Teks -- Matthew 9:37 (NET)

9:37 Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few.

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Wesley: Mat 9:37 - The harvest truly is great

When Christ came into the world, it was properly the time of harvest; till then it was the seed time only.

Wesley: Mat 9:37 - But the labourers are few

Those whom God sends; who are holy, and convert sinners. Of others there are many. Luk 10:2.

JFB: Mat 9:37 - Then saith he unto his disciples, The harvest truly is plenteous

His eye doubtless rested immediately on the Jewish field, but this he saw widening into the vast field of "the world" (Mat 13:38), teeming with souls having to be gathered to Him.

JFB: Mat 9:37 - but the labourers

Men divinely qualified and called to gather them in.

Clarke: Mat 9:37 - The harvest

The harvest - The souls who are ready to receive the truth are very numerous; but the laborers are few. There are multitudes of scribes, Pharisees, and priests, of reverend and right reverend men; but there are few that work. Jesus wishes for laborers, not gentlemen, who are either idle drones, or slaves to pleasure and sin, and nati consumere fruges . "Born to consume the produce of the soil.

It was customary with the Jews to call their rabbins and students reapers; and their work of instruction, the harvest. So in Idra Rabba, s. 2. "The days are few; the creditor is urgent; the crier calls out incessantly; and the reapers are few."And in Pirkey Aboth: "The day is short, the work great, the workmen idle, the reward abundant, and the master of the household is urgent."In all worldly concerns, if there be the prospect of much gain, most men are willing enough to labor; but if it be to save their own souls, or the souls of others, what indolence, backwardness, and carelessness! While their adversary, the devil, is going about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour; and a careless soul, and especially a careless minister is his especial prey

The place of the harvest is the whole earth: it signifies little where a man works, provided it be by the appointment, in the Spirit, and with the blessing of God.

Calvin: Mat 9:37 - The harvest is indeed abundant

37.The harvest is indeed abundant By this metaphor he intimates, that many of the people are ripe for receiving the gospel. Though the greater number afterwards rejected basely and with vile ingratitude the salvation offered to them, yet the limited number of the elect, who were mixed with unbelievers, is compared to an abundant harvest, because God values a small band of his own people more highly than the rest of the world. Though there were at that time many who assumed this character, yet as few of them discharged it faithfully, he does not rank them among laborers: for he employs the word laborers in a good sense. When Paul complains (2Co 2:13) of bad laborers, he refers to their boasting: for he would not have bestowed the designation of laborers ⁵³⁴ on those who devoted all their exertions to ruin and waste the flock, had it not been that they gloried in the false pretense.

TSK: Mat 9:37 - The harvest // but

The harvest : Mat 28:19; Mar 16:15; Luk 10:2, Luk 24:47; Joh 4:35, Joh 4:36; Act 16:9, Act 18:10

but : Psa 68:11; 1Co 3:9; 2Co 6:1; Phi 2:19-21; Col 4:11; 1Th 5:12, 1Th 5:13; 1Ti 5:17

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Poole: Mat 9:37-38

Ver. 37,38. The plain sense of these two verses is this: John the Baptist and Christ had now been preaching for some time, God inclined the hearts of great multitudes to follow both the one and the other; there was a great people prepared for the Lord: Mat 11:12 , From the days of John the Baptist, the kingdom of heaven had suffered violence, and the violent took it by force; men were exceeding fond of hearing the gospel.

The fields were white to the harvest, as our Saviour expresses it, Joh 4:35 . But there were few that would faithfully deliver the mind of God; there were abundance of idle Pharisees, and scribes, and priests, that spent their time in teaching people their rites, and ceremonies, and traditions, but the labourers were few; such must be God’ s gift to the people, and they must be thrust out. No arguments will be sufficient to persuade men to the weighty work of the ministry, with an intention to fulfil it, but the power of God inclining their hearts to it. You had need therefore pray unto God that he would send, nay, that he would ekbalh , thrust out, labourers into his harvest.

1. The inclination and desire of multitudes to hear Divine truth is God’ s harvest.

2. Ministers’ work is a labour, Gal 4:11 Phi 4:3 1Ti 5:17 ; if rightly discharged, it must be with labour.

3. God is the Lord of the harvest; ministers ought to look upon him as so.

4. None ought to thrust themselves into the work of the ministry, till God thrust them out, Heb 5:4 .

5. There always were but a few labourers in God’ s harvest. Hence Chrysostom thought that but a few ministers would be saved.

Our Saviour in this chapter prefaces his work of which we shall discourse in the next chapter, viz. his sending forth his twelve apostles.

Gill: Mat 9:37 - Then saith he unto his disciples // the harvest truly is plenteous // But the labourers are few

Then saith he unto his disciples,.... His heart being drawn out, and filled with pity to these poor people, upon observing the miserable and sad condition they were in; he turns himself to his disciples, whom he was about to call, and send forth in a more public manner to preach the Gospel, of which we read in the following chapter; and in order to quicken them to this service, and engage their hearts in it, says unto them,

the harvest truly is plenteous; meaning the large number of God's elect, which were in these cities, towns, and villages, and in other places: not that these were maturely prepared by anything in themselves, or done by them, for the grace of God; and much less ripe for the kingdom of glory, and therefore called an harvest: but as there are the appointed weeks of the harvest, or a set time for the harvest to be gathered in, so there is a certain fixed time, settled in the counsel, and by the purpose of God, for the effectual calling and conversion of his elect; and this time being come, with respect to these in Galilee, and other parts, Christ calls them an "harvest"; and because of their number, a large, or "plenteous" one.

But the labourers are few: Gospel ministers; whose calling is a laborious one; whose business is to labour in the word and doctrine; to be constant in prayer; to give up themselves to meditation and reading; to study to show themselves workmen; to preach the word in season, and out of season; and diligently discharge the several duties of their office, to the glory of Christ, and the good of souls: but such painful and laborious ministers, who are willing to spend, and be spent for Christ and immortal souls, have been but few in all ages; generally speaking, there are more loiterers than labourers.