Stunted Seedling Growing From a Seed in SoilBible World
4:6Mark 4:6
But when the sun was up, it was scorched; and because it had no root, it withered away.
In the parable of the sower it pictures seed on shallow stony ground with little earth that springs up quickly but is scorched when the sun rises and withers away because it has no root. It uses the growth of natural seed to explain the sowing of the gospel seed of truth and the work of bringing people back to loyalty to God. It illustrates hearers who receive the word with joy, zeal and eager desire for high attainments, yet whose impression is only temporary for lack of depth. The rising sun is the heat of trial, temptation, affliction and persecution for the truth, and having no root means being controlled by feeling without stability of character and principle reaching the springs of action, so that zeal dies, the hearer is offended because of the word and falls away rather than submitting to be sanctified through it. The different outcome lies in the condition of the soil and not in any failure of the seed, so hearers are responsible for resisting the Spirit and can choose to let the heart be broken up by repentance and prepared to receive truth, while sowers are not to stop sowing because some seed yields no fruit unto eternal life.
Setting and Parable Picture
More than eighteen hundred years ago, on a morning on the Sea of Galilee after spending the entire night in prayer, Jesus sat in a fisherman's boat pulled out a little from the shore to teach salvation and deliverance to the crowd pressing to the water's edge. He drew the picture of seed on stony ground scorched by the sun because it had no root from the scenery directly before him — the lake, the mountains, the spreading fields, sunlight flooding the earth, sowers casting seed and reapers harvesting early grain side by side, fruitful valleys, barren rocks on the beach, and birds. Those natural objects were to be daily reminders of his instruction, so that whenever they were seen afterward the hearers would remember the lesson. The parable remains as pure and beautiful in unadorned simplicity today as when spoken that morning.
The verse belongs to the parable of the sower, which uses the growth of natural seed to explain the sowing of the gospel seed of truth. That sowing is the spreading of the gospel and the work of bringing people back to loyalty to God, taught through earthly things about spiritual sowing so that nature's processes represent spiritual truths and teach people to heed God's voice. It describes seed on shallow, stony ground with little earth that springs up quickly and immediately, but when the sun rises it is scorched and withers away because it has no root. Seed without root cannot endure the sun, and the gospel message must be sown so it can take root and bear fruit. This withering illustrates one possible response to the gospel seed sown among people, an experience that applies to every gospel laborer as one outcome of Christ's own sower preaching in the great thoroughfares with the stream of travel from all parts of the world to sow gospel seeds broadcast upon all kinds of soil.
The parable was given to meet the disappointment and discontent of those who followed Him and looked for a Messiah who would set up a new temporal kingdom and exalt and glorify them as a nation. Even His chosen disciples grew impatient that He did not assume temporal authority, and His relatives were disappointed in Him and rejected Him. His followers were mortified that the learned and wealthy, the scribes and Pharisees and teachers, were not willing to accept Him, while it was the poor, the afflicted, and the humbler class who became His disciples. To answer their question why the leaders did not acknowledge Him as the long-looked-for Messiah, Jesus spoke this parable. Its illustrations were meant to awaken thought in hearers, with fuller explanation given to those who asked Him for it as the twelve with other believers did, and further illustrations turned their thoughts from hope of an earthly kingdom to God's work of grace in the soul when hearers were perplexed by questions.
The brief and comprehensive parable exhibits the characters He came to teach — the worldly-minded, the evil-disposed, the hard-hearted — setting forth the tendencies of the human heart and the different classes of hearers He had to deal with. The withering explains why His personal ministry on earth was productive of meager and limited immediate results despite miracles of goodness and mercy in healing the afflicted and casting out demons. He left men to themselves in correcting the evils of their natures, instructing them how to unite their human efforts with His divine power and triumph through His strength over besetting sins. This experience was necessary to give moral power to Christian character and fit it for the courts of Heaven. Jesus employed no miraculous agency to compel men to believe in Him, but left them to choose or reject Him of their own free will, with no direct power to force them into obedience that would destroy the free moral agency God has given to man.
