Two Paths Set Before All Mankind.

​“Sow righteousness for yourselves and reap faithful love; break up your unplowed ground… 

You have plowed wickedness and reaped injustice…”

‭‭Hosea‬ ‭10:12a, 13‬a (HCSB‬‬)

https://bible.com/bible/72/hos.10.12-13.HCSB

God has always set before men two paths. The first path mentioned is almost always the right path, the path of righteousness. And the second path is always the first path chosen (the path of wickedness. 

Listen to all that God has to say in verses 12 and 13. 

“Sow righteousness for yourselves and reap faithful love; break up your unplowed ground. It is time to seek the Lord until He comes and sends righteousness on you like the rain. You have plowed wickedness and reaped injustice; you have eaten the fruit of lies. Because you have trusted in your own way and in your large number of soldiers,”

‭‭Hosea‬ ‭10:12-13‬ ‭HCSB‬‬

https://bible.com/bible/72/hos.10.12-13.HCSB

God never sets out a path without first establishing the path and then he equips us to walk on it. So what is our first step in walking the path of righteousness?

“Break up your unplowed ground.” 

What does that look like in my heart? 

Sin hardens our hearts. The more we partake of sin the more we feel comfortable around it. Then the less we feel convicted by the Holy Spirit to separate ourselves from sin. The example I could use would be the TV. The more we sit in front of our TVs the more we become hardened by the messages it shows us and tells us, but if we were to not watch TV for 30 days our hearts would become softened. And when we start watching TV again we should become appalled by its messages. The messages on the TV did not change but the condition of our hearts did change. 

So now we know what a hardened heart looks like how do we break it up? Repentance! We acknowledge to God and to our own ears, brain, and heart that what God calls sin is sin and commit to stop. Back to our TV example. We would see that a certain TV commercial, program, or channel is downright evil and we tell God, “this program is nothing but trash and I am saddened that I have let it take up residence in my TV watching experience and I will no longer be watching it.” And we either have to change the station or turn off the TV. 

The second step to walking the path of righteousness is to seek the Lord until He comes. This is twofold. Seek the Lord till he comes into your situation and seek the Lord till He comes back to the earth again to set up his 1,000-year reign. In other words, seek the Lord here and now and for the rest of your life. So when we have decided that we are no longer watching a certain TV program we will either turn to a station that will help our walk with God or we will pick up our Bible and read it. 

How long must we keep this up? Are we to stop after 5 minutes? What about an hour? Can we stop after a day, a week, or a year? God says to seek Him until He sends righteousness on you like the rain! It is not in your time but His. 

In the beginning, I said that “God has always set before men two paths”. Let me give a few more examples

“Look, today I set before you a blessing and a curse: there will be a blessing, if you obey the commands of the Lord your God I am giving you today, and a curse, if you do not obey the commands of the Lord your God and you turn aside from the path I command you today by following other gods you have not known.”

‭‭Deuteronomy‬ ‭11:26-28‬ ‭HCSB‬‬

https://bible.com/bible/72/deu.11.26-28.HCSB

“As for you, if you walk before Me as your father David walked, with a heart of integrity and in what is right, doing everything I have commanded you, and if you keep My statutes and ordinances, I will establish your royal throne over Israel forever, as I promised your father David: You will never fail to have a man on the throne of Israel. 

If you or your sons turn away from following Me and do not keep My commands — My statutes that I have set before you — and if you go and serve other gods and worship them, I will cut off Israel from the land I gave them, and I will reject the temple I have sanctified for My name. Israel will become an object of scorn and ridicule among all the peoples.”

‭‭1 Kings‬ ‭9:4-7‬ ‭HCSB‬‬

https://bible.com/bible/72/1ki.9.4-7.HCSB

“If you love Me, you will keep My commands. 

The one who doesn’t love Me will not keep My words. The word that you hear is not Mine but is from the Father who sent Me.”

‭‭John‬ ‭14:15, 24‬ ‭HCSB‬‬

https://bible.com/bible/72/jhn.14.24.HCSB

So why use the example of a TV? 

“The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. So if the light within you is darkness — how deep is that darkness!”

‭‭Matthew‬ ‭6:22-23‬ ‭HCSB‬‬

https://bible.com/bible/72/mat.6.22-23.HCSB

He have 3 places where outside influences enter into our bodies; mouth, eyes, and ears. TV uses two of these to influence us. And then portrays to us to eat while do it. Life is a TV show for us to watch. What will we do influence our path? Which path will we choose? Will it be the path of righteousness or wickedness?