Matthew 13:15

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 should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them. FOR THIS PEOPLE'S HEART IS WAXED GROSS ... AND THEIR EYES THEY HAVE CLOSED; LEST AT ANY TIME THEY SHOULD SEE ... AND HEAR ... AND SHOULD UNDERSTAND ... AND SHOULD BE CONVERTED, AND I SHOULD HEAL THEM. They were thus judicially sealed up under the darkness and obduracy which they deliberately preferred to the light and healing which Jesus brought nigh to them....

Matthew 13:15._Lest I should heal them _In the word _healing, _Matthew, as well as the Prophet, includes deliverance from every evil; for a people afflicted by the hand of God is metaphorically compared by them to a sick man. They say that _healing _is bestowed, (188) when the Lord releases from punishment. But as this healing depends on the pardon of sins, _Mark _describes appropriately and justly its cause and source, _lest they should be converted, and their sins should be forgiven them _For whence comes the mitigation of chastisements, but because God has been reconciled to us, and makes us the objects of his blessing? Sometimes, no doubt, after removing our guilt, he continues to punish us, either with the view of humbling us the more, or of making us more cautious for the future. And yet, not only does he show evidences of

1-23 Jesus entered into a boat that he might be the less pressed, and be the better heard by the people. By this he teaches us in the outward circumstances of worship not to covet that which is stately, but to make the best of the conveniences God in his providence allots to us. Christ taught in parables. Thereby the things of God were made more plain and easy to those willing to be taught, and at the same time more difficult and obscure to those who were willingly ignorant. The parable of the sower is plain. The seed sown is the word of God. The sower is our Lord Jesus Christ, by himself, or by his ministers. Preaching to a multitude is sowing the corn; we know not where it will light. Some sort of ground, though we take ever so much pains with it, brings forth no fruit to purpose, while the good soil brings forth plentifully. So it is with the hearts of men, whose different characters...

Verse Matthew 13:15. _HEART IS WAXED GROSS_] επαχυνθη, is _become_ _fat _- inattentive stupid, insensible. _They hear heavily with their_ _ears_-are half asleep while the salvation of God is preached unto them. _THEIR EYES THEY HAVE CLOSED_] Totally and _obstinately_ resisted the truth of God, and shut their eyes against the light. _LEST-THEY SHOULD SEE_, c.] Lest they should see their lost estate, and be obliged to turn unto God, and seek his salvation. His state is truly deplorable who is sick unto death, and yet is afraid of being cured. The fault is here totally in the people, and not at all in that God whose name is Mercy and whose nature is love....

Christ, in these verses, gives a “reason” why he used this manner of instruction. See also Mark 4:10; Luke 8:9. Matthew 13:11 THE MYSTERIES OF THE KINGDOM - The word “mystery,” in the Bible, properly means a thing that is “concealed,” or that “has been concealed.” It does not mean that the thing was “incomprehensible,” or even difficult to be understood. The thing might be “plain” enough if revealed, but it means simply that it “had” not been before made known. Thus the “mysteries of the kingdom” do not mean any doctrines incomprehensible in themselves considered, but simply doctrines about the preaching of the gospel and

EXPOSITION A few remarks by way of introduction to the characteristic portion of this chapter (Matthew 13:1). (1) We have here a collection of the Lord's parables, all spoken, as it would appear, at an early period in his ministry, descriptive of the principles of the kingdom of heaven as they make themselves felt in history, and of the way in which those who are brought into contact with the kingdom ought to act. As the chapter stands, it consists of three chief parts, which probably roughly correspond to three stages of development in its composition. (A) Matthew 13:1, also in Mark and Luke, except some characteristic enlargements in verses 10-17. The section contains the parable of the sower and its interpretation, together with a statemen

FOR THIS PEOPLE'S HEART IS WAXED GROSS, c,] Or fat, become stupid and sottish, and without understanding and so incapable of taking in the true sense and meaning of what they saw with their eyes, and heard with their ears; for they had their outward senses of hearing and seeing, and yet their intellectual powers were stupefied. AND THEIR EARS ARE DULL OF HEARING, AND THEIR EYES THEY HAVE CLOSED; which is expressive of the blindness and hardness, which were partly brought upon themselves by their own wilfulness and obstinacy, against such clear evidence as arose from the doctrine and miracles of Christ; and partly from the righteous judgment of God, giving them up, for their perverseness, to judicial blindness and obduracy; John 12:40 and are in the prophet ascribed to the ministry of the word; that being despised, was in righteous judgment, the savour of death unto death, unt

Matthew 13:1. _The same day went Jesus out of the house, and sat by the sea side. And great multitudes were gathered together unto him, so that he went into a ship, and sat, and the whole multitude stood on the shore._ He had thus a little breathing space between him and the people a better opportunity for his being both heard and seen. A noble instance of open-air preaching. And if our climate would permit, what a blessing it would be if we could turn out of these houses and sit in a boat or stand on the sea-shore. Matthew 13:3. And he spake many things unto them in parables, saying, Behold, a sower went forth to sow; And when he sowed, some seeds fell by the way side, and the fowls came and devoured them up: Some fell upon stony places, where they had not much earth: and forth

II. THE REJECTED KINGDOM AND THE REJECTED KING. CHAPTER S 13-28. 1. The King at the Seaside. The Mysteries of the Kingdom. CHAPTER 13 1. The King at the Seaside. (Matthew 13:1 .) 2. The Parable of the Sower. (Matthew 13:3 .) 3. The Question of the Disciples and His Answer. (Matthew 13:10 .) 4. The Parable of the Sower Explained. (Matthew 13:18 .) 5. The Parable of the Good Seed and the Tares. (Matthew 13:24 .) 6. The Parable of the Mustard Seed....

PARABLE OF THE SOWER (Mark 4:1 *, Luke 8:4). MATTHEW 13:10. THE USE OF PARABLES (Mark 4:10 *, Luke 8:9 f.)....