Parable Devotion / Hosea 10:12

Break up your fallowed groud; for it is time to seek the LORD

Hosea 10:12 “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.”

So we’re gonna talk a lot about this verse in hosea at camp over the next few days , and naturally you might go a want to read the rest of the book of Hosea…

…Here’s awht you need to know really quickly because like a lot of the book in the Old Testament Hosea can be kinda hard and weird to read.

Who was Hosea? Hosea is one of the Minor Prophets in the Old testament who’s name means “Yahweh has rescued”

Living in the 8th century BC. Under God’s command he marries Gromer (a questionable woman who ends up cheating on him) who though the pain of adultery and unfaithfulness finds Hosea chosing to repair their marriage and relationship and returning to love his wife again despite her continuous adultery throughout their marriage. This serves as an alogory / story about Israel’s unfaithfulness and shakey relationship towards God.

Chapters 1-3 are about Hosea’s marriage to his wife and the goings on there , and then the rest of the book, 4-14 full of Hosea dissing Israel , threasts against Israel for their actions. Worst of these being:

1. Murder and bloodshed.

2. Sexual peverseness.

3. Theft and continuous stealing.

4. Their love for idols and their abandoning of God.

however despite all of this the book is also full of of coming promises , encouragements and ultimately ending with the hope of forgiveness by God and for reconciliation from Israel to God.

Q - So after all of that , what are we meant to do with this story..? What does any of that have to do with anything? What do you think the book is trying to get across?

The story consists of using Hosea’s story as an allegory for Israel’s relationship to God. That His own people were being adulteress and unfaithful in their own relationship. But as Hosea restored His relationship with Gromer , God promises and to restore the torn relationship between His people and Himself.

Great , we know what the book was trying to say , that Israel was cheating of God , treating Him like He was nothing , and yet somehow God doesnt leave them but instead waits out their stupidity and carelessness and promises that if they turn back to Him He will restore them.

But what does that mean for for us? Cause we are not 8th century Israel.

Who is Hosea? Who is Gromer? What’s the promise? Did God bring restoration? How did He bring restoration?

1. Has our relationship with God ever maybe looked like Israel’s relationship with God? Yeah… it has and kinda still can...

2. How have and how do we kinda ‘cheat’ on God?

3. Even just from Hosea but also the rest of the bible , what’s God’s reaction to our unfaithfulness? Does He walk away? No

4. Does anyone know what/who the ‘promised restoration’ was? Did He bring restoration? How did he bring restoration?

5. Can anyone think of a time where we saw Jesus react to someones unfaithfulness? Or adultery?

John 8:1–11 “but Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. Early in the morning he came again to the temple. All the people came to him, and he sat down and taught them. The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery, and placing her in the midst they said to him, “Teacher, this woman has been caught in the act of adultery. Now in the Law, Moses commanded us to stone such women. So what do you say?” This they said to test him, that they might have some charge to bring against him. Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. And as they continued to ask him, he stood up and said to them, “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.” And once more he bent down and wrote on the ground. But when they heard it, they went away one by one, beginning with the older ones, and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him. Jesus stood up and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more.”

John 3:17 “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.”

What was Jesus’ reaction? He didn’t walk away or turn His back , He forgave her , and He charged her to ‘go and sin no more.’

So what does it mean to “Sow for yourselves righteousness” , to “break up your fallow ground”…?

Fallowed Groud means Uncultivated fields. Unready to take seed , unready to reap harvest.

Our hearts can too easily become fallowed...hardened. We shut ourselves off from the world , and often God. We stop cultivating our hearts , we stop turning the soil allowing fresh soil to come to the top.

Fields become fallowed because the soil becomes compacted , from being still for too long or from being continually stepped and trod on. The world never stops pushing us down. It doesnt take long to look around you and feel the pressures , from friends , school , your parents , yourself. It feels like our hearts just keep getting trampled on.

So how can we cultivate our hearts?

1. His Word 2. His Spirit 3. Prayer 4. His People 5. Worship and Praises

All these things help churn our hearts and keeps it fresh , softening it so that it is ready to be sown in to. Break up your fallowed ground; prepare for the harvest

“Sow for yourselves righteousness” - 2 Corinthians 5:21 “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

‘righteous’ means to be made just, correct, and innocent. Christ Jesus took our sins on the cross and became sin so that we could be made righteous throught Him.

Make Jesus your everything , break up your hardened heart and sow into it Jesus and His words , and His Spirit. “…for it is the time to seek the Lord, that he may come and rain righteousness upon you.” Hosea 10:12

Conversion is not the smooth, easygoing process some men seem to think it otherwise man’s heart would never have been compared to fallow ground and God’s Word to a plough.

John Bunyan

Lets pray.