God's Mashal

What is the Biblical reason that men will not come to Christ?

William S. Plumer wrote, "Hearts must be harder than rocks – if the love and death of Christ does not move them."

The Greek word paroimia, and its Hebrew equivalent, “mashal” can be understood as a “parable,” “metaphor,” or “dark” or “veiled saying;” it is a figure of speech that contains obscure or enigmatic elements. A mashal is truth given and yet concealed from those who cannot receive it. Its obscurity does not lie in the doctrine but in the understanding of the hearer. The clarity and brightness of the word of God is so obscured by our darkness, that what we clearly hear, we cannot accept and believe. The gospel itself is a mashal. It clearly points the way of life to those who believe, yet that very same word is foolishness to those who are perishing (2 Cor 4:3,4).