A Godly Life in an Ungodly World

Psalm 119:121-136

This world is not an easy place, especially for a genuine believer, one who truly wishes to faithfully follow God and His Word.  If one isn’t following along with what popular society says, not only will there be harsh ridicule, but in many places there can be actual oppression.  Our psalm for this week is a portion from Psalm 119, the longest psalm, and actually the longest chapter in the Bible.  In this passage of Scripture we read the cry of a righteous servant living in an unrighteous world, clinging to God’s commandments as his only stability.

In the first half of this portion of the psalm the unknown author appealed to God’s justice, and asked Him for deliverance from his oppressors. The psalmist was a committed believer who was afflicted by those who opposed God, yet he remained faithful.  He was persecuted, yet he kept himself anchored in God’s Word.

As our portion of this psalm begins, the author asserted his integrity (vs. 121).  He wasn’t trying to say that he was sinless or perfect in God’s, or even his own sight.  He was appealing to God based on the fact that he knew that God was faithful to His covenant, and that he was committed to try and walk in obedience to the Lord.  Because he was committed to Him, he pleads with the Lord that He not abandon him to his enemies, who were also the enemies of God.  This oppression is serious, and he asked God for a pledge or guarantee that He will rescue him (vs. 122).

God doesn’t always answer our prayers immediately, the moment we pray, and that was also the case with our psalmist.  He was waiting, actually exhausted from waiting for God’s answer (vs. 123).  This is an example of the faithful endurance of a believer longing for God’s deliverance in a hostile world.  He doesn’t point to anything good in himself to deserve God’s help.  Instead he appeals to God’s mercy (vs. 124).  It is only through His grace and mercy that we receive anything good.

In the middle of his prayer for help, our psalmist declares how he loves God’s Word (vs. 125-128).  God’s people are aliens in enemy territory, and only the Bible can protect them from the lies of the oppressor.  However, we must accept all that God’s Word says about all things.  If we love the truth then we must also hate the false (vs. 128).  Today, just as in the psalmist’s day, evil has become so rampant that divine intervention is urgently needed.  We see morality collapse all around us, and long for God to act (vs. 126).

In the second half of this portion of Psalm 119, we read of the psalmist’s wonder at God’s Word, and how he prayed for spiritual illumination and God’s mercy.  God’s Word, the Bible, is our light in this increasingly dark and sinful world (vs. 130).  Earlier in this psalm, the author has told us how the Bible is a light for our path (Psalm 119:105).  Just as we need light to see where we are going so that we don’t trip, if we follow God’s Word we are less likely to trip and stumble through life.  The Lord Jesus called Himself the Light of the world (John 8:12).  With Him we never need to walk in darkness.

The Psalmist also speaks of how he longed for, even panted for God’s Word, like someone who is desperately hungry or thirsty (vs. 131).  This is reminiscent of Psalm 42:1-2, where the Sons of Korah spoke of how they longed for God, just as a thirsty deer longs for the cool water of a brook.  He depends on God’s mercy, and asks for the Lord to guide each step of his throughout life (vs. 132-133).

Again, he prays for the Lord’s deliverance from persecution (vs. 134).  We need this to be our prayer, as well, as we seek to stand for truth in a world that is increasingly hostile to Biblical authority.  The psalmist prays for God’s favor to fall upon him, just like a king’s benevolent face would turn with a smile upon a subject that he will bestow an honor upon (vs. 135).  This echoes the priestly blessing that Moses instructed Aaron and his sons to give to the people of Israel (Numbers 6:22-27).  The psalmist closes this portion of the psalm by recording how he weeps over sin, not just his own, but the sins of others (vs. 136).  This is the heart of a godly person, that they grieve over the world’s rebellion against God.

As we look back over this Scripture, we see that a godly Christian who seeks to follow the Lord will stand firm in righteousness, even when he is surrounded by evil.  The psalmist lived faithfully despite oppression, and so must we today.  We, like him, must love Scripture more than earthly treasures.  Gold will fade, but God’s Word endures forever.  We should be praying for God to act in a sinful world, praying for revival, justice, and for Christ’s return.  In doing so, let the sin we see so rampant in society break your heart.  A tender heart is a mark of true holiness.  This whole psalm, Psalm 119, is a model of a godly life in an ungodly age.

