End Time Harvest: Barley, Wheat, and Grapes

[PastorMike]

End Time Harvest: Barley, Wheat, and Grapes​

1 Cor 10:32 Give none offence, neither to the Jews, nor to the Gentiles, nor to the church of God.

The traditional view of the Harvest at the end of the age is that there is only one harvest, and then comes the end. That is not correct.

Scripture shows that the one harvest actually consists of three separate phases that differ in timing, as well as in the crop harvested. These are the three phases of the harvest –

· First the barley harvest,
· Next the wheat harvest,
· Then the grape harvest.

Matt. 13:39 The harvest is the end of the age;

The Barley Harvest and Rapture of the Saints

During the growing season there is a first fruits growth that comes up in the field first. This crop is to be an offering to the Lord. It is to be tied with a red cord or a sheave to make it well known to all who are in the field that it is an offering to the Lord. We, as Christians are the first fruits of the field of harvest. We are marked by the Holy Spirit as belonging to our Lord. Jesus was the first fruit and we will follow after Him.

These who believe are the barley grain. Barley grain is a soft seed. In days of old when they wanted to separate the grain from the chaff they would put the barley in a windy place and they would throw the barley into the wind and the wind blew away the chaff. This process is called winnowing. It would easily separate the two and would give them the pure grain. This is what we (believers) are like.

We are soft and pliable in the hands of the Lord to be corrected and re-aligned by the wind of the Spirit….


What is the Significance of Barley in the Bible?

Let’s look at passages that mention barley. We have already seen that the barley, because it matures early, represents the first fruits, a symbolic representation of the first people to mature spiritually to bring forth the fruits of the kingdom that God requires.

In John 6 Jesus fed the five thousand at the time of Passover (John 6:4) with five barley loaves and two fish (John 6:9). Later, Jesus told His disciples to:

…gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing be lost. (John 6:12)

Just as the twelve baskets of barley fragments were gathered so that nothing would be lost, so also the barley company, which was broken to feed the people, will be raised up at the last day of this present age.

Twelve is the Biblical number of divine government. The barley people will be taken to heaven to rule and reign with Christ.

1 Cor. 15: 20-23 But now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since by man came death, by Man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive. But each one in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, afterward those who are Christ's at His coming.

We believe we will be part of the catching away (or Rapture) with Christ Jesus during this time. We will not experience the wrath of the 7-year Tribulation period:

1 Thess. 5:9-10 For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, that whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with Him.

What is the Significance of Wheat in the Bible?

Pentecost occurred fifty days after Passover. The wheat harvest ripened at Pentecost. (Exodus 34:22) On that day the high priest was to offer to God two loaves (of wheat bread) baked with leaven.

A significant Old Testament passage dealing with the wheat harvest is found in the story of Saul’s coronation as the first king of Israel (1 Sam 9-12). The people had demanded a king before David was born, so God gave them Saul to reign over them. The kingdom was flawed because it was mixed with leaven. Saul was crowned on the day of Pentecost, in Samuel’s coronation speech he says in 1 Sam 12:17

…Is it not the wheat harvest today?

That is, it was the day the two loaves of wheat bread were being offered to God, denoting the beginning of wheat harvest.

Saul started out doing what was right, but in the second year of his reign he disobeyed God, and as a result he became disqualified to rule Israel. (1 Sam 13:1,13,14).

When Saul was crowned on Pentecost, Samuel prophesied thunder and rain that day. Rain on Pentecost was very unusual and would have been regarded by the people as judgment, even as Samuel obviously intended because of the wickedness of the Israelites in asking for a king.

1 Sam 12:17 Is it not the wheat harvest today? I will call to the Lord, that He may send thunder and rain. Then you will know and see that your wickedness is great which you have done n the sight of the Lord by asking for yourselves a king.

In the New Testament, John the Baptist makes reference to the wheat harvest in Matt. 3:11-12 I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance; but He that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear; He shall baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.

Whose winnowing fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly purge His threshing floor and gather His wheat into the barn, but He will burn up the chaff with fire that cannot be put out.

The baptism of fire on the wheat represents a purification process that is judgment upon sin in order to bless the individual. It is often painful but acceptable when one knows that God is working all things out for our good.

Rev. 7:9 After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could number, of all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, with palm branches in their hands...

Rev. 7:13-14 Then one of the elders answered, saying to me, Who are these arrayed in white robes, and where did they come from? And I said to him, Sir, you know. So he said to me, These are the ones who come out of the great tribulation, and washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.

So we see in the above passages this wheat harvest will be a very great harvest, of those who missed the first harvest but came through the tribulation…

Wheat is a tougher grain than barley. Thousands of years ago, farmers used a tool called a tribulum to separate the chaff from their wheat. Our word tribulation comes from it. It takes a tribulum to break the seed from the chaff. It goes through a breaking process to be separated from the chaff…

We have a God who loves us so much that He sent His only Son, Jesus to come in the flesh and dwell among men, to die for us as a perfect sacrifice with all the sins of the past, present and future upon Himself, and taking the stripes upon His back, shedding His precious blood, was buried, raised, and ascended into heaven, sitting at the right hand of the Father and making intercession for us. He did it all for us!

Just as the ancient farmers used a tribulum to separate the chaff from their wheat, God will use the Tribulation to separate the chaff from the lives of the tribulation saints at this time.

The final Harvest and the Second Coming of Jesus Christ!

The last harvest will be the grape harvest. The grapes have to be crushed to be made into New Wine.

Rev. 14:18 And another angel came out from the altar, which had power over fire; and cried with a loud cry to him that had the sharp sickle, saying, Thrust in thy sharp sickle, and gather the clusters of the vine of the earth; for her grapes are fully ripe.

Rev. 14:19 And the angel thrust in his sickle into the earth, and gathered the vine of the earth, and cast it into the great winepress of the wrath of God.

The winepress with the treading of the grapes in the winepress, is a type of God’s wrath and judgment. The purpose of the grain harvests of spring (barley and wheat) is to provide bread for God’s communion table.

The purpose of the feast of Tabernacles with its celebration of the winepress is to provide the wine for God’s table. Without this wine, His communion table would have only bread and would be incomplete. God will have His wine, but it must come by means of the winepress, which speaks of the judgment of God.

God harvests His barley, wheat, and grapes in different manners, even as nature teaches us. The chaff from the barley falls away very easily, so barley is winnowed. The action of the wind itself is sufficient to get rid of the chaff. This speaks of the barley company, who quickly respond to the wind of the Spirit.

To remove the chaff from the wheat requires threshing. This is a more severe action, but it does the job. It depicts the fact that this group will be harvested by means of judgment, or tribulation. The Latin word, tribulum, is a threshing instrument.

Finally, to obtain the juice the grapes must be trodden under foot. Grapes do not have chaff, but they do have flesh that must be pressed severely in order to obtain the wine. This represents the most severe form of judgment upon the unbelievers. Yet the result is that God obtains wine for His communion table.