Soils

Jesus often spoke to His listeners in the form of a parable. A parable is a story of something real in life or the culture that people can relate to easily, that makes a moral or spiritual point. One such lesson is a parable about soils. Although the culture of Jesus' time was more metropolitan than we usually assume, farming, of course was a large part of life and easily understood. 

So Jesus told of a man who went out and began to sow seed and as he did, it was scattered over a wide area. It went in many directions and landed in various places on soils in four different conditions.

One type of soil where the seed landed, was beside the road, where it as trampled on by passers-by, and birds also came and ate it up. Others landed on hard, rocky ground that produced some crop, but as soon as it began to grow it withered for lack of moisture and depth. Other seed landed among thorns and weeds that grew up with it and soon choked out the good growth as it came up. But some seed landed on good soil, and soon yielded a crop one hundred times over.

Isn't the teaching of Jesus beautiful and profound in its simplicity?  Yet like us His followers had a hard time understanding the meaning He wanted to convey. So He explained it for us.

The seed that was sown in every direction is the word of God. The various type of soil on which it lands are the hearts of people in their various conditions. Some hear the message, but Satan comes like the birds, and removes it from their hearts and their thinking.  Others hear and joyfully respond, but in times of temptations or difficulties, like the rocks in a garden, they are not rooted enough to maintain, and so fall away.  Yet others are those who allow cares and worries or pleasures and riches to be their main focus and so the word gets choked out of their lives like a blossoming garden that is left unattended and weeds take over.

The last group however, are those who hear God's word in an honest and sincere heart. It is a heart that realizes all that God has done to insure that our sins can be forgiven. The word of God concerning faith in Jesus takes root creating new life, which in turn brings a new lifestyle.  This group is like the good soil in this parable of Jesus that produces the good crop of godliness, or what the Bible calls, the fruit of the Spirit.

I wonder, as you read today, which type of soil are you? Something to reflect on, and to think about today.