PARABLE, MIRACLE, AND SIGN
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12:6,41,42, although greater than the Temple, greater than the prophet Jonah, and greater than king Solomon, He
yet is `despised and rejected':
`The same day went Jesus out of the house, and sat by the sea side ... and He spake many things unto them in
parables ... and the disciples came, and said unto Him, Why speakest Thou unto them in parables? He
answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of the
heavens; ... therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not,
neither do they understand. And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Esaias (Isaiah), which saith, By hearing
ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive: for 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 understand with their heart, and should be converted,
and I should heal them. But blessed are your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear. For verily I say
unto you, That many prophets and righteous men have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not
seen them; and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them' (Matt. 13:1-17).
Such is the setting for the first occurrence of the word parable in the New Testament. The parables were
used when Israel manifested that the prophecy of Isaiah 6:10 was fulfilled in them. The parables were not used
to make the teaching plainer, but to veil the teaching from the majority. The parables relate to the secrets of the
kingdom. They teach things hitherto `kept secret since the overthrow of the world' (Matt. 13:35). Prophets
desired to see and hear these things, as Matthew 13:17 and 1 Peter 1:10-12 tell us:
`Searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified
beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow' (1 Pet. 1:11).
Here, as in the majority of Old Testament prophecies, no break is made between the sufferings and the
glories. No interval is allowed between `the acceptable year of the LORD, and the day of vengeance of our God'
(Isa. 61:2, cf. Luke 4:19). The rejection of God's King was only partly seen; the abeyance of the kingdom was a
secret. Thus we may place the two passages together:
`I will open my mouth in parables; I will utter things which have been kept secret from the foundation (since
the overthrow) of the world' (Matt. 13:35).
`Why speakest Thou unto them in parables? ... Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries (secrets)
of the kingdom of the heavens, but to them it is not given' (Matt. 13:10,11).
Everything leads us to expect that just as in Psalm 78 we shall find in these parables some of the inner
workings of God's counsels relative to His purposes in Israel, and that to introduce the doctrinal teaching of the
gospel of the grace of God, or the dispensational teaching of the Mystery which is not a subject of revelation
until over 30 years later (Eph. 3:1-10), will be to confound things which differ, and signally fail to rightly divide
the Word of truth.
The parables are particularly dispensational in character. Their object is not to provide a moral lesson or a
text for a gospel address. How many have gone astray by reason of this mischievous practice. The parable of
the Prodigal Son serves those who have no desire for the retention of the atonement with a `proof' text for the
universal Fatherhood of God, and of the reception by Him of all who come, irrespective of the one way of
acceptance - the sacrifice of Christ. The parable of the Unforgiving Servant is made to teach, in direct
opposition to the doctrine of the epistles, that sins once forgiven may be re-imputed, or that a sinner once saved
by grace can fall away again.
Let us remember the Scriptural settings of these parables, the reasons which drew them from the Lord Jesus,
the dispensation in which they were uttered, and the people and kingdom about which they speak; we shall then
have no need to be ashamed of our testimony.
Thus far we have sought to clear the way for the study of these parables. We shall next endeavour to present
to the reader the arrangement of the parables of Matthew 13 and to enter into the teaching of these parables of
the secrets of the kingdom of the heavens.
The Eight Parables of Matthew 13
To understand any passage or verse in the Bible we must take note of the context, otherwise, being ignorant
of much that God has written for our guidance, we shall offer `a vision out of our own heart' as the
interpretation. In the first place, Matthew 13 comes in that section which is entirely taken up with the
`kingdom' before the Lord had uttered one word of the foundations of the gospel as we know it, namely, His