Count off seven weeks from the time you begin to put the sickle to the standing grain. – Deuteronomy 16:9

Today's Scripture Reading (March 4, 2025): Deuteronomy 16

For those who live in warmer climates, it might seem impossible to farm in a land that basically gives you only one harvest. But where I live, snow remains on the ground late into the spring, making it impossible to grow most crops. And while every year is different, the cold and snow can return in late summer. Often, it seems from the outside that our farmers frantically plant as soon as the snow leaves the field and then frantically harvest in the fall, which includes many prayers that there would be enough dry days, absent of either rain or snow, to get the harvest out of the field. For a non-farmer like me, it seems that there is a lot of luck involved in the art of farming.

In Israel, there are essentially three harvests: one for barley, one for wheat, and a final one for grapes, dates, and figs. The barley harvest is the year's first harvest, beginning in March and April. During the dry season, the wheat harvest is taken from the land in May and June. The season's final harvest takes place in the summer heat of July and August, which is the harvest that features grapes, dates, and figs. Then, in September and October, as the rains come once again, the planting begins, and the cycle starts all over.

Moses speaks to the people of the planting/harvest cycle that is still yet to come. As he talks to the people, Israel is an itinerant community; they do not plant or harvest. They feed themselves by gathering the manna and likely anything else that grows wild in the wilderness that they can eat. But the day is coming, and now it is coming soon when Israel will stop their wandering and put down roots so they can begin to plant and harvest in a regular cycle. Here, Moses is laying out the festivals that will be celebrated in the new Israel. And one of those festivals is the Festival of Weeks or Pentecost. Moses tells the people that to understand the timing of this festival, they are to start counting when they begin to harvest the standing grain. The instruction would seem to indicate from the beginning of the Barley harvest, count seven weeks, or seven weeks plus one day, and celebrate the Feast of Weeks or Pentecost as the nation begins the wheat harvest.

For Christians, Pentecost does not have a harvest theme but a planting theme. Pentecost has often been called the birthday of the church, and while I am not convinced that is true, it is a celebration of the day that the Holy Spirit was poured out or planted in God's people: us. It celebrates the church's power, which is never us and always God. 

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Deuteronomy 17