No. 1
It has been said that those who desire to have a right apprehension of God’s ways with Israel and the church should study the feasts of Jehovah in Leviticus 23, the parables of Matthew 13, and the addresses to the seven churches in Revelation 2 and 3. We might add to these the words of Jacob in Genesis 49. Israel’s history is prophetically outlined in the words spoken by Jacob to his sons, just before his decease; and the feasts of Jehovah clearly delineate God’s ways with His earthly people until the end, though no doubt also teaching God’s ways with us in application.
The parables of Matthew 13 are specially concerned with the kingdom of heaven in mystery, the phase of God’s kingdom in which we are now; but they reach forward to the introduction of Christ’s earthly kingdom, revealing too what is for Christ’s pleasure in the kingdom, and how the enemy is working in that which professes the Name of Christ. The addresses to the seven churches give the prophetic history of the professing church, from the time of its departure from first love until it is spued out of the mouth of Christ.
Only in Matthew’s Gospel, where the Jews are specially addressed, is the term “kingdom of heaven” used; Mark and Luke using “kingdom of God” for the same things. The “kingdom of God” embraces every aspect of God’s kingdom, but the “kingdom of heaven” is used to denote the time of Christ’s absence from this world, the heavens ruling while He sits at God’s right hand, the accepted of God, but the rejected of Israel, and by the world. At His coming the Lord will publicly intervene in the affairs of the world, putting down all evil, and reigning as King of kings, and Lord of lords.
The Sower
After giving the parable of the Sower, the Lord, as recorded in Mark’s Gospel, asked His disciples, “Do ye not know this parable? and how will ye be acquainted with all the parables?” (4:13). Does this not teach us that we can only have a true understanding of the parables if we have rightly understood the parable of the Sower? First we must realise who the Sower is, and in the parable of the tares the Lord says, “He that sows the good seed is the Son of Man” (verse 37). The word of the kingdom fell first from the lips of the Lord on earth, and since then He has sown the word through many of His servants.
The Wayside Hearers
Those who hear the word, and do not understand it, are likened to the seed that fell on the wayside. Multitudes who heard the word in freshness and power from the lips of the Son of God, and multitudes since, in Judaism, in heathenism, and in Christendom, who have heard the word from the servants of the Lord, have been unaffected by the message sent from God. Some might wonder at the gracious words, like those who listened to the Lord in the synagogue of Nazareth, and then be angry with the preacher of the glad tidings. A watchful enemy is every ready to catch away the word that is sown. Men may listen with attention to the word, and ponder what has been said, but without the hearing of faith the heart and conscience will be unaffected.
The Stony Ground Hearers
These received the word with joy, giving the appearance of immediate acceptance of the word. Alas! there was no work of repentance preceding the joy of acceptance, so that a very superficial type of discipleship resulted. They were like the scribe who said to Jesus, “Master, I will follow Thee whithersoever Thou goest,” but who evidently had not counted the cost for the Lord replied, “The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man has not where to lay His head” (Matt. 8:19-20).
There was no depth of earth with the stony ground hearers; no deep work of God in the soul; only a shallow, natural reaction and response to the word heard. Nor was there any root; no living link between the soul and Christ, from whom alone spiritual nourishment can be derived. Their faith was not enduring; they only believed for a time. It was not divinely-given faith, but the faith of nature that is only concerned with present things, and which thinks Christianity very attractive naturally, knowing nothing of the things which are spiritual, unseen, and eternal.
True discipleship can only be sustained in communion with Christ, and what is natural and superficial will soon be destroyed by tribulation and persecution. The disciples who went back, and walked no more with Jesus, when He spoke of His death (John 6:66), were stony ground hearers. They would follow a Christ who satisfied them with bread, and would have made Him their king; but they would not follow One who was going to die.
The Thorny Ground Hearers
Before the good seed fell into the hearts of the thorny ground hearers, the ground was already occupied by the roots of thorns, the desires for the things of this life, for riches and pleasures; and these, springing up, choked the word. Although the roots were already in the heart, they did not spring up until the good seed was sown there. The firmness of the grip of present things on the heart may not be in evidence, or realised, until tested by the presentation of the word of God. Then it is that the true state of the heart is exposed; the desires for present things are so great that there is no place in the heart or life for the things of God.
