End Time Insights

Two different harvests occur at the end of the age – The reaping of the grain and the ingathering of the fruit of the vine .  In chapter 14,  Revelation  contrasts two distinct groups: Those who follow the “ Lamb ,” and the men who render homage to the “ Beast ,” the “ inhabitants of the earth .” Two different fates await each group presented here as two harvests: the “ grain ” harvest, and the “ fruit of the vine .” Both occur at the final judgment.

The  Gospel of Mark  divides the story of the barren fig tree into two sections and places the “cleansing” of the Temple between them. The two incidents are closely linked. The fruitlessness of the fig tree and its cursing highlighted the failure and fate of the Temple, and the actions of Jesus foreshadowed its destruction. After his arrival in the city of Jerusalem, he first visited the Temple and “ looked around on all things .”

The fourth trumpet blast causes a partial darkening of the sun, moon, and the stars of heaven over Babylon  - Revelation 8:12.  The darkening of the sun, moon, and stars is based on the ninth Egyptian plague that darkened the land for three days. It also employs imagery from the judicial pronouncement against Pharaoh in the book of  Ezekiel , a judgment carried out by the ancient empire of Babylon. Now, darkness will consume the realm of the “ Great City, Babylon ” - (Ezekiel 32:7-11).

The third trumpet results in a “great star” falling into the sources of freshwater and embittering them  – Revelation 8:10-11.  The third trumpet uses imagery from the first plague of Egypt that polluted the nation’s sources of freshwater. The “ Egyptians could not drink of the water of the river ” because it had turned “ into blood .” In the book of  Revelation , the plague also kills the fish in rivers and streams, and it “ embitters ” a third of the earth’s drinking water.

The second trumpet harms much of the commerce on which human society, the “inhabitants of the earth,” rely  – Revelation 8:8-9.  The second trumpet blast upsets the sea, and thereby disrupts a third of all seaborne commerce. In  Revelation , the “ sea ” is vital to the commerce on which “ Babylon ” depends, and it is the place from which the “ beast ” ascends. This explains why, at the end of the book, no “ sea ” is found in “ New Jerusalem .” In the symbolic world, it is linked to the “ Dragon ” and the “ beast .”