This week in my quiet time, I was reading from Matthew 13, the parable of the farmer scattering seed;
Matthew 13:3-12
“Listen! A farmer went out to plant some seeds. 4 As he scattered them across his field, some seeds fell on a footpath, and the birds came and ate them. 5 Other seeds fell on shallow soil with underlying rock. The seeds sprouted quickly because the soil was shallow. 6 But the plants soon wilted under the hot sun, and since they didn’t have deep roots, they died. 7 Other seeds fell among thorns that grew up and choked out the tender plants. 8 Still other seeds fell on fertile soil, and they produced a crop that was thirty, sixty, and even a hundred times as much as had been planted! 9 Anyone with ears to hear should listen and understand.”
10 His disciples came and asked him, “Why do you use parables when you talk to the people?”
11 He replied, “You are permitted to understand the secrets[a] of the Kingdom of Heaven, but others are not. 12 To those who listen to my teaching, more understanding will be given, and they will have an abundance of knowledge. But for those who are not listening, even what little understanding they have will be taken away from them.
I asked the Lord to help me understand the passage. Does it refer to where a person is at emotionally, at the time of hearing the word, or that there some people will hear and receive the word and that some will not?
Why did Jesus talk in parables. Why did he not just talk plainly?
Because Jesus was bringing a heavenly message to a tangible earth.
Put simply, the definition of a parable is an earthly story with a heavenly meaning. Parables tell a story using something we see every day to help us understand a spiritual truth that we can’t see with our eyes. When Jesus taught in parables, He used the things that the people of His day were familiar with.
In the passage above, Jesus said that the same seed either produced no crop, some crop, or a great crop. The seed was the same in every place, but the condition of the soil was different.
The same message falls on all our hearts but our hearts are in different conditions.
Either we dismiss it. We hear it and don’t react to it. Or we hear it and it changes our lives!
But there is one thing of which I am absolutely sure.
God is a loving God and he wants everyone to hear it. His heart is for ALL the people and he wants to see everyone saved.
1 Timothy 2 Good News Translation (GNT)
God our Savior, 4 who wants everyone to be saved and to come to know the truth. 5 For there is one God, and there is one who brings God and human beings together, the man Christ Jesus, 6 who gave himself to redeem the whole human race.
I believe that God has given me wisdom and insight into that passage and also into our situation of drought that we find ourselves in right now. I know that there have been so many correlations made to the drought and the will of God, and it’s difficult to know whether the drought is a God thing or just a thing.
But the reality is that God is in everything! And He uses everything for his good.
Circumstances do change the condition or our hearts. Nothing and no-one is cast in stone.
God’s desire is for ALL to turn to Him. To hear His word. To receive it as truth and to live and grow in Him!
Romans 8:28 Good News Translation (GNT)
28 We know that in all things God works for good with those who love him,[a] those whom he has called according to his purpose.
This drought may be a way of getting our attention. (Intentionally or unintentionally)
It may be a time when people realise that they really cannot do it on their own. Money can’t buy rivers. Money can’t fill dams. Money can’t make the rain fall from the sky.
But GOD can. He can do all this. He can bring the rain! He can fill the dams and He can make the rivers flow.
Are our hearts ready to hear His voice and receive His love?
Is the soil of our hearts fertile?
Let us begin to get rid of the rocks and thorns of pride and arrogance and disbelief and sin.
Let us open our hearts and let Him in!
I believe that God will bring the rain, but let us prepare the soil of our hearts for that day, so that we can all rejoice in Him.