Old Testament Scripture Reading: Isaiah 55:5 – 9 (KJV)
Isa 55:5 Behold, thou shalt call a nation that thou knowest not, and nations that knew not thee shall run unto thee because of the LORD thy God, and for the Holy One of Israel; for he hath glorified thee.
Isa 55:6 Seek ye the LORD while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near:
Isa 55:7 Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the LORD, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.
Isa 55:8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD.
Isa 55:9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.
New Testament Scripture Reading: Matthew 13:1- 9 (KJV)
Mat 13:1 The same day went Jesus out of the house, and sat by the sea side.
Mat 13:2 And great multitudes were gathered together unto him, so that he went into a ship, and sat; and the whole multitude stood on the shore.
Mat 13:3 And he spake many things unto them in parables, saying, Behold, a sower went forth to sow;
Mat 13:4 And when he sowed, some seeds fell by the way side, and the fowls came and devoured them up:
Mat 13:5 Some fell upon stony places, where they had not much earth: and forthwith they sprung up, because they had no deepness of earth:
Mat 13:6 And when the sun was up, they were scorched; and because they had no root, they withered away.
Mat 13:7 And some fell among thorns; and the thorns sprung up, and choked them:
Mat 13:8 But other fell into good ground, and brought forth fruit, some an hundredfold, some sixtyfold, some thirtyfold.
Mat 13:9 Who hath ears to hear, let him hear.
Transforming Power Facts:
1) The impact of the Jewish people on the surrounding world of the Gentiles, was designed to have a tremendous effect on their behaviors because the witness of the lives of true believers in God’s Word was supposed to be attractive to the world as Isaiah said, however, many of the Jews themselves did not adhere to God’s Word, but rather allowed the popular lifestyles s of the Gentiles to influence them to disobey God’s Word, as they did, but God through Isaiah calls the wayward Jews to seek Him while He could be found!
2) Once Jesus had called to Himself His twelve disciples and began to teach as the Messiah, the son of David and was opposed again and again even publically by the leaders of the Jews, the tone of Jesus’ teaching moved from plain language to Parabolic Form, as a way of teaching believers while at the same time speaking in “riddles” to the unbelievers who had no intention to conform to His doctrine.
3) The meaning and content of the Parable of the sower still gives us today a graphic understanding of how the Word of God effects both the believer and the unbeliever, and divides the entire world into one of four categories three of which bear no enduring fruit, and one good soil which bears fruit in varying degrees and the question for us is: What kind of soil are we?