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About the Lamb and the one hundred and forty-four thousand standing with Him on Mount Zion Rev.14:1. And I looked, and behold, a Lamb stood on Mount Zion, and with Him an hundred and forty-four thousand, having the name of His Father written on their foreheads. By “Lamb” we must, without a doubt, mean Christ standing not on another mountain of Zion, but in the new city of the Living God. “One hundred and forty-four thousand” indicate either the multiplicity of the apostolic seed, from which Divine grace chose twelve thousand in each, that is, the full fruit of the faith of the saved, or virgins of the New Testament, both according to the internal and external person, because in the Old Testament there were few virgins. Therefore, it is necessary to distinguish these thousands from those shown earlier and united together by the names of the tribes of Israel, the virginity of which was not spoken of. Their faces all bear the stamp of Divine Light, and therefore seem terrible to the dead angels. Rev.14:2. And I heard a voice from heaven, like the sound of many waters and like the sound of great thunder; and I heard the voice of harpists playing their harps. Rev.14:3. They sing, as it were, a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and the elders; “The sound of many waters and thunder and those playing the harp” indicate the sonority and clarity of the saints’ chants, and together with the harmony, beauty and harmony of their song, which resounds throughout the entire Church and the assembly of the firstborn, written in heaven, and, as if by the consonance of strings, consistent with the unanimity of the saints in their mortification of bodily passions. No one can learn this song except them, for our very knowledge is consistent with the nature of life, just as among human servants the knowledge of the secrets of their masters corresponds to the degree of disposition towards them and love on the part of their masters. and no one could learn this song except these hundred and forty-four thousand who were redeemed from the earth. Rev.14:4. These are those who have not defiled themselves with their wives, for they are virgins; these are the ones who follow the Lamb wherever He goes. They are redeemed from among men, as the firstborn to God and to the Lamb, Rev.14:5. and in their mouth there is no guile; they are blameless before the throne of God. We think that these, after the twenty-four elders named, have an advantage over others, as having acquired the lordship of virtues through virginity and gentleness of language and deeds, for which they were taught a new song. This song will remain unknown to many in the present and future life. Although then, after the abolition of the imperfect, “perfect” knowledge will come, according to the Apostle (1 Cor. 13:10), but the revelation of the mysteries of God will also then be in accordance with present life, “for many are the mansions in the house of My Father” (John 14:2), and “star differs from star in glory” (1 Cor. 15:41), just as there will be many torments differences. May the Lord deliver us all from them and, by His grace, count us among those who are being saved, looking not at the multitude of our sins, but at His mercies, by which He came to earth to shed His honorable Blood for us, in order to wash away our vices and filthiness and bring us clean to the Father, with whom He, the Author of our salvation and life, together with the Life-giving Spirit, is due glory and honor now and forever and ever. Amen. About the Angel predicting the nearness of the future Judgment Rev.14:6. And I saw another angel flying in the midst of heaven, who had the everlasting gospel to preach to them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people; Rev.14:7. and he said with a loud voice: Fear God and give glory to Him, for the hour of His judgment has come, and worship Him who made heaven and earth, and the sea and the springs of water. “The middle of heaven” indicates the height of the Angel and then the fact that the Angel who appeared is heavenly and was sent to lead people to heaven and unite the body of the Church with Christ, Her Head. The Gospel is called “eternal” because it was predestined by God from all eternity. Fear, he says, God and do not be afraid of the Antichrist, who cannot destroy your body and soul, and resist him with boldness, for Judgment and retribution are near, and he has power only for a short time. About the Angel Heralding the Fall of Babylon Rev.14:8. And another angel followed him, saying: Babylon is fallen, is fallen, the great city, because she made all nations drink of the wrathful wine of her fornication. Babylon, according to the meaning of this name, is the mixture of this world and everyday turmoil; it is said that it will soon fall or cease to exist. “The