Garden Thoughts

It’s gardening season in Michigan. Some people plant after Mother’s Day, while some wait until Memorial Day, but either way, people are outside preparing the ground, planting their first warm-weather crops like tomatoes and peppers, using their rototillers or preparing their no-till beds. The ground smells so good. Birds are singing. Bunnies are hopping around, seeing if there is anything yummy they can steal from the garden.

I was outside yesterday in my bare feet, being careful not to step on any bumblebees that might be hovering around in the dandelions. I started thinking about seeds and good ground.

Yeshua told a famous parable to the crowds who followed him, and later, his disciples asked him why he spoke in so many parables. Why didn’t he just come out and speak plainly to the people?

He answered and said to them, ‘Because it has been given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given. For whoever has, to him more will be given, and he will have abundance; but whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him. Therefore I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. And in them the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled, which says:

“Hearing you will hear and shall not understand,
And seeing you will see and not perceive;
For the hearts of this people have grown dull.
Their ears are hard of hearing,
And their eyes they have closed,
Lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears,
Lest they should understand with their hearts and turn,
So that I should heal them.”

‘But blessed are your eyes for they see, and your ears for they hear; for assuredly, I say to you that many prophets and righteous men desired to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it'” (Matthew 13:11-17).

He quotes Isaiah the prophet, specifically saying that it wasn’t time for the people to hear.

What?

Why would he not want people to see or understand? Why would he not want them to turn, teshuva, to repent?

Why would he not want to heal them?

These are the things I am pondering, and I think I’d like to start a new blog series examining the reasons why the “mysteries of the kingdom of heaven” weren’t given to everyone.

This implies that not everyone with whom we share the gospel with hear or understand or repent. This is extremely frustrating to me! I don’t understand why people don’t SEE, and I sometimes want to shake them and spend 24 hours a day with them and INSIST that they listen! LOL!

I also want to understand why Yeshua later commanded his disciples to “go therefore and make disciples of all nations,” when not everyone is going to actually repent. Isn’t this a waste of time? Is there a way to know which people have “good soil” for hearts and will receive the seed (“which is the Word of God”) that is planted in them?

So many questions… so much to ponder….

I’ll return next time with more. In the meantime, I am going to plant a few seeds in specific places around my yard: by the wayside, in a stony place, among thorns, and in good ground. I’ll take pictures, and we can discuss Yeshua’s parable as we watch what happens to the seeds.

Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture in this blog post taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.