Hey Bible readers, I'm Tara Lee Cobble, and I'm your host for the Bible Recap.

Today we open with Mark's account of the Parable of the Four Soils.

Then he immediately follows it with a question about the purpose of a lamp.

You don't hide lamps,

you display them. The fact that these two illustrations are given back to back seems to indicate that Jesus wants the light to go everywhere, the seed to go everywhere. Some people might hide

their eyes from the light, some people might not use the light to see the truth at all, but the

light shines in the darkness

nonetheless. And the seed must fall, even on the three-bide soils, not just on the good soil. Jesus may

be measured about the timing of his revealing, but he's clear on the fact that everyone who has eyes to

see, everyone who has soil to receive, will see and will receive, and they will respond

accordingly. Then Jesus spends several parables explaining the kingdom of God, not describing what the

experience is like, but describing its unstoppable power despite its small beginnings. By the way,

the terms kingdom of God and kingdom of heaven seem to be used

interchangeably in scripture. Jesus says the kingdom is like a seed that grows to full harvest,

but no one knows how it actually happens, that it's like a mustard seed slowly taking over everything.

Mustard seeds are tiny, but they grow to be huge and are practically impossible to kill.

Jesus seems to be illustrating that his kingdom will have a slow and steady growth, but that no one will be able to stop it.

That night, he says, let's get in the boat and go across to the other side. We've read this story

before, but we focused mainly on the healing that happened on the other side of the water, not what

happened while they were on the water. Since Mark spends a little more time on that story, we'll drop in

on that part today. In general, ancient Jews did not like water. It's where all the bad stuff

happened. Plus, the Sea of Galilee is an area where big storms can hit at a moment's notice.

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