Astonishing Sparks: Biblical Mysteries Revealed

Author

Forward

In these pages I share and explain insights into biblical mysteries, a word used by both Jesus Christ and the Apostle Paul in the New Testament. I begin with methods of biblical interpretation, including how to rightly divide the Scriptures, then I proceed to reveal insights into a number of perplexing biblical mysteries. In doing so, I use both historical fiction and autobiographical approaches to help the ideas come alive.

The Apostle Paul wrote that "a natural man does not accept the things of the spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised (I Corinthians. 2:14)¹ Consequently, I seek to explain how to search the Scriptures wisely, beginning with some simple methods that help uncover the spiritual depths of the Words of God, not just their literal meanings.

With this foundation, I then lead the reader through a number of lessons necessary for seeing in the Spirit, seeking foremost to define what Jesus Christ, the Apostle Paul, and others meant by this term mystery, a word often used to describe the secrets that God desires to reveal to us: But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, a wisdom which is hidden (I Corinthians 2:7).

While my training is in teaching, not theology, my expertise in language and literature qualifies me to help others find fresh insights and uncover current misreadings and even false teachings that may lead them astray.

Since a reliance on the Holy Spirit for true discernment forms the foundation for true spiritual growth, believers must not simply assume meanings based on tradition, common knowledge, worldly wisdom, or the words of those who may even be false teachers in disguise.

I began my career in 1971, as a Secondary English Teacher, and later as a Professor of Literature and English at the undergraduate and graduate levels. Thus, I have devoted most of my life to helping students understand literary texts. Also, as a pastor and Bible teacher, I have endeavored to show Christian believers how to hear from the Holy Spirit and learn from the Scriptures.

¹ All biblical texts are taken from the New American Standard Bible, unless otherwise noted.

Introduction: Seeing Beyond the Literal

My Dream

I recently had a dream, the quickest dream I have ever experienced--only a moment in time! I was looking into the darkness, when suddenly a bright, electric spark flashed in front of my eyes. It was like being inches away from an exploding firecracker.

I awoke so quickly that I was both fearful and astonished. It was an hour before I was able to go back to sleep, and it was weeks before I received a revelation on what the dream meant.

At the time, I was preparing my manuscript for publishing, and I later realized that the dream’s meaning concerned the book’s possible receptions by its readers.

Many readers will be shocked at this book’s content, for the revelations and insights about the Scriptures might contradict some of the teachings they may have received. Other readers will be delighted with what they find in the book, for the insights into the mysteries of the Word will suddenly be visible, and power will be the result, the power we Christians need to live, and move, and have our being in the Lord.

It is my strongest hope that even though you may be shocked when reading some portions of this book, you will give these insights a hearing before dismissing them. If you do, I believe you will find that many of the enigmas and confusing texts in God’s Word will become more clear and powerful in your life. Once you see into these mysteries, they will give you the faith and inspiration you need to move more powerfully in the realm of the Holy Spirit, as He fulfills His role as the Teacher in your life.

Magic Eye Pictures

As a literature professor, I often referred my students to stereograms, often called Magic Eye Pictures. These pictures were very popular several decades ago during the 1990s, but many people may have not heard of them today.

Briefly looking at the pictures will show arrangements of shapes and colors that merely seem like beautiful patterns, but nothing more. However, by using a special visual technique, one may suddenly see another image emerge that is no longer two-dimensional. Instead, a three-dimensional image may appear from the designs, perhaps of a shark or a pirate ship, for example. (See descriptions and examples at this website: http://www.magiceye.com.)

Students who view these images three dimensionally always react with delight and enthusiasm, much like seeing a 3-D film for the first time. In many ways, the new vision parallels a seeker’s delight in suddenly being enlightened, for quite often joy is the result.

My goal in these classes was to show my students how a story or a poem may actually seem to be nothing more than black marks on white pages to unperceptive readers. All too often, students find themselves reading whole paragraphs or pages and not even remembering what they have read. How many times this happened to me while I was preparing for an examination, only to have to go back and reread whole paragraphs or pages!

However, the best poems and stories will emerge as a multi-dimensional image in the reader’s imagination. Eventually, multiple images may appear, along with great depths of meaning.

Also, by both reading and meditating on the Word of God, we may become so absorbed in the meaning of the words that we are no longer aware of the letters on the page (see Psalms 1). The verses we are reading suddenly become multi-dimensional, and we experience the delight of hearing personally from the Holy Spirit, filled with joy at the revelations we receive.

Part I

Seeing Beyond the Literal

Chapter One: New Criticism

Finding Meanings

When I began my studies in English Literature in the late 1960s, such literary approaches as Freudian criticism, Marxist criticism, historical criticism, or philosophical criticism were not necessarily favored overall in my college classes. Instead, the favored method of textual interpretation was called formalism, or New Criticism, proposed by I.A. Richards in the 1920s.

