Prophetic Interpretation Page 14: A Revelation Interpretation Page 4: The Catapults of Blood

This leads to the seven bowl judgments.  Notice where the wrath from the bowls comes from.  In Revelation 14:17-20 the power for the last seven plagues come from God’s winepress of wrath.  Wine represented blood, as it did when Jesus said to drink of the cup for it represented His shed blood.  So this imagery is to cause the reader to instantly think of blood.  Do you doubt?  Verse 20 even says that “blood came out of the winepress.”  This blood came from the vines of the earth, whose grapes were full.

What do these grapes stand for?  Blood is the ultimate consequence for sin.  That is why Jesus had to die.  This symbolism shows that the sins of the world were so great that it was like a great harvest of grapes.  The sins of mankind had escalated to the point that they would overflow the winepresses of God’s wrath even “up to the horses’ bridles”.  What was the point of this imagery?  It was to show why the King was coming to battle.  The sins of the world had escalated excessively.  It was time for retribution.  It was time for justice.  It was time to end this injustice once and for all.

So the King unleashes the seven bowl judgments as a prelude to His invasion of Earth.  It is likened to an army that might catapult fire, stones, hot oil, putrid garbage, diseased carcasses or even biological warfare over the walls.  It is terrible and further serves to demoralize the enemies behind the walls.  This barrage is devastating, and it devastates the defenses of the enemy’s fortification completely.  Jesus hurls the sins of mankind back upon themselves.  It is like the catapults of a besieging army laying waste to the walls and battlements of a city.  All that remains is the final charge into the city to take it.