Growing your own Food God’s Way
REVERSAL OF THE CURSE!
Genesis 5:29- And he called his name Noah, saying ‘This one will comfort us concerning our work and the toil of our hands, because of the ground which the Lord has cursed’
Genesis 8:21-22-And the Lord smelled a soothing aroma. Then the Lord said in His heart, ‘I will never again curse the ground for man’s sake, although the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth; nor will I again destroy every living thing as I have done. “While the earth remains, Seedtime and harvest, Winter and summer, And day and night, Shall not cease”
When God punished Adam and Eve for eating the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, he cursed the ground for Adam’s sake. Previously, Adam’s work was to tend and to keep the garden that God had planted. There are many interpretations of the words to “tend and to keep”. What was in God’s mind when He put Adam in the Garden? What was Adam’s duty in sustaining the garden that was to provide him with all that was “pleasant to the sight and good for food”? God even saw that Adam needed a helper “comparable to him” to assist him in this important work. God’s intention was for Adam and Eve to oversee the garden and take possession of it, but the most important work was obedience. They failed in this and caused the ground to be cursed.
When the ground has been cursed by God then it is difficult to cultivate and it is only by toil that food can be extracted from it. Adam was driven away from the garden which God had planted for him and sent to till the ground from which he was taken. The ground in the Garden of Eden was not cursed, it is the ground from which man was taken that was cursed and it is to this land that they were sent back. For the garden of Eden in Genesis’ story is the same as the New Jerusalem in Revelation 20, with no curse but only the presence of God in the midst of His people. This state of things is what Cain and Abel were born into until later, when another level of curse was introduced. When Cain murdered his brother, God pronounced a curse on him in Gen 4:13 “when you till the ground, it shall no longer yield its strength to you”. This is like a double curse on the ground for his sake. The Ground had already been cursed when Adam and Eve disobeyed God.
The second part of the curse was the second level and was worse than the first because God said he would be a fugitive and a vagabond on the earth, meaning he would be hidden from God’s sight. The basic characteristics of a fugitive and a vagabond are to seek safety and sustenance at all times – without reference to God. The disobedience of Adam and Eve downgraded their assignment from overseeing and taking possession of the garden, to one of toil and battling thistles and thorns before they could eat. The sin of Cain further cursed man to seek only safety and food like an animal. But God in His mercy and love had a plan of restoration and rebirth of man to his position as an overseer and possessor of His creation.
The entire world system has been subjected to death based on the model of Cain, who built cities and things for himself, but outside of God. The presence of God is Life, His absence is death and that’s exactly what the world system has created. When Noah was born, his father pronounced a prophecy that he would bring comfort concerning the toil of their hands and the ground that had been cursed. This eventually came to pass when Noah obeyed God and walked with Him until the world that was, was washed away and there was witnessed a rebirth of the earth when the flood waters receded. Noah’s burnt offerings floated a sweet soothing aroma that touched God’s heart and He declared that He would never again curse the ground for man’s sake and that as long as the earth remained, seedtime and harvest should not cease. The bible says that Noah began to be a farmer and he planted a vineyard and it brought forth fruit and he was soon able to drink of its wine. The ground that he tilled gave up its strength to him, proof that a reversal of the curse had taken place and harvest time had followed seed time according to the covenant that God had made with all creation. It did not take long for man to attract a curse on himself however, for had God Himself not said that the imagination of a man’s heart is evil from his youth?
It is a fact that man has been able to till the ground and eat of its yield for these last thousands of years but the redemption cannot be said to be complete because the curse of being a fugitive and a vagabond remains. When we till the ground to grow our food, may we remember that we must imitate Christ in doing only what we hear our Father say. Then we must do what we hear.
We must seek His counsel in practicing our farming as in all things. The Kingdom of God seeks establishment even in the farms of the Afrikan farmers where use of pesticides and herbicides and conventional methods of farming have spread fast and have degraded the soils of the continent in the name of “progressive” farming. Governments want more fertilizers used on the farms even in the face of diminishing yields in the last 30 years of using them. When solutions are sought for this, western chemical companies offer genetically modified seeds, GMOs. These are seeds that have been genetically modified to withstand pesticides. In the USA pesticides have been so widely used in growing corn and wheat that the general health of the population has been affected. And we are beginning to see that in Afrika as well. A true rebirth and reversal will only happen when the solutions to production of food and other crops stops relying on the knowledge of man and is influenced by those who rely on the superior wisdom based on God’s counsel. For it is very clear that we are in the days of Noah, Lot and even of Cain. For of Cain, God said he will be a vagabond (someone who goes from place to place without a home) and for the last day generation, it is written thus… “many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall increase.” Daniel 12:4. There is a to and fro movement all around the globe, people doing all they can to run away from life’s issues, but with no Godly solution to the issues they face daily. It’s time to listen to the will of God for a better world. Having gone through the various issues we have in farming from a spiritual stand point for the first three issues, it is now time, from the new year of 2020, to show and teach practical aspects of how to redeem the land back to true and healthy farming, using simple but time tested, God-given practices. This I will do as God gives grace. 2020 promises to be a remarkable year in all areas but especially in the area of healthy farming.
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