The second of the three New Testament ‘Commission Commandments’ comes at the end of Matthew 9 – “Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.” – (v38) and again, as with the first, the context is crucial. As Jesus travels with his disciples he encounters human need in all its forms. The section immediately preceding our text verse recount a list of people suffering from demon possession, blindness, paralysis and other complaints, but there is a significant change at this point.

Now it is not the physical suffering of the masses that causes such anguish in the Saviour’s heart but their spiritual plight, their need of true guides and spiritual shepherds. Now, mixing his metaphors, he voices his concern to his disciples, exhorting them to cry to God to raise up and send out men and women who will reap the harvest being prepared by a sovereign God, and reach, feed and care for his sheep.

Put at its simplest and broadest, here is a command from God to his people, instructing them to pray for Christian workers to be sent out to all those who are as yet outside the Kingdom of God. Notice just a few salient points here.

THE CONCERN

Imagine that as he is speaking these words, Jesus, the great user of visual aids, looks over a massive field, stretching far off in the distance. It is harvest time and a bumper crop is ready to be reaped but as he looks over the acres of ripe ears, he sees just a few weary souls, bent with the burden of their labours and the heat of the day, dwarfed by the magnitude of the task yet to be done. The point is that the force is out of all proportion to the field. The work is too great for the comparatively few engaged in it.

What a graphic and accurate picture of the mission field of today! Today, as never before, the Spirit of God is opening doors of opportunity and hearts of men and women and yet, the mission force is out of proportion to the mission field.

THE COMMAND

How is this situation to be resolved? How is this need going to be met? Grasp the importance of Jesus’ words here. The harvest field of the world, the unreached and the unconverted, belongs to someone, to God, and he oversees the harvest and assigns the harvesters. Those who are needed in this harvest field are not volunteers, in the normal sense of that word, or self-appointed workers, they are called out and appointed by the sovereign Lord of the harvest.

All those unfilled ministry needs overseas – and the truth is that the vast majority of them are overseas at this present time – will not primarily be met as mission reps and literature plead with Christian people to obey the Great Commission, but as God’s people engage in fervent intercession, asking God to raise up more workers. I am convinced that not enoughemphasis is placed on this area today and so we are seeing an increase in the attrition rate of those coming back from the mission field as casualties. Men and women who, though well meaning and sincerely motivated, went but were not sent. Indeed the literal meaning of the original words of Jesus as recorded in Matthew are that we should pray for God to ‘thrust out’ workers. There is no hint here of the modern wisdom that says that if you are available and able you should go. No, there must be that sense of constraint, of being called and thrust out by God into this work, and this calling and thrusting comes in response to our praying.

J C Ryle put it like this, “Money can pay agents; universities can give learning; bishops may ordain; congregations may elect: but the Holy Ghost alone can make ministers of the Gospel and raise up lay workmen in the spiritual harvest.” There is much work to be done, but the first work to be done is prayer. “You do not have because you do not ask God,” says James and he could have been speaking specifically about this Commission Commandment

THE CAUTION

A word of warning is needed at this point, because great honesty is called for in our praying. While we must pray for more workers to go and reach those needing to hear the message of the gospel, we cannot, in all truth, do so unless we are willing to be part of the answer to that prayer. I cannot pray for the Lord of the harvest to send out more harvesters unless I am willing to be one of them, should the Lord of the harvest so choose. So, while I am praying for more workers I must also be asking God to show me clearly what my part in this great work is and where I am to do it. Praying is the first thing we must do but it may not be the last thing we are called to do in this respect.