Revelation 14
v.1
Then I looked, and there before me was the Lamb, standing on Mount Zion, and with him 144,000 who had his name and his Father’s name written on their foreheads.
And who were these people, ‘having his Father’s name written in their foreheads?’ Not Bs for ‘Baptists,’ not Ws for ‘Wesleyens’ not Es for ‘Established Church.’ They had their Father’s name and nobody else’s. What a deal of fuss is made on earth about our distinctions! We think such a deal about belonging to this denomination, and the other. Why, if you were to go to heaven’s gates, and ask if they had any Baptists there, the angel would only look at you, and not answer you, if you were to ask if they had any Wesleyans, or members of the Established Church, he would say, ‘Nothing of the sort;’ but if you were to ask him whether they had any Christians there, ‘Ay,’ he would say, ‘an abundance of them: they are all one now – all called by one name; the old brand has been obliterated, and now they have not the name of this man or the other, they have the name of God, even their Father, stamped on their brow.
In the last days God will install His Messiah or king on this hill: “But as for me, I have installed My King upon Zion, My holy mountain. I will surely tell of the decree of the LORD: He said to Me, ‘Thou art my Son, today I have become begotten Thee’ ” (Ps. 2:6-7)… Against this OT background, Mount Zion in Rev. 14:1 is to be seen as the end-time city where God dwells with and provides security for the remnant who have bought out from the earth. Interestingly, elsewhere in the NT, OT prophecies of Yahweh’s salvation of Israel at Mount Zion are viewed as having begun fulfillment during the church age (Acts 2:16-21; 13:33; Heb. 1:1-5; Rev. 2:26-27; 12:5). According to Acts 13:33, this promise has already been fulfilled in Christ, so that in one sense Christ is already installed on Mount Zion and reigning over His people. Accordingly, Zion could be the ideal heavenly city to which saints aspire during the course of the church age (Gal. 4:25-27; Heb. 12:22-23)… “Zion” thus can speak of God’s presence in the church age, though its ultimate fulfillment is yet to come.
v.3-4
And they sang a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and the elders. No one could learn the song except the 144,000 who had been redeemed from the earth. 4These are those who did not defile themselves with women, for they kept themselves pure. They follow the Lamb wherever he goes. They were purchased from among men and offered as firstfruits to God and the Lamb.
v.12
This calls for patient endurance on the part of the saints who obey God’s commandments and remain faithful to Jesus.
v.15
Then another angel came out of the temple and called in a loud voice to him who was sitting on the cloud, “Take your sickle and reap, because the time to reap has come, for the harvest of the earth is ripe.”
Similar to Matthew13.
It is the time in the temple that allows everything outside time to grow until harvest. In the right season, we, also, are to go out of the temple and harvest what has been sown and grown while we were inside the temple.
v.20
They were trampled in the winepress outside the city, and blood flowed out of the press, rising as high as the horses’ bridles for a distance of 1600 stadia.
This is designed to represent a great slaughter; but why the space here employed to describe it was chosen is unknown. Some have supposed it was in allusion to the length of Palestine. Prof. Stuart supposes that it refers to the breadth of Italy, and that the allusion is to the attack made on the city of the beast. But it is impossible to determine why this space was chosen, and it is unnecessary. The idea is, that there would be a slaughter so great, as it were, as to produce a lake or sea of blood; that the enemies of the church would be completely and finally overthrown, and that the church, therefore, delivered from all its enemies, would be triumphant.
The “design” of this, as of the previous representations in this chapter, is to show that all the enemies of God will be destroyed, and that, therefore, the hearts of the friends of religion should be cheered and consoled in the trials and persecutions which were to come upon it. What could be better suited to sustain the church in the time of trial, than the assurance that every foe will be ultimately cut off? What is better suited to sustain the heart of the individual believer, than the assurance that all his foes will be quelled, and that he will ere long be safe in heaven?