Don’t Eat Your Seed

You have all seen shows in which it seems the fate of the human race is in the hands of the hero. In Noah’s case it actually was! There was nothing left alive on earth. The only living creatures were on the ark. It was almost as if the boat were a floating seed. The only animals that would exist from that point on would be descendants of those animals. All of the people that would ever live come down from the eight members of Noah’s family. Even though they had survived the flood, the real test of faith would be learning to survive after the waters subsided. The time it would take until crops could be grown and new herds raised would be long.

The very first thing that Noah did when he exited that boat was to build an altar and worship God. Noah enacted a principle of giving that few people ever learn. He sowed back to the Lord that which he so desperately needed more of. It was so contrary to the natural mind to sow in situations that would be this dire. The only food that existed was there on the boat. When he began to sacrifice those “clean animals”, he was sacrificing the ones that could be eaten! If Noah had eaten his seed, he would have only had enough food to last for a short while. It would have been a mistake that would have affected not only him and his family, but the human race as well.

You need to give what you need the most. Noah could have looked at what he had and started to figure out some kind of rationing program. He could have decided to build pens and keep the clean animals for food. However, it would have only postponed the inevitable. Once you begin to eat your seed you have sealed your fate. Only seed sown will produce an increase! Missionary Wayne Meyers said, “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep in order to gain what he cannot lose.” Noah enacted the principle of seed time and harvest. The order is seedtime and then harvest. Receiving follows sowing. Once the farmer sows the seed, he doesn’t see it anymore. Until the time that the first shoot comes up, it is completely hidden and then he can see the plant long before there is evidence of fruit. That is why so many will quit just before victory comes. They have been tithing and giving but it seems like there is no harvest coming. They become discouraged and many times they will quit. Their error may not prove fatal, but it will surely rob them of God’s best.

We can see the same principle in Isaac’s life. Genesis 26:12 says, “Then Isaac sowed in the land, and received in the same year and hundredfold; and the Lord blessed him.” The natural cause of most famines in the Old Testament times was drought. For Isaac to sow in famine meant that there was not enough water to keep a crop alive. He planted a seed knowing it would have taken a miracle to produce! Yet, the Bible says that “in the same year” he received a hundredfold. He sowed when it did not look like it was time to sow. The little you have may seem so insignificant. Don’t be fooled by the size of your seed, just sow it! Seeds don’t look like a crop; they look like a seed. Don’t make the mistake of observing circumstances and withholding your seed. Solomon wrote in Ecclesiastes 11:4, “He that observes the wind shall not sow, and he that regardeth the clouds shall not reap.” If you allow natural circumstances to keep you from sowing, they will also keep you from reaping.

Noah avoided a costly mistake. It would have lasted only a short while if he had eaten his seed. Instead, he sacrificed to give to the Lord. God provided a harvest that we still enjoy because Noah did what could have been fatal. Just as the whole family of man has come from Adam through Noah, all of today’s cattle and crops are a result of the animals that came from the ark. Aren’t you glad that Noah didn’t eat the seed!