Revelation 14-1-20 Part 1
1) Then I looked and, lo, a Lamb having been standing upon the mount – Zion; and with Him a hundred and forty-four thousands having had His Name and His Father’s Name written on their foreheads.
2) Then I heard sound from the heaven as sound from many waters and as sound from great thunder; then the sound that I heard as harpers harping in their harps;
3) and they sing a new song before the throne and in the presence of the four creatures and the twenty four elders, and no one is enabled to understand the song except the hundred and forty-four thousands of the land who have been bought.
4) These are the ones not defiled with women, for they are chaste; these are the ones following the Lamb wherever He leads; these firstfruit were bought from the men to God and to the Lamb,
5) and falsehood was not found in their mouth; they are blameless.
6) Then I saw a messenger flying in mid-heaven having age-enduring proclamation to proclaim against those dwelling on the land, and upon the nations and tribes and tongues and people
7) declaring in a great sound ‘Fear ye The God and give glory to Him, for the hour of His judgment has come; and do homage to The One having made the heaven and the earth and sea and springs of waters.’
8) Then another, a second, followed saying ‘Fallen! Babylon the great, from whom the wine of the passion of her fornication all the nations have drunk, is fallen!’
9) Then another messenger, a third, followed them saying in a great sound ‘If anyone adores the beast and the image of it and receives a mark on his forehead or on his hand,
10) he will also drink from the wine, having been previously prepared unmixed, of the wrath of God in the cup of His anger; and he will be tormented in fire and brimstone in the presence of holy messengers and in the presence of the Lamb,
11) and the smoke of their torment rises into ages of ages, and they have no rest day or night.’ These are the ones who adore the beast and its image and anyone taking the mark of its name;
12) whereas the perseverance of the saints is in this: they are keeping the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.
13) Then I heard sound from the heaven telling me, write ‘Blessed the dead who die henceforth in Kurios; the Spirit says that they will receive rest from their travails for their works follow together with them.’
14) Then I looked and, lo, a white cloud; and on the cloud the seated likeness of Son of Man having a golden crown on His head and a sharp sickle in His hand.
15) And another messenger came out from the Holy Place crying out in a great sound to the One seated upon the cloud, ‘Send in Your sickle and reap for the hour is come to reap, for the harvest of the land is ripened.’
16) And the One sitting upon the cloud thrust His sickle upon the land and the land was reaped.
17) Then another messenger came forth from the Holy Place in the heaven, it also having a sharp sickle.
18) Then another messenger came forth from the altar having authority over the fire, and it called out with a great sound saying to the one with the sharp sickle, ‘Thrust your sharp sickle and gather the clusters of the vine of the land, for her clusters have ripened.’
19) And the messenger thrust its sickle into the land and gathered the vine of the land and cast into the great winepress of the wrath of God.
20) And the winepress was trodden outside the city; and blood came forth from the winepress as high as the horses’ bridles for a thousand six hundred stadia.
As we address the beginning of chapter fourteen, Yahveh’s sign of the woman and sign of the dragon (chapters twelve and thirteen) is complete; but there’s certainly no break in John’s letter. And what the apostle is now caused to see and hear in the cloud of glory is of enormous (towering) significance! And I use those two adjectives (“enormous” and “towering”) because of the “mountain theology” that is reintroduced here in the text of verse one.
I say “reintroduced”; but the fact that it’s here just confirms and bolsters our faith in the continuity and consistency of God’s Word. The mountain is prominent all through Scripture…..from the beginning! So it’s no surprise at all that God’s perception of His history is shown to John in the heaven.
Remember that this is our God’s view of His creation and His history; and it is the reality which we must acknowledge and give assent, and to which we must accede, and in which we must stand. It is the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of Man; God the Son.
So, even though the sign of the woman and the sign of the dragon (chapters twelve and thirteen) is complete, there is the inevitable continuity that exists between what John has seen and heard in those chapters, and what he now sees and hears in this chapter fourteen.
The decreed conflict (Yahveh’s decree in the garden) between the seed of the woman and the seed of the dragon has reached the point in God’s history at which all Israel is in idolatrous submission to the fourth beast of history. The beast is the Roman empire; and the number of the beast is man in rebellion against God and provoked by the serpent of old – its lustful vengeance toward God being insatiable.
