Today is our Harvest Thanksgiving service. It’s a time to thank God for the harvest. But what exactly are we thanking God for?
I want to do two things today. The first thing is to encourage us to see harvest as something bigger than what the combine harvester picks up. The second thing is to encourage us to see just how much God is involved in our harvest.
HARVEST IS BIGGER
We traditionally think of harvest as being about food. But I believe we should expand the concept and think of harvest as any products that come from the work of our hands.
Let’s go back three or more thousand years. Led by Moses, the people of Israel left Egypt where they had been slaves and travelled to Canaan. Somewhere in the desert along the way, God commanded the Israelites to hold two feasts in connection with harvest. He said,
‘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’ [Exodus 23:16].
Notice what God said through Moses. ‘You shall keep the Feast of Harvest, OF THE FIRSTFRUITS OF YOUR LABOUR, OF WHAT YOU SOW IN THE FIELD.’ Three thousand years ago, work meant agriculture. The firstfruits of the people’s labour was synonymous with what they sowed in the field.
In Jesus’ time, many people still worked in food production. Jesus told parables about the sower, the vineyard, the shepherd. Four of his disciples were fishermen.
But today very few of us are involved in agriculture or food production. Agriculture makes up less than 1% of the UK economy. Today we work in supermarkets, in hospitals, in schools, in sales and marketing, in restaurants and so on. Most people in the UK work in the service sector. We don’t produce food. In fact, most of us don’t produce anything tangible at all! Does that mean that harvest festival only applies to 1% of what we do? Shouldn’t we see God’s hand in the other 99% of what we do?
For most of us, the fruit of our labour is not what we sow in the field. If we only thank God for what we sow in the field, it won’t take long! We need to expand our idea of harvest and see the fruit of our labour as children we’ve taught, customers we’ve served, grandchildren we’ve looked after. As our labour in these areas produces fruit, we thank God.
HOW MUCH GOD IS INVOLVED IN OUR HARVEST
The second point is to see how much God is involved in our harvest.
I’m going to take food as the example. But please remember that we are trying to expand our view of harvest. What has God to do with the food on our tables? Why should we thank him?
First, God created the plants we eat – and also the animals, assuming we’re not vegetarian. We know that. It’s in Genesis 1. This is straightforward.
Second, God assigned certain plants to humankind to eat. Let’s look at this. God tells the people he has created:
‘Behold, I HAVE GIVEN YOU every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food’ [Genesis 1:29].
Imagine there’s a great restaurant round the corner. It has a range of delicious food on its menu. We’re happy to have such a great restaurant on our doorstep. But the situation with God is much better. God has created a world full of great things to eat – just like the restaurant. But where God is much better than the restaurant is that he selected some food – food he knows that’s just right for us – and he’s GIVEN it to us. God looked out for humankind from the moment he created us.
Third, God is still at work now. He didn’t stop working in the natural world when he’d finished creating. We can see this in something Jesus said. He said that God ‘makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust’ [Matthew 5:45]. When God created the world there were no evil or unjust people in it. So, if God sends rain on the just and on the unjust then he’s doing that AFTER his work of creation. It means that he’s working in the natural world now – and clearly, working to bless.
There are several other passages which tell us this. Psalm 104:10 says, ‘You make springs gush forth in the valleys; they flow between the hills…’ Psalm 65:9 says ‘You visit the earth and water it; you greatly enrich it’.
God didn’t just create the world and then set it on auto-pilot. God continues to care for the created world, to provide for it.
Let’s recap. First, we thank God that he CREATED the plants and crops that make up most of our diet. We thank God that he GAVE various plants and crops to humankind. We thank God that he continues to CARE for this wonderful world, so that it can flourish. So we have three reasons to praise and thank God for the harvest.
