Revelation 14:15 Commentary and Bible Study

Another angel comes from the temple and carries a message to the Son of Man, saying that the time has come for the earth to be reaped. To our surprise, this command is not given by the Father to the Son directly but rather via an angelic intermediary. We should first note that this is not the angel’s command but the Father’s command. It is not the angel that has decided that the moment for judgment is right, but God the Father. This is why the angel comes out of the temple, the dwelling place of God as the book has already several times indicated (3:12; 7:15; 11:19). From the temple, the location of the throne of God (7:15), all government of creation proceeds.During the time of Christ’s life on earth, angels were given the privilege of ministering to the Lord Jesus Christ even though he was the Son of God. They were closely involved in the circumstances of his birth; angels foretold his birth to Mary, to Joseph and after the birth to the shepherds. They even ministered personally to the Lord Jesus Christ during his trials on earth and were sent to strengthen him, both at his temptation in the wilderness (Matthew 4:11) and in the garden of Gethsemane (Luke 22:43). This noble service to the Son of Man was their great privilege. But we would expect that after his ascension this ministry would come to an end. Yet here in Revelation we find an angel acting as a messenger and informing the glorified Son of Man of the precise moment of the final judgment. This is consistent with Christ own statement, ‘But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father’ (Mark 13:32). Note that it is as the Son of Man that Jesus is portrayed in Revelation; the Son of Man who comes on the clouds of heaven to end the world. Even in heaven, his two natures have not been merged into one. He possessed a true human nature on earth and he still possess it in heaven. It is still true of the Son as a human being that not even he knows the day and hour which God has set for the world to ‘see the Son of Man coming in the clouds with great power and glory’ (Mark 13:26). The time of the harvest has come. These words are taken from Joel 3, where long ago God spoke of this great day when the wicked would be held to account for all that they have done during the history of the world. ‘Put ye in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe: come, get you down; for the press is full, the fats overflow; for their wickedness is great. ¹⁴ Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision: for the day of the LORD is near in the valley of decision (Joel 3:13-14). Christ used the image of the harvest several times in parables to depict the end of the world (Matthew 13:30; Mark 4:29; John 4:35). It is an image that suggests forethought and planning. The farmer does not do all the work of ploughing and sowing for nothing. It suggests a time of separation of what is to be kept and what is to be thrown away. The parable of the tares in Matthew 13 particularly has this in mind. But it is also the time of fulfilment that the Lord has been waiting for. It is the day when the barns will be filled with good fruit, when the earth will have yielded its increase.Harvest does not come until the crop is ripe. In this case it is ripe in two senses. The wheat is ripe to be gathered into the barn and the chaff is ripe to be burned. The believers are ripe to inherit heaven, having had their faith tested and purified by manifold trials on earth and having shown themselves to be faithful, some even unto death. But the wicked are also ripe, have become thoroughly dried out by sin and devoid of any sign of life. They will easily burn in the judgment of God. The earth is then reaped. History is over. The purpose for which the world was made is completed – not the imagined purpose of vain men and women who looked to the idol of this world to give them satisfaction, but the purpose of God. There is no reason now why the world should continue any longer. When God decides to reap the earth, it does not last a moment longer. It has grown old and outlived its usefulness. Not that any can say when Christ will return, for if even the Son of Man in heaven waits to be told by the Father, how can we on earth know the hour?