Hosea 10:12 Sow for yourselves righteousness; reap steadfast love; break up your fallow ground, for it is the time to seek the LORD, that he may come and rain righteousness upon you.
Much of the world is dealing with the greatest disruption of their lives… probably in their lifetimes, particularly in the West, and what is known as the “First World”. Here’s a helpful perspective toward understanding what is taking place.
Imagine for a moment that your life is a farm… a plot of land set aside to produce a crop. The Farmer knows what He needs to do to prepare an abundant harvest. Your soil is fallow, hardened, full of weeds. The seeds are dry and must absorb water to initiate respiration and begin to digest their stored food, and respiration requires sufficient oxygen in soil that is moist and broken up. Your field must be turned over and plowed.
Plowing seems to do violence to soil in its fallow state. Yet nothing will grow or can even be planted in hard unplowed soil. The plow turns the soil upside down and inside out, looks like a disaster zone, as thousands of weeds and chunks of earth fly apart. Insects in the soil endure an apocalyptic experience, and some of them are killed by the metal blades and crashing mounds of earth. The farmer is simply doing his job, what he must do to prepare an abundant harvest.
Now that the Farmer is preparing His field, and the mounds of earth and weeds are flying everywhere, step back if you can and observe what is taking place. The world is His field, not ours. and His crop is righteousness and steadfast love in a fruitful crop of human souls. Fallow ground full of weeds will not do for a good harvest. Take the Farmer’s perspective, endure the plow, and you will rejoice with him in the harvest to follow.
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[worthy_plugins_devotion_single_body]Isn’t it interesting that of the multitudes thronging and pressing toward Yeshua (Jesus), only one really touched Him? What made Yeshua notice her among all the rest?
Here’s another interesting Hebrew word parallel. The Hebrew word for “love” or “affection”, “chiba”, is formed by the same root letters as the word, “chova”, “obligation”, “debt”, or “duty”. In Hebrew, the only difference between these two words is a few vowel points. But you say, “Isn’t love the very opposite of obligation !?” Well, yes and no. The Hebrew language has a wonderful way of relating concepts which seem incompatible.
In Hebrew, the word for hardness is “kosher”. Interestingly enough, the word “kosher” also means “fitness”, as from a workout in the gym. Yes — it’s a workout to serve the Lord in this world — but God has called us to it!
One of the great marvels of the Roman Empire was the invention of the aqueduct system to provide water over vast distances. It was an absolutely ingenious method which made use of gravity, with stone arches to support the water channels. An aqueduct was built in 109 AD which carried water to the city of Segovia for eighteen hundred years. For nearly sixty generations this aqueduct provided cool water from the mountains above. But fairly recently, it was beginning to collapse.
I love fishing but sadly, I haven't been able to do it in quite some time. Yeah, I know, one would think there'd be some good fishing spots here in Israel. However, from what I understand, they're not really available to the public. So sad. Nevertheless, fishing gives me a chance to get a break from the world and just relax and meditate -- and on a good day, maybe catch a fish or two.
Doesn’t it seem like just when we get that much needed breakthrough, suddenly the enemy comes to attack? In this passage we read how the Philistines heard that David was anointed King and quickly assembled together to seek and destroy him. And what does David do? Does he become fearful? No. Does he hide? No! David goes out to meet them!
When Daniel was in the midst of the lion’s den…God was with him. When Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were in the midst of the fiery furnace…God was with them. It would have been perfectly easy for God to immediately transport these saints out of their difficulties, but no, He chose instead to be with them in the midst of their trials. God chose to reveal His power through the trials instead of exercising His power to remove them.