Today we’re celebrating Harvest Festival. This year, coronavirus restrictions have resulted in a rather muted celebration. We aren’t meeting at church and we don’t have the usual piles of food to give to the food bank, or a beautiful harvest loaf.
I’m going to take a look at some passages and verses in the Old Testament which give us a picture of how the Israelites celebrated harvest. We certainly don’t get a full picture, but they give us SOME picture of what they did and of what God expected them to do, and they give us a lot of food for thought as to how we might celebrate God’s goodness.
I’ve got three main headings: the example we get in the Old Testament, lessons we can draw from that, and what we can do when we don’t feel like thanking God.
THE EXAMPLE
1) The first passage is Psalm 65:9-13. Here it is on the screen. Look at verses 9-13:
[SLIDE]
“YOU visit the earth and water it;
you greatly enrich it;
the river of God is full of water;
YOU provide their corn,
for so you have prepared it.
YOU water its furrows abundantly,
settling its ridges,
softening it with showers,
and blessing its growth.”
What do you notice? Verses 9, 10 and 11 start with ‘You’ – and ‘You’ clearly means God. God created the world. He specifically gave food for humankind. But God’s work didn’t finish there. This psalm tells us that God is actively at work in the world. Just glance over verses 9 and 10. You, you, you! We really have reason to thank God for the harvest! It’s a gift from God.
Look on to verses 11 and 12a:
[SLIDE]
“You crown the year with your BOUNTY;
your wagon tracks overflow with ABUNDANCE.
The pastures of the wilderness OVERFLOW …”
These three lines end with the words, ‘bounty’, ‘abundance’ and ‘overflow.’ God not only gives; he gives amazingly generously.
Notice the tone of verses 12b and 13:
[SLIDE]
“the hills gird themselves with JOY,
the meadows clothe themselves with flocks,
the valleys deck themselves with corn,
THEY SHOUT AND SING TOGETHER FOR JOY.”
The hills and valleys are full of joy! When we think about harvest, Psalm 65 helps us to recognize God as the giver, and that God blesses and gives abundantly. We can extend the idea of harvest. It doesn’t matter if you’re involved in farming or if you’re in business or you’re a teacher or a church leader. The idea of ‘harvest’ applies equally to every area of legitimate work. God wishes to bless your work and make it fruitful, and when you see fruit, acknowledge God!
Psalm 65 also has a wonderful tone of joy. As Christians we can be joyful! We SHOULD be joyful when we see the results of God’s work! If the meadows and valleys are joyful, WE can be too! If God is blessing and we go around stony-faced then something isn’t quite right.
That’s the only passage I want to look at. Now I'll look at three verses from the Old Testament.
2) Exodus 23:16
[SLIDE]
“You shall keep the FEAST OF HARVEST, of the firstfruits of your labour, of what you sow in the field. You shall keep the FEAST OF INGATHERING at the end of the year, when you gather in from the field the fruit of your labour.”
This is interesting. Did you notice that God commanded the Israelites to have TWO harvest festivals each year? The first festival was when they took in the firstfruits of the harvest. The second was at the end of the season when they had gathered everything in. Most of us probably lean very much towards celebrating when everything is in. Phrases like ‘Don’t count your chickens’ or ‘many a slip twixt cup and lip’ are deeply ingrained. But I really like the idea of celebrating the firstfruits.
In an agricultural context, getting the firstfruit is already a substantial achievement. Take wheat, for example. What has to happen so the farmer sees a few grains of wheat in his field? The farmer has to have a field. He must prepare the soil. He must plant the seed. The seed must germinate. The plant must grow. It must produce a flower. (Wheat is a grass, but it still has a flower!) The flower must be pollinated. Finally, the flower will produce a seed, a grain. Getting that first grain of wheat is a substantial accomplishment and it’s a strong indication that more will follow. It’s something to celebrate and thank God for.
What’s true of wheat is often true in life. It’s certainly true in business. Priscilla [my wife] and I started a company. There was months of work before we could open our doors to our first customer. I still remember her. She was a firstfruit and we celebrated with some champagne.
