Chapter
3
All things must obey God; therefore, the history of the world conforms to
His will and demonstrates the work
of God. The history recorded in the
Bible is an open letter written to us from God,
but much of the spiritual message of that history is hidden in plain sight, as
in a riddle.
Scholars, commentators and translators give us the interpretation
according to what they think the
Bible means, but when it comes to the usage of key words which would reveal the
spiritual meaning, most people's
understanding is worldly. Translators frequently alter the literal Word. Their explanation?--"This
is an idiom. It says this, but what
it means is that."
The spiritual meaning of an idiom is quite different from the worldly.
So, when men paraphrase or
give the Word other than literal, they remove the spiritual message of the Word
in favor of the worldly.
But God means what He says and He doesn't need men to correct His
mistakes.
This chapter is about discerning the spiritual meaning of the Word,
rather than the worldly.
Jesus spoke to the people in parables then He gave the meaning by
interpreting the idiomatic usage of
His words. The sower is the Son of Man; the seed is the Word, etc.
Understanding the spiritual
meaning of the key words of a story unlocks the message.
The true meaning of idioms is the only
clue we need to unravel the riddle.
How do we find the figurative use of words in the Bible?
In many places it tells us plainly. Therefore,
the simplest way to find the spiritual meaning is to believe what it says:
"He is a chosen vessel, to bear my name."
"I am like a vessel that perishes." "Every one of you should
know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honor."
"If purged from vain babblings and
errors, a man shall be a vessel unto honor." People are referred to as
vessels, as if they were containers;
the spiritual idiom is plainly given.
"But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation,
a peculiar people." Peter calls
these things a generation. The
priesthood of Aaron was replaced by the priesthood of Jesus; the two
covenants are the two generations of His Word.
"If a man's wife goes from him and becomes another's, shall not that
land be greatly polluted?" The
land is equated to a wife.
A witness is called a stone or a rock, and a stone called a witness so
commonly in the Bible that the words
are almost interchangeable: "This stone shall be a witness to us." "If these hold their peace,
the stones would cry out." When
Simon testified that Jesus was the Christ, Jesus called him a rock.
And Jesus, the chief witness, is called the Rock of Israel and the Chief
Corner Stone.
"Offer the gift Moses commanded for a testimony to them."
Is the gift Moses commanded our testimony?
"Let us offer the sacrifice of praise, that is the fruit of lips
confessing His name; with such sacrifices
as doing good and communicating, God is well pleased."
It is clear that fruit refers to words
and sacrifices are such things as praising God and doing good.
Compare this with Psalm 50:14.
"Golden vials full of incense, which are the prayers of
saints." Is the meaning of
incense, our prayers?
"I will give you pastors which will feed you with knowledge and
understanding." Is knowledge our
food?
"Their throat is an open sepulcher; with their tongues, they have
used deceit; the poison of asps, under
their lips; whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness." Cursing and
deceit are called poison and those
with such poison in their mouths are called serpents.
And, since the unsaved are dead, their bodies
are called sepulchers.
Imagination is to the Word of God, as chaff to wheat, (Jer 23:28).
Molten images are the idols of
our own understanding, (Hosea 13:2).
Another way we are given the spiritual meaning of the Word is by
comparison. Two statements are
coupled together, or one follows the other; it is comparison by juxtaposition.
This is a basic of Hebrew
poetry and the structure of the proverb.
The comparison might be for contrast, or it might be a reiteration--the
same comment given in two different
ways--or it can be one statement given half in plain talk and half in
figurative:
"Jehoram made high places and caused the inhabitants of Jerusalem to
commit fornication." If we
know that worshiping on the high places was being unfaithful to the Lord, then
this statement is a reiteration;
making high places causes fornication, which is to serve other than the Lord.
"I will pour water on him that is thirsty and floods upon the dry
ground; I will pour my Spirit on thy
seed, and my blessing upon thine offspring."
This is the same statement, first told in the figure, then
in plain talk.
"The balances of deceit are abomination to the Lord; but a perfect
stone is His delight." A perfect
witness doesn't deceive. Compare
this with Ezekiel 13:10-11; those who seduce the people (with
doctrines) are equated to great hail stones.
"A man's belly shall be satisfied with the fruit of his mouth; with
the increase of his lips shall he be
filled." This proverb speaks of your words as your increase and your
fruit. We might also deduce that
words are our food. Consider that
Jesus is called our Bread and also called the Word.
