Understanding the Bible / Scriptures

[0:00] All right, we'll get started. How's everybody doing? Did I hear a grumpy sound somewhere? This has been a big weekend.

[0:18] Sounds like it's a little too hot. A big weekend for us. We had a big theater production. And so we've been up late the last couple of nights.

[0:36] We had the Amy Carmichael production at the Murphy Theater in Wilmington. And a few of you were there. We really appreciate you coming out. But it was a lot of work and, you know, kind of, especially the last week, right?

[0:52] Everybody's making sure they learn their lines and they've got all their parts right. And there was only one day beforehand to actually practice at the theater that we went to.

[1:04] And so everybody's got to make sure they're in the right spots and all that kind of thing. So a lot of times after one of those big productions, everybody kind of crashes, you know, the next day. So if you see some of my kids look a little weary, that's why.

[1:20] Well, we've been on the topic of understanding Scripture, keys to understanding Scripture or understanding the Bible.

[1:33] And the first week we talked about attitude, kind of our approach to Scripture. If you don't have the right attitude towards Scripture, you're not going to learn anything. If you don't approach the Scripture with kind of a focus on understanding it, if you think you can't understand the Bible, you won't really, right?

[1:53] And then last week we did an overview of the whole Bible. Did anybody think, is he really going to be able to get through the whole Bible in 45 minutes? But we did it. It was a quick overview.

[2:06] But understanding the whole overview of the Bible really helps to understand when you get into the details. And so, you know, some people, they jump right into the details and they don't really understand the big picture of what's going on.

[2:19] And so it just gets really confusing. What I want to do today, it's going to be really fun, and we might actually take a couple of weeks to do this. We'll see how long it takes. But we're going to talk about language.

[2:34] And the way that God communicates to us is through the Scripture, and even throughout history, has been through language. Is language the only way?

[2:45] Like, we think of language as usually written language and then spoken, oral. But we also have things like, is there any other types of language you can think of?

[2:59] Sign language, right? And also people talk about, you know, body language, right? People express things, communicate things with, you know, how they move or how they posture themselves.

[3:13] So language is not just written or oral, but that is the primary way in which God has spoken out through the ages. And the Bible talks about prophets of old who spoke the words that God gave them, and then those words were written down for us.

[3:31] One of the interesting things about language is that language is an art. It's not like a mathematical science. And it's something that actually makes language beautiful and expressive.

[3:49] You know, you don't usually find poetry in a mathematical textbook. But there are certain types of poetry that are mathematical, right?

[4:01] That have mathematical rules to them. What's a haiku? Haiku has to have, I forget what the rules are. But you've got to have a certain number of this and that.

[4:15] But today we're going to talk about figures of speech. Figures of speech, and that's one of the things, especially in language, and it's universal. Figures of speech are found in every single language on the planet, you know, as far as we know anyway.

[4:30] And figures of speech are used to be expressive. We use figures of speech probably more than we think or even imagine.

[4:43] We use figures of speech probably hundreds, maybe even thousands of times a day. We use figures of speech. And we use them fairly effortlessly.

[4:55] It's not something that we think about. It's not something that we weigh and consider, oh, should I use this figure in my expression? We just use them. And, you know, it's a fun exercise in thinking about figures of speech and how often we use them.

[5:16] If you just sit down and listen to somebody else, maybe listen to two other people talking, and just try to count all the figures of speech, you might be shocked at just how often we use figures.

[5:30] So what is a figure of speech anyway? A figure of speech is just using words outside of their literal or typical meaning in order to communicate an idea in a special or unique way.

[5:47] So figures are a non-literal use of language, but they're used to be expressive.

[5:59] So some figures of speech will actually overlap between languages and even cultures. You might recognize a figure of speech in a different language or in a different culture.

[6:15] But then there's lots of other examples where they don't overlap, where someone in a different language has a figure of speech that you've never heard before. And it's actually a real, that's one of the most difficult things in learning a new language, is figures of speech.

[6:33] How many of you have ever learned a new language before? I think most of us. It was required when I was in school. Change that to how many of you have ever tried? How many of you have attempted?

[6:44] There we go. That's attempted a new language. Language. Languages are difficult, but typically, you know, a lot of it is memorization, right? You just memorize what the vocabulary is and that kind of thing.

