A second harvest
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. (Revelation 14:17-20–ESV)
Jesus and the balance of his followers having departed the earth an angel comes. This angel, too, had a sickle sharp for the harvest. Then another of God’s messenger angels comes from the temple and gives an order to this angel. This harvest is a different matter entirely. It is clearly darker and tied into it is the wine analogy which often is used in scripture to represent God’s wrath.
The followers of God do not face his wrath, but these clearly do. Throughout the scriptures there have been those who even after being shown God’s grace do not accept it. Look at the following passage in Proverbs 5.
22 The iniquities of the wicked ensnare him,
and he is held fast in the cords of his sin.
23 He dies for lack of discipline,
and because of his great folly he is led astray. (Proverbs 5:22-23–ESV)
See how some people will be ensnared by their ways? That snare will prove to be eternal. In staunch obstinance they will face the wrath of God. Most of those who will face God’s wrath will like their Christ following counterparts be gone by this point in history, but those left alive until the coming of God’s wrath will find a terrible conclusion written upon them. To paraphrase 1 Thessalonians 4:17 those who are alive, who are left will be caught up together by the angel of judgment and so will always be apart from the Lord.
An angel came through the Egyptian nation removing all the first born back in Moses’ day. An angel with a similar, albeit more thorough purpose, will come at the conclusion of God’s earth project.
What can we take from these prophecies?
- God gives few specifics, but what he gives are enough unto faith
- Faith was not just for the disciples. Faith is required of all people.
- Even the enemies of Christ do not feel immediate destruction
- Grace is not just for Christ followers. Grace is available for all people.
- The world is all too ready to discard the words of God.
- The problem for them is they last forever.
- Isaiah 40:8 tells us that the words of the Lord last forever
- Jesus said the same thing in Matthew 24:35
- Peter echoed it in his first letter. (1 Peter 1:25)
- From the prophets to the Messiah to the apostles the message has been told. Some will discard it and be harvested into the winepress of God’s wrath. Others will accept it and be harvested into the Kingdom of Heaven. In both there is an ever-after. One will be a happily ever after and the other, well, I think you get the story.
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