Bereansearching Bible Studies

Introduction

There is a well worn euphemism that says, “what goes around, comes around.” While not found specifically in the Bible, that euphemism is nonetheless consistent with what the Bible does teach in Galatians 6:7, “¶Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.” and in Romans 6:23, “For the wages of sin [is] death; but the gift of God [is] eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.“

So then, if a person wants peace with God, then sow peace; but, if he or she sins against God and man, then those sins will find him or her out. That is why we also read in Hosea 8:7, “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.”

Let us look closer at how these and other similar verses play out when we examine the Biblical record of historical events.

1. There are many twists and turns in the Bible’s historical accounts. God uses them to make clear to us, and to remind us, that nothing is hid from His eyes.

Job 34:21&22, “For his eyes [are] upon the ways of man, and he seeth all his goings. [There is] no darkness, nor shadow of death, where the workers of iniquity may hide themselves.“

Psalm 11:4, “The LORD [is] in his holy temple, the LORD’S throne [is] in heaven: his eyes behold, his eyelids try, the children of men.“

Psalm 44:21, “Shall not God search this out? for he knoweth the secrets of the heart.“

Psalm 90:8, “Thou hast set our iniquities before thee, our secret [sins] in the light of thy countenance.”

Proverbs 5:21, “For the ways of man [are] before the eyes of the LORD, and he pondereth all his goings.”

Proverbs 15:3, “The eyes of the LORD [are] in every place, beholding the evil and the good.”

Jeremiah 16:17, “For mine eyes [are] upon all their ways: they are not hid from my face, neither is their iniquity hid from mine eyes.“

Jeremiah 32:19, “Great in counsel, and mighty in work: for thine eyes [are] open upon all the ways of the sons of men: to give every one according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings:”

Jeremiah 23:23, “[Am] I a God at hand, saith the LORD, and not a God afar off? Can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him? saith the LORD. Do not I fill heaven and earth? saith the LORD.“

Mark 4:22, “For there is nothing hid, which shall not be manifested; neither was any thing kept secret, but that it should come abroad.” (see also Matthew 10:26,  Luke 8:17, and Luke 12:20)

1 Peter 3:12, “For the eyes of the Lord [are] over the righteous, and his ears [are open] unto their prayers: but the face of the Lord [is] against them that do evil.”

2. God in not only watching, but God also makes clear that whatever someone sows, they will also reap.

• Job 4:8, “Even as I have seen, they that plow iniquity, and sow wickedness, reap the same.“
• Galatians 6:7&8, “¶Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.“
• Hosea 8:7, “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.”
• Jeremiah 17:10, “I the LORD search the heart, [I] try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, [and] according to the fruit of his doings.”
• Job 5:12&13, “He disappointeth the devices of the crafty, so that their hands cannot perform [their] enterprise. He taketh the wise in their own craftiness: and the counsel of the froward is carried headlong…And please note the harmony with 1 Corinthians 3:19, “For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, He taketh the wise in their own craftiness.“

3. Five Cases in Point from the Bible

A) Jacob killed an animal pretending to be his brother Esau, and lied to his father Isaac in Genesis 27:19, and then, years later, Jacob’s sons killed an animal for its blood, and pretended that their brother was dead and lied to Jacob concerning what they did to Joseph Genesis 37:31&32.

B) Pharaoh ordered that all of the male Israelite babies in Moses’ day were to be killed by drowning Exodus 1:22, but Pharaoh’s male army chasing the Israelites through the Red Sea were all killed by drowning Exodus 14:28.

C) King David secretly committed adultery with his neighbor’s (Uriah’s) wife 2 Samuel 11:4, and later David’s son, Absalom, openly committed adultery with David’s concubines 2 Samuel 16:22.

D) Gehazi, Elisha’s servant. After God’s prophet, Elisha, healed Naaman the Syrian of leprosy, Elisha refused to take any reward from Naaman. However, Elisha’s servant, Gehazi, pursued after Naaman to deceitfully seek a reward (a talent of silver) for himself in the name of Elisha. Naaman gave him two talents of silver and two changes of clothing. Upon Gehazi’s return, Elisha perceived Gehazi’s duplicity and asked where he had been? Gehazi lied, saying that he had not gone anywhere. We then read in 2 Kings 5:26&27 that Elisha denounced Gehazi for his sins and said, “The leprosy therefore of Naaman shall cleave unto thee, and unto thy seed for ever. And he went out from his presence a leper as [white] as snow.“

E) Wicked Haman plotted to hang Mordecai on the gallows that Haman built Esther 5:14, but not long afterward, Haman was subsequently hung on the very same gallows  Esther 7:10 (and, before the end of that same year, so were Haman’s ten sons also hung on gallows Esther 9:13).

Conclusion

There are other examples that provide similar insights on how such Divinely orchestrated ironies play out in the Bible, but the takeaway for all of us is that these were meant to teach us that no one gets away with anything evil in this world without it ultimately coming back on one’s own head. Nothing is hid from God’s eyes, and God Is completely Sovereign. God Is The One Who ultimately metes out all justice in both this temporal life, and the eternal afterlife, as the above Biblical accounts attest. Please also see this Exposition of Psalm 9:16. [Psalm 9:16, “The LORD is known [by] the judgment [which] he executeth: the wicked is snared in the work of his own hands. Higgaion. Selah.”]

The Good News is that there is still eternal hope for the sinner, regardless of the temporal recompense, if only that sinner repents and begs God for mercy in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and God will show mercy.

POSTSCRIPT

It is also worth noting that when a child of God sins, God will bring temporal chastisement, but that is always a blessing to the child of God, as we read in”

Job 5:17&18, “Behold, happy [is] the man whom God correcteth: therefore despise not thou the chastening of the Almighty: For he maketh sore, and bindeth up: he woundeth, and his hands make whole.”

Proverbs 3:12, “For whom the LORD loveth he correcteth; even as a father the son [in whom] he delighteth.”

Psalm 119:71, “[It is] good for me that I have been afflicted; that I might learn thy statutes.“

Psalm 119:75, “I know, O LORD, that thy judgments [are] right, and [that] thou in faithfulness hast afflicted me.“

This is further perhaps even more clearly explained via the Apostle Paul in Hebrews 12:6-11:

“For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. ¶If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons. Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected [us], and we gave [them] reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live? For they verily for a few days chastened [us] after their own pleasure; but he for [our] profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness. Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.“

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