Discussion Jumpstarter
Study leader reference - not a definitive answer
Question 1
The speaker says God often speaks in “pictures” rather than “everything spelled out in words,” because pictures have simple entry points for the young and deep layers for the mature; how does that claim shape the way you approach Scripture compared to the way you were taught to “study the Bible”?
Another way to ask: If God often teaches through “pictures” with simple and deep meanings, how should that change the way you read the Bible compared to how you were taught to study it?
Discussion Jumpstarter
Direct Answer
Based on the speaker’s teaching, Scripture should be approached less like a textbook to master quickly and more like a set of God-given pictures you “chew on” for a lifetime, expecting both simple and deep meaning. That challenges a study style focused mainly on extracting quick, fully spelled-out conclusions.
- He says God often doesn’t “tell us everything spelled out in words,” because it could be “so complicated we would never understand it.”
- Instead, “God… gives us a picture,” where “very simple things… the new and the young can get,” and “very deep things… the older and more mature continue to get out of it.”
- He connects this to Psalm 1 and “meditates” (hagah) as “chewing over something.”
- He argues we’re designed to “chew on these things… your whole life because there’s always more and more.”
- He says good liturgy works similarly: repeated words have “deep meaning” you “continue to chew on.”