Harvest and thanksgiving

Celebrate the Festival of Harvest with the firstfruits of the crops you sow in your field.  – Exodus 23:16

Several thousand years ago, God spoke directly to Moses and instituted a new festival for His people. In Exodus 23:16, according to Moses’s record, God said, “Celebrate the Festival of Harvest with the firstfruits of the crops you sow in your field.”

Today countries around the world do something similar by celebrating the land’s bounty. In Ghana, the people celebrate the Yam Festival as a harvest event. In Brazil, Dia de Acao de Gracas is a time to be grateful for the crops that yielded their food. In China, there is the Mid-Autumn (Moon) Festival. In the United States and Canada: Thanksgiving.

To understand the fitting goal of a harvest celebration, we visit Noah right after the flood. God reminded Noah and his family — and us — of His provision for our flourishing existence on the earth. Earth would have seasons, daylight and darkness and “seedtime and harvest” (Gen. 8:22). Our gratitude for the harvest, which sustains us, goes to God alone.

No matter where you live or how you celebrate your land’s bounty, take time today to express gratitude to God — for we would have no harvest to celebrate without His grand creative design. – Dave Branon

Dear Creator God, thank You so much for the wondrous way You fashioned this world — with seasons, with harvest-time, with everything we need to exist. Please accept our gratitude.

READ: Genesis 8:15-9:3

Gratitude is the memory of a glad heart.

Bible in a Year: Ezekiel 33-34 and 1 Peter 5