麦子和芥菜种都表征基督在不同方面作我们的食物。祂是麦子，也是芥菜，作我们的滋养。然而，我们看见撒但的狡诈。仇敌在芥菜种上的狡诈，就是使它长成大树，不再好作食物。
芥菜种长起来以后，却比别的菜都大，且成了树。教会是国度的具体表现，该像菜蔬一样生产食物，却成了树，作飞鸟的宿处，其性质和功用都变了。这违反神创造的律，植物必须各从其类。这事发生在第四世纪初叶，康士坦丁大帝把世界搀入教会时。他把成千成万的假信徒带进教会，使其变成基督教国，而不再是教会了。教会的性质改变了，像树一样深深扎根、定居地上，其事业繁茂如同枝条，许多恶人、恶事栖宿其上。这形成了诸天之国外表的外在组织。
飞鸟在第一个比喻中既象征那恶者撒但，天空的飞鸟就必是指撒但的邪灵，和邪灵所煽惑的恶人和恶事。在今天的基督教国里，有许多恶人、恶事和恶物。基督教国成了不结果子的大树，并且成了许多邪恶事物的宿处。
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Both the grain of wheat and the grain of mustard seed signify Christ as food to us in different aspects. He is both the wheat and the mustard for our nourishment. Yet we shall see, the subtlety of the enemy with respect to the mustard seed is to cause it to grow into a huge tree that is no longer good for food.
After the mustard seed has grown, it is greater than the herbs and becomes a tree. The church, which is the embodiment of the kingdom, should be like an herb to produce food, but it became a tree, a lodging place for birds, having its nature and function changed. This is against the law of God’s creation, that every plant must be after its kind. This happened when Constantine the Great mixed the church with the world in the first part of the fourth century. He brought thousands of false believers into Christianity, making it Christendom, no longer the church. But with its nature changed, the church became deeply rooted and settled in the earth as a tree, flourishing with its enterprises as the branches to lodge many evil persons and things. This has formed the outward organization of the outward appearance of the kingdom of the heavens.
Because the birds in the first parable signify the evil one, Satan, the birds of heaven in verse 32 must refer to Satan’s evil spirits with the evil persons and things motivated by them. In today’s Christendom, there are many evil persons, evil things and evil matters. Christendom has become a big tree producing no fruit, but having become a lodging place for so many evil things.