And Israel now “adores” this beast rather than Triune God Who made her and covenanted with her and created her a “paradise” after the fashion of His tabernacle in the cloud of glory.
And so her sin is “filled up” just as the sin of the Canaanites was filled up before them. And all Israel is ready to be “harvested”, bundled and burned in the lake of fire (as we’ll see later in this chapter).
But now John sees the Lamb. Just as the dragon was “positioned”, or “set”, upon the seashore, the Lamb of God has been “set” upon the Mount (Psalm 2). He is standing there, and He has been standing there; and His lost sheep of the house of Jacob are with Him… all of them “marked” with the mark of God. John sees them as God perceives them… on the mountain of God – Zion.
The first thing I want to do is read the passage to which we often refer. It is Psalm two. It is the Psalm in which the psalmist refers to the declaration of God the Son that He is the One anointed of The Father and installed as King on Mount Zion. I’ll give you as close to a literal translation as possible (considering our time constraints). Listen to it:
1) Why have nations tumultuously assembled and peoples meditate vanity?
2) Kings of the earth “set” themselves, and princes have been united together against Yahveh and against His Messiah:
3) `Let us draw off Their cords, and cast from us Their thick bands (they say).'
4) He who is sitting in the heavens laughs; Yahveh mocks them.
5) Then He speaks unto them in His anger; and in His wrath He troubles them:
6) ‘I – I have set (installed) My King upon Zion – My holy mountain.'
7) I declare concerning a statute: Yahveh said unto me, `You are My Son, I today have brought You forth.
8) Ask of Me and I will give nations – Your inheritance, the ends of earth – Your possession.
9) You will rule them with a sceptre of iron; as a vessel of a potter You will scatter them.'
10) And now, O kings, act wisely; be instructed, O judges of earth,
11) Serve Yahveh with fear, and rejoice with trembling.
12) Kiss the Chosen One, lest He be angry and you lose the way when His anger burns but a little. O the happiness of all trusting in Him!
“I have set My King upon Zion – My holy mountain” (verse six of the Psalm). And here in our text, verse one, is the “fullness” of the Psalm: “Then I looked and, lo, a Lamb having been standing upon the mount – Zion”!
John sees what Yahveh promised a thousand years previously in David’s psalm. And the Savior of the remnant of Israel appears as The Lamb of God; and He is said by John as “having been standing”. That’s the way it’s written in the text. It’s a perfect participle (rather than the KJV past tense) indicating that Yahveh’s Anointed One IS standing on the mountain having been “set” there previously as declared by Yahveh and recorded in Psalm two.
And John knows the whole concept of the mountain. He was told (as he records it at the beginning of the Revelation) to write what he sees and hears. And now, as he watches, he sees the Lamb of God on Mount Zion with all of His “lost sheep of the house of Jacob”. And he remembers all that God has revealed regarding the mountain – beginning with the creation!
And we have to do our best to grasp it and retain it, for it is the “testimony of Jesus”… this is the “Lamb of God”, you see; and He is standing on the Mount with all The Father’s elect from Israel! He has found them; He has marked them out; He has redeemed them and rescued them (exodused them); and He is holding on to them. And now they are with Him on the “high mountain” of God.
Listen to what John saw and heard once before when he was on a “high mountain”:
And after six days Jesus takes Peter and James and John his brother with Him and leads them up into a high mountain privately.
And He was transformed before them, and His countenance shone as the sun, and His garments became white as the light.
And lo, it was shown to them Moses and Elijah conferring with Him.
Now Peter, responding, says to Jesus, ‘Lord it is good for us to be here; if you wish, I will make three booths here – one to You, one to Moses and one to Elijah.’
During his speaking, lo, a radiant cloud did overshadow them; and, lo, a voice out of the cloud saying, ‘this is My Son the beloved, in Whom I did delight! Hear Him.’
And the disciples having heard fell upon their faces and were exceedingly terrified.
And Jesus came near and upon touching them said, ‘Arise and stop being afraid.’
And having lifted up their eyes they saw no one except Jesus Himself alone.
After a week of being in the area of Caesarea Philippi (and it comes to be another Sabbath), Jesus takes Peter and the two sons of Zebedee – James and John – and leads them up into a high mountain. There are some very high ones in the upper regions. In fact, from this area rises the peak of Mount Hermon – so often mentioned in Scripture, and from which snow evaporates and covers Israel many evenings with dew. Although the text doesn’t say so, this is, with near certainty, Mount Hermon.