One such was the young man who came to the Lord, asking, “What good thing shall I do that I may have eternal life?” (Matt. 19:16). The Lord virtually told him to get rid of the roots of the thorns that were in his heart, the love of present possessions that were choking the word. There might be a “form of godliness” with thorny ground hearers, like those of the last days, spoken of in 2 Timothy 3, but they are “lovers of self, lovers of money…lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God” (verses 1–5).
There is no mention of the thorny ground hearers ever having received, believed or understood the word which they heard. The thorns grew up; but there is no mention of the least growth from the good seed that was sown; there was neither root nor fruit, no living link with Christ and nothing in the life for the pleasure and glory of God.
The Good Ground Hearers
What a very different result is produced from the seed sown on the good ground, where the soil has been divinely prepared in repentance towards God, and where there is true faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. If there were disciples with a superficial faith, who went back, there were also the true disciples in whose heart the word took root; for when the Lord challenged His disciples, saying, “Will ye also go away?” Simon Peter answered, “Lord to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life.” The word of eternal life had fallen into good ground, and was bringing forth fruit for God in the true disciples.
When the good seed falls on good ground the roots produced draw their nourishment from Christ through the word of God, as seen in Mary of Bethany, who “also sat at Jesus’ feet, and heard His word” (Luke 10:39). Mary’s sitting at Jesus feet, and hearing His word, produced fruit for the pleasure of Christ when, at the supper at Bethany she took “a pound of ointment of spikenard, very costly, and anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped His feet with her hair.”
There are differences in the amount of fruit borne, but all fruit is the evidence and production of divine life in the soul. Just as in the family of God there are fathers, young men, and babes, with different capacities and stages of growth, so also in the kingdom there are different measures of fruit for God’s pleasure and glory through the sowing of the good seed on good ground.
The Wheat And The Tares
This second parable of Matthew 13 tells of the sowing of good seed by the Son of Man, and of a work by the enemy soon after. The work of the enemy was done while “men slept,” for the Sower did not sleep; He knew what the enemy was up to, and allowed him to do his evil work; and we may rest assured that this was allowed in the perfection of His wisdom, as knowing the end from the beginning, so that all might secure God’s glory and the complete discomfiture of the enemy. The tares were sown very early, and have been with us since the days of the apostles, whose writings have clearly exposed them and their evil teachings.
Neither the good seed, nor the tares, are spoken of as sown in the church; they are sown in the world, for the field is the world; and many good men have got astray through failing to observe this. The Lord told His servants not to root up the tares, but to let them grow up among the wheat till time of harvest; and some in error, have thought that evil men were to be tolerated in the church. This the Lord never said, nor is it ever contemplated in Scripture. It is not the duty of the Lord’s servants now to deal with the tares in the world; but it is the commandment of the Lord that no evil should be allowed in the church of God. In the fulfilment of our duties in the world we meet all kinds of men, but we are not to be joined in fellowship with evildoers, whether they be immoral or holding evil doctrine (1 Cor. 5:9–13).
It is incumbent on any company of saints confessing the Name of the Lord to safeguard the holiness of His table; but it has not been given to the saints or servants of the Lord to deal with the evil that is in the world: the Lord will deal with it in His own time. The sons of thunder would have avenged the insult done to their Master by the Samaritans who refused Him, by bringing fire down from heaven for their destruction; but the Lord rebuked them, saying, “Ye know not of what spirit ye are” (Luke 9:51–55). So it was here; the servants would have pulled up the tares, but they were forbidden by the Master. In pulling up the tares there was the danger of uprooting the wheat. This is what men have been doing down the centuries. Religious men, who professed to be servants of Christ, have slain those they called heretics, but who were the true saints of God.
In the time of harvest, the harvestmen are to “Gather first” the darnel, and bind it into bundles to burn it. This is an angelic work, carried out providentially in the world. This work is done first, that is before the wheat is taken into the granary. The Lord does not say they are burned before the wheat is taken from the field, but they are bundled to burn.
The gathering into bundles is in time of harvest, not exactly in the harvest. The harvest is the “completion of the age,” but the time of harvest would appear to include the events that lead up to the harvest. Are we not in the time of harvest now? Events in the world such as the return of Israel as a nation to their land, indicate that the harvest is at hand.
