MORE THAN THE NATURAL EYE CAN SEE OR MIND CAN UNDERSTAND
In God’s wisdom, he has seen fit to load the Bible with mysteries and symbolism. Mysteries in the Bible are found in its symbols, parables, signs, types, allegories, copies and shadows.
STUDY TIPS:
See this link for discussion of symbols.
See this link for discussion of signs
See this link for discussion of types and figures.
See this link for discussion of allegories and figures of speech.
See this link for discussion of copies and shadows.
See this link for discussion of patterns.
See this link for discussion of the sign of Jonah.
The Greek word “Parabole” is always translated as parable in English. Looking at the definition of Parabole we see that it means to place one thing beside another or to compare one thing to another. In the bible, parables always compare physical things or acts that can be seen to spiritual things or actions that cannot be seen.
We begin, therefore with a few scriptures about parables:
Matthew 13:3 And he spake many things unto them in parables, saying, Behold, a sower went forth to sow;
COMMENTARY: The Greek word “polus” translated here as “many” is also translated as “majority” and “most” in other scriptures.
STUDY TIP: See this link for understanding of the parable of the sower.
COMMENTARY: Here Jesus compares a farmer sowing his field with physical seed to God sowing spiritual seeds through his servants. The spiritual seeds are God’s spoken words spoken through Jesus and other messiahs.
It is impossible to interpret the literal words of the parable of the sower in a way that is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness. But, people who can hear God’s spoken voice will understand the deep, hidden meanings of this and other parables.
Matthew 13:13 This is why I speak to them in parables: “Though seeing, they do not see; though hearing, they do not hear or understand.
Jesus also says, in effect, that religious people who are spiritually blind and spiritually deaf always interpret his words and bible stories as parables — not as spiritual truth that will be profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness to them personally.
In other words, the understanding of religious people who insist on interpreting the words and stories of the bible literally will be limited to the physical things and acts. Furthermore, religious people will not understand the invisible, spiritual meanings of those literal words and stories because they cannot hear God’s words explaining the spiritual meaning to their hearts S
STUDY TIPS: See this link to understand spiritual blindness and see this link to understand spiritual deafness.
MORE COMMENTARY: When Jesus says that people don’t see, or hear or understand, he is not talking about their ability to see, hear and understand with their natural, human eyes, ears and minds. Rather, he is referring to the failure of religious people to see, hear and understand the spiritual meaning of bible stories with their hearts.
In the example of the so-called miracle at Cana, all religious people can see and understand is a physical miracle. They do not understand that the story of the transformation of water to wine is a parable in the same sense that Jesus’ words are parables that reveal spiritual truth through human words. In other words, religious people who are spiritually blind and spiritually deaf can only interpret the Cana story as a physical miracle and cannot understand the spiritual meaning of the events in the story.
Matthew 13:31-33 He told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field. 32Though it is the smallest of all seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds come and perch in its branches.” 33 He told them still another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into about sixty pounds of flour until it worked all through the dough.”
COMMENTARY: When Jesus said “the Kingdom of heaven is like …” he is speaking a parable. He compares a physical object or physical act to a something spiritual. In in verses 31 and 32 Jesus compares physical trees and their seeds to spiritual trees and seeds.
Matthew 13:34-35 Jesus spoke all these things to the crowd in parables; he did not say anything to them without using a parable. 35 So was fulfilled what was spoken through the prophet: “I will open my mouth in parables, I will utter things hidden since the creation of the world.
COMMENTARY: Verse 34 says clearly that Jesus always spoke in parables. Since Jesus spoke for God, we can assume that God approved of this practice. From this statement, we can also assume that bible stories are parables.
Matthew 22:1 And Jesus answered and spake unto them again by parables, and said,
STUDY TIPS: To appreciate the full meaning of this verse, it is first necessary to understand the symbolic meanings of deafness and blindness.
When reading Isaiah 29:18 we are prompted to ask “what, or when is that day when the deaf will hear and the blind will see?” The answer to this question is found in this link that tells us that the day in question is the day we hear God’s spoken voice.
People who lack the ability to hear God’s spoken voice are limited in their understanding of bible symbols, parables, signs, types, allegories, copies and shadows. Using their intellect and reason they may convince themselves that they understand the bible, but they do not understand God. The only way to understand and know God is to hear God’s spoken voice.
People who do not hear God’s spoken voice may understand the literal truth of the Bible, but they do not have the spiritual truth that will set them free from religion. Thus, they 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.
STUDY TIP: Only New Covenant disciples are able to interpret the mysteries and secrets hidden in the symbolic language of the Bible. They are able to interpret the many Symbols, Signs, Types, Parables, Copies, and Shadows found in the Bible because God has written his laws on their hearts.
