Welcome back to Primarily Scripture. I am Cindy Young, and this is our third week in a row talking about things to search for. We've already covered repeated ideas, searching for what comes next, and now this week we're going to talk about symbolism. But don't worry, it's easier than you think. All right, guys, don't be afraid of symbolism. Some people get really nervous and think that it's going to be too complicated for them. It's not as hard as you think it is, And I'm going to teach you one way to approach symbolism that can help you to understand it. We are in the Book of Ezekiel this week, and if you wanna know exactly which chapters, you can go look it up in Come Follow Me. On the worksheets that I created this week, which you can find for free at primarilyscripture.com, I have pulled verses from three different chapters to give you lots of practice in finding and understanding symbolism. So what I want you to do when you come across a symbol is three simple steps. Ready? The first one is you find the object's literal meaning. What is it in real life? What do you know about it? The second step is to explore the context. Context is what's happening in the story or verses that you're reading. What is this object doing? What happens to it? How does it fit into this story? And then the third step is to relate that object to a spiritual meaning. What is the doctrine? What is the principle that we are being taught through this symbol? So let's work through it together, and I'll show you just how easy it can be. The first verse we're gonna look at is Ezekiel chapter three, verse three, and this is in a vision, and the Lord is talking to Ezekiel. It says this, "And he," the Lord,"said unto me, 'Son of man, cause thy belly to eat, and fill thy bowels with this roll that I give thee.' Then did I eat it, and it was in my mouth as honey for sweetness." Okay, so let's talk about this roll. What is that? Do you remember that in ancient times they didn't have books in the same sense that we have them today, and often they would write things on rolls of paper. So here are important words written down that are being given by the Lord to Ezekiel. Does that make you think of anything? Are there important words that come from the Lord? This makes me think of scriptures. So you can write it down on the worksheet in the space provided that the roll or scroll represents the scriptures. Okay, so now let's explore the context. What happens to this roll? Go back to the verse. Remember that it says, "Then did I eat it." Does this mean that Ezekiel actually ate a roll of writings? In his vision, yes, he did eat it, but is that literal? Did he actually eat it in real life? And are we expected to eat it, is the question we have to ask ourselves. And because this is a vision, then we can say, no, it wasn't real life, and maybe there's some symbolism here. So are we going to eat paper? Of course not. We are not expected to actually eat the scriptures. But what could that represent? If we think about what it's talking about in simpler terms, eating something means you're putting it inside of you. So maybe this represents taking the scriptures and internalizing them within our hearts and our minds. And then the next part of the verse says this, "And it was in my mouth as honey for sweetness." So if you are internalizing the scriptures, they can be sweet to you. They can bring you joy and knowledge, and it can be a sweet experience. We just figured out the symbolism in this verse. It's that easy! Let's do it on one more.

6. It says this, "But if the watchman see the sword come, and blow not the trumpet, and the people be not warned; if the sword come, and take any person from among them, he," the person being captured, "is taken away in his," the watchman's, "iniquity. But his," the captured person, "his blood will I require at the watchman's hand." All right, so let's think about what this means. What is a literal watchman? We're talking about somebody who is guarding the city. Often they were up on a tower so that they could see farther than anybody else who's on the ground, and then they can look and see if anything dangerous is coming. So the watchman is a guard, and I bet you can tell me already what the sword represents. The sword is literally representing danger. So if the watchman sees danger coming, and he blows not his trumpet, what is the trumpet literally doing? The trumpet is the warning, right? It's telling people, "Oh no, get ready. Danger is coming." Okay, so that's what those literally are. What is the context? What are we talking about here? We're talking about whether or not the trumpet being blown is important or not. The Lord says, if the watchman doesn't blow the trumpet, then it's his fault when anybody gets hurt, and he will be held responsible. So what is the spiritual meaning here? What is this teaching us? Is there somebody who tells us about danger that's coming, and it's their responsibility to be sure that everybody knows when spiritual dangers are coming? The watchman represents the prophet, and the sword represents all of the spiritual dangers that are coming. And when the prophet speaks, that is him blowing his trumpet. So the things he's asking us to do and warning us not to do, that is his trumpet being blown, telling us how we can stay safe. Symbolism is such an important part of the scriptures, and Jesus invited those who had ears to hear, to hear the real meaning of the symbolism in his stories and parables. If you feel like you don't understand it, then pray for the Spirit to help you. Work with a partner to dig in, and as you do the work to strive to understand these symbols, the Lord will help you and will reveal it to you so that you can understand and learn. He wants you to understand this symbolism. It is here for anybody who desires it. So watch closely for those symbols. Go back to the worksheet and work through the other examples that I gave you. Thanks for being here with me this week, and I'll see you again next week right here on Primarily Scripture. Bye, guys. Thanks for tuning in to Primarily Scripture with Cindy Young. Don't forget, you can subscribe to the newsletter and download free worksheets on the website primarilyscripture.com. And if you like the channel, be sure to subscribe, like, share, and leave a review. See you next time!