If He Sends, They Will Go.

“After these things the Lord appointed other seventy also, and sent them two and two before his face into every city and place, whither he himself would come. Therefore said he unto them, ‘The harvest truly is great, but the labourers are few: pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he would send forth labourers into his harvest.” Luke 10:1-2 KJV

There is no substitute for the calling of God in missions. All the preparation we could anticipate, all the well-laid plans we could conceive, and all the empathy we could muster mean nothing unless the Lord builds the house and watches the city. As our family of nine transitions to full-time missions in Honduras, the verses above stand out to me as never before.

First, I notice with fresh importance the implied promise in verse one. Jesus is sending His seventy ambassadors specifically to the cities and places where “He Himself would come.” They will not be asked to serve as a second-hand substitute for the presence of Jesus. The opposite is true. In sending these seventy men across Judea, Jesus is promising His presence to His disciples and those who hear them. These men will go in power, working miracles, subduing spirits, and declaring the words they have received from the Master; yet all of this would be worse than vanity for both preacher and flock without the assured presence of the Saviour.

For ourselves, we do not begin this journey with hopes that Jesus will catch up to us in the villages and cities of Honduras. Our confidence in the risen and glorified Christ is even greater than the seventy’s confidence in the incarnated Christ. Wherever Jesus sends us, He is there already, working to build His kingdom and claim His inheritance among the nations. On Mt. Carmel, Elijah prays before the first flame sparks upon his sacrifice, “Hear me, O LORD, hear me, that this people may know that thou art the LORD God, and that thou hast turned their heart back again.” (1 Kings 18:37) So in Luke, Jesus sees a harvest that already “is great.” He does not call the seventy to make the harvest great; He calls them to bring His harvest to the garner. In the spirit of Elisha following Elijah, we ask the Lord to reveal to the Body of Christ in Honduras those things He has already been turning toward His perfect plan.

Going back to our original text, the second thing that stands out to me is the remedy Jesus provides for the need for laborers. He does not challenge the seventy to begin a crusade to recruit more missionaries. He does not bemoan the lack of applicants or even emphasize the urgency of the opportunity. Instead, He places all the attention on the Father. If more missionaries are needed, the only solution with guaranteed success is to pray for the Lord of the harvest to send forth laborers. As I watch the sun setting in the darkening skies of a relatively cool Honduras night, the implication of this command falls upon me like a hammer. If He sends them, they will go.

Jesus does not see His Father idly sitting in Heaven, pulling out His hair over whether His saints will wake up to the need for laborers. Nor does He ask his disciples to fret over the need for more boots on the ground. Rather, He turns His happy band of servants to the prayer closet with the promise that if the Father calls more laborers, more laborers will answer that call.

This confidence is Scripturally sound. When God first wanted a man to till the soil for His harvest, He created one from the dust of the ground. When God wanted a father of faith, He formed and fashioned Abraham until he was transformed from a deceiver who would abandon both his wife and his vision of God’s plan into a faithful patriarch who would sacrifice everything for the Lord. When God wanted Joseph to lead His people into Egypt and Moses to lead them out, He moved heaven and earth to make it happen. When God wants a prophet to guide Judah and write some of the most beautiful prophecies in all Scripture, He picks a man of unclean lips among a people of unclean lips and He purges that man until He cries out, “Here am I, send me!” When God wants a prophet to make straight paths for His arrival, He strikes aged Zacharias mute to convince him that John will be born to barren Elizabeth. When God wants a group of men to turn the world upside down, He seeks them out in fishing docks, under fig trees, and among tax booths and calls them to do the impossible. In Ephesians 4, He does not ask us to give Him apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers as volunteers for His service. No, He gives all these as gifts from God to man. The Apostle Paul referenced God’s calling on his life as a “necessity […] laid upon” him ”against [his] will” as a “dispensation of the gospel.” (1 Corinthians 9:16-17)

We do not know why the Lord of the harvest chose our family to make this transition, nor do we know the harvest He has prepared for Himself, but we do know this: When the Lord of the harvest sends laborers, the laborers go where He leads. And as I listen to a midnight rain fall upon our metal roof while our children sleep below, that knowledge is enough.