story that always ends with them cast as the victim.
Surprisingly, we rarely ask God why this person is going through what they're going through. Instead, we buy into their sad story in our ignorance of the full story, without considering that they may be reaping what they have sown into the lives of others. Scripture warns us about this exact tendency:
"He that is first in his own cause seemeth just; but his neighbour cometh and searcheth him." (Proverbs 18:17)
The first version of a story always sounds convincing, because it is the only version we've heard. Compassion without discernment makes us easy to persuade and slow to ask God for the part of the story we can't see.
Sowing and Reaping Is a Spiritual Law
Am I suggesting that people shouldn't be helped, despite what they've done to others? No. What I am saying is that neither you nor I can stop the law of sowing and reaping from running its course in their lives, no matter how much compassion we feel toward them. Scripture says:
"While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease." (Genesis 8:22)
God built this rhythm into creation itself, and it doesn't pause for our sympathy. Paul makes the same principle even more direct:
"Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap." (Galatians 6:7)
In other words, what you did to others was the planting of your seed. When someone does the same thing to you later, that is the harvest of what you sowed into someone else earlier. The seed doesn't forget who planted it, and the harvest doesn't ask your permission to arrive.
Helping People Without Excusing the Harvest
The bottom line is this: you can't go through life treating people any kind of way and expect a red carpet of goodness to be spread out for you in the future. Time has already calculated your assigned date to reap what you have sown, my friend. You can show someone mercy and still recognize that your mercy does not cancel the harvest coming to them from the seeds they planted elsewhere. Those are two different things, and confusing them is how we end up defending people against consequences that God Himself put in motion.
God Sees What Compassion Alone Can Miss
God will judge the oppressor, and in that day, there will be no one to save him. Isaiah described this same reality centuries ago:
"Woe unto them that decree unrighteous decrees, and that write grievousness which they have prescribed, to turn aside the needy from judgment, and to take away the right from the poor of my people, that widows may be their prey, and that they may rob the fatherless. And what will ye do in the day of visitation... to whom will ye flee for help? and where will ye leave your glory?" (Isaiah 10:1-3)
Judgment is not ours to deliver. Vengeance belongs to God, not to us:
"Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord." (Romans 12:19)
That means our role is not to punish the oppressor ourselves, and it is also not to shield them from the harvest by refusing to see the truth. Our role is to help where God leads us to help, tell the truth about what we know, and trust God to settle the rest in His own timing.
Payday is coming for every unaddressed harvest. It always does.
Written by: Kevin L A Ewing
ewinglakevin@icloud.com
kevinlaewing.blogspot.com
www.kevinlaewing.com
