The Harvest is Plenteous, But the Laborers Are Few

Looking to the great need in our congregations on this side of the ocean and in the Netherlands, I thought it fit to write about this need and the command of the King of His dearly-bought Church. The Lord Jesus went about all the cities and villages. Everywhere He saw throngs of people, also beyond the confines of his native land in the heathen world. He saw the multitudes “as sand on the seashore, as stars of the firmament.” As He surveyed these great multitudes, the thought of the countless ears of grain in the harvest-field came to His heart and mind. He calls His disciples to inform them that “the harvest truly is plenteous.”

The situation in our circles is very much the same. There are so many vacant pulpits in our congregations, so many sheep without a shepherd. There are so many empty places and such a necessity to hear the living Word of God. Not only in the established congregations is there such a necessity, but even on the mission fields there are so many sheep without a shepherd. There are waving fields of grain, white for the harvest, all over the world. Jesus looks down upon them with the thought, ‘The harvest truly is plenteous.” Yet, even while the Savior was making an estimate of the bountiful harvest, a sigh heaved forth from His heavy heart:

“But the laborers are few.” There is a labor shortage. Of course, Jesus is not speaking of the economic or industrial condition of His or our age, but that there is a great shortage in the harvest-fields!

Let us keep in mind that the report does not read that confessing members in the church are few (although it could be better). Likewise, neither in some of our churches are the worshippers few. Certainly, by God’s grace there are never too many of them. In connection with this God’s people should cry: “Awake, O north wind; and come, thou south; blow upon my garden, that the spices thereof may flow out.” Let us never forget that a church comprised only of members with an outward profession is a dead church!

Therefore we will ask the question: What is that labor, the hard work, that counts in the kingdom of Christ? We can learn this from the Lord of the harvest. There were two things that always received his attention. The one was: “Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom.” The other was: “healing every sickness and every disease among the people.” That is the work, the labor, He expects of His laborers in the field. It is not that we as ministers are to play doctor, but that the Lord may use us as tools in His holy hands to instruct those who are dead in trespasses and sins and also His own people, that they may become more humble and grow in faith.

While the Savior was making an estimate of the bountiful harvest, a sigh heaved forth from His heavy heart:

“But the laborers are few.”

There is a labor shortage.

The first and most important work of sacred ministry is teaching and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, not only in our own congregations, but any place where an opportunity is given to bring His precious message. Oh, may we have compassion for the physical needs of our fellow-travelers to eternity, but above all for their spiritual needs! Of those laborers who are in the harvest-fields today how many have this compassion? There are wolves who try to destroy God’s flock on earth. There are many that say, “Lord, Lord, have we not.… in Thy Name done many wonderful works?” The important question is: How does the Lord rate us? The glory and honor of men cannot help us; we need God’s approval.

The present situation in the harvest-fields is alarming. May God move us to realize that it is our own guilt. When are we praying and begging at the throne of grace? In these times of much following after the world and her pleasures, are we begging on our knees for His wayward people? Go back to our text and observe the attitude of the Savior. There are two things we should learn of Him. The first is: “when He saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion on them, because they fainted”; there were no shepherds. When He saw the rebellious people, those godless unbelievers, those wise people in their own eyes, those self-satisfied Pharisees, He was not moved with anger. He did not call for fire from heaven. He was moved with compassion. He thinks of the erring soul as a straying sheep —footsore, famished, tattered, a sure prey of the ever-present wolf. He looks under the bosoms into the dark and hopeless hearts of these sons and daughters of the churches, yes, even of those who never have heard the message of free and sovereign grace.

Alas, we often behold the shortage of undershepherds without pity. We have no need to cry at the throne of grace, thinking that prayers do not help. We wait and see — that is the wrong attitude. King Jesus is different. See Him stoop down over the fallen woman who wept at his feet, over the prodigal sons and daughters, over the lost sheep, the lost coin, the lost son, Peter, the malefactor, and others. May the King of his dearly-bought Church fill our hearts with compassion for souls traveling to eternity.

May the King of his dearly-bought Church fill our hearts with compassion for souls traveling to eternity.

