Revelation 14-Son of Man, swing Your sickle!

The Harvest of the Earth

14And I looked and saw a white cloud, and seated on the cloud was One like the Son of Man,c with a golden crown on His head and a sharp sickle in His hand.

15Then another angel came out of the temple, calling in a loud voice to the One seated on the cloud, “Swing Your sickle and reap, because the time has come to harvest; for the crop of the earth is ripe.” 16So the One seated on the cloud swung His sickle over the earth, and the earth was harvested.

What exactly is being harvested here?

And who is doing the harvest?

“One like the Son of Man” speaks of Jesus.

“with a golden crown on His head” This is a crown of victory!

“How different it will be to see him with a crown of gold upon his head from what it was to see him wearing that terrible crown of thorns which the cruel soldiers plaited, and thrust upon his brow! The word used here does not usually refer to the diadem of power, but to the crown won in conflict; and it is very remarkable that it should be said that, when Christ comes to judge the world, he will wear the garland of victory, the crown which he has won in the great battle which he has fought. How significant of his final triumph will that crown of gold be about those brows that were once covered with bloody sweat when he was fighting the battle for our salvation!” (Spurgeon)

“Swing Your sickle and reap, because the time has come to harvest; for the crop of the earth is ripe.” 

Sickle: a short-handled farming tool with a semicircular blade, used for cutting grain, lopping, or trimming.

“It must be remembered that evil has its harvest as well as good. There is a harvest of misery and woe, – a harvest for the gathering, binding, and burning of the tares, – as well as for the gathering of the wheat into the garner of heaven.” (Seiss)

Sickle and harvest are farming terms used to describe how Jesus judges man. During crop harvest special care is taken to gather the “tares”.

Tare: (in biblical use) an injurious weed resembling wheat when young (Matt. 13:24–30).

“The crop of the earth is ripe”

Jesus is going to harvest the earth and separate the “saved” (wheat) from the “unrepentant sinners” (tares).

The question is, will you be wheat or a tare?

Blessings, David