Title: Till Your Old Land
Contents
Land that has been neglected for a long time and not cared for can not be sown. It is overgrown with weeds, and thorns come up here and there and harden. So are people. A carpenter who builds a house must prepare his saw sharp. The mind left unattended will depend only on the grace it has received in the past. If you do not prepare your own spirituality, the years will pass and the land will become stale. They are agile in world affairs, but lose interest in spiritual matters. What about the spirit of the dead ground? A soul hardened in sin. It is a heart that is far from God.
The time of Jeroboam II of the Northern Kingdom of Israel was spiritually dark. They worshiped the golden calf and practiced imitation of the abominations of the Gentiles. Hosea, the prophet of God, prophesied the word of God and called out to the people to plow up your old land. Why should we plow?
1. It is because we must repent thoroughly in a corrupt state of mind.
In order to return to God, we must repent. As the nation prospered and their lives prospered, the people of northern Israel recognized it as the grace of the idol they worshiped, and built many altars and pillars to worship him and offer sacrifices. They thought they were bearing a lot of fruit, but they didn't have the fruit that God wanted. They also served God on the one hand and idols on the other. We must serve only Jehovah God.
What land do we have? You have to realize the useless things that need to be ground up. The uncleanness of the body, the weakness, the foolishness, the lazy and indolent, the stingy, the failure to love my neighbor, the failure to preach the gospel for the soul, the preciousness of my life and not being used in the sight of God, etc. have to look back. We must wake up to the Word and prayer and repent of our spiritual indifference and disobedience that fail to draw near to God. Where there is repentance, God's work is with us.
2. It is because we must escape from God's wrath.
3. It is because we must sow good seeds and reap God's blessings.
In order to reap good fruit, we must plow the old ground and sow the best seeds. If we become a field of good hearts through repentance, we must sow the seeds of righteousness in that field. Jesus spoke of the seeds sown on the four kinds of soil. Seeds that fall on the roadside are eaten by birds. A seed sown on a rocky ground will not take root. A field with thorns is covered with thorns and cannot grow. However, seeds sown on good soil yield 30, 60, and 100 folds of fruit.
There is a time for everything. Now is the time to seek Jehovah. Now is the time to pray. Just as a farmer plows the ground in preparation for spring, we must plow the old ground in our hearts. It takes hard work when cultivating. We need repentance to dig up, turn over, and cultivate We must sow the good manure of the Word. You must be drenched in the rain of grace. We must sow the seeds of prayer with tears.
We must be good land. We must long for the grace of the early rain and the latter rain. The seed of the Word must grow and bear fruit. To do this, you must be filled with the Holy Spirit. We must be awake in prayer. It is a blessing to realize that I am a dead land. Pray for the fallen land before God.