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For ye shut up the kingdom of the heavens against men." This is why the King was
rejected and the kingdom shut up. In Mark 7: the Lord again unveils their corrupting
influence:--
"Well hath Isaiah prophesied of you hypocrites, as it is written, This people honoureth
Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me. However, in vain do they worship Me,
teaching for doctrines the commands of men. For laying aside the commandment, ye
hold the tradition of men. . . . full well ye reject the commandment of God that ye may
keep your own tradition" (Mark 7: 6-9).
Space will not allow us to multiply examples, those given are sufficient to show the
working of the leaven. The leaven was everywhere making its corrupting way.
Distorted views obtained concerning (1) the Messiah, (2) the Kingdom, and
(3) the Scriptures. The Lord Jesus, standing in the midst of a people thus already
corrupted, prophesied that this leavening would go on its evil course until the whole was
leavened. "When the Son of man cometh, shall He find faith in the earth?" The apostle
Paul, writing in II Thess. 2: of the rise of antichrist, says:--
"For the mystery of lawlessness already is inwardly working itself, only until He that
restraineth become out of the midst, and then shall be revealed the lawless one. . . .
because the love of the truth they did not welcome. . . . they believe the lie" (vv. 7-11).
This brings us to the end, "the whole was leavened." This is the state of things as
given in the book of the Revelation. The last parable of the external history of the course
of the kingdom is sad indeed. The state of Israel at the "time of the end" is deplorable,
and may be summed up under the three heads, Pharisaic, Sadducean, and Herodian.
Hypocrisy, infidelity and worldliness "like unto Sodom and Gomorrah."
We are thankful that this is not the end of these parables. There is another side of the
question, there is the divine standpoint, there is the purpose of Him Who worketh all
things after the counsel of His own will. This divine aspect is the common link between
the next four parables spoken "inside the house" to the disciples. These we must consider
in subsequent articles. Before concluding this paper shall we set out the history of the
kingdom of the heavens so far as we have seen it at present?
The Sower.
The ministries of John the Baptist, the Lord Jesus, and the Apostles during the "Acts"
were to a large extent, externally, failures, but there is yet to be a gloriously fruitful
sowing when the time comes for the New Covenant to be put into operation.
The Darnel.
The reason for the delay in the setting up of the kingdom is discovered in the fact that
an enemy is at work, and side by side with the true children of the kingdom are the
children of the wicked one, but these are not removed until the end of the age.