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)
Jeremiah 8
1
At that time, says Yahweh, they shall bring out the bones of the kings of Judah, and the bones of his princes, and the bones of the priests, and the bones of the prophets, and the bones of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, out of their graves;
2
and they shall spread them before the sun, and the moon, and all the army of the sky, which they have loved, and which they have served, and after which they have walked, and which they have sought, and which they have worshiped: they shall not be gathered, nor be buried, they shall be for dung on the surface of the earth.
3
Death shall be chosen rather than life by all the residue that remain of this evil family, that remain in all the places where I have driven them, says Yahweh of Armies.
4
Moreover you shall tell them, Thus says Yahweh: Shall men fall, and not rise up again? Shall one turn away, and not return?
5
Why then is this people of Jerusalem slidden back by a perpetual backsliding? they hold fast deceit, they refuse to return.
6
I listened and heard, but they didn't speak aright: no man repents him of his wickedness, saying, What have I done? everyone turns to his course, as a horse that rushes headlong in the battle.
7
Yes, the stork in the sky knows her appointed times; and the turtledove and the swallow and the crane observe the time of their coming; but my people don't know Yahweh's law.
8
How do you say, We are wise, and the law of Yahweh is with us? But, behold, the false pen of the scribes has worked falsely.
9
The wise men are disappointed, they are dismayed and taken: behold, they have rejected the word of Yahweh; and what kind of wisdom is in them?
10
Therefore will I give their wives to others, and their fields to those who shall possess them: for everyone from the least even to the greatest is given to covetousness; from the prophet even to the priest every one deals falsely.
11
They have healed the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, Peace; when there is no Peace.
12
Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? nay, they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush: therefore shall they fall among those who fall; in the time of their visitation they shall be cast down, says Yahweh.
13
I will utterly consume them, says Yahweh: no grapes shall be on the vine, nor figs on the fig tree, and the leaf shall fade; and [the things that] I have given them shall pass away from them.
14
Why do we sit still? Assemble yourselves, and let us enter into the fortified cities, and let us be silent there; for Yahweh our God has put us to silence, and given us water of gall to drink, because we have sinned against Yahweh.
15
We looked for peace, but no good came; [and] for a time of healing, and behold, dismay!
16
The snorting of his horses is heard from Dan: at the sound of the neighing of his strong ones the whole land trembles; for they are come, and have devoured the land and all that is in it; the city and those who dwell therein.
17
For, behold, I will send serpents, adders, among you, which will not be charmed; and they shall bite you, says Yahweh.
18
Oh that I could comfort myself against sorrow! My heart is faint within me.
19
Behold, the voice of the cry of the daughter of my people from a land that is very far off: isn't Yahweh in Zion? Isn't her King in her? Why have they provoked me to anger with their engraved images, and with foreign vanities?
20
The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved.
21
For the hurt of the daughter of my people am I hurt: I mourn; dismay has taken hold on me.
22
Is there no balm in Gilead? is there no physician there? why then isn't the health of the daughter of my people recovered?
