Jesus drew from nature and ordinary life for a comparison or illustration to teach the people. Jesus also desires to conceal certain truths in parable, thus fulfilling the prophecy of Isaiah 6:9

The parable teaches that all the world will not be converted through the spreading of the Gospel. Three things can interfere and stop the word, such as satanic opposition, persecution, peer pressure, and the attraction of physical and material pleasures.

Jesus sat by a lake, and spoke a parable to the people about a farmer sowing his seed. Such large crowds came that He got into a boat and taught the crowd as they stood on the shore.

The Father, Son and Holy Spirit are sowers, and every Christian should be. The focus of the illustration is not the sower but different types of soil and the response to the seed sown. The soil are different states of the human heart at the time of hearing the word of God.

A Farmer was sowing grain in his field. As he scattered the seed across the ground, some fell beside a path and the birds came and ate it, some fell on rocky soil where there was little depth of earth. The plants sprang up quickly in the shallow soil, but the hot sun soon scorched them and they withered and died, for they had so little root. Other seeds fell among thorns and the thorns choked out the tender blades but some fell on good soil and produced a crop that was thirty, sixty and even a hundred times as much as he has planted.

The Hard Path represents the heart of a person who hears but does not understand, then Satan comes and snatches away the seed from the heart. The word sown does not take hold because the heart cannot reap the word because of thoughtlessness. If the word was understood it would have been received and beyond the reach of Satan.

The Shallow Rocky Soil represents the heart of the person who hears the message with real joy, but when trouble and persecution comes the person does not stand firm, but drops out. The heart is enthusiastic and excited but only received the word superficially, for character and belief are lacking because of emotionalism. This type of heart does not have the seed of truth deep within them.

The Ground Covered With Thistles represents the person who hears the message, but the cares of the world and the want for money and material things for self only choke out God. The heart has a wandering mind. The word is received but bears no fruit because of lust for other things and the word gets smothered.

The Good Soil is the heart that listens, understands and brings others into the kingdom. Not only the heart and mind receives the word but the whole soul, conscience and will. It is understood and produces true belief. It yields a harvest which is heartening to the sower. The fruitfulness is according to the degree of commitment to Christ. Planted in good soil the word is understood and is beyond Satan's reach.

The sower (Christ) cast the seed (the Word of God) upon the soil (human hearts), showing that entrance into the Kingdom of God is a matter of individual response. The parable is a timeless illustration. The fault is not with the word sown but with the heart that receives it and Jesus teaches that not all receive the gospel with equal effect.

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