Contrasts

Hosea 10:12-13 Sow righteousness for yourselves, reap the fruit of unfailing love, and break up your unplowed ground; for it is time to seek the Lord, until he comes and showers his righteousness on you. 13 But you have planted wickedness, you have reaped evil, you have eaten the fruit of deception. Because you have depended on your own strength and on your many warriors,

Sometime we wonder what the LORD wants from us. We question this especially when the stresses of life come our direction. And the stress of life will come to all of us. Can you feel it?

We want black and white responses, accept when we don’t want black and white responses. We want clarity, but we enjoy fuzzy edges so we can still do what we want. And that is where the rub exists. We want to do what we want to do, but we want the LORD to bless what we want to do. What the LORD really desires is for us to want to do what He wants us to do. Then His blessing will be there.

Hebrew poetry is very different than our Western poetry. There is no rhyme or rhythm, meter or tempo as Western poetry is characterized by. Instead, Hebrew poetry relies on parallel thoughts and ideas. The two verses above have sow & plant, reap & reap, breaking up unplowed ground & eating the fruit of deception, and seeking & depending.

It is that third pairing that I want to talk about today. Hosea is speaking to the Northern Kingdom who are about to go into exile. They have rebelled against the LORD for many years, choosing idol worship over submission to the LORD. Now the LORD has had enough of their rebellion. He does two things through the prophet Hosea. First he points out their failings and secondly he calls them to repentance.

The picture of breaking up unplowed ground is an agricultural image. It is easy to plow the same field every year. The soil is friable. The soil isn’t completely settled from the previous year. The roots of the plants haven’t created a complete connection to each other. The top growth isn’t complete; there are bare spots where nothing is growing.

So it is difficult to plow virgin soil. It takes lots of energy. You have to remove the rocks. You have turn the soil several times to kill the current plants, allowing the new planting to have a chance to grow.

Now put this image with its counterpart, eating the fruit of deception. It is easy to jump to the enjoyable part of agriculture, eating the fruit. It takes very little effort, especially compared to plowing virgin soil. There isn’t any thinking involved in accepting deception. You just swallow.

Israel had the opportunity to think about what the LORD had done throughout their history, and reflect on what that would mean for them personally. The LORD had consistently provided for them. He had protected them. He had accepted their repentance and provided forgiveness.

But Israel ignored this history. As soon as they settled anywhere, they drifted into what was easy and familiar. Everyone in their day worshipped idols. No going against the grain was necessary. It was easier to ask for a king than to be a nation whose king was the LORD. It was easier to have an army than to trust and rely on the LORD for protection.

Living for the LORD requires plowing of our ground. We have to challenge our thinking and beliefs. We have to turn them over and over in order to root out the deceptions that would grow in the virgin soil of our hearts. It requires hearing the history of the LORD’s interventions in human lives so that we know His character. It requires understanding what holiness looks like lived out in our modern society. Holiness without compromise!

Deception must be examined and plowed. We must learn to be more discerning consumers of the messages thrown our direction. Then the LORD’s blessing can come on us.

Ready to plow?