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The context teaches that this separation is decided by the way each nation has treated
the "brethren" of the King. Those nations who have treated them well, go into the
Kingdom; those who have ill-treated them are shut out. It must be realized that this
judgment does not deal with the behaviour of individuals, as to whether they have been
kind to others or not. It is national judgment. As nations they enter the kingdom, or as
nations they are debarred. The people of Israel are in the centre of world affairs at the
end of this age, as prophecy makes perfectly clear, and also shows that they will go
through the greatest persecution of all their history. They will be "hated of all men"
(Matt. 24: 9). Anti-semitism will be rife everywhere.
The animosity against the Jew will be world-wide prior to the Lord's Second Advent.
The judgment of Matthew 25: is incipient in the Lord's first promise to Abram in
Gen.xii.3, ". . . . . and I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee:
and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed". Thus it is that the nations of the
earth at the end time will have to give account to the King of Israel as to how they have
treated His earthly people. They do not consciously serve Christ as the Lord Jesus in
Matt. 25: clearly shows, but their attitude to the Jew and their behaviour towards him is
crucial to their having a part in the Messianic kingdom when it is set up after the Second
Advent of the Lord.
There are therefore two great siftings by the Lord at the end time; first of all in Israel,
as indicated by the Wheat and Tares, and then with the Gentile nations as shown in
Matthew 25:
No.23.
13: 51 - 14: 36.
pp. 165 - 169
After explaining the parable of the drag net, the Lord pauses to ask the disciples "have
you understood all these things?" (Matt. 13: 51), for understanding is vital to the
reception of truth. Hundreds may read the Word of God, but if there is no understanding
how much are they benefited? Happily the disciples could answer "Yes". How different
they were to the nation of Israel of whom the Lord declared in verses 10-16 that because
of their willful blindness and rejection they did not understand.
The last parable, that of the householder, follows on from the perception of the
disciples, as the first word "Therefore" shows:
"He said to them, Therefore every teacher of the law who has been instructed about
the kingdom of heaven is like the owner of a house who brings out of his storeroom new
treasures as well as old" (Matt. 13: 52, N.I.V.).
The word "instructed" occurs four times in the N.T., (Matthew 13: 52; 27: 57;
28: 19; Acts 14: 21). It is the word translated "make disciples" in Matt. 28: 19