(Audio)
A sower went out to sow.
And as he sowed, some seed fell on the path,
and birds came and ate it up.
The sower is generous. He is willing to sow regardless of the soil.
Some fell on rocky ground, where it had little soil.
Some seed fell among thorns
Even when our hearts are hard and our minds are filled with thorns the LORD still invites us to receive his life. All of us have these characteristics to some degree. All of our hearts contain rocky ground, unable to move and give way when the LORD touches it, unable to supply nutrients for life. We all occasionally respond to invitations from the LORD to go deeper by attacking the very idea with the thorns of our thoughts and habits.
But some seed fell on rich soil, and produced fruit,
a hundred or sixty or thirtyfold.
Whoever has ears ought to hear.
Although our hearts don't have ideal growth conditions there is still good soil in each of us. It is this soil to which we must allow the LORD access. It seems precious and undefended. Perhaps we feel like we need to keep it unsown for now just in case something better comes along. Perhaps we feel the need to fill it with other seeds from less trustworthy sources. But we need to trust the generous sower. We need to feel what it is like for the seed to be planted in this soil. Once we learn what it's like we learn how to make the other, less desirable parts of our hearts more like the parts that produce fruit.
Israel responded to the freedom the LORD gave with thorns and rocky soil.
The children of Israel said to them,
"Would that we had died at the LORD's hand in the land of Egypt,
as we sat by our fleshpots and ate our fill of bread!
But you had to lead us into this desert
to make the whole community die of famine!"
Yet the LORD was generous in sowing and found a place where his seed could germinate.
On seeing it, the children of Israel asked one another, "What is this?"
for they did not know what it was.
But Moses told them,
"This is the bread which the LORD has given you to eat."
Forever after the Israelites knew the experience of receiving bread from heaven. They were forever changed. It was a change the persisted even unto the coming of Jesus, the true bread from heaven, so that they could recognize a similar, though greater seed being sown.
Man ate the bread of angels,
food he sent them in abundance.
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