New Critical methods focused on discovering the author’s intentions through a close reading, while looking at the uses of figurative language or other expository techniques, ultimately seeking to determine what the author’s purpose was and what he or she wanted the reading audience to learn or discover. This method involved analyzing a poem, novel, or short story based on the writer’s techniques, without bringing in a lot of background information about the author’s life, the history of the time, or the beliefs and values of the culture at the time.

As students, our goal was to analyze each text based on the text alone as much as possible, discovering an ironic tone, for example, or the imagery patterns the author may have developed. We also analyzed the work’s setting, characters, and the author’s overall point of view and tried to discover what the author’s message was in the text.

When I entered my doctoral program of study over twenty years later, I learned that the world of literary criticism and study had changed drastically, for the ideas of Jacques Derrida, labeled Deconstruction, had overturned the world of literary criticism. This new method was nearly antithetical to New Criticism, for it essentially denied the possibility of any work of writing from having an inherent meaning. Given the abstract nature of human language and thought, discovering innate meanings was considered impossible.

I’ll never forget how one published article I read in class essentially said that the meaning of a text changes the moment it is written down, and it continues to change with every new person’s reading of that text. This idea was stunning to me, for I asked myself, Why read anything, then?

After entering my doctoral studies program twenty years later, one of the first essays I wrote for my PhD classes concerned the imagery patterns in a particular novel we were analyzing. I focused on similar passages in the novel that used the same types of images (similes, metaphors), so I quoted the texts at length, completing a thorough study of the novel using a New Criticism approach.

I was stunned when I received my graded paper back. My grade wasn’t the usual top of the ladder mark I was used to getting, and my professor simply wrote in explanation, So what? In other words, he was saying, You have uncovered an imagery pattern, but in itself it means nothing. What can you add to our understanding of the biases of the author, or the prejudices of the intended audience?

I wasn’t used to having to explain necessarily how imagery patterns connected to a text’s meaning, so I definitely had to readjust my thinking when approaching a work of literature if I wanted to succeed in getting my PhD degree.

The Scriptures

The New Critical approach I learned as an undergraduate was very appropriate for studying the Scriptures, however, for I had learned to recognize the truth resident in the words themselves, understanding that the truth was both infallible and meaningful, for that was God’s purpose. I had found that a Deconstruction approach, however, was futile, for it declared itself to result in meaningless meanings from a text that was itself meaningless.

However, I believed that the words of the Scriptures had true meanings, and they could be not only understood but also life changing if received by faith.

Biblical New Criticism?

Analyzing the ideas found in the Scriptures is not always easy, for we live in a different age and culture today than when they were written. Nor are we familiar with the writing strategies prominent in the Scriptures and finding them is often difficult.

For example, the use of an ironic tone in the Bible is not always apparent, and if it is used, it is often difficult to discern. However, we may discover fairly easily that Elijah is being very ironic when he says, Call out with a loud voice, for he is a god; either he is occupied or gone (I Kings 18:27).

If you will recall, Elijah had set up a test for the 450 prophets of Baal. He challenged them to offer an ox as sacrifice; however, they were not to start a fire, but instead were to challenge Baal himself to burn the sacrifice on his altar. The prophets took up Elijah’s challenge:

So they cried with a loud voice and cut themselves according to their custom with swords and lances until the blood gushed out on them. When midday was past, they raved until the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice; but there was no voice, no one answered, and no one paid attention. (I Kings 18:28-29) When no fire appeared, Elijah was moved to speak words of ironic ridicule, saying, Perhaps he is asleep and needs to be awakened.

Elijah then showed how God was strong on His own behalf. He had the Lord’s altar rebuilt with a trench around it, and then he had four pitchers of water poured over the ox, not once but three times, until the water filled the trench also. When he prayed for God to reveal Himself, the fire appeared miraculously:

Then the fire of the Lord fell and consumed the burnt offering and the wood and the stones and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench. When all the people saw it, they fell on their faces; and they said, The Lord, He is God; the Lord, He is God. (I Kings 18:38-39)

Thus, the prophets of Baal are ridiculed not only by Elijah, but also by Yahweh Himself.

Double Meanings

One university freshman literature class I had was reading an essay from our text that was written in a highly ironic tone. The author essentially was saying that medical personnel should not be required by law to hold to their Hippocratic Oath, for they should not be required to treat patients with extremely communicable diseases such as AIDS.

Several students wrote their analysis of this essay agreeing with the author, not realizing that he was using an extremely ironic tone in his essay. In essence, his intentions were entirely the opposite of what his words seemed to be saying.

After studying this lack of recognition in students further, I learned that the cognitive abilities of most young people do not completely function until well after their teens when their pre-frontal brain lobes have fully developed.

Thus, college freshmen by and large are unaware of the many nuances of tone in language and in writing particularly. I found I had to demonstrate verbally, using exaggerated tones of voice, to show the difference between the many different messages that might be communicated in writing just by altering the tone in my voice.

Is There Ever Irony in the Scriptures?

