Next Part 13 The 144,000
Chapter 14 The 144,000 and the Victorious Judgment of the Lamb
The Apocalyptic "Harvest of the Earth" (14:15) will be both a gathering of the Righteous and a separating out of the Wicked. "10 And now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees: therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. 11 I [John the Baptist] indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but He [the LORD Jesus Christ] that cometh after me is mightier than I, Whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire: 12 Whose fan is in His hand, and He will throughly purge His floor, and gather His wheat [the Righteous] into the garner; but He will burn up the chaff [the Wicked] with unquenchable fire" (Matthew 3:10-12). A repeated theme of the Gospels is that the LORD Jesus Christ is the King of Glory (Psalm 24:7, 8, 9, 10) that will sit upon His Throne, making His enemies His "footstool" (110:1). "31 When the Son of Man shall come in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then shall He sit upon the Throne of His glory: 32 And before Him shall be gathered all nations: and He shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth His sheep from the goats" (25:31-32).
Harvest festivals in Old Testament Israel took place in both the spring and fall. Leviticus 23 outlines Seven Feasts that Jehovah declared which Old Testament Israel was to observe. "The feasts are the foreshadowing-- of events that were yet to come. The Seven Feasts of Israel prophetically forecast and outline the main events of Israel's relation to Jehovah" "16 Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days: 17 which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ" (Colossians 2:16-17). The fall feasts yet point to the fulfillment of the Pre-Wrath Rapture (Feast of Trumpets a.k.a. Rosh HaShanah), the Second Coming of Christ (Day of Atonement a.k.a. Yom Kippur), and the Inauguration of the Millennial Reign of the LORD Jesus Christ (Feast of Tabernacles), making the harvest festivals a time of anticipation. "Yea, the stork in the heaven knoweth her Appointed Times; and the turtle and the crane and the swallow observe the time of their coming; but My people know not the judgment of the LORD" (Jeremiah 8:7).
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- "16 And He that sat on the cloud thrust in His sickle on the Earth; and the Earth was reaped."