This seed was the least of all the seeds in the beginning, and the greatest of all the herbs at the end of its life! This is like the kingdom of God in every aspect. To an idolatrice people one old man was called from his wealthy home and given a promise of great things if he obeyed God. His neighbours must have wondered what he was up to and perhaps he had gone mad? He left all friends and all he knew, and set out with a tent, all his animals and servants to go to a land he did not know. But he was sure and as he lived among the Canaanites, quietly and confidently, that he would posses this land.

So the little mustard seed was sown in Abrahams mind, he has a real conviction that God's promises were true, and yet he lived a life of worrisome problems, full of trouble and strife until he died, never having got what was promised but to his dying day knowing that he would. Hebrews 11:8 says that he dies in faith knowing that all God said would come to pass.

Abraham now lived putting up and taking down tents where there was grass for his animals, trying to keep out of bother with the Canaanites, he worried a lot about his nephew Lot in cities he knew would not be good for him, trying to keep peace with Sarah and Hagar, getting quite old and yet having no children. He eventually lived in fear of the kings of Canaan. He has a troublesome life until he died, so he, like us, cannot enter the kingdom of God without trials.

Can you imagine the awesome surprise when Abraham rises from the grave and he sees how large his family has grown? There are now 1 in 500 people in the world a Jew, and yet he was 99 years old when he had his only son Isaac.

When first spoken about to a Gentile, the Kingdom of God was so small it was just a promise. But now, slowly as we read the scriptures and see how God treats Israel we see it growing and coming closer. We know, as Abraham, that we have to be committed to obeying his commands.

We now see the Kingdom of God, or the mustard tree, grown almost fully, and when Christ comes and rules with righteousness throughout the World, that Jews and Gentiles will be able to come under the promises given to Abraham.

They will be fulfilled with Christ and all nations will want to be with the Jew. All the birds of the field will be able to seek shade in her branches. A knowledge of the Kingdom of God is the way to know what was meant by the mustard seed.