[6:56] But, and if you're learning through a textbook, you know, you can kind of work through it. But then you try to communicate with an actual native speaker, and it becomes so much more complicated and so much more difficult.

[7:10] You learned all these things in a book. You learned all the vocabulary. The words, you, a lot of times, maybe even you understand all the words, but then how they're put together, it can be very confusing.

[7:22] And one of the things that is the most confusing, most difficult part of learning any language is the figures of speech. I spent time in Vietnam as a missionary, and one of the things that I did there to try to support myself was I taught English.

[7:36] And I taught English to little ones, like elementary school age, all the way up to adult. And figures of speech was one of the most fascinating aspects of the teaching process and then also just trying to communicate.

[7:52] One of the interesting, I remember talking about this with the pastor's wife that was there, and we were talking about these funny figures of speech. Because so many times I'm talking, and somebody would look at me sideways like, and they said, what do you mean by that?

[8:07] And so I'd have to explain some kind of figure of speech. And this lady, I call her my Vietnamese mom, because we became pretty close.

[8:19] She actually came out to Ohio just a few months ago. I hadn't seen her in almost 20 years. But she said there's this figure of speech that if you translate it literally, it means no star wear.

[8:38] No star wear. What in the world does that mean? That makes no sense to us. But to somebody who's Vietnamese, it just means no problem. Well, how does that mean no problem?

[8:50] I have no idea. But they all understand it. So you can understand each of the individual words, but if you don't understand the figures, you're going to be lost.

[9:01] Even with children, right, learning their own native language, figures of speech take the most time. How many of you, if we've had children, right, and they may be fluent, right, already, but so many questions come up.

[9:18] Dad, what do you mean by that? Right? There's a great book, or a series of books, that even I grew up with. Has anybody ever heard of the Amelia Bedelia books?

[9:31] Anybody? Okay. And Amelia Bedelia, these are just hilarious books. But they take this concept of figures of speech, and they just, you know, make, there's lots of humor, right, that can come from figures of speech.

[9:46] And Amelia Bedelia is the kind of person that just doesn't get the figures. She takes everything woodenly literally. And so just opening up to a single page, Amelia Bedelia, said Nurse Ames, you're a sight for sore eyes.

[10:06] How terrible, said Amelia Bedelia. I'm sorry that your eyes hurt. My eyes are fine, said Nurse Ames, but I'm up to my eyeballs in patience.

[10:17] Dr. Horton had to visit the hospital. Would you give me a hand until she gets back? No, said Amelia Bedelia. Both my hands are attached to me, but I'd be glad to help you.

[10:30] So, you know, you could just go on and on and on, and there are multiple books that kind of take this, right, and there's so much humor involved. Another thing is that figures of speech, even in the same language or the same culture, can change over time, right?

[10:50] So that there are figures of speech used today that were not used 50 years ago. And sometimes, right, if you haven't kept up with the times, you might hear something and say, huh?

[11:02] There are, this is actually used to quite an effect in a lot of these time travel movies, if you've ever seen any. I think back years ago, I watched the Back to the Future movie.

[11:14] And the main character, Marty McFly, he goes back in time, and he's talking to his, like, mentor, Doc.

[11:25] And he keeps using language, and, you know, of the modern day. I think the modern day then was the 80s, right? But he went back to, like, the 50s, and he kept using the language, and the Doc kept looking at him like, what do you mean by that?

[11:39] And I remember one, he says, whoa, Doc, that's heavy. And Doc says, is there, like, something in the future where there's an extra gravitational pull or something like that?

[11:53] So he didn't get that figure of speech. Another one, we just watched a movie called, was it called Timeline? Is that the name of it? Where they go back to, like, the 14 or 1500s or something, France.

[12:06] And there's a guy, and he meets a girl from that era. And they're, like, escaping the bad guys or something, and it's just the two of them.

[12:19] And, you know, she's a pretty girl, and he's trying to find out more about her, and specifically he wants to know, you know, are you married? Are you single? But, you know, being kind of more of a gentleman, he doesn't want to just ask her outright.

[12:35] So he just kind of tries to do it in a roundabout way. And he says to her, are you seeing anyone? And she looks at him. She says, I'm looking at you.

[12:46] And so, you know, these are figures of speech that we use all the time, but we don't even think about them a lot of times.

