Matthew 13:10-13 “The disciples came to him and asked, “Why do you speak to the people in parables?”He replied, “Because the knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them. Whoever has will be given more, and they will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them. This is why I speak to them in parables:“Though seeing, they do not see; though hearing, they do not hear or understand.” Today's episode talks about why God conceals things sometimes. It talks about how He doesn't hide things from us, he hides things for us. Music:"Adding the Sun" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Why Does Jesus Speak in Parables?
Matthew 13:10-13 “The disciples came to him and asked, “Why do you speak to the people in parables?”He replied, “Because the knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them. Whoever has will be given more, and they will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them. This is why I speak to them in parables:“Though seeing, they do not see; though hearing, they do not hear or understand.”
Last week in class we talked about the different ways that God communicates with us. One of those ways is through parables. I never really completely understood why Jesus had to talk in parables. I didn’t understand why he couldn’t just tell everyone what He was telling his apostles. In class they mentioned the goal of a parable was not only to teach but also to conceal. Jesus taught in parables to conceal the powerful knowledge from the proud but reveal it to the childlike. For some reason, this sentence seemed to put things into perspective for me. I now understood a little better why everyone couldn’t hear what Jesus was saying. They weren’t spiritually ready to hear what Jesus had to say.
Then they gave us the scripture verse Luke 10:21, "At that time Jesus, full of joy through the Holy Spirit, said, “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for this is what you were pleased to do.” This reinforces what the teacher was saying. Some understanding is hidden from those who do not believe or are not ready to hear what God has to say. We must learn to be childlike when we approach God if we wish to have a greater understanding of Him.
Then they pointed us to Proverbs 25:2, “It is the glory of God to conceal a matter; to search out a matter is the glory of kings.” Then I was confused again. Why would God conceal a matter and why would that be a good thing?
The next morning while I was reading my devotional this is what it said:
As you look at the day before you, you see a twisted, complicated path, with branches going off in all directions. You wonder how you can possibly find your way through that maze. Then you remember the One who is with you always, holding you by your right hand. You recall my promise to guide you with my counsel, and you begin to relax. As you look again at the path ahead you notice that a peaceful fog has settled over it obscuring your view. You can see only a few steps in front of you, so you turn your attention more fully to me and begin to enjoy my presence. The fog is a protection from you, calling you back into the present moment. Although I inhabit all space and time, you can communicate with me only here and now. Someday that fog will no longer be necessary, for you will have learned to keep your focus on me and on the path just ahead of you.”
Proverbs 25:2 says, "It is the glory of God to conceal a matter; to search out a matter is the glory of kings.” They reminded us in class that we are kings through our Baptism. What this verse is telling us is that as we explore God’s Word, we uncover more and more revelations about God. As we do this, we mature into a deeper intimacy with God. God conceals things from us that we are not ready to hear or to know. However, as we dive into Scripture and as we work on growing closer to Him, he slowly reveals all we need to know. How many of us can look back over our lives and say with certainty we would have gone down the path we did if we knew all we would go through at the beginning of the path? If new parents new exactly what they were getting into, if they knew all the challenges their child would go through, would anyone choose to have a baby?
If you knew could see a movie of your life, all the challenges you were going to face, before you started down the path you started down, would you still chose it? If we look back over our life usually we can see how one experience prepared us for another experience. Our difficult times are so hard while we are going through them and yet often times, when we look back, many years later, we can see how they were necessary. If we can’t see why they were necessary, we can at least see what we learned from them and how they prepared us for the next thing we were going to have to face.
If we think of it in terms of school. If you show a first grader an algebra problem and tell them they are going to be expected to know how to do that that, they won’t know what you are talking about. They may feel overwhelmed because that seems so far from where they are right now. However, if you don’t show them what they need to know in several years, but you show them what they will be learning that year, they won’t be so overwhelmed. This is the same with us when it comes to our faith. Jesus knew that if He told people everything they needed to know about God, we would be overwhelmed. Developing an intimate relationship with God has to be developed over time, step by step. We would get overwhelmed if everything was revealed to us at once.
