A PUZZLE IN A CLOUD
We don’t think God is offended when we say that he is a puzzle. If that were not true, why did he conceal himself in a pillar of cloud and pillars of fire? And he would not have shrouded knowledge of himself and his ways in dark sayings, proverbs and riddles, figures of speech, words of the wise and riddles, dreams and visions, enigmas and difficult problems, shadows, types and patterns, and symbols, signs and allegories if he wasn’t purposely trying to be mysterious.

Our challenge to understand the puzzle, therefore, begins with understanding the symbolism of pillars and clouds.***

Considering these truths, it seems reasonable to say that God and the Bible that tells us about him are like a giant puzzle. Both are like a zillion pieces scattered across a large table in a room filled with a dense fog. Our challenge, if we choose to accept it, is to assemble the puzzle. But in order for us to see, God needs to shed light on pieces of the puzzle and open our spiritual eyes and ears so that we can begin to hear God’s voice which teaches us how to connect the pieces together so that we can learn to know him. Therefore, if we truly believe that all scripture is God breathed and useful for training in righteousness, and if we are sincere about our claims to love God with all of our heart, mind, soul and strength, and if we sincerely desire to achieve some degree of righteousness, we will be willing to study hard to understand these obscure, confusing concepts.

HUNGER AND THIRST TO HEAR
When we think about it, it seems like an impossible mission. Generations of theologians and religious leaders have written and preached their own ideas of the nature of God and there is still no agreement about the meanings of Biblical dark sayings, proverbs and riddles, figures of speech, words of the wise and riddles, dreams and visions, enigmas and difficult problems, shadows, types and patterns, and symbols, signs and allegories. Who are we that are uneducated that we might dare to think that God might reveal these mysteries to us?

Many religious people are curious about God but are not hungry enough or thirsty enough for righteousness to make a serious, sustained effort to study to know God. They take the easy route of paying someone else to figure God out and report their findings at church, in a synagogue, in music, in a book or at a conference. These people have only a dim picture of God that will soon pass away and they will need to go to some kind of religious gathering again soon to get their “god fix.” The knowledge they have of God is just a shadow and they do not know him in a deep, intimate sense. They will get their ears tickled every weekend by preachers and rabbis with smooth speech who tell them what they want to hear, and they will read the Bible, but they will never come to a good understanding of the truth about God.

Such people are ever learning without coming to knowledge of the truth. In their spiritual poverty, they miss out on all the wonderful things that God has prepared for those who love him and seek him with all their heart. They are those who think they are rich in their knowledge of God but are neither hot nor cold in terms of their love for God. People such as these who do not hunger and thirst for righteousness will not solve the puzzle.

Those who do hunger and thirst for God, on the other hand, have a big,  but not impossible task before them. They have all the pieces of truth about God distributed in thousands of verses in hundreds of chapters in hundreds of pages of the Bible. And, like we suggested above, they begin in a spiritually dark place — meaning they have little or no truth or light to guide them.

What they do have is a fuzzy, obscure drawing created by religious leaders (i.e. pastor, rabbi, prophet, priest, writers, etc.) who have tried to teach them what little knowledge they have. If they have done a little Bible study on their own or been in a small study group, that is a beginning, but if they are honest, they will admit that all that teaching and learning does not satisfy their deep spiritual need to know God. Sadly, they do not understand that spiritual life only comes to those who listen to God’s spoken word.

ASSEMBLING THE PIECES
When we begin to assemble the puzzle, all we have to work with is a tiny flashlight that allows us to look carefully at a few words of a few verses at a time. We scan the chapters and verses inspecting each word looking for concepts that relate to similar sounding words and concepts identified earlier. We set those that are similar aside and keep looking for more pieces that seem to relate to the ones we have already found.

Some pieces are upside down and some right side up. Sometimes it is hard to tell which is the right side and which is the back side. These are the mysteries (i.e. parables, dark sayings, proverbs and riddles, figures, words of the wise and riddles, dreams, enigmas and difficult problems, figurative language, dreams and visions, shadows, types and patterns, and symbols, signs and allegories) that conceal the spiritual meaning that God teaches his people when he writes his laws on their hearts.

If we are honest, we admit that it seems like there are more of these kinds of obscure pieces than those that can be clearly understood. But to avoid discouragement, we need to remember that God designed it that way to test our hearts.

