Fill the Seed Bag - You're Going To Need It

“He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves [with him].” (Ps 126:6 AV)

Most sermons I have heard from this passage are usually soul-winning passages.  It certainly can be seen that way.  Weeping for the lost who desperately need the LORD.  Bearing the precious seed of the Word of God that one spreads abroad.  The hope of a harvest of souls as a result.  It all fits nicely.  However, the context is actually the captivity of Israel into Babylon.  The going forth is going forth into captivity.  It is into captivity which they bear the precious seed.  They will come again out of captivity with the fruit which the precious seed has produced.  There is great hope in this verse.

There are dark and hard times with the saint.  Whether it be a trial of faith or an experience of chastisement, these times are hard.  What makes the times of hardness productive is the precious seeds of hope we bring with us.  When Israel brought that seed from Canaan, they brought it for obvious reasons.  They still had to eat.  They had to make some sort of living while under the servitude of a hard taskmaster.  When Israel went into captivity to the Egyptians, hundreds of years earlier, they brought with them the flocks that would become herds.  All the scripture verses we have laid in our heart, all the memories of God’s past faithfulness, all the fellowship we can share even though we are having a hard time; they are all the precious seed which we bear.  There is, and often must be, weeping.  But that doesn’t mean we are absent of all hope.  There is precious seed to be carried.  Stored in a bag to be sown in the hard times of life.

To bear something also means to carry a burden.  This weight is not a bad weight.  It is a good weight.  It is the source of all sustaining comfort and the foundation of all future fruit.  Many are not bearing the burden.  They avoid reading and memorizing the scriptures.  They avoid the lessons of life that teach us of God’s faithfulness.  They refuse to cultivate relationships among God’s people.  When the hard times come, their seed bag is small or under filled.  There is weeping.  Yes.  But the fruit one can have will be very small!