Luke 10:2

Luk_10:2

The harvest truly is great

The gospel harvest

I.

THE STATE OF THINGS WHICH OUR LORD DESCRIBES.

1. A plenteous harvest.

(1) A great number of souls.

(2) Great diversity in souls.

2. This vast and varied crop is ready for the sickle. This is proved--

(1) By the moral and spiritual necessities of the world. A genuine philanthropist wants no other demand upon his efforts than the misery of His fellow men; and a genuine Christian requires no other proof that men are ready for the gospel than the fact that they need it. Here lay one of the great mistakes of the Church of a former age. She did not think of sending the gospel, because men did not clamour for it.

(2) But if our duty be plain in the presence of silent and uncomplaining woe, how much more when misery is suppliant and clamorous at our feet I The world is now conscious of its maladies; and knows full well what can heal them.

3. The labourers are few. They toil on, willing rather to die than to abandon their work. One and another drops and dies, exclaiming, as did the immortal Waterhouse, more missionaries! more missionaries! and the very heathen repeat and prolong the cry!

II. THE INJUNCTION FOUNDED ON THE ABOVE DESCRIPTION.

1. To whom are our prayers to be addressed? To the Lord of the harvest.

(1) He is the owner and proprietor of the harvest. They are bought with a price. The enemy had usurped possession of the great Creators claim.

(2) And must He not, therefore, take a deep, an unspeakable interest in them? Think you that He can be indifferent whether this harvest is reaped or not?

(3) And it is Gods absolute and inalienable right to choose and employ His labourers.

2. We are called, then, to pray that God would graciously exert His prerogative in the appointment of His own labourers to reap His own fields. What does this prayer imply?

(1) He exerts this prerogative, in part, by the inward operation of His Holy Spirit.

(2) We are to pray, not only that God would call and qualify, but also send out labourers into His harvest. And here we must bare regard to His mode of administration. He does for man what man cannot do for himself, but requires him to do all that is in his power. We cannot give the piety; and the intellectual and spiritual gifts; but it is our duty and privilege to furnish the means for sending the men whom God has raised up.

3. Does any one ask, Why, if God is the Lord of the harvest, having such exclusive prerogatives, and so deeply interested in the matter, He should be entreated to do that which it so nearly concerns His honour not to leave undone? We answer, Such sceptical inquiries become not the position of finite and mortal creatures. The objection would apply to all prayer for any blessing; and call in question the whole administration of heaven. (J. H. James.)

The abundance of the harvest, and the scarcity of the labourers

I. Let us first look at THE HARVEST. It is too vast to be taken within the verge of one short sermon. China, India, Burmah, and Japan, Africa, the West Indies, South America, Russian Tartary, Persia, and the islands of the South Sea--all this is too vast for our consideration at the present opportunity.

II. THE LABOURERS. The labourers are few. Let us consider--

III. THE SAVIOURS PLAN FOR INCREASING THE NUMBER OF THE LABOURERS.

1. We observe in the first place, that where persons offer this prayer in sincerity, they make a solemn acknowledgment that God must do all the work.

2. In the second place, when a minister and a congregation offer up this prayer and solemnly enter into its spirit, they mean that, when God raises up such men, they will furnish the means to convey them to the heathen, and support them when they get there.

3. In the third place, when young men utter this prayer, they mean that, if it is the will of God, they are ready to become labourers.

4. Observe, in the last place, that when Christian parents offer up this prayer, they express their willingness that their children should go. (R. Knill.)

