{"id":7742,"date":"2016-07-16T01:25:09","date_gmt":"2016-07-16T08:25:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/?p=7742"},"modified":"2016-07-16T01:25:09","modified_gmt":"2016-07-16T08:25:09","slug":"the-time-of-reaping","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/2016\/07\/16\/the-time-of-reaping\/","title":{"rendered":"The Time of Reaping"},"content":{"rendered":"

For you also, O Judah, a harvest is appointed.
\nWhen I would restore the fortunes of my people,
\nwhen I would heal Israel,
\nthe corruption of Ephraim is revealed,
\nand the wicked deeds of Samaria;
\nfor they deal falsely,
\nthe thief breaks in,
\nand the bandits raid outside.
\n But they do not consider
\nthat I remember all their wickedness.
\nNow their deeds surround them,
\nthey are before my face.
\n By their wickedness they make the king glad,
\nand the officials by their treachery.
\nThey are all adulterers;
\nthey are like a heated oven,
\nwhose baker does not need to stir the fire,
\nfrom the kneading of the dough until it is leavened.
\nOn the day of our king the officials
\nbecame sick with the heat of wine;
\nhe stretched out his hand with mockers.
\nFor they are kindled like an oven, their heart burns within them;
\nall night their anger smolders;
\nin the morning it blazes like a flaming fire.
\nAll of them are hot as an oven,
\nand they devour their rulers.
\nAll their kings have fallen;
\nnone of them calls upon me. (Hosea 6:11-7:7)<\/em>\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Harvests were happy times of celebration in ancient agrarian societies because they meant that the people didn\u2019t have to worry about starving to death that year. A good autumn harvest meant there would be enough seed to plant next spring. <\/p>\n

But Hosea used the happy time as a metaphor for God\u2019s judgment on his people. How could such a joyful event become a symbol of judgment? From the perspective of the crops harvested, the reaping was a painful thing: the crops were mowed down, threshed, and the leftover chaff was burned. Harvests were inherently violent. Animals were slaughtered and their meat smoked or salted to preserve it during the long dark winter. The unconsumed grain went into the barns.<\/p>\n

But harvests are not destructive. They are not designed to harm. They are for the benefit of all concerned, ensuring the continuation of life. So a harvest captures clearly the true nature of judgment. God loved his people. He disciplined them for their own good. God always acts in love, but how it is perceived depends on whether you look at things from the perspective of the grain being chopped down and threshed, or from the perspective of the hungry farmer.<\/p>\n

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For you also, O Judah, a harvest is appointed. When I would restore the fortunes of my people, when I would heal Israel, the corruption of Ephraim is revealed, and the wicked deeds of Samaria; for they deal falsely, the … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_s2mail":"yes"},"categories":[18,17,16],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7742"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7742"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7742\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7744,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7742\/revisions\/7744"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7742"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7742"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7742"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}