This study is from an on going online Daily Bible Study at:
DailyBibleStudy.Org | Daily Bible Study Index Page | Daily Bible Study Online E-Book Library
Revelation 14:20
http://www.dailybiblestudy.org
20 And [kai] the winepress [lenos] was trodden [pateo] without [exo] the city, [polis] and [kai] blood [haima] came [exerchomai] out of [ek] the winepress, [lenos] even unto [achri] the horse [hippos] bridles, [chalinos] by the space of [apo] a thousand [chilioi] and six hundred [hexakosioi] furlongs. [stadion] KJV-InterlinearAs we mentioned yesterday, the final battle alone will be a horrendous sight. With tens of millions of people fighting outside of Jerusalem, about sixty miles to the north, in the Plain of Esdraelon near Mt. Megiddo, the battle field will spread out for two-hundred miles, and the carnage will cause the blood of men and animals, to flow as high as about five feet deep (slightly over 1.5 meters) for the full length of the two-hundred mile battle (just under 322 kilometers) .
20 And the wine press was trodden outside the city, and blood came out from the wine press, up to the horses' bridles, for a distance of two hundred miles. NASB
Without the city, is a reference to Jerusalem and identifies this final battle as it rages on perhaps for days or weeks. And with the dead mounting up rapidly, the battle will get bogged down such that no one can maneuver easily.
Sixteen hundred furlongs, ‘stadiom,’ is a measure of a typical race track in those ancient days. One stadia being about 606 feet or one-eighth of a mile (approximate), or the length of a typical horse racing track, back then.
Today a furlong is 220 yards or 201 meters. Then 1600 furlongs is approximately, (1600 x 220 yds ) / 1760 yds per mile = 200 miles.
That is the length of the battle field, and the width would be the width of the valley which varies to about sixty miles in some places. It is a huge battle field by any measuring standard in history, and literally tens of millions and even hundreds of millions of people can occupy that space easily.
The violence and the carnage in that future time, will be beyond description. With blood flowing as in a wine press, the violence in death will likewise be beyond description.
And even though this staggers the imagination, most people will be indifferent and relatively unimpressed by the carnage. Perhaps the movies and violence of our day will serve to desensitize people and their attitude toward such realities, making them not so real, and therefore not so important to them.
An unimpressed society is one in which huge disasters are required before it can turn itself around.
In our day, a world war, a famine, a holocaust, a tsunami, a depression are usually needed in order to get people to wake up. But when the Rapture occurs, the bar for making an impression will be lifted to include the worst possible devastations ever, and people will still reject Christ.
If you are one who needs to be impressed, who needs to be convinced, who needs proof, when all around is evidence of God, then you might need to set back and review your own invented barriers and get rid of them.
Enter Your Comments about this study:
http://www.dailybiblestudy.org/biblestudy/contents_comments_online_studies.html
Daily Bible Study Quick Links
http://www.dailybiblestudy.org/quick-links.html
Go to this quick links page, and save it in your bookmarks for quick access to the daily studies.
Subscription options to receive these daily studies everyday via e-mail, are available here:
http://www.dailybiblestudy.org/donation.html
