Positioning for the Pearl of Greatest Value

David W Palmer

Jesus was teaching some very important principles of God’s kingdom and how it works. In Matthew 13 and Mark 4, he began by teaching the parable of the sower. The Master prefaced, punctuated, and concluded it with some instructions about how to get the most out of his word—his teaching, his parables, Bible stories, and writings; he explained that the key to understanding the parables was hearing and seeing what he said. After beginning with “listen, look,” he concluded with:

(Mark 4:24–25 EMTV) Then He said to them, “Watch what you hear. By what measure you measure, it will be measured out to you; and more will be added to you who hear. {25} For whoever has, more will be given to him; and the one who does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him.”

Another translation of this passage says: “Take heed what you hear” (Mark 4:24 MKJV).

Our English versions of the Bible have been translated from the original languages of Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek. Amazingly, the Greek word translated “heed” in this passage is the same word Jesus used when he explained to his opponents how he operated his miracle ministry:

(John 5:19 EMTV) Then Jesus answered and said to them, “Most assuredly I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father doing; for whatever He does, the Son also does in like manner.”

Here the Lord said he does what he “sees” the Father doing. In the Mark passage, he says to “watch” what you hear. This is like saying that as you listen, you can see something. And that what you see is of vital importance, because it is the key to operating in God’s supernatural kingdom right here on earth.

In John 5, Jesus used this word to explain why [and how] he healed a disabled man on the Sabbath day. Jesus did it because he “saw” his Father doing it. That is, prior to the physical miracle, he had been in intimate fellowship with his dad, and he saw in the spirit what his “Abba” did: he saw him going up to the disabled man and healing him; he saw all the actions, and heard what to say. When he enacted this into the natural physical realm, the miracle he saw previewed in the spirit realm manifested into the man’s body.

In the framework around the most central truth of the paramount parable, Jesus said that this “seeing” was what the parable method was all about.

By his infinite wisdom and to keep the thief out of our inheritance, God set up the system so that only those who pursue intimate fellowship with Jesus, the living Word, will “see” God’s things in the spirit. That is, he reveals them to those who sit at Jesus’s feet to hear and to meditate on what is said until they “see,” perceive, understand, or hear something from God. After all, Jesus explained that his father “loved” him; and that is why he showed his son what he was doing; Jesus simply did what he saw—while sitting at Father’s feet, so to speak:

(John 5:20 NKJV) “For the Father loves the Son, and shows Him all things that He Himself does; and He will show Him greater works than these, that you may marvel.”

Remember, this privileged insight is only available to “those around him with the twelve.” Is that you? Will you take the time to go back to sit at Jesus’s feet after the public teaching to listen to him, and to “watch” what you hear. This after all, is the way Jesus said he performed his miracles; he simply imitated what he saw with his Father.

Now, we go back to Jesus’s framework. What did he say next to complete it?

(Mark 4:24–25 EMTV) Then He said to them, “Watch what you hear. By what measure you measure, it will be measured out to you; and more will be added to you who hear. {25} For whoever has, more will be given to him; and the one who does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him.”

Reading further in this passage, Jesus said, “By what measure you measure, it will be measured out to you.” Previously, he revealed some of our responsibility when he said, “he who has ears to hear, let him hear.” This time, he further clarifies our responsibility, by saying that the measure God can manifest his kingdom and its benefits in your life is up to you: “By what measure you measure, it will be measured out to you.”

We set the measure, and the measure we set determines the amount God’s kingdom and its benefits work for us. But, “Measure of what?” you may ask. And, “How do we measure it?”

I pondered on this question for a long time. I thought about how we measure distance, weight, pressure, speed, etc. Yet, none of them seemed appropriate for this situation. Then I remembered that we measure diamonds by carats. I know this is a measure of weight, but along with color and clarity it is a measure of their value. Suddenly, I saw it; Jesus is saying that the measure of value we put on his word and his kingdom process is the measure it will work for us.

Several Old Testament passages help to confirm this:

(Psalms 1:1–2 LITV) Blessed is the man who has not walked in the counsel of the ungodly, and has not stood in the way of sinners, and has not sat in the seat of scorners. {2} But his delight is only in the Law of Jehovah, and he meditates in His Law day and night.

This passage talks about how “the man” is “blessed”: it tells us what he does and does not do to cause him to receive manifestation of the blessing. He doesn’t “walk,” “sit,” or “stand” with evil, but he delights and meditates in God’s word.

In pursuing the operation of God’s kingdom in our lives, I assume we don’t want to walk, stand, or sit in the negatives. So what does God say here that we are responsible to do to walk in his blessing? “His delight is in the law of Jehovah,” and “He meditates in His law day and night.”

The instruction here is simple and two fold:

First, we need to “delight … only” in God’s word. Second we need to meditate in it—not merely morning or evening, but— “day and night.”

The English word, “delights,” has been translated from a Hebrew word, “khay’-fets,” which has the following meaning: pleasure, desire, a valuable thing (as something in mind) (Strongs Concordance H2656).

Here we see the connection to what Jesus was saying: the blessed man “delights” in God’s word; he considers it valuable to have in his mind, so he meditates in it day and night. This reveals the value he places on it, and the “measure” he invests his attention and focus on it.

Remembering that the measure we use is the measure that it works for us, we need to value God’s word as the highest priority if we want his maximum kingdom benefits. What measure of value do you put on God’s word? Do you value it above all else? If so, you will “desire” to have it as “something in mind” day and night, and you will find it a “pleasure.”

A pair of Jesus’s parables/similes speaks of this value:

(Matthew 13:44–45 DKJV) “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in a field; which when a man finds, he hides; and for joy over it goes and sells all that he has, and buys that field. {45} Again, the kingdom of heaven is like what happened with a merchant seeking fine pearls: {46} who, when he had found one extremely valuable pearl, went and sold all that he had, and purchased it.”

Today, I encourage you to realize that the “valuable pearl” is the discovery that all of God’s rich and abundant blessing is accessed in Jesus. In particular, it is accessed by sitting at his feet—in close and intimate fellowship with him—and by really hearing and meditating on what he says.

Jesus also said that this discovery is like a treasure hidden in a field. To obtain the treasure, you have to offload everything else to buy into that field. In other words, you need a radical change of your whole lifestyle until you can position yourself to have what you truly value—God’s living word—at the center of your life.

Jesus said that the man who found where the treasure was, and the man who found the desired valuable pearl both sold everything else to buy into what was truly valuable to them. I know this sounds huge—like an almost insurmountable mountain—but I encourage you to do whatever it takes to ensure your lifestyle lines up with the value you place on God’s word. Begin making plans today: sell what you need to sell, buy what you need to buy, move if you have to; but do any and everything you can to obtain the “one thing that is needful” (See: Luke 10:38–42 NKJV).