Mark 4:15

Plain English Version

I said that some seeds fell on the road, and birds ate them up. Those seeds are a picture for God’s word, and the birds are a picture of Satan, the boss over the bad spirits. When some people hear God’s word, Satan makes them forget it, so they take no notice of its message.

Cross References

Genesis 19:14

So Lot went and found the men that his 2 daughters were promised to. He said to them, “God is going to finish up this town, so we have to get out now. Come on, let’s go.” But those 2 men thought that Lot was joking, so they didn’t go with him.

Matthew 4:10

Jesus said to the devil, “No. I will not do that either. Satan, you go away from me now. This is what God says in his book, ‘You have to show respect to God. He is the only God, so just do what he says.’ ”

Mark 4:14

Listen to me again. In my story, a man threw the seeds into his garden, to grow some food. He is a picture of somebody that tells God’s word to people.

Mark 4:16

In my story there was ground with too much rock in it. That is a picture of people that listen to God’s word and they are happy about it, and they start to take notice of it.

Mark 4:4

He threw the seeds all over the garden. Some seeds went too far and fell on the road. The road was hard, so the seeds couldn’t grow there. Some birds saw those seeds lying there, so they ate them and finished them up.

Acts 17:32

The council men heard Paul say that a man died and then came alive again, and some of those council men laughed at Paul. Some others said, “You can tell us more about this later, at some other time.”

Acts 5:3

Then Peter said to him, “Ananias, why did you listen to Satan, the boss over the bad spirits? Why did you let him be your boss? He even got you to lie to the Holy Spirit. You kept some of that money for yourself, the money you got for that land.

2 Thessalonians 2:9

You see, when that bad man will come, Satan, the boss over the bad spirits, will give some of his power to that bad man. So that bad man will come, and he will do really clever things with Satan’s power. Those things will give people a big shock. They will think that he has good power, and they will believe him, but they will be wrong.

1 Peter 5:8

You have to think clearly and watch out for your enemy, the devil. He is the boss over all the bad spirits, and he is going around looking for people to trick. He is like a wild animal that is going around and looking for somebody to kill and eat.