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Manna
From Messiah
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Pastor Ellen
Mumper, Canada
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Ready for the Harvest
Did you ever study the
close correlation between the harvest festivals of Israel and the agricultural
cycles? Once again it is time that the fall harvest is ready to enjoy. Pumpkins
replace summer produce. Leaves turn to their beautiful reds, oranges and
yellows. Apple picking time is here. Hot cider and pumpkin pies are on the
tables. Here where I am in Canada we are thinking about Thanksgiving. For us it
comes in October about the time of the fall harvest. When we lived in Antigua
in the West Indies there was no change of season to the extent that it is here
but we did have a cycle of rainy season, hot season, hurricane season, etc,
with corresponding crop cycles. We had Harvest Sunday in the churches when
people brought the produce of the land and decorated with it. Gourds and
squashes and tomatoes and peppers were arranged around the platform. Sugar cane
stalks graced the corners. Women baked goods and brought them also to be given out
and shared after the thanks services.
Some folks refer to the holy days mentioned in Leviticus 23 as
:”Jewish feasts” but indeed they are not. They are the festivals of the LORD,
according to Scripture. We have shared before some of the rich meaning that
these days had in portraying the life and work of the Messiah in His first and
second comings. The festivals mentioned in Leviticus 23 were closely aligned
with the agricultural seasons in the land of Israel. Everything in Scripture
has meaning. Sometimes prophecies have a double or triple meaning. Sometimes
there was an immediate fulfillment of a prophecy to be followed later by a
greater fulfillment. The festivals of Israel were meaningful and rich in their
teaching as year after year the children of Israel planted, nurtured, and
harvested their crops. In the festivals they were supposed to be able to
recognize the Messiah when He came. Many did. We hear that the “Jews rejected
Christ.” That is only a partial truth. The early church was Jewish. The Jewish
leadership rejected Him.
There are three holy days given in the Torah relating to the fall
cycle of harvest time. First is Yom Teruah. Yom means day and Teruah means
blowing (of a trumpet or a shofar). Many folks have heard that Jews speak of
this as Rosh HaShanah, the head of the year. We know from Exodus 12 that God
established the month of Passover, Aviv/Nisan, as the first month of the year.
However Exodus 23:16 mentions this interesting passage- “And the feast of
harvest, the firstfruits of your labours, which you have sown in the field and
the feast of ingathering in the end of the year, when you have gathered in your
labours out of the field.” At this festival the shofar is blown. This is why it
is sometimes called the Feast of Trumpets. What does this all mean?
The commandment in
Leviticus 23 orders us to hear the sound of the shofar. “Speak unto the
children of Israel saying, In the seventh month, in the first day of the month,
shall you have a sabbath, a memorial of blowing of trumpets, a holy
convocation.” The harvest of the crops had a greater meaning in the harvest of
people. The shofar called people to do several things, depending on the blast
type. It sounded a battle cry (Numbers 10:9); it summoned the people to gather
as an assembly (Numbers 10:2-4; and it announced the coronation of a new king
as it did for Solomon, for Joash and for Absalom.
Many times in the New Testament Yeshua (Jesus Christ) spoke of
harvest. In Matthew 9:37 He says “the harvest is plentiful but the labourers
are few” and pleads that we ask the Father to send labourers into HIS harvest.
Many times Yeshua used this as an object lesson. In Matthew 13 He speaks of the
harvest at the end of the world with the reapers being the angels. Just what is
this harvest of people? We know from 1 Corinthians 15 and I Thessalonians 4
that He is coming back to gather His people to Himself “with the voice of the
archangel and the trump of God.” Those that are left behind, that do not know
Him, will be left out of that great gathering.
Yom Teruah is followed by Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. This
is a time of judgment and is a very serious fast, not a feast. Between the two
holidays, Yom Teruah and Yom Kippur are 10 days known as the Days of Awe. This
is a time of serious introspection getting ready for judgment. There is not
time in this article to discuss all the rich meaning of the festivals, however
Yom Kippur in the future will see the judgment and then restoration of Israel.
This serious holy day is followed 5 days later by the Feast of Tabernacles,
Sukkot. This marks the time when Yeshua will come down to reign on earth from
Jerusalem. It is a time of peace, restoration, joy, harmony and the presence of
GOD with us.
All that is to say this. We are NOT ready for the harvest to come.
We are NOT ready for Yeshua's second coming. There are parts to the harvest.
Those of us who are HIS will be gathered together with Him forever one day
soon. Look around you. How many of those around you will be there with you?
Your neighbours, your loved ones, your co-workers- how many know the LORD and
will be there when the shofar sounds? How many have I warned? How many have you
warned? We are not responsible for getting men saved. Only GOD can do that. We
ARE responsible to sow. We ARE responsible to go out into the harvest and
gather.
