<p>4:5<i> And other fell on the rocky ground, where it had not much earth- </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 (Mt. 12:21)- which in the first instance was from the Jews.</p><p><i>And immediately- </i>The immediacy of response is not wrong; immediate response is a great theme of Mark. The good ground also features immediate response. The problem with many is that they do not continue that immediacy of response. When you perceive an opportunity to do the Lord's service, <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 <i>immediately</i> 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 <i>immediately</i> 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 <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 <i>immediacy of response </i>to the word, a joyful and speedy 'springing up' in response (Mk. 4:5).</p><p><i>It sprang up- </i>The idea is that they germinated. The seed of the Gospel began to grow- the multitudes had begun to respond to John's message. The same word is used in the next verse to describe how the sun then 'sprung up'. After response to the word begins, there will be trouble and testing. Just as Israel's Red Sea baptism was immediately followed by tribulation and testing. The sun arising and withering the seed is a symbol of tribulation arising in the life of the believer (Mk. 4:6). But the sun arising is also a clear symbol of the day of the Lord&rsquo;s return. Thus whenever we encounter tribulation, our response to it is in some sense a preview of our response to the Lord&rsquo;s coming in judgment. Trials and reproofs from God are Him &ldquo;entering with thee into judgment&rdquo;, here and now (Job 22:4).&nbsp;&nbsp;</p><p><i>Because it had no depth of soil</i>- 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). These people had only a surface level interest and did not really grasp the deep reality of Christ and His work.</p>