“He presented another parable to them: “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his field. It’s the smallest of all the seeds, but when grown, it’s taller than the garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the sky come and nest in its branches.” Matthew 13:31-32
The Holy Spirit, through the apostle Paul, reminds us that “God has chosen what is insignificant and despised in the world—what is viewed as nothing—to bring to nothing what is viewed as something, ” (I Corinthians 1:28) and we can absolutely see this in God’s working throughout human history. It was from one man and one woman from which the current 7.96 billion people came1.
He called Abraham to leave his relatives and promised this old, childless man, whose wife was also past the age of having kids, that he would make a great nation out of him. Abraham is the father of the Jewish nation. I don’t even have time to get into the history of this nation and how they have existed long after many of their captor nations/civilizations have ceased to exist. Small beginnings.
This is how The Almighty God chooses to work. Small beginnings but enormous outcomes. He loves to take people with negative potential, make MASSIVE promises to them, and then fulfills said promises to the utmost. He does this so that no one may boast in his presence. Abraham wasn’t a spry youth, with many kids. His promised son was as good as dead at one point, and ended up having just two sons - Jacob and Esau. 3 generations into God’s promise and I can’t help but wonder if some people weren’t scratching their heads wondering what ol’ Abraham was thinking. Abraham, however, believed God; and God was working exactly how God wanted to work. He had promised Abraham that his children would go into Egypt and within 4 generations, bring them out and into a land that would be theirs. (Genesis 15:13-16) God did just that. A large Hebrew family entered Egypt, but emerged a nation of Hebrew people, spoiling their captors as they victoriously walked out of the country being brought out by the unmistakable, mighty hand of God. Small beginnings, an old man with no children telling others that God wants him to wander from his homeland, not even knowing where he was going, with nothing but God promising that he would be the father of a great nation through whom all other nations of the world would be blessed.
Then we see the very Son of God, Jesus, the fulfillment of the promise made to both Adam (the promised one who would crush the head of the serpent) and Abraham (the seed through whom all nations of the earth would be blessed), born in a manger, in a little town of Bethlehem. He was raised in the city of Nazareth, a despised city - when being told of Jesus, Nathaniel asked "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?". (John 1:46). Mustard seed beginnings.
In less than a century, the gospel of Jesus [the sinless life, death in the place of sinful men, resurrection as the firstborn of the new creation (another promise we can hope in), and ascension to the right hand of God the Father] had permeated the known world. The small group who followed him, had gone to Jew and Gentile, in the power of The Holy Spirit, and shook the world. Many who despised Jesus and his followers were changed by His grace and devoted their life to going to others as He had come to them. The Scripture shares some of this seed's growth:
And what more can I say? Time is too short for me to tell about Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel, and the prophets, who by faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, obtained promises, shut the mouths of lions, quenched the raging of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, gained strength in weakness, became mighty in battle, and put foreign armies to flight. Women received their dead, raised to life again. Other people were tortured, not accepting release, so that they might gain a better resurrection. Others experienced mockings and scourgings, as well as bonds and imprisonment. They were stoned,[l] they were sawed in two, they died by the sword, they wandered about in sheepskins, in goatskins, destitute, afflicted, and mistreated. The world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and on mountains, hiding in caves and holes in the ground.
(Hebrews 11:32-38)
In the present time, the gospel of Jesus is still changing and shaping individual lives, families, economies, and entire nations.
This mighty-tree-of-small-beginnings has even been misused by those looking to distort anything that can get them ahead. Birds of all kinds attempt to make this tree their home. The tree isn't to be faulted if a vulture attempts to nest in it. Other's attempts to misuse and misappropriate it is to be expected. When dishonest men see the power of the truth, they will attempt to utilize it to their own self-serving, nefarious ends. I address the misuse of the gospel to dispel any notion you may have of rejecting it due to the distortion it suffers at the hands of those who despise it; and to further evidence the fact that the kingdom of God is, in fact, like a mustard seed.
This seed is right now either being sown or watered in you as you read. Only by God's Spirit will it take firm root. God calls you to respond in faith to this good news. I, along with God, invite you to believe the gospel of God because God is worthy of trust. In the past, He has done what He has said He will do. We can fully trust Him to do what He has further said He will do. He has promised reconciliation is had in Jesus. Forgiveness is extended to all who rest in Jesus. The condemnation and wrath that hangs over the head of all those who have sinned against God has been propitiated in Jesus so that everyone who rests in His finished work is no longer condemned. Jesus' righteous standing with God becomes ours, simply by believing Him; just as Abraham believed God in his mustard seed beginnings. This is the promise of God. This is the gospel of God. This is the mustard seed by which God is making all things new.
Will you rest under the shade of this tree?
1. Estimated world population as of 7-6-2022
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