In God’s wisdom, he has seen fit to load the Bible with mysteries and symbolism. After parables the bulk of the mysteries in the Bible are found in its symbols, signs, types, allegories, copies and shadows. Knowing that the Bible is full of these symbolic references, disciples are challenged to understand the spiritual meanings of natural people, places and things so they can understand what God is trying to communicate. Doing this is a like assembling a zillion-piece puzzle. It is a big project, and it will take time, but you and those who work at it with you will all benefit immensely from your effort.
It must be said, however, that it success does not depend on fleshly effort (i.e. physical effort and intellect). People who read using only their intellectual minds will not hear the spiritual truth because they don’t listen with their hearts for spiritual wisdom and understanding that comes from the spirit of God (i.e. his voice). And, if they have only the literal truth of the Bible but do not have the spiritual truth that will set them free from religion, they will remain slaves to religion. They may have the intellectual truth of the literal Bible in their minds, but the spiritual truth of the Bible is not in their hearts.
The point is worth repeating: We must listen to God’s voice while we read the Bible. If we only read and process with our natural eyes and intellectual minds, we are in the category of people who have dull hearts that handicap them from listening to God’s voice. The principle here is that we must listen with our hearts in order to have the law written on our hearts.
Even people who do not believe in God and/or do know how to hear God’s voice can read the Bible randomly or even regularly to gain a small measure of wisdom from it without understanding its symbolism. But no one, not even the most educated, studious, religious people, will know the full truth of the character (i.e. name) of God and what he expects from his people unless they listen to God’s voice while reading.
To know God fully, or as fully as possible, readers first need to reject the common teaching that the Bible should only be interpreted in its literal sense and not symbolically. It is also helpful to reject everything they have already learned about the Bible. They must, like little children, ask questions every time they find a scripture they do not understand.
Then, instead of inspecting individual pieces of a zillion-piece puzzle scattered across a table (i.e. reading the Bible without relating one part to other related parts), they will learn how to relate all parts of the Bible to each other and be able to complete the big picture that allows you to know God. He gradually emerges out of the cloud and the dim mirror until he becomes visible and we see him face to face.
Because the Bible is so full of mysteries, and symbolism, stopping to ask questions every time we find something we do not understand is a very slow process. It takes time to check concordance references. It take time to check the meanings of words in the original Hebrew and Greek languages. Study is hard work but there is great reward for those who ask, seek and knock every time they ask God to explain a question. This is what it means to be a disciple. They study to show themselves approved by God.
It seems like God could have made it easier for us to understand him, but he did not. He had his reasons for hiding himself in pillars of cloud and fire when he lead Israel through the desert. He was teaching them to learn to trust him who they could not see and learn to walk through the wilderness obedient to his written commandment. When they arrived at the promised land forty years later, however, Joshua (i.e. a type of Messiah) led them. But he was not hidden in a cloud. He was a very real spiritual presence leading and teaching Israel in its quest to conquer the land occupied by religious cities and nations that resented Israel’s intrusion into their territory. He was a copy of the Holy Spirit who leads and guides New Covenant disciples into possessing their promised land.
Another reason why God uses symbols, signs, types, copies shadows and patterns is found in the first the natural and then the spiritual pattern that we discuss in Literal or Symbolic Interpretation Part 2. Putting it bluntly, the deep stuff of God is too deep for man to communicate through natural means like words written on paper or words spoken by mortal men. The full depth of God can only be communicated directly by God’s spirit to the spirits of men without any human mediator.
The history of Israel is a pattern for all Old/First Covenant religionists — including Christians — who must wander in the wilderness for a period of time (forty years symbolizes a long, indeterminate season of life) picking up their daily portion of natural. They are confined to this wilderness wandering until God finds them ready to go into the promised land and confront the religious giants who will be a constant source of trouble as enemies who do not want people to live in freedom.
Along the way, Old/First Covenant religionists must make do with their limited understandings of symbols, signs, types, copies shadows and patterns found throughout the Bible. These are only introductions to the mysteries of God presented in natural terms with which men are familiar. The spiritual knowledge comes later when the Spirit of God instructs New Covenant disciples directly by his spirit without mediation by written or spoken human words.
The challenge for disciples is to study. Study is the essence of what it means to be a disciple: learner. People who really want to know God and his ways will study and listen for more truth because they know that the written Bible and God’s spoken word are not the same.
This study, however, is not the same as picking up manna in the desert. That was done in response to one of God’s legal commandments. The physical manna did sustain them and man died in the wilderness even though they ate it. They were obedient to eat the manna in the desert, but they could not enter the promised land because they were unwilling to conquer the religious giants who already occupied the land. In other words, being partly obedient was not enough to have the right to enter the promised land.
Those who are obedient and willing to go to war to conquer the religious giants, however, are the ones to whom God gives hidden manna which is the spiritual explanation for the natural manna which is the written words of the Bible. They will study and listen to hear God’s voice which gives them life. And after they do discover truth, they will keep studying because they have acquired a taste for God that satisfies but cannot be quenched. It is like the more they learn the more they want to learn. Their capacity and desire to learn and study increases as they are filled with truth, wonder and amazement of knowing God face to face.
But this truth that leads to life comes with a cost. It is, as Jesus said, hidden manna. It is hidden in the symbols, signs, types, copies, shadows and patterns scattered throughout the Bible — in both the Old and New Testaments. It is impossible to see God face to face and know him intimately unless these mysteries are uncovered and brought into the light. They will only be revealed, however, to those disciples who are willing to pay the cost of hating the religious traditions into which they were born and which they have practiced. If they do not repent for following the teachings of Balaam and the Nicola’itans, and do not overcome their affections for religion, they will not have access to the hidden manna that leads to eternal life.
When you stop to think about it, this is the way it should be for people who say they love God. Those who are serious about that love will seriously consider his promise that those who seek him will find him when they seek with all their heart. In gaining a little understanding about who he really is, we understand that there is so much more to him that we do not know. And that should drive us to study deeper and longer than we have ever studied before.