God a Farmer?

I grew up in a church that I love, but we never spent a lot of time focusing on the Old Testament. As a child we read the stories of creation, the great flood, Daniel and the lion's den, David and Goliath, etc. However we never really analyzed the books of the prophets. Bits and pieces were pulled out and used during the Advent season, but we never really dissected them; prefering the New Testament instead. So in reading The Prophets I often find myself suprised at the image of God that is being protrayed. 

I often thought of the God of the Old Testament as a God that is vengeful and very strong. Not to say that he wasn't loving, but he tended to be more powerful. In reading The Prophets I am beginning to see the God that often times protrayed in the New Testament, the God of mercy, compassion, and love. 

The first instance of this was on Page 105 when Heschel says, "To Hosea, Israel is God's consort; to Isaiah, God's vineyard." I thought what a beautiful image of God. In this instance we see God as a caregiver and provider. I also grew up in a very rural farming community, so I have seen the passion that farmers must hold for their land and crops. They get up every morning before the sun to begin their day tending to their livelyhoods. They never take a day off, never stop or get to call in sick. They have to care for their crops always. I love the idea that God never stops caring for us. He never calls in a sick or personal day. He is always there. Like the farmer, he may not always be happy with his crop, but he sticks with us during droughts and years of exponential growth. 

The second thing that I took from this line, is that God expects his people to bear fruit. As Isaiah 5:2 says, "He looked for it to yield grapes, But it yielded sour grapes." We often fall short of God's mission for us. Although Isaiah wrote these words for generations long since gone, we can still listen and take heed. Heshel wrote, "The prophet's sympathy is for God Whose care for the vineyard had been of no avail." These words are full of wisdom and they point out to us that we are not yielding what a good crop should yield. We do not tend to the needy, poor, sick, orphaned, widowed, abused. We do not fight for justice. We are not the crop that God intended for us to be. These words should call all people, nations, and races to stand up and fight for the people that are being forgotten.