Harvesting Archives - Creation Beckons

Harvest the Continuous Crop

Proverbs 27:25 Harvest the Continuous Crop

“After the hay is cut and the new growth appears and the harvest is over” (CEV).

It’s a long time since this hay rake has been used, but the process is still important. Hay that has been cut and is lying flat on the ground is hard for the hay baler to pick up, so the rake lifts it into rows that are easier for the baler to collect. Hay that is left flat on the ground is susceptible to rot if it is not fluffed up. This hay rake was drawn by two horses, and the operator sat on a seat on the rake with the reins in his hands. The mechanism may be old, but I am sure if it were oiled, it could still do the job. Today’s machinery, the tractor, pulls a similar piece of equipment to accomplish the same task, but fuels used are different. It makes me wonder about a comparison of the cost of feed for the horses, and the feed, excuse me, gasoline for the tractor. And the horses are quieter. There are some things to be said for the old methods—just ask some of the most successful farmers in America, the Amish.

Hay is a continuous crop. Once it is cut, it grows again, and it can be cut again. The harvest we are to work for as Christians is also a continuous crop. What is our harvest? Jesus told us in Matthew 28:19,20 and again in Mark 16:15,16 that the harvest is the souls of men for salvation. Every year, millions of new souls are born on the earth, and as they mature, they become ripe for salvation’s harvest. And there are millions already here who have never heard the Good News of salvation. There are similarities between the harvest of hay and the harvest of souls. A new soul, once he (she) has heard the Gospel, needs to be “fluffed up,” that is, taught so he can live as Christ would have him live, and so that he can be joined with others who have received the Good News of salvation. Those in the Church who walk beside and teach new believers are important to the harvest, just as the hay rake is important to the harvest of hay. There are many functions in fulfillment of the Great Commission, and you and I will probably perform one or more of those functions as we grow in Christ. Be encouraged, for we are doing what Jesus asked of us.

Leave Some for Others

Leviticus 23:22 Leave Some for Others

“When you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest. Leave them for the poor and for the foreigner residing among you. I am the Lord your God” (NIV).

The Hebrew meaning of “gleaning” is the practice of collecting leftover crops from fields after they have been harvested. It is an agricultural term that can also refer to any activity that involves collecting individual items from different sources. In other words, “Get it all. Be sure nothing is missed or anything of even the smallest value is left where someone could get it.” Makes sense doesn’t it—except that it doesn’t make sense to God. God instructed His people to leave the bits of the harvest that were difficult to harvest. He instructed them not to go back over the fields once they have done the main harvesting work. They’ve got the whole field while others not as fortunate as they may have had little or nothing. In fact those less fortunate may have been living on the leavings from the owner’s fields. What is just the “leftovers” to the owner may have been the very food that a mother gathered to feed her young children. The poor and foreigners referred to in Leviticus 23:22 are the dispossessed, the ones who are just hanging on. Even though this is an agricultural example, it can just as well refer to a business owner who squeezes every possible penny out of his business rather than being certain that his workers are paid a good wage. So what does it mean to you and me, John Q. Public? How about taking the change from everyday purchases and keeping it until a substantial amount has accumulated, and then making it available to those in need in the community. There are numerous community services that make sure that your “small change” goes to feed those who are hungry.

One interesting example of leaving the gleanings is told in the book of Ruth. Ruth was a woman whose husband died in a foreign land. Ruth joined her mother-in-law in returning to Israel, where Ruth gathered the gleanings in the fields of a man named Boaz. As the story progresses, Boaz took notice of Ruth, and eventually married her. This woman who gathered the leftover grain in the field gave birth to a son called Obed. Oh, yes, Obed had a son named Jesse, and a grandson named David, yes, the David who became the king of Israel. The entire nation of Israel was blessed because Boaz instructed his men to leave plenty of gleanings for the poor and foreigners in the land.

Jesus Gives Eternal Water

John 4:13-14 Jesus Gives Eternal Water

“Jesus answered and said to her, ‘Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life’” (NKJV).

The woman was pleased and asked for this water so that she wouldn’t have to keep coming to the well every day to draw water. Jesus didn’t correct her, but instead told her to go get her husband, which resulted in Jesus’ revelation that He knew that she had had five husbands and was living with another man not her husband. She believed Jesus to be a prophet. She replied that she knew that the Messiah, who knew all things, would be coming sometime. Jesus then dropped the bombshell, “That’s me. I am the Messiah.” She dropped her water container and ran back to tell everyone that she had met the Messiah. They followed her back to the well, met Jesus, and He spoke with them. Many of them believed because of what Jesus had told the woman, but after He spoke to them, many more believed. They asked Him to stay with them, and He stayed two additional days. The result of this “chance encounter” was the salvation of a large number of Samaritans.

How many “chance encounters” have we had that we didn’t recognize as opportunities to speak the Word of the Lord and bring salvation to a non-believer. It is important for us to recognize these “chance encounters.” Important for us, but vitally important to those whom God brings to us. I might be, or you might be, the one voice that the person would really believe and accept Jesus as Savior. That’s a “chance encounter” that could affect someone throughout eternity. I know that I have had “chance encounters” that I didn’t recognize or didn’t choose to recognize. My prayer is that the person I encountered was blessed enough to have another “chance encounter” with someone more willing or able to express the love of God. Romans 10:14-15 makes clear our responsibility: “How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can anyone preach unless they are sent? As it is written: ‘how beautiful are the feet of those who being good news!’” You might say, “But I don’t know how to speak. I wouldn’t know what to say.” The Word tells us in Luke 12:12, ”…for the Holy Spirit will teach you at that time what you should say.” Even if we can’t speak, we can be effective by doing as Romans 10:15 tells us, and send others. There is need from the local church to the farthest missionary field for funds to support the furtherance of the Good News.

I need to be more attentive to the Holy Spirit and watch for those “chance encounters” that he arranges.