Bible Study With Jairus - Revelation 14

Bible Study with Jairus – Revelation 14
Honing our God-Given Gifts

In Revelation 14, John saw some vivid images about harvest. John recounts, “Then I looked, and behold, a white cloud, and seated on the cloud one like a son of man, with a golden crown on his head, and a sharp sickle in his hand.” (Revelation 14:14). The man “swung his sickle across the earth” to reap the earthly harvest (Revelation 14:15-16). Later, we read about another angel who used a sickle to gather clusters of grapes from the vine and to throw them into the great winepress of the wrath of God (Revelation 14:18). What do these symbolic pictures mean? How do we understand the pictorial language of the harvest, the grapes, and the great winepress? Do they have positive or negative connotations?

I believe that the harvest image has positive connotations, while the grapes are negative. They represent wheat and tares respectively, which in turn represent real and fake Christians. Although we do not know when the Lord will come back, we know the harvest is near. The wheat will be separated from the tares. God has given us each spiritual gifts, which he expects us to use. Like a harvester sharpens his sickle, God wants us to sharpen our gifts through constant practice.