Can we not see this providential action today of the gathering of the tares into bundles? During the past fifty years there has been a tremendous development of the sects in Christendom that deny the fundamental truths of Scripture, such as the Trinity, the Deity of Christ, the atonement, the resurrection, and eternal punishment; and multitudes are being gathered up in these evil associations. True children of God would not be ensnared in sects which so blatantly deny the foundations of the faith.
When the Lord explained the parable, He gave details that were additional to what was given in the parable itself. In the parable the tares are gathered into bundles to burn, but in the explanation they are burned. Again, in the parable, it is the time of the Lord’s absence from the world that is spoken of, whereas in the explanation it is from the kingdom of the Son of Man there is a gathering out of “all things that offend, and them which do iniquity,” which would leave the godly, the remnant of Israel, the sheep of Matthew 25, on earth. Then, in the parable, the wheat, and the children of the kingdom, are gathered into the heavenly granary, whereas in the explanation they shine out in the kingdom of their Father, being displayed there with Christ on the heavenly side of His millennial kingdom.
The Mustard Seed
As in the first two parables, there is a sowing of seed in the third; but here it is but one seed that is sown, a very small mustard seed which, the Lord says, “is the least of all seeds.” What the Lord sowed would normally have produced a herb, a plant for His use and pleasure; but this seed produced what was contrary to nature. First, it grew into something greater than any herb, then it continued to grow until it became a tree, and one that gave protection to the fowls of the air.
Scripture leaves us in no doubt as to what a tree symbolizes, for Israel, Babylon and other kingdoms are represented as trees in the Old Testament. What Christ sowed in this world, and what the apostles cared for as God’s husbandry (1 Cor. 3:9), has grown into a great political system in this world, with great temporal power, spreading its mighty branches over many lands, and giving shelter to the very birds that caught away the good seed that was sown by the Sower.
In the days of Pergamos, the church lost its heavenly character, and under the patronage of the emperor Constantine became a great earthly power. To Pergamos, the Lord said, “I know where thou dwellest, where the throne of Satan is…where Satan dwells” (Rev. 2:13). Such is Christendom today: its political influence on the earth is widespread, and under its shadow there are gathered all kinds of evil influences and systems which hate Christ whose Name the kingdom bears. The professing church is not seen by men as representing a rejected Christ, and sharing His rejection, but rather as a great world power which affords protection to anything that will but call itself Christian, whatever its character may be.
The Leaven
It must have greatly surprised the disciples to hear the Lord liken the kingdom of heaven to leaven, “which a woman took, and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened,” for leaven in Scripture invariably speaks of the working of evil in some form or other. In chapter 16 the Lord warns the disciples, telling them to “beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees;” and they understood “how that He bade them not beware of the leaven of bread, but of the doctrine of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees” (Matt. 16:6-7).
In Mark 8:15, leaven is also evil, for the Lord says to His disciples, “Take heed, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, and of the leaven of Herod;” and 1 Corinthians 5:8 is crystal clear, where Paul writes of “the leaven of malice and wickedness.” Leaven was forbidden at the Passover, and also in the Meat Offering. No intelligent Christian can fail to see that leaven is invariably evil in the Scriptures.
Here, the leaven is hidden in three measures of meal. It is a secret working of evil in that which was good; but its results were not secret, for it corrupted the whole mass very quickly. Leaven, as the Lord indicated to His disciples, denotes evil doctrine. It may not be teaching that is fundamentally unsound, heretical as we say; but a doctrine, or system of doctrines, that falsifies the whole character of Christianity.
The doctrine of the Pharisees substituted traditions of men for the word of God; and in Christendom, human traditions have, in the great human systems, effectively displaced the commandments of God. Great ecclesiastical systems have grown up, governed by human principles and extolling the wisdom of man. Nor can we fail to discern the infidel doctrines of the Sadducees, and the political ambitions of Herod, in the great systems that call themselves by Christ’s Name. All kinds of evil are now found in that which claims to represent Christ in this world.
