"The Parables #1" by Charles H. Welch from The Berean Expositor circa 1911-12.

The word, its meaning and dispensational setting.

As the student of Scripture grows in grace and knowledge of the truth, things
which once seemed trivial appear of great importance; passages which once he
thought he "knew all about " are approached with deepening humility, to be
reread and learned afresh.  Among our earliest recollections, either as
scholars in Sunday Schools or as members of Churches, will be those passages
of Scripture known as "The Parables."  The time-worn definition, "An earthly
story with a heavenly meaning, "is doubtless familiar to us all.  Do we not
begin to realize, however, that these parables contain teaching which our
teachers never saw, and that the dispensational key, which has turned the lock
of so many difficulties and opened doors into such treasuries, may be
profitably applied to these "dark sayings"?

The first thing to do is to be sure of the meaning of the word.  The word
"parable" has been taken over into the English tongue from the Greek word
parabole.  Para means "near" or  beside," and bole is from ballo, "I cast" or
"throw."  Literally it signifies something "cast beside" another, and as
applied to discourse it means a method of teaching which demands the use of
similitude or comparison.

All the parables of Scripture are weighty and wise sayings.  This may be
gathered from the words of the proverb, "The legs of a lame man are not equal,
so is a parable in the mouth of fools" (Prov. xxvi. 7).  The Companion Bible
gives the meaning, "The clothes of a lame man being lifted up expose his
lameness, so a fool exposes his folly in expounding a parable" (See also Prov.
xxvi. 9).  An American writer has given a very helpful translation of
Proverbs.  Chapter i. 2-6 reads thus:

"To know wisdom and admonition; to put a distinct meaning into discriminated
speeches:  to accept clear sighted admonition is righteousness and judgment
and right behaviour.

In order to give subtlety to the simple; to the child knowledge and thorough
thought.  The wise man will hear and increasingly acquire, and a man already
become discerning will gain in capability to guide.

For putting a distinct meaning into a proverb or an enigma; into the words of
the wise and their intricate sayings:

The fear of the Lord is the main knowledge, a wisdom and a discipline that
fools despise."

It is in this frame of mind that we approach these "dark sayings," in the fear
of God to learn their "secrets."

In Matt. xiii. 35 the Lord quotes from Psalm lxxviii. 2 in relation to His
speaking in parables, and therefore we may expect to find some help in that
Psalm to guide us to the right understanding of the purpose of a parable.  The
heading of the Psalm is "Maschil of Asaph."  The Hebrew word Maschil is from
the word Sakal, which means, "to look at," "to scrutinize," and the term
Maschil means, "an understanding arising from a deep consideration" (Neh.
viii. 8).  The title of the Psalm prepares us for deep instruction:

"Give ear, O My people, to My law, Incline your ear to the words of My mouth.
I will open My mouth in a PARABLE,

I will utter DARK SAYINGS of old."

The remaining portion of the Psalm is a rehearsal of the history of Israel
from Moses to David, showing the inner reasons of their failures.  Take for
example verses 9 and 10:

"The children of Ephraim, armed, carrying bows, turned back in the day of
battle."

Why ?

"They kept not the covenant of God, and refused to walk in His law."

>From this we may infer that a parable urges us to consider deeply the ways of
God with His people, and to look for the hidden causes and workings which are
veiled from the eyes of the uninstructed.

That a parable has some connection with a secret, a reference to Matt. xiii.
will prove.  There for the first time in the New Testament do we read the word
"mystery " or "secret," and there for the first time occurs the word
"parable."  Further, the Lord Jesus translates the words, "I will utter dark
sayings of old," by the words, "I will utter things which have been kept
secret since the overthrow (katabole) of the world" (Matt. xiii. 35).

The first parable of the Bible is one which concerns the people of Israel in
relation to their separate calling as a distinct nation and peculiar people:

"And he took up his parable and said, "Balak king of Moab hath brought me from
Aram, out of the mountains of the East, saying, Come curse me Jacob, and,
come, defy Israel.  How hall I curse whom God hath not cursed?  And how shall
I defy whom the Lord hath not defied?" (Num. xxiii.7; so also xxiii. 18; xxiv.
3, 15).

