Matthew 13:1-13, NIV
Map stones: real listening comes with understanding; different types of soil of heart means different categories or types of people: seeds that fall on fertile soil leads to an an abundant crop; seeds fall on rocky soil, shallow, sun comes out, scorched; fall on thorns..(worries of life) choked.
Matthew 13:1-13, GNB
[1]That same day Jesus left the house and went to the lakeside, where he sat down to teach.
[2]The crowd that gathered round him was so large that he got into a boat and sat in it, while the crowd stood on the shore.
[3]He used parables to tell them many things. “Once there was a man who went out to sow corn.
[4]As he scattered the seed in the field, some of it fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up.
[5]Some of it fell on rocky ground, where there was little soil. The seeds soon sprouted, because the soil wasn’t deep.
[6]But when the sun came up, it burnt the young plants; and because the roots had not grown deep enough, the plants soon dried up.
[7]Some of the seed fell among thorn bushes, which grew up and choked the plants.
[8]But some seeds fell in good soil, and the plants produced corn; some produced 100 grains, others sixty, and others thirty.”
[9]And Jesus concluded, “Listen, then, if you have ears!”
[10]Then the disciples came to Jesus and asked him, “Why do you use parables when you talk to the people?”
[11]Jesus answered, “The knowledge about the secrets of the Kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them.
[12]For the person who has something will be given more, so that he will have more than enough; but the person who has nothing will have taken away from him even the little he has.
[13]The reason I use parables in talking to them is that they look, but do not see, and they listen, but do not hear or understand.