Break It Up
Jeremiah chapter four gives a prescription for repentance and turning back to God. In the time this book was written, the people of Judah and Jerusalem were in dire straits. Their enemies were bearing down on them. Their future and the future of their nation were grim.
But God was still calling out to them through His prophets. The Father was still admonishing His children to turn back to Him. In verse three, the Almighty says, “Break up your unplowed ground and do not sow among thorns.” This verse gives the first prescription of repentance:
Fallow ground must be worked if a person is to return to the Father.
When one strays from our Creator, his spiritual faculties used for communion with God’s Spirit become unused, unproductive, unplowed ground. The fields of that person’s heart in which the Holy Spirit planted seeds become overgrown with thorns and thistles; they are unkept. The husbandman is no longer doing his job.
So when that person returns to the Father, he has to repair what was neglected and prepare for new planting. The spiritual ground dedicated to God’s Word must be broken up and readied for the seeds of the Spirit to be planted. If this work is not done, it will be as if the person is “sowing among the thorns.” You cannot just throw seed on hard, weed-infested ground and expect it to produce fruit. Open the Word of God, get out the shovel and rake, and get busy with preparing the fields for planting by the Holy Spirit.
The next part of the prescription is in verse four of this same chapter:
Circumcise your hearts.
True repentance comes when a person deals with her innermost parts. Circumcision was a symbol that set the Jews apart from other nations. It was a symbol of sanctification to God. Through Jeremiah’s prophecies, the Almighty instructs His wayward people to be circumcised, not physically, but of the heart. God desires those who return to Him to bear the symbol of purity and righteousness in their heart!
With true repentance will be the preparation of the fallow ground in one’s life and a sanctification of one’s heart to God. Once these steps are taken, the seed planted by the Holy Spirit will produce a rich harvest!
