Question: What does it mean when Jesus says that the Kingdom of God is like a treasure hidden in a field and like a merchant finding one Pearl of great price that he sells all things and buys it? How much value to a human is the Kingdom of God?
Answer: Greetings in Jesus wonderful name!
We know every time Jesus speaks about something in parables, those are really kingdom realities of heaven which he tries to explain it to human understanding to make them grasp through earthly imagery which we can all easily understand. But yet all these things can only be fully understood by the true seeker of God and disciple of Jesus, to others the spiritual secrets will be hidden from them as they will only hear a good story or a little bit of intellectual stimulation for their soul (Matt 13:10-17).
Every time Jesus likens something to something else, it is Jesus already being the reality and truth of Heaven and its Kingdom, is trying to make people understand it, using earthly stories and examples so that saved people who follow him as disciplined disciples can understand the mysteries of heaven. And those who have come to seek for their earthly needs and temporary solution without having a serious intention to sacrificially follow him as disciple are screened off from the real blessings of heaven. So we know that God is good to all people on earth to provide their temporal needs (Matt 5:45), but He is eternally good only to those of His children who follow him by dying to their own will and living to do their Heavenly Father's will in their lives (1 John 2:17; Heb 12:6-8).
So these Parables that Jesus spoke are very important to our lives to learn faith concepts that will lift our belief from earthly realm to the heavenly realm of the Spirit. The mysteries of the Kingdom of God are kept secret to everyone on earth except His children who love Him at all times (Prov 17:17; John 15:15). What a privilege we have to know the secret of the Kingdom as God's children, truly we are the most blessed (Matt 13:17, 16).
Nowadays we see no one is interested in Parables, and especially of Jesus' parables, why? Because the world we live doesn't have the perseverance to seek God intensely and look for the mysteries of the Kingdom which cannot be given to the curious bystanders. In this world of instant food, happiness, entertainment, sex and comfort, that the world around us is seeking for, God is looking for disciplined and serious children of His who are not just seeking to know the mysteries of heaven but more than that sacrificially live on earth the life of heaven for the Glory of God. So what are we waiting for? Sacrifice for God and His Kingdom until it hurts, then seek to be a serious follower and a disciple and a student of the words of Jesus to practice them in your daily life, and spread the same belief to all those around you, and thus be a follower of Him. Praise the Lord!
THE PARABLE OF THE HIDDEN TREASURE
Matt 13:44 - "Again, the kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and hid; and for joy over it he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field."
The heart of the human is compared to a garden or a field in the Bible both in the Old Testament and in the New Testament (Jer 31:12; Matt 13:23), and therefore in the heart of a saved person there is a spiritual treasure and a direct connection to heaven that gets hidden within them. Every man who finds the Kingdom of heaven in his personal life through humbling himself as a sinner before God gets a new treasure of a brand new spirit as a gift and a spiritual treasure from the Lord God Almighty (2 Cor 5:17; Ezek 18:31).
Every time a believer finds it, it a mystery of how he is able to use this treasure to contact the very Creator of the entire Universe. But when he returns back to his day to day work, immediately the treasure of a new spirit gets hidden within the depth of his heart. Therefore, seeking, seeing and finding this mysterious way his spirit works, he starts to seek through the hidden treasure as instructed by Jesus, he goes in to the secret place away from the hustles bustles of life to get in to the domain of the Kingdom of God, and from that high and lofty place he begins to pray to the Heavenly Father where he again finds the treasure of the Kingdom of God (Matt 6:6).
He finds joy every times he accesses that treasure within him, that he finally decides that the one and only way to keep the treasure is to access it all the time to have joy over it, therefore he sells all that he has, then buys that field completely (Matt 19:21). There is a sweet and awesome feeling of heaven that a true disciple could taste, that others will never be able to experience in their lives.
Just as Jesus said, "He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for My sake will find it." (Matt 10:39). In other words, a disciple of Jesus is not a ascetic minded person, but rather he is God-toward-minded, not that He only seeks the pleasure that comes out of God's throne for himself (Psa 16:11), but rather he finds to give himself as a surrendered vessel for God to find pleasure in it and give back to God what pleases Him and find pleasure in it (Rom 12:2; John 4:34). Thus a disciple of Jesus Christ in giving his comfort, will, desires and treasures to God and His Kingdom, he learns not to trust in anything but the pleasure given to God through living a life pleasing to Him always as the foremost thing in his life.
As he seeks the treasure of having fellowship and communion with God as the primary reason for the existence of life and its purpose, this radical shift in the life of a disciple is that which makes him lose his earthly life for God, but in losing it he starts to find life beyond the earth in the Kingdom domain where the true joy, peace and righteousness abound and super abound as something to be treasured within him moment by moment (Rom 14:17), thus this heavenly life is that which drives the disciple to motivate him to give himself more and more to God (1 Pet 2:2-3).
When a disciple buys the field in which he found the treasure of salvation within him, he buys it with all his earthly possession, but in exchange he is investing his all to follow Jesus to receive heavenly treasures for eternity, and thus find the regular love, intimacy and communion with God as immensely satisfying that motivates him to continue to lose himself for God and gain God Himself as his only true treasured possession till his end on earth (Heb 6:9-12; 2:3; Gen 15:1).
