Thursday, March 12, 2009

MITN XIII, Verses 44 - 58

44. “The Kingdom of/from the heavens is like something precious buried in a field, which a man found and hid again; then in his joy he goes and sells all he has and buys that field.

45. Again the Kingdom of/from the heavens is like a man who is a dealer in search of fine and precious pearls,

46. who, on finding one single pearl of great price, went and sold all he had and bought it.

47. And again, the Kingdom of/from the heavens is like a dragnet that was cast into the sea, and gathered in a diverse array of fish…fish of every sort, in fact.

48. When it was full, men dragged it up on the beach, and sat down and sorted out what was good from the catch into baskets, but that which was worthless they threw away.

49. So it will be at the close and consummation of this age, when judgment comes on this nation. But, again, as was the concept in the story of the wheat and darnel, the angels will go forth and ultimately separate all that which is wicked and unnecessary from all that which is righteous and eternal,

50. And cast the refuse into the furnace of fire, where, again, the purging process will cause weeping and wailing and grinding of teeth in those who are being purged.

51. Now, as I have created a panorama of truth through the telling of these stories, I ask you…have you comprehended these conceptual tales taken together?” They said to Him, “Yes, Lord.”

52. He said to them, “All right, then…every teacher and interpreter of the sacred truths who has been instructed about and trained for Kingdom-life, and has become a disciple, is like a householder who brings forth out of his storehouse treasure that is new and old…that which seems fresh and newly born, as well as that which seems ancient and familiar.”

53. When Jesus had finished this series of comparisons in story form, He left there.

54. And, coming to His own country of Nazareth, He taught in their synagogue with such unprecedented understanding and conspicuous confidence, that they were amazed with bewildered wonder. Upon hearing Him the people said, “Where in the world did this Man get this kind of wisdom…and from where does He derive these miraculous powers?

55. Isn’t this just the local carpenter's son? Isn’t His mother called Mary? Aren’t His brothers James and Joseph and Simon and Judas?

56. Don’t all of His sisters live right here in this very town? We know His family…all of them…and we know how ordinary they all are…so what has made this man so special? He obviously didn’t get all this from His family…so where is all this coming from?

57. And instead of being intrigued by this, and interested in finding out more about Him, they took offense at Him. They fought in their minds what seemed to them unfamiliar and unexplainable, and so were repelled by what those from the other towns and villages were drawn to. Their natural knowledge of Him hindered them from acknowledging His authority, and caused them, instead, to stumble at His ministry. But Jesus said to them, “Once again this truth is confirmed…a prophet is not without honor except in his own country, and in his own house.”

58. And He did virtually none of the amazing works of power that He had become known for there in His hometown, because of their limited perception of Him. Their own lack of vision, and inability to see beyond the physical realm, kept them from receiving what He had to offer them.

19 comments:

Erik said...

There will be a follow up that connects more with the post, However, did y'all see the conversation with Cramer and Stewart ? Clarity in comedy, the Yes is Yes and No is No, comedy exists with straight questioning, sans sarcasm, and very funny.

Unknown said...

Where did the questioning disciples go? Did anyone else think that it must have been John who was the only one in stripes?

v.51..."created a panorama of truth"... stands out to me. I didn't notice it the first few times through, but the seed was planted, because I did notice a desire to lay it all out to actually see an overview of the "stories"...in panorama form. Which leads me back to the mustard seed. Small, and possibly hidden in the midst of the darnel, it grows, doing its thing...until its big enough to be its take-over-the-field self.

Anonymous said...

v 51 "yes Lord" I don't think they really did.(if you consider what they said and did later) They were just saying what they thought he wanted to hear and thought to themselves "what the heck is he talking about"....he knew.

54-58 ah the poison of familiarity. It builds walls over which our minds cannot climb.

Peace,
Dennis

Anonymous said...

-HE THAT HAS EARS TO HEAR, LET HIM HEAR!