The three measures would seem to indicate the limits of Christendom, which has not exactly spread throughout the earth, but within the limits of the spread of the gospel. The meal was good, and tells of that which was for God at the beginning, but the secret working of evil has produced a corrupt mass that has changed completely the character of the original three measures of meal. Wherever the Gospel has gone, there has followed in its wake the spread of human teachings to transform simple Christianity into a system of traditions and infidelity.
A woman was responsible for the hiding of the leaven in the meal, which reminds us of what the Lord said to the church of Thyatira, “Thou sufferest that woman Jezebel, which calls herself a prophetess, to teach and to seduce my servants” (Rev. 2:20). The doctrine of a corrupt and corrupting prophetess, of a false church, has been used of the enemy for the spread of evil where the Gospel of God, and the Name of Christ, have been proclaimed.
R. 21.12.64
No. 2
When the Lord had been rejected by the cities of Galilee, and the Lord pronounced His judgments on them, He spoke to His disciples of the Father, and of all things having been given to Him by the Father. This was a new revelation, and connected with it there were wonderful things in store for the disciples, which they could not enter into until the Holy Spirit was given to them. The parable of the Sower also brought in something new. Christ’s sowing was not a further testimony of God to bring Israel back to Himself; it was the commencement of something different from anything that had been seen in this world before. The Lord was sowing seed that would produce children of the kingdom who would bring forth fruit in this world for the pleasure and glory of God.
The first four parables Jesus spoke to the crowds, but the last three were given to the disciples after He had dismissed the crowds, and entered into the house. This was not without significance. Outside the house the Lord had been dealing with the public aspects of the kingdom; but the parables spoken inside the house deal with what is for His own pleasure, and of the work of His disciples during the time of His absence in heaven.
The Treasure Hid in the Field
In this first of the last three parables, the Lord likens the kingdom of heaven to “a treasure hid in the field.” We must observe that the treasure is hidden, else we might wrongly conclude that Israel was meant. Jehovah had promised to Israel, through Moses, “If ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then shall ye be a peculiar treasure into me above all people” (Ex. 19:5); and later the Psalmist could write, “For the Lord has chosen Jacob unto Himself, Israel for His peculiar treasure” (Psalm 135:4). But Israel was not a hidden treasure; they had been publicly owned of God, and publicly proclaimed as Jehovah’s treasure.
This treasure of which the Lord speaks was hidden in the field of the world: no other eye but His discerned what lay hidden there. It is a treasure in which He finds peculiar delight, and that brings deep joy to His heart. Having found the treasure, He hides it, and buys the field. The treasure is still hidden in the world; for the church, which is a peculiar treasure for Christ, is viewed as for His own heart, as composed of true saints of God, and as unknown by this world, even as it is written in 1 John 3:1, “Therefore the world knows us not, because it knew Him not.” It is not the church in its public witness for Christ, nor yet the mixture of good and bad as seen in the wheat and tares.
Such was Christ’s pleasure in the church that He has given all He possessed to secure it for Himself. Is it not of this that the Apostle Paul writes to the Ephesians, “Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for it”? But to secure the church Christ gave more than all He possessed; He gave Himself. After He laid aside all the glory that He had with the Father, the Son in Manhood relinquished all that truly belonged to Him as Son of David; then went into death to procure the church to satisfy the desires of His heart. Although the church is not seen in its true, heavenly character today, the day is fast approaching when, as the treasure, it will be displayed with Christ before the whole universe.
To secure the treasure, the man bought the field. And has not Christ purchased the whole world to have the treasure hidden in it? Christ has a claim to the world as its creator, but He has also rights in redemption, for He tasted death for every thing (Heb. 2:9). His claim is not only on every thing, but on every man, even as Peter speaks about those who deny “the Lord that bought them” (2 Peter 2:1), who will bring upon themselves swift destruction because of their rejection of Christ’s lawful claim. Such belong to the world, purchased by Christ, but they are not part of the treasure that was hidden.
The Pearl of Great Price
The careful reader of the parables of the treasure hid in the field, and of the merchant who sought the goodly pearls, will readily conclude that the Man who obtained the treasure and the Man who bought the pearl were one and the same. The price paid for them is essentially the same; of the one it is written, “for the joy thereof (he) goes and sells all that he had,” and of the other, he “went and sold all that he had.” Do we not learn from this that it was at infinite cost to Himself the Lord Jesus procured that which brought Him such joy, and that which was to His eye and heart of surpassing beauty.
