God's Spiritual Language
A symbol is a thing that represents or stands for something else, especially a material object that represents something abstract. A metaphor is a figure of speech in which a word or phrase is applied to an object or action to which it is not literally applicable. Both are used as a pattern or representative of something literal, but neither are the actual, literal things that they are being used to represent.
Understanding the bible’s use of symbols and metaphors furthers our comprehension of the unfamiliar by illustrating its truth with something with which we are familiar, typically from the world around us. Jesus used this spiritual language in His parables to the people. The word of God is full of symbols and metaphors. Our God is an expert at spiritual symbols and metaphors, using types and shadows from the earthly world to explain and clarify His world of the spirit.
We need a relationship with God in the spirit to understand Him and that is just what He desires of each of us.
“God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.” John 4:24 KJV
Jesus only said what the Father gave Him to say, speaking in parables that utilized metaphors and symbols. It is impossible to understand this spiritual book full of metaphors and symbols without the holy spirit. God is spirit and we need His spirit to understand spiritual language. Jesus had to interpret the meaning of His parables shared with the crowds to His disciples so they would understand His meaning.
The literalists think we should not spiritualize the word because it will lead to error. They insist that the Bible is to be understood literally. But there is plenty of error in the standard translations of the Bible, written by human men who did the best they could. There is even more error when God uses words meant to be spiritually understood but are applied to actual, literal things of this earth.
One clear example is ears to hear, oft repeated by Jesus when He spoke to the multitudes. Jesus was not referencing these appendages on either side of our heads, but speaking of our spiritual ears necessary to understand Jesus Christ and Father God, Who are spirits. He also referenced eyes to see, which symbolizes our spiritual, rather than our natural, eyes for vision into the spiritual world of the Father.
Not very many in those days had spiritual ears or eyes to understand what the Lord was saying, including His intimate followers. Then and now, He veiled His word to carnal minds so we have to go beyond our natural understanding. God also laid out a precise and detailed pattern in the Old Testament to teach us about our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, Who was to come. The old laws of Moses regarding worship in the Tabernacle are but a shadow of what is to come:
“Therefore let no one judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a feast, a New Moon, or a Sabbath. These are a shadow of the things to come, but the body that casts it belongs to Christ.” Colossians 2:17 BSB
“Yet death ruled [over mankind] from Adam to Moses [the Lawgiver], even over those who had not sinned as Adam did. Adam is a type of Him (Christ) who was to come [but in reverse—Adam brought destruction, Christ brought salvation].” Romans 5:14 AMP
Here the word type used in Romans, comes from the Greek word “tupos.” This means “figure, a die or shape, a model, form, a pattern.” God has a plan that is revealed layer upon layer to those who are willing to know Him in spirit and in truth, through the centuries unfolding many patterns for His own to understand and follow. God uses everything at His disposal to further our spiritual understanding of Him and the world of the spirit!
In the beginning, Adam was the perfect pattern son, walking in fellowship with the Father until the fall. Throughout the Old Testament, we read of other historical events that further our understanding of Jesus Christ our Lord when we see the type or model of each event. What our Christian ancestors experienced in Old Testament days are not only powerful and entertaining accounts of their lives, they show us a pattern of how our life will proceed back into full fellowship with our Father through what Jesus Christ has done.
God’s plan for the return of His people to full fellowship through His son, Jesus Christ is patterned, foreshadowing His plan through the Old Testament ways of worship. We are to learn many things from our Abrahamic heritage, as this scripture confirms:
“Now these things happened to them [the tribes of Israel] as an example and warning [to us]; they were written for our instruction [to admonish and equip us], upon whom the ends of the ages have come.” 1 Corinthians 10:11 AMP
It is not surprising that the book of Hebrews, written to the Jews, talks about the traditional patterns of the Israelite worship in the Tabernacle as a copy of heaven. God talked directly to Moses about exactly how the Tabernacle of worship was to be built because it is predictive of our Lord Jesus Christ:
“Now if He were on earth, He would not be a priest, since there are already priests who offer gifts according to the law. The place where they serve is a copy and shadow of what is in heaven. This is why Moses was warned when he was about to build the Tabernacle:
‘See to it that you make everything according to the pattern shown you on the mountain.’ Now, however, Jesus has received a much more excellent ministry, just as the covenant He mediates is better and is founded on better promises.” Hebrews 8:4-6 BSB
We learn much from the Old Testament when the spirit grants us an understanding of the patterns revealed there. It’s fascinating to learn just how thorough and specific are the stories of our spiritual ancestors as we understand how they are laying out future steps for us. An example is the study of the names of Jacob’s twelve sons, revealing a pattern of qualities for spiritual growth. The life of David teaches much about how to worship and praise the Lord, ask for God’s specific guidance when in conflict, and how to humbly repent of sin.
