Plow, Plant, Cultivate, & Wait.

You can open up your Bibles today. We are going to be in Isaiah 28 through 30. We're jumping around quite a bit, but if you have your Bibles, some of it will be on the screen. We're going to start today in Isaiah chapter 28, starting in verse 23.

Listen and hear my voice. Pay attention and hear what I say. When a farmer plows for planting, does he plow continually? Does he keep on breaking up and working the soil? When he has leveled 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. Caraway is not threshed with a sledge, nor is a cartwheel rolled over cumin. Caraway is beaten out with a rod, and cumin with a stick. Grain must be ground to make bread, so one does not go on threshing it forever. The wheels of a threshing cart may be rolled over it, but one does not use horses to grind grain. All this also comes from the Lord Almighty, whose plan is wonderful, whose wisdom is magnificent.

Isaiah 28:23-29

Now we're going to switch to chapter 30, also verse 23. We're going to read here another image from Isaiah.

He will also send you rain for the seed you sow in the ground, and the food that comes from the land will be rich and plentiful. In that day your cattle will graze in broad meadows. The oxen and donkeys that work the soil will eat fodder and mash, spread out with fork and shovel. In the day of great slaughter, when the towers fall, streams of water will flow on every high mountain and every lofty hill. The moon will shine like the sun, and the sunlight will be seven times brighter, like the light of seven full days, when the Lord binds up the bruises of his people and heals the wounds he inflicted.

Isaiah 30:23-26

Let's pray again today. God, we thank you so much for your word that is alive, that is active. God, we thank you for all the different ways that you brought us into this room today. God, we thank you for your presence that is here, for your Holy Spirit that continues to teach us through your word. So God, I pray today that you would speak so clearly. And I invite all of you right now, in your own way, would you just say, Holy Spirit, come, I'm listening. As you said in Isaiah, hear me. God, we want to hear you today. We want to listen and we want to obey. So we open up our hearts. We open up this space. And would you speak through your text. In your precious name we pray. Amen.

We are the farmers

Okay, so we are continuing in our series in Isaiah, and today we are talking about how do we grow our dependence. Now last week we talked about this image of God as the gardener. God is the gardener. And I'm just going to name it, Isaiah has all sorts of images and visions going on here, so don't blame me for going back and forth. It's Isaiah's fault. All his fault, because there's so many different things.

So we're focusing now on the farming aspect of it. Last week we talked about God as the gardener, the one tending to the soil of our hearts as we grow. But today we're switching, looking at these visions Isaiah is talking about in chapter 28 and in 30, where now God's not the farmer, we are the farmers. And God is the one controlling the environment and the weather. Can you turn to your neighbor today and say, you are a farmer today? Now turn to someone else and say, you're a farmer today. We are farmers. Welcome to Wisconsin.

I'm not from Wisconsin. I didn't grow up here, and to be honest, the only farmer I knew was Old MacDonald before I moved here. Then you come and everybody's a farmer, their grandpa's a farmer, so everyone's a farmer, and I didn't know anything about farms except for what the Bible says. So if all the farming stuff doesn't quite make sense, I'm doing my best here. This is not natural to me, but here we go. We're going to be farmers today, talking about what it looks like for us to surrender and grow our dependence on God.

So our so-what today is, our life flourishes through dependence on God. Now what do we do with that? We have to learn to plant. We have to learn to plow, to prepare our hearts, to cultivate the things God is growing in us. So much of that is out of our control. This is where things get hard for us as followers of Jesus, because we love and crave control, because we know that when we're not in control, we don't know what's coming next. All the fear, all the anxiety starts to set in. So what does it look like for us to surrender and let go of the illusion of control? Even today, there are so many different things we can confuse for being in control.

We have our smart watches that can tell us about our heart rate and our sleep patterns and all these things. We have our aura rings that can track all of this stuff, but it can't actually make you healthy and heal your body. It can just tell you about what's happening in your body. In the same way, apparently the weatherman can predict twenty inches of snow, and hello, where are we? We can predict things. We can even plan for things. This weekend I canceled plans for things. Well, I didn't. One of my friends was too lazy to drive because of the snow.

