The mysteries of the kingdom of heaven
have been revealed to man. It began to happen when Jesus spoke in
parables and then explained the meaning of those parables to His disciples
(Matthew, chapter 13). Jesus was speaking to the crowd in parables and
Matthew wrote, “All these things Jesus spoke to the crowds in
parables, and He did not speak to them without a parable.” (Verse 34) A
little later we can see Jesus explaining the meaning of His parables privately
to His disciples.
Mark writes about how Jesus only spoke
to the crowd in parables and he says that, "He did not speak
to them without a parable; but He was explaining everything privately to His
own disciples" (Mark
Referring to the crowds, the disciples
asked Jesus "Why do You speak to them in parables?" (Matthew
13:10). Jesus told them, "To you it has been granted to know
the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been granted.” Jesus said the
crowd only heard parables because, “while seeing they do
not see, and while hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand”.
He was quoting from Isaiah as He spoke
of the Jews who were refusing to believe the gospel message of the kingdom of
heaven but the message is to us today. The crowds will only hear in
parables because, their hearts have become dull, their ears can scarcely hear
and they have closed their eyes. They
refuse to come near to hear Jesus as He explains His parables to His disciples
and, as a result, the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven are not being revealed
to them.
Man lost eternal life when Adam sinned
but God's plan would provide a way to bring man back to God and into the
kingdom of heaven. How He would do that would not be revealed until Jesus
came to earth. The mysteries of the kingdom of heaven had been hidden
from the foundation of the world until Jesus would begin to reveal them when He
spoke in parables.
The good news of the kingdom of heaven
is the revelation of the plan of salvation to man. Jesus is telling
us how God is doing that in His parables. We must hear Him when He explains His
parables to His disciples if we wish to understand the mysteries of the kingdom
of heaven.
Jesus promised His disciples that,
after His departure, the Holy Spirit would come to them and guide them into all
truth (John
After Matthew recorded how Jesus spoke
to the crowds in parables to fulfill what Isaiah had prophesied, he referred to
another prophecy that was being fulfilled. He was fulfilling something
that the Psalmist had foretold, saying, “This was to fulfill
what was spoken through the prophet: "I WILL OPEN MY MOUTH IN PARABLES; I
WILL UTTER THINGS HIDDEN SINCE THE FOUNDATION OF THE WORLD." (Matthew 13:35)
Matthew was referring to Psalms,
chapter 78. The Psalmist began that chapter by saying, "Listen, O my
people, to my instruction; Incline your ears to the words of my mouth. I
will open my mouth in a parable; I will utter dark sayings of old, Which we
have heard and known, And our fathers have told us". The Psalmist
then repeated what their fathers had told them and it was the old Hebrew
salvation story. Christ is speaking to us through the Psalmist.
We need to remember that the scriptures are God’s word and Christ is the Word. John wrote, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being.” (John 1:1-3)
Later in that chapter John tells us (Referring to Christ), “He was in the world,
and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him.” A few verses later
John tells us, “And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us,
and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of
grace and truth.”
Christ was the Word of God that became
flesh and He is the creator. The Father spoke through Him and He did all of His
creation work through Him. When the Spirit spoke through the prophets,
the Spirit of Christ who would later become Jesus on earth was actually
speaking through them.
Peter is telling us about that when he
writes, “As to this salvation, the prophets who prophesied of the grace that
would come to you made careful searches and inquiries, seeking to know what
person or time the Spirit of Christ within them was indicating as He predicted
the sufferings of Christ and the glories to follow.” (1 Peter 1:10-11)
When the Psalmist said, “I will open my mouth in
a parable”, Jesus was the one speaking. The Spirit of Christ
is speaking through the Psalmist and He began by saying that He would open His
mouth in a parable and speak dark saying of old, things their fathers had told
them.
That was prophecy of how He would later
come speaking in parables but He also said that He would open His mouth in a
parable and speak dark sayings of old which the fathers had told them.
