Mark 5:1-20 English Standard Version Jesus Heals a Man with a Demon 5 They came to the other side of the sea, to the country of the Gerasenes. 2 And when Jesus had stepped out of the boat, immediately there met him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit. 3 He lived among the tombs. And no one could bind him anymore, not even with a chain, 4 for he had often been bound with shackles and chains, but he wrenched the chains apart, and he broke the shackles in pieces. No one had the strength to subdue him. 5 Night and day among the tombs and on the mountains he was always crying out and cutting himself with stones. 6 And when he saw Jesus from afar, he ran and fell down before him. 7 And crying out with a loud voice, he said, “What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I adjure you by God, do not torment me.” 8 For he was saying to him, “Come out of the man, you unclean spirit!” 9 And Jesus asked him, “What is your name?” He replied, “My name is Legion, for we are many.” 10 And he begged him earnestly not to send them out of the country. 11 Now a great herd of pigs was feeding there on the hillside, 12 and they begged him, saying, “Send us to the pigs; let us enter them.” 13 So he gave them permission. And the unclean spirits came out and entered the pigs; and the herd, numbering about two thousand, rushed down the steep bank into the sea and drowned in the sea. 14 The herdsmen fled and told it in the city and in the country. And people came to see what it was that had happened. 15 And they came to Jesus and saw the demon-possessed man, the one who had had the legion, sitting there, clothed and in his right mind, and they were afraid. 16 And those who had seen it described to them what had happened to the demon-possessed man and to the pigs. 17 And they began to beg Jesus to depart from their region. 18 As he was getting into the boat, the man who had been possessed with demons begged him that he might be with him. 19 And he did not permit him but said to him, “Go home to your friends and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you.” 20 And he went away and began to proclaim in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him, and everyone marveled. Jesus has had a long day of teaching parables and then got into the boat to go to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, where the Decapolis is, and instead of getting some rest that He was looking forward to, He was awakened by His disciples when they were caught in a fierce windstorm when they cried out for their Lord to save their lives because they were perishing. Jesus rebuked the wind and the waves telling them, "Peace, be still." [What is translated as "Be still." actually the imperative, "Be muzzled!"]. We will see today that Jesus will speak much the same way to the demons in this demonized man and they will immediately obey in the same way that the wind and the waves did when Jesus calmed the sea.
They got to the other side and they were immediately confronted by a demonized man from the city who had lost his mind after being demonized and now lived among the tombs. They could not restrain him and he was typically naked and the demons would make him cut himself so that he would come close to the point of death without dying (for if he died, they would lose their host). He was given super-strength by the demons to break any chains that the people tried to bind him with, and he was active both night and day "crying out" and cutting himself with stones. When the man saw Jesus, he ran from far away and fell face down to worship him--whether it is the man or the demons that are doing this because they feared Jesus is uncertain, but this worship is out of fear for the words he speaks to Jesus reveal that--though it also reveals that he recognizes Jesus as the Son of God (he says Son of the Most High God). The demons are afraid that Jesus has come at this time to judge them and throw them into the abyss that we see in the book of Revelation where there are some demons who are so bad that they have been chained up until they are released in the end times as one of the final plagues on the unrepentant, rebellious enemies of God. Whether these demons were really that bad or just fancied themselves as that bad or wanted to be in the same category of evil as those that were removed from the earth and held in captivity, they begged Jesus that their time not be up yet as they wanted to have even just a little more fun. They wanted to be cast into the pigs that belonged to the local farmers that were up on a hillside not that far away. Jesus agrees to cast the "legion" of demons (Legion is what they called themselves, for there were many demons in this man) into the herd of pigs and all the pigs lost their minds and stampeded down the hill and off the cliff and drown in the Sea of Galilee. There were about two thousand pigs that died that day so it's possible this man had 2,000 or more demons inside of him. If the word "Legion" is to be taken literally than there may have been more like 5,000 to 6,000 demons inside of this one man. The herdsmen for the pigs told their countrymen what happened--both to the pigs and that Jesus had cast the demons out of this crazy, demonized man. They went out to see what happened and they found the man clothed and in his right mind there with Jesus and his disciples. The people were afraid because they knew how much power this demonized man had when the demons controlled him, and they knew Jesus had to have even more power than that to cast the demons out of this man and make him be back in his right mind. Sure, they are upset about losing their entire herd of pigs--that was no small cost for them as that was probably the entire local economy right there, but they were more afraid of who would be next and how their world would be turned upside down by this one man. Surely they had heard about Him and all the miracles He had done in Israel. The crowd begged Jesus and His disciples to leave them and get back in the boat to go back where they came from. They mean formerly known as Legion who has been healed asked if he could come with Jesus to follow Him, but Jesus said that the man needed