In the last chapter, we saw how the Lord disowns the old links with the flesh, with Israel, on account of their rejection of Him. Israel had been spoken of as a vine brought out of Egypt and planted by God (Psa. 80:88Thou hast brought a vine out of Egypt: thou hast cast out the heathen, and planted it. (Psalm 80:8)). But from here on He is no longer seeking fruit from them as a nation. He is a sower scattering good seed. He begins in a new way, and these new ways of God are not to be confined to the limits of Israel. The Lord now has before Him the unlimited field of the world.
“The same day went Jesus out of the house, and sat by the sea side. And great multitudes were gathered together unto Him.” The sea often in Scripture portrays the great masses of peoples in the world. This was to be the scene of the display of the new testimony that the Lord would raise up.
“And He spake many things unto them in parables.” In these are hidden sayings, but they can be understood when there is faith. However, the religious leaders of the day, who were both blind and deaf spiritually, could not understand them. Nevertheless the disciples, who had eyes to see and ears to hear, had entered by faith into the kingdom of heaven and so had the privilege of knowing its mysteries.
The kingdom of heaven, in its successive mysteries, fills up the interval between the rejected Christ’s going back to heaven, and His returning again in glory.
There are seven parables contained here in the Lord’s discourse. The first four were addressed openly to the multitude on the seashore, while the last three were spoken to His disciples alone, after the Lord had sent away the multitude and had gone into the house again (vs. 36).
The Sower
The Lord Jesus as Son of Man begins to sow the word of the kingdom. “Behold, a sower went forth to sow.” It is the same good seed in each of the four cases described. The seed tests the soil where it falls. It reveals the conditions which prevail there. Was the soil such that His blessing could rest there, or such as would call forth His judgment?
“Some seeds fell by the wayside, and the fowls came and devoured them up.” The wayside was a place where the soil might have been good at one time, but it was now hardened, having been trampled on by those coming and going. The seed lay there exposed in full view to everyone. The fowls could readily see it and come and devour it. The fowls in the parables were those who were the servants of Satan. Those who have had to do with the Word of God over and over again without ever being affected by it generally become hardened to it. The enemy can come and occupy them with everything else, so that the good seed is taken away, and there is no fruit produced for the sower.
Further Meditation
1. What hardened the ground by the wayside?
2. What are some of the differences between the first four and the last three parables in this chapter?
3. A more extensive discussion of these parables can be found in Notes on the Parables of Matthew 13 by W. Kelly.