The Principle of Reaping What You Sow

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Therefore, thus says the LORD…

Micah 2:3

“I am devising disaster.” He is explaining the action that He is about to take against those who take advantage of the vulnerable: “against this family I am devising disaster” (2:3).

A society that follows the path of exploitation will not survive for long. God says that those who have taken the land will be removed from it, and that is precisely what happened. This is the New Testament principle: “whatever one sows, that will he also reap” (Gal. 6:7)—those who exploit others will, in the end, be exploited. Every sin brings its own wages.

“I will gather the remnant.” Then God gives a word of hope: “I will surely assemble all of you, O Jacob; I will gather the remnant of Israel” (2:12). This is precisely what happened in the year 586 BC.

Nebuchadnezzar’s armies came against Jerusalem, causing dreadful destruction, and a small community of God’s people were taken off into exile. “The remnant” lived in Babylon for 70 years. Then God brought them back to rebuild Jerusalem in the time of Ezra and Nehemiah.

God’s Word is a message of judgement and salvation. He would bring a great disaster because of the evil that had gripped their society. But out of that disaster God would gather a community: “I will set them together like sheep in a fold” (2:12).

Living this side of the cross, we cannot read these words without seeing Jesus as the Good Shepherd. Ezra and Nehemiah led God’s people back from exile in Babylon. But Jesus will lead His people out of bondage to sin and death and hell.

Where have you seen this “reap what you sow” principle at work in your own life?