All right, it's a blessing to see a good group in the House of God tonight, Friday night, to continue these sessions on understanding Bible prophecy. And we are going through principles of interpretation on Bible prophecy. We looked quite a while at the normal literal method of interpretation and context. and comparing Scripture with Scripture. And now we're dealing with figurative language, the issue of figurative language. We've covered quite a bit, but we want to deal with the interpretation of figurative language, the interpretation of it, and just some major lessons here, some fundamental lessons. And that is, first, figurative language is interpreted by its context. That's always the fundamental rule. The immediate context is the first place to look for the interpretation of anything in the Bible, including a word. We consider Revelation chapter 1. Revelation. Revelation chapter 1, and we're talking about the interpretation of prophecy and the interpretation of figurative language. We see in chapter one, verses 12 and 16, the seven golden candlesticks and the seven stars. Seven stars, what in the world is that? Well, it's explained exactly, perfectly in verse 20, in the same context, the mystery of the seven stars, which thou sawest in my right hand, and the seven golden candlesticks, The seven stars are, well, here it is, the interpretation, the angels of the seven churches, and the seven candlesticks which thou sawest are the seven churches. There it is, interpretation given, no question about it. We look at Daniel chapter 8, and division is given in verses 2 through 8. And if we weren't given the interpretation, we wouldn't be able to know what it meant. But we are. In Daniel chapter 8, the great vision here of the ram coming, the two horns, and the ram, and then the he-goat coming from the west. West, on the face of the whole earth, he's not even touching the ground, has a noble horn between his eyes, the horn is broken. What in the world? Well, the interpretation is given in verses 19 through 25, the same context. Just keep reading and God explains it. enough to get what we need to begin our interpretation. He said, Behold, I will make thee know what shall be in the last end of the indignation, for at the time appointed the end shall be. It's all appointed. God's in control of everything. The ram which thou sawest having two horns are the kings of Media and Persia. There it is. And the rough goat is the king of Greece. That would be Alexander. Famous in history. In fact, these things are so clear and precise in Daniel that the modernists said, well, we don't believe in supernatural prophecy, so it must have been written after it happened, because it's obviously talking about what we know exactly happened in history. Well, no, it's supernatural prophecy. But the keys are all here, is what we're saying, and usually in the immediate context. That great prophecy in Ezekiel 37, the vision of the valley of dry bones, oh, so important. We'll look at it later, but so important. And Ezekiel saw this valley full of dry bones, Ezekiel 37. What in the world is this? Dry bones. And speaking to them, the bones coming back to life, being resurrected. What is this? And so the interpretation is given in verse 11. Perfectly given right here in the context. He said unto me, Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. Behold, they say, our bones are dried and our hope is lost. We're cut off for our parts. And so there it is. It's Israel, Israel scattered among the nation, Israel looking like they're dead and finished, and Israel being brought back to life by God. So usually the key is right in the immediate context. In Isaiah 2, 1 through 5, a great prophecy about the exaltation of Israel during the millennium. Isaiah 2, it shall come to pass in the last days that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established in the top of the mountains and shall be exalted above the hills and all nations shall flow into it, mountains, hills. What is this? Well, the symbolic language is explained in the context, mountain, verse 1 itself, the mountain is the Lord's house. The mountain is the Lord's house. That millennial temple that Ezekiel describes in great detail in chapters 40 through 48, great detail, must be an important prophecy he wants us to learn. And some people say, well, I'll see it one day. I'll just, you know, if you're saved, yeah, you see that one day. But why, but God wrote it for today. So it's obviously important that we learn these things, study these things today. The mountains and hills, as explained in verse two and three and four, are nations, other nations. And this prophecy in Isaiah 2, 20 through 22, this great prophecy of the day of the Lord, the day of the Lord, one of the major prophecies on that, Isaiah 2, 10 through 22, down in the same prophecy here, but enter into the rock and hide thee in the dust for fear of the Lord and for the glory of his majesty. The lofty looks of man shall be humbled and the haughtiness of man shall be bowed down and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day, in that day. And so that's what the day of the Lord is all about, the humbling of man and the exalting of God, putting God back where he's supposed to be in this world. And that's the day of the Lord, but it talks about cedars and oaks down here. Verse 13, upon all the cedars of Lebanon and they're high and lifted up and upon all the oaks of Bashan and upon all high mountains and upon all hills that are lifted up. That has already been interpreted earlier in chapter two as nations, little nations, big nations. Every high tower, every fence wall, verse 15. But what is that? It's all, every kind of thing that pertains to man's pride. 