Plant/Sow

With few exceptions, everyone in the biblical world knew the feel and smell of broken soil because everyone got their hands dirty planting their farm fields, vineyards, trees, and gardens. This critical process began the life cycle of the plants that provided them with food. It was not mortals, however, but their Creator who first planted in the Bible when he established a garden in Eden (Gen. 2:8). This divine sowing imbued the action of planting with very positive connotations. In much of the biblical writing that follows, planting continued to have positive connotations, linked to a peaceful normalcy that was part of the regular rhythm of life (Gen. 8:22; 9:20; Prov. 31:16; Jer. 29:5, 28)—so normal that it is one of the routine activities in which people will be engaged at the time of Jesus’s return (Luke 17:26, 28). In Bible times, the life lived under divine blessing was one in which the family would eat what they had planted and even eat what others had planted—when God’s people received ownership of the Promised Land (Deut. 6:11; Josh. 24:13; Isa. 65:21–22).

Planting and growing grain became a symbol of peaceful normalcy in the culture of the biblical world.

But with the fall into sin, the process of growing food also became connected with negative connotations (Gen. 3:17). In fact, the curses for covenant disloyalty included this shocking possibility: “You will plant seed in vain, because your enemies will eat it” (Lev. 26:16; see also Deut. 28:30, 39). So when Israel planted but failed to harvest, the Lord expected them to inspect their lifestyle for signs of trouble (Judg. 6:3–4; Mic. 6:15; Zeph. 1:13; Hag. 1:6). Even planting that led to harvesting could have a negative connotation if the one planting expected to find satisfaction in the process without taking account of God’s presence in the process (Eccles. 2:4–5, 11).

The Bible mentions a wide variety of things that ordinary people planted, each of which helped provide the nutrients required for a healthy life. They planted vineyards, olive trees, date palms, pomegranate trees, fig trees, sycamore trees, wheat, barley, and vegetable gardens, to name the most popular. In the gardens they grew lentils, fava beans, chickpeas, cucumbers, watermelons, onions, leeks, and garlic.[163]

The time and manner of planting were affected by climate, culture, and divine law. There was a proper time to plant in the Promised Land (Eccles. 3:2) that generally corresponded with the arrival of the winter rains that softened the soil and provided the vital moisture that nurtured the sprouting plants. When this moisture combined with appropriate soil temperature, the seeds germinated and the plants matured.[164] In the case of fruit trees and grapevines, the preference was always to plant a seedling rather than a seed—often a cutting from a successful plant. In the case of other commodities, the plants were grown from seeds. We have the most information from the Bible and associated archaeology from the ancient world on the process of planting grain. Once the early rains of October and November softened the soil for plowing, the farmer broke open the soil and then scattered seed over the plowed field. This scattering could be done with a sweep of the hand, by a donkey led back and forth across the plowed field dribbling seed from bags secured to its back, or by a plow that deposited seeds behind the plow point using a funnel-and-tube system called a seed drill.[165] No matter how the planting was done, it was also considered an act of worship responding to the divine law that limited the kinds of seed that could be planted in a field and the years the field was to be left unplanted (Lev. 19:19; 25:4, 20; Deut. 22:9).

Planting is also used as a figure of speech in the Bible in four different ways:

1. The image of planting is used to describe the way in which the Lord established his people in the Promised Land following their departure from Egypt (Exod. 15:17; 2 Sam. 7:10; Pss. 44:2; 80:8, 15; Isa. 5:2).
2. After Israel was torn up by its root from Canaan and sent into exile, the return from exile is pictured as replanting: “I will plant Israel in their own land, never again to be uprooted from the land I have given them” (Amos 9:15; see also Jer. 24:6; Hosea 2:23).
3. The Scriptures further speak of the believer’s life with related imagery. The blessed man is “like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither” (Ps. 1:3; see also 92:12–13; Jer. 17:7–8).
4. Figurative planting is also used for the planting of God’s Word in the hearts of his people. A number of Jesus’s parables employ the image of sowing, including his parable of the sower, parable of the weeds, and parable of the mustard seed, all of which illustrate the ways in which the gospel arrives in people’s lives and faith matures (Matt. 13:1–32). And when combating divisions in the church at Corinth, Paul used this same image for the one who evangelizes (1 Cor. 3:6–8).

Vineyards were planted with cuttings taken from successful vines.

Because the average person knew what it was to get their hands dirty when planting seeds in the soil, everyone shared a common perspective on the outcome. The kind and quality of seed planted had a direct impact on the resulting harvest. As a result, the relationship between people’s actions and consequences in daily life was related to the familiar planting and harvesting cycle (2 Cor. 9:6; Gal. 6:7–8). If they lived life well, they could expect good things to follow (James 3:18). “The one who sows righteousness reaps a sure reward” (Prov. 11:18; Hosea 10:12). But those who lived carelessly could expect just the opposite outcome (Job 4:8; Hosea 8:7; 10:13). “Whoever sows injustice reaps calamity” (Prov. 22:8).