The Old Testament prophets were given visions from God for their times and seasons, though it was not given to them to see or understand all that God was revealing through them about the future. They were cloaked in spiritual language until the time for their meaning to be revealed. Daniel was the prophet of time, given the ability to interpret symbolic dreams and see visions. When he asked what the visions God gave him meant, God told him it wasn’t given to him to understand.
The prophet Joel saw the future Day of the Lord, given in spiritual symbols and metaphors to predict the eventual restoration and reconciliation of all. And the prophet Isaiah speaks directly of the coming of the Lord:
“For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on His shoulders. And He will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the greatness of His government and peace, there will be no end.
He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this.” Isaiah 9:6–7, NIV
In the New Testament, Jesus taught in parables, a Jewish style of storytelling to convey messages through allegory and symbolism. Drawn from ordinary life, Jesus ensured that people could choose whether or not to think about and accept his messages. He knew only a few would see beyond the metaphors and parallels to the deeper spiritual truths He was ministering. His own disciples even asked why He spoke in parables to the crowds:
'“Jesus replied, ‘Because they haven’t received the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but you have. For those who have will receive more and they will have more than enough. But as for those who don’t have, even the little they have will be taken away from them.
This is why I speak to the crowds in parables: although they see, they don’t really see; and although they hear, they don’t really hear or understand. What Isaiah prophesied has become completely true for them:
You will hear, to be sure, but never understand; and you will certainly see but never recognize what you are seeing. For this people’s senses have become calloused, and they’ve become hard of hearing, and they’ve shut their eyes so that they won’t see with their eyes or hear with their ears or understand with their minds, and change their hearts and lives that I may heal them.
Happy are your eyes because they see. Happy are your ears because they hear. I assure you that many prophets and righteous people wanted to see what you see and hear what you hear, but they didn’t.’” Matthew 13:10-17 NIV
God revealed the meaning to those He was drawing at that time. Still, the disciples often had to ask Jesus privately to explain the meaning of the parables He ministered. They did not yet have the Holy Spirit within them, so the spiritual depth of what Jesus was saying was hidden even from them:
“But the disciples did not understand any of these things. The meaning was hidden from them, and they did not comprehend what He was saying.” Luke 18:14 BSB
“Do you still not understand? Do you not remember the five loaves for the five thousand, and how many basketfuls you gathered? Or the seven loaves for the four thousand, and how many basketfuls you gathered? How do you not understand that I was not telling you about bread?
But beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.” Matthew 16:10 BSB
When Jesus talked about bread, He was not worried about what to eat. He meant the bread of heaven, the word of God. And though He told them about His crucifixion and resurrection more than once, they could not fully understand what was to come. Jesus called His body a temple, a tabernacle of God. He did speak of how it would be torn down and raised up again. Because the disciples did not comprehend with their limited natural understanding, they were devastated and lost when He died.
It did not matter that they had walked with Him and learned from Him for over three years. They did not have the spiritual capacity through the indwelling presence of Jesus Christ to know what to expect. He spoke in metaphors, using spiritual language that cannot be understood literally. Why would the Lord not teach us, today, in the same way that He taught the disciples, particularly since He is now within us and the holy spirit is available.
He is with us, within our hearts, even more than He was with them in the days of His flesh. Jesus Christ desires us to come closer to Him, to connect with our Father, the Father of spirits, Who will reveal the spiritual meaning of His words. The holy spirit is our source of spiritual understanding of the special, veiled God-language used in the Bible.
What God said happened in the Old Testament happened. Period. What it is to mean to us, today, requires a relationship with God that reveals His spiritual truth and wisdom in it all. Paul said:
“But as it is written, ‘Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.’ But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.
For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? Even so, the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.
Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.
But he that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man. For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.” 1 Corinthians 2:9-16 KJV
Paul states clearly and unequivocally that our natural mind, our soul’s understanding, cannot receive and understand the deep things of God. Man’s wisdom is far below God’s, as everything about God is deep! He does not say we will have the mind of Christ, but that we have it already! God knows what is in His spirit and we are enabled to know as well because we have the mind of Christ. Through His mind, we are learning to receive instruction and edification concerning the things of God.