They were supposed to spend the weekend here. So you can plan and prepare and say, I'm going to be cautious because of the snow, but we can't make it snow. We can't control the weather. Only God can do those things. And I'm still waiting, but now it looks like something's happening out there. So we shall see, but we can only do so much. So what does it look like for us to surrender that and live in this idea that we truly are dependent on God?

So Isaiah is using this illustration of farmers, saying that a farmer can wake up early every single day, a farmer can check the soil, a farmer can plow the soil, a farmer can plant the seeds, but the farmer cannot make it rain. Only God can do that. He's speaking to a people where they all farmed, that's how you had food. So agriculture, this image was so common to them. I had to do a little digging to understand some of the things he's talking about, but they all knew exactly what he was talking about. And they had forgotten how to live dependent on God. They were entrapped in this illusion of control.

Historically, I want to remind us where we're picking up here in Isaiah as we continue this series for Lent. He's speaking to the kingdom, to Israel, to the kingdom of Judah, around 740 to 700 BC. They're in the middle of political crisis. And when I think of all the times we see things happening in our own country, around the world, it's important for us to remember, sometimes in the best and the hardest, most painful ways, that we're not the first to go through this, that other people have walked through crisis and through times of asking, God, where are you, what are you doing, what's our invitation. So the Assyrian empire is rapidly expanding, and the northern kingdom of Israel had already been conquered in 722 BC. And they're in the midst of all these things happening. Instead of turning to God, the control they were seeking was turning to Egypt. Egypt at the time was a strong military power, and they're looking to Egypt.

The cornerstone

We even see in chapter 30, verse one, woe to the obstinate children who carry out plans that are not mine. He's speaking against Egypt, saying Egypt was carrying out plans that were not of the Lord. If you're keeping up with our Lent reading plan, in 28, 29, and 30, in between the images we're talking about today, there's a lot of talk about why are you turning to Egypt, why do you keep going there looking for that type of control. They were trusting human power more than they were trusting God.

Then we have this piece I want to touch on. Isaiah 28:16 has this reference to the cornerstone, which, as we look through Isaiah, is one of many prophecies, visions, and dreams pointing to everything Jesus came to be and fulfilled. Many translations use the word cornerstone here.

See, I lay a stone in Zion, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone for a sure foundation. The one who relies on it will never be stricken with panic. I will make justice the measuring line and righteousness the plumb line. Hail will sweep away your refuge, the lie, and water will overflow your hiding place. Your covenant with death will be annulled. Your agreement with the realm of the dead will not stand. When the overwhelming scourge sweeps by, you will be beaten down by it. As often as it comes, it will carry you away. Morning after morning, by day and by night, it will sweep through.

Isaiah 28:16-19

Can you imagine? No panic when you rely on the cornerstone. In ancient Israel, the cornerstone would have been the first stone laid, to support the structure so everything else could come around and have alignment based on the cornerstone. So the cornerstone determined the direction. It also determined the stability of whatever structure was going to be built. We see this in the New Testament, several times, where Jesus comes and fulfills these prophecies of being the cornerstone.

Built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone.

Ephesians 2:20

Jesus is the stone you builders rejected, which has become the cornerstone.

Acts 4:11

Jesus continues in the New Testament, walking this out as the cornerstone, the one who brings that alignment, the one who helps the structure be stable, which we talked about, that stability, last week. And we see that Judah was trusting Egypt for their stability. In the midst of all these images, Isaiah is popping in to say, you need a cornerstone, you need stability, and that's something only God, and then we see Jesus fulfill, can do. So God was promising something to them far greater than the trust they placed in Egypt.

Learning to plant, not just plow

So the question becomes, how do we do this? How do we depend, how do we trust Jesus as our chief cornerstone? How do we trust that God is going to prepare and take care of the environment and send the rain as we continue to plow and to plant? And how do we trust him to produce in the process? I love that several times in Isaiah he asks, will you listen, will you pay attention. I sense this reminder for us today, as we lean into this text, that sometimes you read the Old Testament, and Isaiah especially, and you read one verse and think, what is happening, God, what are you saying? I want to encourage us today to lean in, to listen, and to keep saying, God, what are you speaking? I'm listening.

