reply to post by Lazarus Short
Matthew 13
10 The disciples came to him and asked, “Why do you speak to the people in parables?”
11 He replied, “Because the knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them. 12 Whoever has will be given
more, and they will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them. 13 This is why I speak to them in
parables:
“Though seeing, they do not see;
though hearing, they do not hear or understand.
Reduce to the root meaning. Kingdom is a place that you occupy for a purpose. It is made up of a multitude of forms that are individually a kingdom.
Your body is your kingdom of 50 trillion cells. My laptop is a kingdom of processors and various parts that make it what it is by function and
purpose. Consider what Jesus means that the kingdom is within you and outside of you and all around you, like a vienyard; like a sower that went out
to sow; like a mustard seed; like yeast; like a treasure hidden; like a merchant looking for fine pearls; like a net cast into the sea to catch fine
fish and like the owner of a house who brings out of his storeroom new treasures as well as old.
First, define the symbols to root meaning, then reduce the symbols to higher unifying symbols and you have your answer. Ask a question in the form of
a riddle and your mind will do the work for you.
What is like a landowner hiring workers to labor in a vineyard, like sowing seed for a harvest, like a mustard seed that grows large, like yeast that
is hidden, yet expands to a larger loaf, like a treasure hidden, like a merchant looking for pearls, like a net cast into the sea to catch fine fish
and like the owner of a house who brings out new treasures?
We are sowing seed, planting for a harvest, looking for treasure and expanding to new growth.
We are planting, harvesting and expecting return on the investment.
We are planted in a place where we can grow to be a return on the investment.
Who is the land owner? Who are the workers? What is the return?
PtahHotep, 5th Dyansty
"Be not arrogant because of that which you know; deal with the ignorant as with the learned; for the barriers of art are not closed, no artist being
in possession of the perfection to which he should aspire. But good words are more difficult to find than the emerald, for it is by slaves that that
is discovered among the rocks of pegmatite."
A slave is a laborer. In Israel, the laborers were paid and were not enslaved. We are slaves in our jobs in the same manner. The King (Landowner)
hired the servants. In some cases, the servants were working of a debt or paying for a crime. Every seven years, they were released and debts
cancelled. According to the Jubilee laws, a kinsman could redeem a slave. The slave then transferred ownership and became bonded to the redeemer.
We are the slaves digging for the emerald. Once found, we are then transferred to new ownership and bonded for good works to pay our freedom.
Baptism is immersion into the water of life for repentance. We are here to dig pearls. The pearls we find expand us and enlarge our increase and
fruit. We are here to produce. The King also benefits and infinity expands.
How do we rule our own kingdom? If we rule by the WORD (Emeralds / Seeds / Treasure / Increasing Agents), we produce. If we take, debt is created.
The thief is the one that loses his own kingdom. The Kingdom of God is like the one that expands and finds hidden treasure. The kingdom of God
expands and produces. It never takes.
God's will is to give and receive. Taking makes us a thief. If you smoke, you get cancer. This is because a debt was taken on and we suffered
because of it. If we flip this, we suffer toward the thing we desire. Work out in a gym and receive more health. Suffering creates reward. The
kingdom of God gives.
The answer is: The Kingdom of God is like the one that gives.
edit on 20-11-2012 by EnochWasRight because: (no reason given)