Dear John, Steve, and all doves,
      Our Master said "Four months more and then the harvest? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest." This is from John 4:35. To be sure it is about the salvation and harvest of people. There is also a context of when one can see fields are ripe for harvest in Israel. According to the scriptures there are 7 species or main crops. The first to mature would be barley, in between First and Second Passovers. Then would be the wheat and then the fruits after them. The late summer and autumnal fruits would be grapes, pomegranates, figs and so on. The last to mature would be olives. There is only one period of the year with an appropriate 4 month gap between two great harvest periods. That would be between the first of the 7, the barley, and the harvest of grapes. How curious the bracketing is between barley and grapes! The harvest number 2 of the wheat is there by implication yet not mentioned. The first harvest is the bride/barley and then the wheat/tribulation saints and then the grapes/ harvest of the grapes of His wrath. This follows, in a broad outline, the harvests in the Book of Revelation! The harvest of preference should be the harvest of the bride/barley/Philadelphians. They are that percentage of the one house of faith, the firstlings/firstfruits of the 7 that is promised the open door.
      When the barley harvest is nearly complete the fields look white with the white heads of barley grain. White is a lovely color. It is the color of the bride, the saints dressed in clean linen, the lily of the valley, and the clouds of heaven. There is a kind of gentle harvesting with a winnowing fork tossing it above oneself. This completion comes between the First and Second Passovers. The next would be a wheat or Pentecost harvest.
      The harvest of wheat was done in days of old with a board called the tribulum. The stalks of wheat are struck against it. The manner of harvest is not poetic and gentle. It has an element of greater force and violence. The heads of grain fall off violently. Does this not depict the deaths of the wheat/ saints during increasing and greater tribulation? The tribulum will seem to be everywhere. That is where the wheat will have to go to be harvested. No exceptions will be allowed.
      After the barley and wheat harvests comes the harvest of grapes. This can be associated with future events of the outpouring of His wrath.
      The colors change from white to gold and then to red and purple. In Revelation we read of golden cups of abominations and the whore of Babylon dressed in scarlet and purple. White seems to be the color which is most attractive. By association, the other colors have a quality of degradation.
      Thank you Steve for all your  work in studying The Word. It helps me to be inspired to want to be part of the bride/white/barley first harvest of all to come. It seems to me that now until summer will be a time for our fields to become ripe with eternal harvest.  As our Master the Christ/ Messiah said "What I say to you I say to all. WATCH!" Like Rob in Florida, may we be Awaiting My Everything.

With Love and Shalom,
Jean Stepnoski