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IllustrationsInsight on the Scriptures, Volume 1
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Purposes. The primary purpose of all illustrations is, as shown in the foregoing, to teach. But the illustrations of the Bible also serve other purposes:
(1) The fact that a person sometimes has to dig to get their full, deep, heart-reaching meaning tends to turn back those who do not love God but who have a mere surface interest and therefore do not desire the truth in their hearts. (Mt 13:13-15) God is not gathering such persons. Illustrations moved the humble ones to ask for further explanation; the proud refused to do so. Jesus said: “Let him that has ears listen,” and though the majority of the crowds hearing Jesus went their way, the disciples would come and ask for explanation.—Mt 13:9, 36.
(2) Illustrations conceal truths from those who would misuse them and who desire to entrap God’s servants. Jesus answered the Pharisees’ catch question with the illustration of the tax coin, concluding: “Pay back, therefore, Caesar’s things to Caesar, but God’s things to God.” His enemies were left to make the application themselves; but Jesus’ disciples fully understood the principle of neutrality there set forth.—Mt 22:15-21.
(3) Because the hearer is left to apply the principles of the illustration to himself, it can carry to him a clear message of warning and rebuke, at the same time disarming him so that he has no ground to retaliate against the speaker. In other words, as the saying goes, ‘If the shoe fits, wear it.’ When the Pharisees criticized Jesus for eating with tax collectors and sinners, Jesus replied: “Persons in health do not need a physician, but the ailing do. Go, then, and learn what this means, ‘I want mercy, and not sacrifice.’ For I came to call, not righteous people, but sinners.”—Mt 9:11-13.
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IllustrationsInsight on the Scriptures, Volume 1
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In the Greek Scriptures. The Christian Greek Scriptures, too, are filled with vivid illustrations. Of Jesus Christ it was said, “Never has another man spoken like this.” Of all humans who have ever lived on earth, he had the greatest resources of knowledge from which to draw. (Joh 7:46) He is the one through whom everything was made by God. (Joh 1:1-3; Col 1:15-17) He was intimately acquainted with all creation. Understandably, therefore, his comparisons were most apt and his portrayal of human emotions reflected deep understanding. He was like the wise man of old who said: “And besides the fact that the congregator had become wise, he also taught the people knowledge continually, and he pondered and made a thorough search, that he might arrange many proverbs in order. The congregator sought to find the delightful words and the writing of correct words of truth.”—Ec 12:9, 10.
Jesus appropriately identified his disciples as “the salt of the earth” and “the light of the world.” (Mt 5:13, 14) He urged them to “observe intently the birds of heaven” and to “take a lesson from the lilies of the field.” (Mt 6:26-30) He likened himself to a shepherd who was willing to die for his sheep. (Joh 10:11-15) To Jerusalem he said: “How often I wanted to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers her chicks together under her wings! But you people did not want it.” (Mt 23:37) Hypocritical religious leaders he called “blind guides, who strain out the gnat but gulp down the camel!” (Mt 23:24) And concerning a person who would stumble others, he declared: “It would be of more advantage to him if a millstone were suspended from his neck and he were thrown into the sea.”—Lu 17:1, 2.
While the illustrations used by Jesus could be short, terse expressions similar to the proverbial sayings found in the Hebrew Scriptures, they were usually longer and often were of story length and character. Jesus generally drew his illustrations from the surrounding creation, from familiar customs of everyday life, from occasional happenings or not-impossible situations, and from recent events well known to his hearers.
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