Have you ever heard a Bible story so many times, becoming so familiar with it that it misses its impact? I think that happens with the parable of the four soils – at least it does to me!
We subconsciously think to our selves: Everyone knows Jesus is talking about the Gospel – some people don’t want to know the Gospel and Satan takes away the word; some do want to know, but their commitment is shallow and they easily fall away; some respond positively to the Gospel but, in time, temptations and the pressures of life make them ineffective. Finally, some jump in with both feet and keep God’s Word, they put Him first in their lives and become very fruitful.
Job done, right? If you are a Christian reading this, you must be soil number four and you feel sad for the other poor saps who are in one of the other three categories.
But I would like to suggest there is much more going on here: I think this is a parable for all people, especially Christians. Jesus is directing this towards everyone who might follow him, and he is asking: how much do we allow the whole of the Word of God to change us?
Jesus makes it very clear that the ‘seed’ in the story is God’s Word, including his messages about the Kingdom of Heaven; and his teaching was varied: from instructions about money, prayer and marriage, to challenges about priorities, righteousness and love for one another. With the parable of the soils he is, in effect, asking: How much will you allow my words to take root in your life?
For example, if we try to ignore his words about say, forgiveness, is it possible that we are actually allowing Satan to take those words away like in the description of the first soil? Or, if we start to allow career or family or even ministry to become more important than our relationship and obedience to God, then are we any better than the person described in soil number three?
No wonder Jesus said, “if you don’t understand this parable how will you understand any parable?” (Mark 4: 13).
This leads me to ask: how seriously do we take God’s Word? We can nod our heads during a sermon and sign statements of faith, but do we embrace the pain of obeying it? Especially the hard bits.
Isaiah 66: 2b describes the believer as one who, ‘trembles at my word’. That’s a powerful phrase. Think about that for a moment. A child of God is one who handles the Scriptures with deep, almost fearful reverence.
Let’s tremble before God’s Word, especially some of those ‘difficult’ verses we find in the Bible, knowing that as we do so God can use them to bring transformation to our lives. Let us not be hard soil, ignoring His Word; or shallow soil, with no real commitment to it; or even crowded soil with mixed priorities. But let’s be eager to feed on God’s Word and hungry enough for it to change us.
The Best is Yet to Come. God bless – Terry
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