[12:58] But when you're outside of your own culture or outside of your own time or outside of your own language, they become much more apparent. So if figures of speech are so difficult, why do we use them?

[13:14] And I think figures of speech are used to prevent life from being dull, right? They make life and language more interesting.

[13:29] It adds beauty and charm, sometimes emphasis, to the things that we're trying to communicate. And so if we try, and maybe do this as an exercise, and I'll throw this out to my kids too, try spending like an hour and communicate without using any figures of speech.

[13:49] And just, you know, see how it goes. And you'll find that it's actually very difficult to communicate without using figures of speech. They're so important. Language is an art form, like I said before.

[14:02] And God is an artist. And he created us to be artists like him. And so language is just one way. You know, we have poetry, right? We consider that an art form.

[14:14] But even just regular language, outside of formal type of things like poetry, is an art form. When we speak to one another, we're using an art form. And if we're to understand the Bible, do you think the Bible has any figures of speech in it?

[14:31] Sure. And you might think, well, I think a lot of people approach the Bible more like a mathematical textbook. And they think, well, you know, you've got to map all the words exactly.

[14:42] And this is actually one of the difficulties with translating the Bible, is things like figures of speech. Because language is an art. And so it's not, translation isn't like a one-to-one mapping of words and things.

[14:55] If you actually, there are certain translations, and you might actually get into translations in a few weeks, but certain translations that are meant to be woodenly literal, but they're actually very difficult to read.

[15:06] They're useful for reference and study and things like that. But if you go to like, for example, Young's literal translation of the Bible is meant to just be word for word, almost, of the original languages.

[15:17] And it's great for reference, but if you are just going to read that every morning, it's going to be tough cookies getting through it. So what we're going to do is we're going to do some grammar lessons and apply them to the Bible and see if these figures of speech, these types of figures that we use in our own language, if we can find them in the Bible.

[15:44] And it will help us to understand some of the details. So the first one, do we have a marker thing? Oh, that'd be great.

[15:59] Yeah. Ron, are you going to go see if there's a dry erase? So the first one that we'll look at is a metaphor. By the way, do we have any grammar teachers in the room?

[16:15] All right, good. So if I mess things up, nobody's going to... But, so the first one is a metaphor. And a metaphor is just an implied comparison between two things that are not the same.

[16:35] All right, we'll write it down. Metaphor. Whoa. Oh boy, am I spelling it right?

[16:45] No. No. No. No. All right. Oh boy.

[16:59] All right. So it's an applied comparison. It's when you compare things in your speech. Some examples in English.

[17:13] Laughter is the best medicine. Laughter is the best medicine. It's a comparison between, you know, with medicine is like laughter.

[17:26] They're similar. Laughter kind of works in the same way that medicine does. He's a late bloomer. He's a late bloomer.

[17:37] And what does that mean? You know, somebody who's, you know, late in maturing, either physically or maybe even emotionally or psychologically or mentally or whatever.

[17:51] But what blooms? Do people bloom? No, actually, plants bloom. Flowers bloom. But we're comparing. No man is an island right unto himself.

[18:03] We use that as a phrase to compare a person to an individual thing like an island. This is one we just talked about. That's heavy.

[18:13] That's heavy. We're using language that we might use about lifting things to how we might feel about something, right? In fact, I've been using this at work a lot, talking about the amount of work some kind of project might take.

[18:29] And so we'll say, well, man, if we did that, that would be a really heavy lift. You know, I just used that in the last week. We might say, oh, we've been living in a bubble for the last five years.

[18:43] You know, if you kind of live in a close-knit community and you're not experiencing the outside world in some way, you're living in a bubble. Or he's the black sheep of the family. You know, well, what does that mean?

[18:54] Somebody might, you know, if you're not, if you're not familiar with that, what does that mean, the black sheep? Or there's even songs. You are the wind beneath my wings.

[19:07] Anybody know that song? Bette Midler, I think. Did she write that? But how can a, a person's not wind, right? And I don't have wings.

[19:19] But we're just doing a comparison here, right? So are there examples of metaphors in the Bible? Anybody got their Bibles with them? Let's open up and look. So, first one we'll look at is 1 John 4.8.

[19:42] 1 John 4.8. He who does not love does not know God.