17, the loftiness of man shall be bowed down. And that's repeated from previously. The haughtiness of men shall be made low. The Lord alone shall be exalted in that day. And these things are explained in the context and in what is being stated there and emphasized there. It refers to everything, those oaks and towers and cedars, and refers to everything that man trusts in and loves apart from God. The whole world running around enjoying all these things of God and ignoring God. don't even pray and thank God for their food. Well, that's going to end, folks, short shelf life kind of deal. That's going to end here. The end can be seen here. And how it's going to end is the day of the Lord. These things are coming. But they're explained. The point is they're usually explained. And in the context, you're given enough information to know what is happening. Secondly, figurative language is interpreted by comparing scripture with scripture. Basic principles applied to this particular aspect of prophecy. So sometimes a student has to go to another passage and explain the language. Revelation 4-5 is a great example of this. Revelation 4-5, Revelation 4, 5, as John has shown God's temple in heaven, there's some descriptions of the temple in the Bible, and this is one of them, the actual temple in heaven. And out of the throne proceed lightnings, and thunderings, and voices. And there were seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven spirits of God." Seven spirits of God. What in the world? There are seven spirits of God? Seven lamps of fire? And this is not explained in the immediate context. The same description is used, though. in other places. Revelation 5, 6, Revelation 5, 6, I beheld, and lo, in the midst of the throne, and out of the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders, stood a lamb, as it had been slain, having seven Seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent forth into all the earth. Seven horns and seven eyes. And we know, we could look and see that horns, in Bible prophecy especially, refers to power. Horns pushing power. And that's pretty simple. And then eyes signify intelligence. and awareness and intelligence. And so seven is the number of completion and perfection. And so the Holy Spirit is talking about His omniscience and His omnipower and used in this figure of speech. which God knows that we need to understand this. God knows exactly how to reveal his word to man and how we need to understand it and how he wants us to understand it. And he wants us to study. It's required that we study. If you're not willing to study and work, you cannot understand the word of God. It's that simple. There's no Bible for dummies. You know, we have all these dummy books. And people want a dummy book on everything. But there's not really a Bible for dummies. It's the Bible. And we have to work at it and learn and make progress and little by little. But it takes work. And so that's what the figures of speech are all about, how we interpret them. In Isaiah 11-2, there's some reference, cross-reference to this, Isaiah 11-2. So the seven spirits describe the all-knowing intelligence of the Holy Spirit, seven eyes, sees everything, knows everything. And in Revelation 4-5, the spirits are like the lamps, refers to spiritual light. Every, all of the spiritual light we have in this world comes from the Holy Spirit. And then in Isaiah 11 too, the seven spirits refer to the seven characteristics and works of the spirit. And they are here. The spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him. The spirit of wisdom, understanding, the spirit of counsel and might. Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord, and shall make him of quick understanding and the fear of the Lord. And so comparing scripture with scripture is the point. So the more we know one part of the Bible, the better we can understand the other parts of the Bible. And then thirdly, interpreting figurative language requires broad knowledge of life. And the more we study and have a knowledge of life, then the better we can understand even Bible prophecy. Micah 7, 19, they cast all their sins in the depths of the sea. Well, we know a lot about that now because of those little miniature submarines and things that have gone down to the depths of the sea, the Mariana Trench, the deepest part that we know of, down in there. And that Mariana Trench is 10,984 meters down, 6.8 miles down into the depths of the sea. And God says, I've cast all their sins in the depths of the sea. And talking about how thoroughly God has forgiven sin. And Daniel 7.6, the leopard, used for the metaphor of Alexander the Great. what a character he was. But he was famous in history, conquered the Persian Empire just in a matter of months, amazing. But coming from the West, Daniel saw him, feet not even touching the ground, but in another place, and Daniel 7 described as a leopard, a leopard. And because of his speed, the leopard's not the fastest creature, but a leopard was common there to that part of the