According to Dr. E. W. Bullinger:

-"These words were never used by mortal man. They were heard only from the lips of Him Who spoke with Divine authority ( Matthew 7:29 ); and on earth only on seven distinct occasions, in order to emphasize and call attention to the utterance He ( Jesus Christ ) had just made." ( Dr. E. W. Bullinger )

-The seven occasions are found in:

1. MATTHEW 11:15

2. MATTHEW 13:9

3. MATTHEW 13:43

4. MARK 4:23

5. MARK 7:16

6. LUKE 8:8

7. LUKE 14:35

-For the eight occasions after the ascension of Christ, see: Revelation 2: 7, 11, 17, 29; 3: 6, 13, 22; 13:9

-Let us now turn our attention to the book of Revelation, and that this phrase is uttered SEVEN TIMES IN TWO CHAPTERS. Do you think these words are important, or what? Let us stop and think for a minute! What is the book of Revelation? IT IS THE REVELATION OF JESUS CHRIST! It is the unveiling of the Christ. So … It takes ears to hear to receive the revelation of Jesus Christ. What does this phrase mean? It means to perceive or understand something with the mind.

-Remember the parable of the sower? Jesus said, … he that received seed into the good ground is he that hears the word and UNDERSTANDS it; … This brings forth fruit, some hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty … Having ears to hear is equivalent to:

-RECEIVING REVELATION FROM GOD …

-UNDERSTANDING HIS WORD …

-SEEING, HEARING, AND UNDERSTANDING SPIRITUAL THINGS …

-PERCEPTION OF GOD …

-SEEING THE KINGDOM OF GOD …

-How do we acquire ears to hear? ASK, SEEK, KNOCK! We must humble ourselves and DILIGENTLY ask, seek, and knock. Jesus said, … I will open My mouth in parables; I will utter things which have been kept secret from the foundation of the world …

According to Thomas Kissinger:

-We must understand that the understanding of God is LOCKED UP in parables, secrets, and in mysteries. What unlocks the parables, secrets, and mysteries of God? THE VERY SPIRIT OF GOD UNLOCKS THEM TO US. He does it by giving us ears to hear.

-So let us ask, seek, and knock for ears to hears. Without ears to hear, we are seeing, but we see not, and we are hearing, but we hear not, NEITHER DO WE UNDERSTAND! Thank God for ears to hear. Blessed are your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear.

-O FATHER … GIVE US EARS TO HEAR!-

Anonymous said...

LET YOUR YES BE YES AND YOUR NO BE NO...

-"Babylon, which means CONFUSION, is the fountain-head of all idolatry and systems of false worship. This is the mystery of iniquity ( 2nd Thessalonians 2:7 ) seen in all the great religions of the world. All alike substitute another god for the God of the Bible; a god made either with hands or with the imagination, but equally made; a religion constituting of human merit and endeavor." ( Dr. E. W. Bullinger )

SAYING YES AND NO AT THE SAME TIME IS CONFUSION!

Yeah, it's still on my mind....

Peace,
Dennis

Anonymous said...

One moment, the Kingdom is like a man, another it's compared to leaven. It's the treasure in the field and its owner.

Verses 46 & 47 are amazing. They remind me of the story of Jonah. Wouldn't it be fun, if he was the pearl & the dragnet?

Appreciate how verse 49 alludes to a window of judgment.

Verse 52 makes me laugh out loud. I wonder about verses 46 &47 & Jonah, again.

Verse 54 is fascinating. Hints that something unusual happened when Jesus showed up. He wasn't there to only entertain the crowds with stories. The bewildered questions are so human. (why would they think His wisdom & power could be found in the world? He already told them who His Father was.)

Verse 58 makes me sad.

peacemaker said...

Glad to see you got it finished. It ends as beautiful and poignant as it began. What a masterpiece.

I'm sorry but I just couldn't bring myself to agree with you for "easy". There was no way it could have been, nor should it have been. There must have been extreme effort and even stress pulling those timeless, universal, words through the narrow, twisting and turning, even crimped, ages of biased, religious, dogmatic translations that were born and re-born again and again from the great grandchildren of fragments of the grandchildren of the originals. And, cleaning all those years off to expose what may be the closest paraphrase we have to what was actually said and taught.

It has sparked in me, and I'm sure in time, millions of others, a whole new interest in the Bible.

Because of that, it was worth every drop of blood, sweat, and tears shed to complete this very important work.

Thank You,
PM

Donald said...

Verse 58 has always amazed me. Those of us who believe in universal reconciliation like to make the point that man's so-called free will cannot alter God's will, but it seems that in this verse man's lack of belief hindered Jesus from doing what he was capable of doing elsewhere.

