Jesus often used examples from real life to teach an eternal and spiritual truth. These illustrations or real life examples are called parables. A parable has been defined as an earthly story with a heavenly meaning. Matthew chapter thirteen has a number of these parables of Jesus. For the purpose of this devotional we are going to look at three of these parables.
The parable of the sower talks about a farmer who went out to sow seed in his field. As the farmer was sowing the seed some of the seed fell along the paths. This seed was all eaten up by the birds. Some of the farmer's seed fell on rocky places where the soil was shallow. This seed sprang up rather quickly, but when the hot sun came out these plants were scorched and they withered. This was because they had no deep roots. Some of the seed that the farmer sowed fell amidst thorns. The thorns grew up and choked out the plants that resulted from that seed. There was some seed, however, which landed on good soil. This seed produced a bountiful harvest.
The seed that fell along the path is a picture of God's Word being heard by people with hard hearts. These people may hear God's Word and yet not understand it, because their hearts are hardened to the things of God. They may even be sitting in the pews of church each Sunday, but they have hard hearts. We need to examine our faith to make sure we do not have hard hearts. The seed that was sown on rocky ground is a picture of people who seem to joyfully accept God's Holy Word, but when persecution or trial comes they fall away. These people are those who are not rooted in the Lord Jesus Christ. In Christ we as believers can and will persevere even in times of trail, because the Lord has promised to be our strength and protection. We can do this, because we are rooted in the Lord Jesus Christ.
The seed that fell on thorny ground is a picture of people who hear God's Holy Word, but these people allow the worries of this life and the pursuit of material gain to choke out God's Word. God has to be number one in our lives. He has to be more important to us than anyone or anything else in our lives. If we allow anything or anyone to be more important to us in this life than God, then God's Word will be choked out of our lives. The seed that fell on the good soil is a picture of those people who hear and accept God's Word. These are people who have taken advantage of every opportunity to receive God's Word into their hearts. These people have a passion for living for the Lord.
There is a great blessing in being a child of God and in having a passion for the things of God. Verses forty-four through forty-six of Matthew chapter thirteen shares two of Jesus' short parables concerning the treasures we have in Christ. The first parable is a story about a man who found hidden treasure in a field. This man carefully hid the treasure again and then went out and sold everything he owned, so he could buy that field. The second short parable is about a merchant who was looking for pearls of great value. When he found such a pearl he also went out and sold everything he owned and bought that pearl.
These two short parables of Jesus teach the same truth. Christ alone is worthy of our whole life. The Lord Jesus has to become our passion and life. He must become our precious treasure and pearl of great price. The Lord must become so precious to us that we would be willing to give up all else in our lives if necessary to gain Him. Our love for the Lord must grow deep and never die. He must be our life and our greatest joy. We need to seek Him with all our hearts and run to Him. There is no joy on this earth that can compare to the joy of knowing the Lord. It must be our passion that the Holy Spirit will burn away our selfish desires until our one delight is in the Lord and in doing His will. Our prayer and passion must be that the Lord will conquer our hearts to an ever greater degree, and that we will be found to be a pleasing gift to the Lord!
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