Break Up Your Unploughed Ground
Hosea 10v12
6th January 2023
Before I get on to discussing this week's Bible passage, I need to take a detour in order to clarify a point of interpretation. Do you remember that Paul wrote:
1 Corinthians 9v7-11
Who serves as a soldier at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard and does not
eat its grapes? Who tends a flock and does not drink the milk?
Do I say this merely on human authority? Doesn’t the Law say the same thing?
For it is written in the Law of Moses: “Do not muzzle an ox while it is treading
out the grain.” Is it about oxen that God is concerned?
Surely he says this for us, doesn’t he? Yes, this was written for us, because
whoever ploughs and threshes should be able to do so in the hope of sharing in the
harvest.
If we have sown spiritual seed among you, is it too much if we reap a material
harvest from you?
I don't want to discuss that passage in detail this week; I only want to observe that Paul says quite clearly here that we shouldn't interpret the Old Testament more literally than God intends. He's saying that when God inspired Moses to write Deuteronomy 25v4, which says, "Do not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain." He wasn't really talking about oxen; He was talking about people. His primary meaning was that people who work deserve to be paid, that pastors and apostles should receive financial support from the churches they serve.
Understanding that there is a danger of taking the Old Testament too literally, let's turn to the passage I'd like us to think about. It's:
Hosea 10v12
Sow righteousness for yourselves, reap the fruit of unfailing love, and break up
your unploughed ground; for it is time to seek the Lord, until he comes and
showers his righteousness on you.
I hope we can agree that when God speaks through Hosea saying, "Sow righteousness", "reap the fruit of unfailing love" and "break up your unploughed ground" He's not speaking about farming. He's using a farming metaphor to talk about our human hearts and lives. Similarly, in the Parable of the Sower, Jesus spoke about good soil (ploughed land) stony soil (barren land) and soil filled with weeds.
There is no doubt that what you get out of life depends on what you put in. If you take regular exercise you will be stronger. If you eat good food you will be healthier. If you love the people around you, they will like you. God promises that if you"Sow righteousness" you will "reap the fruit of unfailing love".
And God presents the alternative in the next verse, where He accuses the Israelites:
Hosea 10v13a
But you have planted wickedness, you have reaped evil, you have eaten the fruit
of deception.
I think everybody knows that what you reap depends on what you sow. That is, how your life turns out depends on how you live it. But Christians know there are also eternal consequences to the choices we make on earth:
Romans 6v20-22
For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness.
But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are
now ashamed? For the end of those things is death.
But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God,
the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life.
Galatians 6v7-8
Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap.
For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the
one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.
Both in our lives on earth and in what happens after we die, actions have consequences. Attitudes also have consequences because if our hearts are bad our actions will be bad, and if our hearts are good our actions will be good.
But change doesn't start with sowing. It starts with ploughing. In life as in agriculture, if you're going to sow seed in order to reap a harvest, you first need to "break up your unploughed ground", as Hosea tells us. I think the ground here is our hearts, our thought lives, our priorities.
An area of farm land may have some ploughed land and some land that is not yet ploughed, in which case only part of the land can be sown. In the same way, there are areas in our hearts that we have brought to God in repentance. We have changed our attitudes in those areas, and are now bearing good fruit. Are there other areas in our hearts and our lives that we have not ploughed?
That is, do we have attitudes or life choices that we have not yet given to God? Perhaps there are thoughts or habits or choices that we want to hold onto, and refuse to submit them to God's word, keeping them away from our Lord and Saviour. Those areas are not bearing "the fruit of unfailing love" because we have not been able to "Sow righteousness". We can't sow before we've ploughed. These parts of ours hearts and our lives may be barren, or they may be growing weeds.
Perhaps you know that your experience of God's eternal love, your assurance that you're truly saved, your awareness of His presence with you day-by-day, your sense of being led, instructed, helped and sanctified are less than scripture promises. If so, perhaps you have unploughed attitudes and life choices that really need to be submitted to God's kingship before you can experience full Christian life.
Ploughing is painful. A plough cuts deep into the soil. When God tells us to "break up your unploughed ground" He's asking us to go beyond a superficial Christianity, a comfortable repentance, an easy life. He wants to deal with the deep things in our hearts. This is not just about sin. It's about all the hurts, regrets, losses and anything in our past or our present that makes us hard-hearted towards the word of God and the Spirit of God. Ploughing is painful, but it's necessary. It enables us to sow righteousness and reap God's eternal love.
The challenge for us is to trust God that if we plough the untouched, hidden areas of our hearts, that is, if we open them up to God so that the word of God and the Holy Spirit can do their work there, then we will live better and more productive lives. Are you willing to give God those areas that you've held from Him until now? He is good and He loves you. Every change God makes is a good change.
Heavenly Father, please show me which areas of my heart and my life remain unploughed, and please help me to yield them up to Your plough, in Jesus's name.