Day 3

Matthew 7-9

Shortly before Moses laid his hands on Joshua and commissioned him, Moses prayed to the Lord:

“May the Lord, the God who gives breath to all living things, appoint someone over this community to go out and come in before them, one who will lead them out and bring them in, so the Lord’s people will not be like sheep without a shepherd.” Numbers 27:15-17 ESV 

1) Moses had compassion for the multitude. 

2) Moses prayed. 

3) Joshua was the temporary solution. 

In Matthew, 

“Jesus saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.” Matthew 9:36 ESV

Again, we see this same wording, “like sheep without a shepherd,” only this time the compassion is coming from the Good Shepherd himself. 

Jesus then says to His disciples, "The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”

1) Jesus had compassion for the multitude. 

2) Jesus asks us to pray (perhaps a foreshadowing of the empowerment that was to come). 

3) Jesus, who is the ultimate solution, later empowers us to GO and be the laborers.  

Jesus’s only “prayer request” was to ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers. Today, you have the opportunity to not only pray that prayer, but to be an answer to this prayer. You can be a laborer - a worker for the kingdom of God!