Are the Birds the Devil in Luke 8:12?

Once again, it’s time to demolish a false notion about the devil.

Today, we’re looking at Luke 8:12.

Those along the path are the ones who hear, and then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved.

Luke 8:12 (NIV)

In case you missed it, this is Jesus explaining part of the Parable of the Sower. Verse 5, in fact.

“A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path; it was trampled on, and the birds ate it up.”

Luke 8:5 (NIV)

Sadly, there’s a very popular but misguided teaching which claims that Jesus meant Satan personally, physically, and directly micromanages this theft in real time for every unyielding hearer on earth. As if the devil himself “takes away the word” from some of those who don’t believe.

See for yourself:

Try searching “Luke 8:12 the devil takes the word away” (no quotes) on Google (other search engines should work too), then examine the results. From churches I’ve never heard of to people I respect like John Piper, Ellicott, Barnes, Gill, Matthew Henry, Bengel, and so on, everyone seems to agree that the devil takes a personal interest in snatching God’s word from people’s hearts.

Oh, what shall we do?

What Moved Cyrus’ Heart?

I began my study of Ezra today when I noticed something “new” in the first verse:

In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, in order to fulfill the word of the LORD spoken by Jeremiah, the LORD moved the heart of Cyrus king of Persia to make a proclamation throughout his realm and also to put it in writing:

Ezra 1:1 (NIV)

The Lord moved Cyrus’ heart. This is remarkable considering that Cyrus was a pagan. Still, I shouldn’t think it that remarkable, considering we were all pagans of one sort or another before we came to Christ. A few verses later, God moves more hearts:

Then the family heads of Judah and Benjamin, and the priests and Levites—everyone whose heart God had moved—prepared to go up and build the house of the LORD in Jerusalem.

Ezra 1:5 (NIV)

I don’t know about you, but I didn’t expect this verse. At least, I didn’t expect the part about God moving Israelite hearts. Judah had been in exile for about seventy years, so you’d think they’d want to return home. I guess some needed their hearts moved, so God moved them. Considering that some Jews stayed behind, I guess it was necessary.

After Ezra chapter one, I continued my reading with Psalm 84, noticing this verse:

The Most Important Book You’ll Never Read

Do you like books? I love books and reading. I used to have a decent-sized library until I had to move and didn’t have the space. That was a sad day. One of the more curious things about my library was that I had read most of the books. In fact, I rarely ever purchased a book I didn’t read. Yet many avid readers are also book collectors with eyes bigger than their stomachs.

With the advent of ebooks, my story changed. My Kindle library is much smaller than my physical book library ever was, but the key difference is that I rarely read these Kindle books because I’ve gotten most of them for free, which places me right there with those who buy books and never read them. I “buy” these books because, who knows, someday I might get to them.

If I asked, “What’s the most important book ever written?” what would you say? The Bible? I could get behind that answer, but there’s one book I think just might be more important than the Bible. Unlike the Bible, you can’t purchase or borrow this book. You can’t even read it, but the nature of its contents is life and death.

Symbols Striving

Sabers slash
em dashes
roar—
commas
capitulate,