When Jesus sent out the seventy-two, he sent them ahead of him into the towns he would later enter to let people know that the kingdom of God was near. Before he sent them he famously said this, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest” (Luke 10:2 ESV). Jesus immediately warned them that he was sending them out as lambs in the midst of wolves.
Jesus instructed them to take nothing with them–“no moneybag, no knapsack, no sandals, and greet no one on the road” (vs. 4). The reason he instructed them to do so was to rely fully on the “Lord of the harvest.” Oftentimes, we lack workers because people don’t view the spiritual harvest as the Lord’s. They view it as their own, and they are the lords of their own harvest. When we become the lords of our own harvest, we think we don’t need to show up. Or we doubt in our own ability to succeed. Whatever the reason, the result is the same–there cannot be a harvest.
But as soon as we recognize that the harvest is God’s and he is the Lord of the harvest, we begin to work. And we work happily and start seeking other workers. There is every indication that the harvest is plentiful this year. We, too, need to pray for workers to gather up the harvest.