The Harvest: Revelation 14

Christ commanded us to go work the fields of harvest. This agricultural image brings to mind such tasks as weeding, watering, planting, etc. These jobs are done all summer long. During the hottest part of the year, you must go out into the sun and work . . . outside . . . in the sun.

So our job today is to keep the garden free of weeds:

• Distractions from serving God
• Sin (yes, this means we need specific definitions of sin!)
• Cares of the world

We must do this work in all kinds of conditions:

• Poor health
• Slander and hate tossed at us
• Economic downturns

But at the end, the field is ready for harvest. Notice that the crops are withered and dry at harvest time. Like in late September - you have picked everything you can from the plants. You have kept it free from weeds and pests. You have taken everything you can from the garden. 

This is a different impression of harvest, than I have been taught. When you take in fruit that is ready to be picked, this is not the same as harvest, for you can do this throughout the summer, starting as early as June (if you have berries in your garden). This refers to a time in the mid to late autumn, when all you have is the dry, useless stuff. The only way to make this dry and withered vegetation useful, is to clear it out, burn it up, and use it for compost. 

So today we are to make the fields ready for harvest. The Great Harvest of the ages comes after the church has done everything it can do: all that could be saved are saved; all the sin that could be removed has been removed; all of God's opponents have been vanquished. Christ will have built His Kingdom up, and defeated all of His enemies - now all that is left is to burn up the refuse of the ages.

Put your sickle to work and harvest, because the harvest time has come, the crops of the earth are withered and dry.

The bad news to most people is that the clearest image of opposition to God, of following the Beast and rejecting Christ, has mostly to do with our sexual behavior. So it is that when you see a culture that has become oversexed - that seems obsessed with sex in all of its forms - consider whether or not it is evidence of a battle being waged right here on earth, between the followers of Christ and His enemies.

This is one clear thing that goes all the way back to the Garden of Eden.