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CHAPTER ELEVEN

IMAGINATION CAN BE GREAT
IF YOU DO NOT LET IT RUN AWAY WITH YOU

Textual Fidelity, like Personal Trustworthiness is a Delightful Thing

The point that Israel is internally defined in myriads of contexts as a city once godly, then fouled with deliberate departures from God, then ruined, then to be restored, then  restored in the graphic encounter with prophetic vision, while it removes the confused confabulation of multiple definitions of the same item in the same context in the same series, does not remove the multiple possibilities for the use of the word, the term, as with many another word. It is because the base meaning is so clear that you can use the term in some imaginative manner, and still be perfectly clear. You will of course have to MAKE it clear; but in principle there is no limit on imagination, just on bowing to it in a manner confusion to the issues.

Thus of course, as with normal imaginative works of man, you COULD use the term to refer to the TYPE of thing which Jerusalem was, its essential, its role and so forth, as the dictionary would express it in such cases, "by metaphorical extension."

Thus the fact that rain could be said idiomatically to be coming down like cats and dogs, compromises the normal usage and clarity of neither rain nor yet cats nor dogs. It is just an opening for a little fling or flair, if the speaker or writer wishes it that way, for reasons of emotion, historical feeling, impact or the arousing of interest, for example.

Thus in Isaiah 60, the term 'Jerusalem', in a context where walls are deemed to be 'salvation' and its gates 'praise', we at once know because walls are not in fact 'salvation' but may suggest by their solidity and safety and the care given in making them, deliverance in a figure, this. Here there is imagery, and it is apparent its sub-type is emphasis, and its nature is in the direction of some kind of transfiguration. On learning that its "people shall be all righteous," which fits with Isaiah 27:5 and 32:17, we realise that this has moved in vision to the realm either millenial or eternal. Ultimates in this sort of intrusive inlay can come into figurative expression. Thus the "Jerusalem which is above," in Galatians, appears to be using historical famed units to refer to their inspiration, on earth, their situation, as mentors for the mind, and their reality becoming perfect in due course, that is, the city which has foundations whose builder and maker is God as in Hebrews 11.

By all means, when any context warrants, we are free to follow the empirical drift, the clear contextual constraint, just as we are not free to make a subjectivistic assumption that God is not very good at expression, and start inventing an interpretation for which there is simply no objective evidence. All His words are clear if you bring understanding (Proverbs 8); the deficiencies are not from His speech but the misused scope for our dulness of heart, ignorance or wilfulness.

Thus since we are told over and over again that the Jewish and Gentile applications of the one Gospel are just that (e.g. Isaiah 42:6, 49:6), and that the Messiah is one, meaning just that, then the spiritual side of what is addressed to Israel may indeed be applied to the Gentiles, as Ephesians makes so clear, a fact in which Paul glories in Romans 11. As to that,  is all one tree, whether you are currently in a group which is pruned off, or grafted in. Hence not in vain do many Christians, of which this author is one, find immense comfort, encouragement and edification in reading of the various strengthening and comforting passages which move throughout Isaiah, like a perfume from an aromatic bush, hidden from the eye, perhaps, but stirring the senses.

While therefore it is crass to try to suppress passages contextually about the historical Jerusalem or Israel, to make them in themselves not mean that to which beyond doubt they refer in context, often wrapped about with numerous references and historical overviews, it is unfortunate not to see that just because some have misused the clear teaching of God on a particular issue or people, that with a unique and particular past, this does not mean that one should disregard or disrelish due figurative, or essentialised usage.

If there be contextually supported imagery in the use of various terms, Israel, Jerusalem, as is normal in human communication, then these are by no means ruled out from possible meaning, as if the fact that someone once stole a diamond means that diamonds are dim. The diamonds are the same; it is man who must not be dim, obviating the constant necessity for TEXTUAL FIDELITY, always a sound approach. God does not distort for convenience, nor does He mislead, and one of the most spectacular possible distortions is this: to imagine that God is not the truth, that He is subjected to cultural considerations, from which you disentangle and so on.

In such cases, it is necessary to ask of those involved: WHOSE writing is this, yours or God's ? If you want to write your own, just do not give it God's name, which belongs to Him (Jeremiah 23:21-25). They prophesy, says the Lord here, "lies in My name"!