The Parable of the Sower

First Soil – Wayside Ground (The Bird – Pecked Soil):

The first kind of ground in the parable is called the “wayside” ground. It typifies those Christians who are not in the way, or the path, where Jesus walks. They possess eternal life, but that is all. These may be believers who do not think it is imperative or necessary to attend church, while still trying to encourage others concerning the things about the kingdom. Some may be even trying to serve God by their own self-efforts. The seed sown on the hardened path produced no fruit. Wayside seed can also be seed that was spread, but no one was listening. No one made themselves available to hearing the Word, so it automatically becomes wayside. Therefore, that’s all Satan has to do is pick it up and walk away with it. If the Word is not received, accepted or acknowledged, the Word will not produce anything. In order for the Word to work in our lives, it must fall on good ground. But if we are not receiving anything, it falls by the wayside. This is how people can come to church for years and never see any change in their life or their circumstances. "Watch out, brothers, so that there won’t be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart that departs from the living God. But encourage each other daily, while it is still called today, so that none of you is hardened by sin’s deception" (Hebrews 3: 12–13 HCSB). "Let us hold on to the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful. And let us be concerned about one another in order to promote love and good works" (Hebrews 10:23-24 HCSB).

There is always a way to change. When we think about planting seeds, we envision a farmer plowing up the soil and then using a tool to insert the seed deep into the earth. While plowing did happen in the first century, it wasn't the standard. Typically, a farmer carried a satchel of seed and scattered it around his land, and that’s the image that Jesus invokes in this parable. That’s why we see some seed falling on the path and soil in various stages of readiness. Birds represented one of the biggest liabilities for farmers scattering their seed. To birds, planting season was an incredible buffet. That’s why farmers needed to be incredibly liberal when throwing out their seed. They needed to ensure there was enough to take root. But because the farmer’s field went alongside the path, he would inevitably sow some of the seed on the "wayside." Seed falling on a well-worn path won’t work into the soil and take root. Some of the seed that the sower sowed fell “by the wayside” and thus it neither sprang up nor it gave any fruit, but it was trampled down and eaten by the birds. "And a great crowd coming together, and those in each city coming to him, he spoke by a parable: A sower went out to sow his seed: and as he sowed, some fell by the wayside; and it was trampled down, and the birds of the air devoured it. And some fell on rock; and as soon as it sprang up, it withered away, because it lacked moisture. And some fell among thorns, and the thorns sprang up with it and choked it. And others fell on good ground, and sprang up, and bare fruit a hundredfold. And when he had said these things, he cried, he who has ears to hear, let him hear" (Luke 8:4–8)!