Law 3
We Reap in a Different Season than We Sow
The perenial fact is too many believers are sowing wild oats throughout the week and then gathering with the church , praying for a crop failure, hoping their life-style won't catch up with them, but of course, it always does.
What we sow, we will reap, but in a different season.
I. The Foundation for this Law
A. The Creative Purpose of Yehovah
"While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease." Genesis 8:22
1. The harvest never comes immediately after planting for, while the earth abides, there is seedtime and harvest.Plants don't grow overnight.There are seasons to life.Wisdom isn't gained overnight, and so it goes through out all of life.
B. "In Due Time" or "Season"
1. Negatively.
"To me belongeth vengeance, and recompense; their foot shall slide in due time: for the day of their calamity is at hand, and the things that shall come upon them make haste." Deuteronomy 32:35
2. Positively
"Wherefore it came to pass, when the time was come about after Hannah had conceived, that she bare a son, and called his name Samuel, saying, Because I have asked him of the LORD." 1 Samuel 1:20
"The eyes of all wait upon thee; and thou givest them their meat in due season." Psalm 145:15
"These wait all upon thee; that thou mayest give them their meat in due season." Psalm 104:27
"And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not." Galations 6:9
C. The Necessity of Time and Growth in All Things
Ecclesiates 3:1-8 reminds us there is a time for everything, which teaches us we can't rush the laws of Yehovah nor should we try to ignore them.
"To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:
A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;
A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;
A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away;
A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace."
II. Applications of this Law
A. Without question we reap what we sow, but the principle mankind doesn't want to face is we reap in a different season.
B. There are several important factors here:
1. Because we do not see the immediate results, we often think we have gotten away with something or can, but we never do.
"Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil. Though a sinner do evil an hundred times, and his days be prolonged, yet surely I know that it shall be well with them that fear God, which fear before him:" Ecclesiastes 8:11-12
2. We live in a self-oriented society, given over to instant gratification, that says "do your own thing," or "to thine own self be true."
3. Because we are accustomed to immediate gratification, we are too often unwilling to wait for the results of biblical sowing--sowing what is good and waiting on the Lord and His timing.
We take matters into our own hands,employing our own strategies and methods, not waiting on the Lord; wanting to reap without sowing!
"I wait for Yehovah, my soul doth wait, and in his word do I hope. My soul waiteth for the Lord more than they that watch for the morning: I say, more than they that watch for the morning." Psalm 130:5-6
"Rest in Yehovah, and wait patiently for him: fret not thyself because of him who prospereth in his way, because of the man who bringeth wicked devices to pass. Cease from anger, and forsake wrath: fret not thyself in any wise to do evil. For evildoers shall be cut off: but those that wait upon the LORD, they shall inherit the earth." Psalm 37:7-9
The Law of the Harvest says, "We sow in one season; we reap in another." No harvest comes the moment the seed is planted, but it must wait for Yehovah's appointed time. This should be both a warning against sowing evil and an encouragement for sowing good seed.