“And He said to them, ‘Do
you not understand this parable? How then will you understand all the
parables?’” Mark 4:13, NKJV.
It
is essential that we, as Christians, understand the Word of the Lord in its
entirety—it is essential that we continually learn. We are not to feed solely
on the milk of the Word, for then we are but moderately strengthened; we are
not familiar with the full context and implications and are therefore incapable
of accurate application. Rather, we must proceed to the meat of the Word, and
pursue a full and accurate understanding of “all the parables.” The Lord has
fully equipped us for this task—He has sent us the Helper and opened the avenue
of prayer. We are without excuse. Jesus’ question to His disciples in Mark 4:13
has the tone of a reprimand, as though He genuinely expected His disciples to
have understood the parable and was rather disappointed that they did not. It
is as though He said to them: “Children, you ought to understand this, for it
is simple, and there are a great many deeper things I am eager to teach you.”
How many blessings of wisdom we miss when we neglect study and prayer, and
choose, rather, to cling to a few basic concepts we ought to have understood
and built upon long ago! The Lord is, indeed, eager to reveal many things to
us—let us not prefer ignorance.
“And He said, ‘The kingdom of God is as if a man
should scatter seed on the ground, and should sleep by night and rise by day,
and the seed should sprout and grow, he himself does not know how. For the
earth yields crops by itself: first the blade, then the head, after that the
full grain in the head. But when the grain ripens, immediately he puts in the
sickle, because the harvest has come.’ Then He said, ‘To what shall we liken
the kingdom of God? Or with what parable shall we picture it? It is like a
mustard seed which, when it is sown on the ground, is smaller than all the
seeds on earth; but when it is sown, it grows up and becomes greater than all
the herbs, and shoots out large branches, so that the birds of the air may nest
under its shade,” Mark 4:26-32, NKJV.
The kingdom of God flourishes by the power of the Holy
Spirit—“we ourselves do not know how.” It is our immense privilege, as sinners
saved by grace, to plant the mustard seed—a task which may seem small and
ordinary enough at first—but the Holy Spirit shall see that the seed sprouts
and grows, flourishes and yields a crop. We shall awake one day and find a
harvest ready to be gathered in, or a great tree sprung up from, as we thought,
bare earth—if we do not despise the labor, however menial, God has assigned to
us, but rejoice in it, knowing that the Holy Spirit will make much of it.
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