Charles Spurgeon Commentary Luke 8:9-10

"And his disciples asked him what this parable might be. And he said, Unto you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God: but to the rest in parables; that seeing they may not see, and hearing they may not understand." — Luke 8:9-10 (ASV)

It was a time of judicial visitations. These people had for centuries refused to hear the voice of God, and now they were to pay the penalty for that refusal. The reward of virtue is capacity for higher virtue, just as the effect of vice is a tendency to yet greater vice.

When people will not hear the voice of God, it is a just judgment upon them that they cannot hear, their impotence being the result of their impudence. Since they refused to hear, they will not hear; who can say that this is not a very just and natural way of allowing sin to punish itself?

So these people heard the words of our Savior's parable. It was like a cloak, a covering to the truth; but to them, it hid the truth—they did not see it.

To the disciples of Christ, it set forth truth in all its beauty; but to the unbelieving people, it hid the truth, so that they did not discern it.

Brothers and sisters, if you and I understand heavenly mysteries, let us not be proud of this, but let us hear our Savior saying to us, "Unto you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God." This is the gift of the free grace of God.

Be very thankful for it, but give God all the glory of it. For if you begin to say to yourself, "I am a person of great understanding," and if you take a high place for yourself, God may leave you to your natural blindness; and then, where will you be?