The Morality of Farming

(Pro 13:23 KJV) Much food is in the tillage of the poor: but there is that is destroyed for want of judgment.

Farming is a skill.  It has a very real learning curve.  Last year when my daughter was staying with us she decided to become a farmer.  She planted tomatoes.  The general impression I get about tomatoes and zucchini is that they will flourish anywhere.  That does not seem to apply by our front porch in Texas.  I have the feeling that a real farmer would have produced a bumper crop.  

I don’t even have a good guess at the skills a farmer develops.  One of the techniques of good farming is letting the land lie fallow.  It is known by farmers around the world, and some of us non-farmers.  Good management means conforming to the laws of nature that God established.  You might not think that moral judgements would have anything to do with farming, but it does.  When you get a greedy farmer, he wears out the soil.  If he is a sharecropper, the owner may demand that he do things he knows are wrong.

So?  God’s justice is rooted in His holiness.  It demands moral behavior.  That means treating the land properly.  Now go mow the lawn.