The harvest truly is plenteous, and the world is ripe for judgment, to be reaped by the angel of the Lord for destruction. However God in his grace did not destroy men as yet, but he sends them messengers of peace, time after time, that the powerful gospel may dwell in prepared hearts, and bear a hundredfold. Christ testifies to you in his divine insight that the harvest today is also great, for many people are responding to the word of God, putting on its power, and doing the will of Christ.
Christ’s harvest does not happen theoretically or emotionally, nor do his reapers lie relaxed on couches. But Christ chooses hardworking laborers and sends them to the tiresome harvest. They neither rest nor strut, but overwork and overexert themselves without limitation of working hours, as long as the sun shines on them.
Are you a laborer of Christ? Then ask him for partners who are full of humility, characterized by resolution, devoting their full strength and concentrated attention to the service, and accepting the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Thus this Spirit in Christ has given us the most important order in preaching. Your Lord does not want you to work hard even to death, but to pray for sending qualified laborers for his harvest that they may altogether gather his ears to his stores and not to their own stores. What about you? For whom do you work, for yourself, or for Christ? Do you thank your Lord for all your co-workers, or do you complain about them? Do you ask your Lord to send enough faithful servants for work in your country?
Today, Christ is calling you to serve him, as he had sent out the seventy men for a preaching mission. He symbolized by their number the great Sanhedrin, or council of the Jewish nation, and the elders of the Old Testament that they might become elders in his New Testament, filled with his Spirit (24:1 and 9; Numbers 11:16 and 25; Exodus 1:5).
Christ did not send them one by one to each village, but two by two to divers villages that they might strengthen and encourage one another, and not vie in boasting. If one speaks, the other will pray; and if one sleeps, the other will stay awake. Thus Christ gave different gifts to his followers that they may need one another, and train themselves in loving lowliness. Dear brother, consider yourself the least in your company, for your co-worker needs to be more patient to bear you, just as you also need patience to bear him.