You
have plowed wickedness;
You
have reaped iniquity.
You
have eaten the fruit of lies…. (Hosea
10:13a)
We reap what we sow.
Paul put it this way in Galatians 6:7-8, “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that
he will also reap. For he who sows to
the flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he sows to the Spirit will of
the Spirit reap everlasting life.”
God set this same choice before the nation of Israel
in the tenth chapter of Hosea. They
could sow the seeds of repentance and reap a harvest of righteousness (v.12),
but instead they had chosen to sow the seeds of wickedness and reap a harvest
of wrath (v.13). It is the same folly
which every nation pursues when it turns from God—the source of all blessing—and
embraces evil. The prophet Hosea may as
well have been describing America today.
The deception is a rejection of revealed truth
concerning God and the worship of a god of our own making. Most people in our country would be no
different than these Israelis—claiming to be “spiritual.” Yet, it is a demonic spirituality, and not
that given by the Spirit of Truth. Real
faith rests in a God who has revealed Himself in His Word. Idolatry is when we fashion a god of our own
imagination. Sadly, there are many in
our churches today who have done the same.
These false gods are promoted not only by the cults, but often preached
from pulpits. That is a replication of
the evil seen in Hosea’s time—and the results will be no different.
They were in a time of material prosperity that masked
their spiritual poverty (v.1-2). It is
easy to forget about God when things are going well, and to assume those
conditions will continue. They will
not. The law of the harvest means that
you not only reap what you sow, but later than you sow. You don’t plant seed one day and get fruit
the next. The harvest eventually
comes. Let us not deceive ourselves by
thinking that because we have heard warnings about God’s wrath for years, and
that storm has yet to break, that it is a false alarm being raised. We place such messages on the level of “Chicken
Little saying, ‘The sky is falling!’” Brush
it off—it’s your choice. On the
authority of God’s Word, I assure you that a harvest of judgment is ripening
and near reaping.
The rapture of the church can happen any day. Are you looking for Jesus and longing for
home? Christ will claim His bride—a pure
and chaste virgin, without spot or wrinkle, robed in white—the righteousness of
the saints. Those left behind will reap
a harvest of horror and will echo the bitter cry of Hosea 10:8,
They
shall say to the mountains, “Cover us!”
And
to the hills, “Fall on us!”
It will be too late then to find refuge. They might have had their sins covered by the
blood of the Lamb, but instead they will know the wrath of the Lamb. They could have fallen upon the Rock of Ages
in repentance, but there will be no help found in calling out to the rocks to
fall on them.
Here is the choice that alone brings hope:
Sow
for yourselves righteousness;
Reap
in mercy;
Break
up your fallow ground,
For
it is time to seek the LORD,
Till
He comes and rains righteousness on you.
(v.12)
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