he cloud, Thrust in thy sickle, and reap; for the time is
come for thee to reap: for the harvest of the earth is ripe.

16. And he that sat on the cloud thrust in his sickle on the earth; and
the earth was reaped.

Vs. 14-16.--The gathering in of the harvest is sometimes emblematical of
mercy,--as when the believer is gathered to his fathers by death. His
sanctification being completed, he is taken home "as a shock of corn
ripe in his season." Reaping and threshing, however, are most frequently
symbolical of divine judgments, (Jer. li. 33;) and the apostle refers
here to the same event which the Lord foretold by the mouth of other
prophets. (Joel iii. 13-17; Micah iv. 12, 13.) This harvest is
emblematical of divine judgment on the nations of apostate Christendom.
He who executes the judgment is one like the Son of man, the Lord
Christ. Enthroned on a "white cloud" as his chariot, and having on his
royal "head a golden crown," the symbol of sovereignty, at the
solicitation, the loud cry of the symbolic angel,--a gospel ministry, he
"thrusts in his "sharp sickle," the emblem of avenging justice, and with
infinite ease, "the earth is reaped." This work of punishing guilty
_nations_ is not so proper to the ministry, the functions of whose
office are of a spiritual nature; yet are they active in a way competent
to them, calling upon the "Lord of the harvest" to reap. They judge of
the signs of the times. Such is part of their appropriate work. Thus
they say,--"The time is come for thee to reap; for the harvest of the
earth is ripe." The Lord Jesus appeared in royal majesty to John, as he
had appeared to Ezekiel, (ch. i. 26;) and to Daniel, (ch. vii. 13.) The
cloud on which he sat had a bright side towards his saints, but to his
enemies a dark side, as at the Red Sea. (Ex. xiv. 19, 20.)

The two judgments of the _harvest_ and _vintage_, are obviously an
allusion to a natural order in the climate of Judea. Not only did the
barley and wheat-harvest precede the time of gathering grapes, but some
space elapsed between these labors of the husbandman. The usual order is
observed here.

17. And another angel came out of the temple which is in heaven, he also
having a sharp sickle.

18. And another angel came out from the altar, which had power over
fire; and cried with a loud cry to him that had the sharp sickle,
saying, Thrust in thy sharp sickle, and gather the clusters of the vine
of the earth; for her grapes are fully rip