Commentary on the Parable of the Sower: Barren

“At the Lord’s command they encamped, and at the Lord’s command they set out. They obeyed the Lord’s order, in accordance with his command through Moses” Numbers 9: 23.

This verse, and really this whole chapter points out how the Israelites were obedient to God’s command to be led by the cloud while they were in the wilderness.

The read the chapter for context, click here.

The Israelites Were Obedient Until It was Uncomfortable

This verse tells us the Israelites “obeyed the Lord’s order”. And that “at the Lord’s command they would encamp and at His command they would set out”.

We usually get the idea that the Israelites in the wilderness were completely rebellious and stubborn and wayward. But these verses show that wasn’t always the case.

I think it’s more accurate to say they were stubborn and rebellious when their faith was tested. That is when their circumstances didn’t match up with God’s promises.

When they were uncomfortable and afraid and experiencing trouble and affliction- this is when they were stubborn and rebellious.

Jesus tells the parable about different kinds of soil.

“A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed. . . Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. . . Listen then to what the parable of the sower means. . . The seed falling on rocky ground refers to someone who hears the word and at once receives it with joy. But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away” Mathew 13 selected.

The soil represents different kinds of hearts.

One kind of soil does not allow the seed planted in it to grow to maturity. That’s because its rocky, and the roots can’t penetrate deeply enough to protect it from the hot sun (which represents trouble).

Commentary on the Parable of the Sower: Barren

This soil represents a heart that’s not completely hard. Seed is able to be sown into it. But it has hard places in it. These hard places prevent the word of God from penetrating deep enough to protect it from trouble.

This is a picture of a heart that receives the word of God, and it believes and obeys for a while. That is until troubles come to test it.

The word cannot penetrate deeply enough into this heart to protect it from trouble. Because of the hard places.

This is a good illustration of the Israelites. They were willing to obey until trouble came. That is, until it got hard, until it afflicted them.

The hard places in their hearts prevented the word from sinking deeply into it.

Hardness in a heart represents unbelief.

Rocky Soil No Better than Hard Soil

What’s really scary about this is that seed sown in rocky soil does not bear any more fruit than seed sown on hard soil.

In other words, the Christian who has hard places in his heart will be no more fruitful than the unbeliever who never received the word of God at all!

And the story of the Israelites bears this out.

Those Israelites that had hard places in their hearts died in the wilderness. They didn’t make it to the promise land any more than the Egyptians who never even set out to get there to begin with.

For another post related to Commentary on the Parable of the Sower: Barren, see The Trouble with How Much God Love Us.

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