Don’t be deceived: God is not mocked. For whatever a man sows he will also reap, because the one who sows to his flesh will reap corruption from the flesh, but the one who sows to the Spirit will reap eternal life from the Spirit.
Galatians 6:7-8 HCSB
“What a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive” is a quote by Sir William Scott, from his poem, Marmion. It refers to lying and how one lie leads to more lies and they begin to multiply until we are trapped in our own dishonesty.
When we practice deceit, we will find ourselves being deceived. There are numerous instances in the Bible where we see this played out. Our Bible study class is studying the book of Genesis. A classic example of one reaping what they have sown is found in Chapter 29 when Jacob, who had deceived his father to gain his brother’s birthright, is deceived by his father-in-law and is given the sister of the girl he intended to marry. He sowed lies and deceit and he reaped lies and deceit.
Another example of reaping what you sow is when David fall into sin with Bathsheba. Once they discover that Bathsheba is pregnant, he tries to cover it up by getting her husband home from the military to sleep with her. When her husband is too honorable to do this, he tries to cover his adultery with murder and has Bathsheba’s husband killed in war. God punished him by telling him that the sword would never leave his household. His children feuded with each other, one son killed the other, and one son even tried to kill him.
In the case of Jacob, his deception lead to his being deceived. His father-in-law’s deception lead to constant trouble in his household. HIs wives, the two sisters, were always jealous of each other and there was constant conflict between them. The brothers were jealous of Joseph and sold him into slavery. Now this all ended up working for everyone’s good, but it did nothing to end the conflict in their home. The brothers always lived in fear of Joseph, thinking he would retaliate against them.
And talk about a tangled web, in the book of Esther, Haman becomes angry with Esther’s cousin, Mordecai and builds these gallows to hang Mordecai. Before you know it, the tables have turned and the king is outraged with Haman and Haman is hanged on his own gallows. He was literally caught up in his own web.
Time and time again in the Bible, we see those that honor the Lord being attacked by others and God working it all out for them. We also see those who are attacking God’s children come to some pretty horrible endings. Again this just reiterates our scripture passage for today, we reap what we sow. When we try to weave webs of deceit, we find ourselves being the ones caught up in them.
Where most of us get into trouble is we want something or we want a particular situation to work out a certain way and we set about seeing how we can make it happen. We don’t trust in God. We don’t pray to Him before we act and we don’t ask Him to do what is best for us. That’s what he wants to do, but sometimes we get in the way of our own blessings.
I’m sure if you look back on your own life there are times when you didn’t do things God’s way and things did not go so well, or maybe it’s just me. I can think of many times in my life where I set out to make things work my way and they blew up in my face.
If you practice deceit, don’t be surprised when you are deceived. If you plot evil against someone else, don’t be surprised if the tables get turned on you. We are told in Romans 12:17 not to repay evil for evil but try to do what is honorable in everyone’s eyes.
We can do it God’s way and please Him or we can do it the devil’s way and please him, the choice is ours to make. But, if you choose the devil’s way, be very careful because you will be overtaken by the evil that you have plotted. Romans 12:21 warns us not to be conquered by evil, but to conquer evil with good.
Don’t get caught in the web you are weaving for someone else. Know that none of us can escape God’s judgement and we will all reap what we sow. Don’t let the devil deceive you into thinking otherwise.
Have a great day!