Revelation 14:14 - 20

Reaping the Earth’s Harvest

14 Then I looked, and behold, a white cloud, and on the cloud sat One like the Son of Man, having on His head a golden crown, and in His hand a sharp sickle. 15 And another angel came out of the temple, crying with a loud voice to Him who sat on the cloud, “Thrust in Your sickle and reap, for the time has come for You to reap, for the harvest of the earth is ripe.” 16 So He who sat on the cloud thrust in His sickle on the earth, and the earth was reaped.

We are now in the portion of the vision regarding the day of judgment.

White clouds usually are a symbol for glory and power.

This one sitting on the cloud is like the Son of man, but this is the part of Him who is the Christ, the Messiah, the Savior, he is wearing a golden crown because he is the King of kings and reigns until the end. (1 Corinthians 15:25)

The sickle is for harvesting the grain which represents the faithful dead and faithful still alive on earth.

He is the King but works along with His angels. (Matthew 25:31) “When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him,” (1 Thessalonians 4:16) “For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout,” (2 Thessalonians 1:7)”when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with His mighty angels,”

An angel comes from the temple with a message for the Son of Man, telling Him it is time to bring in the good who have been faithful until death or the day of judgment if living. This message was sent by God via the angel. Christ said only God knew when the end would be. (Mark 13:32) “But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.”

Christ and His angels are to harvest the good, the parable of the tares tell us there will also be the weeds harvested along with the good grain. (Matthew 13:24 – 30)

The One on the white cloud obeyed God and harvested the good.

Reaping the Grapes of Wrath

17 Then another angel came out of the temple which is in heaven, he also having a sharp sickle.

18 And another angel came out from the altar, who had power over fire, and he cried with a loud cry to him who had the sharp sickle, saying, “Thrust in your sharp sickle and gather the clusters of the vine of the earth, for her grapes are fully ripe.” 19 So the angel thrust his sickle into the earth and gathered the vine of the earth, and threw it into the great winepress of the wrath of God. 20 And the winepress was trampled outside the city, and blood came out of the winepress, up to the horses’ bridles, for one thousand six hundred furlongs.

Another angel came with a sickle, it is to be angels who reap what is left on earth. (Matthew 13:39) “The enemy who sowed them is the devil, the harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are the angels.” They will harvest the unfaithful. This angel is also under the command of God as he also came from the temple.

The next angel comes from the altar, it is used for burning certain victims. This angel gives the command from God to gather the grapes which represent the evil to suffer the wrath of God, “grapes of wrath”, God is never premature in his operations, He explained to Abraham in (Genesis 15:16) that he was waiting for the time that the sin of the Amorites was not complete yet. (2 Peter 3:15) after discussing the day of judgment Peter tells us the end will be delayed to give all a good opportunity to be saved. ”the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation.”

When God's wisdom says the time is right then the end will happen.

The winepress shows the ones who are unfaithful will pay the price of their wickedness. God's wrath will prevail.

This shows the punishment of the wicked will happen outside the city of heaven, and the amount of blood flowing from the winepress shows there will be a great many who die outside of Christ with no crown of salvation to be had by them. The results of their wicked lives will result in dire consequences for them.