Today is our harvest festival. It’s the time of year when we formally thank God for the harvest.
I’d like to tell you a couple of little stories as a lead in to the subject of thanking God.
The first story is about Christmas when I was a child. A pile of presents would build up under the Christmas tree. I and my brothers would poke around, wondering what they were. Then, the big day! We’d go to church on Christmas morning and after we got home, we’d open the presents. And very soon after that, my dad would make sure that I and my brothers wrote thank you letters. What a pain! But my dad knew that it was important to say thank you.
In a similar way, we MUST thank God. It’s the right thing to do.
The second story is about Daniel [our son]. I remember that when Daniel was quite young, I gave him a Star Wars video game. At first, he was afraid of it. But it wasn’t long before he was really enjoying it.
In a similar way, we have to grasp what a gift is to appreciate it. When God created the world, Genesis tells us repeatedly, ‘And God saw that it was good.’ God didn’t just ‘see’ the universe he’d created. He saw with his comprehension. He grasped that it was good.
I hope those illustrations help us to understand what we’re doing at harvest festival. We formally say thank you to God. And we reflect on God’s gifts to us. We try to see them for what they are, see that they’re good.
The Bible gives us lots to think about in connection with celebrating harvest. It suggests answers to why, what, when and how. It would be interesting to look at what the Bible says about all of those questions. But we don’t have unlimited time so I’m going to focus on the why question. I’ll offer a few brief thoughts on the other questions. And then, we’ll take a look at what David thought of God’s provision.
WHY?
Why should we thank God for the harvest?
We might think, ‘Food grows by itself. A farmer harvests it. He sells it to Kellogg’s. They turn it into cornflakes. They sell it to Tesco. We buy it. Why should we thank God for it?’
There are three big reasons. First, God is the giver. Second, God desires that we acknowledge him. Third, God commands us to observe a harvest festival.
Is God the giver? The Bible doesn’t deny that there is a process of food production and distribution. But the Bible tells us that God created the world and assigned various plants and trees for food. That the world and everything it produces belong to God. That God cares for the land. That God sends rain and sunshine.
God doesn’t drive the combine harvester. But God is the ultimate provider of the food we eat. It’s because of God that we have food on our tables.
Let me go on to the second point. If I was to ask you, ‘What does God desire?’ what would you say? God once told the prophet Hosea the answer to that question. He told Hosea: ‘For I desire mercy, not sacrifice, AND ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF GOD RATHER THAN BURNT OFFERINGS’ [Hosea 6:6].
God told Hosea that he desired two things. One of them was ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF GOD. Acknowledging God is REALLY important! Lots of good things come to us when we acknowledge God, but I don’t want to talk about them now. The main thing is that we understand that God really wants us to acknowledge him. We can’t treat God as though he doesn’t exist and doesn’t have anything to do with us. Thanking God comes under the heading of acknowledging God.
Let’s go on to the third point. God COMMANDS us to observe a harvest festival.
Normal courtesy requires that we thank people who give us a gift and normal courtesy requires that we thank God for the harvest.
But thanking God for the harvest isn’t just a matter of courtesy. God COMMANDED the ancient Israelites to observe a festival for the harvest.
Perhaps 3,300 years ago, the Israelites were slaves in Egypt. God sent Moses to free them. The Israelites left Egypt on their way to Canaan. Somewhere along the way, God told them this:
‘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].
God said, ‘You SHALL keep the Feast of Harvest.’ ‘Shall’ is an imperative. It’s a command. God didn’t say, ‘Keep the Feast of Harvest IF YOU CAN.’ Or, ‘Keep the Feast of Harvest IF YOU FEEL LIKE IT.’ God gave those ancient Israelites a command. ‘YOU SHALL.’
But does God’s command to those Israelites 3,300 years ago apply to us today? It’s true that some commands in the Old Testament don’t apply now, for example, commands about clean and unclean food. But I believe that God’s command about the harvest still applies now. God provides us with food today just as he provided food for the Israelites 3,300 years ago. The situation hasn’t changed. If it was right for the Israelites to have a feast of harvest then it’s right for us to. God doesn’t change his mind.
Let me recap. Why should we thank God for the harvest? I gave three strong reasons. First, God is the giver. Second, God desires that we acknowledge him. Third, God COMMANDS us to observe a harvest festival.
That is the main thing I want to say in today’s talk. I don’t think it’s all that important HOW we thank God for the harvest. But it’s VERY important that we do.
I want to look at our three other questions quite quickly.
WHAT?
What should we thank God for?
