Revenge
is not a topic with which we are comfortable.
But, today's text deals with the vengeance of
God as well as His reward.
It is, thankfully,
the beginning of the final judgments!
And I saw
another sign in heaven, great and marvelous, seven angels having the seven last
plagues; for in them is filled up the wrath of God. Revelation 15:1
The
plagues are indicated in this text (14.14-20), and then detailed in chapters
15-16. They are delivered by seven more
angels.
John is
an old man at this point; his mind is so saturated with the Scriptures that he
can hardly utter a sentence without traces of Moses and the prophets winding
their way through like tendrils from a grapevine. The picture of the harvest evokes images in
John's minds-eye:
Swing the sickle, for the harvest is ripe. Come, tread the grapes, for the winepress is full. The storage vats are overflowing with
the wickedness of these people.” Joel
3:13 (NLT)
The text
pictures two harvests – grain and grape.
They parallel the judgment of rewards (bema seat for the raptured
saints), and the judgment of revenge (bummer for the ruptured unbelievers).
The Explanation
Grain Harvest – Judgment of Reward
Then
I saw a white cloud, and seated on the cloud was someone like the Son of Man. He had a gold crown on his head and a sharp
sickle in his hand. Then another angel came from the Temple and shouted to the
one sitting on the cloud, “Swing the sickle, for the time of harvest has come;
the crop on earth is ripe.” So the one sitting on the cloud swung his
sickle over the earth, and the whole earth was harvested. Revelation 14:14-16 (NLT)
Many
passages in the Scriptures may have some degree of difficulty concerning
interpretation. I don’t think this is
one of them! (That is not to suggest
arrogance, or claim special revelation; there are just so many telling references that the passage
seems to cry out about itself.)
Moody
Bible Institute's past president George Sweeting
told about a student who was befuddled when his professor spoke about the pre-millennial
view, and the pre-tribulation rapture, and the mid-tribulation, and the
post-tribulation rapture; finally the student was in despair. He folded his arms, sat down, and said, I.A.K.. And the professor said, What does that mean? The student said, That means I am confused.
The professor said, Confused
doesn't start with a 'K'. The
student replied, You don't know how confused I am.
This
passage is about the coming of Christ, and the final judgments. Chicago's Rabbi Eckstein says that with all
of the climactic ferment, epi-centered in the Middle East, it seems to him to
be Messianic times. And if this is it, if the Messiah appears, rabbi Eckstein
says that he can't wait to ask Him one question: Is this
your second visit or your first?
There is
no apology needed to say This is the second! And LAST!! Henceforth Jesus will no longer be a visitor
in a place where the Prince of Darkness has his dominion. Jesus is coming back to claim His rightful
place as Lord over the entire universe.
A Sickle
The sickle, or hook, is a tool of
harvesting. The scene has an angel
emerging from before the throne of God in heaven. He tells another angel[1], the
time is now; begin the harvest. The angel receives the message and begins the
harvest; we call it Armageddon, that last and final battle.
A Swing
This
harvesting activity is a picture of the grain harvest. In Matthew 13 Jesus told the parable of wheat and tares. The darnel (tares) is false wheat, actually
weed. What we have is a picture of
genuine believers and false professors.
This harvest separates the wheat from the weeds. Many see this as reflecting the imagery of
rapture – the wheat being taken from the earth is believers being reunited with
Christ and loved ones.
The
primary lesson we learn here is that not all judgment is to be feared. Any true believer identifies with this judgment
as good. In a sense there is a lack of
patience on the part of Christians everywhere for the second coming. The Bride of Christ longs for her
husband. This separation is a time when
the wheat will be taken to God's home.
The grain
harvest also shows how those who have rejected Jesus Christ in this world have
no place in God’s rewards for believers.
This should hold no terror for the child of God!
But it
should make anyone who has not accepted Christ’s salvation consider carefully
what he is waiting for
….because
the Scripture then tells us what unbelievers are waiting for:
Grape Harvest – Judgment of Revenge
After
that, another angel came from the Temple in heaven, and he also had a sharp
sickle. Then another
angel, who had power to destroy with fire, came from the altar. He shouted to the angel with the sharp sickle,
“Swing your sickle now to gather the clusters of grapes from the vines of the
earth, for they are ripe for judgment.” So the angel swung his sickle over the earth
and loaded the grapes into the great winepress of God’s wrath. The grapes were trampled in the winepress
outside the city, and blood flowed from the winepress in a stream about 180
miles long and as high as a horse’s bridle. Revelation
14:17-20 (NLT)
Revenge
is not a Christian thing; rather it is a Divine Prerogative!