The Walls of Jericho

Joshua 6:1-25

We like to think that we are intelligent, rational, and logical people.  If we have a goal, job, or project that we need to accomplish, we will think out the most rational and logical way to complete that goal.  So if someone comes along and suggests something really bizarre, really outlandish as a way to achieve this job or project of ours, we are not likely to set aside our logical way to follow their crazy ideas.  In our Scripture today, though, we read of a skilled military leader who set aside all normal battle plans for something that anyone, military or not, would consider rather peculiar to say the least.  Let’s take a look at this account in the Old Testament.

The forty years of wandering in the wilderness after the Israelites dramatic exodus from Egypt was ending, and the people were now prepared to enter and take possession of the land the Lord had promised them.  In the earlier chapters of the Book of Joshua, the people had crossed the Jordan River, and they were now camping near the first city that the Lord had told them to take possession of, the city of Jericho.  God had chosen Joshua to follow Moses as the leader of the people after Moses’ death.  Joshua was also a skilled military man, and was the leader of their armies.

Shortly before our Scripture passage, Joshua had sent two spies into the city of Jericho to find out about the city and its people.  There they met Rahab, and learned that the people of Jericho feared them (Joshua 2:8-11).  Now, as they were preparing to enter the land, this walled city was “securely shut up”, meaning that it was locked down in fear (vs. 1).  Fortified cities at this time often had walls that were a dozen or more feet thick, were several stories high, and had massive wooden doors leading in and out of the walled city.  The people of Israel would have been afraid, too, as this was their first battle in the Promised Land, their first city of conquest.  Would they succeed or be soundly beaten?  They were dependent upon God.

Joshua came to the Lord in prayer before they set out to do battle, and this was when He gave Joshua the orders of how they were to go about conquering Jericho (vs. 2-5).  These orders must have sounded so bizarre to this military leader that he must have wondered if he heard correctly!  They were to march around the city once per day for six days.  There were to be seven priests carrying seven trumpets of rams’ horns.  On the seventh day they were to march around the city seven times.  Then the priests would blow the trumpets, the people shout, and the walls would fall.  Why such a strange method?  Why not just batter down the gate, enter, and start fighting the people, like every other battle was done?  This strange way was given to show both the Israelites and all the Canaanites of the land that this victory was totally from God, not the people.  This was to show everyone that Yahweh was Israel’s God, and He was giving them the land.

Notice here in verse 2 that God speaks of the victory as if it is an already accomplished fact.  In God’s eyes, the victory was already won, and they were to think that way, too.  However, they were to obey even when the command seemed irrational.  God’s commands are not suggestions.  Obedience is required even when His ways defy human logic.  When the Lord calls us to a task that seems unreasonable, we have two options.  We can obey Him, even though we don’t understand what will happen, or we can become fearful and attempt to find a way out.  Joshua trusted the Lord, disregarding all of his military experience, and adopted God’s bizarre battle plan.

Joshua relayed God’s instructions, and Israel obeyed without complaint (vs. 6-14).  The people of Jericho were probably laughing at what these seemingly silly people were doing.  But God was making something dramatically clear - both to the Canaanites and to Israel.  These were His people, and He alone was giving the land to them.  On the seventh day, Israel marched seven times, and when the priests blew the trumpets, Joshua commanded the people to shout (vs. 15-20).  Instead of shouting in jubilation after God gave them their victory, the Israelites shouted in faith before the walls fell.  This is not a myth or a metaphor.  It is a literal, historical miracle, demonstrating God’s power.

Why was there such severe judgment? (vs. 17-21).  The wickedness of the Canaanite people was extreme (Leviticus 18; Deuteronomy 12:29-31).  God is holy and He judges nations.  Israel was not acting out of cruelty, but in obedience to God.  Sin is serious, and God’s holiness demands judgment.  Rahab and her family were spared because she believed God’s Word and also she had sheltered the spies (vs. 22-25).  God saves those who believe, regardless of their background.  Rahab became part of Israel, and she was in the lineage of Jesus (Matthew 1:5).  Even in judgment, God extends mercy to those who believe.  Salvation is always by faith.

