Mark 4:15

I said that some seeds fell on the road, and birds ate them up. Those seeds are a picture for God’s word, and the birds are a picture of Satan, the boss over the bad spirits. When some people hear God’s word, Satan makes them forget it, so they take no notice of its message.

Plain English Version

In The King James Version

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.

In Context

14Listen to me again. In my story, a man threw the seeds into his garden, to grow some food. He is a picture of somebody that tells God’s word to people.

16In my story there was ground with too much rock in it. That is a picture of people that listen to God’s word and they are happy about it, and they start to take notice of it.

Read all of Mark 4

Cross References

Mark 4:4He threw the seeds all over the garden. Some seeds went too far and fell on the road. The road was hard, so the seeds couldn’t grow there. Some birds saw those seeds lying there, so they ate them and finished them up.

Luke 14:18But each one told him they couldn’t come to that dinner. One of them said, ‘I have bought a garden, so I have to go and look at it. Please tell your boss I’m sorry, but I can’t come to his dinner.’

Acts 17:18Some of that Athens mob always thought about the best way to live, and they always talked to other people about it. Some of them were called Epicurians, and some of them were called Stoics. They talked to Paul, and he told them about Jesus. Paul said that Jesus died, and that God made him alive again. Some of that mob said, “This man is just talking rubbish.” Others said, “We think he is talking about gods from other countries.”

Matthew Henry on Mark 4:2-21

The Parable of the Sower. 1 And he began again to teach by the sea side: and there was gathered unto him a great multitude, so that he entered into a ship, and sat in the sea; and the whole multitude was by the sea on the land. 2 And he taught them many things by parables, and said unto them in his doctrine, 3 Hearken; Behold, there went out a sower to sow: 4 And it came to pass, as he sowed, some fell by the way side, and the fowls of the air came and devoured it up. 5 And some fell on stony ground, where it had… Read the whole commentary →

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