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parables?" (Matt. 13: 10). The very fact that the disciples were moved to ask such a
question suggests that the parable form of speech was new to the Saviour's method
hitherto. His answer is unambiguous and conclusive.
"He 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" (Matt. 13: 11).
Here, the first reason given has to do with the making known the "mysteries" of the
Kingdom not of the kingdom of heaven itself as already announced both by John the
Baptist and by the Lord (Matt. 3: 2; 4: 17). Neither was this mystery aspect made
known with such publicity as the opening ministry of the kingdom of the heavens, for
"Jerusalem and all Judaea, and all the region about Jordan" together with Pharisees and
Sadducees (Matt. 3: 2-7) heard the one, whereas it was "given" to the disciples to know
these mysteries, but to the people of Israel as such it was "not given". The second part of
the Lord's answer indicates that a great dispensational change was imminent.
"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 . . . . . but blessed are your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear"
(Matt. 13: 13-16).
The people of Israel had reached the point when the blindness prophesied by Isaiah
had begun to take effect. It is a matter of importance to note the peculiar word used by
the Lord here that is translated "fulfilled". Up to Matt. 13: 14 the accepted formula
"that it might be fulfilled" or "Then was fulfilled" translates the verb pleroo, and this on
seven occasions (Matt. 1: 22; 2: 15, 17, 23; 4: 14; 8: 17 and 12: 17). Once only in
the whole record of the Saviour's utterances, is there a departure from this rule, and that
is made at Matt. 13: 14, where the intensive form anapleroo is employed. There is an
element of completion about this word, as I Thess. 2: 16 will show. Even though the
long-suffering of God waited throughout the whole period covered by the Acts of the
Apostles and there was granted a stay of execution consequent upon the Saviour's prayer
and the witness of Pentecost, it is not without significance, that when the Apostle in his
turn quotes Isa. 6: 9, 10 in a similar context, namely, upon the rejection of Israel, the
favourable mention of the Gentile, and the brining in of the dispensation of the Mystery,
he does not say "In them is fulfilled" but "Well spake the Holy Ghost by Esaias the
prophet unto your fathers" (Acts 28: 25). What was de jure in Matt. 13: is de facto
in Acts 28: At the failure of Israel, the Apostle Paul became the prisoner of the Lord,
and as such received the dispensation of the grace of God for the Gentiles, the
dispensation of the Mystery (Eph. 3: 1-9 R.V.), and while the church of this new
dispensation is usually referred to by its title "The church which is His Body" or "The
One Body" there is an extension of this title that is of vast importance. The full passages
reads:
"And hath put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be Head over all things to the
church, which is His body, THE FULNESS of Him that FILLETH all in all" (Eph. 1: 22,
23).
When the dispensation of the Mystery comes to an end, the successive dispensations
that have suffered a rupture will be resumed, and as the signs of the times thicken around