Chapter 14 brings us to the end of the vision which
was begun in chapter 13. It began
with the vision of the Anti-Christ pictured as a beast with
seven heads and ten horns (13:1-10). He causes
the whole earth to worship the dragon (Satan – see ch. 12) who conducts a fierce war against Christians and the church
from the earth (11: 1- 10)
which survives only by God’s grace. This
is indeed the history of the last 2000 years of the Christian church. She has
never had prolonged times of peace. Sooner or later Satan makes sure that she is attacked and destroyed. There are so
many evidences in our history of
churches that once have flourished in this world, but which are now
either museums or businesses or mosques, or they have been
eliminated altogether. Who has done this? Well, Revelation 11: 4-10 and 12:
12b-13 tells the story . Satan has
done this , and he has done this through the first beast , the anti-christ, who is given
authority for 42 months (13:5) to hold the earth in his
brutal ransom, causing the whole earth
to marvel and worship the beast, and the dragon (13:4) and to
speak haughty and blasphemous words against God (13:6)
The
companion of the first beast (the
antichrist) is the second beast arising
out of the earth ,
with his two horns like a lamb's and with speech
like the dragon. He is the false prophet, who deceives
those who dwell on earth (13:14) with the help of great signs and wonders.
He made them make an image
of the anti- christ causing
the people of this earth to
worship it, killing those that refused to submit. And then he
gave them a mark, and only the
worshippers of the beast and his image, who had the mark could buy
or sell.
The third vision was that of the Lamb on Mount Zion and with
him the 144 000 (14: 1-5) who have been redeemed
among mankind . Until this point it
seemed as if the kingdom of the anti-christ
was supreme and invincible, but now this vision tells us a different story.
Our God reigns !
The Almighty never intended the unholy trinity to exercise
authority on this earth – only
for 42 months. God has installed His own King on Mt. Zion (Psalm2)
, the symbolic place from where He
exercises His rule and everlasting
authority. Psalm 2 tells us that God
in the heavens sits and laughs at all the futile raging and plotting of the nations under their rulers and kings who are
pawns in the hands of Satan , the anti-christ, the false prophet –
the members of the unholy trinity.
God's people are perfectly safe. The one
hundred forty-four thousand are all there, and not one is missing .
The fourth vision was that of angels (14:6- 11) delivering their messages
of judgment upon Babylon ,
the city that symbolizes Satan’s kingdom.
In conclusion, there is a call for
endurance to Christians (14:12-13) and a promise of rest for those who had endured
the tribulation and persecution
in this time because they refused to worship the beast.
THE HARVEST OF THE EARTH
(14: 14-20)
We are now coming to the end of this vision which relates to the 2nd
coming of our Lord and to the end of time as we know it. Just as
the opening of the 6th seal in Rev 6 took us to the close of
all human history, this passage takes us to the end - although the end is viewed here from a different angle.
We shall
also see that what is spoken of here will be dealt with again in future
chapters. The fall of Babylon (14:8)
symbolically described
in scripture as “the great prostitute” (17:1,5,15,16) is accompanied
by the grim reaper and by the terrible wrath of God. This
theme will be developed in future chapters with greater vividness and
detail.
Two images strike us as we
look at this vision of the great harvest – pictured
here for us in the imagery of a
harvest of wheat (14:15-16) and of
grapes (14: 17-20) :
1. There is a
harvester
2. There is a
harvest
1.THE HARVESTER:
There should
be no doubt as to who this is. The
language employed makes it very clear that this is Jesus … " one like a son of man with a crown of gold on His head and a
sharp sickle in His hand…" The
term "son of man" is familiar to us.
(i)
It is His favourite self –
designation in the gospels. [1]
Jesus testified before the High priest
in Mt 26:64 as he stood before the
Sanhedrin: "But I say to all of you:
In future you will see the Son of Man
sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of
heaven."[2] There is no doubt that this is the Lord Jesus
Christ.
(ii)
We have seen this same
description in Rev. 1:13 - "
In my vision at night I looked, and there before me was one like a son of
man, coming with the clouds of heaven…"
(iii)
The same picture is portrayed in Dan. 7:13 - "In my vision at night I looked, and there before me was one like
a s on of man , coming with the clouds of heaven…"
This then is
a picture of Jesus , the Son of Man , the Son of God in His exalted glory.
He is seated on a white cloud . This imagery is familiar ,
and we see it also on the Mount of
Transfiguration (Mt 17:5) as well as
at His ascension (Acts 1:9). It is
this same cloud that features in His second coming ( 1 Thess. 4:17) and in Rev 1:7 we read: “ Behold
, He is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see Him…” . To come with
the clouds in the Scriptures always
denotes that this Son of man is coming for judgement.
In what capacity does He appear?
He is coming as God’s anointed King. Just when
we thought that all was lost, and when
the hour of darkness has reigned on the face of the earth He comes back with dramatic suddenness and unexpectedly (Matt 24: 44; 25:1-13; 1 Thess. 5:2) to claim
His own , but the picture here is mainly that of a terrible
judgement upon the earth . He has a
sharp sickle in His hand , and He is coming for the purpose of harvest .