Hearing God’s spoken voice is the evidence that indicates God has written his laws on the hearts of people. It can be said, therefore, that people who deny the ability to hear God’s voice also deny that God’s laws are written on their hearts. That denial confirms that those people are Old/First Covenant religionists who interpret the Bible literally — not symbolically.
The ability to hear God’s spoken voice is evidence that someone has been born again. Only people who have been born by the spirit are able to hear the words of the spirit of God spoken to the heart. All others are born of the flesh. They only understand human wisdom and are unable to understand spiritual words.
Religious leaders try to explain Bible mysteries with intellectual explanations embellished with clever human knowledge and no small amount of imaginative speculation. Religious people who are hungry to know more about God, but unable to hear his voice, eat up this unclean food thinking that their leaders are anointed with special knowledge and insights that are not available to them.
Religious people consume the words (i.e. teachings and writings) of false prophets thinking that doing so makes them righteous. They wrongly believe that taking human words into the human mind is the same as hearing God’s spoken voice in the heart. Therefore, they do not realize that they are actually sinning by eating the unclean food served to them by trees of knowledge of good and evil.
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.
STUDY TIP: See LISTEN FOR GOD’S VOICE WHILE READING and How to Hear God’s Spoken Voice.
Reading with the full expectation and hope for unseen revelations of the symbolic meanings of Biblical mysteries and secrets is an act of pure faith. When we read with this expectation, we demonstrate in the most powerful way our belief that God exists and that he rewards believers who seek him with their heart, mind, soul and strength.
Here is a short list of the rewards that God gives to people who earnestly seek him with their heart and soul and learn how to hear his spoken voice:
STUDY TIP: See this link for more rewards of hearing God’s spoken voice. Also see Faith, Grace, Mercy, Peace, Love, Joy, Hope for the many ways that people experience the effects of God’s word in their hearts.
These rewards are the essence of a healthy spiritual life.
Religion does not yield these rewards. Religion brings nothing but tribulation because religion is a curse. They are looking for the right things but they are looking through religious activity — not by listening to hear God’s spoken voice. They never attain these rewards because their hard hearts cannot hear. They don’t have these rewards because they don’t ask for them.
This point cannot be emphasized too much:
Instead of looking for God in things and activities that can be seen and touched (i.e. religion), they should only be looking and listening for God’s voice to speak to their hearts while reading their Bibles.
They must always remember that God’s spoken word and his written word are not the same.
STUDY TIP: People who click the links in this website will learn how to know the difference between things that CLEAN AND UNCLEAN, HOLY AND PROFANE, SOUL AND SPIRIT, and GOOD AND EVIL. They are on their way to understanding the mysteries that God has hidden in throughout the Bible. They are on their way to achieving the rewards that God has promised. With respect to the topic of tithes and offerings, they will learn that tithes and offerings of money are unclean, profane, soulish and evil. They can be holy only if they are spiritual (i.e. cannot be seen).
But clicking the links here is not enough. What they must not do is to continue to seek for understanding of God through religion as they have always done. Before seeking God spiritually, they must first stop listening to idols. They must turn away from their idols and then return to God with all their heart. In order to do this, however, they must first acknowledge that the religious leaders from whom they receive teaching about religion and God are idols and false prophets.
God is very fussy about who he reveals himself to. If people want to eat the fruit of Trees of Knowledge of Good and Evil (i.e. false prophets), he lets them do that. If they do that, however, he does not allow them to eat fruit of Trees of Life (i.e. true prophets, angels, messiahs, high priests, witnesses, and warriors). For God, it is one tree or another. Make your choice. But if you want to still consult with unqualified humans to learn about God, do not expect him to reveal himself to you.
It is absolutely imperative to understand that reading without faith that God will reveal these mysteries is sin because whatever we do, including reading the Bible, that is not done in an attitude of faith is sin.
If we do not read with the full expectation that God will reveal the symbolic meanings of Biblical mysteries and secrets to our hearts, we effectively say that we can know God just by using the intellectual powers of our minds. Such denial is blasphemy against the power of the spirit of God. Using your mind alone to understand God is not the same thing as seeking God with all your heart.
Even people who do not believe in God and/or do not 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 slow down to ask God to explain a question. This is what it means to be a disciple. They study to show themselves approved by God. They understand that learning about God is a marathon. This contrasts with religion which is more like a series of short sprints for an hour or two every Sunday morning. This habit hardly qualifies as seeking God with all of your heart, mind, soul and strength. Clicking the links is not for lazy religious people.
It seems like God could have made it easier for us to understand him, but he did not. He is clear about testing us. And he has 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 in obedience to his written commandment.
When Israel arrived at the promised land forty years later, however, Joshua (i.e. a type of Messiah) led them. But Joshua 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 type of angel and shepherd 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.