Revelation 14:14 Commentary and Bible Study

The Book of Revelation references several Old Testament passages here – Daniel 7:13; Ezekiel 1:26; Joel 3:12-13). We are at the final scene of this world. The Lord Jesus Christ comes again from heaven where he has sat at the right hand of God since the time of his ascension. Now ‘unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation’ (Hebrews 9:28). He comes to take his people from the battlefield of this world and to personally destroy their foes who have been allowed to remain at large until now. It is he who has already been anticipated in Revelation 1:7. He comes with all the honours that this created world can afford him. He comes on a white cloud, the symbols of his majesty, the cloud acting as a natural throne and adornment of his glory. No longer is he clothed in humility – as one who ‘hath no form nor comeliness’ (Isaiah 53:2), and who ‘made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men’ (Philippians 2:7). Now he comes to dazzle his enemies with his glory. Now his full force is unleashed, and they will cringe before him as they realise how much they underestimated him and how in their foolishness they completely misjudged him. His apparent weakness was not true weakness, but they made a false assessment of him which arose from their unbounded arrogance, and they were deceived by his forbearance and meekness. God’s servants have waited for thousands of years for this moment. This is their great hope – that he would take to himself his infinite power and bring about the end of Satan’s tyranny.He sits on the cloud, having the form of a son of man for he is the Son of Man. He is the Son of God who was made flesh and dwelt among us. He has taken our nature in order to fulfil the righteousness of the law on our behalf and in order to suffer the penalty of the law for us. He will eternally wear human nature for in heaven we will only know God through him. He comes wearing a crown. The Greek uses the word for ‘crown’ of victory given to the successful contestant. It occurs earlier in the book as the crown given to the twenty-four elders. It implies that this life is a great race in which the people of God must prevail over their spiritual enemies. Christ is the preeminent contestant, who triumphs single-handed over the devil. Now his crown of thorns has been exchanged for a crown of victory. He has an earned majesty as well as possessing it by right (the diadems or ‘many crowns’ of Revelation 19:12).He comes to harvest the earth holding in his hand a sharp sickle, that implement which is the ancient symbol of the harvest. ‘His winnowing fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly clean out his threshing floor, and gather his wheat into the barn; but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire’ (Matthew 3:11-12). Although the harvest is seen as taking place on a single occasion at the end of the world, there has been a continual harvest of individuals at death throughout the ages. The final moment is naturally depicted as the most significant moment of all, partly because it will terminate the history of the world and partly because even those who were harvested before will not be sent to their final destination until this moment.