The Hidden Treasure
Text: Matthew 13:44
Introduction: We turn now to the fifth in this series of Kingdom Parables, and interestingly this parable marks a turning point in Jesus’ discourse. So far He has been detailing the development of Christendom, showing how the world is largely unfavourable to the gospel, how Satan has his plants within it, how the church became something other than it was intended to be, and how that not only deviance externally but also internally, particularly with reference to the doctrine of Christ. These parables He preached to the whole multitude, but after the fourth Parable he spoke to His disciples alone – vs 36.
You will be pleased to hear that for the moment at least His message is a little more positive. He speaks now of a Hidden Treasure. The common interpretation of this parable goes like this: the treasure in is "the Gospel" or “Christ”; the field in which the treasure is hidden is "the World"; and the man who sought and found the treasure is "an elect and awakened sinner." However popular these views are, there are problems with it.
First of all, in this parable the man finds the treasure. If we say the treasure is Christ and the man the elect we have the curious thought that Christ is lost and man has found Him. But actually that is a total reversal of Biblical truth, the truth is that man is lost and Christ finds Him! I find it amazing that Calvinists would hold to the notion that a lost man, dead in his trespasses and sins finds Christ. I know people often speak of finding the Lord, and whilst we understand what they are saying, the truth is that Christ was never lost! He found us! The Son of man came to seek and to save that which was lost.
Secondly, in this parable the man sells all he has to secure the treasure. This smells a little man-centred to me, it suggests some work on the part of man in coming to Christ. But again we know that salvation is of the Lord, the work is His, not ours.
Thirdly, is the idea that the gospel or Christ is hid. Well, we already debunked any notion of the gospel being hid when we discussed the Parable of the Leaven. Now, to say that Christ is hidden is some way seems also to be at odds with what we know of Him. From the way we date history, through to the celebration of Christmas and Easter it is hard to say that Christ is hidden in some way. He is, by far, the most famous, and foremost personality in the history of the world. He is not a hidden treasure. He is not in hiding. Paul says He is not far from every one of us. He is the Saviour of the world. As such He is willing to have all men to be saved and to come on to the knowledge of the truth. Hardly, the work of some mystery man or recluse.
Fourthly, when the man had found this treasure he hid it again! "The which when a man has found, he hideth." If the treasure represents the Gospel or Christ and the field be the world, and if the man who is seeking the treasure be an awakened sinner, then our parable teaches that God requires the awakened sinner, after he has found peace and obtained salvation, to go out and hide it in the world! What an absurdity. The Lord plainly told us to let our light, so shine before men that they might see our good works and glorify our Father which is in heaven.
So let’s take a fresh look at this Parable and see what we find.
The problems it would seem are insurmountable. This parable is not a picture of a sinner finding Jesus and doing what it takes to receive Him. Let us begin by identifying two elements of the Parable right away.
1. The "Field" – The field is mentioned in two of the preceding parables: the field in which the good Seed was sown, and the field that was over-sown by tares.
a.Verse 38 of this chapter tells us the field is the world
b. So, why would the field means something entirely different in this fifth parable of the same chapter?
2. The Man - Again, we have already had a "man" before us in the first two parables: a man who sowed good Seed in his field (v. 24). The Lord Jesus Himself has told us who that man is: "He that sows the good seed is the Son of man" (v. 37).
a. If, then, the man in the second parable represents the Son of man, why, in this fifth parable, without any word to the contrary, are we to understand Him to point to someone entirely different?
3. No, we can readily identify these two elements of this parable without so much as breaking a sweat.
4. But what of the third element – the treasure?
I. The Prize He Sought
A. If we allow scripture to interpret scripture there will be no difficulty whatever in discovering what this "hidden treasure" signifies.
1. See Exodus 19:5, "Now therefore, if ye will obey My voice it was the house of Jacob, the children of Israel that was addressed and keep My covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is Mine” corresponding with "the field" in which the "treasure" is found!
2. See Deuteronomy 14:2, "For thou art a holy people unto the Lord thy God and the Lord has chosen thee to be a peculiar treasure unto Himself" (Deut. 14:2).
3. See Psalm 135:4, "For the Lord has chosen Jacob unto Himself, and Israel for His peculiar treasure" (Ps. 135:4).
4. These passages have no reference at all to the saints of this present dispensation, or to the church that is the body of Christ, but speak of the earthly Israel according to the flesh. They are God’s treasure on earth, His earthly elect people. Confirmation of this definition of the "treasure" in our parable is found in the fact that never once in the twenty-one Epistles in the New Testament is the word "treasure" used of the Church! It is never applied to the saints of this present dispensation.
B. So, having identified the symbols, what is the message of the parable? Well, bear in mind this is a “kingdom parable” and its parameters have been set for that period of time between Christ’s first coming and His second. This parable we know is speaking about Israel. So what is the story of Israel during the kingdom period?
C. Now the first thing we are told in Matthew 13:44 about this treasure is that it was hid in a field, and the field was "the world" (see v. 38). “The kingdom of heaven is like unto treasure hid in a field…”
1. This is precisely the condition in which God’s earthly elect people were found at the beginning of His dealings with them.
