Hosea 10:12 Sow to yourselves in righteousness, reap in mercy; break up your fallow ground: for it is time to seek the LORD… Activity is not only a sign of life, it is a necessary condition of its continuance. The illustrations of this common law of life are as abundant as life itself. That which is true of trees, of muscle, and of brain is equally true of spiritual powers. For them no condition is a surer augury of death than unuse. As a Divine call to religious activity, Hosea's words contain some points of perpetual importance. The call is — 1. Distinctly personal. "Sow for yourselves." Whether a man will or not, he is constantly a sower of seed. The bad man, the defective Christian, the dilatory, the prayerless, are all sowers. This Divine call does not deal so much with unconscious influences, as with purposed and determined work. 2. The call is specific and definite. You are not to sow anything that may come first to hand. You are to sow the right word, the right spirit, the right action. Every seed we scatter with our hands deliberately, every seed that is unconsciously permitted to wing its way from our whole demeanour, is to bear within it the germ of the true life. 3. The call is opportune. It is always timely to be doing good. There are, however, certain seasons when religious activity is the present duty. 4. The call is urgent. All the verbs axe in one mood; and this is not the conditional or subjunctive, but the imperative. God never gives men any call without making it possible for them to obey it.Our encouragement, to obedience is found in the — 1. Answer of a good conscience. 2. In certain success. 3. In full proofs of Divine mercy. 4. The success will be far spreading. The Christian worker is blessed in his deed. And — 5. The success will be abundant.Let the labour for God tax our utmost ability, our patience, our faith; still, be it ours to work on, confident of the result. The blessing is certain to come, even for ourselves, certain to have proofs of mercy in it, certain to reach further than we anticipated, certain also to be plenteous. Enlarge your faith, therefore, in the power and blessing of God. Your work of faith and labour of love shall not be forgotten; but shall be copiously and even abundantly blessed. (J. Jackson Goadby.) Parallel Verses KJV: 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. |
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