GOD’S HARVEST FEAST
Series: First Fruits, Fresh Spirit
Rev. Todd G. Leupold, Perth Bible Church, Sun. November 9, 2008 AM
INTRODUCTION:
We often think of this time of the year as the “Harvest Season.” In reality, most harvests are long completed, but it is the time we traditionally count and enjoy the proverbial and literal fruits of the harvest! Or, as FoodNetwork host, Alton Brown likes to say, “Good Eats!”
Of course this year, particularly in the midst of an election, we have heard much, much more about all that we don’t have, have lost or may yet lose than all that we do have and continue to acquire and be blessed by. Beginning today and for the following two weeks, we are going to be focusing our sermon time on what it means to recognize, experience, and reap God’s Harvest Feast!!!
Yes, I know there is a lot of talk about us being in a “financial crisis.” I recognize that some have even flippantly harped on this being the toughest economic crisis since the Great Depression. (Those of us who actually lived through that time can easily tell the rest of us how there is absolutely no comparison). Nevertheless, how are we doing as God’s church when it comes not only to reaping the Harvest but in honoring God through it?
Please consider: In a study released within the past year, and before anybody began predicting an “economic crisis,” it was discovered that on average people are giving 2.3% of their income to Christian/charitable causes. By the way, during the Great Depression, that number was 3%!
Another study that was released in 2007 focused specifically on what church members gave to their churches. In the Empy Tomb Inc. study, “The State of Church Giving Through 2004,” it was concluded that in 2004 church members were giving 2.56% of their income, down from 3.11 percent in 1968. (The Washington Times, 4/2/2007)
Brian Kluth, a financial expert, Christian and author reported that at the average church, 30-50% don’t give anything. Without question, we acknowledge and respect that a person or family’s giving is a matter of personal choice and we personally as pastors, trustees, and as a church do not actively require or ’police’ specific levels of giving.
Nevertheless, Our God and Savior through His Word does clearly communicate His intentions and desires in relation to our harvesting and giving and it is my responsibility before Him and the church to communicate these things. How each one of us chooses to respond to this and the results of those responses are each individual’s to make and live with.
PRAYER
In approaching this subject this morning, we will look at the Biblical record concerning the Harvest Feast that God commissioned Israel to honor and then look at how this may apply to us today.
Leviticus 23:15-25; Exodus 23:16,19a; Numbers 28:26-31; Deuteronomy 16:9-12
I.) THE NAMES FOR THE HARVEST FEAST
Both in the Bible and tradition, this festival we just read about has been given various names, all appropriate. To better understand this and to minimize any confusion, let us quickly look at these.
The Harvest Feast: as it accompanies and celebrates the wheat and firstfruits harvest.
The Feast of Wheat: Wheat was the primary grain offering and first one presented.
The Day of FirstFruits: celebrating the first fruits of the main Harvest, but not the same as the Feast of First Fruits celebrated 7 weeks earlier with the barley harvest.
Shavuot: the Hebrew word for “weeks,” referring to God’s designation of the timing of the festival.
The Feast of Weeks: English substitute for Shavuot
Pentecost: A Greek word which literally means “fiftieth day,” again referring to it’s timing in relation to the earlier festival celebrating the barley harvest (which Pastor E. will talk more about next week).
II.) THE PURPOSE OF THE HARVEST FEAST
The Harvest Feast was given by God to the people in order that they appropriately mark the beginning of the summer wheat harvest on an indefinite annual basis.
In the Scriptures we already read, God revealed that appropriately marking this time means specially setting it apart as a Holy Day in honor of the Lord, His goodness, provision, and blessing upon an undeserving people.
It’s tremendous importance is evident by that fact that it was the second of only three pilgrim festivals that the Lord required all adult Jewish males to attend at Jerusalem.
III.) THE WAIT FOR THE HARVEST FEAST
The Harvest Feast was designated to occur on the fiftieth day, or the day after seven weeks had passed since the earlier barley harvest and Feast of First Fruits.
We should all be reminded here of the God-given principle etched into nature and creation itself of the need and value of waiting patiently and faithfully upon the Lord for His provision and blessings.
This principal necessarily includes the further reminder that our best, most necessary and biggest harvests of provision and blessing in life come to us only after a prolonged period of hard work, dependency and faith in God, perseverance amidst circumstances beyond our own control, patience, and a determination and willingness to again work as long and as hard as it takes to reap the harvest while it is at it’s peak and before it begins to sag and decay.
IV.) THE EXPRESSIONS OF THE HARVEST
A.) Presentation Offering (Lev. 23:16-17;Num. 28:26)
After harvesting at least their ’first fruits’ all the Israelites would form caravans and travel to Jerusalem, singing songs of praise to God and rejoicing in His goodness all along the way.
When the holiday worshipers first arrived in Jerusalem, they would proceed to the Temple area, putting their baskets of ’first fruits’ upon their shoulders and carrying them in the Temple Court.
Traditionally, as the pilgrims entered the Court, the Levites would sing Psalm 30:1 (recite together)
“I will exalt You, LORD, because You have lifted me up and have
not allowed my enemies to triumph over me.”
The worshipers, with their offerings on their shoulders, would then recite after the priests Deuteronomy 26:3 (recite together)
“Today I acknowledge to the LORD your God that I have entered the land the LORD swore our fathers to give us.”
(demonstrate with props) The worshipers would then take the baskets off their shoulders and would hold them from the top as the priests held them from underneath. The worshipers and priests, together, would then wave the offering of first fruits before the Lord in a symbolic pattern – forward, backward, up and down . Btw, does this outline remind you of anything? A cross, perhaps?
