Friday, September 4: “Show Your Righteousness”

Hosea 10: 12: “Show with a view to righteousness, reap in accordance with kindness; Break up your fallow ground, for it is time to seek the Lord until He comes to rain righteousness on you.”

In Hosea’s powerful metaphor, ground becomes fallow (hard, not fit for sowing) when it has lain dormant for a long time. Fallow ground produces no fruit, and fails to show the glory of God. Breaking up the fallow ground is a tedious task, but praise (the meaning of the name Judah, v. 11) will do the job, and, combined with the Lord’s promised rain, converts one’s life into a fertile field which produces a visible righteousness for all to view.