The Grands Letter

Dear Grands,

Hosea 10:12, “Sow with a view to righteousness, Reap in accordance with kindness; Break up your fallow ground, For it is time to seek the LORD Until He comes to rain righteousness on you.”

The Book of Hosea lends itself to numerous themes. One predominant theme is “The LORD’s Restoration of Backsliders.” Previous verses speak of Israel’s sin and her need to repent. There is no escaping the obvious parallel between Israel and the Church. Therefore, while the Church had yet to arrive in the days of ancient Israel, we may well view the warning to Israel as an equally serious warning to the Church today.

Today’s Church is no less guilty of backsliding than Israel in the day of Hosea. The condemnation that the LORD gave to five of the seven churches in the Revelation is appropriate for today’s church. Still, it is easy enough for us to critisize the Church as a whole, when it is our sin that affects the corporate body we know as the Church.

We owe it to the LORD that He is even willing to forgive our sin. Certainly, we do not deserve it! Yet, He bids us to “Sow with a view to righteousness” and “Reap in accordance with kindness.” Yes, as born-again believers in Jesus Christ, we long to see others come to know Him. But is our sowing –our witness of His saving grace— with the view of others coming into His righteousness? If our witness is a burden that desperately longs to see others saved, then it follows that our “reaping” will be accompanied with kindness.

Further, we are to expand our witnessing so as to “break up the (fallow, untilled) ground.” Our witnessing should exceed those who knock on our door or those with whom we work every day. We must stretch ourselves into neighborhoods not our own, not a difficult thing to do at all in this day of Wi-Fi and electronic messaging. Note well that the “time to seek the LORD” is not limited to the lost alone; it refers as well to us who have already believed in Him; for the verse concludes, “Until He comes to rain righteousness on you.”

Heartily in Christ Jesus,

(Dado III)

Gene L. Jeffries, Th.D.
Springdale, Arkansas 72764
United States of America

“We never know that Christ is all we need until He becomes all that we have.” – Corrie ten Boom