Daily Archives: June 20, 2015

Footpaths And Rocks

Bible Study, , , ,

FOOTPATHS AND ROCKS

Then Jesus said to them, ‘Don’t you understand this parable? How then will you understand any parable? The farmer sows the word. Some people are like seed along the path, where the word is sown. As soon as they hear it, Satan comes and takes away the word that was sown in them. Others, like seed sown on rocky places, hear the word and at once receive it with joy. But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away. (Mark 4: 13-17).

Parables are stories about everyday things that bring understanding of deeper things. Have you ever asked the question, ‘Why do people respond to the gospel differently? Why do some receive it and believe while others remain untouched by the same message?’

Is Jesus saying that understanding this parable is basic to understanding all parables? Is all mankind divided into four groups – according to their response to God’s word? What if they never hear the word?

Is seems that this story, if it does not answer our question fully, at least acknowledges that people are different and their response to the word is different. The problem does not lie with the seed. God’s word is a seed. Like any good-quality seed, the power to grow and reproduce lies within the seed itself. The environment in which it is placed influences its capacity to reproduce.  It needs good soil, sunshine and water to kick start the growth process. People’s attitudes affect the productivity of the seed.

Today we look at two kinds of soil. The first is the “footpath” ground – hard and impenetrable. Any seed dropped on this ground lies exposed. It cannot penetrate the soil because the ground where it fell has been tramped hard by many pairs of feet. The ever-vigilant opportunist, Satan, will snatch away the seed as soon as it lands on the footpath so that it will never have an opportunity to send out a root and anchor itself in the ground.

What makes people so hardened to God’s word that they don’t even hear it? I suppose there are many reasons, one of them being the religious ones. Jesus met some of them on His travels through Israel – self-righteous people who refused to acknowledge any need. They thought they were right and defended their right to be right at the expense of the truth. Anything He said to them bounced off their self-righteousness and made their hearts even harder until they eventually murdered Him to silence His voice.

Then there were the ones who were hardened by greed. Judas Iscariot may be a good example. We don’t really know the motive behind his betrayal of Jesus but money certainly came into it until he had a light-bulb moment when the money no longer mattered. What about the rich young ruler? He also heard the message but his money held his heart so tightly that he forfeited the opportunity to follow Jesus for the love of his possessions.

Others are so hardened by responding to life’s troubles in the same way over and over again so that they are no longer able to think differently. They see themselves as victims; God is often the reason for their hardness. He gets the blame for “allowing” these things to “happen” and any other explanation just rolls off them.

Sin is a common reason for hardness of heart. “The pleasures of sin” the Bible calls it. Sin either captivates people’s hearts or there are held captive by it. When people are enslaved by sin, they are ensnared by hopelessness and despair. They are deaf to whatever God’s word has to say about their situation. It might work for others, they think, but not for me.

What about the rocky ground? There may be a bit of soil in between the stones but not enough to sustain the growth of the seed. It germinates readily enough but the heat of the sun soon causes the seedling to wither and die. Life happens – the good and the bad, and we cannot escape it. Some people’s lives are filled with the “rocks” of wrong thinking – belief systems that do not give way to the truth which the seed brings. “Trouble or persecution,” Jesus said, “because of the word, causes the seed to be choked and the seedling dies.”

How does this happen? Bad experiences in childhood, for example, give rise to false notions about ourselves and God. Anything that triggers those memories and the wrong thinking that comes out of them causes us to doubt or blame God. The result – we become offended with God and walk away.

The solution to “rocky” thinking is to renew our minds with the truth. God loves us with a furious, crazy, unconditional love. What happens is not His fault but He is always with us and will turn bad to good if we trust Him. If we don’t believe that through thick and thin, His word in us will never take root and anchor us in times of trouble.

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Have you read my new book, Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart (copyright 2015, Partridge Publishing)? You’ll love it!