We should thank God for food on our plates. But we should thank God for ALL the fruit of our labour. Agriculture makes up less than 1% of the UK economy. If we only thank God for the fruit of what we sow we won’t thank God for 99% of the fruit of our labour. We need to take a broader view.
A teacher can thank God for the fruit of his labour: the progress the children are making.
A business owner can thank God for the fruit of her labour: the value the business has added.
A father and mother can thank God for the fruit of their labour: the secure home they have created.
So, in answer to ‘What?’ we should thank God for ALL the fruit of our labour, not just the food on our tables. But we should thank God for that too.
WHEN?
We should have one special occasion a year to formally thank God. That’s what today is. It’s like a formal Christmas thank you letter.
We could thank God twice a year. God commanded the Israelites to have TWO harvest festivals each year! The Feast of Harvest and the Feast of Ingathering.
We should thank God multiple times a year. Every time we pass a significant milestone, we should thank God. Priscilla [my wife] and I lived in Azerbaijan for many years. While we were there, we started a company. It took months of work before we could open our doors to our first customer. Getting our first customer was a milestone. We celebrated with some champagne. I hope we said thank you to God too but I don’t remember if we did!
We should thank God daily. For example, we should thank God before we eat our dinner. It looks as though that was Jesus’ practice – and if it was Jesus’ practice, it’s probably a good idea. Let’s acknowledge God more, rather than less.
HOW?
We’ve seen that one of the reasons to have a harvest festival is to acknowledge God.
About seven years ago, a new translation of the New Testament called the Passion Translation was published. Some people have been very critical of it. In the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus teaches his disciples to pray, ‘Give us this day our daily bread’ [Matthew 6:11]. The Passion Translation has something quite different. It has ‘We acknowledge you as our Provider of all we need each day.’
I suspect that this isn’t a good translation! But the idea it’s expressing is true. Harvest festival is a time when we acknowledge God as the giver of all we need.
If we can acknowledge God publicly, all the better. We’ll go down to Boscombe Pier this afternoon to do that. [We have an open-air service planned.]
If we can give a gift, that’s appropriate too. The Bible seems to expect that. Some people have brought some food items to this service and we’ll give them to the Food Bank later.
But we mustn’t miss a big and obvious point. God told the Israelites, ‘You shall keep THE FEAST of harvest … You shall keep THE FEAST of ingathering.’ A ‘feast’ is a big meal. God wanted the ancient Israelites to celebrate around a big meal! Harvest is reason for joy! We don’t have a feast at harvest festival at Rosebery Park – and I think we should! Maybe next year.
Let’s turn now to David and see what we can learn from him.
LEARNING FROM DAVID
I know of three psalms in which David reflected on the created world. In Psalm 139, David reflected on how wonderfully he is made. In Psalm 8, David reflected on non-human nature. He writes, ‘When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him?’ [Psalm 8:3-4]. But it’s Psalm 65 where David thought about the produce of the land. He wrote:
‘YOU (that is, God) 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’ [Psalm 83:9-10].
In these verses, David repeatedly wrote ‘you’. ‘You visit’ … ‘you enrich’ … ‘you provide’ … ‘you have prepared’ … ‘you water.’ David believed that God was still at work in the world. God didn’t just create the world and then put it on auto-pilot. God is the giver.
Let’s go to the next two verses:
‘You crown the year with your BOUNTY;
your wagon tracks overflow with ABUNDANCE.
The pastures of the wilderness OVERFLOW’ [Psalm 83:11-12a].
David used the words BOUNTY, ABUNDANCE and OVERFLOW. David didn’t just see God as the giver. David saw God as the SUPER-GENEROUS giver.
Now, let’s go on to the end of the psalm:
‘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’ [Psalm 83:12b-13].
The hills, meadows and valleys are shouting and singing for joy. They’re experiencing God’s care and blessing. They’re being fruitful. Those hills, meadows and valleys shouting for joy are a great example to us. When WE experience God’s care and blessing on us, at work or at home or at church, it’s time to be joyful!
That, really, is what harvest festival is all about.
At harvest festival we do what David did. We acknowledge God. We acknowledge him as the giver, the super-generous giver. We acknowledge him as the reason why we have food on our tables, the reason why our business is prospering, the reason why the family is at peace, the reason why the children in the class are making progress, the reason why the church is flourishing.
And so, we pray, ‘Heavenly Father, Lord Jesus, we acknowledge you as the super-generous giver. We thank you that over the past year you have provided us with all that we have needed, and not least, with food on our tables. Amen.’
TALK GIVEN AT ROSEBERY PARK BAPTIST CHURCH, BOURNEMOUTH, UK, 6TH OCTOBER 2024, 10.30 A.M. HARVEST SERVICE
