Revelation 14: Harvest of The Earth
Revelation 14: Harvest of The Earth
v1-5: The Lamb and the 144,000
John saw the Lamb stood on Mount Zion (Jerusalem) together with the 144,000 Israelites whom we read on Revelation 7. Over in chapter 7, the 144,000 was sealed on their foreheads, but here it gives the details of the seal, which is the name of the Lamb and the Father. (v1)
Then John heard a loud sound, like roar of waters and loud thunder. Some say this is the voice of God (Rev 1:15, 4:5.) He also heard the sound of harpists and a new song before throne of God and among the four cherubim and elders. (v2) The harpist could be the elders, for each of the them have a harp in Revelation 5:8.
It seems to appear that this is another rapture of the 144,000 Israelites near the end of the seven years, and Jesus took them back to heaven where they sing a new song in front of the throne and elders. Their ministry of proclaiming the Gospel is over.
The new song was sung by the 144,000 as no one else can learn that song. They had been redeemed from the earth, as firstfruits for God and the Lamb. (v3, v4b) They are the "firstfruits" as they were the first group of Israelites who were saved during the first year of tribulation. They are further describe as those who have not defiled themselves with women, and they are virgins. They follow the Lamb wherever He goes. No lie was found on them and they are blameless. (v4a)
John Walvoord said: “Israel is referred to frequently in the Bible as ‘the virgin the daughter of Zion’ (2 Kings 19:21; Isaiah 37:22), as ‘the virgin daughter of Zion’ (Lamentations 2:13), and as ‘the virgin of Israel’ (Jeremiah 18:13; 31:34, 21; Amos 5:2).” They are blameless not because they are holy, but like Christians, they are holy because of Christ's sacrifice and God's forgiveness of their sins.
Similarly, Christ was also called the "firstfruit" of the resurrection for all mankind: "But now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep..... But each one in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, afterward those who are Christ’s at His coming." (1 Cor 15:20.23)
The phrase "follow the Lamb wherever He goes", symbolizes that they walked closely with Christ in their lives, until they meet Him in Jerusalem.
v6-13: Last Salvation Call From The Angels
John saw an angel flying overhead who proclaimed the gospel to those who dwell on earth: “Fear God and give him glory, because the hour of his judgment has come, and worship him who made heaven and earth, the sea and the springs of water.” (v7). He was joined by another angel, that announced that Babylon has fallen, whom have made all nations "drink wine of the passion of her sexual immorality." This refers to a antichrist's kingdom who had led the nations astray and to sin against God. (v8)
A third angel added that those who worship the beast and its image and receive the mark on his forehead or hand, will also drink God's wrath. They will be tormented with fire and sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and the Lamb. And that the smoke of their torment will goes up forever, and there will be no rest for them. (v9-11)
God gave antichrist's followers two choices: To repent and worship the Creator and accept Jesus as their savior, or to be condemned into everlasting fire. After they have seen the last few years of God's power, it would be amazing if there are some who still do not believe what the angels said. Note that John did not mentioned Christians were the one spreading the gospel, and this confirm that the rapture already happened.
One of the angel added: "Here is a call for the endurance of the saints, those who keep the commandments of God and their faith in Jesus." (v12) Who are the "saints" the angel is referring to? There are 3 possible combination: Those who had received Jesus after the rapture had happened, the new believers who believed the warning from the angels, or the Christians who are still on earth if the rapture has not happened yet.
Then a voice comes from heaven that said "Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on," and the Spirit responded: “Blessed indeed, that they may rest from their labors, for their deeds follow them!” (v13)
v14-20: The Harvest of the Earth
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I believe that there are two harvests, and the first harvest is harvest of the saints, and the second harvest is the harvest of unbelievers. Jesus told a parable where there will be two harvest: “Let both grow together until the harvest. At that time I will tell the harvesters: First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned; then gather the wheat into my barn.” (Matthew 13:30)
Matthew 13:49-50 also said: "So it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come forth, separate the wicked from among the just, and cast them into the furnace of fire. There will be wailing and gnashing of teeth.”
