"Sow To Yourselves In Righteousness..."

Hos. 10:12

  1. 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.

Commentary

In Jesus' Parable of the Sower (Mark 4), the same good seed was sown on four different kinds of earth, but only one kind bore fruit. The hard ground, rocks, and weeds that kept the seed from growing are like the natural state of our hearts: full of unbelief, lust, and pride. God's Word will never take permanent root in these conditions, no matter how much of it is sown or how strongly we claim to believe it. To see the fruit of the Spirit in our lives, we must start where the farmer starts - by breaking up the fallow ground of our hearts.

The clods of pride will crumble when we humble ourselves before God, confessing our own hardness and apathy and seeking his mercy. The Bible tells us that God is close to those of a broken and contrite heart (Psalm 34:18). He will send his Spirit to remove the rocks of doubt, root out the weeds of lust, and make our once-barren ground into fertile soil.

This process of repentance and cleansing takes place not just once, but continually - whenever the Holy Spirit points out areas where we have allowed sin to take root. If the soil of our hearts remains loose and easily turned by our Creator, we can receive His rain of righteousness to reap a harvest of mercy. (Heb. 6:7.)


All Scripture references from KJV. Commentary ©2012 Hitchcock Family Ministry. Unaltered text may be reproduced freely without financial gain. Original commentary and Scripture song available at http://www.freescripturesongs.org/sow-to-yourselves-in-righteousness.