#DailyDevotion What Sort Of Soil Are You Going To Be?

Luke 8:4–15

⁴When a large crowd was gathering and people were coming to Him from every town, He told them a parable: ⁵“A sower went out to sow his seed…¹¹“This is what the parable means: ¹²The seed is God’s Word. The people along the road are those who hear it. Then the devil comes and takes the Word out of their hearts to keep them from believing and being saved. ¹³In others it falls on a rock. As soon as they hear it, they welcome the Word with joy, but it doesn’t take root in them. They believe for a while, but when they’re tempted, they desert. ¹⁴In others the seed falls among thorns. They hear the Word, but as they go along, worries, riches, and pleasures of life choke them, and they don’t produce anything good. ¹⁵But in others the seed falls on good ground. They are the ones who hear the Word and keep it in a good and honest heart and go on faithfully producing good things.

Well Jesus this is often called the watershed parable. Of course it’s the first parable in Matthew so it’s a good introductions to parables. Thankfully, Jesus interprets this parable for the disciples who were just as dense as the crowds he taught it to. So we don’t have to guess a lot about what the parable means. In this parable the various parts all have different meanings. In some parables it seems some of the parts are window dressing and as far as we know don’t actually have any meaning other than to carry the point Jesus is trying to make. But with these various parts they have a overarching meaning.

So we have a sower. Jesus actually doesn’t tell us who the sower is but I think it can be safe to say anyone who preaches the Word of God. Now some may say this sower is wasteful. Why let it fall all over the place on places it will not grow? It is because God is generous and also wants no one to have any excuse. He sends them to preach it even to people who will not understand it. Even though Satan is going to come right behind the preacher snatching up that Word of God, nevertheless, the Good News has been preached to them. Jesus sends his preachers to preach to the Good News of the kingdom of God who are going to fall away during persecution. They hear the Good News with great joy. This is important, they believe it. But when persecution occurs, they fall away. Their lives in this world are more important that their souls in the world to come. They want peace and comfort now. So they abandon the faith. Jesus sends his preachers to preach the Good News of the Kingdom to those who will fall away because they get carried away with the affairs of this world. They too believe but soccer games, ballet, work, sleep, children’s sports, you name it, the things of this world are seen to be of more value and they allow these things to choke out their faith and they produce no fruit. They allow their faith to die.



Jesus sends out preachers to preach to people who will the Good News of the Kingdom who will believe and produce good fruit. Here’s the thing, the good soil is under constant attack by Satan. It undergoes persecution. It has to live dealing with the daily things of this life. It just sees the Good News of the Kingdom worth more than anything else. When God’s Word means more to you than anything else, you will be the good soil that produce fruit as Jesus says. So the question you must put to yourself is this, what kind of soil are you going to be? Are you going to let Satan, persecution or the affairs of this world kill your faith or are you going to die to all these things and be fruitful in Christ. Be faithful and be fruitful in Christ.



Heavenly Father, give us your Holy Spirit so we may have a faith that values the Word of God above all things and so we may bear its fruit. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.