Luke 10:2

Luke 10:2, in plain English

Jesus said the harvest is huge but there are not enough workers. He told them to pray and ask God to send more workers into His harvest field.

Why it's here

Before sending them to work, Jesus told them to pray. The first step of every mission is not action but prayer. And the prayer is not for success but for more help, because the need is always greater than the workforce.

Who's speaking

Jesus teaches about the urgency of the mission.

Where it sits in the story

Jesus looked at the vast spiritual need around Him and said: the harvest is massive and the workers are too few. Before you go, pray. Ask God to send more people into the fields.

The scholarly reading

Jesus uses the harvest metaphor: ho therismos polys ('the harvest is plentiful') but hoi ergatai oligoi ('the workers are few'). He commands them to deēthēte ('pray earnestly') to the kyriou tou therismou ('Lord of the harvest') to ekbalē ('send out/thrust forth') workers. The strong verb ekballō ('thrust out') suggests urgency.

Language and setting

The harvest imagery draws on eschatological expectations (Joel 3:13, Isaiah 27:12) where the harvest represents the gathering of people for God's kingdom. The paradox of asking God to send workers to His own harvest acknowledges divine sovereignty over mission while requiring human prayer participation.

Voice

Jesus instructs the seventy-two about the urgency of the mission.

Significance

Jesus described the mission field as an enormous harvest with far too few workers, urging them to pray that the Lord of the harvest would thrust out more laborers. The need was urgent and the opportunity immense.

1After this, the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them two by two ahead of Him to every town and place He was about to visit.

2And He told them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into His harvest.

3Go! I am sending you out like lambs among wolves.

4Carry no purse or bag or sandals. Do not greet anyone along the road.

Read all of Luke 10 — A lawyer asks how to inherit eternal life and gets an answer he doesn't expect. The hero of the story is the one everyone despises.