Parables - Presentation

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0 height="100%"><tr> <td valign="top" width=168 BGCOLOR="#000000" TEXT="#F7F7FF" background="129a11c3.png"> <div> <A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Welcome to the Heart4God Website!"><U><B><IMG SRC="4b55a500.png" border=0 width="90" height="80" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></U></A></div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id2.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="The Writings of Joseph Herrin"><U><B>Writings by Date</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id212.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="The Writings of Joseph Herrin Organized "><U><B>Writings by Topic</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="http://www.heart4god.ws/Audio/index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.heart4god.ws/Audio/index.htm"><U><B>Audio Files</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id690.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Videos"><U><B>Videos</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id323.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Writings of Others"><U><B>Other Authors</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id324.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Links"><U><B>Links</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id339.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Questions and Answers"><U><B>Q&A</B></U></A></div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id328.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Heart4God Email List"><U><B>Heart4God E-mail List</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="http://www.parablesblog.blogspot.com" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.parablesblog.blogspot.com"><U><B>Parables Blog</B></U></A></div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id306.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="File Downloads"><U><B><IMG SRC="2b264140.png" border=0 width="100" height="20" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></U></A></div> <bR> </td> <td valign="top" BGCOLOR="#000000" TEXT="#F7F7FF"> <bR> <div> <B>Parables - Presentation</B></div> <div> <IMG SRC="c2827160.png" border=0 width="807" height="22" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <bR> <div> <IMG SRC="ba8e0560.jpg" border=0 width="480" height="342" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <bR> <div> Matthew 13:35</div> <div> I will open my mouth in parables, </div> <div> I will utter things hidden since the creation of the world.</div> <div> (NIV)</div> <bR> <div> When most Christians hear the word “Parables” they think of the stories that Yahshua told to His listeners, stories that are recorded for us in the four gospels. Many Christians do not realize that God has always spoken through parables, and that the first parables can be found in the very first chapter of the first book of the Bible.</div> <bR> <div> What is a parable?</div> <bR> <div> A parable is a story, either true or fictional, that serves as an allegory or a simile to convey another meaning. In the case of Biblical parables, a natural event or story is often used to convey spiritual truth.</div> <bR> <div> Example: A sower went out to sow seed. This is a natural story, but we would be mistaken if we thought God was simply trying to tell a story about farming. He was in fact seeking to convey spiritual truth.</div> <bR> <div> Why does God use parables to speak to men?</div> <bR> <div> Matthew 13:10-11</div> <div> And the disciples came and said to Him, "Why do You speak to them in parables?" Yahshua answered them, “To you it has been granted to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been granted.”</div> <bR> <div> Parables are a way of passing on truth selectively. God does not treat all men the same when it comes to giving them truth. Yahshua told His disciples, “Don’t cast your pearls before swine. Don’t give what is holy to dogs.”</div> <bR> <div> These instructions constitute a principle of Yahweh as He interacts with His creation. He does not give what is holy to dogs and swine. It is not animals that Yahshua has in mind when He speaks of dogs and swine, but men. Therefore we can see that even here He is using a parable.</div> <bR> <div> <IMG SRC="babae310.png" border=0 width="430" height="305" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <bR> <div> <B>The Parable of the Pig</B></div> <bR> <div> Comparing men to swine is a type of parable. In the old Testament Yahweh gave criteria for clean and unclean animals. For an animal to be considered clean it had to meet two criteria. It had to have a split hoof, and it had to chew the cud.</div> <bR> <div> Both of these things stand for something spiritually. The split hoof is a picture of being able to divide between truth and error, between right and wrong. Chewing the cud is a picture of meditating on truth.</div> <bR> <div> Another term for chewing the cud is ruminate, and we often use this word to speak of a person chewing on a thought or idea. Chewing the cud spiritually stands for someone who loves the truth and who will therefore chew on what they have learned, seeking to derive all the benefit from it.</div> <bR> <div> The pig meets one criteria for a clean animal, but fails in the other. The pig has a split hoof, but he does not chew the cud. This is a picture of the worst type of person, for it speaks of a person who has the ability to discern truth from error, but they do not love the truth, so they do not derive the benefit from the truth they have received.</div> <bR> <div> For this reason Yahshua told His disciples to not cast their pearls of truth before people who fell into this category.