There is one thing that the praying High Priest commands us. And what is that? In these difficult circumstances to pray and sigh that He send laborers into His harvest. May He bind it upon our hearts! May it truly become a necessity and a need for us to beg of the King that He will send more men to bring the gospel of free and sovereign grace to unworthy people. He is the Lord! He sends His laborers. He alone can take men and make them to be laborers. May He give the need and the desire to pray for it.

We have the examples of the Lord Jesus and the Bible saints. Jesus spent nights in prayer, and likewise Paul and others did so. If Jesus will bind it upon our hearts, He surely will be the hearer of prayer. May the Lord of the harvest cause us to be concerned about the sorrowful condition of the harvest-fields here and across the ocean. May God teach us to pray, not only for our personal welfare, confessing our guilt and begging for mercy, but moreover to have compassion on our rising generation, our parents, and our older people, causing the Word of the living God to remain in our midst — a wonder from heaven.

May the Lord Himself bind it upon our hearts to beg as unworthy creatures for His forfeited blessing. May He teach us that the great Office-bearer alone can send men who have a clear conversion and a need in their hearts to serve in the midst of the congregations. It would be an undeserved blessing and a miracle from heaven.

Because the King of His church has sent me to another part of the harvest-field, we expect, for the last time, to be presiding at the meeting of our Curatorium. It is our wish that He will remember our congregations here and elsewhere, to the glory of His thrice-holy Name and to the welfare of souls traveling to eternity.

Your well-wishing fellow servant, Rev. A.W. Verhoef

Editorial Note: The Curatorium meets this year on June 27 and 28. Please set these days aside as prayer days for those who have an attest from their consistories, as well as for the Curatorium members, students, and instructors. Pray that God—not man — may provide men of His choosing to study for sacred ministry.

Dear brother Verhoef, as you hope to say farewell as pastor in the North American NRC in coming weeks, we wish to take this opportunity to wish you and your wife to “fare well” under the shepherding care of the Good, Great, and Chief Shepherd. Out of His shepherding love, may you yourself be shepherded so as to experience, “The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not want” (Ps. 23:1). But also may you receive continued grace to be blessed as an undershepherd for the flock of Beekbergen, the Lord willing.

Thanks again for all the labor you have expended on behalf of the NRC of North America these past twenty years, and also for the articles you have contributed to our denominational periodicals. (Be assured that you are heartily welcome to continue to contribute articles from the Netherlands as enabled.)

Hearty and best wishes to you and yours.

—JRB

Lord, we pray Thee, send forth reapers,
Hear us while to Thee we cry;
Send them now the sheaves to gather
Ere the harvest time pass by.

Hasten now, the grain is bending,
Gather now the sheaves of gold;
Homeward then at evening wending,
Thou shalt come with joy untold.

A Heart Like Thine

Give me a heart like Thy heart,
Lord—
A heart that moves my hand
To touch the loathsome one, that he
God’s love may understand;
Recalling how my Saviour stooped
From sin to set me free,
And may I see myself in Him,
As He sees Christ in me.

Give me a heart like Thy heart,
Lord—
A heart that longs to give,
And will not anything withhold
To help another live.
Heaven was emptied of its best
To save a soul like mine—
Rebellious, sinful, and defiled—
Give me a heart like Thine!

Give me a heart like Thy heart,
Lord—
A heart to intercede With real compassion for the lost,
Aware of their deep need; To pray as though it were myself
Still doomed to death’s dark night,
Knowing that their soul, like mine,
Is precious in Thy sight.

Give me a heart like Thy heart,
Lord—
That seeks the Father’s will
And counts no sacrifice too great
His purpose to fulfill;
A heart that quickly will respond
To every clear command
And will not shrink from death itself
Should this be Love’s demand.

For He who said, “Thy will, not
Mine,”
My great Example is;
He freely gave Himself for me—
Oh, for a heart like His!

— J.Hart

Rev. AW. Verhoef hopes to be installed next month as Gereformeerde Gemeenten pastor at Beekbergen, the Netherlands.

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