Isaiah 28 asks this question: does a farmer plow forever? Of course not. I love that all throughout scripture we see God so interactive with us, even asking those questions, like, let's think about this, does a plower, does a farmer plow forever? Now, as springtime starts to come, my yard could definitely use some plowing and a whole lot of other stuff right now. My neighbor the other day, he was coming back from something, and he's always, in the best way, in my business. I love it. He's always peeking over the fence. I was coming back from a run, and I said, good morning, Chuck. He said, let me peek in there, how's your yard doing? I said, don't look yet, it's not good. And I asked, how's your yard doing, Chuck? He said, not good, it's time to clear things out.

It's that time of year where we're clearing things out. But you don't just clear and clear and clear, and then all of a sudden you have all this fruit and these flowers and this garden that's produced. You also have to plant. You don't just plow. You don't just prepare the soil. You have to plant.

So let's talk about the ancient farmers for a second. This is what my theology degree got me, studying ancient farming. Farmers in ancient Israel used these wooden plows pulled by oxen. The soil in Israel would have been extremely hard during the dry season. So if they were without rain, waiting for the water to come, the soil would get hard, much like our soil here. So this is where the plowing came in, but there would come a point where they had to stop, because if they plowed too much, it would become muddy whenever the water did come. So there were clear instructions for how they would plow. I find all of these details so interesting, so intentional of God, even in how he's giving these instructions. And then it comes time, after clearing it all out, to plant the seeds.

I want to talk about the different plants mentioned here, and their significance. We're starting with cumin, a delicate spice. There's wheat, and other things we still use today, so we can relate to some of it. But these would have all been very common plants that people grew. When they're reading this and hearing this vision from Isaiah, they all got it. We read it today and can just skim over it, thinking, cool, there were some plants. But every single type of plant, Isaiah was giving a different instruction for how to care for it. Cumin was a delicacy, so instead of planting it like the other plants, you'd have to care for it in a very delicate, gentle way. What I love is that we continue to see throughout this that different crops require different types of care. When I look around the room and think of all of us and our stories, and how we come into this space today, what a beautiful reminder that God sees each of us in the season we're in. Some of us feel like we're flowing and growing and flourishing, and others are coming into this space feeling dry, needing someone to handle us with a little more delicacy and care. God sees that. He sees us where we're at and cares for us in such deep and intentional ways.

I often recognize, as I read scripture and share from it, that it's filtered through my own lens on how I hear and experience God, which is why I love that we have other people who teach and lead within our church. For some of you, you connect to God the same way I do. For others, you hear half of what I share and think, that's great, but God speaks to me through that text in a completely different way. And that's the beauty of all of us being made in the image of God. It doesn't mean God isn't the same, but we're all different, representing different pieces of his heart and image. This is where we have to flee from comparison, because just because somebody else hears from God in one way doesn't mean we will too. It might look completely different for us, but God is intentional to care for us in the way he knows we need.

Then we get to the wheat, the primary grain. What do we make with wheat? Bread. We still love bread today, even when some of us go gluten-free and back again. Bread was so significant. For Lent, we're reading not only through Isaiah but through the Gospel of Mark as well, leading up to Easter. In Mark chapter six we read about Jesus multiplying the bread and feeding the thousands. In the first feeding of the five thousand, there were twelve baskets left over, representing the twelve tribes of Israel, and echoing the miracle of Jesus feeding the Israelites day by day when the manna came from heaven in Exodus. So it's pointing to Israel at that time: you are my promised people, these twelve tribes, and I'm going to provide for you in abundance, with the twelve disciples carrying it out.

But here's what's interesting: at the feeding of the four thousand, there were seven baskets left over. That took place in the region of Decapolis, a Gentile region. So this signifies that God is moving from saying, yes, I'm going to provide for Israel, my chosen people, to saying, I'm going to provide for all people. In Isaiah, he mentions barley, an ordinary kind of food, known as what those who had less would rely on. So when Jesus enters the region where it would have been mostly Jewish people and feeds the five thousand, and then enters Decapolis and feeds the four thousand, he's signifying that God's provision in Christ is not limited to a select few, but is for all people, all nations, all tribes, all tongues. He is coming to fulfill and be the bread of life, the source of all things. Jesus is the bread of life, the fulfillment of this. And Isaiah is pointing us right there. The feeding of the five thousand echoes God providing for Israel day by day, and the feeding of the four thousand shows that provision extending far beyond, to reach all the nations. Jesus, the bread of life, is sustaining all of us.

