09/29/2020 – Day 128 – Exodus 21-24 – Laborers in the Harvest
Exodus 23:16: “and the Feast of Harvest, the firstfruits of your labors which you have sown in the field; and the Feast of In gathering at the end of year, when you have gathered in the fruit of your labors from the field.”
23:16 Bible footnote: “Once someone becomes a genuine convert, he learns he has tremendous evangelistic responsibility. He begins to see derivatives of the word ‘laborer’ thoughout Scripture. Jesus spoke of His disciples reaping where they ‘have not labored’ (John 4: 37,38) and of others who ‘labored in the Lord’ (rom 16:12). We are told that our ‘labor is not vain in the Lord’ (1 Corinthians 15:58). In 1 Thessalonians 2:9 Paul said, ‘For you remember , brethren, our labor and toil; for laboring night and day,… we preached to you the gospel of God.’
A ‘laborer’ is one who goes into the harvest fields and suffers the heat of the noonday sun. He is preparted to sweat for the Lord. It is someone who is willing to apply himself to the irksome tak of evangelism, of which Jesus said there is a shortage.
There are two major reasons for this shortage of laborers. First, we have neglected Jesus’ command to pray for laborers (see Luke 10:2) But if we are not actively involved in evangelism ourselves, we are not going to pray for laborers – our conscience would condemn us. How could we ask God to raise up people to do the job we are refusing to do? So the enemy gets a double victory. Not only do we not labor for the gospel , but we don’t even pray for others to become laborers.
The second reason for the lack of laborers is that we fear the reproach of the gospel. We desire the praise of men more than the praise of God, so we busy ourselves in anyting but reaching out to the lost.”