The harvest is plentiful

When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, 'The harvest is plentiful, but the labourers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out labourers into his harvest.' (Matthew 9:36-38)

A friend wondered this weekend why when Jesus says that the harvest is plentiful he finds that nobody he knows is just waiting eagerly to hear the Gospel if someone comes with it.

I had no answer...

Then today when I was reading Joel I realised that maybe being a worker was not such a joyous task after all, and the harvest is a less pleasant thing. The immediate context in Matthew does suggest that it is, but the wider Biblical context suggests otherwise:

For thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: The daughter of Babylon is like a threshing floor at the time when it is trodden; yet a little while and the time of her harvest will come. (Jeremiah 51:33)

Put in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe. Go in, tread, for the winepress is full. The vats overflow, for their evil is great. (Joel 3:13)

For you also, O Judah, a harvest is appointed (Hosea 6:11a)

another angel came out of the temple, calling with a loud voice to him who sat on the cloud, 'Put in your sickle, and reap, for the hour to reap has come, for the harvest of the earth is fully ripe.' So he who sat on the cloud swung his sickle across the earth, and the earth was reaped. (Revelation 14:15-16)

The Prophets Redux

I keep on discovering more and more that Revelation repeats themes and imagery that can be found in the prophets hundreds of years before. I'm not sure what this means for our interpretation though.

Here's what I read this morning in Isaiah as an example:

In that day the Lord will punish the host of heaven, in heaven, and the kings of the earth, on the earth. They will be gathered together as prisoners in a pit; they will be shut up in a prison, and after many days they will be punished. Then the moon will be confounded and the sun ashamed, for the Lord of hosts reigns on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, and his glory will be before his elders.

(Isaiah 24:21-23)

The same imagery is in Revelation:

And when the thousand years are ended, Satan will be released from his prison and will come out to deceive the nations that are at the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them for battle; their number is like the sand of the sea. And they marched up over the broad plain of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city, but fire came down from heaven and consumed them, and the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur where the beast and the false prophet were, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.

(Revelation 20:7-10)

And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb. By its light will the nations walk, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it, and its gates will never be shut by day—and there will be no night there.

(Revelation 21:23-25)