From the opening pages of the Bible, God is revealed to be both Creator and Sustainer of the world. He is not like other ancient “deities” whose whims wreak havoc from an impersonal distance, but rather He stoops down and personally works in the world He created. This intimate involvement extends to humanity who bears His image, as well as the agricultural realities which sustain earthly life. God’s concern for the preservation of His creation is an inescapable theme of the Old Testament, which consistently draws together the people’s covenantal faithfulness and the health of their land (Deuteronomy 24:1-4; Leviticus 25; Jeremiah 12:1-17; Isaiah 24:5-6). The New Testament picks up on this theme in various ways, using agricultural metaphors to instruct in covenant faithfulness. In parables, Jesus uses drought, harvest, soil, seed, and other agricultural imagery to teach about discipleship, echoing the repeated themes of the Old Testament (Matthew 13:1-1; 21:33-41; Mark 4; Luke 12:13-21).
Over the month of October, we will draw out these connections between the Old Testament’s witness and the parables of Jesus, to learn more about the character of God as Lord of the harvest and the faithful way we are called to live in response.
1) The Creator Who Sustains (Genesis 8 & Parable of the Rich Fool)
2) The Wisdom of Creation (Psalm 104 & The Parable of the Growing Seed)
3) The Restoration of Land (Jeremiah 33:10-13 & Parable of the Sower)
I pray that in the coming weeks as we see God’s faithfulness to His people and His creation, we would increasingly understand the depths of His kindness, even in the mundane realities of earthly life. I pray that we would be able to see the God who made a covenant with Noah, Abraham, and David is the same God who is revealed in Jesus Christ and who calls us into covenant relationship with Him. May the soil of our hearts be fertile for the Word of God to grow within us, and by His Spirit transform us into the likeness of our Savior.