Available on www.amazon.com in paperback, e-book or kindle version or order directly from the publisher at www.partridgepublishing.com.

Check out my Blog site – www.learningtobeason.wordpress.com

 

A Simple Story

Bible Study, , , ,

A SIMPLE STORY

Again Jesus began to teach by the lake. The crowd that gathered around Him was so large that He got into a boat and sat in it out in the lake, while the people were along the shore at the water’s edge. He taught them many things by parables and in His teaching said:

‘Listen! A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path and the birds came and ate it up. Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants, so that they did not bear grain. Still other seed fell on good soil. It came up and produced a crop, some multiplying thirty, some sixty some a hundred tines.’

Then Jesus said: ‘Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear.’ (Mark 4: 1-9).

One kind of seed, four kinds of soil, four responses to the seed! What could be more ordinary than that?

Jesus had the opportunity of a lifetime. There were people everywhere. The crowd was so large that He was in danger of being pushed into the water by their jostling to get the best positions. Using a boat as a pulpit, He told them a four-point story. We know it well, but did they get it? They must have stood there scratching their heads and wondering, “What on earth is He getting at?” His disciples were just as puzzled because they questioned Him afterwards about the meaning of the story. Jesus’ stories were never complicated but they packed a powerful punch.

They would have asked two questions: “What is the point of the story?” and “Who am I in the story?” That’s how Hebrew people would have responded to a parable. First of all, they had to realise that He was talking about people and their attitude to God’s word.

When He was alone, the Twelve and the others around Him asked Him about the parables. He told them, ‘The secret of the kingdom of God has been given to you. But to those on the outside everything is said in parables so that,

‘they may be ever seeing but never perceiving, and ever hearing but never understanding, otherwise they might turn and be forgiven!’ (Mark 4: 10-12).

“What are you saying, Jesus? You can’t really mean that!” Did He mean that He told them believe? But why? Didn’t He want them to believe in Him and be saved? What was the point of coming to earth to reveal the Father and to take them to the Father if He told stories for the opposite reason? It just doesn’t make sense.

Jesus quoted from Isaiah 6 – God’s commission to Isaiah during his vision of God’s glory in the temple. He was to go and preach to the people until they were blind and deaf to His word (Isa. 6: 9-10). What was Jesus saying? God’s word has a powerful effect on people. It will either harden or soften their hearts depending on what they choose. If they have no interest in responding to His word, every time they hear it, their refusal to respond with make them less able to understand and believe.

In a sense, Jesus was teaching the people in parables to confirm what was already in their hearts. His disciples were open to learning the truth. Was that the reason why Jesus chose men from ordinary walks of life instead of from the recognised streams of learning – because they were open to the truth rather than already moulded into the ways of their teachers?

In a crowd like that there would have been people who were hungry for God as well as people who had no sense of need – who were satisfied with the status quo and who had not desire to change. Those were the ones whom His stories hardened into callous indifference or even outright opposition and resistance.

Of course, the Pharisees and religious leaders were everywhere. They hounded Him wherever He went, looking for opportunities to accuse Him. They had murder on their agenda although they would not admit it. He had to go because He disturbed their stranglehold on the people and exposed their ungodly hearts. Every time He told a story, they were stripped naked and they hated Him for it.

Why did Jesus speak in parables? To make soft hearts softer and hard hearts even harder. It had to be because each person must, in the end, be his own judge. That’s what happens, and we don’t like it. When we open our mouths, we reveal out hearts. When we resist the word of God, we reveal the condition of our hearts. Jesus was being absolutely fair – giving each person an opportunity to hear and respond to His word because, in the end it will be His word that will be our judge.

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Have you read my new book, Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart (copyright 2015, Partridge Publishing)? You’ll love it!

Available on www.amazon.com in paperback, e-book or kindle version or order directly from the publisher at www.partridgepublishing.com.

Check out my Blog site – www.learningtobeason.wordpress.com