No Understanding

Mark chapter 4 opens up with Jesus teaching again by the sea side. Once again there’s a great multitude that have come to hear Him.  Jesus is teaching them using many parables. What are “PARABLES?”  Something real in life or nature, from which a moral is drawn for instruction. 

Jesus teaches using something the hears as well as the readers can understand. Mark 4:1 (KJV) And he began again to teach by the sea side: and there was gathered unto him a great multitude, so that he entered into a ship, and sat in the sea; and the whole multitude was by the sea on the land.Mark Mark 4:2 (KJV) And he taught them many things by parables, and said unto them in his doctrine,

Jesus in verse 3 begins to teach. His first words are about a sower and him going out to sow.  

Mark 4:3 (KJV) Hearken; Behold, there went out a sower to sow:  As I began to read these verses I quickly noticed something, the abundance of seeds that were being sown. Here’s what I envision as I read this parable. The farmer goes out with an abundance of seed. As he sows, we are told where these seeds go. Some fell by the wayside. These seeds missed the field and went out onto the beaten pathway, hard ground, just laying there in the open the birds came and quickly ate them. 

Mark 4:4 (KJV) And it came to pass, as he sowed, some fell by the way side, and the fowls of the air came and devoured it up. Nice story, no problem understanding it. But it’s  much more than a nice story. It's a story with meaning. Later Jesus explains this story. It’s something real in life or nature, from which a moral is drawn for instruction. I’ll take each one and draw out the moral. 

The Pathway seed hits hard ground and the birds quickly come and devour them. The parable is explained in  Mark 4:14 (KJV) The sower soweth the word.

In the next verse we are told who the fowls of the air are. Mark 4:15 (KJV) And these are they by the way side, where the word is sown; but when they have heard, Satan cometh immediately, and taketh away the word that was sown in their hearts. It was interesting to me the way it was worded “the fowls of the air came” then when it was explained it read “Satan cometh immediately, and taketh away the word that was sow” in the book of Ephesians we are told Ephesians 2:2 (KJV) Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: the fowl came out of the air and devoured; satan is referred to as the prince of the power of the air. So who do you think doesn’t want you to understand? 🤔🙋🏽is your heart hard??