Harvesting of the Earth

After a brief pause, John returns to the subject of God’s divine wrath poured out upon the earth. This is done by way of a harvest by which God reaps the earth, by the seven last plagues, the seven bowl judgments which are poured out on the earth (Revelation Chapters 15 and 16). The vision of chapter 14 symbolically portrays the final acts of God’s judgments in the last days of the Tribulation.

In his vision, John sees One like the Son of man seated on a white cloud, wearing a golden crown, and a sharp sickle in His hand. The One like the Son of man is our Lord Jesus Christ, He participating in the bowl judgments. The golden crown stresses the glorified state and royal dignity of our Lord Jesus Christ. The title Son of man emphasizes the humanity of our Lord Jesus Christ. The sharp sickle indicates this is the time of harvesting the crop of iniquity sowed by man. John also saw another angel coming out of the Temple and in a loud voice tells the One seated on the white cloud “put in your sickle and reap for the hour to reap has come, because the harvest of the earth is ripe” (Revelation 14:15).

Reaping is symbolic of death and destruction that will come upon the earth. From the parable of Matthew 13 we learn that the harvest is the end of the age and the reapers are angels and that 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 and will cast them into the furnace of fire (Matthew 13:39-41). In the parable as Christ told it before explaining the parable Jesus said the tares, unbelievers, and of the wheat, the people of God, believers, will grow together until the harvest; and He will say to the reapers, “first gather up the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them up, but gather the wheat into My barns” (Matthew 13:30).

In these verses, we have an anticipation of the coming of Jesus Christ. The metaphor changes slightly from the harvest of tares to that of the gathering of grapes and the winepress of God’s anger.

The church of Jesus Christ is gone. Christ, the true Vine, rejected by the nations and Israel. With the exception of the remnant of believers from every tribe, tongue, and nation, all the people have given themselves over to Satan and the kingdom of the beast, the earth has become like a great vine full of clusters of grapes ripe for harvest and the winepress or judgment.

In verses 17-18, we have two angels. The first comes from the heavenly temple, from the presence of God to execute the harvest. He too had a sharp sickle. Then another angel comes out from the altar. This angel has power over fire, this angel proceeds from God’s presence and acts on behalf of God’s authority to authorize judgment on earth. The connection with fire may also have something to do with the altar. This altar is the altar of incense full of coals from the burnt offering of sacrifice. Here God is acting to vindicate His saints persecuted and martyred for their faith in Jesus Christ.

This angel commands the angel with the sharp sickle to put in his sickle and to harvest the ripe grape clusters from the poisonous vine of the earth, all the false religion of man is fully ripe and ready for harvest. Thus, the harvest is ready because man in his own efforts apart from the life of God has fully developed an apostate religious system. The iniquity of man has reached its climax.

Can the world be far from that now?

In verses 19 and 20, the grapes are harvested, thrown into the winepress, and trampled.

The winepress trodden outside the city with the blood coming out from the press refers to the gathering of the armies of the nations to Megiddo in the north of Jerusalem for the great battle with the Lord Jesus Christ as described in Revelation 19:17-19 and Joel 3. This will result in the bloodiest battle and destruction of human flesh the world has ever known. From this battle blood will flow, like grape juice from a winepress. Blood up to the horse’s bridle is a hyperbole for the enormous destruction of life that will occur (Isaiah 63:3-6).

Please note the Lord Jesus Himself will execute this blood bath. In His first advent, He came as a meek lamb, giving His life for the ransom of men. However, here He comes as the mighty conqueror in the full wrath of the Holy God of the universe.