Why does the Old Testament use so much farming imagery for spiritual lessons?
Israel was a rural, agrarian society that still lived amid antiquities, using animals as beasts of burden. Farming life therefore supplied familiar, concrete pictures—such as a yoke joining oxen—that corresponded naturally to spiritual truths, making laws and admonitions about sowing, vineyards, and yoking understandable to an agricultural people.
Les explains that when reading the Old Testament, you must remember Israel was rural or agrarian, still living in antiquities with animals used as beasts of burden. Because of that, there is a lot of correlation between the agriculture of the day and spiritual understanding. For example, Paul’s instruction not to be unequally yoked immediately brings to mind beasts of burden plowing in the field; a yoke put two oxen together so they could pull in unison. Deuteronomy 22:9-10 illustrated this with not sowing a vineyard with diverse seeds, and the same admonition remains: be not unequally yoked together with unbelievers.