[19:55] For God is love. God is love. And that's a metaphor, isn't it? But, people could be confused and there are people who are more on the mystical type spectrum, I might say, who actually try to take these things more literally.

[20:19] you know, when you love, that's the divine or something like that. When you're loving your neighbor, when you're loving a child, that is the divine.

[20:31] Even that might be a figure, but some people think of that actually more literally. They think, well, God's not a person. God is just like all the love that's around us. But is that true? It's not true at all.

[20:43] It's not literally true that God is love. That's a metaphor that God is loving.

[20:54] That's what that means. And that really he is the epitome of love. He is the one that demonstrates the love that, you know, we might have in our own lives. He's the most loving being that we know.

[21:08] So God is love. That's a metaphor. Just, let's go back to chapter one, or yeah, chapter one of 1 John. And it says this in verse five.

[21:22] This is the message which we have heard from him and declare to you that God is light and in him is no darkness at all. Another one, God is love and God is light.

[21:36] But is God the photons, right, that we can, you know, measure their, try to measure their speed and analyze with these, you know, like the double slit experiment and is light a wave or is it a particle?

[21:49] That's the big question. It's both. It acts like both. So what is light anyway? God is light. But is God photons? And again, some people who might kind of take a more mystical view would say when you see light that is God.

[22:05] But that's not true. God isn't light. He's the creator of light. But he is light in that God God is truth, right?

[22:17] In fact, there's a famous quote by C.S. Lewis. Can somebody in my family, I think, is it Shiloh? Did you have this quote? What is the quote from C.S. Lewis? I think the one you're thinking about is I believe in God like I believe in the Son, not because I can see the Son.

[22:34] But because by it I can see everything else. Yes, that's so good. So C.S. Lewis, I think, said this. I believe in God like I believe in the Son. Not because, say, what is it again?

[22:46] Not because I can see the Son, but because by the Son I can see everything else. Right? The Son, the light. Light is what allows us, it reveals everything.

[22:58] It reveals it. And God is like that. He reveals everything. Everything is apparent because of God. He is the one that shines light on everything. He is truth.

[23:11] In fact, the Bible says He is the way, He is the truth, and He is the life. Right? Okay, a few more.

[23:22] And this is where we get into some, you know, some differences, denominational differences. Let's look at Matthew chapter 26. Matthew 26, 26.

[23:52] So this is the Lord's Supper. And Jesus said in verse 26, And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and He blessed it, and He broke it, and He gave it to His disciples. And He said, Take and eat.

[24:06] This is my body. And that's, if you take that literally, right, woodenly literally, He's saying, this bread that I broke, this is my actual flesh.

[24:19] And so there are doctrines today, in the Catholic Church specifically, but also some Lutherans, and maybe some others that I'm not aware of, that teach that when we, as Christians, take the Lord's Supper, that it actually transforms to be literally the body, and then the wine or the juice literally becomes the blood.

[24:44] Because He says, the next verse, Then He took the cup and gave thanks and gave it to them, saying, Drink from this, all of you, for this is my blood of the new covenant.

[24:56] So He said, The bread is my body. The wine is my blood. And if you take that woodenly literally, that's what that means. It is His blood.

[25:06] But is that what Jesus meant to communicate? Or was He using a figure for emphasis? That's what He was doing. He was saying, This represents my body.

[25:19] This represents my blood. And it's a picture for you to understand what I'm accomplishing, what I'm doing. That my body is being broken, just like you would break bread.

[25:30] My blood is being poured out, just like you would drink from a cup. And that's a metaphor. But people have taken these things, and they've said, Well, we're going to make them actually literal and create a big doctrine about it.

[25:48] So my dad grew up in the Lutheran church. And I remember, as a kid, going to visit my grandparents' Lutheran church. And they would do the, pass out the elements for the Lord's Supper.

[26:00] And my grandmother told me, she said, Just so you know, we believe that when you drink from the juice and the wine, it actually becomes the blood of Christ.

[26:15] And I was shocked. I had never heard any type of thing like that in my life. I was like, okay. And so, that's a, you know, especially with the Catholics, and then among some of the Lutherans, I don't think it's all of the Lutherans, believe that.

[26:34] It's a common doctrine. John 653, that might just be a, I know, that can't be the Lord's Supper because that's too early.

[26:47] And so let me see what this reference is. John 653. Oh yeah, this is when, when Jesus was talking to, to his disciples and many walked away.