"Eat such things as are set before you; heal the sick, and say the
Kingdom of God is come near you."
The second half of the sentence explains the meaning of the first half.
Preaching the Kingdom does
heal the sick and this work is what God sets before you to eat.
As Jesus said, His food was to do
the will of the Father.
Jesus spoke in proverbs almost constantly.
His disciples recognized this and made that comment at
the last supper about Him speaking plainly instead of in proverbs, (John 16:29).
"The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord; the
prayers of the upright, His delight." This is a standard proverb.
The wicked are contrasted with the upright. Notice that, in the second
statement, prayer has been substituted for the word sacrifice.
The writer did not change horses
in the middle of the stream; our prayers are being called sacrifices and,
therefore, equated.
"The serpent will bite without enchantment; and the master of the
tongue." The master of the tongue
is compared to a serpent. Lies and
false doctrine are the poison which comes from the mouths of
serpents, (Jer 8:17-19), (Psalm 58:4).
These comparisons are not only in poetry and proverbs, but throughout the
narrative also:
The centurion (a Gentile) demonstrated his faith and Jesus granted that
it should be as he believed, (Matt
8). But, positioned in between, is the sermon about the children
of the Kingdom being expelled for
their lack of faith and their salvation going to the Gentiles.
The meaning of the miracle is
explained in the middle of the event itself.
"I led you out of Egypt; I have spoken to you by the prophets,"
(Hosea 12). God's Word, by the prophets,
led the children out of Egypt. Next,
Hosea says, Jacob fled to Syria, Israel served for a wife,
he kept sheep. Then he switches
back again to Israel being brought out of Egypt by a prophet. He
didn't change the subject in the middle; Hosea is making a comparison between
Jacob's shepherding the sheep for a
wife, and the Lord's shepherding the children out of Egypt.
Remember that Jacob is Israel
and Israel is the Prince of God.
The sons of Aaron offered strange fire and were slain by the fire of the
Lord, (Lev 16). Then Moses
gave commandments about the priesthood, at the end of which, he speaks of
putting off the priest's garments.
The law was added because of transgressions (Gal 3:19), and that law is
fire which consumes, as it did the
sons of Aaron. Remember that all
the priests were sons of Aaron, (spiritually), including Annas
and Caiaphas, etc. And strange fire
is doctrine of our own imagination, for which Jesus chastised
the Jews.
So there is a figure here of the law added for transgression and the
putting off of the priesthood of the
Old Covenant. Commandments about changing the priesthood were added because they
would offer strange doctrine.
You might notice that Aaron's other sons didn't eat the sin offering
after that incident with the strange
fire, (Lev 10:17), and they haven't eaten the sin offering (receiving their Messiah)
to this day.
The treatment of women, or wives, in the Bible seems peculiar and unfair
until you discern the
spiritual
meaning and realize women are being used as a figure:
"Wives, be subject to your husbands; church subject to Christ; and
He is savior of the body." Christ
and the church are compared to the husband and wife; as the church is the body
of Christ, so your wife is your
body, (Eph 5:22-23).
Is your body your wife? "Men,
love your wives as your own body; he that loves his wife loves himself." "No man hates his own flesh; as the Lord, the church; so
we are His flesh," (Eph 5:28-30).
After these statements, Paul points out that there is a great mystery in
this--in this figure about the wife
being compared to the body--but then explains he was referring to Christ and the
church, (Eph 5:32).
In first Corinthians, chapters seven through eleven, Paul talks about the
things of this world, then switches
to things of marriage; then idols, food and drink, and back again to wives; the
body and lusts, then fornication;
then the head of man is Christ, the head of woman is man, the head of Christ is
God; and the woman is of the man.
Paul is not scatter-brained. He
is not changing the subject back and forth as if he can't make up his
mind what to talk about. He is discussing the same subject throughout, only he
switches back and forth from plain
talk to the figure he is using as example.
Your body is your wife in the sense that a captain is married to his
ship, or like a king is married to
his kingdom. And you are to keep your flesh in subjection the same as the
church should be in subjection to
Christ. So the figurative use of
women in the Bible is not really talking about women at all,
but we obey in the figure. It might
be interesting here to turn to Exodus 21:3 and look up the literal
Hebrew words.
