To Encourage You

Matthew 13:10-11 “Then the disciples came and said to him, ’Why do you speak to them in parables?’  And he answered them, ‘To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom, but to them it has not been given.’”

The conversation above followed immediately after Jesus told a large crowd the parable of the sower – or soils, it’s referred to in several ways. In this parable Jesus talks about seed being sown on four different types of soil: soil along the path, rocky soil, soil among the thorns, and good soil.  Jesus spoke often in parables, particularly in the latter part of His ministry.  Here he tells His disciples why.  Rather than the popular notion that Jesus taught with such stories to make it easier for people to understand Him, here He explains that it is actually a teaching form that hides truth from those who do not have “ears to hear.”  Jesus often said such things as “Listen,” “Truly, truly I say to you,” or “He that has ears to hear, let him hear.”  Following these statements, He shared eternal truth with His listeners, such things as the secrets of the kingdom of heaven and  the way to eternal life.  Unfortunately, most of His teaching fell on deaf ears.  The religious leaders rejected Him, and many of the populace followed Him only because he was a miracle worker and they saw Him as a means to physical blessings only, like someone who gave them food, or someone that could heal their bodies.  However, like nine of the 10 lepers in Luke 17, that’s where their interest ended. They weren’t interested in deeper spiritual things.   They lived only in the “here and now” and gave little thought to the hereafter.  To these people the parables were a kind of judgment that hid the awesome wisdom of God from them. 

However, to those who loved Him and desired to truly know and follow Him, Jesus revealed the “secrets of the kingdom.”  Imagine having the eternal God share His secrets with you. While it is granted to most people to have the intelligence to know a lot about this world, it is only believers that have been given the capacity to know the secrets of the kingdom of God.  God, in his wisdom, has chosen to hide His truth from those who aren’t really interested in it, no matter how intelligent those people might otherwise be.   Many of the most brilliant scientists, while putting most of us to shame with their learning and intelligence, are ignorant of things that God has revealed even to little children who love Him. 

So do you want to know God’s secrets?  They are available only to those who, in humility, acknowledge their ignorance of spiritual things without God’s help, and who then seek Him with all their heart (Jeremiah 29:13).