All Doves:
I began in part 11 of this series with an examination of the "word-pictures" of the Bible that exist in Scripture; however, few know about the existence of an obvious but subtle means of illustrating the Message of God.
We have been looking at the many examples of "word-pictures" found in the Bible that support, through inference, implication, God's Master Plan of Redemption. This approach to studying the deeper insights of Scripture is not part of the typical pastor's Bible study or theological education today. The majority of Bible Studies are built around the idea of "Observe-Interpret-Apply" approach. The fact is there are many ways to study the Word of God. The most frequent Bible study method is the "Devotional". The two leading Bible study methods that I particularly like are "Word Study" and "Thematic Study".
(8.)
On the third month after Israel escaped from Egypt, they were to be ready for the Lord to "come down"....
Exodus 19:1 - "In the third month after the sons of Israel had gone out of the land of Egypt, on that very day they came into the wilderness of Sinai."
Exodus 19:11 - "and let them be ready for the third day, for on the third day the LORD will come down on Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people." The phrase "on the third day", is found in the KJV Bible exactly 22 times. I previously noted that the number 22, and its reference are a subtle and subliminal message and is a reference to the last letter of the Hebrew alphabet "Tavh" or Tav", which means "Truth and Perfection in Jesus Christ". The expression "the third day" is found in 55 verses of Scripture. There is much more that I could say about this theme which speaks about, namely, Christ Jesus redeeming His Creation.
(9.)
The Lord promises to keep Moses safe in a cleft, on a rock, when He passe by.
Exodus 33:20 - "But He said, "you cannot see My face, for no man can see Me and live!"
Exodus 33:21 - "Then the LORD said, "Behold, there is a place by Me, and you shall stand there on the Rock."
Exodus 33:22 - "And it will come about, while My glory is passing by, that I will put you in the cleft of rock and cover you."
(10.)
Nadab and Abihu burned up after offering strange fire... Priests had to stay in the doorway of the tent of meeting to be saved.
Leviticus 10:7 - "You shall not even go out from the doorway of the tent of meeting, or you will die; for the LORD'S anointing oil is upon you." So they did according to the word of Moses."
(11.)
In the third year of Abimelech as king he came to destroy Shecem... people saved in a strong tower (safe place) while the LORD fought for them.
Judges 9:51 - "But there was a strong tower in the center of the city, and all the men and women with all the leaders of the city fled there and shut themselves in; and they went up on the roof of the tower."
Judges 9:52 - "So Abimelech came to the tower and fought against it, and approached the entrance of the tower to burn it with fire."
Judges 9:53 - "But a certain women threw an upper millstone on Abimelech's head, crushing his skull." The allusion is to Lucifer attempting to destroy those protected by God from the wrath of man.
(12.)
Ruth was to stay close to Boaz's servants (Jesus angels?) for safety until the harvest was over.
Ruth 2:7 - "And she said, "Please let me glean and gather after the reapers among the sheaves." Thus she came and has remained from the morning until now; she has been siting in the house for a little while."
Ruth 2:21 - "Then Ruth the Moabitess said, "Furthermore, he said to me, "You should stay close to my servants until they have finished all my harvest'." The context and implications that is given is that safety or security is in the Lord. The master theme of the book of Ruth is about the "marriage of the Bridegroom and His Gentile Bride, the Church, or believers. The main characters convey the word-picture theme.
(13.)
Elijah protected in the "doorway" entrance to a cave as the Lord was passing by.
1st Kings 19:11 - "So He said, "Go forth and stand on the mountain before the LORD." And behold, the LORD was passing by! And a great and strong wind was rending the mountains and braking in pieces the rocks before the LORD; but the LORD was not in the wind. And after the wind an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake."
1st Kings 19:13 - "When Elijah heard it; he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood in the entrance of the cave. And behold, a voice came to him...?"
(14.)
Just before Elijah was taken up to heaven, he blessed Elisha, by dividing the waters and "crossing over" to a safe place.
2nd Kings 2:8 - "Elijah took his mantle and folded it together and struck the waters, and they were divided here and there, so that the two of them crossed over on dry ground."
2nd Kings 2:11 - "As they were going along and talking, behold, (there appeared) a chariot of fire and horse of fire which separated the two of them. And Elijah went up by a whirlwind to heaven."
