Summary statements are common in the book of Revelation, but I see interpreters read them in a literalistic matter. For example, in Revelation 14:17–20, there is a summary statement of the day of the Lord’s wrath using harvest imagery:
Then another angel came out of the temple in heaven, and he too had a sharp sickle. Then another angel came out from the altar, the angel who has authority over fire, and he called with a loud voice to him who had the sharp sickle, “Use your sharp sickle and gather the clusters of the vine of the earth, for its grapes are ripe.” So the angel swung his sickle over the earth and gathered the vintage of the earth, and he threw it into the great wine press of the wrath of God. And the wine press was trodden outside the city, and blood flowed from the wine press, as high as a horse’s bridle, for a distance of about two hundred miles. (Rev 14:17–20)
Notice that this summary statement does not include all the complex elements of God’s judgment that are narrated elsewhere in the book of Revelation (chs. 8–9; 15–20). The previous summary statement is harvest imagery for deliverance (Rev 14:14–16).
Yet some interpreters do not recognize that this is a summary statement. They literalistically read into the emphasis in this judgment summary statement, which is on the final battle, fallaciously concluding that the day of the Lord’s wrath is limited to the final battle.
The purpose, however, of the summary statement is so John does not need to repeat, for example, the trumpets narrative again, and he is about to narrate the bowl judgments. In addition, John is illustrating that deliverance and judgment are back-to-back events.
So he draws from the key event in the day of the Lord’s judgment, the final battle, which epitomizes God’s eschatological wrath and thus uses it to represent all of God’s judgment harvest. John makes these judgment summaries elsewhere (e.g. Rev 16:15).
It would be like reading the summary statement in Revelation 12:5 literalistically, where the birth of Jesus, his ascension, and his millennial rule are all basically one event!
“And she gave birth to a son, a male child, who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron. But her child was snatched away and taken to God and to his throne;” (Rev 12:5)
