Revelation 14:14-16, “14Then I saw the Son of Man sitting on a white cloud. He had a gold crown on his head and a sharp sickle in his hand.15Then an angel came from the Temple and called out in a loud voice to the one sitting on the cloud, "Use the sickle, for the time has come for you to harvest; the crop is ripe on the earth." 16So the one sitting on the cloud swung his sickle over the earth, and the whole earth was harvested.”
The grain harvest symbolizes the seven bowl judgments, the grape harvest the judgment of Armageddon. Both harvests involve a sickle and reaping, but both can be best described by breaking them down into three points: the reaper, the ripeness and the reaping.
Revelation 14:14, ““14Then I saw the Son of Man sitting on a white cloud. He had a gold crown on his head and a sharp sickle in his hand.”
The familiar phrase I saw introduces a new and important subject in Revelation (4:1; 6:2,5,8:7:9; 14:1) The imagery here for us is clearly taking from Daniel 7:13-14 in reference here used in sitting on a white cloud, “As my vision continued that night, I saw someone who looked like a man[1] coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient One and was led into his presence. 14He was given authority, honor, and royal power over all the nations of the world, so that people of every race and nation and language would obey him. His rule is eternal--it will never end. His kingdom will never be destroyed.”
John saw the Son of Man sitting on a white cloud which can easily be identified as the Lord Jesus Christ coming in fulfillment of Daniel’s prophecy. The white cloud resembles the glory and majesty of who He is (1:8; Matthew 17:5; 24:30; 26:64; Acts 1:9). This ought to catch our attention, the Lord Jesus Christ is sitting thus preparing to reap that which He wishes, but He is still waiting till the proper time to reap, to stand, that the reaping is the seven bowl judgments, will be followed by Christ’s return to establish His Kingdom.
The description of the Son of Man is again taken from Daniel’s prophecy (7:13). This is the Lord’s favorite term for Himself during His incarnation (Matthew 8:20; 9:6; 24:27, 30; Mark 2:10, 28; 8:31; 9:9; Luke 6:22; 7:34; 9:22; 12:8; John 5:27; 6:27, 62; 8:28). This is the last use in Scripture where Christ is described as the Son of Man, but it is in sharp contrast to its first where He had nothing, not even a place to lay His head (Matthew 8:20), now He is about to take possession of the entire earth.
The reaper is further described as He had a gold crown on his head. The crown is not the crown worn by a king (diadema) (19:20), but the stephanos worn by victors in war or athletic events; it is the crown of triumph (2:10; 1 Cor 9:25; 1 Thess 2:19; 2 Tim 4:8; James 1:12; 1 Peter 5:4). This here pictures the Son of Man not in His identity as the Sovereign ruler, but as a Triumphant conqueror victorious over all His enemies (Matthew 24:30).
The reaper also had a sharp sickle in his hand. A sickle was a long, curved, razor sharp iron blade attached to a long, broomsticklike wooden handle. Sickles were used to harvest grain; as they were held with both hands spread apart and swept back and forth, their sharp blades would cut off the grain stalks at ground level. The picture here is of the Lord Jesus Christ mowing down His enemies like a harvester cutting grain.
Revelation 14:15, “15Then an angel came from the Temple and called out in a loud voice to the one sitting on the cloud, "Use the sickle, for the time has come for you to harvest; the crop is ripe on the earth."
This angel (6,8,9) would be the fourth angel in this chapter already shown. The first three angels as we discussed in our previous examinations of this chapter were proclaiming judgment, but the fourth bring the command to execute the very judgment of the three’s pronouncements. This angel came from the Temple (vs.17) from before the throne of God. The loud voice conveys the sense of urgency of the message that the angel proclaims for us, "Use the sickle, for the time has come for you to harvest; the crop is ripe on the earth." This ought not to be seen as an angel exercising power or authority over the Lord Jesus but as God the Father giving an angel the command to execute, for this message came directly from God the Father to God the Son-the Son of Man that it is time for Him to move in judgment. God’s anger has reached its absolute limit and His wrath is poured out. The time for grace is over and there will be no more delaying the harvest of judgment. The Son can now exercise the right to judge that the Father has delegated unto Him (John 5:22, 27; Acts 10:42; 17:31). Yet the reality is the earth is ripe for judgment and harvest. The grain or the earth here pictured has passed the point of any usefulness and is fit only to be as Jesus described, “Gathered up and burned with fire” (Matthew 13:40).
Revelation 14:16, “16So the one sitting on the cloud swung his sickle over the earth, and the whole earth was harvested.””
This is perhaps one of the saddest Scriptures in the whole of the Bible. It records the fact of divine judgment being executed, God’s absolute wrath will have reached its end, and God will then execute His judgment just as fair as those man who have chosen to sin against rebel against the name of the Lord Almighty! The frightening details of this are unfolded in Revelation 16: loathsome and malignant sores on the worshipers of antichrist (vs.2), the death of all life in the world’s oceans (v. 3). The turning of the world’s rivers and springs of water into blood (v.4), the intensifying of the sun’s heat until it scorches people (v.8), painful darkness over all of Antichrist’s kingdom (v.10), the drying up of the Euphrates River in preparation for a massive invasion by the kings of the east (v.12), and the most powerful and destructive earthquake in history (v.18). Those seven rapid-fire bowl judgments mark the first phase of the final reaping of the earth.
Its time that we as believers lived in expectancy of the return of our Lord for the Church-the Bride of Christ, presenting ourselves as offerings to be spilled out in whatever way that the Lord, so chooses. Rather, than sitting on the pew and facing ourselves, looking in the mirror to see if we are really alive; it is time that we as believers arose out of our rest and sleep and become the people of God, not the benchwarmers that we are in fact. Rather than be involved we would rather sit on our loved seats at least many of us enjoying the fruit and labor of those who have gone before us, or are doing in fact the work of God. Instead of praying, we ought to be weeping, instead of slouching around we ought to in a sense repent on our knees before the Lord, for our lack of harmony and our lack of willingness to do-in actual the work of God within our generation. God seeks those who will be willful for His Kingdom, not those who will not be about willfully seeking His face, His desires, and His heart for this generation. May we be found as ready as His church about His business lest He come as a thief in the night. Are you ready for His soon return for His Bride? Or will you be one that seeks to harden their hearts and be as those in the Tribulation facing the impending doom of the judgments and wrath of God? Repent lest your house and your family be cast into the lake of fire along with the demonic hordes.
Pastor Jenkins
