We may remember this kind of comparison from school days. Back then the illustration was something like: As an apple is to a seed, so a thought is to a ___________. (i.e. conversation?)
The point is that an analogy compares two things that are similar in at least one way and yet different in others.
I mention it here because some of the other sessions that I took in at a recent theological conference addressed the idea that everything the Bible tells us about God comes by way of analogy.
There is a reason that the prophet Isaiah confronts the problem of idols and false gods by asking, “To whom, then, will you compare God? What image will you compare him to?” (Isa 40:18). God speaks to us in terms for which we have some reference point (comparison). Yet what comparison can do him justice?
To enable us to have some understanding of himself, the Bible tells us that our Creator has shaped us in his own likeness, and built into our physical world patterns of spiritual reality (Heb 8:5). In each example there is a true correspondence. Yet there are also differences.
One of our challenges is therefore to hear and think about the Scriptures in such a way that we learn to find the corresponding comparison between something in our world and the “kingdom” and personality of our God, while learning to see or at least to sense the differences.
One of the wonderful thoughts of the Bible, therefore, is that no matter how much truth we learn about the goodness, power, and love of God—the reality is always infinitely greater than we can imagine.
P.S. The picture of a “vulture’s perspective” was snapped during our recent visit to Curitiba, Brazil. We were taken by our hosts to the top of a lookout tower to see the surrounding area. As we were looking… so were two vultures, on the ledge on the other side of the safety class. Am guessing that with the birds, we were looking, more or less, at the same things… from a much different perspective.
(+22 rating, 22 votes)
Loading...