When we listen to the Spirit of Christ retell what their fathers told them, we
hear Him retell that old Hebrew story of how God saved His people out of slavery
and brought them through the wilderness to lead them to their land.
He says that story must be told to the
generation to come. He was speaking to us, the spiritual generation to
come. He is telling us the earthly salvation story of that Hebrew nation
that the fathers had retold to them and He says that He is speaking it in a
parable. How could that be true? We know that old story is not
fiction. It really happened. How
could that old Hebrew story be a parable?
It can't be a parable as we think of parables
because our definition of a parable says the earthly story is a fictional story
and that old Hebrew story is a true story. Our definition of a parable
says the story is fiction but is God required to use our definition? Can
God not also cause a true story to come about as an earthly copy of the
spiritual?
Did He cause that story to happen as it
did as a true story copy for our instruction? Was He working in the lives
of Abraham’s earthly descendants to bring about the old covenant story of how they
were saved out of slavery in Egypt to be brought to their land as an earthly
copy of how God’s spiritual people are being saved out of slavery to sin to be
brought to their spiritual land?
Regarding God’s spiritual people having
been in slavery to sin, Jesus spoke to a crowd of Jews and told them, "Truly, truly, I
say to you, everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin.” (John 8:34) He
told them that a slave does not remain in the Father’s house but the son does
remain forever. That is when He told them, "So if the Son
makes you free, you will be free indeed.” If we are to be set
free from slavery to sin we must hear Jesus as He tells us to follow Him out of
slavery.
We heard John tell us about Christ
being the Word and the Creator but Paul also tells us about His creation
work. Paul tells us His creation work causes things to happen in people’s
lives. He tells us, “He is the image of the invisible God, the
firstborn of all creation. For by Him all things were created, both in the
heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or
rulers or authorities--all things have been created through Him and for Him.
He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.” (Colossians 1:15-17)
All things were created through Him and
for Him, including all rulers, authorities and kings. As Paul says in
another place, "there is no authority except from God, and
those which exist are established by God." (Romans 13:1)
The Creator is the one who places
rulers and kings into their positions of power. Every ruler since Adam
was selected by Christ and that includes the Pharaoh who ruled over
Christ's creation work has been going
on since the beginning. He finished His first creation work when He
created man in the garden. It was a good creation until man sinned and
messed it up. Jesus then began a new creation to create man in the true
image of God by creating man in the image of Him-self. Did His new
creation work include causing that old Hebrew salvation story to come about for
our instruction?
Jesus selected every ruler who has ever
ruled on earth and He selected all of those who would rule in the days of that
old Hebrew story. If those elders and high priests and judges were placed
there by Christ, was He not working to cause that old story to come about as it
did? Was He working to create that story when He placed Pharaoh into
power and later hardened his heart to cause him to delay letting God’s people
go free until God’s power had been displayed with great signs and
wonders? Did Jesus make it happen as an earthly copy to foretell
what was to come to Abraham’s spiritual descendants when they are set free from
slavery to sin?
We can see prophecy being
fulfilled when they became slaves in
Paul quoted Moses and said, “For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, "FOR THIS VERY PURPOSE I RAISED YOU UP, TO DEMONSTRATE MY POWER IN YOU, AND THAT MY NAME MIGHT BE PROCLAIMED THROUGHOUT THE WHOLE EARTH." (Romans 9:17).
If the scripture said those words to
Pharaoh, then it was Christ speaking to Pharaoh because He is the Word.
Christ is the creator who put Pharaoh into his position and then He directed
his actions to make that old story happen as it did.
Paul said that Christ did it to show
His power and that His name might be proclaimed throughout the earth. Did Jesus make it
happen to foretell how the gospel’s power to save would later be proclaimed
throughout the world in His name? When Jesus caused Pharaoh’s heart to be
hardened so that His signs and wonders would be displayed, was He foretelling
how He would come proclaiming the gospel message of salvation in His name and
show His power in signs and wonders as He went about preaching the
gospel?
