Smoodock's Blog

When the Gospel of the Kingdom of heaven is preached, it is expected that fruit would be borne. The Lord told the prophet that his thoughts and ways aren’t anything like the thoughts and ways of men, because the thoughts and ways of God are much higher or more powerful and more important than those of men (Isaiah 55:8-9). Men are unable to either control the word of God or prevent it from bearing fruit. Thus, just as the rain and snow come down out of heaven and cover the earth, forcing it to bring forth fruit that becomes food for man and seed for the sower (Isaiah 55:10-11), so the word of God will go forth out of the mouth of God, and it won’t return to him void. In other words, it will accomplish all the desires God intends. God speaks, and his word will bring it all to pass (Isaiah 55:11; cp. Genesis 1:6-7, 9, 11, 14-15, 24, 29-30).

Jesus told his disciples to “listen” and he would explain the parable (Matthew 13:18). The way of men is to force compliance. Men are not free to do as they wish, if the king utters his command. The king utters his word and men will comply, willingly or through force. God is not a man, and his ways are not like man’s (cp. Isaiah 55:8-9). The Sower casts out the seed with his arm and some of the seed falls by the wayside, which is the beaten path through the field, and is unable to take root., because, almost immediately, the birds of the air come and take it away. This pertains to those who simply don’t understand what they hear in the Gospel. Thus, what is sown in his heart, vis-à-vis the type of ground in the text, is lost. It is taken away by the “birds,” which symbolize those who taught him the worldview he embraces without much thought given to it (Matthew 13:19).

Some seed in the parable, however, had also fallen on stoney ground, representing the hardness of the hearts of the hearers of the word of God (Matthew 13:20; cp. verse-15). Like the boy who cried: “Wolf!” too often, these embrace the word of God willingly, but they’ve been offended often. Therefore, they don’t have much root, vis-à-vis capacity to invest themselves in the hope of change. Thus, when tribulation or persecution arise (cp. 2Timothy 3:12; Matthew 5:11), it comes as a self-fulfilling prophecy: they knew “it was too good to be true,” so they become offended in the Gospel and bear no fruit.

Still, some seed fell also on the unprepared ground overgrown with thorns, which represent the cares of the world around them (Matthew 13:22). The “cares” may come in the form of evil behavior, but most often the thorns represent legitimate cares, such as involving oneself in one’s work, 24/7; or an over attachment to entertainment; or an over sensitivity to one’s position in the community etc. The thorns represent anything that competes for one’s time to the degree that there is simply no time to consider the Gospel’s value.

Finally, the seed is cast also on the soil, which was prepared by the sower or one of his servants. This is the “good ground” in the text. When men, whose hearts have been prepared to receive the word of God, hear the Gospel, the seed or word takes root and these men produce fruit to God 30, 60 and 100-fold. Nevertheless, as I pointed out in an earlier study, this doesn’t mean these folks were completely obedient. If that were true, God’s judgment in AD 70 would never have destroyed the Jewish nation. The fact is, that Jesus had predicted a great falling away (Matthew 24:10-12; 2Thessalonians 2:3). A great many Jews had received Jesus as their Messiah (cp. Acts 21:10), but later were in danger of losing their reward, because they became offended over the intensity of the persecution against the Gospel (cp. Hebrews 10:23-29, 39).

No man is ever forced by God to comply to his will. Men are free to reject him, act independently of him or even reassess their decision to embrace his will, and later throw off their ties to him. All will be judged, and some will be rewarded for the good they have done, but those who did good and later returned to their former worldview, will lose any reward they once worked to achieve, for God is a consuming fire (Hebrews 12:29; cp. 1Corinthians 3:11-15), and he dwells within us (1Corinthians 3:16).         [EB1]