The name Jezreel was shared by a city, a plain, and a valley. Israel’s wicked King Ahab and his treacherous wife, Jezebel, had a royal residence in the city of Jezreel, which was located on the plain. And Jezreel was the location of Naboth’s vineyard, which Ahab acquired when Jezebel had Naboth murdered.
Evidently Jezreel was good for agriculture, for the name itself means “God scatters” or “God sows.” Scattering may be good or bad. In ancient times, a man sowed his grain field by scattering seed over its surface (think of Jesus’ parable of the sower). That’s good. But God warned His people in Leviticus 26:33 that if they persisted in disobedience to His commands, he would scatter them among the nations. That kind of scattering is anything but good!
God told the prophet Hosea to name his firstborn son Jezreel because He was about to “bring an end to the kingdom of the house of Israel” (Hosea 1:4). True to His word, the Lord would scatter His wayward children among the Gentiles as He allowed the Assyrians to carry them away as captives.
Wouldn’t it be depressing if that were the end of the story? But it isn’t! In His infinite mercy and grace, God would restore His people to their homeland. He would send rain from the heavens, and “the earth will answer with grain, with new wine, and with oil; they shall answer Jezreel (God sows). Then I will sow her for Myself in the earth, and I will have mercy on her who had not obtained mercy; then I will say to those who were not My people, ‘You are My people!’ And they shall say, “You are my God!’” (Hosea 2:22-23).
God scatters. Whether that scattering is productive (as in sowing seed) or destructive (as in casting away) depends entirely on whether we are faithful to Him.
