Revelation 14:14-20

Tonight, we will consider the “reapers” of the earth, and this event has been foretold since at least the days of Isaiah. In Isaiah 63:1-6, it says, “Who is this who comes from Edom, With garments of glowing colours from Bozrah, This One who is majestic in His apparel, Marching in the greatness of His strength? “It is I who speak in righteousness, mighty to save.” Why is Your apparel red, And Your garments like the one who treads in the wine press? “I have trodden the wine trough alone, And from the peoples there was no man with Me. I also trod them in My anger and trampled them in My wrath; And their lifeblood is sprinkled on My garments, and I stained all My raiment. “For the day of vengeance was in My heart, And My year of redemption has come. “I looked, and there was no one to help, and I was astonished and there was no one to uphold; So My own arm brought salvation to Me, And My wrath upheld Me. “I trod down the peoples in My anger And made them drunk in My wrath, And I poured out their lifeblood on the earth.””

Like Revelation 14:14-20, this text also uses the trampling of grapes in a winepress to depict the absolute horror of God’s final judgment. The prophet Joel also records God’s final judgment, but instead uses drought, fire, and a huge infestation of locusts in his first chapter and into his second (1:1-2:11 if you want the passage). These were a mere warning of worse things to come in 3:12-13: “Let the nations be aroused And come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat, For there I will sit to judge All the surrounding nations. 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.” In context, Joel is speaking of the final judgement of the wicked, and it is my opinion (and not just mine) that this is speaking of the same event described here in Revelation 14.

I chose to handle these two thought units from the NASB translators as one thought because, in my opinion, they are speaking of the two aspects of this singular event. The first part of the event is the final judgment of the believers, as well as all those who say they are believers and are not. In the language of Jesus in Matthew’s gospel, this is the reaping of the figurative wheat and tares. You may already know the parable of the Lord Jesus, who in His harvest analogy explanation of this parable to the disciples, said first, “Allow both to grow together until the harvest; and in the time of the harvest I 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 barn.’” (Matt. 13:30). In explaining this very thing, he said, “And He said, “The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man, 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; and the enemy who sowed them is the devil, and the harvest is the end of the age; and the reapers are angels. So just as the tares are gathered up and burned with fire, so shall it be at the end of the age. 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 throw them into the furnace of fire; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then THE RIGHTEOUS WILL SHINE FORTH AS THE SUN in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear.” (Matt.13:37-43). This is part one of the reaping event, as we will see when we go through the text.

The second part of the final judgment that our Lord Jesus will render is for all the rest of those who still live and fight against Him vainly. Psalm 2 says, “Why are the nations in an uproar And the peoples devising a vain thing? The kings of the earth take their stand

And the rulers take counsel together Against the LORD and against His Anointed, saying,

“Let us tear their fetters apart And cast away their cords from us!” He who sits in the heavens laughs, The Lord scoffs at them.” You know, it doesn’t matter where you are here. You will be figuratively reaped at this time in one of these two reapings. You have a choice between a glorious eternity with Christ or being burned or crushed. Now, if it were me, and it is as much as it is for anyone else, I would choose the glad ending. For those that will not surrender and submit to the Lordship of our Lord Jesus Christ, then you know what will happen, because He told us, and now I tell you.

You know, viewers, I do get comments on the videos. Besides the people who are obvious about trying to sell me stuff, I occasionally get statements such as, “More power to you, Pastor.” Or, “Good word, keep preaching, praying for your power.” As much as I appreciate your kind words, I have to tell you that it isn’t my power that’s involved. It is the power of my Lord Jesus behind the words I speak. Some have, from time to time, come for a while to see if they could “steal the sheep,” so to speak. I admit that behaviour puzzles me. I delete comments that link to other bible studies because that is some kind of weird assault on God’s people and against myself. Sometimes that has been by people who attend physically when we can meet in person. Look, they aren’t my sheep to steal. Any sheep the Lord has given me are the property of Yahweh Yeshuah and His Father, I’m just an under-shepherd. If they are really His sheep, you won’t be stealing them from Him, I can guarantee you that. I will not comment further on this, other than to say if that is what you’re doing, you should repent and be ashamed of yourself. However, keep your comments coming; I appreciate them. What I really like is when you have theological questions about this stuff. Put them in the comment section, and we can discuss them there, or you can email me at Pa*******@**********on.com.

