16. And he that sat on the cloud thrust in his sickle on the earth; and the earth was reaped.
Vs. 14-16.—The gathering in of the harvest is sometimes emblematical of mercy,—as when the believer is gathered to his fathers by death. His sanctification being completed, he is taken home "as a shock of corn ripe in his season." Reaping and threshing, however, are most frequently symbolical of divine judgments, (Jer. li. 33;) and the apostle refers here to the same event which the Lord foretold by the mouth of other prophets. (Joel iii. 13-17; Micah iv. 12, 13.) This harvest is emblematical of divine judgment on the nations of apostate Christendom. He who executes the judgment is one like the Son of man, the Lord Christ. Enthroned on a "white cloud" as his chariot, and having on his royal "head a golden crown," the symbol of sovereignty, at the solicitation, the loud cry of the symbolic angel,—a gospel ministry, he "thrusts in his "sharp sickle," the emblem of avenging justice, and with infinite ease, "the earth is reaped." This work of punishing guilty nations is not so proper to the ministry, the functions of whose office are of a spiritual nature; yet are they active in a way competent to them, calling upon the "Lord of the harvest" to reap. They judge of the signs of the times. Such is part of their appropriate work. Thus they say,—"The time is come for thee to reap; for the harvest of the earth is ripe." The Lord Jesus appeared in royal majesty to John, as he had appeared to Ezekiel, (ch. i. 26;) and to Daniel, (ch. vii. 13.) The cloud on which he sat had a bright side towards his saints, but to his enemies a dark side, as at the Red Sea. (Ex. xiv. 19, 20.)
The two judgments of the harvest and vintage, are obviously an allusion to a natural order in the climate of Judea. Not only did the barley and wheat-harvest precede the time of gathering grapes, but some space elapsed between these labors of the husbandman. The usual order is observed here.
17. And another angel came out of the temple which is in heaven, he also having a sharp sickle.
18. And another angel came out from the altar, which had power over fire; and cried with a loud cry to him that had the sharp sickle, saying, Thrust in thy sharp sickle, and gather the clusters of the vine of the earth; for her grapes are fully ripe.
19. And the angel thrust in his sickle into the earth, and gathered the vine of the earth, and cast it into the great wine-press of the wrath of God.
20. And the wine press was trodden without the city, and blood came out of the wine-press even unto the horse-bridles, by the space of a thousand and six hundred furlongs.
Vs. 17-20.—As the ministry of the "third angel," (v. 9,) was final, as to pronouncing the deserved doom of all the adherents of the antichristian system, so in the symbols of the harvest and vintage, we have the execution of that sentence exhibited. The nations of Christendom, having drunk the wine of the mother of harlots, and of her daughters too, and having exhausted the patience of the Lord Jesus, refusing to repent, while he warned them by his servants the three angels of reform,—"rising early and sending them," were at length "ripe" for his sharp sickle. Long had he expostulated with them, saying to them, while addressing his church,—"The nation and kingdom that will not serve thee (O Zion,) shall perish; yea, those nations shall be utterly wasted." (Isa. lx. 12.)—The desolating judgments of the reigning Mediator, having brought those nations to "hate the whore," they become the willing and zealous agents of her destruction, as appears, (ch. xvii. 16.)
The "gathering of the clusters of the vine of the earth,"—is a concise emblematical representation of that tremendous work of punishing the apostate church, to be exhibited in greater detail in the following chapters.
The "angel coming out of the temple,"—represents the gospel ministry as usual. His "having a sharp sickle" may import his more immediate agency in this than in the preceding work of the harvest." Christ himself judged the nations,—had the "sharp sickle;" but in reckoning with impenitent ecclesiastical communities, he will honor his faithful servants. As in "measuring the temple,"—the Mediator held the instrument in his own hand under the Old Testament, (Zech. ii. 1,) but under the New Testament gave it into the hand of John, the representative of a gospel ministry, (ch. xi. 1,) so that transaction may illustrate the symbols here.