The Parable of the Sower, the Seed and the Soils

In Mark 4:3-14 Jesus said, ³ “Listen! Behold, a sower went out to sow. ⁴ And it happened, as he sowed, that some seed fell by the wayside; and the birds of the air came and devoured it. ⁵ Some fell on stony ground, where it did not have much earth; and immediately it sprang up because it had no depth of earth. ⁶ But when the sun was up it was scorched, and because it had no root it withered away. ⁷ And some seed fell among thorns; and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no crop. ⁸ But other seed fell on good ground and yielded a crop that sprang up, increased and produced: some thirtyfold, some sixty, and some a hundred.”

⁹ And He said to them, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear!”

The Explanation

Jesus gives us the explanation of this parable in verses 13 & 14, ”And He said to them, ‘Do you not understand this parable? How then will you understand all the parables? ¹⁴ The sower sows the word.’”

If we are to achieve what the Lord has for each of us as business men and women, then we must prepare ourselves to be the best soil for the word of God. For without the wisdom that comes from both the logos and rhema word we are inadequately prepared. To be good soil we must spend time with the Lord. We do this by setting aside time each day time for prayer, meditation and reading the word. It is through this time that we get clarity of the vision for ourselves and our business, get detailed plans to implement the vision and we learn what the Lord wants us to do with the fruits of our labor.

This year I will again read through the entire Bible. It’s something that I enjoy doing. I use one of the available daily Bible reading books. For Christmas my wife gave me the Charles Stanley Life Principles Daily Bible which is a joy to read. It is the New King James translation. I make it a habit not to read the same translation two years in a row.

I also read my regular Bible and study different topics but I truly enjoy the discipline of knowing that once again I’ll have systematically read the entire bible. I find this discipline carries over into other areas of my life. It’s the kind of discipline needed to be successful in business. So I encourage you to start your own Bible reading program. The value and self satisfaction are invaluable to both your business and personal life. Now more than every before we Christians need to hear and know God’s plan for our lives.

May you be richly blessed through your study of the Bible this year!