The prophet's dictionary guide to the supernatural

parables though, the prophets of old regularly employed them to communicate to their followers. Parabolic teaching, it appears, is a routine form of prophetic instruction and preparation. Prophets, as seen from Ezekiel 17:2 and 24:3, are groomed for their service to God often with parables. The Bible’s revelation of this fact began with Balaam and Balak in Numbers 23. Seven times the divining prophet Balaam drew on parables to bestow a prophetic blessing upon the children of Israel. The psalmist predicted the Lord Jesus’ ministry of parabolic teachings by saying His wisdom would be dispensed in dark sayings. With that, the writer said in Psalm 49:4 that parables flow richly under the inspiration of a musical instrument. From the remainder of prophetic references to them, it seems the Lord’s judgment on His people was delivered in parabolic form as if their immediate grasp of the word was never intended. It seems the Lord purposely chose the parabolic method of prophetic delivery to deliberately close off the future He was revealing from those to whom the messages came. The reason for this is given by His Son, Jesus Christ, in Mark 4:12. There He explains to His disciples why He spoke to the masses in parables when He took such pains to see that they, the disciples, understood His words plainly. They observed how He designedly left the rest of their countrymen in the dark. From the language of the passage it can be discerned that the Lord wanted the masses repentance and conversion to advance at a slower pace than His disciples. He indicated that the words He spoke had performing effects to be accomplished before they hit their mark in the hearts and lives of the hearers. God’s reason for employing parables is simple. He is spirit, He made humanity in His image to be spirit, and when our time on earth is ended we return to and exist in the Lord’s spirit world forever. Unfortunately, the one skill that humans will most likely die deficient in, though it is desperately needed, is that of spiritual knowledge, thinking, and wisdom. What makes this tragic is that the spiritual makeup of humanity coincides with its eternal spiritual destiny. Elihu, the young man who spoke to Job and his friends’ futile harangue about why Job was afflicted by God, opened one of his discourses with “there is a spirit in man, and the breath of the Almighty gives him understanding” (Job 32:8 nkjv). It is that very condition that caused the Lord to resort to parables to convey His thoughts to creation. He distinguished the spirit in people to enlighten it with His truth. As Creator, God works in accordance with the way He made His creatures;