I grew up on a farm, and my family would watch the seasons come and go, always anticipating the next season and the next job to do. I would watch the seasons change through the year, from when the ground would melt in the spring and the first buds would come up, from when the heat of summer would blaze down to the leaves changing color in the fall, and the cool fall breeze signaled the end of the year. Biblical Israel was likewise attuned to the movements of their environment, as they were largely an agricultural society. An example of this is the “Gezer Tablet,”¹ a small training exercise² that was used to teach children to write a little after the time of Solomon,³ and the entire text is about agriculture. This text was discovered in 1908 near the town of Gezer on the border between Judah and Ephraim,⁴ but recently scholars have begun to interpret it as wisdom literature.⁵ The text is nothing more than a small primer, like something we would be taught in kindergarten, but it illustrates what was important to ancient society in the Levant.⁶ The tune goes like this:

            its (two) months: ingathering

            its (two) months: sowing

            its (two) months: late sowing                  

            its month: hoeing weeds

            its month: barley harvest

            its month: (wheat) harvest and its completion

            its (two) months: (vine) pruning

            its month: summer (fruit)⁷

Notice how every month has a role. Every part of the annual cycle has a physical task to do, whether it be removing weeds, planting seeds or finally harvesting.

God’s plan likewise follows this outline. Through God’s Holy Days, His appointed times, we get to rehearse alongside the whole cosmos the plan of God—a plan that is filled with both order and hope. God has been planting spiritual seeds by calling people to His Truth. Once those seeds have been sown, those seeds will begin to grow. In the parable of the growing seed Jesus Christ described how this process happens, “He also said, ‘The kingdom of God is as if someone would scatter seed on the ground and would sleep and rise night and day, and the seed would sprout and grow, he does not know how. The earth produces of itself first the stalk, then the head, then the full grain in the head. But when the grain is ripe, at once he goes in with his sickle because the harvest has come’” (Mark 4:26-29, New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition). This is the period when God is helping to foster our growth; this is the “hoeing weeds” step on our ancient melody. God is cultivating us so that we can become the children of His whom He wants us to be.

Once this part of the process has concluded is when the harvests come. First is the spring harvest (in the northern hemisphere)—the “barley harvest” and the “wheat harvest and its completion”—the firstfruits of God’s Way as represented by Pentecost are ready. The time and effort put into tending those fields is at long last beginning to come to pass. Then comes the fall—the “ingathering”—when all of the final crops are collected and ordered. The “summer fruit” is now ready. This is the time when all peoples shall be ready, when they will all be able to fully enter God’s family.

James 5:7 encourages us to be patient, as God is , and wait for the crop and the rain. The psalmist in Psalm 19:1-4 further states how the universe proclaims this yearning for change, “The heavens are telling the glory of God, and the firmament proclaims His handiwork. Day to day pours forth speech, and night to night declares knowledge. There is no speech, nor are there words; their voice is not heard; yet their voice goes out through all the earth and their words to the end of the world” (NRSVue). The universe testifies to us the work God is doing. God is taking His time, just as a farmer or a gardener would. First, He slowly prepares the ground, making sure that His spiritual seeds can effectively take root. Then He plants, allowing us the light that we need to thrive. Then He nurtures us, giving us the opportunity to grow spiritually. And lastly, when we are ready, is the time for the spiritual harvest.

As we approach the fall Holy Days, let us remember this lesson. God used the cycles of the natural environment around the ancient Israelites to teach them about who He is. They teach us about His patience, diligence and tender and nurturing love. The ancient Israelites lived among this way of life, so instead of using nursery rhymes about plum pies and black sheep, they taught their youngest children how to read and write based on the order of the natural world around them. But what is our role to play? How do we respond to what God is working out in the universe?

Proverbs 10:5 says, “A child who gathers in summer is prudent, but a child who sleeps in harvest brings shame” (NRSVue).⁸ As our Heavenly Father is the loving Farmer, diligently preparing His fields and nurturing His seeds, we must also do our part. This is not something passive; this is something that we get to join God in doing. This proverb shows us that when the time is right, we must act, and now the time is right. This is when we must spiritually prepare for the great harvest ahead. Ecclesiastes 3 shows that there is a time for everything,⁹ and we are now in the time to spiritually prepare.

As we approach the fall Holy Days, we must think about the order God has made in the cosmos, and how that order was used by God and His servants to teach His plan. Let us be the prudent child who is prepared for the harvest, making the most of this ancient lesson that God is still teaching us today.