2. The Son of man employs the ministry of angels to execute his will. One angel came out of the temple and signaled to the One on the cloud to thrust in thy sickle and reap. This was not an order from a superior voice, but the signal for the reaping to begin. It was significant that this angel came out of the temple--symbolizing the sanctuary that had been the object of destruction and desecration in the war against the Jews, which resulted in the fall of Jerusalem. The voice of the angel proclaimed: the time is come for thee to reap; for the harvest of the earth is ripe. (Verse 15) This angelic pronouncement signified that the events had approached the end--not the end of time but the end of Jerusalem, of the Jewish state, and of Judaism--and this doom was signified in the declaration: And the earth was reaped--14:16.