With that said, let’s look at the text. I broke it up as follows:

KV16: The Reaping of the Harvest

16: Then He who sat on the cloud swung His sickle over the earth, and the earth was reaped.

14-16: The House of God is Reaped

17-19a: The Earth is Reaped

19b-20: The Great Wrath of God

There is a lot of metaphor to discuss, so I will just get right to it.

KV16: The Reaping of the Harvest

16: Then He who sat on the cloud swung His sickle over the earth, and the earth was reaped.

This is one of the most controversial pieces of Scripture I have ever read. There are a number of ways to look at it hermeneutically, but all it does for me is confuse the issue. The Lord Jesus talked about farming a great deal, and this deals with all of the harvest-themed parables that He told while He was among us in person. It is a sombre picture, and a sober one. I suspect that all of the controversy that swirls around this passage is an attempt by man to mitigate the accountability we will ALL face in the judgment of God. This WILL happen. It will happen to EACH of us. How we face it then will be determined by the decisions made leading up to this point in future history. Let’s jump into the text.

14-16: The House of God is Reaped

Peter told us that judgment would begin at the house of God. 1 Peter 4:17-18 put this in context for us: “For it is time for judgment to begin with the household of God; and if it begins with us first, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God? AND IF IT IS WITH DIFFICULTY THAT THE RIGHTEOUS IS SAVED, WHAT WILL BECOME OF THE GODLESS MAN AND THE SINNER?” We talked about this in our studies of 1 Peter. The wrath (judgment) of God strikes all of us, but it can be seen in a radiating effect from the point of first impact. The first person to be struck with the undiluted wrath of God was Christ as He was crucified on a Roman cross. Now, He did that for us, to pay the penalty for our sins to redeem us, but it struck Him when He volunteered to be the sacrifice. Radiating out from that point, it washed over us, though for us, the Lord took the pain of the impact in paying the penalty. We felt a swell in our sufferings, but that was to teach us to be holy. It is out past the church now to its own final point, where its weight and power are not diminished. If anything, like a tsunami, it has gathered weight, speed, and power on its way here. Now, if the saved are out of the way, and have been barely saved by the impact on Christ, how will the rest of humanity fare? I shudder to think. Why are there two reapers? There are two reapings on the Earth in the text. The first is the sorting out of the proverbial what’s and tares, or sheep and goats. The Lord is handling this Himself, and that makes some sense from the NT passages, especially the sheep and goats. The second is the final judgement associated with His return to Earth. It is the final reaping now of all of His people, and those who claim to be His people but aren’t are out of the way. This is everyone else. Let’s get into the text.

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.

“Like a son of man.” This is our Lord Jesus. It is my opinion that the translators’ use of an indefinite article here when it is unnecessary introduces confusion for me. Others apparently think differently. The Greek text has the words, “υἱὸν ἀνθρώπου,” and does not need to use an article of any kind. It may simply be read, “Son of Man” in English, and does not require the article use. The problem arises from the Greek because there is no indefinite article in Greek. Most of the time, this makes no difference, but I think it makes a difference here. “A Son of Man” in my opinion introduces an erroneous possibility in the same way as “the Word was A God” in John 1:1, though that is a deliberately introduced error, introduced by the so-called translators of the JW bible, of whom it was proved in a court in the 1950s, could neither read nor understand Greek. This makes the possibility available to say this was not Jesus. I do not agree that it needs to be read like that. But that is my understanding of Greek syntax. Besides, it is the exact syntax used in Rev. 1:12, and He identified Himself as Jesus.
Also, like at a Galilean wedding, it is still the Father who is providing direction to the Son in the execution of His own will. The Groom does not know the precise time to go and get his bride, but the Father knows and controls when it is time. This is a slightly different application, though in my mind it seems related.
He is wearing a Stephanos, the Victor’s crown, because He is the arriving Conqueror, as opposed to the Diadem He will wear as the King in Revelation 19, we will see when we get there. In His hand is a sharp (swift) sickle. For those unfamiliar with old-time farming implements, this is the instrument used to slice through the stalks of the grain so it can be easily gathered into bundles. Some are shorter and used for cutting herbs, but some, like a scythe, can be used to cut down near the ground to take down the tall grasses. I’ve used one of those, and assuming it’s sharp, it cuts with no effort at all.