Stony-Ground Hearers Tested
The scorched seed pictures hearers whose first response is strong but temporary, springing up quickly on shallow rocky ground only to wither when the sun scorches it for lack of root. Many are deeply stirred, given new purpose, charmed by ennobling and easily understood doctrine, made to desire high spiritual attainments and to respond eagerly. Yet worldly cares, temptations, unfavorable surroundings and return to worldly company cause the impression to fade and lead them back to indifference. Sins that looked heinous under holy light are clasped again to the heart, and they relapse and die out for lack of root, while others who are stirred begin from that moment a holier life, retain the teaching and daily carry out its principles so truth remains fixed in mind.
Stony-ground hearers receive the word of truth with joy and speak of faith and hope with ardor, zeal and even reproof of others, but have no depth of earth. The risen sun is the heat of trial and temptation, the testing and proving, the pruning-knife of God applied that they may bring forth perfect fruit, the coming of trials and persecution, the call for workers and sacrifices for truth's sake, and plain pointed truth brought to bear on the heart revealing deformity of character. It is the fiery test of temptation, affliction or persecution for the truth, and shallow joyful acceptance cannot endure that test but turns away when following Christ brings reproach or requires self-denial. Having no root means being controlled by feeling without depth and stability of character, with principle not reaching the springs of action, exalting truth in word without doing it, the seed not rooted below the surface and the heart not renewed by the transforming Spirit. Being scorched and withering means zeal dies and voices fall silent, leaving work and sacrifice and falling away, closing the eyes to imperfections though conscience confirms the message is truth, being offended because of the word and yielding truth rather than submitting to be sanctified through it while flattering self with hope of heaven by an easier way.
The failure to endure comes from a divided, half-hearted effort to serve both self and Christ, which leaves the person without the rooted commitment needed to withstand the test. The different outcomes depend on the soil though the sower and seed are the same, so the shallow response reflects the hearer's condition, not a failure of God's word. Hearers need not remain shallow, but are responsible for resisting the Spirit and can choose to let God prepare their hearts so the word takes root. Seed in shallow rootless soil pictures a hearer whose faith has no depth and cannot endure, so the word perishes in that heart. Whether the seed which is God's word takes root is revealed by the life and its fruit, for truth that takes root springs into life and bears fruit while seed that does not take root fails.
Like seed that withers without root, truth cannot endure without a prepared cultivated heart, for the heart's response to truth depends on its condition. The soil is broken up by repentance, and evil growths that choke good seed must be uprooted, which requires earnest effort in the name and strength of Christ.
Sowing Seed Faithfully
Some seed falls on poor soil and yields no fruit unto eternal life, scorched and withered because it has no root, and this is one outcome of Christ's own work and His servants' sowing of gospel seed upon all kinds of soil. Christ placed Himself in the great thoroughfares with the stream of travel from all parts of the world to sow gospel seeds broadcast and illustrate great truths by a sower casting seed upon all kinds of soil, the seed on stony ground having not much earth and springing up immediately, then withering when the sun was up because it had no root. Just so will be the experience of every gospel laborer, yet this failure does not mean the sower should stop sowing truth in every place.
The message is worldwide and must not be localized, but the seeds of truth must be sown in every place, in all cities and villages and in the highways and byways, holding forth the Word beside all waters. The sower is to speak the words Christ gives and work in His lines after His example, without discouragement even when the result is not at once seen. The effect of sown truth may not appear at once, for seed may lie dormant for a time before God's grace awakens it to life and fruitfulness, so sowers must work faithfully and trust God to give life to what they plant. After the crucifixion and resurrection, attentive hearers would recall the teaching and pass it on for future generations, so truth sown in hearts can later spring up, bear fruit to God's glory, and help save many. Children's instruction likewise sows truth whose good results may not be revealed until the day of God.
Seed of truth sown by personal, interested distribution of tracts and papers can make an impression the mind cannot forget, then lie buried for years beneath the rubbish of the world and pleasing deceptive fables. After earthly sorrow or affliction softens the heart it springs up and bears fruit to the glory of God. Seed represents principles sown in the heart and its growth represents character development, and just as soil must be prepared for natural seed, the heart must be prepared to receive the seed of truth. Even a heart hard as a beaten road may be softened by Christlike love through personal ministry so the seed of truth can take root.
