*EXCELLENT LIFE KEYS* 🔑🗝️
Wed/10th/Aug/2022
*Francis Reign* (Ap & Coach)
_"Raising excellent agents of change and transformation, well equipped with Truth and Wisdom."_
*UNDERSTANDING THE ACTS AND WORDS OF JESUS CHRIST (151)*
_"This is why I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand"_ (Matthew 13:13).
In this passage, Jesus states clearly that He is teaching in parables both to put the truth in front of the people and to keep them from fully understanding it. He says that though seeing they don't really see and that though hearing they don't really hear. In short, they don't understand the secrets of the Kingdom of heaven even though He is presenting them in the form of these small stories and descriptions. This is both because of their own resistance, and God's judicial intervention. Taken out of context, this might seem cruel, as if God is deliberately withholding information from those who are sincerely seeking it. However, in the previous chapter Jesus condemned the Pharisees and "this generation" of Israelites for their unbelief.
Most people express a shallow, superficial interest, but not a truly repentant, submissive faith. During the Exodus, God responded to Pharaoh's stubbornness (Exodus 8:32) by making him even more stubborn, as a form of judgement (Exodus 14:4). Jesus is presenting a picture of understanding the truth being both rejected by the people of Israel and kept from them. Israel, through her religious leaders and the nation as a whole, has rejected Jesus as the Messiah. At least part of this is because He did not fit their conception of what Messiah should do in the Kingdom He should establish. Rather than submit to what they see and hear, they resist.
So, Jesus says He will keep the religious leaders and the people from understanding. This also fulfills prophecy, as explained in the verses that followed (Matt 13:14-15). They heard externally, but not internally; they heard the sound of Christ's voice, but did not understand His words. Even when He spoke in the plainest and most intelligible manner; nor were they concerned to know the meaning. Unbelief and pride had taken them captives.
*EXCELLENCE KEY* 🗝️
_When you hear the voice of the Holy Spirit, be concerned and seek to understand the meaning of His words and statements._
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*Excellence is within you. Bring it out >>*
#1534 ELK.
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