What parable. what spiritual truth was the person trying to share?
It also helps us to understand the defenition of things.
A prophecy is God saying what will happen. Take for example the prophecy of Daniel 2. God showed daniel about gentile kingdoms which will rule of Israel
He used symbols
1. head of Gold
2. Chest and arms of Silver
3. Belly and thighs of Bronze
4. Legs of Iron and feet of iron of clay
these symbols represented literal kingdoms
1. Babylon (daniel even told nebechadnezzer he was the head of gold)
2. Media persia
3. Greece
4. Rome
these kingdoms were real kingdoms, and each of them ruled over Jerusalem. and the last kingdom (the feet of iron and clay) will rule again, and it will be this kingdom that will be crushed by the return of christ.
This is prophecy
A parable is using symbols to explain a spiritual truth.
Jesus tells us why
11 He answered and said to them, “Because
it has been given to you to know the [a]mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given. 12 For whoever has, to him more will be given, and he will have abundance; but whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him. 13 Therefore
I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. 14 And in them the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled, which says:
‘Hearing you will hear and shall not understand,
And seeing you will see and not perceive;
15 For the hearts of this people have grown dull.
Their ears are hard of hearing,
And their eyes they have closed,
Lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears,
Lest they should understand with their hearts and turn,
So that I should heal them.’
an example
31 Another
parable He put forth to them, saying: “
The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and sowed in his field, 32 which indeed is the least of all the seeds; but when it is grown it is greater than the herbs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and nest in its branches.”
now, what event is Jesus prophesying will happen in this parable? Nothing, Because it is not a prophecy.
it explains a spiritual truth. it explains what the kingdom of heaven is like..
you can read the word all you want. If you do not understand defenitions and what things are. You will not understand what you are reading