A third angel came out from the altar saying to the angel that had the sickle: Thrust in thy sharp sickle and gather the clusters of the vine of the earth; for her grapes are fully ripe--14:18. This angel from the altar undoubtedly signified the answer to the cry of the martyrs under the altar of Chapter 6:9-10: “ How long, 0 Lord, how long, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?” The Lord replied that “ they should rest (wait) yet for a little season, until their fellow-servants also and their brethren, that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled.” Now, the vision of these angels in chapter 14, sees the role of the martyrs in the visions completed and finished. The angel from the altar was seen answering the souls under the altar (chapter 6:9-10), and he made an announcement to the angel with the sickle that time had come to avenge the martyrs. With these signals the Son of man reaped the earth of its harvest of grain, and his ministering angel gathered the vintage of grapes. Here was a double vision: the harvesting of grain and the gathering of vintage. With the double vision there was the double instrument of reaping and pruning. It signified reward and retribution. The harvest of grain represented the gathering of the faithful saints, and the vintage of grapes the crushing of their wicked oppressors. The symbols are comparable to the Lord’ s illustration of the wheat and the chaff, to the extent of the imagery of reward and retribution.