chapter Thirty- "Babylon the Great Has Fallen!"

Judgment must be executed! "And the angle thrust his sickle into the earth and gathered the vine of the earth, and he hurled it into the great winepress of  the anger of God. And the winepress was trodden outside the city, and blood  came out of the winepress as high up as the bridles of the horses, for a distance of a thousand six hundred furlongs.." (Revelation 14:19, 20) Jehovah's indignation against this vision, not only are the grapes harvested but the whole symbolic vine is cut down and thrown into the winepress to be trampled. So the vine of the earth will be stamped out from and will never be able to grow again. 

The visionary treading is done by horses, for the blood trodden out from the vine reaches "The bridles of the horses." Since the term "horses" usually refers to war operations this must be a time of war.  The armies of the heavens that follow Jesus into the final war against Satan's system of things are said to tread "the winepress of the anger of the wrath of God the Almighty." (Revelation 19:11-16) These are clearly the ones that do the treading of the vine of the earth.  The winepress is "trodden outside the city," that is, outside heavenly Zion. Indeed, it is fitting that the vine of the earth should be "trodden outside the city" in that no harm will come to the remaining ones of the woman's seed, who represent the heavenly Zion on earth.  These together with the great crowd will be safely hidden within Jehovah's organizational arrangement. -Isaiah 26:20, 21. 

This vivid vision has a parallel in the crushing  of the kingdoms of the earth b y the Kingdom stone described at Daniel 2:34, 44. There will be an extermination.  The river of blood from winepress is very deep, up to the bridles of the horse, and it extends for a distance of 1,600 furlongs.  This huge figure, produced by multiplying the square of four by the square of ten (4 x 4 x 10 x 10), emphatically conveys the message that evidence of the destruction will involve all the earth (Isaiah 66:15, 16) The destruction will be complete and irreversible. Never, no never again, will Satan's vine of the earth take root! - Psalm 83:17, 18, 

Living as we do deep in the time of the end, the vision of these two harvests is very meaningful. We have only to look around us to see the fruits of Satan's Vine. Abortions and other forms or murder; homosexuality, adultery, and other forms of immorality; dishonesty and lack of natural affection-all such things make this world vile in Jehovah's eyes. Satan's vine bears "the fruit of a poisonous plant and wormwood."  Its ruinous, Idolatrous course dishonors mankind's Grand Creator.  (Deuteronomy 29:18; 32:5; Isaiah 42:5, 8)  What a privilege it is to be actively associated  with the John class in the harvest of wholesome fruitage that Jesus is bringing forth to Jehovah's praise!  (Luke 10:2) May all of us be determined  that we will never be tainted by the vine of this world, and may we thus avoid being trampled with the vine of the earth when Jehovah's adverse judgment is executed. 

Next time: Chapter Thirty-One -Jehovah's Great Works -Great and Wonderful

From the book of Revelation