grapes – Christopher L. Scott

I. INTRODUCTION

A. Past Lessons

B. Text of Revelation 14:14-20

“14Then I looked and behold! A white cloud. The one sitting on the cloud was like the Son of Man. He had a gold crown on his head and a sharp sickle in his hand. 15Then another angel come out of the temple calling out in a loud voice to the one sitting on the cloud. ‘Send your sickle and harvest because the hour to harvest has arrived with the harvest of the earth dry and ready.’ 16So the one sitting on the cloud swung his sickle over the earth and the earth was harvested. 17Another angel went out from the temple in heaven holding a sharp sickle. 18Then another angel came out from the altar who had power over fire. He called out in a loud voice to the one who had the sharp sickle saying, ‘Send your sharp sickle and harvest the grapes of the earth because the grapes are ready.’ 19The angel swung his sickle on the earth and harvested the grapes of the earth and threw them into the wine press of God’s great wrath. 20The wine-press was trampled outside of the city and the blood went out from the wine press as high as a horse’s bridle for 184 miles.” (Rev 14:20)[ref]Unless otherwise noted, all translations are my own based on the Nestle-Aland 28 Greek text[/ref]

The Earth Is Harvested (Rev 14.:14 -20)

Photo Credit: “The Harvest of the World” in the Phillip Medhurst Collection

C. General Remarks

“The whole passage is designed to convey a powerful message which we need today as much as ever. God’s time will come; God will bring his people safely home; God will take even the wickedness and rebellion of the world and make it turn to his praise and to the salvation of his people. In the meantime his people are to be encouraged in their suffering. Martyrdom itself will be part of God’s purpose to bring his wise, healing order – to bear upon the world.” (Wright, Revelation for Everyone, 135).

“The implications of the message for today are only too plain. Today is a day of grace; but what is true of the tribulation is also true today, that God will ultimately judge all people. Today, however, the invitation is still open to those who will receive the grace of God by trusting in Christ and being saved from entering this awful period that may be impending for this present generation.” (Walvoord, Revelation, 230)

“There should be no doubt that this passage, describing the harvest and the vintage, is meant to be an occasion of great, uninhibited joy. We need a huge amount of evidence to force us to say anything else.” (Wright, Revelation for Everyone, 133)

QUESTION: IF SOMEONE KNEW THAT YOU WERE STUDYING THE BOOK OF REVELATION AND ASKED, “WHERE IN REVELATION DOES JESUS RETURN?” WHAT WOULD YOU SAY?

II. THE SON OF MAN (Rev 14:14)

Καὶ εἶδον, καὶ ἰδοὺ νεφέλη λευκή, καὶ ἐπὶ τὴν νεφέλην καθήμενον ὅμοιον υἱὸν ἀνθρώπου, ἔχων ἐπὶ τῆς κεφαλῆς αὐτοῦ στέφανον χρυσοῦν καὶ ἐν τῇ χειρὶ αὐτοῦ δρέπανον ὀξύ.

“Then I looked and behold! A white cloud. The one sitting on the cloud was like the Son of Man. He had a gold crown on his head and a sharp sickle in his hand.” (Rev 14:14)

QUESTION: WHERE ELSE IN THE BIBLE IS THE PHRASE “SON OF MAN” USED?

QUESTION: WHAT IS A “SICKLE?”

A. The Son of Man

The phrase, “Son of Man” is first used in Dan 7:13 and then in the Gospels, most notably in the Gospel of Luke as Jesus’s favorite way to describe himself. In the Greek translation of the Old Testament (called the Septuagint or LXX) the phrase is very similar to this passage here in Rev 14:14: