... break up your unploughed ground... Hosea 10:12
Even though my mother grew up on a small farm in southern Ireland, and I remember happy holidays there when I was a child, I must admit that I know next to nothing about farming: a real city boy, me.
But one thing I do know is that the land cannot bear fruit unless it is ploughed before sowing. So I think I get the point of God’s word to his people Israel through the prophet Hosea: “break up your unploughed ground”.
He isn’t, of course, giving them advice about their farming practices - they knew plenty about that, no problem. No: he is talking about the spiritual life of the nation. It’s time to shake things up! Time to get out of the rut! Time for self-examination - and for change!
Hosea lived about 750 years before Jesus: he is one of the earliest prophets whose words are preserved for us in the Bible. Israel is seriously adrift from the God who dearly loves them, and is heading for disaster. The heart-breaking tragedy this involves is brought home to Hosea by the fact that his wife Gomer is unfaithful to him, yet he is commanded to continue to love her and be faithful to her.
In a word, the Hosea-Gomer relationship is a parallel of the Jehovah-Israel relationship: Israel is depicted as God’s unfaithful wife; God as the ever-loving husband.
If you read through Hosea 10 you find that it is just warning after warning after warning. But there in verse 12 is this word about how things can be put right: and it is perfectly summed up in this metaphor of breaking up their unploughed ground.
A word, then, for a nation gone to the bad. But it speaks clearly to me also about the life of the individual. It presents a question: Is there “unploughed ground” in my life that needs “breaking up”?
Even genuine, sincere Christians can get stale and sluggish in our walk with God. We can, as the saying goes, “lose our cutting edge”: in New Testament terms, though we may not “put out the Spirit’s fire”, we can certainly allow it to burn low (1Thessalonians 5:19).
And the question then becomes: what to do about it?
Well, Hosea’s next words to the nation sum it up pretty well: “...for it is time to seek the Lord”. It’s time for an intentional turning to God - a spiritual spring-clean, if you like.
Yes, but what does this mean in practice?
Well, if there is overt, conscious, deliberate sin - obviously that’s got to be rooted out: repented of and turned against.
But if it’s more that matter of “losing our cutting edge”, here are one or two questions that might be worth thinking about...
How about aiming to get seriously to grips over, say, a month, with just one Bible book (why not Hosea?) by reading up various commentaries and other background books? How about aiming to systematically read some good Christian book on a “little-but-often” basis”? (It’s amazing how much you can read in just ten or fifteen minutes.)
And perhaps God is saying “No! I want you to do it. It’s time to get off your backside.” Children’s work? Evangelistic outreach? The food-bank? The cleaning rota? Sharing my musical gifts? Messy church? Street pastors? (Any of these, of course, under the supervision of the church’s leadership.)
These are just a few suggestions - you can probably think of others that might fit you personally. I’m not, of course, suggesting we go crazy - like people having their “mid-life crisis” who start bungee-jumping or running marathons before breakfast or taking up lion-taming in their spare time. I’m not suggesting we start fasting and praying every night, or rashly clearing out our bank balance and sending it all to a worthy cause.
No: be wise, be prayerful, take advice from others. But... do something!
You want to be a fruitful Christian? Good. Then you know what to do: break up that unploughed ground!
O for a closer walk with God, A calm and heavenly frame, A light to shine upon the road That leads me to the Lamb! Lord, hear my prayer. Amen.
Even though my mother grew up on a small farm in southern Ireland, and I remember happy holidays there when I was a child, I must admit that I know next to nothing about farming: a real city boy, me.
But one thing I do know is that the land cannot bear fruit unless it is ploughed before sowing. So I think I get the point of God’s word to his people Israel through the prophet Hosea: “break up your unploughed ground”.
He isn’t, of course, giving them advice about their farming practices - they knew plenty about that, no problem. No: he is talking about the spiritual life of the nation. It’s time to shake things up! Time to get out of the rut! Time for self-examination - and for change!
Hosea lived about 750 years before Jesus: he is one of the earliest prophets whose words are preserved for us in the Bible. Israel is seriously adrift from the God who dearly loves them, and is heading for disaster. The heart-breaking tragedy this involves is brought home to Hosea by the fact that his wife Gomer is unfaithful to him, yet he is commanded to continue to love her and be faithful to her.
In a word, the Hosea-Gomer relationship is a parallel of the Jehovah-Israel relationship: Israel is depicted as God’s unfaithful wife; God as the ever-loving husband.
If you read through Hosea 10 you find that it is just warning after warning after warning. But there in verse 12 is this word about how things can be put right: and it is perfectly summed up in this metaphor of breaking up their unploughed ground.
A word, then, for a nation gone to the bad. But it speaks clearly to me also about the life of the individual. It presents a question: Is there “unploughed ground” in my life that needs “breaking up”?
Even genuine, sincere Christians can get stale and sluggish in our walk with God. We can, as the saying goes, “lose our cutting edge”: in New Testament terms, though we may not “put out the Spirit’s fire”, we can certainly allow it to burn low (1Thessalonians 5:19).
And the question then becomes: what to do about it?
Well, Hosea’s next words to the nation sum it up pretty well: “...for it is time to seek the Lord”. It’s time for an intentional turning to God - a spiritual spring-clean, if you like.
Yes, but what does this mean in practice?
Well, if there is overt, conscious, deliberate sin - obviously that’s got to be rooted out: repented of and turned against.
But if it’s more that matter of “losing our cutting edge”, here are one or two questions that might be worth thinking about...
- Has my personal relationship with God become mechanical and merely dutiful?
How about aiming to get seriously to grips over, say, a month, with just one Bible book (why not Hosea?) by reading up various commentaries and other background books? How about aiming to systematically read some good Christian book on a “little-but-often” basis”? (It’s amazing how much you can read in just ten or fifteen minutes.)
- Is there an area of service in the life of my church where I could be of help?
And perhaps God is saying “No! I want you to do it. It’s time to get off your backside.” Children’s work? Evangelistic outreach? The food-bank? The cleaning rota? Sharing my musical gifts? Messy church? Street pastors? (Any of these, of course, under the supervision of the church’s leadership.)
- Should I be thinking about involvement in some area of overseas mission or relief work?
These are just a few suggestions - you can probably think of others that might fit you personally. I’m not, of course, suggesting we go crazy - like people having their “mid-life crisis” who start bungee-jumping or running marathons before breakfast or taking up lion-taming in their spare time. I’m not suggesting we start fasting and praying every night, or rashly clearing out our bank balance and sending it all to a worthy cause.
No: be wise, be prayerful, take advice from others. But... do something!
You want to be a fruitful Christian? Good. Then you know what to do: break up that unploughed ground!
O for a closer walk with God, A calm and heavenly frame, A light to shine upon the road That leads me to the Lamb! Lord, hear my prayer. Amen.
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