The Harvest Is Abundant, But The Workers Are Few by Scott Dunn
Those words were spoken by Jesus Christ over two millennia ago, and they still ring true today. Typically, we look at harvesting as a seasonal thing. It is how we recognize that summer and fall are exchanging places on our planet. Farmers work to pull the fruits of their labor from the ground and sell or store it for future use. The Bible has many stories around the harvest and its necessity for human survival. When you see a subject crop up in the Bible, so many times, there must be some significance there. From the Old Testament to the New, we have examples of the harvest and the separation of the fruit of the harvest from the waste. In Daniel 2:35, we have King Nebuchadnezzar with a dream where the ungodly nations of the world represent elements of an idol that disintegrate before the victory of God’s Kingdom. John the Baptist portrayed Jesus as the winnower or harvester of grain, “I baptize you with water for repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.” (Matthew 3:11-12 ESV) 24 | M AG A Z I N E N A M E PAGE 3 23
John the Baptist was communicating more than just the coming of Christ. He was telling people what Jesus was going to do, in full, albeit in only a few words. First, he said to us that Jesus was coming to save the world by his proclamation of baptism through the Holy Spirit. This is the gift we receive when we accept Christ and commit to living our lives for Him. Secondly, he tells us that Christ will save His harvest and burn the chaff in unquenchable fire. There is but one place where the fire is unquenchable, and that is eternal separation from God. The chaff of a plant is its unusable portion. It has no nourishment and provides nothing good. The picture of harvesting is an allegory of God’s work within humanity. We are his harvest; the chaff is our sins and those who are not believers. Still, at that time, people did not understand everything that was being spoken to them. Therefore, the Bible is an eternal message from God.
