A Metaphor / We And One

A METAPHOR

"And the staff of his spear was like a weaver's beam..." - 1 Samuel 17:7a KJV

This is a metaphor. If I know nothing about a weaver's beam the sentence is meaningless. 'Weaver's beam' might as well be 'Fubdwd Polulvue' if I have never seem or heard of such a thing. I know less then I did because now a gap has opened.

Our mind stumbles. Our mental picture has a spear in it but we only know that some piece of knowledge is missing about the spear. The sentence made us dumber. If 'Weaver's Beam' is never defined we have a closed circle... a mystery with no end... a cliff hanger with no resolution.

Math is a universal language. Simple math can be explained with rocks. Metaphors are relational. The words need definitions or else the concepts fall flat. God is far beyond math. He made math. Math is baby talk compared to what He wants to explain to us.

God is like Jesus and Jesus is like God. The cross is like grace and grace is like the cross.

"And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth. ... For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ." - John 1:14, 17 KJV

If Jesus isn't defined we can't know God. No math will bring us there. God is lost to us without understanding who Jesus Is.

If what Jesus has done means nothing then we are cut off from understanding the first thing about God. But if we do know Jesus then we know the most vital things about God. A relationship is established on this common understanding. We become alive.

Without Jesus all we have is death because it is all we understand.

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WE AND ONE

"Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, 'Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.'

Jesus answered him, 'Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.' " - John 3:1-3 ESV

Nicodemus said, 'We know... '

Who is the 'we' that Nicodemus is speaking of? Is it a group present for the conversation? Is it a group of scholars who he represents? He isn't saying 'you and I' know. We refers to a group somewhere.

Then Jesus narrows it down to, 'unless one is'

A 'we' has political power but vision is singular.

"Jesus answered, 'Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.' " - John 3:5 ESV

Entrance is also singular. The 'we' does not enter. We enter one by one.

Let's watch the singular and plural references in the next passage.

"Jesus answered him, 'Are you the teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things? Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know, and bear witness to what we have seen, but you do not receive our testimony. If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things? No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life." - John 3:10-15 ESV

Wow. Jesus has the 'we' of the Trinity and He shines light on this man's religion that has been spoon fed to Nicodemus by a group.

""For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God." - John 3:16-18 ESV

One of the greatest and most known passages in the scriptures. One God gave one Son so that each person out of the full group that comprises all of humanity might believe and be saved.

'We' isn't going to save anyone. You must be born again. Salvation isn't skimmed from a collection of cultural ideas. Salvation is one person who is washed by a triune God because he or she believes that one Father sent one Son to die everyone's death.

"And the people came to Moses and said, 'We have sinned, for we have spoken against the LORD and against you. Pray to the LORD, that he take away the serpents from us.' So Moses prayed for the people. And the LORD said to Moses, 'Make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole, and everyone who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live.' " - Numbers 21:7-8 ESV

Moses made a brass serpent in a time of great crisis. Each person had a choice. Israel was stuck in a herd mentality. Don't we see that around us today? People say 'we believe this' but then the next day the 'we' shifts.

God makes it simple. Where will you look? Only you can enter in. No group on Earth can go for you. Each one sees and enters individually.

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