Today's passage has to do with judgment. We are going to see a harvest taking place, but this is not a holy harvest like that which is referenced by Jesus Christ in John 4:35. This is not a harvest of souls that have been made righteous by faith in Jesus Christ. Instead it's the cutting down of crops that have withered and dried up without producing. Today's passage is more properly compared to the parable of the wheat and the tares from Matthew 13. In that parable an enemy sowed tares (the vetch plant) in with a farmer's wheat crop. When young, the vetch plant looks identical to wheat. It's only as it grows taller that it's true nature becomes apparent. The farmer's servant, in the parable, asked his master whether he'd like him to pull up the tares. The farmer said to leave them alone for now, telling him, "While you are pulling the weeds, you may uproot the wheat with them. 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 and bring it into my barn." (Matthew 13:29-30)
In every era, the world has been covered in both wheat (those faithful to the Lord) and tares (those who reject Him and who are not being what He created them to be). The Lord removed the church from the earth before the Great Tribulation began, but souls are still being saved during the Great Tribulation. These souls (the wheat) are living among the tares (the impostors, the unfaithful). If the Lord began judging the sinful of the world too soon, it would have prevented many from being saved. (Uprooting the wheat with the tares.) The day of judgment is specifically timed to occur in just the right way and at just the right moment so that every person whom the Lord knows will come to Him actually has an opportunity to come to Him. In today's passage we are going to study John's vision of the beginning of the uprooting of tares.
"I looked, and there before me was a white cloud, and seated on the cloud was one like a son of man with a crown of gold on His head and a sharp sickle in His hand." (Revelation 14:14) It's difficult to make this description fit anyone other than the Lord Jesus Christ. John recognizes angels when he sees them, so this is not an angel. This one looks like a human being, "like a son of man". The title "Son of Man" is a Messianic title first used by the prophet Daniel who said, "In my vision at night I looked, and there before me was one like a son of man, coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into His presence. He was given authority, glory and sovereign power; all nations and peoples of every language worshiped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and His kingdom is one that will never be destroyed." (Daniel 7:13-14) This passage from Daniel was always considered to be about the Messiah and His coming kingdom, which is why the high priest became so enraged during Jesus' trial before the Sanhedrin when He applied the passage of Daniel 7 to Himself. The men assembled at the trial knew the Scriptures inside and out; they clearly understood that Jesus was claiming to be the Messiah and therefore claiming to be God. The high priest tore his own robes in fury and accused Jesus of blasphemy and allowed the guards to beat Him while they scornfully addressed Him as "Messiah".
So we see that the description of the person John looks like a son of man and most likely is the Son of Man. He is seated on the clouds; Daniel saw Him coming with the clouds. He is crowned with a crown of gold; Daniel saw Him being given an everlasting kingdom. He is holding a sharp sickle in His hand, and the sickle is a symbol of judgment. Who, other than the Lord Himself, has the right to judge the world? Human beings like you and I don't have the right to judge the world. Angels don't have the right to judge the world. Only the perfect Son of God who shed His own blood and gave His own life to save the souls of mankind has the right to judge those who have scorned the light of His love because they preferred to live in sin and darkness. Only the Lord Jesus Christ, who is God, has the right to judge those who persist in violating His righteous laws. He is the One whom they've sinned against; He is the one who has the authority to judge their sin.
The only reason there has ever been any controversy at all about this person being Christ is because He appears to take instructions from an angel in this next verse. "Then another angel came out of the temple and called in a loud voice to Him who was sitting on the cloud, 'Take your sickle and reap, because the time to reap has come, for the harvest of the earth is ripe.'" (Revelation 14:15) Every time John sees an angel he hasn't seen before, he uses the expression "another angel". He's not saying that the person seated on the cloud is an angel, but that the angel who emerges from the temple in heaven is an angel he hasn't seen before. It's hard to imagine the Lord Jesus obeying the instructions of an angel, but I don't think the angel is giving Him orders. I think that Dr. John F. Walvoord, an expert on Biblical prophecy, explains what's happening here in a way that makes perfect sense: "It is remarkable that an angel should thus address the Son of Man, but it should be regarded as an entreaty of a holy angel to Christ as the Son of Man in His position as judge of men." If we look at it like this, the angel is making a request, not giving an order. We can compare the angel's request to the prayers we pray. In our prayers we aren't giving orders when we say something like, "Lord, help me find a job," or, "Lord, heal my illness."
The angel says that the harvest is "ripe", but he doesn't mean the ripeness we associate with garden vegetables being ready to pick. The word the angel uses is the Greek "xhrainw", which means "dry, withered, shriveled". These crops are of no use. They have failed to bear anything worthwhile. They've been allowed to take up space for too long. The angel asks the Lord to remove these unfruitful plants and He agrees. "So He who was seated on the cloud swung His sickle over the earth, and the earth was harvested." (Revelation 14:16)
We need to keep remembering that John isn't presenting Chapters 12 through 14 to us in chronological order. The Lord doesn't remove the wicked from the earth right here in Chapter 14, but John foresees Him cutting down the wicked in the way a farmer would cut down unfruitful vines in his garden. In Chapters 1 through 11, John told us in rapid succession about things that were going to take place on the earth in the last days, but then when we got to Chapter 12 he backed up, in a manner of speaking, to describe things for us in more detail. After telling us dreadful things about the state of the world in the end times when the unholy trinity (Satan, the Antichrist, and the False Prophet) will temporarily hold power over the earth, we need to know right here in Chapter 14 that judgment is still coming. While evil has its day on the earth, it may seem like judgment is never coming. It may seem instead like the world has turned into hell itself. Right here in Chapter 14 is the proper place to remind those of us who are reading Revelation now, and those who will be reading it during the Great Tribulation, that there is no need to despair. The One who once wore a crown of thorns now wears a crown of gold, and He has been given all authority, and He has been given the right to judge, and He will carry out righteous judgment at the proper time, and He will reign over the world in righteousness forever.
The believers of the end times are going to need something to hold onto, and our passage today will reassure them that even though judgment seems like it's a long time in coming, it is coming. Our passage today tells them to hold on just a little while longer, in the same way that the persecuted believers of the first century AD were told to hold on just a little longer: "So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded. You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what He has promised. For, 'In just a little while, He who is coming will come and will not delay.'" (Hebrews 10:35-37) The author of Hebrews quotes from Isaiah 26 and Habakkuk 2, passages which promise that the Lord's judgment of the end times is coming, passages which encourage believers to keep holding on.
You and I are not living in the Great Tribulation, but we go through tribulations of our own, and there is no better source than the Scriptures for the encouragement we need to keep holding on. The Bible is full of beautiful promises for those who place their trust in the Lord. Our faithful God promises strength for the weary, help for the hurting, and deliverance for the oppressed. No matter what you're going through today, don't give up. Our God is not a God who instructs us to give up. Our God is a God who encourages us to keep holding on.
I'm reminded of a particular song today and I'm including a link to it below in the hope that it will encourage anyone who might feel like giving up.
Hold Fast
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