21 Seed Ideas - This I Know About God

contain advanced information that would not be known to primitive man Old Testament, Book of genesis, Verse And the LORD God caused a . Verse And the LORD appeared unto Abram, and said, Unto thy seed will .. Egyptian beliefs, pagan beliefs and influences from other religious belief.
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They usually refer to eschatological events. What is being revealed to the disciples is not the person of Jesus or the nature of God, but the coming of the kingdom into history in advance of its glorious manifestation Ladd, Presence , pp. It was commonly know that God was going to bring in His glorious kingdom by supernatural manifestations and judgments.

But the mystery of the kingdom is what no one was expecting, that the kingdom which is ultimately to come in great power has already begun to enter the world in advance in a hidden form to work secretly within people. All of the parables deal with this present form of the kingdom, which Jesus explained to the disciples, but did not explain to the crowds expecting some dramatic deliverance.

Even the parables that are teaching some ethical truth have to be understood in the light of the present form of the kingdom. Matthew is showing that what is taking place on the one hand is the fulfillment of prophecy and the decreed will of God, and on the other hand a gross rebellion of unbelief and spiritual ignorance by the crowds. The responsibility for their unbelief is their own entirely, because mortals always do as they choose.

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And the fact that God foreknew they would do this does not in any way diminish their culpability. So the use of parables fits into the midst of this issue. It would be too easy to say that the only reason Jesus used parables was to conceal the truth, for parables are a means of communication.


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If that were His sole desire, all He had to do was stop teaching entirely. But He came with a mission to call people into the kingdom.

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So using parables is a way of teaching the truth or preaching about the kingdom without casting His pearls before swine. The parables will harden those who are already hardened against Him, and enlightened His disciples about the kingdom. Parables challenge the hearers in matters of the faith. The parables do not contain esoteric truths that only the initiated or enlightened could understand--they seem pretty clear. No, the parables present the claims of the present form of the kingdom in such a way that only those who trust Jesus will understand the new direction in the plan of God.

After all, He was announcing a different form of the kingdom than they had expected. The parables challenge the hearers to respond with faith. The parable of the sower would require the hearers to see the truth that the kingdom is slowly progressing, and if that be so, to determine what kind of soil they were. Jesus does not explain why the kingdom is not now coming in power and glory, only that there are certain characteristics of the kingdom that need to be accepted.

There are several things to keep in mind when reading and interpreting a parable. Preference should be given for the simplicity of interpretation. To discover the intent of the parable the simple, straightforward meaning is most likely to be the correct one. There is a tendency to study these parables in order to find hidden meanings that have never been seen before.

There is no doubt that this can be done, for anything Jesus said would have eternal truth behind it and in it. But these were meant to illustrate truth, to reveal truth to the multitudes. A meaning that no one ever would have gotten is out of the question. One should restrict the application of these pictures to the limits set out by Christ in the narrative.

A parable is designed to focus on one aspect of the kingdom, in one period of the development of the kingdom. To press every detail of the story into service for all the incidentals about the kingdom is going to far. One should have a consistent use of the figures employed, both within the context and the general use of Scripture, except where specifically otherwise stated.

Figures that Jesus used in the parables are used consistently. They all work together to capture the reader and draw him into the story as a participant. There will be a primary point and often secondary points made in a parable. To say a parable is a simple allegory that only makes on point does not do justice to the literary type. Jesus on occasion made more than one point out of parables.

But having said that, it is not always easy to determine in a proverb what is a point being made and what is merely part of the story structure. Not all the parables in the Bible work the same way. There is diversity in the parables, and so each one has to be studied as a literary unit in its context. Parables are designed to call the listener into participation, to identify with someone or something in the story. They divide the audience into the believer and the self-righteous unbeliever. They call for a commitment of faith and obedience that will indicate whether one is in the kingdom or not.

The passage, then, provides us with an introduction a , then the parable itself 3b This is followed by the explanation of the reason for using parables by Jesus Finally, Jesus explained the meaning of the first of His parables, the sower and the seed The passage is almost entirely the teaching Jesus, except for the introduction to the passage, the question by the disciples, and the citation from Isaiah. The Setting of the Discourse The reference to the house connects the material to the event at the end of the chapter. So, in view of the conflicts, Jesus now begins to use parables more fully.

This is one of the few discourses that is addressed to the crowds in general, and not specifically to the disciples and by disciples we would mean the people who believed in Jesus and followed Him, numbering far more than the twelve. The posture of Jesus sitting, first by the lake, and then in the boat because of the crowds, is one of a teacher.

He was a teacher, here teaching people about the kingdom. The usual posture of a teacher was to sit, while the people stood and listened, or sat all around and listened.

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Matthew tells us that Jesus taught them many things in parables. The Parable of the Soils This is one of the most familiar parables in the Bible, and probably will not need so much explanation, especially since it is one that Jesus interprets clearly for His disciples. This section is most helpful then, because not only does it explain why parables were being used, but gives the meaning of the parable itself. The parable is about the ground more than the sower. A sower goes out to the field to sow seed, and he finds that as he scatters the seed it falls on different kinds of ground.