to stay there and tell his friends and family (in the city where he used to live) about what had happened and how Jesus had healed him. With this man's testimony (for everyone local knew of him and probably those in the surrounding area had heard of him) heard his story, Jesus might receive a very different reception the next time He's in the area--if you want to look ahead, see Mark 8 when Jesus is back in the Gentile region again and there is a crowd of a least 4,000 men following Him for three days through the wilderness, standing the whole time while Jesus is preaching through all these Gentile-controlled areas that were once given to the Jewish people. It is possible that this one man's testimony was instrumental in getting the word out to those 4,000 or so men who were following after Jesus in Mark 8 as it says the man went away and proclaimed Jesus not just in his own city, but in all ten cities of the Decapolis and that everyone who heard the story marveled (much like the reaction of the disciples after they saw Jesus calm the storm). Mark 4:35-41 English Standard Version Jesus Calms a Storm 35 On that day, when evening had come, he said to them, “Let us go across to the other side.” 36 And leaving the crowd, they took him with them in the boat, just as he was. And other boats were with him. 37 And a great windstorm arose, and the waves were breaking into the boat, so that the boat was already filling. 38 But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion. And they woke him and said to him, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” 39 And he awoke and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, “Peace! Be still!” And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. 40 He said to them, “Why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith?” 41 And they were filled with great fear and said to one another, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?” On the same day that Jesus had been teaching these parables all day, He told His disciples that He wanted to go on ahead of Him to the other side of the Sea of Galilee. Maybe He needed to get away from the crowds, maybe He wanted to reach a different group of people, or maybe this is just where the Spirit was leading Him to go next and He obeyed. There was a whole group of boats that went with them as everyone tried to follow after Him, however a great windstorm arose so that the waves were breaking into the boat and the boat was taking on water.
Where was Jesus during all this? He was asleep on a cushion in the stern of the boat. Not even this storm would wake Him up, probably because He was so tired. He just needed some sleep, but He didn't get much because in the time of crisis, the disciples came to Him crying for salvation and asking Him, "Don't you care that we are perishing?' What a thing to say to Jesus whose name means, "The LORD Saves" or "The LORD's Salvation." Of course Jesus cares and wants to save you, but nothing in nature can take the life of Jesus or anyone who belongs to Him unless God allows it to happen. That does not mean that we should be cavalier tempting God to let us die, but we should rest in the fact that if we are were God told us to be, then we need not live in fear. Jesus got up and ordered the wind and waves (and I think the disciples), "Peace, be still!" We know this is a miracle because immediately the wind stopped and the waves stopped. The violates all the principles of physics that we know that tell us that there should have been some inertia energy left from the storm that the waves should have continued for some time after, but the Sea was immediately calm--in fact, it is described as a great calm. I'm pretty sure this is one of those "you could hear a pin drop" moments because when Jesus said "Peace, be still," everything in nature listened to Him. Then Jesus breaks the silence asking the disciples why they lacked faith and doubted? They were no less safe in the storm than when the sea was at peace. Didn't they see that Jesus was at peace and was sleeping? That should have meant something to them. They were filled with great fear (the fear of the LORD) and asked themselves who this is that even the wind and the waves obeyed Him. They thought they knew Him, but He has revealed even more about who He is to them. He is the Lord of all Creation, the Lord of Heaven and Earth. He speaks, and everything obeys His command--even the things that we would say we are subject to because they are strong and powerful and no man can tame. Next time we will see Jesus has power over the supernatural realm as well, and that too will provoke fear, but the reaction of the people will not be worship, but to drive Jesus away. So we will see a difference between how His disciples respond to Him and how those who are not His disciples respond to Him. Mark 4:30-34 English Standard Version The Parable of the Mustard Seed 30 And he said, “With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable shall we use for it? 31 It is like a grain of mustard seed, which, when sown on the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth, 32 yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes larger than all the garden plants and puts out large branches, so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade.” 33 With many such parables he spoke the word to them, as they were able to hear it. 34 He did not speak to them without a parable, but privately to his own disciples he explained everything. Jesus is still telling His disciples "kingdom parables" so that they can better understand the kingdom of God in the hearts of men, and the kingdom of God that will be experienced in the New Heavens and the New Earth that are to come. This parable sounds a lot like a dream given to King Nebuchadnezzar in Daniel 4, only this time the kingdom represented by the giant tree is the kingdom of God, not the kingdom of Babylon. This giant tree in Jesus' parable started off as the smallest of the seeds. I'll finish going through the parable and then give a "defense" of this passage as this is one of the passages in the Bible that people argue about sometimes on the internet for reasons you might not expect.
Jesus then says that the mustard seed when it has grown becomes larger than all other "garden plants" (that's important to our later discussion) and this herb that started off as just a small seed essentially grows into a "tree" with large branches so that the birds of the air can make their nests in it (this is specifically the part that reminds me of Daniel 4). The people clearly understood what Jesus was saying that the seed looks nothing like the end result, that something small and seemingly insignificant can turn into something so large that it would be fair to assume Jesus was talking about it growing to a kingdom that would fill the entire earth like the rock that destroyed the kingdoms of this world in Daniel 3 and then grew to a mountain that filled the whole earth. Now to some of the arguments that people make. There are attacks against the authority of Scripture and the Deity of Christ from Evolutionists (I use a big E as it's basically a religion at this point) and liberal theologians that don't believe in the inspiration of Scripture. Their arguments are different, but both attempt to reach the same conclusion--that Jesus was in error when they try to say that He is making a scientific claim here about botany that they believe they can disprove with science from today. Let's start with some facts that are important to us. Jesus is telling a story to an agrarian people in a specific region of the world at a specific time in history. The context of the parable is about seeds planted in the ground by farmers that are grown for food (specifically the context of the parable talks about "garden plants" that refer to herbs and other plants that would have been grown in a garden and not a field). At this time and in this place to this people, the black mustard seed that Jesus is referring to was the smallest seed they would plant in their gardens. It also is true that it would grow to an extremely large plant that had branches like a tree that birds could nest in. There's really no "there" there, but let me at least give some space to the arguments the critics make. First, they say that because we know of smaller seeds today in varieties of orchids that are about 1/20th the size of a mustard seed that Jesus either wasn't omniscient or that He knowingly made a false statement about the mustard seed being the smallest of all seeds. Alternatively, the argument could be made that Jesus said things perfectly right but that those who remembered the story and wrote it down remembered it imperfectly and that they are just the recollections of humans and that there is no divine inspiration that allows us to trust the words that were used. All of these arguments are designed to undermine the authority of the Bible in areas of morality because they then make the argument that if we can't know or trust the words of the Bible in this passage, how can we know or trust its words in any passage and we then get into people elevating themselves over Scripture to decide which passages they want to believe in instead of submitting to the authority of Scripture. I've already made the argument above that this is a parable meaning that some hyperbole is allowed as the listeners know that the purpose of the story is to teach a spiritual truth, not a scientific one. Also, if we looked at every other time that Jesus talks about a mustard seed, it's always in a figurative sense of something small that has great consequences (the gospel or faith). This is not to say that Jesus was so restrained in His knowledge that He could or would accidently or intentionally mislead people--the Father and the Spirit directed His steps and His words so that Jesus says that He only speaks the words that the Father gives Him (see John 12:49). I know the context there is about Jesus telling them how they must be saved, but we see a pattern in Jesus' ministry of Him praying to the Father and listening to Him to receive direction on where to go and what to say. We also know Jesus was led (sometimes even "driven" by the Spirit). So, this should put to rest any question about if imperfect knowledge was involved because even if the Son had imperfect knowledge during His 33 years He lived here on earth, the Father and the Spirit still had perfect knowledge and would not tell Jesus to speak