Ezekiel 7:10
Behold the day, behold, it is come: the morning is gone forth; the rod hath blossomed, pride hath budded.
God was done with Israel’s sin. Israel thought because they were God’s chosen people that they could get away with doing wrong, but it does not matter who you are, sin always has a payday. God said the rod hath blossomed, pride hath budded. In other words, God says that the harvest of Israel’s sin had finally come. Oh, they enjoyed their sin for many years, but the blossom of sin was finally ripe. That is what God was saying by the rod hath blossomed, pride hath budded. He was saying that the years of sowing sin had finally come to full harvest.
If you know anything about agriculture, you certainly understand the statement, the rod hath blossomed, pride hath budded. Nothing blossoms immediately; everything has a season it must go through before the blossoms have arrived. The blossom is not even the fruit; it is saying the fruit is about to come. When I worked in the strawberry fields as a teenager, the blossom on the plant meant the strawberry was about to come. The fruit of our labors to plant the strawberry was about to be realized because of the blossom or the bud.
Everything we do in life, whether good or bad, has a season it must go through before we realize the fruit of our actions. When we do wrong, we falsely believe that we won't reap a harvest of heartache that sin always brings. When we do right, we want the harvest of doing right to happen immediately, but you must go through the season of sowing and reaping before you reap a harvest of blessings for doing right. Just like sin has a harvest of heartache, so doing right has a harvest of blessings if we won’t quit before the harvest comes. Let me share a few thoughts about the blossom and the bud.
First, the sowing season does not mean you are right or wrong. Never base the right and wrong of an action on the sowing season. You are only sowing, and the harvest has yet to come. The sowing season for sin is fun and pleasurable, but its harvest is painful and full of heartache. Whereas, the sowing season for doing right is hard, but its harvest is joyful and filled with blessings.
Second, the growth season of right and wrong sets roots of habits that either haunt or help you for the remainder of your life. When you choose to sow a life of sin, you will set roots of bad habits that will be hard to overcome once the harvest has come. If you choose to sow a life of righteousness, you will find the roots of good habits will be worth the effort when the harvest finally comes.
Third, the harvest will come; you had better be ready to reap its heartache or blessing, depending on what actions you sowed. You can enjoy the pleasure of sin for a season, but when the harvest season comes, you will find that the pleasure of sin was not worth the heartache and sorrow that its harvest brought.
On the other hand, those who live right must never stop doing right. The harvest will come in time, and if you continue to do right, you will find that the toil, labor, sweat, and tears that you sowed in doing right were worth every moment when you experience the blessings that doing right brings. Never give up; keep doing right, and reaping a harvest of blessing will come if you don't quit.
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