The Coming Harvest

The farmers in western Kansas have been expecting harvest for quite some time. They knew it was coming. They recognized the season and have known it is immanent. They had put into the fields the work needed. They planted, watered and sprayed for weeds. They worked hard. Then there is the wonder if the Lord above is pleased to bless the work of their hands.

The time has finally arrived. The workers are being sent into the fields as we speak. They are bringing in the wheat and destroying the chaff. There is a separation going on as we speak. That which is good is being brought into the "elevators" for storage. That which is useless is being destroyed in the cutting process.

It is interesting to note that Jesus uses agricultural parables in order to describe the Kingdom of God and the final Day of the Lord. Read His words in Matthew 13:

36 Then Jesus sent the multitude away and went into the house. And His disciples came to Him, saying, “Explain to us the parable of the tares of the field.” 37 He answered and said to them: “He who sows the good seed is the Son of Man. 38 The field is the world, the good seeds are the sons of the kingdom, but the tares are the sons of the wicked one. 39 The enemy who sowed them is the devil, the harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are the angels. 40 Therefore as the tares are gathered and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of this age. 41 The Son of Man will send out His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all things that offend, and those who practice lawlessness, 42 and will cast them into the furnace of fire. There will be wailing and gnashing of teeth. 43 Then the righteous will shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears to hear, let him hear!

Jesus uses the harvest as a description for when the Kingdom of God comes in its fullness. Both good and evil must grow up together in the seed time. It is at the harvest when Jesus will send out His angels to separate good men from evil men. He will gather together His people and also destroy the wicked.

In much of evangelical eschatology, Tim LaHaye has popularized a view that is not biblically sound. The idea of the immanence of the Coming of Christ is equated to "at any momentness". Yet do not the seeds of the Kingdom have to be sown? Do not the plants have to grow?

It has been said many times that every prophecy that needs to be fulfilled has been done. Jesus can now come back. Then we hear from the same pulpits that there are still places that the Gospel has not gone to. If Jesus said the Gospel must be preached first, how can He come back at any moment?

Harvest happens after a specific time, a time of planting, a time of growing, a time of maturing. When this evil age has run its course, when every nation has had the Gospel preached, when every language has heard the Gospel, when every tribe and people have been evangelized, then the end or harvest will come.

Let us send workers into the field to prepare every peoples for the coming harvest.