645. Crying with a loud voice to Him who sat on the cloud, "Thrust in Your sickle and reap, for the hour has come for You to reap, for the harvest of the earth has dried." This symbolizes a supplication by angels in heaven to the Lord to bring things to an end and execute judgment, because the church had now reached its last state.

To cry with a loud voice to Him who sat on the cloud symbolizes a supplication by angels in heaven to the Lord, because they lacked anything corresponding to them on earth. For the church on earth is to the angelic heaven like the foundation on which a house rests, or like the feet on which a person stands and which he uses to walk. When the church on earth has been destroyed, therefore, the angels lament and supplicate the Lord. Their supplication is that He may bring the church to an end and raise up a new one. The angel's crying with a loud voice to Him who sat on the cloud accordingly symbolizes a supplication by angels in heaven to the Lord.

That He who sat on the cloud symbolizes the Lord in relation to the Word may be seen just above in no. 642. That to thrust in a sickle and reap means, symbolically, to put an end to something and execute judgment - this, too, may be seen in nos. 642, 643 above. For the hour has come to reap means symbolically that the church is at an end. For the harvest has dried means symbolically that the church has reached its last state. A harvest symbolizes the state of the church with respect to Divine truth. The reason is that a harvest yields the grain used to make bread, and grain and bread symbolize the church's goodness, which is achieved through truths.

[2] That this is the symbolic meaning of these words can be more clearly seen from passages in the Word where a harvest, reaping, or sickle are mentioned, as in the following:

...I will sit to judge all the... nations. Put in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe... For their wickedness is great. (Joel 3:12-13)

Cut off the sower..., and him who handles the sickle at harvest time. (Jeremiah 50:16)

The daughter of Babylon is like a threshing floor...; a little while yet till the time of her harvest comes. (Jeremiah 51:33)

It shall be when the standing grain of the harvest is gathered, and his arm reaps the ears... ...in the morning your seed flourishes..., the harvest a heap in the day of your possession and desperate sorrow. (Isaiah 17:5-6, 11)

Be ashamed, you farmers..., because the harvest of the field has perished. (Joel 1:11)

(Jesus said to His disciples:) "There are still four months until the harvest comes. ...lift up your eyes and behold the fields, that they are already white for harvest! ...I sent you to reap...." (John 4:35-38)

(Jesus) said to His disciples, "The harvest... is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Pray... the Lord of the harvest to send laborers into His harvest." (Matthew 9:37-38, Luke 10:2)

In these places, and also in Isaiah 16:9, Jeremiah 5:17; 8:20, the harvest symbolizes the church with respect to Divine truth.

[3] Everything contained in these verses in the present chapter, however, and also in the following two chapters, was foretold by the Lord in the parable of a sower and his gathering in of the harvest, and because it shows and illustrates what the symbolism is, we will quote it here:

(Jesus said:) "The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field; but... his enemy came and sowed tares... ...when the plants sprouted..., ...the tares also appeared....

"The servants said..., 'Do you want us to... gather them up?'

"But he said, 'No, lest while you gather up the tares you also uproot the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest, and at the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, "First gather together the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn...." ' "

And His disciples came to (Jesus), saying, "Explain to us the parable...."

(Jesus) said...: "He who sows the good seed is the Son of Man (or the Lord). The field is the world (the church), the... seeds are the sons of the kingdom (the church's truths), the tares are the sons of the evil one (falsities from hell), the enemy who sowed them is the devil, the harvest is the culmination of the age (the end of the church), the reapers are the angels (Divine truths). Therefore as the tares are gathered and burned in the fire, so it will be at the culmination of this age (at then end of the church)." (Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43)

299. And he who sat on it had a bow. This symbolizes their having a doctrine of truth and goodness from the Word, from which they fought against falsities and evils emanating from hell, thus fighting against hell.

He who sat on the white horse in Revelation 19:11-13 means the Lord in relation to the Word, but he who sat on this white horse means an angelic person in relation to a doctrine of truth and goodness from the Word, thus a doctrine from the Lord, like the army of the Lord in heaven which followed the Lord on white horses in Revelation 19:14.

Regarding Him who sat on the white horse in Revelation 19, we are told that out of his mouth went a sharp sword, that with it He should strike the nations, and the sword going out of His mouth symbolizes the Divine truth of the Word fighting against falsities and evils (nos. 52, 108, 117). Here, however, we are told that he who sat on this white horse had a bow, and the bow symbolizes a doctrine of truth and goodness from the Word fighting against evils and falsities.

To fight against falsities and evils is also to fight against the hells, as evils and falsities emanate from there, and therefore this, too, is symbolically meant.

[2] That a bow in the Word symbolizes doctrine doing battle in both senses can be seen from the following passages:

(Jehovah's) arrows are sharp, and all His bows bent; His horses' hooves are accounted as rocks. (Isaiah 5:28)

(The Lord) has bent his bow like an enemy... (Lamentations 2:4)

O Jehovah..., You ride on Your horses; ...Your bow will be bared. (Habakkuk 3:8-9)

He gave the nations before Him, and made Him rule over kings. He gave them as the dust to His sword, as... stubble to His bow. (Isaiah 41:2)

Because the subject is Jehovah or the Lord, a bow in these places symbolizes the Word, from which the Lord fights in a person against evils and falsities.

I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim and the horse from Jerusalem; the war bow shall be cut off. Rather He shall speak peace to the nations. (Zechariah 9:10)

They bend their tongue, their bow a lie, and not the truth... (Jeremiah 9:3)

Lo, the wicked bend their bow; they make ready their arrows on the bowstring, to shoot in the dark the upright in heart. (Psalms 11:2)

They will provoke Joseph and shoot at him; the archers will hate him. But he will rest on the tautness of his bow... by the hands of the Mighty One of Jacob... (Genesis 49:23-24)

Set yourselves in array against Babylon... All you who bend the bow, shoot at her, spare no arrow, for she has sinned against Jehovah. (Jeremiah 50:14, cf. 50:29)

David lamented... over Saul... to teach the children of Judah the Bow. (2 Samuel 1:17-18)

This lamentation describes the combat of truth against falsities.

[3] Thus said Jehovah of Hosts: "Lo, I am breaking the bow of Elam, the source of its might." (Jeremiah 49:35)

(Jehovah) made Me a polished arrow; in His quiver He has hidden Me. (Isaiah 49:2)

Behold, children are a heritage from Jehovah... Blessed is the man who has filled his quiver with them. (Psalms 127:3-5)

Children here and elsewhere symbolize doctrinal truths.

In Salem shall be (Jehovah's) tabernacle... There He broke the strings of the bow, the shield, the sword, and the war. (Psalms 76:1-3)

(Jehovah) will make wars cease... He will break the bow..., cut asunder the spear; He will burn the chariot with fire. (Psalms 46:9; cf. Ezekiel 39:8-9, Hosea 2:18)

In these places a bow symbolizes a doctrine of truth fighting against falsities, and in an opposite sense, a doctrine of falsity fighting against truths. Arrows accordingly symbolize truths or falsities.

Since a war in the Word symbolizes a spiritual war, therefore the weapons of war - such as the sword, spear, shield, buckler, bow, and arrows - symbolize the kind of things that have to do with that war.