MARK 4:2

January 26, 2023

Mark 4:2
Then He taught them many things by parables.

The Scripture employs two beautiful figures to illustrate the reception of the divine testimony.  One is the committing of the seed to the ground, as in the parable of the sower.  The husbandman scatters the seed in the bosom of the earth, and the ground having been previously ploughed and reduced to a beautiful condition, opens its bosom to receive the grain.  After a little time the seed begins to germinate, to strike a root downward, and shoot a germ upward; as the Lord speaks, “For the earth yields crops by itself: first the blade, then the head, after that the full grain in the head.” – Mark 4:28. This emblem beautifully represents how the testimony of Jesus Christ finds an entrance to the soul, takes root downward and carries a shoot upward.  The root downward is into the depths of a tender conscience, and the shoot upward is the aspiration, breathing, and longing of the soul for the living God.  The other figure is that of grafting.  “Receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.” – James 1:21.  Now when a offshoot is first put into the stock, after a little time sap begins to flow out of the stock into the offshoot, and this sap unites the two together.  So it is spiritually when the soul receives the testimony of Christ.  The testimony of Christ is received into a broken heart, as the graft is inserted into and received by the stock.  As, then, life flows out of the stock into the graft, it creates and cements a sweet and blessed union with God’s Word and Him of whom the Word testifies.  Thus it grows up into a living bough, which brings forth blossoms of hope, leaves of a consistent profession, and fruit of a godly life.

J. C. Philpot, Daily Portions (Public Domain)
Unless otherwise noted, Scripture taken from the New King James Version®, NKJV © 1982 by Thomas Nelson.
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