13:10 Why speakest thou. It is significant that the Lord Jesus often used parables in his teaching, but never fables or myths. The illustrations in the parables were always possible real-life situations, not fantasies or distortions of truth.

13:11 it is not given. This answer to the disciples’ question about Christ’s use of parables may seem surprising. Many modern teachers say that He spoke in parables to help His listeners understand spiritual truth, but He said it was to keep them from understanding! These “mysteries of the kingdom” are couched in parables so that only those who have spiritual “ears” (Matthew 13:9) will comprehend. This exhortation (“he that hath ears to hear, let him hear”) occurs no less than sixteen times in the New Testament.

13:14 the prophecy of Esaias. Christ’s indicates that His scathing rebuke of religionists who “have a form of godliness, but deny the power thereof” (II Timothy 3:5) is in fulfillment of the prophecy of Isaiah 6:9-10, which originally was applied to the Jewish leaders of Isaiah’s time. Since Christ indicated it also applied to His own time, it evidently is a general principle applicable to all ages. Those who truly desire to know God’s truth will receive it abundantly (Matthew 13:12); those professing Christians who persist in rejecting or distorting God’s Word will eventually lose even what they seem to have.