What Is In A Parable
8/24/14
It is difficult at times to understand some of the
meanings that Jesus was trying to convey to those that were around Him when He
was speaking. Many people have the
notion that He was a false teacher because of His usage of parables and that He
did not give direct and precise answers to those who were around His during His
ministry on earth. Still, others pursue
these parables to try and subvert the truth behind them in order to justify
their own acceptance of their behaviors.
Both settings are in plain sight within the Church and her walls, both
in the physical walls and of the hearts as well. There is a reason why Jesus spoke in parables
and it follows the overall concept of Kingdom principles, one that we need to
take very seriously and keep close to heart as the worldly conditions continue
to bang at our heart walls.
Parables are stories that really do not occur yet have a
specific meaning to those that are listening to them. While this may seem a bit confusing to some
these verses do have a purpose in them and should be thought about for a
while. The question about people using
parables as truth can prove to be cumbersome but we need to keep one thing in
mind when we are reading these brilliant examples of life, that they are
intended for us to recognize our place in this world, who actually controls the
world and who is the keeper of everything.
When you wrap all of these parts into one parable one can understand why
Jesus used them in order for us to use what God has given us, our minds and our
hearts.
God gave us the ability to walk around and He expects us
to use this gift as much as possible.
Even in an age where cars, trains, and planes dominate our methods of
travel we still must use our legs at some point to reach a specific
destination. You have read in some of my
past articles that I walk back and forth between two buildings for my
work. I can call the other building and
talk with someone but in order for me to get a sample over there I must walk it
over so that it can be processed correctly.
This is one of the examples of the gifts that He has given us and
another brilliant gift is the ability to think and to use our minds and heart
to obtain the information that we need to survive.
When we read the Old Testament Scriptures we can easily
pick out the fact that there were many laws that had been created for the
Jewish nation. When we read some of
these laws it is also easy for us to come to the conclusion that God was a very
strict God and did not want His people to do, go, say or eat the same things as
others. While some of us may look at
these laws as a restriction others may try and use them in a worldly sense in
order to gain acceptance for the way that they want to believe. Using Scriptures to justify a certain belief
that you hold is a VERY DANGEROUS position to take and when one does this it
automatically places those people into direct conflict with God. One cannot honestly and biblically support a
notion that their personal views can overrule God’s, no matter what the
circumstances might be.
We must also remember that God made these rules because
we messed up in the beginning when we did not follow one simple law, in other
words it is our own fault in the first place.
God in turn had to write and direct laws in order to continue the notion
that humans are separate and that what He created is unique and should be
different from the current surroundings.
This is not a hindrance or a punishment but a code that is in place so
that we may remember that we are different from what the world wants us to be,
another example of why it is important that we have NO common ground with the
world. It is also why Jesus spoke in
parables instead of preaching to the people from a synagogue and in a dictatorial
or lawful manner.
By the time Jesus reached the earth, Jewish law was at
its height and basically ran the entire show concerning God and what God could
do. The laws of the Jews became hard and
strict with ever so slightly of movement or leniency which the priests doled
out quite readily. This area was one of
the sticking points that Jesus had against the Jewish leaders and proved to be
a serious concern of these leaders since in their eyes Jesus’ words were going
contrary to what they had control over.
What the leaders could not see was that Jesus was fulfilling the exact
laws that had been established for the Jews centuries before and that was to be
separate from the laws that controlled their surroundings. The laws that God had ordained for them were
now their captors and they had lost all of their freedom in God and they had
fallen into the worldly trap of acceptance instead of separation.
If Jesus was going to be understood and listened to by
the people then He knew that He had to take a different approach to things, an
approach that was ordained by God. See,
God shall never force any person to accept His ways, it is always our choice. God presence the evidence to us and then
leaves it up to the gifts that He created in our lives to help us make a choice
about His existence and His love for us.
The people knew the Jewish laws for these laws were spilled upon them
each day by the religious leaders of the communities. Does this sound familiar in today’s
society? It should because the Church
and its ministers have deemed it necessary to preach the same laws without in
turn proclaiming the entire truth behind them.
There is a reason as to why God says to do certain things and not to do
certain things and it is our responsibility to understand the scriptures well
enough to ascertain the two areas.
Jesus knew God’s laws quite well and it was through His
teachings of parables that allowed the people to take another look at what God
was trying to convey to their lives. At
no point while Jesus was on this earth did He ever take anything away from the
laws of God, nor did He water down anything that the prophets foretold or spoke
concerning God. When a law is spoken in
a certain tone or manner towards the ones that it is designed for, those people
tend to become very defensive at first.