At the
second coming He will not come as Saviour , but
He is coming as the King -Judge.
But He is
not alone in this work.
His helpers:
Whilst He
supervises and oversees the harvest the actual
work to be done is left to the angels,
His servants. This agrees with other
parts of the Scripture. E.g
Ø Matt 13:39 : Speaking about the harvest of the unrighteous : Parable
of the Weeds à Jesus
explains in this context: "The weeds
are the sons of the evil one, and the enemy who sows then is the devil .The
harvest is the end of the age, and the harvesters are angels."
Ø Matt 24:31 – Speaking
about the harvest of the righteous : "And He will send His angels with a loud trumpet call, and
they will gather His elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to
the other."
Here
then the angels proclaim that the time has come for the great harvest. It is time to reap. It is time to put the
sickle to gather in the harvest . This
announcement reminds us of Joel's prophecy of the judgement upon the nations: (Joel 3:13) " Put in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe. Go
in, tread,for the winepress is full. The
vats overflow, for their evil is great.
The hour for
the harvest of the earth has come. The time of deliverance of God's
people and the judgment for Satan's people has come. That is all fairly clear.
2. THE HARVEST :
As we take a
closer look at this passage we see that 2 harvests are taking place. There is
reference made to a wheat harvest (14:15,16) and also
to a grape harvest (14:18-20)
The wheat harvest generally is a symbol which
refers to the harvest of God's people.
Ø Lk 3:17 records the
words of John the Baptist about Jesus: "His
winnowing fork is in His hand to clear His threshing floor and to gather the
wheat into His barn , but He will burn the chaff with fire." The
purpose of the harvest is the gathering of the wheat, and not the chaff or the
tares.
Ø In Lk 10:2, Mt 9:37
, Jn. 4:35-38 , ( The harvest is plentiful , but the labourers are
few…) ; Christ describes His people as a field to be
harvested. In Mk 4:26- 29 , He
declares … “The kingdom of God is as if a man should
scatter seed on the ground. He sleeps and rises night and day, and the
seed sprouts and grows; he knows not how. The earth produces by itself,
first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear. But when the
grain is ripe, at once he puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come.”
The grape harvest represents the harvest of the ungodly, who are like grapes ready to
be trampled upon in the winepress of
God's judgement . Grapes in ancient times were
put
into a big bucket and
they were trodden out with feet . This
picture forms the background to the
following OT pictures :
Ø Joel 3:13: Put in
the sickle, for the harvest is ripe. Go in, tread, for the winepress is full.
The vats overflow, for their evil is great.
Ø Isaiah 63: 1 – 6 : Who is
this who comes from Edom, in crimsoned
garments from Bozrah, he who is splendid in his apparel, marching in the
greatness of his strength? “It is I, speaking in righteousness, mighty to save.”[2] Why is your apparel
red, and your garments like his who treads in the winepress? [3] “I
have trodden the winepress alone, and from the peoples no one was with me;
I trod them in my anger and trampled
them in my wrath; their lifeblood spattered on my garments, and stained all my
apparel. [4] For the day of vengeance was in my heart, and my year of
redemption had come. 5] I looked, but there was no one to help; I was
appalled, but there was no one to uphold; so my own arm brought me salvation,
and my wrath upheld me. [6] I trampled down the peoples in my
anger; I made them drunk in my wrath, and
I poured out their lifeblood on the earth.”
The order to
perform this reaping is again given from
the temple in heaven. An angel comes with fire from the altar and proceeds from
there with the judgment. Fire always is
a symbol of judgment and of cleansing . This may be the same angel alluded to
in Rev 8:5. There the angel takes a
censer, fills it with fire from the altar, and hurls it upon the earth.
Notice that
this winepress of God's wrath is located outside of the city. It was outside
the city gate that Jesus was unjustly condemned, treated as unclean and
abominable, and it was here that He was put to death - the Innocent for the
guilty. It was there that He was
publically trodden upon in the winepress of God's wrath , bearing our
sins and absorbing our punishment so that we might be clothed with his pure and holy righteousness.
And now when the final hour of judgement comes, it will be also be outside
of the symbolic city of God , that the rejectors of
His grace ( all through their own choice ) will have to suffer God's righteous
wrath.
The picture which follows is graphic and terrible. They were
trampled in the winepress, …and blood flowed out of the press in great
quantities. To illustrate - 1600 stadia represents about 300 kilometres as
high as a horses bridle - 1.5 meters !
Do you
remember that desperate question back in Rev. 6:17
: "In the face of God's wrath , who
can stand?"
Thankfully
the answer remains the same while the day of Grace continues : "Those who have washed their robes and made
them white in the blood of the lamb " (7:14)
You see ,
you can't get around the issue of 'blood'. Either it is your or His blood
that will be required in the day of judgment.
What will it
be for you?
[1] The expression "the Son of man" occurs 81
times in the Greek text of the four Canonical gospels, and is used only in the sayings of Jesus. The singular Hebrew expression
"son of man" (בן–אדם i.e. ben-'adam) also
appears in the Hebrew Bible over a hundred times. ( Wikipedia)
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