A merchant dealing in pearls must needs have a real sense of beauty and of values, and be possessed of discernment and wisdom. All these traits of moral worth are found in their fulness and perfection in the blessed Son of God. He discerned in the church, as He saw her reflected in all her new creation beauty in the mirror of God’s eternal counsels, that which attracted His eye, and that which charmed His heart, and which could reflect His own glory. To procure the church for Himself, the Son of God became a Seeker in this world.
As a Shepherd, the Lord Jesus, in the parable of Luke 15, is a seeker of the sheep that went astray; in John 4, the Father in the Son is a seeker of worshippers, who should worship Him in spirit and in truth; and here the Son of God is a seeker of that which was surpassingly attractive to Him, something on which His eye could rest with satisfaction and delight, and which could meet the longings of His heart.
If the treasure was hidden in the field, in the world that the Lord bought at such a cost, the pearl had been brought up from the bed of the sea. In the language of the dying patriarch, Jacob, it was a “treasure of the deep that lies under” (Gen. 49:25). When the church, as the heavenly Jerusalem, descends from God out of heaven, each of the twelve gates of the city is seen as “one pearl” (Rev. 2121), which surely recalls to every intelligent heart the parable of the merchant man, with the eye that perceived the exquisite beauty of the pearl, and the discernment that looked forward to the day when it would reflect and display His glory in its unity, purity, loveliness and charm.
The Drag Net
The drag net is not designed to catch a special kind of fish, but gathers “of every kind;” and the teaching of this parable is evidently very different from that of the fishings of Luke 5 and John 21. In Luke 5 the disciples were unable to cope with their great catch, and their net broke and the ships began to sink. Weakness, breakdown, and threatened disaster marked their toiling; just the same features that mark the efforts of the poor servants of the Lord in the present Christian period. It was different in John 20, which portrays a millennial scene, where, the Lord, through His servants brings the nations into blessing. Then there is no breaking of the net, no losses, no threat of disaster, for the Gentiles will be brought in by the testimony of the godly remnant of Israel after the judgments of God on this world are over, and when the risen Christ waits to receive them with the resources of His grace.
All kinds of professing Christians have been gathered in by the testimony of the present day as the Gospel net has been dragged through the sea of nations. Among them there are true believers, but there are many who are mere professors. Some of these worthless professors hold doctrines that dishonour the Son of God, while the lives of others are a disgrace to the profession of Christianity.
Having drawn the net to the shore, the fishermen sat down and gathered the good into vessels, and cast the worthless away. It is the responsibility of the servants of the Lord to select the good, and to refuse the bad. Those who seek Christian fellowship are not to be accepted among the saints unless they are true believers. The Lord’s servants have nothing to do with evildoers outside the assembly of God. If they are out, it is our duty to keep evildoers out; should any evil get in, it is our duty to put it out. The judgment of God spoken of in this parable has nothing to do with the assembly of God, or even with the period of time when the assembly awaits the return of the Lord Jesus.
It is in the completion of the age that the wicked shall be severed from among the just; but this is not the work of the fisherman; it is a providential work of God carried out by the angels after the church is gone. The fisherman, at the present time, choose the good to enjoy the privileges of Christianity; the angels, in the day to come, pick out the wicked for the judgment of God.
The work of the fishermen ceases, so far as this parable is concerned, when the church is taken up to be with Christ; and it after the church is gone that the selective work of the angels begins. The just of the coming period are the elect of earth, not the elect who belong to heaven, and from among the elect of earth the angels will take away those who have no right to be with them. the elect of earth will no doubt be composed of the godly remnant of Israel, and those who have received their testimony.
Not until Christ comes will the Gospel of God’s grace cease to be preached, but it must be evident to all that the limits of Christendom are now receding rather than extending. The governments of lands where the Gospel was once preached are now prohibiting or hindering the work of the preachers. In this sense, the drag net has been filled and brought to shore; but the selecting of the good for the vessels of privilege will continue till Christ returns to take the church to heaven.
R. 22.12.64