The world will say that we are crazy for following what God tells us in His Word, the Bible.  However when we do, He will ensure that we get the victory.  Jericho fell exactly as God said it would.  Like Joshua, we need to be listening to what God is telling us to do.  Read and study His Word, and pray.  Then do as instructed.  Obey the Lord.  He always honors obedience.

The Wheat and the Tares

Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43

An imposter has infiltrated the organization.  That is sometimes the plot of suspense movies or books.  Sometimes that happens in real life, too, with enemy agents spying on government agencies, getting into major corporations to attempt a takeover, or just sneaking into clubs where they don’t belong.  In today’s Gospel reading we see an infiltration, one sent by a specific enemy, and what our Lord has to teach us about it.

In our Scripture, Jesus told His disciples the Parable of the Wheat and Tares, in which He explained what will happen within the kingdom as the Gospel spreads throughout the world.  In this parable the Lord spoke of a man who sowed his field with good wheat seed, but in the dark of night his enemy comes and sows tares in the field (vs. 24-30).  Tares are a noxious, poisonous weed that looks very similar to wheat in the early stages, but is distinguishable when mature.  After the plants start growing the workers see that there are tares among the wheat, and ask if they should pull them out.  The owner tells them to wait until harvest, so that the good wheat won’t accidentally get pulled out along with the tares.  At that time the wheat is gathered for the harvest, but the tares are gathered and burned.

Jesus then proceeded to tell the disciples the meaning of this parable (vs. 36-43).  The Sower is God and the wheat seeds are Christians which are planted all over the world.  The enemy is Satan, who plants counterfeit believers, who are actually unbelievers, in among the true believers.  Satan opposes the work of Jesus, and is trying to undermine the work of the Church by placing his own people, the tares, among the good wheat, the true believers.  These tares, though, will be cast into eternal punishment, whereas the true believers will shine in God’s eternal kingdom.

What does this parable mean to us today?  Jesus wants us to know that Satan is intentionally trying to corrupt the Church.  He intentionally plants people who make false professions of faith, counterfeit Christians into the church, planting deception, and attempting to guide true believers down a wrong path of false belief and practices.  This is done subtly, not openly or obviously.  One such false belief is that Satan doesn’t really exist, but Jesus makes it very clear here, and throughout the Gospels,  that he does exist and is an active enemy.

The workers in God’s field asked whether they should go in and pull up these tares right away before they cause damage to the good wheat.  They want to purify the field immediately, but Jesus forbids it.  Just as tares are often very difficult to distinguish from the wheat, so too unbelievers who are falsely claiming to be Christians, who go around subtly trying to spread false beliefs, are often difficult to tell apart.  However, in the end they will be revealed, and God will separate them at the end.

Satan has been, and still is currently sowing weeds among the good seeds in God’s garden.  There are weeds in the church today!  They closely resemble the wholesome wheat, but are planted by Satan.  His purposes are always to do damage and destroy God’s purposes, and we should be aware and prepared.  We need to be like the Christians in the Berean church, checking every teaching we hear with the Scriptures (Acts 17:10-12).

The Lord does not want us to be the ones who do the weeding, as we might pull out what we thought was a tare, but it was really wheat.  Though we need to be careful with whose teachings truly line up with the Word of God, only God knows the human heart.  He alone can make a true judgment.

We may wonder why God does not weed out the wicked people and evil from His world, but we can be thankful that He is more intent on preserving His people until the harvest.  The presence of tares does not hinder the wheat from growing.  The true wheat will survive despite the tares being mixed among them.  There are pretenders in the church, and we must not let them influence our faith.  Instead, we should be influencing theirs.

Not everyone who says they are a Christian really is one.  There are false “Christians” that Satan has planted inside our churches.  We need to be careful of them, but leave the final judgment to Jesus.  He will send His angels to separate them, and then the wicked will face eternal fire, but the righteous will shine in glory.  This parable is both a warning and a comfort.  God sees, God knows, and He will judge perfectly.  Jesus closed this parable as He did many parables, with the statement “He who has ears to hear, let him hear!”  Are we listening to Him?

