And we're going to have you turn first to Exodus chapter number 24. Exodus chapter number 24. Now, we are picking back up where we left off a couple of weeks ago. We were looking at the general laws of biblical interpretation. And we're looking now at the foundational rules. And we're talking about how the Bible must be interpreted grammatically. We took a look at the law of direct statement and the law of context. And tonight we began looking at the law of language. I think I've checked to make sure everybody still had a, a handout. And if that's not the case, got some more that are up here. You can come get one off the table. Looking at the law of language. Contrary to the claims of some, The Bible is not to be interpreted literally in absolutely every part. Although most of the scriptures are in the form of direct literal statements. The Bible also uses what we know as figurative or non-literal language. And here's the law of language stated. Words should be understood in a literal sense, unless such an interpretation involves a clear contradiction or absurdity. Now, the use of symbolic and figurative language in the Bible does not absolve the interpreter from using the literal approach to interpretation. All non-literal language must be based upon literal words for it to make sense. Now, we're going to take a look tonight at at least one of the areas of non-literal language. You probably look down on this table down here and see all the extra handouts and what in the world is with that. Well, I had no idea how far we were going to get tonight. But upon looking at it again, I didn't think we were going to get beyond simile tonight. And there's a reason for that. Similes and metaphors we're going to spend a little bit more time on because you will find more similes and metaphors in scripture than other figures of speech. And so it makes sense for us to spend a little more time on those things. Some of the Bible is written in ways other than direct statement. You find types and parables and symbols and figurative language And that's what we're talking about tonight, figurative language, non-literal language. Recognizing this fact requires each of these to be subject to the rules of interpretation applicable. Now, when we were in school, at least whenever I was in school, high school, I don't know what it was like today, what they're teaching them today. But when we were in school, our English teacher taught us figurative language. We learned what similes and metaphors and how to use those. And tonight we want to take a look at how that applies to the scripture because it does apply to the scripture and you'll see very clearly in some of the examples that we have here how that is the case. Now simile is a figurative speech which shows comparison. Now I knew that. My English teacher, Ms. Talo, she'd be real proud of me for remembering that from my English class. We see a simile as a figure of speech which shows comparison. The purpose of using similes is to represent truth in a graphic form. It paints pictures in your mind. If something is like something, you look at what it's like and it kind of gives you a little idea about what that's like. The key to identifying similes is the word like or as. I'm going to look at some examples and help you tonight to understand what we're talking about. In Exodus 24 and verse number 17 is where we're going to be, but we're going to back up to verse number 15. It says, Moses went up into the mount and a cloud covered the mount. And the glory of the Lord abode upon Mount Sinai. I want you to just put yourself there for a minute. And the cloud covered it six days. And the seventh day he called unto Moses out of the midst of the cloud. Notice verse 17. And the sight of the glory of the Lord was like devouring fire on the top of the mount in the eyes of the children of Israel. Now, it wasn't devouring fire, but that's what it looked like. It was like devouring fire. Moses went into the midst of the cloud and got him up into the mount. Moses was in the mount 40 days and 40 nights. We all know what a devouring fire looks like. In my time, I've made some pretty awesome fires before. When you live on a farm, You have the opportunity to have to take and clean fence rows out and burn the brush. You can make some pretty nice size fires. But devouring fires, those are devouring fires. And that's what it looked like when they were looking up into the mount. And you can just imagine how awesome that may have looked at the time. Look at Psalm 2. Psalm 2. Psalm 2 is a Messianic psalm talking about the future reign of the Lord. It says here, let's pick up in verse number 6. Verse number six, yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion. I will declare the decree the Lord has said unto me, thou art my son, this day have I begotten thee. Ask of me and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession. Notice verse 9. Now shalt break them with a rod of iron. Now shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel. You ever seen anybody take up a vase and just throw it down and it shatter into a bunch of pieces? That's the picture that is being given here. In other words, a complete and utter destruction is what you're talking about there. When something has been dashed