Wayside People
Matthew 13:4
4And when he sowed, some seeds fell by the way side, and the fowls came and devoured them up:
Luke is slightly different, Luke 8:5.
5A sower went out to sow his seed: and as he sowed, some fell by the way side; and it was trodden down, and the fowls of the air devoured it.
Luke writes that these are trodden down. The word wayside is the Greek word hodos {hod-os’}. It refers to the highway. During biblical times, ox carts, donkeys, and mules would travel on the highway, the hodos {hod-os’}. This ground was hardened from all the animals and people walking on it. This was not soil where one would plant trees for fruit.
Also, the animals would leave deposits along the highway. Remember, this is the hearts of people. There are a lot of people whose hearts have been hardened from the world. A lot of these people have closed their hearts off, because they are tired of being dumped on by the world. Many times it is the church itself dumping and walking on the person. These people may have salvation, but they are hurting. These people and many being believers have become harden from people walking all over them. It becomes no man’s land. Although, they may have the seed of salvation, it just sits there dormant.
So what is one to do to reach these people? The average Christian just sprinkles seed. Yeshua tells us that this has no effect, Matthew 13:12.
12Those by the way side are they that hear; then cometh the devil, and taketh away the word out of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved.
God tells us that these people are so hard, the seed will not penetrate into the heart and take root. We should not waste one seed on these people. The Lord tells us it will not be effective. Are we just to ignore them? And what if it is us, what should we do? For the believer, Hebrews 3:13:
13But exhort one another daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.
Sin will harden our hearts. We need to first cut out the sin in our own lives. And, God tells us in Jeremiah 4:3A:
3AFor thus saith Yehovah to the men of Judah and Jerusalem, Break up your fallow ground,
We are to break up the ground and make it in to small usable clods. Isaiah 28 which deals with witnessing states in Isaiah 28:16:
16Therefore thus saith the Lord Yehovah, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation: he that believeth shall not make haste.
Isaiah 28:18 is a prophecy about the Messiah.
18And your covenant with death shall be disannulled, and your agreement with hell (sheol) shall not stand; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, then ye shall be trodden down by it.
How is death going to be disannulled? By the foundation stone, the Messiah, Isaiah 28:23-25.
23Give ye ear, and hear my voice; hearken, and hear my speech. 24Doth the plowman plow all day to sow? doth he open and break the clods of his ground? 25When he hath made plain the face thereof, doth he not cast abroad the fitches, and scatter the cummin, and cast in the principal wheat and the appointed barley and the rie in their place?
This is not about farming. Farming will never disannul death. Isaiah is speaking of witnessing. God sent Yeshua to break up the fallow ground. If one is to emulate Yeshua, they must reach these people. If we really love all our neighbors, we need to learn to deal with these people. This happens only when 2 thing are applied. The fruit of the spirit, Galatians 5:22-23.
22But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, 23Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.
We must seek God for this to manifest in their lives. It takes time. Do not wait until you are perfect. One does not have to be complete to break up the ground. It is a labor of love. It takes longsuffering, gentleness, all the characteristics of the fruit of the spirit and lots of practice. It takes personalized attention by an individual genuinely committed to God’s work.
The other thing one needs is the Power of God. The Holy Spirit will plant those seeds as the ground is being broken up. One needs the fruit of the spirit and the power of God to reach the wayside people.
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