The wisdom of God is spiritual, revealed by the holy spirit. We cannot receive it in any other way. Man’s wisdom from our natural mind, our fleshly understanding, is not to be compared to the spiritual wisdom of our Lord. We are to compare spiritual things with spiritual! The disciples thought of their Lord’s future rule from their earthly perspective, just as we often interpret His word today while missing His meaning.
The disciples had a portion of spiritual understanding because they followed and were intimately in fellowship with Him, but did not yet have the depth the Holy Spirit would later reveal to them. Jesus knew the disciples could not understand His words in their present state, but it concerned Him. Jesus told them:
“I still have much to tell you, but you cannot yet bear to hear it. However, when the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all truth. For He will not speak on His own, but He will speak what He hears, and He will declare to you what is to come. He will glorify Me by taking from what is Mine and disclosing it to you.…” John 12:14-16 BSB
Because all believers have Jesus Christ in their hearts, we have a measure of the Holy Spirit. But Jesus spoke of more than that. On the Day of Pentecost, all 120 disciples of Christ were gathered together in one accord and were filled with the Holy Ghost, all at the same time. They were strengthened, given access to understand spiritual things, enabled to more deeply learn and teach the truth of what the Lord was saying. By this event, they were empowered to spread the gospel despite great persecution.
Does this not tell us that we, too, need the Holy Spirit to be guided into all the truth of His word? If it could be understood just by words, the disciples who were with Him would have understood His teachings. God spoke in veiled spiritual language purposefully, to draw whosoever will to come to Him. We are also drawn to learn of Him and His spiritual thoughts and ways that are higher than human thoughts and ways.
We need more than initial salvation to understand the types and shadows of the Bible. This is why Paul said we need to move on:
“Therefore let us leave the elementary teachings about Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith in God.” Hebrews 6:1 Berean
There is a tendency for us humans to settle, to stay in our comfort zone of what is familiar, what we already understand and believe. The Israelites showed this in their longing to return to the bondage of Egypt. They became weary in the 40 years it took them to get through the wilderness to the Promised Land. Early on, they were already complaining to Moses about wanting to go back to the familiar leeks and garlic of their lives as slaves in Egypt. Eating manna every day in the wilderness must have been tiresome and boring!
And it surely took a lot longer than they had hoped, just as is true for us humans today. How tempting the familiar can be, even the Israelites’ former familiar hell of slavery in Egypt. So God begins to take the feathers out of our nest until we become uncomfortable enough to leave it. When we hang on to where God has led us in the past, eventually He moves on without us. He takes the light, the candlestick of His presence from us, so it becomes just dead works.
Dead works and dead worship can go on for many years as change is resisted by God’s people. Sometimes His own do not even realize He has left! There remains a certain comfort in familiar traditions and rituals but the power of His presence is absent. We need to remember that the disciples had never heard anything like what Jesus told them, but if they had not left their Jewish beliefs to embrace something new, even though they did not understand its depths, we would not have the foundation of faith they were enabled to lay down for us.
Our hearts need to rejoice when He brings something new by the spirit to us. We can trust God to confirm new truth as we turn to Him and His word. He reveals our spiritual errors in understanding Him, continually correcting any lack of wisdom that our carnal mind has designed or absorbed from others. God is more than able to show us not just His acts, but His ways, like He did with Moses.
God surely can choose to whom He speaks in revealing His ways. God spoke to His prophets in visions and dreams, such as Daniel’s prophetic vision. Moses, however, needed to understand God face to face because Moses was charged with doing things in the right way as the pattern for us:
"Hear now My words: if there is a prophet among you, I, the Lord, shall make Myself known to him in a vision. I shall speak with him in a dream.
Not so, with My servant Moses, he is faithful in all My household; with him I speak mouth to mouth, even openly, and not in dark sayings, and he beholds the form of the Lord." Numbers 12:6-8 BSB
God frequently speaks in dark sayings that are murky and unclear unless He grants us understanding by His spirit. Translated as dark speech, the Hebrew root is chiydah, meaning “a puzzle, a trick, hard question, proverb or riddle.” He did not make His communications to the people easily understood. They had to get closer to God, be in intimate fellowship with Him to understand His ways. He spoke plainly to Moses, as He does to some leaders today, because it is needed for the fulfillment of His plan and purpose.
For those in leadership, such as prominent Old Testament saints like Moses, David, Isaiah, and Daniel, God granted more understanding by the Holy Spirit because of their calling. They needed to understand God’s ways and His communication with them, to do what God had set before them. But often, even these saints did not understand completely—sometimes not at all—what these visions and messages meant. They obeyed regardless and we have the record of it.
