Achieving a "plentiful harvest" (Biblical Series #3)

Harvest time is the most critical time of the year for the wheat farmer. Hail, fire or other calamity can come at any time and destroy the crop. The importance of a timely harvest cannot be understated. Farmers do everything they can to start harvesting the grain as early in the season as possible. They will perform what is called "test-cutting". When the wheat appears to be ripe they will cut a small patch and test it to see if it is ready. If the moisture content is low enough then the grain is ready to be harvested. Often farmers will test cut at noon and if it is not ready but they will try again at 5 PM and because of the heat and sunlight it will be. They immediately go to work bringing in the harvest.

When harvest starts, for those farmers that do not hire someone else to harvest their grain, everyone in the family goes to work. Husbands, wives and any children old enough to operate equipment are called to the field to operate tractors, combines and trucks. Anyone not in the field helps prepare meals for the workers, wash clothes, run errands, or do anything else that needs to be done. Sometimes several generations will be working at the same time. Even the neighbors can be called in to help.

Matthew 9:37, "Then [Jesus] said to His disciples, "The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few."

When Jesus spoke these words, farmers of the time faced similar situations. Wheat is the crop that the nation of Israel would be most familiar with as it originated in the fertile crescent, which is located just north of Israel. It was grown throughout the land. Calamity was a much a threat to their crop as it is in modern times. The Jewish people would have understood Jesus' implied sense of urgency. He is saying that there is no time to waste. The crop is ready now. 

He is also saying that everyone must contribute if the harvest is to be a success. Every man, woman and child that was able must be involved. If the harvest is to be a success many laborers are needed to perform the various tasks necessary to harvest, thrash and prepare the grain as well as perform the other tasks in support of these laborers.

Of course the harvest that Jesus was implying here is a spiritual one. He is saying that the spiritual harvest field can have a great yield, and that it is ready now, at this moment. Calamity (Satan) can come in at any time and destroy the crop. If we seek to have the maximum harvest we have to busy working. All of us as believers have to be diligent and work together to bring in the spiritual and eternal harvest. It is the only way to have a plentiful harvest.

"Without water all things die." (Biblical Series #2)

While on my mission trip to the Navajo Reservation we stayed at a Nazarene Church there. Several trees grew in the yard surrounding it. There was an elaborate irrigation system to keep them watered. One of the hoses that delivered water to the some of the trees sprang a leak and it wasn't supplying water to the trees. Pastor Bill who was our host while there remarked that it had to be fixed soon because he said that "without water all things die." Truer words have not been spoken, without water plants cannot grow, animals would die, life cannot survive.

The need for water has been truly evident this past year. Lingering drought in Oklahoma and Texas has taken its toll on farms and ranches of all types. Crops have failed, non-irrigated crops have been damaged or even completely destroyed. Grassland has withered, ranchers have had to choose between feeding their cows increasingly expensive hay or selling them. Ponds have dried up, leaving little water for thirsty cows. The land is parched and bare.

Recent rains have helped restore the land but so little rain has fallen over past year that even the several inches that fell have not completely erased the damage. Some areas have developed 15 inches or more of moisture deficit. It may take a year or more of more normal rainfall patterns to completely soak the subsoil and fill the ponds. The effects of drought linger long after the it is over.

John 4:13,14 "Jesus answered, 'Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.'"

When Jesus said these words to a woman at a well the imagery would have been obvious to her. Much of the area in which they lived was desert. Water was precious. To have it, the people of the time would have had to go through the tedious process of hauling water up a bucket at a time from deeply dug wells. Drought and thirst were something that this woman would have experienced first hand. To her the thought of not having to draw more water would have been very intriguing.

Of course the water that Jesus was talking about was not physical water but spiritual. The point that he was making was that without "living water" all things die. Just as a farmer's crop withers without water so our lives wither without the water that Jesus gives. The water that he offering is capable of meeting a far greater thirst than that of physical water. The importance of drinking from the well cannot be overstated. "Without water all things die."