</div> <bR> <div> God Himself has always practiced this same discernment in that He has cloaked His truth so that those who do not love the truth would not be able to discern the truths of God, but they would remain hidden to them. Because the truths of God are delivered as parables, those whom God has not granted understanding see them as dark sayings whose true meaning remains a mystery to them.</div> <bR> <div> Matthew 13:13-14</div> <div> This is why I speak to them in parables: </div> <div> Though seeing, they do not see; though hearing, they do not hear or understand. In them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah: "'You will be ever hearing but never understanding; you will be ever seeing but never perceiving.” </div> <bR> <bR> <div> Yahweh has always made decisions relating to men, even to those who were among the called of God. As this passage from Isaiah reveals, Yahweh will even choose to conceal truth and remove discernment from His own chosen people due to their disobedience and wayward affections.</div> <bR> <div> Isaiah 29:10-14</div> <div> For Yahweh has poured over you a spirit of deep sleep, He has shut your eyes, the prophets; And He has covered your heads, the seers. The entire vision will be to you like the words of a sealed book, which when they give it to the one who is literate, saying, "Please read this," he will say, "I cannot, for it is sealed." Then the book will be given to the one who is illiterate, saying, "Please read this." And he will say, "I cannot read." </div> <div> Then Yahweh said, "Because this people draw near with their words And honor Me with their lip service, But they remove their hearts far from Me, And their reverence for Me consists of tradition learned by rote, therefore behold, I will once again deal marvelously with this people, wondrously marvelous; and the wisdom of their wise men will perish, and the discernment of their discerning men will be concealed."</div> <bR> <div> So we see that from the very beginning of Yahweh’s communication with man that He has spoken through methods that allow those who are granted understanding to perceive truth, while at the same time those who do not love the truth are prevented from perceiving the truths of God.</div> <bR> <div> Yet as we read the gospel accounts of Yahshua’s ministry on earth, we see that Yahshua would go aside and explain all things privately to His disciples. The Lord has also entrusted this ministry to me, that of going aside with the disciples of Christ and explaining the meaning of things hidden in His word.</div> <bR> <div> <IMG SRC="badfb600.jpg" border=0 width="507" height="352" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <bR> <div> You may ask, “How do I know that God has called me to this task of explaining the parables and dark sayings of Scripture to others?” I really think this is an important question to be answered, not to magnify my own calling, but that you might know that the things I will share with you have been appointed by God, and He is the Author of these things.</div> <bR> <div> Back around 1998 I was serving as a pastor at a church in Perry, Georgia when the Spirit spoke to me and told me that He wanted me to start using my first name. Up until that time I had always been called by my middle name which is Bradley. My parents and family and friends all called me Brad. Yet the Spirit of God indicated to me that my first name held significance to the calling He had placed upon my life. It was at this time that He first directed me to begin a ministry of writing, and I began signing everything I wrote and posted on the Internet with my first name, which is Joseph.</div> <bR> <div> A short time later a lady who had a genuine gift of prophecy came to the church I was at, and she gave a word of prophecy to all of the church leaders that was a direct parallel of an event in the life of Joseph, who was the son of Jacob. If you remember the story of Joseph, he was the youngest son of Jacob, and Jacob loved him because he was the son of his old age, and also because he was the first son of Jacob’s wife Rachel, whom he loved more than his other wife Leah.</div> <bR> <div> When Joseph was 17 years old he began having dreams that were prophetic, and he related the dreams to his ten older brothers and to his father. The message of the dreams was that God was going to promote Joseph over his brothers and one day his brothers would bow down before him.</div> <bR> <div> When Joseph shared this with his brothers, they hated him all the more, for they were already jealous of him because their father Jacob loved him more than the rest of them.</div> <bR> <div> Joseph, however, was not to know promotion immediately. Instead he was to be demoted. His father sent him out to check on his brothers who were tending the sheep, and Joseph was wearing the new multi-colored coat his father had given to him. His brothers saw him from a distance, and they conspired to kill him, but his oldest brother convinced them to not kill him, but to cast him into a pit. Later when a caravan of camels and merchants came along they sold Joseph as a slave and he was carried into Egypt where he was bought by Potiphar, the captain of Pharaoh’s bodyguard.</div> <bR> <div> When this woman with the prophetic gift visited our church, she did not know my first name was Joseph, as everyone at the church still only knew me by my middle name. The head pastor asked if she had a prophetic word to share with the church, and she answered that she did, but it was specifically for the church leaders and she asked if she could give it to us after the service.</div> <bR> <div> When all the church leaders had gathered together, she said the Spirit had a word for us, and then she pointed to me and said, “God says promotion is coming to you.” Like Joseph, I was the youngest man present among the church ministers, and in a similar parallel, even as Joseph’s brothers occupation was tending sheep, so was the occupation of the men I was gathered with, for they were spiritual shepherds of God’s people.