This kind of ironic double meaning is apparent in the description God gave to Isaiah in the following passage:

Make the mind of this people dull, and stop their ears, and shut their eyes, so that they may not look with their eyes, and listen with their ears, and comprehend with their minds, and turn and be healed. (Is 6:10)

Why would God not want people to hear, or see, or understand the prophet? Why wouldn’t He want the people to be healed? Jesus essentially said the same thing after telling His Parable of the Sower:

To you has been given the mystery of the kingdom of God, but those who are outside get everything in parables, so that while seeing, they may see and not perceive, and while hearing, they may hear and not understand, otherwise they might return and be forgiven. (Mark 4:11)

In other words, an obstinate people may hear the words, but they will not receive the message for which they will then be held accountable. Is God being cruel to these people? No, He ultimately is being kind.

Finding Patterns

In a similar way, I learned that finding patterns in the Scriptures was helpful in understanding what the authors, and hence the Holy Spirit, intended. While reading through Paul’s second letter to the Church at Corinth, for example, I found some significant passages in the fourth and tenth chapters that seemed interrelated, especially after I was able to discern the similarities in their contexts and meanings.

Read through the following passages carefully to see if you also can find the similar meanings:

But our adequacy is from God, who also made us adequate as servants of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. (II Corinthians 3:5-6)

And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, in whose case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. (II Corinthians 4:3-4)

But having the same spirit of faith, according to what is written, I believed, therefore I spoke, we also believe, therefore we also speak, knowing that He who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and will present us with you. (II Corinthians 4:13-14)

Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day. For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal. (II Corinthians 4:13-18)

I ask that when I am present I need not be bold with the confidence with which I propose to be courageous against some, who regard us as if we walked according to the flesh. For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh, for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses. (II Corinthians 10:2-4)

You are looking at things as they are outwardly. If anyone is confident in himself that he is Christ’s, let him consider this again within himself, that just as he is Christ’s, so also are we. (II Corinthians 10:7-11)

Finding the common themes in these passages may be difficult, at least at first, but read them through several times slowly, while thinking about what the Lord is telling us through the Apostle Paul.

Take note of the following extractions from these passages, for they may help you to find the common themes:

…not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

…if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing…so that they might not see the light of the gospel

…having the same spirit of faith, according to what is written, "I believed, therefore I spoke,

…while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.

For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh.

You are looking at things as they are outwardly.

Combining these ideas together, we find that we Christians are contending in a daily struggle, or a kind of warfare, against two competing realms. The conflict is between the realm of the flesh and the realm of the spirit, between what is seen as opposed to what is unseen, the outward appearance versus the unseen inner reality, between faith fighting against unbelief, and what is veiled in darkness against what is seen in the light.

Clearly, the Apostle Paul wants to teach us about walking in the Spirit according to the Word of God, not looking to outward appearances or moving according to the flesh, but being guided by the unseen presence of the mighty God and taking our guidance from Him.

Chapter Two: Searching the Scriptures

Healing Water

In an early chapter of John’s Gospel, Jesus contends with the Jews who were seeking to kill him because he had healed a man on the Sabbath Day, a man who had been ill for 38 years.

The paralytic man was seeking healing at the pool near the sheep gate, called Bethesda in Hebrew, yet he had no one to carry him into the water where he believed he would receive healing. According to legend, if he could only be first into the water, an angel would stir the pool, and the man believed he would be healed.

If you will recall, Jesus sent a blind man to a similar pool for healing, the Pool of Siloam, which is also in Jerusalem (John 9:1-11). Jesus had mixed his own saliva with dirt and covered the man’s eyes, then commanded him to go and wash. Yet in this earlier case at Bethsaida (John 5:1-9), Jesus doesn’t assist the man into the water. Instead, he tells him simply to get up from the ground, pick up his bed, and walk.

Immediately, the man became well, but since the healing had occurred on the Sabbath Day, the Jews were critical of the man for carrying his bed on the holy day. When asked who had told him to carry his bed, the healed man replied that the man who had healed him had also told him to take up his bed. When asked who had healed him, the man replied that he did not know who his healer was.

Later, the healed man met Jesus in the temple, and Jesus exhorted him to live a sinless life. The man subsequently reported to the Jews that it was Jesus who had healed him. Therefore, after confronting Jesus, the Jews began seeking to kill Him, not only because their mistaken perspective led them to believe that Jesus was breaking the Sabbath by healing the man at the pool, but also that Jesus had led the man to break the Sabbath by telling him to carry his bed. Ultimately, they accused Jesus of referring to God as His own Father, thus making Himself equal with God.

Jesus’ response to these men was especially significant, for it provides insights into the uses of the Scriptures in our own lives.

What Does This Passage Reveal?

Clearly, the Scriptures alone did not bring life to the Jews who were confronting Jesus, for he tells them, You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; it is these that testify about me; and you are unwilling to come to Me so that you may have life (John 5:39-40).

Therefore, the Scriptures alone do not bring us life or healing. In themselves, even the very Words of God are