Corners of the Field

There was a long interval between the feast of weeks and the next feast — from the third month to the seventh month.* This no doubt illustrates the period of the Church’s history, for just before the next yearly festival, there is a strange statement — “And when ye reap the harvest of your land, thou shalt not make clean riddance of the corners of thy field when thou reapest, neither shalt thou gather any gleaning of thy harvest: thou shalt leave them unto the poor, and to the stranger: I am the LORD your God” (Lev. 23:22).
This seemingly has no connection with the seven feasts; it appears to have been dropped in almost at random, but its very position is full of instruction for us. How will the Church’s history on earth end? With the harvest — the gathering of the redeemed of this age into the heavenly garner. What a blessed hope we have! This verse is undated, just as the hope of the Lord’s coming is undated in the New Testament. Nothing intervenes between the offering of the wave loaves and this 22nd verse. There is also an answer here for those who say that the Church must go through the great tribulation first, if only they would see it.
Soon the Lord shall come and gather the Church home, but there is going to be a little grain left in the field, in the corners. The poor Jew and the stranger Gentile who will believe in the coming King during the tribulation period, and suffer martyrdom, will also have a heavenly portion Revelation 20:4, in the JND Translation, gives the account of the two classes which will be raised from the dead for heavenly blessing at the end of the tribulation period, before the fulfillment of the fifth feast of Leviticus 23. The grain left in the corners of the field may also indicate the food of these tribulation martyrs who will apprehend the truth of the Scriptures regarding Christ as coming King.