Chapter # 4 Paragraph # 2 Study # 3
February 25, 2020
Moss Bluff, Louisiana
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Thesis:   Jesus' use of parables to teach the "many things" regarding the mystery of the Kingdom of the God was, in a very real sense, a reflection of the commission of Isaiah.

Introduction:   In our last study we attempted to make the argument that Jesus was deliberate in His use of parables because He had determined to keep "those without" from being "forgiven". It was my claim that this deliberate action was particularly rooted in His wrath toward the scribes whose "official" position regarding Him was a direct attack upon the Holy Spirit. He declared to them that their "blasphemy" against Him was not going to ever be forgiven.

However, there is more to the story that we need to consider. Jesus' explanation to His disciples that He was using parables on purpose to keep a segment of His hearers from being able to understand seems to many to be "Gospel contrary" in a way that sheds a negative light upon the Glory of God. So, we are going to look into Jesus' use of Isaiah 6:9-10 so that we might "see" what is going on.

• I. The Quoted Segment of Isaiah 6 Has a Context.
  • A. The most immediate near-context is Isaiah's record of the vision of The Lord sitting on a throne with His robe filling the temple and its impact upon him.
    • 1. The most critical "God aspect" of this vision is 6:3's "Holy, Holy, Holy" description of the Glory of God.
      • a. The root idea of "holiness" is "fine-tuned 'balance' in the character of the God" Whose character includes some attributes that, with men, are never "in balance", with the contrast between "Justice/Righteousness" and "Grace/Mercy", being the issue of largest significance.
      • b. The setting in the days of Isaiah is "Uzziah-contrastive".
        • 1) It was upon the death of Uzziah that Isaiah saw this vision.
        • 2) The most outstanding issue in the biblical record of Uzziah's reign over Judah is that it lasted 52 years and was incredibly marred by the extreme arrogance that got him cursed with leprosy.
        • 3) Because it was Uzziah's arrogant attack upon the Glory of God in the temple that got him smitten with leprosy, the issue of his distorted "view" of the "Glory of God" comes front and center
        • 4) Thus, the record contrasts the True Glory of God with the False Distortion by Uzziah.
    • 2. The most critical "man aspect" of this vision is 6:5's "I live among a people of unclean lips".
      • a. This is the reason for the "Woe is me, for I am ruined" reaction by Isaiah to the vision.
      • b. But it is also the reason for the particular character of his commission by God to go to the people with a message that "renders their hearts insensitive" (6:10) [Isaiah is living in a period of Judah's history as a significantly apostate nation whose judgment is coming in the form of the Babylonian invasion].
    • 3. The impact of the vision is a continuous proclamation that causes the people to become more and more "people of unclean lips".
  • B. But there is also a more distant context in the run up to the vision.
    • 1. The most important aspect of this distant context is the powerful complaint by God against the nation as apostate in spite of His gracious treatment of them...so much so that Judah is compared to Sodom and Gomorrah with the minuscule survival of Lot and his daughters (1:9).
    • 2. Within this distant context is 2:9's, "But do not forgive them".
  • C. And there are multiple further distant contexts regarding the extreme limitations of divine grace in the face of Israel's/Judah's aggressive apostasies.
    • 1. Daniel's record of the decree of God that, after the cutting off of Messiah, Jerusalem will be destroyed (with the awesome wrath poured out through Roman atrocities of which we know in history), a decree which was rooted in His refusal to "forgive".
    • 2. As well as multiple records of God's "wrath" against men because of their rebellion.
      • a. The Flood.
      • b. The Dispersion through the confusion of Babel.
      • c. The Restriction of Revelation that allowed Israel to have the oracles of God and the nations to perish in their ignorance for generation after generation for thousands of years.
      • d. Etc.
• II. The Expressed Purpose of Jesus' Choice to Teach With Parables.
  • A. The "lest" phrase.
    • 1. This word is used in only 20 texts of the entire New Testament. Mark only uses it twice.
      • a. In Mark's usage, the meaning, derived from the major issues of the context, is that there is a "potential" on the horizon that is not desired so that those viewing it take action to keep it from developing (4:12 and 14:2).
      • b. In the remaining texts of the New Testament the idea of a "potential" that is undesired remains intact in Matthew's 7 uses, but the idea of someone taking certain actions to attempt to block it is not as clear (as in Matthew 18:14).
      • c. In Luke's 5 uses, he does not strictly adhere to "an unwanted potential" in 3:15, but does in the other 4 uses.
      • d. In Acts, Luke uses the word twice and the notion of "an unwanted potential" is retained.
      • e. In 2 Timothy 2:25 Paul upsets this "an unwanted potential" by referring to "a wanted potential".
      • f. The author of Hebrews uses it in two places with "an unwanted potential" in place, but he uses it once in 9:17 where the issue is not so much "an unwanted potential" as it is a declaration of a certain "potential" always being denied.
    • 2. The large majority of uses indicates that we should see Jesus' words in our text as putting forth a "possible" result that is to be kept from happening.
  • B. The "return" phrase.
    • 1. Mark uses this word in three "literal" physical settings where it means "to turn one's body around in order to attempt to resolve a problem" (5:30; 8:33; 13:16) and in one case (our current text) uses the word as a metaphor rooted in the physical realm to define a nonphysical action: "return", in this case, refers to the non-physical action of "repenting" so as to obtain the "forgiveness" that is promised in John's and Jesus' message of "Repent and God will forgive you".
      • a. However, Acts 3:19, in the record of Peter's call to the nation, and Acts 26:20, in Paul's testimony before Agrippa, both use the word "repent" as well as the word "turn", clearly indicating some degree of difference, but also indicating a sufficiently close sense as to make the outcome (forgiveness) occur on the weight of either action.
      • b. Acts 11:21 does a similar thing by tying "believing" to "turning".
        • 1) Paul said, in Acts 14:15, that the purpose of the Gospel is to "turn" people from "vain things" to "a living God".
        • 2) Acts 26:18 indicates that the "opening of the eyes" results in "turning from darkness to light so that "forgiveness" results.
        • 3) Acts 28:27 says that the "closing of the eyes" is the deliberate action of those in opposition who will not be forgiven.
    • 2. The remaining uses in the New Testament follow these examples.
  • C. The "forgiven" phrase.
    • 1. Mark uses this word in 34 of the texts in his Gospel in both physical realm situations (as in "leaving their nets, they followed...") and in non-physical realm situations where the issue is "sins being forgiven" (as God "leaves off His wrath toward sins and walks away with the "forgiven" into "mercy" (2:5-10).
    • 2. The noun (afesis ) and the verb (afiehm) are the primary terms in Mark for "forgiveness".
  • D. The "Point".
    • 1. Jesus' ministry of Great Grace was accompanied by Great Wrath in the concept of "Holy, Holy, Holy" is the Lord of Hosts.
    • 2. There is a significant downside to the arrogance of "scribes" turning the Holy Spirit into Satan.

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This is article #146.
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