- By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand - Contrary to the popular belief that Jesus spoke in parables to make his teachings easy to understand, Jesus spoke in parables to hide spiritual truths and make them difficult to understand. Doing so, he only reveals the Spiritual truths whom he choose to reveal by giving them ears to hear and eyes to see because we are all spiritually blind. A parable is an earthly story [or an earthly historical event] that teaches heavenly spiritual truth. This verse from Isaiah is repeatedly quoted in Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts, Romans, and 1 Corinthians.
Matt 13:10-12 “And the disciples came, and said unto him, Why speakest thou unto them in parables? 11He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given. 12For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance: but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath.”
Isa 6:8-10 “Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me. 9And he said, Go, and tell this people, Hear ye indeed, but understand not; and see ye indeed, but perceive not. 10Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and convert, and be healed.”
Matt 13:13-16 “Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand. 14And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Esaias, which saith, By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive: 15For this people's heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them. 16But blessed are your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear.”
Matt 13:34 “All these things spake Jesus unto the multitude in parables; and without a parable spake he not unto them: 35That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying, I will open my mouth in parables; I will utter things which have been kept secret from the foundation of the world.”
Rom 11:7-8 “What then? Israel hath not obtained that which he seeketh for; but the election [Gods' elect including both Jews and Gentiles, remnant chosen by God's Grace] hath obtained it, and the rest were blinded. 8(According as it is written, God hath given them the spirit of slumber, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear;) unto this day.”
2 Cor 4:3-4 “But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: 4In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.”
2 Thess 2:10-13 “And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. 11And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: 12That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness. 13But we are bound to give thanks alway to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth:”
- I will open my mouth in a parable: I will utter dark sayings of old - Not only Jesus (Word in flesh) spoke in parables, but the whole Bible is written in parables. The whole Bible contains many verses that have a deeper spiritual meaning, written as parables and allegories and figures in simple historical or moral statements. Every historical and moral statement of the Bible is still absolutely true, but we can learn even more by looking at the symbolic Spiritual message of these verses. The Bible testifies of itself that it is filled from beginning to end with the message of Jesus, the Gospel of Salvation, and that many Old Testament stories are actually historical parables which symbolically point us to Christ or to some aspect of the Salvation work of Christ.
John 1:1,14 “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 14And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.”
Job 27:1 “Moreover Job continued his parable, and said,...”
Job 29:1 “Moreover Job continued his parable, and said,...”
Psa 78:1-2 “Give ear, O my people, to my law: incline your ears to the words of my mouth. 2I will open my mouth in a parable: I will utter dark sayings of old:”
Num 20:10-11 “And Moses and Aaron gathered the congregation together before the rock, and he said unto them, Hear now, ye rebels; must we fetch you water out of this rock? 11And Moses lifted up his hand, and with his rod he smote the rock twice: and the water came out abundantly, and the congregation drank, and their beasts also.”
1 Cor 10:1-4 “Moreover, brethren, I would not that ye should be ignorant, how that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea; 2And were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea; 3And did all eat the same spiritual meat; 4And did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ.”
Gal 4:21-26 “Tell me, ye that desire to be under the law, do ye not hear the law? 22For it is written, that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, the other by a freewoman. 23But he who was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh; but he of the freewoman was by promise. 24Which things are an allegory: for these are the two covenants; the one from the mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar. 25For this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children. 26But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all.”
Gen 22:15-18 “And the angel of the LORD called unto Abraham out of heaven the second time, 16And said, By myself have I sworn, saith the LORD, for because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son: 17That in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies; 18And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice.”
Gal 3:16 “Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ.”
Heb 11:8-10 “By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went. 9By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise: 10For he looked for a city [New Jerusalem, Rev 3:12] which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God.”
Heb 11:15-19 “And truly, if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned. 16But now they desire a better country [heaven], that is, an heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for he hath prepared for them a city. 17By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac: and he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten son, 18Of whom it was said, That in Isaac [Isaac is figure of Christ] shall thy seed be called: 19Accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead; from whence also he received him in a figure.”
- How is it that ye do not understand? - Jesus had to rebuke His followers, and Pharisees alike for trying to take His words literally when He meant them symbolically (with a deeper spiritual meaning). For eg; in Luke 24, Jesus says that the Old Testament Scriptures wrote that Christ had to be killed and resurrected the third day. However, that is not explicitly written anywhere in the Old Testament—this is only stated allegorically in Jonah. Christ points to this Old Testament verse, showing that it is allegorically describing His resurrection in Matthew.
Matt 16:6-8,11 “Then Jesus said unto them, Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees. And they reasoned among themselves, saying, It is because we have taken no bread. Which when Jesus perceived, he said unto them, O ye of little faith, why reason ye among yourselves, because ye have brought no bread? 11How is it that ye do not understand that I spake it not to you concerning bread, that ye should beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees?”
John 4:10-11 “Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water. 11The woman saith unto him, Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep: from whence then hast thou that living water [She mistook literal water for spiritual, living water]?”
John 3:3-4,10 “Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. 4Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother’s womb, and be born?10Jesus answered and said unto him, Art thou a master of Israel, and knowest not these things?”
John 11:11-13 “These things said he: and after that he saith unto them, Our friend Lazarus sleepeth; but I go, that I may awake him out of sleep. Then said his disciples, Lord, if he sleep, he shall do well. Howbeit Jesus spake of his death: but they thought that he had spoken of taking of rest in sleep.”
John 6:51-53, 60-61,66 “I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world. The Jews therefore strove among themselves, saying, How can this man give us his flesh to eat? Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you.… Many therefore of his disciples, when they had heard this, said, This is an hard saying; who can hear it? When Jesus knew in himself that his disciples murmured at it, he said unto them, Doth this offend you?… From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him.”
Luke 24:45-46 “Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures, And said unto them, Thus it is written, and thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day:”
Jon 1:17 “Now the LORD had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights”
Matt 12:40 “For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.”
Luke 17:12,14-17 “And as he entered into a certain village, there met him ten men that were lepers, which stood afar off: And when he saw them, he said unto them, Go show yourselves unto the priests [This was a reference to ceremonial laws in Lev 14]. And it came to pass, that, as they went, they were cleansed. And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, and with a loud voice glorified God, And fell down on his face at his feet, giving him [the Great High Priest] thanks: and he was a Samaritan. And Jesus answering said, Were there not ten cleansed? but where are the nine?”
Lev 14:2 “This shall be the law of the leper in the day of his cleansing: He shall be brought unto the priest.”
Heb 4:14 “Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession.”
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