The people would then recite after the priests another portion of Scripture, Deuteronomy 26:5-10. This passage praises God for their deliverance from slavery in Egypt to a land of abundance and ends with the declaration (recite together): “I have now brought the first of the land’s produce that You, LORD, have given me” and the direction: “You will then place the container before the LORD your God and bow down to Him.”
Because Shavuot was a Sabbath day, the baking of the two loaves to be presented occurred the day before. The procedures of preparation were precise and intentional. Unlike most of the other meal or grain offerings, God instructed that these two loaves be baked with leaven (a biblical symbol for of sin).
On the day of Pentecost, the worshipers would present their specially prepared two loaves of wheat bread before the altar in the same manner as the baskets. In this case, the priests would actually be standing on the altar as they held the loaves from underneath and waved them with the worshipers.
Rather than burn this offering, as was the case with the barley omers in the previous feast, the loaves were then given to the priests for their consumption; a blessing and provision as the Lord’s chosen ministers on His behalf before the people. That is, IF the priests were ritually cleansed. Otherwise, they would be subject to the death penalty.
B.) Worship Offering (Lev. 23:17-18, 21-21, 23-25; Num. 28:27a)
The priests would then sacrifice seven unblemished male lambs a year old, one young bull, and two rams.
These were burnt offerings upon the altar, giving up a vertical column of pleasing aroma to the Lord. Like the loaves, the lambs were offered first and were also waved in the air in the same symbolic gesture before being placed upon the altar.
A worship offering, indicating a sacrificial desire to offer up objects of great value and practical provision to the Lord for the express purpose of bringing Him pleasure in honor.
C.) Sin Offering (Lev. 23:19; Num. 28:27b-31)
Next, one male goat is offered upon the altar as a sin offering.
Why a sin offering at a Harvest Festival?
The sin offering was an essential means of acknowledging before the LORD and one another that none of the provision, goodness, and blessings of the LORD which they have just begun to celebrate are deserved as a result of the people’s individual and corporate sins. It is ONLY through the Lord’s grace and forgiveness that they may come before His presence, have anything to offer anything to Him, or be blessed with an abundance they have been given to keep for themselves!
This, my friends, is the heart of giving!!!
D.) Compassion Offering (Lev. 23:22)
Amidst all the prior details and ritual, do not miss the importance of what is declared in Lev. 23:22.
Having expressed their love and devotion directly to the Lord through their Harvest offerings, the LORD further strongly expresses that they are to purposefully and carefully preserve an additional portion of their harvest for the poor and immigrants as an expression of the first Great Commandment.
E.) Rejoicing (Dt. 16:10-11a)
In the account recorded in Deuteronomy, God specially emphasizes that the offerings of the worshipers are to be freely given and with an attitude of rejoicing!
Further, we are reminded that the concept of a freewill offering is tied to our being free to give beyond just the first fruits (10%) that is defined in proportion to how one has been blessed.
F.) Memorial to Freedom from Bondage (Dt. 16:11b-12)
Finally, God’s people are commended above all, that our rejoicing in the Lord through our giving is for ALL His people regardless of social status and is to be a reminder and celebration that the Lord has graciously delivered us all from bondage to freedom.
In other words, we are to come and rejoice in our offerings before Him because no matter how generous or sacrificial our offerings may seem to us, they pale in comparison to what He has given and secured for us!
V.) THE SPIRITUAL FULFILLMENT OF THE HARVEST FEAST
(Jeremiah 31:31; 1 Corinthians 15:22-23; Acts 2)
Jeremiah 31:31
“’Look, the days are coming,’ - this is the LORD’s declaration – ’when I will make a covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah.”
1 Corinthians 15:22-23
“For just as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward, at His coming, the people of Christ”
Acts 2:1-6
It was on the first Pentecost (Harvest Feast) meaning after Christ’s death and resurrection, that God initiated His new covenant and poured out His Holy Spirit upon His set-apart people!
A Jews-For-Jesus newsletter article titled “From Passover to Pentecost” states:
“The entire spring religious season of Israel, from Passover to Pentecost, speaks of God’s plan to harvest a holy people for Himself. . . The inclusion of the Gentiles completed the symbolism of the wave offering, where the High Priest offered two loaves of fine wheat flour baked with leaven. . . They contained leaven, a symbol of sin. That speaks of the fact that the Church, though refined (cleansed by the blood of Y’shua’s sacrifice), still retains the human sin nature until that day when she will be presented as the Bride of Christ, without spot or wrinkle. Today, Pentecost should speak to us of the sowing of gospel seed and the harvest or ingathering of saved souls – redeemed people to become part of the Body of Christ. God wants such a harvest from every kindred tribe and nation.”
APPLICATION: WHAT DOES THIS MEAN TO US TODAY?
Video: “Tithe_Donuts”
1 Corinthians 16:2
“On the first day of the week, each of you is to set something aside and save to the extent that he prospers . . .”
As evidenced at the first Pentecost after Christ’s resurrection and the history of the Church since, God desires and expects His redeemed people to continue to live out the principles of the Harvest Feast. But, today, we may do so at an even greater level since have redemption in Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit!
As such, we continue to honor and worship Him in acknowledgment of His grace, goodness, provision, salvation and blessing that we do not deserve through providing a regular offering presenting Him a tithe of our income, confession of sin, giving to the needy, rejoicing in our blessings and remembering that it is Jesus alone who delivers us from bondage to freedom!
Paul, inspired by the Holy Spirit, tells us that in the New Covenant we are celebrate these things together on every Sunday.