John the Baptists also said the same thing: "His winnowing fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clean out His threshing floor, and gather His wheat into the barn; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.” (Matt 3:12)
Jesus had already prophesied about these two harvests using the parable of Wheat and Tares (Mat 13:24-30). He explained the parable in Mat 13:37-43 as this: “He who sows the good seed is the Son of Man. The field is the world, the good seeds are the sons of the kingdom, but the tares are the sons of the wicked one. The enemy who sowed them is the devil, the harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are the angels. Therefore as the tares are gathered and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of this age. .... Then the righteous will shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father."
Jesus' prophecy gives a background of the meaning of the harvest. Let's do some analysis using NKJ version:
A) First Harvest (v14-16)
In the first harvest, there was one seated on the cloud that looks like the son of man, wearing a golden crown and holding a sharp sickle. An angel came out from the temple, and told the person sitting on the cloud to reap the harvest of earth as it is ripe. The person "thrust in His sickle on the earth, and the earth was reaped." (v14-16) This seed being harvest are assumed to be wheat, as the sickle was used to cut grain during the harvest.
Some people say that "the son of man" is not Christ, for an angel cannot give commands to Christ. However, Christ had been called the "son of man" throughout the scripture. Examples include John who refer to Jesus the "Son of Man" in Revelation 1:13. Daniel had a vision of the "Son of Man", interpreted as pre-incarnate Jesus. Jesus himself refer to his future-self as "Son of Man" (Mat 13:37.) Compared to the second harvest, John just simply called the other reaper an "angel". (v17)
Perhaps God allowed the angel to give the command for our sake only.
What are the evidence that the first harvest is meant for believers? We can observe that:
1. The action is taken by Jesus rather than an angel.
In the harvest, Christ started the harvest himself. However, it doesn't mean he was not helped by the angels. For example, if I tell someone that "Joe had set up all the chairs for this seminar," it doesn't mean he put up the hundreds of chairs himself. He definitely had help, or maybe he wasn't physically involved. We only used Joe's name as he was in charge of setting up the place. Jesus was in charge of taking care of His own, and he had delegated to angels to execute, as said in other verses. (Note the difference in Matthew 13:30 and Matthew 3:12.
2. The image of a grain harvest is used elsewhere in a positive light (e.g., Matthew 9:37–38; John 4:34–38)
Then He said to His disciples, “The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.” (Matt 9:37-38)
3. The description of the 144,000 as “firstfruits” in 14:4 points to a greater harvest to come.
4. In the second vision, the grapes are harvested and then trampled, while in the first vision the grain is only harvested, not threshed or burned.
Both the 144,000 and the first harvest believers were taken to heaven through a rapture. They did not die when they were taken up. This is the same as those who were raptured before the tribulation, i.e pre-tribulation rapture.
B) Second Harvest (v15-20)
In the second harvest, an angel with a sickle came out from the temple in heaven. Then another angel came out from the altar (who had power of fire), and told the angel to reap the vines for the grapes are "fully ripe." The angel "thrust his sickle into the earth and gathered the vine of the earth", and threw the grapes into the "great winepress of the wrath of God." (v17-19) The word "winepress" had been used by the bible several time symbolizing a place or event of judgement.
Note that the second angel who gave the instruction came out from the "altar." Where is this altar? This may be referring the altar on Chapter 6:9-10, where the souls of the martyrs cried "How long, O Lord, holy and true, until You judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?" They were told to wait until the number of their brothers that will be killed is complete. The angel coming out from that altar, as now is the time to "avenge."
The "winepress" location was outside the city (of Jerusalem), and blood came out of the winepress, up to the horses bridles, for 1600 furlongs (stadia). This is equivalent to about 300 kilometers of land.
This second harvest is referring to the Armageddon battle and the harvest of the grapes was prophesied by Joel:
“Let the nations be wakened, 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, go down; For the winepress is full, The vats overflow - For their wickedness is great.” (Joel 3:12-13)
This "winepress" relates to the winepress where Jesus will "tread" on in Rev 19:11, 15: "I saw heaven standing open and there before me was a white horse, whose rider is called Faithful and True. With justice he judges and makes war... Out of his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations. "He will rule them with an iron scepter." He treads the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God Almighty."