Then after a few moments of pondering what has been said to them, true
anger sets in and the battle lines are drawn.
Jesus understood this method and never took any measures in trying to
convey God’s love and His laws to the people; the only time He did this was
when He directly addressed the inclusion of worldly standards within the House
of God.
Jesus used parables so that the people could understand
for themselves the laws of God and how God wanted to be a part of their
lives. Jesus always took hold of the
situation by giving the people a picture of a current setting, such as a
vineyard. He taught that there was a
keeper of the vineyard, workers and consequences of what would happen if no one
showed up to work or did not work up to their abilities. This type of teaching spoke volumes to the
people that He was speaking to and allowed them to understand what God was
saying to them about their lives. Jesus
never once spoke against God’s laws but He enhanced them in such a manner to
which those people could understand them, think about them and then incorporate
them into their daily existence. Jesus
had to have a very vivid imagination and a complete knowledge of the physical
gifts that God has given us in order to complete such a task. These gifts are unique to each one of us and
are to be used in such a manner as this.
It is no wonder that the king of this world is trying desperately to
hinder each of us from these gifts in order to cloud our minds and hearts from
understanding the truth about God and His ways.
It is amazing how well God knows humans, so much so that
He knew that once we had broken our first law that we would have the desire to
continue that trend. He also knew that
with the gifts that He created within us that we would take these gifts and use
them for selfish reasons in order to prove that our thoughts and decisions were
always correct. God also understood that
while we were formulating these apparitions within our hearts that we would
totally lose all concept of why we were created and who was directly behind
these “new” thoughts originated. In very
short terms this explains why blood was the key element in the symbolic redemption
process of humans and why it was necessary for those guidelines to be followed
when time came for repentance.
All of the laws, whether mankind agrees with them or not,
were designed to keep God’s people and the ones who wished to know His ways,
separate from the world and the death grip that it has over those who wish to
accept its mannerisms. There is nothing about
the world that God can accept for its ruler is the one who God considers to be
His arch enemy and a rival that is only after one thing, to trick and to lie to
God’s most prized creation so that those people may experience the same fate as
he will. A few weeks ago I wrote an article that dealt with Eve in the garden
when the serpent tricked her into eating of the tree. It was a specific tactic used by our enemy
back then and he is still using the same tactic today and what is so sad is
that even though millions of people around the world have read that story, many
of us continue to fall for that tactic and then try and justify it so that we
can keep it in our lives; Eve did it so why don’t we follow the same path, eh.
These tactics come in all shapes, sizes and colors and
they do not discriminate against anyone.
Our enemy does not care anything about you except for the fact that it
is his duty to blind you enough in such a way that he can convince you that
what you believe can go against God’s Word and you still be accepted into God’s
manor. Our physical lives themselves
represent nothing but death in the eyes of a Holy and perfect God, so why would
anyone deliberately challenge our eternal existence any further by flirting
with the protective regulations that God has set into place? The problem is that we all have a tendency to
try this on for ourselves and then forget to drop it when we use our gifts and
realize that it is wrong.
This is where the fire and brimstone points of the ministers
comes into play and stones are thrown.
God’s laws were put into place for a reason and it is our responsibility
to look at our past and to ascertain what exactly occurred in humanity for God
to say, hold on a minute, this is the way it needs to be done. It is our responsibility as well to teach
these people that what they are doing is wrong and that their actions do have a
consequence. It is our place to do this
in a manner to which they will listen and to think things through b using the
tools that God has given each one of us, not to cram the truth down their
throat in a Sanhedrin kind of way.
God was brilliant in the fact that He sent His Son to the
earth once in for all to show us that God is a loving God and that He wants us
to follow His ways so that we may be totally separated from the world. We cannot have any part of this world and it
should be our heart’s desire to rid ourselves of the world instead of grasping
for it. God is calling His people to
repent and to change their ways and to separate themselves from the world. There is a reason for this and if we truly
focus our studies on God’s Word in a godly manner instead of a selfish manner
it will become clear as to why it is so important that we follow God. God is in the restoration business and it is
His delight for His children to return back to Him. It is important that we figure out that our
life is a parable and it was Jesus’ way to say to each one of us that I
understand your life and I know what makes you tick and my Father wants you to
understand your complete story in the manner to which it was created.
DLB
No comments:
Post a Comment