What is the significance of Mark 4:12 saying, "Lest they should turn and be forgiven"?

251 We see here again that the Lord's ministry amongst the Jews was ended. "To you it is given," He says to the disciples, "to know the mysteries of the kingdom, but to those that are without all these things are spoken in parables, in order that seeing they may not perceive, and that hearing they may not understand, lest they be converted, and their sins be forgiven them." They are under the judgment of God. The Lord does not mean to say here that a soul might not believe in Jesus individually, and thus be forgiven; but that the nation, having rejected the testimony of Jesus, was now deserted of God, left outside, and exposed to His judgment. He reproves the disciples because they too could not understand the parable, nevertheless He explains it to them in His grace.

In private the disciples inquired about the parable, to which the Lord answered that they were privileged to know the mystery of the kingdom of God, but the crowd was addressed by parables so that they would not know. Though they might hear and see what was on the surface, yet they would not perceive the significance of these things, lest they would be converted and have their sins forgiven. This does not mean that these things were hidden from them because God desired them not to be converted. In fact, if men would only recognize their ignorance and seriously inquire, they too would be converted and find forgiveness of sins, while those who were willingly ignorant would remain that way.

This shows that already a breach was becoming manifest, and those "within" could be distinguished from those "without." Those within could see and hear with perception and understanding, and so the "mystery" or "secret" of the kingdom of God became plain to them. The rest were blind and deaf, and the way of conversion and forgiveness was being closed to them. If people will not hear, a time comes when they cannot. The people wanted a Messiah who should bring them worldly prosperity and glory. They had no use, as events proved, for a Messiah who brought them the kingdom of God in the mysterious form of conversion and forgiveness of sins.

When the Lord Jesus was on earth, He was asked by His disciples why He spoke to the crowds in parables. His answer was: ‘To you is given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God; but to them who are without, all things are done in parables, that beholding they may behold and not see, and hearing they may hear and not understand, lest it may be, they should be converted and they should be forgiven’ (Mark 4:11–12). In other words, the Lord Jesus expounded His doctrine (v. 2) in parables for a specific purpose: so that one group would understand them while another would not and, as a result, would not be saved.

"And when He was alone, they that were about Him with the Twelve asked of Him the parables. And He said unto them, Unto you it is given [to know]† the mystery of the kingdom of God; but unto them that are without, all things are done in parables: that beholding they may behold, and not see; and hearing they may hear, and not understand; lest it may be they should be converted, and they should be forgiven.‡ And He said to them, Know ye not this parable and how then will ye be acquainted with all parables? He explains the mind of God, not to the Twelve only, but to those who were about Him. They were those within: all else were "without," to whom all things happen in parables, a rebelling people without even a reprover now. But those within have the privilege of knowing the mystery of the kingdom: grace thus wrought distinguishing those separated to Christ from the guilty nation, given up increasingly to judicial darkness, though it reproved them for their want of understanding.45 Nor was this parable hard to discern, but elementary and fundamental, a sort of introduction to those which were to follow. Nevertheless, the gracious Lord, if He rebukes, proceeds to expound it, as we have seen in verses 14-20. "Parables": so Edd., with ℵBCLΔ, Amiat. Memph. The reading of AEΠΣ Syrpesch Goth. Æth. is "parable." †["To know"]: so Ccorr DΔ, etc., Old Latin Syrpesch hier have the word, but Edd. omit, as ℵABCpm KLΠ Syrsin. ‡"They should be forgiven": so Edd., with ℵBCL, etc. "Their sins," etc., is found in AD, etc., Syrsin pesch, Old Latin, Memph.

And now, likewise, the Lord begins to speak in parables; a circumstance deeply significant of the moment, because this style of speaking was one kind of judgment upon Israel. It was as the raising of the pillar between Israel and the Egyptians; only Israel was now put on the dark side of it. The Lord, as He Himself tells us, was now speaking in parables, that that word of the prophet might be fulfilled, "By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive." Here lay the reason why He now began to use these dark sayings. They had their own secret, each of them; but it was not given to Israel to know it. The Lord had a people who should be instructed by them, instructed in mysteries, mysteries of the kingdom; but Israel was left in darkness by them. Sentence of blindness of eye was beginning to be executed upon them; their dispersion was not yet.

