Yes! There is Good News! 4.1.17

Figures of speech; we use them all the time, to emphasize a statement, to help explain a difficult idea and some times we use them to introduce a mystery into our conversation. It is not always the best thing to blurt out the answer to every question; sometimes we should desire to get people to think about the conundrum we might have.

I have, in my bookcase, a 1000 page book by the 19th century Biblical scholar E.W. Bullinger that deals with the use of “figures of speech” in the Bible. I have on another shelf, a translation of the Bible that is less than 1,000 pages. Wow! Someone wrote a book explaining one aspect of the Bible, and it took him more pages than the Bible itself.

The Bible is full of figures of speech. In fact, Bullinger tells us that there are 217 different types of figures of speech. I’m not sure I understand them all. But I do know a simile, metaphor, allegory or parable when I see one. And I believe we all know that our savior used many parables when He walked the face of the Earth.

I have heard people say that He used them to make plain to His listeners some difficult idea. But He was once asked why He used parables, and He gave a very curious answer. This is found in Chapter 13 of the Gospel of Matthew. There are seven separate parables in this chapter and after He spoke the first one it says this in verse 10: “The disciples came to Him and asked, ‘Why do you speak to the people in parables?’ He replied, ‘The knowledge of the secrets of the Kingdom of Heaven, has been given to you, but not to them. Whoever has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him. This is why I speak to them in parables.’”
Well that says a lot! There are some people who were not supposed to understand what He was saying. The rabbis in Jesus day were not known for giving an answer, but rather posing a difficult question, and thereby forcing their disciples to think.

I believe we have it too easy these days when we are handed answers to our own questions and not taught to think. Perhaps that is why we sometimes think the Bible is hard to understand. We just don’t want to think too hard.

I would like to take some time in future articles to consider some metaphors, analogies and parables and so come to what I call a living parable that the apostle Peter used in his second letter. This “living parable” is not just good news, it is great news! Bear with me, as we look at some “figures of speech.”

Until next time ...