Summer is Ended
Ponder: One day it will be too late!
Scripture: “Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation” (2 Corinthians 6:2 NKJV).
Jeremiah, the “weeping prophet,” wrote these lines in Jeremiah 8:20 –
	The harvest is past
	The summer is ended
	And we are not saved.
Jeremiah wrote these words as he foresaw the impending invasion of his beloved homeland, Judah, by the dreaded Babylonians. His concern was not for the grain harvest or the summer season. It was that his people had squandered their opportunity to repent, return to God, and avoid the approaching devastation.
There is a season for harvest. When that season is over, it is too late. A crop left in the field deteriorates and is lost. Just so, Judah had been given her season to repent and turn back to God. She had stubbornly refused. Now it was too late. Judah’s condition had so deteriorated that God would tolerate her no longer. He would use Nebuchadnezzar’s army to wreak unspeakable horror upon Jerusalem and its inhabitants. Most would be slaughtered. The vast majority of survivors would be hauled off to Babylon to finish seventy long years of captivity.
The calendar says our summer has ended. Fall is here, with winter on the way. But God’s spiritual calendar says now is the time of harvest! “Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation (2 Corinthians 6:2). This is the time for us to learn and obey the gospel of Christ. Now is the time for us to teach our families, friends, and neighbors. Let us not squander our opportunities, lest we also lament, “The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved.”
Song: “Will You Not Tell It Today?”
Prayer: Father, we give You our praise and thanksgiving for the changing of the seasons. Help us, we pray, to use the season you give us to reach people with the saving gospel before it is eternally too late. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Joe Slater (Justin, TX)