The Incorruptible Seed
“While a large crowd was gathering and people were coming to Jesus from town after town, he told this parable: ‘A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path; it was trampled on, and the birds of the air ate it up. Some fell on rock, and when it came up, the plants withered because they had no moisture. Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up with it and choked the plants. Still other seed fell on good soil. It came up and yielded a crop, a hundred times more than was sown.’
When he said this, he called out, ‘He who has ears to hear, let him hear.’ His disciples asked him what this parable meant. He said, ‘The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of God has been given to you, but to others I speak in parables, so that,
'though seeing, they may not see;
though hearing, they may not understand.'
This is the meaning of the parable: The seed is the word of God. But the seed on good soil stands for those with a noble and good heart, who hear the word, retain it, and by persevering produce a crop.’ ”
Luke 8:4-11, 15
Jesus explains in verse 11 that the seed is the Word of God. It is the same seed in all four cases. Imagine Jesus encircled by His disciples who were hanging on every word out of The Word’s mouth. There were no sleep drifters here. They did not know yet that they would be catalysts and filled with the Holy Spirit to proclaim the truths they had learned. I believe this parable was fully imprinted on their being. Let’s look at how one disciple described the seed in his letter in God’s Holy Word.
Peter describes God’s Word in 1 Peter 1:23 as incorruptible. This seed was incorruptible. The Greek word for “incorruptible” means the seed was “exempt from wear, waste...It is not subject to the same kind of deterioration as the human body.” This seed is alive and endures through all natural disasters, spiritual attacks, and human effort to defile it.
The fourth place the seed fell was on fertile ground which represents a receptive heart. While the 4 types of soil are not necessarily divided evenly into fourths, this type still represents the small portion of the hearers who receive the Word, accept Him, and bear fruit. While the Holy Spirit must be moving in order for us to respond to Him or for a seed to be born into the fertile ground, we can focus on our response – retaining and persevering.
A good example is in the movie National Treasure. When the main character Ben Gates was given a clue to the treasure, he stepped back and thought about the clue for awhile. He did not dismiss the clue as too difficult to understand. The largest treasure in the world was at stake! So he talked it out and mulled it over until he understood the meaning.
The people who received Jesus’ parable and treated it as a treasure were the ones who learned the secret to the mystery of its truth. You and I need to believe that God greatly desires to give us a Word, and we need to treasure it. The largest treasure in the world is at stake. We should expect to receive it. We should be in our ready position to receive it just as a tennis player is ready to receive the serve from her opponent. On the flip side is the attitude of the know-it-all, the critic, the uninterested, or the distracted. In the book The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis, the demon merely had to remind the unsaved person of his hunger when he started contemplating God and salvation. The lost and unsuspecting person was distracted long enough to set aside the spiritual food for physical food. It is not until you and I absorb it and ingest it into ourselves that we truly receive God’s spiritual food for us.
The seed that fell on fertile ground brought forth up to a 100-fold harvest. The growth of the harvest to 30-, 60-, or 100-fold makes me rejoice! This demonstrates the power of the seed. You and I have little power and ability to bring forth a bountiful harvest on our own. It is God’s power. He allows us to partner with Him just as a small child might partner with her father to put her swing set together. The daddy does most of the work. The daughter only hands him the tools as she stands at his side. There have been so many experiences given to me by God where I didn’t earn the harvest that God produced. It was all His doing, not mine. Dear sister, be faithful to sow, and the Lord of the harvest will bring forth a crop worthy of tribute to Himself.
Pray with me: Oh, Father, Your Word does not corrupt. It does not wear out. It never changes! I want to absorb the seed that You give me. Teach me to meditate on it. Prioritize my time so that I ingest it. May ingesting Your Word mean more to me than when I feed my body. Help me see it as my greatest treasure. Bring forth a great harvest in my life. Bring a 100-fold harvest. Bring a crop that will honor You. It’s in the Name above of names, in Jesus’ Name, Yeshua’s Name, I pray. Amen.
Excerpt from the Jesus Lives Bible study,