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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadBob Utley You Can Understand the Bible - Mark 4:30 - 4:32
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Mar_4:30-32
30And He said, "How shall we picture the kingdom of God, or by what parable shall we present it? 31It is like a mustard seed, which, when sown upon the soil, though it is smaller than all the seeds that are upon the soil, 32yet when it is sown, it grows up and becomes larger than all the garden plants and forms large branches; so that the birds of the air can nest under its shade."
Mar_4:30 This is paralleled in Mat_13:31-32.
Mar_4:31 "a mustard seed" The rabbis said it was the smallest of seeds. Yet the bush grew to over twelve feet tall. This parable parallels the one above. Spiritual growth may start small, but the results are enormous! As the seed of the gospel grows in the heart of an individual into Christlikeness, so too, the kingdom of God grows into a universal kingdom (cf. Mat_13:33).
Mar_4:32 The end of this verse may be an allusion to the huge trees in the OT texts of Eze_17:22-24 and Dan_4:11-12 that represent a kingdom.