NOVEMBER 9, 2023
“…break up your fallow ground: for it is time to seek the LORD, till he come and rain righteousness upon you.” (Hosea 10:12)
“Break up your fallow ground.” Our nature, at most, is but a small farm, and we need to get a full harvest out of every acre of it. Have we left any part of our small allotment uncultivated? Solomon condemned the sluggard who allowed his vineyard to go unattended (Prov. 24:30-32). What would he think of a farmer who allowed his richest field to lie untilled and fallow year after year? The Prophet urges us, if we have been thus irresponsible, and have neglected the best part of our estate; it is time to attend to the matter.
An occasional fallow has its benefits in the world of nature, but if the proprietor of a rich and fruitful land allowed the soil to continue fallow year after year, we should judge him to be out of his mind. The wasted acreage should be taken from him and given to another who would disallow the waste and encourage the rich fields to yield their full harvest.
Foolish is the sluggard who neglects to cultivate his farm, but what shall be said of the man who fails to cultivate himself? If it be wrong to leave unattended a part of our estate, how much worse it must be to disregard a portion of ourselves!
The neglect is all the more inexcusable when we consider that the “fallow ground” of which the Prophet speaks involves the soul. It is not often that men neglect their outward frame of clay. They dress that field which is called the body with sufficient care. This is right and proper for it is worthy to be duly kept; it would be wrong not to keep it in order. However, the fact that this very secondary part of our nature is interwoven with the higher part is the chief reason that the body should not be neglected. Therefore, let us keep this field by temperance, cleanliness, and obedience to the rules of health and culture. Though it be but dust akin to the common earth around us, the body is honorable and when grace has sanctified the soul, the body becomes the temple of the Holy Ghost. (I Cor. 6:19)
Few need to be exhorted to attend to their bodies. “What shall we eat?” “What shall we drink?” “Wherewithal shall we be clothed?” is a trinity of questions which the majority of mankind spend all their lives answering. The fault is not that they care for the body, but that it takes an undue share of consideration and is given precedence over the soul. The eternal part suffers neglect and lies fallow, while the temporal part is given priority as though it were eternal.
We are not as the brute beasts which perish, which know nothing beyond their daily wants. We who are made living souls must distinguish ourselves from other living creatures by seeking to know, learn, and understand. The field of the mind, however, is not the most neglected field with men. In fact, many professors of religion become puffed up with knowledge.
The field that lies fallow, that with which the Prophet is concerned, is not the physical, but rather it is the spiritual – the highest nature of all – that which speaks to God. It is suffered to lie entirely fallow! The soil where true religion should flourish is left by many to produce poisonous weeds of superstition, and thorns and thistles of error and doubt.
We all know what happens to a fallow field. Not only does it become caked and hard, but it will produce weeds and briars in increasing abundance. If one will not break up the ground and sow good seed, his field will still produce, but the fruit will be damning. Therefore, the exhortation of the text must be heeded: “Break up your fallow ground: for it is time to seek the LORD, till he come and rain righteousness upon you.”
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