Ground That Keeps It: The Parable Read Through

This reading companions the study Ground That Keeps It. Nothing is argued here.

MARK 4:3–9, 13–20 — KJV

Hearken; Behold, there went out a sower to sow: [the word of Yahuah going out as Moses said it would, falling as rain and as dew on ground that is meant to bring something up] And it came to pass, as he sowed, some fell by the way side, [ground packed hard by traffic and never opened, the fallow ground men were told to break up before they sowed] and the fowls of the air came and devoured it up.

And some fell on stony ground, where it had not much earth; [the stony heart Yahuah promised to take out and replace with a heart of flesh] and immediately it sprang up, because it had no depth of earth: But when the sun was up, it was scorched; and because it had no root, it withered away. [the man who leans on man is a shrub in the desert, and the man rooted by the water keeps his leaf green when the heat comes]

And some fell among thorns, [a full life — eaten and filled, good houses built, herds and silver multiplied, and the heart lifted up until Yahuah is forgotten] and the thorns grew up, and choked it, and it yielded no fruit. [forgetting Him is defined as not keeping His commandments, and the keeping is the first thing the thorns take]

And other fell on good ground, [the heart broken open and circumcised, with the law of Yahuah written on the inside of it] and did yield fruit that sprang up and increased; and brought forth, some thirty, and some sixty, and some an hundred. [the tree planted by the rivers of water, bringing forth his fruit in his season, whose delight is in the law of Yahuah]

And he said unto them, He that hath ears to hear, let him hear. [hearing was never the test, and three of the four heard]

And he said unto them, Know ye not this parable? and how then will ye know all parables? [this one carries the key to the rest, and every one after it asks what was done with what was given]

The sower soweth the word. [the law of Yahuah, sent out and not returning to Him empty, prospering in the thing He sent it to do]

And these are they by the way side, where the word is sown; but when they have heard, Satan cometh immediately, and taketh away the word that was sown in their hearts. [the ground was never opened, so there was nothing holding it down]

And these are they likewise which are sown on stony ground; who, when they have heard the word, immediately receive it with gladness; [gladness is not depth, and the reception was real while the ground under it was not] And have no root in themselves, and so endure but for a time: afterward, when affliction or persecution ariseth for the word’s sake, immediately they are offended. [heat does not make a tree fail, it only shows where the roots went]

And these are they which are sown among thorns; such as hear the word, And the cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of other things entering in, choke the word, and it becometh unfruitful. [nothing was taken from this man, something was added, until there was no room left for what had been planted]

And these are they which are sown on good ground; such as hear the word, and receive it, and bring forth fruit, some thirtyfold, some sixty, and some an hundred. [the difference is not a warmer reception but a word held onto and worked out over a season, which is what fruit in its season means]

Put together, one word went out and four hearts took it in. The word did not vary and it did not fail. What varied was the ground it landed in — packed, shallow, crowded, or broken open. Seed brings forth after its kind, and that was settled on the third day of the world, so the crop tells what the seed was. The seed is the law of Yahuah. The fruit is the keeping of it. Luke records the line that names the difference: the good ground hears the word, keeps it, and brings forth fruit with patience. The first psalm had already described that man and named his root outright. His delight is in the law of Yahuah.

Three of the four heard, and three of the four came to nothing, and the parable does not go back to them. There is no door in this reading. The sowing had already happened in all four cases before the first ground was named. The blood is the door, and the door is not what is being weighed here. What is being weighed is the law, and whether it is still alive in a man a season after it went in. A house that teaches the law was set aside has pulled up the root the first psalm names, and then wonders why so little comes up.