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Some days we just don’t see what is going on. We desperately need insight. We aren’t hearing the wisdom of God and Jesus.

Jesus challenges us to look to God. God is source of all wisdom and insight. God will guide us and direct us.

Jesus has a lot for us to learn. A disciple of Jesus is an apprentice. We are learners. That is our job.

God’s goal: God wants us to see and hear. Our job is to open our eyes and ears. We should look to God. That is God’s goal for us. There are secrets waiting for us.

  • Have we prepared our hearts and minds?
  • Are we willing to change our minds about who is in charge?
  • Are we ready to act differently?

And when his disciples asked him what this parable meant, he said, “To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of God, but for others they are in parables, so that ‘seeing they may not see, and hearing they may not understand.

English Standard Version. (2016). (Luke 8:9–10). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.

This parable shows that Jesus was not impressed by the great crowds that followed Him. He knew that most of the people did not really “hear” the Word and receive it in their hearts. He gave this story to encourage the disciples in their future ministry, and to encourage us today.

When you consider how much teaching, preaching, and witnessing goes on in the course of a month or a year, you wonder why there is such a small harvest. The fault does not lie with the Sower or the seed. The problem is with the soil. The human heart will not submit to God, repent and receive the Word, and be saved.

“Faith comes first to the hearing ear, not to the cogitating mind,” said A.W. Tozer, the much-quoted pastor and author. Faith is not a matter of IQ or education; it is a matter of humbly preparing the heart to receive God’s truth. The wise and prudent are blind to truths that are easy for the babes to understand.

The disciples were perplexed because Jesus taught in parables, so they asked Him for an explanation. His reply seems to suggest that He used parables in order to hide the truth from the crowds, but just the opposite is true, and Jesus makes that clear. His teaching is a light that must be allowed to shine so that sinners may be saved.

The word parable means “to cast alongside.” A parable is a story that teaches something new by putting the truth alongside something familiar. The people knew about seeds and soil, so the Parable of the Sower interested them. Those who were indifferent or proud would shrug it off. Our Master’s parables aroused the interest of the concerned.

A parable starts off as a picture that is familiar to the listeners. But as you carefully consider the picture, it becomes a mirror in which you see yourself, and many people do not like to see themselves.

  • This explains why some of our Master’s listeners became angry when they heard His parables, and even tried to kill Him.
  • If we see ourselves as needy sinners and ask for help, then the mirror becomes a window through which we see God and His grace.
  • To understand a parable and benefit from it demands honesty and humility on our part, and many of our Master’s hearers lack both.

It is a serious thing to hear and understand the Word of God, because this puts on us the obligation to share that Word with others. Everyone who receives the seed then becomes a Sower, a light-bearer, and a transmitter of God’s truth. If we keep it to ourselves, we will lose it; but if we share it, we will receive more.