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. Luke 10:2
Most of the time, during His earthly ministry, there were 12 men accompanying the Lord Jesus. These men were His companions, His helpers, and His servants. They were available for discussions and debate at all times. They assisted with whatever duties came along, such as distributing food to the multitudes and providing crowd control. Whenever Jesus required anything, these dozen would spring into action to serve in whatever capacity was needed. Normally, a dozen men was plenty for all that needed done. But in the chapter in which our text today is found, Jesus sends forth not twelve but seventy people, to go before Him into the various communities which He planned to visit in the coming days as He made His way toward Jerusalem. For this task, twelve was not enough, and as our text indicates, almost six times twelve was only a few compared to the need. How much more pressing is the need for labourers to take the Gospel into the whole world?
The seventy that Jesus was sending forth had a specific mission, and presumably seventy were enough for that mission. But as He sent them forth, the Lord Jesus gave them an additional task, that of praying for more labourers. As we look around us today, we might think we have enough people to do all the work that needs to be done for the Lord. There are enough people in our Assemblies to preach the Gospel and to minister the Word to the Lord’s people. There are enough elders to care for the flock of God. There are enough people to take care of the work that needs to be done around the hall and in support of the various meetings of the Assembly. There are enough volunteers for the tasks and missions that come up from time to time. So why should we pray for more labourers? Because the harvest field is far larger than you and I usually consider it to be.
Can you imagine how much larger our Gospel meeting audiences would be if all of us actively witnessed to everyone that we can and invited everybody that we encountered to the meetings? Can you imagine how many more Gospel series in many more places would be possible if the preachers were given all of the resources and all of the encouragement that is possible for us to give them? Can you imagine how many more missionaries would be enabled to serve and function fully if we supported them in the greatest measure possible? Can you imagine how many more people around us would be contacted with the Gospel if we put as much time as possible into distributing Bibles and Gospel tracts?
Maybe the labourers that we need to pray for the Lord to send into the harvest field are ourselves. – Jim MacIntosh