It is not just in the future that the harvest will be plentiful, but right now. As we sit comfortably in an American church, at this very moment there is somewhere God s mission field, some ripe fruit ready to be harvested. The harvest is plentiful. When it says that it is HIS harvest, and he is the Lord of the harvest, that establishes the terms. God is sovereign over the harvest, he plans it, and he plants the crop.
Humans go and simply gather.
We are harvest reapers. Keeping that before us keeps our emphasis on God and not to glorify man or organization. But, as long as the crop remains un-harvested it is merely potential not plentiful. In bold relief, against the background of this existing plentiful harvest, we are told that here is an existing shortage of harvesters. On the one hand there is exceptional opportunity, but that is frustrated by an appalling lack of hands.