winepress

end time, prophecy, repent, the end is nigh, winepress

The winepress of His wrath

Posted on July 5, 2021July 5, 2021 by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

Jesus often spoke in agricultural parables and allusions, knowing that the farmers, wine producers, wheat gatherers etc would understand. Not much has changed since the ancient days in terms of how wine is made, olives are gathered, wheat is sifted. Today’s layperson, even a city dweller, can understand the simple comparisons He made with gathering wheat as living symbol of gathering His people. But understanding the process of such production does enhance our understanding of the parables and allusions even more. So let’s dig in.

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go in and com out, I am the door, threshing floor, winepress

Jesus is the Door: They will go in and come out

Posted on May 23, 2020 by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata*

I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. John 10:9

Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary says:

Many who hear the word of Christ, do not understand it, because they will not. But we shall find one scripture expounding another, and the blessed Spirit making known the blessed Jesus. Christ is the Door. And what greater security has the church of God than that the Lord Jesus is between it and all its enemies? He is a door open for passage and communication. Here are plain directions how to come into the fold; we must come in by Jesus Christ as the Door. By faith in him as the great Mediator between God and man.

What does ‘go in and come out’ mean? Is it that we will go in and come out of salvation? Not so! Our salvation is eternally secure.
Continue reading “Jesus is the Door: They will go in and come out” →

go in and com out, I am the door, threshing floor, winepress

Jesus is the Door, part 2: they will go in and come out

Posted on May 5, 2015May 9, 2016 by elizabethprata

I am still meditating on Jesus as the Door. It is a beautiful statement.

I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. John 10:9

Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary says:

Many who hear the word of Christ, do not understand it, because they will not. But we shall find one scripture expounding another, and the blessed Spirit making known the blessed Jesus. Christ is the Door. And what greater security has the church of God than that the Lord Jesus is between it and all its enemies? He is a door open for passage and communication. Here are plain directions how to come into the fold; we must come in by Jesus Christ as the Door. By faith in him as the great Mediator between God and man.

What does ‘go in and come out’ mean? Is it that we will go in and come out of salvation? Not so! Our salvation is eternally secure.

Romans 8:28-30- We find in those verses that everyone who has been redeemed by Jesus Christ, without exception, will be glorified. (MacArthur: Is Your Salvation Secure?)

So what can coming and going mean?

Pulpit Commentary:

“Go in and out” is a phrase frequently used “to denote the free use of an abode by one who is at home in the house” (Deuteronomy 28:6; Deuteronomy 31:2; Acts 1:21). The believer who enters into fellowship with God, and is “saved,” does not “go in and out” of that state, but can as a child share by turns the Divine repose of the home.

In listening to Steve Lawson preach on the verse, going in and out also means being able to freely conduct activities in the wider sphere of the community. People can go to the marketplace and do business (1 Corinthians 10:25, Acts 16:19), travel, thresh, and plant, to name a few examples. We remember how Gideon was so afraid of the constantly marauding Midianites that he threshed inside the winepress.

A threshing floor at a high place

The threshing-floors—open circular places in the fields where the corn was trodden out by oxen—would naturally be the first places where an invading enemy would come to forage, as in 1 Samuel 23:1, says Ellicott’s Commentary.

When threshing, the wheat is thrown high in the air and the wind blows away the chaff and the kernels fall to the ground. This would have been a wonderful sign, akin to a smoke signal, to the armies coming to forage.

Threshing activity in the fields would have been a dead giveaway to the
advance party of any enemy army

Gideon was fearful of going in and out, so he chose to thresh in the winepress. Winepresses were sunk into the ground and walled by stone. There would have been no wind to blow the chaff and the confined space would have made threshing very difficult. This is one example of the hardship of those who cannot go in and come out.

winepresses were not suitable for threshing, but Gideon felt so afraid
he could not go in and come out safely.

Mr Lawson preached this verse just a few days after the Boston Marathon bombings. He said that the entire city was on lockdown. People were simply not allowed on the streets. Not a car, not a person could be found. Police presence was everywhere. The citizens could not go in and come out. It as the same during the recent Baltimore City riots. There was a city-wide curfew and after that hour no one was allowed on thee streets.

who shall go out before them and come in before them, who shall lead them out and bring them in, that the congregation of the LORD may not be as sheep that have no shepherd.” (Numbers 27:17)

Imagine when the promise in John 10 is fulfilled! For both Israel and the Church, we will be in perfect safety. No persecution, no attacks, no armies. Just peace in green pastures and rest! We will go in and come out, and all because JESUS made it secure, forever.

Lamb, winepress, wrath

The Wrath of the Lamb

Posted on August 20, 2014May 9, 2016 by elizabethprata

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Put in the sickle,

for the harvest is ripe.

