PARABLES OF THE KINGDOM – THE THIRD - THE MUSTARD SEED - PART 1 of 4
[1]. INTRODUCTION
So far we have considered the Sower, and the Tares and the Wheat, but now we come to a new one. This might be a challenge for you if you only know the accepted meaning. It is most revealing.
We now come to the Parable of the Mustard Seed.
The mustard seed is the third Parable of the Kingdom. The parable has a cousin about a mustard seed but it totally unrelated – {{Matthew 17:20 and He said to them, “Because of the littleness of your faith, for truly I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed you shall say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it shall move and nothing shall be impossible to you.”}}
When you read this you may find things you have not heard of before. That will be because for more than 500 years the wrong teaching has been applied to this parable, just as it is to the next one, the leaven. (I don’t mean to be pompous in any way). We should examine scripture in full context, not just accept something someone came up with a long time ago and it remains unchallenged.
We saw in the first two parables that each has its own meaning, then a double application to one of the Churches of Asia Minor to whom John wrote in Revelation 2 and 3; and there is also the application to Church History. Pergamon or Pergamum does the same. I will use the second spelling.
The parable is brief – {{Matthew 13:31-32 He presented another parable to them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed which a man took and sowed in his field, and this is smaller than all other seeds, but when it is full grown it is larger than the garden plants, and becomes a tree so that the birds of the air come and nest in its branches.”}}
[2]. WHAT IS A MUSTARD SEED?
The parable Jesus gave does mention a tree but that is not botanically correct. Jesus mentioned a tree for a deliberate reason and we will see why He did that.
A condiment is made from the pungent seeds of the mustard plant. The mustard seed belongs to two main herbs of the family Brassicaceae. The principal seed types are white, or yellow, (Sinapis alba); a plant of Mediterranean origin, is probable the one Jesus refers to. Other varieties have brown seeds. Mustard seed was used medicinally by Hippocrates, among other ancient physicians. The seeds are nearly globular in shape, finely pitted, odourless when whole, and pungent-tasting.
[3]. AN OVERVIEW OF THE PARABLE
(a). A man sowed a mustard seed. He would hardly do that just for one seed but it is ONE SEED the Lord focuses on. This (these) seed/s were sown in a field. We may well ask, “What is the field and what does it represent?” Here is the first mention of “field” in Chapter 13 – {{Matthew 13:24 He presented another parable to them saying, “The kingdom of heaven may be compared with a man who sowed good seed IN HIS FIELD.”}}
The Sower was connected with the field; the tares grew up in a field; a treasure was in a field. What does this field represent? From the parable of the Sower we can deduce that as the Lord is the Sower, then the field is the world. The good seed of the gospel went into the world (Matthew 28:19), where figuratively the field represented the world.
Therefore all that pertains to this mustard parable must be related to the world, the whole world.
(b). The contrast. We have that contrast made between the mustard seed and the outcome which Jesus called a tree. The mustard seed is not tiny – many seeds are much smaller, but what the Lord is doing is making a contrast. That is, the size of the seed compared with what the seed became.
Typically, the mustard plant grows between 3 to 6 feet in height. Some are recorded a bit higher to around 10 feet but that is uncommon, and certainly not the mustard of the Middle East; it is from Asia, darker seeds. However you look at it, the seed grows to a plant, NOT to a tree. The big question is why did Jesus call it a tree.
(c). What did the tree become? This specimen Jesus was referring to became what the garden plants did not become. It became a tree. {{“but when it is FULL GROWN it is larger than the garden plants, and becomes a tree so that THE BIRDS OF THE AIR come and NEST in its branches.”}}. In other words this plant became what was not intended. It became a monstrosity of great size.
Very popular now are science fiction movies of gigantic things of nature causing havoc. Be those spiders, sharks, scorpions, octopi and almost anything you can think of. The titles are numerous, hundreds of them. Well this one could be called, “The giant mustard Tree.” It grew up into a monstrosity. And if it is a monstrosity, how can it be interpreted as the gospel and people finding refuge in it? Simply, it cant!
(d). What it harboured? This tree, it is said, nested the birds of the air. Not just did the birds infiltrate its branches, but they nested there, or in other words, took up residency and remained. They remain today, part of the monstrosity.
[4]. EXPANDING THE PARABLE FURTHER
In the first two Parables of the Kingdom, Jesus gave the interpretation, but in the following 5 of them He did not explain them. Please note that these 7 parables are a progression, and not parables in isolation. I hope you have seen that so far in the Sower and the Tares. The Mustard Seed follows on.
Before we do that, one thing has to be established:-
[5]. WHAT ARE THE BIRDS OF THE AIR REALLY AND WHY ARE THEY MENTIONED?
In scripture, types are always consistent. For example, white is always purity and cleanliness. Blue speaks of heavenly. Flood speaks of judgement as does brass/bronze and fire. In the next parable, leaven is ALWAYS evil.
