The harvest

Thinking of harvest has made sense of a couple of dreams that I had last year. One in around February and the other in October. I wrote of the first one in the last blog. I will expand on that one a little here and introduce another one which I believe is related.

I was considering that Arnott (see Freak wave post) means barley. I ask myself the question what is barley? Does it have biblical significance? It looks like there may be numerous barley references in the bible. There are examples below.

Barley (שְׂעֹרָה, se’orah). A grain crop widely cultivated in Egypt (Exod 9:31) and Palestine (Lev 27:16; Deut 8:8). Barley was used as food for both animals and people (Num 5:15; Judg 7:13; 1 Kgs 4:28; John 6:9). It was typically harvested in March or April, (a coincidence that lockdown has occurred at this time?) around the time of Passover (Ruth 1:22; 2 Sam 21:9).

Lexham Bible Dictionary

Barley is the food of the common folk. Bread food made of barley meal or wheat flour, usually baked daily for that day’s needs. Ceremonial bread and the bread of wealthy people was made from wheat, but the poor ate the cheaper and coarser bread made from barley (Gen. 18:6; Exod. 29:2; John 6:9). Barley is the poor man’s grain.

In England we use the term poor as an expression of sympathy. In this sense I felt for the family. ‘Poor family about to be wiped out! What can I do?‘

After reading about barley and the harvest I dozed off and dreamt the following dream.

I was looking out of the back window and there was a woman with me. I don’t remember her so much apart from her being middle aged, yet older than me.

It was a very damp autumnal leafy scene. By the tree which was growing out of our lawn was a rather sleepy bedraggled looking large damp mouse. Gingery in colour like our old hamster Chewie. In fact it could have been a hamster. It looked like it had been disturbed from sleep but wasn’t properly awake either. It looked like it was ill too. It was trying to stretch out. Come to think of it it was probably old.

I thought I needed to get a picture so I used my phone and took one. I then realised that the the mouse looked sleepy. It was not just one mouse! It was a mummy mouse with a youngster who had been hidden away underneath. In fact there were two mice. They were all looking rather sleepy.

I got the camera again quickly and began to try and zoom in better but couldn’t get focussed as I had zoomed in so close.

At the same time this was going on I was having a conversation about this scenario with the woman in the house with me. She was just opening a window as it was rather stuffy in the house.

I was showing her the picture and could see on the picture that there was possibly another mouse but it wasn’t that obvious even though I had clearly seen a youngster or two.

Somehow she’d gone outside to the left hand side of the garden. I thought she’d disturb them and they’d go away. When I looked again at the base of the tree where there had been movement, with the mice beginning to disentangle themselves from their mother – there was only a faint hint of their presence.

I noticed a big gap in the tree at the base, like the tree when it was younger had divided into two parts and then grown back in on itself.  I concluded they had gone into the gap where there was also some leaves. I looked around the base of the tree but didn’t see any other sign of them. There was a pile of leaves by the side of the tree that looked like it had been raked up.

The dream was so vivid I thought I was awake.

Here are some of the thoughts that have come out of pondering this dream. You may see other things feel free to use them in your prayers.

At this current time of lock-down many of us are at home, watching and waiting. We have time to catch up on home things. Take stock of our lives. Consider our place in the kingdom of God. The church has an opportunity to look to the needs of the world. Also to ask what the Lord requires of us. We may have become tired with the cares of this world – like the mouse. We have opportunity to become more established in him and hide in the secret place of his presence. Hide in the cleft.

This mouse dream is a very singular dream. I had been considering rest (a biblical theme) as I pondered the wave dream. One of the boys in the dream means rest and the other means gift of Yahweh. As the church we have this time to rest and recuperate we also have the gift of the Holy Spirit living in us. We can extend his kingdom in new ways at this time.

In both of the dreams I write about there is a mother with her two children. A mother is someone who nurtures and protects, one who looks out for her children. It is significant to intercession. Mother’s birth children. They nurture and protect. The Lord wants to birth new realities through us. He yearns like a mother over us his people as he wants everyone to be part of his family.

