Revelation 14:15

And another angel came out from the temple, crying with a great voice to him that sat on the cloud, Send forth thy sickle, and reap: for the hour to reap is come; for the harvest of the earth is ripe.

Send forth thy sickle and reap ... The astonishing thing about this is that the command to reap appears to come from an angel of far lesser rank than the Christ on the white cloud. Rist, however, gave a very excellent explanation of this:

It seems strange that the angel would give orders to the heavenly Christ to begin his work ... of harvest, until we realize that he (the angel) is merely a messenger bringing the command from God himself who is in his temple. This is quite in harmony with Matthew 24:36, that no one, not even the angels, nor the Son, knows the day or the hour of the end, save the Father himself.[75]

Send forth thy sickle and reap ... This sickle is Christ's. The judgment is in his hands. The figure of the harvest for the end of the world is a frequent New Testament metaphor, as in Matthew 13:30. The fact of the harvest here being particularly of the redeemed is in harmony with the imagery of Matthew 13:11,12. Yes, the wicked are mentioned there also, but not under the figure of "the wheat." The wicked are "the chaff," or "the tares."