For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. Isaiah 55:9

Transcription

1 Poetry as Revela-on

2 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. Isaiah 55:9 If God s ways and thoughts are so high above ours, how is it possible for us to know him? Does the difference between God and people make knowing God problema-c? How can we know God?

3 rev e la -on 1. the making known of something that was previously secret or unknown 2. the divine or supernatural disclosure to humans of something rela-ng to human existence or the world

4 The job of the prophet is to show us ourselves from God s perspec-ve so that we will change. Why is thus says the Lord open followed by poetry? Ah, Lord God! They are saying of me, Is he not a maker of parables? Ezekiel 20:49

5 Ezekiel 27 1The word of the LORD came to me: 2"Now you, son of man, raise a lamenta-on over Tyre, 3and say to Tyre, who dwells at the entrances to the sea, merchant of the peoples to many coastlands, thus says the Lord GOD: O Tyre, you have said, 'I am perfect in beauty.' 4Your borders are in the heart of the seas; your builders made perfect your beauty. 5They made all your planks of fir trees from Senir; they took a cedar from Lebanon to make a mast for you. 6Of oaks of Bashan they made your oars; they made your deck of pines from the coasts of Cyprus, inlaid with ivory. 7Of fine embroidered linen from Egypt was your sail, serving as your banner; blue and purple from the coasts of Elishah was your awning. 8The inhabitants of Sidon and Arvad were your rowers; your skilled men, O Tyre, were in you; they were your pilots. 9The elders of Gebal and her skilled men were in you, caulking your seams; all the ships of the sea with their mariners were in you to barter for your wares. 26 Your rowers have brought you out into the high seas. The east wind has wrecked you in the heart of the seas.

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7 Metaphor: the transfer of words from one context to another. Aristotle the applica-on of an alien name by transference. Hobbes & the Age of Reason: metaphor is an abuse of language, if it can t be translated into literal language, it s false

8 Recent writers almost unanimously reject Hobbes conclusion. No advance in knowledge of the world is possible without changes in the meaning of words, that is to say, by means of the development of metaphors or other figures of speech. Colin Gunton Descartes describes universe as a machine Classical physics talks about a field (which has since developed a specific meaning) We get epistemic access to the world by adap-ng language to cut the world at its joints.

9 Why is thus says the Lord open followed by poetry? Access Impact

10 Ezekiel 27 1The word of the LORD came to me: 2"Now you, son of man, raise a lamenta-on over Tyre, 3and say to Tyre, who dwells at the entrances to the sea, merchant of the peoples to many coastlands, thus says the Lord GOD: O Tyre, you have said, 'I am perfect in beauty.' 4Your borders are in the heart of the seas; your builders made perfect your beauty. 5They made all your planks of fir trees from Senir; they took a cedar from Lebanon to make a mast for you. 6Of oaks of Bashan they made your oars; they made your deck of pines from the coasts of Cyprus, inlaid with ivory. 7Of fine embroidered linen from Egypt was your sail, serving as your banner; blue and purple from the coasts of Elishah was your awning. 8The inhabitants of Sidon and Arvad were your rowers; your skilled men, O Tyre, were in you; they were your pilots. 9The elders of Gebal and her skilled men were in you, caulking your seams; all the ships of the sea with their mariners were in you to barter for your wares. 26 Your rowers have brought you out into the high seas. The east wind has wrecked you in the heart of the seas.

11 1. Use context to get a feel for the concept. *Context is King* 2. Analyze the image s quali-es. 3. Find points of connec-on. 4. Find where the analogy breaks down. 5. Suggest emo-onal and rhetorical impact. Behold, the storm of the Lord! Wrath has gone forth, A whirling tempest; it will burst upon the head of the wicked Jeremiah 23:19

12 1. Use context to get a feel for the concept. *Context is King* 2. Analyze the image s quali-es. 3. Find points of connec-on. 4. Find where the analogy breaks down. 5. Suggest emo-onal and rhetorical impact. What shall I do with you, O Ephraim? What shall I do with you, O Judah? Your love is like a morning cloud, like the dew that goes early away. Hosea 6:4

13 3 Types of Parallelism Synonymous: Repeated concept. Ps 121:6 the sun will not hard you by day, nor the moon by night. An8the8cal: Contrast to reinforce concept. Prov 10:23 A fool finds pleasure in evil conduct, but a man of understanding delights in wisdom. Synthe8c: Completes statement that is incomplete in first line. Job 19:4 If it is true that I have gone astray, my error remains my concern alone.

