Beacon Hill Church

This parable answers an important question: Why do some people respond with faith to the Jesus Christ and His message of grace while others don’t?


In this parable, Jesus made it clear—there’s nothing wrong with the farmer (who represents the Messiah), and there’s nothing wrong with the seed (His message). The real issue lies with the soil, which represents the hearts of the people who hear it.


In the ancient world a farmer would walk through his field with a pouch of grain, reaching in and scattering handfuls of seed across the field.

· The goal was to spread as much seed as possible, hoping that enough of it would take root and grow. The more seed that landed in good soil, the better the harvest would be.

The seeds that fall on the path represent people who hear the message about the kingdom of heaven but don’t understand it.

Maybe they’re not interested, maybe their hearts are hardened, or maybe they just aren’t ready to receive it. Either way, the message doesn’t sink in at all. It just stays on the surface. And before there’s any chance for it to take root, Satan comes in and snatches it away—stealing the truth before it can grow in their hearts.


The problem of failing to understand the message, according to the context, results from the hardheartedness and unreceptive attitude of the hearers rather than from any inadequacy in the communication of the message.


The path represents the hardened hearts of individual’s who don’t receive the word·

The person represented by the hardened soil isn’t someone who can’t understand, but someone who chooses not to.

Jesus applies Isaiah’s words to the people of His own time: they’ve listened to His teaching and witnessed His miracles—clear signs of who Jesus is. Yet they still refuse to recognize that He is the Son of God and the promised Messiah.


The writer of Hebrews warns of the danger of unbelief using the rebellion of the Israelites in the desert after their deliverance from their bondage in Egypt as an example in Hebrews 3:7-14

The psalmist warns, “If you will hear His voice, do not harden your heart,” and the author of Hebrews echoes the warning repeating it three times in 3:7-8, 15 and 4:7.

· God’s words demand a response, and, tragically, some respond by hardening their hearts.

· Some permanently harden their hearts, but even believers can harden their hearts for a period of time.


It is receptivity to God’s word – to the message of Christ – that keeps our hearts soft, pure and in right standing before the Lord.