United Church of God

Letter From Dan Dowd - June 3, 2022

Letter From Dan Dowd

June 3, 2022

Sabbath Thought - First-fruit Harvest

Spring is a time of a renewal of life, as well as a time of new beginnings and planning for the coming year.  Farmers have prepared and planted their fields, individuals have planted gardens with their favorite food plants, fruit trees have finished blooming and now those little flowers have the beginnings of a piece of fruit.  All of this is tended to in the coming months, but there is a long wait before any harvest.  It all takes time.

This coming Sunday is the Feast of Pentecost, and it has taken fifty days to arrive there: time to consider what was accomplished by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ in fulfilling the Passover; time to further internalize how to "walk" out of sin as the Israelites did when they left Egypt; and time to consider the spiritual implications of the early barley gathered in the Wave Sheaf until the harvest around the time of Pentecost.

God's plan of salvation takes time.  Pentecost represents the First-fruit harvest before the major harvest pictured in the Feast of Tabernacles and the Last Great Day.  This upcoming Holy Day is called the Feast of Weeks (Exodus 34:22; Deuteronomy 16:10) because of the counting of seven weeks from the Wave Sheaf offering until this Holy Day.  It is also called the Day of First-fruits (Numbers 28:26) or the Feast of Harvest (Exodus 23:16), and in the New Testament it is simply called the Day of Pentecost (Acts 2:1, 20:16).

You and I, and all of those whom God has called since the Garden of Eden are represented in this Holy Day - the Feast of First-fruits, the Feast of Weeks, the Day of Pentecost - because we are a very small portion of the "harvest" of mankind into God's family!  While some fruit is ready to harvest this time of year, it is indeed very little compared to what is harvested in the fall.  It takes time for most plants to grow into maturity to be harvested. 

For us, and for those yet to come into God's harvest, there are weeds along the way that need to be dealt with.  If the weeds are not dealt with, they will take away valuable resources from the plant.  They could even overwhelm the desired plant and end up causing it to die.  But as the young plants are protected from weeds, watered and cared for, they mature into a plant full of fruit.

We are in the maturing stage of our calling, but we are also a living example to the rest of the world.  As First-fruits our "harvest" anticipates the greater harvest to come in the future.  As First-fruits our example will be remembered as some are remembered in Hebrews 11.  As First-fruits our calling is harder, but our reward is also greater.

We have much to consider and remember in the upcoming Day of Pentecost.

I wish you a profitable and value filled Sabbath,

Dan Dowd

3 June, 2022