Break Up Your Fallow Ground
INTRODUCTION
When I was a student at Mississippi College, I worked each summer for the Quitman County, Mississippi, Agricultural, Stabilization and Conservation Service (ASCS), a division of the USDA. Farmers were allotted so many acres of cotton each year, based in part on the acreage of the farm and in part on the crop history of the farm. In those days there were still a few farmers who were trying to make a living on 40 acres of land, often with only 25-30 cultivatable acres. Many others farmed larger farms, and a still others farmed large plantations. If a farmer was given a cotton allotment of 100 acres on a farm with 200 or 300 hundred cultivatable acres, he would select his most productive land for the cotton, and then concentrate in “getting his cotton in” first.
After that, he would try to get in all the soybeans he could. That was often controlled by the weather. On a wet year, he would begin by planting the highest ground on those Mississippi Delta ridges. As the land dried up in the Spring, he would plant the rest of his cotton allotment. When he had his cotton in, he would then plant soybeans on land that was not in pasture, or woods. On some farms that was not always possible because on a wet year it would be too late to plant soybeans by the time the “low places” were dry enough to plant. We called them “low places” to distinguish them from “slews” or “brakes”. Today, no one can make a living on a 40 acre cotton farm. With modern machinery, farms have been consolidated and farmers plant hundreds of acres. As a matter of fact the cost of production demands a large operation today to make any profit at all.
Cotton land was carefully prepared for planting, and some farmers prepared soybean land for planting better than others. Cotton in the Mississippi was called White Gold, because it was the money crop. Black land, we called it buckshot or gumbo, had to be broken, or rowed up, in the fall as soon as the cotton was picked and the stalks cut. As we broke the land large slabs of earth would be folded over to form a row. It took the winter rains to melt those huge clods into a continuous row. Sandy land could be broken in the spring. Farmers would use “hippers” to freshen up the rows before planting, and then they would run over it with a “do-all”, which conditioned the rows for planting.
Land not planted to cotton, in those days, were planted to soybeans. Some years rains continued late enough that all the land could not be planted. The land that was left out was “fallow” land. It was idle ground that was totally unproductive. It was a waste but there was very little the farmer could do about it. He might convert some of it to a temporary pasture, but it was often left fallow for the year.
On one occasion, as I drove to a farm southwest of Crenshaw, Mississippi, I came upon a field that surprised me. I had never seen anything like it, and I had grown up on a Mississippi Delta farm and I had more experience with the ASCS than most who worked there. What I saw was a field of some 40 acres or more, totally covered with water. The farmer had pulled a levy around the land and flooded it with water. I asked the manager about the field and he said, “That’s water-fallowed. We are keeping it flooded to kill grass and weeds.” It looked like a modern, leveled rice farm, but it was no rice farm. A few years later the farmer would have used a pre-emergence chemical or a post-emergence chemical to kill the grass, but he had decided to water-fallow the land. Fallowed land was land that was not used for corps for a period of time. It was not productive. In this case, the land was not only not productive, it cost money to pull the levies and to pump the water onto the field.
Other farmers might leave a field out (fallowed) because he simply could not get it planted. On a wet year he would not be able to plant until late. On an extremely dry year he might have to re-plant, sometimes more than once. Land left out, fallow land, was not productive. Please remember that as we look at our text today. Land that was left fallow was not productive. Non-productive land could be very costly because the farmer’s margin of profit might well be in that fallowed ground.
When the farmer paid his land note he was paying for that fallow ground just like he was paying for the productive land.
I might add, that the ASCS implemented Conservation Reserve programs which would allow a farmer to plant a cover crop to build back leached out soil - not that much of the Mississippi Delta soil had been leached out at the time. The farmer was paid so-much per acre for the land in Conservation Reserve, which was commonly referred to as Soil Bank land. The idea was to limit the production of cotton to keep the prices up on the world market. Much of delta land was still relatively new or fresh land, having been cleared of timber a generation or two earlier. Lower land could only be cleared and planted after canals drained the Mississippi Delta. Even though the soil bank land was planted to a cover crop, like vetch, the weeds and grasses often took over. The farmer would clip the land once or twice a year to keep down bushes, but if he planted a crop on any of the land he would lose his USDA payment.
