Apocalypse Revealed # 645
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)
Isaiah 13
1
The burden of Babylon, which Isaiah the son of Amoz saw:
2
Set up a banner on the bare mountain! Lift up your voice to them! Wave your hand, that they may go into the gates of the nobles.
3
I have commanded my consecrated ones; yes, I have called my mighty men for my anger, even my proudly exulting ones.
4
The noise of a multitude is in the mountains, as of a great people; the noise of an uproar of the kingdoms of the nations gathered together! Yahweh of Armies is mustering the army for the battle.
5
They come from a far country, from the uttermost part of heaven, even Yahweh, and the weapons of his indignation, to destroy the whole land.
6
Wail; for the day of Yahweh is at hand! It will come as destruction from the Almighty.
7
Therefore all hands will be feeble, and everyone's heart will melt.
8
They will be dismayed. Pangs and sorrows will seize them. They will be in pain like a woman in labor. They will look in amazement one at another. Their faces will be faces of flame.
9
Behold, the day of Yahweh comes, cruel, with wrath and fierce anger; to make the land a desolation, and to destroy its sinners out of it.
10
For the stars of the sky and its constellations will not give their light. The sun will be darkened in its going forth, and the moon will not cause its light to shine.
11
I will punish the world for their evil, and the wicked for their iniquity. I will cause the arrogance of the proud to cease, and will humble the haughtiness of the terrible.
12
I will make people more rare than fine gold, even a person than the pure gold of Ophir.
13
Therefore I will make the heavens tremble, and the earth will be shaken out of its place in the wrath of Yahweh of Armies, and in the day of his fierce anger.
14
It will happen that like a hunted gazelle, and like sheep that no one gathers, they will each turn to their own people, and will each flee to their own land.
15
Everyone who is found will be thrust through. Everyone who is captured will fall by the sword.
16
Their infants also will be dashed in pieces before their eyes. Their houses will be ransacked, and their wives raped.
17
Behold, I will stir up the Medes against them, who will not value silver, and as for gold, they will not delight in it.
18
Their bows will dash the young men in pieces; and they shall have no pity on the fruit of the womb. Their eyes will not spare children.
19
Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldeans' pride, will be like when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah.
20
It will never be inhabited, neither will it be lived in from generation to generation. The Arabian will not pitch a tent there, neither will shepherds make their flocks lie down there.
21
But wild animals of the desert will lie there, and their houses will be full of jackals. Ostriches will dwell there, and wild goats will frolic there.
22
Wolves will cry in their castles, and jackals in the pleasant palaces. Her time is near to come, and her days will not be prolonged.