The disciples were puzzled by the change to a parable. Their enquiry elicited from the Lord the fact that He adopted this way of teaching so that the mysteries or secrets, of the kingdom of heaven might be hidden from the unbelieving mass and only revealed to those who believed. Those who unbelievingly had rejected the Lord had closed their eyes to the truth. Now He spoke in parables so that they might be left in their unbelief. Thus Isaiah's prophecy was to be fulfilled in them. The same prophecy is quoted by John in his Gospel — John 12:40. It is quoted also by Paul for a third and last time in the closing chapter of Acts. It was just the working of the government of God. For believers the parables are very instructive, and, as verse 17 says, they helped to bring to the knowledge of the disciples things desired but never seen by prophets and righteous men in earlier days.

He speaks to them indeed from this new place that He has taken; but He speaks in parables. The nation as such is given up to hardness of heart: there is no use in increasing their condemnation by more light. And yet the very addressing them shows that all are not given up. "Blindness in part is happened to Israel:" if there are those who have earnestness of heart to penetrate within the external form they shall find still a gracious heart that beats towards them. The national rejection leaves individual responsibility where it ever is. He that hath an ear, as the Lord tells them, still may hear.

45 Mark 4:10-12. — Compare Matt. 13:10-17, where the Divine motive behind the Lord's words is made quite clear. The "remnant" is discriminated from the nation at large, whose wilful repudiation of Him as the Messiah, as represented by its leaders, brings upon the mass ("the many" of Dan. 9:27, Mark's "those without," Luke's "the others") that judicial sentence of blindness which Isaiah (Isa. 6) proclaimed, but modern critics, such as Schmiedel (col. 1866) and Bousset (p. 42), are slow to apprehend. A diatribe of one of these is against the "preposterous dogmatic pedantry of a later age." Jülicher pronounces the words reported by Mark as "impossible in the mouth of Jesus." Compare with such infatuated views Neander's remarks: "There is here expressed a moral necessity that those destitute of the right will (on which all depends, and without which the Divine drawing is in vain) could understand nothing of the things of the Lord which they saw and heard. So long as they remained as they were, the whole life of Christ, according to the same general law, remained to them an inexplicable parable" (p. 107 f.). Cf. the judicious remarks of Burkitt (p. 88) on the subject. Menzies refers to Rom. 11:8, comparing Mark 3:5. Salmond cites Matthew Henry: "A shell that keeps good fruit for the diligent, but keeps it from the slothful." — J. Wesley: (a) would not, (b) could not.

Isaiah centuries before had prophesied of the obduracy of the nation and the spiritual darkness that should fall upon it as a people in consequence. The prophet recorded the words of Jehovah to him. He was commanded to "go and tell this people, Hear ye indeed, but understand not; and see ye indeed, but perceive not." Such was their condition — in the position, and having the privilege, of hearing and seeing, but utterly oblivious to heavenly sights and sounds. The message went on to warn of what would come upon the nation as a righteous retribution of this gross abuse of their privileges. "Make the heart of this people fat and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and turn again, and be healed" (Isa. 6:9-10).

In the Septuagint version of Isaiah, this insensate condition is declared to be the result of the people's own neglect rather than of a divine infliction, as in the Hebrew text. The Greek version runs as follows: "Go, and say to this people, Ye shall hear indeed, but ye shall not understand; and ye shall see indeed, but ye shall not perceive. For the heart of this people has become gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes have they closed; lest they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and be converted, and I should heal them."

Now, in turning to Matthew's Gospel it will be seen that the Lord, speaking of the complete fulfilment (anapleroo) of this prophecy, quoted from the Greek version and not from the Hebrew text (Matt. 13:13-15). The people had themselves closed their eyes. Mark and Luke (Luke 8:10) only record the reference to the former part of the prophecy which states the condition of Israel hearing and not understanding; while all three agree in showing that the Lord adopted the parabolic form of teaching in view of their insensate moral state.