Friday Morning Manna March 29, 2019
Nathaniel Fajardo email: [email protected]
Mysteries Revealed, Mysteries Concealed: To Whom and Why?
See Luke 8: 4-15. After giving the parable of the Sower to “a great multitude coming from every city,” His first twelve disciples later asked Jesus, “What does this parable mean?”
Note quickly this unfortunate unchanging disparity: all heard the same message from the same Speaker at the same place and time but as the parable verily illustrated, only a very few true disciples inquired further. The great majority of that great multitude, comprising the three of the four kinds of soil illustrated in the parable, did not. Christ’s reply echoed what the gospel prophet declared centuries earlier. It clearly shows that the mysteries of the gospel are declared by the prophets to all, to whom they are revealed even while the same will remain concealed to others and why.
Jesus Christ, “the only name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” is “the same yesterday, today, and forever.” Acts 4:12; Heb. 13:8. Thus, in the truth-realm of His spiritual kingdom on earth and reigns among its loyal subjects, there are no such things as “alternative facts,” “alternate universes,” white lies, unbecoming and so-unchristlike political rhetoric, “garden-variety crimes,” etc., His answer then, holds true and is the same now for the antitypical “great multitude” of listeners “coming from every city” of the world—whether true disciples or otherwise, throughout all the generations since then–but especially now during the blowing of the seventh trumpet when “the mystery of God should be finished, as He declared to the prophets” (Rev. 10: 7).
Such can only be the perfect and perfecting work of the “Author and Finisher of our faith” (Heb. 12: 2). He who “sees the end from the beginning” never begins what He will not finish. In the everlasting gospel, what began as the divine plan of redemption in heaven will be completed and finished on earth—against all the overwhelming odds against it.
So was this declared in this beautiful prophecy using God’s visible handiwork in nature and its operations to reveal the mystery of the gospel:
“For as the rains come down, and the snow from heaven, and do not return there [in the same state or form], but water the earth, and make it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater, So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; it shall not return to Me void, but it shall accomplish what I please, and it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.” Isa. 55: 10, 11.
Christ’s answer to His disciples’ question was: “To you it has been given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God, but to the rest is given in parables that ‘seeing they may not see, and hearing they might not understand, [echoing Isa. 6: 9].”
To the spiritually uninitiated, both prophecies and parables may sound, and are in fact, truly mysterious—not “mystical” and “esoteric,” the language of the occult—in which are enfolded spiritual mysteries also referred to as “the deep things of God.” But unlike the “knowledge of evil” craftily presented by the master deceiver as mingled with “the knowledge of good,” the evil of which the Creator desired to eternally withhold from our first parents, even while it comprised the very first test of loyalty and trust. Hence, He declared the very first “thou shalt not”—for their own good and the good of all their children thereafter but which they transgressed by yielding to the temptation to disobey their Creator’s express command. They failed the simplest of tests.
The mysteries and deep things of God embodied in both parable and prophecy were designed to be revealed at their appointed time, place, and way to all of God’s people throughout all the generations and dispensations—as given through His chosen and anointed patriarchs, prophets, priests, apostles, and messengers. Outside of them are “false prophets” and “false christs” which “shall abound in the latter days.”
There are some forty parables recorded in the New Testament. And yet diligent students of the Word know there are much more, for the Bible says: “And with many such parables He spoke the word to them as they were able to hear it. But without a parable He did not speak to them. And when they were alone, He explained all things to His disciples.” Mark 33, 34, N.K.J.V.
“But without a parable He did not speak to them.” The only instance we have of Christ not speaking and preaching in parables during His extremely intense, brief, three-and-a half year ministry as the Messiah, was when He was in His favorite home outside His supposedly earthly residence —the humble home in Bethany where dwelt the siblings Martha, Mary, and Lazarus.
Bethany Homes Need No Parabolic Teachings
God’s messenger for these last days, Ellen G. White wrote:
“At the home of Lazarus, Jesus had often found rest. The Savior had no home of His own; He was dependent on the hospitality of His friends and disciples, and often, when weary, thirsting for human fellowship, He has been glad to escape to this peaceful household, away from the suspicion and jealousy of the angry Pharisees. Here He found a sincere welcome, and pure, holy friendship. Here He could speak with simplicity and perfect freedom, knowing that His words would be understood and appreciated.
“Our Savior appreciated a quiet home and interested listeners. He longed for human tenderness, courtesy, and affection. Those who received the heavenly instruction He was always ready to impart were greatly blessed. As the multitudes followed Christ through the open fields, He unfolded to them the beauties of the natural world. He sought to open the eyes of their understanding, that they might see how the hand of God upholds the world. In order to call out an appreciation of God’s goodness and benevolence, He called the attention of His hearers to the gently falling dew, to the soft showers of rain and the bright sunshine, given alike to good and evil. He desired men to realize more fully the regard that God bestows on the human instrumentalities He has created.