We know what the type means for any object that is used more than once, through biblical usage. Let us look at the term “birds of the air”. This can also be written as “birds of the sky,” and even just “birds” in context.
(a). {{Genesis 15:9-12 He said to him, “Bring Me a three year old heifer and a three year old female goat and a three year old ram and a turtledove and a young pigeon.” Then he brought all these to Him and cut them in two, and laid each half opposite the other, but he did not cut the birds. THE BIRDS OF PREY CAME DOWN UPON THE CARCASSES, AND ABRAM DROVE THEM AWAY. Now when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram and behold, terror and great darkness fell upon him.}}
I do not want to elaborate too much on these to take up too much space but birds of prey are considered very often as the birds of the sky as we will see. They are never used in a good sense.
(b). {{Genesis 40:16-19 When the chief baker saw that he had interpreted favourably, he said to Joseph, “I also saw in my dream, and behold, there were three baskets of white bread on my head and in the top basket there were some of all sorts of baked food for Pharaoh, and THE BIRDS were eating them out of the basket on my head.” Then Joseph answered and said, “This is its interpretation: the three baskets are three days. Within three more days Pharaoh will lift up your head from you and will hang you on a tree; and THE BIRDS WILL EAT YOUR FLESH off you.”}}
Here we have just birds that were eating the baked food, but the outcome was the baker’s destruction, for the birds were not doing the right thing. The birds of the air were not good but did evilly.
(c). {{Deuteronomy 28:25-26 “The LORD will cause you to be defeated before your enemies. You shall go out one way against them, but you shall flee seven ways before them, and you shall be an example of terror to all the kingdoms of the earth. Your carcasses shall be food to all BIRDS OF THE SKY and to the beasts of the earth, and there shall be no one to frighten them away.”}}
Birds of the sky/air were promised for the Jewish nation if it turned away from God into idolatry. It means bad would come to them in judgement. Evil would befall them.
(d). {{1 Samuel 17:43-44 and the Philistine said to David, “Am I a dog, that you come to me with sticks?” and the Philistine cursed David by his gods. The Philistine also said to David, “Come to me, and I will give your flesh to THE BIRDS OF THE SKY and the beasts of the field.”}}
The birds of the sky/air were NEVER used in the good sense. They stood for evil and badness in what they were. We should be seeing that so far. Goliath would be in league with the evil ones of the air. They are alike in their aims.
(e). {{2 Samuel 21:10 “Rizpah the daughter of Aiah took sackcloth and spread it for herself on the rock, from the beginning of harvest until it rained on them from the sky and she allowed neither THE BIRDS OF THE SKY to rest on them by day nor the beasts of the field by night.”}}
The birds of the sky/air were the spoilers. There was nothing good about them. They brought distress. What Rizpah had, she had to protect from what was evil. Resting is the first step to nesting which is what the birds of the air in the parable were doing.
(f). {{1 Kings 14:11 “Anyone belonging to Jeroboam who dies in the city the dogs will eat and he who dies in the field THE BIRDS OF THE HEAVENS will eat for the LORD has spoken it.”’}}
This is again the indication of judgement and what is unclean and evil. These birds of the sky/air are nearly always unclean birds of prey. It is similar in this parable in Matthew.
(g). Ezekiel 31:13 “On its ruin all THE BIRDS OF THE HEAVENS will dwell and all the beasts of the field will be on its fallen branches”}}
Ezekiel speaks of the destruction of Assyria and birds of the heavens are always associated with destruction or evil or with what was bad. This is used in the “type” sense. Birds of the sky/air are also associated with death. We have seen that usage in 6 sections so far as the types are consistent in the bible. I made sure I gave multiple references to stress the point. Just to conclude the Old Testament references I will give three more quotes without comment:-
{{Jeremiah 7:33 “And the dead bodies of this people will be food for THE BIRDS OF THE SKY, and for the beasts of the earth; and no one will frighten them away.”}}
{{Jeremiah 15:3 “And I shall appoint over them four kinds of doom,” declares the LORD: “the sword to slay, the dogs to drag off, and THE BIRDS OF THE SKY and the beasts of the earth to devour and destroy.”}}
{{Ezekiel 29:5 “I shall abandon you to the wilderness, you and all the fish of your rivers. You will fall on the open field. You will not be brought together or gathered. I have given you for food to the beasts of the earth and to THE BIRDS OF THE SKY.”}}
In answer to the question about what are the birds of the air, we can say categorically that these birds are never seen in a good light, and are evil. They represent what is bad. In biblical consistency you can not say that in all cases the type means bad, but in Matthew it means good. That does not work. The birds of the air are bad and soon we will see why. The next question about why they are mentioned, that is really important, and we delve into the church it represents and the connection with Church History as we did with the first two parables.
The birds are unclean and do not lead to good. You just can not transfer the birds to say they are people finding refuge in salvation or finding comfort in the gospel, or anything like that. Even the birds in the parable of the Sower were up to no good.
