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00406
[3} {mysteries}
A "mystery" in Scripture is a previously hidden truth, now divinely
revealed; but in which a supernatural element still remains despite
the revelation. The greater mysteries are: (1) The mysteries of the
kingdom of heaven
# Mt 13:3-50
(2) the mystery of Israel's blindness during this age
# Ro 11:25
(with context); (3) the mystery of the translation of living saints
at the end of this age
# 1Co 15:51,52 1Th 4:14-17
(4) the mystery of N.T. church as one body composed of Jew and Gentile
# Eph 3:1-11 Ro 16:25 Eph 6:19 Col 4:3
(5) the mystery of the church as the bride of Christ
# Eph 5:28-32
(6) the mystery of the inliving Christ
# Ga 2:20 Col 1:26,27
(7) the "mystery of God even Christ," i.e. Christ as the incarnate
fullness of the Godhead embodied, in whom all the divine wisdom for man
subsists
# Col 2:2,9 1Co 2:7
(8) the mystery of the processes by which godlikeness is restored to
man
# 1Ti 3:16
(9) the mystery of iniquity
# 2Th 2:7 Mt 13:33
(10) the mystery of the seven stars
# Re 1:20
(11) the mystery of Babylon
# Re 17:5,7
00412
[1] {prophets}
The O.T. prophets saw in blended vision the rejection and crucifixion of
the King (see "Christ, sacrifice,)
» See Note "Ge 4:4"
» See Note "Heb 10:18"
and also His glory as David's Son
» See Note "Zec 12:8"
but "what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did
signify when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ and the
glory that should follow," was not revealed to them--only that the
vision was not for themselves .
# 1Pe 1:10-12
That revelation Christ makes in these parables. A period of time is
to intervene between His sufferings and His glory. That interval is
occupied with the "mysteries of the kingdom of heaven" here
described.
00419
[2] {\\parable\\}
This parable
# Mt 13:24-30
is also interpreted by our Lord
# Mt 13:36-43
Here the "good seed" is not the "word," as in the first parable
# Mt 13:19,23
but rather that which the word has produced.
# 1Pe 1:23
viz.: the children of the kingdom. These are, providentially
# Mt 13:37
"sown," i.e. scattered, here and there in the "field" of the
"world"
# Mt 13:38
The "world" here is both geographical and
ethnic--the earth-world, and also the world of men. The wheat of God
at once becomes the scene of Satan's activity. Where children of the
kingdom are gathered, there "among the wheat"
# Mt 13:25,38,39
Satan "sows" "children of the wicked one," who profess to be children
of the kingdom, and in outward ways are so like the true children that
only the angels may, in the end, be trusted to separate them
# Mt 13:28-30,40-43
So great is Satan's power of deception that the tares
often really suppose themselves to be children of the kingdom
# Mt 7:21-23
Many other parables and exhortations have this mingled
condition in view (e.g.)
# Mt 22:11-14 25:1-13,14-30 Lu 18:10-14 Heb 6:4-9
Indeed, it characterizes Matthew from Chapter 13 to the end.
The parable of the wheat and tares is not a description of the world,
but of that which professes to be the kingdom. Mere unbelievers are
never the children of the devil, but only religious unbelievers are
so called (cf)
# Mt 13:38 Joh 8:38-44 Mt 23:15
00425
[1] \\Gather\\
The \\gathering\\ of the tares into bundles for burning does not imply
immediate judgment. At the end of this age (v.40) the tares are set
apart for burning, but first the wheat is gathered into the barn.
# Joh 14:3 1Th 4:14-17
00426
[2] \\Parable of the mustard seed\\
The parable of the \\Mustard Seed\\ prefigures the rapid but
unsubstantial growth of the mystery form of the kingdom from an
insignificant beginning
# Ac 1:15 2:41 1Co 1:26
to a great place in the earth. The figure of the fowls finding
shelter in the branches is drawn from
# Da 4:20-22
How insecure was such a refuge the context in Daniel shows.
00428
[3] {Another parable} [4] {leaven}
That interpretation of the parable of the \\Leaven\\ (v. 33) which makes
(with variation as to details) the leaven to be the Gospel, introduced
into the world ("three measures of meal") by the church, and working
subtly until the world is converted ("till the whole was leavened") is
open to fatal objection: (1) it does violence to the unvarying symbolical
meaning of leaven, and especially to the meaning fixed by our Lord
Himself.
# Mt 16:6-12 Mr 8:15
See "Leaven,"
# Ge 19:3
» See Note "Mt 13:33"
(2) The implication of a converted world in this age ("till the whole was
leavened"), is explicitly contradicted by our Lord's interpretation of
the parables of the Wheat and Tares, and of the Net. Our Lord presents a
picture of a partly converted kingdom in an unconverted world; of good
fish and bad in the very kingdom-net itself. (3) The method of the
extension of the kingdom is given in the first parable. It is by sowing
seed, not by mingling leaven. The symbols have, in Scripture, a meaning
fixed by inspired usage. Leaven is the principle of corruption working
subtly; is invariably used in a bad sense (see "Leaven," Ge 19.3, refs),
and is defined by our Lord as evil doctrine (Mat 16.11,12 Mar 8.15).
Meal, on the contrary, was used in one of the sweet-savour offerings
# Le 2:1-3
and was food for the priests
# Le 6:15-17
A woman, in the bad ethical sense, always symbolizes something out of
place, religiously,
» See Note "Zec 5:6"
In Thyatira it was a woman teaching (cf).