There was a statement made in class that I loved. The teacher said, “God speaks to us in parables not to hide things from us, but to hide things for us.” This is something important for us all to remember. This is the way God works. He does all things for us, not to us. He is working all things for our good. If we are going through a difficult time, it is not because God is doing something to us, He is doing it for us. The difficult could be of your own making and yet God can use it for your good. He can use it for your growth. I loved in the devotional above how it says a “a peaceful fog has settled over it obscuring your view.” Even just that description brings me peace. It doesn’t say you are plunged into darkness, it doesn’t say I have taken away all light so you can’t see, it says a peaceful fog settles over it, meaning the path ahead. Sometimes knowing too much in advance can be a bad thing. It can cause us not to do something because we don’t think we are strong enough. Yet, God knows by the time we get there, we will be strong enough.
I recently ran a trail fest with my friend Ashley. She had always wanted to do one and so we decided for her birthday this year, we would sign up. A trail fest is three days of running in a row. You are camping in a tent at night and then getting up early and running three beautiful runs each day. I knew going into this that it would be difficult. It was going to be running 34 miles in three days and it would be running at an elevation we were not used to. We knew it would be difficult and yet we were willing to give it a try. However, what we didn’t know was that sleeping on the ground with only a sleeping bag is really uncomfortable. We didn’t know that when we got to the highest point of the run it would be really hard to breathe. We didn’t know that compost toilets were really tall and when we sat on them our feet would be off the ground. We didn’t know that the last day was less of a trail run and more of a rock climbing experience. We didn’t know we would be trying to walk in deep sand during parts of it.
If we had known exactly what we were getting into, I am not sure we would have signed up. If we knew all of that, we might not have gotten to enjoy the awesome experience. That trip was a once in a lifetime trip that we will always remember. Those things I mentioned above, didn’t ruin our trip, they only made it more challenging, and yet we still succeeded. If we had known exactly what we were getting into we would have told ourselves we couldn’t do it. We would have thought we weren’t strong enough. God knew this and in His infinite wisdom concealed some of that information from us and I am so thankful! I am grateful I now have this amazing experience to look back upon.
The same is true for my spiritual life. If you would have asked me years ago if I would ever be in a charismatic prayer group I would have said no way. I could never speak in tongues, I could never pray over people out loud, unscripted. I could never praise God out loud. Even now, after all the growth I have made, I still get nervous when I get a glimpse into the future God has planned for me. I know I am not ready to see all He has planned because I will count myself out. God knows exactly what we need to know and when we need to know it and I am so grateful for that. We are so lucky to have a God that cares so much for us and that knows us so well. Trust that God will reveal to you what you need to know when you need to know it. I know it is frustrating when we don’t know what is coming next. I know we want to see the whole path right now, or at least I know I do. However, learning that God is hiding things for me, not from me, gives me a whole new way to look at it.
Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today. Lord, we thank you for protecting us from ourselves. We thank you for knowing exactly what we need. You are so good to us. We don’t want to be anxious about the future. We want to be able to stay in the present moment and to keep our eyes fixed on you. Lord, please give us the patience to wait for you to reveal things when we are ready. help us to see you are doing this for us and not to us. Help us to understand why we can’t know everything up front. Lord, help us to be ok with the not knowing. Help us to learn to stay in this moment and enjoy it instead of constantly thinking about what comes next. We love you Lord and we ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’ holy name, Amen.
Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. In case you haven’t listened to the other episodes this week I wanted to share the news that my book is finally out there in the world! I am so excited to share it with all of you. It is called Total Trust in God’s Safe Embrace and it can be found only on Amazon right now. It is in paperback or ebook format with the audio book coming soon. Please check it out and please pass it along to anyone you think might benefit from a deeper, more intimate relationship with God and also could use a little more trust in God’s plan for their life. Thank you for all your support. I look forward to spending time with you again tomorrow. Remember, Jesus loves you and so do I. Have a blessed day!