Page 42 - Christ in You - The Hope of Glory

stepped into the Jordan while it was in flood “for the Jordan overflows its banks all the
days of harvest.” These words are as full of meaning as every other detail we have looked
at. It was at harvest time that they crossed the Jordan, and this understanding will lead us
to a wonderful testimony set in Scripture by the wisdom of Yahweh. All resurrections are
pictured as harvests. Even as we harvest the ripe and mature grain of the earth, so too will
God reap the earth and gather together those who have come to maturity. Not all mature
at the same time. Each one comes to maturity, and therefore resurrection, in their own
order.
When Yahweh gave the Law to Moses, He established certain festivals that were to be
observed with meticulous detail. Every detail was to serve as a lesson, part of a grand
parable, revealing Yahweh’s work with mankind. The Law contained portions relating to the
observance of three feasts that the Jews were to observe annually. Each of these feasts
occurred at the time of a major harvest in the land of Israel. Following is a list of the feasts
and their associated harvests.

Passover - Barley
Pentecost - Wheat
Tabernacles (Sukkot) - Grapes

Deuteronomy 16:16
Three times in a year all your males shall appear before Yahweh your
God in the place which He chooses, at the Feast of Unleavened Bread
(Passover) and at the Feast of Weeks (Pentecost) and at the Feast of
Booths (Tabernacles)...

Three times a year the people of Israel were commanded to appear before God.
Appearing before God is symbolic of resurrection. That Moses instructed the Jews to appear
three times every year was a foreshadowing of the three resurrections of man (“each in his
own order”). In very symbolic language, the word “ingathering” was also used in association
with these harvests.

Exodus 23:14-17
"Three times you shall keep a feast to Me in the year: You shall keep the
Feast of Unleavened Bread... at the time appointed in the month of Abib..., 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 Yahweh God.”

God has been laboring in the field of this earth to bring forth mature sons after His
image. There will be three harvests of men from the earth, each different in its character
even as the three feasts were different, and the crops harvested at each one were different.
These feasts would have been nothing without the harvests associated with them. The
harvests were the key component of every feast. Each man was to bring with him fruit from
the harvest when he appeared before Yahweh.