In order to understand the 7 Kingdom parables in Matthew 13, we need to establish a few things. There is in these days of the church confused teaching here and that has been the cause of a lot of misunderstanding concerning prophecy about the church.
I would love to point out just a few things for consideration that perhaps even most Christians we know have never rightly understood. Then, as the Bereans did, let’s check the scriptures to see if what I am saying is so.
There are 7 parables. Jesus says that he is speaking in mysteries because He wants to conceal the meaning to those around who are the ones Isaiah prophesied about. They would be ever seeing and never perceiving, ever hearing but never understanding. But to the disciples, they were revealed. So Jesus’ whole purpose in speaking so mysteriously here is to conceal truth from those whom He knew in eternity past would never come to believe anyway. God learns nothing, therefore He has always known who would receive Him and who would reject Him. He is concealing from those who reject Him and will never have a heart to know Him.
Here are the 7:
Notice that they are each speaking of wickedness that comes into the Kingdom. That is a consistent theme. They all go together.
The first is the sower of seed. Jesus explains this one to us so we can establish that indeed He is speaking of wickedness that sneaks in to the church unawares. Remember that the Kingdom is a very hard thing to articulate. It is multi dimentional in that it refers to the very presence and dominion of God, the ultimate Kingdom that is coming, the Kingdom that resides in the believer’s heart and so on. It is past, present and future. It is within the heart AND without. It is mystical and actual…all at the same time.
So the Kingdom Jesus is speaking of here is referring to the presence of God and all that He is doing in and through His people here on earth right now but looking ultimately Heavenward.
In this first parable, God sows the Word in the heart of a man, for some, depending upon the state of that heart, the wicked one comes and steals the word and it never takes root. The fowls of the air come and devour it also. Jesus establishes in this series that the fowls are wicked ones, demons, workers of wickedness that distort and steal.
The 2nd parable is the wheat and tares. God sows good seed, wheat, and satan sneaks in and sows tares, weeds, among the wheat. Again, satan sneaks in wickedness just where God sowed goodness (wheat refers to a believer). Both parables emphasize UNDERSTANDING the word of God. This one also emphasizes that God says just let it all play out. Don’t rip up the weeds among the wheat. That’ll be exposed on judgement day. It might harm the true wheat so just leave it alone for now.
The mustard parable is the third and belongs to the first two. A man sows a little seed in the field. Jesus emphasizes that it is little and that it is sown in a field. It is a crop, a bush. That is undisputed. It is not a tree and it should not become a tree. The sower is sowing a small bush. He says very briefly that it grows into a tree, something He did not sow. And birds lodge in it. Now these birds are the same as the birds that ate the seed sown in the first parable. It refers to wickedness, wicked ones disguised and hiding in the shelter of the church. So now, all three parables speak of the church of God sown by Him and satan coming in to deceive.
The fourth parable is the the one about the woman working three measures of leaven into the lump. The whole lump was leavened. There is not one instance in the entire Bible where leaven is ever a growing agent for good. It is always sin and deception that corrupts by puffing up. Always.
In the feast of weeks we see that leavened bread is offered as a wave offering to God. This refers to the act of removing all self will, pride, sin (leaven) from the heart and sacrificing that to God as an offering. Noticed that it is not placed on the altar. No leaven is ever allowed upon God’s altar, only a pure, spotless sacrifice. Still, the meaning of the leavened bread here is sin purged from the heart and given to God…giving Him our whole hearts and dying to sin and self. I surrender all…
The fifth parable is the treasure hid in a field. I believe this refers to searching for a treasure in the Kingdom once we enter…the Mind of Christ.
The sixth parable is the pearl of great price. I believe this is the same meaning. Maturing in Christ as we should.
The seventh is the one that wraps it all up. A man casts a net into the sea and gathers EVERYTHING. He then sits down to sort the good from the bad. Jesus says this refers to the angels in the end sorting the wicked from the just.
Jesus concludes by saying: now, do you understand these things?
So an undeniable and undistortable theme in these 7 Kingdom parables is the fact that the church will grow but while it does the enemy sneaks in and deceives. And we wont necessarily know who is who til the end when God gathers His own and casts out the wicked.
We have a church today that is preaching a Kingdom now doctrine. Beware of it. It distorts these parables and attaches skewed meanings to them and results in skewed doctrine, and deception. Just what is here prophesied.
These parables tie in very closely with the seven letters of Jesus to the 7 churches of Revelation. It is interesting to me that two letters only have no rebuke but only commendation in Revelation. Two of the Kingdom parables seem to be encouraging the wholly given over believers ( hidden treasure, pearl of great price) and no rebuke is present. The letters in Revelation describe a historical church as well as a future and current state of the church. So do the parables.
Is the spirit of Jezebel mentioned in Revelation, a parallel to the woman working leaven into the lump, the church?
The two churches commended and not rebuked at all are very small. The mustard tree is very large, unnaturally large.
There is a universal salvation doctrine that is going around and has always existed. Universal salvation ignores the fact of sin and the need for the blood of Christ to be shed in order to redeem mankind. It assumes that the problem with mankind is that he just hasn’t been loved enough. But the word of God does not say that. The word of God says man’s heart by nature is desperately wicked and incurable, and that without Jesus shed blood, salvation is impossible. Jesus warned that the true church is very small. Not large. He said that few will believe not everyone. The churches who ascribe to the wrong teaching of these parables believe that the church will convert the world. Jesus said to go tell the world, He did not say all would believe. Jesus speaks of ETERNAL damnation, not temporary. The very same churches I have found consistently, without fail blatantly disobey the word of God in many ways. They are deceived. They for the most part minister to the flesh and do not know how to do the spiritual work of the Kingdom, preaching repentance for the remission of sins. They have forgotten their first love.
Satan doesn’t care if he has to deceive with even sweet thoughts like, man is really not so bad after all. Just cozy him up, make him feel cuddly and he will eventually come around. No he won’t. He will remain comfortable in his sin, lost, that’s all. Satan is succeeding in his deception.
There is no greater love than the love of Holy God slain for the sins of the world. Praise Him.
I sure hope you find this informative and thought provoking. If you are led…pass it on.
Love in Him,
Cheryl