The Harvest of the Earth

Often, we think of harvest as a good thing. It’s when we gather food and celebrate. In spiritual terms, we usually think about harvest as God gathering more people to Himself – new Christians. But here the harvest relates to judgement. Drawing on language from the Old Testament (especially the book of Joel), God reveals that He will not only save His people, but that He will also punish evil. God loves justice, and His righteousness is expressed against evil in the form of wrath. And so, God’s people are invited to live with boldness in the present assured that God will punish evil in the future.

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REFLECTION

Call on the Lord

By Jeff Morlock

The angel swung his sickle on the earth, gathered its grapes and threw them into the great winepress of God’s wrath. – Revelation 14:19.

As a kid growing up in a small-town farming community, I hired on with relatives each summer to plant, and later pick tomatoes. At the end of the season, the crop would be harvested and sold to the local processing plant to make tomato juice, sauce, or ketchup. Though the harvest represents the climax of a season’s labor, it can be a messy business. Fruit is gathered, washed, and separated. Then it’s pressed and strained, and the peels and seeds cast aside.

The Bible often uses the harvest as an image of God’s judgment. At the end of days, God will gather up our life’s work and measure its eternal value. Judgment may be favorable, for a crop worth preserving. Or it may involve destruction. This idea of judgment doesn’t sit easily with most people today. Because tolerance and acceptance are two of our society’s highest and most rewarded values, we often operate with an “I’m OK, you’re OK” mentality. But according to Revelation, God does not.

Scripture reminds us time and again that we are NOT okay. We are sinners with a tendency to rebel against the Lord. And because he is holy and just, evil has no place in his presence. According to this text, then, God is also in the messy business of straining and separating people and their deeds. Does the abuse, violence, manipulation, and hurt in the world trouble you? Praise God that there will come a time when all that has been inflicted on us—and all that we inflict on others—will be strained out and cast away from God’s presence. In his eternal kingdom, only the good will remain.

All of us deserve judgment. But those who trust in Jesus can rest assured that he has already endured the “winepress of God’s wrath” for us. This is the victory of the cross. This is the hope to which we are called. Praise God for his harvest justice and hope!

Prayer: Holy and merciful God, we know that judgment is a serious thing, because sin is serious. Thank you for the work of Christ that gives us a firm place to stand. Empower us to turn from any attitude or action that would grieve you and strengthen us to join you in working for a more just world. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.

UALC’S CAMPAIGN OF PRAYER - FRIDAY

FAITH - Pray for faith instead of fear, that many would come to faith in Jesus and that we would all trust God more deeply during this time.