{"id":2412,"date":"2023-09-01T12:00:46","date_gmt":"2023-09-01T16:00:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/churchintheacres.org\/wpDir\/?p=2412"},"modified":"2024-02-20T14:54:30","modified_gmt":"2024-02-20T19:54:30","slug":"reap-a-harvest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/churchintheacres.org\/wpDir\/reap-a-harvest\/","title":{"rendered":"Reap a Harvest"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

I cannot believe the summer has almost passed us by already.\u00a0 It seems like I was just running the rototiller!\u00a0 The first day of fall is on\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Saturday, September 23.\u00a0 Soon gardeners will be harvesting their final crops.<\/p>\n

Did you know that the harvest was at a completely different time of the year in ancient Israel?\u00a0 Dry summers and wet winters meant that planting occurred in the late fall and harvest in the early summer.\u00a0 Planting grain began in October or November, after the autumn rains had softened the soil.\u00a0 After planting the seed by scattering it by hand, the farmer went over the field again with his plow, or he dragged branches across it. This helped to bury the seed and protect it from birds or strong winds. The farmer hoed his fields from December until February to keep the weeds down.<\/p>\n

Farming was the principal occupation of people in Bible times.\u00a0 Of all the trades and occupations of the Bible, Jesus talks about farmers the most.\u00a0 Jesus would have been quite familiar with the agricultural pursuits of his time. Since farming was so much a part of the lives of the people in biblical times, it is often used by Jesus to explain things.\u00a0 There is a lot of wisdom given throughout the whole Bible using the harvest concept:<\/p>\n