Why Christ Used Parables
When asked, “Why do you speak to them in parables?” Jesus quoted the biblical account of the Prophet Isaiah. He explained that not everyone is called by God so they will not really listen and some people have the same attitudes as those in the days of the prophet Isaiah.
Matthew 13:14, “And in them the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled, which says: ‘Hearing you will hear and shall not understand, And seeing you will see and not perceive;’” (NKJV)
Judah was descending into apostasy. They had begun the process of turning away from God. The decadence of both Israel and Judah was increasing so God sent a prophet to warn them of impending danger.
Isaiah 6:8-10, “Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying: ‘Whom shall I send, And who will go for Us?’ Then I said, ‘Here am I! Send me.’
“And He said, ‘Go, and tell this people: “Keep on hearing, but do not understand; Keep on seeing, but do not perceive.
“‘Make the heart of this people dull, And their ears heavy, And shut their eyes; Lest they see with their eyes, And hear with their ears, And understand with their heart, And return and be healed.’”
The first item we notice is that God was telling this young prophet that even though the God of the Universe was sending him, they would not receive the message. They would both hear and see him, but not learn from his warning messages. Why? The people of God had calloused and hardened hearts! At this point in their history, they were beyond repentance. God chose to allow them to remain in this spiritual attitude.
Isaiah asked God when they would finally learn the lessons God needed them to perceive?
Isaiah 6:11-12, “Then I said, ‘Lord, how long?’ And He answered: ‘Until the cities are laid waste and without inhabitant, The houses are without a man, The land is utterly desolate,
“‘The LORD has removed men far away, And the forsaken places are many in the midst of the land.’”
God’s patience with chronic rebellion had finally been exhausted, and He had decided to abandon them temporarily. The two nations would go into painful captivity. Israel would go into captivity first, but in spite of further warnings, Judah also continued going astray and eventually fell into captivity.
God witnessed to them for their future repentance using the prophet. The people of God would start to repent once disaster struck. Judah repented by the waters of Babylon and returned to the Holy Land seventy years later. Read Ezra and Nehemiah for details.
The Decadence That Hardened Their Hearts
What kind of actions put God’s people in such a spirit that they could not –– or would not –– perceive the warning message to alter course and repent? They became too wise in their own minds. They no longer needed the words of God to define right from wrong.
Isaiah 5:20-21, “Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; Who put darkness for light, and light for darkness; Who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes, And prudent in their own sight!”
The Eternal God’s standards were abandoned because the people thought they knew better. God was explaining to the prophet that when people blur the distinction between good and evil, terrible consequences occur. We often call the modern world The Days of Unintended Consequences. A lot of modern policies and the relaxing of moral standards may sound good, yet the results are devastating to society. The longer these bad practices exist, the greater the disaster. For instance, government policies that replace fathers with money have led to an explosion of angry young men who are responsible for the upshot in violent crimes. Two or three generations of fatherless boys are dangerous!
Isaiah 5:22-25, “Woe to men mighty at drinking wine, Woe to men valiant for mixing intoxicating drink, Who justify the wicked for a bribe, And take away justice from the righteous man!… So their root will be as rottenness… Because they have rejected the law of the LORD of hosts, And despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.”
Rejecting God’s laws invites disaster. Abandoning the core moral laws and justice only makes the calamity worse. The unintended consequences are horrific. Are churches culpable also because of their silence on these moral issues? If the clerics do not speak out, who will? People are left to believe they can say, “I have my truth and you have your truth!” How outrageous! Only ONE truth exists. God is the author of truth.
The People Were Not Ready For The Truth
The people of God in Jesus’ days shared a similar attitude to those in Isaiah’s days. Most were not really eager to learn the full truth or repent, so God allowed them to be locked into the spiritual blindness they preferred.
Matthew 13:11-13, “He answered and said to them, ‘Because it has been given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given. For whoever has, to him more will be given, and he will have abundance; but whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him. Therefore I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see… nor do they understand.’”
Note that those called who have a receptive spirit will grow in understanding while those who do not have such an attitude will decline in knowledge.
Matthew 13:15-17, “For the hearts of this people have grown dull. Their ears are hard of hearing, And their eyes they have closed… Lest they should understand with their hearts and turn, So that I should heal them.
“But blessed are your eyes for they see, and your ears for they hear; for assuredly, I say to you that many prophets and righteous men desired to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it.”
People are not listening with a desire to learn and repent. It is marginal listening. There must be a deeper kind of listening, with an open mind and heart. The people had an incredible opportunity to hear truth from the Messiah Himself and did not appreciate it. Many great prophets of the past would have envied them this opportunity for truth.
A Word to the Wise…
Paul warns us New Covenant believers to be sure to put God’s truth above our own wants and desires.
2 Timothy 4:2-4, “Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables.”
If we obey the truth we are given, our minds will be opened to more truth. One cannot repent with a closed heart and mind and ears. In the end of this age the trend toward man’s arrogant false knowledge will put pressure on us all to NO LONGER respect the whole truth of God. It will become unpopular to obey God.
2 Timothy 3:1-7, “But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers… lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power… led away by various lusts, always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.”
In the parable of the sower, Jesus explains that the majority of seeds of truth fall on hardened soil or minds. Truth cannot grow and blossom except on the good. Are our hearts open to God’s pure truth? See Matthew 13:18-23.
