It's Growing In Secret
Introduction
This past Friday as Josh and I walked around in our backyard we looked at the various plants along the fence line. We do not spend a lot of time out there and Mike does a great job maintaining everything. We noticed something that we had not noticed before. There was a large tree growing up. Its leaves reaching up into the powerlines. Josh asked what kind of tree it was. I admitted that I was not sure and then as we looked further I saw a bunch of bananas there hanging with a beautiful purple flower bulb hanging beneath it. I had no idea that there was a banana tree growing there and yet in a month or so I will have fruit from the tree that is growing there on our property. I was surprised by the fruit. In the Gospel of Mark 4:26-29, Jesus said:
Mark 4:26-29 NIV
He also said, “This is what the kingdom of God is like. A man scatters seed on the ground. Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how. All by itself the soil produces grain—first the stalk, then the head, then the full kernel in the head. As soon as the grain is ripe, he puts the sickle to it, because the harvest has come.”
There are moments in our lives where good things grow up that we are unaware of. Some of these things are planted by God, some are things we have sown. There remains a secret hidden power in all of it.
In the Gospel of Mark, this chapter explains what discipleship looks like. Jesus uses agrarian images that his hearers would have understood.
1. Scattered Seed
He also said, “This is what the kingdom of God is like. A man scatters seed on the ground.
God's Voice scatters life-giving Seed all over the earth. God is pouring out His Spirit upon all flesh.
The third stanza of Psalm 65 praises God's graciousness to the creation and to us.
Psalm 65:9-13 NIV
9 You care for the land and water it; you enrich it abundantly. The streams of God are filled with water to provide the people with grain, for so you have ordained it.10 You drench its furrows and level its ridges; you soften it with showers and bless its crops.11 You crown the year with your bounty, and your carts overflow with abundance.12 The grasslands of the wilderness overflow; the hills are clothed with gladness.13 The meadows are covered with flocks and the valleys are mantled with grain; they shout for joy and sing.
Beginning in verse 9 the Psalmist uses agrarian cultural references
that would have been very meaningful to the ancient Israelites. For them, blessing, health, and wealth were associated with their crops... Abundant rain was evidence that God was visiting the earth to water it, enriching it. The rain was called "the river of God." Grain grew as the earth softened with showers. This was the blessing of God... The phrase "Your paths drip with abundance" (verse 11) is a reference to "a richly-laden cart dropping its contents in its track." In this meaningful figure of speech, God drives a cart that is so overloaded with abundance of produce that it falls off as He drives by. This overabundance drops off on the pastures and hills (verse 12). The evidence of God's blessing is seen in pastures covered with flocks and valleys with grain (verse 13). As a consequence of these rich blessings, the pastures and valleys shout for joy and sing.
Daniel Segraves. The Messiah in the Psalms: Discovering Christ in Unexpected Places. (Hazelwood: WAP, 2007), 245.
God is not stingy with His blessings! Even those who do not know Him benefit from His gracious gift of life! He makes the rain to water the fields and sun to shine on everyone. There are blessings all around you waiting for you to just reach down and pick them up. He is scattering seed everywhere.
2. Secret Growth
Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how.
There are things that God has planted in your life that you may have forgotten or do not really know are there. They are secretly growing for a future purpose. God has prepared everything that you need and it will be there when you need it.
If you look back on your life you will be able to think of moments when you have come to unexpected places and God has already prepared what you need. It's there.
This is what the Scripture means that says
Deuteronomy 8:3 NKJV
So He humbled you, allowed you to hunger, and fed you with manna which you did not know nor did your fathers know, that He might make you know that man shall not live by bread alone; but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord.
God has fields full of grain that you know nothing about where He has things growing. He has a harvest that is continually white already to harvest. He has a heavenly mill where He grinds the grain, and a heavenly bakery where He is preparing things that you may not even know will nourish you.
Psalm 78:25 NIV
"Human beings ate the bread of angels; he sent them all the food they could eat."
Where does this miracle food come from?
Exodus 16:13-16
“… and in the morning dew lay around the camp. And when the dew had gone up, there was on the face of the wilderness a fine, flake-like thing, fine as frost on the ground. Then the people of Israel saw it, they said to one another, “What is it?” For they did not know what it was. And Moses said to them, “It is the bread that the LORD has given you to eat.”
It is a secret, but it is by the Word of the LORD.
