A number of biblical passages speak of harvests of salvation. Jesus used this kind of metaphor in John 4:34-38 and Matthew 9:35-38.
Harvest imagery is also used in the Bible in prophecies of eschatological judgment. For example, Joel 3 looks ahead to Israel's restoration in the Day of the Lord and the judgment of nations that have oppressed her. In verse 13 we read, "Put in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe. Go in, tread, for the winepress is full. The vats overflow, for their evil is great." Commentator David A. Hubbard explains, "The wickedness...of the nations is so great that they are as ripe...for judgment as grapes would be for harvest at the peak of their season."
Other passages that use similar imagery for judgment are Isaiah 63:1-6 and Revelation 14:14-20. In his Tyndale Old Testament Commentary on Joel and Amos (1989), Hubbard notes that the passage in Revelation 14 "draws heavily upon this scene in Joel."
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