What a beautiful picture in the book of Isaiah. God says that He won't crush Israel in judgement forever, but that this crushing will be temporary - just as a farmer temporarily plows the ground before sowing seeds to produce a bountiful harvest. This temporary judgement will create fertile soil, which God will use to produce fruit:
Isaiah 28:22-29 (ESV)
Now therefore do not scoff,
lest your bonds be made strong;
for I have heard a decree of destruction
from the Lord GOD of hosts against the whole land.
Give ear, and hear my voice;
give attention, and hear my speech. Does he who plows for sowing plow continually?
Does he continually open and harrow his ground? When he has leveled its surface,
does he not scatter dill, sow cumin,
and put in wheat in rows
and barley in its proper place,
and emmer as the border? For he is rightly instructed;
his God teaches him. Dill is not threshed with a threshing sledge,
nor is a cart wheel rolled over cumin,
but dill is beaten out with a stick,
and cumin with a rod. Does one crush grain for bread?
No, he does not thresh it forever;
when he drives his cart wheel over it
with his horses, he does not crush it. This also comes from the LORD of hosts;
he is wonderful in counsel
and excellent in wisdom.
