Is there any difference between the kingdom of God and the kingdom of heaven? The fact that some parables in Matthew are called parables of the kingdom of heaven and the same parables are designated parables of the kingdom of God in Mark and Luke, seems to indicate that the terms are interchangeable. Without being dogmatic, there are very few synonymous terms in the Bible. It would appear that the kingdom of God is a wider term than the kingdom of heaven.
The kingdom of heaven suggests that the rejected King is absent but working out His purposes from heaven. The kingdom of God is both a spiritual and a material kingdom, composed of those who willingly bow to God’s authority, while the kingdom of heaven is intershot with sinister influences that seek to undermine God’s dominion. But one day these infernal movements will be rooted out and the kingdom of heaven will merge into the kingdom of God. The seven parables of Matthew 13 describe how these two movements work side by side, but will result in the ultimate triumph of God’s glorious purposes of grace. At the present time the King is in exile, rejected in the world His hands made. But He reigns from His throne in heaven, and in the hearts of His loyal subjects on earth.
The seven parables of Matthew 13 are in two groups. The first four were spoken to the multitude by the seaside; the last three were given privately to the disciples in the house. The first group describes how Satan is working to destroy God’s work. The second shows how the operation of the purpose of God will ultimately triumph.
THE SOWER AND THE SEED
The Lord is a Husbandman sowing the good seed of the Word in the hearts of men. Note: i) Four kinds of soil: wayside, stony, thorny, good. ii) Four prepositions: by, upon, among, into. iii) Four conditions for good results: good, soft, clean, deep.
The Lord interprets the parable (vv. 18-23). The wayside hearer’s heart has never been broken up by the plow. The seed falls by the path trodden hard. The birds that pick it up are the wicked one, Satan. The message never sinks in; consequently there is no fruit.
The next seed falls on places where the bedrock is thinly covered by the earth. It never develops a root, and when the sun comes up, it withers. This person makes a quick profession of faith, but when trials arrive, the root of eternal life is not there. Note that in each of these pictures, the plant is not the person; the ground is the person. The plant that withers is the visible appearance of the influence of the Word of God in a person’s life.
The third seed falls among thorns which choke it. These are the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches that choke any prospect of fruit. The influence of the Word is neutralized in this person’s life by allowing temporal things to stifle the eternal things.
But the good seed falls into good ground and rewards the labor of the sower. The three enemies in this opening parable are the devil, the flesh, and the world, respectively. Over all it is satanic opposition to the Word.
THE WHEAT AND THE TARES
In the second parable, Satan tries another tactic. Good seed is sown in the field, but while men slept, the enemy sowed tares among the wheat. Tares (bearded darnel or rye grass), resembles wheat so closely as to be almost indistinguishable while growing. It is only detected when the ears are formed.
The harvest is the test; we are so liable to be deceived. Judas looked like wheat when he preached with Simon the Canaanite. Peter looked like darnel when he denied the Lord. But Peter was genuine, while Judas was the false darnel. Thus Satan’s second method to frustrate God’s work is by sinister imitation.
THE MUSTARD TREE
The third parable describes a monstrosity. A garden herb, growing from one of the smallest of all seeds, develops into a tree so large that birds rest in its branches. Naturalists tell us that the common mustard plant, normally about three feet high, under certain conditions can shoot up to ten or twelve feet, and that birds, attracted by the seeds, do lodge in its branches. In Scripture, the olive, vine, and fig are trees of blessing, and are used figuratively of Israel as God’s testimony on earth. But mustard! It serves only to tickle the fastidious appetite.
The lesson of the parable is obvious. It teaches that another satanic method of attack on the work of God is by an unnatural sensational expansion. In the description of Babylon the Great (Rev. 17-18), we are told that the apostate system, which represents the final form of organized religion, has become the habitation of demons, the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird (Rev. 18:2). The birds which once took away the good seed, and then found a haven in the branches, are now confined in a cage in the system which they helped to develop. It does not take much imagination to identify them. They are the false teachers, so often mentioned by Paul and Peter in their epistles.