In Hebrews ix. 9 and xi. 19 we find the word translated, "a figure."  A
parable and a proverb are much alike.  The parable of Matt. xv. 13-I5 might be
termed a proverb.  Indeed the word translated "proverb " in Luke iv. 23 is
really "parable."  The words, "Physician, heal thyself," are called in the
original a "parable."  That a "proverb " carried the same hidden teaching as
did the "parable and dark sayings" can be seen by referring to John xvi. 25
and 29:

These things have I spoken unto you in proverbs, the hour cometh when I shall
no more speak unto you in proverbs, but I will shew you PLAINLY of the Father.

In the Old Testament we have "type," in the Gospels we have "parable," and in
the Epistles we have "doctrine," as the more prominent features.  The parables
lead us to contemplate the hidden causes of the failure of Israel in relation
to the kingdom, and look forward to the time when all will be put right.

The first occurrence of a word very often decides its fundamental meaning.
The first occurrence of the word parable in the New Testament is Matt. xiii.
3.  It follows that chapter wherein culminated the rejection of the Messiah by
the people in the land.  He had been heralded as their Messiah and King.  He
had vindicated His claims by the fulfillment of numerous prophecies, both with
regard to His Person and His works and in chapter xii. 6, 41 and 42, although
greater than the temple, greater than the prophet Jonah, and greater than king
Solomon, He yet is "despised and rejected":

The same day went Jesus out of the house, and sat by the sea side . . .  and
He spake many things unto them in parables . . . and the disciples came and
said unto Him, Why speakest Thou in parables?  He answered and said unto them,
Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of the
heavens therefore speak I unto them in parables, because they seeing see not
and hearing they hear not neither do they understand.  And in them is
fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah which saith, By hearing ye shall hear and
shall not understand: and seeing ye shall see and shall not perceive: for this
people's heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing and their
eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and
hear with their ears and understand with their heart, and should be converted,
and I should heal them.  But blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your
ears, for they hear.  For verily I say unto you, that many prophets and
righteous men have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen
them; and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them  (Matt.
xiii. 1-17).

Such is the setting of the first occurrence of the word parable in the New
Testament. The parables were used when Israel manifested that the prophecy of
Isaiah vi. 10 was fulfilled in them.  The parables were not used to make the
teaching plainer, but to veil the teaching from the majority.  The parables
relate to the secrets of the kingdom.  They teach things hitherto "kept secret
since the overthrow of the world" (Matt. xiii. 35).  Prophets desired to see
and hear these things, as Matt. xiii. 17 and 1 Pet. i. 10-12 tell us:

"Searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them
did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the
glories that should follow."

Here, as in the majority of Old Testament prophecies, no break is made between
the sufferings and the glories.  No interval is allowed between "the
acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God" (Isa. Ixi.
2, cf. Luke iv. 19).  The rejection of God's king was only partly seen, the
abeyance of the kingdom was a secret.  Thus we may place the two passages
together:

"I will open my mouth in parables.  I will utter things which have been kept
secret since the overthrow of the world" (Matt. xiii. 35).

"Why speakest Thou in parables?  Because it is given unto you to know the
secrets of the kingdom of the heavens, but to them it is not given" (Matt.
xiii. 10, 11).

Everything leads us to expect that just as in Psa. lxxviii. we shall find in
these parables some of the inner workings of God's counsels relative to His
purposes in Israel, and that to introduce the doctrinal teaching of the gospel
of the grace of God, or the dispensational teaching of the mystery which is
not a subject of revelation until over 30 years later (Eph. iii. 1-10), will
be to confound things which differ, and signally to fail rightly to divide the
Word of truth.

The parables are particularly dispensational in character.  Their object is
not to provide a moral lesson or a text for a gospel address.  How many have
gone astray by reason of this mischievous practice.  The parable of the
Prodigal Son serves those who have no desire for the retention of the
atonement with a  "proof" text for the universal Fatherhood of God, and of the
reception by Him of all who come, irrespective of the one way of acceptance --
the sacrifice of Christ.  The parable of the Unforgiving Servant is made to
teach, in direct opposition to the doctrine of the epistles, that sins once
forgiven may be re-imputed, or that a sinner once saved by grace can fall away
again.