It’s true in Christian ministry too. This afternoon, we’re having our first service in the church after lockdown. We’ve had a lot of work to prepare for this moment. The firstfruit will be a small service. We don’t know what will come of it, but after the service we should certainly thank God for the firstfruit.
3) Deuteronomy 16:13
[SLIDE]
“You shall keep the Feast of Booths for seven days, when you have gathered in the produce from your threshing floor and your wine press.”
I need to explain that the Israelites had three annual feasts. All three had alternative names.
Passover was also known as the Feast of Unleavened Bread
The Feast of Harvest was also known as the Feast of Weeks, or Pentecost
The Feast of Ingathering was also known as the Feast of Shelters or the Feast of Booths.
It’s a bit confusing. I’m sorry about that, but that’s the way it is.
This verse is talking about the Feast of Booths which is the same as the Feast of Ingathering. That also makes sense when we read the rest of the verse: ‘when you have gathered in the produce.’
What do you notice in this verse? The Israelites were supposed to keep this feast for seven days! Some versions of the Bible translate ‘feast’ as ‘festival’, but the majority go with ‘feast.’ ‘Feast’ isn’t a complicated word. It means a big meal. Does that come as a surprise to you, that God COMMANDED the Israelites to have a feast?! Something we discover about God as we go through the Bible is that he’s very into celebrations that involve food. He’s big on hospitality. He isn’t mean and stingy. The harvest is something to celebrate – so let’s celebrate like we mean it! A seven-day feast?! That’s a shock to the system! Those of you who are watching your weight will be feeling very uncomfortable!
4) Deuteronomy 16:16
[SLIDE]
“Three times a year all your males shall appear before the Lord your God at the place that he will choose: at the Feast of Unleavened Bread, at the Feast of Weeks, and at the Feast of Booths. They shall not appear before the Lord empty-handed.”
What do you notice? The Israelites had three annual feasts at which they were supposed to gather together. Two of those feasts were in connection with harvest. That in itself tells us that celebrating harvest was important. But notice the last line. “They shall not appear before the Lord empty-handed.”
The verses we have looked at don’t actually say that the Israelites should thank God for the harvest. The Old Testament often talks about thanking God so we can assume that this would be part of the celebration. It also seems that making a gift was an aspect of saying ‘thank you’ to God. For example, David says in Psalm 56, ‘I must perform my vows to you, O God; I will render THANK OFFERINGS to you.’
We can say ‘thank you’ to God with words. But there’s clearly the idea in this verse of bringing God a gift an offering – and I assume it’s a ‘thank you’ offering.
LESSONS FOR US
When I look at the way God expected those ancient Israelites to mark harvest, I feel a bit uncomfortable. I don’t think I match up very well.
1) From Psalm 65, there is a connection between God and the food on our tables!
Psalm 65 teaches us that God is actively involved in taking care of the land and providing the good things we enjoy. It’s a theme that’s repeated in many other passages.
2) From the fact that the Israelites had two Harvest Festivals, thanking God is important!
If you had asked me a week ago, ‘What are the important things we should do as Christians?’ I might have said, ‘sharing the gospel’ or ‘making disciples’ or ‘looking after people who are suffering’ and so on. I don’t think I would have said, ‘thanking God’. I certainly would not have said, ‘thanking God for food’.
It seems that thanking God for food isn’t very much on theologians’ minds either. When I was preparing this talk, I had a look through ten or so books on theology to see what they had to say on this subject. They didn’t talk at all about giving God thanks for the harvest. Actually, they hardly mentioned giving thanks to God at all. I also looked at about 15 or 20 sermons that had been preached on Harvest Sunday. You would think that sermons that were preached on Harvest Sunday would pick up the theme of thanking God for the harvest, but hardly a single one did. They went off on subjects like, ‘You reap what you sow’, or talked about gratitude in general.
But as we’ve seen, in the Bible, thanking God FOR THE HARVEST is a really important theme.
3) The start of something is a milestone to mark, just as the end of a thing is.
