Apparently such statements hit me at my core and challenge me to try and figure it out too. Almost ten years I have been trying to get my head around that subject too: What's in a seed?
The Bible has many things to say about seeds, harvesting, reaping, and leaving behind.
Genesis 1:29 “every seed is for you” --God created every kind of seed and their purpose; Genesis 3:15 “between your seed and her seed”--the fruit of the womb, children, are referred as seeds; Genesis 8:22 “seedtime and harvest … will never cease”--as long as there is an Earth.
So, I wondered about the intended environment for a seed--about the soil or a womb. I believe there are some things we assist with in making the environment for a seed more effective like choosing a good spot, or enhancing the soil. However, I wondered if anything be done to guarantee a seed will grow? Produce? Anything about its
outcome?
I don't think so.
We do our part: plant, water, keep away things, add other things. But it is God Who gives the increase. Plants respond... to the soil, the sunlight and the water. There is also what is inside that makes a difference.
I then wondered, What does the Bible say about anything being done in preparation to give a seed its best chance? Jeremiah and Hosea helped me some here:
- Jeremiah 4:3-4, “For thus says the LORD to the men of Judah and to Jerusalem, "Break up your fallow ground, And do not sow among thorns.”--remove them or relocate them;
- 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.”
When I was in elementary school all students took home 4 packets of seeds. 3 packets had names on them, but one of the packets of seeds remained a mystery. How am I supposed to know what seed has been sown? I remember speaking to my teacher who told me that the mystery packet held the same seed as every other student's mystery packet and if I guessed it right she would tell me.
I never guessed it right.
SO, how would I tell? I had to wait to see. What I sowed would show up in what was planted. (They were radishes!)
What’s in a seed? In EVERY seed is the history of each seed that came before it. The one's sown in the ground AND the ones born from a womb.
We are
surrounded by products of seeds--YOU are the product of a seed--a woman provides
the egg, the man the seed; the traits of each previous parent are inserted
into that union and what is produced is a similar harvest.
The NEXT GENERATION
of a seed’s quality and potential quantity for the future is a PROMISE (this is an entirely tangental study, but a fruitful one).
Romans 1:3, The Messiah was the seed of David. Why is that important?
The seed of
Moses’ leadership was passed
on to Joshua = the Legacy
The seed of
Jesus, the Holy Spirit, is passed on to the believers of His Church = the Legacy
Your seed is passed on to
your children = Your Heritage
and your legacy
A Minister’s
seed is passed on to the people in his or her church. = Legacy (such as our Pastor's)
God wants godly
offspring--people of a more quality in their faith in each subsequent generation.
That’s one reason God HATES divorce: Micah
2:13-16, And this second thing you do. You cover the LORD’s altar with
tears, with weeping and groaning because he no longer regards the offering or
accepts it with favor from your hand. 14 But you say, “Why does he not?”
Because the LORD was witness between you and the wife of your youth, to whom you have been faithless, though she is
your companion and your wife by covenant. 15 Did he not make them one, with a portion of the Spirit in their
union? And what was the one
God seeking? Godly offspring. So guard yourselves in your spirit, and
let none of you be faithless to the wife of your youth. 16 “For the man who
does not love his wife but divorces her, says the LORD, the God of Israel,
covers his garment with violence, says the LORD of hosts. So guard yourselves
in your spirit, and do not be faithless.”
You
were reborn, born again, by the SEED of the Holy Spirit within you:
1 Peter
1:23, tells us that we were “born again of imperishable seed”
And the Holy Spirit, as you grow in grace and
knowledge of Jesus (2Pe 3:18), transforms and conforms you to the image of
Jesus as he makes you a mature child of God! (Romans 8:29)
1 John
3:9, “No one who is born of God practices sin, because His seed abides in him; and
he cannot sin, because he is born of God.”
There is only so
much we can do. 1 Corinthians 3:6-7, I planted, Apollos
watered, but God was causing the
growth. Does this bring you
comfort or frustration?
Mark 4:26ff, And he said,
“The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground. 27 He
sleeps and rises night and day, and the seed sprouts and grows; he knows not how. 28 The earth produces by itself,
first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear. 29 But when the
grain is ripe, at once he puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come.”
Faith in many ways
is a seed; Matthew 17:20, And He said to them, "Because of the
littleness of your faith; for truly I say to you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed,
… nothing will be impossible to you.
Galatians 6:7-9: Sow
and reaping needs to be done in wisdom (knowledge gained from practice) and
with responsibility.