Conditions upon the earth have been unbelievably horrible. World war, famine, disease, demonic plagues, asteroid strikes have made many portions of our world uninhabitable. Billions of people, well over half of the world’s population, have died. But the truth of the matter is more frightening: it is just about to get worse!.
John has just witnessed the announcements made to all who live on earth. These are made by angelic messengers flying through the skies of earth. The first announcement was the proclamation of the good news. God is the creator of heaven and earth (evolution is a lie of Satan!). He is about to judge His creation and set up the Kingdom. Worship and fear Him! The second announced the judgment of the great prostitute, and the third warned that those who worship the beast or receive his mark would suffer eternal judgment in hell. There is, therefore, no excuse for those on the earth. They have heard the truth. The reclamation of the earth by the rightful sovereign is about to begin; the time of His judgment has come. Warnings have been issued. Those who resist will perish.
In the courtroom of heaven, this coming judgment is announced by two symbolic acts. The persons involved are real; their actions are real, but what they do are symbolic actions portraying to those watching what is about to take place below on the earth.
Revelation 14:14-20.
| 14:14 | Then I looked, and behold, a white cloud, and sitting on the cloud was one like a son of man, having a golden crown on His head and a sharp sickle in His hand. |
| 14:15 | And another angel came out of the temple, crying out with a loud voice to Him who sat on the cloud, “Put in your sickle and reap, for the hour to reap has come, because the harvest of the earth is ripe.” |
| 14:16 | Then He who sat on the cloud swung His sickle over the earth, and the earth was reaped. |
| 14:17 | And another angel came out of the temple which is in heaven, and he also had a sharp sickle. |
| 14:18 | 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.” |
| 14:19 | 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. |
| 14:20 | And the wine press was trodden outside the city, and blood came out from the wine press, up to the horses’ bridles, for a distance of two hundred miles. |
There are two distinct acts of reaping. The reaper and what is reaped differ in each case. In verses 14 through 16, our Lord reaps the harvest of the earth and in verses 17 through 20, an angel reaps the vine of the earth.
The Reaping of the Harvest of the Earth
John sees a figure sitting on a white cloud. This figure is described as one like a son of man having a golden crown on his head holding a sharp sickle. This can be none other than our Lord. He is the only one who has the right to rule, indicated by the crown that He now wears. He is the one who will judge the nations and break them with a rod of iron. No other human being fits these descriptions.
The next thing John witnesses is an angel coming out of the temple, who then addresses our Lord, “Put in your sickle and reap, for the hour to reap has come, because the harvest of the earth is ripe.” At first glance, it might not appear appropriate for an angel to command our Lord to act. Indeed some might, for this very reason, be tempted to identify the person sitting on the cloud as someone other than the Lord Jesus Christ. However, there is no issue at this point. As the newly crowned regent of the earth, our Lord is only awaiting the time appointed by the Father before He acts. He will reclaim the earth. He will judge the nations for their rebellion. Now He waits for the time set by the Father’s own authority. From the temple, out from the presence of God the Father, an angel comes with this message, IT IS TIME!
The instruction is to reap the earth. This refers specifically to the judgment of the Gentile nations in their rebellion against God, while the second picture of reaping refers to the final judgment of Israel for their disobedience. This instruction to reap is a reference to the prophecy of Joel in chapter 3 of his book, where he declares the judgment upon the nations as the Lord comes back to restore His people. Verses 1-2 and 9-16:
| 3:1 | “For behold, in those days and at that time, When I restore the fortunes of Judah and Jerusalem, |
| 3:2 | I will gather all the nations And bring them down to the valley of Jehoshaphat. Then I will enter into judgment with them there On behalf of My people and My inheritance, Israel, Whom they have scattered among the nations; And they have divided up My land. |
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| 3:9 | Proclaim this among the nations: Prepare a war; rouse the mighty men! Let all the soldiers draw near, let them come up! |
| 3:10 | Beat your plowshares into swords And your pruning hooks into spears; Let the weak say, "I am a mighty man." |
| 3:11 | Hasten and come, all you surrounding nations, And gather yourselves there. Bring down, O LORD, Your mighty ones. |
| 3:12 | Let the nations be aroused And come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat, For there I will sit to judge All the surrounding nations. |
| 3:13 | Put in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe. Come, tread, for the wine press is full; The vats overflow, for their wickedness is great. |
| 3:14 | Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision! For the day of the LORD is near in the valley of decision. |
| 3:15 | The sun and moon grow dark And the stars lose their brightness. |
| 3:16 | The LORD roars from Zion And utters His voice from Jerusalem, And the heavens and the earth tremble. But the LORD is a refuge for His people And a stronghold to the sons of Israel. |
“Put in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe.” That is what the Spirit of God declared through the prophet Joel, and that is what the angel coming from God’s presence declares. The time has come. The announcements have been made to those on earth. The excuse, I did not know, is but a lie because all have heard. The Father has set the time for judgment, and it is now.
