Fallow Ground

Hosea 10:12b: "Break up your fallow ground."

Jeremiah 4:3b: "Break up your fallow ground."

In the Scriptures, when God repeats a command, it is very important. In the instance of our texts, two prophets of God at two different times in Israel's history gave the command, "Break up your fallow ground." The first time was when Hosea was given the message before the Assyrians invaded Israel and took the Northern tribes captive in 722 B.C. The Prophet was telling the ten tribes to repent of their sin and return to God or He would send the Assyrians to invade their land. About 130 years later, He said he same thing to the Kingdom of Judah through the Prophet Jeremiah when the Southern kingdom turned away from God to worship idols. God warned them He would send Babylon to invade them. Neither would return to God, so in both cases, The Lord followed through with His threat.

Today we also have a responsibility to "break up our fallow ground." Maybe your heart is as hard as the ground during a Michigan winter, and you need God's springtime to soften it. Turning to Him in repentance and faith is the only way to achieve this. Fallow ground is simply ground so hard, nothing can grow in it. What we are talking about is breaking up the hard ground in your heart so God can save you, or if you are already saved, grow more of the fruit of the Holy Spirit in your heart and life. Now we will turn to Hosea 10: 9-15 and Jeremiah 4:1-4 and examine this matter of breaking up your fallow ground.


I. First, turn to Hosea 10:9-15.

A. The ground is fallow, so the Lord's kindness is abused by ungrateful people.

Verses 9-11a say, "O Israel, thou hast sinned since the day of Gibea: there they stood: the battle in Gibea against the children of iniquity did not overtake them. It is my desire that I should chastise them; and the people shall be gathered against them, when they shall bind themselves in their two farrows. And Ephraim is as an heifer that is taught, and loveth to tread out the corn."

In Judges 19 and 20, the tribe of Benjamin sinned in tolerating the same sin the Sodomites committed. In 19:22, wicked men surrounded a man's house and demanded that the owner, "Bring forth the man that came into thine house, that we may know him." I don't believe I need to say in what sense these evil men wanted to "know" the house guest. It is of the nature of what the apostle Paul wrote about in Ephesians 5: 11 and 12: "And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them. For it is a shame even to speak of those things which are done of them in secret."

In Judges 20: 11-13, we read how the other tribes reacted to the sin: "So the men of Israel were gathered against he city, knit together as one man. And the tribes sent men through all the tribe of Benjamin, saying, What wickedness is this that is done among you? Now therefore deliver us the men, the children of Belial, which are in Gibea, that we may put them to death, and put away evil from Israel." In other words, the other tribes were not going to look the other way at this kind of gross sin. They wanted to "put away evil" from the nation.

In verse 14, we have Benjamin's response: "But the children of Benjamin would not hearken to the voice of their brethren the children of Israel: But the children of Benjamin gathered themselves together out of the unto Gibea, to go and do battle against the children of Israel."The tribe of Benjamin not only tolerated Gibea's sin, but defended it! They were willing to go to war to defend sinners against a righteous cause.

In Hosea's time, Israel was doing what Benjamin did in Gibea. Their tolerance of sin was in direct defiance of the Word of God. So His desire to chastise the nation was not because He hated them. He hated their sin. He wanted them to clean up their act. As Proverbs 14:34 says, "Righteousness exalteth a nation; but sin is a reproach to any people." He was going to chastise them to get them to give up their self-destructive ways.

They were still free. There was no yoke around Israel's neck. There was still time to turn things around. God was still acting in grace,sending Hosea the prophet to warn them. The nature of the warning was, "If you don't break up the fallow ground of your hearts, I will send the nation of Assyria to take you, and you will be their slaves."

B. The ground is fallow, so the people must reap what they sowed.

Verses 11b and 13-15 say, "But I passed over upon her fair neck...Ye have plowed wickedness, ye have reaped iniquity; ye have eaten the fruit of lies: because thou didst trust in thy way, in the multitude of thy mighty men. Therefore shall a tumult arise among thy people, and all thy fortresses shall be spoiled, as Shalmaan spoiled Betharbal in the day of battle: the mother was dashed in pieces upon her children. So shall Bethel do unto you because of your great wickedness: in a morning shall the king of Israel utterly be cut off."

One question: How can a nation or an individual plow wickedness and expect to have decency as a crop? That would be like plowing wheat into the ground and expecting a harvest of corn! That is not going to happen. The more a nation's might is trusted instead of God, the more people will believe lies. It happened in Israel. It is happening in America today. Freedom to serve God is a good thing. Abuse of the freedom God gives to serve your own selfish agenda is not a good thing, but an evil. In God's economy, there is no freedom to sin, no matter what the United States Supreme court says. God's judgment is the ultimate authority in matters of morality. If you want the crop of decency, you must sow decency.

C. The ground is fallow, so the people must break it up and repent.

Verse 12 is the crux of the matter: Sow to yourselves in righteousness, reap in mercy; break up your fallow ground: for it is time to seek the Lord, till he come and rain righteousness upon you. God says to Israel, "Break up your fallow ground." He says to you and me, "Break up your fallow ground." The might of nations could end in a day, and no one but God knows what will happen from one day to the next. America is not guaranteed survival even though it is the most powerful nation in the world, and unless it once again breaks up its fallow ground and returns to the godly principles on which it was founded, there is no Biblical reason to assume that God will continue to bless our nation. Once again, I repeat Proverbs 14:34: "Righteousness exalteth a nation: but sin is a reproach to any people."