[27:05] We'll start with verse 52. The Jews therefore quarreled among themselves saying, How can this man give his, give us, give us his flesh to eat? Oh, so let's, I guess go back to verse 51.

[27:19] I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever and the bread that I give is my flesh which I shall give for the life of the world.

[27:30] And so the Jews, they quarreled among themselves saying, How can this man give us his flesh to eat? You know, they were, they were acting like Amelia Bedelia, right? They're like, this is, this is a figure, this is a metaphor.

[27:44] Then Jesus said to them, Most assuredly, I say to you, then unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no, life in you. And did he explain the metaphor?

[27:57] He didn't. You know, Jesus did explain figures in the Bible, but in this case, he didn't because he wanted to give enough room for them to kind of be confused.

[28:08] He's like, well, if you guys want to be confused, I'll let you be confused. And Jesus did that on multiple occasions. But it's a metaphor. Partaking of Jesus' flesh, you know, as far as eating and drinking and his blood, is saying, hey, we need to join ourselves with him.

[28:29] We need to partake of the sacrifice that he provided for us. So those are metaphors. Nathan? Yeah? There is even another dimension to this with the Roman Catholic in that it isn't until the priest consecrates the oponates.

[28:54] Okay. Before that, they are just juice or wine and bread, literally. but when the priest with his special authority which they believe the priest has Right.

[29:08] prays over those and consecrates the elements, they literally, mysteriously, are transferred into the actual blood and the actual body of Christ.

[29:25] So, that of course necessitates the presence of the priest and his ability to do that. So, until then, it's just regular bread and regular wine.

[29:38] But when he consecrates it and we look at that and say, how can you believe that? Yeah. And the answer is, you take it by faith.

[29:50] Take it by faith, yeah. We believe it and that's what makes it real. Right. It's amazing but it's a mainstay of Catholicism. Yeah. So, if you couldn't hear what Pastor Marr was saying was that the bread and the communion wine are not indicated as becoming the flesh and the blood of Christ until the priest consecrates it and at that point it's believed to change.

[30:16] That's a doctrine called transubstantiation and still looks like wine still tastes like wine. Right. And if you put it under a microscope and looked that's what you would see.

[30:27] But they take it by faith. If you can't believe that it's only because you don't have enough faith. That's right. So, we're going to so those are metaphors.

[30:39] The next one we're going to look at is something called an idiom. Did I spell that one right? Okay.

[30:52] So, what's an idiom? The idiom is kind of one of the more looser types of figures of speech. It's a word or a phrase with a figurative meaning separate from the literal meaning. Well, that's any figure of speech.

[31:02] Many times the meaning of the idiom cannot be discerned just by knowing the word's definition. So, just a few examples. You just need to bite the bullet.

[31:15] We've all heard that, right? What does that mean? Take it like a man. Suck it up. Suck it up, yeah.

[31:26] You know, it's like, well, how do you explain it? We end up using more figures to explain it, don't we? Because they're just ideas that are hard to communicate and just don't mean quite the same thing if we just use literal language.

[31:40] Grin and bear it. Grin and bear it. Stop beating around the bush. Stop beating around the bush. You know, some people, they just can't get to the point, right?

[31:52] And so, even that's a figure of speech, right? Getting to the point. It's just, it's sometimes comical how hard it is to speak literally. Good ideas are a dime a dozen.

[32:05] You know, anybody can come up with a good idea. They're a dime a dozen. They're cheap. And one that we actually use, and this would confuse a lot of people if you're not in the culture, you say, well, good luck.

[32:17] Go break a leg. Like, that means almost the opposite, right, of what you intend to, the meaning is the opposite of what you're actually literally saying. We don't want anybody to actually break a leg, but we're actually saying, do a good job.

[32:30] and usually in a theater context or a performance context. So, some idioms in the Bible. Exodus 3.8. Exodus 3.8.

[32:58] So, I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up from that land to a good and large land, to a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites and the Hittites and the Amorites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites.

[33:15] A land flowing with milk and honey. Did honey actually flow in the land of Canaan? I mean, I'm sure they found some, right? And was there milk there?

[33:27] Sure. But was it flowing? Was the milk and the honey flowing? Were there rivers of honey and milk? No, not literally. But can you imagine if the Bible left that out?

