“Sowing and Reaping”
By Wayne Harmon
Recently a friend asked me if I have heard of a popular teaching in certain church circles called “Sowing and Reaping.” This teaching says that if you “sow” money into a “ministry”, then God is obligated by His Word to provide you with a “harvest”. This “harvest” is usually money, but it may also be something you want or need, like a physical healing, a new job, a restored relationship and so forth.
Its proponents base this teaching on Genesis 8:22 “While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.” This is part of what God told Noah when he left the ark.
They use the phrase “seedtime and harvest” to give biblical credence to their teaching. I have heard these teachers and preachers say, “If you plant corn, you reap corn. If you plant wheat, you reap wheat. And if you plant money, you reap MONEY!”
There was a time when I believed that teaching simply because I WANTED it to be true. However, there’s a huge problem with that line of thinking. Seeds contain LIFE. Money is not a seed. Money contains no life. Money is a tool.
So, yes, if I plant corn, I will reap corn. If I plant wheat, I will reap wheat. But never have I planted a hammer, a tool, and three months later harvested a crate of new hammers that I could sell to Home Depot.
You don’t sow tools. You put them to work.
Jesus illustrated this in His Parable of the Three Servants in Matthew 25. Two of the servants put their money to work and were able to earn a 100% return on their investments. The third servant literally did “sow” his money by burying it in the ground. He was punished for his laziness. In fact, the master said that the very least he should have done was to deposit the money in the bank so it could have earned interest.
There are many problems with this teaching. Here are two of them.
IT VICTIMIZES THE NEEDY
People are hurting. People are struggling. They are looking for help and for answers. They go to church or tune in to a TV preacher in search of hope. The Sow and Reap message says that the answer to their problems is to give money. In desperation they try it. When nothing happens they are told to keep sowing; a harvest is coming. When they stop giving because there is nothing left to give, they are rebuked and told they just didn’t have enough faith.
Jeremiah and Ezekiel had sharp words for these kinds of preachers, teachers, priests, shepherds, pastors (call them what you will). They said they were corrupt shepherds who devoured the sheep they were sent to protect.
God does not take that kind of abuse lightly.
IT LEGITIMIZES THE GREEDY
There will always be those who never have enough.
“I have a Chevy, but I want a Cadillac. I’ll give this or that ‘ministry’ a ‘seed’, and God owes me a new car.”
“I have a house, but I want a bigger house. I’ll plant my ‘seed’ for a new house, maybe one with a pool, and I’ll wait for God to give me my ‘harvest’.”
“My income is sufficient, but if I had a better paying job I could give even more to the Lord’s work. I’ll sow a ‘seed of faith’ with that preacher who promised to be ‘in agreement’ with me, and God will have to come through with a better job. After all, like the preacher said, ‘If God did it for one person He has to do it for everyone who believes’.”
And so it goes. They spiritualize their greed with platitudes.
They never see the neighbor’s child who needs new shoes.
They are blind to the co-worker who is facing foreclosure and eviction.
This is not the Heart of God.
Copyright 2014: Wayne Harmon