Matthew 26:64 reads, “Jesus said to him (Caiphas), “You have said so. But I tell you, from now on you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power and coming on the clouds of heaven (Mark 14:62).” Rev. 1:7 reads, “
Behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him, and all tribes of the earth will wail on account of him. Even so. Amen.”
Our text reads: “And another angel came out from the altar, the angel who has authority over the fire, and he called with a loud voice to the one who had the sharp sickle, ‘Put in your sickle and gather the clusters from the vine of the earth, for its grapes are ripe.’ So the angel swung his sickle across the earth and gathered the grape harvest of the earth and threw it into the great winepress of the wrath of God. And the winepress was trodden outside the city, and blood flowed from the winepress, as high as a horse’s bridle, for 1,600 stadia.” (Revelation 14:18-20). 1,600 stadia is about 200 miles. In this vat of grapes, God will trample them with His feet (Rev. 19:15; 1:15). The bloody stream was approximately 200 miles long and deep enough to reach the horses’ bridles. Stretching the Jordan out, it would reach 200 miles from the Sea of Galilee to the Dead Sea.
Josephus describes such a massacre that would describe this slaughter. Gadara was located just south of the Sea and is believed to be the sight where Jesus healed the demoniacs. While Vespasian started his campaign against Palestine, he sent Placidus with 500 horsemen and three thousand footmen to pursue those who fled from Gadara.
“He slew all they overtook as far as Jordan, and when he had driven the whole multitude to the riverside, where they were stopped by the current, he put his soldiers in array over against them; so the necessity the others were in provoked them to hazard a battle, becqa8use there was no place whither they could flee. They then extended themselves a very great way along the banks of the river and sustained the darts that were thrown at them as well as the attack of the horsemen, who beat many of them and pushed them into the current. At which fight, hand to hand, fifteen thousand of them were slain, while the number of those that were unwillingly forced to leap into Jordan was prodigious. There were besides two thousand and two hundred taken prisoners. A mighty prey was taken also, consisting of asses, and sheep, and camels, and oxen” (Wars, IV, vii, 4-5).
Now, consider the impression this massacre made on the people, according to Josephus.
“Now this destruction that fell upon the Jews, as it was not inferior to any of the rest in itself, so did it still appear greater than it really was; and this, because not only the whole of the country through which they had fled was filled with slaughter, and Jordan could not be passed over, by reason of the dead bodies that were in it, but because the lake (Dead Sea) was also full of dead bodies, that were carried down into it by the river” (Wars, IV, vii, 6).
From that viewpoint, John saw horses with blood up to their bridles and the Jordan was like a river of wine flowing from the winepress of the wrath of God.