“He who gathers in summer is a wise son,
but he who sleeps in harvest is a son who causes shame.”
- Proverbs 10:5
Photo by Tim Mossholder on Unsplash
The harvest is ready. What will you do?
Each new day we have to make choices. We have choices about our time and resources. Is there is a balancing of our priorities? What about our attitude toward the different situations we face? Does being positive or negative always change things? Should we take action, or is sitting back and doing nothing the better option?
Solomon uses a picture from agriculture, the harvest time, to explain an essential spiritual truth: if you miss the harvest season, you lose the entire year. At another point in Ecclesiastes, he said: “To everything, there is a season / A time for every purpose under heaven” (3:1). In Jesus’ parable of the sower (Matt. 13:1–9), our Lord tries to explain this to his disciples. He expresses the same sentiment directly after speaking to the woman at the well: “Do you not say, ‘There are still four months and then comes the harvest’? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for they are already white for harvest” (John 4:35).
Those who “gather” are wise. Meanwhile, others “sleep in the harvest.” Wise people, according to Solomon, see a door of opportunity and rush through it with passionate zeal. At the same time, the foolish among us miss the opportunity altogether or assume that doors like these will always be open—they would rather be doing something else.
Many people do not recognize an opportunity when they meet it because it usually goes around wearing overalls and looks like Hard Work. The son in this proverb dislikes the labor of gathering in a harvest and instead prefers sleep while others work. He does this even though farming’s only payday is at harvest.
The famous evangelist Dwight L. Moody admitted that he made a grievous mistake he determined never to make again. At a rally on October 8, 1871, he preached one in a series of evangelistic messages in Chicago. He had drawn his biggest audience of the week. The message he focused on that night was, “What will you do then with Jesus who is called the Christ?” He was tired when this final service was over but finished his message by presenting the gospel and then saying: “Now I give you a week to think that over. And when we come together again, you will have an opportunity to respond.” The soloist started singing but was quickly drowned out by clanging bells and wailing sirens. The “Great” Chicago Fire, which burned for several days, had begun, and emergency crews were on the move trying to contain it. They failed badly. In the ash-filled aftermath, hundreds were found dead, and more than a hundred thousand were homeless. It is almost certain that some who heard Moody’s message that night had died in the fire. He resolved to never again ask people for anything less than an immediate response to the gospel’s message.
The Lord often knocks through opportunity, and then the choice becomes ours.
“LORD, please keep reminding us, as we walk with You today, that the season is here and the opportunity is now.”
Please keep our efforts in your prayers as other pastors in South Florida and I seek to plant a new church in the Homestead/Florida city area. If you or anyone you know lives in the area we would love to talk with them.