In the previous lesson we began studying figures of speech… I think we have learned that some things are to be taken literal and some things are to be taken as figures of speech… and it should be noted that ”figures of speech” can can actually make words truer to truth.
So with the other prophecy, “Dust shalt thou eat”…This is not true to the letter, or to the fact, but it is all the more true to truth…. It tells of constant, continuous disappointment, failure, and mortification; as when deceitful ways are spoken of as feeding on deceitful food, which is “sweet to a man but afterward his mouth shall be filled with gravel.” ( Proverbs 20:17). This does not mean literal “gravel” , but something far more disagreeable. It means disappointment so great that it would gladly be exchanged for the literal “gravel”. So when Christians are rebuked for “biting and devouring one another” ( Galatians 3:14 15) something more heartbreaking is meant then the literal words used in the Figure….When “His enemies shall lick the Dust” (Psalm 72: 9) they will not do it on their knees with their literal tongues; but they will be so prostrated and so utterly defeated, that no words could literally depict their overthrow and subjugation.
If a serpent was afterward called a NACHASH… it was because it was more shining than any other creature; and if it became known as “wise”, it was not because of its own innate positive knowledge, but of its wisdom in hiding away from all observation, and because of its association with one of the names of Satan (that old serpent) who “beguiled Eve” ( 2nd Cor 11. 3, 14)…. It is wonderful how a snake could ever be supposed to speak without the organs of speech, or that Satan should be supposed able to accomplish so great a miracle.
It only shows the power of tradition, which has, from the infancy of each one of us, put before our eyes and written on our minds the picture of a “snake” and an “apple”: the former based on a wrong interpretation and the latter being a pure invention about which there is not one word said in Holy Scripture…( read this last paragraph three times and let it sink in… God told them they could eat of “all” the fruit trees in the garden including apples… however they could not eat of the tree in the midst of the garden The Tree Of The Knowledge Of Good And Evil…
Well I hope you find this study as interesting as I do, friends… I sincerely believe everything will work out once on the other side, and of course our salvation does not depend on how we believe about this particular issue… having said that, I believe there is a possibility of a major deception going on ‘that has been going on’… and I haven’t reached the conclusion yet that it is either intentional or unintentional… but the journey is fun ( I mainly attribute the conflict to mistranslation and mistransliteration)… meaning the truer meanings have been unclear or misrepresented… the study is deep… and very revealing… I learned a long time ago that alot of things in life are just simply not as they seem, or not as they have been taught… please visit me at my blog…littleraventhepoet.blog… sincerely Frank Payton
And thank you to the great E.W. Bullinger…. please reference appendix 19… in one of the greatest editions of the Bible ever written….The Companion Bible… originally published in 1922.
Frankie The Earthman 