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When a farmer ploughs for planting, does he plough continually? Does he keep on breaking up and working the soil? When he has levelled the surface, does he not sow caraway and scatter cumin? Does he not plant wheat in its place, barley in its plot, and spelt in its field? His God instructs him and teaches him the right way.
Whenever we face a major disruption to our lives and ministries, we often ask ourselves what God might be intending to do through it.
I am sure that many of you have been asking yourselves that question. We have seen the COVID-19 virus spread throughout the world, infecting hundreds of thousands and disrupting our day-to-day lives severely. What is God doing through all this?
How is this an answer to our prayer, “Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as in heaven”?
Ploughing does not continue forever.
A few days ago, I was reading a short parable in chapter 28 of the book of Isaiah.
“When a farmer ploughs for planting, does he plough continually? Does he keep on breaking up and working the soil? When he has levelled the surface, does he not sow caraway and scatter cumin? Does he not plant wheat in its place, barley in its plot, and spelt in its field? His God instructs him and teaches him the right way.” (Isaiah 28:24-26.)
Through the prophet Isaiah, the Lord is telling the people to recognise a fundamental principle that can be seen in the work of any farmer.
Ploughing does not continue forever. It has a well-defined purpose and definite end-point.
I grew up on a farm.
In Saskatchewan, we almost never use ploughs but instead till the soil with cultivators. In spring, when the fields were sufficiently dry, my father would send me out with a tractor and cultivator to start working the fields in preparation for seeding.
We needed to break up the crusty hardpan after winter so that water, air and nutrients could penetrate the soil. We wanted to turn under the stubble from the previous harvest so that it would decompose faster and provide a good, soft seedbed.
Weeds had to be encouraged to sprout so that they could be killed with the next pass of the farm machinery.
Tilling the soil is pretty disruptive!
Similarly, Isaiah was telling the people about a huge disruption that was going to overturn all that was normal.
In Isaiah 28, he refers to it as “the destruction decreed against the whole land” (Isaiah 28:22). But these hard times were God’s way of preparing them for what He wanted to do in them and through them.
“I will turn my hand against you; I will thoroughly purge away your dross and remove all your impurities.” (Isaiah 1:25)
I believe that what is happening in our world today is God’s way of ploughing.
We see a lot of disruption and hear lots of news about death and disease these days with COVID-19 spreading so rapidly.
I believe that this can be a time when people begin to distrust those things in which they have found security in the past, and begin seeking that which will carry them through this unprecedented crisis.
When hearts are hardened, God knows how to disrupt lives. I believe this disruption can serve to encourage people to stop relying on their former securities, question their old assumptions and reassess their priorities.
This can be a time when God prepares the hearts of people for the gospel. Already, we are hearing early stories of people coming to faith through this crisis. I trust that there will be many more.
“When a farmer ploughs for planting, does he plough continually? Does he keep on breaking up and working the soil?” (Isaiah 28:24)
Let’s return to what happened on the farm in spring when I was growing up.
This process of cultivating all our fields could take a few weeks, but it had a clear purpose and a definite end-point. We were preparing the soil for seeding and it ended when seeding was about to begin.
While I was cultivating, Dad would prepare and clean the seed, purchase fertiliser, clean and repair the seed drill and fill it with seed and fertiliser.
When he was ready to start seeding a field, cultivating stopped on that field.
Once the field is seeded, we might run over it with a set of harrows, but never with a cultivator. The seed had been placed at the right depth and now we needed to leave it alone to germinate and grow.
Similarly, Isaiah makes it clear that joy, salvation and fruitfulness will take the place of destruction, death and sorrow. The theme of future joy, often accompanied by singing, resonates throughout the book of Isaiah.
God’s discipline would not go on indefinitely. As the farmer does not continue ploughing forever, in the same way, God does not let a disruption go on forever.
There comes a time when sowing begins, which eventually leads to harvesting.
As I have been meditating on these verses in Isaiah during these past days, I am convinced that there will come a time during this COVID-19 crisis when there will be an opportunity for sowing the Word of God – the Gospel of Good News that Jesus has come to this broken world as King and Saviour.
The Lord has a wonderful plan (Isaiah 28:29), a plan which we do not yet see.
This conviction has impacted my prayer life as well. Daily, I pray the prayer request of Matthew 9:37-38: “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.”
But these days, I have been praying not just for harvesters. I am praying that God would send out sowers at the right time to the fields that He has prepared.
This article was first published on Send U and is republished with permission.
