Interlude: A View of the Future

Before you start todays devotional, ask the Lord to use it to grow you up in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

As we walk through the days of the Tribulation, John continues to narrate the vision as the story continues to unfold. This chapter contains previews of coming attractions—but with a special audience in mind.

Revelation 14 records a message to those in a daily war against Satan and his henchmen. Will it turn out OK for us?

Yes, John reports. You will be harassed and sacrificed like sheep. But your sacrifice will not be meaningless.

How will God’s people make it through this period if they refuse to receive the mark of the beast? What will happen to the two beasts?

The two wild beasts are only half the story. Now John reveals the other side of the picture—the victorious stance of the Lamb and His followers in a future so real he writes about it as if it has already happened. (Chronologically it will happen in Revelation 16:17—22:5.)

Here’s the scene: The Shepherd stands on Mount Zion with 144,000 sheep and now identifies Himself as the Lamb. And no, He didn’t lose one! The Lamb—not the two beasts—has the last word. Babylon—the great political, commercial, and religious capital of the world—will fall. The followers of the Beast will be judged. Even though many of Jesus’ own will die for Him, they will win in every way that matters.

Then a voice comes from heaven, “like the voice of many waters, and like the voice of loud thunder” (v. 2). And the voice seemed like music, singing a new song which only the redeemed could sing.These144,000 have kept themselves pure when immorality spread like a virus. They refused to believe the lies of the Beast.

John then saw an angel in a line with six other angels, flying mid-heaven shouting, “Fear God and give glory to Him, for the hour of His judgment has come” (v. 7). This is God’s final call to the entire world.

Another angel announces the fall of Babylon, the fountainhead of every false religion. A third angel declares that anyone who received the mark of the beast would fall under God’s wrath.

Many of God’s Tribulation saints will lay down their lives for Christ, but during this horrific season, it will be better to die than to live. They will have rest from their sorrows, their works will follow them, and the Lord will reward them for their faithfulness, patience, and good work.

John then gets another spectacular view—on a white cloud, the Son of man, the Lord Jesus Christ Himself with a golden crown on His head and a sharp sickle in His hand descends from heaven (see Matthew 24:30). This is our Lord Jesus, the hero of Revelation.

An angel cries out, “It’s harvest time!” And the Lord gives a mighty sweep of His sickle over the earth in a single stroke. The Old Testament spoke of this as “the Day of the Lord.” The angel gathered from the earth those who will be judged in God’s great wine press. In Isaiah’s day, men would get into the winepress barefooted to tread out the grapes. The red juice would stain their clothes. In this picture, the Lord Jesus has blood on His beautiful garments as though He had trodden the winepress. When Christ came the first time, He shed His blood for all mankind, but some rejected it. Now He is trodding down the wicked, and it is their blood that is shed. This will be Armageddon—the mount of slaughter that will cover all of Israel in a final war beginning in the middle of the seven years of tribulation and is finished when Jesus Christ returns to the earth.

With this future view in mind, John unpacks the final judgments next, leading up to Christ’s victorious return putting an end to the Great Tribulation.

Next: The final set of judgments pour out on the earth.

1. Throughout history, many of those who followed God sacrificed everything, even their lives, to stay faithful. The book of Revelation will see martyrdom at an epic scale. What are you willing to sacrifice to follow God, and is there anything that you struggle to be willing to sacrifice?

2. One of the great messages of Revelation is that believers see victory through defeat. Why is this such a hard message for the people around us to understand?

3. The image of Jesus as a King coming in judgment is not how we primarily think of our Lord, but it is just as true to who He is. How often do you think of Jesus in this way, and how could thinking about it more impact your walk with Him?

Additional Resources

Listen to Dr. J. Vernon McGee’s complete teaching on Revelation 14:5-8 and Revelation 14:1-4.