Then we get to the spelt, a symbol of resilience, a hardy crop that can stand against any kind of storm. I have several things in my garden where I think, this will never grow no matter what I do, I'll prepare the soil in the best possible way and it just won't grow. And then there are other things that pop up and you think, can you stop growing, you are so strong, the rain should have knocked you down and you're still standing. That's spelt. Spelt was resilient. Spelt could withstand everything. And I think of how, because of the Holy Spirit, we are empowered to withstand all the storms that come our way.

Isaiah 28:26 asks, how do you know what to do? God instructs him and teaches him the right way. Because Jesus left with us his Holy Spirit, we can rely on the Spirit to instruct us day by day, asking, how are we to care for these things, God, what is your intention, how are you caring for me in this moment, what's going on in my heart, what does this look like.

He will also send you rain for the seed you sow in the ground, and the food that comes from the land will be rich and plentiful. He will send the rain. As we prepare, as we plow, as we plant, God sends the rain in his time. But that preparation can be a little exhausting. I want to talk about the threshing sledge for a moment. Farmers used this heavy board, tilted on the ground, pushed through to thresh, pulled by oxen, to harvest the grain and the kernels from the husks. But as I mentioned with the spices, those crops couldn't handle this method. You cannot use the same method for every crop. Most crops, this board, with all its sharp, heavy edges, was what you'd use. But certain things required this gentle, intentional care. Every crop was different. The good thing was that God was there to give the instructions for how to plow and how to prepare.

I want to remind us today that for each of us, God is caring for us in intentional ways. And as followers of Jesus, we have that same invitation to care for each other, the body of Christ, the people around us, in that same intentional way. There are some people in your life who will just tell you how it is. In college, one of my best friends and roommates would be the one I'd come out with an outfit, feeling so good, and she'd say, what are you wearing, that's ugly, that doesn't match. I'd think, well, that was rude. I'd love to say I could always handle it, but there were times I could barely handle anything, if you even looked at me the wrong way I'd just cry. How do we, as followers of Jesus, give each other that same intentional care? As we talk to one another, as we engage with one another, even if we're just grabbing coffee with someone, how do we take a moment to say, Holy Spirit, is there any way you want me to encourage this person, how do you want to care for them? How do we become people who do that, the way Jesus was so intentional as he brought his disciples around him?

As he provided these miracles, like the manna in Exodus that the people would have known about, when they're now also getting provision through bread, it would have meant something to them. It was intentional. To the Gentiles who had always felt on the outskirts, when Jesus comes to them and says, that miracle I did for the Jewish people over there, I'm doing it for you too, it was intentional. It would have meant something to them. How do we follow Jesus in that same way? We are intentional in the way we love the people around us.

No idol can give us what only God can

So much of it comes back to our holy dependence on God, recognizing that our human strength, our information, no matter how advanced AI and technology get, cannot replace our dependence on God. The people had stopped depending on God. Instead they looked to and trusted Egypt to come and save them. Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help. Isaiah is warning them, and we have that same warning: where are we going for help, where are we looking for help? One of the clearest signs of whether we have idols in our life is this: what are the things in your life you're trying to control the most? That's the clearest sign of an idol. What is the thing you are trying to control, that you are believing and living in this illusion of control over? What relationships, what things within your workplace, where you think, if only I could do this. Those are the signs of the idols, anything we place above God. And Isaiah is reminding them: no military power, no political allegiance, no strategic planning and preparation. Only God. God sends the rain. He sends you rain. And what is produced from it will be plenty.

Hidden growth

I'm going to invite the worship team to come up as we get ready to close today. The last thing I want to talk about and encourage us with is this idea of hidden growth. We talk a lot as a church about what we call a rule of life, which is really saying, instead of having values we just claim, here's what we practice as a church, here's what we're practicing as we become more like Jesus. That word "rule" comes from the Latin word for trellis, things that help support what God is doing in our lives. It's us preparing our hearts. It's us plowing, removing things that hold us back, so we can allow all the things God wants to do to flow through us.