Go in, tread,

for the winepress is full.

The vats overflow,

for their evil is great.

Nicolas Bataille, tapestry, Angers Apocalypse, 1377

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Multitudes, multitudes,

in the valley of decision!

For the day of the Lord is near

in the valley of decision.

The sun and the moon are darkened,

and the stars withdraw their shining.

The Lord roars from Zion,

and utters his voice from Jerusalem,

and the heavens and the earth quake.

But the Lord is a refuge to his people,

a stronghold to the people of Israel. (Joel 3:13-16)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Then I looked, and behold, a white cloud,

and seated on the cloud one like a son of man, with a golden crown on his head,

and a sharp sickle in his hand.

And another angel came out of the temple, calling with a loud voice to him who sat on the cloud,

“Put in your sickle, and reap, for the hour to reap has come, for the harvest of the earth is fully ripe.” So he who sat on the cloud swung his sickle across the earth,

and the earth was reaped.

(Revelation 14:14-16)

The happiest words to me in the bible are “He is not here. He is risen!” (Matthew 28:6). O, what joy to proclaim our Savior perfect and ascended!

The saddest words to me are “the earth was reaped.” The simplicity of the words are startling, he put in his sickle…and the earth was reaped. Just. Like. That. Wow.

Our Jesus is holy and loving. But He is just. He will bring justice to the earth one day, and soon, I think, and take vengeance on those who mocked, scoffed, persecuted, and blasphemed HIS HOLY NAME.

It is all well and good to focus on the love of Jesus. But not to the exclusion of His Righteousness, His Justice, His Holiness…and His Wrath. This essay is my part in reminding us all of some of the attributes fellow Christians seldom focus upon. But in failing to ponder them, we result in a skewed view of Jesus, and fail to appreciate the love He has for us all the more. We also fail to have urgency in speaking of Him and in being living Ambassadors for His name to the lost.

So think about wrath and justice for a while. It does a heart good.

Will that day be tomorrow? Will that day be today? Will that day be next week? Only God knows when He will tell His Son to get His Bride so the wrath can begin. Only He knows after that when the Tribulation will begin the vengeance and wrath. But our Jesus is not only love. He is wrath. Never forget it.

abraham, mikveh, second temple, ur, winepress

This week there have been some amazing archaeological discoveries in the Holy Land

Posted on April 12, 2013May 9, 2016 by elizabethprata

There have been some interesting archaeological discoveries in the Middle East in the last two weeks. I don’t know what they mean especially, except to ponder the eternal truth that the earth is the Lord’s and everything in it. (Psalm 24:1). He is the Creator of it, the sustainer of it and the One True God who knows every bit of its surface from atop Everest to the bottom of the Marianas trench and below the earth to the center. He knows each layer and each strata. He knows every molecule and which molecule is a part of an igneous rock and which molecule is a Christian burned at the state and ashes spread over His creation. God is not surprised by any of these discoveries. In fact, He knows all about them, when they were built, why, and even that they would be re-discovered this week. It is so comforting to know that our God is so perfect and wise.

Here are the discoveries–

Mysterious Stone Structure Discovered Beneath Sea of Galilee
“A giant “monumental” stone structure discovered beneath the waters of the Sea of Galilee in Israel has archaeologists puzzled as to its purpose and even how long ago it was built. The mysterious structure is cone shaped, made of “unhewn basalt cobbles and boulders,” and weighs an estimated 60,000 tons the researchers said. That makes it heavier than most modern-day warships. Rising nearly 32 feet (10 meters) high, it has a diameter of about 230 feet (70 meters). To put that in perspective, the outer stone circle of Stonehenge has a diameter just half that with its tallest stones not reaching that height. It appears to be a giant cairn, rocks piled on top of each other.”

Sonar survey. Credit: Shmuel Marco
The circular structure was first detected in a sonar survey
of part of the sea in the summer of 2003.

Divers investigate. Credit: Shmuel Marco.
Scuba divers investigated the structure revealing
that it is made of basalt boulders up to 3.2 feet (1 meter) long.
The rocks are piled on top of each forming what appears to be a cairn.
In this image an arrow points to a 4 inch (10 cm) fish beside the structure.

“Researcher Yitzhak Paz, of the Israel Antiquities Authority and Ben-Gurion University, believes it could date back more than 4,000 years. “The more logical possibility is that it belongs to the third millennium B.C., because there are other megalithic phenomena [from that time] that are found close by,” Paz told LiveScience in an interview, noting that those sites are associated with fortified settlements.”

That would make it just about pre-flood according to the data in Answers in Genesis. Cool.

