Hosea 10
v.1
Israel was a spreading vine; he brought forth fruit from himself. As his fruit increased, he built more altars; as his land prospered, he adorned his sacred stones.
v.4
They make many promises, take false oaths and make agreements; therefore lawsuits spring up like poisonous weeds in a plowed field.
Shallow planting actually helps spread these plants, since only the stalks are cut while their deep roots lie untouched (see Job 31:40).
We become what we tolerate.
jj from Rise and Fall of Mars Hill
v.12
Sow with a view to righteousness, reap in accordance with lovingkindness; break up your fallow ground, indeed, it is time to seek Yahweh until He comes and rains righteousness on you.
The Church breaks up her own fallow ground, when she stirs up anew the decaying piety of her own members; she breaks up fallow ground, when, by preaching the Gospel of Christ, she brings new people into His fold. And for us too, one sowing sufficeth not. It must be no surface-sowing. And “the soil of our hearts must ever be anew cleansed; for no one in this mortal life is so perfect, in piety, that noxious desires will not spring up again in the heart, us tares in the well-tilled field.”
Fallow ground surfaces when soil is no longer for the season and a turning is needed to reveal the soil beneath that is primed for the next season.
jj from Rustin Carlson at 2022 CLS during communion
v.13
But you have planted wickedness, you have reaped evil, you have eaten the fruit of deception. Because you have depended on your strength and on your many warriors,
So long as a man mistrusts his ways of sin, there is hope of his conversion amid any depths of sin. When “he trusts in his ways,” all entrance is closed against the grace of God.