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.”

The thought of an angel giving commands to the Saviour, God the Son, is not what is in view here, although some would argue this. I do not believe this is an angel commanding God. I believe it is an angel given the blessed responsibility of relaying the will of God to the Reaper, telling the Son it is time for the final harvest.
This angel has a “megas phōnē,” loud voice. I love how his voice in English is like a megaphone. It is where our word comes from. Why is it out loud and done in this fashion? It is to mark the event like a kind of timestamp for John, who is tasked by the Holy Spirit with telling us what is happening. What is He relaying? That the time for the final harvest is here. I see this as relaying information, not the giving of a command, and that is because the reasoning follows. If this were an order, it usually isn’t so. Why is it harvest? Because the earth is “ripe.”
“Ripe.” This word is ἐξηράνθη, meaning over-ripe, drying out, it is almost past harvesting. It is almost no good anymore in terms of its value for the fruit of the harvest. When I first read this, it made me think for a little about why it was in this state. I think we can be certain that this is a mercy of God, even at the final harvest, of the Lord giving even more time than He has to or even should to allow people to repent and turn to Him. This is why we often say that eternal life in Christ is a time-limited offer. That offer has an end. This is the endpoint, if I am correct, and I think I am.
There will come a time when God will stop calling humanity to repent. That will be both a sobering and sombre moment. Will you be there when the roll is called up yonder, or like so many others, some of whom we can sadly name, be merely “almost persuaded” like King Agrippa in Acts? I urge you, as an ambassador of Jesus by the will of God, to turn to Christ and ask His forgiveness for your sins. Believe He died in your place. Tell Him that. Next verse.

16: Then He who sat on the cloud swung His sickle over the earth, and the earth was reaped.

Notice that “He” is capitalized. That is the same one who was “like a son of man” in verse 14. Apparently, the translators of the NASB think it is Jesus also. They will only capitalize the pronouns of Deity. At any rate, the Lord Jesus puts his carpenter’s strong arm to use, and the power behind the scythe stroke does its work. The wheat is reaped, with the accompanying tares, planted among the wheat by their father, the devil.
This is why I started the study with the wheat and tares language of harvest from Matthew 13. I could also use the sheep and goats language of Matt. 25 here. This is the moment where the tares are sorted into bundles to be thrown into the fire, and the wheat is gathered into the Lord’s storehouse forever. None will be lost. Apparently, the angels are better at sorting than humans, but either way, thank the Lord Jesus.
Is this where the event occurs? No, but this point of harvest is a kind of cutoff date. This will happen when His throne is finally set up in Jerusalem. However, it seems that the decision is made here. We know about these kinds of things from acting. The play is performed on such a date. The casting for the play is done long before that. The Earth is reaped.

What is this reaping about? Who are the wheat? Who are the tares? Who can know? The Lord Jesus Himself knows, but he hasn’t told us any of their names. We can make no assumptions and show no partiality to any, we must approach every person as if they are unsaved, where it is not clearly otherwise. We must share with them the gospel of Jesus Christ! We must tell them all that He who knew no sin became sin on our behalf so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. We must tell them that while we were his ENEMIES, He died to save us from eternal separation from His love in Hell forever. We must tell them how He became a man so He could live the life under the law that we never could and then at the right time lay down that life as the perfect atoning sacrifice on our behalf, and that God was so pleased with that sacrifice, that on the third day, He rose from the grave to demonstrate that all our sins were indeed paid for, once for all, because someday this will end, this time of grace saving people from hell. At some point, it ends. This harvest is that end. What a sobering thought. Moving on.

17-19a: The Earth is Reaped

In that first reaping, it was a reaping of all those who were and all those who called themselves believers and were not, who are today both well-represented in the House of God. This reaping is whoever is left. It is the rest of humanity who has chosen to reject God for whatever reason, who have not turned in grace in love to follow the truth. These have a very different fate, and yet not so different. All of these will be crushed in God’s winepress of His wrath. There is no hope for these. Just as our Lord Jesus cried out from the cross, “It is finished,” that phrase hangs over the scene, but with a heavier, more sombre meaning that we will see. Let’s get into the text.

