<p>8:6 <i>And other fell on the rock- </i>The Greek&nbsp;<i>petrodes</i>&nbsp;is a form of&nbsp;<i>petra</i>. The Lord had taught that the wise man who heard and did His sayings developed his spiritual house upon a&nbsp;<i>petra</i>, a rock (Mt. 7:24). And of course Peter was the&nbsp;<i>petra&nbsp;</i>upon which the church would be built (Mt. 16:18). So again we see that it was not impossible for the seed on the rock to prosper. The problem was that some who began their growth upon rocks stopped growing because of persecution and tribulation- which in the first instance was from the Jews.</p><p><i>And as soon as it grew- </i>Matthew- &quot;immediately it grew&quot;. There is nothing wrong with this, indeed this is as response to the word should be; and the Gospels often note the immediacy of response. When you perceive an opportunity to do the Lord's service,&nbsp;<i>respond immediately</i>. See it as another opportunity for &quot;redeeming the time&quot;. This is a major Biblical theme. Israel were not to delay in offering their firstfruits to God (Ex. 22:29), lest their intentions weren't translated into practice. The disciples&nbsp;<i>immediately</i>&nbsp;left the ship, simply put their nets down and followed (Mt. 4:20,22); Matthew left his opened books and queue of clients in the tax office and walked out never to return (Lk. 5:17,18 implies). There is a marked theme in the NT of men and women hearing the Gospel and&nbsp;<i>immediately</i>&nbsp;responding by accepting baptism. In this spirit Cornelius immediately sent for Peter (Acts 10:33), and the Philippian jailer was immediately baptized, even though there were many other things to think about that night (Acts 16:33). Joseph was twice told in dreams to &ldquo;arise&rdquo; and take the child Jesus to another country.&nbsp; Both times he &ldquo;arose&rdquo; in the morning and just did it, leaving all he had, responding immediately (Mt. 2:13,14,20,21). Paul and Luke immediately went to preach in Macedonia after seeing the inviting vision (Acts 16:10); Paul &quot;straightway&quot; preached Christ after receiving his vision of preaching commission (Acts 9:20). Indeed, the records of the Lord's ministry are shot through (in Mark especially) with words like &quot;immediately&quot;, &quot;straightway&quot;, &quot;forthwith&quot;, &quot;as soon as...&quot;. He was a man of immediate response, Yahweh's servant&nbsp;<i>par excellence</i>. He dismissed the man who would fain follow Him after he had buried his father, i.e. who wanted to wait some years until his father&rsquo;s death and then set out in earnest on the Christian life. The Lord&rsquo;s point was that we must immediately respond to the call to live and preach Him, with none of the delay and hesitancy to total commitment which masquerades as careful planning. Note how the Lord told another parable in which He characterized those not worthy of Him as those who thought they had valid reason to delay their response to the call (Lk. 14:16-20). They didn't turn Him down, they just thought He would understand if they delayed. But He is a demanding Lord, in some ways. What He seeks is an immediacy of response. If we have this in the daily calls to service in this life, we will likewise respond immediately to the knowledge that 'He's back' (Lk. 12:36, cp. the wise virgins going immediately, whilst the others delayed). And whether we respond immediately or not will be the litmus test as to whether our life's spirituality was worth anything or not. All this is not to say that we should rush off in hot-headed enthusiasm, crushing the work and systematic efforts of other brethren and committees under foot. But when we see the need, when we catch the vision of service, let's not hesitate in our response, dilly dallying until we are left with simply a host of good intentions swimming around in our brain cells. Instead, let's appreciate that one aspect of the seed in good soil was that there was an&nbsp;<i>immediacy of response&nbsp;</i>to the word, a joyful and speedy 'springing up' in response (Mk. 4:5).&nbsp;&nbsp;</p><p><i>It withered away, because it had no moisture</i>- Because it had no depth (Mt. 13:6). John perhaps explains the 'depth' in his account of the woman at the well. The salvation in Christ was brought from the 'deep' s.w. well (Jn. 4:11). This connects the ideas of depth and moisture. These people had only a surface level interest and did not really grasp the deep reality of the Lord and His work; just as some can apparently respond to the Bible, and yet not really engage in relationship with the Lord Jesus.</p><p>The same word for &quot;withered&quot; is used by the Lord about how Israel were the fig tree who had once had promise of fruit (in their initial response to John) but was now withered (Mt. 21:19,20). Those who initially accept Christ but do not abide in Him are likewise &quot;withered&quot; (Jn. 15:6). John's emphasis upon 'abiding' in Christ likely has reference to the need to accept John's message about Christ and abide in it, rather than wandering off and back to Judaism. Both James and Peter seem to allude to this point of the parable in their teaching that the word of God stands forever, whereas flesh withers away (James 1:11; 1 Pet. 1:24). As we will note on 13:22, the seed is to become the person. Those who do not wither are those who have the seed within them, the power of eternal life which endures. &quot;Because they had no root, they withered away&quot; (Mt. 13:6) is alluded to in Jn. 15:6 concerning the branches of the vine withering as a result of God's word not abiding in them. The connection between the plants of the sower parable and the branches of the vine is further evidence that the sower parable mainly concerns the response to the word of those&nbsp;<i>within</i>&nbsp;the ecclesia.</p>