</div> <bR> <div> Like Joseph, I was not to immediately be met with promotion. In fact, my brothers in Christ became very angry with me due to things the Spirit of Christ was speaking to me concerning them, and they also cast me out from among them. In the final meeting we had together I was met with tremendous anger, and one of the ministers said three different times that he could care less whether or not I died, and this was another parallel to the life of Joseph as his brothers spoke of killing him.</div> <bR> <div> In the years since then, I have known a much more humble existence than most of my brothers in Christ. Even as Joseph’s brothers were living as sons of their wealthy father, but Joseph was a slave in Egypt, I found that God would lead me from one humble circumstance to another, until I ended up living at a homeless shelter for a year, and then working in menial tasks for the same shelter while living in a small apartment adjacent to the shelter.</div> <bR> <div> Yet during the years since my brothers rejected me the Father began opening up to me an understanding of many parables contained in Scripture, and He indicated that the day would come when He would call me forth to share these truths with others. This also is a parallel to the life of Joseph for Pharaoh appointed Joseph to store up grain in Egypt during the seven years of plenty that he might feed the people during the seven years of famine.</div> <bR> <div> Grain is symbolic of the word of God, and the Scriptures declare:</div> <bR> <div> Amos 8:11-12</div> <div> Behold, days are coming," declares Yahweh God, "When I will send a famine on the land, not a famine for bread or a thirst for water, but rather for hearing the words of Yahweh. People will stagger from sea to sea and from the north even to the east; They will go to and fro to seek the word of Yahweh, but they will not find it.”</div> <bR> <div> Yet in that hour and day, those who are a part of the Joseph company of ministers that Yahweh has chosen will have bread. This company of ministers will feed those who are famished from that storehouse that has been filled with the truths of God’s word.</div> <div> A few years back the Spirit gave me a further indication of the nature of the calling He has appointed to me. I was reading the following Scripture:</div> <bR> <div> Genesis 41:45</div> <div> Then Pharaoh named Joseph Zaphenath-paneah; and he gave him Asenath, the daughter of Potiphera priest of On, as his wife. And Joseph went forth over the land of Egypt. </div> <bR> <div> Zaphenath-Paneah: Latin - Revelator Occulti (Revealer of hidden things).</div> <bR> <div> The Spirit directed me to the meaning of the name Pharaoh gave to Joseph. Because Joseph had interpreted Pharaoh’s dreams when none of the wise men of Egypt could do so, Pharaoh gave him a new name that literally means “revealer of hidden things.”</div> <bR> <div> The Spirit has further used this to give me a clearer understanding of the call He has placed on my life. He has continued to give me understanding of types, symbols and parables, as well as an understanding of the many dark sayings of Scripture. He has not revealed these things to me that I might keep them to myself, but so that I might share them with those to whom Yahweh has chosen to have them revealed, even as Joseph explained the meaning of the symbolism of Pharaoh’s dreams, as well as the dreams of Pharaoh’s baker and cupbearer, and his own dreams as well.</div> <bR> <div> I believe that God has a specific calling or ministry appointed for all of His children, but we must first endure a time of difficult preparation. We must learn obedience through the things that we suffer. Like Joseph I have had to experience rejection from my brothers in Christ as well as separation from my natural family. There has been much difficulty and loneliness, but there has also been much favor and grace bestowed upon me by God. We read also of Joseph that God caused all that he did to prosper when he was Potiphar’s servant, and later Joseph was shown favor with the jailer when Joseph was falsely accused of trying to rape Potiphar’s wife. With the difficulties and the sorrow in our years of preparation, there is always the constant presence of God who is watching over us.</div> <bR> <div> Yet many Christians never attain to the calling set before them because they fail to follow God to the places He would lead them, and they despise the difficult preparation that they must pass through.</div> <bR> <div> Mark 4:33-34</div> <div> With many such parables He was speaking the word to them, so far as they were able to hear it; and He did not speak to them without a parable; but He was explaining everything privately to His own disciples.</div> <bR> <div> As we have seen,  God makes a distinction between those who are faithful, and those who are unfaithful when He communicates truth to them. As this Scripture reveals, Christ would speak everything to the crowds in parables, but He would then take His disciples aside and explain everything to them in private. All of those present were Hebrews, the natural descendants of Abraham, and the chosen people of God. Yet only a remnant were given understanding of the sayings of God.</div> <bR> <div> Multitudes of people have picked up the Bible and read its pages without understanding. Many have read the histories of the Old Testament patriarchs, prophets, kings and people, and have only understood them as history. They have not understood the spiritual messages contained in all of these stories, and the myriad of symbols that are present. Many have read the more than 600 laws given to Moses and have only understood them on a physical and elemental level, when they were all given to teach spiritual truth.</div> <bR> <div> Continue to <A HREF="id593.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Parables Page 2"><U>Next Page</U></A></div> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>