Cultivate God’s secret and hidden treasure

For those of you in despair from all the gloom and doom of Matthew 13 we have reviewed the last few weeks, parable No. 5, the parable of the hidden treasure, is where we begin to see some good news.

Though much of what is called Christianity has fallen into the corruption of false doctrine, God’s program has never once even faltered. You see, in addition to being called the Kingdom of Heaven and the Church Age, the time between Christ’s two advents is also known as the times of the Gentiles.

It is called the times of the Gentiles in part because God has set aside his people, Israel, and is now focusing his redemptive work on the Gentile nations of the world. It is not that individual Jews cannot be saved during this time, for many have been and often call themselves Messianic Jews because they now profess Christ. No, they have not been excluded from salvation, but have only been set momentarily aside because, as a nation, they continue to reject the same Jesus of whom their forefathers said, “His blood be on us, and on our children” in response to Pilate’s washing his hands of the crucifixion.

My friends, God still loves the Jewish people, and they are the treasure Jesus is referring to here in verse 44. Jesus is the man who found the treasure in the field. Again, as Jesus interpreted the field to be the world in the parable of the wheat and tares, our context demands it be the same here. Thus, we can see he purchased the field in order to own the treasure, and he affected that purchase on the cross.

This is a great mystery to the Jewish people, and was to Jesus’ own disciples in the aftermath of the crucifixion as well. The assumption was that their messiah would come and restore Israel to her promised place of world dominance rather than continued subjugation under her enemies. After all, the Old Testament over and over promises this. These are known as the kingdom promises, and this is the promised Davidic kingdom. Yet, before they could realize national salvation, they first needed individual salvation, they needed their messiah to save them from their sin. What good would national salvation do if they were not washed from their sins?

Interestingly, we find that even though the field is purchased, the treasure is never realized in the parable. This is significant, for as we have said, Israel has been set aside during this kingdom period. Romans 11 says, “That blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in.”

What this means is that Israel will remain blind until the Gentiles will fulfill the prophecies given of them concerning Israel, particularly the two that will turn the Jews to Christ: 1. the defilement of the temple; and 2. the attempted genocide of the Jewish people. And the world political climate tells us these two events are not very far away.

But there is a troubling part to this parable, and that is because Israel is “hidden” from much of professing Christianity today and because of a lack of studying the Bible. There are at least two doctrinal errors you ought to be aware of, the first being known as replacement theology. This is the erroneous belief that Christianity corporate has replaced the nation of Israel with regard to its Old Testament kingdom promises.

While space does not permit a full explanation here, this is false doctrine born out of allegorical interpretation rather than accepting God’s word literally. Yet the scriptures are clear, and according to Jeremiah 31, as long as the heavenly ordinances of the sun, moon and stars remain, Israel remains secure in their kingdom position.

The second erroneous belief is known as Anglo-Israelism. This is actually just the former error with a twist, believing that the 10 lost tribes of Israel migrated to northern Europe with Great Britain and the United States being the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh, respectively. However, not only was this never substantiated by its promoters, but their focus was on the wrong tribe: Judah was given the scepter. And then there is the problem with bad geography. Again, allegorical interpretation is the culprit.

Friends, Israel is truly God’s secret and hidden treasure that shall be claimed in the not-too-far-distant future. Until the day of revealing, then, let us be careful that we not be found touching the apple of God’s eye.

Ron Hamman is pastor of Independent Baptist Church of Wasilla. Contact him at 357-4229 or ron.hamman@gci.net.