Harvest ripeness

It is just to go and gather in Christs sheep that are scattered abroad all over the world. In the notion of a harvest we cannot rid ourselves of the idea of ripeness--and I shall take a twofold view of this. There are some of the Lords family, and it falls to my lot not unfrequently to meet with such in whom we cannot fail to discern the presence of life; their knowledge of themselves as sinners is manifest, their view of Christ as a Saviour is encouraging, and even their reliance upon Him--but there is a want of ripeness, there is a rawness, a greenness, a defectiveness, a youthfulness. The harvest is craning on, beloved; let us look to our ripeness, the ripeness of all our faculties, as exercised in the things of God, the ripeness of all the graces called into full exercise, so that faith shall no longer be like a grain of mustard seed, but like the ripe ear, waving and bending with its weight--so that love shall no longer be faint and glimmering, as if it were but a spark, but fanned to a flame, rising high, and soaring to its native source; so that humility shall no longer be a piece of mockery, something openly expressed but never felt, but that which debases the soul in its own esteem, and keeps it in the dust at the feet of Jesus; so that hope shall not be merely the hope of the hypocrite, but a sure and steadfast thing as the ripeness we speak of--Entering into that within the veil. Moreover, there is a ripeness in grace, and there is a ripeness in sin. The sickle is coming, beloved, and therefore examine which state of ripeness you are in. When God was about to destroy the seven nations of Canaan, and told Moses of His deferring it for a time, while the children of Israel travelled forty years in the wilderness, He gave this as the reason, that the iniquity of the Amorites was not quite full--their sin was not yet completely ripe. Moreover, I saw in some fields some fine heavy corn, which was sadly laid, as they call it, bent down to the ground, and not exposed to the sun, so that it will be a long time before it gets ripe. What a picture of a great number of real Christians! They are so earthbound, so fond of this world, so laid low in their grovelling desires after it, that they cannot be expected to get ripe very fast. That corn gets ripe the fastest that lifts its head the highest, and gets away from the ground and the weeds. Beloved, if you would be ripe Christians, I tell you that you must get it by being lifted above the world and its vanities, enjoying intimacy with God, fellowship with the Most High, aspiring to heaven, and enjoying communications from above. (J. Irons.)

The labourers and the field

Note here--

1. That Gods Church is a harvest field.

2. That the ministers of God are labourers in His harvest, under God, the Lord of the harvest.

3. That to God alone doth it belong to send forth labourers into His harvest, and none must thrust themselves in till God sends them forth.

4. That the number of faithful labourers is comparatively small and few.

5. That it is the Churchs duty to pray, and that earnestly and incessantly, to God the Lord of the harvest, to increase the number of faithful labourers, and to send forth more labourers into His harvest. (W. Burkitt.)

The husbandry of God

1. Great is the harvest.

2. Few are the labourers.

3. God alone can restore the just relation between harvest and labourers. (Van Oosterzee.)

God the Lord of the harvest

1. God determines the time of the harvest.

2. God appoints the labourers for the harvest.

3. God guards the success of the harvest.

4. God deserves the thank-offering of the harvest. (Van Oosterzee.)

The need of immediate workers

Captain Allen Gardiner, on the inhospitable coast of South America, where he slowly perished with hunger, in the hope of attracting the notice of some passing vessel, wrote on the cliff in large letters DELAY NOT, WE ARE STARVING. Years after, the words were seen; but it was too late, the bleached bones of the brave hero of the cross strewed the beach. Help had been delayed, and he had perished. The like cry of a dying world for the Bread of Life, ringing in the ears of the people of God who have enough and to spare, will surely not be much longer unheeded. A few have responded already, but what are these among so many? Oh that we would each one arise and do our utmost daily, expecting to see mighty results now! (J. C. Fullerton.)

A prayer for more labourers

Leonard Keyser, a friend and disciple of Luther, having been condemned by the bishop, had his head shaved, and being dressed in a smock-frock, was placed on horseback. As the executioners were cursing and swearing because they could not disentangle the ropes with which his limbs were to be tied, he said to them mildly, Dear friends, your bonds are not necessary; my Lord Christ has already bound me. When he drew near the stake, Keyser looked at the crowd and exclaimed, Behold the harvest! O Master, send forth Thy labourers! And then ascending the scaffold, he cried, O Jesus, save me! These were his last words. What am I, a wordy preacher, said Luther, when he received the news of his death, in comparison with this great doer of the Word? (J. H. M. DAubigne.)

Christs harvest and Christs reapers

I. CHRIST MEANT HIS SEVENTY DISCIPLES TO GO FORTH AND GATHER THAT WHICH HAD ALREADY GROWN AND RIPENED.

1. He saw a harvest of piety, for instance, waiting for Himself, and the proofs of His Messiahship.

2. I think He saw also another sort of harvest, or another element in that harvest--the moral element. There were many highly moral people living in the world who had become disgusted with religion and its priests.

II. THE CHARACTER OF THE HARVEST-MEN HE EMPLOYED. It is at once painful and disheartening to perceive that He did not select, either as individuals or as a class, the professed teachers of religion, He employed no class of men as such. He dealt only with persons and their individual consciences, and so acting, it is easy to discover the sort of people He could call and use as His harvest-men.

III. AS THESE WERE PEOPLE MORALLY AND SPIRITUALLY LIKE HIMSELF (TO SOME REAL EXTENT AT LEAST), HE WAS RESTRICTED GREATLY IN THE NUMBER OF GATHERERS, AS HE WAS RESTRICTED IN THE METHOD OF INGATHERING TO BE EMPLOYED.

