Today Our Daily Bread Matthew 13

Matthew 13: 1 - 58
1 On that day Jesus went out of the house and was sitting by the sea. 2 Such large crowds gathered around Him that He got into a boat and sat down, while the whole crowd stood on the shore.
3 Then He told them many things in parables, saying:
"Consider the sower who went out to sow. 4 As he was sowing, some seeds fell along the path, and the birds came and ate them up. 5 Others fell on rocky ground, where they didn't have much soil, and they sprang up quickly since they had no deep soil. 6 But when the sun came up they were scorched, and since they had no root, they withered. 7 Others fell among thorns, and the thorns came up and choked them. 8 Still others fell on good ground, and produced a crop: some 100, some 60, and some 30 times what was sown . 9 Anyone who has ears should listen!"
10 Then the disciples came up and asked Him, "Why do You speak to them in parables?" 11 He answered them, "To know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been granted to you, but to them it has not been granted. 12 For whoever has, more will be given to him, and he will have more than enough. But whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him. 13 For this reason I speak to them in parables, because looking they do not see, and hearing they do not listen or understand. 14 In them the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled that says: You will listen and listen, yet never understand; and you will look and look, yet never perceive. 15 For this people's heart has grown callous; their ears are hard of hearing, and they have shut their eyes; otherwise they might see with their eyes and hear with their ears, understand with their hearts and turn back--and I would cure them. 16 "But your eyes are blessed because they do see, and your ears because they do hear! 17 For I assure you: Many prophets and righteous people longed to see the things you see, yet didn't see them; to hear the things you hear, yet didn't hear them.
18 "You, then, listen to the parable of the sower:
19 When anyone hears the word about the kingdom and doesn't understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is the one sown along the path.
20 And the one sown on rocky ground--this is one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy. 21 Yet he has no root in himself, but is short-lived. When pressure or persecution comes because of the word, immediately he stumbles.
22 Now the one sown among the thorns--this is one who hears the word, but the worries of this age and the pleasure of wealth choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful.
23 But the one sown on the good ground--this is one who hears and understands the word, who does bear fruit and yields: some 100, some 60, some 30 times what was sown."
24 He presented another parable to them:
"The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field. 25 But while people were sleeping, his enemy came, sowed weeds among the wheat, and left. 26 When the plants sprouted and produced grain, then the weeds also appeared. 27 The landowner's slaves came to him and said, 'Master, didn't you sow good seed in your field? Then where did the weeds come from?' 28 " 'An enemy did this!' he told them. " 'So, do you want us to go and gather them up?' the slaves asked him. 29 " 'No,' he said. 'When you gather up the weeds, you might also uproot the wheat with them. 30 Let both grow together until the harvest. At harvest time I'll tell the reapers, "Gather the weeds first and tie them in bundles to burn them, but store the wheat in my barn." ' "
31 He presented another parable to them:
"The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his field. 32 It's the smallest of all the seeds, but when grown, it's taller than the vegetables and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the sky come and nest in its branches."
33 He told them another parable:
"The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into three measures of flour until it spread through all of it."
34 Jesus told the crowds all these things in parables, and He would not speak anything to them without a parable, 35 so that what was spoken through the prophet might be fulfilled: I will open My mouth in parables; I will declare things kept secret from the foundation of the world.
36 Then He dismissed the crowds and went into the house. And His disciples approached Him and said, "Explain the parable of the weeds in the field to us." 37 He replied: "The One who sows the good seed is the Son of Man; 38 the field is the world; and the good seed--these are the sons of the kingdom. The weeds are the sons of the evil one, and 39 the enemy who sowed them is the Devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the harvesters are angels. 40 Therefore just as the weeds are gathered and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of the age. 41 The Son of Man will send out His angels, and they will gather from His kingdom everything that causes sin and those guilty of lawlessness. 42 They will throw them into the blazing furnace where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. 43 Then the righteous will shine like the sun in their Father's kingdom. Anyone who has ears should listen!
44 "The kingdom of heaven is like treasure, buried in a field, that a man found and reburied. Then in his joy he goes and sells everything he has and buys that field.
45 "Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls. 46 When he found one priceless pearl, he went and sold everything he had, and bought it.
