Mark 4:1-34 | Matthew 13:1-53

Jesus begins to teach in parables, which is a fulfillment of Psalm 78:2, and He gives the story of the sower and soils as a primary parable that helps in interpreting all of His parables.  He told His disciples in Mark 4:13 that they couldn’t understand the parables if they didn’t understand this one in particular.  Consequently, we understand that the metaphors given in the parables are consistent, which means that birds are always servants of the enemy, leaven (or yeast) always represents sin, the seeds represent both the word of God, as well as the saints, etc… This is called the principle of expositional constancy, where metaphors and allusions always refer to the same thing.

In these passages Jesus also tells His disciples that it was ordained by God that they understand these things, and that the parables were taught so that some would understand, and others would not.  Jesus quotes from Isaiah 6:9-11, which predicted that Israel would be deaf and blind to the works of God for a very long time, until the end of the age, after there has been great destruction on the earth, and only a remnant in Israel remained.

In Matthew 13 Jesus tells many parables, with all of them providing simple comparisons to the kingdom of God and of satan, and how the disciples of each kingdom will be judged separately at the end of the age.