Sow Righteousness

The book of Hosea speaks of sowing in three different verses.  Presumably speaking of all those who will come unto Him, the Lord said, “And I will sow her unto me in the earth; and I will have mercy upon her that had not obtained mercy; and I will say to them which were not my people, Thou art my people; and they shall say, Thou art my God” (Hosea 2:23).  The fact that He “sows” us implies a diligent effort to give us what we need to spiritually grow and develop; He nurtures us in order to help us be reborn spiritually and follow Him.  The idea is reminiscent of the master of the vineyard who did “prune” and “dig” and “nourish” the olive trees in the vineyard—He did everything he could to cultivate growth and good fruit (Jacob 5:4).  The second mention of sowing in Hosea was used in a different sense.  Speaking of the wicked, the Lord said, “For they have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind: it hath no stalk: the bud shall yield no meal: if so be it yield, the strangers shall swallow it up” (Hosea 8:7).  Perhaps to “sow the wind” means to devote our activities to those worldly things that cannot last.  Instead of sowing seeds of good works that will later come back to bless the sower, sowing the wind seems to imply spending time and energy on the frivolous and temporary and that which is not righteous.  Just as the wind comes by and leaves us nothing, so too these kinds of acts provide us nothing for the future.  The third mention of sowing in Hosea speaks of those who, to the contrary, do works of justice.  “Sow to yourselves in righteousness, reap in mercy; break up your fallow ground: for it is time to seek the Lord, till he come and rain righteousness upon you” (Hosea 10:12).  I like the connection here between us sowing righteousness and the Lord sending rain.  We sow with acts of obedience and righteousness, and the Lord eventually will send rain to “grow” those works into blessings.  

               Other scriptures also teach us about sowing both wickedness and righteousness.  In the Book of Mormon the Lord said, “If my people shall sow filthiness they shall reap the chaff thereof in the whirlwind; and the effect thereof is poison” (Mosiah 7:30).  There’s no guarantee that what the wicked reap will come at any specific time interval, but eventually when one sows wickedness in their acts, they will reap the negative effects.  But the reserve is not true; the presence of challenges and trials in one’s life does not mean necessarily that they have “sowed wickedness”.  The friend of Job said to him, “Even as I have seen, they that plow iniquity, and sow wickedness, reap the same” (Job 4:8).  That’s a true statement, but Job’s friends used the idea to suggest erroneously that the challenges in his life must have come from sin.  On the positive side, the Lord said to us in our generation, “Fear not to do good, my sons, for whatsoever ye sow, that shall ye also reap; therefore, if ye sow good ye shall also reap good for your reward” (D&C 6:33).  James likewise suggested that if we sow righteousness we will reap peace: “And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace” (James 3:18).  The blessings we want don’t necessarily come right away when we are righteous, but we can have peace which is perhaps the greatest blessing we can have in this life anyway.  As we seek to sow righteousness we have this promise from the Lord: “But learn that he who doeth the works of righteousness shall receive his reward, even peace in this world, and eternal life in the world to come” (D&C 59:23).