Huge returns
This week is on Genesis 26:12-15:
I spent part of this past weekend redeeming seeds from an old kale plant I allowed to go to seed last summer. Each seed is kind of like a big poppy seed. When I was finished, I had a whole handful of these tiny seeds from a single plant that came from a single tiny seed two years ago. There's no way I would have time to count them, but there were quite a few. It reminded me of the different lessons of God's blessing that the Bible encodes in agricultural metaphors. There's no way to really grasp what God's really saying without having some connection to farming. When I saw it, it blew me away.
From that one little seed, I must have gotten a thousandfold return. I could plant every bit of garden space I have with these tasty kale plants and still have seeds left over, all from that one seed I planted. That's better than an exponential return. That's an amazing increase in resources. Woven into the genetics of that plant was God's blessing for those who tend it. My plant isn't unique in that aspect. A lot of what we do as God's favored creations will probably yield that kind of return if we keep at it.
Isaac farmed the land God gave him and his family, and was rewarded with a hundred times what he put into it. A good return in the stock market might get you ten percent, but Isaac got ten thousand percent returns on his investment, because God made the rules to bless him. Can you imagine that for your life? In a small bowl on my kitchen table, right now, I have an illustration that that's possible.
Isaac was so blessed by God's love for him that his neighbors got jealous. They tried stopping his prosperity by cutting off his water supply, but he only got wealthier and more powerful. Finally, they had to ask him to move away because he would have taken over everything if he'd stayed. There's nothing the world can do to stop God's blessing for you, once he's decided to give it to you. That's amazing.
Do what you're supposed to do, where you're supposed to do it, and it'll pay off. God didn't plant Isaac in a different earth than he planted us. The same rules apply. We will not go without our needs being met.
Isaac planted crops in that land and the same year reaped a hundredfold, because the LORD blessed him. The man became rich, and his wealth continued to grow until he became very wealthy. He had so many flocks and herds and servants that the Philistines envied him. So all the wells that his father's servants had dug in the time of his father Abraham, the Philistines stopped up, filling them with earth.
I spent part of this past weekend redeeming seeds from an old kale plant I allowed to go to seed last summer. Each seed is kind of like a big poppy seed. When I was finished, I had a whole handful of these tiny seeds from a single plant that came from a single tiny seed two years ago. There's no way I would have time to count them, but there were quite a few. It reminded me of the different lessons of God's blessing that the Bible encodes in agricultural metaphors. There's no way to really grasp what God's really saying without having some connection to farming. When I saw it, it blew me away.
From that one little seed, I must have gotten a thousandfold return. I could plant every bit of garden space I have with these tasty kale plants and still have seeds left over, all from that one seed I planted. That's better than an exponential return. That's an amazing increase in resources. Woven into the genetics of that plant was God's blessing for those who tend it. My plant isn't unique in that aspect. A lot of what we do as God's favored creations will probably yield that kind of return if we keep at it.
Isaac farmed the land God gave him and his family, and was rewarded with a hundred times what he put into it. A good return in the stock market might get you ten percent, but Isaac got ten thousand percent returns on his investment, because God made the rules to bless him. Can you imagine that for your life? In a small bowl on my kitchen table, right now, I have an illustration that that's possible.
Isaac was so blessed by God's love for him that his neighbors got jealous. They tried stopping his prosperity by cutting off his water supply, but he only got wealthier and more powerful. Finally, they had to ask him to move away because he would have taken over everything if he'd stayed. There's nothing the world can do to stop God's blessing for you, once he's decided to give it to you. That's amazing.
Do what you're supposed to do, where you're supposed to do it, and it'll pay off. God didn't plant Isaac in a different earth than he planted us. The same rules apply. We will not go without our needs being met.
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