in pieces like that, it's hard to recover from it. You can't recover from it. Look at Psalm 11. Psalm 11. I turned too far there. Mark each one of these. There we go. Psalm 11 and verse number 1. And this is a Psalm of David. And he says here, In the Lord put I my trust. That's a good place for it, isn't it? And he says, How say ye to my soul, Flee as a bird to your mountain? So some folks were trying to instill fear in David. David had his trust in the Lord, and he didn't do anything without the Lord telling him what to do. But they had the idea that you need to get on out of here quickly. If you've ever scared birds before, again, out on the farm, We had quail out there, and you walk up on quail, and buddy, they're gone. They don't want anything to do with you. They had fleas a bird to your mountain is what they're saying. For loathe the wicked bend their bow. They make ready their arrow upon the string that they may privily shoot at the upright and hard. Now, understand that a bird is a very apt picture of a man who seemingly has no refuge save in flight. They were saying, well, you just need to flee is what you need to do. Some urged him to flee like a bird to the mountain. He did neither, for he was controlled by a determined trust. And the Lord put I my trust, how say ye to my soul, flee as a bird to the mountain? To flee at that time right there, what was going on without God's permission would have been an act of mistrusting God. He trusted the Lord fully. Look at Psalm 102. I got ahead of myself there. Psalm 68, I'm sorry. Psalm 68. Psalm 68 and verse number 13 is where we want to be at. My paper's all out of sort here. Psalm 68 and verse number 13. It says here, though ye have lain among the pots, Yet shall ye be as the wings of a dove, covered with silver, and her feathers with yellow gold. Ye shall be as wings of a dove. You know, we have... victory acclaimed here. He says, though ye have leaned among the pots, the pots are thought to be the brick kilns of Egypt. When they were in Egypt, they were in slave labor doing Egypt's bidding. In contrast with the indignity of their former slavery, the people of God are now sheltered by the wings of a dove. And the dove symbolizes, we know in scripture, the Holy Spirit. And this is no ordinary dove, but a dove whose wings are covered with silver and gold. Remember we've been talking about earlier in our Zechariah series, how that silver speaks of redemption and gold suggests divine glory, suggests kingship. This verse really looks far ahead to the glories of the coming golden age when both redemption and royalty in a renewed earth will be Israel's fortune. You had a bad past, you had a rough past, but what a change after being so long abandoned in the brick kilns of the earth to come out of that and to be what the Lord wants them to be. Look at Psalm 102. Psalm 102, and we want to look at a couple of verses here, verse 6 and 7. Let's back up to verse 1 and read down to there. Hear my prayer, O Lord, and let my cry come unto Thee. Hide not Thy face from me in the day when I am in trouble, Incline thine ear unto me, and the day when I call, answer me speedily. For my days are consumed like smoke, and my bones are burned as an hearth." There's a couple of ones that we're not going to take a look at tonight right there. Some additional ones, additional similes. Verse 4. My heart is smitten and withered like grass, so that I forget to eat my bread. By reason of the voice of my groaning, my bones cleave to my skin. Now, here's what we're going to look at. I am like a pelican. I'm like a pelican in the wilderness. Now, we know a little bit about pelicans being here on the coast, don't we? Pelicans are not found in the wilderness. What he's saying is, I'm out of place. out of place. He says, I'm like a pelican in the wilderness. I'm like an owl of the desert. I watch and I'm as a sparrow alone upon the housetop. The three things that are said there. Now the pelican is not a bird of the wilderness at all. It's a specialized water bird. Its natural habitats are water. That's where it gets its livelihood from, if you want to call it that, where it gets its food. We know that the owl of the desert, It's natural habitat is what? A forest. We hear owls all the time right here. I don't know if some of y'all get them around your house, but we've got some, and they'll wake you up in the middle of the night sometimes. You're gonna hear them out there. And every now and then, you'll hear one during the daytime, which is kind of strange. But an owl likes a forest. To find an owl in the desert would be to find it in the wrong natural environment. And the same way with the sparrow. It's mentioned in an unusual setting, a sparrow alone upon the housetop. Really kind of a contradiction because the house sparrow, like nearly all sparrows, is a communal bird, seldom found alone. They go in flocks. And so what he's saying is, you know, I'm just not where I ought to be at. I'm out of place. And so, he paints that picture with those similes. Now, look at this Song of Solomon. Song of Solomon, chapter 2 and verse number 9. Song of Solomon, right after Ecclesiastes, got Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon. Look at Song of Solomon chapter 2 and verse number 9. We're