Break Up Fallow ground

[Jer. 4:2] And thou shalt swear, The LORD liveth, in truth, in judgment, and in righteousness; and the nations shall bless themselves in him, and in him shall they glory.
[3] For thus saith the LORD to the men of Judah and Jerusalem, Break up your fallow ground, and sow not among thorns.
[4] Circumcise yourselves to the LORD, and take away the foreskins of your heart, ye men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem: lest my fury come forth like fire, and burn that none can quench it, because of the evil of your doings.
Especially that "the nations," that is, the Gentiles would have been converted, and that Israel would have been the means of G-d's reaching them! Gentiles and nations are alternate renditions of the same Hebrew noun.
Two great truths are taught in this verse:
1. That the Gentiles were to be members of the Church of the Messiah, and
2. That Israel's peculiar office was to be G-d's instrument in that great work. Thus Jeremiah is in exact accord with the evangelical teaching of Isaiah.
[Here G-d's Word is directed to Judah, the Southern Israel, with a call for their true repentance and conversion, coupled with a threat of drastic punishment.
Fallow ground - refers to land that had not been recently cultivated, indicating that conditions in Judah were not at all favorable for the planting of G-d's Word; and the practical import of the admonition is that they should get rid of all their idols, no longer visit the shrines of the fertility idols, and produce the kind of environment that would encourage godly living.
Our own country's needing this same kind of advice is appropriate: The fallow ground needs to be broken up. We are a nation in danger. We say we are one of the greatest nations in the world, but we could fall overnight. Babylon the great fell in one night. Rome fell from within ... Our nation is decaying from within. Morality is deteriorating. Someone needs to say something about it. Preachers are still preaching, but we are sowing the seed among the thorns. Sow not among thorns, that you may not labor in vain, for your own safety and welfare, as those do that sow good seed among thorns and as you have been doing a great while. Put yourselves into a frame fit to receive mercy from G-d, and put away all that which keeps it from you, and then you may expect to receive mercy and to prosper in your endeavors to help yourselves.
1. An unconvinced un-humbled heart is like fallow-ground, ground untilled, unoccupied. It is ground capable of improvement; it is our ground, let out to us, and we must be accountable for it; but it is fallow; it is unfenced and lies common; it is unfruitful and of no advantage to the owner, and (which is principally intended) it is overgrown with thorns and weeds, which are the natural product of the corrupt heart; and, if it be not renewed with grace, rain and sunshine are lost upon it, Hebrews 6:7, 8.
2. We are concerned to get this fallow-ground ploughed up. We must search into our own hearts; let the word of G-d divide (as the plough does) between the joints and the marrow, Hebrews 4:12. We must rend our hearts, Joel 2:13. We must pluck up by the roots those corruptions which, as thorns, choke both our endeavors and our expectations, Hosea 10:12.
The second clause here explains the first. Circumcision was observed for all Jewish males; but the kind of circumcision they needed was not physical but spiritual. Cutting off the foreskins of their hearts meant removing from their thoughts and affections all of the sinful indulgences to which they were so addicted, inner cleansing of the heart is the only alternative to destruction by fire, a theme prominent also in the New Testament (Matt. 25:41.)
Some have difficulty understanding the part that man must play in his own conversion, repentance, and regeneration. The passage before us declares that the men of Judah and Jerusalem were to "circumcise their hearts"; but Deut. 30:6 declares that, "The L-rd thy G-d will circumcise thy heart!" The simple fact is that man is both active and passive in regeneration. The text here stresses his activity, and the passage in Deuteronomy stresses his passivity.
Circumcise yourselves to the L-rd, and take away the foreskin of your heart. Mortify the flesh and the lusts of it. Pare off that superfluity of naughtiness which hinders your receiving with meekness the engrafted Word, James 1:21. Circumcision is an obligation to keep the Law; lay yourselves afresh under that obligation. It is a seal of the righteousness of faith; lay hold then of that righteousness, and so circumcise yourselves to the L-rd.
Fire which came forth from the L-rd and consumed the sacrifices, and which was always kept burning upon the altar and none might quench it; such is G-d's wrath against impenitent sinners, because of the evil of their doings.
1. That which is to be dreaded by us more than any thing else is the wrath of G-d; for that is the spring and bitterness of all present miseries and will be the quintessence and perfection of everlasting misery.
2. It is the evil of our doings that kindles the fire of G-d's wrath against us.
3. The consideration of the imminent danger we are in of falling and perishing under this wrath should awaken us with all possible care to sanctify ourselves to G-d's glory and to see to it that we be sanctified by His grace.
Sin must be put away out of the heart, else it is not put away out of G-d's sight, for the heart and all that is in it lie open before His eye.