Tuesday, June 11, 2019

Hosea 10:12-13 -- On Growing Goodness

"Sow to yourselves in righteousness, reap in mercy; break up your fallow ground: for it is time to seek the Lord, till he come and rain righteousness upon you.
Ye have plowed wickedness, ye have reaped iniquity; ye have eaten the fruit of lies: because thou didst trust in thy way, in the multitude of thy mighty men."
Hosea 10:12-13


I love the image of the Lord raining righteousness upon us. :)  Awesome.  And it goes along with the idea of planting righteousness, reaping with mercy, and in general preparing ourselves to grow goodness and to be productive and wholesome.  It reminds me of the tree of life from Lehi's dream or the good fruit from the allegory of the olive trees in Jacob 5... so much goodness to be had, but so easy (if we aren't focused on what matters) to wander from the good fruit, and to find forbidden paths or produce evil fruit.

The contrast with this second verse helps us to see part of why the first verse is so amazing.  When we trust the Lord, we can be "like a watered garden" (Isaiah 58:11).  But when we discard the advice of the Lord and try to make our own way, then wickedness, iniquity, and lies are the fruits that we will gather.  Even when it looks like the odds are against God's way, they never really are.  We just have to see past the temptations and the mists of darkness and focus on God, because that is always the true and certain thing.

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