Exodus 23:14-17, “Three times you shall keep a feast to Me in the year: You shall keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread…and the Feast of Harvest, the firstfruits of your labors which you have sown in the field; and the Feast of Ingathering at the end of the year, when you have gathered in the fruit of your labors from the field. “Three times in the year all your males shall appear before the Lord God.”
Appearance #1 – the first harvest – the barley harvest – Jesus!
Jesus is the bread depicted in the barley harvest. John 6:9, “There is a lad here who has five barley loaves and two small fish.” Then said Jesus: “I am the bread of life” (48). (Don’t miss this: 6:12, He said to His disciples, “Gather up the fragments that remain, so that nothing is lost.” and 6:39, “This is the will of the Father who sent Me, that of all He has given Me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day.”)
Jesus ascended to God and presented Himself as the first of the harvest. Leviticus 23:10-11, You shall bring a sheaf of the firstfruits of your harvest to the priest. He shall wave the sheaf before the Lord, to be accepted on your behalf; on the day after the Sabbath the priest shall wave it.
The Sunday morning of His resurrection, as the priest on temple mount was waving a sheaf of the barley harvest before the altar, Jesus presented Himself in Heaven. Jesus to Mary that morning: “Do not cling to Me, for I have not yet ascended to My Father,” John 20:17. Hebrews 6:20, …the forerunner has entered for us, even Jesus, having become High Priest forever…
I Corinthians 15:20, Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.
Appearance #2 – the wheat harvest – the church
Leviticus 23:16-17, Count fifty days to the day after the seventh Sabbath; then you shall offer a new grain offering to the Lord. You shall bring from your dwellings two wave loaves of two-tenths of an ephah. They shall be of fine flour; they shall be baked with leaven. They are the firstfruits to the Lord.
Note: Two loaves – Jews and Gentiles – with leaven (Matthew 13:26, But when the grain had sprouted and produced a crop, then the tares also appeared.)
Fifty days after the barley harvest came another harvest called Pentecost, as it was 50 days later. Acts 2:1, When the Day of Pentecost had fully come… 5-6, And there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men, from every nation under heaven. And when this sound occurred, the multitude came together, and were confused, because everyone heard them speak in his own language.
Don’t miss this: Leviticus 23:22, ‘When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not wholly reap the corners of your field when you reap, nor shall you gather any gleaning from your harvest. You shall leave them for the poor and for the stranger. The story of Ruth – a Gentile married to a Jew – who reaped the corners!
The church was born on the Feast of Weeks (Pentecost) and comprised of Jews and Gentiles.
God will call those of this harvest to Himself just as Jesus ascended to stand before God. This is the Rapture.
Appearance #3 – the end-of-the-year harvest – the grape harvest – the Jews and Jerusalem
Leviticus 23:39, ‘Also on the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when you have gathered in the fruit of the land, you shall keep the feast of the Lord for seven days.
Revelation 14:14, Then I looked, and behold, a white cloud, and on the cloud sat One like the Son of Man, having on His head a golden crown, and in His hand a sharp sickle… 18-19, “Thrust in your sharp sickle and gather the clusters of the vine of the earth, for her grapes are fully ripe.” So the angel thrust his sickle into the earth and gathered the vine of the earth, and threw it into the great winepress of the wrath of God.
Matthew 24:31, And He will send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other… 39-41, and did not know until the flood came and took them all away, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. Then two men will be in the field: one will be taken and the other left. Two women will be grinding at the mill: one will be taken and the other left.
Zechariah 12:10, then they will look on Me whom they pierced. Yes, they will mourn for Him as one mourns for his only son… 13:9, They will call on My name, and I will answer them. I will say, ‘This is My people’; and each one will say, ‘The Lord is my God.’ Isaiah 66:8, Who has heard such a thing? Who has seen such things? Shall the earth be made to give birth in one day? Or shall a nation be born at once?
So there will be three gatherings to God: Jesus, church, and Jews. The latter two often get meshed together as in Isaiah 61:1-2 and Luke 4:18-21 and the two advents.
The Rapture is the second harvest and most likely on Pentecost (this year May 25-27) but we know not the day or hour or year! It is important that today we are saved by submitting to Jesus as our Lord – TODAY!
a PK Musing 
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