Revelation 14:14-20 meaning

In Revelation 14:14-20, we see a vision of Jesus and His angels bringing judgment to the earth upon the wicked who have defied God and practice evil. John has just heard the punishment for the immoral, that they will be “tormented with fire” and that their torment will last “forever and ever.” This will apply to all who take the mark of the beast and worship his image (Revelation 14:11-12).

He has also just heard how God will bless His people who are martyrs. These are those who refused the beast’s mark. They will be rewarded for their deeds (Revelation 14:12-13). Now, the vision continues with the announcement that harvest time has come; a harvest of the wicked from the earth:

Then I looked, and behold, a white cloud, and sitting on the cloud was one like a son of man, having a golden crown on His head and a sharp sickle in His hand (v. 14).

A sickle is a curved blade with a handle that is used for manually reaping wheat or other grain. That the sickle is sharp means it is ready to go to work in bringing in the harvest. Just as a knife is sharpened just prior to being used, so this sickle is sharpened.

The term son of man refers to Jesus. Jesus often referred to Himself as the “Son of Man” in the gospels (Matthew 9:6, 11:19, 12:8, 16:13, 17:22, 19:28 20:18, 26:45). The self—referencing term “son of man” appears approximately eighty times in the gospels.

We see a prophecy of the “Son of Man” who is coming “with the clouds of heaven” in Daniel 7:13 that refers to the Messiah, who is Jesus. It is likely that Jesus uses this prophecy to refer to Himself. That Jesus is the Son over all humanity means that He is appointed to reign over all the earth. Jesus was granted to be the “Son” as a human due to His faithful obedience (Hebrews 1:5, 2:9, Matthew 28:18, Philippians 2:8-9).

Jesus also desires to appoint many others as “sons” to reign with Him. We see this in many passages, but a few examples follow:

• In Hebrews 1:5, 2:5-10 we see Jesus was appointed “Son” as a human “for the suffering of death.” In doing so He gained being “crowned with glory and honor” originally given by God to humans, which they lost in the Fall of Man (Genesis 3). We also see that Jesus desires to bring “many sons to glory” with Him, meaning He desires that many believers are faithful witnesses and overcome as He overcame so that He can reward them by sharing His reign (Revelation 3:21).

• Matthew 25:21 presents a parable that represents Jesus rewarding His servants who are “good and faithful” by granting them to be “put in charge of many things.” He calls this entering “into the joy of your master.” This “joy” to share responsibility is the same “joy” that motivated Jesus to endure the suffering of the cross, that He might sit “at the right hand of the throne of God” (Hebrews 12:2).

• In 2 Timothy 2:12, Paul states directly to believers that “if we endure we will also reign with Him.”

In 2 Timothy, Paul also makes unconditional statements before and after 2 Timothy 2:12, that all who believe are secure in being God’s child, saying “if we died with Him, we will also live with Him”—speaking of dying with Jesus through faith in His death on the cross (2 Timothy 2:11). Paul explains in 2 Timothy 2:13 that even if “we are faithless” that “He remains faithful” to retain us in His family as His children because “He cannot deny Himself.” For Jesus to deny one of His children would be for Him to deny Himself, for all who believe in Him are new creations that are in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17).

However, only those who endure as faithful witnesses will gain the reward of sharing the inheritance with Him who is pictured in verse 14 as sitting on the cloud, who was one like a son of man, having a golden crown on His head. Jesus has the golden crown because He has been given authority over all things (Matthew 28:18). Jesus will later assert that those who overcome “will inherit all things, and I will be his God and he will be My son” (Revelation 21:7).

The Son of Man has a sharp sickle in His hand, but now another angel appears who also has a sickle,

And another angel came out of the temple, crying out with a loud voice to Him who sat on the cloud, “Put in your sickle and reap, for the hour to reap has come, because the harvest of the earth is ripe” (v. 15).

This new angel that appears is said to come out of the temple. Chapter 14 began with a vision of the 144,000 witnesses standing on Mount Zion with the Lamb then moved to a vision of the 144,000 singing before the throne in heaven. It is inferred that the vision from that point has been from the perspective of heaven and John now mentions that there is a temple. The Greek word translated temple also appears in verse 17, which refers to “the temple which is in heaven.” So it seems clear that the temple John is seeing is the same temple in heaven where God’s throne sits.

We can infer that the son of man pictured sitting on the cloud is Jesus, who is the Son of Man. That this additional angel from the temple gives a command to Him infers that the angel was dispatched from the throne room to tell Jesus “Now is the time to judge the earth.”

In Matthew 24:36, Jesus stated regarding the time of His return “But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone.” That appears to be validated here by the fact that now an angel came out of the temple, presumably having been dispatched by the Father, and says in a loud voice to the Son of Man who sat on the cloud “Put in your sickle and reap, for the hour to reap has come.”

The hour that has come is the hour of judgment. In the next chapter, we will see the last judgments before the “wrath of God is finished” and Jesus returns to end this age and begin a new one (Revelation 15:1). So Jesus puts in His sickle and reaps:

Then He who sat on the cloud swung His sickle over the earth, and the earth was reaped v. 16).

Jesus reaps in the earth, but the passage does not tell us what He reaps. The following verses speak of another angel who reaps a judgement of fire and the great wine press of the wrath of God (v. 19). Thus, it could be that this particular reaping made by Jesus is to bring His people to heaven with Him.

We saw in the first part of this chapter the scene showing the 144,000 shifting from earth to heaven. We know that there will come a time when people living upon the earth will be “caught up together” with those who have already died and are being resurrected to “meet the Lord in the air” (1 Thessalonians 4:17). We know that the two witnesses will be caught up to heaven to be with the Lord; perhaps others are taken up with them (Revelation 11:11-12). So perhaps Jesus’s harvest is for those who are righteous.

