Jeremiah 5:24 Neither say they in their heart, Let us now fear the LORD our God, that gives rain, both the former and the latter, in his season… I. THERE ARE VOICES OF GOD IN THE YEARLY HARVEST. God has mercifully set our lot in an age when the perils of famine and of desolating wars are very seldom known, and in very limited degrees. In past ages the yearly harvest was much more hazardous than it is now that countries are more settled and agricultural science so much farther advanced. Yet in those days God did not withhold His promised harvests from the world, only from parts of it. Not one single year of the world's history has passed by without a gathered harvest somewhere; only the imperfect communication between distant countries did not then permit the surplus of one land to supply the deficiencies of another. Can any true soul look upon the "valleys covered over with corn," and fail to hear them "shouting for joy and also singing" of the goodness of God? What merciful care of His creatures is thus displayed! How surely a moment's failing interest on the part of God would leave our harvest only "a heap in a day of sadness and of desperate sorrow"! There are many who can discern something of the goodness of the God of providence, who yet try to persuade themselves that it is another kind of God who deals with men as sinners — another God, and this God only a God of stern demands, severities, and vengeance. It is not so. The God of redemption is the very God of bounteous nature. His yearly mercy is designed to carry home to our hearts the very call made by Christ, and by the Word — the call to repentance and trust. In the salvation by Jesus Christ we ought to see in sublime glory that very goodness that spreads our fields with waving corn. In the yearly harvest there is also a voice speaking out God's faithfulness. Every year He is only doing what He promised our forefather He would do for him and for his descendants; He is only keeping His word. God's faithfulness to His promise is painted in splendid colours right across the sky in every sun-glinted shower. God's faithfulness to His promise is sung out by every cloud-flecked, waving cornfield, every gathered sheaf, and every loaded barn. II. THE SPECIAL VOICES OF GOD IN THIS YEAR'S HARVEST. III. THE VOICES OF GOD IN THE SCRIPTURE USE OF THE HARVEST. 1. In Scripture, and by the Lord Jesus Christ, the harvest is used as an illustration, and employed to impress Christian duty, especially the duty of working diligently and earnestly in Christ's work, the ingathering of sinners to His love, salvation, Church, and heaven. 2. Harvest is also used in Scripture to point a call to us to prepare for the judgment day, and the eternal world. (R. Tuck, B. A.) Parallel Verses KJV: Neither say they in their heart, Let us now fear the LORD our God, that giveth rain, both the former and the latter, in his season: he reserveth unto us the appointed weeks of the harvest. |
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