…“I
will take revenge; I will pay them back,” says the LORD. Romans 12:19b (NLT)
And whosoever was not found written in
the book of life was cast into the lake of fire. Revelation 20:15 (NLT)
We learn
in this passage about the vengeance of God on His enemies:
The Day of God’s Vengeance
God's
character demands justice and judgment.
That does damage to some people's view of God. There is a common misunderstanding that a God
of love would/could never judge and condemn unbelievers.
That is
entirely untrue to the character of a holy and just God. One preacher/scholar put it this way: I believe in a God of absolute and unbounded
love, therefore I believe in a loving anger of his which will and must devour
and destroy all that is decayed, monstrous, abortive in the universe.[2]
The day
of vengeance is not something which appears without ample warning and
remedy. Just as in the fullness of time God sent
His son to save us from our sins[3],
it is also on the record that God never takes revenge until He has exhausted
every avenue of getting our attention and allowing for repentance. The harvest is only accomplished after a long
season of planting, watering and waiting.
The Disaster of God’s Vengeance
The idea
of God’s winepress of wrath is not unfamiliar to people in the Middle
East. The prophets predicted this great
slaughter of the final battle.
“I have been treading the winepress alone; no
one was there to help me. In my anger I have trampled my enemies as
if they were grapes. In my fury I have trampled my foes. Their blood has stained my clothes. Isaiah 63:3 (NLT)
Come here and listen, O nations of the earth. Let
the world and everything in it hear my words. For the LORD is enraged against the nations. His fury is against all their armies. He will completely destroy them, dooming
them to slaughter. Their dead will be left unburied, and
the stench of rotting bodies will fill the land. The mountains will flow with their blood. Isaiah 34:1 – 3(NLT)
The
prophet Nahum describes in one passage both the fairness, and the finality of
the Lord's Day of Vengeance:
The LORD is slow to get angry, but his power is great, and
he never lets the guilty go unpunished….Who can stand before his fierce anger? Who can survive his burning fury? His rage blazes forth like fire, and
the mountains crumble to dust in his presence. Nahum
1:3 - 6 (NLT)
John
wrote in Revelation(14.20) that the blood would flow along as deep
as a horse's bridle, and 18 miles. This
is roughly the distance from North to South (Dan to Beersheba) in
Palestine. This may not be literal, but
signifying the completeness of the judgment.
It begins at Armageddon and sweeps throughout the land. There is no one who could stand in that day
of the Lord's vengeance!
The Application
An explanation
without an application (how to bring
this into our everyday lives) is a waste of time.
Considering
the harvests of reward and revenge, what do we do today that will make a positive
difference in how we spend eternity? I
believe that there are at least two ways this text impacts our living:
Seeing
We must
be careful that we keep an accurate perspective of the real Jesus always. Some
people have a notion that He is a milquetoast doormat – kindly waiting for
Little Bo Peep's sheep to come home.
Rather,
my friends, remember the picture of a gigantic holy combine, able to harvest the entire earth with one swipe of
the sickle. And when He does, the blood
will run so high horses in the entire land will drown in the deluge.
The first
time He came as a babe willing to shed His own blood. The next time He will be ticked, and ready to
do a little more shedding – but this time it will not His own blood!
Sowing
Christians
(especially professional types like evangelists and pastors) have a propensity
for counting the nickels and noses. We
want to add up all the decisions and pat ourselves on the back for a job well
done.
As we
have seen in the text today, harvesting is not our area of responsibility –
sowing is!
Let's
reserve our judgments about the results of
Christian ministry, and the decisions. They will be judged in eternity by someone
who is qualified.
Rather,
let us concentrate on planting genuine seed, watering with the pure milk of the
word, and living in a manner that will please the Lord. Then it won't make a difference when He comes.
Good thoughts, I too was konfused.
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