Parents must prepare that soil during the first eight or ten years by keeping young children under their own teaching rather than sending them away to school too early. They are to make the open air amid flowers and birds the schoolroom and the treasures of nature the textbook, opening God's great book of nature before them as fast as their minds can comprehend, cultivating their minds and forming correct habits instead of wasting time and labor on the fashions of the world, so the lessons will not soon be forgotten and the seed can take root. The seed is the truth to be sown everywhere, at home, in the workshop, in the market, as well as in the meeting-house. To sow it rightly those in the churches must be Bible students earnestly studying the will of God so they may learn to be laborers, reading the Bible carefully and prayerfully to become familiar with it, beginning at once to realize the value of the cross of Christ and learn to bear it by casting themselves and their burden on Christ, and keeping the fear of God before them in order to live holy lives.
Placing books containing light and truth in the homes of all, including businessmen, is sowing gospel seed, and that seed will spring up to bear fruit to meet the needs of those seeking for help. This is connected with teaching people how to spread truth through books such as Christ's Object Lessons and Ministry of Healing. The gospel seed sown in preaching must take root and bear fruit in the hearer, and presenting Christ and His redeeming love alongside the truth helps listeners receive it and remain committed to Him. For this to happen the truth must be given in short, measured portions that people can retain and carry away and digest, so their minds can comprehend it and their souls be impressed with it.
Its delivery must be carefully considered with governed voice and pleasant manner, because truth is precious, of more value than gold, and when rightly presented it comes to the hearer as the voice of God and makes them want to hear again, while long protracted shouting discourses cause terrible exhaustion and lose much of their effect. What is sown can fail to take lasting root, warning that what is received without lasting depth cannot endure when the sun rises. Books that conceal skepticism or mix Scripture with fanciful interpretations are seed that grows into a harvest of infidelity, while morning meetings sowing precious seed should bear a harvest.
In the parable of the sower it pictures seed on shallow stony ground with little earth that springs up quickly but is scorched when the sun rises and withers away because it has no root. It uses the growth of natural seed to explain the sowing of the gospel seed of truth and the work of bringing people back to loyalty to God. It illustrates hearers who receive the word with joy, zeal and eager desire for high attainments, yet whose impression is only temporary for lack of depth. The rising sun is the heat of trial, temptation, affliction and persecution for the truth, and having no root means being controlled by feeling without stability of character and principle reaching the springs of action, so that zeal dies, the hearer is offended because of the word and falls away rather than submitting to be sanctified through it. The different outcome lies in the condition of the soil and not in any failure of the seed, so hearers are responsible for resisting the Spirit and can choose to let the heart be broken up by repentance and prepared to receive truth, while sowers are not to stop sowing because some seed yields no fruit unto eternal life.
Setting and Parable Picture
More than eighteen hundred years ago, on a morning on the Sea of Galilee after spending the entire night in prayer, Jesus sat in a fisherman's boat pulled out a little from the shore to teach salvation and deliverance to the crowd pressing to the water's edge. He drew the picture of seed on stony ground scorched by the sun because it had no root from the scenery directly before him — the lake, the mountains, the spreading fields, sunlight flooding the earth, sowers casting seed and reapers harvesting early grain side by side, fruitful valleys, barren rocks on the beach, and birds. Those natural objects were to be daily reminders of his instruction, so that whenever they were seen afterward the hearers would remember the lesson. The parable remains as pure and beautiful in unadorned simplicity today as when spoken that morning.
