For many years I lived in rural East Anglia in a very small village, a hamlet I suppose, surrounded by the fields, meadows, trees and hedgerows of countryside and farmland. We were used to observing the passing of the seasons as we saw the colours and contents of the landscape changing during the course of a year. The empty brown fields would start to show a flush of green over the winter months and then would burst into life in spring as crops grew, trees would green up as leaves budded and grew... By late spring and early summer we were into my favourite time of year when there was a vibrancy and freshness to the colours and a real sense of life. As summer passed, the colours would start to look a little faded and tired and the fields would gradually turn golden with ripe crops. Then the harvest would come, always a special time and, as autumn arrived, leaves would turn and fall so that by late autumn the landscape would look empty, brown and even desolate. But the cycle would soon begin again...

We expect to see harvests succeed abundantly in this country, but in many other countries today, and in times past in this country also, the prospect of a failed harvest is real. What a dreadful prospect to see the land failing to produce what people need to live through the coming winter months. But a harvest can also fail if the farmers do not act when they should to tend the crops and then to gather them in. If they don't do what they should...In Old Testament times, the people of Israel once cried out, "The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved" (Jeremiah 8:20). Jeremiah is writing about a deeper problem than a failed harvest. The people had turned from God to serve idols and God's anger with them was plain. He had warned them over and again about the perils of sin, He had warned them of His anger and of the consequences of sin and yet they did not repent. They did not do what they should - they did not turn from sin to God and seek forgiveness. Those unrepentant people now faced the reality of God's judgement on their sin. They had ignored His warnings in His Word, they had failed to act as they should, they had not turned to God for forgiveness and suddenly it was too late, God's patience ran out. It was as though they were farmers who realised - too late - that they had not done what they should by gathering in their harvest. "The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved." Winter is coming. 

In our day, God warns us in His Word that we too need to repent of our sins and turn to Him to seek mercy and forgiveness. He is willing to forgive because of Jesus Christ, who gave His life on the cross to pay the penalty for sin. But we do have to come to God, believing in Jesus as our Saviour. If we won't and don't, then we too will find God's patience has its limits and we too will find ourselves in the dreadful position of saying, "The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved". Too late. Don't let it be so, time is short but there is still time to seek the Lord.