Remember, fallow ground is not productive. Furthermore, fallow ground will require an investment of time, labor, and money to prepare it for planting. With that in mind, I would like to read a verse from Jeremiah that I remember an Old Testament professor read in one of my seminary classes. I was not sure how many students really knew what fallow ground was. I knew, but I wondered that Jeremiah did!
I. THE LORD TOLD JUDAH TO BREAK UP THE FALLOWED GROUND, JEREMIAH 4:3.
“For thus says the LORD to the men of Judah and to Jerusalem, “Break up your fallow ground, And do not sow among thorns” (NAS).
The HCSB has, “For this is what the Lord says to the men of Judah and Jerusalem: Break up the unplowed ground; do not sow among the thorns” (Jer 4:3). The KJV and the NKJV agree with the New American Standard Version: “Break up your fallow ground.”
A. The Israelites Would Have Understood Fallow Ground.
1) Let’s consider why the land might have been fallow. In the first place, a metaphor must hold before people a visual image with which they could identify. These people were aware of the history of God’s dealings with His people. After the Conquest under Joshua about 1400 B.C., Canaan, the land flowing with milk and honey, was divided among the twelve tribes of Israel, mostly to the west of the Jordan river, but two tribes and one-half the tribe of Manasseh on the east side. The land was taken from the pagan peoples who were driven out of the land. Now, lest you think God was unfair, these people had lived in the land God had given Abraham for five hundred years, and the knew God had given it to Abraham. Rahab knew it. The Amalakites, Edomites, Ammonites, and Moabites were their kinsmen and they knew when the Children of Israel were delivered from Egypt. They knew why they had been delivered, and they knew where they were going, but they did everything they could to prevent God’s purpose. One thousand years later, Nehemiah reminded the people of Judah that God had not forgotten what the Moabites and Ammonites had done to try to prevent His returning His people to the land He had given them.
When Joshua led in the Conquest, pagan peoples were driven from the land, leaving behind their fields for the Israelites to divide among themselves. These were cultivated fields, not fallow ground. At the same time, there probably was fallow ground in the land. During the Conquest there were fields that would not have been worked, fields that had been left fallow for a season or two. Then there may well have been land that the Israelites had claimed which needed to be cleared before it could be worked.
2) Consider the condition of their fallow ground. The Lord told Jeremiah to tell the people, “Break up your fallow ground, And do not sow among thorns.” I well remember what we simply called “a low place” between two ridges which we seldom planted because it stayed wet too long. We called it a low place to keep from calling it a “slew”! During the summer you could look across that narrow strip of land and see weeds with yellow flowers covering the tops. It looked like a solid carpet of yellow flowers. I was always able to identify those flowers because my mother told us what they were. They were “Yellow Tops”! There were a few other narrow fields that, if not planted and cultivated, would grow up in weeds, grass, vines, and bushes - and, I might add, some Yellow Tops and at times a some Purple Tops. My father had another name for them. Weeds! It fell my place to disk fields that had been left fallow for a period of time. Oh, yes, there was an occasional thorn bush, too.
Since there is a reference to thorns in the Lord’s command to the people of Judah, I would assume that fallow ground there would be overgrown with thorn bushes. Only a very foolish farmer would plant or sow seeds among thorns.
3) Fallow ground is not productive. It was obviously not productive in ancient Israel, and it is not productive in modern day America. I am speaking from experience. I observed certain fields that were left fallow because we simply couldn’t get them planted. I have seen them grow up in weeds and bushes. I have never seen fallow ground produce a crop. I have never seen any of the vegetation that grew on our fields for which there was a market. It was an eyesore until we cut it with a bush- hog or a disk. It was never productive. Furthermore, the fallow field was totally incapable of freeing itself from all those weeds, grasses, vines, and bushes. A serious effort was required to make the field productive.
Fallow ground is unproductive, and it can be dangerous. I can remember pulling a disk over bushes and coffee weeds that were as tall as the John Deere tractor I was driving. I also remember the risk of turning a tractor over when I hit a stump or log, or ran into a ditch. Those things happened more often than I like to remember.
There was another danger I will never forget. There were many times when I pulled a disk over a yellow-jacket nest or bubble-bee nest and risked having the tractor taken away from me. One summer, wasps were particularly bad and when I hit a bush or sapling with a wasp nest they would dive toward the tractor. I assumed they were coming for me, but at that time the muffler had been knocked off the tractor and at night you could see a thin blue flame coming up about 8 to 10 inches above the tractor. Because the muffler was off, that John Deere was really loud and it seemed to attract al the wasps. They would dive toward the source of the loud noise and when they did they dived through the flame which was invisible during the day time. Of course, they never survived one pass through the flame.