Present Pain But Future Glory

Romans 8:18-25

Suppose some fairytale genie were to grant you, just as you were becoming an adult, a lifetime of happiness, no worries, living in an ideal location, doing what you would always have dreamed of doing, just a perfect life for the rest of your life.  However, in order to obtain this you would have to go through a very brief, less than a minute, of bad pain.  Would you do it?  I think most of us would.  What is one minute compared to a lifetime, perhaps 70 or more years, of a perfect life?  Equally so, what are a handful of years compared to an endless eternity?  This hypothetical scenario is similar to what St. Paul speaks of in our Scripture today, as we continue on in the eighth chapter of Romans.

Paul begins this portion of Scripture with teaching that the various sufferings that we all go through throughout life are insignificant compared to the future glory that God will reveal (vs. 18).  He doesn’t deny the existence of suffering.  We all know it is real, however it is temporary.  The glory of the believer’s future eternal life is certain.  It is immeasurable, and it will be forever.  Whatever problems or pain we are going through won’t last forever, but we will.  Compared with eternity, what is 70, 80, or 90 years?  It is like a millisecond.  Paul tells us to look beyond the present to the promised future.

There is coming a time in the future when God’s children will receive their glorified bodies, and will be presented and shown as His redeemed people (vs 19).  This will be at the Second Coming of the Lord Jesus and His Millennial Kingdom.  As Paul states, this is something that creation itself longs for because its own restoration is tied to our glorification.

Adam and Eve’s sin in the Garden of Eden didn’t just affect them and mankind.  It also affected all of creation - other animals, plants, the weather, all of creation (vs. 20-22).  They all fell, as well.  The Fall in the garden brought decay, death, and disorder into the physical world.  There were no weeds in the Garden, nor thorns and thistles.  There were no birth defects, violence, nor poisonous animals or plants.  There were no tornados, hurricanes, nor all the earthquakes we have seen lately.  Creation is now in “bondage of corruption”, but it will one day be delivered when Jesus returns and establishes His kingdom.  People may say that the earth’s future is destruction, but that is not true.  Creation’s future is freedom.

Paul uses language here, that of moaning and groaning, that echoes that of childbirth, which is pain with a purpose.  All of the natural disasters, the decay, disorder, and death are evidence of creation’s groaning.  This groaning is not hopeless, it anticipates its new birth.  The physical creation is awaiting its renewal.

Creation isn’t the only thing that is groaning.  As believers groan too (vs. 23).  We groan because we are waiting for “the adoption and the redemption of our body”.  The adoption will be the full and final experience of being God’s child.  We also eagerly await the glorified body that was promised at the resurrection.  The Holy Spirit guarantees this future inheritance (Ephesians 1:13-14), and He produces the longing for Christ’s return in us.  We groan because we know that this world is not our final home.

We were saved into hope (vs. 24-25).  This hope is not wishful thinking.  It is a confident expectation grounded in God’s promises.  Hope that is seen is not hope, so therefore believers wait with patience.  We hope and wait for our future resurrection and the return of Jesus.  We hope and wait for the restoration of all of creation and our glorification.  This hope fuels our endurance of all we might currently be going through.

We can endure suffering with confidence, knowing our future is glorious beyond comparison.  Let us lift our eyes from the pain of the present to the glory of the future.  Suffering is not the final chapter.  Redemption is.  We groan, all creation groans, but it should be filled with hope.  Jesus will return, creation will be restored, and we will shine with Him in glory.  Let us anchor our hope in God’s promises, not in our present circumstances.

A Prayer of David

Psalm 86

Our psalm for this week has the subtitle of  “A Prayer of David”.  Seventy-five of the psalms were written by David, exactly half.  Many of them were prayers of his, prayers for help.  David did not have an easy life, as he spent many years on the run from King Saul, who tried to have him killed.  Even after becoming king, things weren’t always easy, so there were many times where he needed God’s help.  We don’t know what specific circumstance was behind today’s psalm, but it is one that we can all relate to.  Let’s take a look.

As a believer who loved and trusted in Yahweh, we see in this psalm that David approached Him in prayer with humility, dependence, confidence in His character, and an unwavering loyalty to Him alone.  We see here how a child of God should pray when pressed by trouble.  David had a special or desperate need which he presented to the Lord.  He then spoke the truth about God’s character, which is why he knew he could come to Him.  Then he surrendered himself to trust in His love and care.

David began his prayer to God in a position of humility (vs. 1-4).  His statement of being “poor and needy” referred to spiritual poverty, not necessarily to financial poverty, especially if this was written while he was king.  The Lord will respond to us if we come to Him in humility (James 4:6; Psalm 34:18).  David’s claim of being “holy” was not a contradiction of being humble, nor a boast of spiritual pride.  Instead he was saying that he had set himself apart for the Lord, that he was devoted to Him, not that he had sinless perfection.

David recognized his lack of ability to help himself, and that God alone was adequate.  He prayed for God to preserve him, to save him, to be merciful to him, and for God to rejoice his soul.  These requests show that his prayer was not in his own self-confidence, but that his confidence, trust and belief  was in God.  David proclaimed that God was his God, and that he was his servant.  He knew that God was merciful, and he really needed His mercy.

Now our psalm shifts from petition to David putting his confidence in God’s character, in who He is (vs. 5-10).  David knew that God is a good God.  He not only does some good things, He is good.  This is something that we need to not only know in our head, but to believe in our heart.  He also proclaimed that God is ready to forgive.  This is a foundational doctrine in our faith.  God’s forgiveness is abundant and accessible.  Yahweh is also plenteous in mercy.  His mercy is not rationed out, to where we only get so much, and that is it, and that some days we may run out of the limited mercy apportioned to us. Instead, God’s mercy is overflowing.  David also knew that God is a God who answers prayer.  He expected God to act because He has acted on his behalf many times before.  Our God is incomparable.  As David said, “Among the gods there is none like You”.  Yahweh has no rivals and no equals!  David wanted God alone to be glorified in the victory He would give.

The next section is the spiritual center of the psalm (vs. 11-13).  David wanted instruction from the Lord, not merely deliverance.  He prayed that his heart would be united to God.  The human heart is naturally divided, pulled by fear, by temptation, and by distraction.  A divided heart leads only to instability (James 1:5-8), because we cannot serve two masters (Matthew 6:24).   We need to have single-minded devotion to God.  We also need to have a proper and reverential fear of God’s holy Name.  This is not terror, but a reverence, loyalty, and obedience to Him, which is unfortunately lacking in so many churches today.  David wanted a single heart that feared the Lord, learned from Him, obeyed, and praised Him.

David finally got around to describing his crisis (vs. 14-17).  There were proud men who had risen against him, and violent men who wanted to kill him.  They had no regard for God.  David didn’t dwell on them.  Instead he focused on God’s character again, repeating that God is full of compassion, He is gracious, longsuffering, and plenteous in mercy and truth.  This echoes what the Lord said when He passed before Moses on Mt. Sinai (Exodus 34:6-7).

Lastly, David asked God for a visible sign of His favor, not for pride, but so that his enemies would know that God was with him (vs. 17).  We, too, should so desire that God would be working in our life, so as to be a testimony to others, particularly the unsaved.

David’s prayer today was humble and persistent.  It was God-centered and rooted in Scripture.  David also expected God to answer him.  Our prayers should be this way, as well.  Though we should honestly speak to God about our needs or the crisis we are in, we should even more so focus on His character, as David did.  The most difficult situations we face can become doorways to a deeper relationship with Jesus.  This begins when we call on Him to help us in our trouble, and also to lead us each day in His way.  As with David, the Lord hears our cries for help.

Compromise

I Kings 11:1-10

Have you ever known someone who seemingly had everything going for them, but then they threw it all away because of a very bad and foolish decision?  Many of us know of someone like that, or perhaps that person is yourself.  In our Scripture for today we will take a look at someone who had been abundantly blessed by God, but then willfully threw it all away through the wrong decisions he made.  Let’s take a look at who this is, and what his wrong decisions and choices were.