This “mountain” imagery is very, very prevalent all through God’s Revelation. It has to do with kingdom and dominion; and it has to do with redemption and paradise (as we’ll see). And, first, I would like you to see just a few of the many incidents where a mountain is the place of redemptive activity. For example, in Genesis chapter twenty-two God says to Abraham,
“Take now your son, your only son Isaac whom you love, and get into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell you of.”
And, in connection with that, Second Chronicles three verse one (a thousand years later) says,
“Then Solomon began to build the house of the Lord at Jerusalem in Mount Moriah.”
Now the name “Moriah” has the Name “Jah” in it, and it means the place where God is seen. And the translators of the Septuagint have used the term “high” as a translation of the word Moriah! So Abraham was to take his son to a “high mountain” – the same place where Solomon was, a thousand years later, to build the temple of God! – redemptive activity.
In addition to those two examples, one other which you’re very familiar with – the redemptive activity at the high mountain of Sinai. Listen:
“…and it came to pass on the third day in the morning, that there were thunders and lightnings, and a thick cloud upon the mountain, and the voice of the trumpet exceeding loud; so that all the people in the camp trembled. And Moses brought forth the people out of the camp to meet with God; and they stood at the foot of the mount. And Mount Sinai was altogether in a smoke, because the Lord descended upon it in fire: and the smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mountain quaked greatly.”
And, as you know, this is the event of the giving of the Law. The Law – given by God – proceeded from a high mountain, a place of glory and dominion and kingdom… and redemption in the coming sacrifice. And peace with God.
I won’t read any more of those; just suffice it to say that the mountain in Jerusalem is the same one which, on many occasions, is also called Mt. Zion – the high mountain of God’s glory which was commanded to be the place of salvation and dominion (kingdom) for God’s people.
But in the prophecies of the Old Testament, the mountain itself has taken on the nature of the covenant-breaking nation of Israel – all Israel is the mountain - Zion. In other words, Israel, which was to be the Garden of God, but which became the harlot of the world, was a mountain to be burned and destroyed! For example, Revelation eight verse eight says:
“and the second messenger sounded, and as it were a great mountain burning with fire was cast into the sea….”
That was all Israel; and that very vision was prophesied by Jeremiah in chapter fifty-one; and here it is, verse twenty-five:
“Behold, I am against you, O destroying mountain, says Yahveh, which destroys all the earth: and I will stretch out my hand upon you, and roll you down from the rocks, and will make you a burned mountain.”
The place of glory and dominion was to be burned and cast into the sea! All Israel was a mountain to be thrown burning into the sea.
The same thing was prophesied by Ezekiel, in chapter twenty-eight:
“You had been in Eden the Garden of God – every brilliant stone was your covering! You were the anointed cherub that covers; and I set you so. You were upon the holy mountain of God; you walked up and down in the midst of the brilliant stones. You were perfect in your ways from the day that you were created, until iniquity was found in you. By the multitude of your possessions they filled the midst of you with violence, and you have sinned. Therefore I will cast you as profane out of the mountain of God. And I will destroy you from the midst of the brilliant stones. Your heart was lifted up because of your beauty, you were corrupted in your wisdom because of your brightness. I will cast you to the ground, I will lay you before kings, that they may see you… therefore I will bring forth a fire from the midst of you, it shall devour you, I will bring you to ashes upon the earth in the sight of all them that see you. You shall be a terror, and you shall never be any more.”
I hope you heard the words of Ezekiel, that the “garden” – the first “Eden” was a “high mountain”; and the Scriptures locate it as having been just North of the Euphrates River, around that area where Jesus and three disciples went up into the “high mountain”!
So the mountain of God, the “second” Garden of Eden, the nation of Israel, was to be burned and thrown into the sea – nevermore to be.
But God wasn’t through with the mountain imagery. Daniel interprets Nebuchadnezzar’s dream of the stone cut out of that mountain which crushed the four great kingdoms of earth:
“… and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth…. In the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom (mountain equals kingdom), which shall never be destroyed; and the Kingdom shall not be left to others, but it shall break-in-pieces-and-consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever…. God has made known to the king what shall come to pass hereafter; and the dream is certain, and the interpretation thereof sure.”