—————————————

“Rare 2,000-Year-Old Mikveh Uncovered in Jerusalem“
“A 2,000-year-old mikveh has been uncovered in Jerusalem, a rare find that researchers say points to a

sophisticated understanding of water preservation. “Numerous ritual baths have been excavated in Jerusalem in recent years, but the water supply system that we exposed in this excavation is unique and unusual,” said Benjamin Storchan, director of the excavation on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority. The mikveh includes an underground bath that is entered via steps, and receives rainwater form three separate basins. The basins are located on the roof of the bath, streaming pure water into the mikveh using various channels.”

The bible says: “I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you.” (Ezekiel 36:25).

According to the Jewish Encyclopedia, a mikveh (ritual pool) is “a pool or bath of clear water, immersion in which renders ritually clean a person who has become ritually unclean through contact with the dead (Num. 19) or any other defiling object, or through an unclean flux from the body (Lev. 15) and especially a menstruant or postpartum woman. It is similarly used for vessels (Num. 31:22–23).”

Jesus came to cleanse us with His very own body. “Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit.”(John 3:5). Anyone in Jesus is now cleansed by His blood and the baptism is an outward show of obedience to Our Lord and Savior.

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The ancient city of Ur was discovered only recently, about 90 years ago. It is thought to be Abraham’s birthplace, and certainly the bible describes it as a place where Abraham dwelled. However what makes this discovery so exciting is that it is the first time a building has been unearthed that might be connected with the city and/or have religious connections to the idolatry there.

Archaeologists in Iraq find ancient complex near Ur, home of biblical Abraham
“British archaeologists have unearthed a sprawling complex near the ancient city of Ur in southern Iraq, home of the biblical Abraham. The structure, thought to be 4,000 years old, probably served as an administrative centre for Ur, around the time Abraham would have lived there before leaving for Canaan, according to the Bible. … “This is a breathtaking find,” Campbell said, because of its unusually large size — roughly the size of a soccer pitch, or about 80 metres on each side. The archaeologist said complexes of this size and age were rare.”

Genesis 11:27-28 says, “Now these are the generations of Terah. Terah fathered Abram, Nahor, and Haran; and Haran fathered Lot. Haran died in the presence of his father Terah in the land of his kindred, in Ur of the Chaldeans”

Genesis 12:103 says, “Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

The ruins of Ur,
with the Ziggurat of Ur visible in the background. Wiki pic

The article says they found the complex near a partially reconstructed ziggurat of the Sumerians. “By 2000 BC Sumerians living in cities such as Ur and Uruk in southern Iraq had developed paved roads, the arch and vault, writing, schools, epic literature, law codes, banking, and even joint-stock corporations. All this occurred two thousand years before Cleopatra or Julius Caesar. … The Ziggurat at Ur, a massive stepped pyramid about 210 by 150 feet in size, is the most well-preserved monument from the remote age of the Sumerians. The ziggurat was part of a temple complex that served as an administrative center for the city… Construction of the ziggurat was completed in the 21st century BC by King Shulgi, during whose 48-year reign the city of Ur grew to be the capital of an empire controlling much of Mesopotamia. To win the allegiance of the many formerly independent cities he controlled, Shulgi proclaimed himself a god and became a great patron of the arts.” (source)

It was in that pagan civilization God called Abram. It was an advanced civilization existing 4000 years ago, but one that for all its advances, was nothing and would come to nothing because they did not know righteousness. He had revealed Himself personally before the flood and mightily during the flood and all descendants knew Him after the flood. However, some went the way of Cain, and departed from the presence of the LORD (Genesis 4:16, Jude 1:11).

Then they built temples to false gods and proclaimed themselves gods- as this website explains and is excerpted below.

“Construction of the ziggurat was completed in the 21st century BC by King Shulgi, during whose 48-year reign the city of Ur grew to be the capital of an empire controlling much of Mesopotamia. To win the allegiance of the many formerly independent cities he controlled, Shulgi proclaimed himself a god and became a great patron of the arts.” Photo- The Sumerian Ziggurat at Ur During Excavations. (source)

Abram lived in all that mess. I often wonder, why Abram? Why did Abram believe? Why did he leave, not knowing where he was going, (Hebrews 11:8) with such faith? Abram’s own father Terah worshiped idols! All of Babylon had been under the influence of the first dictator, Nimrod, and his towers to false idols and astrology and idol worship remained to Abram’s day. The pollution of unrighteousness had even grown tremendously. So why did Abram believe? I can only say that God is God and when he makes Himself known you cannot help but know His voice is the voice of the one and only God when you hear it. Abram/Abraham believed God!

“Abram believed the LORD, and he credited it to him as righteousness. (Genesis 15:6)

I just think that is all so amazing!

