When The Reaper Comes

Every man belongs to one of two harvests.

Photo by Loren King on Unsplash

Read: Revelation 14:14-20 & Joel 3:12-16

The Two Harvests

Like the other visionary cycles of Revelation (seals, trumpets), this cycle leads up to the final judgment day, here depicted by a harvest (Matthew 3:12, 13:39).

Two reapers appear in heaven to bring two harvests: one of grain, and one of grapes. Many commentators see this as two different aspects of the same final judgment.

The first is One like a Son of Man, seated on the cloud, wearing a golden crown. This is Jesus, the Lord of the harvest of the earth, who “sowed the good seed” in His first coming, and now returns as reaper in His second coming. The hour has come. He swings His sickle across the earth, to reap and gather His people safely into His barn (Matthew 3:12).

The second reaper is another angel with a sharp sickle, who is instructed to “gather the clusters from the vine of the earth, for its grapes are ripe.” After the grapes are gathered, they are thrown into the great winepress of God’s wrath and trampled outside the city, where the defiled things belong. God’s anger will crush the wicked.

The number 1,600 is significant, as it corresponds to roughly 184 miles, the length of ancient Israel from north to south. Many commentators believe this number (40 x 40 x 10 x 10) represents the fullness of peoples from the four corners of the world, thereby symbolizing the universal judgment of the wicked across the whole earth.

Alfred Plummer writes in Revelation:

The description, of course, implies the terrific nature of the punishment—probably nothing more. In the same way the distance mentioned is no doubt intended to denote the extensive nature of the punishment, though why that particular number is chosen is not absolutely clear. Possibly it is derived from the square of 4 multiplied by the square of 10, four being significant of the created world and ten being the sign of completeness, the number thus portraying completeness as regards the created world and the inability of anyone to escape God’s judgment.

The Bible repeatedly uses imagery associated with bearing fruit and the inevitability of the coming harvest. There will always be a degree of mystery to God’s plan for the world, but one thing that’s absolutely true is that every man will either bear good or rotten fruit. There are no other categories.

Many of you have been in situations where people are sorted into different groups. The most common one I can think of is a selection process for a specialized unit in the military. I had an opportunity to attend one of these back in 2017. At the end of the process, we were sorted into two different groups. The first group was “selected” and invited into the club. The other fell short and was sent away. Waiting to hear my fate was one of the heaviest moments of my life; imagine what it will be like when eternity hangs in the balance!

The Apostle Paul famously encourages believers to stand firm in the faith, arguing that the suffering of our earthly lives does not compare to the glory that awaits us (Romans 8:18). I’d argue the opposite is also true: even the most intense pleasures of sin cannot compare to the eternal misery that awaits the unrepentant when the reaper comes.

C.H. Mackintosh once wrote on this point, “It is vain to speak of approaching judgment when finding our place, our portion, and our enjoyment in the very scene which is to be judged.”