Matthew 13:12
Thursday, 18 September 2025
For whoever has, to him more will be given, and he will have abundance; but whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him. Matthew 13:12
“For whoever he has, it will be given him, and he will superabound. And whoever not he has, and what he has it will be lifted from him” (CG).
In the previous verse, Jesus responded to the disciples concerning His speaking in parables. He told them that they were given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven. However, to the others, it had not.
To make this point, He next states an understood truth that applies in many worldly contexts. It can apply to wealth, health, business acumen, etc. As such, it is something understandable and verifiable. He begins with, “For whoever he has, it will be given him.”
Suppose someone has good health. That person will generally use his health wisely, increasing it and staying healthy. A person who has business smarts will generally make more good business decisions. It doesn’t even really matter what type of business. He may have a successful auto company and decide to buy a social media platform.
People may think he is nuts, but both remain profitable. He may add in a tunnel boring company and it will be successful as well. Why is this when the companies are so different? It is because he understands the business model regardless of the industry.
Therefore, he has and he keeps on receiving because his efforts are wisely directed from that perspective. This is so much the case that Jesus continues, “and he will superabound.”
As noted, this is a general principle, but it is something that usually occurs. The point is that the disciples were selected to carry forth the message of Jesus. They had received the proper spiritual insights to prosper in this realm. Israel as a nation had squandered their spiritual heritage. This is seen, for example, in the parable of the wicked vinedressers found in Matthew 21.
The disciples followed Jesus and would superabound in their spiritual growth. However, like the wicked vinedressers, Jesus says, “And whoever not he has, and what he has, it will be lifted from him.”
A person with no business acumen will usually find out very quickly that it is so. He lacks a proper understanding of the business model, and his desire to have a particular business will normally fail. What he has, as in saving to start the business, doing all the things necessary to get it going, and then putting up the OPEN sign on the first day, will turn into dashed hopes.
In fact, if he had understood his level of incompetence, he would have done better to put up a GOING OUT OF BUSINESS sign when he first opened the doors. Israel, from its first moments after receiving the law, had failed in a right application of their spiritual lives.
While Moses was on Sinai receiving further instructions after the giving of the Ten Commandments, Israel was fashioning the golden calf. This state of failed spiritual understanding, with few exceptions, continued throughout their history. In fact, the societal structure they developed based on their being stewards of the law meant they were doomed for failure.
The leadership of Israel had so departed from the proper “business model” that they were incapable of understanding spiritual matters properly. Paul refers to this in 2 Corinthians 3 –
“Therefore, since we have such hope, we use great boldness of speech— 13 unlike Moses, who put a veil over his face so that the children of Israel could not look steadily at the end of what was passing away. 14 But their minds were blinded. For until this day the same veil remains unlifted in the reading of the Old Testament, because the veil is taken away in Christ. 15 But even to this day, when Moses is read, a veil lies on their heart. 16 Nevertheless when one turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away.” 2 Corinthians 3:12-16
Understanding this, Israel would have the prospect of the kingdom being taken from them. It would transfer to those who were willing to produce in accord with God’s will. The kingdom, as it is currently defined, is the age of grace. Israel has remained under law and under the curse, while the church has grown as a separate entity.
Israel will learn its lesson someday and receive the promises of the millennial kingdom, but it will be a difficult journey before it arrives.
Life application: Paul refers to the Law of Moses and the veil that remains over the spiritual eyes of Israel. The law, though standing between God and man, was not the problem, something Paul explains in Romans 7. Rather, it is sin in man that is the problem. The law merely highlights this fact.
Israel, however, failed to see this. They refused to understand the simple five-letter word GRACE. When Jesus came, they had no understanding of what He was referring to in His words because they trusted that, despite their sins in relation to the law, God thought they were great and worthy of His stunned care of them, as if they were the point of His dealings with man.
This is so much the case that even after Paul wrote his inspired epistle concerning the law and their state before it, they could not see through their own biased opinion of themselves. To this day, rabbis openly reject what Paul wrote, as if it were a complete misunderstanding of God’s interactions with them.
And yet, being inspired by Him, it is actually a herald’s call out to them, beckoning them to stop and think through what He is telling them. Jesus’ words of not having and the little they do have being lifted from them are, from a spiritual sense, openly validated in them on a global scale.
They, as a nation, are on worldwide display as to their inability to perceive the grace of God in Christ. This will be highlighted when they have some sort of national victory that will allow them the right to build the temple in Jerusalem again. This is prophesied to occur in Daniel 7. It will be based on a seven-year covenant with the antichrist.
They will equate their technological and military prowess, and national exaltation because of these things, to be signs of God’s favor toward them, something that America has been famous at for decades.
Their rejection of Jesus will be on worldwide display, particularly when the two witnesses of Revelation 11 stand and testify concerning Him. If it were not for Jesus’ personal intervention by returning to save Israel, no flesh would survive, as noted in Matthew 24:22.
God is using Israel, with all of their spiritual faults, to reveal to the world its desperate need for the grace of Jesus Christ. Understanding this, we can more fully appreciate the cosmic blunder of the doctrine of the Judaizers (Adventists, Hebrew Roots, etc.) who mandate law observance in their theology. Trust in grace, hold fast to it, and revel in what God has done in the giving of Jesus for our sins.
Lord God, thank You for the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