There is one other thing I did not mention. Snakes. I hate snakes. You may too if you had been frightened as many times as I was by snakes. Regardless of what animal rights people and environmentalists tell you, I can tell you, the only good snake is a dead snake! I was afraid of a water snake (which is often mistakenly called a moccasin), but the thought of a cotton mouth moccasin would cause me to dream about him that night. Literally, I could close my eyes when I went to bed and see snakes rolling in the water of a bar-pit.
Fallow ground is unproductive, unattractive, and at times both unsafe and unhealthy. I am allergic to ragweeds and they love fallow ground.
4) Breaking fallow ground requires a commitment. I grew up on a farm in the south eastern corner of Tunica County, seven miles west of Sledge, Mississippi. Sledge was in Quitman County, so we went to school our of our district, all of except Mike, our younger brother, who went to Tunica. Sledge was, and may still be the best known small town in Mississippi because of a country song written by my friend, Harold Dorman, MISSISSIPPI COTTON PICKIN’ DELTA TOWN. That song was autobiographical for Harold, but made popular by country music legend Charlie Pride.
I well remember the times I would see friends going into town right after noon on Saturday to live our the lyrics of that song. They would walk up and down the street, and I do mean THE street, or as Harold wrote, sit “on the depot porch lookin’ at people looking back at us.” I was never a part of that crowd because when we caught up with the crops, I headed to the new ground or to a fallowed field with a disk, or I would pull ditches or drag turn-rows. There was always more to do that we could get around to on the farm. My mother called me at 4:15 every morning, whether I was in school or not. I had my chores which had to be done before and after school, or before and after I put in 10 hours a day plowing cotton. Believe me, I didn’t complain about the tractor. It was a relief when I graduated from the hoe to the tractor. I was in full sun all day every day, but I had rather drive a tractor in the sun that to chop cotton until I got to the end of a disk row and then go to a shade for a drink of cold water.
We worked in the new ground to clear it for corn, as we disked other fallow land so that we could plant soybeans. Even in years when we did not get to plant that fallow ground, if we had not cut the weeds and other vegetation, the bushes would have grown into young saplings in another year or two. If left alone the land would be overgrown by trees in a few years.
5) Fallow ground is used by Jeremiah as a metaphor. The Holman Bible Dictionary has an article on Fallow Ground:
FALLOW GROUND. Virgin soil or else soil which has not recently been planted (Jer. 4:3; Hos. 10:12). The central thrust of the prophetic message is clear: The nation Israel, “Jacob”, is to return to Yahweh by “cultivating” the covenant values of righteousness and steadfast love. The precise significance of the fallow ground is unclear. Perhaps the unplowed earth represents Israel’s failure to do what was needed to keep the covenant. Or perhaps the virgin soil represents a new relationship with God. Here the call is for Israel to abandon the worn out fields of unrighteousness (symbolized by thorns) and to move on to the new, fertile (Prov. 13:23) ground of covenant living (Bold added).—Holman Bible Dictionary
What were the thorns that needed to be cleared? We can read the Book of Jeremiah and fill in the blanks. They were guilty of idolatry and all the sins associated with it. They were guilty of gross immorality. If these people lived like their kinsmen in the Northern Kingdom had, according to the Book of Amos, they were guilty of vile sins. For example, in Amos, the Lord charges the wealthy people of the land with taking the poor man’s robe as collateral for a small loan so the man could buy bread to feed his family for that day. At the end of the day, the Law required that the robe be returned because that would be his cover for the night. Instead of returning it, these wealthy men would take it to a pagan temple and lie on it with a temple prostitute - and that along side their own sins.
They were guilty of covetousness. Amos charged that they had taken all the poor person’s land and now they coveted the dust from that land that had settled in the poor man’s hair. Amos calls the greedy women of the land a bunch of fat cows. Wouldn’t you like to see how long he would last at First Church, Anywhere?!!