Along the way, however, occasional doubt rises up to confuse the process. You may remember a teaching you heard from a respected religious leader that seems to contradict what you are finding. If you want to know God as he really is, you need to forget what you think you already know about God. You need to forget what others have told you. You need to listen for God’s voice and trust that he is now teaching you and will show you the truth.

As you search, you will be reminded of those bothersome contradictions within the Bible itself that seem irreconcilable. But you must push these conflicts aside and continue to trust that there are no contradictions in God. The only problem is in your inability to hear God’s voice. Those who have never heard God’s voice may doubt that it is possible. If this happens, remember that God is testing your heart and that those who doubt will not receive anything from God.

IGNORE THE PICTURE THAT OTHERS HAVE TAUGHT
Doubt may creep in when you remember religious leaders who claim that they have assembled the puzzle and strongly imply that you should trust them for understanding. Their claims are strongly reinforced by titles, degrees, and large followings of people who praise them for their wisdom. Don’t trust them if they have a good reputation. They are religious man-pleasers who have reduced obedience to God down to a few rules. They are false prophets.

False prophets will say that the key to knowing God is prayer, regular attendance at church or synagogue, listening to good preaching, fellowship with like-minded believers, paying your tithes, regular morning devotions and regular participation in approved religious ceremonies and traditions. They are very convincing and what they say seems right because many others appear to be prospering by following these rules. They seem to be doing OK in their spiritual lives, and they seem knowledgeable about God, so you think they might know what they are talking about.

What is wrong with this scenario is that the picture your religious leaders and friends have of God is an incomplete shadows of what God himself will teach to those who listen to his voice. They teach out of their own imaginations based on the literal words of scripture without listening to the spiritual, spoken word of God. And why should we expect then to do differently. They have never been taught the “first the natural and then the spiritual” principle.

Furthermore, as you observe your own life and the lives of religious people carefully, you notice that neither you nor they are as spiritually competent as you have represented yourselves to be. You gossip, grumble and argue about all kinds of issues — in church and out of church. You have addictions, marital and family conflict, financial problems and all the other problems that exist within the general population. When we stop to really look, no one appears to be at peace in themselves or in their relationships. Religious people have an appearance of godliness, but something is missing  that provides a clue that they do not understand as much as they like to have others think.

The problem is that religions have incomplete pictures of God. They know him intellectually, but they do not have the deep, spiritual kind of knowing that only comes to people who have his laws written on their hearts. Lacking that intimate, spiritual knowledge, they must force-fit pieces that do not go together to make them fit. But even then, the pieces of the puzzle really don’t fit. Some pieces fit but they are upside down. And there are whole sections of the puzzle that are missing altogether. Despite the picture of Godliness people want to represent to the world, their picture of God is a mess. It looks good on the surface, and from a distance because they have filled in the gaps and whitewashed pieces that are upside down to make the puzzle look presentable. But upon closer inspection, it becomes clear that something is very wrong with the picture.

You begin to notice these problems and wonder what the truth is. Once you begin learning how to hear God’s spoken voice, you notice that the puzzle your friends have assembled and the one you previously trusted is smaller than the puzzle you are now assembling. The new puzzle you are trying to assemble includes a zillion small pieces while the old version was more like a child’s puzzle with only a few large pieces. Your unassembled puzzle pieces are scattered all over the table with hardly any space between them, while your old assembled puzzle fits neatly on a small table with nice neat borders. This simple puzzle is a child’s image of a very complex God. You can settle for this image or you can do the work that will reveal God in all of his fullness. You need to make a decision about which God you want to serve.

LISTEN FOR A COMPLEX SPIRITUAL IMAGE
As you study the Bible seriously on your own with no one to guide you except God, you discover that beneath the physical image of each piece is a spiritual image that appears dimly at first but which you eventually learn to discern. And you soon learn that trying to create a picture of God using the literal words of the Bible does not work. You learn that the literal pieces do not fit but the spiritual pieces do fit. And you also find that it is not a two dimensional puzzle that you are trying to assemble but a puzzle with many dimensions to it. This fact is not mentioned on the cover of the box, but you eventually learn that the picture of God you are trying to assemble has depth to it that you were never told about and that you never imagined could exist for as long as you listened to religious people.

Lacking a picture on a box, all you have to go on is the knowledge that God lives in a pillar of cloud and in a pillar of fire. You wonder how you can realistically begin to put the pieces together if that is the only image you have. But then you remember that God has given promises about knowing him and understanding the mysteries of the Bible. And then, encouraged by these promises, you continue to assemble  the puzzle piece by piece.