Praises to God and our Lord Christ, and warm greetings Doves.....

FOUR MONTHS TO HARVEST

I have noted this before, buy hey, why not again.....
with some new thoughts.....
In the following verse:

John 4:35 - Say not ye, There are yet four months, and then cometh harvest? behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest.

In this verse, our Lord says to the deciples "say not ye"; in other words, "don't let me hear you saying......" that there are yet four months to the harvest (and we all know that the harvest is the end of the age because elsewhere He said: )

Matt 13:39 - The enemy that sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the world; and the reapers are the angels.

So, He is speaking about a harvest that happens in four months, and another harvest that is "already ripe to harvest".  The harvest that happens at the end of the age, is reaped by angels, which is made abundantly clear in the book of Revelation, where the angels set about to confound the wise in many different ways.  Whereas the earlier harvest four months prior is "white", and ready to harvest.

Now which type of field harvest is "white"......I would conjecture here that it is barley, fully ripened, which I have seen at various agricultural websites that I have searched out, is actually white when ready to harvest.   Wheat is "golden" as we know from some national song or other.   We know that Pentecost celebrates the "firstfruits" of the wheat harvest, so this is the beginning of the wheat harvest, but it is not fully ripe, or white,  rather, it is ready to begin the summer harvest of the wheat.

So He says "say not ye", referring to the fall harvest, because it is not four months between the barley and wheat harvest, so the only harvest four months off starts in the fall, which commences at the Feast of Trumpets.   Yet, He is not referring to the Pentecost "beginning"of wheat harvest either, because that is golden, not white.

The only conclusion I can arrive at is that He is referring to a fully ripe barley harvest (which occurs the same time as the flax harvest....thus the material with which to fashion our white linen gowns).

Now, here He refers to the growth of a plant for harvest:

Mr 4:28 -  For the earth bringeth forth fruit of herself; first the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear. 29 But when the fruit is brought forth, immediately he putteth in the sickle, because the harvest is come.

And this harvest (of a particular grain), is dealt with by Him as "immediately", or quickly, while it is ripe, and He does not indicate that angels have anything to do with this particular ripe harvest.

When He was talking about the wheat and the tares, however, He said something ominous:   that the "harvest" would be at the end of the age, and would be done by "angels"...thus separating the wheat from the tares.

Wait, though, before I get lost here, back to the ripe harvest that is white, and comes four months before the fall harvest which represents the last gathering in of the wheat and summer fruits, begun at Trumpets, and celebrated at the 7-day feast of Tabernacles,,,

The white harvest is ripe.   Christ is the "firstfruits", of the BARLEY harvest.......if He was the firstfruits of this particular plant, then there must be a full gathering in of the barley, as seen in the book of Ruth, which just precedes the gathering in of the wheat (done by the angels, not by the Lord Himself), and we are told that "the Lord HIMSELF, will descend from heaven with a shout, etc...) and gather together his people at the rapture.   This fits with the IMMEDIATE fully ripe plant that gets the sickle put to it.

So Jesus is telling His deciples, and therefore us also, don't look out to the later summer / fall  harvests...there is an earlier one, white to harvest.   It has to be the ripe barley, and we are told that we are a "kind" of firstfruits, therefore perhaps of the same sort of grain as our Lord; i.e., barley.

Now, it is very interesting to me indeed, that we are once again  all looking for the appearance of our Lord in the air, on the date of May 5, 2005.   According to the Christian calendar of feasts.   If our feast schedule holds true, then we would look four months and see what is happening there:
Four months after 5/5/05, just happens to be September 5-6, 2005:  THE FEAST OF TRUMPETS this year.   If the Jewish calendar prevails, then this same four months would apply being roughly, ascension day about the 4th of June, until the Feast of Trumpets on October 5-6.   Either way, it is four months.    If we use Pentecost as the date instead of Ascension day, ten days early, then there would be ten days missing from the full four months.

Further: quoted from:  http://www.gods-kingdom.org/barley/chap2.htm

Rom. 11:16, 16 For if the first fruit be holy, the lump is also holy; and if the root be holy, so are the branches.The first fruits always sanctified the harvest. When the first fruits of a crop, whether barley or wheat, were offered to God, then the people could go home and harvest the rest of that crop. For this reason, James tells us that the Church is the first fruits of creation. When the Church is “harvested” and brought into God’s house, it is not the end of the world, but the beginning of a greater harvest.

Jesus said, "I am the vine ye are the branches",,,so we are like Him, also the same type of grain.   The wheat field on the other hand is full of tares and has to be dealt with by the angels at the end of the age.

To close,,,,go here:

http://www.users.qwest.net/~zadok1/barl2002.html

and scroll down - and notice the color of the barley harvested by the huge combine machine.......

May 5, 2005 !!!!!   We hope, we pray, we wait, and we watch....
Love to all,,,,Arlene

By the way, in the quoted verse John 4:35,,,Jesus when He was talking about the white fields says,,,,,"lift up your eyes, and look".....we are told in Luke 21, also to "look up, for your redemption draws nigh....",,,,,,and also of Abraham somewhere (don't know where but could find it if challenged),,,,it also says, "And he (Abraham) LIFTED UP HIS EYES, and saw the city afar off".....
I think when we lift up our eyes, we will see the city somewhat nearer than he did...........................................