Revelation 14:14-20--The Harvest of the Earth

Revelation 14:14-20
English Standard Version

The Harvest of the Earth
14 Then I looked, and behold, a white cloud, and seated on the cloud one like a son of man, with a golden crown on his head, and a sharp sickle in his hand. 15 And another angel came out of the temple, calling with a loud voice to him who sat on the cloud, “Put in your sickle, and reap, for the hour to reap has come, for the harvest of the earth is fully ripe.” 16 So he who sat on the cloud swung his sickle across the earth, and the earth was reaped.

17 Then another angel came out of the temple in heaven, and he too had a sharp sickle. 18 And another angel came out from the altar, the angel who has authority over the fire, and he called with a loud voice to the one who had the sharp sickle, “Put in your sickle and gather the clusters from the vine of the earth, for its grapes are ripe.” 19 So the angel swung his sickle across the earth and gathered the grape harvest of the earth and threw it into the great winepress of the wrath of God. 20 And the winepress was trodden outside the city, and blood flowed from the winepress, as high as a horse's bridle, for 1,600 stadia.

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I think I've referenced this passage more than a few times as being one of the passages that I see in the book of Revelation that I think most-directly discusses the event that we would call the Rapture of the church, however, there is nothing here in the book of Revelation to really help us put our finger on the particular timing of this event.  We know that we're up to the point where the wicked are about to be judged, and the gospel was being declared one last time to the whole world before the terrible Day of the LORD comes for those who are outside of Christ and will experience His judgment and wrath, but, the Day of the LORD is not something for those who are in Christ to fear.  That is how our last passage ended--with a voice from heaven reminding God's Elect that they should not live in fear of the coming judgment that is for the world, because though we are in the world, we are not of the world.  We have a different destiny--a different place which has been prepared for us.

We then go immediately into this passage which tells us that there will indeed be two different harvests with two different purposes.  The first harvest (note there is no telling how much time is in-between here, but I think we can somewhat work that out from other passages) is The Harvest of the Righteous (or what we would call The Rapture, which is pictured as a harvest of grain that is ripe for harvest--the harvest of grain happens in a different season than the harvest of grapes, which is the other harvest we'll see later).  The Son of Man (that's Jesus) returns on the clouds with a crown on His head that shows everyone that beholds Him that He is indeed King of Kings and Lord of Lords.  He holds the sickle to be able to reap the harvest of the righteous souls that belong to Him--we'll see in the next passage that the harvest of the wicked is delegated to the angels of heaven.  Jesus Himself will return for His Bride and gather them unto Himself.  There will be the should of an archangel from heaven and there will be a trumpet blast (that part is in 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18).  I'll quote that passage here since I believe they are "parallel" passages describing the same event.

1 Thessalonians 4:13-18
English Standard Version

The Coming of the Lord
13 But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. 14 For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. 15 For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. 16 For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. 18 Therefore encourage one another with these words.

So you see that both John and Paul (through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit and words they received from Jesus) wanted to encourage the Church that they will not get caught up in the judgment of the wicked.  They have not been forgotten about.  Now, as to the passage that helps us gain an idea of the timing of these events, let me go to 2 Thessalonians 2:1-12.

2 Thessalonians 2:1-12
English Standard Version

The Man of Lawlessness
2 Now concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered together to him, we ask you, brothers, 2 not to be quickly shaken in mind or alarmed, either by a spirit or a spoken word, or a letter seeming to be from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord has come. 3 Let no one deceive you in any way. For that day will not come, unless the rebellion comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, 4 who opposes and exalts himself against every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God. 5 Do you not remember that when I was still with you I told you these things? 6 And you know what is restraining him now so that he may be revealed in his time. 7 For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work. Only he who now restrains it will do so until he is out of the way. 8 And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will kill with the breath of his mouth and bring to nothing by the appearance of his coming. 9 The coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan with all power and false signs and wonders, 10 and with all wicked deception for those who are perishing, because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. 11 Therefore God sends them a strong delusion, so that they may believe what is false, 12 in order that all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.

So, I can't tell you how long after the middle of the Tribulation that the Rapture happens, but I know it happens sometime between the middle of the Tribulation when Antichrist defiles the Temple and sets up the idol for himself to be worshiped and insists that people make sacrifices to his image and the image of the Antichrist is allowed to speak through the power and deception of Satan, and people begin to worship the Antichrist and his image.  However, I believe the passages here in Revelation tell us that the Church will be taken out of the world at some point before the Seven Bowls of the Wrath of God.  That gives us a limited window of maybe three years, but nothing too specific that contradicts what Jesus said that no one will know the exact day, time or hour.  We will only be able to know the "season."  It also makes sense why Jesus warned the Apostles about the Antichrist and told them to watch out for him.  Why watch out for him if you are going to be taken away before he is revealed?  I t would seem the Church is not taken out immediately upon the revealing of Antichrist, because Christ gave the church instructions to flee to the place of protection that He would prepare for them once they saw the abomination causing desolation that would reveal Antichrist for who he is.  So then, the Church will remain in the world for a little while under God's protection (they are sealed to be protected from some of the judgments), but it seems that they are to be removed before this final judgment and harvest of the wicked that we are talking about next.

Let's return to last part of today's passage.  This time it is an angel who comes out of the Temple who carries a sharp sickle.  This harvest is compared to the harvest of grapes that will be thrown into the winepress and trampled and crushed to make new wine--the wine of God's wrath and judgment (the picture of crushed grapes and flowing wine is going to make sense when we see the flow of blood that is going to come when Jesus comes back and destroys the wicked with the world of His mouth--just like Paul said was going to happen in 2 Thess. 2:8).  All the pieces are there to fit together.  The angel given charge over the fire commanded the angel with the sharp sickle to reap the harvest of the wicked from the earth and for the grapes of this harvest to be gathered into the winepress of God's wrath.  This is the resurrection of the wicked unto The Great White Throne Judgment.  This judgment will happen outside the city during the time of the final battle that we call Armageddon (in the Valley of Jezreel and the plains of Megiddo).  God will gather all the rebellious peoples of the world together just outside of Jerusalem for judgment (remember He was judged for us just outside of Jerusalem as well when He died on the cross--He was exsanguinated on our behalf).  The rebellious that gather together outside Jerusalem will also be exsanguinated so that the metaphorical winepress will be not of a flow of wine, but a flow of blood that is 4-5 feet high and between 180 and 200 miles long (the approximate length of the land of Israel from north to south).  It would seem the Holy Land will be covered in blood.  This is how total and compete the final judgment is going to be.  No one will escape it.