[33:38] God promised to the Israelites, I'm going to give you a good and a large land. Period. I mean, that would be something. That would communicate something.

[33:48] But to add on top of that to a land flowing with milk and honey, that just adds so much more to what God is trying to communicate, doesn't it?

[33:59] It adds so much more. All right. Genesis 24. We'll kind of try to go through here in the Old Testament. Genesis 24, 60. Genesis 24, 60. Genesis 24, 60. Genesis 24, 60.

[34:13] Genesis 24, 60. Genesis 24, 60. Genesis 24, 60. Genesis 24, 60. Genesis 24, 60. Genesis 24, 60. Genesis 24, 60. Genesis 24, 60. Genesis 24, 60. Genesis 24, 60. Genesis 24, 60. This is a blessing for Rebecca when she's getting married.

[34:32] And they blessed Rebecca. I think this is her sisters. Anyway, her family. And they said to her, Our sister, may you become the mother of thousands of ten thousands. Now even that right there is a figure of siege.

[34:45] It's a different kind. We'll get to that later. The mother of thousands of ten thousands. And may your descendants possess the gates of those who hate them.

[34:58] So, may your descendants possess the gates. Does that mean that she wants the descendants to go grab all the gates from all the cities? Take them home? No, but what does possess the gates mean?

[35:09] It means to overcome. To overcome them in battle. Possess the gates. That's a figure of speech. It's an idiom. Exodus 15, 25.

[35:21] Probably should have just stayed in Exodus so we don't flip around so much. But Exodus 15, 25. This is... This is verse 24.

[35:39] And the people complained against Moses saying, What shall we drink? They were thirsty in the wilderness. So, he cried out to the Lord and the Lord showed him a tree.

[35:57] And when he cast it into the water, the waters were made sweet. Actually, sorry, let me go back to verse 23. When they came to Marah, they could not drink the waters of Marah for they were bitter. Therefore, the name of it was called Marah, which means bitter.

[36:11] And the people complained against Moses saying, What shall we drink? So, he cried out to the Lord and the Lord showed him a tree. When he cast it into the waters, the waters were made sweet. There he made a statute and an ordinance for them and there he tested them.

[36:24] So, bitter waters and sweet waters. So, did, you know, did the water taste like, I don't know, what's bitter? What's a bitter herb? Coffee. Coffee?

[36:36] Cinnamon? Well, the water's actually bitter and did the waters become sweet? Did it taste like Gatorade or Coca-Cola? No, but bitter and sweet are just idioms that indicate that it was unclean water, water that's not drinkable.

[36:55] We'd say unpotable, even. It's a more scientific word. Potable water versus unpotable water. So, and through this miracle it was made clean. It was made sweet water, water that's drinkable.

[37:10] Deuteronomy 20, verse 8. Let's see.

[37:40] The officer shall speak further to the people and say, what man is there who is fearful and faint-hearted? Let him go and return to his house, lest the heart of his brethren faint like his heart.

[37:55] You know, I must have been reading, does anybody have a King James? Could somebody read the King James of that? And the officer shall speak further unto the people and they shall say, what man is there that is fearful and faint-hearted?

[38:10] Let him go and return unto his house, lest his brethren's heart faint as well as his heart. Okay. Well, faint-hearted, that is a figure.

[38:23] But, that's what I was looking for. So could you read that? I'll just read the last. Sure, just read. Let him depart and return to his house so that he might not make his brother's heart melt.

[38:39] Yeah. Yeah. You know, having your heart melted within you. And isn't that such a vivid way? It's a figure of speech but it's an illustration of fear.

[38:53] Right? And you can say afraid or fear but that just doesn't quite communicate sometimes. Just to get through this, I'll just mention a few others.

[39:06] In 2 Kings, and this is actually mentioned many times in the Bible, it talks about girding up your loins. Girding up your loins. And, even the loins.

[39:21] Do you actually gird up your loins? You actually gird up your loin cloth. You're getting prepared. So if you're running, you got a, like a toga on or some kind of robe or something.

[39:33] You can't run very fast. You're not really prepared for battle. But, if you pick that up, you know, you carry it, then you can run. And that's kind of the picture I think that that's trying to show.

[39:45] In Acts 7, I think this is Stephen, he calls the people stiff-necked. You're stiff-necked. And what does that mean?

