The pictures Scripture thinks in
The Bible teaches in things you can hold: bread, blood, a lamb, a vine, a door, a city. This is the index of them: pick one and find what it stands for, where Scripture uses it, and how far the study goes.
Summary
Scripture explains itself with objects. Water, fire, bread, oil, the lamb, the vine, the veil, Babylon: the same images come back book after book, gathering meaning as they go. This index gathers them in one place so a reader can start from the picture instead of the chapter.
214 symbols in 12 rooms. Jump to a room:
15 symbols
Water, fire, wind, light and the weather: the raw materials God speaks with.
Life and cleansing, and, when it rises, judgment. Scripture offers it free to the thirsty and makes it the picture of the Spirit poured out.
“Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you without money, come, buy, and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost! — Isaiah 55:1
See also The Woman at the Well · Water Baptism · The Bronze Laver
God's own presence, and what that presence does to everything false; it burns without consuming a bush, and it tries a man's work to see what is left.
There the angel of the LORD appeared to him in a blazing fire from within a bush. Moses saw the bush ablaze with fire, but it was not consumed. — Exodus 3:2
One Hebrew word carries breath, wind and Spirit, so the air in a man's lungs, the storm over the sea and the Spirit of God are named alike, and the New Testament keeps the pun.
Then the LORD God formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed the breath of life into his nostrils, and the man became a living being. — Genesis 2:7
See also The Valley of Dry Bones · Who the Holy Spirit Is
The first thing God speaks, and the last thing the city needs; truth you can see by, and a Person who claims to be it.
And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. — Genesis 1:3
See also The Light of the World · Salt and Light · The Lampstand
Not merely the absence of light but a condition men can be in and even prefer; over Egypt, over the cross, and over a heart that will not come to the light.
Then the LORD said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand toward heaven, so that darkness may spread over the land of Egypt—a palpable darkness.” So Moses stretched out his hand toward heaven, and total darkness covered all the land of Egypt for three days. — Exodus 10:21–22
The life itself, which is why it is the one thing that can be given for a life; on doorposts, on an altar, in a cup, and overcoming at the end.
For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you to make atonement for your souls upon the altar; for it is the blood that makes atonement for the soul. — Leviticus 17:11
What man is made of and what he returns to, so it becomes the posture of anyone who has seen God clearly and knows what he is talking to.
Then the LORD God formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed the breath of life into his nostrils, and the man became a living being. — Genesis 2:7
Where the fire has been; the mountain's warning, the temple filling until no one can enter, and the prayers of the saints going up.
Mount Sinai was completely enveloped in smoke, because the LORD had descended on it in fire. And the smoke rose like the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mountain quaked violently. — Exodus 19:18
See also The Ten Commandments
God present and God hidden at the same time: it leads Israel, fills the house so the priests cannot stand, speaks on the mountain, and takes Him out of sight.
And the LORD went before them in a pillar of cloud to guide their way by day, and in a pillar of fire to give them light by night, so that they could travel by day or night. — Exodus 13:21
See also The Transfiguration · The Ascension · The Glory Departed
Blessing that arrives quietly and overnight: the picture Scripture reaches for when it wants favour that no one worked for and no one saw coming.
May God give to you the dew of heaven and the richness of the earth—an abundance of grain and new wine. — Genesis 27:28
See also Gideon's Fleece (Judges 6–7) · MannaFest · Manna
God's ordinary kindness, given to the just and the unjust alike, and the prophets' picture of the Lord Himself coming, and of the Spirit poured out in season.
then I will provide rain for your land in season, the autumn and spring rains, that you may gather your grain, new wine, and oil. — Deuteronomy 11:14
See also Elijah on Carmel
The voice and the flash of a God who is not tame; at Sinai, over the throne, and in the way the Lord says His own coming will look.
On the third day, when morning came, there was thunder and lightning. A thick cloud was upon the mountain, and a very loud blast of the ram’s horn went out, so that all the people in the camp trembled. — Exodus 19:16
God moving what men assumed was fixed, and Scripture is careful to say that at Horeb He was not in it.
Then the LORD said, “Go out and stand on the mountain before the LORD. Behold, the LORD is about to pass by.” And a great and mighty wind tore into the mountains and shattered the rocks before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake there was a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire. And after the fire came a still, small voice. — 1 Kings 19:11–12
See also Paul and Silas at Midnight · The Veil
The old picture of chaos and the nations in uproar, which is why it matters that He walks on it, tells it to be still, and why in the end there is none.
Above the roar of many waters— the mighty breakers of the sea— the LORD on high is majestic. — Psalms 93:4
Weather kept in God's armoury: hail is judgment aimed and delivered; snow is the colour He promises to make scarlet sins.
So Moses stretched out his staff toward heaven, and the LORD sent thunder and hail, and lightning struck the earth. So the LORD rained down hail upon the land of Egypt. — Exodus 9:23
See also The Ten Plagues
10 symbols
Bread, wine, oil and salt: the everyday food that Scripture keeps making holy.
The daily necessity, which is exactly why it is the thing God rains from heaven, teaches men to ask for one day at a time, and finally calls Himself.
Then the LORD said to Moses, “Behold, I will rain down bread from heaven for you. Each day the people are to go out and gather enough for that day. In this way I will test whether or not they will follow My instructions. — Exodus 16:4
Gladness and abundance at a table, and, in the prophets, the cup of wrath. Both meanings meet in a cup He hands to His friends the night before He dies.
wine that gladdens the heart of man, oil that makes his face to shine, and bread that sustains his heart. — Psalms 104:15
What is poured on a man to set him apart, and what keeps a lamp burning; the standing picture of the Spirit's anointing and supply.
So Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the presence of his brothers, and the Spirit of the LORD rushed upon David from that day forward. Then Samuel set out and went to Ramah. — 1 Samuel 16:13
What preserves, seasons and seals a covenant, and the one thing Jesus says is worthless the moment it stops being itself.
And you shall season each of your grain offerings with salt. You must not leave the salt of the covenant of your God out of your grain offering; you are to add salt to each of your offerings. — Leviticus 2:13
The small thing that changes the whole lump: used for corruption spreading through a church, for the Pharisees' teaching, and once for the kingdom itself.
For seven days you must eat unleavened bread. On the first day you are to remove the leaven from your houses. Whoever eats anything leavened from the first day through the seventh must be cut off from Israel. — Exodus 12:15
See also The Exodus
Sweetness worth the trouble: the land flows with it, God's words taste of it, and a scroll that is honey in the mouth can still be bitter afterward.
I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey—the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites. — Exodus 3:8
First food: offered free with the wine, and used by the apostles to say plainly that some believers have never moved on to solid meat.
“Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you without money, come, buy, and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost! — Isaiah 55:1
A man's portion, handed to him: David's runs over, the prophets' is full of wrath, and in a garden the Son asks whether His can pass.
You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. — Psalms 23:5
Fellowship you can sit down at; spread in front of enemies, set with the Presence in the holy place, and the one thing you cannot share with demons.
You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. — Psalms 23:5
God's appointed times, kept year by year, and the picture He uses for the end: a mountain, a spread table, and every nation invited.
“Speak to the Israelites and say to them, ‘These are My appointed feasts, the feasts of the LORD that you are to proclaim as sacred assemblies. — Leviticus 23:2
24 symbols
Seed, vine, root and harvest: the Bible thinks agriculturally, and so must a reader.
Where the trouble started and where it ended: one Hebrew word covers the tree in the garden, the wood Isaac carried, and the beam the New Testament keeps calling a tree.
Out of the ground the LORD God gave growth to every tree that is pleasing to the eye and good for food. And in the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. — Genesis 2:9
Guarded shut on the third page of the Bible and standing open on the last; with wisdom, and a wish fulfilled, called by its name in between.
Out of the ground the LORD God gave growth to every tree that is pleasing to the eye and good for food. And in the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. — Genesis 2:9
Israel, planted and tended and disappointing: until One stands up and says the vine is not a nation now but Himself, and the branches are His people.
You uprooted a vine from Egypt; You drove out the nations and transplanted it. — Psalms 80:8
Peace at home, every man under his own fig tree, and, when it has leaves and no fruit, the sharpest picture of religion that only looks alive.
And each man will sit under his own vine and under his own fig tree, with no one to frighten him. For the mouth of the LORD of Hosts has spoken. — Micah 4:4
See also The Cleansing of the Temple
The cultivated tree God planted: the one Paul warns grafted-in branches never to boast against, because the root carries them and not the other way round.
And behold, the dove returned to him in the evening with a freshly plucked olive leaf in her beak. So Noah knew that the waters had receded from the earth. — Genesis 8:11
Height and permanence: what a righteous man grows into, what empires are compared to, and what God says He can take a sprig from and plant Himself.
The righteous will flourish like a palm tree, and grow like a cedar in Lebanon. — Psalms 92:12
Victory in the hand: carried at the feast God appointed, waved on the road into Jerusalem, and held by a crowd no man can number.
On the first day you are to gather the fruit of majestic trees, the branches of palm trees, and the boughs of leafy trees and of willows of the brook. And you are to rejoice before the LORD your God for seven days. — Leviticus 23:40
A title, not a plant: four prophets use the word for a coming King out of a cut-down family line, and Zechariah says the Branch will build the temple.
On that day the Branch of the LORD will be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the land will be the pride and glory of Israel’s survivors. — Isaiah 4:2
What a thing actually grows out of: a stump nobody expected life from, a dry ground with no form or comeliness, and a Man who calls Himself both root and offspring of David.
On that day the Root of Jesse will stand as a banner for the peoples. The nations will seek Him, and His place of rest will be glorious. — Isaiah 11:10
See also The Servant Songs
The promise carried in a single word from Genesis 3 onward, and the thing Jesus says must fall into the ground and die before it is anything but alone.
And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed. He will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.” — Genesis 3:15
The end of the growing season, when what was planted is finally sorted; plentiful and short of workers now, and reaped by angels then.
Swing the sickle, for the harvest is ripe. Come, trample the grapes, for the winepress is full; the wine vats overflow because their wickedness is great. — Joel 3:13
See also Firstfruits · The Sheep and the Goats
Two things that look identical until harvest: the Lord's own answer to why the false is allowed to grow in the same field as the true.
His winnowing fork is in His hand to clear His threshing floor and to gather His wheat into the barn; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.” — Matthew 3:12
See also The Great Reversal
Flat, open ground where grain is beaten loose from its husk; a place of sifting, and the piece of land David refused to take for nothing.
“No,” replied the king, “I insist on paying a price, for I will not offer to the LORD my God burnt offerings that cost me nothing.” So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver. — 2 Samuel 24:24
See also Ruth: the Study Guide · The Statue and the Stone
Where the fruit is crushed; the Bible's most unsparing picture of judgment, and the one place a prophet says God trod alone.
“I have trodden the winepress alone, and no one from the nations was with Me. I trampled them in My anger and trod them down in My fury; their blood spattered My garments, and all My clothes were stained. — Isaiah 63:3
See also The Day of the LORD · Armageddon
The ground's answer to the curse: what chokes the word in a man, what stayed in Paul's flesh, and what a soldier twisted into a crown.
Both thorns and thistles it will yield for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. — Genesis 3:18
How short a life is, said gently; the grass withers and the flower fades, and the same breath adds that the word of our God stands for ever.
As for man, his days are like grass— he blooms like a flower of the field; when the wind passes over, it vanishes, and its place remembers it no more. — Psalms 103:15–16
See also Do Not Worry
Something that bends in any wind and snaps under weight, which is why the promise not to break a bruised one is such a striking thing to say.
A bruised reed He will not break and a smoldering wick He will not extinguish; He will faithfully bring forth justice. — Isaiah 42:3
See also The Servant Songs
A common little plant used as a brush: it puts the blood on the doorposts, cleanses a leper, and is asked for by a king who wants to be clean inside.
Take a cluster of hyssop, dip it into the blood in the basin, and brush the blood on the top and sides of the doorframe. None of you shall go out the door of his house until morning. — Exodus 12:22
The smallest start with the largest end: used once for the kingdom's growth and twice for how little faith it takes to move what will not move.
He put before them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that a man planted in his field. Although it is the smallest of all seeds, yet it grows into the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and nest in its branches.” — Matthew 13:31–32
The world, in the Lord's own explanation, and the place a man sells everything to buy, because he knows what is buried in it.
The field is the world, and the good seed represents the sons of the kingdom. The weeds are the sons of the evil one, — Matthew 13:38
See also Jesus on the Kingdom
Where God put man to begin with, what He promises to make a wasteland into, and, Scripture is careful to mention it, where the tomb was.
And the LORD God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, where He placed the man He had formed. — Genesis 2:8
Beauty that did no work for it; the Lord's argument against anxiety, and the flower the Song reaches for twice.
I am a rose of Sharon, a lily of the valley. Like a lily among the thorns is my darling among the maidens. — Song of Solomon 2:1–2
See also Do Not Worry · The Canticles
The first tree to wake in the year: its name is a pun on watching, which is why God shows Jeremiah a branch of it and says He is watching over His word.
The next day Moses entered the Tent of the Testimony and saw that Aaron’s staff, representing the house of Levi, had sprouted, put forth buds, blossomed, and produced almonds. — Numbers 17:8
See also The Lampstand · Korah's Rebellion
Fruit of the good land, worked in blue and purple and scarlet around the hem of the high priest's robe and cast in bronze on the temple pillars.
a land of wheat, barley, vines, fig trees, and pomegranates; a land of olive oil and honey; — Deuteronomy 8:8
See also The Anointing
30 symbols
From the Lamb on the throne to the ant in Proverbs, every animal here is doing work.
A boy's question on a mountain: where is the lamb? : answered by a promise, kept at Passover, named by John, and seated on the throne.
Then Isaac said to his father Abraham, “My father!” “Here I am, my son,” he replied. “The fire and the wood are here,” said Isaac, “but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?” Abraham answered, “God Himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” And the two walked on together. — Genesis 22:7–8
People, seen honestly: prone to wander, helpless without a shepherd, and known individually by the One who has them.
Know that the LORD is God. It is He who made us, and we are His; we are His people, and the sheep of His pasture. — Psalms 100:3
Strength that does not flee; the emblem of Judah's king and of the devil on the prowl, which is why Revelation announces a Lion and shows a Lamb.
Judah is a young lion—my son, you return from the prey. Like a lion he crouches and lies down; like a lioness, who dares to rouse him? — Genesis 49:9
See also Daniel in the Lions' Den: Daniel 6 · The Lamb
The subtle one from the garden, and, in a strange reversal, the bronze figure lifted on a pole that Jesus said was a picture of Himself.
Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field that the LORD God had made. And he said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden?’” — Genesis 3:1
Gentleness and a message of peace: an olive leaf over a drowned world, the poor family's offering, and the form the Spirit took at the Jordan.
And behold, the dove returned to him in the evening with a freshly plucked olive leaf in her beak. So Noah knew that the waters had receded from the earth. — Genesis 8:8–11
See also The Baptism of Jesus · The Flood
Speed, height and a fierce kind of care: God says He carried Israel on eagles' wings, and Moses compares Him to one stirring up her nest.
‘You have seen for yourselves what I did to Egypt, and how I carried you on eagles’ wings and brought you to Myself. — Exodus 19:4
Patient working strength: the animal Paul twice quotes the law about, to argue that the man who labours deserves to eat.
Do not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain. — Deuteronomy 25:4
The Day of Atonement animal: one killed, one sent away carrying the sins into a land not inhabited; and at the end, the ones set on the left.
After Aaron casts lots for the two goats, one for the LORD and the other for the scapegoat, he shall present the goat chosen by lot for the LORD and sacrifice it as a sin offering. But the goat chosen by lot as the scapegoat shall be presented alive before the LORD to make atonement by sending it into the wilderness as the scapegoat. — Leviticus 16:8–10
See also The Sheep and the Goats · The Mercy Seat
Not a pet in that world: a scavenger outside the walls, and a hard word used for the ungodly, for false teachers, and once, by a woman who turned it into faith.
For dogs surround me; a band of evil men encircles me; they have pierced my hands and feet. — Psalms 22:16
The catch: men gathered in a net that holds good and bad together until it is drawn to shore and sorted.
“Come, follow Me,” Jesus said, “and I will make you fishers of men.” — Matthew 4:19
Judgment that strips a land bare, and the promise God attaches to it, that He will restore the years the locust has eaten.
The locusts swarmed across the land and settled over the entire territory of Egypt. Never before had there been so many locusts, and never again will there be. They covered the face of all the land until it was black, and they consumed all the plants on the ground and all the fruit on the trees that the hail had left behind. Nothing green was left on any tree or plant in all the land of Egypt. — Exodus 10:14–15
See also The Ten Plagues · Joel, the Study Guide
A small thing with a sting: the wilderness's danger, the hostility a prophet is sent into, and what the disciples were given authority over.
He led you through the vast and terrifying wilderness with its venomous snakes and scorpions, a thirsty and waterless land. He brought you water from the rock of flint. — Deuteronomy 8:15
Blunt force and grief-driven rage: what David killed as a boy, what Daniel sees as an empire, and what the prophets say a bereaved one is like.
David replied, “Your servant has been tending his father’s sheep, and whenever a lion or a bear came and carried off a lamb from the flock, I went after it, struck it down, and delivered the lamb from its mouth. If it reared up against me, I would grab it by its fur, strike it down, and kill it. Your servant has killed lions and bears; this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, for he has defied the armies of the living God.” David added, “The LORD, who delivered me from the claws of the lion and the bear, will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine.” “Go,” said Saul, “and may the LORD be with you.” — 1 Samuel 17:34–37
See also David and Goliath: 1 Samuel 17
What the flock has to fear: false prophets in sheep's clothing, and the reason a hireling runs while a shepherd does not.
The wolf will live with the lamb, and the leopard will lie down with the goat; the calf and young lion and fatling will be together, and a little child will lead them. — Isaiah 11:6
See also The Good Shepherd · Known by Their Fruit
An unclean bird God feeds anyway: sent out of the ark, sent to feed Elijah, and used by Jesus to argue how much more He will feed you.
and sent out a raven. It kept flying back and forth until the waters had dried up from the earth. — Genesis 8:7
See also Do Not Worry
Military power: the thing Israel was told not to trust in, prepared for the day of battle, and ridden by the One called Faithful and True.
Some trust in chariots and others in horses, but we trust in the name of the LORD our God. — Psalms 20:7
See also The Seals, Trumpets and Bowls · The Second Coming
The sea monster no man can draw out with a hook: the picture of chaos and hostile power, which God speaks of as something He plays with.
“Can you pull in Leviathan with a hook or tie down his tongue with a rope? — Job 41:1
See also Job, the Study Guide
The great beast God points to in His own answer to Job: chief of His ways, eating grass like an ox, and beyond any man to master.
Look at Behemoth, which I made along with you. He feeds on grass like an ox. — Job 40:15
See also Job, the Study Guide · The Question of Suffering
The lowest thing a man can call himself: the word in Psalm 22, in Isaiah's tender 'fear not, thou worm Jacob,' and in the warning that does not die.
how much less man, who is but a maggot, and the son of man, who is but a worm!” — Job 25:6
See also Praying the Hard Psalms · Gehenna · MannaFest
Quiet, invisible ruin: what eats a garment in a drawer, and the Lord's reason for laying treasure somewhere else.
So man wastes away like something rotten, like a moth-eaten garment. — Job 13:28
See also Treasure in Heaven
Wisdom with no ruler over it: Proverbs sends the sluggard to school with an insect that stores its food in summer.
Walk in the manner of the ant, O slacker; observe its ways and become wise. — Proverbs 6:6
See also Proverbs: the Study Guide
The cheapest bird in the market: sold two for a penny, and not one of them forgotten before God, which is the whole point.
Even the sparrow has found a home, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she places her young near Your altars, O LORD of Hosts, my King and my God. — Psalms 84:3
See also The Father's Care
Shelter under wings: the picture the Lord chose when He wept over a city that would not come, and the psalmist's refuge.
O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those sent to her, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were unwilling! — Matthew 23:37
Thirst and sure-footedness: panting after water brooks, and set on high places where a slip would kill.
As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul longs after You, O God. — Psalms 42:1
What Israel made when Moses was late, and, in the Lord's own story, what a father kills the day his son comes home.
He took the gold from their hands, and with an engraving tool he fashioned it into a molten calf. And they said, “These, O Israel, are your gods, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!” — Exodus 32:4
See also The Golden Calf · The Prodigal Son
The strangest ordinance in the law: an unblemished red cow burned outside the camp, whose ashes make the unclean clean, and which Hebrews argues from directly.
“This is the statute of the law that the LORD has commanded: Instruct the Israelites to bring you an unblemished red heifer that has no defect and has never been placed under a yoke. — Numbers 19:2
The offering the law allowed when a family could not afford a lamb, which is what Joseph and Mary brought for Jesus.
If, however, he cannot afford a lamb, he may bring to the LORD as restitution for his sin two turtledoves or two young pigeons—one as a sin offering and the other as a burnt offering. — Leviticus 5:7
The unclean animal: where a ruined son ends up, what pearls are not to be thrown to, and a proverb about a jewel in a pig's snout.
And the pig, though it has a split hoof completely divided, does not chew the cud; it is unclean for you. — Leviticus 11:7
See also Pearls Before Swine · The Prodigal Son
The largest animal a Jew knew, used twice by Jesus for comic impossibility: through a needle's eye, and swallowed whole by men straining out a gnat.
Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” — Matthew 19:24
See also The Rich Young Ruler
The small spoiler and the sly ruler: the little foxes in the vineyard, and the name Jesus gave Herod to his face.
Catch for us the foxes—the little foxes that ruin the vineyards—for our vineyards are in bloom. — Song of Solomon 2:15
20 symbols
The tent, its furniture and its clothing: the one building God gave the blueprints for.
God moving in: a tent pitched in the middle of the camp so that the holy One lives at the same address as the people.
And they are to make a sanctuary for Me, so that I may dwell among them. — Exodus 25:8
The barrier: embroidered with cherubim, saying keep out, until it tore from the top down and Hebrews named what it had stood for.
Make a veil of blue, purple, and scarlet yarn, and finely spun linen, with cherubim skillfully worked into it. Hang it with gold hooks on four posts of acacia wood, overlaid with gold and standing on four silver bases. And hang the veil from the clasps and place the ark of the Testimony behind the veil. So the veil will separate the Holy Place from the Most Holy Place. — Exodus 26:31–33
The throne-box of God in Israel: a gold chest holding the law, the manna and the rod, carried ahead of the people into the river.
And they are to construct an ark of acacia wood, two and a half cubits long, a cubit and a half wide, and a cubit and a half high. — Exodus 25:10
The gold lid where blood was sprinkled and God said He would meet with Moses: the exact word Paul reaches for when he says what Christ was set forth to be.
And you are to construct a mercy seat of pure gold, two and a half cubits long and a cubit and a half wide. — Exodus 25:17
The only light in the holy place: beaten from one piece of gold, fed with oil, and in Revelation standing for the churches themselves.
Then you are to make a lampstand of pure, hammered gold. It shall be made of one piece, including its base and shaft, its cups, and its buds and petals. — Exodus 25:31
Twelve loaves kept before God's face continually: the bread David ate when he was hungry, and the incident Jesus used to answer the Pharisees.
And place the Bread of the Presence on the table before Me at all times. — Exodus 25:30
The basin between the altar and the tent: made from the women's mirrors, and required before any priest could go in or serve.
“You are to make a bronze basin with a bronze stand for washing. Set it between the Tent of Meeting and the altar, and put water in it, with which Aaron and his sons are to wash their hands and feet. Whenever they enter the Tent of Meeting or approach the altar to minister by presenting an offering made by fire to the LORD, they must wash with water so that they will not die. Thus they are to wash their hands and feet so that they will not die; this shall be a permanent statute for Aaron and his descendants for the generations to come.” — Exodus 30:18–21
Where something dies so a man may come near: the first thing Noah builds, the thing God says to make of earth, and the one Hebrews says we have.
Then Noah built an altar to the LORD. And taking from every kind of clean animal and clean bird, he offered burnt offerings on the altar. — Genesis 8:20
Prayer made visible: burned morning and evening while the people prayed outside, and held in golden bowls before the throne.
And Aaron is to burn fragrant incense on it every morning when he tends the lamps. When Aaron sets up the lamps at twilight, he must burn the incense perpetually before the LORD for the generations to come. — Exodus 30:7–8
See also Jesus on Prayer · The Tabernacle
The guardians of what is holy: set with a flaming sword at Eden's gate, then hammered in gold over the mercy seat, facing the blood.
So He drove out the man and stationed cherubim on the east side of the Garden of Eden, along with a whirling sword of flame to guard the way to the tree of life. — Genesis 3:24
See also The Mercy Seat · The Fall & the Protoevangelium
The priest's shoulder-piece, carrying Israel's twelve names into God's presence, and, when Gideon made one of gold, the thing a nation went whoring after.
They are to make the ephod of finely spun linen embroidered with gold, and with blue, purple, and scarlet yarn. — Exodus 28:6
See also The Anointing
Twelve engraved stones worn over the heart: the tribes carried in by name, and the Urim and Thummim carried in with them.
You are also to make a breastpiece of judgment with the same workmanship as the ephod. Construct it with gold, with blue, purple, and scarlet yarn, and with finely spun linen. — Exodus 28:15
A gold plate on the high priest's forehead engraved HOLINESS TO THE LORD, worn so that the guilt of Israel's holy things would be borne, not ignored.
You are to make a plate of pure gold and engrave on it as on a seal: HOLY TO THE LORD. Fasten to it a blue cord to mount it on the turban; it shall be on the front of the turban. And it will be worn on Aaron’s forehead, so that he may bear the iniquity of the holy things that the sons of Israel consecrate with regard to all their holy gifts. It shall always be on his forehead, so that they may be acceptable before the LORD. — Exodus 28:36–38
What the priest wore and what the sanctuary was made of, and, at the end, what the Bride is given, with the meaning stated outright.
“You are to construct the tabernacle itself with ten curtains of finely spun linen, each with blue, purple, and scarlet yarn, and cherubim skillfully worked into them. — Exodus 26:1
See also The Marriage Supper of the Lamb
The three colours the tabernacle is made in, over and over: the same purple a mocking cohort put on Jesus, and the scarlet God offers to turn white.
“You are to construct the tabernacle itself with ten curtains of finely spun linen, each with blue, purple, and scarlet yarn, and cherubim skillfully worked into them. — Exodus 26:1
What holds a thing up and marks it out: cloud and fire over the camp, two bronze columns at the temple porch, and men called pillars of the church.
And the LORD went before them in a pillar of cloud to guide their way by day, and in a pillar of fire to give them light by night, so that they could travel by day or night. — Exodus 13:21–22
See also The Exodus
The four projections blood was daubed on, and the thing a frightened man ran and took hold of when he wanted his life spared.
Make a horn on each of its four corners, so that the horns are of one piece, and overlay it with bronze. — Exodus 27:2
See also Cities of Refuge, MannaFest
A recipe God gave and then forbade anyone to copy: poured on priests, kings and furniture to mark them as no longer common.
“Take the finest spices: 500 shekels of liquid myrrh, half that amount (250 shekels) of fragrant cinnamon, 250 shekels of fragrant cane, 500 shekels of cassia—all according to the sanctuary shekel—and a hin of olive oil. Prepare from these a sacred anointing oil, a fragrant blend, the work of a perfumer; it will be a sacred anointing oil. — Exodus 30:23–25
Where the sin offering was burned and the unclean were sent, and where Hebrews says Jesus suffered, with an invitation to go out to Him there.
The bull for the sin offering and the goat for the sin offering, whose blood was brought into the Most Holy Place to make atonement, must be taken outside the camp; and their hides, flesh, and dung must be burned up. — Leviticus 16:27
The two costly resins of worship and of burial: brought to a child in a house, and brought again to a tomb.
“Take the finest spices: 500 shekels of liquid myrrh, half that amount (250 shekels) of fragrant cinnamon, 250 shekels of fragrant cane, — Exodus 30:23
See also Men Who Read the Sky
27 symbols
Nets, keys, swords, scrolls and yokes: ordinary objects Scripture presses into service.
A lump on a wheel under a hand that may make it again: the prophets' picture of God's freedom, and Paul's answer to the man who talks back.
But now, O LORD, You are our Father; we are the clay, and You are the potter; we are all the work of Your hand. — Isaiah 64:8
What gathers indiscriminately: thrown into the sea, bringing up good and bad together, and not sorted until it is drawn to shore.
For surely no man knows his time: Like fish caught in a cruel net or birds trapped in a snare, so men are ensnared in an evil time that suddenly falls upon them. — Ecclesiastes 9:12
See also The Great Reversal
A weighted string that cannot argue: held up beside a wall to show whether it is straight, and held up beside a people for the same reason.
This is what He showed me: Behold, the Lord was standing by a wall true to plumb, with a plumb line in His hand. “Amos, what do you see?” asked the LORD. “A plumb line,” I replied. “Behold,” said the Lord, “I am setting a plumb line among My people Israel; I will no longer spare them: — Amos 7:7–8
See also Amos: the Study Guide
Daily bread's heavy stone, which the law forbids taking as a pledge, and which the Lord says is better round your neck than harming a little one.
Do not take a pair of millstones or even an upper millstone as security for a debt, because that would be taking one’s livelihood as security. — Deuteronomy 24:6
See also Receiving Children
What binds two animals to one another's pace: used for slavery, for foreign rule, for the law's burden, and once for a rest He calls easy.
I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt so that you would no longer be slaves to the Egyptians. I broke the bars of your yoke and enabled you to walk in uprightness. — Leviticus 26:13
A shepherd's two tools: one to drive off what attacks, one to lean on and guide with; and in a prophet's hand, the thing God turns into a sign.
And the LORD asked him, “What is that in your hand?” “A staff,” he replied. “Throw it on the ground,” said the LORD. So Moses threw it on the ground, and it became a snake, and he ran from it. “Stretch out your hand and grab it by the tail,” the LORD said to Moses, who reached out his hand and caught the snake, and it turned back into a staff in his hand. — Exodus 4:2–4
See also The Lord Is My Shepherd · Korah's Rebellion
Division and judgment: flaming at Eden's gate, coming out of the mouth of the One on the throne, and named as the only offensive weapon a Christian is given.
So He drove out the man and stationed cherubim on the east side of the Garden of Eden, along with a whirling sword of flame to guard the way to the tree of life. — Genesis 3:24
What a man gets behind: the first thing God calls Himself to Abram, and the piece of armour Paul says quenches everything thrown at you.
After these events, the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision: “Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your very great reward.” — Genesis 15:1
A soldier's kit read piece by piece, and Paul is quoting Isaiah, where the armour is God's own before it is ever issued to us.
He put on righteousness like a breastplate, and the helmet of salvation on His head; He put on garments of vengeance and wrapped Himself in a cloak of zeal. — Isaiah 59:17
Force sent from a distance: sons in a warrior's hand, sharp arrows in the King's, and fiery darts that faith is meant to stop.
Like arrows in the hand of a warrior, so are children born in one’s youth. Blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them. He will not be put to shame when he confronts the enemies at the gate. — Psalms 127:4–5
Bondage: struck off a prisoner in the night by an angel, worn by an apostle who calls himself an ambassador in them, and reserved for angels that sinned.
He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death and broke away their chains. — Psalms 107:14
A mark of ownership no one else can forge: pressed in wax, worn as a ring, and used for the Spirit given as the pledge of what is coming.
On that day, declares the LORD of Hosts, I will take you, My servant, Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, declares the LORD, and I will make you like My signet ring, for I have chosen you, declares the LORD of Hosts.” — Haggai 2:23
Authority to open and shut: laid on a shoulder in Isaiah, handed to Peter, taken up by the risen Christ over death itself.
I will place on his shoulder the key to the house of David. What he opens no one can shut, and what he shuts no one can open. — Isaiah 22:22
See also Upon This Rock
A small light for the next step: the word at a man's feet, the spirit of man searching him, and the thing you do not light in order to hide it.
Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. — Psalms 119:105
See also The Eye as the Lamp of the Body · Salt and Light
Polished bronze that shows you yourself: the picture for seeing God dimly now, and for the man who looks, walks off, and forgets his own face.
Now we see but a dim reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. — 1 Corinthians 13:12
What is written and cannot be unwritten: a book God keeps names in, a scroll a prophet is told to eat, and the sealed one only the Lamb can open.
Yet now, if You would only forgive their sin.... But if not, please blot me out of the book that You have written.” The LORD replied to Moses, “Whoever has sinned against Me, I will blot out of My book. — Exodus 32:32–33
Writing meant to outlast the writer: Job wishing his words were graven in rock, Judah's sin written with a diamond point, and a letter written on hearts.
I wish that my words were recorded and inscribed in a book, by an iron stylus on lead, or chiseled in stone forever. — Job 19:23–24
The sound that assembles, warns and announces: at Sinai, around Jericho, on the day of jubilee, and at the last one.
On the third day, when morning came, there was thunder and lightning. A thick cloud was upon the mountain, and a very loud blast of the ram’s horn went out, so that all the people in the camp trembled. — Exodus 19:16
A dwelling you can strike in a morning: how the patriarchs lived on purpose, what Isaiah says to enlarge, and what Paul calls this body.
From there Abram moved on to the hill country east of Bethel and pitched his tent, with Bethel to the west and Ai to the east. There he built an altar to the LORD, and he called on the name of the LORD. — Genesis 12:8
See also The Tabernacle
Small in a big sea: steered by a tiny rudder, swamped while He slept, and held in the storm by a hope Hebrews calls an anchor of the soul.
Jonah, however, got up to flee to Tarshish, away from the presence of the LORD. He went down to Joppa and found a ship bound for Tarshish. So he paid the fare and went aboard to sail for Tarshish, away from the presence of the LORD. Then the LORD hurled a great wind upon the sea, and such a violent storm arose that the ship was in danger of breaking apart. — Jonah 1:3–4
See also Paul's Shipwreck · Calming the Storm: Mark 4:35–41
Weighing: a false balance God calls an abomination, a just weight He calls His own, and a king weighed in them and found wanting.
You shall maintain honest scales and weights, an honest ephah, and an honest hin. I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt. — Leviticus 19:36
God taking dimensions: a man with a line in his hand in Ezekiel and Zechariah, a reed given to John, and the city measured with gold.
So He took me there, and I saw a man whose appearance was like bronze. He was standing in the gateway with a linen cord and a measuring rod in his hand. — Ezekiel 40:3
A ladder of worth and hardness that Scripture uses deliberately: four metals in a king's dream, and four materials a man may build with on one foundation.
The head of the statue was pure gold, its chest and arms were silver, its belly and thighs were bronze, its legs were iron, and its feet were part iron and part clay. — Daniel 2:32–33
Cut, named and set: twelve on a priest's heart, twelve in a city's foundations, and God calling His people His jewels.
And mount on it a setting of gemstones, four rows of stones: In the first row there shall be a ruby, a topaz, and an emerald; — Exodus 28:17
Heat with a purpose: Egypt called an iron furnace, silver refined seven times, and a Refiner who sits down beside the fire and watches.
Yet the LORD has taken you and brought you out of the iron furnace, out of Egypt, to be the people of His inheritance, as you are today. — Deuteronomy 4:20
Old leather that has lost its give: the Lord's answer to why His new thing could not simply be poured into the old religious container.
Neither do men pour new wine into old wineskins. If they do, the skins will burst, the wine will spill, and the wineskins will be ruined. Instead, they pour new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved.” — Matthew 9:17
See also The New Covenant
What you are covered with, and who provided it: skins God made, filthy rags a prophet admits to, a robe put on a returning son, and one you had better not arrive without.
And the LORD God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife, and He clothed them. — Genesis 3:21
10 symbols
Crowns, thrones, horns and the right hand: how the Bible pictures authority.
What is put on a head that has won or reigns, and in the letters, something that can be taken, cast down before a throne, or lost.
Everyone who competes in the games trains with strict discipline. They do it for a crown that is perishable, but we do it for a crown that is imperishable. — 1 Corinthians 9:25
Where the decisions are actually made: seen by prophets when the earthly king died, and approached by us, Hebrews says, boldly.
Micaiah continued, “Therefore hear the word of the LORD: I saw the LORD sitting on His throne, and all the host of heaven standing by Him on His right and on His left. — 1 Kings 22:19
The rod a king holds: promised not to depart from Judah, extended by a Persian king to spare a queen, and quoted of the Son in Hebrews.
The scepter will not depart from Judah, nor the staff from between his feet, until Shiloh comes and the allegiance of the nations is his. — Genesis 49:10
See also The Branch and the King · Esther: the Study Guide
Strength that can push: a flask for anointing oil, a rising power in Daniel's visions, and the horn of salvation raised up in David's house.
At that time Hannah prayed: “My heart rejoices in the LORD in whom my horn is exalted. My mouth speaks boldly against my enemies, for I rejoice in Your salvation. — 1 Samuel 2:1
The place of power and favour: where the Lord's own hand becomes glorious, and where the New Testament says Christ sat down.
Your right hand, O LORD, is majestic in power; Your right hand, O LORD, has shattered the enemy. — Exodus 15:6
God's power reaching in: bared before the nations in Isaiah, and asked after in the verse John says was about the people who would not believe.
Therefore tell the Israelites: ‘I am the LORD, and I will bring you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians and deliver you from their bondage. I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with mighty acts of judgment. — Exodus 6:6
See also The Servant Songs
Not a label but the person and their authority: a strong tower to run into, a thing not to be taken in vain, and the one given above every name.
God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I AM has sent me to you.’” God also told Moses, “Say to the Israelites, ‘The LORD, the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob—has sent me to you.’ This is My name forever, and this is how I am to be remembered in every generation. — Exodus 3:14–15
See also The Name of God · Asking in His Name
What an army rallies to and is known by: the altar Moses named The LORD my banner, and the root of Jesse standing as an ensign for the nations.
And Moses built an altar and named it The LORD Is My Banner. — Exodus 17:15
What is under the feet of a seated king: the earth, in God's own words, and the enemies of Christ, in the psalm the New Testament quotes most.
Exalt the LORD our God, and worship at His footstool; He is holy! — Psalms 99:5
See also The Millennial Kingdom
Oil poured out to set a man apart for God's work: the act behind the word Messiah, and something John says believers themselves have received.
So Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the presence of his brothers, and the Spirit of the LORD rushed upon David from that day forward. Then Samuel set out and went to Ramah. — 1 Samuel 16:13
11 symbols
Heart, hand, eye, ear and tongue: the parts of a person used to describe the whole.
In Scripture the whole inner man: will and thinking, not feeling only. It is what God looks at, what Jeremiah says is deceitful, and what Ezekiel says will be replaced.
But the LORD said to Samuel, “Do not consider his appearance or height, for I have rejected him; the LORD does not see as man does. For man sees the outward appearance, but the LORD sees the heart.” — 1 Samuel 16:7
See also Circumcision of the Heart · Born Again
Holding and doing: a name graven on God's palms, a flock nobody can pluck out of His grip, and the fearful thing it is to fall into them.
Behold, I have inscribed you on the palms of My hands; your walls are ever before Me. — Isaiah 49:16
Seeing and being seen: eyes running to and fro through the whole earth, a people called the apple of His eye, and the lamp of the body.
For the eyes of the LORD roam to and fro over all the earth, to show Himself strong on behalf of those whose hearts are fully devoted to Him. You have acted foolishly in this matter. From now on, therefore, you will be at war.” — 2 Chronicles 16:9
See also The Eye as the Lamp of the Body
Hearing as obedience: an ear opened, a servant's ear pierced at the doorpost, and the refrain let him hear said to seven churches.
Sacrifice and offering You did not desire, but my ears You have opened. Burnt offerings and sin offerings You did not require. — Psalms 40:6
See also Hearing God, MannaFest
The small member that steers a life: death and life in its power, a fire James says no man can tame, and the taught tongue that knows how to speak a word in season.
Life and death are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruit. — Proverbs 18:21
Presence itself: the blessing asks for it to shine on you, the psalmist says he will seek it, and the last chapter says we shall see it.
may the LORD cause His face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; may the LORD lift up His countenance toward you and give you peace.’ — Numbers 6:25–26
An ox that will not turn under the yoke: God's own word for Israel at the golden calf, and Stephen's word for the council that stoned him.
The LORD also said to Moses, “I have seen this people, and they are indeed a stiff-necked people. — Exodus 32:9
See also The Golden Calf · Stephen, the First Martyr
Where a man walks and how he stands: beautiful on the mountains with news, set on high places like a deer's, and washed by his Lord.
How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion, “Your God reigns!” — Isaiah 52:7
See also The Foot-Washing
What is left and what is deepest: bone of my bones at the first wedding, a valley full and dry, and the one prophecy John says the soldiers fulfilled by not breaking any.
And the man said: “This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called ‘woman,’ for out of man she was taken.” — Genesis 2:23
See also The Valley of Dry Bones
Where the old languages put mercy: a gut-level turning that Scripture attributes to God Himself, and asks of anyone who has this world's goods.
Look down from heaven and see, from Your holy and glorious habitation. Where are Your zeal and might? Your yearning and compassion for me are restrained. — Isaiah 63:15
See also The Prodigal Son · The Good Samaritan
Two very different things under one word: humanity in its frailty, which the Word became; and the self at war with the Spirit, which Paul says cannot please God.
A voice says, “Cry out!” And I asked, “What should I cry out?” “All flesh is like grass, and all its glory like the flowers of the field. — Isaiah 40:6
See also The Incarnation · Made Holy
20 symbols
Doors, walls, mountains, rivers and rocks: the landscape of Scripture's imagination.
