The Hebrew for the Feast of Tabernacles is Sukkot, but it is also called “the Feast of Ingathering at the year’s end” twice. In each occurrence, the Feast of Ingathering is prefaced in association with the Feast of Weeks, “the firstfruits of your labors which you have sown in the field,” so that the entire year’s harvest of crops was attributed to YHWH’s faithfulness to His creation as the basis for His loyal chesed in redeeming humanity (Gen. 8:22; Exo. 23:16; 34:22). It is easy to see the link between the spring harvest and the fall harvest festivals as a celebration of foodstuffs gathered in. At the time of the Passover, the Feasts of Unleavened Bread, and the Feast of Weeks, the spring reaping was a harvest of barley and wheat. The autumn gathering in of crops, completed by the time of the seventh month’s four festivals, was of grapes, figs, dates, pomegranates, olives, and other fruits and vegetables, plus a small wheat yield. The gathering in of the fruit of one’s labors from the field has redemptive connotations. The first of any crop was always dedicated to YHWH as the firstfruits, making the rest of the Land’s harvest also holy, and there was always some of the harvest left in the field for the poor and the stranger to glean. In Israelite culture, the barley and wheat harvest could not begin until the first barley sheaf was brought to the priest and waved before YHWH. In the year of land Sabbath and the Jubilee, there was no sowing or harvesting of what grew of its own accord. This blog explores why the feast of the seventh month is termed the Feast of Ingathering.

Gathering is the opposite of scattering. Israel’s scattering among the nations happened to them because of unfaithfulness to their covenant vows to YHWH (Lev. 26:33; Deu. 4:27, 28:64; Psa. 44:11; Jer 9:16). Their idolatry and desecration of YHWH’s Sabbaths drove Israel from the Land into the nations where they still existed in Yeshua’s days (Eze. 20:23, Jas.1:1). When YHWH builds up Jerusalem, He will harvest/gather together the outcasts of Israel from the four cardinal directions, calling each to his inheritance by name, and set up a banner for the nations of His dispersed people (Psa. 147:2-4; Isa. 11:12; 43:5-7; 49:5-6; Jer. 29:11-14; 31:10; Eze. 11:17; 37:21-23; 39:27-29). This is similar to Numbers 1-4, the configuration of Israel’s Camp with each tribe under a banner of the four prime directions, and Numbers 26, 33:50-36, the land inheritance by lot for each of Israel’s family clans (without one name missing) assigned by the four compass points. Two events in Israel’s calendric culture pointed to the ingathering of Israel from the lands to which YHWH had exiled them because they defiled the Land of their inheritance with their harlotries.

Both events are tied to the Day of Atonements. In Leviticus 25:10 at the fifty-year Jubilee, “each man returned to the land of his possession and to his family” trumpeted on the Day of Atonements. The second event involved the release of an innocent murderer from a Levitical city of refuge after the death of the high priest: “The murderer will return to the land of his possession” and to his family (Num. 35:28). At the hour of our High Priest Yeshua’s death, the murderer Barabbas was released back into Israelite society. The sole actor on the day of Atonements, the high priest, was both the offering and the offeror who restored cosmic order by returning Israelites to their tribal land allotment¹. He was sacrificed, making atonements with His own blood, yet He lived. The high priest’s atoning blood sacrifice purified Israel and the Land² so that the holy YHWH could dwell among them in the same structural arrangement as His abode in the heavens. Through Israel’s holiness gained from the light of His face shining upon them, they received a blessing that would flow out to all the nations of the earth, turning the entire world into an Edenic garden filled with the Presence and abundance of the Creator God.

While the idea of gathering in is common to harvesting grain, vintage, fruit, and fish, which biblically relates to the redemption of people, it is also associated with a time of judgment (Gen. 1:9; 6:21; Mat. 3:12). The Feast of Ingathering celebrates YHWH gathering Israel out from all the nations where He has scattered them and planting them on His holy mountain. He makes them into a new threshing sledge with sharp teeth to thresh prideful nations and winnow them; the wind will carry them away, scattering the wicked until they are found no more, as chaff burned up by His fiery Word (Isa. 41:15; Jer. 23:28; Dan. 2:35).

Yeshua used the harvest symbolism as a metaphor for His preaching the gospel of the kingdom and healing every sickness in Israel’s people (Mat. 10:35-38; Mar. 1:17), sending His disciples out as laborers of His harvest (Luk. 10:2-3). When explaining the Parable of the Tares, He said the harvest is great at the end of the age, and the reapers are the angels sent out to gather out of His kingdom all things that offend, and those who practice lawlessness (Mat. 13:37,41). Yeshua had called His disciples to follow Him and become fishers of men (Mat. 4:19; Mar. 1:17), catching men (Luk. 5:10), collecting the good fish in baskets, and throwing away the bad fish. Separating or dividing out is an act of judgment and, ultimately, a way of purifying the earth so that YHWH, the Source of life and blessing, may dwell with humanity³. The ungodly are likened to chaff, which the wind drives away; therefore, they cannot stand in the judgment nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous (Psa. 1:4-5). We, too, have fled to Him for refuge and are detached from the Land, but with the hope of atonement through the High Priest’s death (Heb. 6:18). After Yeshua’s resurrection, Peter and the disciples caught a great catch of 153 fish, 12² + 3², on the Sea of Galilee (Jhn. 21:3-6).

Takeaway:
The Feast of Ingathering depicts a harvest of people because of the death and resurrection of the High Priest. He is the first of the harvest and through whom redemption of humanity and their return to Eden’s Land is possible. When the order of Israel’s tribes is restored to a full reflection of YHWH’s heavenly abode, when not one name is missing, God’s reign of holiness is reestablished upon the earth because the Land is purified by His blood.

Fun Factors:
Exo. 23:16 “And the Feast of Harvest, the firstfruits of your labors which you have sown in the field; and the Feast of Ingathering at the end of the year, when you have gathered in the fruit of your labors from the field” has 62 letters, 16 words, totaling 5013, 3² × 557, 3²(14² + 19²) or 42² + 57²; the product of 5013’s digits = 15, and the sum = 9; 557 is the 102 prime, and the 48^th Pythagorean prime (identical to the 48 Levitical cities);  5013 + 3105 = 8118, new beginning of life.

Exo. 34:22 “And you shall observe the Feast of Weeks of the firstfruits of wheat harvest, and the Feast of Ingathering at the year’s end” has 43 letters, 11 words, totaling 3838, 2 × 19 × 101, 38(10² + 1²); the product of 3838’s digits = 576, and the sum = 22; 101 = 26^th prime and 12^th Pythagorean prime, the 5^th centered decagonal number, indicating YHWH’s holy harvest of Israel’s tribes and all humanity.