This is the fourth in a five-part Lenten series, "The Tree of Life."
[Jesus] put another parable before them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his field. It is the smallest of all seeds, but when it has grown it is larger than all the garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.”
Ezekiel 17:22-24 (ESV)
Thus says the Lord GOD: “I myself will take a sprig from the lofty top of the cedar and will set it out. I will break off from the topmost of its young twigs a tender one, and I myself will plant it on a high and lofty mountain. On the mountain height of Israel will I plant it, that it may bear branches and produce fruit and become a noble cedar. And under it will dwell every kind of bird; in the shade of its branches birds of every sort will nest. And all the trees of the field shall know that I am the LORD; I bring low the high tree, and make high the low tree, dry up the green tree, and make the dry tree flourish. I am the LORD; I have spoken, and I will do it.”
This is the fourth in a five-part Lenten series, "The Tree of Life."
Thanks. Wonderful post. A photograph of Middle East from space satellite shows a large green oasis, in the midst a dry desert region, of a recognizable shape, that is, the nation of Israel. It’s amazing how Israelis, through their ingenuity, have made the deserts bloom and trees flourish.
I don’t know about the birds of the air nesting in this tree when Jesus interprets “Mat 13:4 And when he sowed, some seeds fell by the way side, and the fowls came and devoured them up: “ as them being Satan’s agents “Mat 13:19 When any one heareth the word of the kingdom, and understandeth it not, then cometh the wicked one, and catcheth away that which was sown in his heart. This is he which received seed by the way side. “ I tend to think the Kingdom will be infiltrated by Satan’s agents.