(My Original Blog Post: http://ping.fm/3BjUQ)
SPIRITUAL Co-FARMERS
By Augusto Y. Hermosilla
God�s and Mankind�s Multifacetedness
Even the physical nature�s and the creations� complexity and structure reflect the quintessential and intrinsic complexity of its Creator�s nature, personality, character, and attributes. Particularly reflecting God�s great glories is the creature called mankind, whom He created in His image and likeness.
If we study the attributes, natures, personality, and character of God and mankind, we can see their obvious multifacetedness. It describes some kind of unity in the diversity of their attributes, natures, characters, and personalities. Actually, God is the most multifaceted perfect being, and mankind, as His creation, only imperfectly reflects such kind of multifacetedness. This multifacetedness particularly of God can be liken to a diamond, when it is usually cut into different facets or faces that can reveal its hidden beauty that reflects its strong molecular structure. Diamond, as the strongest and hardest solid such that only a diamond can cut a diamond, is among the most expensive gem known to mankind.
Another good reflection of the simple complexity of God�s multifaceted character is the double helix structure of the DNA of the cell of any living being as the blueprint of life. The DNA contains the code of life so as to give like some foreordained structure of how a living being would come out, at least, in its physical structure. The basic building block of DNA are what is called it�s alphabet of biochemicals that would spell our some kind of code called words that would program or foreordain the characteristics of the unique individual with such unique DNA code, which is different from other codes in terms of mathematical permutations and combinations of the DNA�s alphabetic letters.
We can read in
Genesis 1:27-30
27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.
28 And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.
29 And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.
30 And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so.
To see that God created man in (literally, in essence as) His own image, not evolved into His own image, contrary to some pagan or pseudo-scientific beliefs. That is, mankind was created in essence as reflection or mirror of God�s multifaceted nature. Since God as the Supreme Spirit has no physical form, this image is only figurative. This image imparted only to humans (see Gen. 2:7) figuratively refers to mankind�s sharing of God�s nature, though as imperfect and finite reflection of God�s perfect and infinite nature.
God multifarious and multifaceted attributes can be classified into communicable and incommunicable attributes. For the incommunicable attributes only exclusively found in God that highlight His transcendence and uniqueness to show how different a being HE IS from His creatures (as the Great I AM), He has the facets of independence (self-existence and self-sufficiency), immutability (entire freedom from change, leading to entire consistency in action), infinity (freedom from all limits of time and space, i.e. on His eternity and omnipresence), omnipotence, and simplicity (no elements that can conflict, so that, unlike man, He cannot be torn different ways by divergent thoughts and actions). Incommunicable in the fact that they are characteristics of God alone, and no other being share them. Man, just because he is man, and not God, does not and can not share any of them.
On the other hand, God�s communicable attributes that He shares with mankind so as to be called created in His image and likeness, God has the facets of spirituality (God and man are spiritual beings), freedom (i.e., to make choices, particularly, as free moral agents), omnipotence (though limited as compared to God, and only in terms of being within man�s boundaries and limits), along with all His moral attributes as goodness, truth, holiness, righteousness, etc. That is, when God created man in His image and likeness, He communicated to or shared with man His communicable attributes that define their communication or fellowship with one another. So, this means that God made man a free spiritual being, a responsible moral agent, with powers of choice and action, able to commune with Him and his fellow human beings, and by nature, originally good, truthful, holy, upright, in short, godly (i.e., like God). However, when man fell from favour in the Garden of Eden, mankind�s, he lost some, if not all, of those communicable attributes that God shared with him, so that he can no longer fellowship with God due to his sin that violates God�s holiness. Christ had to sacrifice His blood to redeem mankind, and restore him back to fellowship with God by putting in man His image and likeness. Man can be liken to a mirror that reflects the shared attributes of God. But when he fell due to his disobedience to God�s simple command, he is like that mirror that fell and broke to pieces, each piece may be like a facet lost from the original integrated whole!!
In sharing God�s communicable attributes (e.g., life, personality, truth, wisdom, love, holiness, justice, with seeming polar facets of justice and mercy, goodness and severity, etc.), as communicating spiritual beings, man was given the capability to fellowship in spirit with Him. But the moral attributes that belonged to the original divine image were lost at the Fall. Particularly lost was his holiness, because sin was like virus that ruined the facets he shared with God. God�s image in man has been universally defaced, for all mankind has in one way or another, lapsed into ungodliness in form, style, spirit, and substance. His written Word which testifies the Living Word, tells us that now, in fulfillment of His plan of redemption of mankind�s lost image, God is now at work in the Christian believers to repair in him and in others His ruined image by communicating to them these communicable qualities afresh. This is what the bible means when it says that Christians are being renewed in the image and likeness of Christ (2 Cor. 3:18) and of God (Col. 3:10), which is through the power of the blood of Jesus, words, and Holy Spirit of God.
In creating mankind in His own image, God�s purpose was for man to rule or to have dominion (see Gen. 1:26,28) as His representative of His higher dominion over the universe, with the earth, particularly, the Garden of Eden, as mankind�s domain, as can be read in
Genesis 2:8
And the LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed.
God pronounced blessings to the created male and female that they were to be fruitful and multiply in number. And in reflecting God, He expects us to be like Him as He commanded in
Micah 6:8
He hath showed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?
because we see also the harmony of His attributes as Paul said in
Romans 11:22
Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God: on them which fell, severity; but toward thee, goodness, if thou continue in his goodness: otherwise thou also shalt be cut off.
which may find disharmonious contradictions and inconsistencies in the fallen image of mankind.
As another facet reflected by man from God is the idea of dominion. Man lost his God-given dominion when he relinquished to Satan his dominion of the world to make Satan the god of this world system. Consequently, this idea of dominion was later perverted in idolatry when a human sovereign who claimed deity would have idols casted in his image and likeness as representative statues of his dominion. However, because of Adam and Eve�s fall from fellowship with God after their disobedience, all things originally under mankind�s authority was no longer under man�s dominion (see Heb. 2:8), because the archenemy, the adversary, stole mankind�s dominion. But after Jesus resurrected from the dead, Jesus redeemed mankind with the infinite price of His blood to again re-establish His dominion as mankind�s representative over all the earth to be fully fulfilled at His Second Coming (see Heb. 2:5-8).
God ever since the start of creation of the universe has always been working. He worked when He created the universe by His creative words, making things come out of nothing by the power of His words. And ever since mankind started his history, even after his fall from fellowship with God, God has been working in trying to redeem mankind back to fellowship with Him. God worked through the life and death of Christ to pay for the sins of mankind. God worked when He resurrected Christ from the dead, so that He would continue His working out His plan of the redemption of mankind through the works of the Holy Spirit, who was sent to the disciples during Pentecost. He continuously works out mankind�s redemption through His Holy Spirit till Christ will come again for the Second time to establish His promised kingdom, which will destroy all the evil kingdoms under Satan�s control of this present evil world system that reflects the kingdom of Satan. And God will still continue to work even during the end of and beyond human history. And He has called His chosen people of royal priesthood to co-work together with Him in fulfilling His plans and purposes through the ages.
God�s nature is actually a unity of diversity of His quintessential simple complexity!!! In His multifaceted nature, we can see some of His complex attributes which find perfect harmony only in His character, but are so in imperfect disharmony if mirrored in the human character, as a result of mankind�s fallenness. God has such integrity in His character that was lost in mankind after his fall.
For example, the facets of God�s attributes of goodness and severity, justice and mercy, love and jealousy, wrath and grace can only find their harmonious unity in His holiness. But in mankind, because of his fallenness and brokenness, we may not find their perfect harmony because after his fall, he lost that holy and perfect aspects of his nature when he lost that former fellowship with his Creator, who is still trying to redeem back that lost image of God given to mankind. Man�s sinfulness perverted that harmony that only can be found in God, and was formerly instilled in his nature. Their sin of disobedience to His simple prohibition was like a computer virus that corrupted the divine image programmed and imparted to mankind, making his programming go awry.
In a related article by this author on the integral relationship between work and worship, we recall the following observations:
Because work is to do something essential to our humanness, be it sacred or secular, God so called the chosen believers to be His co-workers, but not His co-equals. We can never be God�s co-equal, particularly, never can equal His omniscience, omnipotence, and other attributes He never shared with man, despite man�s ethical and moral likeness with God. God essentially works in, by, and through the workers in whatever He wills. For example, God authored the bible through the different writers who were inspired by His Holy Spirit, as God�s way of revealing Himself to His people. The inspired writers wrote, not of themselves, but �from God,� as one of the modes in which God made known to men His being, His will, His operations, His purposes. As distinct mode of revelation as any mode of revelation can be, and therefore the writers� inspiration performed the same office which all revelations were performed. That is, in the expressed words of Paul, the inspired scriptures makes men wise, and makes them wise unto salvation. All �special� or �supernatural� revelation, redemptive in its essential idea to occupy a place as substantial element in God�s redemptive processes, has precisely this for its end. Holy Scripture, as a mode of the redemptive revelation of God, finds fundamental purpose just in this: if the �inspiration� by which produced the Scripture renders it trustworthy and authoritative, then it renders it trustworthy and authoritative only that better serve to make men wise unto salvation. God is as good and trustworthy as the integrity of His words. From the perspective of the writers of the New Testament, Scripture was conceptualized, not merely as the record of revelations, but as itself a part of the redemptive revelation of God. Not merely as the record of the redemptive acts by which God is saving the world, but as itself one of these redemptive acts, having its own part to play in the great work of establishing and building up the kingdom of God.
As a holy nation of priests first, then kings who co-work with Him, as called first to be like HIM, then to reflect Him, this can only be fulfilled by the believers by being good stewards of God�s manifold riches. Stewardship defines human dignity or worth, as can be read in
Psalms 8:5-9
5 For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour.
6 Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet:
7 All sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field;
8 The fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas.
9 O LORD our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth!
This gives the raison d�etre of man�s creation by God. This translates to managing what God created and gifted man, particularly, the time, treasure, talents, truth, testimony that God has given and worked out in His worshippers. And stewardship can only be meaningful if the elected would have the perception and perspective that to work is to do a godlike thing, a kind of the creature imitating and reflecting His Creator. This is just an echo of what God ordained in
Genesis 1:26
And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
To rule and manage the earth as God�s stewards, man is fulfilling the image and likeness God has instilled in him. Even in the first chapter of Genesis, God is seen as a worker who worked by creating the universe, particularly, the heavens, the earth, mountains, seas, lakes, rivers, forests, the Garden of Eden, and everything that lives and breaths. In creating mankind, God makes mankind as workers too just like Himself. The reformer Ulrich Zwingli said:
�There is nothing so like God as the worker.�
The work does not matter, but on the faithfulness in what the worker is working on, be the worker a master or a slave. The dignity or worth of a worker in not what possessions, position, profession, or power he may have, but what they do with what they have. To be a good steward defines the dignity of a worker, not the salary. A slave who may receive low or no salary is more dignified than a highly CEO who is a bad steward. Not the profession, possession, position, or power, but how the worker acts a good and faithful steward, as Jesus commended repeatedly in the parable of the talents in
Matthew 25:21,23
21 His lord said unto him, Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord.
23 His lord said unto him, Well done, good and faithful servant; thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord.
but a scathing rebuke for the bad and unprofitable servant in verses 26-30:
26 His lord answered and said unto him, Thou wicked and slothful servant, thou knewest that I reap where I sowed not, and gather where I have not strawed:
27 Thou oughtest therefore to have put my money to the exchangers, and then at my coming I should have received mine own with usury.
28 Take therefore the talent from him, and give it unto him which hath ten talents.
29 For unto every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance: but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath.
30 And cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
And God is still working even up to this time with the re-creation of the fallenness of man by regenerating the new believers with the workings of His Holy Spirit. And those whom He recreated, He calls as His co-workers in proclaiming the gospel of salvation by grace only in, by, and through His Son who sacrificed His blood on the cross to redeem mankind from spiritual darkness, death, and decay and bring them into His marvellous kingdom of light and life.
GOD as a FARMER
In the multifacetedness of God as a worker, one of God�s facets can also be viewed as a farmer, the original Great Farmer with the universe as His farm. God is actually the Source of all inspirations and gifts for mankind to do the works He want them to produce. God is the Great Healer, the Great Mathematician, the Great Lawmaker and Judge, the Great Architect and Builder of the universe, the Teacher, the Preacher, Jesus as the High Priest, and many other ways to see a facet of God�s being a worker as reflected in the God-given skills of a particular human worker. God is the integration of all man�s creativities expressed in mankind�s works, professions, occupations, and pre-occupations, because God is the Source, the beginning and the end of creativities. But this article will focus only on the work of God as a farmer.
His words in the bible are so rich in agricultural allegories and metaphors that convey the spiritual truths underlying His plans and purposes. That is, what is true in nature, particularly, in agriculture, is also true in the spiritual realm, and vice versa. God�s laws do not only rule His creation, but also rules the spirit and unseen world. In fact, it can be said that all truths are parallel, that a truth say in one aspect can be viewed in parallel metaphor or allegory in another aspect. But even in the field of mathematics with the concept of perspectivity, parallel lines meet at the ideal point or infinity. The mathematical infinity can represent God, the source of all parallel truths that intersect in His perspective. Searching man should just try to appropriately connect them to piece together something like a jigsaw puzzle that can reveal the hidden and mysterious perspectives revealed to him in many kinds of truths, not just in God�s words, but even in any perceivable things. So, a spiritual truth can be viewed clearly say in agricultural allegories, as what we can read in God�s words, especially on the parables of Christ (e.g., the parable of the sower in Matt. 13:3-9, Mark 4:1-25, and Luke 8:4-15, among other parables that illustrates spiritual truths using everyday and ordinary things).
Now, we can read in the song of Isaiah in
Isaiah 61:3
To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that he might be glorified.
that show God�s chosen people are His farm to show forth His glories by their fruitfulness, which is related to his song in:
Isaiah 5:1-7
1 Now will I sing to my wellbeloved a song of my beloved touching his vineyard. My wellbeloved ]hath a vineyard in a very fruitful hill:
2 And he fenced it, and gathered out the stones thereof, and planted it with the choicest vine, and built a tower in the midst of it, and also made a winepress therein: and he looked that it should bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes.
3 And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem, and men of Judah, judge, I pray you, betwixt me and my vineyard.
4 What could have been done more to my vineyard, that I have not done in it? wherefore, when I looked that it should bring forth grapes, brought it forth wild grapes?
5 And now go to; I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard: I will take away the hedge thereof, and it shall be eaten up; and break down the wall thereof, and it shall be trodden down:
6 And I will lay it waste: it shall not be pruned, nor digged; but there shall come up briers and thorns: I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it.
7 For the vineyard of the LORD of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah his pleasant plant: and he looked for judgment, but behold oppression; for righteousness, but behold a cry.
In verses 1 and 2, the first stanza, we can here how God cares for His beloved vineyard, and the condition of His vineyard. Then, in verses 3-6, the second stanza, God gave the diagnosis of the sick condition of His beloved vineyard. In verse 7, the third stanza, the vineyard is identified to be Israel, His chosen people (see also Isa. 3:14, Ps. 80:8-18, Jer. 2:21, 12:10, Ezek. 15:6-8, Hos. 10:1). In the first stanza, God planted a vineyard on a fertile hillside, and planting only the best vines. He built a watchtower to guard the vineyard, and a winepress in anticipation and expectation of producing good wine. However, despite all of God�s investments on the plants, only poor grapes came out of the vine, and despite all the care and fertilization the vineyard owner invested in them. Because the vineyard did not live up to the expectations of the vineyard owner Who wasted resources in caring for it, the owner, who had nothing more to do to make it productive, will judge it by removing it�s protection to allow animals (e.g., foxes in Song 2:15) to enter and ruin it. Neglecting the cultivation of the vines, thornbushes would grow to choke and smother the vines. God would stop the rain to fall on this unproductive vineyard so that it will die ultimately. So, with the grievous sin of the vineyard�s unproductiveness, destructive judgment would come when protection and provision by the vineyard owner would be withheld. The whole nation of Israel and Judah was identified and indicted as the unproductive vineyard destined for destructive judgment by the caring vineyard owner who was expecting their fruitfulness with all His investments. God, who cared for this vineyard, expected good fruits, particularly, justice and righteousness (see Isa. 1:21). He saw instead only bloodshed (see Isa. 1:15), and heard cries of distress, to contradict the fruits of justice and righteousness He expected of them. The bad grapes of injustices and unrighteousnesses would lead to the people�s destruction by being killed or being taken to captivity. Using two interesting assonances (i.e., similar word sounds, as in words play, which is like sword play that cuts through the subtle nuances of the assonances, and God�s word is sharper than a two-edged sword), Isaiah stressed out the stark contrast between what God expected in His people and what would happened to them. The good fruits of justice and righteousness did not come out of them, but instead only the bad fruits of bloodshed and distress.
In other words, instead of reflecting or mirroring His image that He created in them, particularly, His moral and ethical attributes of justice and righteousness, they only fructified toxic injustices and unrighteousnesses, which will only deserve God�s judgments because of His intrinsic harmonious attributes of holiness, love, and jealousy that can not stand the presence of sin. And also as chosen people of God or the elect, Israel is the Old Testament vineyard of God, while the church is the New Testament vineyard of God. And in the bible, it can be seen especially in the parables of Christ (e.g., the parable of the sower), that our hearts, minds, and even bodies are vineyards God has been farming with His manifold blessings, as what we can glean
Deuteronomy 6:5
And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.
which was re-echoed by Christ in His Great Commandment in
Matthew 22:37-40
37 Jesus said unto him,
Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
38 This is the first and great commandment.
39 And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
40 On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.
We sow God�s words in our spirits, sow His thoughts in our hearts and minds, and sow His words of health in our bodies, and we�ll reap bountiful harvest of righteousness and peace.
And for the New Testament disciples of Christ, in the process of spiritual multiplication, the world is their vineyard, or their mission field, where they are to sow the seeds of His words of life to produce, fructify, and multiply to reflect the glories of their Redeemer. These allegories and analogies will be expounded later in this article.
Particularly what is said in
Hosea 10:12,13
12 Sow to yourselves in righteousness, reap in mercy; break up your fallow ground: for it is time to seek the LORD, till he come and rain righteousness upon you.
13 Ye have plowed wickedness, ye have reaped iniquity; ye have eaten the fruit of lies: because thou didst trust in thy way, in the multitude of thy mighty men.
affirms the Law of Sowing and Reaping, not only true in nature, but even in the spiritual farm of the hearts and minds of the Israelites. God urged Israel, His farm, to seek Him by cultivating righteousness (or justice), and then reaping His unfailing love (or loyalty). The showers or rain of righteousness allegorizes God�s future gift of righteousness or deliverance from their unrighteousness when the Messiah would come to do so for them. Throughout Israel�s history, God�s prophets had been exhorted to fulfill what is said in verse 12. But the sinful chosen people did not respond accordingly, not fulfilling God�s expectations of their fruitfulness in righteousness because they only bore toxic fruits of unrighteousness with their wickedness, evildoings, and deceptions. Instead of trusting only in their God, they depended on her own military might or carnal weapons that wouldn�t profit for them. The stark and frank contrasts between God�s expectations versus Israel�s sinfulness only heightened their guilt before God. So, they were called to repentance to testify of God�s graciousness to contribute to the prophet�s accusation of their sins against God.
Actually, since the creation of the earth, God has been working as a farmer by the laws He foreordained to rule His created universe, be it in the natural, but even also in the spiritual realm. We can particularly read after the destruction of the world with a universal flood after Noah�s salvation from the flood in
Genesis 8:22
While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.
After God�s judgment of the antedeluvian world�s wickedness with that universal deluge, and after Noah made a sacrifice to God to honor His salvation, God promised never to cursed the ground again by ordaining the continuity of the seasons, particularly, seedtime and harvest to evidence His forbearance of mankind�s sinfulness that only deserves His judgments, like that flood that only saved Noah and his family. Actually, just as natural as the law of gravity and the law of thermodynamics that rule the natural universe, a more universal law that is not only ruling the natural order but also even like the spiritual realm can be seen in the law of sowing and reaping, as said in
Galatians 6:7
7 Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.
So, what is true of the law of sowing and reaping in the agricultural realm can also be seen like in the spiritual realm, as we can read in
Galatians 6:8-10
8 For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.
9 And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.
10 As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith.
This law of sowing and reaping also rules the spiritual realm as can be seen in the following:
Job 4:8
Even as I have seen, they that plow iniquity, and sow wickedness, reap the same.
Psalms 126:5,6
5 They that sow in tears shall reap in joy.
6 He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him.
Proverbs 22:8
He that soweth iniquity shall reap vanity: and the rod of his anger shall fail.
Jeremiah 12:13
They have sown wheat, but shall reap thorns: they have put themselves to pain, but shall not profit: and they shall be ashamed of your revenues because of the fierce anger of the LORD.
Hosea 8:7
For they have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind: it hath no stalk: the bud shall yield no meal: if so be it yield, the strangers shall swallow it up.
2 Corinthians 9:6
But this I say, He which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly; and he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully.
From the preponderance of the concomitant words on the sowing-reaping law in God�s words, we can see that if we sow in the spirit where we obey and follow God and His laws, we would reap life and righteousness. His law is our protection and provision from destruction. Else, if we sow to our sinful flesh, we would reap death and unrighteousness. God is a farmer who farms the words by the laws He ordained to rule His universe. When the hearts of the chosen people got so hardened with their continuous sinfulness, aside from what is said in Hosea 10:12,13, God commanded them to repent by the words through the weeping prophet:
Jeremiah 4:3,4
3 For thus saith the LORD to the men of Judah and Jerusalem, Break up your fallow ground, and sow not among thorns.
4 Circumcise yourselves to the LORD, and take away the foreskins of your heart, ye men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem: lest my fury come forth like fire, and burn that none can quench it, because of the evil of your doings.
Actually, throughout Israel�s history, the prophets had been appealing the chosen people to repentance, lest judgment would come. And if they would repent, God would abundantly pardon and bless them accordingly as He always graciously and mercifully promised. Else, God judged them accordingly. But this sinful chosen people did not respond accordingly, producing instead wickedness, evil, and deception among each other. Rather than trusting on God�s power, the nation proudly depended on their own strength, particularly, their own military might. Actually, these words of God�s appeal through the prophets only reveal God�s graciousness which the nation only took for granted to deserve only His consequent judgments.
If we sow a thought, we reap an action. If we sow an action, we reap a habit. If we sow a habit, we sow a character. If we sow a character, we reap a destiny. If we sow a destiny, we reap eternity!!! Such is the law of sowing and reaping!!!
If we sow in the spirit, we will reap life, but if we sow in the flesh, we will reap death and decay, as can be read in
Galatians 5:19-21
19 Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these;
Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness,
20 Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies,
21 Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.
Galatians 6:8-10
8 For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.
9 And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.
10 As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith.
For emphasis, it is said that if we sow to a thoughts, we reap an action. If we sow an action, we reap a habit. If we sow a habit, we reap a character. If we sow a character, we reap a destiny. If we sow a destiny, we reap eternity.
Aside from watering and fertilizing as principles a farmer like God does to propagate His beloved plants so that they would bear fruits to be reaped later, another agricultural principle that can also have spiritual analogue is on pruning that should lead to more fruitbearing. We can clearly read for example in the following texts:
Isaiah 18:5
For afore the harvest, when the bud is perfect, and the sour grape is ripening in the flower, he shall both cut off the sprigs with pruning hooks, and take away and cut down the branches.
John 15:1-8
1 I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman.
2 Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit.
3 Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.
4 Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me.
5 I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.
6 If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.
7 If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.
8 Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples.
In this context, we can see here that God is glorified and honoured if His disciples would bear fruits, particularly, fruits of the Spirit, which can be seen in
Galatians 5:22-26
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,
23 Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.
24 And they that are Christ�s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.
25 If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.
26 Let us not be desirous of vain glory, provoking one another, envying one another.
and in
Ephesians 5:9-11
9 (For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth;)
10 Proving what is acceptable unto the Lord.
11 And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them.
Unrighteous fruitlessness frustrates God�s plans and purposes in blessing mankind, which He did even way back in the Garden of Eden. And fruitlessness of good works and righteousness will lead to God�s judgments, as can be seen in the tragic history of Israel, His own Chosen and Cared-for Vineyard, for example in the preponderance of texts on being cut off due to their continuous wickedness, like a plant or vine which is unprofitable, such as the following:
Leviticus 18:29
For whosoever shall commit any of these abominations, even the souls that commit them shall be cut off from among their people.
Leviticus 19:8-10
8 Therefore every one that eateth it shall bear his iniquity, because he hath profaned the hallowed thing of the LORD: and that soul shall be cut off from among his people.
9 And when ye reap the harvest of your land, thou shalt not wholly reap the corners of thy field, neither shalt thou gather the gleanings of thy harvest.
10 And thou shalt not glean thy vineyard, neither shalt thou gather every grape of thy vineyard; thou shalt leave them for the poor and stranger: I am the LORD your God.
Leviticus 20:3-6
3 And I will set my face against that man, and will cut him off from among his people; because he hath given of his seed unto Molech, to defile my sanctuary, and to profane my holy name.
4 And if the people of the land do any ways hide their eyes from the man, when he giveth of his seed unto Molech, and kill him not:
5 Then I will set my face against that man, and against his family, and will cut him off, and all that go a whoring after him, to commit whoredom with Molech, from among their people.
6 And the soul that turneth after such as have familiar spirits, and after wizards, to go a whoring after them, I will even set my face against that soul, and will cut him off from among his people.
Leviticus 26:30-39
30 And I will destroy your high places, and cut down your images, and cast your carcases upon the carcases of your idols, and my soul shall abhor you.
31 And I will make your cities waste, and bring your sanctuaries unto desolation, and I will not smell the savour of your sweet odours.
32 And I will bring the land into desolation: and your enemies which dwell therein shall be astonished at it.
33 And I will scatter you among the heathen, and will draw out a sword after you: and your land shall be desolate, and your cities waste.
34 Then shall the land enjoy her sabbaths, as long as it lieth desolate, and ye be in your enemies� land; even then shall the land rest, and enjoy her sabbaths.
35 As long as it lieth desolate it shall rest; because it did not rest in your sabbaths, when ye dwelt upon it.
36 And upon them that are left alive of you I will send a faintness into their hearts in the lands of their enemies; and the sound of a shaken leaf shall chase them; and they shall flee, as fleeing from a sword; and they shall fall when none pursueth.
37 And they shall fall one upon another, as it were before a sword, when none pursueth: and ye shall have no power to stand before your enemies.
38 And ye shall perish among the heathen, and the land of your enemies shall eat you up.
39 And they that are left of you shall pine away in their iniquity in your enemies� lands; and also in the iniquities of their fathers shall they pine away with them.
1 Kings 9:7
Then will I cut off Israel out of the land which I have given them; and this house, which I have hallowed for my name, will I cast out of my sight; and Israel shall be a proverb and a byword among all people:
Psalms 12:3
The LORD shall cut off all flattering lips, and the tongue that speaketh proud things:
Psalms 34:16
The face of the LORD is against them that do evil, to cut off the remembrance of them from the earth.
Psalms 37:1,2,9,22,28,34,38
1 Fret not thyself because of evildoers, neither be thou envious against the workers of iniquity.
2 For they shall soon be cut down like the grass, and wither as the green herb.
9 For evildoers shall be cut off: but those that wait upon the LORD, they shall inherit the earth.
22 vFor such as be blessed of him shall inherit the earth; and they that be cursed of him shall be cut off.
28 For the LORD loveth judgment, and forsaketh not his saints; they are preserved for ever: but the seed of the wicked shall be cut off.
34 Wait on the LORD, and keep his way, and he shall exalt thee to inherit the land: when the wicked are cut off, thou shalt see it.
38 But the transgressors shall be destroyed together: the end of the wicked shall be cut off.
Psalms 75:10
the horns of the wicked also will I cut off; but the horns of the righteous shall be exalted.
Psalms 80:6-12
6 In the morning it flourisheth, and groweth up; in the evening it is cut down, and withereth.
7 For we are consumed by thine anger, and by thy wrath are we troubled.
8 Thou hast set our iniquities before thee, our secret sins in the light of thy countenance.
9 For all our days are passed away in thy wrath: we spend our years as a tale that is told.
10 The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labour and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away.
11 Who knoweth the power of thine anger? even according to thy fear, so is thy wrath.
12 So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.
Psalms 94:23
And he shall bring upon them their own iniquity, and shall cut them off in their own wickedness; yea, the LORD our God shall cut them off.
Psalms 101:5,8
5 Whoso privily slandereth his neighbour, him will I cut off: him that hath an high look and a proud heart will not I suffer.
8 I will early destroy all the wicked of the land; that I may cut off all wicked doers from the city of the LORD.
Psalms 129:4
The LORD is righteous: he hath cut asunder the cords of the wicked.
Psalms 143:12
And of thy mercy cut off mine enemies, and destroy all them that afflict my soul: for I am thy servant.
Proverbs 2:22
But the wicked shall be cut off from the earth, and the transgressors shall be rooted out of it.
Isaiah 14:12
How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!
Lamentations 2:3
He hath cut off in his fierce anger all the horn of Israel: he hath drawn back his right hand from before the enemy, and he burned against Jacob like a flaming fire, which devoureth round about.
Ezekiel 14:17,21
17 Or if I bring a sword upon that land, and say, Sword, go through the land; so that I cut off man and beast from it:
21 For thus saith the Lord GOD; How much more when I send my four sore judgments upon Jerusalem, the sword, and the famine, and the noisome beast, and the pestilence, to cut off from it man and beast?
Ezekiel 17:9,10
9 Say thou, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Shall it prosper? shall he not pull up the roots thereof, and cut off the fruit thereof, that it wither? it shall wither in all the leaves of her spring, even without great power or many people to pluck it up by the roots thereof.
10 Yea, behold, being planted, shall it prosper? shall it not utterly wither, when the east wind toucheth it? it shall wither in the furrows where it grew.
Ezekiel 25:7
Behold, therefore I will stretch out mine hand upon thee, and will deliver thee for a spoil to the heathen; and I will cut thee off from the people, and I will cause thee to perish out of the countries: I will destroy thee; and thou shalt know that I am the LORD.
Particularly, on what Christ said on the unfruitful tree in
Luke 13:7-9
7Then said he unto the dresser of his vineyard, Behold, these three years I come seeking fruit on this fig tree, and find none: cut it down; why cumbereth it the ground?
8 And he answering said unto him, Lord, let it alone this year also, till I shall dig about it, and dung it:
9 And if it bear fruit, well: and if not, then after that thou shalt cut it down.
We can see that God does not want to waste on useless fruitlessness. Thus, pruning, uprooting, or cutting down an unfruitful plant is God�s judgment of wasteful useless fruitlessness. Pruning in particular is the process of cutting away the useless and wasteful branches which will suck the life out of the tree or vine. If not pruned, the unfruitful branches will reduce the productivity of the plant because the plant spends and waste most of its energies in maintaining the life of an unfruitful branch. We can see that once plants are pruned, we can see sprouts of new life and productivity, which represents God�s pruning of the useless branches of one�s spiritual life that can suck the life out of God in the believer, and limit its productivity.
Aside from very clear lesson on the pruning process in John 15:1-8, we can see that God works of pruning is clearly seen in what Paul said with rich farming metaphors in
Romans 11:15-36
15 For if the casting away of them be the reconciling of the world, what shall the receiving of them be, but life from the dead?
16 For if the firstfruit be holy, the lump is also holy: and if the root be holy, so are the branches.
17 And if some of the branches be broken off, and thou, being a wild olive tree, wert grafted in among them, and with them partakest of the root and fatness of the olive tree;
18 Boast not against the branches. But if thou boast, thou bearest not the root, but the root thee.
19 Thou wilt say then, The branches were broken off, that I might be grafted in.
20 Well; because of unbelief they were broken off, and thou standest by faith. Be not highminded, but fear:
21 For if God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest he also spare not thee.
22 Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God: on them which fell, severity; but toward thee, goodness, if thou continue in his goodness: otherwise thou also shalt be cut off.
23 And they also, if they abide not still in unbelief, shall be grafted in: for God is able to graft them in again.
24 For if thou wert cut out of the olive tree which is wild by nature, and wert grafted contrary to nature into a good olive tree: how much more shall these, which be the natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree?
25 For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in.
26 And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob:
27 For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins.
28 As concerning the gospel, they are enemies for your sakes: but as touching the election, they are beloved for the fathers� sakes.
29 For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance.
30 For as ye in times past have not believed God, yet have now obtained mercy through their unbelief:
31 Even so have these also now not believed, that through your mercy they also may obtain mercy.
32 For God hath concluded them all in unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all.
33 O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!
34 For who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been his counsellor?
35 Or who hath first given to him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again?
36 For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever. Amen.
The same Greek root word katharos is for pruning, cleansing, and casting away. It�s like saying that the unfruitful branches are like lifedraining pollution that defeats the purpose of God for the fruitfulness of the plant, and that pruning cleanses the plant of such polluting branches. The pruning of a vine involves cutting back live wood to improve its fruitfulness and the removal of dead wood that might spread decay. Here, this beautiful allegory of discipleship relates the responsibilities of the branch, viz. to abide in the vine, to bear (not produce) fruit from and for the vine, only to bear fruit (a branch is useless for anything else, its wood cannot be used for furniture, firewood, or building purposes), to bear much fruit. This is in stark contrast to Israel, God�s fruitless Old Testament vine (see Jdg. 9:7-15; Ps. 80:8; Isa. 5:1-7; Ezek. 15:2; Hosea 10:1, and similar texts mentioned earlier), and lastly, to be submitted to pruning. Despite the pains of pruning for the plant, the pruning will make the plant focus more of its energies in fruitbearing, the desired expectation of the vinedresser.
Pruning does not threaten the salvation of any true disciple of Christ. From John 15, the statement that says, �like the (not a) branch that is thrown away� emphasizes on the metaphor, not the believer. The branch of the grapevine has no use and purpose but bearing fruit. The stringy wood cannot be carved or used in building. It can only be thrown out and burned. Jesus is saying that the person who does not abide in Him is as useless as the br
SPIRITUAL Co-FARMERS
By Augusto Y. Hermosilla
God�s and Mankind�s Multifacetedness
Even the physical nature�s and the creations� complexity and structure reflect the quintessential and intrinsic complexity of its Creator�s nature, personality, character, and attributes. Particularly reflecting God�s great glories is the creature called mankind, whom He created in His image and likeness.
If we study the attributes, natures, personality, and character of God and mankind, we can see their obvious multifacetedness. It describes some kind of unity in the diversity of their attributes, natures, characters, and personalities. Actually, God is the most multifaceted perfect being, and mankind, as His creation, only imperfectly reflects such kind of multifacetedness. This multifacetedness particularly of God can be liken to a diamond, when it is usually cut into different facets or faces that can reveal its hidden beauty that reflects its strong molecular structure. Diamond, as the strongest and hardest solid such that only a diamond can cut a diamond, is among the most expensive gem known to mankind.
Another good reflection of the simple complexity of God�s multifaceted character is the double helix structure of the DNA of the cell of any living being as the blueprint of life. The DNA contains the code of life so as to give like some foreordained structure of how a living being would come out, at least, in its physical structure. The basic building block of DNA are what is called it�s alphabet of biochemicals that would spell our some kind of code called words that would program or foreordain the characteristics of the unique individual with such unique DNA code, which is different from other codes in terms of mathematical permutations and combinations of the DNA�s alphabetic letters.
We can read in
Genesis 1:27-30
27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.
28 And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.
29 And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.
30 And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so.
To see that God created man in (literally, in essence as) His own image, not evolved into His own image, contrary to some pagan or pseudo-scientific beliefs. That is, mankind was created in essence as reflection or mirror of God�s multifaceted nature. Since God as the Supreme Spirit has no physical form, this image is only figurative. This image imparted only to humans (see Gen. 2:7) figuratively refers to mankind�s sharing of God�s nature, though as imperfect and finite reflection of God�s perfect and infinite nature.
God multifarious and multifaceted attributes can be classified into communicable and incommunicable attributes. For the incommunicable attributes only exclusively found in God that highlight His transcendence and uniqueness to show how different a being HE IS from His creatures (as the Great I AM), He has the facets of independence (self-existence and self-sufficiency), immutability (entire freedom from change, leading to entire consistency in action), infinity (freedom from all limits of time and space, i.e. on His eternity and omnipresence), omnipotence, and simplicity (no elements that can conflict, so that, unlike man, He cannot be torn different ways by divergent thoughts and actions). Incommunicable in the fact that they are characteristics of God alone, and no other being share them. Man, just because he is man, and not God, does not and can not share any of them.
On the other hand, God�s communicable attributes that He shares with mankind so as to be called created in His image and likeness, God has the facets of spirituality (God and man are spiritual beings), freedom (i.e., to make choices, particularly, as free moral agents), omnipotence (though limited as compared to God, and only in terms of being within man�s boundaries and limits), along with all His moral attributes as goodness, truth, holiness, righteousness, etc. That is, when God created man in His image and likeness, He communicated to or shared with man His communicable attributes that define their communication or fellowship with one another. So, this means that God made man a free spiritual being, a responsible moral agent, with powers of choice and action, able to commune with Him and his fellow human beings, and by nature, originally good, truthful, holy, upright, in short, godly (i.e., like God). However, when man fell from favour in the Garden of Eden, mankind�s, he lost some, if not all, of those communicable attributes that God shared with him, so that he can no longer fellowship with God due to his sin that violates God�s holiness. Christ had to sacrifice His blood to redeem mankind, and restore him back to fellowship with God by putting in man His image and likeness. Man can be liken to a mirror that reflects the shared attributes of God. But when he fell due to his disobedience to God�s simple command, he is like that mirror that fell and broke to pieces, each piece may be like a facet lost from the original integrated whole!!
In sharing God�s communicable attributes (e.g., life, personality, truth, wisdom, love, holiness, justice, with seeming polar facets of justice and mercy, goodness and severity, etc.), as communicating spiritual beings, man was given the capability to fellowship in spirit with Him. But the moral attributes that belonged to the original divine image were lost at the Fall. Particularly lost was his holiness, because sin was like virus that ruined the facets he shared with God. God�s image in man has been universally defaced, for all mankind has in one way or another, lapsed into ungodliness in form, style, spirit, and substance. His written Word which testifies the Living Word, tells us that now, in fulfillment of His plan of redemption of mankind�s lost image, God is now at work in the Christian believers to repair in him and in others His ruined image by communicating to them these communicable qualities afresh. This is what the bible means when it says that Christians are being renewed in the image and likeness of Christ (2 Cor. 3:18) and of God (Col. 3:10), which is through the power of the blood of Jesus, words, and Holy Spirit of God.
In creating mankind in His own image, God�s purpose was for man to rule or to have dominion (see Gen. 1:26,28) as His representative of His higher dominion over the universe, with the earth, particularly, the Garden of Eden, as mankind�s domain, as can be read in
Genesis 2:8
And the LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed.
God pronounced blessings to the created male and female that they were to be fruitful and multiply in number. And in reflecting God, He expects us to be like Him as He commanded in
Micah 6:8
He hath showed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?
because we see also the harmony of His attributes as Paul said in
Romans 11:22
Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God: on them which fell, severity; but toward thee, goodness, if thou continue in his goodness: otherwise thou also shalt be cut off.
which may find disharmonious contradictions and inconsistencies in the fallen image of mankind.
As another facet reflected by man from God is the idea of dominion. Man lost his God-given dominion when he relinquished to Satan his dominion of the world to make Satan the god of this world system. Consequently, this idea of dominion was later perverted in idolatry when a human sovereign who claimed deity would have idols casted in his image and likeness as representative statues of his dominion. However, because of Adam and Eve�s fall from fellowship with God after their disobedience, all things originally under mankind�s authority was no longer under man�s dominion (see Heb. 2:8), because the archenemy, the adversary, stole mankind�s dominion. But after Jesus resurrected from the dead, Jesus redeemed mankind with the infinite price of His blood to again re-establish His dominion as mankind�s representative over all the earth to be fully fulfilled at His Second Coming (see Heb. 2:5-8).
God ever since the start of creation of the universe has always been working. He worked when He created the universe by His creative words, making things come out of nothing by the power of His words. And ever since mankind started his history, even after his fall from fellowship with God, God has been working in trying to redeem mankind back to fellowship with Him. God worked through the life and death of Christ to pay for the sins of mankind. God worked when He resurrected Christ from the dead, so that He would continue His working out His plan of the redemption of mankind through the works of the Holy Spirit, who was sent to the disciples during Pentecost. He continuously works out mankind�s redemption through His Holy Spirit till Christ will come again for the Second time to establish His promised kingdom, which will destroy all the evil kingdoms under Satan�s control of this present evil world system that reflects the kingdom of Satan. And God will still continue to work even during the end of and beyond human history. And He has called His chosen people of royal priesthood to co-work together with Him in fulfilling His plans and purposes through the ages.
God�s nature is actually a unity of diversity of His quintessential simple complexity!!! In His multifaceted nature, we can see some of His complex attributes which find perfect harmony only in His character, but are so in imperfect disharmony if mirrored in the human character, as a result of mankind�s fallenness. God has such integrity in His character that was lost in mankind after his fall.
For example, the facets of God�s attributes of goodness and severity, justice and mercy, love and jealousy, wrath and grace can only find their harmonious unity in His holiness. But in mankind, because of his fallenness and brokenness, we may not find their perfect harmony because after his fall, he lost that holy and perfect aspects of his nature when he lost that former fellowship with his Creator, who is still trying to redeem back that lost image of God given to mankind. Man�s sinfulness perverted that harmony that only can be found in God, and was formerly instilled in his nature. Their sin of disobedience to His simple prohibition was like a computer virus that corrupted the divine image programmed and imparted to mankind, making his programming go awry.
In a related article by this author on the integral relationship between work and worship, we recall the following observations:
Because work is to do something essential to our humanness, be it sacred or secular, God so called the chosen believers to be His co-workers, but not His co-equals. We can never be God�s co-equal, particularly, never can equal His omniscience, omnipotence, and other attributes He never shared with man, despite man�s ethical and moral likeness with God. God essentially works in, by, and through the workers in whatever He wills. For example, God authored the bible through the different writers who were inspired by His Holy Spirit, as God�s way of revealing Himself to His people. The inspired writers wrote, not of themselves, but �from God,� as one of the modes in which God made known to men His being, His will, His operations, His purposes. As distinct mode of revelation as any mode of revelation can be, and therefore the writers� inspiration performed the same office which all revelations were performed. That is, in the expressed words of Paul, the inspired scriptures makes men wise, and makes them wise unto salvation. All �special� or �supernatural� revelation, redemptive in its essential idea to occupy a place as substantial element in God�s redemptive processes, has precisely this for its end. Holy Scripture, as a mode of the redemptive revelation of God, finds fundamental purpose just in this: if the �inspiration� by which produced the Scripture renders it trustworthy and authoritative, then it renders it trustworthy and authoritative only that better serve to make men wise unto salvation. God is as good and trustworthy as the integrity of His words. From the perspective of the writers of the New Testament, Scripture was conceptualized, not merely as the record of revelations, but as itself a part of the redemptive revelation of God. Not merely as the record of the redemptive acts by which God is saving the world, but as itself one of these redemptive acts, having its own part to play in the great work of establishing and building up the kingdom of God.
As a holy nation of priests first, then kings who co-work with Him, as called first to be like HIM, then to reflect Him, this can only be fulfilled by the believers by being good stewards of God�s manifold riches. Stewardship defines human dignity or worth, as can be read in
Psalms 8:5-9
5 For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour.
6 Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet:
7 All sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field;
8 The fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas.
9 O LORD our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth!
This gives the raison d�etre of man�s creation by God. This translates to managing what God created and gifted man, particularly, the time, treasure, talents, truth, testimony that God has given and worked out in His worshippers. And stewardship can only be meaningful if the elected would have the perception and perspective that to work is to do a godlike thing, a kind of the creature imitating and reflecting His Creator. This is just an echo of what God ordained in
Genesis 1:26
And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
To rule and manage the earth as God�s stewards, man is fulfilling the image and likeness God has instilled in him. Even in the first chapter of Genesis, God is seen as a worker who worked by creating the universe, particularly, the heavens, the earth, mountains, seas, lakes, rivers, forests, the Garden of Eden, and everything that lives and breaths. In creating mankind, God makes mankind as workers too just like Himself. The reformer Ulrich Zwingli said:
�There is nothing so like God as the worker.�
The work does not matter, but on the faithfulness in what the worker is working on, be the worker a master or a slave. The dignity or worth of a worker in not what possessions, position, profession, or power he may have, but what they do with what they have. To be a good steward defines the dignity of a worker, not the salary. A slave who may receive low or no salary is more dignified than a highly CEO who is a bad steward. Not the profession, possession, position, or power, but how the worker acts a good and faithful steward, as Jesus commended repeatedly in the parable of the talents in
Matthew 25:21,23
21 His lord said unto him, Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord.
23 His lord said unto him, Well done, good and faithful servant; thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord.
but a scathing rebuke for the bad and unprofitable servant in verses 26-30:
26 His lord answered and said unto him, Thou wicked and slothful servant, thou knewest that I reap where I sowed not, and gather where I have not strawed:
27 Thou oughtest therefore to have put my money to the exchangers, and then at my coming I should have received mine own with usury.
28 Take therefore the talent from him, and give it unto him which hath ten talents.
29 For unto every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance: but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath.
30 And cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
And God is still working even up to this time with the re-creation of the fallenness of man by regenerating the new believers with the workings of His Holy Spirit. And those whom He recreated, He calls as His co-workers in proclaiming the gospel of salvation by grace only in, by, and through His Son who sacrificed His blood on the cross to redeem mankind from spiritual darkness, death, and decay and bring them into His marvellous kingdom of light and life.
GOD as a FARMER
In the multifacetedness of God as a worker, one of God�s facets can also be viewed as a farmer, the original Great Farmer with the universe as His farm. God is actually the Source of all inspirations and gifts for mankind to do the works He want them to produce. God is the Great Healer, the Great Mathematician, the Great Lawmaker and Judge, the Great Architect and Builder of the universe, the Teacher, the Preacher, Jesus as the High Priest, and many other ways to see a facet of God�s being a worker as reflected in the God-given skills of a particular human worker. God is the integration of all man�s creativities expressed in mankind�s works, professions, occupations, and pre-occupations, because God is the Source, the beginning and the end of creativities. But this article will focus only on the work of God as a farmer.
His words in the bible are so rich in agricultural allegories and metaphors that convey the spiritual truths underlying His plans and purposes. That is, what is true in nature, particularly, in agriculture, is also true in the spiritual realm, and vice versa. God�s laws do not only rule His creation, but also rules the spirit and unseen world. In fact, it can be said that all truths are parallel, that a truth say in one aspect can be viewed in parallel metaphor or allegory in another aspect. But even in the field of mathematics with the concept of perspectivity, parallel lines meet at the ideal point or infinity. The mathematical infinity can represent God, the source of all parallel truths that intersect in His perspective. Searching man should just try to appropriately connect them to piece together something like a jigsaw puzzle that can reveal the hidden and mysterious perspectives revealed to him in many kinds of truths, not just in God�s words, but even in any perceivable things. So, a spiritual truth can be viewed clearly say in agricultural allegories, as what we can read in God�s words, especially on the parables of Christ (e.g., the parable of the sower in Matt. 13:3-9, Mark 4:1-25, and Luke 8:4-15, among other parables that illustrates spiritual truths using everyday and ordinary things).
Now, we can read in the song of Isaiah in
Isaiah 61:3
To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that he might be glorified.
that show God�s chosen people are His farm to show forth His glories by their fruitfulness, which is related to his song in:
Isaiah 5:1-7
1 Now will I sing to my wellbeloved a song of my beloved touching his vineyard. My wellbeloved ]hath a vineyard in a very fruitful hill:
2 And he fenced it, and gathered out the stones thereof, and planted it with the choicest vine, and built a tower in the midst of it, and also made a winepress therein: and he looked that it should bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes.
3 And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem, and men of Judah, judge, I pray you, betwixt me and my vineyard.
4 What could have been done more to my vineyard, that I have not done in it? wherefore, when I looked that it should bring forth grapes, brought it forth wild grapes?
5 And now go to; I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard: I will take away the hedge thereof, and it shall be eaten up; and break down the wall thereof, and it shall be trodden down:
6 And I will lay it waste: it shall not be pruned, nor digged; but there shall come up briers and thorns: I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it.
7 For the vineyard of the LORD of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah his pleasant plant: and he looked for judgment, but behold oppression; for righteousness, but behold a cry.
In verses 1 and 2, the first stanza, we can here how God cares for His beloved vineyard, and the condition of His vineyard. Then, in verses 3-6, the second stanza, God gave the diagnosis of the sick condition of His beloved vineyard. In verse 7, the third stanza, the vineyard is identified to be Israel, His chosen people (see also Isa. 3:14, Ps. 80:8-18, Jer. 2:21, 12:10, Ezek. 15:6-8, Hos. 10:1). In the first stanza, God planted a vineyard on a fertile hillside, and planting only the best vines. He built a watchtower to guard the vineyard, and a winepress in anticipation and expectation of producing good wine. However, despite all of God�s investments on the plants, only poor grapes came out of the vine, and despite all the care and fertilization the vineyard owner invested in them. Because the vineyard did not live up to the expectations of the vineyard owner Who wasted resources in caring for it, the owner, who had nothing more to do to make it productive, will judge it by removing it�s protection to allow animals (e.g., foxes in Song 2:15) to enter and ruin it. Neglecting the cultivation of the vines, thornbushes would grow to choke and smother the vines. God would stop the rain to fall on this unproductive vineyard so that it will die ultimately. So, with the grievous sin of the vineyard�s unproductiveness, destructive judgment would come when protection and provision by the vineyard owner would be withheld. The whole nation of Israel and Judah was identified and indicted as the unproductive vineyard destined for destructive judgment by the caring vineyard owner who was expecting their fruitfulness with all His investments. God, who cared for this vineyard, expected good fruits, particularly, justice and righteousness (see Isa. 1:21). He saw instead only bloodshed (see Isa. 1:15), and heard cries of distress, to contradict the fruits of justice and righteousness He expected of them. The bad grapes of injustices and unrighteousnesses would lead to the people�s destruction by being killed or being taken to captivity. Using two interesting assonances (i.e., similar word sounds, as in words play, which is like sword play that cuts through the subtle nuances of the assonances, and God�s word is sharper than a two-edged sword), Isaiah stressed out the stark contrast between what God expected in His people and what would happened to them. The good fruits of justice and righteousness did not come out of them, but instead only the bad fruits of bloodshed and distress.
In other words, instead of reflecting or mirroring His image that He created in them, particularly, His moral and ethical attributes of justice and righteousness, they only fructified toxic injustices and unrighteousnesses, which will only deserve God�s judgments because of His intrinsic harmonious attributes of holiness, love, and jealousy that can not stand the presence of sin. And also as chosen people of God or the elect, Israel is the Old Testament vineyard of God, while the church is the New Testament vineyard of God. And in the bible, it can be seen especially in the parables of Christ (e.g., the parable of the sower), that our hearts, minds, and even bodies are vineyards God has been farming with His manifold blessings, as what we can glean
Deuteronomy 6:5
And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.
which was re-echoed by Christ in His Great Commandment in
Matthew 22:37-40
37 Jesus said unto him,
Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
38 This is the first and great commandment.
39 And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
40 On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.
We sow God�s words in our spirits, sow His thoughts in our hearts and minds, and sow His words of health in our bodies, and we�ll reap bountiful harvest of righteousness and peace.
And for the New Testament disciples of Christ, in the process of spiritual multiplication, the world is their vineyard, or their mission field, where they are to sow the seeds of His words of life to produce, fructify, and multiply to reflect the glories of their Redeemer. These allegories and analogies will be expounded later in this article.
Particularly what is said in
Hosea 10:12,13
12 Sow to yourselves in righteousness, reap in mercy; break up your fallow ground: for it is time to seek the LORD, till he come and rain righteousness upon you.
13 Ye have plowed wickedness, ye have reaped iniquity; ye have eaten the fruit of lies: because thou didst trust in thy way, in the multitude of thy mighty men.
affirms the Law of Sowing and Reaping, not only true in nature, but even in the spiritual farm of the hearts and minds of the Israelites. God urged Israel, His farm, to seek Him by cultivating righteousness (or justice), and then reaping His unfailing love (or loyalty). The showers or rain of righteousness allegorizes God�s future gift of righteousness or deliverance from their unrighteousness when the Messiah would come to do so for them. Throughout Israel�s history, God�s prophets had been exhorted to fulfill what is said in verse 12. But the sinful chosen people did not respond accordingly, not fulfilling God�s expectations of their fruitfulness in righteousness because they only bore toxic fruits of unrighteousness with their wickedness, evildoings, and deceptions. Instead of trusting only in their God, they depended on her own military might or carnal weapons that wouldn�t profit for them. The stark and frank contrasts between God�s expectations versus Israel�s sinfulness only heightened their guilt before God. So, they were called to repentance to testify of God�s graciousness to contribute to the prophet�s accusation of their sins against God.
Actually, since the creation of the earth, God has been working as a farmer by the laws He foreordained to rule His created universe, be it in the natural, but even also in the spiritual realm. We can particularly read after the destruction of the world with a universal flood after Noah�s salvation from the flood in
Genesis 8:22
While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.
After God�s judgment of the antedeluvian world�s wickedness with that universal deluge, and after Noah made a sacrifice to God to honor His salvation, God promised never to cursed the ground again by ordaining the continuity of the seasons, particularly, seedtime and harvest to evidence His forbearance of mankind�s sinfulness that only deserves His judgments, like that flood that only saved Noah and his family. Actually, just as natural as the law of gravity and the law of thermodynamics that rule the natural universe, a more universal law that is not only ruling the natural order but also even like the spiritual realm can be seen in the law of sowing and reaping, as said in
Galatians 6:7
7 Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.
So, what is true of the law of sowing and reaping in the agricultural realm can also be seen like in the spiritual realm, as we can read in
Galatians 6:8-10
8 For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.
9 And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.
10 As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith.
This law of sowing and reaping also rules the spiritual realm as can be seen in the following:
Job 4:8
Even as I have seen, they that plow iniquity, and sow wickedness, reap the same.
Psalms 126:5,6
5 They that sow in tears shall reap in joy.
6 He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him.
Proverbs 22:8
He that soweth iniquity shall reap vanity: and the rod of his anger shall fail.
Jeremiah 12:13
They have sown wheat, but shall reap thorns: they have put themselves to pain, but shall not profit: and they shall be ashamed of your revenues because of the fierce anger of the LORD.
Hosea 8:7
For they have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind: it hath no stalk: the bud shall yield no meal: if so be it yield, the strangers shall swallow it up.
2 Corinthians 9:6
But this I say, He which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly; and he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully.
From the preponderance of the concomitant words on the sowing-reaping law in God�s words, we can see that if we sow in the spirit where we obey and follow God and His laws, we would reap life and righteousness. His law is our protection and provision from destruction. Else, if we sow to our sinful flesh, we would reap death and unrighteousness. God is a farmer who farms the words by the laws He ordained to rule His universe. When the hearts of the chosen people got so hardened with their continuous sinfulness, aside from what is said in Hosea 10:12,13, God commanded them to repent by the words through the weeping prophet:
Jeremiah 4:3,4
3 For thus saith the LORD to the men of Judah and Jerusalem, Break up your fallow ground, and sow not among thorns.
4 Circumcise yourselves to the LORD, and take away the foreskins of your heart, ye men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem: lest my fury come forth like fire, and burn that none can quench it, because of the evil of your doings.
Actually, throughout Israel�s history, the prophets had been appealing the chosen people to repentance, lest judgment would come. And if they would repent, God would abundantly pardon and bless them accordingly as He always graciously and mercifully promised. Else, God judged them accordingly. But this sinful chosen people did not respond accordingly, producing instead wickedness, evil, and deception among each other. Rather than trusting on God�s power, the nation proudly depended on their own strength, particularly, their own military might. Actually, these words of God�s appeal through the prophets only reveal God�s graciousness which the nation only took for granted to deserve only His consequent judgments.
If we sow a thought, we reap an action. If we sow an action, we reap a habit. If we sow a habit, we sow a character. If we sow a character, we reap a destiny. If we sow a destiny, we reap eternity!!! Such is the law of sowing and reaping!!!
If we sow in the spirit, we will reap life, but if we sow in the flesh, we will reap death and decay, as can be read in
Galatians 5:19-21
19 Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these;
Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness,
20 Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies,
21 Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.
Galatians 6:8-10
8 For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.
9 And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.
10 As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith.
For emphasis, it is said that if we sow to a thoughts, we reap an action. If we sow an action, we reap a habit. If we sow a habit, we reap a character. If we sow a character, we reap a destiny. If we sow a destiny, we reap eternity.
Aside from watering and fertilizing as principles a farmer like God does to propagate His beloved plants so that they would bear fruits to be reaped later, another agricultural principle that can also have spiritual analogue is on pruning that should lead to more fruitbearing. We can clearly read for example in the following texts:
Isaiah 18:5
For afore the harvest, when the bud is perfect, and the sour grape is ripening in the flower, he shall both cut off the sprigs with pruning hooks, and take away and cut down the branches.
John 15:1-8
1 I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman.
2 Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit.
3 Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.
4 Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me.
5 I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.
6 If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.
7 If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.
8 Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples.
In this context, we can see here that God is glorified and honoured if His disciples would bear fruits, particularly, fruits of the Spirit, which can be seen in
Galatians 5:22-26
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,
23 Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.
24 And they that are Christ�s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.
25 If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.
26 Let us not be desirous of vain glory, provoking one another, envying one another.
and in
Ephesians 5:9-11
9 (For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth;)
10 Proving what is acceptable unto the Lord.
11 And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them.
Unrighteous fruitlessness frustrates God�s plans and purposes in blessing mankind, which He did even way back in the Garden of Eden. And fruitlessness of good works and righteousness will lead to God�s judgments, as can be seen in the tragic history of Israel, His own Chosen and Cared-for Vineyard, for example in the preponderance of texts on being cut off due to their continuous wickedness, like a plant or vine which is unprofitable, such as the following:
Leviticus 18:29
For whosoever shall commit any of these abominations, even the souls that commit them shall be cut off from among their people.
Leviticus 19:8-10
8 Therefore every one that eateth it shall bear his iniquity, because he hath profaned the hallowed thing of the LORD: and that soul shall be cut off from among his people.
9 And when ye reap the harvest of your land, thou shalt not wholly reap the corners of thy field, neither shalt thou gather the gleanings of thy harvest.
10 And thou shalt not glean thy vineyard, neither shalt thou gather every grape of thy vineyard; thou shalt leave them for the poor and stranger: I am the LORD your God.
Leviticus 20:3-6
3 And I will set my face against that man, and will cut him off from among his people; because he hath given of his seed unto Molech, to defile my sanctuary, and to profane my holy name.
4 And if the people of the land do any ways hide their eyes from the man, when he giveth of his seed unto Molech, and kill him not:
5 Then I will set my face against that man, and against his family, and will cut him off, and all that go a whoring after him, to commit whoredom with Molech, from among their people.
6 And the soul that turneth after such as have familiar spirits, and after wizards, to go a whoring after them, I will even set my face against that soul, and will cut him off from among his people.
Leviticus 26:30-39
30 And I will destroy your high places, and cut down your images, and cast your carcases upon the carcases of your idols, and my soul shall abhor you.
31 And I will make your cities waste, and bring your sanctuaries unto desolation, and I will not smell the savour of your sweet odours.
32 And I will bring the land into desolation: and your enemies which dwell therein shall be astonished at it.
33 And I will scatter you among the heathen, and will draw out a sword after you: and your land shall be desolate, and your cities waste.
34 Then shall the land enjoy her sabbaths, as long as it lieth desolate, and ye be in your enemies� land; even then shall the land rest, and enjoy her sabbaths.
35 As long as it lieth desolate it shall rest; because it did not rest in your sabbaths, when ye dwelt upon it.
36 And upon them that are left alive of you I will send a faintness into their hearts in the lands of their enemies; and the sound of a shaken leaf shall chase them; and they shall flee, as fleeing from a sword; and they shall fall when none pursueth.
37 And they shall fall one upon another, as it were before a sword, when none pursueth: and ye shall have no power to stand before your enemies.
38 And ye shall perish among the heathen, and the land of your enemies shall eat you up.
39 And they that are left of you shall pine away in their iniquity in your enemies� lands; and also in the iniquities of their fathers shall they pine away with them.
1 Kings 9:7
Then will I cut off Israel out of the land which I have given them; and this house, which I have hallowed for my name, will I cast out of my sight; and Israel shall be a proverb and a byword among all people:
Psalms 12:3
The LORD shall cut off all flattering lips, and the tongue that speaketh proud things:
Psalms 34:16
The face of the LORD is against them that do evil, to cut off the remembrance of them from the earth.
Psalms 37:1,2,9,22,28,34,38
1 Fret not thyself because of evildoers, neither be thou envious against the workers of iniquity.
2 For they shall soon be cut down like the grass, and wither as the green herb.
9 For evildoers shall be cut off: but those that wait upon the LORD, they shall inherit the earth.
22 vFor such as be blessed of him shall inherit the earth; and they that be cursed of him shall be cut off.
28 For the LORD loveth judgment, and forsaketh not his saints; they are preserved for ever: but the seed of the wicked shall be cut off.
34 Wait on the LORD, and keep his way, and he shall exalt thee to inherit the land: when the wicked are cut off, thou shalt see it.
38 But the transgressors shall be destroyed together: the end of the wicked shall be cut off.
Psalms 75:10
the horns of the wicked also will I cut off; but the horns of the righteous shall be exalted.
Psalms 80:6-12
6 In the morning it flourisheth, and groweth up; in the evening it is cut down, and withereth.
7 For we are consumed by thine anger, and by thy wrath are we troubled.
8 Thou hast set our iniquities before thee, our secret sins in the light of thy countenance.
9 For all our days are passed away in thy wrath: we spend our years as a tale that is told.
10 The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labour and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away.
11 Who knoweth the power of thine anger? even according to thy fear, so is thy wrath.
12 So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.
Psalms 94:23
And he shall bring upon them their own iniquity, and shall cut them off in their own wickedness; yea, the LORD our God shall cut them off.
Psalms 101:5,8
5 Whoso privily slandereth his neighbour, him will I cut off: him that hath an high look and a proud heart will not I suffer.
8 I will early destroy all the wicked of the land; that I may cut off all wicked doers from the city of the LORD.
Psalms 129:4
The LORD is righteous: he hath cut asunder the cords of the wicked.
Psalms 143:12
And of thy mercy cut off mine enemies, and destroy all them that afflict my soul: for I am thy servant.
Proverbs 2:22
But the wicked shall be cut off from the earth, and the transgressors shall be rooted out of it.
Isaiah 14:12
How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!
Lamentations 2:3
He hath cut off in his fierce anger all the horn of Israel: he hath drawn back his right hand from before the enemy, and he burned against Jacob like a flaming fire, which devoureth round about.
Ezekiel 14:17,21
17 Or if I bring a sword upon that land, and say, Sword, go through the land; so that I cut off man and beast from it:
21 For thus saith the Lord GOD; How much more when I send my four sore judgments upon Jerusalem, the sword, and the famine, and the noisome beast, and the pestilence, to cut off from it man and beast?
Ezekiel 17:9,10
9 Say thou, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Shall it prosper? shall he not pull up the roots thereof, and cut off the fruit thereof, that it wither? it shall wither in all the leaves of her spring, even without great power or many people to pluck it up by the roots thereof.
10 Yea, behold, being planted, shall it prosper? shall it not utterly wither, when the east wind toucheth it? it shall wither in the furrows where it grew.
Ezekiel 25:7
Behold, therefore I will stretch out mine hand upon thee, and will deliver thee for a spoil to the heathen; and I will cut thee off from the people, and I will cause thee to perish out of the countries: I will destroy thee; and thou shalt know that I am the LORD.
Particularly, on what Christ said on the unfruitful tree in
Luke 13:7-9
7Then said he unto the dresser of his vineyard, Behold, these three years I come seeking fruit on this fig tree, and find none: cut it down; why cumbereth it the ground?
8 And he answering said unto him, Lord, let it alone this year also, till I shall dig about it, and dung it:
9 And if it bear fruit, well: and if not, then after that thou shalt cut it down.
We can see that God does not want to waste on useless fruitlessness. Thus, pruning, uprooting, or cutting down an unfruitful plant is God�s judgment of wasteful useless fruitlessness. Pruning in particular is the process of cutting away the useless and wasteful branches which will suck the life out of the tree or vine. If not pruned, the unfruitful branches will reduce the productivity of the plant because the plant spends and waste most of its energies in maintaining the life of an unfruitful branch. We can see that once plants are pruned, we can see sprouts of new life and productivity, which represents God�s pruning of the useless branches of one�s spiritual life that can suck the life out of God in the believer, and limit its productivity.
Aside from very clear lesson on the pruning process in John 15:1-8, we can see that God works of pruning is clearly seen in what Paul said with rich farming metaphors in
Romans 11:15-36
15 For if the casting away of them be the reconciling of the world, what shall the receiving of them be, but life from the dead?
16 For if the firstfruit be holy, the lump is also holy: and if the root be holy, so are the branches.
17 And if some of the branches be broken off, and thou, being a wild olive tree, wert grafted in among them, and with them partakest of the root and fatness of the olive tree;
18 Boast not against the branches. But if thou boast, thou bearest not the root, but the root thee.
19 Thou wilt say then, The branches were broken off, that I might be grafted in.
20 Well; because of unbelief they were broken off, and thou standest by faith. Be not highminded, but fear:
21 For if God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest he also spare not thee.
22 Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God: on them which fell, severity; but toward thee, goodness, if thou continue in his goodness: otherwise thou also shalt be cut off.
23 And they also, if they abide not still in unbelief, shall be grafted in: for God is able to graft them in again.
24 For if thou wert cut out of the olive tree which is wild by nature, and wert grafted contrary to nature into a good olive tree: how much more shall these, which be the natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree?
25 For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in.
26 And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob:
27 For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins.
28 As concerning the gospel, they are enemies for your sakes: but as touching the election, they are beloved for the fathers� sakes.
29 For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance.
30 For as ye in times past have not believed God, yet have now obtained mercy through their unbelief:
31 Even so have these also now not believed, that through your mercy they also may obtain mercy.
32 For God hath concluded them all in unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all.
33 O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!
34 For who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been his counsellor?
35 Or who hath first given to him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again?
36 For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever. Amen.
The same Greek root word katharos is for pruning, cleansing, and casting away. It�s like saying that the unfruitful branches are like lifedraining pollution that defeats the purpose of God for the fruitfulness of the plant, and that pruning cleanses the plant of such polluting branches. The pruning of a vine involves cutting back live wood to improve its fruitfulness and the removal of dead wood that might spread decay. Here, this beautiful allegory of discipleship relates the responsibilities of the branch, viz. to abide in the vine, to bear (not produce) fruit from and for the vine, only to bear fruit (a branch is useless for anything else, its wood cannot be used for furniture, firewood, or building purposes), to bear much fruit. This is in stark contrast to Israel, God�s fruitless Old Testament vine (see Jdg. 9:7-15; Ps. 80:8; Isa. 5:1-7; Ezek. 15:2; Hosea 10:1, and similar texts mentioned earlier), and lastly, to be submitted to pruning. Despite the pains of pruning for the plant, the pruning will make the plant focus more of its energies in fruitbearing, the desired expectation of the vinedresser.
Pruning does not threaten the salvation of any true disciple of Christ. From John 15, the statement that says, �like the (not a) branch that is thrown away� emphasizes on the metaphor, not the believer. The branch of the grapevine has no use and purpose but bearing fruit. The stringy wood cannot be carved or used in building. It can only be thrown out and burned. Jesus is saying that the person who does not abide in Him is as useless as the br
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