God of the Harvest (Acts 14:14-18)

Paul and Barnabas did not appreciate the response of the people in Lystra to the miracles performed before them. The Lystrians concluded that two of their gods had come to visit them and therefore they wanted to celebrate their arrival. The apostles responded by reminding them of what the true God had done for them, even although they had not known about him. As they did so, they mentioned how the Lord had sent them harvests of fruitful seasons. He had done this to witness to himself. Of course, Paul is not only speaking about harvests when he refers to the Lord’s bounty in creation, but he would have included harvests within the scope of the divine kindness.

According to Luke in his introduction to the Book of Acts, Jesus arranged this set of circumstances as part of the process of evangelism in the area by Paul and Barnabas as they took the gospel to a pagan community. The people there had no concept of the gospel and were in the grip of idolatry. They had deduced that the gods had shown them special favour. What could Paul and Barnabas say to them to get them to think differently?

Four things about God

What did the apostles say about the true God in their response? They mention four details at least, always with the hope that the Holy Spirit was at work in the minds of his hearers. First, they say that the Lord is the living God in contrast to the lifeless idols that the people worshipped. They point out that it is foolish to think that the true God is like humans, which is what the people had assumed when they imagined that two of their gods had visited them. Surely, a God would be bigger than a creature or bigger than the Lystrians themselves.

Second, the apostles mention that the Lord is the creator of all things. Although their listeners would not have known this, they base their comments in this regard on the first chapter of Genesis where we learn from Moses that the Lord created three spheres: that of the heavens, the earth and the seas and had filled each of them with other things that he had created at that time. In the heavens he placed the stars, in the earth he created various levels of life, and he did the same in the seas which teemed with life. In each of those spheres, he had provided abundantly. The people could have affirmed that was the case by their general knowledge of the world.

Third, the apostles state that the Lord is the controller of history, and one aspect of that control is that he allowed all nations to walk in their own ways, ways that took them away from knowing the true God. As with the earlier point of God as the Creator, the apostles again base their statement on divine sovereignty on the message of the Old Testament which from one point of view is about how the Lord separated Israel from the other nations to be his special people who would live under his blessing. The outcome was that the nations had no divine guidance about life. They lived in spiritual darkness and revealed their darkness by replacing God with idols of various kinds.

Fourth, the apostles say to them that the Lord was the provider of all the harvests that they and their ancestors had experienced. Again, they base their comments on the teaching of the Old Testament, especially the covenant promise given to Noah by God after the flood about the continuity of seed time and harvest throughout the world.

The people did not know about the Old Testament, so the apostles do not mention it, yet everything they say to their hearers is from the Old Testament, which means that they based their instruction on the Scriptures. Here we have an example of how to speak about the God we serve to people who have no concrete knowledge of him. We don’t need to say initially where we find our beliefs, that they are in the Bible, but we are to say what the Bible says about the Lord that are not difficult for people to deduce from life.

Three things about harvests

As mentioned earlier, the apostles are not speaking only about harvests. Yet what they say does apply to harvests. They mention three details. First, harvests came and will come according to God’s plan. They did not happen every year and do not happen now by any other cause. The people of Lystra did not know about his plan and would have credited false gods with the orderly provision. This detail about his plan revealed his grace because the Lystrians did not do anything to deserve harvests. Instead, it was an expression of his common grace which he reveals to all people throughout time wherever they are.

Second, harvests testify to the goodness of God. All God’s attributes are involved in whatever he does, but often in situations a few of them are easier to discern than others. I suppose we could say that his wisdom is involved in providing harvests in such diverse places throughout the world or that his power is involved in enabling them to occur. But the apostles stress that the divine attribute revealed at harvest time is goodness.

What does the Bible say about divine goodness? A lot, but we focus on a few examples. First, the Old Testament links divine goodness and harvests several times. Listen to these verses. In Jeremiah 31:12, the prophet says that the captives in Babylon will ‘come and sing aloud on the height of Zion, and they shall be radiant over the goodness of the LORD, over the grain, the wine, and the oil, and over the young of the flock and the herd; their life shall be like a watered garden, and they shall languish no more.’ In Zechariah 9:17, the prophet says about God: ‘For how great is his goodness, and how great his beauty! Grain shall make the young men flourish, and new wine the young women.’

Second, the goodness of God extends beyond physical blessings such as harvests. Often, his goodness and mercy go together. At one stage in the journey of Israel through the desert, Moses asked to see the glory of God, and the Lord answered his request by saying that Moses would see the goodness of God. When the moment came for his goodness to appear, what Moses heard God speak about was his mercy (Exodus 33:19). And David mentions in Psalm 23 how goodness and mercy followed him all the days of his life, with all the ups and downs that came his way.

As we think about God’s goodness in harvests and in other ways, we should recall the words of Paul in Romans 2:4: ‘Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?’ Every field of wheat or barley that we see at harvest time is crying out that people should repent of their sins as they see the goodness of God to them before their eyes.

Third, harvests are a sign that reveal the Lord desires that his creatures should be happy. Note that Paul and Barnabas say that the Lord’s purpose in sending harvests to Lystra and everywhere else was to satisfy their hearts with food and gladness. Hendriksen makes this comment on this statement by the apostles: ‘God not only provides plenty of food for all his creation, but also fills man’s heart with joy. Even if sinful man neglects or refuses to express thanks for all God’s blessings, God nevertheless satiates the sinner’s heart with pleasure and delight.’ Calvin commented that the thrust of this verse is ‘that God doth give more to men, according to his infinite goodness, than their necessity doth require; as if it had been said, that men have meat given them not only to refresh their strength, but also to make their hearts merry.’

Obviously, we have here an aspect of what we call God’s common grace. Calling it common does not mean it is cheap. Calling it common is a reminder that it is a universal provision from the Lord for his undeserving creatures. Consider how many billions are going to experience happiness as they eat together at harvest time, rejoicing at God’s provision while ignorant of the God who has provided it all. We can bear in mind the words of Matthew Henry: ‘We must thank God, not only for our food, but for our gladness – that he gives us leave to be cheerful, cause to be cheerful, and hearts to be cheerful.’

Two things about ourselves

Praise intelligently. Psalm 65 seems to refer to two disconnected features of life. In the psalm, the author sings about Israel confessing their sin to God and the pagan nations celebrating their harvests. Yet we can see how proper the combination is. Forgiveness and food are provision of the God of heaven. Both are actions that reveal his goodness. While the world does not see God behind their provision, we do, and therefore we should thank God that he provides for all his creatures. We see the evidence of his goodness.

Pray intelligently. At Christmas time, we pray that people would see the real message connected to the birth of the Saviour. At this time of the year, with the harvest gathered in, we should pray that people would see the real message connected to the annual harvest. We can pray that they would start to think about why the harvests recur, why they bring happiness to people, why they meet our needs.

One thing to do

Speaking about God and his provisions in common grace is a useful introduction to evangelism. It is not direct evangelism because such evangelism takes us to the cross of Jesus. We can describe it as indirect evangelism or pre-evangelism. When we do so, we introduce people to the true God, the God who is able to then take those people on a search for him. Harvests can be part of the process of sinners finding mercy.