Jesus Teaches on Sowing Seed in 4 Types of Soil
June 1, 2020
Commentary
Why is it that the hearing of the Word of God does not produce the same results in every heart? As the Word of God is taught to a group of people there are varied responses to it. It is said that it makes some mad, some glad and some sad. The answer is given by the Lord Himself as He sits in a boat anchored on the shore of the Sea of Galilee teaching a multitude of people sitting on the hillside nearby. (v. 1). Jesus was a wise teacher. He knew it was useless to expect simple minds to understand abstract ideas so he used stories from real life to teach spiritual truths they could not understand (vv. 2-3). It is even quite possible that he actually saw someone sowing seed on the hillside nearby and asked them to look.
He calls attention to four types of soil the seed will fall in: the hard soil, the shallow soil, the weedy soil and the good soil (vv. 4-8). Whether the seed takes root and grows is dependent on the soil where it is sown. The same is true in hearing the Word of God. The response is dictated by the heart that receives it. If the will is right, the understanding of the teaching will not be a problem (John. 7:17).
Application
Ask - If you had been in the crowd when Jesus gave this parable which of the following would you have been thinking?
___ What’s He saying? ___ Is He trying to say something to me?___ I Wonder which soil I am?___ Sure wish so and so could hear this!
It is my deepest desire that my life has been characterized by the seed that fell on good ground. No doubt some of it has fallen on hard soil and did not grow and some hit the shallow soil and the weedy ground so has not produced the fruit that it should.
Mark 4:1– 9 (NET)
1 Again he began to teach by the lake. Such a large crowd gathered around him that he got into a boat on the lake and sat there while the whole crowd was on the shore by the lake. 2 He taught them many things in parables, and in his teaching said to them: 3 “Listen! A sower went out to sow. 4 And as he sowed, some seed fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured it. 5 Other seed fell on rocky ground where it did not have much soil. It sprang up at once because the soil was not deep. 6 When the sun came up it was scorched, and because it did not have sufficient root, it withered. 7 Other seed fell among the thorns, and they grew up and choked it, and it did not produce grain. 8 But other seed fell on good soil and produced grain, sprouting and growing; some yielded thirty times as much, some sixty, and some a hundred times.” 9 And he said, “Whoever has ears to hear had better listen!”