We can take a further lesson from the fact that God told the Israelites to celebrate harvest twice, once at the beginning and once at the end. Let’s take the concept of harvest more broadly than simply agricultural produce. A business person welcomes his first customer. That’s a start. A newly qualified teacher prepares her students for their GCSEs for the first time, and they get through. That’s a start. A church welcomes the first person to a youth group. It’s a start. These are not the final yield. They are the first fruits. But if we follow the pattern of the Israelites, they’re moments when we can thank God.
4) When there is something to celebrate, celebrate it as if we mean it!
The duration of the second feast is quite a shock. Seven days! We could argue that Christians have replaced this Feast of Ingathering with Christmas, when we recognize God’s greatest gift of all. But I think the point remains. When there is something to celebrate, let’s celebrate it as if we mean it! There’s a time to express joy!
5) Giving is a normal expression of gratitude to God.
We noted giving a gift as a way of acknowledging our gratitude to God.
WHEN WE DON’T FEEL LIKE THANKING GOD
Before we finish, I’d like to think about why we might not feel like thanking God. God sometimes allows things to happen which we did not want to happen, and because of that, we don’t see that God was nonetheless in the situation. In 1 Thessalonians 5:18 Paul tells us to ‘give thanks IN all circumstances.’ ‘IN all circumstances’, does not mean ‘FOR all circumstances.’ Circumstances may be very difficult. But in those difficult circumstances we may still see God at work and find cause to thank God, if we keep our eyes open.
The story of the Pilgrim Fathers illustrates this principle.
In 1620 a group of 102 pilgrims set off for the United States in a ship called The Mayflower. They were Christians who had been persecuted in Europe. The journey took 66 days. For the last month there were constant storms and the boat was seriously damaged. I read the following in Wikipedia:
“…in mid-ocean, the ship came close to being totally disabled and may have had to return to England or risk sinking. A storm had so badly damaged its main beam that even the sailors despaired. BY A STROKE OF LUCK, one of the colonists had a metal jackscrew that he had purchased in Holland to help in the construction of the new settler homes. They used it to secure the beam, which kept it from cracking further, thus maintaining the seaworthiness of the vessel.”
A ‘stroke of luck.’ Hmm.
The pilgrims arrived in Cape Cod November. It was cold, and most of the passengers and crew were ill with scurvy. When they landed there was no one to be seen. The settlers started to explore the area. The settlers didn’t have any seed of their own. They found some Indian graves and discovered that in some of the graves there was corn. They took it. They also found two Indian houses but the Indians had run away. They found some more corn in these houses, and some beans. They took these, intending to pay the Indians back when they met them – which they did.
Another ‘stroke of luck.’ Hmm.
The settlers mostly remained on the ship through the winter, but during that first winter half of them died. In March, the 51 remaining settlers moved ashore. They were very surprised to be greeted by an Indian in English. His name was Samoset. He spoke broken English. His first question was “Do you have any beer?”! A few days later, Samoset returned with another native American, Squanto. Squanto had been taken as a slave, but then had escaped. Squanto helped the settlers a lot. So, in the spring the settlers sowed wheat and barley. Later in the year the settlers were able to bring in a harvest.
Yet aother stroke of luck! Hmm!
Later, the Pilgrim’s governor, William Bradford, called Squanto “a special instrument sent of God for their good, beyond their expectation.”
So, very difficult circumstances, but in those circumstances, God was still watching over them.
Sometime in the autumn of 1621 the settlers got together with a group of Indians to give thanks for the harvest. We don’t know very much about the meal, but we know it included deer and wildfowl and it lasted three days. Many people had died. But God had clearly been with them. They had a harvest. They had survived. So, they gave thanks to God. It’s a great example to us. We WILL go through difficult times. Not ‘may’, ‘will.’ It’s a certainty. But God continues with us in those difficult times. We need to look out for his hand on us and thank him for it. And God's commands to some Israelites long ago are still relevant to how we do it.
Talk given at Rosebery Park Baptist Church, Bournemouth, UK, 27th September 2020
