Sow for yourselves righteousness;Reap in mercy;Break up your fallow ground,For it is time to seek the Lord,Till He comes and rains righteousness on you.
Hosea 10:12
We are each a little field. We are land with fallow ground and able to yield much; but what we yield, and the quality, depends on how receptive we are to scripture, to the instruction our Father has preserved for us. If it was time then, in Hosea's day, it is certainly time now for us to break up our fallow ground. We are meant to be producers, but in order to be so, we need to cultivate fertile, faithful, ground.
The field within us is our spirit and it requires nourishment.
- I WENT BY THE FIELD OF THE SLOTHFUL
I went by the field of the slothful,
And by the vineyard of the man devoid of understanding;
And there it was, all overgrown with thorns;
Its surface was covered with nettles;
Its stone wall was broken down.
When I saw it, I considered it well;
I looked on it and received instruction:
A little sleep, a little slumber,
A little folding of the hands to rest;
So shall your poverty come like a prowler,
And your need like an armed man.
Proverbs 24:27; 30-24
The definition of "fallow" (of farmland) plowed and harrowed but left unsown for a period in order to restore its fertility as part of a crop rotation or to avoid surplus production.
When we neglect our spirit, we gain zero personal growth. Life without care and attention to our spirit is desolate. The speaker in the Proverbs passage above observed the poor quality of life of someone who lived slothfully. Of course it is true that a person who can work, but refuses to, will not thrive, but we speak metaphorically here as well.
The quality of our soul is dependent on our willingness to be engaged and active participants in life and lesson. An apathetic disposition causes the field within, and around, oneself to be void and likely overgrown with useless chaos. It happens steadily. When we stop asking questions and meditating on the answers, we grow stubborn and lose our ability to be objective and think dynamically. We become closed-minded.
We break that fallow ground by delving into scripture, by emulating Jesus, by submitting to the will of God and by obeying God's instruction. It is stated and repeated and simplified for us throughout scripture: we need to be wise, faithful, compassionate, just, honest, patient, calm. We need to start to implement those qualities in our every day interactions and behaviors. We break the fallow ground, we begin to prepare the soil, when we stop reacting as our emotions tell us to and start behaving and Jesus taught us to. Do good, love enemies, forgive the repentant. Don't worry, don't hoard, don't steal. These are not suggestions, these are not behaviors we should try to adopt. These are commandments and even when they're difficult to follow, we must follow them anyway. That is how we prepare our ground.
- BUILD YOUR HOUSE
Make it fit for yourself in the field;
And afterward build your house.
Proverbs 24:27
We cannot establish anything unless our foundation of faith is secure. Steadfast faith keeps us centered and focused. It guides, soothes, instructs. We cannot build homes or character, friendships, relationships with God or others, businesses or anything else if our field has not been prepared to yield those things which Jesus taught. Jesus said so himself:
Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock.
And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it. Matthew 7:24-27
You have to be spiritually fit in order to smartly build. Your spiritual fitness is exercised in scripture. Your relationship with God will make you fit enough, wise enough to build the relationships and elements of your life on sturdy ground. Founded in God's eternal kingdom, we maintain security on earth.
- TRUSTED IN YOUR OWN WAY
You have plowed wickedness;
You have reaped iniquity.
You have eaten the fruit of lies,
Because you trusted in your own way,
In the multitude of your mighty men.
Therefore tumult shall arise among your people,
And all your fortresses shall be plundered
Hosea 10:13-14We must not live by our own code of conduct. Our code of conduct is flawed. Before our relationship with God, each of us grew the wrong things in our field. We act and react selfishly. We make the wrong decisions, born of the wrong motivations. We misinterpret people and situations, and miss-assign value. When not in accordance with God's will, we are misaligned. We are slaves to are base-behavior, action and emotion that does not fulfill our body or soul.
A life out of alignment with God is a string of temporary luke-warms and long lows. It is devoid of self-awareness and contentment. It lacks hope, understanding, wisdom, order, direction, and even purpose. Each child of God has purpose, but when they neglect Him, they never realize or discover it... and are subsequently left to plow wickedness, reap iniquity, eat the fruit of flies, in futile search of the contentment that only comes from spiritual fitness.