THE LEAVEN
The leaven (Mt. 13:33-35) has been called the most misinterpreted parable in the Bible. Those who advocate the postmillennial theory of the Second Coming of Christ speak of the leaven of the gospel permeating society and gradually transforming it, so that the millennium will ultimately emerge. But two world wars and the increasing demoralization of society have upset the theory. The teaching of the Bible is that the millennial reign of Christ will be ushered in, not by the preaching of the gospel, but by the cataclysmic judgments described in Revelation 6-19. These are followed by the personal appearing of Christ as King of kings and Lord of lords.
Leaven in Scripture always represents evil teaching or influences. It was excluded from the Passover and its subsequent feast. It was prohibited from the meal offering (Lev. 2), where fine flour, oil, salt, and frankincense all speak of the moral glories of the Saviour. Our Lord warned His disciples of the leaven of the Pharisees, of the Sadducees, and of Herod (Mk. 8:15; Mt. 16:6). Paul speaks of the leaven of moral evil (1 Cor. 5:6-8) and of doctrinal evil (Gal. 5:9). The interpretation of leaven here must fall into line with its interpretation in the rest of Scripture.
The three measures of meal are equivalent to an ephah (see Gen. 18:6; Jud. 6:19; 1 Sam. 1:24). Taking these passages, particularly the meal offering into consideration, the fine flour would represent the perfection of Christ. In the natural realm, leaven makes the meal more palatable, but in spiritual things, we should look with suspicion on what would make God’s truth more digestible to the natural man.
The parable of the leaven in the meal, then, would speak of the subtle infiltration of heretical teaching concerning the Person of Christ.
THE TREASURE HID IN THE FIELD
The nation of Israel assuredly will have a prominent place in the kingdom. The covenant promises made to Abraham and David (Gen. 15; 2 Sam. 7) will be fulfilled. The term “peculiar treasure” occurs five times in the Old Testament (Ex. 19:5; Deut. 14:2; 26:18; Ps. 135:4; Eccl. 2:8; Mal. 3:17). In this last passage, it is translated “jewels.” The word is quoted by Peter in 1 Peter 2:9. An examination of these passages would indicate that Israel is the treasure.
In Matthew 13:44, the treasure is hidden in a field* then found , then buried again. The man who finds the treasure sells all that he has and buys the field. Obviously his object is to resurrect it and enjoy it when the transaction is finished.
The teaching of the parable is simple: the field is the world. Israel was found in Egypt and redeemed by the blood of the lamb; then brought across the Red Sea and into the wilderness. There Jehovah gave them His law at Sinai and made a blood covenant with them. But on account of their sin, and especially the rejection and murder of their Messiah, God’s peculiar treasure has been buried once again in the field. They have been scattered among the nations. The man who sold all that he had to buy the field is the Lord Jesus, Israel’s Messiah. In His death, He not only redeemed the treasure, but also the field. Paul tells us about a groaning creation that waits with earnest expectation for that day when it will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God (Rom. 8:19-23).
Thus the three words-hid, found, hideth-give us a concise history of Israel up until the present. In our day, we see the purpose of God in relation to Israel rapidly unfolding. As predicted, they are returning to the land in unbelief. Surrounded by the enemies, they are soon to experience the day of “Jacob’s trouble,” the Great Tribulation (Jer. 30:7). But they will be miraculously delivered by the coming of their Messiah (Zech. 14:4). After their national repentance (Zech. 12:10), and their cleansing in the fountain opened for sin (Zech. 13:1), they will be brought back into covenant relationship with Jehovah. During millennial days, the treasure, buried in the field of the nations, will be on display.
THE MERCHANT MAN AND THE PEARL OF GREAT PRICE
Here again is a parable (Mt. 13:45-46) that has suffered at the hands of interpreters. It has received the same treatment as the mustard tree and the leaven. The merchantman is said to be the sinner, the pearl of great price is the Saviour, and the sinner has to sell all that he has to obtain salvation! But this is a misrepresentation of the teaching of the parable.
