Apocalypse Revealed # 646
646. 14:16 So He who sat on the cloud thrust in His sickle on the earth, and the earth was reaped. This symbolizes the end of the church, because it no longer had any Divine truth in it.
This is the symbolic meaning, because He who sat on the cloud symbolizes the Lord in relation to the Word (no. 642). To thrust in the sickle and reap means, symbolically, to put an end to something and execute judgment (no. 643). The harvest symbolizes the state of the church, here its last state (nos. 643, 645). And the earth symbolizes the church (no. 285).
When these symbolic meanings are combined into one, it is apparent from them that "He who sat on the cloud thrust in His sickle on the earth and the earth was reaped" symbolizes the end of the church, because it no longer had any Divine truth in it.
Matthew 13:24-30
24
He set another parable before them, saying, "The Kingdom of Heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field,
25
but while people slept, his enemy came and sowed darnel weeds also among the wheat, and went away.
26
But when the blade sprang up and brought forth fruit, then the darnel weeds appeared also.
27
The servants of the householder came and said to him, 'Sir, didn't you sow good seed in your field? Where did this darnel come from?'
28
"He said to them, 'An enemy has done this.' "The servants asked him, 'Do you want us to go and gather them up?'
29
"But he said, 'No, lest perhaps while you gather up the darnel weeds, you root up the wheat with them.
30
Let both grow together until the harvest, and in the harvest time I will tell the reapers, "First, gather up the darnel weeds, and bind them in bundles to burn them; but gather the wheat into my barn."'"
