Leviticus 23:39

"Howbeit, on the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when ye have gathered in the fruits of the land, ye shall keep the feast of Jehovah seven days: on the first day shall be a solemn rest, and on the eighth day shall be a solemn rest. And ye shall take you on the first day the fruit of goodly trees, branches of palm trees, and boughs of thick trees, and willows of the brook; and ye shall rejoice before Jehovah your God seven days. And ye shall keep it a feast unto Jehovah seven days in the year: it is a statute forever throughout your generations; ye shall keep it in the seventh month. Ye shall dwell in booths seven days; all that are home-born in Israel shall dwell in booths; that your generation may know that I made the children of Israel to dwell in booths, when I brought them out of the land of Egypt: I am Jehovah your God. And Moses declared unto the children of Israel the set feasts of Jehovah."

These instructions pertain to the Feast of Tabernacles (booths). The mention of the "fruit of goodly trees" (Leviticus 23:40) does not have the usual meaning of "fruit," but is a reference to the appropriate branches to be used for constructing the booths. The mention of the willow tree, for example, proves this, because it was not a FRUIT tree at all. The palm, the willow, and other types of trees would have provided what was needed.

"When ye have gathered in the fruits of the land ..." This specific mention of the harvest is significant.

If Pentecost typified the first-fruits of the world's harvest in the ingathering of an election from all nations (Jews and Gentiles), the completion of that Harvest in the great spiritual ingathering final and universal must be typified by the Feast of Tabernacles.[27]

The harvest metaphor so often utilized by Jesus Christ justifies such an analogy. We shall conclude this chapter with a prophetic picture of the Final Judgment of mankind set forth in the terminology of the harvest metaphor:

"And another angel came out from the temple, crying with a great voice to him that sat on the cloud, Send forth thy sickle, and reap: for the hour to reap is come; for the harvest of the earth is ripe." (Revelation 14:15,16)