14 1. Use context to get a feel for the concept. *Context is King* 2. Analyze the image s quali-es. 3. Find points of connec-on. 4. Find where the analogy breaks down. 5. Suggest emo-onal and rhetorical impact. Take away from me the noise of your songs; to the melody of your harps I will not listen. But let juslce roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever- flowing stream. Amos 5:23-24

15 Isaiah 40: Do you not know? Do you not hear? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the founda-ons of the earth? 22It is he who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers; who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and spreads them like a tent to dwell in; 23who brings princes to nothing, and makes the rulers of the earth as emp-ness. 24Scarcely are they planted, scarcely sown, scarcely has their stem taken root in the earth, when he blows on them, and they wither, and the tempest carries them off like stubble. 25To whom then will you compare me, that I should be like him? says the Holy One. 26LiP up your eyes on high and see: who created these? He who brings out their host by number, calling them all by name, by the greatness of his might, and because he is strong in power not one is missing. 27Why do you say, O Jacob, and speak, O Israel, "My way is hidden from the LORD, and my right is disregarded by my God"? 28Have you not known? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlas-ng God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable. 29He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength. 30Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; 31but they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.

16 *Context is King* Prophecy is based on Torah.

17 Ezekiel 28:11-19 A Lament over the King of Tyre 11Moreover, the word of the LORD came to me: 12"Son of man, raise a lamenta-on over the king of Tyre, and say to him, Thus says the Lord GOD: "You were the signet of perfec-on, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. 13You were in Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone was your covering, sardius, topaz, and diamond, beryl, onyx, and jasper, sapphire, emerald, and carbuncle; and craped in gold were your sepngs and your engravings. On the day that you were created they were prepared. 14You were an anointed guardian cherub. I placed you; you were on the holy mountain of God; in the midst of the stones of fire you walked. 15You were blameless in your ways from the day you were created, -ll unrighteousness was found in you. 16In the abundance of your trade you were filled with violence in your midst, and you sinned; so I cast you as a profane thing from the mountain of God, and I destroyed you, O guardian cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire. 17 Your heart was proud because of your beauty; you corrupted your wisdom for the sake of your splendor. I cast you to the ground; I exposed you before kings, to feast their eyes on you. 18By the mul-tude of your iniqui-es, in the unrighteousness of your trade you profaned your sanctuaries; so I brought fire out from your midst; it consumed you, and I turned you to ashes on the earth in the sight of all who saw you. All who know you among the peoples are appalled at you; you have come to a dreadful end and shall be no more forever."

18 *Context is King* You need to know two pieces of history.

19 722 B.C. Assyria destroys Israel/Samaria (Northern Kingdom) Kings: Ahaz & Hezekiah (Judah), Jeroboam (Israel) 586 B.C. Babylon destroys Judah (Southern Kingdom), Exile starts Kings: Josiah, Jehoiakim, Jehoiachin

20 The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah. Isaiah 1:1

21 The words of Jeremiah, the son of Hilkiah, one of the priests who were in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin, to whom the word of the Lord came in the days of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah, in the thirteenth year of his reign. Jeremiah 1:1-2

22 Basic historical context for the prophets: 722 B.C. Assyria destroys Israel/Samaria (Northern Kingdom) Kings: Ahaz & Hezekiah (Judah), Jeroboam (Israel) 586 B.C. Babylon destroys Judah (Southern Kingdom), Exile starts Kings: Josiah, Jehoiakim, Jehoiachin

23 In the thir-eth year, in the fourth month, on the fiph day of the moth, as I was among the exiles by the Chebar canal, the heavens were opened, and I saw visions of God. On the fiph day of the month (it was the fiph year of the exile of King Jehoiachin) Ezekiel 1:1-3

24 In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah Daniel 1:1

25 Basic historical context for the prophets: 722 B.C. Assyria destroys Israel/Samaria (Northern Kingdom) Kings: Ahaz & Hezekiah (Judah), Jeroboam (Israel) 586 B.C. Babylon destroys Judah (Southern Kingdom), Exile starts Kings: Josiah, Jehoiakim, Jehoiachin

26 The word of the Lord that came to Micah or Moresheth in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, which he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem. Micah 1:1

27 The words of Amos, who was among the shepherds of Tekoa, which he saw concerning Israel in the days of Uzziah king of Judah and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash, king of Israel, two years before the earthquake. Amos 1:1

28 The word of the Lord that came to Zephaniah the son of Cushi, son of Gedaliah, son of Amariah, son of Hezekiah, in the days of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah. Zephaniah 1:1

29 The job of the prophet is to show us ourselves from God s perspec-ve so that we will change. Why is thus says the Lord open followed by poetry? Access Impact Skills for reading texts with figura-ve language: 1. Use context to get a feel for the concept. *Context is King* 2. Analyze the image s quali-es. 3. Find points of connec-on. 4. Find where the analogy breaks down. 5. Suggest emo-onal and rhetorical impact. 3 types of parallelism: Synonymous An-the-cal Synthe-c Context is King: Prophecy is based on Torah Two pieces of history: Assyria destroys Israel (722 B.C.) Babylon destroys Judah, starts exile (586 B.C.)