Information Related to "Christ's Parables and the Kingdom"
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Did Jesus expect everyone to understand His parables about the Kingdom of God? In His teaching, Jesus often compared the coming Kingdom to common situations in people's lives. These messages are known as parables.
Most people assume Christ used this method of teaching to make the truth more easily understood. Jesus Himself said the opposite is true. "And the disciples came and said to Him, 'Why do You speak to them in parables?' 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 . . . Therefore I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand'" (Matthew 13:10-13).
Jesus did not expect everyone to understand His parables about the Kingdom, either in His days on earth or now. "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; for the hearts of this people have grown dull. Their ears are hard of hearing, and their eyes they have closed, lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, 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 . . ." (verses 14-17).
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