[39:55] Stiff-necked. Does it mean you're hurt? It means you're stubborn. God tells Paul, when he calls them, he says, what's it like kicking against the goads?

[40:11] It's a figure of speech. That's another, that's a figure of speech that describes what is the futile, the futility, right, of resisting something that's just irresistible.

[40:26] You know, resistance is futile. God's kind of saying to him, you're kicking against the goads, the spikes. Is that going to work? Is that going to help when you kick against spikes? And then Deuteronomy, Psalms, and Proverbs all use this phrase of being the apple of God's eye.

[40:44] Bible says that the Jews, Israel, is the apple of God's eye. What does that mean? We use that today, don't we? And I think we get that from the scriptures. So we carry over an idiom from the scriptures.

[40:58] Okay, the next one is simile. Simile. All right.

[41:09] I think I spelled that one right. Oh, actually, let's do, let's skip that one since we only have five minutes.

[41:23] We'll get back, we'll continue with that next week. Hyperbole. What's a hyperbole? Anybody know? Exaggeration. That's a great, that's a great synonym. Exaggeration.

[41:34] So it's when you exaggerate things for effect. And we use hyperboles all the time, don't we? And I just used one. All the time.

[41:46] I'm starving. I'm starving. I'm starving. We say that every day, don't we? I'm starving. If you want to express your love to your sweetheart, you say, I'm nothing without you.

[42:02] Right? Or if you go to the gas pump today and you pay for gas at $4.25 a gallon, you say, man, this is highway robbery.

[42:17] Highway robbery. It's an exaggeration. Are there exaggerations in the Bible? Yeah, it's not an exaggeration.

[42:32] Oh, wow, man, I have so many examples from the Bible. This is actually used so much in the Bible and actually, there's a lot of misunderstanding that comes from hyperbole in the Bible. Yeah, we can go through a few and maybe follow up because we're out of time.

[42:53] Let's just name a few without going to them. Well, actually, if you're in the Old Testament, go to Judges. Judges 20, verse 16.

[43:07] Among all this people were 700 select men.

[43:29] It's talking about the Benjamites who were left-handed and everyone could sling a stone at a hair's breadth and not miss. Some people might think, well, that's, you know, maybe they had like a supernatural ability with the slingshot.

[43:50] But I think this is just hyperbole. They were really, really good with the stone and the sling. A good one of today, sharpshooters. Sharpshooter, yeah.

[44:00] They were sharpshooters. And they could hit, you know, small objects pretty frequently. How about Matthew, well, here, let's stay in the Old Testament.

[44:16] Proverbs 13. Proverbs 13, and verse 24.

[44:31] He who spares his rod hates his son, but he who loves him disciplines him promptly.

[44:45] So if somebody, if a father fails to spank, to discipline a child, is that really hatred? You think, well, no.

[45:00] But there is an impact on that child. If you fail to discipline children, there's an impact on that child as if you hated them. And it's a lack of, really, it's a lack of care.

[45:15] And so much of a lack of care that the Bible even calls it hatred. So a good father that loves his son, that loves his daughter, will discipline him.

[45:28] Will even spank that child because of love. And if you fail to do so, it's a lack of care. It's not taking care of that child as you should.

[45:39] And this hyperbole, it's like hatred. It's like hatred. And doesn't that just have a better emphasis than just saying, well, if you don't spank your child or if you don't discipline your child, you're not caring for them properly.

[46:00] That just doesn't have the same amount of emphasis as using hyperbole does. Well, we just have a couple minutes left. I'm going to wrap it up there, but we've got a few more.

[46:11] We've got, we'll look at similes and euphemisms next week. And then also, I don't know how to say this, metonymy.

[46:26] Has anybody heard that word? It's a figure of speech. Most of us aren't familiar, I think, with the terminology used, but it's a really fun one and one that we use quite a bit.

[46:37] And then, maybe look at some specific doctrinal positions where I think people get off and it's because they don't understand figures.

[46:48] And we'll look at those things next week. Any other thoughts or comments or questions before we wrap up, though? All right, cool. Thanks, everybody. Kelly McArden. Hello. helm! Hey! Bye!

[46:58] 潮! writers Hi! Hey! Hey! Hi!

[47:12] Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey!

[47:22] Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey!