Page 61 - THE REVELATION OF THE THIRD HEAVEN and THE MEAT OF THE WORD

parlance and may be ‘old’, ‘complex’ or ‘difficult’ (Heb 4:12). It is God’s Word
not ours (Mat 4:4).

Precedents

Abram was chosen as he believed in the Lord in accordance, at least in part, with
Romans 1:20. This meant that he had set a precedent that allowed for him to
ultimately be the ancestor of Christians. Melchizadek, which is Christ, appears
(Gen 14:18) and God sets a covenant that Abram will give rise to Christians and
Abram then becomes Abraham (Gen 17:5-7). By being prepared to sacrifice Isaac
a second precedent is established allowing for the sacrifice of Jesus (Gen 22:16-18,
Heb 11:17-18).

The first three chapters of Hosea show a number of precedental appropriations that
allowed for God’s forgiveness of Israel by the Christian faith to which they will
turn and, in a sense, ‘return’ (Hos 1:11, 3:5). This is accomplished by Hosea
having sex with different women, the first a prostitute (Hos 1:2) whom he marries
and the second an adulteress whom he buys and with whom he commits adultery
with (Hos 3:1) - all under the commandment of God (Hos 1:2, 3:1-2). The first
appropriates mercy for Judah, via the birth of Loruhamah, and the second does so
for the Israelite people. A precedental appropriation was accomplished allowing
for the future redemption of Israel by Christ.

Idioms, expressions, figures of speech

The Word acknowledges these as 'proverbs' (Ezek 18:2) or 'parables' (Ezek 20:49)
which can yet also be true events (Num 23:7, 18, Mat 13:3) thus establishing them
as true events as the default (John 17:17). Parables can also be discourse (Job
29:1).

God himself uses figures of speech, more accurately parables (Psalm 78:2), for
example telling Moses that he had made Moses a ‘god’ to Pharaoh (Exodus 7:1) or
that Jerusalem has a ‘navel’ (Ezekiel 16:4). By using the past tense before any of
the miracles were accomplished in front of Pharaoh, God also demonstrates the
out-of-time nature of tense in the Word. Circumcising the foreskin of the heart is a
figure of speech (Deut 10:16).

The Word is replete with expressions and is very expressive i.e. things are spoken
which are not literally true as the Word tells us so by means of its total, unified and
single context (John 1:1, Rev 22:18-19). For example the complete mind of God is
unknown to Man (1 Cor 2:11) so God does not literally reveal the secretof His