wine of the wrath of fornication” is the darkening of the mind from idolatry or the intoxication of sin, for which God, according to the words of the Psalmist, “will consume everyone who commits fornication from Him” (Ps. 72:27). This Babylon will finally be destroyed with the appearance of the heavenly Jerusalem, with the condemnation of the lawless to torment. About another angel warning the faithful not to accept the Antichrist Rev.14:9. And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice: Whoever worships the beast and his image and receives a mark on his forehead or on his hand, Rev. 14:10. he will drink the wine of the wrath of God, the whole wine prepared in the cup of His wrath, and he will be tormented with fire and brimstone before the holy angels and before the Lamb; Whoever submits to the beast-like Antichrist, follows his wicked life and in words or deeds proclaims him god, as evidenced by the mark on his hand and forehead, he will drink with him the cup of torment, dissolved according to the righteous Judgment and diluted not with bounties, but with various punishments. “Wine of wrath” means punishment, as a consequence of the wine of wickedness, intoxicating the one who drinks it, for whoever sins in any way will receive punishment. Rev.14:11. and the smoke of their torment will ascend forever and ever, “Smoke of torment” means either the breath of the tormented rising from below with crying, or smoke from the fire in which those who have fallen away are burning. “Smoke ascends forever and ever” - from this it is clear that the torment of sinners is endless, like the bliss of the righteous. and those who worship the beast and his image and those who receive the mark of his name will have no rest, day or night. “And they have no rest day and night.” Day and night are mentioned not because the course of the next century will be measured according to the sun and sinners will then have no peace, but either in accordance with the present custom of measuring time by days and nights, or because “day” means the eternal life of the saints, and “night” means the torment of sinners, who will worthily comprehend all who portrayed in themselves the image of the beast with their devilish deeds and blasphemy against Christ and who wrote in their hearts his dishonorable name of the beast. Rev.14:12. Here is the patience of the saints, who keep the commandments of God and the faith in Jesus. “Here is the patience of saints.” He says that sinners in the next century will be subjected to eternal torment, and the saints who suffered here, in this fleeting age, and retained an unshakable faith in Christ, will rejoice. Rev.14:13. And I heard a voice from heaven saying to me: Write: From now on blessed are the dead who die in the Lord; to her, says the Spirit, they will rest from their labors, and their works will follow them. The heavenly voice does not call everyone blessed, but only those who, having killed themselves for the world, die in the Lord, bear the death of Jesus in their body and have compassion with Christ. For them, leaving the body is truly a calm from labor, and the consequences of exploits are the reason for crowns and rewards of glory, surpassing everything they suffered in the fight against opposing forces, for “the passions of this present time are unworthy of the glory that would be revealed in us,” says the apostle (Rom. 8:18). Hoping to be worthy of such glory, we must constantly cry out to God: “Incline our hearts to Thy testimonies... Turn away our eyes... that we may not see vanity” (Ps. 119:36, 37), and “Do not enter into judgment with Thy servants, for no one living will be justified before You” (Ps. 142:2), but by the riches of Thy compassions look upon us, for to You belongs the mercy and the power, and the Kingdom, and the power, and the glory of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen. That He who sits on the cloud will reap with the sickle the growth of the earth Rev.14:14. And I looked, and behold a bright cloud, and on the cloud sat one like the Son of Man; on his head is a golden crown, and in his hand is a sharp sickle. By “cloud” we must understand either a sensual cloud, similar to the one that hid the Lord Jesus from the eyes of the apostles, or an angelic force, which is so called for its purity and lightness, as the Psalmist says: “And he ascended upon the cherubim and the summer” (Ps. 17:11). He who sits on a cloud and is like the Son of Man is Christ. "The crown upon the head" refers to His royal power over the visible and the invisible; it is “golden”, because this substance is highly valued among us. “The sickle is sharp” indicates the end of the world, which the Lord Himself calls “harvest” (Matthew 13:39). Rev. 14:15. And another angel came out of the church and exclaimed with a loud voice to him who sat on the cloud: put out your sickle