follow them.” This refers to manifestation in glory. Compare 2 Thess. i.[1]
Any thing the beast does after this, is not mentioned here; it is the account of God’s dealings as towards the earth; the condition of the saints having been stated in passing. The next step is, therefore, the “harvest of the earth”—the execution of separating judgment in it; which was the actual accomplishment of the announcement of the previous verse—at least as regards its consequences in earth.
- ↑ In the protracted period, this thirteenth verse would refer, I apprehend, to the announcement of that blessedness of the saints, which the harvest, looked at as in Matt. xiii., in its application to them, would accomplish: in the crisis, to their manifestation in this. This distinction is only what we actually find in the interpretation of that parable in Matthew. In the parable the tares are gathered in bundles in the field, and the wheat into the garner: in the explanation, the tares are burned in the field, and the righteous shine forth. This is precisely the difference, and only this I make here. The harvest and vintage are two acts of judgment, the harvest being of much wider scope; and, accordingly, in it there is not clear riddance of the corners of the field as to the wheat. It may distinctively clear and take the wicked, leaving those spared for earthly blessing. The vintage is pure vengeance on a specific object (the ecclesiastical body), which has its character from earth: in the crisis, I apprehend, Jewish. Its grapes are now fully ripe. This vengeance is actual earthly judgment: “blood came out of the wine-press” far and wide: it was an actual and dreadful judgment in the land. All these—all the contents of this chapter—are God’s religious warnings or dealings with the earth.
