His Harvest

DEVOTION

THE REVELATION

HIS HARVEST

Rev 14:14-16

14 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.

NIV

There are several truths here for us within this harvest time. First we should note that this individual who is sitting on the white Cloud is none other than Jesus Christ, who is referred to many times in the scripture as the son of man. He also is the King of kings, as this crown denotes and the main point we should notice is this angel is coming out of the temple with a message for Jesus. The angel therefore is bringing a message from God the Father to the Son. Although Jesus is God, there does seem to be an order in the trinity, as the Father commands the Son to go forth and harvest the earth. There are also two harvests, which the second one will be after this first harvest. It appears these two harvests are of different types of people. But let us only deal with this one for now. We should note however the second harvest does include that harvest being thrown into God’s wrath. So this first harvest is of God’s people, the righteous who the work of Jesus Christ are. Is this evidence of a mid or post tribulation rapture of the church? It might be if John was recording all these events in a precise chronological order as they were unfolding. But again we have to consider that he was not able to write everything he saw all at one time and there was a need to record everything he saw, whether these events were unfolding one at a time or all at the same  time. It would make sense they were not all happening at once, but then we cannot be sure of either way. What we can be sure of is that there is a time coming when Jesus will reap the earth. This time is when he will gather all the people who have accepted him as Savoir.

Luke 21:25-28

25 "There will be signs in the sun, moon and stars. On the earth, nations will be in anguish and perplexity at the roaring and tossing of the sea. 26 Men will faint from terror, apprehensive of what is coming on the world, for the heavenly bodies will be shaken. 27 At that time they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. 28 When these things begin to take place, stand up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near."

NIV

These are the words of Jesus telling us of this exact moment in the future when he will appear in the cloud to reap his church. Jesus is describing the events we have been seeing what John had recorded. All the universe is shaken, the peoples of the earth are in terror, but it certainly appears we are not, as we are standing up and lifting up our heads because our redemption, our harvest is drawing near, in fact it is at hand. We could think that all those events, all the seven trumpets all the turmoil happens so fast, in fact at the moment Jesus is arriving on the cloud to harvest his church. There is so much power in the act of God here, it could be all within moments, and the world would be shaken like never before or even imagined by man, and Jesus coming riding on a cloud descending in all his glory and power to gather his people to him. This is the time the dead will be raised.

1 Cor 15:50-54

50 I declare to you, brothers, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. 51 Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed— 52 in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. 53 For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. 54 When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: "Death has been swallowed up in victory."  

NIV

We see this is at the last trumpet, which would have been the seventh trumpet, which in the chronological order, if we were looking at it that way, was a while ago, but if it is all happening at once, it is now, Jesus is coming on the cloud just as the seventh trumpet blasts. This is when the voices in heaven declare the kingdom of the world has become the kingdom our Lord and his Christ and he will reign for ever and ever. Is this not the description of Jesus gathering his church to himself, coming to earth to harvest, to make the world his kingdom? The whole point here is that Jesus is coming for us, whether that is as an individual when each of us die, or whether we will all sleep until he comes for all of us at once, we will still be harvested by him for him and to him. We will be with our Lord and Savior living forever in eternity with him in the presence of God Almighty. Knowing this truth should have some kind of effect on how we live while we are here. In all reality it should bring us to our knees. If not our actual knees, our spiritual knees, bending our will to him, knowing we are his harvest.