The manna was there every morning. The man went to sleep and got up. God's mercies are new every morning! Jesus taught us to pray, "Give us this day our daily bread."
The work of the Sower may be done, but there is the work of appropriation.
3. Slow Progress
All by itself, the soil produces grain—first the stalk, then the head, then the full kernel in the head.
We should rejoice in the small progress that we experience. The promises of God come up like plants in stages. Often we go out and see a small sprout and we are like the tiny bear in a children's book that I used to read to Josh. It was about Zoe Bear who went to stay with his farmer uncle for the summer. Zoe's uncle gave him some seed and a small plot of ground to plant them in. Zoe was impatient and he knew nothing about farming and so after planting his seed he went out daily and dug it up to see if anything was happening. You can relax in the promises of God. We sometimes want to control the process. Instead, faith embraces God's way and rejoices in the perfection of each stage. Give it time. God's Word will not return void.
One of the curses of affluence is waste.
Our great grandparents who went through the Great Depression knew how to can fruits and vegetables and make homemade flour biscuits and flour gravy from meat drippings and bacon grease. They wasted nothing.
Some of our ancestors wasted the animals and ravaged the land because there seemed to be no end of the natural resources. They cut the tongues from buffalo and the tails from beaver and just left the carcasses to rot. The Native peoples used every tiny part of the buffalo. There was clothing to be made from their hides, weapons to be made from their bones... They wasted nothing.
On my banana tree was a purple bulb hanging. I thought it might be edible and so I Googled it and found a recipe. Every part of the banana's flower is edible. The leaves can be made into a chutney, the tiny inner flowers into chips and, the inner core can be boiled and eaten. Older cultures wasted nothing.
Don't waste the season in between sowing and harvest time. You have planted some things, God has planted some things. They are sure to come up, but there is other work to do in the meantime. My grandfather was an amazing man. He was a great parent. He was an amazing mechanic. He was an amazing woodworker. He was also a great farmer. His father passed away when he was a teenager and he had to begin toiling in the field to raise crops to live. I can remember him growing peppers and turnip greens in his backyard. He plowed beautiful rows and worked the soil. He planted the seed and then let the earth and the seed do what God created it to do, grow. But, there was other work that he did while he waited. He tended to the soil, making sure there were no weeds coming up. If there were pests attacking his plants, he did not get overly concerned he merely applied the things that had continued to work for generations. He may have added some fertilizer here or there. He worked his garden, but he also did other things in the meantime.
You have planted some seed, and it is going to come up. Let it. But, there are to do other things to do while you wait on the harvest.
Worship while you wait.
Work for God while you wait.
Witness about Jesus while you wait.
Wonder at the glory of God while you wait.
Don't lose sleep while you wait on the harvest. In the children's book about Zoe Bear, Zoe would stay awake all night with excitement and anxiety wondering and worrying about the harvest.
Galatians 6:9 KJV
9 And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.
Psalm 127:2 NIV
In vain you rise early and stay up late, toiling for food to eat-- for he grants sleep to those he loves.
The devil would like to wear you out where you cannot sleep and then the thorns of the cares of this life grow up in your garden and choke the promises of God that are growing there. Chill out.
Once we have done our part we should relax and let the earth and the LORD of all the earth do His!
4. Sure Harvest
As soon as the grain is ripe, he puts the sickle to it, because the harvest has come.”
Isaiah 55:10-11
10“For as the rain comes down, and the snow from heaven,And do not return there,But water the earth,And make it bring forth and bud,That it may give seed to the sowerAnd bread to the eater,11So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth;It shall not return to Me void,But it shall accomplish what I please,And it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.
God has promised a harvest. It's up to us to decide if we will participate.
There are things that you planted that are sure come up. We are often so pessimistic because of our finitude and our sinfulness that we read some of the greatest promises in the Word of God as negatives.
Galatians 6:7 NIV
7 Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. 8 For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life. 9 And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart.
The general principle here can be applied to the good and the bad. When was the last time you read this Scripture in the positive?
The law of the harvest works. And you have been planting some good things. God has been planting some good things. And there is sure to be a harvest!
You always reap what you sow.
You always read more than you sow.
You always read later than you sow.
Conclusion and exhortation
I can see Him driving by. His cart digging ruts into the soil by the sheer weight of the wagon that He is driving by that is abounding with blessings. Will you follow Him?