In letting go of his soul-life [i.e. psuche] for God, the man who is a disciple of Jesus gains the very life of God which He lives in heaven in fellowship within the Trinity (John 17:23, 26). Praise the Lord!
Thus the bottom line we see is, as John Elliot said, He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose. In other words, only those things we have surrendered in to the hands of the Lord are the only things that will remain with us to be kept for eternity.
So the treasure we seek as a believer is nothing less that God himself who operates in the domain of his Kingdom, so to gain more and more of this treasure, we are letting go of this temporal soul life and its pleasures to do what we want by selling and disposing off all of our temporal things and desires, so that we start to do what God wants and what we do not want as self life gets crucified on the Cross to lose its strength and be kept at death. When God works through us, the heavenly pleasures forevermore is that we start to experience now and for eternity ahead! Hallelujah!
Are you a saved believer? Have you sold your all to buy eternal treasures which lay hidden in the domain of your heart, are you accessing your treasure within your heart through communion and intimacy with God, often, day in day out in order to have joy over it, in which the treasures of eternal life is hidden within? Let go and let God! If ever you want to be someone, be a sincere sacrificial follower and a disciple of Jesus, that is the only pursuit that satisfies, and that which satisfies immensely and eternally. GLORY!
THE PARABLE OF THE PEARL OF GREAT PRICE
Matt 13:45-46 - "45 “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking beautiful pearls, 46 who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had and bought it."
Here again Jesus compares the Kingdom of Heaven to "a merchant seeking beautiful pearls". Whenever Kingdom of God is explained to humans, it is in the viewpoint of a human towards God that it is done. In other words, how Kingdom of God in its nature can be accessible to humans when they seek God's domain on earth for profitability. In other words, each human seeks God for a good and blessed life on earth so that they can gain profit and become a rich earthly merchant in their own lives (Job 1:10-11; Matt 6:32). Hence we see the nature of a merchant in every human being of Adam's nature in their soul, who lives on earth and has a religious inclination towards it to fulfill this desire for profitability and material wealth (Gen 5:1, 3). Satan uses this desire as a pseudo-ruler over them and have amassed nearly the wealth of the whole world to use it the way he wants through making people do his bidding through his suggestive lies of his which he tells for his own profitability (Ezek 28:16-19; Matt 4:8-9; John 8:44). Remember, that every unsaved unbeliever is at the hand of the devil to do his bidding that makes people lust for more and more money until death through wicked short term schemes like bribing, theft, lies, murder, etc....as the Word of God describes this scenario as "the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil" (1 Tim 6:10) that prevails in this world.
Therefore Kingdom of God to humans is like a merchant seeking beautiful and costly pearls to make a great profit to himself, as we know that the whole earth is seeking to increase their own riches and profit themselves through whatever means or methods it can, many times they do these things through secret lies even after knowing well enough that, what they do is wrong morally and spiritually. Having found that the beautiful pearl is the most costliest material and earthly treasure that every humans seeks after, in seeking these things the human who finds a emptiness and land up in quagmire of sin and its wickedness and start to seeks intensely for something eternal that can only fill that God shaped vacuum within him, will finally end up finding God through Jesus Christ the "pearl of great price", or in other words, pearl of infinite price regarding earthly value (Eccl 3:11; Jer 29:11-13).
So once a person who had run after money or wealth or the worldly pleasures of earthly life, finds through turmoil and brokenness, the pearl of great price in Christ Jesus, they radically go even to the extent of selling all their earthly possession because of their love for Him and buys the Kingdom Treasure that they find within Jesus Christ to invest it all for eternity (Acts 4:34-35; Col 1:19-23). The radical call of discipleship and its price makes people to to deny themselves and take up the Cross of daily doing God's will and thus follow Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior (Matt 6:19-21; 19:21; Luke 18:22; 9:23).
Jesus Christ is the pearl of great price and that price is invaluable in the Kingdom of God and in the sight of God, because his blood is the only sinless offering acceptable to God and was therefore given for the forgiveness of the sins of all people which includes us who believe Him (1 Pet 1:18-19; Heb 9:13-14). Now it is absolutely necessary, that each one who believe Him must be also willing to sacrifice even their earthly possessions to gain eternal treasures for themselves, with a attitude of a disciple to follow him (Luke 14:26-27, 28-30).
Are you willing to not only surrender yourself, but your earthly possession to build the Kingdom of God and be a disciple of Jesus to invest your sure treasure in heaven? Have you believed in Jesus Christ accepting yourself as a sinner in need of His saving blood to cleanse you from all your sins? Have you considered Jesus as the pearl of great price and have you sold everything you have for yourself in your heart, and instead have bought this pearl of great price through your personal sacrifice? How have you till now as a believer, have sacrificially used your earthly possession for the spreading of the Gospel of Jesus Christ because of your love for Him, have you ever felt the pinch of it in your pocket (Gal 6:6-10; 1 Cor 9:11, 14)? Remember, the sacrifice that doesn't cost you your dear soul-life, is not a fitful sacrifice for the Lord at all (Matt 16:25; 10:39; Mark 8:35; 2 Sam 24:24; Lev 1:3; 22;20).
Much Blessings....
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