“But the multitudes were slow of hearing [cf. Luke 24: 25], and in the home at Bethany Christ found rest from the weary conflict of public life. Here He opened to an appreciative audience the volume of Providence. In these private interviews [such as was held between Him and Nicodemus] He unfolded to His hearers that which he did not attempt to tell to the mixed multitude. He needed not to speak to His friends in parables.”- Desire of Ages, pp. 524, 525. This tells us that if Jesus were here in our neighborhood today in His flesh-and-blood nature and spoke to us in parables it would an indication that we are yet part of the “mixed multitude” and have yet to become His real friends.
If Jesus, the Creator, “the Word made flesh” (John 1: 14) needed and sought rest from the weary conflict of public life—a life singularly dedicated to fulfilling His three and-a-half year mission on earth, how much more you and me, and whole world of fallen humanity! But why does the opposite seem to prevail everywhere, particularly in these last days of earth’s history?
The answer? Spiritual blindness caused by a defective heart of stone and a proud, unrepentant spirit that attempts to hide or justify one’s self-indulgent “love of the world and the things of this world” and the gratification with the “sins of the flesh” as manifested in the “works of the flesh.”
But when one finally yields to the conviction of the Holy Spirit (in the written and/or spoken Word), and the eye of understanding is de-scaled (as the misguided zealot Saul experienced in his dramatic conversion on the Damascus road, turning him to Paul, the apostle to the Gentiles) and finally opened to see the truth more clearly, they will be appalled over how anyone can crave public attention and adulation so bad they are willing to be “bad” and lay bare in the public domain their once-private life and limbs and even the innermost thoughts that they once said would go with them to their tombs as never-to-be-revealed secrets. But the advent of the digital age and its internet became a distorting and disturbing game-changer for them. Not because this particular technology, age and generation have in of themselves any irresistible powers but because the unconverted heart knows no limits of degradation, except by death, when left unchecked it its downward spiral. That “Broad road” ends in perdition.
On second thought regarding secret thoughts and secret sins—the traditional Catholic Confessional boxes, where, through the centuries, countless votaries confessed their innermost secrets–withheld even from their spouses and closest family members– to fellow sinner-priest-confessors, has lost, as it were its totally-unbiblical, man-made sacred role and means of control over the fears and conscience of man. So much has already been written and known the world over on the abominations that have taken place within and come out from these Confessionsals. But which is worse is hard to tell: the closed Confessional box where secrets are spilled like beans or the open social media public “confessionals” where secrets are not only spilled like beans, but ground up, brewed and poured out as a morning joe expresso. How many start their day, not with prayer and a devotional read but a real-time scoop of something sordid from their social media accounts? And we wonder why people are still complaining,–pretending they do know the reason why—about getting out of the wrong side of the bed, which is followed by a real bad day. This convenient go-to of escape goatism is symptomatic of a more serious spiritual disease: personal dishonesty driven by a persistent refusal to accept heaven’s invitation to give up some cherished secret sin or an openly indulgent lifestyle. Blame-games are offsprings of this, too.
In the end, absolutely no rational mind will be able to summon the reason they were not able to hear enough truth in order to be saved from eternal ruin. Why? Because all the parables Jesus gave, containing the seed of the whole gospel and was given to all “great multitudes” which included all His disciples-in training that followed Him, that is, for a while. It was the spiritual condition of the heart “soil” on which the “seed of the gospel” fell on that spelled the difference. Only those, however, who, in their hearts secretly desired and then publicly asked for much more than the physical “fish and bread”– which He did miraculously and freely satiated them with—finally obtained the “pearl of great price.” The majority of that great multitude, in fact, not only abandoned Him but cursed and joined the rabble that later publicly demanded for His crucifixion! And so is it today, and in the soon-coming final test of mankind.
See John 6: 57, 58. “Our life is to be bound up with the life of Christ; we are to draw constantly from Him, partaking of Him, the living bread that came down from heaven. . . . Our prayers will take the form of a conversation with God, as we would talk to a friend. He will speak His mysteries to us personally. Often there will come to us a sweet, joyful sense of the presence of Jesus. Often our hearts will burn within us as He draws near to commune with us as He did with Enoch. The heart that receives the Word of God is not as a pool that evaporates, not like the broken cistern that loses its treasure. It is like the mountain stream fed by unfailing springs, whose cool, sparkling waters leap from rock to rock, refreshing the weary, the thirsty, the heavy-laden.” – E. G. White, Christ’s Object Lessons, pp. 129, 130.I have always wondered about those truths that Jesus freely taught and the mysteries of the “deep things of God” that He explained in plain language—not in parabolic or couched in prophetic symbols—within the humble walls of that Home in Bethany! The unseen angels must have been listening closely as well, not wanting to miss a single living word, for as Paul testifies:
“I became a minister according to the stewardship from God which was given to me for you, to fulfill the word of God, the mystery which has been hidden from ages and from generations, but now has been revealed to His saints. To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.” Col. 1: 25-27. In that typical Home in Bethany, and in all antitypical Homes in Bethany thereafter, Christ is not only a temporary honored house Guest, unveiling deep truths to an attentive audience but actually dwells in their hearts by the Holy Spirit! Are we disciples in the “great multitude” who seek for more truth? Is our home an antitypical Home in Bethany? (Continued next week)