Welcome back gold diggers! Though the gold we’re digging will not put coins in our pockets, God’s Word is a goldmine that will fill our hearts with treasure! I hope you are enjoying our expedition through Matthew 13, and my prayer is it will culminate today with fresh new nuggets of spiritual truth! Read through Matthew 13 once more to get the context firmly affixed in your mind.

Now, here’s a quick recap of parts 1 and 2:

• In Part 1, we identified 7 parables and read explanations of them. A parable is a story intended to illustrate a spiritual truth and we discovered 4 types of soil (conditions of our soul to be able to receive the truth of God’s Word).
• Part 2 took us deeper into who sees, hears, and understands when the seed (God’s Word) is sown. Jesus faced great opposition from Jewish religious leaders whose soil was not ready to receive.

Let’s pick it up from there and get straight to the question posed at the end of the day yesterday: “Is there a hidden nugget of God’s grace buried in our passage?” One of my friends saw something deeper in verses 14-17. Take a look especially at verse 15 and the portion in bold:

For the hearts of this people have grown dull.
Their ears are hard of hearing,
And their eyes they have closed,
Lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears,
Lest they should understand with their hearts and turn,
So that I should heal them.

Based on God’s statement, “…so that I should heal them,” could it be that the lack of ability to see, hear and understand is a shield, of sorts, so they are not fully accountable for the lack of understanding of the parables?

Out came our picks and shovels and we dug in! We began to examine the nuggets and one in particular caught our attention. It applies directly to the questions at hand. Rather than attempting to explain, here is a portion of the Matthew 13:10-17 key note we read from my Hebrew-Greek Key Study Bible:

These passages...are some of the most difficult sayings of the Lord Jesus. The clue to understanding is found in the correct translation of a word translated "lest" [verse 15]...should be translated "if perhaps." Christ's reasoning was this: "If I speak plainly to these people knowing they are going to reject what I say to them, their understanding of it will increase their guilt. They would be rejecting not what they do not understand, but what they do understand. If I speak to them in parables and they do not understand what I am saying, then their rejection is based on their lack of understanding and it will diminish their guilt. Their guilt is not based upon whether they understand or not, but on their rejection of God and Me, not because of what I say, but because of what I am, which should have been clear enough to them."

It is inherent in the entire teaching of the Bible that God will not hold us responsible for what we do not know or understand, but for what we do know and understand. (Romans 2:12-20; 4:15) ... As one knows and understands more, his responsibility increases proportionately. This applies to both unbelievers and believers, the former for the degree of their punishment in hell, and the latter for the degree of their heavenly reward. Hiding the meaning of the depths of God by Jesus Christ to unbelievers is an act of mercifulness toward them in reducing their comprehension of His words.

~Hebrew-Greek Key Study Bible, Zodhiates, AMG Publishers

14 caret gold!!!

Yesterday, you were asked to remember the idea of who understands (believers) and who does not (non-believers, including the Jewish religious leaders). As believers, the Holy Spirit works within us to see, hear, and understand Jesus’ parables and other truths of God’s Word. Our reward is eternal life in heaven, but the degree of our reward is determined by how we employ all that we understand! Reward upon reward.

For the non-believer, the punishment is eternal life in hell, but the degree of punishment rests upon understanding and one’s responsibility for what is understood. The less understood, the less punishment! Have you ever thought of how deep God’s grace and mercy extend to the unbeliever? Though they refuse to receive Him, resulting in eternity in hell, He shows great mercy in lessening their punishment once there.

Now, take it a step further. In context, it was Jewish religious leaders who failed to understand the seed being sown. In turn, those religious leaders led others astray from their Messiah. To avoid eternal hell Jews must come to Jesus the same way Gentiles do, yet if they never choose Him, God proves merciful even in limiting eternal punishment.

Scripture tells us that salvation is of the Jews (John 4:22), and it came to the Jews first (Romans 1:16). God has a soft spot for His uniquely called people, and we can see the heart of God in His mercy toward them. Beyond that, His grace extends to us (Gentiles) as well, as through Jesus, salvation came to us!

Is your treasure chest filled today? I hope so! Put your pick and shovel away and give thanks to God and the Sower of Seed! Through them, we indeed have acquired great treasure!