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“Behold a sower went forth to sow; and when He sowed, some seeds fell by the way side, and the fowls came and devoured them up” (Matthew 13:3-4).
A few days ago, we talked about Israel as a sheep fold, where the sheep were kept inside a stone wall. In this time of God’s grace, the Lord Jesus has now gone out of the fold of Israel, and is sowing His seed everywhere. The seed is the gospel of God’s grace, from the Word of God. Of course, the seed is always good. However, the soil can vary, and there are four kinds of soil mentioned in the Bible.
Here the first kind of soil is the way side, or a hard path on the edge of the field. It would be very hard ground, having been pounded down by the many people who had walked on it. Needless to say, the seed would not grow there, and soon the birds would come and eat up the seed that fell there.
Those birds are like Satan, who comes and snatches away the good seed from the hearts of those who hear it, so that it never grows and produces fruit. If our hearts are hardened against God, the seed will not grow, and Satan is quick to take it away, and give us something else to think about.
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