Sunday School Notes: Revelation 14:14-16

¹⁴ And I saw, and behold a white cloud, and sitting upon the cloud [someone] like a Son of Man having upon his head a golden crown, and in his hand a sharp sickle. ¹⁵ And another angel came out from the temple crying out in a loud voice to the one sitting on the cloud, “Send your sickle and reap, for the hour to reap has come, for the harvest of the earth is ripe.” ¹⁶ And the one sitting upon the cloud threw his sickle upon the earth, and the earth was reaped.

We began this week by reading the entire section, 14:14-20, depicting a harvesting of souls, presumably the End Times gathering. But what is the nature of this harvest, or in-gathering? Is it judgment or salvation, or both? It’s hard to deny that 14:17-20 is to judgment since the souls harvested end up in the wine press of God’s wrath. But what about 14-16? Is this a harvesting of the elect, or a reaping of the godless? Maybe they show the same harvesting of the godless but from two different angles? That appears unlikely given the different actors involved (the Son of Man lays in the sickle in the first part, but it’s an angel doing the work in the second). So either God’s people are being called home in 14-16, or His enemies are receiving their just punishment.

Before getting into that debate, we noted some important points about 14-16. First, the Son of Man on a white cloud. In Revelation 1:13, John saw one “like a Son of Man” standing in the midst of the lamp stands. From what he says in 1:17-20, this is clearly Jesus. On that basis alone, I see no reason to think this is anyone other than Jesus again, here. Daniel 7:13, the source reference for the “Son of Man” language in the New Testament, shows this Son of Man coming with the clouds and being presented to the Ancient of Days. In our study of Revelation 1, we observed how John mixes descriptions of the Ancient of Days and the Son of Man from Daniel 7 in his description of Jesus.

As for the white cloud, Jesus spoke of “the Son of Man” coming on a cloud with power and glory. The context there was a discussion of the End Times (Matthew 24:30; Mark 13:26; Luke 21:27). When standing before Caiaphas and the Council prior to his crucifixion (Matthew 26:64; Mark 14:62), Jesus told them they would see the Son of Man coming on a cloud, pointing to his glorification. The Jewish leaders understood that he was daring to associate himself with the Son of Man in Daniel 7, and they tore their garments and accused him of blasphemy. They got what he was saying about himself. When he ascended into heaven, Acts 1:9-11 tells us that the Apostles witnessed a cloud removing Jesus from their sight. They are then told by two men in white that Jesus will return the same way he left. I think this leaves no doubt that the “Son of Man” on the white cloud is Jesus.

The significance of the golden crown points back to Revelation 4:4, where the 24 elders on thrones around the main throne all wear golden crowns. So, Jesus has authority as they do, but more so since he is the Son of Man, who, in Daniel 7:14 is given dominion and an everlasting kingdom, where all peoples will serve him.

The big difference with this picture of Jesus to all previous ones is that he is holding a sharp sickle. The sickle is a harvesting tool, commonly used in John’s day, and familiar to his readers. It was used to cut crops for harvesting. Here it is used symbolically for gathering souls… for judgment, redemption, or both? We’ll get to that in a moment.

In verses 15 and 16, “another angel” comes out from the temple and tells the Son of Man to send forth his sickle and reap, because the “crop” is ripe and the time to reap has come. The reference to another angel, and the fact this angel issues commands to the Son of Man, have led some to suggest that the Son of Man is not, in fact, Jesus, but an angel. After all, the next angel is “another angel,” suggesting the figure we saw before was also an angel. And this angel addresses the Son of Man at best like an equal, if not a subordinate.

In response to these, we need to remember what we said previously about the use of “Son of Man” in Daniel 7, and the depiction of Jesus in Revelation 1. No-one else in Revelation has been called “Son of Man” previously, and the use of the phrase by Jesus as a self-reference was known (as is evident by the Gospels). When John says “another angel,” he could simply be saying that this is another angel apart from the three we’ve met in this chapter already, and apart from all the other angels in Revelation.

But what do we make of the fact that this angel commands Jesus to do something? Notice from where the angel came: the temple, i.e., the presence of God. The angel is being used by God the Father to issue a command to His Son. In Mark 13:32, Jesus tells his disciples that no-one knows the hour of his return, not the angels, nor the Son, only the Father. Within the Trinity, each Person has a specific function. They are equal in terms of their being–they are all the one God–but they have different roles within the Godhead. It was neither the Father’s, nor the Spirit’s role to become incarnate for the salvation of His people. And it was not the Son’s role to set the hour for his return. For that, the Son looks to the Father. This is, I believe, what we see here. The angel is delivering a command from the Father to the Son, saying the time has come to harvest.

So… is this a reaping of the heaven-dwellers, or the earth-dwellers? There are a couple of reasons to question whether 14:14-16 is speaking of the reaping of the elect. First, we’ve just seen the elect standing on Mount Zion with the Lamb (14:1). It wouldn’t make sense if they were only now being gathered. Also, John says that “the earth was reaped.” Surely this suggests a reaping of the earth-dwellers? Finally, vv. 12-13 could be read as saying that the elect have entered into their rest, contrasted with the unbelievers in vv.14ff.

On the other hand, we need to consider the fact that “reaping” can have a positive connotation. In Matthew 13:30, Jesus tells a parable about tares and wheat growing in the same field. The reapers reap both the tares and the wheat. Also, in John 4:34-38, Jesus tells his disciples that the fields are “white for harvest,” using reaping as a metaphor for gathering his people to himself though evangelism. It’s also possible that vv. 12-13 introduce 14-16, saying that the believers have entered into their rest at death, and this is how that happened. There may well be significance to the fact that Jesus is the reaper in 14-16, whereas an angel reaps the unbelievers in 17-20–as if to say the Lord looks after his own, personally. A final consideration is the possibility that 14-16 and 17-20 are set against each other as contrasts. The reaping of believers is painless and personal (i.e., the Lord does it). Whereas, the reaping of unbelievers involves the winepress of God’s wrath. As for the fact we’ve seen God’s people gathered with the Lamb on Mount Zion already before this reaping, we know that John’s visions are not ordered chronologically. There is purpose for the sequence in which he sees these things, but that sequence doesn’t necessarily relate to the order in which events will happen in time.

While both views have legitimate arguments, I am persuaded that 14-16 speaks of the gathering of God’s elect. But no-one will face the winepress if they disagree with me. 🙂

We’ll talk in more detail about 14:17-20 next time…