en_ta/jit/bita-farming/01.md

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Some images from the Bible related to farming are listed below. The word in all capital letters represents an idea. The word does not necessarily appear in every verse that has the image, but the idea that the word represents does appear.

A FARMER represents God, and the VINEYARD represents his chosen people

My well beloved had a vineyard on a very fertile hill. He spaded it, removed the stones, and planted it with an excellent kind of vine. He built a tower in the middle of it, and also built a winepress. He waited for it to produce grapes, but it only produced wild grapes. (Isaiah 5:1-2)

For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard. (Matthew 20:1 ULB)

There was a man, a landowner. He planted a vineyard, set a hedge about it, dug a winepress in it, built a watchtower, and rented it out to vine growers. Then he went into another country. (Matthew 21:33 ULB)

The GROUND represents people's hearts (inner being)

For Yahweh says this to each person in Judah and Jerusalem: 'Plow your own ground, and do not sow among thorns. (Jeremiah 4:3 ULB)

When anyone hears the word of the kingdom but does not understand it.... This is the seed that was sown beside the road. What was sown on rocky ground is the person who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy....What was sown among the thorn plants, this is the person who hears the word, but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word.... The seed that was sown on the good soil, this is the person who hears the word and understands it. (Matthew 13:19-23 ULB)

Break up your unplowed ground, for it is time to seek Yahweh.... (Hosea 10:12 ULB)

SOWING or PLANTING represents actions or attitudes, and REAPING or GATHERING, represents judgment or reward

According to what I have seen, those who plow iniquity and sow trouble reap it. (Job 4:8 ULB)

Do not be deceived. God is not mocked, for whatever a man plants, that he will also gather in. For he who plants seed to his own sinful nature, from the sinful nature will gather destruction. The one who plants seed to the Spirit, from the spirit will gather in eternal life. (Galatians 6:7-8 ULB)

THRESHING and WINNOWING represent the separation of evil people from good people

After farmers harvest wheat and other types of grain, they bring them to a threshing floor, a flat place with hard ground, and have oxen pull heavy wheeled carts or sleds without wheels over the grain to thresh it, to separate the usable grains from the useless chaff. Then they take large forks and winnow the threshed grain by throwing it up in the air so the wind can carry off the chaff while the grains fall back to the threshing floor, where they can be gathered and used for food. (See the information in the translationWords document for help with translating "thresh" and "winnow.")

So I will winnow them with a pitchfork at the gates of the land. I will bereave them. I will destroy my people since they will not turn from their ways. (Jeremiah 15:7 ULB)

His winnowing fork is in his hand to thoroughly clear off his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his storehouse. But he will burn up the chaff with fire that can never be put out. (Luke 3:17 ULB)

GRAFTING represents God's allowing the Gentiles to become his people

For if you were cut out of what is by nature a wild olive tree, and contrary to nature were grafted into a good olive tree, how much more will these, the natural branches, be grafted back into their own olive tree? For I do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, of this mystery, so that you may not be wise in your own thinking: A partial hardening has come upon Israel until the full number of the Gentiles comes in. (Romans 11:24-25 ULB)

RAIN represents God's gifts to his people

...he comes and rains righteousness on you. (Hosea 10:12 ULB)

For the land that drinks in the rain that often comes on it, and that gives birth to the plants useful to those for whom the land was worked—this is the land that receives a blessing from God. But if it bears thorns and thistles, it is worthless and is near to a curse. Its end is in burning. (Hebrews 6:7-8 ULB)

Be patient, then, brothers, until the Lord's coming. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit from the ground and he is patient about it, until it receives the early and late rains. (James 5:7 ULB)