Sowing and Reaping

 Most people were involved in agriculture during the Bible times. It was hard labor for them just to have enough for their family to eat. No matter how hot and dry it was, they had to spend hours sowing the seeds in hope that they would have a good harvest, but they never knew what the results would be. I can imagine there were many tears shed as they cultivated the ground and planted their crops. However, when the harvest time came, and they saw the fruit of their labors, there were shouts of joy. They would come back with their sheaves of wheat or barley and store them up for the next year. The psalmist uses this analogy to give us a great spiritual truth. (Psalm 126:5-6) When we sow in tears, we will reap with shouts of joy. Even though we go along with weeping, carrying our bag of seed, we will surely come back with shouts of joy carrying our sheaves with us. As Christians, we are planting something much more valuable than wheat or barley, aren't we?

Jesus gave us the Parable of the Sower or the Parable of the Soils long after Psalm 126 was written, but He had the same picture in mind. The seeds are the gospel and the Word of God. It is our responsibility to cast theses seeds to as many people as we possibly can. It is hard work. We have to be diligent in our task. We need to take it so seriously, because we realize their eternal destiny without coming to know Jesus. This causes us to weep and pray and to go along weeping as we share the seeds with them. Then, we have to wait to see if we will receive a harvest. However, when we see one person trust Christ, we are filled with shouts of joy to know what the Lord has done for them. In fact, that is the greatest joy we could ever experience, besides coming to know Jesus ourselves. I pray we will be very intentional to sow the seeds, even when it is very difficult, so we will be able to rejoice with those who come to the Lord through hearing the gospel.

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Tomorrow. I intend to read Psalms 127-129.