something that was a lie. "God is light and in Him there is no darkness." There are some scientific arguments that can be made about speciation and if the orchids in question even existed at the time of Jesus, but I believe the better argument is that orchids were not the types of plants that these people that Jesus was talking to would have planted in their gardens in that place at that time. That is the context of the parable. If we allow people to lift a verse out of context of surrounding verses, time, space, and original language, then they can easily make arguments that would seem to indicate that the words of the Bible could be inaccurate either because God didn't speak the words or the people that recorded the words were imperfect, or there have been translation errors--take your pick, all of the arguments are means to an end of men being able to try to either throw out the entire Bible or pick and choose the parks they like and don't find offensive. We don't get to make an EXACTO-knife version of the Bible where we cut out the parts that we don't like. Be carefully of attacks from both those who claim to be Christians and those who claim not to be Christians where they both are trying to argue for a low view of Scripture that does not treat it is inerrant or authoritative. Mark 4:26-29 English Standard Version The Parable of the Seed Growing 26 And he said, “The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground. 27 He sleeps and rises night and day, and the seed sprouts and grows; he knows not how. 28 The earth produces by itself, first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear. 29 But when the grain is ripe, at once he puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come.” Jesus says that the kingdom of God is like a farmer waiting for his crop to grow. The farmer plants the seeds and night and day he watches and waits. He sees the seed sprout and grow, but there is no visible work being done to make the seed mature--it just happens naturally. Then one day the crop has reached full maturity and "ripens" so that we have gone from blade to ear and then full grain on the ear. At that time, the farmer and all of his workers immediately go out and harvest the crop. They do not delay at all. So it will be with the coming of the Son of Man. When the number of the souls that belong to Him which have been written in the Lamb's Book of Life since before the foundations of the world is complete, then the Father will send an angel to tell the Son that it is time (not even the Son knows the day or the hour), and He will come on the clouds with power and authority both to rescue His Bride and to judge His enemies. John also uses this metaphor of the Son using His sickle to reap the harvest of good souls in Revelation 14:14-16. Immediately following that, John talks about the harvest of the wicked for judgment (notice the Son harvests the righteous that belong to Him, but He sends His angels to harvest the unrighteous for judgment). You can read more about that in Revelation 14:17-20. So it will be in the last days that in the fullness of time (at just the right time and not a moment too early or too late), Jesus will return for the righteous and what is salvation for those that are in Christ is judgment and destruction for those who are outside of Christ (just like the Ark and the 10th Plague/Passover).
Mark 4:21-25 English Standard Version A Lamp Under a Basket 21 And he said to them, “Is a lamp brought in to be put under a basket, or under a bed, and not on a stand? 22 For nothing is hidden except to be made manifest; nor is anything secret except to come to light. 23 If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear.” 24 And he said to them, “Pay attention to what you hear: with the measure you use, it will be measured to you, and still more will be added to you. 25 For to the one who has, more will be given, and from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.” A lamp as a purpose that is part of its identity--it exists to be lit and to give light. Since a lamp works on the principle of "line of sight," then it is most useful and sticking closest to its intended "meaning" when it is elevated up above any objects which could block line of sight. That way it gives light to all that are in the room.
