For us the bean harvest has begun. It’s not dry, but when October comes, farmers have to go for it. The sun is bright and a breeze is blowing—perfect! Now, if we could just keep those conditions for a few weeks. (There is a forecast for rain, but let’s hope the weathermen are wrong) We are counting on the fruitful harvest scriptures. Psalm 107:37 “They sowed fields and planted vineyards that yielded a fruitful harvest.”
The bible tells quite a bit about farmers, probably because the people understood farming at the time it was written. People have always needed food. Genesis tells us that God himself planted a garden and placed Adam and Eve there. I guess you could look at Adam as the second farmer sent to work the ground as in Chapter 2.
When the LORD God made the earth and the heavens-and no shrub of the field had yet appeared on the earth and no plant of the field had yet sprung up, for the LORD God had not sent rain on the earth and there was no man to work the ground, but streams came up from the earth and watered the whole surface of the ground-the LORD God formed the man. . . Now the LORD God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden; and there he put the man he had formed. . . The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. (I do see that Adam didn’t have to worry about rain.)
In Matthew 13, Jesus told several stories about farmers. The first is probably the best known.
"A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants. Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop—a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown. He who has ears, let him hear."
That last part always tickles me as I imagine Jesus standing by a field of corn, saying “He who has ears. . .” Isn’t that funny? Corn? Ears?
That parable is such a wonderful description of life and of us. Are we beaten down and hard like the path where no seed can grow? Are we rather rocky with not much good soil in our lives? Are our hearts and minds so busy and full of thorns which can choke out any good thing that tries to grow? Are we willing to be broken (like the soil in the spring) and cultivated to bring a harvest? Are we like corn and have ears?
God and I are both interested in the harvest. Luke 10:2 "The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.”
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