And the winepress was trodden outside the city, and blood flowed from the winepress, as high as a horse's bridle, for 1,600 stadia. (Revelation 14:20)
"Outside the city" brings remembrance that Jesus suffered outside the city as He trod alone the winepress of God's wrath for us. He bore what we could never bear and did it to save us from that wrath forever. But if anyone rejects what Jesus did outside the city, if they persist in their rebellion against the true king well, then the horrible picture of this passage comes into play. The blood is depicted spread in a 184-mile radius around the holy city and as high up as a horse's bridle. That horrible image suggests the complete and utter torment that awaits those who persist in refusing Jesus as their king.
People always like to image gentle Jesus, meek and mild, and yet the Jesus you meet in the pages of the New Testament has more than a little bit of an edge about Him. After all, He bluntly said in Luke 19:27, "But as for these enemies of mine, who did not want me to reign over them, bring them here and slaughter them before me." That is exactly what this verse from Revelation depicts.
So people loved by God; there really are two ways this whole thing ends. Jesus makes that so clear in His parables of the end. Just read through Matthew 25 one more time. On the one hand, there is the joyful gathering of the saints to the Lamb carried home by the angles, welcomed into the kingdom to heaven to blessedness. But then there is the fearful, frightful, terrifying judgment that awaits without any doubt all who continue in revolt against King Jesus to their last earthly breath. They want nothing to do with Him; they want nothing from Him. Even though in love for them, He too has born the fullness of divine wrath which their sins demanded that they might be all atoned. Heaven or hell, folks, there is not a middle ground.
- Pr. Will Weedon
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