Iniquity By Default

"You have plowed wickedness; you have reaped iniquity. You have eaten the fruit of lies, because you trusted in your own way, in the multitude of your mighty men."

Hosea 10:13

I forget things or misspeak, but God does not.  He knows all things, having created the world and all the processes therein.  Reading this verse holds forth an important principle by what God through the prophet did not mention.  A farmer typically ploughs furrows, sows seed, and reaps the harvest.  This passage references ploughing and reaping but does not mention sowing at all!  The fact is unless we plant good seed we cannot expect good things to grow.

We see evidence of this all the time:  we turn over the soil to plant flowers or a vegetable garden and all manner of weeds and grass sprout up.  These weeds ought to be pulled because all these do is propagate after their own kind and rob the good plants of nutrition, sunlight, and space.  God used the illustration of ploughing and reaping in the lives of people many times in the Bible.  Paul wrote in Galatians 6:7-8, "Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. ⁸ For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life."  We reap what we sow, but we also reap what we have not sown--good and bad.

The preceding verse says in Hosea 10:12, "Sow for yourselves righteousness; reap in mercy; break up your fallow ground, for it is time to seek the LORD, till He comes and rains righteousness on you."  To reap mercy the children of Israel needed to sow for themselves righteousness.  Because they had forsaken God and trusted themselves they had no righteousness which only comes from God.  They did not have the resources within them to do righteously, therefore they reaped iniquity when they sowed nothing.  Hosea 10:4 also conveyed the results of their sinful speaking:  "They have spoken words, swearing falsely in making a covenant. Thus judgment springs up like hemlock in the furrows of the field."  Hemlock was a poisonous, noxious weed which sprang up in furrows.  They had not sowed righteousness so severe judgment from God would be the result.

Hosea 10:13 also teaches what we reap we also eat.  Because they ploughed wickedness they would reap iniquity and eat the fruit of lies.  This all came about because they had forsaken God in whom is all righteousness and wisdom.  They placed their faith in themselves rather than trusting the obeying God.  The did not follow the example of Abraham who believed God and his faith was accounted for righteousness (Romans 4:3, Galatians 3:6, James 2:23).  Without God man cannot sow righteousness and thus will always reap iniquity by default.  Like noxious weeds that spring up in the furrows, so judgment grows for those who depart from God and His ways.

If we want to be partakers of God's mercy and eternal life, we must be made righteous by grace through faith in God.  In our natural state we can only plough wickedness and reap iniquity.  Praise be to God who desires to be found by those who seek Him with their whole heart.  Jesus is coming and our righteousness springs from Him.