Just as He created earthly stories to
teach spiritual truths about the kingdom of heaven when He walked on earth,
Christ did the same thing when He brought Pharaoh up and hardened his heart
to bring about that old earthly story as a copy for our instruction.
He created fictional stories when He spoke while in the flesh to teach the same
message that He spoke through that old Hebrew true story.
His gospel message is of His power to save
and it is to be proclaimed in His name through all the earth. It is the gospel
that Paul preached and he said that he was not ashamed of that gospel because, "it is the power of
God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the
Greek" (Romans
Jesus told the apostles that, “repentance for
forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed in His name to all the nations,
beginning from
Repentance is the choice that we must
make. Peter says that God is “not wishing for any to
perish but for all to come to repentance.” (2 Peter 3:9)
The Lord also spoke through Ezekiel to say, “As I live!' declares the Lord GOD, `I take no pleasure in
the death of the wicked, but rather that the wicked turn from his way and live.
Turn back, turn back from your evil ways! Why then will you die, O house of
If the
scriptures say that God does not wish for any to perish but that all should
repent, then we make that choice for ourselves.
We can see what God expects of us when
we look at that old story. When God sent Moses back into
God had foreseen Pharaoh as someone who
would not choose to obey Him before He raised Pharaoh up. God sent Moses
back with the command that Pharaoh “Let My people go”. He caused that
story to come about as it did when He repeatedly hardened Pharaoh's
heart.
God brought about those signs and
wonders in Egypt through Christ, the creator. After only one
or two of those signs, most unbelieving rulers would have been glad to let
Let’s look in more detail at that old
story and see how it may be a copy of our story. After the last plague
(The death of the firstborn of
God told Moses that Pharaoh would see
them wandering aimlessly and God would harden his heart, again, and he would
chase after them (Exodus 14:3-4). Pharaoh and his army chased after
God’s people were trapped between the
Egyptians and the
Moses stretched out his hand and the
sea parted and he led God’s people through the sea. When the Egyptian
army pursued after them, Moses stretched out his hand over the sea from the
other side and the waters returned to their place. The entire Egyptian
army was drowned in the sea.
God caused that event to happen when He
hardened Pharaoh’s heart one last time. Pharaoh had already let God’s
people go after the sign of the death of the firstborn but God hardened his
heart again and caused him to change his mind and gather his army and go after
the Israelites.
If God had not hardened Pharaoh’s heart
and caused him to chase after
Why would God harden Pharaoh’s heart
and cause that event to happen when His people have already been told they
could go free? God made it happen for a reason. Was it just to
punish the Egyptians? All of the Egyptian’s firstborn had already died
during that last Passover night. Much or most of their livestock had died
and their crops had been destroyed.
We read previously what Paul said about
that Pharaoh and how the scripture said to him that He raised him up to
demonstrate God's power and that His name might be proclaimed throughout the
earth. He was quoting from what Moses had written about Pharaoh regarding
the reason he was put into power. Moses will also record something that
God said to him about why He will bring about the event of the crossing of the
sea. He writes, "Thus I will harden Pharaoh's heart, and he
will chase after them; and I will be honored through Pharaoh and all his army” (Exodus 14:4).
God made Pharaoh and his army chase after
When He hardened Pharaoh’s heart He
brought about an earthly copy of what was to come when the new covenant gospel
would be preached. He caused Pharaoh to chase after His people to show
His power to save. Our spiritual salvation story was being foretold in
that old story when the Egyptians died in the sea. When God’s people went
through the sea, their Egyptian slave masters tried to overtake them to bring
them back into slavery but they were washed away in the sea. Scripture
says that "not even one of them remained" (Exodus
Was that not a copy of how we are
brought out of slavery to sin? Have not all of our sins been washed
away? Were not our slave masters all
washed away in the spiritual sea of baptism? Can we see that
happen when we read about how Paul was saved from slavery to sin?