47 "Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a large net thrown into the sea. It collected every kind of fish , 48 and when it was full, they dragged it ashore, sat down, and gathered the good fish into containers, but threw out the worthless ones. 49 So it will be at the end of the age. The angels will go out, separate the evil who are among the righteous, 50 and throw them into the blazing furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
51 "Have you understood all these things?" "Yes," they told Him.
52 "Therefore," He said to them, "every student of Scripture instructed in the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who brings out of his storeroom what is new and what is old."
53 When Jesus had finished these parables, He left there. 54 Having come to His hometown, He began to teach them in their synagogue, so that they were astonished and said, "How did this wisdom and these miracles come to Him? 55 Isn't this the carpenter's son? Isn't His mother called Mary, and His brothers James, Joseph, Simon, and Judas? 56 And His sisters, aren't they all with us? So where does He get all these things?" 57 And they were offended by Him. But Jesus said to them, "A prophet is not without honor except in his hometown and in his household." 58 And He did not do many miracles there because of their unbelief. The Holman Christian Standard Bible
~Lena’s Comments~
It seems to me that Jesus was giving us an example – Go outside from the comfortable couch you’ve sat on in the church. (The pew or whatever) Go sit by the sea, (sea represents a place full of "fish", remember we "fish for men" when we share the good news and disciple people who don’t know Christ towards knowing Him more) this is where I will use what you’ve heard in that pew to tell others. When we go out we see how the words we have heard apply.
How or why would it be that we would not see or hear? One reason is we accept things at face value is we think ourselves to be pictured as dumb if we do not understand and then we ask questions. Some have been taught not to ask any questions, that we need to accept things as given and not say anything. That possibly would have more to do with the manner in which we would ask the questions. Are we asking to know, or to fight or challenge? Are we asking because of our hunger and thirst to understand God and His word, or because we already feel we disagree with it before we even understand it? Disciples ask. The enemy wants us to not ask, which shuts down our communication, and he wants us to feel stupid about asking. God loves us and we are not at all dumb in His eyes if we are seeking to know more and more of Him. The stories we do not get are like tools to see how much we want to know. If we walk away, for whatever reason, the question God has- is answered. They must already know, or they don’t really want to know. When we do not want to know and we walk away, it is as though we were given a gift and have left it wrapped. We saw it, acknowledged it, knew it was there, but did not really hear that there was more inside. IF/when we are aware of this process, we can purposely get the gift, tear open the paper, get what’s inside and keep it in our safe care! In our care is out of the reach of the enemy’s hand.
I was thinking how birds eat seeds and then fly over fields and drop what remains, sorry, but all softened up and ready to sprout on what it is dropped on. I was thinking of how natural an occurrence this actually is. Birds eat, birds fly, birds_________. The field is saturated with the results of this "natural" happening. In the scripture it says that there are principalities, powers of the air, and at times they are likened to birds. It also says the enemy did this (through a natural force), one account of this said, it was done while "men" slept! So the enemy uses the natural realm to sow seeds of an evil sort, right in God’s field of harvest. Maybe the harvest can be so full and compact that it suffocates the weeds. Also God has set some as watchmen on the walls of the fields of harvest and as they are awakened to the enemy, they can shoo off the enemy and also be a scarecrow to those sent to devour. This is why he says. Awake oh you sleeper get up. #1 we’d have to see the importance of the field to be willing to be awake. We need to own the filed to see it’s value. It is for our owning, we just need to unwrap the gift!
The word’s power is not based on who delivers it’s message. People stumble over the bearer of the good news. They will not stand before God in judgement and be able to say, but Lord the person who tried to share the truth with me was just so and so’s son. The Lord will tell them he sent someone who was at least willing to open up their mouths and preach to them, and having had the opportunity they refused Him. That would be a sad picture, but is a huge tool of the enemy against them, One reason they don’t hear is they select who they will hear from. A big help in the hearing process is relationship and communication. If someone knows you, they can trust you and be more likely to hear your message. Which should give reason to each person who carries the gospel message to desire to build that platform of relationship for the greater reception of the word. We want our labor in the fields to be effective. Relationship is a big key to opening the ear of hearers, yet on the other hand, too casual of relationship hinders receptivity in that they can stumble over humanness as these did Jesus. This is the work in the field, to tend the soil, weed the small ones that we know are there at the beginning of growth, water and fertilize etc…