Funny how we learn the bible a certain way and learn a passage a certain way and then one day that way doesn't make sense anymore. God is all strange that way. We have to unlearn something and just say yes Jesus. So for me I have been sitting on this new way of seeing things on a passage for about a month.
Matthew 9:37 and 38 is where I am headed here. My guess is we have heard it and said it so many times we might just have learned it wrong. "The Harvest is plentiful and the laborers are few" That is 37. Now we say that verse and we hear it taught and we probably Amen it for all I know. And what does that mean? Jesus is making a pretty solid point near the end of a series of healings and what not. In 35 we are told Jesus went to all the towns "proclaiming the gospel of the Kingdom, healing every disease, and affliction." Jesus does not exaggerate. EVERY. In 36 we are told He has "compassion for the people because they were harassed and helpless" SO when He gets to 37 and actually starts talking it seems like he might be worn out, like he could use some help. So He needs some laborers? That's what we're taught. We're told there is a harvest and Jesus needs some laborers. Cue the music have an alter call and everyone start laboring cuz Jesus needs some help.
That's how we do it and no one ever reads 38 because we are all busy signing up for jobs. But what if we did read it. What if Jesus kept talking and we kept listening. Now that would be interesting because in 38 Jesus says nothing about signing up. He says nothing about going to work. He starts talking about praying. He finishes His sentence. "Therefore, PRAY the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into HIS harvest."
Shut the front door. Jesus didn't ask for workers at all. He is not tired. He doesn't need some help. He said start praying and God will pick some laborers and those people will do something specific. They will go labor in God's harvest. Now here I'm just guessing but I'm pretty sure God will pick His laborers and tell them what to do. We won't even have to figure it out. Amazing.
We just need to let Jesus finish talking and then we will hear what He wants from us. Then we can do our part that He told us to do and then God will do His thing. Sweet.
And God's thing is Ekballo. That's the Greek. It is not really send. God is not really going to send when we pray. He is going to Ekballo. That is, He is going to violently thrust or cast out. That's a bit different than send. Our God is going to find some laborers and He is going to thrust them into the harvest with some violence. That sounds more like the God I know. When He moves the earth shakes and things change and the people He moves are forever changed and they are not really signing up for a task as much as they are fully changed into a new person who cannot help but to labor because they know that God doesn't ask, He commands.
Sometimes we just need to let Jesus finish talking. It's funny how that solves all kinds of problems.