IV. I REMARK UPON THE MODE IN WHICH THE HARVEST WAS TO BE GATHERED. HOW were the pious and the moral to be brought in? I might properly answer, on a principle of natural selection. They were to preach the gospel of Christ, and illustrate, enforce, and commend that gospel by the beauty and perfectness of their own holy lives. They would thus become witnesses for God, as He was a witness for God.

V. TAKE NOW THE PRACTICAL LESSON. Piety in you and me, who profess to be Christs real friends, is to attract whatever piety we come in contact with. There is plenty of unattached piety waiting to be attracted by you and me. The Lord sent out twelve, then seventy. That great world-clasping system we call Christianity had once so few supporters and missionaries.

Do you ask how many it wants now? I will tell you. It wants every man, woman, and child, into whose soul the grace of God has come, that every other life found in the vast field of human activity may be brought with a throb of love and a song of joy, s gathered ear all ripe and golden to the great Lord of the harvest of souls. (J. McDougall.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

10:2 The harvest refers to people who need to hear the Good News and be gathered to God’s presence (cp. Isa 27:12). There was urgency to the task, just as crops have to be brought in at the exact time when they are ripe. More workers were needed.

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Luk_10:2. Comp. Mat_9:37 f. First of all, Christ makes them apprehend the greatness of their task, and (Luk_10:3) their risk, and then gives them (Luk_10:4 ff.) rules of conduct.[128]

ὀλίγοι] notwithstanding your numbers, ye are still far from sufficient[129] ΠΡῸς ΤῸ ΠΛῆΘΟς ΤῶΝ ΜΕΛΛΌΝΤΩΝ ΠΙΣΤΕΎΕΙΝ (Euthymius Zigabenus)!

ἘΚΒΆΛῌ] In this is contained the importance, the urgency of the mission: should drive forth (comp. on Mar_1:12; 1Ma_12:27).

[128] But the prohibition against going to the heathens and the Samaritans, Mat_5:5, He does not give to the Seventy, and that for the simple reason that they had precisely to make the journey only as it was definitely marked out to them in ver. 1 (through Galilee). For this that prohibition would not have been at all appropriate.

[129] According to Weiss, Jesus, in respect of ὀλίγοι, must have thought originally of Himself, while Luke thought of the Twelve. The former view contradicts the words of the passage, the latter the context. But that the discourse was originally addressed to the Twelve does not follow from Luk_22:35, for the passage there alluded to is to be sought in Luk_9:3 (although with certain coincidences from Luk_10:4).

Meyer — Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament — English translation by Peter Christie, edited by Frederick Crombie (T&T Clark, 1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Luk 10:2-12 . The instructions .

Luk 10:2 . ὁ μὲν θερισμὸς : preliminary statement as to the need of men fit to take part in the work of preaching the kingdom, as in Mat 9:38 , vide notes there; a true logion of Jesus, whensoever spoken.

The Expositor's Greek Testament, edited by W. Robertson Nicoll (1897–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Vers. 2-16. The Discourse.

It falls into two parts: Instructions for the mission (Luk 10:2-12), and warnings to the cities of Galilee (Luk 10:13-16).

The instructions first explain the reason of this mission (Luk 10:2); then the conduct to be observed on setting out and during the journey (Luk 10:3-4), at the time of arrival (Luk 10:5-6); during their sojourn in the case of a favourable reception (Luk 10:7-9); finally, on their departure in the case of rejection (Luk 10:10-12).

Ver. 2.—“Therefore said He unto them, The harvest truly is great, but the labourers are few; pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that He would send forth labourers into His harvest.” Matthew has this utterance in chap. 9, in presence of the Galilean multitudes, and as an introduction to the sending of the Twelve. Bleek himself acknowledges that it is better placed by Luke. “The field is the world,” Jesus had said in the parable of the sower. It is to this vast domain that the very strong words of this verse naturally apply, recalling the similar words, Joh 4:35: “Look on the fields, for they are white already to harvest,” uttered in Samaria, and on the threshold, as it were, of the Gentile world. The sending of the new labourers is the fruit of the prayers of their predecessors. The prep. ἐκ in ἐκβάλλειν, thrust forth, may signify, forth from the Father’s house, from heaven, whence real callings issue; or, forth from the Holy Land, whence the evangelization of the Gentiles was to proceed. Following on the idea of prayer, the first meaning is the more natural.

