How can we best use images and symbols in "God's songbook", the Psalms?

The lesson this week comments on judgement themes in Psalm 5. We find it somewhat difficult to identify all the connections, but find value in the challenging poetic images. We are particularly intrigued by what it might meant to recognise some of the "bloodthirsty and deceitful" aspects in our own lives. Can we cope with the idea that someone might be praying these ideas about us!

The foundation of prophecy is perhaps hope.

In the end, the Bible says in so many ways, God and goodness do triumph. Prophecy seems to use this long-term hope for the future as a lens through which to examine and evaluate present actions. We examine the beginning of the book of Ezekiel, where a prophet is called to speak God's words "whether the people listen to them or not".

Animal sacrifice is one of the most pervasive symbols in the Bible, and yet is foreign to modern society.

One interesting aspect of the sacrificial system in the Old Testament is that God sometimes declared he rejected it! Does this perhaps illuminate what might be the actual substance behind this ritual? We explore how "simply going through the motions" can perhaps be valuable spiritual discipline and yet can also be dangerous disengagement from the mission of God in our world.

God seems entirely willing to work with imperfect people, cultures, and institutions.

This episode follows on from our last one, exploring issues of human government and nation-states. There's an interesting connection with themes in a recent Ezra Klein Show podcast from the New York Times. Jesus reminded the people who were proud of being Abraham's descendents that God could make stones into children of Abraham. Maybe even some secular institutions can be used by God for his purposes. When Christ wanted to typify the sort of spiritual illness to which self-righteous religious people are susceptible, he contrasted a pharisee with agent of the state (tax collector).

Sorry for some audio quality being lower than usual this week.

Nations fall short of God's ideals, but removing government usually leads to anarchy.

When listing the nations descended from Noah, Genesis 10 points out that Nimrod built a kingdom including places such as Babel and Ninevah. That's somewhat foreboding given our knowledge of the subsequent stories. Although it is good to be counter cultural, is the government (or government in general) always bad?

Marriage is a strong but tricky image throughout the Bible.

It is interesting to see that God is able to reveal aspects of himself through this image both when marriage is at its best and also when it doesn't go as hoped.

Genesis is a foundation for many of the symbols and images that become significant throughout the Bible.

But it is fascinating to reconsider just how detailed these introductions actually are. What is the resolution of the imagery in Genesis, and does it add value forwards through time? Could some of it only make sense in retrospect? We focus particularly on themes of "the lamb" and sacrifice, and it seems much is left unresolved (from our Christian perspective) in the book of Genesis itself.

One principle of prophecy is that God wants to be understood.

But it does sometimes seem strange then that He chooses such mysterious analogies and images. This new season will explore a few of these allusions, images, and symbols. One key issue with prophecy is whether these aspects should be interpreted literally or figuratively, but there are numerous other contrasts that could be explored: prosaic-vs-poetic, understated-vs-exaggerated, right-vs-wrong, etc. Maybe some Biblical passages don't neatly fit into some of these categories.