When an unbelieving Paul saw Jesus and became
a believer, he was told to, “get up and enter the city, and it will be told
you what you must do." (Acts 9:6) Later, he was told, “Now why do you delay?
Get up and be baptized, and wash away your sins, calling on His name.” (Acts
Our sins are to be washed away but they
are not our slave masters. At first glance, it appears that our sins are
our slave masters but the scriptures are really saying something else.
Paul tells us what happens when we come through the waters of baptism in
Romans, chapter 6. He speaks of how we have been baptized into
Christ’s death and our old self was crucified, “in order that our body
of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin” (Romans
6:6).
Our slave master is our old body of sin.
We must believe and obey the gospel message to repent of a life of living for
that body of sin and follow Jesus through the sea so that our body of sin can
be washed away. If we have truly repented of having lived a life of sin
for that old slave master and have made the commitment to become a servant of
righteousness, our sins will be washed away when that old slave master dies in
the sea.
Our old body of sin will have been
washed away when we follow Jesus through those waters, just as Israel’s slave
masters were left behind in that old sea. The new body that comes up out
of the sea will belong to Jesus and it will have become a part of His church
body on earth. God’s Spirit dwells in Christ’s body.
Only after the old slave master has
been crucified with Christ and has been washed away in the sea can we be born,
again, raised to walk in newness of life and filled with the Spirit of God.
When we are raised up out of those waters we will have been born, again
of water and Spirit.
Remember, Jesus told Nicodemus, "Truly, truly, I
say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the
If we believe His message and have repented of
the old life of sin and washed that old body of sin away, our new body will
come up free from sin because Jesus has redeemed us with His blood. We
have been called to serve our new master, the one who paid the price for our
sins. Jesus is LORD.
Look back at the time when God brought His
people out of the land of slavery and through the sea. In that old story,
when those ancient Hebrews realized that their slave masters were about to
overtake them and they began crying out to Moses, the LORD spoke to Moses and
told him, "Why are you crying out to Me? Tell the sons of
That is Jesus speaking in a parable. He
spoke through Moses to tell them to go forward. He tells us to, "Go into all the
world and preach the gospel to all creation. He who has believed and has
been baptized shall be saved; but he who has disbelieved shall be condemned.” (Mark
16:15-16)
He is explaining the meaning of His
parable. His disciples believe Him and they will show their love for Him
with obedience. Peter showed his love for Jesus when he obeyed Him and
preached that message on the Day of Pentecost. Many of those who heard
him believed his message and cried out, "Brethren, what
shall we do?" (Acts
Those who received his message were baptized
and were added to the church. They heard Jesus explain His parable and
they obeyed and were baptized for the remission of their sins. They heard
Him tell them to not be afraid but go forward into the sea and they would be
saved from slavery to sin.
They clearly heard Jesus explain His message
and, with open hearts, they believed and obeyed the gospel. Their slave
master body was washed away and replaced with a new body that belonged to
Christ. Because their new body became a part of the body of Christ, they
received the gift of the Spirit. Remember, God’s Spirit dwells in
Christ’s body.
If we listen carefully we will hear Him as He
gives us the Great Commission message. If we are obedient to His command
just as Peter was obedient on the Day of Pentecost, we will tell the lost how
they are in slavery to sin but if they will only repent and follow Jesus
through the sea and have their slave masters washed away, Jesus will bring them
out of the land of slavery.
After Moses led them through the sea and the
Egyptians were drowned in the sea, scripture records that when
the Israelites saw what God had done and they saw the bodies of the
Egyptians dead on the shore, they were believers. Moses said that, “When
Just as they were a nation of saved believers
after their slave masters were washed away, we are also a nation of saved believers
after we have been brought through those waters of baptism and our slave
masters have been washed away.
God’s power to save is shown in the gospel
message of salvation that only comes in the name of Jesus. If we believe
the message and follow Jesus through the sea, we will have been saved out of
slavery so that we can be led to our Promised Land but we will not yet have
received it.
