These essays are written in sequence and build on each other. Read the preceding essay here.
Agree with thine adversary quickly,
whiles thou art in the way with him;
lest at any time the adversary deliver thee to the judge,
and the judge deliver thee to the officer,
and thou be cast into prison.
Verily I say unto thee,
Thou shalt by no means come out thence, till thou hast paid the uttermost farthing.–KJV, Matt 5:25-26
We continue with our exploration of this Word from the perspective of sowing and reaping.
We explored the meaning of agree with thine adversary quickly in the previous essay.
lest at any time the adversary deliver thee to the judge,
When there is ill-feeling we set in motion a cycle that may have a distasteful ending (eventual material result).
Since our perspective is imperfect, there is every chance that we are actually being unjust in the matter. If we have failed to align with The Word from the start (and thus failed to agree with our adversary quickly) and the other party has justified feelings of ill-treatment, we now have a problem to deal with.
The negative feelings (e.g. sorrow) generated by our unjust actions in the heart of the other person become a spiritual seed that automatically develops around us, preparing a harvest in which we too must experience some such suffering.
The Laws of Creation are the judge, and the aggrieved party is our “accuser”.
and the judge deliver thee to the officer
In all natural development processes there is the sowing, the germination, the blooming, and the fruiting/harvesting. Fruits do not magically appear.
In the same way, reaping what we sow is not an abrupt happening. If a man is to reap some material reward due to some earlier spiritual activity on his part, the manifestation of this reward will happen gradually. Firstly the conditions around him will change in preparation for the event e.g. he may meet a particular person, or be prompted to go to a particular place, that is instrumental to that final goal.
Using the plant analogy, the sowing and germination may not be physically apparent, but at a certain stage (the blooming) the spiritual activity begins to gradually crystallize in material terms in readiness for the final harvest.
So our material situation will gradually adjust, building up to the reaping of what we sowed. This is what The Word likens to the officer: our material condition is so shaped that we become, unbeknownst to us, a captive of the impending material event (harvest).
Criminals are not picked up and flung into prison without a certain due process, but by the time the judge has passed judgement and handed the matter over to the officer, prison is a certainty.
and thou be cast into prison.
The Word makes a distinction between being delivered to the officer and being cast into prison.
In human society, prison is a certainty by the time the judge has passed judgement and the prison officer is involved. However, the Laws of God are living, dynamic, and ever watchful.
Our human free will allows us to change ourselves at any point in time. If, just prior to the harvest of something nasty, our nature or inclinations change dramatically for the good, we may still gain a measure of forgiveness.
The sudden change of heart may cause a decision that diverts the harvest, such that the final effect may not be as severe.
Here is a purely theoretical example for better clarity:
A man once stole from another. Obviously he will reap something similar, eventually.
Now he is on the verge of entering into a major financial transaction. Unbeknownst to him, he is about to become the victim of a major scam, this being the harvest of what he sowed long ago.
Everything is set to consummate the deal. But just beforehand, and in a completely unrelated development, his mind goes to certain wrong things he has done in his life. He now feels ashamed. He feels a strong desire to make up with those he has wronged, and to change himself permanently for the good. He begins to act in this light.
This new, good spiritual resolution begins to alter the dynamics of the upcoming harvest.
The change can manifest in many ways. It may be that a “random” thought prompts him to rethink the transaction. It may be that something prompts him to mention the deal to someone else, and that person happens to know the other party, and warns him to be careful. It may be that a close family member has a dream that indicates that there is something wrong with the deal.
In one way or the other he is given a warning, such that he terminates the transaction or reduces the amount of money he was about to invest.
He has lost the significant time, energy, and money he had so far put into the matter, but the overall outcome is not as disastrous for him as it could have been had he not had a change of heart. He has escaped prison (or received a shorter sentence), even though he had been delivered to the officer.
In this we see that the Laws of God contain both retribution and forgiveness i.e. both Justice and Love. It is always our own decisions that determine what results we get – as we call it into the wood, so it echoes.
Today’s Resolution:
- We will give thanks to God for his wonderful Laws, which allow us to reap multiples of good while still granting the possibility of forgiveness for our wrong actions.
The Word, (Re)Discovered 