Parable Teaching...

We always hear it said that "Jesus was the best teacher in the history of the world.", what does this Teacher have to say about His teaching style?

Jesus tells his disciples the reason for Him teaching in parables:

"...but to the rest it is in parables so that looking they may not see, and hearing they may not understand..." (Luke 8:10)

It's a quote from Isaiah 6:9, when Isaiah accepts the call to be God's spokesman. To further the context of the passage in question, it says (in Isaiah):

"Dull the minds of these people; deafen their ears and blind their eyes; otherwise they might see with their eyes and hear with their ears, understand with their minds, turn back, and be healed." (Isaiah 6:10)

It's a troubling passage for me to understand....doesn't God desire that all come to eternal life (2 Peter 3:9)? Then why is it that He purposely hardens peoples' hearts (as with the pharaoh prior to the Exodus)? Why is it that He 'deafens their ears', and 'blinds their eyes', so they won't see the truth and be saved?

Some points to note:

• It takes God to reveal spiritual truth to someone.
• It is God's sovereignty and His mercy that allow some to be saved. It is His prerogative alone.
• The paradox is that once the Gospel is heard, people will reap a punishment in hell even if they 'don't understand' (don't come to salvation)
• This drives back to the whole free will vs. predestination doctrines taught in scripture.

Who are we to say what is fair and unfair for a Holy God to do? By what standard do we place God? When we start saying that God should play by certain rules, is that not saying that we are somehow better than God? If this is the case, then our god is no bigger than ourselves.

No, God is sovereign, and will have mercy on who He chooses to have mercy on.

Romans 9:14-24
¹⁴What then shall we say? Is God unjust? Not at all! ¹⁵For he says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” ¹⁶It does not, therefore, depend on man's desire or effort, but on God's mercy. ¹⁷For the Scripture says to Pharaoh: “I raised you up for this very purpose, that I might display my power in you and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.” ¹⁸Therefore God has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy, and he hardens whom he wants to harden.

¹⁹One of you will say to me: “Then why does God still blame us? For who resists his will?” ²⁰But who are you, O man, to talk back to God? “Shall what is formed say to him who formed it, ‘Why did you make me like this?’ ” ²¹Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for noble purposes and some for common use?

²²What if God, choosing to show his wrath and make his power known, bore with great patience the objects of his wrath–prepared for destruction? ²³What if he did this to make the riches of his glory known to the objects of his mercy, whom he prepared in advance for glory– ²⁴even us, whom he also called, not only from the Jews but also from the Gentiles?