Remember, that old story was written
for our instruction. Those Israelites had believed the message and they followed
Moses through the sea to freedom in the wilderness and they have the promise of
a land of milk and honey but they had not yet received that land. Most of
them will never receive that land. They must faithfully follow the LORD
through the wilderness to that land and be willing to fight for it. It
will not happen for most of them. Most of them will die in the wilderness
and never receive their land. Most will be afraid to fight for their
land. They will want to return to a life of slavery, instead.
Is God speaking that old story to us to let us
know that the same thing can happen to us? Did God really cause that old
Hebrew salvation story to come about as an earthly copy of our spiritual
story? Did He cause it to happen for our instruction?
Paul is saying just that. Paul referred
back to that old story and he tells us, “For I do not want you to be unaware,
brethren, that our fathers were all under the cloud and all passed through the
sea; and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea; and all ate
the same spiritual food; and all drank the same spiritual drink, for they were
drinking from a spiritual rock which followed them; and the rock was Christ.
Nevertheless, with most of them God was not well-pleased; for they were laid
low in the wilderness.” (1 Corinthians 10:1-5)
A few verses later Paul tells us, “Now these things
happened to them as an example, and they were written for our instruction, upon
whom the ends of the ages have come. Therefore let him who thinks he
stands take heed that he does not fall.”
Are we listening to Jesus? Jesus is
speaking through Paul. Paul does not say that the things that happened to
them just happen to work out the way they did. If those things happened
as an example, did not God cause that story to happen and did He not have it
written "for our instruction"?
When Paul referred back to that old story and
how God struck them down in the wilderness because He was not pleased with them
and then he said, "Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed that he does
not fall", he is telling us that the same thing can happen to us just as it
happened to them.
Are many of God’s new covenant people
longing to return to a life of slavery to sin? Was not Jesus telling us
that when He opened His mouth in a parable and spoke that old Hebrew story
through the Psalmist (Psalms, chapter 78)?
They were to tell that story to the
generation to come so they would not be like their fathers and be rebellious
toward God. We are the generation to come and Jesus is telling that story
to us. We need to study that old story because it was created for our
instruction.
Jesus continues to explain the meaning
of that old Hebrew story when we hear Him speak through the Hebrew
writer. The Hebrew writer spoke of that Israelite nation in the
wilderness and how they refused to hear God’s voice and they hardened their
hearts and provoked Him (Hebrews 3:8).
He uses that story to tell us to, “Take care, brethren,
that there not be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart that falls away
from the living God.” (Verse 12) Jesus is retelling the
old story and He is explaining it to His disciples. He is speaking
to the brethren, not to outsiders. He is telling His disciples to “Take care, brethren” lest we fall
away.
The writer continues the comparison in
chapter 4 and he tells us not to harden our hearts like they did or we will not
be allowed to enter our rest. He says, “Therefore let us be
diligent to enter that rest, so that no one will fall, through following the
same example of disobedience.”
We must not only listen to His parable
story, we must have open hearts to hear Him explain its meaning to His
disciples. When we pass through the sea, our slave masters will have been
washed away but our journey will only have just begun. We will not
receive that land until we have finished our wilderness travels, having
faithfully followed Jesus.
Jesus caused that old story to happen
for our instruction. He is speaking to the church, the ones who have been
saved from slavery to sin. Jesus is telling us that some may have
unbelieving hearts that can fall away. He is telling us about that in
their example of disobedience. If we are
being warned, that means it can happen to us but we do have a choice. We
can just listen to that old earthly story and not hear Him as He explains its
meaning to His disciples or we can stay and listen to Him explain what it
means.
We must not be like those unfaithful ancient
ones. We must continue to fight the fight of faith until our wilderness
travels are over and we enter that land of rest. Only then can we cease
from fighting and rest from all of our labors.
In that old Hebrew story, of the men in God’s
army, only Joshua and Caleb continued in His word and only Joshua and Caleb
wanted to keep fighting for that land. Therefore, they were the only ones
of God's army who would be allowed to enter the Promised Land. God,
however, told them that their children would also enter.
