I looked,
and there before me was a white cloud, and seated on the cloud was one like a
son of man with a crown of gold on his head and a sharp sickle in
his hand. Then another angel came out of the temple and called
in a loud voice to him who was sitting on the cloud, “Take your sickle and
reap, because the time to reap has come, for the harvest of the earth is ripe.” So he who
was seated on the cloud swung his sickle over the earth, and the earth was
harvested.
Another
angel came out of the temple in heaven, and he too had a sharp sickle. Still
another angel, who had charge of the fire, came from the altar and called in a
loud voice to him who had the sharp sickle, “Take your sharp sickle and gather
the clusters of grapes from the earth’s vine, because its grapes are ripe.”
The angel swung his sickle on the earth, gathered its grapes and
threw them into the great winepress of God’s wrath. They were
trampled in the winepress outside the city, and blood flowed out of the press,
rising as high as the horses’ bridles for a distance of 1,600 stadia. Revelation 14:14-20
Then he said to his disciples, “The
harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to
send out workers into his harvest field.” Matthew
9:37-38
Harvesting was the time to bring the
fruit, vegetables or wheat from the field and into the house or barn. The sickle was used and it had
a curved blade on the end of a pole.
With a swing of the sickle, the harvester cut the wheat to be gathered.
Jesus
used the imagery to say it’s time to get to work and collect people for God.
The
Bible also uses the image to talk about a person’s death on the earth to be
taken away. It’s either to a good or bad
place, depending on their belief. Early
artists used the image of the Grim Reaper, who wore a cloak and carried a
sickle, as the symbol of death.
Revelation portrays mass gatherings of people into heaven, bloody
conflicts where many die. Whether this
is overnight or over time, it’s not clear.