Devotional thoughts from Matthew 13:1-9
Matthew 13:1–9
The same day went Jesus out of the house, and sat by the sea side. 2 And great multitudes were gathered together unto him, so that he went into a ship, and sat; and the whole multitude stood on the shore. 3 And he spake many things unto them in parables, saying, Behold, a sower went forth to sow; 4 And when he sowed, some seeds fell by the way side, and the fowls came and devoured them up: 5 Some fell upon stony places, where they had not much earth: and forthwith they sprung up, because they had no deepness of earth: 6 And when the sun was up, they were scorched; and because they had no root, they withered away. 7 And some fell among thorns; and the thorns sprung up, and choked them: 8 But other fell into good ground, and brought forth fruit, some an hundredfold, some sixtyfold, some thirtyfold. 9 Who hath ears to hear, let him hear.
My first thought after today’s reading was this guy is wasting seed.
Jesus is teaching about a farmer that sows seed in what appears to be mostly the wrong places.
First, he is sows in the path where people have walked, making the ground hard and unreceptive. I am no seed sowing specialist, but I know that isn’t an ideal technique!
Then the sower sows on rocky soil where there isn’t enough ground for the seed to sink into the depth of the ground. I immediately thought, doesn’t this guy plow first?
Surely, if he had attempted plowing, he would have realized this isn’t a good location for a crop.
Next, he sows among the weeds. Weeds, really? I am beginning to wonder if this sower needs an eye exam.
Finally, after three tries he manages to start sowing on good ground.
As you can imagine, the seed on the beaten path could not enter the ground and became bird seed. The stony ground seed was too shallow and didn’t reach the right place for a harvest.
Who would have ever guessed that seed sown among weeds will get choked out?
I did, and it does. People remove weeds from their gardens for a reason.
Of course, the good soil accepted the seed and produced a great harvest.
In tomorrow’s reading Jesus will explain this parable and how the seed is the Word of God and the various soils illustrate how the hearers receive the word. Since he will explain it in tomorrow’s reading perhaps, we should save some of the details.
I will however try to make one point, if we are to follow Jesus’ teaching, we are not to be soil inspectors but seed sowers.
When we disperse the life changing Word of God, we should not try to determine how receptive a certain individual will be or guess how much good it will do. We are to just scatter seed and let God take care of the rest.
“He which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly; and he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully.” 2 Corinthians 9:6
I have seen many occasions where I suspected I was sowing spiritual seed on a hard, unreceptive heart but found out God had done some unseen plowing.
I have assumed that I was talking to a person that had too much “weed” and they wouldn’t understand me anyway, but somehow the spiritual seed worked, and God changed them.
Paul gave the best principle for sowing when he said,
“I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase.” 1 Corinthians 3:6
Just sow, sow everywhere you can, let God send another laborer in his field to water if needed and leave the rest to him.