v. 14 – The three angels have already pronounced judgment.  John now sees an angel sitting on a cloud.  The scene he sees is vivid and dramatic.  This angel was “like a son of man.”  We have seen this title before and sometimes it refers to Messiah, as in Dan. 7:13-14.  Usually, it is a reference to an angel or even a human as in Ezekiel (son of man = earthling – or human).  This angel is wearing a golden crown on his head.  To some this further indicates the reference to Christ here.  However there are reasons for this not to allude to Christ.  The crown is not a royal crown – diadem, but rather a winner’s crown – stefanos.  The appearance is “like” a son of man and not “the son of man.”  The debate continues, but I want to lean away from this being Christ on the cloud.  At this point in our study, Christ is one with God on the throne and not carrying out these actions.  He would not be receiving the commands from an angel to act.  He would be the presence in the temple giving the commands to the angels.  He may have not have been privy to the exact moment that God would execute this action when He was here on earth (Mark 13:32), but He is now glorified and the One who is worthy of carrying out the plan of God for human history.  It would be odd for the Lamb who is in the center of the Throne and in closest communion with God to need an angel to tell him when to swing his sickle and reap the earth.  John has spent a great deal of time and detail building Christ up to this glorious presence on the throne of God, why would he now move him down in status that he would received instructions from an angel messenger from the throne.  Another point is that this scene presents seven angels.  This keeps very well to John’s use of seven in his visions.  If the angel on the cloud is Christ, that would make only six angels in the vision.  I tend to lead toward this being some angel of authority and high rank – depicted by the golden crown and important task that is invoked by a command from the temple throne. This would be the forth angel in the overall series.

 

v. 15-16 – John then sees another angel – the fifth in the series.  This angel comes out from the temple.  The temple symbol is always the direct presence of God.  His loud command is only to the angel sitting on the cloud with the sharp sickle.  John uses time in his Gospel speaking of the hour or appointed time of the cross.  He uses the time here to be the inevitable climax of God’s plan – it is the appointed time – the perfect time – the absolute right time.  The end of the world as we know it is now in motion and the harvest of the earth confirms it.  All indications point to this time.  The earth is “ripe.”  It is the perfect time, the narrow window of opportunity when the harvest is ready.  “He puts the sickle in at exactly the right moment.” (Morris).  The earth is harvested at the right time.  From the proclamation of judgment by the previous angels, we can guess that this harvest is not of the righteous of the earth, but we are not given much to go on at this point.  The command was given to the angel awaiting that command, and he responded as expected.

 

v. 17 – The grape harvest in this section lends itself more to a vision of judgment with the treading of the grapes.  We are introduced to a sixth angel in the series.  It is specifically noted again that he has a sharp sickle.  He has come out from the presence of God as well. 

v. 18 – The final angel, a seventh angel, comes from the altar.  The altar has been previously used to signify the prayers of the saints (6:9) and judgment (8:3-5).  It could be that John sees the judgment of God that is about to be executed as the final answer to the prayers of the suffering saints.  We again know the time is perfect since it is noted that the grapes are ripe.  This angel is in charge of the fire (often associated with judgment).  He commands the sixth angel with the sharp sickle to harvest the grapes of the earth.  We again remember the words of Joel 3:13 regarding the use of a sickle to harvest the earth.  The wickedness of these who have been harvested is so great that it overflows the wine vats and needs to be trampled down to make room.

 

v. 19 – In obedience, the grapes are harvested and put into the great winepress of God’s wrath.  This is a vivid and sure sign of God's judgment of the wicked. 

 

v. 20 – We know that in this time grapes were trampled by foot, but we don’t know in this vision who is doing the trampling.  It’s just not important.  This vision shows the final end of the earth or the inhabitants of the earth.  We know from the symbols of the winepress and the blood that this will be a monumental event in history as all remaining on the earth will be crushed by the wrath of Almighty God in His righteous anger.  We will see more about this later on in Revelation as John gives the details of these events.  

Even though we know that “1,600 stadia” is a distance of about 184 miles, the actual distance is not as important as the meaning of the number itself.  Forty is a number of judgment or punishment in biblical history, and this is the square of that number.  This number stands for the complete judgment or punishment of all of wicked humanity according to God’s perfect plan.  It is finished!