Subject: Why Are The Multitudes Not Given To Understand?

Hi Mike,

Greetings, and I trust you are fairing well.

What is the difference in terms of spiritual significance between eyes and ears? In order words, hearing and seeing? Look forward to hearing from you.

Your brother who wants to know more,

M____

Hi M____,

Thank you for your question.

I will answer your question, but I feel I must also explain why not all are given eyes that see and ears that hear in this age.

As Joseph told the Pharaoh, “the dream is one”, the seven fat cows eaten by the seven famished cows, and the seven ears of fat corn eaten by the seven “blasted” ears, were both saying that Egypt and the countries around Egypt were about to endure seven years of plenty followed by seven years of famine.

Gen 41:25  And Joseph said unto Pharaoh, The dream of Pharaoh is one: God hath shewed Pharaoh what he is about to do.
Gen 41:26  The seven good kine are seven years; and the seven good ears are seven years: the dream is one.

The same is true of what Christ is saying when speaking of how He is hiding His Truth right out in the open. The seeing and hearing of that Truth are both concerning its understanding, and as is always the case with a parable, the message of the parable is found in the meaning of the words of the parable and not in the words themselves:

Mat 13:10  And the disciples came, and said unto him, Why speakest thou unto them in parables?
Mat 13:11  He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given. 
Mat 13:12  For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance: but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath.
Mat 13:13  Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand.

“Hearing they hear not, neither do they understand”. So both the seeing and the hearing are speaking of “understand[ing]” what is being said, and it is given only to Christ’s elect to “understand the deep things of God”.

Eph 1:18  The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints.

I hope these verses of scripture help you to see that both hearing and seeing are speaking of understanding, and that the multitudes who come to Christ to this very day are “not given… to understand the mysteries of the kingdom of God… within you”.

Luk 17:20  And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with observation:
Luk 17:21  Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.

The fact that the kingdom of God, from Christ to the millennium, “is within you” does not mean that there will not be an outward kingdom during the millennium. God’s elect will rule over the kingdoms of this world during that “thousand years”, and they will do so “with a rod of iron”, which will bring down upon them the rebellion of the nations at the end of that thousand years.

Rev 2:26  And he that overcometh, and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations:
Rev 2:27  And he shall rule them with a rod of iron; as the vessels of a potter shall they be broken to shivers: even as I received of my Father.

Rev 20:4  And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.

This insurgency against the rule of God’s elect will give God the “occasion” He is seeking to destroy all flesh with “fire… from God out of heaven”.

Rev 20:7  And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison,
Rev 20:8  And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea.
Rev 20:9  And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them.

This event is immediately followed by the great white thone judgment, and this is the purpose for all of God’s judgments:

Isa 26:9  With my soul have I desired thee in the night; yea, with my spirit within me will I seek thee early: for when thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness. 

1Co 11:32  But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world.

“Condemned with the world” means ‘condemned to a later judgment, the white throne judgment, where the whole world’s populace which has ever lived will then be “chastened of the Lord [and] will learn righteousness”. Death will be destroyed through the death of all flesh through the fire of the lake of fire, which is those in whom Christ and His Word dwells:

Isa 33:14  The sinners in Zion are afraid; fearfulness hath surprised the hypocrites. Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire [“the lake of fire]? who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings?
Isa 33:15  He that walketh righteously, and speaketh uprightly; he that despiseth the gain of oppressions, that shaketh his hands from holding of bribes, that stoppeth his ears from hearing of blood, and shutteth his eyes from seeing evil;

It is a little “lake” and not a ‘sea’ because God’s elect are few indeed. But through that ‘lake’ the entire ‘sea’ out of which the beast rises (Rev 13:1) will be purified and brought to God:

Col 1:19  For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell;
Col 1:20  And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven. 
Col 1:21  And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled
Col 1:22  In the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight:

Php 2:9  Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name:
Php 2:10  That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; 
Php 2:11  And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

“Through death”, a fiery death, the old man is destroyed and lost, and life is given to all, to “every man”:

1Co 3:13  Every man’s work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is.
1Co 3:14  If any man’s work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward.
1Co 3:15  If any man’s work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire. 

Now that is the truly good news of the gospel.

1Co 15:22  For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.
1Co 15:23  But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming.

Your brother in Christ,

Mike