The stone, in the king’s dream, became a vast mountain which filled the whole earth and crushed and scattered the dominion of the four great kingdoms of the earth! Christ’s great Kingdom becomes a mountain over all other mountains!
And listen to the mountain imagery of Isaiah as God reveals to him the coming Kingdom of Christ – chapter two:
“And it shall come to pass in the last days, the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it. And many people shall go and say, ‘Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; and He will teach us of His ways, and we will walk in His paths’: for out of Zion shall go forth the Law, the Word of the Lord from Jerusalem. And He shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nations shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.”
And there are other passages of the restoration of Eden and the lifting up of the mountain above all other mountains. As Isaiah says in chapter eleven:
“they shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain; for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.”
But, once again, the Psalmist prophesied the coming of the King into His glory in Psalm two when God says,
“But as for Me, I have installed My King upon Zion, My holy mountain.”
And that brings us to the Divine Revelation of St. John here in chapter fourteen, verse one:
“And I looked and, lo, a Lamb having been standing on the mount - Zion, and with Him one hundred and forty-four thousand, having His Name and the Name of His Father written on their foreheads….”
In opposition to the beasts rising up from the sea (the Gentiles) and the land (Israel), the Lamb is standing on Mount Zion, already enthroned as King of Kings, the ruler of the nations! And the mountain imagery of these passages clearly refers to the original Holy Mountain, the location of the Garden of Eden – as we heard from Ezekiel twenty-eight.
And the prophetic promises of the restoration of the Mountain to the earth, as we heard from Isaiah two and Daniel two, as well as the numerous redemptive activities on the mountains, as we heard from Genesis twenty-two, Exodus nineteen, and Second Chronicles three, signify the fullness and consummation of Paradise through Messiah’s atonement, when God’s Kingdom would fill the earth (Isaiah eleven verse nine).
The Lamb’s standing on the Mountain is the sign of Christ’s victory over all His enemies, with His people restored to Eden and fellowship with God the Father. And you see that the Mountain that He’s standing on is Mount Zion! Zion is the redeemed nation of Israel and the holy mountain of Jerusalem, the sign of God’s presence with His people and His victorious reign over the earth when all Kingdoms are gathered together to serve Him in the New Covenant.
“Rejoice, you daughter of Zion… for He shall speak peace unto the nations (that’s peace between God and man-in-Christ); and His dominion is from sea to sea, and from the river to the ends of the earth” (Zechariah chapter nine, verses nine and ten).
Now. As John watches and listens, he is to perceive (with God’s perception) all that has been revealed with regard to the “high mountain”. And the Churches are to read it and “hear” it; and they’re to know it as well.
And since the hundred and forty four thousand standing with The Christ on the mountain are the “firstfruits, they are our forefathers in the Kingdom. They are the remnant of Israel – the “refugees” – the “overcomers” in Christ. They are the remnant-Church of the first century. And therefore we are to perceive these things as they were to perceive them.
As the Psalmist recorded (once again): “I have set My King upon My holy mountain – Zion!”
In contradistinction to the man-beasts arising from the sea and the land, The Lamb of God is standing (and has been standing) on Mount Zion, already enthroned as King of Kings and Ruler of all nations, tribes and tongues.
According to all that we’ve seen in Scripture, God’s view of His Own history has to do with the original holy mountain, the location of the Garden of Eden (as we read in the Ezekiel twenty-eight passage).
We read of all the redemptive activities on mountains (such as at Mount Sinai, and on the mount of Jesus’ transformation, and in Jesus’ final words to His apostles before He ascended into the cloud of glory).
And we’ve read of all the prophesies concerning the restoration of the Edenic mountain to the earth, such as in Isaiah chapter two and in Daniel chapter two). And the mountain was restored in the holy land… the mountain of God; and the mirror image of His Holy of Holies was built there on top of the mountain. This was God’s “garden” – the restoration of Eden – Paradise - atop the mountain – Zion, Israel.
But, as with the original Eden, God’s set apart people (Israel), never believed and failed to obey. And Mount Zion – the holy people and the holy land, was to be cast burning into the sea.
But the Word of God through the prophets also reveal a new paradise – a new Eden – a new garden of God by the atonement of the Son of God/Son of Man. The Lamb of God (as John sees here in verse one) is the Revelation of the victory of the Christ (the Overcomer) over all His enemies, with His redeemed people (His brothers) rebirthed into peace and fellowship with God – truly an Edenic Paradise likened unto the original.
