BREAKING UP FALLOW GROUND

Hosea 10:12-13 (ESV)
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. [13] You have plowed iniquity; you have reaped injustice; you have eaten the fruit of lies. Because you have trusted in your own way and in the multitude of your warriors,

Israel was in bad shape spiritually. Their rebellion, idolatry, adultery, and wickedness had brought them to the point where the LORD God was going to discipline them. Still, in the midst of this, God calls out in compassion for them to turn back to Him. He does many times in Hosea, but this warning in Hosea 10:12 seems to be a particular caution to the church throughout the ages.

A church does not have to be in great moral or theological failure to hear these words. We must be vigilant about the continual practice of sowing righteousness and reaping covenant-faithfulness and love. But even more, let us hear the words to “break up your fallow ground.”

Fallow ground is soil that has remained unused for a period of time, usually to let the soil rest and become rich and useful again. It can also be virgin soil, never tilled or used. Until tilled, it is mostly likely hard, dry, and dusty. There is much fallow ground in the church today.

There is much fallow ground to be found in true and faithful churches. There is fallow ground to be found in the lives of even the most devoted follower of Jesus Christ. What are we, the people of God, to do about this fallow ground?

First, let us begin by taking a survey of our own hearts. If we are honest Christians, we know there are areas of our lives that have become dry and dusty due to lack of use. Maybe areas of hardness we have decided not to touch. Maybe these were once fertile patches in our lives producing fruit for Christ, but something happened. Something or someone has stolen our desire to keep the ground tilled and planted.

Maybe our ground is fallow because it has never been used. Maybe we feel that we have no fertile ground to be of use. This is simply not true. Every true believer in Jesus Christ has been given gifts to use for the glory of His name and the advancement of His kingdom. We must be willing to put the plow to it and let the Lord “come and rain righteousness upon us.” It is His to produce the fruit, not ours. Our job is to be tilled and planted soil, yielded to His service.

Some may even be able to look around to see much ground tilled and fertile. The sign of a fruitful, Christian life. But we must not be so arrogant as to think that there is not still some ground laying fallow in our lives. Some area of hardness exists. We too must be willing to take plow in hand.
Once we have identified those fallow areas, we put the plow to it. But how? We begin through prayer. We ask the Lord to take our fallow ground and make it useful. We ask Him to take the plow to us to prepare us for service. Then, we begin to look around. Where and how can I put this to use? What is God preparing us for? As the soil of our hearts are tilled, we will begin to see what the Lord wants to do with it. Likely, the Lord already has a use for the fruit of your ground.

Steve Camp in his song “Living in Laodicea” describes the heart of one who desires to be fertile soil for the Lord.

Oh Lord, take Your plow to my battleground
Let Your blade dig down to the soil of my soul
For I've become dry and dusty,
Lord I know there must be
Richer earth lying below

Pray that the Lord of the harvest would search the hearts of each member of our congregation, of every Christian we know, to make our fallow ground rich. May he “rain righteousness” on us. And may the fruit be a harvest beyond our comprehension that the Lord will use to glorify His name in all the earth.