Repentance is More Than Skin Deep

“For thus saith the LORD to the men of Judah and Jerusalem, Break up your fallow ground, and sow not among thorns.” (Jer 4:3 AV)

How deep is our repentance?  Is it only skin deep?  Does it go all the way down to that part of the heart and soul which results in the destruction of hurtful actions, thoughts, or disposition?  Is our repentance temporary?  Or, is it final?  Once we have forsaken our sin, do we quickly allow it right back into our hearts?  This is the command given to Judah.  They had a variety of kings whose character varied from doing right to doing evil.  Unlike Israel whose kings only did evil in the sight of the LORD, Judah had some good kings among the bad.  There were times when they did right before the eyes of the LORD excluding the high places.  Perhaps this is to what the LORD is referring.  Partial repentance is no repentance at all.  The thorns still remain.

Few remember the dust bowl of the 1930’s.  It was the practice of farming to disc the land which would break up the soil, turn in over, and prepare it for planting.  During the 1930’s, there was a drought in Texas and Oklahoma that resulted in a great dust storm, eroding away the top soil of many farms.  Since then, it has become an increasing practice to shock the fields with chemicals to kill weeds and then plant by scraping rather than plowing.  Gone are the days a pedestrian would walk the fields of a tilled farm trying to keep one’s balance among rows after rows of ruts.  This old-fashioned way of plowing severed the roots of the weeds before the weed had a chance to pollinate, turning it over into the soil and turning it into a fertilizer.  Then crop was planted and grew faster than the weeds could recover.  There were still weeds that grew, but they were very few compared to what was there before the tilling.  When this soil was turned over, it killed all the threatening influence to a healthy crop.

The LORD is trying to show us what true repentance looks like.  We cannot sow righteousness when unrighteous still exists.  It has to be rooted out and destroyed.  Repentance kills of sin at its root.  It makes our sin become the waste that it is.  True repentance takes a cutting away.  A severing.  This can be painful.  But it is necessary.  If we are trying to do right while living wrong, it will not work.  If we sow among thorns, the thorns will win out.  The thorns of sin must be overturned.  Otherwise, it will undermine the fruit which God wishes to grow to our account.