There is a lot that Bible scholars and theologians know about Biblical communications but there is a lot more that they do not know. The questions are endless, and perhaps, and create an unreconcilable dilemma. We have numerous ways to clarify our understanding. We have such facts to consider such as the rules of interpretation. The following are good rules to function by:
1) The rule of definition
2) The rule of usage
3) The rule of context
4) The rule of historical background
5) The rule of logic
6) The rule of inference
7) The rule of genre judgment
8) The rule of dependence upon the Holy Spirit
Even when judicially exercising all of these ground rules it is not always an easy task to come to a common agreeable understanding about what the Bible is telling us. Fortunately, because of high-speed computer operations, we can gain insights behind the text. The KJV Bible was not put onto a computerized data base for research until 1964. In a half-million-dollar grant, the American Institute of Research funded with a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation, and the computer center at the University of Pittsburgh, completed the task of computerizing the KJV Bible.
What I am about to share was a pivotal point in my life. I was a computer programmer and operations shift supervisor at the University of Pittsburgh between April of 1963 and June of 1965, during the time the University of Pittsburgh undertook the project of putting the KJV Bible onto computer magnetic tape. It has been fifty years exactly since scholars have had the benefit of high-speed computer analysis. The basic project lasted seven months and another period for refinement lasted three months. The Pitt computer center occupied the entire 8th floor of the 42-story Cathedral of Learning in the heart of Pittsburgh's academic/medical/research district.
We were IBM's "show case" of its products. By that I mean, IBM would bring corporate management to the Pitt computer center to demonstrate, market and promote their products. When I was employed there we had at least one of every current IBM products, not to mention a wide array of other manufacturers computing equipment. The heart of the IBM equipment included an IBM 7070 system, a 7090 system, a 360 system, a pair of IBM 1401 systems used as input/output processing machines or servers to the larger systems.
My current primary PC has a 1-terabyte hard drive and a 5-gigabite ram drive, and occupies a 'footprint' a fraction of the what required half the floor space of the 8th floor of the Cathedral of Learning. Back in the day, students, graduate assistants, researchers from the nearby Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, and theologians from around the world would rent time on our systems to conduct Bible research. I first became interested in the Bible through my work as a computer programmer. I provided liaison guidance to those buying computer time on the University's systems. My curiosity was hooked and soon thereafter, I would begin to do my own "word searches". It would be several years later before the Biblical languages (the Textus Receptus) would be computerized. In those days, computer time was sold/rented by the minute, in incremental levels of 5-minute blocks of main-frame processor time.
As an employee of the University of Pittsburgh, I received as an employee of the University, tuition-free education. I was enrolled in the Civil Engineering Degree Program. The university computing center provided student access to all the different schools and departments of the university. Students would use the thirty key-punch machines to prepare their input programs and data punched-cards which would be then batched-processed. Thousands of student "jobs" would be processed on a two shift operation. Long running jobs would be kicked onto an overnight "overflow" shift. Output would be available for pickup by students, faculty, and researchers, the next morning.
The point of sharing this information was merely to give you some background to what began to become apparent after the KJV Bible was computerized in 1964. There is a "Heptadic" design throughout the Bible, that transcends individual books, to include the entire Bible. The word "Heptad" means "seven", and it is so important in our understanding as to the truth and validity of the KJV Bible. Years ago, the organization "Computers for Christ" at Stanford University in California declared the KJV Bible to be 98.2% accurate. It was the "Heptadic" design that confirmed this Truth. In a separate series of posts we will look at this incredible internal, "DNA" analogy, of the Creator's "signature" of authentication. "Seven" is the Creator's "thumb print" of authentication as the Bible's Author.
The significance of the "Heptadic" structural design is that it precludes the possibility that any human, or collection of human authors could have embedded an internal design that its origin is from outside of space and time. It is both a self-validation code that lays behind the literal text, and that it reflects the knowledge of a mathematical design and "mind", and has only been confirmed and corroborated by the modern-day electronic computer. This evidence is important for being able to answer questions offered up by skeptics of the Bible as the Word of God!
The new series of posts will be titled "God's Heptadic Signature"
May your week be filled with His richest blessings,
Pastor Bob