Revelation 14:14-16 – I looked, and there before me was a white cloud, and seated on the cloud was one like a son of man with a crown of gold on his head and a sharp sickle in his hand. 15 Then another angel came out of the temple and called in a loud voice to him who was sitting on the cloud, “Take your sickle and reap, because the time to reap has come, for the harvest of the earth is ripe.” 16 So he who was seated on the cloud swung his sickle over the earth, and the earth was harvested.
“Then another angel came out of the temple and called in a loud voice to him who was sitting on the cloud, “Take your sickle and reap, because the time to reap has come, for the harvest of the earth is ripe.” 16 So he who was seated on the cloud swung his sickle over the earth, and the earth was harvested.” Family, the coming to pass of these verses should on one hand be preceded by great dread and then a weeping and a wailing that broadcasts extreme sadness and unbearable pain. On the other side of the coin there should be great anticipation of victory and the security of God’s Word preceding this appointed time and there should be glorious celebration and shouts of victory fully realized and received at this approaching appointed time. Two perspectives that are wholly dependent on the one’s relationship with God through Jesus who alone is Savior and Lord.
After the fall of man, immediately preceding the expulsion of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden, as God was pronouncing the ramifications of their sin, the Lord gave a prophecy of hope. It was a promise that would take many years to fulfill, but as with all He says, it will indeed be fulfilled. God told the devil in Genesis 3:15 “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, And between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, And you shall bruise His heel.” God was telling the enemy that although the devil would gloat over what seemed to be a great victory over God’s children, and in the devil’s mind, over God, that the fall of man would not stand forever and that the day when the evil of the enemy shall fail and the victory of God to bring His children back to Him would be complete is surely coming. Family, God knows everything. Everything is everything. He knew everything about everything from eternity past into eternity future. Can we fully understand how that is? No. Can we know that it is? Yes! God foretold of a day when the evil work of Satan would be destroyed and that day came at the birth, life, death and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth, Savior to all who will come and Lord of all, those who come and those who do not. In Revelation 12:12 it states that the devil is filled with fury because he knows his time is short. At V’s 15-16 the devil’s vehicle of evil has lost its wheels. It is stopped and incapable of moving forward. All who will share his fate are fully numbered. All who been removed from the condemnation of original sin (John 3:18) have also been fully numbered.
2 Peter 3:9 “The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.” The Lord, in His perfect knowledge, told of the judgment of God coming against all who reject Jesus as their Savior and Master, and now V’s 15-16 are telling of the fulfillment of the day. It is not a day that the evil, who have refused God’s Word could predict the day of. Like a fool who thinks that by the force of stating a danger is not real that it is not real, the danger descends and destroys those who have not heeded the warning. Their horrible fate is sure. Their horrible fate will have come. As they pull over their heads the bedcovers of the sleep of denial and ignorance of this horrible day (for them) the day is coming and it will be a day that they could not predict (2 Peter 3:10). As surely as Jesus was born, lived, died and resurrected, the fate of all the enemies of God (those who refuse His Lordship) will come to pass.
This is the day Jesus told of in Matthew 25:31-46. The sheep (Gods’ people) are separated from the goats (those who do not belong to Jesus) as Jesus prophesied in Matthew 25:31-33 “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne. 32 All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33 He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.”
This coming Day of Judgment is the beginning of the end. The doors of the ark have been hung and are being prepared to be closed and when they are closed, and when judgement falls from above, there is no reopening. All is settled. What is being foretold in V’s 15-16 is the end of grace. The time when there is no more repenting. What is being foretold of is the time when no one can repent and be saved. A time not one more person can be saved. The door of grace is closed and for all on the outside, there is no more hope of being “saved.” For those outside the door of grace, there is no more decisions to be made. The option to opt in with Jesus is gone. There is only a dreadful waiting for the inevitable eternal punishment that awaits them. The worst that could happen to them has happened. Oh my, it is horrid beyond the limits of conception.
There is a front and back to every coin. The judgment of the unbeliever is a terrifying and awful moment, for them. This day is something that should be dreaded beforehand and it will be an eternal lament afterward. Yet, as horrible to the saint as these days are, this is also a day of great joy and confirmation. The promise of judgment is real and certain. Those who see this day see that what God says will come true one hundred percent of the time. As judgment falls it shows the indelible truth of all that God has said. So as surely as judgment is coming, so has the day when the promises of grace and inconceivably wonderful blessings that God has promised to all who belong Jesus Savior and Lord will be realized. When the coins of these verses are cashed in, the evil will receive full payment, and so will the children of God. Though the day is sad, the day is also joyous. The children of God will go on to live with God forever and the evil will live out eternity banished from God (as they have chosen). So family, when God’s judgment comes, though we may weep, the celebration and joy of the love and goodness of God is fully realized. God’s righteousness is a dread to those who reject him and joy to those who are His. The Day of Judgment is also our day of joyously celebrating our eternal victory through Jesus our Lord. Praise God that everything God says is true! Using wisdom, though we lament the loss of a single soul, we also relish the Day of the Lord. It will be the ending stamp that all He says is Truth and will come to pass. All. Including that He has saved His own. Whom we are. Praise God!
Psalm 150:6 – Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Praise the Lord!
Micah 7:7 – But as for me, I watch in hope for the Lord, I wait for God my Savior; my God will hear me.
Micah 6:8 – He has shown You, O man, what is good; And what does the Lord require of You but to do justly, to love mercy, And to walk humbly with Your God.