The person that I am referring to is King Solomon.  He was the son of King David, and succeeded him to the throne after he died.  Solomon was a young man when he came to the throne.  Twice in his life he had very specific encounters with Yahweh, the God of Israel.  The first time was shortly after coming to the throne (I Kings 3:5-14), and the second was after he had dedicated the Temple which he had built (I Kings 9:1-9).  During this first encounter with God, the Lord asked him what he would like, as He would give him anything he requested.  Rather than asking for riches, a long life, or victory over all of his enemies, Solomon asked for wisdom to effectively rule over the people.  God was so pleased with Solomon’s request, that not only did He give him more wisdom than anyone else, but He also gave him everything that he hadn’t asked for.

So where did Solomon go wrong?  That can be answered in one word - compromise.  God had given the people the Law through His servant Moses, and one of the laws was that the people were not to take any foreign, pagan spouses to marry (Deuteronomy 7:1-4).  However, Solomon thought that he could compromise.  As we read in our Scripture, he married many foreign women (vs. 1).  Perhaps he thought that since these were royal women, these marriages could be considered okay for the political alliances they would bring.  These were not merely political alliances, as he had affection and attachment to these pagan women, which would soon lead to his spiritual downfall.  Solomon had misplaced affection.  Affection is never morally neutral.  Loving what God forbids leads inevitably to spiritual decline.

Solomon, with this compromise, was in direct disobedience to God’s Word (vs. 2).  God had clearly spoken.  The king’s sin was not ignorance, but was willful disregard to the Lord’s Word.  God had warned that these pagan women would turn their heart away from Him.  Solomon believed that he could handle this compromise, but he couldn’t.  No believer is strong enough to resist the consequences of disobeying God’s clear commands.

This wasn’t just a little compromise, or a one-time occurrence.  Solomon married not just one, two, or even three pagan wives.  He married 700 of them, along with 300 concubines (vs. 3).  This was not merely excessive, it was rebellious.  This was also in direct violation of Deuteronomy 17:17, where God said the king was not to have multiple wives.  This was not an innocent action that didn’t really matter.  Sin always grows.  What begins as a small compromise becomes a dominating force.

These women turned Solomon’s heart away from Yahweh.  The heart is the battleground.  Solomon did not lose his wisdom, he lost his devotion to Yahweh (vs. 4).  A divided heart is the beginning of apostasy.  Compromise begins when we ignore God’s instructions and follow the world’s practices.  He might have thought that every other king had foreign wives, why not him?  Then we start loving people, activities, or other things more than we love God, and soon we find ourselves pursuing what He has forbidden.  If we don’t heed God’s discipline, we’re in danger of losing what He intended for our lives, just as what happened with Solomon.

The worst thing that came through Solomon’s compromise with marrying these pagan women was that he allowed them to set up altars to their heathen, pagan gods, and not too long after that Solomon began joining these wives in their worship of these gods and goddesses.  He didn’t merely tolerate idolatry, he participated in it (vs. 5-7).  Ashtoreth was a goddess of fertility and sexual immorality.  Milcom (also known as Molech) was associated with child sacrifice.  Solomon built altars to these pagan gods on the hill east of Jerusalem, likely the Mount of Olives.  This began the country’s downward slide into public, nationwide idolatry, which would eventually lead to their captivity in Babylon.  His sin affected the nation.

God’s anger was righteous and personal (vs. 9-10).  Twice He had appeared to Solomon, which was an extraordinary privilege.  Yet Solomon turned from the very God who had blessed him.  God’s warning had been clear.  Solomon’s wisdom did not protect him.  His heart was turned because he allowed influences that God had forbidden.  He had heard God’s voice and received His promises, yet he fell.  No amount of blessing replaces obedience.  Partial obedience is disobedience.  Solomon obeyed God in building the Temple, but disobeyed Him in personal holiness.  He didn’t fall in a day.  He drifted slowly, one small compromise at a time, and his sin affected the entire nation.

No amount of wisdom, blessing, or spiritual experience can substitute for obedience.  Solomon’s heart was turned because he loved what God forbade, ignored God’s Word, and allowed ungodly influences to shape his life.  As believers we are called to wholehearted devotion, separation from sin, and faithful obedience to God who has spoken clearly in His Word, the Bible.