In Deuteronomy, chapter 1, Moses recounts
to the next generation what had happened when their fathers had refused to
obey God and fight for that land. Forty years had passed and the
rebels had all died in the wilderness. Moses repeated God’s promise
of how none would enter except Joshua and Caleb but he adds, “Moreover, your little
ones who you said would become a prey, and your sons, who this day have no
knowledge of good or evil, shall enter there, and I will give it to them
and they shall possess it”.
Their little ones would enter that land
because they had no knowledge of good or evil. God
caused that old story to happen as an earthly copy of our story. Only
those little ones who do not know good from evil and those faithful soldiers in
God’s army will enter into and take possession of that land.
The Psalmist said that story was a
parable. Paul said what happened to the people of that story happened as
an example and God had it written for our instruction. Jesus is the one
speaking through Paul just as He spoke through the Psalmist. He tells us
that the old Hebrew story happened as an example for us. He says those
things happened as examples and they were written for our instruction. He
said, "Therefore let him who thinks he stands
take heed that he does not fall".
Therefore, it applies
to us. Jesus only speaks to the crowds in parables but He reveals the
true meaning of that story to His disciples. We need to hear Jesus
as He explains the meaning of His parables in the New Testament
scriptures. Only then can we understand the mysteries of the kingdom of
heaven. As He speaks through Paul, He tells the church in Colossi how the
mystery had been hidden in past generations but God has now made the
mystery known to His saints, saying, “God willed to make known what is the riches of
the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope
of glory” (Colossians 1:27).
He wants us to come to a true knowledge of
God’s mystery, “that is, Christ Himself” (Colossians 2:2). He says that “all the treasures of
wisdom and knowledge” are hidden in Him. The Gentiles are now fellow heirs
in Christ. We must be in Christ and His Spirit must be in us if we are to
live with Him in glory.
In Ephesians, chapter 1, Paul writes to tell
them how, "He made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His
kind intention which He purposed in Him" (verse 9). He
tells them that God is “summing up of all things in Christ”. He says that,
“In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according
to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will” (Verses
10-11).
God is summing up all things in Christ by
bringing both Jew and Gentile to God in Him. The mystery is being
revealed and it is Christ Himself. We have all obtained our inheritance "In Him". He speaks of
the gospel news of salvation and he wanted them to understand the "riches of the
glory of His inheritance in the saints".
In chapter 2, Paul will tell Gentile
Christians how they had been separate from Christ and the covenant promise and
having no hope. He then tells them that "in Christ
Jesus" they had been brought near to God by the blood of Christ.
He says that Jesus had made "both groups into one". Both Jews and
Gentiles are now one, "in Christ Jesus". Both Jews and
Gentiles have access to the Father "in one Spirit".
This mystery had been hidden in God, but Paul
was preaching it to the Gentiles in the first century. He prays for them
to understand the mystery of salvation that is in Christ Jesus. He tells
them that, “-by revelation there was made known to me the mystery, as I wrote
before in brief. By referring to this, when you read you can understand
my insight into the mystery of Christ”. (Ephesians 3:3-4).
The mystery of the kingdom of heaven is the
mystery of Christ. Paul tells us that the mystery of Christ "in other
generations was not made known to the sons of men". It had not
been made known to man in other generations but it was being revealed in their
day. He says, "to be specific, that the Gentiles are fellow heirs and
fellow members of the body, and fellow partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus
through the gospel” (Ephesians 3:6).
Remember we are, "all
sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For all of you who were baptized
into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ"
(Galatians
We are sons of God through faith in Christ
Jesus if we have believed His word and have obeyed Him and have become clothed
with Him in baptism. Remember, we must
be clothed in Him to become an heir to the promises because He is the only
heir.
