This week we will focus on Harvest of Souls. The following article written by an unnamed author helps us to understand the spiritual symbolism of the Harvest Ingathering. Please read as you prepare to fast for another Friday
THE FEAST OF INGATHERING
God has used the harvest seasons of Israel to teach His people the proper sequence of events and the key elements of His salvation plan—His “harvest” of human beings to bring them into His family and give them eternal life.
Now there were obvious physical meanings for the feast days as they applied to the history of Israel, their coming out of Egypt and showing gratitude to God each year for the two major harvests they had each year. However, the symbolism of the feasts is dual and each have a spiritual meaning showing step by step God’s plan to redeem mankind.
There were two great harvest festivals. The first one was Pentecost and the New Testament refers to God’s church, the first small harvest of souls, as His first fruits in James 1:18. This can be seen as the beginning of a greater harvest that is to come at the end of time.
In Exodus 23:16 and in Exodus 34:22 we read: “And you shall observe the Feast of Weeks, of the first fruits of wheat harvest, and the Feast of Ingathering at the year’s end.”
The Feast of Ingathering represented the great ingathering at the end of the agricultural year – the second and greater of the two harvests. The obvious spiritual meaning of the second harvest is the great harvest of souls in the end times.
The reason it is called the Feast of Ingathering is because the fruit at this time was gathered in. In the end times God will first spiritually gather in Israel. He will extend the new covenant to the House of Judah and the House of Israel at Christ’s return spoken of in Hebrews 8. Then He will set His hand to gather in all nations.
God’s t gathering in all nations is expressed over in Isaiah 19:24-25 where we read: “In that day Israel will be one of three with Egypt and Assyria— a blessing in the midst of the land, whom the Lord of hosts shall bless, saying, ‘Blessed is Egypt My people, and Assyria the work of My hands, and Israel My inheritance.” There is another extension of this great gathering, which we celebrate on the Last Great Day.
There were two harvests in Israel. One was the grain harvest. The Feast of Ingathering celebrated the latter fruit harvest. In ancient Israel this feast is all about the fruit and being thankful for the fruit. From a Christian point of view the term fruit has much symbolism. We talk about the fruits of the spirit (Galatians 5:22-23) and Christ in John 15:2 and 5 asks us to bear more and much fruit.
This feast was also the time that the fruit of the vine was harvested and from which wine was made. Jesus said that He is the vine and we are the branches and we must draw our spiritual sustenance from Him (John 15:5).
One thing that was vital to make this fruit harvest possible was the latter rain. James speaks of this over in James 5:7 where we read: “Therefore be patient, brethren, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, waiting patiently for it until it receives the early and latter rain.”
If the fruit of the end times is the converted lives of people in the World Tomorrow what is the water or latter rain that helps produce this fruit? The prophet Joel answers this question over in Joel 2:28 where we read: “And it shall come to pass afterward that I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh; Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, Your old men shall dream dreams, Your young men shall see visions.” The water of the Holy Spirit will help produce this great spiritual harvest in the World Tomorrow.
The connection between the Feast of Tabernacles and the end times was not lost in the early church. Jerome noted that the Jews celebrated the Feast of Tabernacles as a type of the Messiah’s rule on earth. In a comment on Zechariah 14, he writes (Commentary in Zach. 625-31): “He says, all who are left of the nations who came against Jerusalem will come up once a year to worship the King, the Lord of Hosts, and to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles. The Jews look forward to these things with a vain future hope in a reign of 1 000 years, of which the celebration is itself a beginning.”
The name that we commonly use for the Feast is the Feast of Tabernacles. Why does the Bible use the term Tabernacles and is there any connection between that term and the future Kingdom of God?
The Israelites dwelt in tabernacles or temporary dwellings when they first came out of Egypt. In doing so they emulated their ancestor Abraham who also dwelt in tabernacles for the whole of His life in the land of Canaan.
Now Abraham was a very rich man. He had over 300 servants that were born in his household alone (Genesis 14:14) so imagine the wealth that he must have had. Why did he not build a castle for himself? The answer to this question is found over in Hebrews 11:9-10 which, in my opinion, is the same answer for why God wants us to dwell in tabernacles during the feast.
We read over in Hebrews 11:9-10: “By faith he dwelt in the land of promise as in a foreign country, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise; for he waited for the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God.”
Abraham’s dwelling in tabernacles was ordained by God to remind him that he dwelt in a foreign country just as we are in this world but not to be of it and we are told our citizenship is in heaven. Just as Abraham looked to the New Jerusalem that God promised he would have a home in, dwelling in tabernacles reminds us that no matter how much we have in this life, this world is not where it’s at – real life is ahead of us when God brings His kingdom to this earth. Paul spoke about the resurrection as shedding our earthy tent and being clothed with a better spiritual body in 2 Corinthians 5.
We are to look to the New Jerusalem, the tabernacle of God when God will dwell with mankind. It’s interesting to note in Isaiah 4:4-5 it speaks of God sheltering Israel in the millennium with a covering that will be a cloud of smoke by day and a flaming fire by night.
In Isaiah 25:6-7 we read where God compares the end times with a great fruit harvest, which in Israel is known as the Feast of Tabernacles. Isaiah writes: “And in this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all people a feast of choice pieces, a feast of wines on the lees, of fat things full of marrow, of well-refined wines on the lees. And He will destroy on this mountain the surface of the covering cast over all people, and the veil that is spread over all nations.”
Thus the Feast of Ingathering spiritually symbolizes the latter great harvest of souls to occur in the end times. Its other name, the Feast of Tabernacles reminds us to look past our temporary existence in this sad, sinful world to the time when God will bring real life and true peace to this world when He brings His kingdom to this earth.
The first prayer walk for the year was held on Friday 30 March from 8.30- 12.00 midnight. It was a great time of prayer and interceding for the Church and Community. Peace Community also “stood in the gap” for Life Sanctuary, Damansara Intan, where our Senior Pastor also gives spiritual oversight.
