Mary Fairchild
The following is based on the phonetic writing of the expository teaching tapes of Pastor Jim Mooberry.
The Bible has a lot to say about “harvest” as a figure of speech. It is a central theme in the Bible. Galatians 6:7, 9, for example, speaks to us personally as believers in Christ about a harvest that we are preparing, “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked, for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh shall from the flesh reap corruption; but the one who sows to the Spirit shall from the Spirit reap eternal life. And let us not lose heart in doing good for in due time we shall reap if we do not grow weary.” This is an immutable law that operates in every sphere of life; it’s the law of the harvest. The Bible tells us that if we sow to the flesh we’re going to harvest corruption. If we sow to the spirit we’ll harvest eternal life. Even the pagans observe the reality of this law because the Greek’s had a God named Nemesis. This was the god who pursued the one who did wrong until he caught him and repaid him.
The Bible says that each person is deciding what his harvest is going to be. This is important not only to us individually, but to our nation as well. We have seen how our nation has turned and instead of sowing towards the Spiritual, instead of sowing towards the good, we have made a turn towards sowing towards the evil. It all began with the rejection of the truth of God and since we have rejected the objected truth of God our country finds itself in a state of great confusion and great error today. Legalizing abortion, for example, we have reaped the benefit of devaluing life, of hardening of the hearts of people towards the unborn and also just towards all life in general.
The fact that we have promoted immorality, we have harvested violence and disease and abuse and broken homes. As an individual we each live under the law of this harvest and the harvest you are going to have you are now preparing. Physically, for example, if you trash your body, by drinking, by drugs, by even not getting enough sleep you are going to reap a shorter life. Spiritually this law is true, most importantly, you are determining your own harvest and your spiritual vitality right now and your reward in heaven is being determined by what you are sowing to now. God says don’t be deceived. Whether you are actually reading your Bible, or involved in prayer, giving to the ministry of God, to witnessing, to sharing with others, and your parenting, and your marriages, what ever you are sowing to that is what you are going to reap. The law of the harvest is active in every sphere of our personal lives.
Another harvest that is a major theme of the Scriptures is the harvest from God’s viewpoint. We are a part of that harvest whether for good or for evil. This is the last of the visions in the parenthesis and it is the vision of the harvest of the earth. From the conclusion of chapter 14 we are going to move into the final judgments of God on earth. These verses envision this long predicted harvest of God. The grain harvest is the separation of good from the evil. The first reaper in verse 14, his identity is debated a little, it could be that he is an angel, we are in the context of six other angels in these verses, he could be the seventh. Verse 17 says that another angel with another cycle came out seeming to indicate that the first one was an angel. Some identify the first reaper as Jesus Christ himself because it says there that this one is an appearance as one like a son of man. Chapter 1:13 in the vision of Jesus Christ standing in the midst of the candlesticks in the midst of the churches that John saw, it says that John turned and he saw one like a son of man. Same phrase and this was the favorite title of the Lord on the earth. He used to always love to call himself the Son of Man in identifying with you and I. The only problem is that in verse 15 he is commanded by an angel to reap and that would be the only time an angel has ever commanded the Lord to do anything. The command to reap is in verse 15. He says there that the harvest of the earth is ripe. The word “ripe” means dried and that was applied to the grain harvest. That is why this particular harvest is referring to the grain harvest. That gives us the clue to its interpretation. There really isn’t a lot said here about this, but a lot is said in other passages. Like in so many other places, the Bible interprets itself.
In Matthew 13, in this chapter we find seven parables. These parables portray the nature and the progress of this present age with regard to the kingdom of God, with regard to the Church. For example, the parable of tares tells us about the introduction of false disciples alongside of the true disciples in this age. We are told by the Lord that we should not be surprised that false disciples will sometimes sit in the pews right next to us as true disciples. This is the work of the enemy. In verses 31 and 32 the parable of the mustard seed tells us that although the kingdom of God would start small in the preaching of the Gospel, it would grow until it would fill the earth, which in fact it does to this day and it also tells us that it would be a place where the birds would nest. In the parable of the sower you will find that the birds represent satanic spirits. So the church has been infiltrated by the spirit of the devil as well in our age.
