Tuesday, August 5th, 2025
We have all heard of the truth of sowing and reaping from both the practical and spiritual perspectives. It really comes to life for us when we see Biblical examples of consequences for sin or broken covenants. Recently, I was reading in 2 Samuel 21:1:
1Now there was a famine in the days of David for three years, year after year; and David inquired of the Lord. And the Lord answered, “It is because of Saul and his bloodthirsty house, because he killed the Gibeonites.”
First of all, I love that David did not try to solve this in the natural. Or at least that part isn’t recorded in the Bible. The first action we see he took was to inquire of the Lord. How much would the trajectory of our lives change if we truly took the time to make seeking the Lord our first priority? And not just with the big things, but even the “small” things. Lord, should I run my errands now, should I respond to that text, should I spend my money on that thing, etc.?
Secondly, I really want to emphasize the power of our words and their ability to establish covenants. Way back in Joshua chapter 9, Joshua believed the lies of the neighboring Gibeonites, and made a peace covenant with them without asking counsel of the Lord (verse 14). Did you catch that? He did not seek God first like David. However, even though this covenant was made without seeking the Lord, it did not make its provisions null and void.
Enter Saul, hundreds of years later. As we see mentioned in 2 Samuel 21:2, Saul decided to kill the Gibeonites, because of his love for Israel and Judah. Years later, when David was king, we see the consequences of this decision. Saul violated the covenant Joshua made, and David’s kingdom was faced with three years of famine as a result. That’s a decent sized consequence.
So, what happened next? Was the revelation of the broken covenant enough to stop the ill-effects? No. Retribution still had to be made. As this chapter progresses, the Gibeonites choose seven descendants of Saul (not including Mephibosheth because of the covenant that David had made with Jonathan, are you noticing a trend?) that they would kill by hanging. At the very end of this chapter it says, “And after that, God heeded the prayer for the land.”
Final Thoughts…
Sowing and reaping is a law of the land. If that law is violated, there are consequences to be paid. Thankfully for us, because of the cross, Jesus was our retribution. Our recognition of the price He paid, and our sincere repentance has the power to get us back on the righteous side of sowing and reaping. If you notice any sort of famine in your land, ask God if there is anything in your life or the generations that have come before you that needs the cleansing power of repentance.