Cloud Gazing

He who watches the wind will not sow and he who looks at the clouds will not reap. 

~ Ecclesiastes 11:4  

Sowing must be done by faith, and reaping must be done by faith. KatieLyn, the runaway bride,  did a bang-up job on the first part—sowing by faith. She had planted for her future by preparing herself to become a good wife. She spent years nurturing and watering her dream. It bloomed gloriously.

And then she started looking at the clouds. Just before the harvest, she fled from her field in the middle of the night and left the fruit to die on the vine.

Somehow, either something or someone had convinced her that the clouds were a cyclone and all her faith for reaping the blessings was blown away. Young's literal translation states Ecclesiastes 11:4 this way: And whoso is looking on the thick clouds reapeth not. 

That is exactly what happened to KatieLyn. The enemy deceived her into believing that the clouds, which were nothing more than a diaphanous vapor, would tornado her life.  She decided that she would not stick around to reap. 

Here's today's lesson:

This is exactly the way the devil likes to rob his victims of their faith, by getting them to throw it away for themselves after God promised them a good yield.  In the symbolism of this verse, the clouds obscure the light and truth of God. The enemy wants to keep you from receiving God's blessing, so he will try to cause you to look at something that will block your ability to see the truth.

 If it is a "something" that causes you to look at clouds, a circumstance such as an attack on finances or health, then the devil has you all set up for guilt-and-regret induced depression later on. If it is a "someone" who causes you to look at clouds, then he/she will typically continue manipulating you by being there to "help" you pick up the pieces, and the devil has gotten you entangled in a relationship with someone who has enabled you to throw away God's provision. Either way, once you get more focused on the clouds than you are on God's plan for your harvest, the devil wins. 

 When you are fearfully looking at the wrong thing, you miss your opportunity to reap the blessings of faith.

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He who watches the wind will not sow. The fact of the uncertainty and immutability of the future ought not to make us supine or to crush out all diligence and activity. He who wants to anticipate results, to foresee and provide against all contingencies, to be his own providence, is like a farmer who is always looking to wind and weather, and misses the time for sowing in this needless caution.

He who looks at the clouds will not reap.  Storms in harvest, of course, were pernicious; and he who was anxiously fearing every indication of such weather, and altering his plans at every phase of the sky, might easily put off reaping his fields till either the crops were spoiled or the rainy season had set in. (…) Some risks must always be run if we are to do our work in the world; we cannot make a certainty of anything; probability in the guide of life. We cannot secure ourselves from failure; we can but do our best, and uncertainty of result must not paralyze exertion.

The above quote is an excerpt from The Pulpit Commentary, BibleSoft Inc.