The Parable of the Sower

Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23

I remember back in the mid-sixties when I was in first grade, the teacher gave each student a seed to plant in a paper cup of dirt and we placed them all on the windowsill of the classroom.  I believe it was some type of a bean seed.  This was to be a very rudimentary lesson in botany.  All of us first graders would eagerly watch our paper cups, wondering whose would be the first to show a growing plant breaking through soil.  We all wanted our little seeds to grow!   There is Someone else who has planted seeds, many seeds, and is eager for them to germinate and grow.  We read about this in our Scripture from St. Matthew’s Gospel today.

Today we are going to look at Jesus’ parable of The Sower, one of His more familiar parables.  Jesus frequently taught the crowds of people through parables, simple stories used to illustrate spiritual lessons.  On this day Jesus and His disciples were along the shore of the Sea of Galilee, and a large crowd of people had gathered to hear what He had to teach.  In order to be better seen and heard, Jesus stepped into a boat and told them the Parable of the Sower (vs. 1-9).

The sower was walking through his property and had a bag of seed.  As he walked, he grabbed handfuls of seed and tossed them randomly everywhere he walked.  Some of the seed fell on the wayside, which was hard ground.  There they were ready food for the hungry birds.  Some fell where the ground was stony and very little soil.  Because they couldn’t develop much roots the plants didn’t get much nourishment or water, and quickly died in the sun.  Some of the seed fell among weeds, where the plants would get choked out and could not thrive.  Lastly, some fell on good soil and produced a good crop.

What did this parable mean?  Was it just a lesson in being more careful in planting your seeds?  When Jesus was away from the crowds, He explained to the disciples, who were eager to learn what this meant (vs. 18-23).  The Sower is God, the seed is His Word, and the various soils are the different people in the world.  The wayside hearer may hear the Gospel, but they do not understand, and the devil snatches God’s message away from them (vs. 19).  This is the unregenerate, hardened heart.  It is not that the seed is bad, but instead it is the soil which is unreceptive to it. They have no interest or care in anything to do with God.  Satan opposes the reception of the Gospel, and will actively remove the Word from unprepared hearts.

The stony ground hearer represents one who responds emotionally and quickly to hearing the Gospel, but does not have a root (vs. 20-21).  When trials come they will fall away.  They make a profession of faith, but do not genuinely have Jesus in their heart.  Genuine salvation will produce endurance, but having temporary enthusiasm is not true salvation.  God uses trials to strengthen our faith.  Each test makes our faith stronger.  Those who don’t truly believe will fall away when afflictions arise.  To go through suffering and remain true to Christ testifies to others about our salvation.

The third type of soil is the one filled with thorns and weeds (vs. 22).  The seed, the Word of God, is crowded out by the cares of this world and deceitfulness of riches. When we have competing loyalties in our heart, the worldly ones will usually choke out God’s Word.  Worldliness and materialism are deadly enemies of true discipleship.  This hearer never bears fruit, which is another mark of false conversion. Thorns grow naturally, but spiritual fruit does not.  Believers must actively resist distractions and worldly desires.  Fruit is not optional, it is the inevitable result of new birth.

The good soil represents those who hear God’s Word, understands, accepts God’s offer of salvation, and bears fruit (vs. 23). Fruitfulness is the evidence of genuine salvation.  True believers will vary in fruitfulness, but all will bear some fruit.  True salvation produces transformation.  True believers hunger for the Word of God and bear fruit.  These four soils explain why not all who hear the Gospel are saved, and why not all professions of faith are genuine.

We may wonder about the method that the sower of the seed used, as it seems random and indiscriminate.  The sower doesn’t take each seed one by one and plant them in individual holes he made.  He grabs handfuls and throws them left and right, across all types of soil.  The Sower is God.  He has no time to waste, and He wants the entire field, the entire world, to get the seed of the Gospel.  He throws it everywhere, into prisons, schools, and homes, to the rich and the poor, the educated and not, to everyone.  God wants every human to know that He sent His Son to die for their sins.  He wants you to know about Jesus, and then bring forth a harvest in your life.