The thorns may have been a metaphor for other sins. The people were not observing the Sabbath Day to keep it holy. This was a serious sin. It still is. Sacrifices and offering were often neglected or abused, another serious sin. These people looked to the temple like it was some kind of magic charm. They worship the temple of the Lord, but not the Lord of the temple. The people of Jeremiah’s day claimed a relationship with the Lord but they did not honor His day, His name, or His tithe. The fallow ground, which was their heart, was overgrown with the thorns of rebellion - not ignorance, but rebellion. I have read a passage from the second chapter of Jeremiah a number of times in this series, which I call Jeremiah’s America: “I brought you to a fertile land to eat its fruit and bounty, but after you entered, you defiled My land; you made My inheritance detestable” (Jer 2:7).
The land had not become fallow in spite of their good work and their obedience to the Lord; He charges that: “The priests quit asking: Where is the Lord? The experts in the law no longer knew Me, and the rulers rebelled against Me. The prophets prophesied by Baal and followed useless idols” (Jer. 2:8).
“Has a nation [ever] exchanged its gods? (but they were not gods!). Yet My people have exchanged their Glory for useless idols. Be horrified at this, heavens; be shocked and utterly appalled. [This is] the Lord’s declaration. For My people have committed a double evil: They have abandoned Me, the fountain of living water, and dug cisterns for themselves, cracked cisterns that cannot hold water” (Jer. 2:11-13).
Their heart had become fallow ground, overgrown with thorns, weeds, briars, and bushes of sin and rebellion. They could not plead innocence or ignorance. They were guilty of iniquity. They had not simply drifted a way, they had chosen idols instead of the Lord. They had chosen to rebel against the God of heaven for gods that do not exist.
B. They Were Told to Break up Their Fallow Ground.
1) They were not told to break up fallow ground that did not belong to them. There is an old gospel song that I remember hearing on the radio years ago. I only remember one line: “It’s me, it’s me, it’s me, O Lord, standing in the need of prayer.” I have listened to political debates over the years, and I am convinced that the debates are becoming more and more bitter and caustic with each passing year. I believe that is another consequence of America’s war against God. I cannot imagine George Washington, the greatest American, the Father of our Country, behaving like Howard Dean, Ted Kennedy, or some of the talking heads on the network news programs.
What happens when someone brings up an issue today? Someone says, “Yeah, but what about what so and so is doing?” They often do not respond, they just accuse someone else of a greater sin. God did not command the ancient Israelites to attack their neighbor, or to break up his fallow ground. God charged them with the sin of rebellion. They are the ones whose hearts are overgrown with the thorns of fear, doubt, greed, lust, immorality, hypocrisy, and many other sins.
2) They were told, “Break up your fallow ground.”
The Lord was not telling Jeremiah that the Israelites needed to clear new ground, or break fallow ground in order to expand their farm operation. Their lives were the field and the thorns were the sins that alienated them from God and rendered them fruitless and barren. They were given an choice: they could repent, return, and be reconciled to God, or they could refuse to return and face Him in judgment. Israel, the Northern Kingdom, had been destroyed, but Judah would go into captivity in Babylon for seventy years. It has been suggested that the God chose to send them into captivity for seventy years because they had refused to observe the Sabbath Year seventy times, or 490 years.
After the people returned from the Captivity, they eventually rebuilt the temple and worshiped for a period of time. Then the next generation turned away from the Lord, forgot His Word, neglected His temple, and polluted His Sabbath. He sent Ezra the priest and scribe and Nehemiah the governor to call the people back to Him. When Ezra read the Word of the Lord the people confessed their sins and repented. When Nehemiah confronted the nobles with taking advantage of the poor of the land, they confessed and repented. This is breaking up their fallow ground. This is what the Lord wanted them to do when Jeremiah declared His word to these people. Instead of repenting, they threw Jeremiah into a dungeon.
II. WE NEED TO BREAK UP SOME FALLOW GROUND TODAY.
A. I Believe God Would Have America to Break Up Her Fallow Ground.
1) America is reflected on almost every page of the Book of Jeremiah. We can point to that which our grandparents called filth, but America today calls entertainment. We can recall a time when people turned to God in a crisis; today they turn to Government, or even to gambling, as many have done after Hurricane Katrina. We can point to a time when American felt more secure in their homes, in their schools, and in the work place. I remember when you always knew where your car key were. They were in the ignition, of course!
