Whatever A Man Sows, That He Will Also Reap: Lessons from Osama bin Laden
Posted: Sunday, May 08, 2011
by Joel Kontinen
http://joelkontinen.blogspot.com/
It might not always be easy for many of us steeped in western rationalism to realise that spiritual laws are real and they work. Taking the recent death of Osama bin Laden as an example, we might see that the lesson the apostle Paul taught the 1stcentury Galatian Christians has not ceased to be in force.
“Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap,” Paul told them (Galatians 6:7, NKJV). The road that Osama, the son of a super-rich Saudi businessman with ten wives and at least 17 children, chose, led to bloodshed and destruction. From fighting the Russians in Afghanistan he graduated (if we might say so) to spreading the revolution to the other side of the Atlantic, with disastrous consequences.
And they were not very pretty.
“They sow the wind, and reap the whirlwind,” the Israelite prophet Hosea wrote almost 3,000 years ago. There is basically nothing new under the sun. What happened then is happening again in our time.
Unfortunately, it is not a good Mother’s Day for the Saudi woman who gave birth to a boy called Osama way back in 1957. At the tender age of 11, he lost his father in a helicopter crash. The millions he inherited did not give him peace. He befriended militant Islamists at university; this led to the path that created destruction on many continents from the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings in Dar-es-Salaam (Tanzania) and Nairobi (Kenya) to the 9/11 attacks in New York and the Pentagon, and much more, until an old spiritual law caught up with him: “Whatever a man sows, that he will also reap”.
Osama bin Laden’s death is no cause for celebration. It is a stark remainder of the state of our world: we no longer live in a world that is perfect. Horrible things do happen. But ultimately, no one will be able to escape the consequences of his deeds.
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Top-level comments on this article: (4 total)Good article JoelThanks, David.
I agree his death is no cause for celebration - you make good points about reaping and sowing! Thanks for taking time to write this one!Thanks, Marijo.
Hi Joel. Very well said. This is one of many laws God set into motion that no one will escape. So sad he chose such a road.Yes, indeed. Thanks, Teresa.
very nice Joel. I have to admit I felt peace and joy when I heard the news.Thanks, Sara. While the world might be a bit safer place than it was before Osama's death, I don't think that his death is a cause for joy.
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