Let us remember the Scriptural settings of these parables, the reasons which
drew them from the Lord Jesus, the dispensation in which they were uttered,
and the people and kingdom about which they speak; we shall then have no need
to be ashamed of our testimony.

Thus far we have sought to clear the way for the study of these parables.  We
shall next endeavour to present to the reader the arrangement of the parables
of Matthew xiii. and to enter into the teaching of these parables of the
secrets of the kingdom of the heavens.

The Parables of Matthew xiii.

To understand any passage or verse in the Bible we must take note of the
context, otherwise, being ignorant of much that God has written for our
guidance, we shall offer "a vision out of our own heart" as the
interpretation.  In the first place, Matt. xiii. comes in that section which
is entirely taken up with the "kingdom" before the Lord had uttered one word
of the foundations of the gospel as we know it, namely, His death and
resurrection.  This fact should deter us from too hastily assuming that in
Matt. xiii. we have an elaborate discourse concerning "the gospel."

In order to show that these parables come (1) in the kingdom section proper,
and (2) before the Lord's revelation of His death and resurrection, we shall
have to give the arrangement of subjects, which is as follows:

A) Matt i. 1 - iii. 12.  Preparation.

  B) Matt. iii. 16, 17.  Voice from heaven -- "My beloved Son."
    C) Matt xvi. 16.  Peter's confession -- "Thou art the Christ, the son of
    the living God."

  B) Matt. xvii. 5. Voice out of the cloud -- "My beloved Son."
    C) Matt. xxvii. 5.  Centurion's confession -- "Truly this was the Son of
    God."

A) Matt. xxviii. Conclusion.

The " time " divisions of Matthew are two-fold, agreeing with the two-fold
message from heaven, and confession on earth:

(1) "From that time Jesus began to preach and to say,  Repent, for the kingdom
of heaven is at hand"  (iv. 17).

(2) "From that time forth began Jesus to shew unto His disciples how that He
must go unto Jerusalem and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests
and scribes and be killed, and be raised again the third day" (xvi. 21).

We can now see clearly that the parables of Matt. xiii. come within the first
section of Matthew's Gospel, which has for its subject exclusively "the
kingdom."

In examining the book still further, we find that it reveals three main
discourses, and a due appreciation of their place and teaching is of the
utmost importance.  They are as follows:

A) Matt v.-vii. / On a mountain. (Past) / Precept. / The kingdom explained.

  B) Matt. xiii. / Out of the house. (Past and future) / Parable. / The
  kingdom rejected.

A) Matt.  xxiv., xxv. / On  mountain. (Future) / Prophecy / The kingdom set
up.

In the Sermon on the Mount the Lord Jesus, as King, sat upon the mountain, and
gave His law and described the character of the subjects of His kingdom.  In
the prophetic chapters of Matt. xxiv. and xxv. the Lord Jesus looks forward to
the day when His kingdom shall be set up with power and great glory.  The
interval between the two "mountain" discourses is filled in by the rejection
of the Lord by Israel, and the parables of the secrets of the kingdom.  We may
expect, therefore, to find something to teach us the character and course of
the "kingdom of the heavens" during the period of the rejection of the King.
One thing we must be quite clear about, and that is, we shall not find
depicted a history of events which were to take place after the kingdom of the
heavens became in abeyance.

These parables trace the progress of the gospel of the kingdom along its
course through the period while the Lord was on the earth, and during the Acts
of the Apostles.  The present interval of the dispensation of the mystery must
of necessity be omitted, and the history of the kingdom be resumed again when
God once more takes up His ancient people, for the interpretation of some of
these parables takes us to the "end of the age."

Before we examine the parables in detail, we must examine them together.  Some
of our readers may be surprised to find us speaking of the eight parables of
Matt. xiii.  It has become almost sacred to prophetic students to speak of the
seven parables of Matt. xiii., so that we shall have to set out the complete
arrangement in order to demonstrate the fact that the Lord gave eight
parabolic or figurative utterances in connection with the "mysteries (or
secrets) of the kingdom."

Structure of Matthew xiii.