The third one is the parable of the leaven in verse 33 is a parable concerning the introduction of false doctrine into the church and how the leaven of false doctrine actually leavens the whole lump. As we come to the end of the age and when the Church is removed all that will be left is leaven. The Lord in these parables is teaching us about the progress of our age and about the progress and the nature of the Church.
The parable of the tares is the one that will help us interpret Revelation 14. The parable of the tares is so significant that He is going to give us an interpretation Himself. What is normative for the Church is involved in this parable and that is the very first parable, the parable of the sower of the seed and the different types of ground it is found on. The parable of the sower; when anyone hears the story of the kingdom and does not understand it the evil one comes and snatches it away (represented by a bird) from what has been sown in his heart, this is the one whom the seed was sown beside the road. The one on whom the seed was sown on the rocky places, this is the man who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy, yet he has no root in himself but is only temporary. When affliction or persecution arises because of the word immediately he falls away. The one on whom the seed was sown upon the thorns is the man who hears the word and the worry of the world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word and he becomes unfruitful.
The one on whom the seed was sown on the good ground is the one who hears the word and understands it. He who indeed bears fruit; the believer, the one whose ground is cultivated by God, who accepts the Word of God. Our business today is to sow the seed; that’s the business of the Church. We are not first and foremost a social change agency. We are not first and foremost an agency just of philosophy. We are a sowing agency sowing the Word of God. We don’t worry about the results, Jesus will harvest it at the end of the age. We need to not be so concerned to get someone to raise their hand or come foreword to receive Christ or to sign a card of conversion…. These things are only the outward, our concern is primarily to sow the seed. We need to make sure that they receive the Word of God and the Spirit of God will take care of the results. That’s the message of that parable.
In the parable of the tares, Jesus gives the interpretation in verses 36-43 and this is where it ties in with the book of Revelation. The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man and this field is the world and as for the good seed, these are the sons of the kingdom, and the tares are the sons of the evil one, and the enemy who sowed them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age and the reapers are the angels. Therefore, just as the tares are gathered up and burned with fire, so it shall be at the end of the age. the Son of Man will send forth the angels and they will gather out of his kingdom all of the stumbling blocks, those who commit lawlessness, and will cast them into the furnace of fire. In that place there shall be weeping and mashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father, he who has ears let him hear. This is primarily at the end of the tribulation and just before the inauguration of the millennial kingdom. Two other passages that explain this more in detail are Matthew 25: 31- Where the Lord says when He returns He is going to gather all of the people on the earth that have survived the tribulation and He is going to set some on the right and some on the left and the ones that are on the left are the ones that are destined for destruction, the ones who have done the evil. The ones on the right are the ones who are going to be welcomed into the kingdom as it begins.
Another parable is the parable of the dragnet. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a dragnet cast into the sea and gathering fish. When it was filled they drew it up on the beach and they sat down and gathered the good fish in containers but the bad they threw away. So it will be at the end of the age, the angels will come forth and take out the wicked from among the righteous and will cast them into the furnace of fire and there will be weeping and mashing of teeth. That is the harvest of the wheat at the end of the age and the tares.
How is the rapture going to be explained? One interpretation as to what the devil will use as an interpretation of these passages is found in researching New Age leaders like Barbara Marx Hubbard. She is an executive director of the World Future Society, a former member of the Presidential Committee on National Curriculum, and a democratic party nominee for the vice presidency of the United States in 1984…. claims that one day there will be a world healing day and it will trigger a planetary Pentecost that would bring about ‘a mass transfiguration,’ an empowerment of millions at once. A second coming through the lifting of our consciousness, transforming ourselves as Christ transformed Himself, such events are now being prepared. The code words of empowerment and transformation are New Age words that mean coming into enlightenment or the occult understanding of things. She is saying, and many others are saying, that there is going to be coming a day called the quantum leap where this world is going to evolve spiritually in a quantum leap and those who are left on earth are going to move into a new age, a spiritual age, and become homouniversalis. Another New Age leader writes that this quantum leap will come to the peoples of the earth together in on instant of time. This is the great instant of cooperation with god. John Randolf Price and other New Age leaders who are preparing for the quantum leap say that the only thing that could stop this evolution of heaven on earth would be if there were ‘massive and dedicated counter forces to offset the benefits of the worldwide collective unified effort.’ The only ones capable of doing this, according to Barbara Max Hubbard, are those who are sticking to a worn out divisive theology which believes it has the only truth. Can you imagine who that might be? You and I; of course it is a clear reference to Bible believing Christians.
Nevertheless they are not concerned about opposition to this great revelation of human unity, divinity, the ensuing quantum leap, because they have been told by their spirit guides, that when the moment of transformation arrives, all opposition will be eliminated. Almost predictably, the way in which these spirit guides claim this will be done sounds exactly like a Biblical description of the rapture. Marx Hubbard, in her commentary on the book of Revelation 14 attributes these words to the spirit guides who she maintains co-authored the commentary with her. Humanity will not be able to make the transition from earth only life to universal life until the chaff has been separated from the wheat. You see how they turn it the exact opposite…. The great reaper must reap before we can take the quantum leap to the next phase of evolution. Evolution is good but it is not nice, only the good can evolve. Only the godsend will survive to inherit the powers of the universal species. This act is as horrible as killing a cancer cell but it must be done for the sake of the future whole world. So be it. Be prepared for the selection process, which is now beginning. Then she refers to a verse that says that the stumbling blocks and those who commit lawlessness will be gathered up and cast off. The rapture is going to be explained by them as the moment of this quantum leap and those who were not prepared for it or were not worthy of it were gone.
There is no question that there will be a mass disappearance of a group of people from this planet at the same time as the antichrist rises to power. Actually, a quantum leap is a pretty good description of the jump that we will be taking. It is the rapture of believers in Jesus Christ, however as we can see here the foundation is being laid for a lie that will convince the world that it is the bad people who have been taken because they stood in the way of unity and spiritual development that was finally leading mankind in the next stage of evolution. From that point on the world is prepared for the lying wonders that will follow. The devil is preparing to turn this around so that when we disappear it will be said it was because we were not worthy for the quantum leap into spiritual existence.
The parable of the tares is at the end of the tribulation period; Revelation 14-16. The grape harvest is the next harvest; the slaying of the invaders of Israel. This reaping is directed at a specific field; the armies of the beast and the nations who attack Israel. The fulfillment of the prophecies, from way back to Moses, are fulfilled in this harvest. The second reaper; this angel has the power over fire. We saw back in chapter 8 the angel at the altar in the temple, the brazen altar, which was the judgment where the fire burned the sacrifices, it speaks of judgment. This angle comes forth with a command to execute God’s judgment; the grapes are ripe—fully developed and ready for judgment. All of the grapes that are gathered are pressed into the winepress. There is no separation here. The wine presses of those days were normally a trough that servants got in and tramped with their barefoot on the grapes and the juice channeled down into the collection pool. This became a symbol in the Old Testament in many occasions of the execution of the wrath of God. We’re also told of the location of this event. It is outside of the city; that must be Jerusalem. Then is says that it will continue for a distance of a two hundred miles. That’s the approximate length of Palestine from Dan down to Bersheba. Jerusalem is ground zero for the judgment. This great war that is going to judged by God is going to be throughout the whole land of Palestine.
The blood being splattered to the height of the horses bridle is just a figure of speech saying that the bloodshed is just going to be intense, profound. There are two passages in the Old Testament that will interpret this for us. Zechariah 14 and Joel 3, both among the Minor Prophets, the last twelve Prophets of the Old Testament. In Zechariah 14:1,2 he speaks of time toward the end of the age that will be the last part of the last three and an half years when all of the armies of the nations will be drawn into the Middle East, into Palestine. Revelation 16:12 has reference to this as well; the famous reference to the War of Armageddon.
WORKS CITED
- Revelation and Church History
- Church Age
- “THE REAPING OF THE EARTH,” Revelation 14:14-20, #JMREV27; The Faithful Word. Pastor Jim Mooberry.
- Old Testament Study
- Receiving Jesus
- Heartland Baptist, Bellevue, Nebraska
- Broken Bow Berean Church, Broken Bow, Nebraska