The one way in: sin crouching at one, blood on another, a narrow one to be strived for, and a Person who says plainly that He is it.
If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you refuse to do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires you, but you must master it.” — Genesis 4:7
What keeps out and what shuts in: salvation appointed for walls, a middle wall of partition broken down, and a city whose gates are never shut.
In that day this song will be sung in the land of Judah: We have a strong city; salvation is established as its walls and ramparts. — Isaiah 26:1
See also The Wall · Nehemiah, the Study Guide
Height men build for themselves against height God gives: one raised to reach heaven, and one a righteous man simply runs into and is safe.
“Come,” they said, “let us build for ourselves a city with a tower that reaches to the heavens, that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of all the earth.” — Genesis 11:4
See also The Tower of Babel : Genesis 11
Where men gather to be safe without God, and where God gathers His own: the first one built by Cain, the last one coming down out of heaven.
And Cain had relations with his wife, and she conceived and gave birth to Enoch. Then Cain built a city and named it after his son Enoch. — Genesis 4:17
Where God meets men and where kingdoms are pictured: the LORD will provide on one, the law comes from one, and one grows till it fills the earth.
And Abraham called that place The LORD Will Provide. So to this day it is said, “On the mountain of the LORD it will be provided.” — Genesis 22:14
The between-place: where a nation is tested for forty years, where a voice cries, where the Lord is driven for forty days, and where God says He will speak to her heart.
Remember that these forty years the LORD your God led you all the way in the wilderness, so that He might humble you and test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep His commandments. — Deuteronomy 8:2
Life that moves and deepens: out of Eden in four heads, rising ankle to waist in Ezekiel's vision, and clear as crystal from the throne.
Now a river flowed out of Eden to water the garden, and from there it branched into four headwaters: — Genesis 2:10
Where life is drawn in a dry land: dug by fathers and stopped by enemies, forsaken for broken cisterns, and offered at a Samaritan well as water that never runs out.
Isaac reopened the wells that had been dug in the days of his father Abraham, which the Philistines had stopped up after Abraham died. And he gave these wells the same names his father had given them. — Genesis 26:18
See also The Woman at the Well
Down, with no way up on your own: where brothers put Joseph, where the psalmist says God reached for him, and what a bottomless one is opened out of.
and they took him and threw him into the pit. Now the pit was empty, with no water in it. — Genesis 37:24
What does not move: the name Moses gives God in his song, the thing struck in the desert that Paul says was Christ, and the only foundation that survives the storm.
Behold, I will stand there before you by the rock at Horeb. And when you strike the rock, water will come out of it for the people to drink.” So Moses did this in the sight of the elders of Israel. — Exodus 17:6
One object with two effects: the head of the corner to those who build on it, and a stumbling-stone to those who do not.
Early the next morning, Jacob took the stone that he had placed under his head, and he set it up as a pillar. He poured oil on top of it, — Genesis 28:18
The stone the whole building is squared from: laid in Zion as a sure foundation, rejected by the builders, and quoted by Jesus about Himself.
So this is what the Lord GOD says: “See, I lay a stone in Zion, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation; the one who believes will never be shaken. — Isaiah 28:16
See also The Church
What everything else rests on, and the reason Paul says a man had better be careful how he builds: only one can be laid.
Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts on them is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain fell, the torrents raged, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because its foundation was on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of Mine and does not act on them is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain fell, the torrents raged, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell—and great was its collapse!” — Matthew 7:24–27
See also Rewards · The Two Builders
A word Scripture works in two directions: David wants to build God a house, and God answers that He will build David one; and the church is called a house of living stones.
and have done since the day I appointed judges over My people Israel. I will give you rest from all your enemies. The LORD declares to you that He Himself will establish a house for you. And when your days are fulfilled and you rest with your fathers, I will raise up your descendant after you, who will come from your own body, and I will establish his kingdom. He will build a house for My Name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. — 2 Samuel 7:11–13
See also The Davidic Covenant · The Church
A road you are actually on: two of them in Psalm 1, a highway called the way of holiness, a name the first Christians were known by, and a Person who says He is it.
For the LORD guards the path of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish. — Psalms 1:6
A road made straight ahead of someone important: every valley filled and every mountain brought low, which is what a forerunner was for.
A voice of one calling: “Prepare the way for the LORD in the wilderness; make a straight highway for our God in the desert. — Isaiah 40:3
See also The Forerunner and the Refiner
Somewhere to run and be safe while a claim against you stands: six cities appointed for it, and the same verb used of fleeing to lay hold on hope.
designate cities to serve as your cities of refuge, so that a person who kills someone unintentionally may flee there. — Numbers 35:11
Two meanings held together: shelter under wings from a burning sun, and an outline cast by something real that has not arrived yet.
He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty. — Psalms 91:1
Low ground: walked through rather than camped in, filled with dry bones in one vision and with a multitude for decision in another.
Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me. — Psalms 23:4
See also The Valley of Dry Bones · The Lord Is My Shepherd
Ruins with a promise attached: the old ones raised up, the desert made like Eden, and repairers of the breach given a name.
For the LORD will comfort Zion and will look with compassion on all her ruins; He will make her wilderness like Eden and her desert like the garden of the LORD. Joy and gladness will be found in her, thanksgiving and melodious song. — Isaiah 51:3
See also The Exile and the Return
21 symbols
Shepherd, bride, servant, watchman, builder: the roles God borrows to explain Himself.
The Bible's steadiest picture of leadership: God shepherding Jacob all his life, false shepherds feeding themselves, and a good one who lays his life down.
Then he blessed Joseph and said: “May the God before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked, the God who has been my shepherd all my life to this day, — Genesis 48:15
How God describes His own commitment: betrothed for ever in Hosea, rejoiced over in Isaiah, and a mystery Paul says was about Christ and the church all along.
So I will betroth you to Me forever; I will betroth you in righteousness and justice, in loving devotion and compassion. And I will betroth you in faithfulness, and you will know the LORD.” — Hosea 2:19–20
The title Isaiah gives to someone God upholds and delights in: who is also despised, and who justifies many by bearing their iniquities.
“Here is My Servant, whom I uphold, My Chosen One, in whom My soul delights. I will put My Spirit on Him, and He will bring justice to the nations. — Isaiah 42:1
The office Israel demanded and God warned about, and the one Jesus accepts, riding in on a donkey and answering Pilate plainly.
“Look,” they said, “you are old, and your sons do not walk in your ways. Now appoint a king to judge us like all the other nations.” But when they said, “Give us a king to judge us,” their demand was displeasing in the sight of Samuel; so he prayed to the LORD. And the LORD said to Samuel, “Listen to the voice of the people in all that they say to you. For it is not you they have rejected, but they have rejected Me as their king. — 1 Samuel 8:5–7
The man who stands between: chosen from among men, touched with the feeling of our infirmities in Hebrews, and a title given to the whole church.