The prophet Daniel was given a most powerful vision, a word for the future that included events at the end of the ages. It troubled him that he did not know what these things meant but obediently recorded what God showed him anyway. After the angel, God’s messenger, had shown all to Daniel in powerful spiritual language, Daniel said:
“I heard, but I did not understand. So I asked, ‘My lord, what will the outcome of all this be?’ He replied, ‘Go your way, Daniel, because the words are rolled up and sealed until the time of the end. Many will be purified, made spotless and refined, but the wicked will continue to be wicked. None of the wicked will understand, but those who are wise will understand.’” Daniel 12:8-9 NIV
God seals His word until it is time for us, His called-out people, to understand. It is hidden from the wicked but the wise in God will understand. We too hear things from God and wait to be given further understanding of what He means. He resides in our hearts and talks to those who have spiritual ears to hear Him. He shows us spiritual things as He gives us spiritual vision.
There’s a reason John’s Revelation of the Lord is to His slaves, His own people, as it states seven times in the 2nd and 3rd chapters: “He that hath an ear to hear, let him hear.” (KJV) It is His job to open the eyes and ears of our spiritual understanding for those who love Him and desire to know His ways. He reveals Himself to us when it is our time to move on, just as He showed the Israelites to move on in the wilderness.
We have a natural body and we have a spiritual body with all five senses, including metaphorical spiritual eyes and ears to understand our Lord and His spiritual language.
“It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body.” 1 Corinthians 15:44 BSB
We have a spiritual body now so we are able to understand our Lord in an ever-growing measure through the mind of Christ. He uses our spiritual eyes and ears to teach us His ways. He cannot rely on our body’s physical eyes and ears to teach us as they are of the earth, earthly, and cannot grasp spiritual things. Jesus called this “being carnal,” a limitation present with us since the fall of Adam. And consider the sense of smell:
“For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing…” 2 Corinthians 2:15 ESV
“‘But I will remove the northern army far away from you, and will drive it into a barren and desolate land, its front into the eastern sea, and its back into the western sea; and its stench will come up, and its bad smell will rise.’ Surely he has done great things.” Joel 2:20 WEB
There is the sweet smell of praise unto our God, His presence within us an aroma that others sense. There is also the stench of sin, recognized by those with spiritual senses to discern. We can taste and see that the Lord is good; we can touch the hem of His garment and be healed as many did in Jesus’ earthly ministry. God is building up the inner man of the spirit, teaching us how our spiritual senses work in His kingdom.
We have no wish to go back to our former days as He faithfully teaches us the present truth required for this time in His plan for our lives. As we walk with the Lord, and have the pleasure of getting to know Him, more is revealed to us about the meaning of His spiritual language. He continually shares further truth about the dark sayings that can only be understood by the spirit to those who seek Him.
Spiritual types and shadows, the patterns and examples used by Him, are more easily comprehended as He builds us up into Him. We go higher and higher, always seeking to be where He is. Though He is the same yesterday, today, and forever, there are varying times and seasons in the Lord’s activities in the lives of humans. His plan is ever-changing and evolving as we walk with our Lord Jesus Christ.
Jesus the Son is ruling with our same Father God whose purpose is to make us like His firstborn Son:
“His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his glory and goodness. Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.” 2 Peter 1:3-4 NIV
When Peter wrote these words, he made it clear that participation in our Lord’s divine nature was available and promised to them now. He did not say to have patience until you die and go to heaven. No, Peter said the divine power of Jesus Christ gives us everything we need to do this now. God’s promises are kept, though we wait upon the Lord for the fullness of their time to be completed in us.
When we understand more of God’s spiritual language, the entire vastness of God and the rulership of our Lord Jesus Christ begins to unfold in greater depth. God gave me a chorus years ago that calls us to ever increasing intimacy with the Lord for this purpose of growth.
Get Closer to God
Get closer to God.
Get closer to God.
Hearken to His heavenly rod.
Like Him, you’ll be
And the whole world will see.
Get closer, get closer to God.
(B. Mikelson 1982)
Closer and more intimately do we know the Father as we walk with Jesus Christ our Lord. He brings us more deeply to this precious fellowship of Father God that was lost in the Garden. He reveals that His plan is even better than we knew! He changes our understanding of revelation while working a character change in our hearts, from our earthly nature to God’s nature wherein is the kingdom of love, peace, and joy.