The Harvest

"Do you not say, 'There are still four months and then comes the harvest'? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for they are already white for harvest!- John 4:35

Then He said to His disciples, "The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few.  "Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest."- Matthew 9:37-38

Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying: "Whom shall I send, And who will go for Us?" Then I said, "Here am I! Send me."- Isaiah 6:8

Revelation 14 reveals two distinct harvests that will one day be reaped.  We often forget that the ultimate reaping time is coming.  We pour our time and labor into cultivaing and caring for things that have no eternal significance or impact for God's kingdom.  American Christians are especially notorious for this.  We take our worldly "crop" and dress it up so that we can present it to our King as something worthwhile pretending that we have been obedient and devoted followers.  Isn't this what Cain did?

Everyday our lives connect with others and we pay no attention at all unless there is something for us to gain.  We forget that Jesus is our reward and that the Harvest is His reward.  The field is the world around us.  We are the laborers sent into the field to sow the gospel through the Word of God.  Why don't we realize this?  It is because we have been numbed and dumbed.  We are desensitized by all of the stuff we engage in and the influence of all this directs us to water down, compromise, and make excuses.  Oh yes . . . we come up with real good sounding excuses . . . at least to us.  What we need is a refresher course in holy motivation!

The prophet Isaiah witnessed the holiness of the Lord and became aware of his own wretchedness as well as those around him.  It is this vision of holiness and wretchedness that prompted his eager response to the call to labor in the field.  We need to capture a glimpse of God's holiness and the wretchedness of humanity so that we too will be motivated to become laborers in the Lord's field.  The problem is that this experience most certainly brings discomfort and we are not prone to seek after experiences that are unpleasurable and uncomfortable. . . and all the while the field passes us by and people quietly slip off into eternity.  Oh that we the church will awaken from our fruitless, passionless, and powerless slumber!  The field is ready for the King's laborers and reaping time is coming!