Creator, Father, King #194

Still other seeds fell on fertile soil, and they produced a crop that was thirty, sixty, and even a hundred times as much as had been planted!

UNTAMED AMERICA, BACK IN the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, was a much more agricultural nation than it is today. But over the years, our “amber waves of grain”—as hailed in the opening stanza of the old folk song, “America the Beautiful”—have continued to shrink as the population booms and technology advances.

Back in first-century Palestine, agriculture was the heart and soul of Jewish life. That’s why Jesus told the parable of the sower in Matthew 13:1-23.

In this parable, Jesus describes a farmer who sows seed in his field. The seed falls on four different kinds of soil—a footpath, rocky terrain, a thorny patch, and fertile ground.

But Jesus’ parable wasn’t about the latest ancient crop-raising techniques or which seeds produce the best beans, beets, or broccoli. No, he wanted to teach an important lesson on how our hearts receive God’s Word.

What’s It Mean?

The farmer in Jesus’ parable is God. He graciously sows his Word (the seed) into the hearts (the soil) of people, including you. But different people respond many different ways to God’s Word.

Let’s look at what happened to the seeds that fell among the different types of soil in Jesus’ parable:

• On the footpath. These people hear God’s Word but don’t understand it, and like a bird who notices seeds lying helpless on a path, Satan “snatches away” what they’ve received (verse 19).
• On the rocky soil. These people receive God’s Word joyfully at first, but when spiritual persecution or life’s hardships come, they fall away “since they don’t have deep roots” (verses 20-21).
• Among the thorns. These people initially express a love for God’s Word, but like good plants among briars, they quickly get choked by the worries and enticements of the world, “so no fruit is produced” (verse 22).
• On fertile soil. These are people “who truly hear and understand God’s word and produce a [spiritual] harvest” far greater than what was planted (verses 8, 23).

Where do you fall on this list? Does your heart joyfully receive God’s Word and its calling upon your life? Do you believe all of the Bible’s claims about God and his Son, Jesus Christ? Are you allowing God’s Word to germinate in your heart while sowing hope in others for a great spiritual harvest?

Just planting some seeds for thought.

Now What?

Read the full parable of the sower in Matthew 13:1-23.

Did You Know?

Katharine Lee Bates, the composer of “America the Beautiful,” was inspired to write the song on a trip up Pike’s Peak in Colorado in 1893.