Category: Biblical Basics

Over the past few episodes we looked at correlations between the sharp sickles of Passover, specifically the First Fruits of the Barley, and the sharp sickles of Revelation Fourteen. Within that passage of Revelation, we read a very specific prophecy:

And another angel came out of the temple which is in heaven, and he also had a sharp sickle. Then another angel, the one who has power over fire, came out from the altar; and he called with a loud voice to him who had the sharp sickle, saying, “Put in your sharp sickle and gather the clusters from the vine of the earth, because her grapes are ripe.” So the angel swung his sickle to the earth and gathered the clusters from the vine of the earth, and threw them into the great wine press of the wrath of God. And the wine press was trampled outside the city, and blood came out from the wine press, up to the horses’ bridles, for a distance of 1,600 stadia. (Re 14:17-20)

Yeshua harvests for Firstfruits of the Barley and Shavuot, the conclusion of human “wheat.” The angel of fire harvests those from the Vineyard as well as the vineyard of the whole earth to throw them into the winepress of Sukkot, when the decrees of Rosh HaShanah are executed upon the whole world. Sukkot is also known as “The Feast of the Nations.” One may enjoy the Feast of the Nations with Yeshua, or one may be part of a nation consumed by his wrath.

As we’ve seen, the prophecies of Scripture are fulfilled multiple times in history. Often there are textual markers, such as a doubled word or repetition within the text, or sometimes a chiasm. Blood up to the horses’ bridles is a very precise prophecy, and it leads the reader to a previous fulfillment. In the last stand of the Jews who followed Bar Kokhba, a false messiah, the Romans massacred the inhabitants of Beitar. According to the lone survivor of the massacre, the blood in Beitar ran up to the Roman horses’ noses. That leads to the Footsteps prophecy of Song of Songs, which prophesies the “turn” of Messiah on the mountains to meet with his Beloved Israel.

2:17 Until the cool of the day, when the shadows flee, turn, my beloved, and be like a gazelle or a young stag on the mountains of Bether.

The mountains of Bether are an odd location because they are not mentioned anywhere else in Scripture, and even the Romans’ massacre there was far in the future when first prophesied in the Song. There must have been a singular event in history that would mark a step of Messiah’s turning to his Beloved.