46
It is noteworthy that the four parables spoken outside the house to the multitudes give the external aspect of the
kingdom of heaven that was ending in failure, whereas the second four, spoken inside the house privately to the
disciples, give the internal God-ward aspect of the kingdom and reveal its fulfilment at the end of the age in spite of
human rebellion and Satanic opposition.
A 1-9 The Sower. The sowing of seed into
four kinds of ground.
a They (Israel) did not understand.
The first
B 24-30. The Tares. Good and bad together.
four parables
spoken outside
Separated at the harvest
(the end of the age);
the house to
the bad are cast into a furnace of
great multitudes.
fire, there shall be wailing and
gnashing of teeth.
C 31,32. The Mustard Tree. One tree.
D 33. The Leaven. Hid in three measures
of meal.
D 44. The Treasure. Hid in a field.
C 45,46. Goodly Pearls. One pearl.
B 47-50. The Drag net. Good and bad together
Separated at the end of the age;
The last
the bad are cast into a furnace
four parables
spoken inside
of fire, there shall be wailing
and gnashing of teeth.
the house to
a They (disciples) did understand.
the disciples.
A 51,52. The Scribe. The treasure opened to
those in the house.
Other parables throw further light on different aspects of the earthly kingdom. The nobleman who goes to a far
country to receive a kingdom for himself and return. The citizens of the nobleman show their hatred by saying `We
will not have this man to reign over us' (Luke 19:14) and their cry, `we have no king but Caesar' (John 19:15) was an
accurate forecast of Christ's rejection by Israel. When he returns, the nobleman (Christ at His Second Advent)
rewards His servants for their work during His absence. But He executes judgment on the citizens who rejected
Him at His first coming, the implication being that Israel will maintain its enmity and blindness till the end of the
age and the time of the Lord's Second Coming back to the earth to reign.
No clue is given as to the length of the interval between the comings of the Lord, but there is no warrant for
treating it as a revelation of the nineteen centuries of this present era, for in the parable the Lord returns within the
lifetime of the same servants to whom He had committed the money. The Acts of the Apostles gives us the key to
this problem.
From Matthew 16:21 we have the second dating in the Gospel, and now for the first time the Lord Jesus reveals
that His rejection was certain and that it would end in death:
`From that time forth began Jesus to show unto His disciples, how that He must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer
many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised again the third day' (Matt.
16:21).
That it really was the first time He had spoken directly of His death is seen by Peter's amazement and denial of its
possibility (verse 22). The disciples had never conceived that it was possible for the kingdom to fail, and that, after
all the Lord's wonderful teaching and the outstanding evidential miracles which confirmed His Messiahship. He had
shown Messiah's authority in the realm of disease as He healed the leper and many others suffering from fever and
paralysis. He had demonstrated His authority in the demonic realm (Matt. 8:16,17); in the human realm (8:18-22;