It would be foolish, counter-productive, and against the very nature of the lamp if someone were to light a lamp and then cover it up so that the light would not be seen. The lamp might as well be unlit at that point. The parable here uses the examples of hiding the lamp under a basket or under a bed. Not only is the light hidden there, but putting the lamp in such a place would be dangerous as there is much potential to catch the basket or the bed on fire. Eventually, the existence of the lamp would be made known one way or another--either it provides light as it was intended to, or it starts a destructive fire because someone intended to hide its light which cannot be hidden. Jesus then makes the connection that the only reason that people try to hide a light source is because they are trying to sneak around and don't want people to see what they are doing. He speaks clearly about this in John 3, starting in verse 19, "19 And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. 20 For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. 21 But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.” Then several other parables are summed up in short quips. Be careful what you listen to! By whatever measure you measure out to others it will be used to measure back to you! (Be generous to others--also this has to do with whatever measure we use to judge others and the same measure being used by others to judge us). The one with many talents who has been entrusted with much and is faithful with it will be entrusted with even more, but the one who was unfaithful with the little that he was entrusted with, even that little will be taken away and entrusted to someone more faithful (the Parable of the Talents). It is assumed that we will know the context of these teachings without needing to give the entire parable, but if you need to see the parables, most of them are in Matthew and Luke. Mark's gospel is going to focus specifically on the parables that have to do with the "kingdom" and the "gospel." We'll talk about a couple of other short parables in the next couple of journal articles. Mark 4:10-20 English Standard Version The Purpose of the Parables 10 And when he was alone, those around him with the twelve asked him about the parables. 11 And he said to them, “To you has been given the secret of the kingdom of God, but for those outside everything is in parables, 12 so that “‘they may indeed see but not perceive, and may indeed hear but not understand, lest they should turn and be forgiven.’” 13 And he said to them, “Do you not understand this parable? How then will you understand all the parables? 14 The sower sows the word. 15 And these are the ones along the path, where the word is sown: when they hear, Satan immediately comes and takes away the word that is sown in them. 16 And these are the ones sown on rocky ground: the ones who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with joy. 17 And they have no root in themselves, but endure for a while; then, when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately they fall away. 18 And others are the ones sown among thorns. They are those who hear the word, 19 but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it proves unfruitful. 20 But those that were sown on the good soil are the ones who hear the word and accept it and bear fruit, thirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundredfold.” Jesus took the Twelve away from the crowds so that He could explain the meaning of His parables to them and they might receive "the secret of the kingdom of God." To the rest of the crowds the parables revealed the truth to some that the Holy Spirit allowed to see it and concealed the truth from others. Often in the gospels we see it was the unbelieving Pharisees, Sadducees, scribes, and teachers of the Law that immediately understood the meaning of the parable--especially when they perceived it was about them, so understanding the parable and believing it are not the same thing. Most in the crowd would not understand Jesus' truth claims about Himself that He made by way of parable until after His resurrection.
Jesus made sure the Twelve understood this parable as it was foundational to understanding so many other things that Jesus would talk about. He explained that the sower sows the "seed" of the Word of God and that the four different kinds of soil represent four different heart conditions. When we sow the seed of the Word of God, we can't immediately see someone's heart condition, but the condition of their heart (the kind of soil) may be revealed for how they respond to the Word of God. There are those with hearts as hard as the path that are unable to accept what they hear and it is stolen away by Satan. The work that the Word does in this case is that such men are without excuse. They cannot say that no one ever told them the truth. Next was the rocky ground where it appears that the Word is immediately received with joy and there appears to be life, but since there is no depth to the soil and there is no root to the plant, it shrivels up and dies when the trials of tribulation and persecution, represented by the sun's scorching heat, come they quickly fall away and do not persevere to the end (they "deconvert" when things get hard to use today's language). The third kind of soil was where the seed of the Word fell among the thorns, thistles, and weeds. The cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choke out the Word because no one can live for God and material possessions at the same time. Your heart cannot belong to the kingdom of this world and also to the kingdom of heaven. There is no duel citizenship. You will be a citizen of one kingdom or the other. This was the issue for the rich, young ruler who went away sad when Jesus told him to sell all of his possessions and give everything he had to the poor, because the man had great wealth and loved his stuff more than he loved God or other people made in the image of God. This love of material possessions choked out the truth of the Word that was being spoken to him and he would not respond to the call of Jesus to