Hosea writes in Hosea 10:13, “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.” Hosea calls for God’s unfaithful people, Israel, to “break up the fallow ground” in their hearts. Jeremiah 4:3 includes the very same exhortation. We all have our share of fallow ground. It must be broken up. When that’s done, then we will be able to “Sow for yourselves righteousness.” As we sow righteousness, we will then “reap steadfast love” (See Hosea 10:12). Guzik explains, “Break up your fallow ground: God builds on the picture of sowing and reaping by telling Israel to break up your fallow ground—ground that hasn’t been plowed for more than a year. It is ground that is hard and stubborn, resistant to the seed. It does little good to sow seed on fallow ground; it must be broken up first.”[1]
Fallow ground is not the same as “barren” ground. The barren ground grows nothing. Fallow ground will always grow something. “The neglected garden is not a barren desert; it is a wilderness. The neglected soul will not be merely deficient of good; it will bear a crop of evil. The heart cannot endure a void. If it is not filled with pure thoughts, it will indulge in unholy imaginations; if it has no object of worthy love, its affections will descend and twine about some debased object; if it is not active in doing good, it will be diligent in doing harm. In proportion to the gifts and powers of the soul will be the evil that will come out of it when neglected; the more fertile the soil, the more abundant the crop of weeds.”[2]
Scripture often uses agricultural language when it illustrates the character of our hearts. Before seed can be sowed or harvest reaped, the ground must be prepared. Weeds must be removed. Jesus told the parable of the four soils and interpreted it for us as representing hard, fallow hearts, rocky hearts, weedy hearts, and finally, good soil hearts. If the crop is bad, the farmer does not try to fix the plants, vines, trees, or sprouts. He focuses on the soil. You have to get to the heart of the problem. Solomon pleads with his son, “Above all else, guard your heart.” It’s so easy to let our hearts become callous and hard-packed. Hosea calls us to break our own hearts. Make it soft! Make it receptive to God’s work. Remove the rocks, pull the weeds, plant the good seeds of God’s Word, fertilize it, water it, watch over it carefully, and watch God bring true growth as we experience a harvest of His steadfast love.
[1] Guzik, David. 2000. Hosea. David Guzik’s Commentaries on the Bible. Santa Barbara, CA: David Guzik.
[2] Spence-Jones, H. D. M., ed. 1909. Jeremiah. Vol. 1. The Pulpit Commentary. London; New York: Funk & Wagnalls Company.