Another reference to be considered is the parable given by our Lord of the wheat and the tares found in Matthew chapter 13:37-43. In His explanation of this parable to His disciples, our Lord says:
| 13:37 | And He said, “The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man, |
| 13:38 | and the field is the world; and as for the good seed, these are the sons of the kingdom; and the tares are the sons of the evil one; |
| 13:39 | and the enemy who sowed them is the devil, and the harvest is the end of the age; and the reapers are angels. |
| 13:40 | “So just as the tares are gathered up and burned with fire, so shall it be at the end of the age. |
| 13:41 | “The Son of Man will send forth His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all stumbling blocks, and those who commit lawlessness, |
| 13:42 | and will throw them into the furnace of fire; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. |
| 13:43 | “Then THE RIGHTEOUS WILL SHINE FORTH AS THE SUN in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear. |
While this could have a near reference to the judgment of the nations upon the return of our Lord to establish His kingdom, it certainly has a climatic reference to the rebellion at the end of the Kingdom Age and the judgments that follow it. In any case, the command to reap the earth is a reference to the judgment of the earth and all of its peoples.
As a sign that He will now carry out the judgment of God upon the nations, the Lord, Jesus Christ, our savior, lowers the sickle and swings it over the earth. The text simply states that the earth was reaped. This reaping of the earth includes all of the remaining judgment to fall upon the earth, from the pouring out of the vials of God’s wrath found in chapters 15 and 16 of Revelation to the return of the King to defeat the armies of the Antichrist at Armageddon in chapter 19 and the subsequent judgment of the peoples of the earth as the Kingdom is established.
The Reaping of the Vine of the Earth
The second symbolic act also involves reaping; however, the reaper and what is reaped differ. In verse 17, we are told another angel comes out of the temple that is in heaven and also has a sharpened sickle. The one who will be reaping, while ultimately acting on the authority of God, is not our Lord this time but an angelic being. The question arises; why are there two different reapers? If the first picture is that of our Lord judging the whole earth, then why is there a second picture of an angelic being carrying out the judgment of God?
The answer seems to be that this judgment is directed against a particular group. God is emphasizing, in portraying this second judgment, a particular group will be judged. The judgment comes not so much by the Messiah as He returns to take up His rule but by God before the return of the King. The angel giving the instruction to reap in verse 18 identifies this group.
The angel giving the instruction to reap was the angel who had power over fire. When John identifies this angel, it seems that he is referring us back to an angelic being he has already mentioned. There are at least two likely possibilities. In chapter 8, before the seven angels sound the trumpet fanfare announcing the King, another angel comes and stands by the golden altar. He has a censer that he fills with fire from the altar and casts it to the earth. This angelic being, positioned by the altar, seems to have some "power" over fire.
Also found in chapter 8 is a description of the judgments which fall upon the earth in connection with the first four trumpet fanfares. In the first of these judgments, one-third of the surface of the earth was incinerated. Now it does not seem likely that the angelic beings sounding the trumpets themselves carry out these judgments, but that they were carried out by angelic beings is almost certain. In chapter 7, before the 144,000 are sealed, the angel who did the sealing instructs four angels. They are designated as angels “to whom it was granted to harm the earth and the sea.” He tells them, ‘Do not harm the earth or the sea or the trees until we have sealed the bond-servants of our God on their foreheads.'” Whether it was the four angels who sounded the trumpets or four other angels, angelic beings carried out this judgment of fire upon the earth. The angel who had power over fire probably refers to one of these.