The verse belongs to the parable of the sower, which uses the growth of natural seed to explain the sowing of the gospel seed of truth. That sowing is the spreading of the gospel and the work of bringing people back to loyalty to God, taught through earthly things about spiritual sowing so that nature's processes represent spiritual truths and teach people to heed God's voice. It describes seed on shallow, stony ground with little earth that springs up quickly and immediately, but when the sun rises it is scorched and withers away because it has no root. Seed without root cannot endure the sun, and the gospel message must be sown so it can take root and bear fruit. This withering illustrates one possible response to the gospel seed sown among people, an experience that applies to every gospel laborer as one outcome of Christ's own sower preaching in the great thoroughfares with the stream of travel from all parts of the world to sow gospel seeds broadcast upon all kinds of soil.
The parable was given to meet the disappointment and discontent of those who followed Him and looked for a Messiah who would set up a new temporal kingdom and exalt and glorify them as a nation. Even His chosen disciples grew impatient that He did not assume temporal authority, and His relatives were disappointed in Him and rejected Him. His followers were mortified that the learned and wealthy, the scribes and Pharisees and teachers, were not willing to accept Him, while it was the poor, the afflicted, and the humbler class who became His disciples. To answer their question why the leaders did not acknowledge Him as the long-looked-for Messiah, Jesus spoke this parable. Its illustrations were meant to awaken thought in hearers, with fuller explanation given to those who asked Him for it as the twelve with other believers did, and further illustrations turned their thoughts from hope of an earthly kingdom to God's work of grace in the soul when hearers were perplexed by questions.
The brief and comprehensive parable exhibits the characters He came to teach — the worldly-minded, the evil-disposed, the hard-hearted — setting forth the tendencies of the human heart and the different classes of hearers He had to deal with. The withering explains why His personal ministry on earth was productive of meager and limited immediate results despite miracles of goodness and mercy in healing the afflicted and casting out demons. He left men to themselves in correcting the evils of their natures, instructing them how to unite their human efforts with His divine power and triumph through His strength over besetting sins. This experience was necessary to give moral power to Christian character and fit it for the courts of Heaven. Jesus employed no miraculous agency to compel men to believe in Him, but left them to choose or reject Him of their own free will, with no direct power to force them into obedience that would destroy the free moral agency God has given to man.
Stony-Ground Hearers Tested
The scorched seed pictures hearers whose first response is strong but temporary, springing up quickly on shallow rocky ground only to wither when the sun scorches it for lack of root. Many are deeply stirred, given new purpose, charmed by ennobling and easily understood doctrine, made to desire high spiritual attainments and to respond eagerly. Yet worldly cares, temptations, unfavorable surroundings and return to worldly company cause the impression to fade and lead them back to indifference. Sins that looked heinous under holy light are clasped again to the heart, and they relapse and die out for lack of root, while others who are stirred begin from that moment a holier life, retain the teaching and daily carry out its principles so truth remains fixed in mind.
Stony-ground hearers receive the word of truth with joy and speak of faith and hope with ardor, zeal and even reproof of others, but have no depth of earth. The risen sun is the heat of trial and temptation, the testing and proving, the pruning-knife of God applied that they may bring forth perfect fruit, the coming of trials and persecution, the call for workers and sacrifices for truth's sake, and plain pointed truth brought to bear on the heart revealing deformity of character. It is the fiery test of temptation, affliction or persecution for the truth, and shallow joyful acceptance cannot endure that test but turns away when following Christ brings reproach or requires self-denial. Having no root means being controlled by feeling without depth and stability of character, with principle not reaching the springs of action, exalting truth in word without doing it, the seed not rooted below the surface and the heart not renewed by the transforming Spirit. Being scorched and withering means zeal dies and voices fall silent, leaving work and sacrifice and falling away, closing the eyes to imperfections though conscience confirms the message is truth, being offended because of the word and yielding truth rather than submitting to be sanctified through it while flattering self with hope of heaven by an easier way.
The failure to endure comes from a divided, half-hearted effort to serve both self and Christ, which leaves the person without the rooted commitment needed to withstand the test. The different outcomes depend on the soil though the sower and seed are the same, so the shallow response reflects the hearer's condition, not a failure of God's word. Hearers need not remain shallow, but are responsible for resisting the Spirit and can choose to let God prepare their hearts so the word takes root. Seed in shallow rootless soil pictures a hearer whose faith has no depth and cannot endure, so the word perishes in that heart. Whether the seed which is God's word takes root is revealed by the life and its fruit, for truth that takes root springs into life and bears fruit while seed that does not take root fails.
