Daily Devotional For Wednesday, November 12, 2025
Good morning. We are making our way through the Gospel of Matthew and yesterday, in Matthew 13, we read about the context of the Parable of the Sower. It was a little longer than normal and thank you for taking the time to read it and reflect on it. Today, we will continue breaking this parable down, since it is about the mission of Jesus and His church – you and me. Up to this point, the religious leaders had seen Jesus do miracles such as give sight to the blind, heal people who were lame, heal people who had leprosy, cast out demons and even raise people from the dead.
None of these miracles Jesus performed were ever questioned by the Pharisees that Jesus did them. Due to their jealousy of His popularity among the people they questioned how He did them. They accused Him of using demonic power from Baalzebul to do this (see Matt. 12:24). Evil hates God and anything related to God. Before Jesus gets to explaining the meaning of the Parable of the Sower, He first teaches His disciples why He used parables to teach them and the people.
Today we pick up with Matthew 13:10-17:
“His disciples came and asked Him, ‘Why do you use parables when You talk to the people?’ (11) He replied, ‘You are permitted to understand the secrets of the Kingdom of Heaven, but others are not. (12) To those who listen to My teaching, more understanding will be given, and they will have an abundance of knowledge. But for those who are not listening, even what little understanding they have will be taken away from them. (13) That is why I use these parables, For they look, but they don’t really see. They hear, but they don’t really listen or understand. (14) This fulfills the prophecy of Isaiah that says, ‘When you hear what I say, you will not understand. When you see what I do, you will not comprehend. (15) For the hearts of these people are hardened, and their ears cannot hear, and they have closed their eyes—so their eyes cannot see, and their ears cannot hear, and their hearts cannot understand, and they cannot turn to Me and let me heal them.’ (16) ‘But blessed are your eyes, because they see; and your ears, because they hear. (17) I tell you the truth, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see, but they didn’t see it. And they longed to hear what you hear, but they didn’t hear it’” (NLT).
We are not told why the disciples asked Jesus this question, but my hunch is they did not understand and wanted to ask Him when they were alone with Him, not in front of the people. If Jesus’ own disciples did not understand His parables, can you imagine how that would look? You may be able to understand their pickle. Have you ever been in a conversation with someone and they said something assuming you knew, but you didn’t? Instead of saying, “I don’t have a clue what you’re talking about,” you simply acted like you did?
The understanding of His parables had been given to the 12 as well other true disciples of Jesus as a gift of grace and judgment from God the Father. What were the secrets in verse 12? It was that the Kingdom of God had arrived in Jesus. Those who had not been given this knowledge would reject Jesus and those who had would accept Him. Jesus’ point was He was not intentionally hiding spiritual truth from anyone. But only those who sincerely wanted to know, God the Father through the Holy Spirit, would reveal this to them. Those genuinely seeking spiritual truth would understand and those rejecting Him would not. The word translated as “secrets” is the Greek New Testament word [μυστήριον; musterion], where we get our English word “mystery.” This word refers to the revelation of God hidden from apostates but understood by those who trusted in Jesus.
Those who sought, more revelation would be given to them and those who rejected, even what they had would be taken from them. The Jews and the Pharisees saw themselves as privileged people because they were descendants of Abrahm, Isaac and Jacob. As God’s “chosen people,” pride had swelled up in them that no matter what they did they still had God’s blessings. Jesus' point is they would never understand these mysteries because they would never attempt to know them. Because they were refusing Jesus as their Messiah, they would never understand His kingdom. This serves as a warning to all people who reject Christ.
In Jesus’ response He asserts that the Jewish people and the religious leaders were already blind and would never see spiritually. To drive His point even further, Jesus quotes Isa. 6:9. Jesus was saying that He was receiving the same treatment from God’s “chosen people” as the prophet Isaiah did in his time. In the Isaiah passage, God told the prophet that the “chosen people” would hear but not listen. Pastors understand this all too well today. They faithfully and weekly preach the word of God to God’s people and they hear it, but do not obey it.
Neither in Isaiah’s time and in Jesus’ time were the people denied the opportunity to hear the Word of God and respond to it. “Seeing” and “hearing” refer to God’s relation to His people. The disciples were blessed because they wanted to hear and understand the parables whereas the Jewish people and their religious leaders did not.
Here Jesus removes our pride because Jesus makes it clear that even faith is a gift from God, not ourselves. It is God who saves us. It is God who opens our eyes to see and our ears to hear, not us. This is why we cannot take any credit for this. This is Jesus’ point in John 6:44. All of this, the seeing, the hearing, the understanding and salvation are all the work of God. It is not so much that we give our life to Christ, it is that He give His life to us when God draws us to Him. There are no works we can do in this (see Eph. 2:8-9). Even our ability to believe is by the hand of God. There is nothing we can ever take credit for in our salvation or our ability to understand the Word of God. Nothing.
This reminds us of the Parable of the Talents. Even those who have some understanding, if they choose to reject the Lord even what they have will be taken from them. In quoting Isaiah, Jesus was saying that faith, like miracles, does not create lasting faith. We may be surprised and even shocked that Jesus said these parables were given to prevent “outsiders” from coming in and finding healing and salvation. You may think, “Well, doesn’t this contract the merciful and graceful God we know to bring restoration to all for their sins?
New Testament scholar Douglas Sean O’Donnell answers this question this way:
“So what are we to make of these startling, almost contradictory statements? Are we to see these lovely anecdotes of Jesus that we enjoy reading to our children as somehow a means of predetermined divine judgment? Are we to see the parables as a means of punishment for those who persistently refuse to believe? Well, yes, this is precisely how we are to understand one important purpose of Christ’s parables. In these verses we are unashamedly presented with the tension, often given in Scripture, between divine sovereignty regarding election and human responsibility regarding rejection. It does not matter with what theological grid you come to this text. We all have to admit that the disciples are freely and graciously “given … the secrets of the kingdom,” while others are not (that’s divine sovereignty in election” (Source: Douglas Sean O’Donnell, Preach The Word, “Matthew: All Authority in Heaven and on Earth,” p. 357).
Meaning as the Gospel seeds are scattered, some will choose to receive it and others will not due to the type of soil their heart has. This is why the Apostle Paul puts it this way in Rom. 1:24, Rom. 1:26, and Rom. 1:28. Three times we are told “God gave them over.” Former atheist turned Christian apologist C.S. Lewis puts it this way: “There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, ‘Thy will be done,’ and those to whom God says … ‘Thy will be done ” (Source: Quoted by Dougals.Sean O’Donnel, Preach The Word, Matthew: All Authority in Heaven and on Earth,” p. 358).
Assignment: Having read this devotional, what scares you or concerns you about Jesus’ comments in Matthew 13:10-17? What do you believe about the sovereignty of God and why? Do you respond to the word of God each time you hear it or read it or do you think that is not for you? Why? Jesus said if we do that, even the understanding we have will be taken from us. How does that apply to you?
Scripture To Meditate On: Mark 4:24-25, “Then He added, ‘Pay close attention to what you hear. The closer you listen, the more understanding you will be given—and you will receive even more. (25) To those who listen to My teaching, more understanding will be given. But for those who are not listening, even what little understanding they have will be taken away from them’” (NLT).
Prayer To Pray: “Dear Father, please convict me to listen to Your Word. I do not want what I already understood taken from me. Convict me to obey what I already know so that I am a light and salt to a lost world. Help me to make disciples for You. In Jesus’ name, Amen!”
I love you Southside! – Pastor Kelly