unto the horse bridles

Revelation 14:20

14:20 unto the horse bridles. The scene here looks forward to the final slaughter of the armies of the beast at Armageddon. There may well be a multitude of perhaps two hundred million (compare Revelation 9:16) men (and maybe women also) clustered together, with many horses and various items of military equipment, all massed in a great phalanx extending from below Bozrah, deep in Edom, up beyond Megiddo and the plain of Armageddon, through the valley of Jezreel, with its center in the Judaean wilderness opposite Jerusalem, in what has been called “the valley of Jehoshaphat.” The distance of sixteen hundred “furlongs” (Greek stadion) corresponds to 180 miles. If the phalanx averages a mile in width, the assumed two hundred million in the massed armies of the beast, with many animals as well, would barely have room to move. If the vast armies were to “explode” suddenly, the blood gushing out from man and beast would create a great trough of blood, draining up to the horse bridles in the valley center, like a great vat of grapes in a winepress bursting all at once. This same incredible scene was apparently seen in vision by some of the ancient prophets (note Isaiah 34:6; 63:1-4; Joel 3:12-13; Psalm 110:5,6). These armies of the beast, gathered together to battle the returning Christ, will be instantly slain simply with the “sword” of His mouth. “And He was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood:…and He treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God” (Revelation 19:13, 15). (On the invincible power of His Word, like a mighty sword, see also Isaiah 11:4; II Thessalonians 2:8 and Hebrews 4:12. On the massing of the world’s armies to fight the Lord, see Revelation 16:13-16. On the final battle and their destruction, see Revelation 19:17-21.)

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