Planting and harvesting

Q.What does planting and harvesting represent spiritually? Why does the land represent and why would it need a Sabbath rest. I understand these physically, but what do these things mean spiritually?

A.One of the things that believers have lost is the ability to interpret the scriptures using well established Bible symbols. There is the literal meaning and many times there are underlying spiritual messages to the verse or story being presented.

There are thousands of examples for this and it was used by Yeshua in His parables and Paul used it quite often. For instance Yeshua said that just as the serpent was lifted up on a pole, so shall the Son of Man be lifted up, it was a type. The sower and the seed is another example. The whole Passover story is a type, as is the Sabbath and all the festivals. Every story in the scriptures has a spiritual application. One rule is to take a story literally, unless the context is obviously not going to let you do that. For example, John saw a 7-headed beast arising out of the sea.

Well, he didn't actually see this literally, but in a vision of what G-d was doing in the book of Revelation. So, back to your question. What is mentioned in scripture means something. Names mean something, look them up. Directions mean something. For instance, east means away from G-d, west is approaching G-d, north is the direction relating to intelligence and wisdom, whether good of bad.,south is the direction of faith. Harvesting/reaping has to do with labor and rewards. Here is another key.

Earth means genuine faith of the believer, land means profession, whether genuine of false, and ground means society in general. So, look to see what word is used and you will have a key to how to interpret the verse. Sabbath rest is easy to understand. It speaks of resting from our own works, that's why we are commanded to rest on the 7th day each week. G-d is communicating a spiritual principle. To be in Him, we are to rest from our own works.and trust Him. Sadly, so-called believers don't follow this commandment and follow their own works (Sunday) which comminicates to G-d that they don't believe or trust Him.

They work on Saturday because they don't trust the L-rd to meet their needs the other 6 days. Many Christians say they believe that Sunday is the Sabbath, meaning rest, but then go out and buy and sell, eat in restaurants causing others to work, so they not only have the day wrong, they don't even follow their own beliefs.

There are hundreds of symbols in the scriptures that will help you understand what the L-rd is saying. Eating has to do with satisfaction, Babylon is the world of false religion. Male has to do with the activity of the will, female the submission of the will, Jerusalem is a picture of the heart, leprosy sin, a jawbone is strength, donkey is the old nature, concubines are symbolic of going beyond the written word. When G-d uses Israel it relates to spiritual blessings while Jacob relates to the physical.

The first born relates to the flesh, while the second born relates to the spiritual, that's why it was Isaac over Ishmael, Jacob over Esau, Joseph over Reuben, Ephraim over Manasseh, etc. Israel is represented by three trees in scripture, the vine relates to the Exodus period, the fig tree relates to Israel during the kings and up to this modern era, and the olive tree to Israel when Messiah comes, a mountain is symbolic of kings and kingdoms. Garments are related to righteousness, green is life, black is famine and the list goes on and on. A valley is seen as a place of service and fruitfulness. So, planting and harvesting relate to service with the word, teaching and planting that word in others, harvesting is the benefit people receive from that word. Letting the land rest relates to the fact that if your faith is genuine, you will rest on the Sabbath literally, and spiritually rest from our own works to obtain salvation.

The Sabbath principle relates to not only people, but to the land, which is symbolic of profession, either genuine or false. Our congregation is studying the scriptures using these symbols to see the underlying messages G-d has, and it gives much needed insight into some very curious stories that have puzzled people for years. Once you understand the types and symbols, then you will understand why G-d told people to do the things they did. We are going verse by verse through the Torah and other books pointing out the meanings to all these things. There are thousands of them, but the L-rd expects us to understand them. The book of Daniel and Revelation is nothing but these symbols. I hope this helps.