world, and it's predatory character. Leopard's very dangerous. And I read a great series of books by Carl Sagan, a hunter, British hunter in India that hunted killer tigers, they were. But he was more afraid of a leopard than a tiger. They're more sneaky and they're more predatory and they're very fast. And anyway, the more we know about these things, the better we can interpret the Bible, God, on his throne in Revelation 4, 3. It's a description of him. And it says, to look upon like a jasper and a sardine stone, a rainbow round about the throne, in sight like unto an emerald. So you've got to know about those gems, amazing gems. And the more you do, the more you can picture exactly what God's throne must be like. And so interpreting figurative language, just a few lessons. And now we want to deal with repetition. I have quite a bit of studies here on repetition because it's a major part of Bible prophecy. So much so it almost becomes boring. in some places, lots of repetition. And if the student is not awake to the meaning, and it can be boring. The genealogies, a lot of things in the Bible can be boring if you don't understand it. You've got to learn how to study the Bible. It's not enough to read it. Reading is essential, but studying's another thing. And if you only read the Bible, well, you'll never understand it very well. And there's whole bunches of things you won't even understand. So you're reading like Einstein the parrot. Einstein the parrot is the smartest parrot on earth, they say. They trot him around and trot him out and show him off. And he's got a vocabulary, a couple hundred words or something, but actually he knows nothing. He just knows if he responds to that sound, he gets a peanut or whatever. He doesn't know a thing. Einstein the parrot, the Bible reader. No, we've got to study, we've got to learn, and that's when it becomes really exciting, it really does, and then more and more. Repetition, what is it all about? Well, it's for emphasis. We know that. My dad, when he used to say, David, David, that, and if he said it three times, oh my. But of course he wasn't supposed to, he was supposed to train me so that I'd respond the first time and all that, but anyway. Oh yeah, we understand that. Listen up, take heed. God is saying in the repetition, and we're told that that's what it's for in Genesis 41, 32. We're told that's what repetition in the Bible is for. Genesis 41, 32. Genesis 41, 32. And for that, the dream was doubled unto Pharaoh twice. It is because the thing is established by God and God will shortly bring it to pass. God was emphasizing the surety of this thing. And that's a major reason for Bible prophecy. In Psalm 136, every verse repeats, for his mercy endureth forever. And so you can read that and skip that every time. You know, the short version of Psalm 136, without all the mercy. But that is not right, because all of that repetition of the mercy of His mercy endureth forever is a major part of that psalm and what God is wanting to get across. What a great message that is to meditate on. The Word of the Lord came unto me in Ezekiel. 47 times it says that. Why not just one time and then ditto or something? But 47 times, because the Word of the Lord came unto him. And in Psalm 24, who is this king of glory? We have a song about that. Well, it's got a song to it. Who is this king of glory? And twice, who is this king of glory? We consider the thing of a polysyndeton. There's a great word for you to throw out and impress people with. Nobody cares. Polysyndeton, just like a selfie, nobody cares. Not even your mother. Maybe one. which is a repetition of conjunctions in close succession, poly meaning many and synteton meaning bound together with, but it's a type of emphasis that the Bible has a lot of. Normally in grammar, we use, like if you're saying the man, comma, and a woman, comma, and a child. You just use one and for those three things normally. But in the Bible, many times it uses and, and, and, and, and, polysyndeton. Genesis 126. Genesis 126, I've written these out, I believe, in your notes. God said, let us make man in our image, after our likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So what that is doing is emphasizing each part. And you should slow down. It's making you slow down. and focus on each part. Man has been given authority over everything, but not just everything, every little thing. Mosquitoes, creeping things, everything. Luke 14.21, is another example. The poor and the maimed and the hauled and the blind go out there and bring all these in. And so that repetition, drawing attention to God's love in this parable for every kind of sinner, every sinner and every kind of sinner, Because that's what the subject is. Go out there and bring all of them in. I want my house full. Those I invited first, Israel didn't come, and go out there and fill up my house with all these crippled kind of people that nobody wants at their house. God wants them. It's great stuff. Polysindeton, Exodus 28 and 9, 5 and 6. It emphasizes every part of the high priest's garments because they picture Christ and every aspect of his character and offices. And so put on Aaron the coat and the robe of the ephod and the ephod. and the breastplate, and gird him with the curious girdle of the ephod, and put on him the miter, put the miter on his head, and put the holy crown upon his miter." Well, that's