There were paths that ran through the unfenced field, and in those places the ground was beaten down so that it was too hard to receive seed, and the birds ate it. There were rocky places where the limestone bedrock was just beneath the topsoil, or where the rocks had worked through, and the seed could not take root because of the rocks. Any seed that started to grow in the shallow soil soon withered in the intense heat and died because it could not sink roots. Other seed fell under the thorns of hedgerows which took the moisture and grew up, choking the seed that had fallen among the thorns.

Anyone who has visited the holy land can appreciate the rocky soil, the beaten paths, the thorn bushes—the fields are in this condition and the farmers must sow in spite of it. And a good bit of seed falls on good soil and eventually produces crops of various yields. So the same seed produces no crop, or some crop, or a great crop. But Jesus is indicating this will take more than ordinary listening to understand. The Explanation of Parables We have already discussed a good deal of this material in the introduction. But a few things need to be clarified now in the verses in context.

The situation is the question that the disciples ask, to which Jesus gives this full answer. Bailey Poet and Peasant , pp. In other words, motifs and expressions in the first half have a corresponding motif or expression in the second half, and at the center of the story is a turning point.

It shows the balance of the story, but also the heart of it. Jesus makes a distinction between the crowds and the disciples. This is the way that judicial hardening works. The disciples followed Jesus by faith. They did not understand everything, but asked. The crowds did not, on the whole, follow by faith, but demanded a compelling sign. Further revelation was not given to them.

They are like the crowd that Isaiah dealt with. Isaiah lived about years earlier than this. He announced the judgment of God on the nation for its unbelief. That judgment would take the form of judicial hardening--they would hear but not understand, the preaching would make their spirits dull. In other words, the message would only harden their resistance to God. This judgment may seem harsh, until one realizes that the nation of Israel in B.

And yet in their sin and rebellion they had moved farther away from God than the people of the earlier centuries. Finally God gave them up, meaning He ceased to work in their hearts by His Spirit to reveal His truth to them. Rather, He let them alone to have their own way. And their natural way was to reject the words of the prophet. This gives us a good idea of what the psalmists and prophets meant when they said to seek the Lord while He may be found.

Chapter 8: Seeds of Faith: A Follower’s View of Alma 32

While the prophet will be there proclaiming the message, if God is not causing it to take seed in their hearts, there will be no response of faith. And God will stop doing that if people persist in rebelling against Him.

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In the days of Jesus this prophetic message of Isaiah found its fullest meaning. The people had been listening to Jesus preach and teach, had seen the authenticating miracles, and yet accused Him of Satanic works and rejected His word. Some of those people would be hardened in their unbelief; and the simple theological truth is that the revelation of the mystery of the kingdom was not given to them. They might intellectually hear the parable and make something of it — but it would not make sense to them because of their hardened unbelief, rejection of Jesus, and pre-conceived idea of what the kingdom should be.

The Savior was still among them, and they could still follow Him and trust Him. But God knew the hearts of the people, and if they did not believe the words and the works of Jesus in their midst, no further revelation would be given to them. He had already said that revelation was necessary for people to know Him and to know the Father Matt.

How long would the hardening continue? The failure of most of the Jews to discern the spiritual things would lead to judgment. And part of the judgment was their being hardened in unbelief. This hardening was a subject Paul picked up in Romans 11, a hardening which God used to turn to the Gentiles with the Gospel and raise up a people who would make Israel jealous.

The disciples were blessed above any others who had come before, both prophets and righteous men. They looked forward to the coming of the Messiah, but the disciples received Him, walked with Him, witnessed His mighty works, and were shown things that the prophets never knew. The disciples truly believed in Jesus, and so accepted what He was saying, namely, that the message of the kingdom was at a critical turning point.

The Interpretation of the Parable Jesus now lays out the parallel ideas to explain the meaning. He does not explain every detail — no explanation is given for the sower, or the path, or the rocky ground, or the diverse yield. The general point is that the seed is the message of the kingdom. It receives varied responses from the people; and it will take time to develop because of the difficult times and difficult people. But in time the message will produce a harvest. The Israelites understood farming because it was their culture, so they could appreciate what Jesus was saying, whether they got the intended analogy or not.

They should have gotten it, because it was used in the Old Testament already. Psalm spoke of the perseverance of the sower with tears and trouble, indicating that eventually he would bring in his sheaves. That psalm was written at the restoration of Israel from the captivity. In fact, Gini was now getting orders for multiple journals.

And along with the increased orders God gave Gini a heart overflowing with desire to sew more and more. The demand for journals became so great that Gini could not handle every order by herself. God provided for every need. At its optimum, this transition house will provide more than shelter. The home will be an environment for women to realize their full, God-given purpose and abilities. To make this plan a reality, Broken Chains needs great financial support.

Therefore, WOW is committing our entire income each month to Broken Chains, trusting that God will provide all the funds necessary. You can join WOW in its efforts by purchasing a journal for yourself, a friend or even your entire book club, Bible study or other organization. Journaling allows God to guide our prayers through our pens.


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Journals also provide us with a written record of all God does in our lives.