“A Mystery.” - Comments (3)

Category: Articles
Author: John Malone
Date: 14th March, 2018 @ 08:39:53 AM

There are many mysteries in Scripture. Just remember that a “mystery” is a secret, and a disclosed secret at that.

Look at one of them, from Matthew 13, the key chapter to the key book of the New Testament, where seven mysteries line up.

Matthew 13:44
“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto treasure hid in a field; the which when a man hath found, he hideth, and for joy thereof goeth and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that field.”

This secret is 5th in a sequence of seven, the purpose of this writing is not the systematic teaching of these seven that each disclose a secret in the unfolding of the kingdom of the heavens.

(For that full treatment, see the free audio messages.

But here we have:
– a hidden treasure,
– a field
– a man who finds & hides the treasure
– who, for joy, sells ALL
who buys THE FIELD.

When we think of a treasure hidden in a field, for which a man buys the field, paying a precious price, our minds may well run to the instance of the death of Sarah, and the dealings around that death by Abraham.

The transaction we are looking at is the purchase by Abraham of a chosen field, owned by Ephron of Zohar of the children of Heth, in which was the cave of Machpelah.

This transaction covers the entire chapter 23 of Genesis, and is well worth reading.

Yet it isn’t until chapter 49 of Genesis, well beyond Abraham’s own death, that the significance of that purchase is known, in the words of Joseph, Abraham’s great grandson, the favorite son of Jacob:

Genesis 49:29-32
“And he (Jacob) charged them, and said unto them, I am to be gathered unto my people: bury me with my fathers in the cave that is in the field of Ephron the Hittite,

In the cave that is in the field of Machpelah, which is before Mamre, in the land of Canaan, which Abraham bought with the field of Ephron the Hittite for a possession of a burying place.

There they buried Abraham and Sarah his wife; there they buried Isaac and Rebekah his wife; and there I buried Leah.

The purchase of the field and of the cave that is therein was from the children of Heth.”

Especially look at v. 31 which described who is buried in that cave:
I-saac
S-arah
R-ebekah
A-braham
L-eah
And lastly, Israel himself, whose name was formed by the acrostic.

The name of Israel himself hidden in that cave, as it were, a treasure – Israel – hidden in the field, which, as the previous (2nd) parable clearly taught, is the world.

This makes Abraham a type of Jesus Christ in his purchase, as Jesus Christ is the man Who “sold all he had” at the cross, and purchased the field – the world – in order to secure for himself his special treasure, Israel.

By the way, not that nation over there today, formed and abiding in unbelief. When Jesus Christ hides his treasure, it remains hidden.

Herein, we learn one of the secrets of the kingdom of the heavens, and it is concerning Israel.

Today, the Israel of God is a remnant “according to the election of grace (Romans 11:5),” hidden in the )field) world so that it will survive.

Today is yet the day of grace where God commands all men everywhere – Jew and Gentile alike – to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.