A Different Kind of Harvest-Revelation 14:14-20

Biblical imagery is an incredible phenomenon. Often the same image/metaphor can be used to illustrate two completely different things with completely different connotations. Water, for instance, can be employed to speak of refreshing life and regeneration (John 4; Titus 3:3-5) or judgment and chaos (Noah’s flood and Gen. 1; Rev. 13:1ff). Fire can describe the presence of God (Exod. 3; Acts 2) or hell fire and torment. However, there is another familiar theme that Revelation 14:14-20 calls the reader’s attention to—the harvest. While we often associate a harvest and/or harvest time with positive images of blessing, abundance, and redeemed souls in the scriptures, here, the harvest theme takes on an entirely different tone. In fact, we are going to observe TWO HARVESTS in Revelation 14:14-20 that reveal something of the holiness and justice of God and call God’s people to be laboring well in the fields that are white for harvest today.

HARVEST #1: THE GRAIN HARVEST-14:14-16

As John reaches the end of his literary interlude that spans from chapter 12 all the way through to chapters 14, he introduces something new—“then I looked, and behold, a white cloud, and sitting on the cloud was one like a son of man” (14:14a).  Though there is a lot of debate concerning who this figure is (some say that it is another angelic being who looks human while others believe it is Christ), the best evidence suggests that it is Jesus. After all, the “son of man sitting on a cloud” is a direct allusion to Daniel 7:13-14.

Daniel 7:13-‘’I kept looking in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven one like a Son of Man was coming, and He came up to the Ancient of Days…”

The only other allusions to this passage in Revelation are clearly used to speak of Christ (1:7, 13)

Revelation 1:7-“Behold, he is coming with the cloud, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced Him,…”

Revelation 1:13-“and in the middle of the lampstands I saw one like a son of man, clothed in a robe reaching to the feet,…”

While in the preview immediately preceding this passage the doom of the world system is portrayed as God’s judgment through fire and brimstone resulting in eternal torment (see 14:6-13), John describes the same/similar events here with the Son of God as the principle agent.

The Son of Man (Jesus) has three characteristics that John reports on in this passage. First, he is sitting “on the cloud.” Again, this refers to Daniel 7:13; however, here the cloud is said to be “white.” Typically a color used to symbolize purity, wisdom, and glory, these attributes render this perch a fitting seat from which its occupant (Christ) is able to judge a wicked world (Osborne, Revelation, 550). Second, the Son of Man is wearing a “golden crown on His head.” In Daniel 7:13, the same figure adorns a golden wreath. Both passages employ this unique headdress to demonstrate the sovereign authority of the Son of Man. Finally, and perhaps most curiously, the Son of Man is shown holding “a sharp sickle in His hand.” Seven of the eight occurrences of “sickle” in the New Testament are found in this passage. The other is in Mark 4:29.

Mark 4:26-29-“And He was saying, ‘The Kingdom of God is like a man who casts seed upon the soil; and he goes to bed at night and gets up by day, and the seed sprouts and grows—how, he himself does not know. The soil produces crops by itself; first the blade, then the head, then the mature grain in the head. But when the crop permits, he immediately pits in the sickle, because the harvest has come.”

As in this parable, the sickle of Revelation 14 introduces the idea of a harvest and reveals the judgment that the Son is about to execute in the world (Thomas, Revelation 8-22, 219). The “sharpness” of the sickle suggests something of the nature and finality of the pending condemnation. In all, the Son of Man emerges from a position of power and with every indication that he has both the authority and ability to judge the world.

Joining the Son of man in this presentation is “another angel” who “came out of the temple” (14:15a). The “temple” has always stood for the location of God’s presence. In the Old Testament it housed the Holy of Holies. In Revelation 7:15 it is where the throne of God is said to be. Some even argue that heaven itself (the abode of the Father) is a temple, sanctuary, or holy place (Thomas, Revelation 8-22, 219). However, it is not only a special location for God’s presence, it is the command center from which orders of judgment are issued. Later, in 15:5-8, the angels with the last seven plagues will emerge from the temple and in 16:1, 17 the command to pour out the bowls of wrath will come from the same location. Here in chapters 14, the two harvests are directed from the heavenly temple as well (Osborne, Revelation, 551).  

