Revelation 14:14; The Son of Man with the Sharp Sickle (3)

Revelation 14:14 And I looked, and behold a white cloud, and upon the cloud onesat like unto the Son of man, having on his head a golden crown, and in his hand a sharp sickle. 

The golden crown upon His head is a garland of victory, not His diadem as King. Christ’s full victory is described in detail later, in Revelation 19:11-21, when many crowns will encircle His brow. His royal dignity and rights are suggested by His golden crowns – “as it were crowns of gold” (Revelation 9:7) – but Christ’s crown of gold expresses divine righteousness in victorious action and is no imitation crown. It is divinely conferred on its Wearer, who exercises royal authority.

The sharp sickle in the hand of the heavenly Reaper is symbolic of His rights over the harvest. Mosaic Law commanded that “thou shalt not move a sickly unto thy neighbour’s standing corn.” (Deuteronomy 23:25). Christ’s sickle implies that He will reap the field over which He has authority. The “sharp sickle” indicates that the reaping will be sick and thorough.

It is significant that the national emblem of the Soviet Union is the hammer and sickle, both of which were used with dreadful effect to gather a harvest for the godless creed of Communism. But God will yet use His hammer – His Word (Jeremiah 23:29) – to smash the hordes.

Jeremiah 23:29 Is not my word like as a fire? saith the LORD; and like a hammer that. breaketh the rock in pieces? 

Then His sickle will reap a harvest of judgment.

[Herbert Lockyer, Revelation – Drama of the Ages, Whitaker House, 2012, 227-228]