A story with a hidden edge
The Wisdom of the Plowman
Isaiah turns to the ordinary work of a farmer and finds in it a parable of how God governs the world. The plowing, sowing, and threshing that every farmer knows becomes a picture of the wisdom and measure with which God deals with His people.
“Doth the plowman plow all day to sow? doth he open and break the clods of his ground?”Isaiah 28:24
The story
The story. In Isaiah 28, after warnings of judgment, the prophet calls for careful attention, Give ye ear, and hear my voice; hearken, and hear my speech. Then he describes the farmer at his work. Doth the plowman plow all day to sow? doth he open and break the clods of his ground? A farmer does not plow endlessly; the plowing is for the sake of the planting, and in its season he moves on. When he hath made plain the face thereof, doth he not cast abroad the fitches, and scatter the cummin, and cast in the principal wheat and the appointed barley and the rie in their place? Each seed is sown in its proper way and place. And the prophet adds that this knowledge is a gift, For his God doth instruct him to discretion, and doth teach him. The parable then turns to the harvest, and the same fitting measure appears. The fitches are not threshed with a threshing instrument, neither is a cart wheel turned about upon the cummin; but the fitches are beaten out with a staff, and the cummin with a rod. Bread corn is bruised, but the heavy instruments are not used forever, nor the delicate seeds crushed. The farmer suits the tool to the grain, gentle for the tender seed, firmer for the wheat, but never destroying what he means to gather.
What it meant
What it meant. Isaiah reads the farmer's craft as a parable of God's own wisdom. The plowman does not plow forever; plowing gives way to sowing, and the sowing to harvest, each in its season and each with the right method. The thresher does not crush the fragile fitches with a heavy cart wheel, nor grind the bread corn endlessly to powder; he uses the fitting instrument and stops at the right point, for the aim is not to destroy the grain but to gather it. The chapter draws the lesson to a close, This also cometh forth from the LORD of hosts, which is wonderful in counsel, and excellent in working. The point is that God, like the wise farmer, works with measure and purpose. His dealings with His people, including His seasons of hard plowing and threshing, are not cruelty or chaos; they are the skilled labor of one who knows exactly what each situation needs and when to change His method. There is a time for the plow and a time for the seed, a time for the staff and a time to stop. God's discipline is never without limit or wisdom; He suits the means to the end, and the end is a harvest, not destruction.
How it points to Christ
How it points to Christ. This parable of the plowman is not a messianic type, and it would be strained to make it one; it points to the wisdom and measured justice of God, which the New Testament sees fully revealed in Christ. The wonderful in counsel of Isaiah 28 is the same character named of the coming child a chapter earlier, His name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, so the wisdom the farmer displays is a reflection of the wisdom that would take flesh. In Christ are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, and He is the one in whom God's careful, purposeful dealing with His people is made plain. The parable's comfort, that God's hardest seasons are still the work of a wise hand aiming at harvest, is deepened by the gospel; the God who threshes with measure is the same who chastens whom he loveth, and who works all things together for good to them that love Him. The farmer's discretion, given by God, points to the perfect wisdom of God embodied in His Son.
Questions people ask
What is Isaiah teaching with the image of the farmer?
That God, like a skilled farmer, works with wisdom and measure. Just as the plowman plows only in season and the thresher suits his tool to each grain without crushing it, God's dealings with His people are purposeful and fitting, aimed at a harvest rather than destruction.
Is this parable a prophecy about Christ?
Not as a direct type. It points to the wisdom and measured justice of God, which Scripture sees fully revealed in Christ, in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Forcing it into a messianic figure would strain the text.
Where is this passage found?
It is in Isaiah 28:23-29 in the King James Version, following a section of warning and judgment, and closing with the words that this wise working comes forth from the LORD of hosts, wonderful in counsel.