Harvest is the gathering of what has been sown, both in the fields of the earth and in the field of the world.
Jesus said the harvest is plentiful and the laborers are few.
He also said the harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are angels.
Between those two sayings the church prays, sows, and waits for the Lord of the harvest.
Israel lived by harvests. Barley and wheat marked the calendar. Pentecost was the Feast of Harvest. The law left gleanings for the poor.
The prophets used ripe grain and overflowing vats as pictures of blessing, and a failed harvest as a picture of judgment.
Jesus took the image and made it the shape of the kingdom. A sower went out to sow. The seed is the word. The soils differ. The good soil bears thirty, sixty, and a hundredfold. He told the disciples to lift their eyes: the fields were white for harvest. He sent them as laborers. He also told a parable of wheat and weeds growing together until the harvest. At the close of the age the Son of Man will send His angels. The weeds go to the fire. The wheat is gathered into the barn.
Revelation sees one like a son of man on a cloud with a sickle, and the earth is reaped. Harvest is therefore present mission and future judgment in one word. What is sown now will be gathered then.
The Lord of the harvest is both the Sender of laborers and the Judge of the field.
- Harvest follows sowing. No one reaps where nothing has been planted.
- The present harvest is people: the gospel field is white, and workers are still few.
- The final harvest is the end of the age, when angels gather wheat and weeds.
- God gives the growth. Paul planted, Apollos watered, God gave the increase.
- Patience belongs to harvest. The farmer waits for the early and the latter rain.
- Joy and judgment meet in the same image: barns filled, and a sickle on the earth.
- The Lord of the harvest answers prayer for laborers.
- Sowing First – The word of the kingdom is seed in the world.
- Plentiful Field – Jesus saw a harvest already waiting for workers.
- Laborers Sent – Prayer and sending belong together.
- Mixed Field – Wheat and weeds grow together until the appointed time.
- Patience – The farmer waits; the church does not rush the end.
- End-of-the-Age Reaping – Angels, sickle, barn, and fire.
- Joy of Ingathering – Those who sow in tears shall reap with shouts of joy.
- Matthew 9:37-38 – “Then he said to his disciples, ‘The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.’”
- Luke 10:2 – “And he said to them, ‘The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.’”
- John 4:35-36 – “Do you not say, ‘There are yet four months, then comes the harvest’? Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes, and see that the fields are white for harvest. Already the one who reaps is receiving wages and gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together.”
- Matthew 13:30, 39 – “Let both grow together until the harvest, and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, ‘Gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.’… The harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are angels.”
- Mark 4:26-29 – “The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground… But when the grain is ripe, at once he puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come.”
- Revelation 14:14-16 – “Then I looked, and behold, a white cloud, and seated on the cloud one like a son of man, with a golden crown on his head, and a sharp sickle in his hand… So he who sat on the cloud swung his sickle across the earth, and the earth was reaped.”
- Joel 3:13 – “Put in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe. Go in, tread, for the winepress is full.”
- Galatians 6:7-9 – “Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap… And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.”
- 1 Corinthians 3:6-9 – “I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth… For we are God’s fellow workers. You are God’s field, God’s building.”
- Psalm 126:5-6 – “Those who sow in tears shall reap with shouts of joy! He who goes out weeping, bearing the seed for sowing, shall come home with shouts of joy, bringing his sheaves with him.”
- James 5:7-8 – “Be patient, therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient about it, until it receives the early and the late rains. You also, be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand.”
- Matthew 13:3, 23 – “A sower went out to sow… As for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it. He indeed bears fruit and yields, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty.”
- Hosea 10:12 – “Sow for yourselves righteousness; reap steadfast love; break up your fallow ground, for it is the time to seek the Lord, that he may come and rain righteousness upon you.”
- Exodus 23:16 – “You shall keep the Feast of Harvest, of the firstfruits of your labor, of what you sow in the field.”
- Ruth 2:2-3 – Ruth gleans in the harvest field of Boaz—provision in the time of gathering.
- Isaiah 9:3 – “You have multiplied the nation; you have increased its joy; they rejoice before you as with joy at the harvest…”
- Matthew 13:47-50 – The net gathered fish of every kind; at the end of the age the angels separate the evil from the righteous.
- 2 Corinthians 9:6, 10 – “Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully… He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness.”
- John 12:24 – “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.”
The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few.
Pray the Lord of the harvest to send workers. Lift up your eyes. The fields are white.
Sow the word. Do not grow weary. In due season you will reap, if you do not give up.
Wheat and weeds grow together until the end of the age. Do not try to finish the judgment before the King does.
The reapers are angels. The Son of Man will put in the sickle.
Those who sow in tears shall reap with shouts of joy.
The Lord of the harvest will not lose what He has sown. Ask Him for laborers. Be one.
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