A Lesson from the Egyptians

“The divine seed you sow in so many lives can never die because it is filled with God’s life.” T.L. Osborn

There is a story I once heard that illustrates the power of a timeless seed. Archaeologists were excavating an ancient Egyptian burial site. As was the custom of the Egyptians, there were clay pots within the tomb that contained various food items, thought to provide nourishment to the deceased in the afterlife.

Within one of the pots were wheat seeds. In the absence of any form of hydration, these wheat seeds had been preserved unaltered for around 3,000 years. The archaeologists had never before encountered intact wheat seeds of such an age, and were curious to see if they could sprout after so many centuries in dormancy.

They carefully took a sample for experiment. In a controlled setting, they planted those few seeds in moist soil. To their amazement, the seeds sprouted, matured, and produced heads of wheat just like any modern seed would have done. The power of the seed to produce new life, albeit dormant, was fully intact.

Some look at the word of God and question how a book written so long ago could possibly help them in their modern-day situation. Jesus said the word is a seed (Mark 4:14). Regardless of its age, whenever that unchanging seed lands on the soil of a human heart, moistened by the convicting work of the Holy Spirit, it will unleash the life of God within them.

The seed we sow in the hearts of people can never die, because it is filled with the very life of God. Peter spoke on this topic when he stated that you have been “born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever, because ‘All flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of the grass. The grass withers, and its flower falls away, but the word of the LORD endures forever.’ Now this is the word which by the Gospel was preached to you.” (I Peter 1:23-25) God’s word can never die; it lives and abides forever! And it contains within itself the ability to produce the life of God wherever it finds a fertile heart.