Matt.9:38 – 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.”
Zech 8:20-22 – Thus says the LORD of hosts:
‘Peoples shall yet come,
Inhabitants of many cities;
The inhabitants of one city shall go to another, saying,
“Let us continue to go and pray before the LORD,
And seek the LORD of hosts.
I myself will go also.”
Yes, many peoples and strong nations
Shall come to seek the LORD of hosts in Jerusalem,
And to pray before the LORD.’
In His prayer Jesus is connects the final harvest of the earth to prayer. At first glance that may not mean much to you but if you take time to reflect and consider you begin to see what He is getting at. The Lord is the One who calls us to pray, inspires the prayer, and then He is the One Who answers the prayer. In the passage in Matthew the Lord is instructing His disciples to pray for more disciples, apparently the harvest is proportionately related to the shepherd laborers who join in the effort. Jesus was about to send out His twelve in an evangelistic outing described in the next chapter, He had planted the seed for future harvest. That seed was prayer, pray to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers. Without laborers not much can happen. Here is how the Jonathan Edwards Study Bible describes this passage.
“In 1747, JE wrote a treatise entitled An Humble Attempt. (WJE 5:309–437). This was his gallant effort to summon all Christian believers everywhere—especially in America and Scotland—to unite in prayer that God would fulfill the Great Commission (vv. 28:18–20) and bring in the harvest leading to the millennial age. Basing this treatise on Zechariah 8:20–22, JE argued that whenever the Lord is about to do marvelous things to advance His kingdom, He uses concerted, faithful prayer on the part of His saints to fulfill His own covenantal promises.”
Edwards experienced an outpouring of the Spirit in 1734 in his church in Northampton followed by another in 1740. Seven years later Edwards had come to the conclusion that laborers were needed to see a harvest, especially if it was to be conserved. We are in that same position now. We have seen great harvests, we need workers to help with maintaining the harvest. Pray for workers, that is the answer.
