The Great Harvest

PresbyCan Daily Devotional

Harvest season has come to the Ottawa valley, and most of the crops have now been gathered, as the winds become cold and clouds scud across the fall skies. Yet, some fields still carry their corn and soybean crops, as the farmers wait for clear days to dry the crop before harvesting. The Canada geese gather in the bare fields, feasting on the leftovers before the winter cold drives them south in long V-shaped squadrons.
Have you ever thought of yourself as a farmer, even a part-time one? In the prophet Hosea's time, everyone grew their own food, even if they were in other lines of work. Being a farmer himself, Hosea used farming analogies to urge his nation to change its harvest practices. Israel had sown the bad seeds of idolatry and injustice, and was reaping a harvest of judgment.
Hosea 10:12 – Sow with a view to righteousness, reap in accordance with kindness; break up your fallow ground, for it is time to seek the Lord until He comes to rain righteousness on you. (NASB 1995)
If Hosea were among us part-time farmers today, what would he say? Just as in his day, what we sow in our lives today, we will reap in the harvest. Our thoughts, like seeds, produce actions, which become behaviour patterns and habits, and these grow in the fields of our lives. A heart hardened to God's love could be compared with fallow ground, not plowed, and resistant to the sowing of the seed of the gospel. So how do we break up the fallow ground of the unrepentant, hardened hearts of those around us? By seeking the Lord now, working on softening them, and keeping at it until they receive the seed, and the ripe harvest of God's love and mercy grows.
God will bring His rain of righteousness, but remember, the harvest is a full season away! We are not to give up blessing, being kind, and witnessing to others, knowing that the fruitful season is coming.
Prayer: We come to You with thanksgiving for the changing seasons and the blessed harvest that You grant to our farmlands. Bless us also as we seek to prepare our own hearts and those around us for Your rain of righteousness. Amen.