17: And another angel came out of the temple which is in heaven, and he also had a sharp sickle.

This reaping is done by an angel from the temple. He is not there by chance, He was carefully selected by God and equipped for his specific task – the reaping of fallen humanity. He has a sharp, or swift, sickle in his hand also. He is also following the command of God the Father, who is undoubtedly seated in the Temple in Heaven on His throne. His steps have purpose, having a job to do from God Himself. It is indeed a grim task. Next verse.

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.”

Here, the command is given by another angel to put in the sickle for the harvest. Interestingly, it is the angel who has power over fire. Why would that angel be involved? Well, look where he comes from. He comes from the altar of incense, which is before the temple in heaven. We learned in Rev. 6:9-11 that the altar of incense is the altar under which the souls of the persecuted were, and that they were calling out “how long” until the Lord would make their situation right? We also learned from Rev. 8:3-5 that the incense of the altar represented the “prayers of the saints.” This angel from that burning altar perhaps comes at the behest of God Himself in response to those souls to show that now was the time where those prayers for satisfaction would be answered, and also perhaps to further perform the will of God on Earth in accordance with and involvement of the saints. This angel with power over fire calls out to the angel with the sickle to harvest the grapes. He is specific that these are from the vine of the Earth, and these grapes are at their peak for harvest. In them, sin has fully borne its fruit, which is now at peak readiness for harvest. Sin, and the plans of its chief instigator, has come to fruition, literally. It is time that it was cut off from the vine.

19a: So the angel swung his sickle to the earth and gathered the clusters from the vine of the earth…

It is interesting to compare that the Lord Jesus swung his sickle over the earth and that this angel swung his sickle to the earth. The reason is this: The first harvest was for wheat (and tares). They grow out of the earth, but don’t really belong to the earth. The plant grows up and out of the earth. The second, the vine is of the earth, is rooted in it, and belongs to it, growing along the ground unless propped up. These plants, just by analogy, talk about the difference between believers and those who will not believe. This sickle is swung into the earth. Thusly are the clusters of grapes gathered, and the wheat is gathered. Let the reader and hearer understand. These live differently. So ought we. Enough said.

This reaping is a kind of conclusion regarding the souls of men. And you know what I realized as I sat there doing this study? You really can know people by their fruits. Some stand up straight and tall in the air. These stand-up individuals at least try to do the right thing. Others cling to the earth, crawl and sprawl around in it, and just go from sin to sin, until someone else picks them up to carry them to their ultimate fate. It was a stunning revelation, if I can use that word. I know which I would like to be by the mercy of God. I want to be wheat that rises and then stands up and is good for making things that nourish others (bread, and other things). Not things that crawl on the ground and are only good for making an intoxicating beverage under normal circumstances. Moving on.

19b-20: The Great Wrath of God

At this point in the history of the future, we are deep into the second half of the great tribulation. I don’t know how much time is left, but I suspect not a lot of it is, but hey, I’ve read the whole book, so I have the advantage of reading ahead a bit. However much time remains, it is with this reaping that the great wrath of God begins to be revealed, first to attempt to make men see and turn, and then finally just to get it over with. It is this wrath and more that we warn against, week by week, as we study through the book. Let’s see where this goes from here.

19b: and threw them into the great wine press of the wrath of God.

Those harvested grapes do not appear to have a happy ending. You may not know this, but I have read the US Constitution for myself. I took a US History class in High School. For an uninspired human document, it is very good. It informs the reader that all people are created equal, and as a result, they are endowed by their Creator to have “inalienable human rights.” Those rights are the right to “life,” “liberty,” and “the pursuit of happiness.” It has taken me many years, but I think I mostly agree, with the following caveat: The highest pursuit of what people define as happiness should reflect holiness before God. For example, it does not make me happy to pursue adulterous relationships. Does it bring pleasure? Yes, of course, but that pleasure is very different than true happiness. I would personally rephrase those “rights” as “life,” “liberty,” and “the pursuit of holiness.”
The problem with those so-called rights is that they are, in reality, a pipe dream. The only life we can have permanently comes from God, by faith in Jesus Christ, as a gift of His grace through faith. He grants this, by the way. It is our salvation, our justification before God, having the issues we have because of sin to be dealt with by Jesus’ vicarious death on the cross. The only liberty worth speaking of is freedom from sin itself. When the 13 colonies were first established, they all had freedom of religion. Somehow, that has twisted in upon itself into “freedom from religion,” and is now a woke, nonsensical do-it-yourself religion based on stupidity, in about a million flavours. Happiness is too loosely defined now. Some think it comes from a bottle. I used to be in that camp. Some think it comes from an endless string of sexual relationships. There is no satisfaction there. Some people think education is the answer. I doubt that, and I am an educated man. It never brought me happiness. All of this garbage only has one end: to be thrown into a trough and trampled down until the juice of it all runs out of a trough outside the city for a long way.