Frédéric Louis Godet — Commentaries on Luke, John, Romans, and 1 Corinthians — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1870s–1890s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The harvest, &c.--(See on Mat 9:37).

pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he would send forth labourers into his harvest--(See on Mat 9:38).

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 2. That he would send forth] εκβαλη. There seems to be an allusion here to the case of reapers, who, though the harvest was perfectly ripe, yet were in no hurry to cut it down. News of this is brought to the Lord of the harvest the farmer, and he is entreated to exert his authority, and hurry them out; and this he does because the harvest is spoiling for want of being reaped and gathered in. See the notes on Mt 9:37-38.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(2) The harvest truly is great.—See Note on Mat_9:37. The verses that follow contain, as might have been expected from the analogous circumstances, much in common with those spoken on the mission of the Twelve. We have here, as in the sermons on the Mount and on the Plain, an example of our Lord’s repeating the expression of the same thoughts in nearly the same language.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

2. The harvest truly is great] Compare Mat_9:37; Joh_4:35.

sendforth] The word literally means ‘drive forth,’ and though it has lost its full force implies urgency and haste. See similar uses of the word in Joh_10:4, Mat_9:38, Mar_1:12.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Therefore said he unto them,.... That is, the "Lord Jesus", as the Ethiopic version expresses it; he said to the seventy disciples, what he had before said to the twelve apostles in Mat 9:37 where are the same words as here:

the harvest truly is great, but the labourers are few, pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest that he would send forth labourers into his harvest; for though there was such a number of disciples called to the ministerial work, and sent out, there was still need of more; so great was the harvest of souls, or number of hearers, that the labourers were yet but few; and therefore the Lord of the harvest and whose all souls are, was to be prayed unto to send forth more laborious preachers; See Gill on Mat 9:37. See Gill on Mat 9:38.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

2 Therefore said he unto them, The harvest truly is great, but the labourers are few: pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he would send forth labourers into his harvest.

Ver. 2. See Mat 9:37.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

See the notes at Mat 9:36-37.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

See Poole on "Mat 9:37" and See Poole on "Mat 9:38", where these words are put immediately before the sending out of the twelve. Both the twelve and the seventy, all that Christ ever sent out, were to be labourers in the Lord’s harvest.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Therefore said he unto them, The harvest truly is great, but the labourers are few: pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he would send forth labourers into his harvest. This and many of the sayings reported on this occasion had been said apparently before, when the twelve had been sent out on a similar mission. It seems almost certain that, on several occasions, the Lord repeated the same expressions containing great truths, with scarcely any variation in language. The harvest simile was evidently a favourite one of the Master. "The field is the world" he told them in the parable of the sower. It is reproduced by St. John. (Rev_14:14-19)

HOMILIES BY W. CLARKSON Ver. 2. Spiritual husbandry.

I THE LARGENESS OF THE FIELD. "The harvest truly is great." It is not a few human families, or a few small populations; it is not one large nation; it is not even one great continent; it is the entire human race, which Jesus Christ proposed and which he still purposes to redeem this great human race, with all its nationalities, with all its creeds and all its doubts and denials, with all its pride and all its degradation, with all its profound estrangement from Divine truth and the living God. The harvest is great indeed; the task is tremendous; the victory, if it be gained, will make all other victories sink into utter insignificance; they will be but the small dust in the balance, There is encouragement in the thought of

II THE CHARACTER OF THE SEED WHICH IS SOWN. That seed was in course of preparation as Jesus Christ was speaking and working and suffering. It was his whole life; it was, indeed, himself in all his relations with men, in all the aspects in which he could be regarded, whether as Teacher, or Friend, or Exemplar, or Divine Sufferer. This was the seed which should be sown, the fruits of which would be the great harvest of God. "I, if I be lifted up," etc. But, on the other hand, there has to be taken into account

III THE CHARACTER OF THE AGENTS at work in the broad field of the world.

1. Their infirmity. They are men; good men, but "the best of men are but men at the best;" all (they should be) renewed by the Spirit of God and fired with the love of Christ and of human souls; but all (they are) "compassed about with infirmity," all bound with limitations of understanding, of character, of wisdom.