This is supported by the exclamation of the angel-“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’…” (14:15b). The tone of voice is shrill and the command the angel carries from the Father is resolute—now is the time for the Son of Man to execute the final judgments on the deserving world, thereby fulfilling what was prophesied earlier.

Joel 3:13-“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.”

Matthew 13:30, 39-“ 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.’ …  and the enemy who sowed them is the devil, and the harvest is the end of the age; and the reapers are angels.’”

The same Son who was the active of salvation in his first coming will prove to be the agent of judgment in the second coming. Though some want to draw an acute distinction between the harvest of verses 14-16 and that of verses 17-20 (one for the elect and one for the wicked), the connotations of both passages suggest that judgment, not salvation, is what is in view. Though these two harvests target different produce (wheat and grapes), Joel 3:13 has already revealed that two illustrations can be used to describe the same judgment, emphasizing the terror associated therewith (Thomas, Revelation 8-22, 220).

Once prompted, “He who sat on the cloud swung His sickle over the earth, and the earth was reaped” (14:16). Though this passage seems to describe the judgment of the Son with one swoop of the sickle, this function of the verb for reap in verse 15 suggests the beginning of a process—“begin to harvest/reap.” The harvest of grain envisioned here is a figurative way of describing what is soon to be revealed in chapters 15-19 (the bowl judgments, the fall of Babylon, etc.). Once again, John uses this literary pause/interlude to foreshadow what he will reveal in greater detail later.

HARVEST #2: THE GRAPE HARVEST-14:17-20

The second harvest (or second description of the same series of judgments) provided in this passage begins in verse 17 with the introduction of yet another angel—“and another angel came out of the temple which is in heaven and he also had a sharp sickle” (14:17). Emerging, once again, from the locus of the Father’s presence, this angel is equipped with his own instrument of judgment.

The angel with the sickle is joined by “another angel, the one who has power over fire,” who “came out from the altar” (14:18a). This altar is the same golden altar of incense in chapter 8 verse 3.

Revelation 8:3-“Another angel came and stood at the altar, holding a golden censer; and much incense was given to him, so that he might add it to the prayers of all the saints on the golden altar which was before the throne.”

There is an important connection between these two passages. In 8:3, those who have suffered for Christ’s sake at the hands of the wicked world are depicted. Here in Revelation 14, an angel emerges from that somber place to judge the world that persecuted God’s people. In fact, the altar is the location from which God’s judgments against the earth have proceeded all along (see also 6:9; 8:3; 16:17).

Revelation 6:9-“When the Lamb broke the fifth seal, I saw underneath the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God, and because of the testimony which they had maintained;”

Revelation 16:17-“Then the seventh angel poured out his bowl upon the air, and a loud voice came out of the temple from the throne, saying, ‘It is done.’”

The presence of these two angels predicts the coming judgment they will both be used to carry out—one holds an instrument of judgment (the sickle) and the other comes from the place of judgment (the altar).

Though a sickle was used to harvest wheat in the first harvest described, here, the image of judgment is symbolized by a sickle used to gather grapes—“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’” (14:18b). Believe it or not, there were different types of sickles used in the ancient world (and are still used today). Grain was often harvested with a short-handled hand scythe, while other curved knives were smaller and used to cut grape clusters from the vine (Wilson, ZIBBC, 335). In Revelation 14, both types of knives are in view describing two harvests that are each used to foreshadow the judgment that is about to come. Note here that the time is right for these judgments to take place because “her grapes are ripe” (14:18b).  

The angel responds to this call to harvest as follows: “the angel swung his sickle to the earth and gathered the clusters from the vine of the earth, and threw them into the great wine press of the wrath of God” (14:19). Though a “vineyard” is often used in positive contexts to describe Israel (Isa 5:1-7) or the people of God (John 15), in this context it refers to the enemies of God. These will be cut down because of the fruit they have produced. While God created the world perfect and called upon humankind to cultivate it appropriately, sin has so infected the planet that she has yielded ripe, yet spoiled fruit. Such fruit is destroyed in a most deliberate and graphic way.