give up everything to follow and become His disciple. Again, there is no fruit to be shown here in this situation, even if it may appear that there was some initial growth. Finally is the good soil that the Word of God lands on. This heart has been prepared by God to hear the Word of God, accept it, and respond to it in faith. The Word takes root in their hearts and it works in a way that is spiritually reproductive--it makes a crop that is visibly larger than the amount of seed sown (30, 60 or 100 plants coming from a single seed). We get the idea here that when the Word does its work those who hear it are transformed and they can't help but tell others the Word of God and they will share the Word with 30, 60, or maybe 100 more people, or this fruit may be the Fruit of the Spirit which we see at work in the lives of those who have bene born again. There are a couple of different ways that people have interpreted the "fruit" in this passage, but ultimately that fruit is the evidence that the plant is alive. Jesus makes that analogy in several of his parables that good trees and vines produce good fruit in their season. If you come to a tree or vine that is supposed to have fruit on it and it has none, that tree or vine is as good as dead to you and it is fruitless because it has some kind of disease. Jesus will tell another parable later about how God "prunes" those He loves to make them even more fruitful. So then we are to speak the Word of God (not any other fancy words of our own) and we are to entrust God to work on the soil of someone's heart and we can somewhat judge the condition of a man's heart by how he or she responds or fails to respond to the Word of God and if it is something temporary or something lasting and if it is fruitful or fruitless. It would seem to me that Jesus is saying that only the seed that fell on good soil are those who are genuinely saved because although we are not saved by our works, we are saved "unto" them in Ephesians 2 and James tells us that faith without works is dead. So then just like a fruit tree without fruit is useless, so is a so-called Christian who looks like they walked the aisle, prayed the Sinner's Prayer and maybe even was baptized, but their lives show no "fruit" that comes from genuine repentance and being born again. Mark 4:1-9 English Standard Version The Parable of the Sower 4 Again he began to teach beside the sea. And a very large crowd gathered about him, so that he got into a boat and sat in it on the sea, and the whole crowd was beside the sea on the land. 2 And he was teaching them many things in parables, and in his teaching he said to them: 3 “Listen! Behold, a sower went out to sow. 4 And as he sowed, some seed fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured it. 5 Other seed fell on rocky ground, where it did not have much soil, and immediately it sprang up, since it had no depth of soil. 6 And when the sun rose, it was scorched, and since it had no root, it withered away. 7 Other seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no grain. 8 And other seeds fell into good soil and produced grain, growing up and increasing and yielding thirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundredfold.” 9 And he said, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” This is one of the most famous of Jesus' parables that He used to explain a spiritual truth to the listeners by means of telling them a story that they could connect with. In this agrarian society, they would have been familiar with buying and scattering (sowing) seed, but they would have found this story odd that the farmer did nothing to prepare the ground to be ready to accept the seed--he didn't remove the rocks, he didn't check the depth of the soil to see if more top soil needed to be added, he didn't remove the weeds ,and he didn't plow to make furrows for the seed (usually you carefully plant in straight lines so that the plants are a certain distance apart). All of this would be odd to the listener as they knew how plant their crops and they would think ,"This person is doing it all wrong," but Jesus had their attention. They knew that under such circumstances very little of the seed that was sown would fall on "good soil" that would produce a crop. Some of it would fall on the hard soil of the path where the birds would eat it or it would get trampled underfoot and destroyed, others seed fell on "shallow," rocky soil that let the seed take root, so it died quickly when it couldn't get water and other nutrients through its roots, and other seed fell among the thorns and weeds that took all the nutrients from the soil and robbed the good seed of access to sunlight and choked the life out of it. Only a small portion of the seed was "fruitful" and yielded 30, 60, or even 100 times what was planted (part of the process of the fruit growing is that it makes more seeds that will produce more plants, and so on).
We'll talk about the interpretation of this parable next time as that's how the ESV separates it (I don't like separating the interpretation from the parable so much as many take license to only read the parable and then come up with their own interpretation, so I encourage you to read ahead and see what interpretation Jesus gave). It's important to see that Jesus only gave the interpretation of the parable to the apostles--though the teaching was given to the multitudes, only a select few had the teaching explained to them so that Jesus was sure they understood it. Those few men were the ones entrusted with the teachings of Jesus not only to write them down for us, but to teach them to faithful men who would in turn teach them to faithful men. Jesus is demonstrating His parable at work here as the seed was spread over the multitudes, but only a few men understood it and received it (even among the Twelve, there was at least one that rejected it). |
Daniel WestfallI will mostly use this space for recording my "journal" from my daily devotions as I hope to encourage others to read the Bible along with me and to leave a legacy for others. Archives
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