Galatians 6:7-10
Today I am starting a new series of posts
called “The Laws of the Harvest”. It seems rather appropriate this time of the
year. One thing I want you to notice is that although I may give many examples,
I really have no specific subject. In other words you can apply it to a
physical garden, finances, relationships, attitudes and so on. The subject is
up to you; but the law does not change…it is the law of sowing and reaping.
There are a lot of things to talk about
like; you only reap what is sown – if you sow an apple seed, you will not reap
an oak tree. We usually don’t have an immediate harvest; you sow in one season
and reap in another. We reap proportionately more than we sow; you can sow one
potato with three eyes, and reap a bushel. (We can sow a little love, and reap
many friendships.) A full harvest requires a lot of work and maintenance and
perseverance. The laws of the harvest are absolute – “Do not be deceived, God
is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap.”Man cannot just ignore God’s eternal, absolute laws. The word “whatever” makes this law all inclusive; it applies to everything we sow, that’s why the subject is up to you. Peas = Peas…Watermelon = watermelon… Love = love… You cannot sow discord and produce unity. You cannot sow lies and produce truth. You cannot sow sin and produce holiness! Only what is sown.
These laws of the harvest are both positive and negative in their consequences. We think mostly in terms of paying the consequences of wrong actions, but there are also positive consequences for right actions! Life is filled with choices; and those choices affect us as well as others, and the consequences good or bad may or may not be immediate.
All of life comes from antecedent life. In other words from the labor and sowing of others. We are reaping today what others had sown either naturally or purposely; either by God or by man. The harvest, once again, may be positive or negative. Here is an example from Deuteronomy 6:10 – “When the Lord your God brings you into the land he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob to give you – a land with large flourishing cities you did not build, houses filled with all kinds of good things you did not provide, wells you did not dig, vineyards and olive groves you did not plant, then when you eat and are satisfied, be careful that you do not forget the Lord…”
On the positive side, we have what is called the “blessings of common grace.” This means that God is gracious toward all men whether they realize it or not; whether they acknowledge God or not. Matthew 5:45 says “God causes the sun to rise and the rain to fall on the evil and the good, on the righteous and the unrighteous.” Acts 17:24 tells us that God made the world and everything in it (for our use or misuse)…that’s common grace.
We also reap the blessings of what others have sown like; the freedoms we enjoy; the Bibles we carry; the technology we have today; are just some of the harvest we are reaping because of what others have sown…some with their very lives.
Of course there is also a negative side of this law where we reap the negative consequences of what others have done. Exodus 20:6; 34:6 and Numbers 14:18 all say the same thing; “God punishes sin to the third and fourth generation.” Do you think what we sow is important? How many have heard of a “crack” baby? Or how about fetal alcohol syndrome?
The Bible says that we all inherit or reap the sin of Adam, and we pass it along to our children. This is not only a sinful nature, but also things children learn and do like; how to be critical; how to find fault with and talk about others behind their back; or how about racism and Semitism? We reap the consequences of foolish and corrupt leaders; we reap the consequences of family decay and divorce. We are quickly becoming a people whom the Bible says “are doing what seems right in their own eyes!”
Available to us is the work of Edward Gibbon, who in 1787 completed his book “The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.” In it he attributes the fall as being the result of;
1. Rapidly increasing divorce.
2. Higher taxation.
3. A mad craze for pleasure; with sports becoming more exciting and brutal.
4. The building of gigantic armaments, when the enemy was within.
5. The decay of religion; fading into form and becoming impotent.
Is it ironic, or is it the absolute law of the harvest?
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