Revelation 14:16-17; The Earth Was Reaped

Revelation 14:16-17 And he that sat on the cloud thrust in his sickle on the earth; and the earth was reaped. And another angel came out of the temple which is in heaven, he also having a sharp sickle. 

One brief phrase is sufficient to describe the terrible end of all that proud man has boasted of: “the earth was reaped.” And what a reaping! It is the awesome coming of the King of kings in His great day of wrath. The Son of man uses the angels as His actual reapers (Matthew 13:39), and they act swiftly in His harvest work.

Matthew 13:39 The enemy that sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the world; and the reapers are the angels.

A separate process is used: discrimination between wheat and tares, good fish and bad, is observed. There is no actual execution of punishment in this harvest, for that is accomplished in the vintage. This harvest is one of discriminating judgment prior to the establishment of the kingdom.

Though described as a single act of reaping, these events cover a considerable time and empty agencies of God.

The Old Testament, too, speaks of God’s eschatological judgment on the world. In Isaiah it is written:

Isaiah 13:11-13 And I will punish the world for theirevil, and the wicked for their iniquity; and I will cause the arrogancy of the proud to cease, and will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible. I will make a man more precious than fine gold; even a man than the golden wedge of Ophir. Therefore I will shake the heavens, and the earth shall remove out of her place, in the wrath of the LORD of hosts, and in the day of his fierce anger. 

The coming judgment is also referred to in Isaiah 24:21–23:

Isaiah 24:21-23 And it shall come to pass in that day, that the LORD shall punish the host of the high ones that are on high, and the kings of the earth upon the earth. And they shall be gathered together, as prisoners are gathered in the pit, and shall be shut up in the prison, and after many days shall they be visited. Then the moon shall be confounded, and the sun ashamed, when the LORD of hosts shall reign in mount Zion, and in Jerusalem, and before his ancients gloriously. 

Two Old Testament passages present striking parallels with Revelation 14; Isaiah 63:1–6 records a fascinating soliloquy of the Messiah as He comes to execute the bloody final judgment on the unbelieving world:

Isaiah 63:1-6 Who is this that cometh from Edom, with dyed garments from Bozrah? this that isglorious in his apparel, travelling in the greatness of his strength? I that speak in righteousness, mighty to save. Wherefore art thoured in thine apparel, and thy garments like him that treadeth in the winefat? I have trodden the winepress alone; and of the people there wasnone with me: for I will tread them in mine anger, and trample them in my fury; and their blood shall be sprinkled upon my garments, and I will stain all my raiment. For the day of vengeance is in mine heart, and the year of my redeemed is come. And I looked, and there wasnone to help; and I wondered that there wasnone to uphold: therefore mine own arm brought salvation unto me; and my fury, it upheld me. And I will tread down the people in mine anger, and make them drunk in my fury, and I will bring down their strength to the earth. 

This passage, like Revelation 14:19–20, uses the metaphor of trampling grapes in a winepress to depict the devastation of God’s final judgment.

The prophet Joel recorded the devastation caused in Israel by drought, fire, and a massive invasion of locusts (Joel 1:1–2:11). Then the prophet used those temporal judgments to warn of the even more devastating judgment of the Day of the Lord (2:18–3:21). In Joel 3:12–13 that judgment is described using the same imagery found in Revelation 14:

Joel 3:12-13 Let the heathen be wakened, and come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat: for there will I sit to judge all the heathen round about. Put ye in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe: come, get you down; for the press is full, the fats overflow; for their wickedness is great. 

Joel, like Isaiah, depicted God’s future judgment of the wicked, in the imagery of a winepress and of a harvest.

The Lord Jesus Christ also used the harvest analogy for judgment. In the parable of the tares He said, “Allow both to grow together until the harvest; and in the time of the harvest I will say to the reapers, ‘Let both grow together until the harvest: and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn.” (Matthew 13:30). Asked by His disciples to explain that parable Jesus said,

Matthew 13:39-42 The enemy that sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the world; and the reapers are the angels. As therefore the tares are gathered and burned in the fire; so shall it be in the end of this world. The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity; And shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.

So Joel, Isaiah, and the Lord Jesus Christ all spoke of a coming harvest of divine wrath when the Messiah will execute final judgment. That final outpouring of the judgmental fury of the Lamb is the theme of this chapter’s text.

This passage pictures the final harvest of divine wrath in two agricultural motifs: the grain harvest (v14–16) and the grape harvest (v17–20), raising the question as to why John recorded two visions of the same event.

Revelation 14:14-16 And I looked, and behold a white cloud, and upon the cloud onesat like unto the Son of man, having on his head a golden crown, and in his hand a sharp sickle. And another angel came out of the temple, crying with a loud voice to him that sat on the cloud, Thrust in thy sickle, and reap: for the time is come for thee to reap; for the harvest of the earth is ripe. And he that sat on the cloud thrust in his sickle on the earth; and the earth was reaped. 

Revelation 14:17-20 And another angel came out of the temple which is in heaven, he also having a sharp sickle. And another angel came out from the altar, which had power over fire; and cried with a loud cry to him that had the sharp sickle, saying, Thrust in thy sharp sickle, and gather the clusters of the vine of the earth; for her grapes are fully ripe. And the angel thrust in his sickle into the earth, and gathered the vine of the earth, and cast it into the great winepress of the wrath of God. And the winepress was trodden without the city, and blood came out of the winepress, even unto the horse bridles, by the space of a thousand and six hundred furlongs. 

There are many depictions of this event by the prophets, including those mentioned above, so it is not unusual for John to record two visions of it. But there is also a specific situation at this point in the book of Revelation that suggests a purpose behind the repetition. As the Tribulation nears its climax, two main aspects of God’s eschatological wrath remain to be poured out on the sinful world. The first aspect involves the seven bowl judgments (16:1–21), a rapid-fire sequence of frightening and deadly worldwide judgments that will destroy the final Babylon — the Antichrist’s empire. The second aspect is the Battle of Armageddon, at which point Jesus Christ returns to judge and destroy His enemies (19:11–21).

 MacArthur, J. F., Jr. (2000). Revelation 12–22 (pp. 109–111). Chicago: Moody Press.