1After these things I looked and saw a door opened in heaven; and the first voice that I heard, like a trumpet speaking with me, was one saying, “Come up here, and I will show you the things which must happen after this.”
2Immediately I was in the Spirit. Behold, there was a throne set in heaven, and one sitting on the throne 3that looked like a jasper stone and a sardius. There was a rainbow around the throne, like an emerald to look at. 4Around the throne were twenty-four thrones. On the thrones were twenty-four elders sitting, dressed in white garments, with crowns of gold on their heads. 5Out of the throne proceed lightnings, sounds, and thunders. There were seven lamps of fire burning before his throne, which are the seven Spirits of God. 6Before the throne was something like a sea of glass, similar to crystal. In the middle of the throne, and around the throne were four living creatures full of eyes before and behind. 7The first creature was like a lion, the second creature like a calf, the third creature had a face like a man, and the fourth was like a flying eagle. 8The four living creatures, each one of them having six wings, are full of eyes around and within. They have no rest day and night, saying, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God, the Almighty, who was and who is and who is to come!”
9When the living creatures give glory, honor, and thanks to him who sits on the throne, to him who lives forever and ever, 10the twenty-four elders fall down before him who sits on the throne and worship him who lives forever and ever, and throw their crowns before the throne, saying, 11“Worthy are you, our Lord and God, the Holy One, to receive the glory, the honor, and the power, for you created all things, and because of your desire they existed and were created!”
The first reaping of the earth was done by an angel looking like a son of man at the instructions of an angel.
Some interpreters view this angel as Jesus. However, Jesus is never called an angel but is distinguished from them. This one is not “the Son of Man,” the title Jesus took for Himself, but “like a son of man.” In other words, this angel looked human. He follows the instructions given by another angel. Though the angel could be carrying a message from the throne of God, it is not likely and does not follow the pattern of the rest of Revelation.
The reference to the angel sitting on a cloud may also allude to the rapture of the church. Paul reveals that the church, when raptured, will be caught up to Jesus “in the clouds” (1 Thess 4:17).
The sickle used by this angel indicates he harvested wheat that was ripe, ready for harvest. Though this harvest could be seen as judgment, it may also be a positive harvest, possibly a picture of the rapture of the church. This would fit with the Parable of the Wheat and Tares (Matt 13:24-30, 36-43). This vision is not chronologically connected to the events in Revelation. It could have happened at any time from chapter 4 through the return of Christ in chapter 19.