Revelation 14:13

A voice] see on Revelation 1:10.

14-20. St. John sees one 'like unto a son of man' (RV). The expression is derived from Daniel 7:13, where it meant one in human form, as contrasted with the beasts. The title was interpreted of the Messiah, and the Jewish 'Book of Enoch' shows that under it the Messiah was regarded as a supernatural person. This was the significance of the term when our Lord applied it to Himself, and He joined to it the conception of the 'man of sorrows' of Isaiah 53. Now, after His sorrows, He is throned on a 'white cloud' (representing the glory of God, cp. Exodus 40:34; 1 Kings 8:10; Matthew 17:5; Mark 14:62), and crowned as king: cp. Revelation 19:12; (Revelation 14:14). He casts His sickle down to the earth, and the harvest of the saints is gathered (Revelation 14:15.).

Then the angel of the fire on God's altar (cp. Revelation 9:14; Revelation 16:5), the fire of God's judgments (cp. Revelation 8:5), calls for the gathering of the wicked for the winepress of God's wrath: cp. Revelation 19:15; Isaiah 63:1; Joel 3:13. (Revelation 14:17.). Those who are judged (Revelation 14:19) are separated from the heavenly state of the redeemed ('without the city,' cp. Zechariah 14:4; Zechariah 14:10; Hebrews 13:11.). The awfulness of the judgment is described in language similar to that of a description of judgment in the 'Book of Enoch'; and its universality, by the extent of land covered by blood. 'Four' is the number symbolical of the earth, and 1600 is a thousand times the square of 4: cp. '144,000,' the number expressing the people of God (Revelation 14:20).