Day 17: Matthew 13:1-32
Today's evening devotion is Matthew 13:1-32, which documents three parables Jesus taught: the parable of the sower, the parable of the weeds, and the parable of the mustard seed.
Whether everyone in today's world can be saved is a question I've asked for a long time, and I've always wanted the answer to be "yes". However, I don't think this is the case.
In the time of Jesus, even though Jesus works many miracles and teaches his followers directly, not every one of them will be saved.
The struggle between those who can hear and those cannot hear the words of God seems to be the way of life until Satan is cast into the lake of fire and sulfur (Re 20:10).
Can everyone be saved?
Whether everyone in today's world can be saved is a question I've asked for a long time, and I've always wanted the answer to be "yes". However, I don't think this is the case.
In the time of Jesus, even though Jesus works many miracles and teaches his followers directly, not every one of them will be saved.
Then the disciples came and said to him, “Why do you speak to them in parables?” And he answered them, “To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given. For to the one who has, more will be given, and he will have an abundance, but from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. (Matthew 13:10-12 ESV)
The struggle between those who can hear and those cannot hear the words of God seems to be the way of life until Satan is cast into the lake of fire and sulfur (Re 20:10).
The kingdom of heaven is under construction
The parable of the mustard seed seems to imply that the kingdom of heaven is still under construction, meaning that God is not yet ready to reveal it to the world.
He put another parable before them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his field. It is the smallest of all seeds, but when it has grown it is larger than all the garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.” (Matthew 13:31-32 ESV)
The way I see the parable is that once the mustard tree is grown, meaning that once the kingdom of heaven is ready, God's faithful servants will be allowed to settle in the kingdom as birds would make nests in a grown mustard tree.