a polysynodon, drawing attention to every one of these individual things. Revelation 21, 8 has a fearful example of this. those that are not in the New Jerusalem, and the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burneth with the fire and brimstone, and those repetitions of those conjunctions drawing attention to every kind of sinner that's not saved. In contrast, 2 Timothy 4.2, reproof, rebuke, exhort. Sometimes there's no repetition of the conjunctions, and that's more drawing attention to the whole package. Preaching's a package. Each one of those individual things is important, but then it's a package. To have the right kind of preaching, you've got to have all of that. without those repetitions of conjunction. Repetition is for emphasis. Secondly, repetition is for authority. It's for authority. Wake up, get military command, attention. get our attention, the bailiff calling the court to order. All rise, hear ye, hear ye. The court is now in session. The honorable judge, whatever presiding, you may be seated. It's an authoritative kind of thing. In John's gospel, Jesus uses verily, verily. That's repetition. Verily, verily, 25 times. And that is an emphasis of his authority. And you better listen to this. verily, verily, truly, truly, I tell you this, listen, pay attention. We see the authority of repeated words in the prophets. The great, I love this one, Zephaniah 114, the great day of the Lord, day of the Lord, the time when man shall be humbled and God shall be exalted, great judgments will fall upon the earth, the great day of the Lord is near, it is near, Wow. Yeah. Authority. Repetition is for education. Of course, all these things sort of merge together, but we break them apart for teaching purposes. Repetition is for education. We learn line upon line, a little here and a little there. And the repetition in the Bible is, the point here is that the repetition in the Bible usually is not exact repetition. Sometimes it is, but many times it is not. It's repeated, but a little different way. For example, Isaiah 48, 22, and Isaiah 57, 21 repeats that there is no peace to the wicked. Well, that's an emphasis. That's something the wicked better pay attention to. But it's not exactly, repeated exactly the same, because in one place it says, saith the LORD, all caps, Jehovah. And in the other place it says there's no peace to the wicked, saith my God. So there's something different going on here. If you just run through the Bible, you don't even know that happened. But if you pay attention to details, then you see that and you say, what's that going on? Well, one thing for sure is those names emphasize different aspects of God. Jehovah is all of God, but it's more emphasizing Him as Savior. The first place we see Jehovah is in Genesis 2, interacting with Adam, and then in Genesis 3, saving them. Jehovah's there doing that. Elohim is a more general name for God, but it emphasizes His almighty power. And the first place we see Elohim is Genesis 1. God, Elohim, created the heavens and the earth. And so the emphasis there is on His power and His creatorship. Elohim is all of God, Jehovah is all of God, but there's emphasis to instruct us. So Jehovah saying there's no peace to the wicked is emphasizing that God wants to save the wicked. But Elohim saying there's no peace to the wicked is just a warning of imminent judgment. wicked. Well, you can see those things, and you can see other lessons from those things. We consider the fourfold repetition of Joel, chapter 2, verse 13. Joel 2, 13. Joel 2, 13. Rend your heart, and not your garments." Joel 2.13, it's in the Old Testament. Render your heart, not your garments. Turn unto the Lord your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth him of the evil. And so the fourfold emphasis here of God's merciful but each part of it educating us more and more about it, not just repetition. And so, education, and then repetition is for safety. The apostles repeated things to the churches to protect the saints. We need repetition. Philippians 3, 1, Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things to you, to me indeed is not grievous, but for you it is safe to hear the same things. And that's a lot of what we do in church. Come and hear the same things. And well, I heard it last week. I heard it last month. I heard it on Sunday. I don't need it on Wednesday. Yes, you do. Well, I ate yesterday. I don't need to eat until next month, right? No. Every day is a new day. Every day you have to eat the food, good food, and the Word of God. And it's a matter of feeding and eating and growing. And you don't remember what you ate last month. You might not remember what the pastor preached last week. Doesn't matter. You're eating, you're feeding if you're there eager for the Word of God. Safety. Repetition is for linguistic beauty. The Bible is law and theology. It's also literature. It's the world's most beautiful book of literature, literature. It contains the most, the loveliest, most powerful words ever written. That's true in Hebrew and Greek. It's true in English. English is, this Bible is known to be by, by literary men, even lost ones, peerless example of English language. It's the apex. It's all downhill from there. It has been. NIV, is that peerless English? No, none of the modern versions are. But as far as just literature, an important test of the quality of a Bible translation is how it sounds to the ear. And by that standard, the King James Bible is certainly peerless. Peerless, Ezekiel 36, 24 through 30, just one little example. A lot of that peerless language, not in this particular case, but a lot of it goes back to William Tyndale and his genius that God gave him to conform English to Hebrew and Greek. That's what he was doing. Ezekiel 36, 24 through 30, just one little example. Ezekiel 36, 24-30, For I will take you from among the heathen, and gather you out of all countries, and will bring you into your own your own land, am I in the right place? Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and you shall be clean from all your filthiness, and from all your idols will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you, and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh and I will give you a heart of flesh and I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and you shall keep my judgments and do them." And it just reads like poetry. It's just like singing almost as you read it. It just flows and it's powerful and short little word, mostly one or two syllable words and simple words, but powerful. words that punctuate the message and, and flow and, and, and speak to the heart. It's great literature. Repetition, and there's repetition involved in that beauty. And then repetition is for repentance. Man usually doesn't return at the first reproof. That's why extended Gospel Extended Bible conferences are important. And the word, like a hammer, striking again and again. It's powerful, but it needs repetition. I've seen men breaking rocks all the time. I see that in Nepal. They still do it a lot by hand, these big old stones and a hammer. But you don't hit it and it break. You have to hit it. and then hit it at the same place and it repeated those repetitions, all of a sudden it was split. And God's Word is likened to a hammer. Repetition for repentance, the threefold repetition in Mark 9, where the worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched. I don't know where I got that translation there. The worm die, I said the worm never dies. It's probably a modern version. Is that in there? Yeah, it'll be popular, it'll be popular. Dieth not, okay folks. And the fire is not quenched. Now that's repeated three times. Not in the modern versions. They take two of those out and they say I haven't done anything. No problem, because one's still there. Yeah, but if God wrote three, I want three. When I was hitchhiking, I was in Panama City, Florida. Yeah, Panama City, Florida, up on the Gulf Coast. And I stopped and I was messing around there in that little town that I was walking over by the ocean, Gulf of Mexico. And I saw this box of Bibles over here, box of Bible, Gideon Bibles. So I decided I'll pick one of those up and go look down by the dock, you know, sitting in the dock, read the Bible a little bit, because I hadn't touched it for years. So I did that. I went down and sat down. I did that great Bible study method, flop it open. Well, where it flopped open was Mark 9. I was lost. And where the worm dieth not and the fires not quench, pluck out your eyes and all this stuff. I slammed that Bible shut. I did. And I said, I don't believe that. But it was powerful. My wife hates worms more than anything, anything, period. And she said when she found out there's worms in hell, that's all she needed to know. The fire, okay, but the worms? There's worms in that place. No, it's powerful language. It's repeating. It needs to be repeated. That message, that's what the world needs to hear about hell. because anyone that's not born again is going there, and it's a terrible, horrible place. In Luke 13, 3 and 5, the twofold repetition of, except you repent, you shall all likewise perish. Twice. And then in John 3, 3 and 5, the repetition of, you must be born again. And then Jesus, in several places, and we give four examples, to his disciples, saying, oh, ye of little faith. And so repetition for to bring about repentance, repetition for compassion, because God cares. That's why he repeats these things, because God cares. about sinners and wants us to be saved and then wants us to grow. And then repetition is for the justification of God. Repetition leaves rebels with no excuse. In Jeremiah, 11 times it says that God rose up early and sent the prophets to warn Israel. 11 times it says that. Rose up early. God rising up early. Eating breakfast. And then going out there. It's a picture that we understand. God doesn't sleep. But for us poor little people on this earth, we understand that. Getting up and first thing. It's first thing, God going out there. Early in the morning. He rose up early. and sent the prophets to warn Israel. And he's going to be justified. That's repeated 11 times in Jeremiah. And that justifies God and will justify God. Everyone will listen to the word of God. None of this is written in vain. And so God has spoken to fallen man by the prophets since Abel. He's provided salvation. He's called men to be saved. He's given the light of creation and the light of conscience and the light of scripture. Men are without excuse. Not one man can ever say, well, blame God because he's lost. And all this will come out of the great white throne judgment. And there's a repetition in the notes. There's a mistake right there. And what's that? It's a mistake.