Jesus also told a parable of wheat and tares, and in His explanation the tares (representing the “sons of the evil one”) are gathered out of His kingdom and thrown “into the furnace of fire” (Matthew 13:40-41). So it could also be that Jesus reaps out of Israel those who are wicked, that all who remain will be redeemed, thus fulfilling the prophetic statement made by Paul that “all Israel will be saved” (Romans 11:26).

Jesus stated in John 12:47 that He did not come to earth the first time to judge the world, but to save it. Then in Acts 17:31, the Apostle Paul asserted that Jesus will be the instrument by which God will “judge the world.” In His first advent, Jesus came to serve rather than be served and shed His blood for the sins of the world (Matthew 20:28). In Revelation Chapters 14-19, Jesus prepares to return to earth and reap a harvest of blood from those who refused to receive the gift of His shed blood; those who persisted in rebellion against God, served Satan, and sowed unrighteousness will now be judged. But first his angels will reap a harvest of blood.

Now another angel appears: And another angel came out of the temple which is in heaven, and he also had a sharp sickle (v. 17).

Whatever reaping the Son of Man (presumably Jesus) has done, now more is ordered. This angel also comes out of the temple which is in heaven and it is clear that his reaping is to be one of judgment upon the earth:

Then another angel, the one who has power over fire, came out from the altar; and he called with a loud voice to him who had the sharp sickle, saying, “Put in your sharp sickle and gather the clusters from the vine of the earth, because her grapes are ripe” (v. 18).

This additional angel is said to have power over fire. Fire is typically used to represent judgment in scripture. This indicates that the judgment he will order the prior angel to reap will be a harvest of judgment.

This angel in charge of fire gives the previous angel an order to “Put in your sharp sickle and gather the clusters from the vine of the earth, because her grapes are ripe.” This angel with the power over fire came out from the altar that stands before the throne of God. We can presume that this angel then also came out from the temple in heaven, in which stands both the throne and the altar of God.

We have previously encountered the altar before the throne. The following occurrences of the altar seem relevant to this mention:

• In Revelation 6:9 we saw the martyred saints underneath the altar petitioning God to bring justice upon those who slew them. Now we see their request being granted.

• In Revelation 8:3, 5 we saw an angel adding incense to the prayers of the saints of God, and they were thrown to earth and great judgment ensued.

So it seems now that John’s vision and mention of the altar is an indication that the prayers of God’s people for justice that was saved up at the altar is now being delivered upon the earth. God executed justice for the entire world when all the sins of the world were placed upon Jesus (Colossians 2:14). But those who refused to receive the free gift of salvation will eventually be judged. The time now has come for the judgment of the wicked who still dwell upon the earth:

So the angel swung his sickle to the earth and gathered the clusters from the vine of the earth, and threw them into the great wine press of the wrath of God. And the wine press was trodden outside the city, and blood came out from the wine press, up to the horses’ bridles, for a distance of two hundred miles (vv. 19-20).

We must always bear in mind that prophetic pictures do not give us timing or sequence. It might be that this reaping takes place during the bowl judgments described in the next chapters. But it appears here that we are given insight to a particular judgment.

The great wine press of judgment is said to have been trodden outside the city. The city likely refers to Jerusalem, which is where this chapter began, at Mount Zion (Revelation 14:1). The word trodden pictures the ancient practice of people stomping on harvested grapes in order to extract their juice. In this case, the reaping angel is crushing people with judgment, and the “juice” that flows from the crushing judgment is blood.

The blood came out from the wine press, up to the horses’ bridles, for a distance of two hundred miles (v. 20). If we choose to read this passage literally, it might take about 150 million people to create a river of blood like this. This is a reasonable number in light of Revelation 9:16. There we saw the Greek phrase “myriad of myriads” translated as “two hundred million.” The idea that seventy—five percent die in one place seems to fit the picture being painted.

(The 150 million figure is derived estimating a river two hundred miles long and averaging ten feet wide and two feet deep and assuming one gallon of blood per person. This creates a volume of approximately 157 million gallons. This seems reasonable since a typical person contains approximately 1.3 gallons of blood).

Zechariah 14:2-4 predicts a coming time when the nations will gather against Jerusalem in war. The city will be captured. But then the LORD will “go forth and fight against those nations, as when He fights on a day of battle” (Zechariah 14:3). And in Zechariah 14:4, Jesus returns and His feet touch down on the Mount of Olives.

Perhaps just prior to Jesus’s return, the angel of verse 19 reaps this massive number of enemies who are slain. We likely see a prophetic foreshadowing of this deliverance in the story of Assyria’s siege against Jerusalem in Isaiah 36-37.

The Assyrians captured all the cities of Judah; only Jerusalem remained unconquered (Isaiah 36:1). The cruel Assyrian king Sennacherib may represent the beast, and the brash and blasphemous Rabshakeh might represent the false prophet. When all seemed lost for Jerusalem, God fought for Judah and delivered them when the “angel of the LORD went out and struck 185,000 in the camp of the Assyrians” (Isaiah 37:36).

This story appears in 2 Kings and 2 Chronicles, but the fact that it is also included in Isaiah provides a clue that it has prophetic significance. The Revelation 14 episode might be a larger scale version of Isaiah’s account. Instead of only the Assyrian Empire sieging Jerusalem, all the nations of the earth besiege it. We see this in Revelation 19:19 where the “kings of the earth and their armies” are “assembled to make war against” Jesus. This is likely the same scenario described in Zechariah 14.