The Bible is filled with figurative language. If God wants to be understood, why are there so many stories, verses, and images that can be left to the reader to interpret? What can we learn about what is important to God in all this.

Much preaching is didactic, that is, explanation. It teaches. However, it is often not very interesting.                       

Most people do not live in the world of the logical, but in the world of the visual. Our eyes are open all day long to the spatial. 

How to Get My Point Across

Truth can be communicated visually. When the Psalmist says, “The LORD is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold,” (Ps. 18:2), he could have said, “God is my stability and protector.” However, he did not.

Figures leave impressions, feelings, and vast correlations with one’s personal experience.  Imaged language creates a hermeneutical problem, an interpretive vastness that is often a point of controversy.  Why would God do this?

I posed this question to my students.  They defaulted to some obvious points. These points are true and help us understand the first part of the rationale for metaphorical language. Their reasons were varied: “People spoke that way.” “There may be a concealment strategy.” “Figures communicate timeless truths.” “Images are visual.” “People can relate to what they have experienced in language.” “Figures are accessible, vivid, and tangible.”

These are great aspects of communication, things that all public speakers should know how to do.  Who would not want to connect, be contextual, hide truth, reveal truth, be visual, and relate broadly to audiences?  However, these are only a few external reasons for the use of images, figures, stories, and parables in the Bible. The important reasons are much more compelling. Let me explain.

If I were a single man looking to impress a young lady, I might write a letter. In it, sure, I might just come out and tell her I love her, but if I want to make a deep impression, I will use figures.  I might say that I saw a cherry tree filled with flowers in early bloom and it reminded me of how pretty she looked.  I would use a figure. It says more and touches the heart.

The Power of an Image

If I am looking for relationship, I use figures. If I just want to get the job done, I will give instructions. 

God is interested in relational pursuit. He is pursuing us. He wants to paint a picture of Himself that is not quantifiable. He also wants to inspire and draw us in. 

It is for this reason that Christ is the ‘good Shepherd,” the “light of the world” for one walking in darkness, the “one standing at the door knocking.”  A full orbed Savior is not just an explanation, a law, or a set of directives. He is a Person.

That vast complex of infinitude cannot be expressed in scientific language.  That is why Jesus came preaching in parables. 

There is very little mystery in explanatory talking. In fact, there is often boredom and confusion.  However, in stories and figurative language there is resonance.  God is constantly speaking, calling, and resonating.

What is hard for preachers is that it takes rethinking communication to start using more stories and figures.  We have had the figure-reflex ‘learned’ out of us.

How Did We Get Here

Literacy and print have by and large crushed our capacity to transmit truth via speech figures. We think they are ambiguous and open to interpretation. However, often they are clearer, more powerful, and engaging to the listener.

Let me give you an example of the reality speech figure precision.  If I say, “God is omnipresent,” this phrase is incredibly deceptive.  Does it mean that God is in the tree? That the tree should be worshipped? That the tree and God are substantively one? That the tree is part of the Brahman spirit of ultimate reality that permeates everything?  Certainly not.

However, if I say, “The LORD watches over the sojourners; he upholds the widow and the fatherless, but the way of the wicked he brings to ruin” (Ps. 146:9), I export a different sense of omnipresence.  Everything is in the watchful supervision of God. His omnipresence is less material and Hindu.  It is more supervisory and Christian.

If the task of salvation and reconciliation with God is relational, our speech will be more figured.  This leaves wonderment and inspiration.

All of a sudden, I am okay with this type of language, “We have escaped like a bird from the snare of the trappers; the snare is broken, and we have escaped!” (Ps. 124:7).  I don’t mind being compared to a bird. In fact, when the Psalmist compares God to a bird, I know exactly what he means: “In the shadow of your wings I will take refuge, till the storms of destruction pass by” (Ps. 57:1).

While traditional sermonic delivery and expository preaching is didactic in a static sense of the term, it is not what I find in the Bible. I find the speech to be a kind of verbal-bridging to my heart.  This is what I aspire to be for others as a communicator.

Figuring It Out-Ward

We should all, in a sense, be building bridges for people to receive from God his majesty, love, and vision.  This will happen when we replicate what Jesus did.

On the interpretation side of the equation–the biblical mining of ideas–we need to rely on the Holy Spirit. The Bible is a book that conceals its meaning for the shallow reader, but for the one seeking truth, the Holy Spirit is the gatekeeper.  That’s what Jesus told Peter in John 6.

That same sourcing issue exists for preaching. The human, the explanatory, the informational, might just be devoid of power and Spirit inspiration. It can be altogether true but spoken from the intellect.

If we speak to people from the word of God, we need to strive, not just for information transfer, but for Spirit empowerment. Jesus words are “spirit and life’ (John 6:63). That means they are more than just words.  Figures of speech in the Bible and in our preaching are words where meaning transcends the typical. They are spirit and life. We cannot be afraid of verbal pictures, images, and stories. Jesus wasn’t.