{"id":37490,"date":"2025-09-17T14:41:58","date_gmt":"2025-09-17T21:41:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/?post_type=portfolio&#038;p=37490"},"modified":"2025-09-17T14:52:28","modified_gmt":"2025-09-17T21:52:28","slug":"2025-mustardseed","status":"publish","type":"portfolio","link":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/gospel-express\/2025-mustardseed\/","title":{"rendered":"The Mystery Behind the Mustard Seed"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"flex_column av_one_full  flex_column_div av-zero-column-padding first  avia-builder-el-0  avia-builder-el-no-sibling  \" style='border-radius:0px; '><section class=\"av_textblock_section \"  itemscope=\"itemscope\" itemtype=\"https:\/\/schema.org\/CreativeWork\" ><div class='avia_textblock  '   itemprop=\"text\" ><p>&#8220;The Kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed\u2026 but when it is grown, it is greater than the herbs and becomes a tree&#8221;\u00a0(Matthew 13:31-32)<\/p>\n<p style=\"align: center;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-37491 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/mustardseed-1-e1758145430686.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"295\" \/><\/p>\n<p>You know this parable. But do you know<strong>\u00a0what Jesus was really saying?\u00a0<\/strong>Most translations miss the profound Hebrew wordplay that would have made Jesus&#8217;s audience gasp.\u00a0When He said\u00a0<em>&#8220;mustard seed,&#8221;<\/em>\u00a0<strong>He wasn&#8217;t just talking about size.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The Hebrew word for &#8220;small&#8221; (<em>katan<\/em>) doesn&#8217;t just mean tiny. It often implies something<strong>\u00a0insignificant or despised.\u00a0<\/strong>When Scripture speaks of something becoming &#8220;great&#8221; (<em>gadol<\/em>), it frequently describes God&#8217;s miraculous intervention.<\/p>\n<p style=\"align: center;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-37492 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/mustardseed-3-e1758145631791.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"338\" \/><\/p>\n<p>This is\u00a0<strong>God&#8217;s pattern throughout Scripture<\/strong>. He chooses the\u00a0<em>katan<\/em>\u00a0(small, despised) to accomplish the\u00a0<em>gadol<\/em>\u00a0(great, mighty).\u00a0Think of David versus Goliath, or God choosing Israel as the smallest of nations.<\/p>\n<p>And this same\u00a0<em>katan<\/em>\u00a0to\u00a0<em>gadol<\/em>\u00a0pattern echoes through every promise in Scripture, from God&#8217;s\u00a0<em>shalom<\/em>\u00a0that transforms brokenness into wholeness, to His\u00a0<em>chesed<\/em>\u00a0(lovingkindness) that turns rejection into covenant love.<\/p>\n<p>What seems small today: each insights, each lesson, is building toward the moment when all of\u00a0<strong>Scripture explodes with meaning you never imagined.<\/strong><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_37493\" style=\"width: 588px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-37493\" class=\"wp-image-37493 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/mustardseed-4.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"578\" height=\"612\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/mustardseed-4.jpg 578w, https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/mustardseed-4-283x300.jpg 283w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 578px) 100vw, 578px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-37493\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">&#8220;Matthew 13:31, Mark 4:30-32, Luke 13:18-19&#8221;<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Israel Bible Center Team<\/p>\n<p style=\"align: center;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-37494 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/mustardseed-2.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"60\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/mustardseed-2.jpg 600w, https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/mustardseed-2-300x30.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"featured_media":37493,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","tags":[],"portfolio_entries":[29],"class_list":["post-37490","portfolio","type-portfolio","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","portfolio_entries-29"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/portfolio\/37490","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/portfolio"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/portfolio"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37490"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/portfolio\/37490\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37495,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/portfolio\/37490\/revisions\/37495"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37493"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37490"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37490"},{"taxonomy":"portfolio_entries","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/portfolio_entries?post=37490"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}