Thought for the Day 09/02/21 - Weepy sowing

AUDIO

Last Spring we decided we needed to re-seed a field we'd never done before, because the grass there was really fading, not making good use of the space and we needed more grass to keep the cattle fed through the winter.

Now, you can't just DO that ... you have to get permission from the Welsh Government, it sends people out (I think about five of them came), they spend all day walking around putting plastic posts in the ground and ... doing 'ecology'. 

And while they're at their job, you are hoping and sweating just a bit and wondering what they will find. You can't help sweating over what they will stop you doing next and what not being able to farm effectively might cost you.

It can be stressful because it's all out of your control.

And then when you (hopefully) get the permission, there's the cost of the seed, the cost of the ground preparation, the cost of the fertiliser application, the cost of the tractor hours to sow the seed and roll it in ... and then you WAIT.

With sowing seed, MANY factors out of your control.

With our field last spring we bought and sowed seed (check this video here) and then encountered a drought.

It wasn't just the heat that made us sweat, I can tell you! 

The money that would have bought in winter feed, had been spent preparing to grow three years worth of winter feed of our own.

But would we see a return  for our investment ... and what if our re-seed didn't give us any winter feed?! 

That dry weather was a troubling time.

But it wasn't half so troubling as the time being had by the people pictured in our Thought for the Day verse today:

Just picture people who have taken the grain that they could have needed to feed their family through the winter, entrusting that precious grain to the ground knowing that if it failed their wives and families were FINISHED.

It's like that in many parts of our world today.

Sowing can be a fearful act of faith, but the sustainability of your life could totally depend on it.

Borowski says about this passage: “

The dependence on rain for watering plants, 

the uncertainty of the quantity and timing of the rains, and 

the possibility of crop failure due to pests and diseases 

appear to have kept the farmer in a gloomy mood during sowing” 

(Agriculture in Iron Age Israel, 54). 

Perhaps the people were experiencing a literal drought, the effects of which cause them to lament their plight as they plant their seed in hopes that the rain would come. 

However, most likely the language is metaphorical, tapping into a mental image a farming culture could identify with. 

Like a farmer sowing his seed, God's people were enduring hardship as they waited for a new outpouring of divine blessing. 

Tears may be all that you've got for water, and it doesn't seem very adequate irrigation!

Yet in that dry, threatening situation God speaks.

But it isn't quite as simple as that.

God speaks after some other stuff has first taken place.

Already these people were reaching out in their tears towards God:

• They have already reassured their hearts by remembering His faithfulness back in their past:

"When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion,

    we were like those who dreamed.
2 Our mouths were filled with laughter,
    our tongues with songs of joy.
Then it was said among the nations,
    ‘The Lord has done great things for them.’
3 The Lord has done great things for us,
    and we are filled with joy."

                                                 Psalm 126:1-3

• They have already reached out to God in prayer, remembering He is a wonder-working God

It's tremendous for them when their God speaks. But He speaks after they take their trouble to their God .

And they show that they know that He behaves towards them like this, as they pour out their troubles to their God in their prayers:

"Restore our fortunes, Lord,
    like streams in the Negev."

                                               Psalm 126:4

The Negev is a pretty dry desert, but they found the assurance of faith built on previous experience, that even the Negev wasn't too dry for their God!

The point

This verse offers a word of strong reassurance to a people who are much more than sweating, because their situation is far worse than ours was last Spring. Tears are more serious than sweat, right?!

When they turn to their God in tears but in faith, God's people can be confident that a time of restoration will come and relieve their anxiety, just as the harvest brings relief and joy to the farmer.

The Takeaway

The God Who can make water flow in the Negev has done similarly challenging things in the past.

And God hears and answers the prayers of His weepers, when they crack on with their job of sowing - trusting and pouring out their hearts towards Him.