But there’s another reason to thank God. Let’s look at Deuteronomy 28:1-12. I’ll read just the first and last verses of this passage. Moses is speaking, giving the Israelites God’s instruction. Here’s verse 1:
‘And IF YOU FAITHFULLY OBEY the voice of the Lord your God, being careful to do all his commandments that I command you today…’
There’s an ‘if.’ There’s a condition. God’s people must faithfully obey. What will happen if they do? Let’s go now to verse 12:
‘… the Lord will open to you his good treasury, the heavens, to give the rain to your land in its season and to bless all the work of your hands.’
If God’s people faithfully obey, ‘… the Lord will open to you.’ God’s people will experience blessing. The blessing isn’t the result of the farmers’ good farming. It’s a direct gift from God.
One of Jesus’ parables makes the idea clearer. The parable goes as follows. A nobleman goes away to a far country to be given a kingdom. Before leaving, he calls ten of his servants. He gives them ten minas and tells them to do something useful with them. After some time, the nobleman comes back, calls his servants and asks how they got on. The first has turned his one mina into ten. Great! The master then tells him, ‘Well done, good servant! Because you have been faithful in a very little, you shall have authority over ten cities.’
The servant has worked hard. As a result of his hard work, the one mina has become ten. But what happens then? The master judges that the servant has been faithful – and gives him authority over ten cities! This isn’t a direct result of the servant’s hard work. It’s the master’s gift, because he has been faithful.
This is the kind of situation Moses is talking about when he tells the people of Israel that if they faithfully obey God, ‘… the Lord will open to you his good treasury.’ The rain they will get won’t be the result of their skill. It will be God’s gift, because the people have faithfully obeyed.
A while back I read a book by an American called Ellen Davis titled ‘Scripture, Culture, and Agriculture.’ Davis wrote this:
‘Overall, from a biblical perspective, the sustained fertility and habitability of the earth, or more particularly of the land of Israel, is the best index of the health of the covenant relationship. When humanity, or the people Israel, is disobedient, thorns and briars abound; rain is withheld; the land languishes and mourns. Conversely, the most extravagant poetic images of loveliness – in the Prophets, the Psalms, and the Song of Songs – all show a land lush with growth, TOGETHER WITH A PEOPLE LIVING IN RIGHTEOUSNESS AND FULL INTIMACY WITH GOD.’
Davis writes that the state of the land is the best index of the health of the covenant relationship. It’s the best indicator of where humankind stands in relation to God. If people are disobedient to God, the land languishes. If people are faithful and obedient, the land flourishes. (We may note in passing that Planet Earth isn’t flourishing at the moment. What does that tell us?)
There are complications in this. Righteous people sometimes have a hard time. Wicked people sometimes seem to prosper. Scripture knows that. But this is the broad picture the Bible gives us.
So, thinking of agriculture, God CREATED the foods we eat. He GAVE them to us. He continues to CARE for this wonderful world. And he specially BLESSES his people who faithfully obey.
But we’re trying to expand our concept of harvest, to think more widely than agriculture.
In many cases, we can apply these ideas to the areas we are working in.
Suppose we are a mother or father. We can thank God that he CREATED our children. We can thank him that he has GIVEN them into our care. We can thank him that HE CARES for them. We may see that God is BLESSING our efforts as we help our children to develop and grow. We should thank him for that too.
Perhaps we work in a school and feel that God called us to work there. We can thank God that he GIVEN that work to us. We may see God that God CARES for the school, that he is engaged in the life of school, that he is working to address problem areas. We can thank God for that. We may see God’s special blessing on the work of our hands. If that's the case, it’s cause to thank God.
I'd like to conclude our time by setting aside a moment to say a silent prayer. Let’s thank God in our hearts for the physical harvest – for barley and wheat, apples and honey. Let’s thank God for creating food, for giving it to us, and for caring for the world. But let's also take the concept of harvest further. What is the work of our hands? What fruit are we seeing? What showers of special blessing are we enjoying? Let’s say thank you to God for those too.
Talk given at Rosebery Park Baptist Church, Bournemouth, UK, 2nd October 2022, 10.30 a.m. service.