The grandest example of these juxta-comparisons is the two covenants of
the Bible--the old in a figure, the
new in plain talk--discussed in Chapter 2.
To whom has, more will be given; the more you understand the spiritual
usage of idioms, the more the
message of the text unfolds and phrases that seemed peculiar begin to make
sense:
Jesus healed ten men, then He told them to go, show themselves to the
priest and offer the gift Moses
commanded. They left, but one turned back to Jesus, praising God.
Jesus asked, "Weren't ten healed?
Where are the nine?"
If you are thinking worldly, that question might puzzle you since He told
them to go. But to praise
God is the true meaning of the gift Moses commanded and Jesus is the true
priest. So only one obeyed
the spiritual meaning and turned back to the true priest, giving the gift Moses
commanded.
Therefore,
"Where are the nine?"
Here is the same lesson as Aaron's sons offering strange fire, but in a
different figure:
When Aaron saw, (saw spiritually, it doesn't say, "saw it") he
told the people to break the gold off
their ears, (Exodus 32). The Word of God is pure gold, tried in the fire; that
gold is meant for your ears, to sink
in and be understood. But the
people took the gold from their ears and Aaron remolded
it into the image of a beast of flesh, which they preferred.
We are all obligated to wage the good warfare, but Moses, from the mount,
heard singing instead of war. They would twist the meaning of the Word of God to suit the
desires of the flesh and serve the
creature rather than the Creator.
When Moses asked Aaron why he did this, he said, "You know the
people, that they are set on mischief." Moses understood his answer and left off chastising Aaron to
punish the people. Don't forget that
Aaron, also, was a prophet--the making of the calf a prophetic act, indicating
what the people would do with their
gold (the Word of God) in later days.
Compare this with Chapter 10 of Jeremiah, "The workmen engrave
clever doctrines of silver and gold,
but the gold of God is truth."
Here is this same lesson again, in another figure:
The people joined themselves with Midian and ate the sacrifices of the
dead (doctrine of the dead is
strange fire), their inventions, (Psalm 106:28-29) (Num 25). Then vengeance was
taken on Midian, before the death of
Moses, (a figure of the death of the law), and before the promised land (a figure
of the Kingdom of the Lord on earth).
But, juxta-positioned in between the violation and the vengeance, Moses
gave laws again--laws of
transgression including the figure of the sacrifice of the Lamb of God and added
the law of a maiden with a vow, (Num
30).
The people were the maiden with a vow.
They would swear an oath to keep the law--a covenant of
marriage. According to that law, if
the husband or father allows the oath, but releases her from the oath
on a later day, he takes her guilt on himself--as Jesus would take sin on
Himself.
So, because they would pervert the law with their own imagination rather
than keep their oath, it was written
into the statutes. They wouldn't keep the law; why else would they have to kill
their messiah? Therefore, Jesus
said, "None of you keep the law; why do you kill me?"--a proverb.
They were given statutes that were not good by which they should not
live, (Eze 20:25). Compare this with
Leviticus 4:13. Translators tend to alter this because it doesn't make sense to them,
but what it says literally is, if "they have done any of the commandments
of the Lord which should not be
done," and then, in 4:20, "the priest shall make atonement."
These figures are clues to understand the Word and should be kept in mind
throughout the reading of the
scriptures. Jesus, in
His parables, told us plainly that the seed is the Word.
But when we leave that parable and
read elsewhere, we tend to forget and take "seed" in the worldly
sense. Apply the figure elsewhere
and see what you get:
"Whoever is born of God doesn't sin for His seed remains in
him," (1 John 3:9). "He shall give the
rain of thy seed," (Isaiah 30:23). Seed
here can only refer to His words.
If the Word is the grain that makes our bread: "Sow in
righteousness, reap in mercy; break up your
fallow ground; until He come and rain righteousness on you," (Hosea 10:12).
The seed is sown in the ground of your heart and in the world, just as
Jesus told two parables; in the one,
the seed is the Word in your heart; in the other it is people containing the
Word, planted in the world. The
Kingdom is among you and within you.
"You've plowed wickedness and reaped iniquity; you've eaten the
fruit of lies; because you've trusted
in thy way, in thy mighty men," (Hosea 10:13).
Aren't the mighty men those great leaders who sow doctrines of diverse
seed which we love to hear--offering
strange fire to draw away disciples after themselves?
