18. The Kingdom Parables – The Fifth – The Hidden Treasure – Part 2 of 4
In Part 2 we will expand the meaning of the Parable of the Hidden Treasure and look also at the Second Coming of the Lord.
[F]. THE PLACEMENT OF THIS PARABLE IN SCRIPTURE
This is most interesting. The Hidden Treasure follows on straight after these verses:-
{{Matthew 13:41 “THE SON OF MAN WILL SEND FORTH HIS ANGELS, and they will gather out of His kingdom all stumbling blocks, and those who commit lawlessness,
Matthew 13:42 and will cast them into the furnace of fire; in that place there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Matthew 13:43 “THEN THE RIGHTEOUS WILL SHINE FORTH AS THE SUN in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear.”}}
Those verses are concluding the explanation of the Parable of the Tares. That judgement happens at the end of the age – {{Matthew 13:39 “and the enemy who sowed them is the devil, AND THE HARVEST IS THE END OF THE AGE, and the reapers are angels.”}}
It is the judgement that comes to separate out of the Kingdom, all that is wicked. In verses 41 and 42, the wicked are gathered up and thrown into hell to await the great white throne judgement. That is equivalent to the judgement of the sheep and goat nations at the Second Coming.
When Jesus returns, the angels will gather the wicked, the goats and all unrighteousness, but the sheep remain to enter the Kingdom over which the Messiah, the Son of Man, will rule.
Now the placement is the Second Coming when Messiah returns for His righteous people (those of Matthew 13:43). It is the very same coming as described here in these two verses:-
{{Acts 1:11 and they also said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into the sky? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, WILL COME IN JUST THE SAME WAY as you have watched Him go into heaven.”}} (Jesus ascended from the Mount of Olives).
{{Zechariah 14:4 “And IN THAT DAY HIS FEET WILL STAND ON THE MOUNT OF OLIVES, which is in front of Jerusalem on the east; and the Mount of Olives will be split in its middle from east to west by a very large valley, so that half of the mountain will move toward the north and the other half toward the south.”}} (This is Messiah’s return to the Mount of Olives).
[G]. NOTE! CONNECTING THE DOTS!
When Jesus returns to His people, Israel (His Church comes with Him, having been in heaven for that period of 7 years), then the righteous shall shine as Matthew 13:43 says. This language is similar to what Malachi wrote: - {{Malachi 4:1 “For behold, the day is coming, burning like a furnace; and all the arrogant and EVERY EVILDOER WILL BE CHAFF; and the day that is coming will set them ABLAZE,” says the LORD of hosts, “so that it will leave them neither root nor branch.”
Malachi 4:2 “But for you who fear My name THE SUN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS WILL RISE with healing in its wings; and you will go forth and skip about like calves from the stall.”}}
The Second Coming is not for the Church. The Church was taken away 7 years earlier to heaven in the Rapture. This second Coming is the Lord/Messiah, with the Church, coming to Israel, to the Mount of Olives. At the Second Coming the angels gather all lawlessness and wickedness out of the Kingdom and will cast them into the furnace of fire; Malachi says all evildoers will be as chaff to be set ablaze. Matthew speaks about the righteous shining forth. Malachi speaks about the Sun of Righteousness coming, and HIS PEOPLE ISRAEL will shine forth and skip about like calves.
At the Second Coming, what has been HIDDEN in the world (the field) – THAT IS Israel, THAT HAS BEEN PURCHASED – Messiah who has bought the field (the world) through His atoning sacrifice, will lift His precious treasure from the hidden regions of all nations, and will bring them together to Israel. It is then that He retrieves His treasure He purchased when he bought the field (world).
This following passage is the Son of Man “digging up His purchased treasure” when He comes to claim the Jewish saints at the Second Coming -? {{Isaiah 43:4-7 Since you are PRECIOUS IN MY SIGHT, since you are honoured and I love you, I will give other men in your place and other peoples in exchange for your life. Do not fear for I am with you. I will bring your offspring from the EAST and gather you from the WEST. I will say to the NORTH, ‘Give them up!’ and to the SOUTH, ‘Do not hold them back.’ BRING MY SONS FROM AFAR AND MY DAUGHTERS from the ends of the earth, everyone who is called by My name and whom I have created for My glory, whom I have formed, even whom I have made.”}}. The context of that passage is 100% Israel. Gentiles can not be inserted into it.
Remember, the field is the whole world. North, south, east, west! The treasure will be retrieved, for it was bought at the cross, purchased at a huge sum when Jesus left His glory and heaven behind (figuratively “sold everything”) to come into the world.
The righteous are the redeemed Jews who will come through the Tribulation period and into the Kingdom over which Christ will reign (with His Church – {{Revelation 5:10 “and You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to our God, and they will reign upon the earth.”}} ). We saw that happening at the end of the Parable of the Tares. Now the hidden treasure parable FOLLOWS STRAIGHT ON FROM THAT and will tell us more about these righteous ones.
What this parable teaches us is that Jesus has His own special treasure, His earthly people, Israel, descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. He has ensured they are hidden in this world in the sense of “kept till an appointed time”. He purchased that field (the whole world – John 3:16) and by doing that, He has also redeemed that treasure.
It remains hidden, but when the righteous shall shine forth as the sun (Matthew 13:43) and when the Lord prepares His own possession and spares them, then they will no longer be hidden, but the whole world will recognise them as God’s possession, and yearly will go to Jerusalem in that glorious Kingdom age Zechariah tells us of. {{Zechariah 14:16 “Then it will come about that any who are left of all the nations that went against Jerusalem [[That is the battle of Zechariah 12:2-3 and Zechariah 14:2-4]] will go up from year to year to WORSHIP THE KING, THE LORD OF HOSTS, and to celebrate the Feast of Booths.”}}
Today we are in the times of the Gentiles but those times are about to close. Why do you think so much focus these past years in the media is on Israel? It is like it is the centre of the world’s attention. That is because the shift is coming. The times of the Gentiles has reached its fullness and the Lord is about to remove the Gentile Church.
THEN the hidden treasure of Israel will become the focus of the whole earth and Zechariah 14 tells us (Just one verse – {{Zechariah 14:9 “And the LORD will be King over all the earth. In that day the LORD will be the only one, and His name the only one.”}} that the whole earth will honour the TREASURE that has been hidden for so long.
Paul wrote this – {{Romans 11:25 “For I do not want you, brethren, to be uninformed of this mystery, lest you be wise in your own estimation, that a partial hardening has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in.”}}
Israel is the LORD’S treasured possession in the earth and these verses suggest that as well:-
{{Exodus 19:5 “Now then, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then YOU SHALL BE MY OWN POSSESSION AMONG ALL THE PEOPLES, FOR ALL THE EARTH IS MINE”}}
{{Psalm 135:4 “The LORD has chosen Jacob for Himself, Israel for HIS OWN POSSESSION.”}}
{{Malachi 3:17 “And they will be Mine,” says the LORD of hosts, “ON THE DAY THAT I PREPARE MY OWN POSSESSION, and I will spare them as a man spares his own son who serves him.”}}
The treasure that is His - He will claim that treasure (Israel) at the right time. What is the right time? The Lord said this, {{“Matthew 6:21 “for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.”}} The Merchant’s heart is always for His earthly people; they are not forgotten. The right time is His return at the Second Coming.
In the next message we look at the Second Coming in more detail and then study the church from Revelation 3 that fits this parable. It is a parable to feast on!
