Time is of the Essence

“Then saith He unto His disciples, The harvest truly is plenteous, but the laborers are few; Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that He will send forth laborers into His harvest.”  Matthew 9:37-38

Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, healing the sick, and casting out demons.  There were huge crowds that came to see him, and, as He looked out over the multitudes, He couldn’t help but have great compassion on them because they were like sheep without a shepherd, scattered from “pillar to post”, wandering around without any real purpose in life.  They had no real spiritual knowledge.  All that they knew about God they learned from the self-righteous religious leaders who had forced them to live under onerous rules and regulations which were very burdensome.

After surveying the crowds, Jesus turned to His disciples and remarked that these crowds of people represented a great field of souls to be harvested for the kingdom of God, but there just wasn’t enough willing believers to go among them to teach them the truth.  He then said for the disciples to pray to the Lord that He would send forth people to bring in a great harvest of believers.  When Jesus began His ministry on earth, there was only one other person, John the Baptist, who was preaching the message of repentance.  The Old Testament prophets and saints, such as Noah, had preached repentance and turning back to God.  Their words were written down, but the ordinary folks were not privileged to own copies of the Torah and the words of the prophets.  All they knew about God and His word was what the religious leaders wanted them to know, and by this had kept the people fairly ignorant of how God required for them to carry on their lives.  No wonder that Jesus looked out over the crowds and lamented that there were so many that needed to hear the truth, and yet so few to tell them.  The few basically consisted of Jesus, His disciples, and perhaps a few others.  John the Baptist had been killed for speaking the truth, thus speaking out was a rather dangerous undertaking.

The only real way of encouraging believers to get up off their rear end and get about the business of witnessing is to pray to the Lord that He would light a fire under them, giving them a real burden for lost souls.  Harvest is the time of year when the crops and fruits are picked for distribution to keep people fed and nourished.  There was a time when Jesus’ disciples became overly concerned about Jesus’ physical hunger and not concerned enough about His mission.  He told them to “Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest” (John 4:35).  In years past, I have driven past cotton fields in the southern part of the state, and this verse came to mind.  As far as I could see were those white balls of cotton ready to be picked, but without laborers to operate the machinery and do the work required, the cotton would eventually rot and be of no use.  There is a real sense of urgency.  Time is of the essence.  And so it is with the souls of men and women.

Like all crop harvests, the harvest of souls will come to an end eventually.  Jesus said in John 9:4, “I must work the works of Him that sent Me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work.”  The term harvest is also used in scripture to represent judgment.  “And another angel came out of the temple, crying with a loud voice to him that sat on the cloud, Thrust in thy sickle, and reap: for the time is come for thee to reap; for the harvest of the earth is ripe” (Revelation 14:15).  Jesus made it clear in His parable about the wheat and the tares (Matthew 13:24-43) that “the harvest is the end of the world”.  I can picture the earth as a huge clock as the seconds are ticking by, one by one, until it winds down to the last moment according to God’s timetable.  Man doesn’t know when that last moment will be, but those who are discerning can see by all the turmoil in the world that the midnight or final hour is fast approaching.  It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know that we are on a downward spiral.

To encourage His followers, Jesus said in Luke 21:28, “And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth night”.  It is imperative for those of us who know Christ to get the word out as quickly and efficiently as possible.  There’s no time to dawdle and delay; there’s no time like the present.  Even as a child, Jesus had an urgency about Him concerning His mission.  When He was twelve, He was in the temple asking questions among the doctors of the law.  When His parents found Him, He told them that He must about His Father’s business (Luke 2:43-49).  Jesus doesn’t physically walk the earth any longer, thus His urgency for lost souls must become our urgency.