=34. For me meat is in order that I may do the will of him that sent me.= The meaning is not, as our English version seems to imply, that meat and doing God’s work are synonymous. The above is a literal translation of the original; and the meaning is, The object of meat is that I may do the will of him that sent me and may finish his work. The expression is parallel to and interpreted by Paul’s in Acts 20:24, “Neither count I my life dear unto myself so that I might finish my course;” or in Phil. 1:21, “For to me to live is Christ.” The object of Christ was the accomplishment of his mission; for this purpose alone had meat any value to him; for this purpose he both needed and possessed meat that his disciples, in their then state of spiritual culture, did not and could not understand; and in the work which he had accomplished, by his conversation with the woman, he had received greater satisfaction than in any food which they could have brought to him from the city. 35 Say not ye, There are yet four months, and _then_ cometh harvest? behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest.[144] [144] Matt. 9:37. =35.= There is some uncertainty regarding the proper interpretation of this verse. Alford, Tholuck, De Wette, and some others, suppose that Christ is quoting a proverbial expression; perhaps referring to the time which elapsed between seed-time and harvest, perhaps to some time intervening between a local feast or a religious anniversary and the harvest. Meyer, Andrews, Ellicott, and others take it as a chronological indication that it was then four months to harvest, _i. e._, the month of December, a fact to which perhaps some reference had been made by the disciples in the course of their walk. Chrysostom, Meyer, and others, suppose moreover that the approaching Samaritans were seen through the corn-fields, and to them Christ pointed when he said, “Lift up your eyes and look on the fields.” “The approaching townspeople now showed how greatly the doing of the Father’s will was in process of accomplishment. They were coming through the corn-field, now tinged with green; thus they make the fields, which for four months would not yield the harvest, in a higher sense already white harvest fields. Jesus directs the attention of his disciples to this; and with the beautiful picture thus presented in nature he connects further appropriate instructions.”--(_Meyer._) The phrase “Say not ye” seems to me clearly to indicate that Christ refers to some proverbial saying (comp. Matt. 16:2); the direction, “Lift up your eyes and look on the fields,” indicates some present appearance which gave point to his declaration that they were white already, a declaration which would have no significance if the fields were literally ready for the harvest. I therefore, with Tholuck, combine the two views and suppose that Christ