The fact that the mountain is revealed as “Zion” highlights His complete authority and His total victory over all the nations of the earth that gathered themselves against God and His Anointed King.
And it also reveals His victorious reign over all the nations that once gathered against Him but will be gathered together to acknowledge Him and serve Him as King of Kings.
The original mountain of Edenic paradise foreshadowed and prophesied the coming Christ of God Whose Kingdom would be a mountain above all the mountains of the earth, and would be a true Edenic paradise of peace and fellowship with God through the atonement of The Christ.
The second mountain of “paradise on earth”, Mount Zion, even more specifically foreshadowed and prophesied the appearance of God’s Messiah. This paradise had the man-made image of the cloud of glory over the mountain and over the city and over the nation!
Neither the first nor the second mountain/paradise provided the atonement/satisfaction that was required for depraved mankind.
Both the first and the second mountain/paradise were holy unto the Lord and were the locations in which He made His glory evident; for in both mountain paradises His beloved Son was foreshadowed and prophesied. Both of them pointed to Him!
From the first paradise on earth, the garden of Eden, mankind was expelled for His insolence and disobedience; there was an “exodus” from the mountain paradise.
And from the second paradise, the holy land/heaven and earth/land of milk and honey/Israel/Mount Zion, mankind was expelled for his insolence and disobedience, and there was an exodus from that mountain paradise.
The original paradise was closed to mankind; the second was to be burned with a flood of fire and brimstone so that the very elements of it no longer existed. (Sodom and Gomorrah were even better off in that day.)
But here in the text John sees what is about to be! He sees the Lamb of God Who has made atonement for all of the Father’s elect. He has satisfied the Father’s wrath. And He has been “set” on God’s holy mount Zion- the new mountain of God over all the mountains (kingdoms) of the world.
His is the fifth Kingdom of Daniel’s prophecy; and it is an everlasting Kingdom, a great mountain, in which all His people are rebirthed into Him. And there is peace with God and fellowship in Him.
That’s the “paradise” that was lost – twice! And now it is found in Christ Jesus the Lord.
All of these things is what John was to know as he sees and hears, and as he writes to the Churches. And we are to know them too.
Before we finish today, let me just spend a minute or two commenting about false prophets and false religions and their crude attempts at competition with the King of Kings. They are laughable; and they are only worthy of mockery. God will have them all in derision; for He has set His King upon His holy mount – Zion. And His King will restore all of creation to its original state – paradise; all to the glory of God.
Are you aware that all copycat religions have some concept of a paradise?
Jesus Christ is the Great Shepherd of the Sheep. They all belong to Him. He knows them all by name, and they all hear His voice. He is the “door” to the sheepfold; and He is their Keeper and Guardian. And none can go in except through Him.
On the great mountain of God was the original Eden from which rebellious man was expelled and cursed; and a cherub stood guard over the entrance. No man can approach paradise and peace with God except through His Messiah. “No man comes to the Father except by Me”, said Jesus. “I AM the way….”
Yet all false prophets and false religions have another “way” into paradise. They all copy the “paradise” part, but they all substitute their own “way”.
In Greek mythology there was Mount Olympus – the place of the gods; in Egypt there are pyramids; ancient Babylon had its “tower-gardens”; apostate Israel had its mounds and groves and high places of idolatry.
All of these cultures descended from the mountain upon which was the Garden of Eden. They descended once again from Ararat after the flood. And once again they were dispersed after building the high tower of Babel. And then Mount Zion was tossed, burning, into the sea.
Mosques are now built on all the high places and places of victory, with “paradise” promised to those who kill infidels.
They all know that there is paradise; they all know that there is a “high place” to which they must attain. After all, they are all creatures of God Who has set His King upon Mount Zion; it’s God’s history of His creation! All the false religions of the history of the world are crude imitations of God’s Revelation. And they all seek to attain to paradise in their own way from the high places.
Jesus told the thief on the cross next to Him, “This day you shall be with Me in Paradise”. And there is no doubt at all that he was one of the hundred and forty-four thousand that John saw with Jesus on the new Mount Zion (as recorded here in verse one).
Jesus Christ is “Way, Truth and Life”. His Kingdom is a great mountain over all the mountains of the earth. And no man can enter into that paradise-Kingdom except by Him.