Why The Bible Shows The Holy Spirit In Symbols? Series

Sometimes people inadvertently deploy iconic expressions to cut short the necessity of employing so many words in tactful discussions. For example, people often say a picture is worth a thousand words. This expression immediately brings up the image that a picture can reveal more intimate details than words can express.

Let’s say instead, a symbol is worth more than a thousand words. Immediately, this expression invokes many images in the mind of the hearer. It stirs up the heart of the hearer and leads them on a path of discovery. That is how symbols unfold in the heart of man.

Symbols are not new to humanity. Symbols have been used as a concept by different authorities both in the secular and religious worlds to hide meanings in things, such as natural elements and avatar names. Through them, purposes, activities, rituals, places, titles, and instructions are revealed. For example, the United States of America's national currency employs several symbols to inform the public of its might and future purposes.

Hence, a symbol is like a picture that speaks volumes about things that words cannot describe. When symbols are used, they can help us understand the meaning behind events, places, and things much more clearly than just hearing about them. It follows the notion that seeing the object discussed is a thousand times better than just hearing someone talk about it.

This is why the Bible records different pictures, symbols, and images to address different audiences, cultures, and nations. Ultimately, our Lord uses symbols to paint word pictures, speaking to all manner of people with different messages and appearances. Hence, symbols can reveal substantial information relevant to the edification of believers.

Symbols are the paintbrush of the Lord. Often, the Lord uses symbols to paint indelible images in our hearts to draw the believer's attention to something words alone cannot describe.

Though the word symbol does not appear anywhere in the Bible, they are used to paint pictures of truth so that we can visualize and find the person referred to, and when we find the person, we find ourselves represented in the symbol. Symbols are spiritual mirrors that enable the eyes of the spirit to see the likeness of the Lord.

The Lord uses them so that we can see ourselves spiritually because we are in Him (John 15:1–5). Therefore, the Bible uses symbols to point to a person, and the person points back to us in Him. For example, the Bible uses the symbol of light for the Holy Spirit, while Jesus said in the gospel of John 8:12, 9:5, I am the Light of the world. In the gospel of Matthew 5:14–16, He called the believers the light of the world. The Bible says God is light (1 John 1:5). Here we see light pointing to the Father, the Son, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, and the believers.

The Bible is a book filled with puzzles embedded in symbols. That is why the study of biblical symbolism remains one of the most potent tools for understanding prophecy in an unusual setting. Sometimes symbols can make the word of God so plain that a newborn can comprehend it. Symbols have been widely used in understanding the personality, purpose, and workings of God for all generations.

Symbols occupied an important place in the studies of the Jewish rabbinic schools of old. They used biblical symbols to teach spiritual concepts in the prophetic schools of learning as a means of corresponding pictorial frames to scriptural truth in the minds of the faithful. Therefore, we need to study biblical symbols to understand the will and plan of the Lord.