Why is that? Because heavy flooding would come and most likely wash away most if not all of your seeds. You don’t even have to have an agricultural degree to see that logic. ;-)
So follow me closely here...the flood waters can come and wash away the seed.
If the seed gets washed away, then you have no garden which means you have no fruit (or whatever you might have been growing).
Jesus shared a well-known parable with the multitudes. It’s the one about a man who went out to sow some seed. You can find it in Matt. 13, Mark 4, and Luke 8. We are told some seed fell by the ‘wayside’ and that the birds swooped down and ate it. Jesus goes on to share about other types of soil that did receive the seed and what the outcome was on each of those types of soil.
When He finished, we are told that when He was alone with His disciples, they inquired as to what that story they had just heard was all about. They were lacking understanding to His words and message.
I want to take a second here to re-direct your attention to a few verses in Luke 24:32-45. It’s the account where after the resurrection, Jesus was again with certain disciples and we read there on two occasions where “He opened the Scriptures to them” and “He opened their understanding that they might comprehend the Scriptures.” (32, 45).
Now flip back to Luke 10 and read what Jesus communicated with His Father regarding what was happening there with those seventy other disciples...you can read vs. 21. (I’ll wait)
Oh, do you remember in another place where Jesus asked His disciples a question and Peter got the answer correct? Do you remember what Jesus told Peter in response to him getting the right answer? Go look...it’s in Matt. 16:17. ( I’ll wait...again)
Do you see a pattern here?
Now, back to our parable of the sower. Let’s visit Luke 8:9-10. After the disciples were alone with Jesus, they asked Him what that parable meant. Listen to what Jesus shares with them in this private setting...”To you...(disciples)... it has been given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God, but to the rest it is given in parables, that seeing they may not see, and hearing they may not understand.’
So much we could ‘unpack’ here. But for the sake of time...I think it’s fair to conclude that God’s word is a ‘mystery’; and unless He opens our understanding to it, we are just spinning our wheels thinking we can figure it out on our own. But who does He make these mysteries known to? - - His disciples...those who have turned to Him with their whole hearts and follow and obey. (Certainly we all know and agree that you can easily become a church member but not be anywhere close to being a ‘disciple’)
Back to our story in Luke 8 where Jesus is making known some mysteries.
“Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God. Those by the way side are the ones who hear; then the devil comes and takes away the word out of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved.” (11-12). In the actual parable, Jesus used the birds of the air to represent the devil/demons coming and snatching the seed/word. (when you come across other passages that make mention of the ‘birds of the air’ or ‘beast of the field’...you might just make note of that- (Deut. 28:26; Rev. 18:2)
The passage in Mark 4 says ‘Satan comes immediately and takes away the word that was sown in their hearts.” (15)
How do you think he does that? How does the enemy come...and just snatch God’s word from our hearts? Because you do realize...this is indeed part of the ‘war’ we are involved in. You have an enemy and the reason he ‘comes immediately to snatch that word out of your heart’ is because he’s fully aware what will happen if that word/seed is allowed to take root in you. And for the record, we are not talking about devotionals or commentaries that sound so inspiring and intellectual or even lyrics from good praise songs and hymns.
We are talking about the Word of God which ‘works effectively in those who believe’. (1 Thess. 2:13). It is through the ‘word of God’ that we are born again and ‘washed by’. (1 Peter. 1:23; Eph. 5:26). It is the word of God that is sharper than any two-edge sword able to pierce heart and soul, and it is how a new young believer is able to “grow”. (Heb. 4:12; 1 Pet. 2:2) It was the ‘word of God’ that Jesus used to refute Satan’s onslaught of temptation in Luke 4:1-12.
This is why Satan comes immediately. He actually doesn’t mind if you get lost in all kinds of other ‘spiritual reading material’...as long as He can keep you out of the Word. But if he can’t do that, then his next plan of attack is to keep you neutralized...to where you are just a ‘hearer of the word and not a doer. If he can do that, then he knows you belong to him and your downfall is imminent. (James 1:22; Matt. 7:26-27). The last thing he wants is for you to ‘become conformed to the image of Christ’ who was the ‘firstborn of many brethren’. (Rom. 8:29). His last bout with the ‘Firstborn-Son of God’ did not go well for him. He’d rather not have to deal with a whole church full of them. Yeah...let that one sink in for a moment.
Revelation 12 is an insightful chapter that goes in to detail regarding the devil, or Satan...that great serpent who deceives the whole world. (9). Now I realize that the book of Revelation is filled with a lot of ‘symbolism’ and such, and we can only work with those things that God begins to make clear to us.....just like He does in the parable of the sower. So we can draw the connection as to who the serpent or great dragon represents. So when this dragon goes to make war with the woman and her offspring, we are not straying too far off when we see this being the church. Check out vs. 15 where the serpent ‘spewed water out of his mouth like a flood after the woman that he might cause her to be carried away by the flood’.
Lots to see here. What comes out of a man’s mouth? Words. And the serpent is ‘spewing’ an abundance of ‘water’ from his mouth hoping to sweep away or take away the ‘church’...wanting it to be ‘carried away’ like a flood.
Have you ever read in Proverbs 18:4 that says ‘the words of a man’s mouth are like deep waters’? What did Jesus teach in Matt. 24:38-39 that was going to come and ‘carry people away just like in the days of Noah?” Was it a ‘flood’? And what did Jesus teach in Matt. 7:24-27 that was going to come and test both houses built on two different foundations? I believe He used the word ‘flood’ beating against those houses.
I think it would be very beneficial if you make note of these passages and go look them up as soon as we are done here: (Heb. 13:9; Eph. 4:14; 1 Tim. 4:1; 2 Tim. 4:2-4; 2 Cor 11:2-4)
There are multiple ways in which the enemy can come and ‘snatch God’s word from our hearts lest we believe and are saved’. (Luke 8:12). And in the same way a good Texas downpour can come in like a flood...and wash out your garden...so can the ‘enemy come in like a flood’ (Isa. 59:19) and do the same thing. And he can be so subtle with it for sure.
Remember...how God declared His word to Adam in Gen. 2:17...saying ‘If you do this...you shall surely die!” And the serpent raised up his ugly head and did what with Eve in Gen. 3? He asked her: “Has God really said you shall die?”
The picture I posted today...was sent to me by a good friend this week. He snapped that right off the pages of a beloved study-commentary bible he has owned for nearly 25 years. The ‘commentary’ implies a lot of extra words from a rather renowned preacher who I will not name. Look again at the circled ‘commentary’ and then compare that with 1 John 3:6, 9.
Has God said? You do know...that Satan can easily appear as an ‘angel of light’ (2 Cor. 11:14) or as a ‘wolf dressed in sheep’s clothing’. (Matt. 7:15)
Interesting piece of trivia here - Joseph Goebbels was the propaganda chief for the Nazis in WWII. A quote most often attributed to him was one you have probably heard before that goes: “If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it.”
So allow me to close today with Paul’s warning from 2 Thess. 2:9-12 – “The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders, and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie, that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.”
This passage was brought to my attention many years ago not long after I became a believer. Over the years, I would speculate and wonder what kind of a strong ‘delusion’ like this might look like? My ‘go to scenario’ was some form of contact from alien beings landing on the White House lawn and informing the world we were nothing more than an experimental species put here by aliens from another world. I could see the worldwide media exposure that would just capture the fancy of the masses. (My imagination can get creative at times.) But I think the real lie that the church world has bought into...is the one that believers cannot truly be set free from sin. And what a field day the enemy has had with that. Sin = serpent food and keeps folks in captivity.
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