In this confused world, when we don’t know what to do in a confusing situation, it is always the wisest choice to do what is right in God’s eyes and then allow His truth to work out the details.

Hosea told Israel in their time of confusion that led them to disobey God, “Plant the good seeds of righteousness, and you will harvest a crop of love. Plow up the hard ground of your hearts, for now is the time to seek the Lord, that he may come and shower righteousness upon you” (Hosea 10:12).

The showering of God’s righteousness on His people was preceded by their first planting of the good seeds of righteousness themselves.  This first usage of the word “righteousness” in the verse has been translated as doing what is right, moral, and just. Israel had the word of the Lord from the existing Scripture of that time and the word of the prophets. Now we have the completed canon of Scripture and the trustworthy prophets living of our time. When we don’t know what to do in a confusing season of life, the wisest choice is always to do what is right, moral, and just according to God’s word even if a confused culture is choosing the opposite.

The second use of the word “righteousness” in the verse refers to something God does for us. It refers to what is ethical in a broader sense. At first, we obeyed God’s word just because His word told us to do so. The second use of the word “righteousness” is a gift God bestows on us. It is given in a confusing situation and we now offer a righteous response because it has now become part of our spiritual nature. It is something we develop over time.

Proverbs gave a specific interpretation of the word “righteousness” as a gift from God that is used elsewhere in Scripture, “Then you will understand what is right, just, and fair, and you will find the right way to go” (Proverbs 2:9). This understanding of what is right in all matters of life follows our initial obedience to do what is right even though we did not fully understand or even want to do it because God said so.

There is a warning for not doing what is right, moral, and just and simply following the lead of the surrounding culture, “But you have cultivated wickedness and harvested a thriving crop of sins. You have eaten the fruit of lies” (vs. 13). The word “cultivate” is the image of a farmer plowing the field of their future with lies. It prepares us to harvest a crop of lies and eat the fruit of those lies.

The velocity and volume of information coming our way today are immense. There is no way to discern what is true without God’s word as the foundation of our discernment. When this season and its resulting confusion have passed, those who obeyed God’s word in the confusion will find themselves in a field that has been planted with truth and they will eat the fruit of God’s righteousness.