# Re 2:20 17:1-6
Interpreting the parable by these familiar symbols, it constitutes a
warning that the true doctrine, given for nourishment of the children
of the kingdom
# Mt 4:4 1Ti 4:6 1Pe 2:2
would be mingled with corrupt and corrupting false doctrine, and that
officially, by the apostate church itself
# 1Ti 4:1-3 2Ti 2:17,18 4:3,4 2Pe 2:1-3
[4] \\Leaven\\
Summary: (1) \\Leaven\\, as a symbolic or typical substance, is always
mentioned in the O.T. in an \\evil\\ sense (Ge 19.3, refs). (2) The use
of the word in the N.T. explains its symbolic meaning. It is "malice and
wickedness," as contrasted with "sincerity and truth"
# 1Co 5:6-8
It is evil doctrine
# Mt 16:12
in its three-fold form of Pharisasism, Sadduceeism, Herodianism
# Mt 16:6 Mr 8:15
The leaven of the Pharisees was externalism in religion.
# Mt 23:14,16,23-28
of the Sadducees, scepticism as to the supernatural and as to the
Scriptures
# Mt 22:23,29
of the Herodians, worldliness--a Herod party amongst the Jews
# Mt 22:16-21 Mr 3:6
(3) The use of the word in Mat 13.33 is congruous with its universal
meaning.
# Mt 13:33
00438
[1] {Then}
The kingdom does not become the kingdom of the "Father" until Christ,
having "put all enemies under his feet," including the last enemy, death,
has "delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father"
# 1Co 15:24-28 Re 20:2
There is triumph over death at the first resurrection
# 1Co 15:54,55
but death, "the last enemy," is not destroyed till the end of
the millennium.
# Re 20:14
00439
[2] hid
The interpretation of the parable of the treasure, which makes the
buyer of the field to be a sinner who is seeking Christ, has no
warrant in the parable itself. The field is defined (v. 38) to be
the world. The seeking sinner does not buy, but forsakes, the world
to win Christ. Furthermore, the sinner has nothing to sell, nor is
Christ for sale, nor is He hidden in a field, nor, having found
Christ, does the sinner hide Him again (cf)
# Mr 7:24 Ac 4:20
At every point the interpretation breaks down.
Our Lord is the buyer at the awful cost of His blood
# 1Pe 1:18
and Israel, especially Ephraim
# Jer 31:5-12,18-20
the lost tribes hidden in "the field," the world (v. 38), is the
treasure
# Ex 19:5 Ps 135:4
Again, as in the separation of tares and wheat, the angels
are used
# Mt 24:31 Jer 16:16
The divine Merchantman buys the field (world) for the sake of the
treasure (v. 44)
# Ro 11:28
beloved for the fathers' sakes, and yet to be restored and saved.
The note of joy (v. 44) is also that of the prophets in view of
Israel's restoration.
# De 30:9 Isa 49:13 52:1-3 62:4-7 65:18,19
(See "Israel,")
# Ge 11:10 Ro 11:26
00440
[3] {pearls}
The true Church, "one body" formed by the Holy Spirit
# 1Co 12:12,13
As Israel is the hid treasure, so the Church is the pearl of great cost.
Covering the same period of time as the mysteries of the kingdom, is the
mystery of the Church
# Ro 16:25,26 Eph 3:3-10 5:32
Of the true Church a pearl is a perfect symbol: (1) A pearl is one,
a perfect symbol of unity
# 1Co 10:17 12:12,13 Eph 4:4-6
(2) a pearl is formed by the accretion, and that not mechanically, but
vitally, through a living one, as Christ adds to the Church
# Ac 2:41,47 5:14 11:24 Eph 2:21 Col 2:19
(3) Christ, having given Himself for the pearl, is now preparing it for
presentation to Himself
# Eph 5:25-27
The kingdom is not the Church, but the true children of the kingdom
during the fulfilment of these mysteries, baptized by one Spirit into
one body
# 1Co 12:12,13
compose the true Church, the pearl.
00442
[4] {the \\drag net\\}
The parable of the Net (Gr. drag-net) presents another view from that of
the wheat and tares of the mysteries of the kingdom as the sphere of
profession, but with this difference: there Satan was the active agent;
here the admixture is more the result of the tendency of a movement to
gather to itself that which is not really of it. The kingdom of heaven
is like a net which, cast into the sea of humanity, gathers of every
kind, good and bad, and these remain together in the net (v. 49) and not
merely in the sea, until the end of the age. It is not even a converted
net, much less a converted sea. Infinite violence has been done to sound
exegesis by the notion that the world is to be converted in this age.
Against that notion stands our Lord's own interpretation of the parables
of the Sower, the Wheat and Tares, and the Net.
Such, then, is the mystery form of the kingdom
» See Note "Mt 3:2"
» See Note "Mt 6:33"
It is the sphere of Christian profession during this age. It is
a mingled body of true and false, wheat and tares, good and bad. It is
defiled by formalism, doubt, and worldliness. But within it Christ sees
the true children of the true kingdom who, at the end, are to "shine
forth as the sun." In the great field, the world, He sees the redeemed
of all ages, but especially His hidden Israel, yet to be restored and
blessed, Also, in this form of the kingdom, so unlike that which is to
be, He sees the Church, His body and bride, and for joy He sells all that
He has
# 2Co 8:9
and buys the field, the treasure, and the pearl.