Bringing In The Sheaves

Focus verses: Psalm 126

This psalm talks of the joy of the exiles' return to Jerusalem and prays for a restoration of fortune on top of their return home.

Harvest is a time of joy. When the crop comes in it means money in the pocket. But harvest in Israel means more than that.

Harvesting grapes for wine meant the grapes were crushed for their juice. Then the juice was set aside to ferment before being put into a new wineskin.

Harvesting grain meant that the stem was cut and the heads were winnowed to separate the grain from the chaff. Winnowing in that time meant that the heads were pounded, then tossed into the air from a wide flat basket. The grain came back down into the basket, but the chaff blew away on the breeze.

Harvesting the olives meant that the trees were beaten with sticks to shake the branches and make the olives drop. Then the olives were put into a press, much like a mill stone, where stones pressed the olive oil out of the fruit.

God's harvest is His people. And they are also crushed and set aside, cut off and winnowed, beaten and pressed. The victory is that God is always there. And we are to rejoice even when we are being harvested.

It's easy enough to praise the Lord when the sun is shining, the birds are singing, and we are feasting. Can we praise him during the vicious storm, when everything has taken cover, and we are cold an hungry? He is always bringing in His sheaves.

Father, God,

Help us to remember that life is not all sunshine and roses, but that You are God of all in the tempest and storm. Grant us the assurance that whatever befalls us, You are there with Your everlasting arms to surround and support us.

In Jesus' most precious name.
Amen.

In The Name Of The Lord

Focus verses: Jeremiah 26:1-24

Strange things happen when one speaks in the name of the Lord. Jeremiah has spoken truthfully all and exactly what God told him to say to the people. But the people didn't want to hear "repent before doom comes upon you." They would rather have ear-tickling words from false prophets.

So the mob (shades of things to come) calls for Jeremiah to be put to death. However, there are people there who speak up for Jeremiah. Jeremiah puts forth no defense except that if they kill him they will be guilty of innocent blood. So Jeremiah is spared.

Speaking in the name of the Lord is not always a good way to win friends. Truth is unbending. It's a binary file. Yes or no. On or off. Truth or lie. There are no shades of gray, no in-betweens.

We live, however, in a society that tends to reject absolutes. And it rejects them absolutely. That is a fallacy in itself. If nothing is absolutely true then it cannot be absolutely true that nothing is absolutely true.

It has been proven that children do better in a structured environment, when certain things are expected of them. It gives them a sense of importance to have a position in the family that is responsible for something. But children are very good at pushing buttons and stretching the boundaries.

That isn't because they want the freedom of no boundaries. They are reassured when the boundaries don't give when they try to stretch them.

We are children, too. We need the boundaries that God has set for us. When we push the boundaries, we generally reap a harvest we'd rather not have had. One cannot sow wild oats and pray for crop failure. It just doesn't happen.

When we speak or act in the name of the Lord, we'd better be very sure that God has set us to this task. Else we are doomed to failure.

Father, God,

Sharpen our ears to be attentive to Your word. Help us to keep within Your boundaries, and strengthen us to do or say what You would have us to.

In Jesus' most precious name.
Amen.

The Wages Of Sin

Focus verses: II Kings 23:1-28

This recounting of the deeds of Josiah fills this passage. After decades of unfaithfulness and the loss of the book of the Law of Moses, Josiah has the book read to him, and he decides to proceed under those auspices. He cleans the temples of their idols and forcibly removes all traces of worship to other than the Lord God.

The nation experiences a brief revival, but as soon as Josiah dies and his son, Jehoahaz, takes the reigns, the revival is over. Jehoahaz reigned only three months, but he did what was evil in the sight of the Lord - and the nation went along with it.

It makes me think that Josiah's success in returning Judah to the worship of the Lord was less about the Lord and more about the power and popularity of Josiah. This wasn't necessarily Josiah's fault, but people by their very nature are fickle. If Josiah had a winning personality and some charisma, then the people follow. But when Josiah's influence is silenced, the people go back to their faithless ways.

The consequences of the sins of the nation have been temporarily postponed, but they have not been canceled. The nation has sown wild oats; it is fruitless to pray for a crop failure. That harvest may be delayed, but the harvest will come.

We see many instances of skin cancer in our state. Generally this comes from an overexposure to the raw sun. If we don't wear skin protection while we are teenagers, we run the risk of multiple skin cancers which probably will not manifest until after we are fifty. Sun exposure as a teenager is the cause. Skin cancer forty or fifty years later is the effect.

In this instance multiple infidelities to the Lord. coupled with short-lived, shallow repentances have earned the nation this punishment. King Josiah's revival offered only a short reprieve.

Father, God,

Grant us wisdom in this hour to make decisions which will yield a fruitful harvest for You. Let us not be so short-sighted as to fulfill the desires of this moment at the expense of eternity.

In Jesus' most precious name.
Amen.

Praying For Crop Failure

Focus verses: 2 Samuel 12:18-23

Every action carries within itself the seed of its own reward or punishment. Nathaniel Hawthorne made a note to that effect when he was writing The Scarlet Letter. If you don't remember your high school English class, The Scarlet Letter is a novel about the consequences of actions and the ramifications of covering a sin.

David had some consequences to deal with. Because of his treachery in dealing with Bathsheba and Uriah, the child born to Bathsheba sickened and died. For a week, David fasted and prayed that God would change His mind and save the child. Still the child died.

When the child died, David stopped fasting and praying. The child was gone. Nothing could bring him back.

We all sin from time to time. It's part of the human condition. And when we sin, we'd like to pray successfully for crop failure. Most of the time, it doesn't work. Because every action carries the seed of consequence, we will reap what we sow, more than we sow, at a later date.

True repentance can sometimes bring on a crop failure, but we can't count on that. Our best course of action is to plant only good seed and pray for a bountiful harvest.

Father, God,
Keep us ever mindful that our actions have meaning. Help us remember that we are responsible for the fruits of our actions. Grant us the vision to see the consequences of our actions and the wisdom to avoid those that have negative outcomes.

In Jesus' most precious name.
Amen.