THE KING’S BUSINESS
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He comes with His saints to this world when the wicked shall first be severed from the righteous and cast into the furance of fire and the good are gathered into the kingdom (see vs. 41-43).
the man bought the field not for itself hut for what was in it: in this case the man bought the pearl for itself. Men often seek to gain Christ for what they can get in Him, but we ought to seek'Him for what He is in Himself. The one seeking goodly pearls needed to be constantly on his guard against imposition, and so we need to be on our guard in this day when there are so many false Christs and false systems, bogus pearls. The man did wisely when he sold all his other pearls to gain this pearl, and we do wisely when we part with all other pearls to gain the one pearl of great price. It was no hardship for the man to give up the inferior pearl and it will be no hardship for us to give up all others when we realize what a priceless pearl Christ is. The man expected to find many goodly pearls but he found one pearl that met all his desires. Christians are content with the One Pearl, they desire no others. Thursday, February 25. Matthew 13:47-50. In its outward manifestation “the king dom of heaven’’ at first gathers of every kind, good fish and bad fish. The sea m which it is cast is the sea of the nations. The time will come when the net will be full, and then will come the separation. The bad fish represent “the wicked,” the good fish “the righteous” (R. V.). The good fish are gathered into a place of safety; the bad are cast away and burned. The separation takes place “in the end (rather, consummation) of the world (rather, age).” The angels will do the separating as in the parable of the tares. The furnace of fire represents the ultimate destiny of the wicked; it is noticeable that fire occurs in the interpretation as well as the parable. By their weeping is set forth their overwhelming sorrow; by their gnash ing of teeth their impotent rage. There are two separations of the righteous and wicked, the first when the Lord comes in the air and His believing people are caught up to meet Him, and those who are not in Christ are left behind; the second when
Friday, February 26. Matthew 13:51-58.
It is an important question that our Lord puts as He brings to a close the seven parables of the kingdom, “Have ye under stood all these things?” He is putting the same question to us today. There is only one way that we can understand the teach ing of Christ, i. e. by the Holy Spirit in terpreting that teaching to us (John 16:12-14; 1 John 2:20, 27; 5:20; I Cor. 2:14; James 1:5). The disciples said that they understood, but it is doubtful if they did (cf. Matt. 16:11; Mark 7:18; 9:31, 32; 8:15). Neither do we always understand, even when we think we do. The one who is really instructed in the kingdom will prove it by imparting the treasure toothers also (v. 52), and the truly instructed scribe does not hesitate to bring forth “old” things as well as new, neither is he afraid of the “new.” It was a great mystery to His own countrymen whence Jesus obtained His wondrous wisdom: they found no answer to the question, “Whence has this Man this wisdom and these mighty works ?” But we know the answer. He obtained it from His Father (John 12:49; 14:24). Mighty as Jesus was, there was one thing that limited the exercise of His power—man’s unbelief. Saturday, February 27. Matthew 14:1-12. The report of Jesus’ mighty words pene trated even the palace of Herod. His name was on every tongue: Herod’s guilty con science said, “It is the Holy Man you killed come back to earth.” Herod was horror-struck, but he was a shallow man and his anxiety on this score was of short duration (Luke 23:8). John had brought down upon his own head the wrath of un principled Herodias by his faithful dealing with her infamous sin. Such stern, fearless
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