Luke 10:1–4: “After this the Lord appointed seventy‑two others and sent them ahead of Him, two by two, into every town and place where He Himself was about to go. He said to them, ‘The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into His harvest. Go! I am sending you out like lambs surrounded by wolves. Do not carry a money bag, a traveler’s bag, or sandals, and greet no one on the road.’”

Yesterday, I started talking about this passage. Now I am in verse 2, which says, “He said to them, ‘The harvest is plentiful.’” He is giving them a vision of something magnificent, like saying to Abraham, “Look at this whole land.” It is plentiful. “But the workers are few. Therefore, ask the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into His harvest.”

This is exactly what is happening here. These workers are being sent into God’s harvest. They are being sent to do what God wants. Paul said of himself and Apollos, “I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth” (1 Corinthians 3:6). We have here a vision of a massive harvest that one person alone cannot handle. There cannot be just one minister. We see seventy‑two of them here.

Look at Moses. When they were in the wilderness, he alone was doing all the judging. His father‑in‑law Jethro advised him, “No, divide the work and let there be categories” (Exodus 18). The work was massive and was occupying him too much. When Moses said, “This pressure is too much,” God said, “Bring seventy elders.” Almost the same number here—just a little more with Jesus: seventy‑two.

And God said, “I will take some of the Spirit that is on you and put it on them, and they will bear the burden of the people with you” (Numbers 11:16–17). The point is: these appointed people are supposed to bear the burden of the harvest, because He is the Lord of the harvest. Jesus Christ is Lord of the harvest. They are supposed to bear the burden with Him, to assist Him in the process.

In some of the parables of Jesus we have this theme of harvest. For example, in one parable workers are sent into the vineyard at different hours of the day, but all of them receive a reward (Matthew 20:1–16). But here in Luke 10 it is not a parable; this is real life. He is sending them out in real life and saying, “The harvest is plentiful,” to give them understanding. This is something that will consume your time. It is not something you can treat lightly: “We’ll just do a little.” No. This is something that is going to consume your time, your attention, your energy, because the harvest is plentiful.

There is a mismatch between what needs to be done and the resources that have been deployed, and that is, in my opinion, deliberate—so that you constantly have this big vision in front of you. There is always land to occupy. When God sent Israel to take over the promised land, even after years there was still land remaining to be possessed (Joshua 13:1). There were still things to be done. That is the idea. The work does not get finished easily. It continues.

He said, “This gospel of the kingdom will be preached throughout the whole inhabited earth as a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come” (Matthew 24:14). If you are one of the original disciples hearing “throughout the whole world,” you might think, “What does ‘throughout the whole world’ have to do with me? I am just a fisherman. You told me to follow You; I am following. Now You are talking about the whole world.” But they did as much as they could in their generation, then another generation, then another. It has been thousands of years now, and it is still moving forward.

Have that understanding: the harvest is plentiful. The harvest is plentiful. But the workers are few. “Therefore, ask the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into His harvest.” He is saying to these seventy‑two, “Do not think that is all there is to this work. Do not think seventy‑two is enough. Give room in your prayers to ask the Lord of the harvest to send out more laborers into His harvest.”

You know it is not only about you. It is not only about your vision. You want to give room for others too, to associate with others, to connect with others—because the harvest is plentiful. It is not a one‑man business.

God bless you.