Whichever this angel might be, he instructs the angel holding the sickle to gather the clusters from the vine of the earth because her grapes are ripe. The vine of the earth is a reference to Israel as contrasted to the whole earth mentioned in the previous vignette. Many times God refers to His chosen people of Israel as a vine or vineyard. Consider the following passages:
Psalm 80:8 and 14
| 80:8 | You removed a vine from Egypt; You drove out the nations and planted it. |
| 80:14 | O God of hosts, turn again now, we beseech You; Look down from heaven and see, and take care of this vine, |
Isaiah 5:2
| 5:2 | He dug it all around, removed its stones, And planted it with the choicest vine. And He built a tower in the middle of it And also hewed out a wine vat in it; Then He expected it to produce good grapes, But it produced only worthless ones. |
Jeremiah 2:21, 5:10 & 6:9
| 2:21 | “Yet I planted you a choice vine, A completely faithful seed. How then have you turned yourself before Me Into the degenerate shoots of a foreign vine? |
| 5:10 | “Go up through her vine rows and destroy, But do not execute a complete destruction; Strip away her branches For they are not the LORD'S. |
| 6:9 | Thus says the LORD of hosts "They will thoroughly glean as the vine the remnant of Israel; Pass your hand again like a grape gatherer Over the branches." |
Hosea 10:1
| 10:1 | Israel is a luxuriant vine; He produces fruit for himself. The more his fruit, The more altars he made; The richer his land, The better he made the sacred pillars. |
The seven years of the Tribulation Period represent the last seven years in God’s judgment of His people as declared in Daniel 9:24-27.
| 9:24 | “Seventy weeks have been decreed for your people and your holy city, to finish the transgression, to make an end of sin, to make atonement for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy and to anoint the most holy place. |
| 9:25 | “So you are to know and discern that from the issuing of a decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until Messiah the Prince there will be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks; it will be built again, with plaza and moat, even in times of distress. |
| 9:26 | “Then after the sixty-two weeks the Messiah will be cut off and have nothing, and the people of the prince who is to come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. And its end will come with a flood; even to the end there will be war; desolations are determined. |
| 9:27 | “And he will make a firm covenant with the many for one week, but in the middle of the week he will put a stop to sacrifice and grain offering; and on the wing of abominations will come one who makes desolate, even until a complete destruction, one that is decreed, is poured out on the one who makes desolate.” |
Seventy weeks were determined by God to complete His judgment of Israel for their rebellion. The seventy weeks are weeks of years; that is, a week is a seven-year period. In this 490-year period, sin would be complete; atonement would be made for sin and everlasting righteousness established. From the decree to rebuild Jerusalem to the cutting off or death of the Messiah would be sixty-nine weeks or 483 years. This is the time between the decree to return and rebuild Jerusalem and the crucifixion of our Lord. Seven years still remain, but at this point, there is an unseen hiatus in the text. The church age, a mystery that was hidden in the Old Testament, intervenes. With the rapture of the church, the seven years of Tribulation begin. These seven years are the last week of years in the judgment determined upon Israel. The judgment of God’s people Israel will be completed. As a sign of this in the heavenly courtroom, the angelic being holding the sharpened is instructed to reap the vine of the earth.
The angel, we are told, swung his sickle to the earth and reaped or gathered the grapes of the vine. He threw them into the great winepress of the wrath of God, and it was pressed outside the city. From this description, we understand that Israel will be attacked, and much of its population will be slaughtered. Blood will be poured out, five feet deep in one place at least, and the river will be red with it for a distance of 200 miles, probably a reference to the Jordan River, the only river of that length in this area.
God has promised judgment upon the earth for its rejection of Him. As part of that judgment, God has allowed humanity to reap the inevitable results of turning away from him. These results include idolatry, sexual perversion and a reprobate mind, which we see clearly in our world and society today. Nevertheless, a future judgment also waits. The day is coming. We are near, on the very threshold, when God pours out His judgment upon the world in preparation for the establishment of the kingdom of the King of kings upon the earth. This judgment includes His judgment upon the nations for their rejection of His rule and His particular judgment upon Israel for their sin in turning away from Him.