going to read verse 8 and 9 because verse 8 kind of gives you a little bit of what he's talking about here. He said, the voice of my beloved, behold, he cometh leaping upon the mountains and skipping upon the hills. Sounds like a roe, doesn't it? Sounds like a deer. And he says, my beloved is like a roe or a young heart. Behold, he standeth behind our wall. He looketh forth in the windows, showing himself through the lattice. So it's like a roe. Isaiah chapter number one. Here's some good ones right here. Book of Isaiah. And Isaiah chapter number one's got two that are really, really masterful here. Isaiah one verse number eight. Let's back up to verse 4. A sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity. She's talking about Israel here. Seed of evildoers, children that are corruptors. They have forsaken the Lord. They have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger. They are gone away backward. Why should ye be stricken any more? Ye will revolt more and more. The whole head is sick. The whole heart faint, from the sole of the foot even to the head there is no soundness in it, but wounds and bruises and putrefying sores. They have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment." Now, this is jumping ahead, but those are some good metaphors, aren't they? Those are metaphors. And he's not using like or as, but he is comparing their spiritual condition to a physical condition. Look at verse 7. Your country is desolate. Your cities are burned with fire. Your land, strangers devour it in your presence. And it is desolate, as overthrown by strangers. And here we go in verse 8. And the daughter of Zion is left as a cottage in a vineyard, as a lodge in a garden of cucumbers, as a besieged city. Think about those first two, as a cottage in a vineyard. Have you ever seen an abandoned cottage before. I know on our trips when I was growing up, we would travel. My grandparents on my dad's side lived in Dothan, Alabama. We would travel from Brunswick, Georgia to Dothan, Alabama. All along the way, you have farmland. It's just all over the place. But you see a lot of barns that were abandoned. Just sitting out there and talking about abandonment there. As a lodge in the garden of cucumbers. Desolation. Isolation. It's the two things that come to mind with that. Look at Isaiah 1 verse number 18. Next page here. Verse 16, let's pick up verse 16. Wash you. Make you clean. Put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes. Cease to do evil. Learn to do well. Seek judgment. Relieve the oppressed. Judge the fatherless. Plead for the widow. Come now, let us reason together, saith the Lord. Though your sins be as scarlet, If you know anything about scarlet, it's a deep dye, pointing to the fact that their sins have a deep-dyed character. You're not going to get that out yourself. It took the Lord to get it out. Come now, let us reason together, saith the Lord. Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. That's quite a change, isn't it? Though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. She's talking about the deep-dyed character there. Matthew chapter number 18. Matthew chapter number 18. Matthew 18. Let's read verses 1-4. At the same time came the disciples unto Jesus, saying, Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? Of course, we know they were bickering about that very thing in other places of Scripture. Jesus called a little child unto him and set him in the midst of them. We're not told how little this child was. but just a little child, and said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, in other words, you guys need to make a change. You need to turn from your thinking. Except ye be converted and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven." He's talking about humility, talking about the fact that a child has no agenda going on. Just really doesn't. But they were wanting to fight among themselves. I'll mention one more real quickly. 1 Peter 5.8, the devil is a roaring lion walking about seeking whom he may devour. That's a pretty good picture when the devil is going about. It says there in 1 Peter 5 verse 8, Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary, the devil, is a roaring lion, walking about, seeking whom he may devour, and that devourer may swallow up or drink down. A roaring lion is one that is trying to freeze the prey. That roar just kind of causes you to freeze, and the things that Satan sometimes can cause us to freeze up. And we shouldn't do that, okay? Anyway, those are the similes. We'll take a look next week at some metaphors and possibly get on, down into the allegories. But as I said, we're going to spend a little more time with the similes and metaphors than we will. Some of the other figures of speech, there's, there's 11 that we're going to be taking a look at, okay? But we're not going to spend 11 weeks on this. I, I can assure you that, all right? But I did want to spend some time on the similes there. And I hope a little help to you. Hopefully, maybe you remember a little bit from, from your English class how to, how the similes work and how metaphors work. All right, let's pull back out our prayer list. That's our Bible study for tonight. Pull back out the prayer list and we'll pray for the knees.