Jeremiah’s kinsmen abused worship; many Americans abuse worship. Jeremiah’s Judah violated the Sabbath Day; many Americans do not honor the Lord’s Day. Jeremiah’s neighbors rebelled against God and turned to idols; America is witnessing a war against Christ today. Dr. Jimmy Draper, who was president of LifeWay Christian Resources at the time, sent a letter to members of the LifeWay board of trustees in which he highlighted ways in which God has blessed America. He asked, “What is God's Return on Investment? (05/23/02):
Since the founding of Jamestown in 1608 and the footsteps on Plymouth Rock in 1611, God has invested in our nation. Consider His blessing on our nation in things that are luxuries, not to mention necessities.
In 1970 Americans spent 91 billion dollars on recreation. In 1993 we spend 304 billion dollars on recreation. Americans spend over $200 billion annually on imported luxuries. We spend more on recreation than the entire economies of many nations put together. According to the Internal Revenue Service there are more than 87,000 millionaires in America today!
This is only one small indication of the absolute blessing of God on our nation. The abundance of blessing on our nation staggers the imagination of the rest of the world. God has a right to ask, "Where is the return on my investment in the United States?"
How can God keep blessing such a wicked nation? Federal courts are doing everything within their power to outlaw even the mention of God's name in public places. Violence in America today far surpasses the days of Noah or Lot. Everywhere there are senseless crimes. Our schools have become battlegrounds. We are a nation awash in a sea of bloodshed, from Abortion to assisted suicide.
Our logic is perverted and twisted. Activists who march to defend the right to kill our unborn children, also march to preserve endangered species of animals, fish and fowl. How can God continue to bless us?
Consider the goodness of God in your own life. Who of us would not declare that God has been good to us? Consider your health, home, family, friends, employment, protection and goodness that God has rained down upon you year after year. Our God has provided generously for us, and He expects a return for His investment.
God looks for character on the part of His people that reflects His character. He looks for justice, the outward and persistent effort on your part to do and to see that His will is done in every area of life. Most simply put, the fruit God expects from His people is that they be right on the inside and do right on the outside!
People today do not hunger for personal salvation or even for a golden age. They hunger for the feeling, for the momentary illusion, of personal well-being, health and psychic security.
In a dramatic scene in Isa. 22, God called the people to repentance. "The Lord, The Lord Almighty, called you on that day to weep and to wail, to tear out your hair and put on sackcloth. But see, there is joy and revelry, slaughtering of cattle and killing of sheep, eating of meat and drinking of wine! 'Let us eat and drink', you say, 'for tomorrow we die!' The Lord Almighty has revealed this in my hearing: 'Till your dying day this sin will not be atoned for, says the Lord, the Lord Almighty." (22:12-14). It was now too late for the people to turn back.
Who would dare quibble that God has not blessed you enough to be fruitful? If He has only given you stones, He does not expect you to build pyramids, but He expects you to build. If He has given you burlap, He does not expect you to weave golden garments, but He expects you to weave something.
In His love,
Jimmy Draper
2) Hurricane Katrina uncovered a lot of thorns in New Orleans. It also revealed some incredibly brave people. There were stories of incredible heroism. Many people conducted themselves courage and integrity. Doctors risked their lives to take care of patients, especially when they had to dodge snipers’ bullets while evacuating patients. ON the thorny side, FEMA, we were told, handed out cash cards to evacuees in one place, only to see many of them line up in front of a liquor store. The mayor of New Orleans stood before cameras shouting God’s holy name in vain. Politicians and business people rushed to get the gambling industry up and running, both in New Orleans and south Mississippi. Some people turned to God, some to government, some to gambling. And looting!
Dr. Charles Simmons stayed with the hospital over which he was the administrator until his patients were evacuated. He risked his life to stay there, but many others put their life on the line, too. Dr. Simmons returned when the authorities permitted people to return to check on property. He was not surprised to discover that all medications were gone. But that was not all. After the thieves had stolen everything of value, they destroyed walls, and furnishings. No one condemned the thieves for stealing food, but sadly, many of the looters were stealing basketball shoes, televisions, and things they could not eat, - things they might trade for drugs.
Hurricane Katrina should be a reminder that people in Louisiana need to break up their fallow ground. It is time to confess the thorny sins that deny the fruit God wants us to bear. Sin has left hearts polluted and minds robbed of strength by the grass of sin, denied light by the weeds of transgression, and spiritually choked by the vines of iniquity. Idolatry, immorality, substance abuse, divorce, abortion, euthanasia, greed, covetousness, spouse abuse and child abuse are found everywhere in our society. Sexual predators are kidnaping, abusing, and killing innocent children. We can no longer keep up with the young women who have come up missing in the past year.