Paul tells us that we have been “predestined to become
conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many
brethren” (Romans
We will have met God’s covenant conditions of
circumcision and we will have been raised up with Christ but Paul tells us, “Therefore if you have
been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is,
seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things above, not
on the things that are on earth. For you have died and your life is hidden with
Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also
will be revealed with Him in glory.” (Colossians 3:1-4)
Jesus is revealing the mysteries of the
kingdom of heaven to us. The mystery of the kingdom of heaven is the
mystery of Christ. It is the mystery of salvation that is only found in
Christ Jesus. Only those who have become one with the Firstborn Son are
born again as sons of God and will be revealed with Him in glory.
We have become born again children of
God by faith in Christ but we must continue to carry our cross and follow Jesus
(Wholeheartedly) through our spiritual wilderness if we are to receive our
land. We must be in Him and He must be in us for us to become heirs to
the kingdom of heaven but if we are not following Jesus and seeking that land
we will have become lost in the wilderness.
We must fight to overcome this world
because this world has become our spiritual wilderness. We have been
delivered from the slavery of this world and brought into its wilderness.
Jesus said we must overcome it because, “To him who overcomes, I
will grant to eat of the tree of life which is in the
Jesus is telling us to not be like the
fathers who provoked Him and were struck down in the wilderness. Jesus is
telling us the story and we need to believe Jesus because it is those who
believe in Jesus who, "shall
not perish, but have eternal life". Jesus is the
Word and we must believe God's Word. We will receive that land if we
truly believe in Him.
What if one of those Israelite elders
had told his people that they could get to the other side without having to go
through the sea as Moses had commanded them to do? I doubt that the LORD
would have been pleased with any elder or leader who would tell his people that
they could go around the sea without having to go through it and still be
brought out of the land of slavery. God’s message through Moses was to, “Tell the sons of
Some of our teachers and preachers have heard
Jesus speak His parable message of the
We should listen to our teachers and preachers
but we must be careful to hear Jesus first. We are truly saved by faith
in Jesus and, therefore, we must believe that He means what He says. We
need to hear Jesus explain His parable to His disciples.
We must be careful what we tell others.
We must tell others what Jesus told us to tell them because those who teach
others will be judged more closely than others (James 3:1). We must not change His message because it was
a difficult task for Jesus to stretch out His hands on the cross to provide
that pathway for us to pass through the sea.
For those ancient ones who chose to
love and obey Him and follow Him fully, He caused good things to happen for
them. He will do the same for us if we will be diligent to enter that
rest. We can choose to love Jesus with obedience and follow Him through
the sea and through the wilderness or we can harden our hearts like they
did.
Understanding the mysteries of the
kingdom of heaven requires that we listen to and believe Jesus as He explains
the meaning of His parables to His disciples. That story is a copy of our
story but everything necessary for salvation has been clearly revealed in the
New Testament scriptures. We sometimes, however, have trouble understanding
the word spoken so He created the same message in the earthly copy.
His disciples will hear His voice and follow
Him. He says, "My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they
follow Me” (John
I am not from one of
the schools of theology. I am a retired engineer and have been a
Christian most of my life. It has only been within the last few years
that I have come to realize how God caused that old covenant story to happen as
an earthly copy of our spiritual story. He wrote in parables in the Old
Testament scriptures what He would say in direct statements in the New
Testament scriptures. If we are confused with the direct statements of
the New Testament, we need to study the old parables.
We need to study them
anyway, so that we can know that, "JESUS IS LORD". We must
truly believe what our LORD Jesus is telling us and not be like those who only
heard in parables “so that WHILE SEEING,
THEY MAY SEE AND NOT PERCEIVE, AND WHILE HEARING, THEY MAY HEAR AND NOT
UNDERSTAND, OTHERWISE THEY MIGHT RETURN AND BE FORGIVEN”.
You will notice that I
have used the New American Standard translation for the copied scriptures in
this book. You may wish to also read the same scriptures from the translation
that you normally use.
Johnny Rogers
Revised
Image of
the cross is from FreeFoto.com
Link
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05-08-10&k=Cross+at+Sunset
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