Then Isaac sowed in that land, and reaped in the same year a hundredfold; and the LORD blessed him.
—Genesis 26:12

The theme of the outgoing year was the Lord’s love. On the one hand the year was a hard one for me, but that isn’t the main thing: now, as the year comes to an end, I can say with confidence — I don’t know how Jesus did it, but the Lord has strengthened me in His love. I hope that in the outgoing year many of you have discovered the love of Christ in a new way.

When I was meditating on the message about the Heavenly Grain, the Lord said that the coming year would be a year of “sowing and reaping”. A very characteristic verse for the coming year is [Gen.26:12], which says that Isaac sowed and reaped a hundredfold in the same year. This tells us that the harvest of our sowing will come very quickly — we have only just sown, and someone is already running to meet us with the harvest. Isn’t that wonderful? And this will happen in a year when the world will “suffer” from drought. Isaac is the seed of Abraham [the Holy Spirit again draws attention to the word seed], as we are in Christ. [Gal.3:29] So the promise written in Genesis 26 applies to us too. I would like to dwell on a few points in this story, to draw wisdom from it.

Before Isaac sowed, we are told that his close relationship with his wife was restored. Like his father Abraham, out of fear he called his wife his sister, but Abimelech noticed him showing endearment to Rebekah. So what does all this mean for us today? Who is our wife? Unfortunately, for a long time the church regarded grace as its sister [a relative], but had no close relationship with her. Everyone talks about grace, so many are now asking: “But who is a preacher of grace?”, because it really is hard to tell. But it all comes down to one thing: do we regard grace as our wife, the one with whom we have a close relationship? If we regard her as a sister, it is the same as saying: “Salvation is by grace, but you must live in obedience to God, not sin and behave well.” In other words, according to the law. But if grace is our wife, then we live by grace — in the obedience of Jesus, relying completely on His finished work on the cross. I think that in the outgoing year many have begun to restore their relationship with grace, discovering that they are not only saved by it but also live by it. And now, after this relationship has been restored, we can sow, for now the Lord’s blessing will work in our lives, because we no longer rely on keeping the law. [Gal.3:9-14]

The second interesting point is where exactly Isaac sowed. The Lord hides wonderful truths in the names in the Bible. The place was called Gerar. Gerar in Hebrew means “to drag up” or “to chew the cud”, like a cow bringing food back up from its stomach. In other words, it is a place of pasture. That is, the best place to sow, where you can later reap a hundredfold harvest, is the place where we feed on the Word of God. You can sow not only finances but also kind words, time, care and so on. All this is what Paul calls a good work. He writes to the Corinthians: “And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work.” [2 Cor.9:8]

Happy New Year!!! “Now may He who supplies seed to the sower, and bread for food, supply and multiply the seed you have sown and increase the fruits of your righteousness.”