“Give ear, O my
people, to My teaching; incline your ears to the words of My mouth! I will open My mouth in a parable; I will
utter dark sayings from of old, that our fathers have told us. We will not hide them from their children,
but tell to the coming generation the glorious deeds of the Lord, and His
might, and the wonders that He has done. He established a testimony in Jacob
and appointed a law in Israel, which He commanded our fathers to teach to their
children, that the next generation might know them, the children yet unborn,
and arise and tell them to their children, so that they should set their hope
in God” –Psalm
78:1-7 (ESV).
Imagine the writer of this Psalm,
centuries before the coming of Christ to earth, foreseeing the nature and
importance of the Messiah’s teachings, that He would speak in parables, and
that what He taught would be passed from generation to generation. And the reason? “so
that they should set their hope in God!”
Terms “remember” and “forget not” are used several times in this
Psalm denoting the significance of what is being told concerning the teaching
characteristics of the Messiah. He would
be an effective teacher and convey to those who would follow in His paths the
importance of committing to each generation the precepts learned from the
preceding one. Someone has aptly
observed that we are just one generation from paganism. How important that we teach the Word with
diligence and sound doctrine, conveying to our children the love for God’s Word
and its power to save them from sin and teach them righteousness.
What proof have we from the New
Testament that the Messianic prophecy from Psalm 78, especially verse 2, was
fulfilled in Jesus’ life and ministry.
Note Matthew 13:34-35: “All these things Jesus said to the crowds
in parables; indeed, He said nothing to them without a parable. This was to fulfill what was spoken by the
prophet: ‘I will open my mouth in
parables; I will utter what has been hidden since the foundation of the
world.’” When Matthew wrote this
about Jesus, he was citing from Psalm 78:2.
By extensive use of parables in teaching, Jesus made what He said
memorable. We are more apt to remember a
truth if we hear it in a story we can recollect. One of the major themes of the parables Jesus
told was the revelation of the kingdom of God.
Often He began a parable with the words, “The kingdom of God is like…and then proceeds to give an
illustration showing what it was like.
These covered the grace of the kingdom, the commitment needed to be
faithful in the kingdom, and the conditions of kingdom citizenship. Many parables emphasized a call to repentance. Perhaps one of the most memorable of these is
the prodigal son who, because of his wrong choices, was in a far country in a
terrible condition. When he came to his
senses, he arose and went back to his father’s house and was restored. And within that parable is an overriding
reason of Christ’s coming to earth—to make people aware of the Father’s
forgiveness and how we, as we are separated from Him in our far countries of
sin, have only to arise and go back—turn around, turn from the far county of
sin and be restored to the Father. This
is what must be told from generation to generation so that repentance and faith
can be understood and acted upon.
Prayer.
Father, what marvels Jesus Christ showed us in His walk among
mankind. Help us who know Him to emulate
His methods of teaching and persuasion so that others can come to know Your
forgiving love. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
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