And I saw, and behold, a white cloud, and on the cloud one sitting like [the] Son of man, having upon his head a golden crown, and in his hand a sharp sickle.
The warnings are over and the action begins. John sees someone seated on a cloud, crowned, holding a sharp sickle. Who is this Reaper, why is He named by this particular title, and what kind of judgment does a harvest picture?
Two details fix who this is — how He arrives, and the title He carries. Both point back to His rejection on earth.
Both the manner of His coming — on the cloud — and the title — the Son of man — make the person of the Reaper unmistakable. It is the rejected Jesus. The Jews refused Him when He was presented to them as the Messiah, so He took up the wider title of the Son of man (see Psalm 8, Matthew 16:20, 27). Under that title all things are put under His feet. The "golden crown" speaks of His royal dignity. It speaks too of the glory of that divine righteousness by which everything will be tested and judged. The "sickle" announces the immediate object of His return.
The title is not decoration. God hands judgment to the very One men despised as a man.
He will judge in the very nature in which men treated Him as nothing. He will judge not only as God, though He is God, but as Man — the Man once utterly despised and rejected. Though He is the Son, He was willing to share in flesh and blood, and so become Son of man. Man will face judgment from the Man he hated to death.
One small word matters here. He sits on the cloud, and the cloud's colour says something about the judgment that follows.
The cloud showed the presence of God. Its whiteness showed the pure and spotless character of the judgment that the presence of God must now bring. One like the Son of Man sat on that cloud — not in it, as though it hid Him, but in full view — crowned, with the sickle of judgment in His hand.
Commentators differ here. Others read the cloud as partly hiding Him: "His sitting on a cloud points to some measure of obscurity: though He is acting directly, yet the world will not fully realize it" (L. M. Grant).
The crown is real royalty. But it marks only the first stage of His reign.
Gathering in is not the question here. One like the Son of Man is seen with the crown of gold: King of righteousness, not yet revealed as King of peace, which will certainly follow in its own time (Heb. 7:2).
He is the Judge, yet in this vision He does not move first.
All judgment is given to the Son of Man, as we know. He acts as mediator. So He puts in His sickle when the word of direction reaches Him from the inner sanctuary through an angel, and the earth is reaped.
The chapter closes with two images of judgment, and they are not the same. The difference decides how you read the sickle in verse 14.
The harvest and the vintage are the familiar pictures used for God's closing dealings. The harvest is judgment that separates; the vintage is wrath that spares nothing. In the harvest the wheat is sorted out from the weeds. In the vintage only the weeds are in the prophetic scene, and they are the subjects of the Lord's righteous vengeance.
The harvest separates, so some writers see a gathering side to the reaping. It touches people alive on earth, not the dead. Commentators differ here too: Kelly, quoted above, denies that any gathering in is in view.
It is the Son of man… crowned with a golden crown, and with a sharp sickle in His hand. With it He gathers to Himself the fruit of His own sowing… It is clearly the end of the age of Matthew 13, when the wheat is gathered into the barn, and the next action shows us the weeds under the wrath of God… There is no idea here of the resurrection of the dead, or of anyone being taken to heaven. It is the gathering of the living righteous — reaping the wheat.
- Rejected. The Reaper is the same Jesus men refused. The title "Son of Man" was the name of His humiliation; now it is the name of His authority.
- Crowned. The gold crown is genuine royal dignity. He comes first as King of righteousness; King of peace still follows.
- Revealed. He sits on the white cloud. Its whiteness marks the spotless character of what He is about to do. Commentators differ on whether the cloud displays Him or partly hides Him.
- Directed. Even as Judge He waits for the word from the sanctuary before the sickle moves. The judgment is God's, carried out by the Man.
- Separating. The harvest sorts wheat from weeds; the vintage that follows spares nothing. The sickle of verse 14 belongs to the harvest, and the harvest comes first.
And another angel came out of the temple, crying with a loud voice to him that sat on the cloud, Send thy sickle and reap; for the hour of reaping is come, for the harvest of the earth is dried.
Revelation 14 ends with two pictures of how God will close the world's history: a harvest and a vintage. Verse 15 starts the first one. A voice from the temple calls to the crowned figure on the cloud: the time to reap has come.
The order comes out of the temple, not the throne. One writer says that difference matters.
"Another angel came out of the temple." Another — that is, different from the angels already named in this chapter (verses 6, 8, 9). The throne stands for God's rule as governor; the temple means His immediate presence. In the second main part of Revelation, from chapter 11:19, the judgments are harsher than the earlier ones. The reason is the evil being dealt with: it is sharper, more open, more daring, more blasphemous, and both religious and worldly. So judgment comes out from God's own presence, that is, the temple. God's nature as light is roused to action.
The angel does not just announce. He presses for action, and he gives his grounds. The ESV calls the harvest "fully ripe"; the older wording is that the grain has dried out past its season.
The angel from the temple cries "with a loud voice." It is a call for the divine Reaper to act at once… He gives two reasons why the Son of Man should start gathering the harvest right away. First, the appointed hour of final dealing has come. Second, the harvest was fully ripe — even "dried up."
The wait before this hour is not indifference. God first uncovers what He is about to strike.
Evil must first show itself on earth in full before judgment can be shown in full. God lays bare, first of all, the thing He strikes. In that state the harvest of the earth is ripe… So God's apparent tolerance of the evil is only the needed first step of the judgment itself.
The same principle reaches into today. No one can date the hour, but anyone can watch the crop.
