With the exception of Moses who spoke to God directly while awake and lucid, the answer is in visions, or dreams. However, that doesn't mean that every single word is a metaphor. And even if it was, it seems reasonable that the prophet, by virtue of being a prophet, would have done the interpreting himself, so that by the time the prophet communicates to us (via the very text we're talking about), his message is clear.
So... just picking out one word from one prophet and claiming a link to another passage from another prophet using that same individual word is completely unreasonable. It's the defining example of taking something out of context. Which is the topic of this thread.
You mean post 697?
Oh, no...I've read it alright.
Ok, now, I think we might be able to start understanding our views.
But we need to go step by step.
When Isaiah said the Lord spoke, these things actually appeared in His dreams and visions and figures.
So, for example, in His dream He must have seen "a Mother with a child". He must have seen "a Man with a Flock who is nourishing",etc. So all of these appeared in His dream as Visual Figures.
The question is should this dream interpreted literally or Figuratively?
I think Figuratively, and I tell you why.
Because, let's go back to an example, where a Man Saw a dream "Seven Caws ate another Seven Caws"
We should note although He saw 7 caws, in reality, the event of future had nothing to do with caws! it had to do with seven years of Prosperity and Seven years of without Food.
So, as we see, these Figures have symbolic meanings. Seven fat Caws Represented seven years with lots of food. (this is in Genesis 41)
So, this tells us, just because, He saw "a Woman with Child", or if he saw a man nourishing a flock, does not mean, that in the future a Woman or a child or a Shepered literally would appear.
So, how can we know the meaning of these symbols?
We don't! there is no way we know it ourselves.
Even as it was written that the Book is sealed! Neither a learned and unlearned can understand (you chose to ignore this!)
And I quote the verse again:
Isaiah: "And the vision of all is become unto you as the words of a book that is sealed, which men deliver to one that is learned, saying, Read this, I pray thee: and he saith, I cannot; for it is sealed: 29:12 And the book is delivered to him that is not learned saying, Read this, I pray thee: and he saith, I am not learned."
So, why it is sealed and cannot be understood? Because these visions are symbolic, and their meaning is different from what we usually expect in literal interpretations.
Just as we would have not been able to know seven caws means seven years if it was not told in the Book!
So, if we are unable to understand a sealed Book what can we do? we need to use the knowledge from Prophets. But as much as people think their prophet is the last and no more prophets come, they chose not look anywhere outside of their religion.
But Fine. SO, then the only choice left is we look into Hebrew scriptures to see,what could be the symbolic meaning of Honey in other places? what could be the symbolic meaning of a Sheppard? what could be the symbolic meaning of a flock?
And this is what I have done in this thread.
But what others do, they are inconsistant. They interprete some words in the dream symbolic, and some other parts literal. There are others who completely interprete it literally. That is even worst. A vision is a vision. It appeared as figures and needs to be interpreted as figures, not literal. The Sheppard in other Part of Bible is the symbol of Prophet, for they Sheppard anf Nourish the Flock of God (People of a Prophet).
As Far as I am concerned I am done with this thread. it was nice chatting with ya all.