After these spoiled grapes are thrown in the wine press the text goes on to describe what happens next—“and the wine press was trodden outside the city,…” (14:20a). The metaphor pictures the repeated stomping of the grapes in a huge vat to produce juice. This activity describes the kind of relentless judgment that will be lodged against the world. That said, what is not explicit is the stomper (i.e. the agent of judgment). Given what precedes this passage and the authority one requires to judge in the first place, it is best to understand that Christ is the one stomping the grapes in this illustration. While the world in general will receive wave after wave of judgment (stomp after stomp), the epicenter of all of this is “outside the city.” To which city does this refer? Though some would say Babylon, Jerusalem is the obvious choice [the use of the anaphoric article also suggests as much]. After all the Old Testament predicts that the final battle will happen near there—in the valley of Jehoshaphat near the Kidron valley (see also Revelation 11:2; 14:1). Also, Jesus was crucified outside the city gates (Heb.3:12). To be outside the city gates came to be used among the Jewish people as a figurative way to describe those outside of the covenant—i.e. those without a special relationship with God. These are the ones who will suffer this coming judgment.

And what a judgment it is. The description continues with “and blood came out from the wine press, up to the horses’ bridles, for a distance of two-hundred miles” (14:20b). Winepresses were square or circular pits, hewn out of rock. The grapes would be placed in the press and then trampled upon until the juice produced flowed through a channel to a lower vessel (Wilson, ZIBBC, 335). Here, as Christ tramples the grapes of wrath, not grape juice, but blood pours out of the vat. This graphic description portrays the slaughter that will accompany the harvest of the unrighteous. The bloodbath will flow for a distance of about 200 miles (1600 stadia) and run so deep that it will reach up to a horse’s bridle.

1 Enoch 100.3-“the horse will walk through the blood of sinners up to his chest and the chariot shall sink down up to its top”

[Several fascinating explanations for the scope of this carnage have been offered. Some hold that the distance, if taken literally refers to the length that runs from the Syrian border in the north to the Egyptian border in the south (making this the largest slaughter in history, covering the entire Holy Land in blood). Others believe that these numbers could be taken symbolically. 4 squared times 10 squared could symbolize the completeness of God’s judgment—(4 corners of the earth, 4 winds meet the tens that are often employed to speak of the fallen world system). Still others hold that 1600 stadia might be 40 squared, symbolizing divine judgment as the Israelites wandered in the wilderness 40 years and Deut. 25:3 describes a criminal beaten with forty lashes)-Osborne, Revelation, 556]. Though the meaning of the number 1600 is debated, the overall emphasis of this graphic image is on the finality and horrifying scope of the divine judgment on the wicked.

So What?

The same general period of acute judgement that is to come upon the earth is described here by means of two harvests. In many ways, what is reaped from the world is a result of what has been sown ever since sin has polluted everything therein. This has been a longtime coming and yet, when the grapes are ripe and the grain is ready to be harvested, the same Jesus that came in grace to save in his first coming will return to judge the wicked world who denied him. Now that several important characters have been introduced (Revelation 12-13) and telling previews have been provided (in chapter 14), John can finally disclose the final round of judgments that will bring this future period of tribulation to a close.

However, before we leave this passage, let us ask what this teaches us about our God and how it ought to move us to act here and now. First, in no uncertain terms, this passage reveals the awesome holiness of God that cannot tolerate evil. It also highlights the justice of God who will deal with the world as it deserves. As a result, God’s people today need not take justice into their own hands (“vengeance is mine says the Lord”). They can trust that God will deal with the world as it deserves. Instead of spending energy condemning the world (a task for which we are neither qualified nor equipped to entertain), we need to spread the message of the gospel that alone can spare people from this fate. We need to involve ourselves as laborers in the fields that are white with harvest today (John 4:35). Let us pray "Therefore beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into His harvest" (Matt. 9:38). This we must do before the harvests of Revelation 14 come to pass.