In the last post I write about being watchful in prayer. There’s a call for us as the church to intercede. To join in with what the Holy Spirit and Jesus do in their work of intercession.

The intercession of the Holy Spirit may be illustrated by the work of the mother, who teaches her child to pray by putting words into his mouth or by suggesting subjects for prayer. “The whole Trinity is present in the Christian’s closet; the Father hears; the Son advocates his cause at the Father’s right hand; the Holy Spirit intercedes in the heart of the believer.” Therefore “When God inclines the heart to pray, He hath an ear to hear.” The impulse to prayer, within our hearts, is evidence that Christ is urging our claims in heaven. 

Systematic Theology Logos 8

The tree is the place to hide for the mice, this is where they were safe. They were hidden in the gap like Moses in the cleft of a rock this is where he met Yahweh.

The idea of the poor was floating around my mind. The common folk who are the ones who get sidelined. Jesus has compassion on them.

And he lifted up his eyes to his disciples and* said, “Blessed are the poor, because yours is the kingdom of God.
The only way to receive the kingdom is like a child. Luke 6:20 (LEB)

It is the humble devout who need the Lord’s help.

Jesus’ teaching also assumed the kingdom was a future reality. While His disciples expected the kingdom to appear immediately, Jesus changed their expectations by telling them a parable about a ruler who had to leave before he could return to his kingdom (Luke 19:11–27). He described what good and faithful servants could do in the meantime. Paul spoke of the kingdom as something that could be inherited (1 Cor 6:9–10) and that does not perish (1 Cor 15:50). These examples testify to the kingdom of God as a future reality.

Faithlife Study Bible

Humble yourself under the mighty hand of God and he will exalt you in due time.

The mouse in the dream is humble. It comes from a word meaning insignificant. Literally on the ground. 

Moving on here to discuss the harvest which is something else that is brought out in the dream.

Harvest is both a noun and a verb. The harvest is ready now and we can be partners in gathering the harvest in. The word harvest comes from an old English word for autumn or as the Americans say – fall. I had the dream in the autumn period which gives it more impact.

I think the fall of leaves has something to do with being gathered up. Another word for harvest is ingathering. The leaves which have fallen are all gathered up into one place.

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary(n.) The act or business of gathering or collecting anything; especially, the gathering of the fruits of the earth; harvest.

Bible Hub

At the end of the year all is gathered in. This word picture of a pile of leaves is a picture of gathering in. Autumn is the time after the harvest or for some the time of harvest. At the end of the year all is gathered in. This word picture of a pile of leaves is a picture of gathering in.

I think the hymn below is very relevant to this post. It speaks of material and spiritual harvest. The Lord is at work in this time using his church to expand the kingdom in ways that we would have never quite expected.

1 Come, ye thankful people, come, raise the song of harvest home; all is safely gathered in, ere the winter storms begin. God our Maker doth provide for our wants to be supplied; come to God’s own temple, come, raise the song of harvest home.

2 All the world is God’s own field, fruit as praise to God we yield; wheat and tares together sown are to joy or sorrow grown; first the blade and then the ear, then the full corn shall appear; Lord of harvest, grant that we wholesome grain and pure may be.

3 For the Lord our God shall come,and shall take the harvest home; from the field shall in that day all offenses purge away, giving angels charge at last in the fire the tares to cast; but the fruitful ears to store in the garner evermore.

4 Even so, Lord, quickly come,bring thy final harvest home; gather thou thy people in, free from sorrow, free from sin, there, forever purified, in thy presence to abide; come, with all thine angels, come, raise the glorious harvest home.
United Methodist Hymnal, 1989

Jesus likens the kingdom of God to a mustard tree which starts out very small and grows up and the birds of the air rest in its branches. In my dream garden there is a tree that I can’t see the top of. This tree is reaching up to the heavens. Trees in the bible represent kingdoms.

The dream is highlighting the need to look out for the harvest to partner with the harvesters through prayer and any actions we can do wherever we are able in advancing Jesus’ kingdom.

Here is a link to a document which is a response from Tearfund on the current crisis.