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The Heavenly Sower, February 24
Behold, a sower went forth to sow.
Matthew 13:3
.
In the East the state of affairs was so unsettled, and there was so great danger
from violence that the people dwelt chiefly in walled towns, and the husbandmen
went forth daily to their labor outside the walls. So Christ, the heavenly Sower, went
forth to sow. He left His home of security and peace, left the glory that He had with
the Father before the world was, left His position upon the throne of the universe.
He went forth, a suffering, tempted man; went forth in solitude, to sow in tears, to
water with His blood, the seed of life for a world lost.
His servants in like manner must go forth to sow. When called to become a
sower of the seed of truth, Abraham was bidden, “Get thee out of thy country, and
from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will shew thee”
(
Genesis 12:1
). “And he went out, not knowing whither he went” (
Hebrews 11:8
)....
In toil and tears, in solitude, and through sacrifice, must the seed be sown.
“The sower soweth the word.” Christ came to sow the world with truth. Ever
since the Fall of man, Satan has been sowing the seeds of error. It was by a lie
that he first gained control over men, and thus he still works to overthrow God’s
kingdom in the earth and to bring men under his power. A sower from a higher
world, Christ came to sow the seeds of truth. He who had stood in the councils of
God, who had dwelt in the innermost sanctuary of the Eternal, could bring to men
the pure principles of truth. Ever since the Fall of man, Christ had been the Revealer
of truth to the world. By Him the incorruptible seed, “the word of God, which liveth
and abideth for ever,” is communicated to men (
1 Peter 1:23
). In that first promise
spoken to our fallen race in Eden, Christ was sowing the gospel seed. But it is to
His personal ministry among men, and to the work which He thus established, that
the parable of the sower especially applies.
The word of God is the seed. Every seed has in itself a germinating principle.
In it the life of the plant is enfolded. So there is life in God’s word. Christ says,
“The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life” (
John 6:63
).... In
every command and in every promise of the word of God is the power, the very life
of God, by which the command may be fulfilled and the promise realized. He who
by faith receives the word is receiving the very life and character of God.
Every seed brings forth fruit after its kind. Sow the seed under right conditions,
and it will develop its own life in the plant. Receive into the soul by faith the
incorruptible seed of the word, and it will bring forth a character and a life after the
similitude of the character and the life of God (
Christ’s Object Lessons, 36-38
).
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