Jeremiah explains why God would command us to break up our fallow land and sow seeds of righteousness:
“The heart is more deceitful than anything else and desperately sick—who can understand it? I, the Lord, examine the mind, I test the heart to give to each according to his way, according to what his actions deserve” (Jer 17:9-10).
B. God Would Have Us Break Up Fallow Ground and Plant the Seeds of Righteousness.
1) We must not stop with breaking up our fallow ground. I have disked a number of fallow fields. I have clipped fields many times there were covered with weeds, grass, vines, and bushes. It is good to destroy the vegetation, but no matter how level or clean the field is when we finish, it will be re-seeded in no time at all. If not planted to a crop, the field would soon be right back like it was.
2) We must sow seeds of righteousness. When a farmer disks fallow ground, he must convert that fallow ground to cultivatable acreage. He must plant a new corp and cultivate it as needed. He will fertilize the field and use whatever insecticides are needed to assure a good harvest. He will see that the field is properly drained, and if possible, prepared for irrigation.
There were many great stories coming out of Katrina. Southern Baptists had passed the ten million meals served mark long before the end of the relief effort. LifeWay Christian Resources board of trustees voted to send six million dollars for relief immediately after the disaster. Arrangements were made to help churches and pastors replace libraries, computers, and software programs. The account of the evacuation of the security force at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary proves that God is still in the miracle business.
I talked with Dr. Chuck Kelly, president of New Orleans Seminary at the retirement ceremonies for Dr. Jimmy Draper (January, 2006) in Nashville and he was excited about the recovery effort. He said, “We will be open for on-campus classes in two weeks.”
I also talked with Fred and Elizabeth Luter about the monumental challenge facing them in rebuilding their home and their church. God is blessing them, and He will continue to bless their ministry. Lonnie Wascom, a Director of Missions in the area, is a long time friend. We served for a number of years on the executive board of the Louisiana Baptist Convention. Our church sent one offering to their associational disaster fund, and another to the convention’ disaster fund. Ed Ethridge, a Director of Missions for the North Texas Baptist Association led his association to send food and other supplies, money, and individuals to help in the area.
The point I would like to make is that while Jeremiah was told to go out and see if he could find one righteous man on the streets of Jerusalem. I saw one picture in the Baptist message that underscores the difference in America. My long-time friend, John Jeffries was standing in their church plant, examining the damage to their church. John and his wife Jenny will not give up. Thousands of godly people faithfully server in the aftermath of Katrina, just as they have following Rita, and all the hurricanes that have hit Florida and other states.
John Jeffries, Chuck, Kelly, Lonnie Wascom, and Fred Luter are not about to let their church field become fallow ground. They are breaking up the fallow ground they find and planting a new work. I cannot think of a place that needs it more.
3) Paul contrasts the works of the fallow ground with the fruit of the productive field.
“Now the works of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, moral impurity, promiscuity, idolatry, sorcery, hatreds, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambitions, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and anything similar, about which I tell you in advance—as I told you before—that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God” (Gal.5:19-21).
“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith, gentleness, self-control. Against such things there is no law” (Gal 5:22-23).
CONCLUSION
Through Jeremiah, God commanded the people of Judah to break up their fallow ground so they could plant a new crop. Hosea was inspired to write:
“Sow righteousness for yourselves and reap faithful love; break up your untilled ground. It is time to seek the Lord until He comes and sends righteousness on you like the rain. You have plowed wickedness and reaped injustice; you have eaten the fruit of lies” (Hosea 10:12-13).
If you are not as close to the Lord as you know you should be, ask yourself, who moved? You can be sure God has not moved. It is time for you to break up your fallow ground and plant sow seeds of righteousness.
There is one word that I must add. If you are not a Christian, you have no field. That is, you no have no inheritance in the Kingdom of God. You cannot let a field go fallow if you have never had it in the first place. If you will confess sin in your life, repent, believe in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sin, you will have an eternal inheritance in Him.
If you are a Christian and you know you need to repent and return to the Lord, remember that when God commands you to break up your fallow ground, only He can remove sin. What you must do is look to Him in faith. Repent, return, and He will restore you to fellowship and make your life fruitful. Trust Him, and you will begin breaking up your fallow ground, and then you can sow to righteousness.