and reap, because the time of harvest has come, for the harvest on earth is ripe. Rev. 14:16. And he who sat on the cloud cast his sickle into the earth, and the earth was reaped. The “great voice” of this Angel means allegorically the prayer of all the powers of heaven, who want to see the glorification of the righteous and the suppression of the iniquities of sinners, thereby rejecting everything movable and fleeting and revealing the solid and eternal. “The grass of the earth is gone” - this indicates that the final time has come when the seed of piety, ripened, like wheat, which bore fruit to the farmer thirty, sixty and a hundred times, will be awarded the heavenly granaries. About the Angel pruning the vine of bitterness Rev. 14:17. And another Angel came out of the church in heaven, also with a sharp sickle. And Christ is called the Angel of the Great Council (Isa. 9:6), but here, as can be seen from what follows, by Angel is meant one of the ministering spirits. He came out of the church that is in heaven, with a sharp sickle to cut off the especially wicked. Rev. 14:18. And another angel, who had power over the fire, came out from the altar and cried with a great cry to him who had the sharp sickle, saying: Let out your sharp sickle and prune the bunches of grapes on the ground, because the berries are ripe on it. “An angel came out from the altar, placing the area on fire.” From this it is clear that some of the angelic powers that rule over creatures control the waters, others control fire, and others control some other part of creation. This one is placed above the fire, which means he is one of the highest Angels, and his job is to punish, for he commands with a loud voice to the one who has the sickle to prune the grapes of the earthly vineyard. “Grapes” are the names given to the wicked and lawbreakers, who, instead of the wine of joy, fill the cup of God’s wrath and pursue the virtuous with the fury of snakes and asps. Rev. 14:19. And the angel cast his sickle on the ground, and cut off the grapes on the ground, and threw them into the great winepress of the wrath of God. “The winepress of God’s wrath” means the place of punishment prepared for the devil and his angels; because of the multitude of those tormented in it, it is called great, for “the wide gate and the broad way lead into destruction” (Matthew 7:13). Rev. 14:20. And the berries were trampled in the winepress outside the city, and blood flowed from the winepress even to the horse's bridles, for one thousand six hundred furlongs. So, the winepress will be trampled outside the city of the righteous, for, as the prophet says, “[The Lord] will not leave the rod of the wicked over the lot of the righteous” (Ps. 124:3), and their dwelling, like their life, will not be mixed up (in the winepress). The blood shed from the trampling of the condemned is called the righteous, inevitable and impartial Judgment of God, and the blood of the grape is wine. The winepress filled with undissolved wine indicates that the punishment that befell those who deserved it, due to the wrath of God, reaches, as it were, their bridles, like wild horses, for they had no limits for themselves in pleasures and in breaking the law. Because of their immeasurable wickedness it extends to one thousand six hundred stadia. A thousand means a perfect number, and in the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, as we know, sin was drowned by the waters. With their wicked undertakings, sinners offended the creation created in six days; six also means the number of days of creation and the dispensation of the world. The place of torment for those who deserve it will truly be outside the heavenly Jerusalem. That their blood reaches one thousand six hundred furlongs to the horse's bridles, perhaps figuratively also means the punishing Angels, who are often called horses in the Holy Scriptures. The groans of the tormented reach their bridles, which the holy powers consider to be God's determination for themselves, governing them in fulfilling what they are commanded. Habakkuk, for example, says: “You ride on your horses” (Hab. 3:8) and in the Song of Songs: “I made you like My horse in Pharaoh’s chariots” (Song. 1:8). But this can be understood differently. Since those who cling to pleasures have become like wild horses, they will be taken by the bridle with torments, that is, they will be bridled with torments, since they had no restraint in pleasures. The thousand and six hundred stages indicate that a great gulf separates the righteous from sinners because of the fullness of evil and the abomination of the latter in their deeds. Ten hundred means a multitude of evils; six – zealous committing of sin through the use of the creature created in six days for evil; and in the six hundredth year of Noah the earth was drowned. You might be interested in: