“The sluggard will not plow by reason of the cold; therefore shall he beg in harvest, and have nothing” (Prov. 20:4). “Break up your fallow ground, and sow not among thorns” (Jer. 4:3). “And they that were ready, went in with Him to the marriage, and the door was shut. Afterward came also the other virgins, saying, Lord, Lord, open unto us. But He answered and said, Verily I say unto you, I know you not” (Matt. 25:10-12).
1. Plowing. The Lord God had cursed the ground after Adam sinned, and declared to him that it was only by toilsome cultivation it would yield him food.
“In the sweat of thy face thou shalt eat bread” (Gen. 3:19). So man has found it ever since. The despicable character described at the head of this paper, the sluggard, because of slothfulness, would not attend to the cultivation of his field—for he had a field. “I went by the field of the slothful and by the vineyard of the man void of understanding; and lo, it was all grown over with thorns; and nettles had covered the face thereof; and the stone wall thereof was broken down” (Prov. 24:30, 31). This observant passer-by must have noticed the sluggard's field in summer time, as the thorns and nettles were growing vigorously: a poor look-out for its owner at the approaching harvest. His neighbor's field had a very different appearance. A fine crop of grain covered its face, proving the truth of Prov. 28:19, “He that tilleth his land shall have plenty of bread.” The slothful man had missed his season. In winter he ought to have been up and plowing his field, that the frost and cold winds might temper and pulverize the broken clods, to prepare a good seed bed. When he should have rooted out the nettles and thorns, he had been folding his hands to sleep.
It was cold, and he would not plow. Because he did not plow, he could not sow. And because he did not sow, he had nothing to reap but thorns and nettles, winch were only fit for the fire.
As it is naturally, so it is spiritually. Man's heart is, to say the least, a fallow field, which must be broken up, before the seed of the word of God can be sown there, and become fruitful. Thus the Lord calls “the men of Judah, and Jerusalem” to “break up their fallow ground, and sow not among thorns.”
So, in Jer. 4:14, we read, “O Jerusalem, wash thine heart from wickedness, that thou mayest be saved.” “To this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and that trembleth at my word” (Isa. 66:2). Again the Lord went into the synagogue, at Nazareth, and read from the book of the prophet Isaiah, “He hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives,” &c. (Luke 4:18). The preparatory work this needed the slothful man would not do. Sinners had rather not have their hearts broken. It is humbling and painful work. They resist the plow-share in the conscience; and prefer to be let alone in their sins. So of old, when the apostle Paul “reasoned of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come, Felix trembled, and answered, Go thy way for this time; when I have a convenient season, I will send for thee” (Acts 24:25). The powerful appeal of the apostle to the conscience of Felix was felt, but not responded to. The plow-share was refused, the heart left unbroken. Felix's present associations were more pleasant to him, than thinking of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come. “Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep.”
Then, again, ling Agrippa listens with intense interest to the pointed dealing of the apostle Paul with his heart and conscience. “King Agrippa, believest thou the prophets? I know that thou believest.” Here surely is a more advanced case than Felix's; for there was in king Agrippa, at any rate, intellectual faith in the prophets; but with what result? “Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian” (Acts 26:27, 28). The word “almost” or “in a little degree” reveals, that the work was not thorough. Not so in Acts 2, when the apostle speaks to conscience-troubled souls. “Men (and) brethren, what shall we do?” So Saul of Tarsus, when the Lord appeared to him on the way to Damascus, “Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?” See too the prodigal, and the publican of the parables, and the penitent robber on the cross.
The heart was broken. Repentance, self-judgment before God was there: fit state for the reception of salvation by grace, through faith of the gospel.
2. Sowing. In Matt. 13 the Lord describes the various kinds of ground upon which the seed of the gospel fell. The sower goes forth to sow. It is not required of him to pick out, and discriminate as to the nature and fitness of the soil upon which he must scatter the seed. He sows the whole field. “Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature” (Mark 16:15). He was not stinted for seed; and he is quite aware that all the seed sown will not produce fruit. Yet he sows it everywhere. The crop depends upon the state of the land where the seed falls. Figures may not hold good in every detail, but there is analogy in the wayside hearers to the sluggard's field. Both were unbroken uncultivated plots. The slothful man who refused to plow his field is described as a “man void of understanding.” So in Matt. 13 the Lord describes the way-side hearers in the same language “When any one heareth the word of the kingdom, and understandeth it not” (ver. 19).
On the stony ground the seed germinates, yet is there no deepness of earth, not much breaking up there; and in consequence all withers away when trial and persecution come.
The roots of the thorns were left in the third plot, although it would appear that their tops had been cut off. They should have been rooted up. It was sowing amongst thorns contrary to the word of God by Jeremiah, which we have looked at. Yet it was not the responsibility of the sower to root up the thorns. There might be an apparent clearing, but the roots remained of worldliness, cares, riches, and pleasures. Such were men like Demas and others. Very different was Barnabas, “a man full of the Holy Ghost and of faith.” The work was in dealing with the root. Not that the evil in the heart was exterminated, or non-existent; but it was judged in divine power, and a new nature given, as well as the Holy Spirit. Only the good ground matures a crop; and that in quantity, not the same in all, but “Thirty, sixty, and one hundred fold.” The good ground was not “fallow ground,” but broken up. The Lord's explanation is, “He that heareth the word and understandeth it” (ver. 23). In the corresponding parable of Luke it is “believing and being saved.” Both are true. It is the opposite to the way-side hearer and the slothful man. What is it here to “understand?” It is the perception, that the word of the kingdom or of God is what the soul needs. “God commendeth His love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:8). If one may so speak, God in the gospel says to the sinner, I know your need: you are lost; but I have given My Son to save you. The broken-hearted sinner understands this, and welcomes Christ. The seed falls into the good ground, and brings forth fruit. In Luke 8:15 we have the explanation of the good ground given:— “That (seed) on the good ground are they which, in a honest and good heart, having heard the word, keep it and bring forth fruit with patience.”
It is not meant here, that the heart was without sin, but that it realized and owned its sin, like the publican, “God be merciful to me, a (the), sinner.” No man is honest in the sight of God, who does not feel and own his sin. The fallow ground is thus broken up, and the word of salvation is received, and held fast, and with patience the fruit is brought forth.
3. Reaping. On this one need not say much. As there is a time for everything under the sun, so then a time to plow, a time to sow, and a time to reap.
Yes, assuredly, the harvest is coming. The end of the age approaches. “The coming of the Lord draweth nigh.” The cry has gone forth, “Behold the bridegroom. Go ye out to meet him.” This is the immediate and first great event. Are you ready, my reader, for Him? With lamp trimmed and lighted, and oil in your vessel to sustain the light, waiting for your Lord? Then you will go in, and the door will be shut. But what of others? They are left outside. They “beg in harvest and get nothing.” Was the slothful man “void of understanding?” So we’re these foolish virgins, in neglecting the oil essential to sustain the light of their lamp. Alas! it could not abide without oil. “Our lamps,” exclaim they, “are going out.” Hope dies within them, as they realize their fatal want; and, solemn thought, the Lord in that day refuses their cry, “Lord, Lord, open unto us.” “I know you not” is His answer. So at the end of the age (Matt. 13:41), “The Son of man shall send forth His angels, and they shall gather out of His kingdom all things that offend, and those that do iniquity; and shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.” The wheat is gathered into the barn, after the tares are gathered in bundles to be burned (ver. 30). Solemn warning! may we, being instructed, understand the word.
G. R.