They angered God by building shrines to other gods; they made him jealous with their idols. [Psalm 78.58]
Psalm 78 summarizes that the entire story of Israel is about God's demand for their undivided trust in Him alone and Israel's idolatrous response to that demand. Psalm 78 is not only a no-holds-barred indictment upon Israel's repeated faithlessness to God, but it extends that indictment to the Church today even more so.
First, Psalm 78 assures the relevance of its message beyond Old Testament times by use of the word "parable." Psalm 78 alerts the student of the whole Bible to Jesus.
O my people, listen to my instructions. Open your ears to what I am saying, for I will speak to you in a parable. I will teach you hidden lessons from our past—stories we have heard and known, stories our ancestors handed down to us. [Psalm 78.1-3]
Likewise, Jesus clearly alerts the student of the whole Bible to Psalm 78. The word "parable" extends the relevance of Psalm 78 AND Jesus to us today. To see this we must turn to the New Testament:
His disciples came and asked him, “Why do you use parables when you talk to the people?” He replied, “You are permitted to understand the secrets of the Kingdom of Heaven, but others are not. To those who listen to my teaching, more understanding will be given, and they will have an abundance of knowledge. But for those who are not listening, even what little understanding they have will be taken away from them. That is why I use these parables, For they look, but they don’t really see. They hear, but they don’t really listen or understand. [Matthew 13.10-13]
What was Jesus talking about? What were they "looking at" but not seeing? What were they "hearing" but not really listening to or understanding? Before answering this, we should understand the ramifications of not seeing and not hearing:
This fulfills the prophecy of Isaiah that says, ‘When you hear what I say, you will not understand. When you see what I do, you will not comprehend. For the hearts of these people are hardened, and their ears cannot hear, and they have closed their eyes—so their eyes cannot see, and their ears cannot hear, and their hearts cannot understand, and they cannot turn to me and let me heal them.’ [Matthew 13.14-15]
The miraculous provision and power of God are not applicable to those who do not see or hear.
So, again, what is it that they are not seeing and hearing (not understanding)?
“Now listen to the explanation of the parable about the farmer planting seeds: The seed that fell on the footpath represents those who hear the message about the Kingdom and don’t understand it. Then the evil one comes and snatches away the seed that was planted in their hearts. The seed on the rocky soil represents those who hear the message and immediately receive it with joy. But since they don’t have deep roots, they don’t last long. They fall away as soon as they have problems or are persecuted for believing God’s word. The seed that fell among the thorns represents those who hear God’s word, but all too quickly the message is crowded out by the worries of this life and the lure of wealth, so no fruit is produced. The seed that fell on good soil represents those who truly hear and understand God’s word and produce a harvest of thirty, sixty, or even a hundred times as much as had been planted!” [Matthew 13.18-23]
This is all well and good, but still, what is the message about the Kingdom? In the context of the passage above, the message about the Kingdom is clearly God's Word - all of it.
Jesus' use of a "parable" begs us to refer back to Psalm 78:
O my people, listen to my instructions. Open your ears to what I am saying, for I will speak to you in a parable. I will teach you hidden lessons from our past—stories we have heard and known, stories our ancestors handed down to us. We will not hide these truths from our children; we will tell the next generation about the glorious deeds of the LORD, about his power and his mighty wonders. For he issued his laws to Jacob; he gave his instructions to Israel. He commanded our ancestors to teach them to their children, so the next generation might know them—even the children not yet born—and they in turn will teach their own children. So each generation should set its hope anew on God, not forgetting his glorious miracles and obeying his commands. Then they will not be like their ancestors—stubborn, rebellious, and unfaithful, refusing to give their hearts to God. [Psalm 78.1-8]
Psalm 78 goes on to summarize the story of God's Word about all the supernatural miracles God performed for Israel that He accuses them of faithlessly "forgetting." Specifically, "forgetting their past" with God was refusal to "believe in their future with God."
We should not be amazed then to comprehend that Jesus' parable of the farmer planting seeds (aka, "Parable of the Sower") was about this very topic of God's Word! The good soil is the heart of man intentionally remembering (cultivated with) God's Word, that is, God's history of unexplainable, miraculous provision for His people who trust Him alone. Not seeing and hearing that history is explained by Jesus in degrees: first, seeing and hearing not at all (uncultivated footpath), then, seeing and hearing only partially (cultivated but rocks not removed), followed by seeing and hearing without maintenance (cultivated, rocks removed, but thorns allowed to grow).
For us to understand the significance of Jesus' explanation of the soil and the message of the Kingdom, remembering God's Word, the history of God and His people, we must then look back to Psalm 78:
They forgot what he had done—the great wonders he had shown them, the miracles he did for their ancestors on the plain of Zoan in the land of Egypt. [Psalm 78.11-12]
They did not remember his power and how he rescued them from their enemies. [Psalm 78.42]
They turned back and were as faithless as their parents. They were as undependable as a crooked bow. They angered God by building shrines to other gods; they made him jealous with their idols. [Psalm 78.57-58]
And there it is. In Psalm 78.57-58 we see that by forgetting their past, God's people were as faithless as their ancestors in engaging in full-blown idolatry. Jesus' every use of a parable should always point us to Psalm 78. We will never fully understand Jesus' parables until we remember our history as God's people and the damning role of idolatry all through it - even today. Every reference of Jesus then to eyes that don't see and ears that don't hear should alert us to idolatry.
AND, it is here that the "Word of Faith" message is incomplete. Word of Faith teaching shortsightedly insists that powerlessness can be remedied by better confessions of faith (which is indeed Scriptural), but grossly ignores the Biblical fact that powerlessness will continue as long as that "faith" does not utterly reject idolatry. Good soil is soil intentionally and painstakingly cleared of idols (the hard ground of idolatry broken, the rocks of idolatry cleared, the thorns of idolatry constantly weeded). Good soil is "cultivated" not only with the memory that God provided miraculously for His "faithful" people in the past, distinguishing them as His, but also anticipating that He fully intends to do the same to distinguish those who are His in the future. Idols circumvent and prevent that distinction (if not immediately (hard footpath), then ultimately (thorns)).
This explains then why Jesus (God in the flesh) made the distinct demand:
If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross, and follow me. [Matthew 16.24 (also, Mark 8.34 & Luke 9.23)]
As "God in the flesh," it can be no other way but for Jesus to demand absolute exclusive faith of His followers just as God demanded absolute exclusive faith in His people for all history. If Jesus' followers (God's people) today do not fully remember (see, hear, and understand) and keep remembering the history of God's people (the Word of God as summarized in Psalm 78), they are destined to be hard footpath soil, rocky soil, or thorny soil - none of which bears increase - the distinct Kingdom power of God over worldly circumstances.
The Parable of the Sower is Jesus' distinct warning against idolatry.
Father, Your Word continues to challenge and amaze me. May Your Word gain increasing priority in my life as I see, hear, and understand that Your miraculous power is extended only to those who intentionally rid themselves of and avoid idols. May I understand that Jesus' life and Your power will never manifest in me if I do not cultivate Your Word in me, remove the rocks, and constantly battle the weeds that will surely appear. Help me to understand that none of this happens unless I "give up my own way" (deny myself the benefits of idols), "take up my cross" (make "my" faith about others), and follow Jesus in every way He demonstrated while here on earth as is recorded in the Gospels. So be it.
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