The Book that Promises a Blessing!

A study of the book of Revelation

by Pastor Frank Rice

Revelation 14:14-20

Lancastrians, even non-farmers, are familiar with harvest time. For farmers it is normally a time of long hours, waiting on the weather and a sense of accomplishment and satisfaction once the time of harvest is over. They can relax a little. It’s usually a joyful time. It was that way in Israel. But harvest time may have different connotations in the Bible. It’s a metaphor for reaping what was sown. This metaphor paints a picture of the impending unpleasant judgment. God’s holiness & love have paved the way for man’s redemption if…

 

I.    The Grain Harvest Affirms God’s Judgment (Vv. 14-16).

• The harvest motif is a familiar and fitting picture of judgment! [After a brief pause (14:1-13) to provide hope for suffering saints, the action continues. The saying, “You reap what you sow” implies at least five truths!

  1. Harvest is a result of sowing! Every person sows in this life.

  2. Harvest involves a choice. You get to choose what to plant.

  3. Harvest is exact. What’s sown is reaped! Sow peas, reap…?

  4. Harvest is unavoidable. You cannot plant and not reap!

  5. Harvest has a time and season. It rarely comes immediately.

 

• The harvest is instigated by the Lord of the Harvest (v. 14)!

1. He’s enthroned on a white cloud emphasizing His deity, moral purity, sovereign wisdom, and glory (Dan 7:13-14; Matt 26:64).

2. The crown or victor’s wreath of gold is to reemphasize His royal authority, sovereignty, kingly dignity, and divine glory.

3. The sickle stands for the harvest, the severity and finality of God’s judgment. (We can almost hear the liberals’ chuckle.)

4. “It is quite appropriate for John to use the term Son of Man,… that term is most frequently associated with the Messiah’s suffering and the glory of the Second Advent as well as His right to judge the world (Matt 26:64-65; John 5:27).” (Johnson)

 

• The time for harvest is set by the Father (vv. 15-16)!

1. Word arrives from the temple of God as an angelic messenger informs the Son that the hour has come. Does this have something to do with Matthew 24:36?

2. “Angelsare an essential part of the outpouring of the wrath of God.” (Osborne) (Our culture often misrepresents angels!)

3. In the ANE April was barley harvest, wheat in June, and by August grapes were ripening. In between, it was hot and dry.

4. “The entire passage develops an image from Joel’s prophecy about judgment on the nations in the Day of the Lord (Joel 3:13).” (Keener)

5. “Again, the OT provides the background for this imagery of divine judgment (Isa 63:1-6; Joel 3:13)” (Johnson)

 

II.   The Grape Harvest Assures God’s Judgment (Vv. 17-20)!

• There’s no doubt about the judgment’s certainty & severity (v. 17)!

1. The “vision” seems to be repeated. The repetition, or doublet (Gen 41:32), indicates certainty and unavoidability.

2. Similar to “natural disasters,” like tornados and hurricanes, the only thing to do is prepare for the inevitable!

 

• There’s no question about the obvious intensification and severity of this picture of harvest (v. 18; Matt 13:36-43)!

1. The task is carried out with the help of angels but with more descriptive terms and intense language.

2. An angel comes from the very presence of God. The target of this judgment is the sons of the wicked one (v. 38).

3. The timing of this judgment seems to be the end of the age, the end of the 70th week of Daniel (v. 40). The terror is beyond description and is accomplished with devastating force!

 

• There’s much concern about the absence of the US in prophecy! Do we become insignificant as a major player on the world scene?

1. Do we suffer annihilation from nuclear attack? God has not promised our survival. We’ve insulted and marginalized Him and His Word. We’ve no right to think we’ll escape judgment.

2. Do we self-destruct because of our moral decadence, greed, and corruption (Rom 1)? We disrespect human life and authority and we’re destroying society’s basic building block, the family.

3. Do we fade because of the removal of millions of American Christians leaving gaping holes in society, industry, government, education, and hospitals, resulting in chaos?

4. Do we kill ourselves by thoughtlessly opening our doors for political reasons to those who hate us and wish to destroy us?

 

• The harvest is accomplished by a sense of urgency (vv. 19-20)!

1. It is the angel who wields his sickle into the earth, not just on the earth (v. 16). This is more intense and devastating.

2. He gathers the clusters with the whole vine, picturing final and complete harvest! The harvest is “overly ripe,” long past due.

3. He throws them into God’s great winepress of wrath. Earth-dwellers have produced wickedness & rebellion against God (Rom 1:18-32).

4. “Wine here deliberately evokes the gruesome image of human blood crushed out of maimed flesh… Sometime around August or September workers collected ripe grapes in baskets and deposited them in long wooden or stone troughs” to be ”trampled into juice with their feet.” (Keener)

5. He depicts the fury & horror of blood-splattered war machines. As sure as night follows day, the harvest is inevitable! Interestingly, 40 is the number for testing or judgment and 1600 happens to be 40 x 40, indicating severity, finality, or assurance.

6. Wiersbe may be correct, “John is using hyperbole when he describes a river of blood four feet deep and 200 miles long.” Or is it the splashing that flies to a certain height?

7. “The judgment of unbelievers ‘outside the city’ emphasizes their absolute rejection by God and is in contrast with the blessed state of the faithful.” (Osborne) They have consistently and stubbornly rejected Him, now He rejects them.

 

Are you and your loved ones prepared (Amos 4:12)?

 

“In the choir of life, it's easy to fake the words –

but someday each of us will have to sing solo before God.”

 

 

I read of an old-time preacher using this dated illustration:

Is it not foolish to be living in this world without a thought of what you will do at the end of it? A man goes into an inn, and as soon as he sits down he begins to order his wine, his dinner, his bed; there is no delicacy in season that he forgets to order. He stays at the inn for some time. By and by, the bill comes due, and it takes him by surprise. "I never thought of that - I never thought of that!"

"Why here is a man,” says the landlord “who is either a born fool or else a knave. What! Never thought of reckoning - never thought of settling with me!"

After this fashion too many live. They eat, and drink, and sin, but they forget the inevitable hereafter, when for all the deeds done in the body, the Lord will bring us into judgment. “