Uzziah Loved the Soil

"He also built towers in the wilderness and carved out many cisterns, for he had much livestock, both in the lowland and in the plain. He also had plowmen and vinedressers in the hill country and the fertile fields, for he loved the soil."  - 2 Chronicles 26:10

Uzziah is mentioned in Isaiah 6:1-8 at the commencement of Isaiah's ministry.  To learn more about Uzziah, you must flip backward in your Bible to 2 Chronicles 26.  In that chapter we learn that Uzziah was a king who was 16 years old when he became king.  We learn that he was a GOOD king.  We learn that he is mighty in battle and has built a formidable war machine, including inventing catapults to aid him in overtaking walled cities.  We learn that he was famous.  We also learn, importantly, that he is a husbandman - a keeper of livestock, a farmer!

He "loved the soil."  He farmed not from necessity.  He was king and had all he needed.  No, he farmed because he loved it.  I admire Uzziah for his love for things agricultural.  I think God put that desire in many people and that it hearkens back to him placing Adam in the Garden to keep it.

I have many fond memories of loving the soil and farming from early childhood.  I have told the story before, but a can recall pushing my chair back from the table as a toddler and running outside with my fruit cocktail and planting it.  Sadly, I can report that the germination was 0%.  I remember planting green beans in Dixie Cups in elementary school, watching the progress of growth day by day.  It was magical, mesmerizing!

Loving the soil is something that doesn't come without hard work.  I recall clearing land to be planted for the first time.  It was bottomland off of Carrier Road in Oberlin.  Our goal was to plant this land.  My Dad said it was "rested land" and would yield like crazy.  As the hot, summer sun beat down, we pulled a flatbed wagon across the cleared land with an old John Deere 4020 tractor.  We tossed pine knots onto the trailer as we criss-crossed  the land.  When the pile of pine knots was tall and threatened to fall off the trailer, we unloaded them in a pile against the fence row.  We pulled a disk across the newly cleared land and picked up more pine knots.  After a rain, you could walk across the land and find antique bottles and old-fashioned marbles and wonder about the lives that those folks lived a generation or two before - those tied to the soil like you.

It is a strong pull - the love for the land.  Once the land was cleared, as the sun set, we leaned against the old wagon with sweat-drenched clothes.  The muscles ached, the back protested, and we didn't smell too good, but we had pride in what we had accomplished.  The first harvest from this 'new' land was special.  In our own small way, we had tamed the land and converted formerly useless land into useful and productive land.  

In some sense, the taming of the land is metaphorical of what the Lord does to the untamed human heart.  If we yield to Him, believing in the finished work of His Son, He transforms the hardened soil of our hearts to fertile soil, productive and wholesome, yielding a bountiful harvest.  Praise Be to God!