A) 1-9.  The Sower. / The sowing of the seed into four kinds of ground.  They
(Israel) did not understand.

  B) 24-30.  The Tares. / Good and bad together.  Separated at the harvest
  (the end of the age); the bad are cast into a furnace of fire, there shall
  be wailing and gnashing of teeth.

    C) 31, 32.  The Mustard Tree.  / One Tree.
      D) 33.  The Leaven. / Hid in three measures of meal.

      D) 44.  The Treasure.  / Hid in a field.

    C) 45, 46.  Goodly Pearls.  / One pearl.

  B) 47-50.  The Drag Net. / Good and bad together. Separated at the end of
  the age; the bad are cast into a furnace of fire, there shall be wailing and
  gnashing of teeth.  They (disciples) did understand.

A) 51, 52.  The Scribe.  / The treasure opened to those in the house.

The harmony that exists between the component parts of this structure is quite
evident to all.  If we can see the disposition of any passage of Scripture, we
are in possession of a help to its interpretation.  Sometimes a word may have
more than one meaning, and the balance in favour of either rendering may be
fairly equal.  If we can find its place in the structure, we shall often, by
so doing, find its meaning also.

Look at the central pair of parables.  The Leaven "hidden" in three measures
of meal finds its corresponding member in the Treasure  "hidden" in the field.
The parable of the Tares finds its complement in the parable of the Drag Net.
The parable of the Sower is balanced by that of the Scribe, and the Mustard
Seed by the Pearl.

We now have considered the parables in their meaning and signification, and
have also looked at the contextual setting of these parables of the secrets of
the kingdom, so far as their place in the Gospel of Matthew is concerned.  We
must now examine the immediate cause of their utterance, and we shall then be
ready to consider each parable in detail.

Let us go back as far as the commencement of chapter xi.  John the Baptist had
said, "He that cometh after me is mightier than I."  He had seen the heavens
open, he had heard the voice of God saying, "This is My beloved Son, in Whom I
am well pleased."  But in course of time John, for his faithfulness, was cast
into prison, there to suffer not only agony of body, but of mind.  Had he made
a mistake?  Why was he not liberated if this one was the Messiah?  Why was the
kingdom not set up?  So John sent two of his disciples, who said, "Art thou He
that should come, or do we look for another?  "For answer the Lord replied,
"Go and show John again those things which ye do see and hear; the blind
receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf
hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached unto them,
and blessed is he, whosoever shall not be offended in Me."

If the reader will turn to Isa. xxix. 18, 19; xxxv. 5, 6; and xlii. 1-7 he
will see how this answer would tend to confirm the languishing forerunner.
Everything was being done by the Saviour according to the Word and will of
God, but unbelief was bringing this witness of the kingdom to a close, for a
little further on, in Matt. xi. 20, He began to "upbraid the cities wherein
most of His mighty works were done, because they repented not."  It is evident
that if the mighty works were rejected, the gospel or good news that the
kingdom of the heavens had drawn nigh would be rejected also, and the cry,
"Repent and believe," would go unheeded.

The Lord Jesus, however, knew that this opposition was to be overruled to the
accomplishment of God's ultimate purpose, and with the words, "Even so,
Father, for so it seemed good in Thy sight," He awaited the end.  It soon
came, for in Matt. xii. we reach a climax.  There the Lord Jesus is seen
"greater than the Temple" (verse 6), "greater than the prophet Jonah" (verse
41), "greater than the king Solomon" (verse 42), and in all these capacities
He is rejected.  The reason for this rejection is given in verses 43-45.

The captivity of Babylon had cured the Jews of idolatry, but they were like a
room "empty, swept and garnished," inhabited by a spirit more evil than that
which bound their idolatrous "fathers"; the last state is worse than the
first, for rejecting Christ they reached the climax sin.  This leads on to
Matt. xiii. with its secrets or mysteries.

Up to this point nothing had been secret, but now the Saviour reveals to the
hearing ear and seeing eye that the rejection of the King and His message was
foreknown, that the efforts of the apostles themselves would meet with a
similar fate, and that not until the end, when the Lord returns to take the
kingdom and deliver Israel, will the sowing of the seed of the kingdom yield
its bounteous harvest.