—————————————

Well-Preserved Wine-Making Facility Found in Southern Israel
“Antiquities Authority workers have discovered a well-preserved Byzantine era wine-making facility in southern Israel. The discovery, made during a construction project for a wedding hall, is one of the best preserved examples of an ancient wine-making facility from that era found so far in Israel. The wine-making facility includes a 100 meter tiled floor for crushing grapes, as well as a winepress. Below the wine-making floor are three large holes, where freshly produced grape juice would flow. The holes were well protected from dirt and pests, and there are several vats for the fermentation of the wine around the facility.”

“The owner of the facility was apparently Christian, archaeologists said, as the model of an as yet

unidentified Byzantine-era church was found at the site. The model is intricately made, with precisely carved crucifixes, decorations, and handles for the doors and windows. In addition to the wine-making facility, an almost perfectly preserved clay model of a church was also discovered. The find was discovered near Hamei Yoav, east of Ashkelon. Right, A ceramic lantern shaped like a miniature church, unearthed at Hamei Yoav in southern Israel (photo credit: Courtesy of the Israel Antiquities Authority) source”

The facility would have been in use 1500 years ago.

I think it is exciting to see the well-preserved remnants of the daily life of our forefathers in the land of Jesus!

“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 14:20)

“Coming out of his mouth is a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations. “He will rule them with an iron scepter.” He treads the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God Almighty.” (Revelation 19:15)

end time, prophecy, repent, the end is nigh, winepress

The winepress of His wrath

Posted on July 28, 2010May 9, 2016 by elizabethprata

There is one comparison He made which is simple but it is the most dreadful. It is the winepress of His wrath.

In old days the Israelites’ wine production was a major industry. Ancient wine presses have been discovered all over the Middle East, and in and around modern day Israel. The grapes would be gathered, and placed in a rectangular pit entered from a cleaned mosaic floor. The floor of the press would be stone, also washed. The trite picture of people stomping on grapes is not so trite: the gentleness of the underside of the foot would crush the grapes enough to release the juice but not crush the bitter seeds, releasing tannins into the wine. The juice would be allowed to run down a slough, through a filter made of leaves and thorn ranches. Seeds and twigs removed, the second pressing would then involve a press of stone, like the one below. Notice the trough running around the rim of the stone, to catch the juice.

Recently a Giant 1,400-year-old wine press discovered in southern Israel. Its size and unusual shape indicated to archaeologists that it was used for a major export operation. The press, unearthed during an excavation by the Israel Antiquities Authority, is one of the largest ever discovered in Israel.

The LORD has said that He is long-suffering but His patience will come to an end. The world will not end, but most of life as we know it will end. Most will die. He will finally rectify the issue of sin and deliver His children from it. Deliverance will come! But it will be at a terrible price. Read these verses which describe an event that will literally come:

“The angel swung his sickle on the earth, gathered its grapes and threw them into the great winepress of God’s wrath. They were trampled in the winepress outside the city, and blood flowed out of the press, rising as high as the horses’ bridles for a distance of 1,600 stadia. (Revelation 14:19-20).”

1600 stadia is 180 miles. MILES of flowing blood. Will your blood be among the flow?

Isaiah asks the LORD where He has been that His garments should be bloodied. God answers:

“I have trodden the winepress alone; from the nations no one was with me. I trampled them in my anger and trod them down in my wrath; their blood spattered my garments, and I stained all my clothing. (Isaiah 63:3)

And again in Revelation 19:15

“From His mouth comes a sharp sword, so that with it He may strike down the nations, and He will rule them with a rod of iron; and He treads the wine press of the fierce wrath of God, the Almighty.”

He does this because the armies of the world are aligned to mow down the Jews, because they are assembled to fight Him, because they are rebellious and sinful and deserve Divine Justice. He does this to deliver the believers who dwell in such a dark time. He does this to avenge the martyrs who died in the Woman’s drunken orgy of massacre and became drunk with their blood. “And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus” (Revelation 17:6a). He does this because of the saints beheaded for the witness and testimony of the LORD and had not taken the mark. (Revelation 20:4)

Truly, it seems His wrath is nearly complete, it seems as though the moment of His Day is upon us. It seems the winepress is filling with sin and will be put to its prophetic use very shortly. The Day of the Lord is a time period, not just a day. During the entire time of The Day of the LORD He is at the same time sending out increasingly severe judgments upon the unbelieving while showing His fierce wrath and power so that those who rebel will come to Him. Many do come to Him, but still more will not.

The blessed hope is that if you believe NOW, during the age of Grace, you will not have to endure the terrible woes of the Tribulation nor see nor be within the winepress of His wrath. You will be raptured, meet Him in the air, and be led to heaven itself, where a place is being prepared for all believers. He loves you and made a way to dwell with Him forever. If you know and understand you are a sinner then you know and understand those sins will always disqualify you for heaven’s citizenship with the Holy God and LORD of Justice unless you plea for forgiveness and repent.

It sounds trite, but really, repent, for the end is nigh.