This week we start worship with:
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.
Most reading this have never been in a field or been on a tractor or played in the hay barn. I am so blessed to have.
Farms have cycles. Chickens lay eggs daily. Lambs calve yearly. Fields are allowed to remain “fallow” (nîr) for a year within a cycle of crops. This allows the fields to recover from the hard work of growing crops and to break the cycles of weeds and pests.
They utter mere words;
with empty oaths they make covenants;
so judgment springs up like poisonous weeds
in the furrows of the field
These verses however speak of fields that have fallen out of that cycle, where weeds are allowed to persist. The core issue is self:
For now they will say:“We have no king,for we do not fear the Lord;and a king—what could he do for us?”
Both plowing and leaving it fallow are both a demonstration of faith.
In this chapter, the prophet asks that one move from "empty oaths" to "righteousness" in our dealings with others. It is indeed a leap of faith to respond in love to the unloving, in truth to the lying, and with care for the uncaring.
Likewise it demonstrates faith to leave our toxic relationships fallow and to re-engage after toxic words have stopped re-seeding.
What happens when we do? The rain comes.
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