The merchantman is Christ. The pearl of great price is the Church, composed of Jew and Gentile, which in the present era is being called out of the sea of the nations. The merchantman, selling all that he has, is described in 2 Corinthians 8:9, and in Philippians 2:5-11. Paul outlines it in another context in Ephesians 5:25-27, “Christ … loved the church, and gave Himself for it….”
A pearl is the product of suffering. The mollusk is penetrated by a grain of sand which lodges in the living flesh. The irritating foreign material is covered over by successive layers of mother-of-pearl, the concretions of the mollusk. Thus the pearl is formed by the living creature, as the answer to the wound in its side. Interestingly, like the true Church, pearls are the only precious gem that cannot be cleaved.
How graphically these details of this beautiful jewel illustrate the work of our Lord in relation to His Church. We read that each gate of the bride-city of Revelation 21 was of one pearl. The Church is the product of His suffering and the answer to His wounded side.
THE NET CAST INTO THE SEA
Here the figure changes from the merchantman to the fisherman. The fisherman and his net is used in Scripture as an illustration of the preaching of the gospel. The message of the kingdom was preached by John the Baptist and by our Lord.
Today the gospel of God’s grace is being proclaimed worldwide. When the Church is completed and is removed to heaven at the Rapture, the gospel of the kingdom will be preached again (Mt. 24:14). It should be noted that this parable applies particularly to the end of the age (Mt. 13:49). To those that have heard the gospel of God’s grace in the present era, and have rejected it, will be sent the strong delusion, that they should believe a lie, that they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness (2 Thess. 2:11-12). Let no one presume that there will be a second chance for the Christ-rejecters after the Church is gone. They will be judicially blinded, just as Israel is today. They refused the Christ, and they will follow the Antichrist blindly to their doom.
But there will be a mighty ingathering. God will take up an enlightened remnant of Israel again. Like Paul, they will be born out of due time (I Cor. 15:8). They will be sealed by almighty God, and sent forth with the message of the coming King. They will be the greatest foreign missionary body that the world has ever seen. Aided by modem transportation and mass media, the whole world will hear the message. A great multitude that no man can number will profess to accept the message. But like other mass movements, there will be a mixture of the genuine and the false. As in the first two parables, there are those who never were truly born again. At the coming of the King, there will be a separation of those who have only a profession from those who have life. The angels, the agents who separate the wicked from the just, shall cast them into the fire (vv. 49-50).
CONCLUSION (vv. 51-52)
Jesus said to the disciples, “Have ye understood all these things?” They responded, “Yea, Lord.” Then He said to them, “Therefore every scribe which is instructed unto the kingdom of heaven is like unto a … householder, which bringeth forth out of his treasure things new and old.”
What a treasure of teaching we have in this wonderful chapter! Again, let us repeat, it covers a wider sphere than the Church, although it includes it. Today it is in mystery form during the absence of the King. But one day it will be in manifestation, when the King comes back personally to reign.
Is there any difference between the kingdom of God and the kingdom of heaven? The fact that some parables in Matthew are called parables of the kingdom of heaven and the same parables are designated parables of the kingdom of God in Mark and Luke, seems to indicate that the terms are interchangeable. Without being dogmatic, there are very few synonymous terms in the Bible. It would appear that the kingdom of God is a wider term than the kingdom of heaven.
The kingdom of heaven suggests that the rejected King is absent but working out His purposes from heaven. The kingdom of God is both a spiritual and a material kingdom, composed of those who willingly bow to God’s authority, while the kingdom of heaven is intershot with sinister influences that seek to undermine God’s dominion. But one day these infernal movements will be rooted out and the kingdom of heaven will merge into the kingdom of God. The seven parables of Matthew 13 describe how these two movements work side by side, but will result in the ultimate triumph of God’s glorious purposes of grace. At the present time the King is in exile, rejected in the world His hands made. But He reigns from His throne in heaven, and in the hearts of His loyal subjects on earth.
The seven parables of Matthew 13 are in two groups. The first four were spoken to the multitude by the seaside; the last three were given privately to the disciples in the house. The first group describes how Satan is working to destroy God’s work. The second shows how the operation of the purpose of God will ultimately triumph.