Anonymous said...

verse 58 also makes me think of how we don't appreciate who/what is right in our own presence, in our own homes and families. How often does someone say wonderful things about our kids, our spouse, ourselves, and we are like, "really?"..."you think THAT?"..."you see that?"

Yeah, WE limit the wonder. WOW

Peace,
Northern Light

Anonymous said...

I have been seeing the number 44 everywhere lately...I have asked the Holy Spirit to reveal to me the signifigance to this as I beleive the Lord speaks through dreams, symbols, riddles and of the like. This morning I read about Gideon and his fleece before the Lord. I asked God to confirm that it was indeed his spirit leading me to search out the signifigance of the number 44...I see the first verse used today is 44..hmm God Wink. I turn 44 in a couple of months..and 43 has been as tough as nails. I researched the number 22...because that has been popping up..last night I came upon a BIBLICAL NUMEROLOGY site..the number 22 means light and 44 is a double dose of that..22 is a master number...The Master is speaking..I claim that Kingdom...that feild...that pearl of great price..a double light of Gods love..Gods light..Gods Kingdom.I speak and declare a double dose of Gods revelation light on all of you!

Anonymous said...

Oh my Elohim...my comment posted at 10:44...I did not plan that!

Anonymous said...

ronnie lee
The owners manual for my car says to inflate the tires to 32 psi. However, on the side of the tires it says to inflate to 44 psi...

Anonymous said...

annnnnd?

Anonymous said...

Bishop says we should PLAY !!!

Hey Donald,

my word ver: monald

So...Donald Donald MO Monald banana fanna fo fonald ......fe fi fo fonald............DONALD

ah.........those were the days!

Peace,
Northern Light

Karl said...

Thanks Bishop for writing!

This came to my thoughts after reading AYITN and seems to tie in with "again the kingdom is like..." kind of words.

The verse that sparks it is Ps. 30:5-weeping enduring for the night but JOY coming in the morning...

My weeping for the night(darkness) was when I didn't know or realize Christ...not walking in the kingdom. Then Jesus brought me into a NEW DAY...the DAYSTAR rose in my heart, or mind/spirit and JOY came in the morning as I had Jesus coming into my life.

The morning is now, living a lifetime in Him, His kingdom now. I walk in the LIGHT(THE DAY) not in the night.

In the natural, night comes, but in the Spirit( and kingdom living), THERE IS NO NIGHT, we are children of LIGHT. The kingdom(city) is full of God's LIGHT and glory. Outside the gate there is weeping.

His joy does not depart from me because He is JOINED to me in my spirit, and I to Him. The fruit of the Spirit is JOY.

JOY comes IN THE MORNING. JOY comes in my relationship with Christ, in Him.

HIS JOY dispels spiritual darkness like the rising sun dispels the night.

As the sun appears into the heavens and AWAKENS me and the world, bringing its' warmth to the earth and creating life, and I live and move about the day doing my work...SO TOO THE LORD has APPEARED/RISEN in me, breaking through the darkness, the fog and the clouds, His glory shining through and awakening me/us to a NEW DAY(life in Him, entering the kingdom, born again like each day-yet this day not ending)...bringing the warmth of His JOY to my life and creating a NEW LIFE(a new man, a new creature) within me...so I live and move about my NEW DAY(my new morning), MY TODAY, doing my work in Him...for I LIVE AND MOVE AND HAVE MY BEING IN HIM.

HE is the MORNING(my morning), and MY/OUR ETERNAL DAY!!!

MORNING HAS BROKEN!

Karl said...

a cool word ver: atona

definitely makes me think of AT ONEMENT, ONENESS.

dgm2007 said...

I watched the Cramer interview and thought he looked a bit weak.. He kept apologizing and it was a touch annoying. But i do think that good points were made.
ps my word verification was bilech.. i was like whoa whoa there..

Donald said...

Ew, Northern Light, you so crazy!

Uh, oh! I was getting ready to ride over to Mobile and get some new spark plugs for my scooter and then I noticed that my wordver is "scoidra" so now I'm not so sure that I should go.

Unknown said...

Maybe today, Donald, my wordver is "bacrac". Do they play that game in Mobile...(smile)?