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 consequences to choices and actions. The consequences of wrong choices here are that the individual will be placed in this wine press and be crushed by the wrath of God. He will be “trampling out the vintage” by Himself, and rightly so. These are the very grapes of wrath of which the Battle Hymn of the Republic speaks. Blood comes out of the press, that is the life, for the life is in the blood. There is so much life that will be lost by those who choose to fight against the Lord and His people that it metaphorically is measured to about 6 feet in depth for about 200 miles. What this is telling us is that this is reflective of the wrath of God being poured out of that winepress, and if we were to do the math on this, it would be at least three orders of magnitude beyond the number of people who currently occupy the planet. There is a great deal of wrath stored up against all of the sins of humanity that will spill over. Nobody could ever expect to atone for the volume of sins against the whole race on their own, except our Lord Jesus Christ. He did it for His people. Who are those people for whom He committed to be slain from before the foundation of the world? As many as will hear the good news that He died in their place and believe it. Those are the people who do not end up in this expression of the wrath of a holy God as He punishes our sins against Him alone.

We often talk about how none of us can pay the penalty for the sins we have committed against God, and this is evidence of this. Because I am who I am, I converted all this into litres of blood and determined how many people this could approximately represent. I got numbers, but these numbers don’t mean much other than this. The number of people this represents in terms of litres of blood is at least three orders of magnitude higher than the number of people currently on the planet. If we were to think in terms of this as an expression of God’s wrath in this terrible mathematics, you could think of yourself in terms of how much sin for which you would have to atone for in units. However, the reality of the numbers tells you that whatever your amount of sin you have committed is, it is way more than you could ever meet, by orders of magnitude, plural. It would have to be God Himself who would pay that price, because nobody else would have the resources to do it! And He did it for all those who will turn to Him in repentance and faith. He paid it completely for all of us! He said it with this word: τετέλεσται. It is usually translated into “It is Finished,” but it was actually an economic term in those days, and can also be translated, “Paid in full.”

What most fail to understand is that this is what Christianity is all about at its root. It isn’t about the behaviour of the saved, although there is an expression of that in the regenerate at a basic level. Such people who have been made alive by God’s power will repent, μετανόησον (second person, imperative, active verb), that is, change their brain, and it will be reflected in the new priorities that this will give them. These will see and acknowledge as the truth that Christ died for them personally. Now they will live for Him personally, regardless of the cost, even if it is their life. There are things worse than death. Like getting crushed by the wrath of God. Ouch. Don’t be in that number. Turn (repent) to Christ (the Saviour) in faith (belief). He makes all of this available as a gift of His grace, which none of us deserves. If you will do this, you can know that regardless of what will happen from that point, your sins have been paid for in full by our Lord Jesus as He bled and died on the cross. It isn’t about religion, although it is religious. It isn’t about the good deeds you do, though you should do them. It is about how Jesus Himself took your place on a cross of wood and suffered and died to pay the price for all of your sins.

This brings us to a point of decision for you. Will you choose this payment on your behalf by Jesus for all of your sins? Or will you join the false religion of do-it-yourself and the occult nonsense that deceives the rest of the world? As Bob Dylan said in a song from the album, Slow Train Comin’, “You’ve gotta serve somebody.” It might be the Devil, or it might be the Lord (there are no other options here), but you’re gonna have to serve somebody. So, like Joshua, the man who led Israel into the Promised Land, I will simply put this to you as a final option of sorts: Choose you this day whom you will serve. My answer is the same as his: As for me and my house, I will serve the Lord.

That’s what I saw in the chapter. Next time, we will look at chapter 15 in its entirety. It is only 8 verses, so we should be able to handle it.