Harvest

Deuteronomy 16:9-17 (ESV)

The Feast of Weeks
9 "You shall count seven weeks. Begin to count the seven weeks from the time the sickle is first put to the standing corn. 10 Then you shall keep the Feast of Weeks to the Lord your God with the tribute of a freewill offering from your hand, which you shall give as the Lord your God blesses you. 11 And you shall rejoice before the Lord your God, you and your son and your daughter, your male servant and your female servant, the Levite who is within your towns, the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow who are among you, at the place that the Lord your God will choose, to make his name dwell there. 12 You shall remember that you were a slave in Egypt; and you shall be careful to observe these statutes.

The Feast of Booths
13 "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. 14 You shall rejoice in your feast, you and your son and your daughter, your male servant and your female servant, the Levite, the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow who are within your towns. 15 For seven days you shall keep the feast to the Lord your God at the place that the Lord will choose, because the Lord your God will bless you in all your produce and in all the work of your hands, so that you will be altogether joyful.

16 "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. 17 Every man shall give as he is able, according to the blessing of the Lord your God that he has given you.

The Feast of Weeks was a harvest of first fruits. It was celebrated once the grain harvest was gathered – that is seven weeks after the first ear of corn was cut. It's the origin of the Christian Pentecost, the celebration of the first fruits of the Holy Spirit. This festival is both a celebration and a thanksgiving for God's provision. It reminded Israel of their dependence on God for sustaining their earthly lives. Harvests did fail – recall Genesis 41 and Joseph interpreting Pharaoh's dream of seven years of plenty and seven years of famine. Life was precarious.

The Feast of Booths, or Feast of the Tabernacles, was celebrated at the end of the harvest season – when all was safely gathered in.

In both festivals, the people were encouraged / required to make a thanksgiving offering to God. See verse 10 and verse 16.

Verses 11 and 14 are concerned with provision for those who were landless, all those dependent upon the produce and work of land owners and their hired hands because they couldn't produce their own. Verse 12 reminded the Israelites that they were once subject to the power of others in Egypt and that they should be generous with God's bounty.

In light of verses 10 and 16, 11 and 14 what do you think God is expecting of us today?

During the Feast of Booths, the people lived in temporary shelters – tents, or tabernacles. It was a physical reminder that their true security came from God, not their possessions. It foreshadows our eternal dwelling with God, where he will shelter his faithful people forever (Revelation 21:3-4).

As we give thanks to God for our food, which we can access in abundance, reflect on the following:

• Trussell report that their foodbanks provided 60,000 food parcels in 2010, in 2024 they provided over 3 million.
• The World Food Programme estimate that around 700 million people, (8% percent of the global population) faced hunger in 2024.
• In the UK the value of the edible parts of household food waste in 2021 amounted to £17 billion – equivalent to £250 per person, according to Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP).

Prayer

• Thank God for the work of farmers and growers, and all in the food supply chain. Reflect in prayer on your dependence upon them.
• Thank God that he provides all we need to sustain our bodies in earthly life and our souls in eternal life.
• Ask God's forgiveness that our economic and social systems result in so many going hungry whilst so much is wasted.
• Pray for a more just sharing of God's bounty and the earth's resources.
• Ask God to help you find at least one action you could take that would be the twenty-first century equivalent of a freewill offering of thanksgiving for the harvest.