Starting Over in a Difficult Land

"You have sown much, and bring in little; You eat, but do not have enough" -Haggai 1:6

I love how my NKJV Chronological Study Bible expanded upon this verse about how Israel returned to difficult land after their years in Babylon. It claimed that, "achaeological surveys suggest that Judah lost 90% of its population during these years". Thus Judean society in the land of Judah had collapsed, but that is not the whole picture. If we zoomed out to zoom into the land of Jerusalem, we will see that the land was neglected for approximately 50 years. I don't know what that means for I am not an agricultural guru. I could say that the land of Jerusalem may have been covered by debris from the collapsed buildings, wild animals' manure, dirt, and weeds. The exercept in NKJV added, "Land would have grown hard and become overgrown with brush. It must have taken intensive manual labor and a lengthy time to get the fields to return to productivity again." Despite the difficulties, Israel continued. They moved back to this land and strived. They sowed much and reaped a little. They knew that they had to start somewhere; they sow.

Two days ago, I began to work on the city garden at my place. It had been abandoned for years. The problem was that I don't have any history of this garden. Let say that it was neglected for 50 years. Well if an American decided to adopt a foreign kid without a birth certificate, then the doctor had to estimate the age to create an estimated birth certification for the kid. And so I think I have the right to say so until someone interfere. It was covered with some 5 feet tall weeds! Few weeks after the weeds had been trimmed down, they sprung back up to approximately 3 feet tall. The soil was in a heap above the ground level. I decided to dump the heap of the soil to turn the garden into a ground level garden. It wasn't easy as I thought it would be. When I dug it up, I found some hidden debris. It looked much worse than the start for it looked like a dirty road now... Oh only if I had kept my motorcycle! I could park my motorcycle upon the garden as a garden, it would be an easy way out. Anyway I bought a beautiful "Sky Pencil Japenese Holly" for this garden to learn that it shall die or grow brown in this garden; I held it back.

You see, if you had no choice, then you had to sow. It is between famine or toil. Obviously the toil is the best choice. Israel had to work hard over their crops. They had compose the soil, mixing human hair, horse manure, ground coffee, vegetables leftovers and peels and more. But they mightn't effect the soil til few years later. The soil was malnutrition. But they sow anyway.

Moreover, as they began to struggle to settle down in their land, God send the prophet to warn them about their establishment. "Then the word of the Lord came by Haggai the prophet, saying, 'Is it time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses, and this temple to lie in ruins?' Now therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts: 'Consider your ways!'"

We began to warm our comfortable seats, but before we warm our butt, God butted in to tell us to keep moving. It is either a spiritual famine or a spiritual toil.