My loved one had a
vineyard
on a fertile hillside.
Isaiah
5:1 (NIV)
It’s not easy to garden on a hillside. There are erosion and irrigation issues. If
nothing else you are going to spend a lot of extra energy walking up and down
the hill. That’s why most folks avoid
hills. See Where to Put
Your Vegetable Garden (Iowa St. Univ.
Extension 2013).
But
sometimes you have to put up with those things.
Maybe that’s where the only, or the best, soil is available. Maybe the kind of crop you want grows best on
a hill. Sometimes you just have to deal with the hassles of hillside gardening
if you want to be fruitful.
Maybe
that’s the dynamic God is getting at here—that we sometimes have to travel a
hard path to get to where we will bear the best fruit. We see that pattern multiple times in
scripture. Joseph
had to go through slavery to get to a position where he could provide for
Israel. Moses had to
spend 40 years in the backside of a desert before he was ready to lead Israel
out of Egypt. David
had to be chased by Saul for years before he was able to give Israel the
leadership God wanted for it.
The
same thing can be true for us, even if God doesn’t call us to such epic tasks. He sometimes makes us go
where we rather wouldn’t because He knows that’s where, or how, we’ll get to the
place where we’ll bear the best fruit. This week’s verses speak to that
dynamic. Let’s see what they say.
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