As we head into 2012 we are hearing once again the beat of war drums. Iran is threatening that if the United States embargos Iran’s oil, Iran will blockade the Strait of Hormuz so that the commerce of other nations cannot get through the Persian Gulf either. In return, the United States is threatening that any such action by Iran will be swiftly met with military reprisal.
I don’t know where all this will go, but it would not surprise me to see the situation grow into full-scale war that many nations get drawn into. We live in an extremely unstable world—a world that is headed into what Scripture calls the Evil Day.
Of course there has been evil in the world from the day the Serpent beguiled Eve, and following suit, Adam deliberately disobeyed God. But there comes a time when evil comes to fruition, and there is a harvest of evil. Surely we are already very close to that time. Things are moving so quickly. It’s frightening the way we have seen evil increase in just one generation.
I know this makes us fearful, anxious. But in a sense this is very encouraging. For, when the crop is ripe, what happens next?
“When the wicked spring as the grass, and when all the workers of iniquity do flourish; it is that they shall be destroyed forever” (Ps. 92.7).
What happens when the harvest is ripe? It gets cut down. Is evil flourishing in our day? We know what is next, then. God is going to get his sickle out and cut it all down. He is going to totally eradicate wickedness from His world.
His way of doing this is to first let evil come to fruition. And we are there. Everywhere you look there is a sense of ripeness about things. We certainly see this in the churches. Deception abounds in many churches. How can it be otherwise? The red carpet has been long since rolled out for the ways and works of man. Why the surprise, then, when it all comes to a head, and the man of iniquity walks down the aisle and sets himself up as god in the temple of God, and is worshipped by multitudes? For, when God’s people do not receive the love of the truth, He gives them over to believe the lie.
And out there in the world? What is growing out there in the field of the world? Simply put, it is everything men are doing to build a world that leaves God out. And this also comes to a head. When the God of order and the Prince of peace is left out, what will be the harvest? War… worldwide upheaval… anarchy… chaos.
But never mind what’s growing out there in the field of the nations. Remember the riots this year in the streets of orderly societies? Not only in the Arab countries, but right in our orderly societies—Canada, England. People are appalled, but think this through. How can there be order in any society when the people who live in that society want nothing to do with the God of order? God lifts His restraint then, and… what a shock! Where did that come from?
One thing we must have absolute confidence in is this. What a man sows he shall reap. Man has been sowing evil with both hands—and he is going to see the harvest of evil.
“Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap.” You can’t mock God—you can’t have a secret love affair with evil and expect good in return. “For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption…” Frightening thought, isn’t it.
But let’s continue reading. “…But he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting” (Gal. 6.7,8). Now, that’s encouraging!
And so, fellow Christian, how is your sowing coming along? Do you feel at times that it hasn’t amounted to much so far? Not much fruit yet? You are beginning to think that it’s no use, what God has promised is not going to materialize? You mean you believe God will be mocked after all? He will not be mocked. What you sow you shall reap. Keep sowing, then! Keep watering! Don’t give up!
“And let us not be weary in well doing, for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not” (Gal. 6.9).
We shall reap! Let us not be afraid of what we see happening in our world. In the same Evil Day that yields to man his harvest of evil, another harvest is about to be reaped—the harvest of the word of God you and I have planted and watered in our lives and the lives of others.
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