The parable of the sower (part 3)

In our last two articles we’ve been looking at the parable of the sower. We saw that Jesus began the parable by telling us simply that there was a sower who went out to sow some seed. He then continued by describing four different types of soil upon which the seed fell. Later, when Jesus was explaining the parable to his disciples, he made it clear that the soil in the parable represented the heart of man. From this it is clear then that these four different types of soil represent four different possible conditions that the heart of man can be in when the “seed” of God’s word falls upon it. In fact, we may even go as far as to say that our hearts are always in one or more of these conditions, and we can expect the exact results Jesus described in this parable depending upon the condition of our heart.

The very fact that God’s word is described as a seed is very significant, because it shows us the way that God accomplishes his will in the earth. When God wants something done, or wants to give us something, he speaks it – usually in the form of a promise of some kind. Once his word is spoken, it becomes a “seed” looking for the soil of a human heart to grown in. For example, God made the promise to Abraham that he would have a son, and through that son he would become the father of many nations. That promise was “sown” in the soil of Abraham’s heart where it stayed for many years before it finally produced the “crop” of the promise being fulfilled in his life. And Jesus makes it clear through this parable that Abraham was no exception and that this is the way God’s kingdom works in all of our lives.

Once we see this principle, we begin to understand not only the importance of developing a habit of always sowing God’s “seed” in our hearts, but also identifying those things that might cause the “soil” of our hearts to be unproductive. Of the four different types of soil that Jesus describes in this parable, only one actually produced a crop from the seed that was sown upon it. Each of the other three, for different reasons, did not produce the crop that the sower expected. As we take a closer look at all four of these types of soil, we will discover that they reveal to us some simple but powerful truths about the type of “soil” God’s word will and will not grow in.

In Matthew 13:4 Jesus described the seed of God’s word falling on the first type of soil: “Some seeds fell beside the road, and the birds came and ate them up.” Luke 8:5 also tells us that the seed sown on this type of ground, “was trampled under foot.” The picture here is of a field that is bordered on at least one side by a road – such as was and still is a common occurrence. Some of the seed found its way onto the ground at the edge of the road – ground that had become hardened through much use and exposure to the sun. Naturally seed lying on such a surface would be an easy target for birds circling overhead looking for a meal. The fact that some of this seed was “trampled under foot,” tells us that this was a fairly busy thoroughfare, probably frequented with camels, horses, donkeys, carts and many pedestrians.

In Matthew 13:19, when Jesus explains the parable to his disciples, he tells them that this type of soil represents someone who “hears the word of the kingdom but does not understand it.” Jesus went on to explain that the birds that ate the seed represented the Devil who, “comes and takes away the word from their heart, so that they will not believe and be saved.” In Ephesians 4:18 Paul described this type of person as someone who is, “darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart.” Whether through hurt, neglect, anger, bitterness or a number of other reasons, this person’s heart has become hardened. As a result of their hardened heart, they cannot receive, through faith and understanding, the “seed” of God’s word, and so the Devil is able to steal the word from their hearts, and keep it from producing anything in their life.