2. Their paucity. "The laborers are few few in comparison with the agents of evil and the sources of error; few, regarded in their proportion to the multitude on whom they are to act. in this light they are lamentably insufficient. There are great breadths of the field scarcely worked and other vast districts positively untouched. What, then, is

IV THE HOPE OF THE FAITHFUL? When we survey the greatness of the harvest and the fewness of the laborers in the field, where does our hope lie? In the providing power of the great Lord of the harvest. He who moves the stars in their spheres can create human souls, can endow them with noble faculties, can inspire them with generous aims, can send them forth on glorious and triumphant missions. We cannot tell the possibilities which are hidden in one great human soul whose heart God has touched, whose hand God has strengthened. One such man may be instrumental in turning a whole tract of barrenness into fertility: what, then, may not a number of such souls accomplish? When the Lord of the harvest speaks the word, great will be the company of the preachers, the number of the laborers. Wherefore let us pray the Father of spirits to put forth his creative power and send mighty workers into his waiting fields. C.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Pray ye the Lord of the harvest, that he would thrust forth labourers - For God alone can do this: he alone can qualify and commission men for this work. Matt. ix, 37.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

Note here,

1. That God’s church is an harvest field.

2. That the ministers of God are laborers in his harvest, under God the Lord of the harvest.

3. That to God alone it does belong to send forth laborers into his harvest, and none must thrust themselves in, until God sends them forth: Pray ye the Lord of the harvest, that he would send forth laborers.

4. That the number of faithful laborers is comparatively small and few: the scribes and Pharisees in the Jewish harvest field are many; yet, says Christ, The laborers are few.

5. That it is the church’s duty to pray, and that earnestly and incessantly, to God the Lord of the harvest, to increase the number of faithful laborers; and to send forth more laborers into his harvest.

William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

2. The harvest truly is great. See notes on Matt. 9:37, where the same language is used, not on the same, but a similar occasion.

B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.

2. ὁ μὲν θερισμὸς πολύς. Compare Mat 9:37; Joh 4:35.

ἐκβάλῃ. The word literally means ‘drive forth,’ and though it has lost its full force implies urgency and haste. See similar uses of the word in Joh 10:4, Mat 9:38, Mar 1:12.

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

2.] See Mat 9:37 and notes.

If ἐκβάλλῃ were read, the pres., as usual, would have the force of the continually repeated act: as it is, the aor. (as in Matt.) indicates the whole mission, considered as one great act.

3,

Henry Alford, The Greek Testament (1849–1861) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

2. Ὁ μὲν θερισμὸς πολύς, … εἰς τὸν θερισμὸν αὐτοῦ. This saying is verbatim the same as that which Mat 9:37, Mat 9:38 records as addressed to the disciples just before the mission of the Twelve. The Twelve and the Seventy were answers to the prayer thus prescribed; and both had the warning of the fewness of the labourers and the greatness of the work. The ὀλίγοι has no reference to the Seventy as being too few: the supply is always inadequate. We cannot conclude anything as to the time of year when the words were spoken from the mention of harvest. So common a metaphor might be used at any season. Corn. Joh 4:35.

Why does RV. retain the “truly” of AV. in Mat 9:37 while abolishing it here? It has no authority in either place, and apparently comes from the quidem of Vulg., which represents μέν.

δεήθητε. The verb does not occur in Mk. or Jn., nor in Mt. excepting in this saying (9:38). It is a favourite with Lk. (5:12, 8:28, 38, 9:38, 40, 21:36, 22:32; Act 4:31, Act 8:22, etc.). Elsewhere rare in N.T., but very freq. in LXX. For the constr. see Burton., § 200.

ὅπως ἐργάτας ἐκβάλῃ. “Send forth with haste and urgency.” The verb expresses either pressing need, or the directness with which they are sent to their destination. Comp. Mar 1:12; Mat 12:20; Jas 2:25. There is always human unwillingness to be overcome: comp. Exo 4:10, Exo 4:13; Jdg 4:8; Jon 1:3. For ἐργάτας of agricultural labourers comp. Mat 20:1, Mat 20:8; Jas 5:4; Ecclus. 19:1; and of labourers in the cause of religion, 2Co 11:13; Php 3:2; 2Ti 2:15.

International Critical Commentary — older volumes (1896–1929), various authors — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The harvest [θερισμος] . From qerov, summer (compare qeromai, to become warm). Harvest, that which is gathered in summer. Wyc., much ripe corn is, but few workmen.

Pray. See on ch. Luk 8:38.

Send forth [εκβαλη] . Lit., drive or thrust forth, implying the urgency of the mission. See on Mr 1:12.

Marvin R. Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament (1887–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.