God is full of goodness and patience. He strikes only when sin has come to the full. He is still seeking souls while it is still the acceptable day, the day of salvation. No one knows the day when He will rise up to take the spoil. But who will say that the harvest is not ripening for the sickle, and that the grapes of the vine of the earth are not filling out for the day of His wrath?
The ESV reads "Put in your sickle"; older translations read "Send your sickle." One writer builds on that older wording.
"Send Your sickle and reap." The Son of Man does not reap in person. He oversees the work. He reaps through others. The actual reapers are the angels (Matt. 13:39).
Two very different actions close the chapter. Two farming images mark the difference.
This vision is built on the idea of a harvest: that is, it is a judgment that separates (verses 14-16). Some must be thrown away, and some will be gathered in. Perhaps we may compare what the Gospels say — "one will be taken and the other left... so will it be on the day when the Son of Man is revealed." (Luke 17.) The next judgment is a different kind of dealing. It is the vintage of the earth, not its harvest. There is no good here, and so no separation.
Some ask whether this is the same harvest Jesus spoke of in Matthew 13. One writer marks out the differences.
There seem to me to be several clear differences. As to place: in Matthew the field is the world; in Revelation it is "the earth," in its limited, prophetic sense… In short, Matthew 13 takes in the rapture of the heavenly saints. Revelation 14 looks only at God's dealings with the earth, and verse 15 is one of its closing scenes.
Cutting grain is not the same as destroying it.
With the sickle, we see His judgment as His act to bring out fruit for His eternal glory. He cuts down the grain in order to separate the wheat from the chaff. So the harvest is not pure wrath that destroys everyone alike. It separates the good from the bad. Reaping is not destruction; it is gain for the great Reaper.
- The hour — the reaping starts on a set schedule; the appointed time of final dealing has come.
- The ripeness — God strikes only when sin is full. He first lets the evil show itself.
- The call — it comes from the temple, God's immediate presence. That marks a harsher judgment than the ones before.
- The sickle — the Son of Man superintends the work; angels are the actual reapers.
- The separation — the harvest divides wheat from chaff and gathers in what is good. The vintage that follows spares nothing.
And he that sat on the cloud put his sickle on the earth, and the earth was reaped.
The One seated on the cloud obeys the angel's call in verse 15 at once. One short sentence raises three questions: what a harvest pictures, who is kept and who is thrown away, and whether one stroke means one moment.
The Son of Man acts on a word brought to Him. One writer notes where that word came from and how wide the field is.
The earth is what is reaped. So it is men as men who are in view — not the Jewish nation in particular. Second, the angel who cried to Him who sat on the cloud, "Put in your sickle, and reap," came out of the temple. So the judgment would follow the revealed character of Him whose home that temple was. Keep these points in mind, and it is easy to see that this judgment separates. It gathers the wheat into His barn and burns up the chaff with unquenchable fire.
The verse shows no delay. One writer explains what that speed does and does not tell us.
The result is instantaneous, but that is in the vision only. We must not take these actions to mean one brief moment of divine power. The visions show events as completed in a single act. Yet those events may run over a long time and use many agencies. The visions sum up the finished results in a few short words. Other parts of Scripture unfold the details, which are just as important to know.
The tool in His hand tells you what kind of action this is.
This is not the carrying out of judgment, moral or physical; otherwise the text would have named a sword. But reaping the harvest calls for a sickle. It is "sharp" so that it may do its full work. And it is in the "hand" of the Reaper, who is about to begin the separating work: the wheat stored, the tares gathered in bundles.
Verse 16 ends one scene. Verses 17-20 open another with a very different tone.
It is a vision grounded on the idea of a harvest: that is, it is a separating judgment. Part must be thrown away, and part will be gathered in… The next judgment has a different character. It is the vintage of the earth, not its harvest. There is no good, and therefore no separation here. In the harvest there was; but at the vintage you find a more serious state. It is not the genuine vine, but the "vine of the earth."
One writer looks at what the Reaper gains by this stroke.
With the sickle, we see His judgment as His acting to bring forth fruit for His eternal glory. He cuts down the grain with the object of separating the wheat from the chaff. So the harvest is not pure wrath that destroys mankind without distinction. It separates the good from the bad. Reaping is not destruction, but for the benefit of the great Reaper.
They agree the reaping separates. They do not all weigh the two sides the same way. Some put the emphasis on those who are kept:
It is the Son of man, making the cloud His chariot, crowned with a golden crown, and holding a sharp sickle in His hand. With it He gathers to Himself the fruit of His own sowing… There is no idea here of the resurrection of the dead, or of anyone being taken to heaven. This is the gathering of the living righteous — reaping the wheat.
Another writer keeps the harvest of blessing and this reaping apart:
There is no actual execution of judgment in the harvest. That comes in the vintage. And this harvest is not the finishing of the firstfruits… That harvest is one of blessing, reaped when the millennial kingdom is set up. The harvest here is one of discriminating judgment before the kingdom is established.
- Word — He reaps at a word carried out of the temple. So the judgment matches the revealed character of the God who dwells there.
- Sickle — The tool is a sickle, not a sword. This is separating work. The field is the earth — people in general, not one nation.
- Separation — Harvest divides; the vintage that follows does not. Wheat is stored, tares are bundled; reaping serves the Reaper, it is not blind destruction.
- Scope — One sentence covers what may take a long time and many agencies. The vision gives the result; other parts of Scripture give the steps.
- Difference — Commentators differ on the balance. Some see the living righteous gathered to Him. Others read this reaping as judgment that clears the ground before the kingdom comes.