While my main farm work was based around dairy cows, there was always something special about harvest time. The culmination of a year’s growth, the excitement and busyness of the time, the worry over whether the weather will ruin it at the last minute, the anticipation of the stores being filled, and the big question – will yield and quality be what we hoped for?
The harvest is vital for life; the food produced in it will sustain humanity for another year. But the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, made a startling statement one day. When Satan tempted Him to produce food from stones after 40 days and nights of fasting, Jesus replied, "It is written, 'MAN SHALL NOT LIVE BY BREAD ALONE, BUT BY EVERY WORD OF GOD'" (Luke 4:4). He claimed that even more important for the life of man than food is the Word of God. This is because "You do not have a soul. You are a soul. You have a body"[i]. The immaterial soul is the real you which will last forever, whereas the physical body will die and decay.
The Word of God is fundamental to the needs of humanity. The Apostle Paul said that "the Holy Scriptures . . . are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus" (2 Timothy 3:15). The Bible describes the human condition as one of separation from God because of sin, and therefore denotes us as "by nature children of wrath" (Ephesians 2:3). We need to be saved and it is through the Scriptures that we find out the way to move from death to eternal life. Jesus said, "You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me" (John 5:39). Jesus’ disciple Peter sums it up powerfully and directly, "Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved" (Acts 4:12). Do you desire to be saved? The Word of God will “make you wise for salvation” because it contains the revelation of Christ Jesus who “came into the world to save sinners” (1 Timothy 1:15).
But Paul goes even further in his second letter to Timothy, "All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work" (2 Timothy 3:16,17). In whatever circumstance believers in Christ find themselves, the Scriptures are sufficient. Do we who are Christians truly believe that?
The Lord Jesus prayed that His Father would "Sanctify [His followers] by Your truth" (John 17:17). Where would His followers find God's truth? "Your word is truth". The truth is what sets us free, John 8:32, and in allowing God's Word to shape our thinking and actions we will begin to live the fullness of life that Jesus spoke of in John 10:10.
Whether it is such things as cleansing: "How can a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed according to Your word" (Psalm 119:9); or comfort: "For whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that we through the patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope" (Romans 15:4), or whatever else is needed for the believer to be complete, the Scriptures have the answer.
God desires a harvest from us. Having created us to live with Him and for him (Colossians 1:16), the question is, are we living for Him? Hebrews 11:6 says, "But without faith it is impossible to please Him". Faith is taking God at His word and being fully persuaded that it is true and therefore best for us, so that we become "doers of the word, and not hearers only" (James 1:22); it is coming to the point where our minds are transformed so that the will of God becomes not just the right thing to do, but "acceptable [well-pleasing]" to us (Romans 12:2). How does faith come? "Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God" (Romans 10:17).
In Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23, the Lord Jesus told a parable of a farmer who sowed good seed. However, that good seed did not always produce a harvest for the farmer because of the varied soils it landed on. The path, the stony ground, and the thorny ground produced no fruit for the farmer. The seed is always good, for it is the Word of God. The thing hindering the harvest is the ground – the hearts of you and me.
So is there a harvest in your life for God? Has your heart proved to be good ground by producing fruit? Has the Word of God made you “wise for salvation”?
If the answer to that question is yes, then is the yield and quality what God would desire? As the physical harvest draws to a close, may the harvest of the character and actions of Christ in the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22,23) be of increasing quantity and quality in us as we hear, believe, and then obey God's Word.
[i] Paraphrase of something George MacDonald wrote in Annals of a Quiet Neighbourhood https://www.cslewis.org/aboutus/faq/quotes-misattributed/