Like seed that withers without root, truth cannot endure without a prepared cultivated heart, for the heart's response to truth depends on its condition. The soil is broken up by repentance, and evil growths that choke good seed must be uprooted, which requires earnest effort in the name and strength of Christ.
Sowing Seed Faithfully
Some seed falls on poor soil and yields no fruit unto eternal life, scorched and withered because it has no root, and this is one outcome of Christ's own work and His servants' sowing of gospel seed upon all kinds of soil. Christ placed Himself in the great thoroughfares with the stream of travel from all parts of the world to sow gospel seeds broadcast and illustrate great truths by a sower casting seed upon all kinds of soil, the seed on stony ground having not much earth and springing up immediately, then withering when the sun was up because it had no root. Just so will be the experience of every gospel laborer, yet this failure does not mean the sower should stop sowing truth in every place.
The message is worldwide and must not be localized, but the seeds of truth must be sown in every place, in all cities and villages and in the highways and byways, holding forth the Word beside all waters. The sower is to speak the words Christ gives and work in His lines after His example, without discouragement even when the result is not at once seen. The effect of sown truth may not appear at once, for seed may lie dormant for a time before God's grace awakens it to life and fruitfulness, so sowers must work faithfully and trust God to give life to what they plant. After the crucifixion and resurrection, attentive hearers would recall the teaching and pass it on for future generations, so truth sown in hearts can later spring up, bear fruit to God's glory, and help save many. Children's instruction likewise sows truth whose good results may not be revealed until the day of God.
Seed of truth sown by personal, interested distribution of tracts and papers can make an impression the mind cannot forget, then lie buried for years beneath the rubbish of the world and pleasing deceptive fables. After earthly sorrow or affliction softens the heart it springs up and bears fruit to the glory of God. Seed represents principles sown in the heart and its growth represents character development, and just as soil must be prepared for natural seed, the heart must be prepared to receive the seed of truth. Even a heart hard as a beaten road may be softened by Christlike love through personal ministry so the seed of truth can take root.
Parents must prepare that soil during the first eight or ten years by keeping young children under their own teaching rather than sending them away to school too early. They are to make the open air amid flowers and birds the schoolroom and the treasures of nature the textbook, opening God's great book of nature before them as fast as their minds can comprehend, cultivating their minds and forming correct habits instead of wasting time and labor on the fashions of the world, so the lessons will not soon be forgotten and the seed can take root. The seed is the truth to be sown everywhere, at home, in the workshop, in the market, as well as in the meeting-house. To sow it rightly those in the churches must be Bible students earnestly studying the will of God so they may learn to be laborers, reading the Bible carefully and prayerfully to become familiar with it, beginning at once to realize the value of the cross of Christ and learn to bear it by casting themselves and their burden on Christ, and keeping the fear of God before them in order to live holy lives.
Placing books containing light and truth in the homes of all, including businessmen, is sowing gospel seed, and that seed will spring up to bear fruit to meet the needs of those seeking for help. This is connected with teaching people how to spread truth through books such as Christ's Object Lessons and Ministry of Healing. The gospel seed sown in preaching must take root and bear fruit in the hearer, and presenting Christ and His redeeming love alongside the truth helps listeners receive it and remain committed to Him. For this to happen the truth must be given in short, measured portions that people can retain and carry away and digest, so their minds can comprehend it and their souls be impressed with it.
Its delivery must be carefully considered with governed voice and pleasant manner, because truth is precious, of more value than gold, and when rightly presented it comes to the hearer as the voice of God and makes them want to hear again, while long protracted shouting discourses cause terrible exhaustion and lose much of their effect. What is sown can fail to take lasting root, warning that what is received without lasting depth cannot endure when the sun rises. Books that conceal skepticism or mix Scripture with fanciful interpretations are seed that grows into a harvest of infidelity, while morning meetings sowing precious seed should bear a harvest.