Sharing Bread Mark 4:10-12

SHARING BREAD

¹⁰ When he was alone, the Twelve and the others around him asked him about the parables. ¹¹ He told them, "The secret of the kingdom of God has been given to you. But to those on the outside everything is said in parables ¹² so that,

"'they may be ever seeing but never perceiving,
and ever hearing but never understanding;
otherwise they might turn and be forgiven!'"

Mark 4:10-12 (NIV)

Our verses for today must be viewed through the lens of the growing hostility and unbelief amongst many in the crowds surrounding our Lord Jesus.  Yet to those who believed, the Savior gave revelation of sacred mysteries of the kingdom of God – private understanding of things too hard for mere mortals to comprehend, deeply intense and baffling divine secrets.  These mysteries revealed – these great and unsearchable things - continue to be held out to all who call upon the Lord with wholehearted devotion and a willing mind – those desirously seeking Him - not the flippant or the arrogant or the unbelieving.  Assistance is readily available for the asking from our giving God.  Man’s prayer for clarity and wisdom invites and assures God’s response.  James tells us the only condition to this is that we must call upon Him in believing faith:

⁵ If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him. ⁶ But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. ⁷ That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord; ⁸ he is a double-minded man, unstable in all he does.   James 1:5-8 (NIV)

Those who receive “secrets of the kingdom of God” must acknowledge that it has been given to them from above – they receive both the light and sight from the Lord Jesus.  We also discover in Deuteronomy the Truth revealed belongs to us and to our children as well and encouraging us yet further still – ever pointing us towards obedience to His perfect and pleasing will:

²⁹ The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may follow all the words of this law.   Deut 29:29 (NIV)

“In Christ the heart of the Father is revealed, and higher comfort there cannot be than to rest in the Father’s heart.”   Andrew Murray

“The purposes of God are His concealed promises; the promises, His revealed purposes.”   Philip Henry

I am reminded of Jesus’ “Atta” boy Words directed to Simon Peter regarding the revelation Peter had received:

¹⁶ Simon Peter answered, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." ¹⁷ Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven.”   Matt 16:16-17 (NIV)

Those who lacked understanding were blinded by unbelief and saw Jesus as nothing but a threat to their existence.  They willingly rejected the Truth He held out to them.  Sadly, this continues to occur in our day.  Those whose convictions are overpowered by their corruptions lose the good impression Scripture first made on them.  Satan is very busy around the careless hearers of God’s Word.  Audiences are not denied the hearing of the Truth – the opportunity to believe in Him - rather they persistently close their minds to His message and like Pharaoh in the past, harden their own hearts.  iH      

“The enemy will not see you vanish into God’s company without an effort to reclaim you.”   C. S. Lewis

In Matthew’s account of this parable we are told by Jesus that this baffling - this not hearing among the unbelieving - was due to the hardness of their hearts and speaks of the great blessing that belongs to those who do see and hear.  Quoting from the Prophet Isaiah our Lord states:

¹⁴ In them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah: “'You will be ever hearing but never understanding; you will be ever seeing but never perceiving.  ¹⁵ For this people's heart has become calloused; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes.  Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts and turn, and I would heal them.' ¹⁶ But blessed are your eyes because they see, and your ears because they hear. ¹⁷ For I tell you the truth, many prophets and righteous men longed to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it”.    Matt 13:14-17 (NIV)

¹⁰ Concerning this salvation, the prophets, who spoke of the grace that was to come to you, searched intently and with the greatest care, ¹¹ trying to find out the time and circumstances to which the Spirit of Christ in them was pointing when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow. ¹² It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves but you, when they spoke of the things that have now been told you by those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven. Even angels long to look into these things.   1 Peter 1:10-12 (NIV)

What I glean from this:

·       God reveals His very great and precious promises and mysteries to believing hearts willingly seeking Him.

·       All wisdom comes from above and is profitable for me.

·       Satan seeks to distract me keeping me from God’s best for my life.