2. The parable starts with the treasure hid in the field, and the Old Testament begins with Israel hidden in the field!
a. Who was the father of Israel according to the flesh? Abraham.
b. Go back to the starting-point in Abraham’s life. Where was he when God’s hand was first laid upon him?
c. Was he living in separation from the idolatrous people around him?
d. No, he was hidden away among them as one of them!
3. Take a later point in their early history. After Abraham came Isaac, and after Isaac Jacob, and where did Jacob end up?
a. Away from the Promised Land, an exile in Padan-aram, working for an unprincipled godless Gentile for that is virtually what Laban was.
b. So Jacob was hidden there among all the servants of Laban, with nothing to indicate that he was chosen of God.
D. Proceed a little further. Abraham’s and Jacob’s descendants have become a a great nation, and they number around two million souls.
1. Where are they to be found?
a. Working in the brick-kilns of Egypt, a company of slaves. What was there to distinguish them?
b. What is Egypt – always a type of the world.
c. What was there to indicate that they were God’s peculiar treasure? Nothing, again, the treasure was "hidden."
d. This is part and parcel of the character of Israel.
E. We think now of the one figure, besides Abraham, who more than any other symbolises Israel – Moses, leader of the Exodus, and synonymous with the Law.
1. What do we find in Moses? All his life he is a hidden man.
a. Hidden in the house – Heb 11:23
b. Hidden in the Nile – Exodus 2:3
c. Hidden in the desert – Exodus 3:1
d. Hidden in the mount – Exodus 32:1
e. Hidden in the wilderness – Exodus 15:22
f. Hidden in the Rock – Exodus 33:22
g. Hidden in the Grave – Deuteronomy – 34:6
II. The Plot He Bought
A. When Jesus came to earth 2,000 years ago what did He find?
1. A hidden treasure that had been lost in this world.
2. They were living under the iron fist of the Roman Empire, but the Jewish nation was not as it was in the days of Moses in Egypt. The sons of Jacob were in their own land. They had their own temple; the priesthood was still intact
3. The "finding" of the "treasure" by Christ refers to the days of His earthly ministry.
a. We are told in John 1:11, "He came unto His own;" that does not mean His own spiritually, for we read, "His own received Him not." It was His own people according to the flesh.
b. As He said to the Syropheonician woman in Matthew 15:24, "I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel."
c. Christ, the Man, came to Israel, the Jews. His ministry was confined unto them.
d. The "treasure" was "found” it was no longer hidden when Christ came here. And it was to them, this Man, Christ, came.
B. So having made this “discovery” what did He do?
1. “And for joy thereof goeth and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that field.”
2. He determined to redeem them. But he didn’t just redeem them, the Jews, He paid the price for us also, for the Gentiles. In other words He bought the field – the world.
a. John 3:16
b. He “selleth all that he hath”, that is He gave everything up for a world of lost sinners.
c. He did what the rich young ruler couldn’t do, he sold all that He had and gave to the poor.
d. Jesus gave everything He had…He emptied Himself and died for us! He was rich and became poor for our sake, so that we might be made rich in Him. Truly, Jesus paid it all, and He paid for all of it.
a. 1 John 2:2
III. The Plan He Wrought
A. Now the thing that is most interesting about this parable is what he did with the treasure He found.
1. Notice he hid it again – “…the which when a man hath found, he hideth…”
2. Where did He hide it? In the field He had bought.
3. In other words Israel was once again, just as at their outset, hidden among the Gentiles.
B. Remember the wider context of Matthew 13. Remember what was before us in the 12th of Matthew.
1. In Matthew 12 Christ presented Himself to the Jews and the Jews rejected Him, and because of their rejection He rejected them, pronounced sentence of doom upon them the evil spirit coming back and taking with him seven other spirits more wicked than himself, "Even so shall it be also unto this wicked generation."
2. Then at the close of the chapter Christ intimated He would no longer acknowledge any bond or tie, any kinship except a spiritual one, “Whosoever shall do the will of My Father": it was Christ severing the link which, according to the flesh, bound Him to Israel.
C. So here in the parable: first we have the treasure hid in the field: that was Israel’s condition at the beginning of their national history in Old Testament times. Second, we have the Man coming to the treasure: that was the earthly ministry of Christ. Third, we have the treasure hid once more: that was Christ’s rejection of Israel.
1. The "hiding" of the treasure referred to the last dispersion and scattering of the Jews throughout the whole earth.
a. See Zephaniah 2:3
b. Zephaniah (The “Lord has hidden” or the “Lord’s treasured”) speaks of the coming Day of the Lord, a time of worldwide retribution when the redeemed of Israel shall be saved from judgment.
2. The treasure was concealed yet again, His attention as turning now to the Gentiles.
a. See Paul’s commentary Romans 11:11-12 & 15.
3. Concerning Israel He said, “Ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.” (Matt 23:39).
a. And so it has been throughout the church age.
4. And, so effectually has He "hidden" the treasure that the tribes are still lost to this day, their scattered people even yet living in many countries the world over, and more Jews even now living outside of Israel than inside it.
Conclusion: So Israel having been scattered and hidden among the nations what would God do now. The Kingdom being put on hold, what happens in the mean time. Now, we come to the Pearl of Great Price. Hopefully you have figured it out. Israel is not replaced, she is merely reserved, and God will resume His programme with her once again. But in the meantime He turns His attention to another group of people altogether, - the church.
