Thursday, September 10, 2026

“The Parable” (Luke 8:5-8a)

 

EVENING SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 9/10/2026 9:03 PM

My Worship Time                                                                                        Focus:  “The Parable”

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                                    Reference:  Luke 8:5-8a

            Message of the verses:  “The Sower went out to sow his seed; and as he sowed, some fell beside the road, and it was trampled under foot and the birds of the air ate it up.  Other seed fell on rocky soil, and as soon as it grew up, it withered away, because it had no moisture.  Other seed fell among the thorns; and the thorns grew up with it and choked it out.  Other seed fell into the good soil, and grew up, and produced a crop a hundred times as great.”

            Looking at this one can see it is a simple story and it describes an activity that was very familiar to Jesus’ hearers, since Galilee was largely an agricultural region.  In fact, as they stood along the shore that day they may even have seen this taking place in the distance.  Now when a sower went out to sow his seed he used a method known as broadcasting.  Now this involved walking up and the furrows in the plowed field scattering the seed by hand.  The seed would fall on different types of soil, of which the Lord mentions four of them.

            Some of the seed fell beside the road.  Jesus was talking about the beaten paths that separated the narrow strips of cultivated land.  Farmers used those paths to access their plowed fields, and travelers used them to travel through the countryside, example (Matthew 12:1) “1 ¶  At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath. His disciples were hungry, and they began to pluck heads of grain and to eat.”  The paths were not plowed, and in the dry, semi-arid climate of Israel they would become virtually as hard as concrete.  There was no chance of seeds growing on these hard-packed soil.  What was not trampled under foot by people walking along the paths the birds of the air ate.

            Now some of the other seed fell on rocky soil. Jesus was not referring to soil strewn with rocks and boulders, since those would have been turned up ty the plowing and then removed.  In many places, however, there was an underlying rock bed deep enough below the surface to avoid being struck by the plow.  The plant’s roots could not penetrate that rock bed to reach the water table that was beneath it.  As a result they withered away, because the thin layer of topsoil retained insufficient moisture for them to survive. 

            Now we move on to still other seed fell among the thorns Akanta (thorns) is a general term for the category of thorny” writes MacArthur “(Matt. 27:29; John 19:2]), prickly weeds that are useless and particularly harmful in cultivated cropland.”

(Matt. 27:29; John 19:2)

“29  and twisting together a crown of thorns, they put it on his head and put a reed in his right hand. And kneeling before him, they mocked him, saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!”

“2  And the soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on his head and arrayed him in a purple robe.”

“Even the most careful, diligent plowing could not always remove all of the weed’s roots.  The result was a soil that looked good when the farmer sowed the seed, but the tragic reality was that there was other life in it.  The noxious weeds grew faster than the good plants, blocking sunlight and consuming the water and nutrients from the soil.  As a result the thorns grew up with the good plants and chocked them out.

            “But the situation was not entirely hopeless.  Some seed managed to fall into good soil, and grew up, and produced a crop a hundred times as great.  The soil had not of the drawbacks of the other three; it was soft, deep, and free of weeds.  As a result As a result, it produced an amazing crop.  Matthew 13:8 and Mark 4:8 refer to a crop yield of thirty, sixty, or one hundred fold; Luke mentions only the greatest yield (cf. Gen. 26:12). All were far above the average yield a farmer could expect.”

(cf. Gen. 26:12)

“12 ¶  And Isaac sowed in that land and reaped in the same year a hundredfold. The LORD blessed him,”

Spiritual Meaning for my life today:  A large part of the reason I write Spiritual Diaries is so the Word of God can go around the world and produce fruit for the Lord.

My Steps of Faith for Today: I have had grief compounded upon grief as my grandson, as I mentioned yesterday has lost an arm and a leg to a motorcycle accident.  Compound with still grieving over the death of my wife on the 29th of July it has made my life and the lives of our family very difficult.  He has a very long way to go before he will even be back to some kind of a normal life, and our prayers go heavenward for him many times a day.  I continue to listen to the song that was sung and played at my wife’s funeral “He giveth More Grace” as that song is listened to each and every day to remind me that God gives more grace when the burden grows greater. 

9/10/2026 9:43 PM

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