"The soul of blessing shall be made fat; and he that waters will be
watered himself." "He
that tills his land shall be
satisfied with bread; but he that follows vain, void of understanding." "The
lips of the righteous feed many; but
fools die for want of heart," (Pro 12:11, 10:21, 11:25).
"I will send a famine on the land; not a famine of bread or water,
but of hearing the words of the Lord,"
(Amos 8:11).
"As the rain and snow come down from heaven and returns not, but
waters the earth, and makes it bring
forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater; so
shall my Word be that goes forth out
of my mouth; it will not return to me void, but it will accomplish that which I please,
and it will prosper where I send it," (Isaiah 55:10-11), (Deu 32:2).
The Word of God is the seed that serves Him.
"A seed shall serve Him; it shall be accounted to the
Lord for a generation," (Psalm 22:30).
This verse doesn't say "posterity" will serve Him, as almost
all of the modern translations render it. Though
it may mean posterity in the worldly sense, it says,
"seed."
Any farmer can tell you that when seed is planted in the field, it grows
until the heads of grain get ripe
for harvest. And then, if the
angels come and reap the world, that is a generation, (James 5:7).
It is the seed that is accounted a generation.
The covenant of Aaron's priesthood is one generation,
and the covenant of Christ's priesthood is the new generation--the generation of
His Word. Therefore, if He is
sacrificed on the cross, Isaiah asks, "Who shall declare His
generation?"
(Isa
53:8). The only thing that can be
declared is words. Jesus
told us plainly that by, "this generation," He was referring to His
words. "This generation will
not pass away until all is fulfilled; heaven and earth will pass away, but my
words will not pass away,"
(Matt 24:33-35), (Luke 21:31-32).
So, if there are two covenants, there are two generations.
Jesus sent out His disciples to reap the first,
saying that the harvest was ripe. But
at the same time, they were planting the seed of the New Covenant.
The plowman overtook the reaper, (Amos 9:13).
And the great battle in the Valley of Jehoshaphat, when the wicked are
destroyed from the earth, is called
the harvest, (Joel 3:9-16).
All the words and all the deeds done in the Bible have a spiritual
meaning, especially the miracles of
Jesus. Jesus was not a circus act and He didn't perform miracles
just to impress people. Besides His preaching, He exampled the way to us,
therefore the message is in the works.
If He does the works of the Father, believe the works; the works bear
witness, (John 5:36, 10:25, 10:37-38).
As His life was an example, everything He did was a message, but my
favorite is the first of miracles:
There was a wedding in Cana of Galilee; if a couple of Jews got married
two thousand years ago, that means
nothing to us, unless we are talking about the marriage of the Lamb of God.
Jesus was there and His
disciples; I should hope they would be there.
And the wine failed. "Failed"
is the correct translation of the Greek and, since we know that no one
was saved by the law, "failed" is the correct spiritual meaning as
well. His mother told Him they had
no wine and He replied that His time had not yet come.
That response clearly indicates He was not
speaking in the worldly sense. She told the servants to do whatever He said;
since she was referring to the Lord
Himself, that is good advice for all of us servants.
And there were stone vessels there, after the purification of the Jews;
His witnesses are the stone vessels
whose testimony purifies us. He
commanded they be filled with water (Spirit); and they drew out
wine--a New Covenant drawn out of His witnesses, filled with the Holy Spirit;
and the servants know from whence it
was. Then was that remarkable comment about the New Wine being better than the
Old Covenant.
Keep in mind that, if there are two wines, there are two covenants and,
therefore, two brides; then compare
this to the marriage of Jacob (Jacob is Israel):
Jacob went to the land of his brethren and shepherded sheep for a wife;
Jesus is the true shepherd who led
the flocks of Israel in the wilderness.
Jacob loved Rachel but he didn't love Leah because she had weak eyes; the
veil remains on the heart of the
bride of the first covenant to this day whenever the Old Testament is read.
They can't see the true
meaning; Leah still has weak eyes, (2 Cor 3:14).
Jacob received both wives and then served another period of time to pay
for the second. Likewise, after the cross, the Lord has been shepherding us in
the wilderness of the nations.
Then Jacob served again for the flocks. And who of the flocks did He
choose? The speckled and
ringstreaked, those spotted by the world, He chose us sinners as His own.
These examples are not isolated instances nor are they the exception. All the Word of God is about events in the worldly sense, but with a spiritual message hidden within. It is a characteristic of scripture.