“Do you not say, ‘There yet four months then comes the harvest?’ Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes and see that the fields are white for harvest.”
– John 4:35
Ha, I love John 4:35 especially when you think about its context. So Jesus has just finished having this conversation with this woman at the well, where he has told her about living water that will never leave her thirsty again.
Lord, open ours eyes to the fields white for harvest all around us. Help us to be diligent to contend for the faith.
God Can Open Our Eyes To The Fields White For Harvest
She has realized who he is and she has run back into town to say, “Come, you’ve got to see this man. You’ve got to meet this man who could be the Christ.” And all these people are coming out of the town to meet him. Meanwhile, Jesus is having this conversation with his disciples and they’re telling him to eat because he’s not eating anything.
He says in the verse right before this, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work.” In other words, “I’m eating. I’m doing what the father has sent me here to do.” And then he says, “Do not say there are yet four months then comes the harvest?” Like the harvest is coming in the future. He says, “I tell you, open up your eyes. The fields are white for harvest.”
And in the background, you have a whole town that’s coming out. A town that by the way, the disciples have just gone into to get food. They missed it. They missed the harvest right in front of them. Ripe, ready to hear the good news of the kingdom. The good news about who Jesus is. They haven’t brought anybody back to see Jesus.
John 4:35 Prays That God Opens Our Eyes To The People Around Us
Here’s a woman who’s bringing all these people back to hear Jesus. All these people out to see Jesus’ ripe fields. So do we see like this? Look around us right now especially in the middle of a pandemic. Open our eyes, God. Help us to see that the fields are white for harvest, that there are people all around us who are hurting. There are people all around us in need of Jesus. People all around us that you love and you desire to draw to yourself.
So, God, we pray that today, tomorrow, this week you would open our eyes to see ripe fields all around us and to do your will, to do your work, to share the good news of your love with them. God, we pray that you would help us to do harvest work today and tomorrow, and to make this good news known. Please, oh God, we pray. God, we pray for this kind of perspective on the community right around us and God we pray for this perspective in the world.
John 4:35 Prays For The Sayyid People In Pakistan
God, I think about eight million Sayyid people in Pakistan. These religious teachers and priests among the Muslim community, eight million of them. Zero of them, followers of Jesus. God help us to see the ripeness among the Sayyid. They’re ready to hear. They need to hear that you love them. That you’ve made a way for them to be saved.
God, we pray you help us to do your will, to do your work, to work to get the gospel to the Sayyid in Pakistan. Please God, send out laborers into that harvest field we pray. Oh God, give us this perspective. Open our eyes to see what you saw Jesus in John 4.
White fields ready for harvest and help us to do John 4:34 to do your will, to accomplish your work and to make that our food more important to us than breakfast, lunch, or dinner. Sharing the good news of your love with ripe harvest fields right around us and far from us. We pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