As we talk about spring, my family garden group chat is blowing up this week with similar photos of people's dead grass with a few little buds popping up, and then someone naming, I'm the novice gardener in this group chat, I still wonder how I got here, but it's all these little things blooming. It signifies hidden growth, because some of these are perennials, flowers planted years ago that keep coming up over and over again. In the middle of drought, in the middle of winter when it's cold, it looks like there's nothing there, but someone planted it a long time ago, and every year it keeps growing bigger and bigger. I've been in my house, in my little yard, for three years now, and every year the perennials I planted the first year, it's like, where did this come from. But for a season they disappear, growing stronger and deeper roots beneath the surface, and for a time it looks like nothing's happening, until springtime comes and all the rain, all the water, and the flourishing becomes apparent. And then there are other seeds, annuals, here for a short time and then gone. God is doing a deep, hidden work in all of us. We have to be intentional about the ways we are making space, clearing, and what we're planting.

If you're here today and maybe you're in a season where you don't see flourishing right now, keep planting, keep preparing, and trust the hidden things God is growing in your life. It may look like nothing, but when the season comes, there will be flourishing. All of this points us to Jesus over and over again. A couple weeks ago in our reading in Mark, we read the story of the sower, where the seed falls on the path and some is eaten by birds, some falls on rocky ground, some pops up quickly and withers away because of thorns that choke it out, but then there's the good soil, where the good seeds grow and produce a harvest. Jesus is speaking to people in this parable, and parables weren't original stories Jesus made up on the spot, they were stories people knew, and he brought truth and life to them. So here, the seeds represent the word of God, God always speaking. There are seeds being planted every time we open up the word of God. He's speaking to us. Seeds are being planted.

So our job is to ask, how are we preparing the soil of our hearts? My question for us today is, how are our hearts, how are we plowing, how are we preparing, what seeds are we planting, and how are we learning to wait in the tension. Because that dependence is the hardest part for most of us. When you're going and planting and plowing, this is where the instruction comes in. I think some of us have been plowing and plowing and plowing, removing and removing, and God is saying, stop, you're going to over-plow the soil, it's time to just rest and plant the seeds and be intentional. And I think others of you have been planting seeds, but when we go to the parable of the sower, you're also planting other seeds that are coming up just as quickly, choking out the good things God is trying to do. We say, God, I'm here, I'm listening, I'm doing this, but I'm also giving in to this illusion of control, feeding all of these idols in my life. And he's saying, okay, let's remove those and let the seeds rest.

Sometimes it might be because we get impatient, because we're planting the good seeds and not seeing the fruit of our labor yet. So we get impatient and start trying to plant all of these other things, and God is saying, wait, will you rest, and will you trust that the rain is coming. So I want to invite you to stand today, and I just want us to close in a time of really letting God give us those instructions and caring for our hearts. I don't know everything you're walking through today, but God does, and his Holy Spirit is here in this room, speaking to us.

So if you're here today in a place where you're exhausted from plowing, I want to invite you into a season of rest. If you're in a place today where you're planting all the things but it feels like nothing's happening, I want to invite you to say, God, would you show me, are there other things I'm allowing to take root, are there things you need me to remove? I think of the rocks in the parable of the sower. Rocks are heavy, rocks don't disappear, they take removing. Even today, Abbie and Melissa are in the back, and I want to invite you, if you need prayer today, to go to the back and receive prayer, because sometimes there are heavy things in our life, maybe pain, maybe hurt, maybe traumatic things that have happened in your past, where you feel like you're doing the things but you need God to heal these heavy wounds and you need someone to help you lift that. I want to invite you to go and partner with someone in prayer. But I want all of us to take a moment and say, God, where do I need to prepare, how do I need to prepare my heart, what do I need to plant, and where in my life do I just need to rest and trust what you are doing with the seeds that are planted. So I'm going to invite you to take a moment, close your eyes, and say, Holy Spirit, would you speak, would you show me.