As it is with nations, so it is with each of us individually. You and I are not guaranteed another day of life on earth, not even another minute. Therefore, repent! Turn away from your sinful ways and turn toward God. Reap goodness and kind deeds instead of violence. Truly put your faith and trust where it belongs- in the Lord Jesus Christ. Seek the Lord and He will be found.


II. Now, turn to Jeremiah 4:1-4.

A. The ground is fallow, so the people must return to the Lord.

Verses 1 and 2 say, "If thou wilt return, O Israel, saith the Lord, return unto me: and if thou wilt put away thine abominations out of thy sight, then thou shalt not remove."

The question to be asked is, "Why does Israel need to return to the Lord?" If we go back into chapters 2 and 3, we will see a whole catalogue of sins and wickedness the nation was involved in. In 2:7 and 8, we read that after God had delivered Israel from slavery in Egypt and placed the people in the land that flowed with milk and honey, they defiled the land and made God's heritage an abomination. They did not conquer the entire land, and after the death of Joshua worshipped the gods of the people they did defeat. In verses 12 and 13, Israel forsook God and went their own way. They wanted to live independently of the Lord, and instead of following Him, and do everything their own way. In chapter 3:1, they were committing spiritual adultery. There is no difference between someone cheating on his or her spouse and that same person worshipping an idol. Judah was, in effect, cheating on God Himself! In verses 6-10, Judah ignores the example of what happened to the other tribes that sinned and continued on their same wicked course. They refused to learn from history and continued to make the same mistakes they had been making for 700 years. In their treacherous and hypocritical way in verse 23, they sought deliverance from their idols. No wonder, in 2:26 and 27, the Lord told them to seek deliverance from the stocks and stones they were worshipping.


B. The ground is fallow, so the people must repent of their sin.

Verses 3-4a teach, "For thus saith the Lord to the men of Judah and Jerusalem, Break up your fallow ground, and sow not among thorns. Circumsise yourselves to the Lord, and take away the foreskins of your heart, ye men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem."

What this basically means is "Give your heart to God." This is clearly the teaching of Romans 2:28 and 29, "For he is not a Jew which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh: But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter, whose praise is not of men, but of God." We see in the Jeremiah passage that the Jews of his day understood that God viewed the hearts of His people as far more important than their bloody foreskins! Sacrifice means nothing to God unless the heart is willing. "Break up your fallow ground" simply means repent of the hardness of your heart and turn to God for salvation or get back into fellowship with Him.

C. The ground is fallow, so the people must repent of their sin - OR ELSE!

In the last part of verse 4, Jeremiah tells the people of Judah and us what will happen if they don't repent of their sin. Here is God's ultimatum: "Lest my fury come forth like fire and burn that none can quench it, because of the evil of your doings."

What this basically meant to the people of Judah was if they didn't repent and return to the God of their fathers, their land would be set on fire by the Babylonians and they would be enslaved. It had already happened to the ten-tribe kingdom off Israel in 722 B. C. because their ground remained fallow, and they were conquered ans enslaved by the Assyrians. In 586 B.C. Judah was burned and enslaved by the Babylonians, thus fulfilling this prophecy. Both nations reaped what they sowed. Israel and Judah saw their lands burn and their people enslaved because they did not seek the Lord and repent.


There is something else here. Unless sinners get their hearts right with God while they are alive on the earth, nothing but judgment and hell await them. The Lord Jesus said in Mark 9:43-48 that the punishment and torment of hell are so severe it would be better to lose a hand, a foot or an eye than to go there: "And if thy right hand offend thee, cut it off: it is better for thee to enter into life maimed, than having two hands to hell, into the fire that is never quenched: Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched. And if thy foot offend thee, cut it off: it is better for thee to enter halt into life, than to have two feet to be cast into hell, into the fire that shall never be quenched: where their worm dieth no, and the fire is not quenched. And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out: it is better for thee to enter into the kingdom of God with one eye than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire: where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched." Hebrews 10:31 says, "It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God."


When Jesus died on the cross, God met His responsibility for your salvation. He laid His life down so you might be saved. Maybe you think you have a heart that has been seared with a hot iron, and it is too hard. It remains your responsibility to repent and turn to God. Trust in Him. He has the power to soften your heart and make you clean. Break up your fallow ground. It does not matter how bad or good you think you are or have been. Unless you repent, you will perish eternally in hell.


Break up your fallow ground and you will be changed. Christian, break up your fallow ground and turn back your life to your Lord. Leave your backsliding behind. Make it thing of the past. Be filled with the Holy Spirit and serve your Lord Who loves you. Those here who do not yet trust in Christ: Listen to me! Repent and turn to God accept your responsibility for your sin and place your trust in Jesus Christ for your salvation. Break up your fallow ground, and and you shall receive a new and eternal life. As Acts 16:31 says, Believe on the lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved." This is your responsibility.


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