One of the ways in which I begin my day is to contemplate what God is like. That can morph into spiritual hallucinations. You can touch on the futility of the physical aspects. It could be intellectual. Ultimately I come to the place where I accept the clear, concise, accurate description of God is beyond my comprehension.
Think of the different ways in which you would have to put the details together to get a literal description of God. One of my favorites is that He is a big chicken. Notice this,
(Psa 91:4 KJV) He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust: his truth shall be thy shield and buckler.Feathers? Wings? I would say no one in their right mind would ever genuinely consider God to be a chicken, but then I think of some of the people I’ve met, and discussed things with, and have to back away from that statement.
What this puts me in mind of is interpreting scripture. We often come across things in the Bible that are either difficult to understand, or, to be honest, impossible for us to understand. And that speaks of prophecy. I’ve just finished reading Isaiah. There are long passages of vague references to unknown places and people that I will never be able to figure out. That is either because I can’t or I’m just too lazy. Or it’s on my bucket list and I probably won’t get to it before I die.
But let’s take some thing where we understand every word, and can even get a picture of it in our minds, but we need to try and understand what the Bible is saying. Take, for instance, the reference to a camel going through the eye of a needle.
(Mat 19:24 KJV) And again I say unto you, It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.Now you can approach this from several different ways. A person of normal intelligence and goodwill would look at that, read the context, and understand that Jesus is using hyperbole to make a point. It would be obvious that a camel cannot go through the eye of a needle. The response of the disciples makes it sound like a literal statement and makes them seem a bit slow. Jesus then goes on and explains that, yes, it is indeed impossible, but God can do anything.
You can get all that from reading but that is not good enough for some people.
To be continued...
homo unius libri
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Comments are welcome. Feel free to agree or disagree but keep it clean, courteous and short. I heard some shorthand on a podcast: TLDR, Too long, didn't read.