The Three Harvests Of The Jewish Year

Harvest Festival – Swayfield 2025

The reason we celebrate Harvest Festival is because it is a day when we remember and give thanks to God for all He has given us.

And as a result of God’s blessings, St. Paul urges us, to be generous to others.

Look at what Paul says:

7Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. (2 Cor 9:7)

God wants us to have a generous heart. Not giving because we HAVE TO but because we WANT TO.

Hazel, where is our collection going today?

And I am sure you are delighted that we are going to have the opportunity to be generous in the last hymn

With a collection!!!!!.

Harvest Festival stands in a long tradition for God’s people.

It goes back a good 4,000 years.

In our Old Testament the people of God, the Jews, had three major harvest festivals; festivals where there was a three-line whip for all to attend.

1. The first festival was the Feast of Passover or Pesach in the Hebrew.

It was usually held in April each year – at the beginning of the harvest.

And it marks the barley harvest

It was at this festival that God’s people recalled how God himself had been their Saviour. For he had brought them miraculously out of slavery in Egypt.

And it is significant that it was at the Feast of Passover that Jesus was crucified in AD 29.

Because through his death, he became our Saviour. He brought us out of the slavery to sin to become sons and daughters of God.

2. The second festival was the Feast of Weeks or Harvest, where the Jews gave thanks to God for the wheat harvest.

It was also a time when the Jews would bring the first fruits to the Temple

It was also known as Pentecost because it was timed to be 50 days after Passover.

We read in Acts 2 that it was at Pentecost when the power of the Holy Spirit was released on the disciples.

And they were then able to preach the Good News of Jesus Christ.

And as the result of one sermon 3000 people became Christians. I wish I could preach like that!!!

And Pentecost was significant as it was the time when the first fruits of the Church’s harvest occurred

3. And the third festival was the Feast of Tabernacles, known as Sukkot where the Jews gave thanks for the fruit harvest.

It was an autumn harvest festival and it completed the annual agricultural cycle

It was at that festival that the Jews would camp out for a week in tents - recalling the temporary dwellings they had after the exodus.

All three of these festivals reminded the Jews of God’s blessing on his people – in both the physical and in the spiritual.

1. The Physical Harvest

My first thought is obvious – the physical harvest.

This is, of course in the tradition of the 3 Harvest Festival that we stand this evening

But in particular the Feast Of Pentecost

Paul, in our reading reminds us of God’s provision for us when he says:

"God supplies seed to the sower and bread for food."

And BREAD is a theme of my little talk today:

2. The Bread of Life

While it is easy for us to remember the physical harvest, it is important that we also remember the spiritual harvest too.

Indeed my second thought stands more in the tradition of Passover

When Jesus said

“I am the bread of Life?” (Jn 6:35)

What do you think Jesus meant when he said that?

Did he mean that he had suddenly become a piece of bread?

No I think Jesus meant that he alone could satisfy our deepest needs. Jesus is the spiritual; food of life.

Let’s look at the background to that statement.

Jesus has just fed a crowd of man and women who had come to hear him preach. He then left but the crowd followed him.

Why, because he had fulfilled a physical need – he had fed them when they were hungry.

Now Jesus challenges them:

“Very truly I tell you, you are looking for me not because you saw the signs but because you ate your fill of the loaves. Do not work for food that perishes but for food that endures for eternal life” (Jn 6:26, 27)

Now Jesus challenges them about their spiritual needs:

What was Jesus’ mission on earth?

1. Was it to be a good teacher – well he was that

2. Was it to be a miracle worker - yes he was that

3. Was it to be a good example of how to live- yes he was that too.