This Building Is Eternal: Part One
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Life is not like a box of chocolates...
a square box is only a single shape...
Life is beyond single shapes...
Life looks within...
there is more to be revealed...
revelation never ceases...
Life is eternal and infinite...
learning and understanding ceaseless.
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On hearing it, many of His disciples said, “This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?”
Aware that His disciples were grumbling about this, Yeshua said to them, “Does this offend you? Then what if you see the Son of Man ascend to where He was before! The Spirit gives Life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you—they are full of the Spirit and Life.
- John 6: 60-63Yeshua clarified that the Word's message is not always literal but something more profound.
In specific context, this response in John 6 is clarifying the surface (literal) thought that Yeshua was speaking of cannibalism.
Yeshua was speaking metaphorically (a spiritual interpretive definition) about breaking bread (communion).
He was teaching about 'work' and how the religious work is to believe in Him (and the testimony).
He was relating that He is the true Bread of Life; He is the One from Above that the believer must 'eat' and have inside them as nourishment for their soul.
This message echoes the prophetic visions of eating scrolls from the Old Covenant...and so much more.
Misunderstandings abound when people peruse the Bible (God's Word in written form).
When an understanding through metaphor (as with the scrolls being eaten) is not clearly understood, the confusion that can arise shouldn't be surprising, especially for those hostile to the message and hostile towards those who live out the message; who walk by faith and not by sight.
The religious are hostile to the righteous.
Concerning prophecy; where a single outcome is expected, a variety of outcomes have been realized.
An example of one expectation having several outcomes is the theme of immediate prophetic fulfillment and a later / distant prophetic fulfillment.
These are found in single prophetic messages throughout Isaiah and Jeremiah regarding wars, struggles, and definition of Messiah, among other themes.
When a literal rendering is reasonable, so also has a metaphorical rendering may be realized... both immediately and also in a distant future.
Patterns, seasons, time, and times.
Not an entire line or phrase or group of words should be solely interpreted to be literal (although this is evident).
Nor should an entire line or phrase or group of words be solely understood to be metaphorical (although this is evident).
Yet we have seen both literal and metaphorical found very near to each other from one word / term / phrase to the next and back again.
If God is able to do as He pleases, things beyond our limited human logic, yes, even the miraculous and improbable according to man's mind or lack of imagination as to what is possible with God, then the only limit is in relation to man and man's limited logic placed on God's abilities.
Does man's limited understanding somehow limit what God says He will do, or is able to do, or has done, or shall do in times to come?
Some men sadly think so.
But notice it is from man's ideas and opinions, not from God's Word, that such limits originate and persist.
There is a 1st century revelation attributing the Word of God as being living and active.
The varied interpretations from literal to metaphorical and back again is a reoccurring theme throughout the Bible.
This theme is also found in the prophecies regarding Messiah.
The back and forth between literal and metaphor is not fixed nor should be assumed with every single Messianic message like a mathematical formula would be fixed and repeated.
Opening the heart towards God's message.
It is this manner of messaging that draws in deeper the hearers who have been granted ears.
For example, in the Word of God 'water' is understood and interpreted as having more meanings that something a person drinks or baths in or uses to wash things.
This is why one should always consider in their hearts the interpretations of Spirit and Life taught by Yeshua.
I think all possible interpretations should be, as done by those who think beyond surface literal terms, meditated on and considered...mindful not to limit God or assume what God would or couldn't do.
So far, the only 'thing' God can not do is lie.
Why?
Because God is Light, Truth, Eternal.
For God to lie would be a cataclysmic event that would be likened to the inversion of creation (the Big Bang in reverse, falling into a dismal black hole of darkness).
In this way what has been previously revealed may allow for further understanding of God's message, thus allowing for your gift of faith - may you have it - to blossom.
With this consideration in mind and considering various literal and non-literal interpretations speaking Spirit and Life, let us now explore a message.
One literal and metaphorical and further interpretation of Messiah and His appearance on earth is seen in the following places when realizing that first-person repeated phrase:
See now that I Myself Am He!
There is no god besides Me.
I put to death and I bring to life,
I have wounded and I will heal,
and no one can deliver out of My hand.
- Deuteronomy 32: 39Throughout the 32nd chapter of Deuteronomy (and the rest of the Bible - Old and New Testaments), the manner God refers to Himself is in first-, second- and third-person.
Ancient Hebrew has no quotes as we have them and use them today.
When the storytelling narrative breaks into a God-centered and God-defining message (for example, Deuteronomy 32: 1-43 – a song of Moses), the understanding thus should not be limited to a narrative storytelling with added quotes (again, quotes were absent).
One interpretation from Deuteronomy 32: 39 being quite obvious from literal is:
God has no equal; God is in control of all things, especially life and death; only God saves.
This most ancient of understanding is acceptable and consistent as one reads the Bible.
What could be one issue is how God saves...and what people understand as salvation.
At certain times for Israel, being 'saved' was being protected from invasion.
In other manners, it was being 'saved' from sure personal death.
These are literal and physical definitions of salvation based on an expectation of human life to continue on earth.
How else can salvation be understood?
Salvation from absolute and eternal death; the prophetic message of life eternal, with God, after our flesh dies.
I know that my Redeemer lives,
and that in the end He will stand on the earth.
And after my skin has been destroyed,
yet in my flesh I will see God;
I myself will see Him
with my own eyes—I, and not another.
How my heart yearns within me!
- Job 19: 25-27Consider the literal, metaphorical and more, when rereading.
Here in Job we read a salvation theme regarding the dead body being somehow made alive, or the person somehow existing (living) after the flesh is gone.
It speaks also about 'seeing' God in certain and repetitive terms.
While Deuteronomy declares there is no other God, with God referring to Himself in the first-person, and that no other can save out of His hand, and Job speaks about an existence after the flesh comes to nothing, in Leviticus we read God revealing something further:
I will put My dwelling place among you,
and I will not abhor you.
I will walk among you and be your God,
and you will be My people.
- Leviticus 26: 11-12This can speak obviously to the Tent of Meeting, and also the Temple that Solomon eventually built in the promised land (and that Temple's rebuilding thereafter).
It says God would descend to speak with Moses in a very intimate manner (face to face), with God being 'within' a cloud at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting.
Later it speaks of God filling the Holy of holies also as a misty cloud in the Temple Solomon built.
Is there another 'Temple' God will dwell in on earth?
It also speaks when God will exist on earth in a Temple built not by human hands (neither the Tent nor the Temple building), but a Temple that God designed and built Himself.
However, the Most High does not live in houses made by human hands.
As the prophet says:
“ ‘Heaven is My throne,
and the earth is My footstool.
What kind of house will you build for Me?
says the Lord.
Or where will My resting place be?
Has not My hand made all these things?’
- Acts 7: 48-50Deuteronomy mentioned only God saves and there is none besides Him.
Job mentions how the flesh will somehow see God on earth...and live after certain death.
Leviticus mentions God will establish a dwelling place among His people.
Acts reflects upon and clarifies the prophecy that Yeshua proclaimed; the physical Temple built by man's hands will be no more, yet a certain Temple will be restored in three days after that Temple is torn down.
To be continued in Part Two
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