Agriculture in Revelation 12, 13, and 14
Study:
Noticed the planting that goes on in Revelation 12?
"And the serpent cast out of his mouth water as a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away of the flood. And the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed up the flood which the dragon cast out of his mouth." Revelation 12:15,16
Not only does "seed" ("the flood which the dragon cast out of his mouth") get planted in the ground but we see the seedling or immature growth coming up out of the ground.
"And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon." Revelation 13:11
Recall that we already saw that "coming up" can apply to plant growth! (See "The False Prophet of Revelation, part 2.") Recall, in fact, that symbolically, the land beast is thorns! So, the fact that we see "planting" occurring in Revelation 12, makes perfect logical sense. But there is more!
"And he [the land beast] doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men," Revelation 13:13
What is this fire from heaven?
"...there came ... from heaven ... cloven tongues like as of fire... And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost..." Acts 2:1-4
But according to Peter this fire from heaven is actually rain...
"But this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel; And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams: And on my servants and on my handmaidens I will pour out in those days of my Spirit; and they shall prophesy:" Acts 2:16-18
...for the context of these verses in Joel is a promise of the latter rain.
"Be glad then, ye children of Zion, and rejoice in the Lord your God: for he hath given you the former rain moderately, and he will cause to come down for you the rain, the former rain, and the latter rain in the first month. ... And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions: And also upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those days will I pour out my spirit." Joel 2:23,28,29
Thus Revelation presents the following picture:
(bringing to maturity)
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v
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the earth
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the earth
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vvvvvvvvv
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the earth
But this is not all. A latter rain and its resulting matured plant growth demands a harvest. And where is this harvest?
"And another angel came out of the temple which is in heaven, he also having a sharp sickle. And another angel came out from the altar, which had power over fire; and cried with a loud cry to him that had the sharp sickle, saying, Thrust in thy sharp sickle, and gather the clusters of the vine of the earth; for her grapes are fully ripe. And the angel thrust in his sickle into the earth, and gathered the vine of the earth, and cast it into the great winepress of the wrath of God. And the winepress was trodden without the city, and blood came out of the winepress, even unto the horse bridles, by the space of a thousand and six hundred furlongs." Revelation 14:17-20
A grape harvest? Isn't the plant of Revelation 12 & 13 thorns? Yes. Indeed! How can they bare grapes then?
"...Do men gather grapes of thorns...? ..." Matthew 7:16
Apparently, the answer is yes! But these are no ordinary grapes but, grapes of wrath!
How can we be sure that this agricultural view, of the land beast, is really there? Why is there such a separation between the representation of the fall of the latter rain and that of the grape harvest? To answer both questions we provide the following partial structure.
(via the latter rain) of thorns
(the land beast) (Rev. 12:7-17 & ch. 13)
(the Lamb on Mt. Zion with the 144,000)
(Rev. 14:1-5)
call to the (Investigative) Judgment
(1st angel's message) (Rev. 14:6,7)
(2nd angel's message) (Rev. 14:8)
warning of the Executive Judgment
(3rd angel's message) (Rev. 14:9-13)
(harvest of the good) (Rev. 14:14-16)
(harvest of the wicked) (Rev. 14:17-20)
One last thing! Recall the look of the land beast... a dragon wearing sheep's clothing or more precisely, a lamb's skin! This plant... these thorns... are very much like darnel... which is considered by some to be the tares in Christ's parable of "the wheat and the tares."
"Another parable put he forth unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man which sowed good seed in his field: But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way. But when the blade was sprung up, and brought forth fruit, then appeared the tares also." Matthew 13:24-26
Now here is a description of darnel. Notice it is the "false prophet" of wheat, appearing to be wheat or lamb-like at the first but eventually showing its true wolfish colors.
The Tares (ζιζάνια) are the same as the Arabic zawân, from which the Greek name is derived, the Lolium temulentum, or Bearded Darnel, a grass weed ... of very wide distribution, and abundant in all the countries bordering on the Mediterranean. It is a kind of rye-grass, and is the only species of the grass family the seeds of which are poisonous. The derivation of zawân is from zân, 'vomiting,' the effect of eating darnel being to produce violent nausea, convulsions, and diarrhoea, which frequently ends in death.
The plant, having a broader leaf than most wild grasses, is entirely like wheat until the ear appears. [...]
Tristram, Henry Baker, The natural history of the Bible: being a review of the physical geography, geology and meteorology of the Holy Land; with a description of every animal and plant mentioned in Holy Scripture, 9th ed., London; Brighton: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge; New York: E. & J. B. Young & Co., 1898, pp. 486,487.
Ver. 25. Tares [lit.: darnel]. — The weed growing among wheat, ζιζάνιον, lolium temulentum, darnel. The only species of grass which in Eastern countries springs up wild among oats or wheat (Virg.: "infelix lolium,'' Georg. i. 154). At the first it looks like wheat, but its fruit is black, not yellow, and its effects are intoxicating and otherwise detrimental. [...]
[...] [St. Jerome, who resided long in Palestine, speaks in loc. of the striking similitude between triticum and zizania, wheat, and bastard wheat. Dr. Hackett (Illustrations of Scripture, p. 130) collected some specimens of this deceitful weed, and found, on showing them to friends, that they invariably mistook them for some species of grain, such as wheat or barley. Hence the rabbinical name, bastard (i. e., bastard wheat).— P. S.]
Lange, Johann Peter; Schaff, Philip, tr., A commentary on the Holy Scriptures: critical, doctrinal, and homiletical, with special reference to ministers and students, tr. fr. 3rd Ger. ed., w. ad. orig. & sel., New York: Charles Scribner, 1865, vol. 1 of the New Testament: containing a general introduction, and the Gospel according to Matthew [The Gospel according to Matthew, together with a general theological, and homiletical introduction to the New Testament], p. 244.
To be continued...
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