David Guzik made a comment about the massive amount of blood: "This probably describes blood splattering up to the horses’ bridles, a picture of tremendous carnage in the battle of Armageddon described in Revelation 16:16 and 19:11-19. It is not likely a description of a river of blood running the length of the Promised Land and as high as a horse’s bridle is. This would be an almost incomprehensible river of blood."
In the second harvest, all the unbelievers died and went to Hades, the lake of fire where the rich man went in the story of Lazarus and Abraham. (Luke 16:19-31)
Appendix - Barley Harvest, Wheat Harvest, Fruit (grape) Harvest
The question I had was, are there multiple rapture for believers? Will there be a rapture for believers before the tribulation, and another one for believers in the tribulation? I searched for commentaries that can answer this question but I found none. Then I saw a commentary that described 3 types of harvest in Old Testament time. Extracted from https://jesusplusnothing.com:
1. The barley harvest came first around March/April and was associated with the Feast of Firstfruits. There are some interesting characteristics of barley. The head are bowing down. The chaff is also separated from barley very easily, winnowed through the wind. The barley harvest, at the feast of firstfruits, is associated with Jesus and those who believed in Him before the rapture.
In Matthew 24:31, Jesus says, “And He will send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.” (See 1Co 15:20-23 as well.)
Paul also prophesied: “After that, we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will always be with the Lord.” (1 Thess 4:17)
Some scholars this will happen before the tribulation (pre-tribulation), and some say it will happen in mid-tribulation. Note that Paul said that before the anti-Christ will appear, God will remove the restrainer - i.e. the Holy Spirit. I believe that our rapture will happen when the Holy Spirit is taken away as well. (See footnote - 2 Thess 2:7)
2. The wheat harvest came next, around May, and was associated with the feast of weeks/Pentecost (Ex 34:22). Unlike barley, wheat stands upright and the chaff is more stubborn and requires threshing for separation. Since ancient times a threshing board, inlaid with chips of flint or stone, has been used to separate the wheat from the chaff. The name of this board is the Latin 'tribulum', from which we get the English word 'tribulation'.
Hence the wheat harvest speaks of those that will come to the Lord in the Tribulation period and the raptured was described in Ch 14:15-16. The people is this rapture were mentioned in Chap 7:9-17, in 7yr of tribulation. Chap 14:1-2 where the 144,000 chosen Israelites were raptured, probably at the same time or slightly before them.
In v15, in the harvest of wheat, the angel said: "...the harvest of the earth is ripe.” The Greek word for 'ripe' here is 'xērainō' literally meaning 'To dry up, wither'. The same word is used to describe plants dried up by the sun (Mar 11:21), branches cut from the vine and dried up (John 15:6), and the fig tree Jesus cursed and withered (Mar 11:21). All the 15 times this word is used in NT are in negative sense.
When used in this context, the scripture is indicating not only the stubbornness of the people like wheat, but also they had waited too long to receive the grace of salvation and was "dried up". God has been incredibly patient with the world but the second half of Revelation 14 pictures a time when the people will reap what they have sown. They will suffer the anguish, suffering and death in the tribulation period, as they have missed the "barley havest" rapture.
3. The fruit harvest (grape/figs/pomegranates) came last around September and was associated with the fall feasts. The grapes were trodden underfoot to extract their juice in the winepress. In the Bible this speaks directly to unbelievers in judgment. (Joel 3:13)
This is described by Ch 14:19 where the describe unbelievers under the wrath of God. This happens when Jesus comes again to war against the anti-Christ.
Pray that our loved ones, friends and others who had not made the decision to make it soon, before the rapture happens.
Footnote:
2 Thess 2:1-4; 7-10
1Now concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered together to him, we ask you, brothers, 2not to be quickly shaken in mind or alarmed, either by a spirit or a spoken word, or a letter seeming to be from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord has come. 3Let no one deceive you in any way.
For that day will not come, unless the rebellion comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, 4who opposes and exalts himself against every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God.
7For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work. Only he who now restrains it will do so until he is out of the way. 8And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will kill with the breath of his mouth and bring to nothing by the appearance of his coming. 9The coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan with all power and false signs and wonders, 10and with all wicked deception for those who are perishing, because they refused to love the truth and so be saved.
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