There’s a sense of urgency tied up in the word, “harvest.” Harvest also connotes hard work. Picking produce, reaping crops, and all its associated tasks are not for the faint of heart. There will be sweat.
When you combine these two elements the result is anything but comfort. Reaping is stressful, laborious, painstaking, but despite all this the harvest is intrinsically good. It represents months of hard work and the promise of surviving the frost until everything begins growing again in the spring. As such there is nothing to be done in the days of summer and autumn but to work the fields. And yet some have other ideas:
… he who sleeps in harvest is a son who brings shame. (Prov. 10:5b, ESV)
What if you consider this verse in the context of Jesus’ reference to the harvest?
The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few… (Matt. 9:37b, ESV)
Why are they so few? Perhaps they’re sleeping.
