Luke 10:2-4 :

Then he said to them, “The harvest is indeed plentiful, but the laborers are few. Pray therefore to the Lord of the harvest, that he may send out laborers into his harvest. Go your ways. Behold, I send you out as lambs among wolves. Carry no purse, nor wallet, nor sandals. Greet no one on the way.

Jesus sent out these 70 men to do harvesting and anyone who works in agriculture knows that harvesting happens at the end of the cycle. First there’s a preparation of the soil, then there’s sowing, then there’s a season of care when you take care of the plants as they grow and trust that God will help you get the sun and rain needed to make the plants healthy, and finally, after all of this, when the fruit is ripe, it’s time to harvest the crop.

Jesus knew that this was a time of harvest and that there weren’t many workers available. I believe that this means that Jesus was at the end of an age of time just like the harvest is the end of the process. It’s the time when you find out what you get for your hard work. You get to judge the crop to see whether it turns out good for you as the farmer who invested himself in the crop.

The time of harvest is a time of inspection. Is the crop good or bad? Jesus told the workers that He was sending them out “as lambs among wolves.” That doesn’t sound too good. It is pretty clear from that statement that there were powers that were against them but notice that Jesus doesn’t let them prepare for attack. It is clear that He will be giving them power to work without having to have money or even extra shoes.

It is good for us to take note that, as Christians, we are not yet in a “harvest.” Harvests come at the end. Today, we continue to sow seeds and allow them to grow, taking care of them as much as we can. Not all of the crops that are growing here in this age are good either and Jesus has told us that our harvest is coming even though there are many who deny it. I also can see that the harvest is getting closer each day. Any day now, Jesus could decide that time is up. In these verses we get a little insight into what may be included in our harvest. It’s also important to note that since we are not harvesting, we have also not been allowed to pass judgment on the crop yet. We know for a fact that bad things are growing, but, from our vantage point, we don’t know who will end up being saved and who will not. We must continue to leave the final judgment in God’s hands for the day of harvest. Here we see that an age was closing and we know that something new was on the way.