The Seed and the Sower / Understanding the Word: By Rick Sarver

Jesus often spoke in parables to give us a clear picture of the ways of the Lord and how we are to walk in them. 

The parable of the seed and the sower in my opinion is probably one of the most vital and yet at the same time one of the most misinterpreted parables in the word of God.  I have often heard teachers and preachers teach on this parable and interpret the seed in this parable as being that of  money or the tithe and for the life of me, I  still do not understand where they get this interpretation from because the seed in this parable  is clearly the word of God and not money. 

Jesus never  once implied that the seed in this parable was money, yet many continue to teach if you sow your seed or (money) into the good ground of their ministry then you will reap a big harvest  of money back! .  Its kind of like a sure thing, win, win at the gambling casino or  the stock market, but again Jesus was not teaching about money in the parable of the seed and the sower and neither should we. 

Again, If we read the parable as its written, we will clearly see that the seed Jesus was speaking of  was the Word of God. The sowers are those who teach or preach the word and the ground are those who hear or receive the word and really, what they ultimately will do with the word once its received Lets read this parable again and the explanation  that Jesus gives of the seed and the sower and  we will further digress on this topic.

 The Parable of the Sower 

 ¹ On the same day Jesus went out of the house and sat by the sea. ² And great multitudes were gathered together to Him, so that He got into a boat and sat; and the whole multitude stood on the shore.
³ Then He spoke many things to them in parables, saying: “Behold, a sower went out to sow. ⁴ And as he sowed, some seed fell by the wayside; and the birds came and devoured them. ⁵ Some fell on stony places, where they did not have much earth; and they immediately sprang up because they had no depth of earth. ⁶ But when the sun was up they were scorched, and because they had no root they withered away. ⁷ And some fell among thorns, and the thorns sprang up and choked them. ⁸ But others fell on good ground and yielded a crop: some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. ⁹ He who has ears to hear, let him hear!”“   

The Parable of the Sower Explained

¹⁸ “Therefore hear the parable of the sower: ¹⁹ When anyone hears the word of the kingdom, and does not understand it, then the wicked one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is he who received seed by the wayside. ²⁰ But he who received the seed on stony places, this is he who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy; ²¹ yet he has no root in himself, but endures only for a while. For when tribulation or persecution arises because of the word, immediately he stumbles. ²² Now he who received seed among the thorns is he who hears the word, and the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and he becomes unfruitful. ²³ But he who received seed on the good ground is he who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and produces: some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.”

Again the Word of God is clearly the seed in this parable and hearing , understanding and allowing Gods word to have preeminence in your life is the most important thing that you could ever do in this life.

Without the word of God, we would not be saved, grow,bear fruit.

The Bible says that faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God.

Now I know many are encouraged to  read through the Bible in a year and on the surface that sounds good and I'm not totally against this practice, but I'm going to challenge you today about something that I believe is far more important then just reading through the Bible in a year and that is to understand what you read, for without understanding the parable is very clear that the enemy will come immediately and snatch away the word that you have read.

 One of the main keys in this parable is not just hearing the word, but understanding the word that you did hear! understanding is far more important then just casually reading it or hearing it.

How often have you ask someone after church how was church? and their reply is often it was great! and then you ask so what was the message today? and they say I'm not sure but it was good! Man can that preacher preach! but what good is the preaching if you never understand what was preached?

To understand the word you must learn to not only listen to the word but, you just also meditate on the word that you heard. A successful gold miner does not just casually look over the ground for gold, He has to dig for it and dig deep!

Likewise, for us to become an avid student of the word we must seek the Lord for help to understanding the word, until the word is deeply rooted into our hearts and once its set in our heart with understanding then the wicked one cannot so easily take it from us and we will bear much fruit.

The only word that will bear much fruit in the Christians life is the word that is not just heard, but understood.

The other day I saw a man with a metal detector on the beach and the thing I noticed is that he was not running with the detector, but he was  walking  very slowly up and down the beach, moving the detector back and forth and listening for the beep! It often takes a careful sweeping and sometimes hours to even find one coin or ring or some other precious metal hidden below the surface, but when we find the treasure it is very exciting. It is the same with as we study the word, If we are to understand the word of God, we most also learn to go slow, seek understanding, there are many precious hidden truths in the pages of the Bible. The key to fruit is not just hearing the word, but understanding the word and becoming established in the word