10/13 North Point

Tuesday, October 13

Sower or Soils?

“Hearken; Behold, there went out a sower to sow: And it came to pass, as he sowed, some fell by the way side, and the fowls of the air came and devoured it up. And some fell on stony ground, where it had not much earth; and immediately it sprang up, because it had no depth of earth:” -- Mark 4:3–5

This well known parable is given in the gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke. It has been called the parable of the sower for many years. However, the real focus of this parable isn’t so much on the sower, the farmer planting seed, as it is on the different types of soil! The sower is consistent as he sows the same type of seed. The seed is the Word of God, Luke 8:11.

The variable in this parable is where the seeds land, the ground or the soil. This is not a parable about distribution as much as it is a parable about reception. Yes, we are in the seed sowing business, but what this parable is about is what happens after the seed is sown.

When a farmer plants seeds of the same kind into the same soil, he expects the same harvest. This parable is an important teaching concerning why, when we sow the same seed of the gospel, the Word of God, into people there are such radically different responses. Some “receive the Word with joy,” (Luke 8:13) but quickly fall away. Others just have the Word deflect off their path, making no connection at all and with the devil swooping in and taking away what was sown (Mark 4:15).

Is the Word, the “engrafted word, which is able to save your souls” (James 1:21) different? No, the sower and the seed are the same. The principle we draw from this is there is a difference in the soil!

Does the lack of reception of many people frustrate you? Learn today that not all the soil is the same!

Ask the Lord to enable you to be concerned more with faithfully sowing the seed of the Word of God than with the results. There is a difference in the soil!