“Next, have your brother Aaron brought to you from among the Israelites, along with his sons Nadab, Abihu, Eleazar, and Ithamar, to serve Me as priests. — Exodus 28:1
The one who decides rightly: Abraham asking whether the Judge of all the earth will do right, and the Father committing all judgment to the Son.
Far be it from You to do such a thing—to kill the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous and the wicked are treated alike. Far be it from You! Will not the Judge of all the earth do what is right?” — Genesis 18:25
See also Judge Not · The Great White Throne · MannaFest
The man on the wall whose only job is to warn, and who, Ezekiel says twice, answers for the blood of the unwarned.
This is the burden against Dumah: One calls to me from Seir, “Watchman, what is left of the night? Watchman, what is left of the night?” The watchman replies, “Morning has come, but also the night. If you would inquire, then inquire. Come back yet again.” — Isaiah 21:11–12
The man who scatters and waits: the Lord's first parable, sowing in tears and reaping in joy, and the rule that a man reaps what he sows.
Those who sow in tears will reap with shouts of joy. He who goes out weeping, bearing a trail of seed, will surely return with shouts of joy, carrying sheaves of grain. — Psalms 126:5–6
See also Jesus on the Kingdom · The Two Ways
The trade Jesus turned into a commission: follow me, and I will make you fishers of men, said to men holding actual nets.
But for now I will send for many fishermen, declares the LORD, and they will catch them. After that I will send for many hunters, and they will hunt them down on every mountain and hill, even from the clefts of the rocks. — Jeremiah 16:16
See also Follow Me · The Twelve Disciples
A man under orders who does not entangle himself: Paul's picture for endurance, and the frame the armour passage sits inside.
Join me in suffering, like a good soldier of Christ Jesus. A soldier refrains from entangling himself in civilian affairs, in order to please the one who enlisted him. — 2 Timothy 2:3–4
Running with something at stake: laying weights aside, forgetting what is behind, and an old man saying at the end that he finished his course.
Everyone who competes in the games trains with strict discipline. They do it for a crown that is perishable, but we do it for a crown that is imperishable. — 1 Corinthians 9:24–26
See also Rewards · Count the Cost, MannaFest
Whoever is actually raising the house, and the psalm's flat warning that unless the LORD is the one doing it, the labour is wasted.
Unless the LORD builds the house, its builders labor in vain; unless the LORD protects the city, its watchmen stand guard in vain. — Psalms 127:1
See also The Two Builders · Nehemiah, the Study Guide
The one you send for when you admit you are sick, which is exactly the point Jesus made about who He came for.
saying, “If you will listen carefully to the voice of the LORD your God, and do what is right in His eyes, and pay attention to His commands, and keep all His statutes, then I will not bring on you any of the diseases I inflicted on the Egyptians. For I am the LORD who heals you.” — Exodus 15:26
See also Healing · MannaFest
The nearest relative with both the right and the will to buy back what a family lost: a legal office in Israel, and Job's confidence that his lives.
If your brother becomes impoverished and sells some of his property, his nearest of kin may come and redeem what his brother has sold. — Leviticus 25:25
Rank, not merely birth order: Israel called God's firstborn, David appointed firstborn though he was the youngest of eight, and Christ the firstborn among many brethren.
Then tell Pharaoh that this is what the LORD says: ‘Israel is My firstborn son, — Exodus 4:22
The three the law names again and again: the test of whether a society's religion is real, which James restates without softening it.
He executes justice for the fatherless and widow, and He loves the foreigner, giving him food and clothing. — Deuteronomy 10:18
Smallness held up as the standard: a weaned child quieted, a little one set in the middle of arguing disciples, and a warning about staying childish in understanding.
Surely I have stilled and quieted my soul; like a weaned child with his mother, like a weaned child is my soul within me. — Psalms 131:2
See also Receiving Children · The Least Is Greatest
The relationship Jesus taught His disciples to pray into: pitying his children, chastening the son he receives, and running down a road to meet one.
As a father has compassion on his children, so the LORD has compassion on those who fear Him. — Psalms 103:13
See also Jesus on the Father · Abba, Father · The Prodigal Son
Pain with an end in view: the prophets' picture for a nation's anguish, the Lord's for His disciples' sorrow, and Paul's for the whole creation.
As a woman with child about to give birth writhes and cries out in pain, so were we in Your presence, O LORD. We were with child; we writhed in pain; but we gave birth to wind. We have given no salvation to the earth, nor brought any life into the world. — Isaiah 26:17–18
See also The Great Tribulation · MannaFest
Covenant unfaithfulness named bluntly: the prophets' hardest word for idolatry, James's word for friendship with the world, and a title on a forehead in Revelation.
When the LORD first spoke through Hosea, He told him, “Go, take a prostitute as your wife and have children of adultery, because this land is flagrantly prostituting itself by departing from the LORD.” — Hosea 1:2
See also Gomer, Bought Back · Babylon the Great
A relationship God accepts: Abraham called the friend of God, Moses spoken to face to face as a man speaks to his friend, and servants promoted to friends.
Thus the LORD would speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend. Then Moses would return to the camp, but his young assistant Joshua son of Nun would not leave the tent. — Exodus 33:11
See also David and Jonathan: 1 Samuel 18 & 20
12 symbols
Sun, moon, stars and the turning year: time and the heavens as Scripture reads them.
The great light, and the thing men worship instead of its Maker, with a Sun of righteousness promised who rises with healing in his wings.
God made two great lights: the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night. And He made the stars as well. — Genesis 1:16
The lesser light that rules the night and marks the appointed times, and a sign in the prophets when it is turned to blood.
God made two great lights: the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night. And He made the stars as well. — Genesis 1:16
See also The Day of the LORD
A promise Abram was taken outside to count: sung together at creation, used for a coming Sceptre, and made the emblem of those who turn many to righteousness.
And the LORD took him outside and said, “Now look to the heavens and count the stars, if you are able.” Then He told him, “So shall your offspring be.” — Genesis 15:5
See also Men Who Read the Sky
What is over us and beyond us: declaring the glory of God, called His throne, and reaching high enough that His thoughts are said to be higher still.
The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of His hands. — Psalms 19:1
God's own division of a day: weeping may endure a night but joy comes in the morning, and mercies are said to be new every one of them.
God called the light “day,” and the darkness He called “night.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day. — Genesis 1:5
See also Jesus on Prayer
The hours a house is most vulnerable and a man is most alone: remembered in bed, waited through more than watchmen wait, and walked on water in the fourth of them.
When I remember You on my bed, I think of You through the watches of the night. — Psalms 63:6
See also Watchfulness · Walking on Water
A weapon hung up: the bow set in the cloud as the sign of a promise never to do that again, and seen round the throne like an emerald.
I have set My rainbow in the clouds, and it will be a sign of the covenant between Me and the earth. — Genesis 9:13
See also The Flood · Noah's Ark as a Type. MannaFest
God arriving in what looks like chaos: Elijah taken up in one, and the LORD answering Job out of one instead of explaining Himself.
As they were walking along and talking together, suddenly a chariot of fire with horses of fire appeared and separated the two of them, and Elijah went up into heaven in a whirlwind. — 2 Kings 2:11
See also Job, the Study Guide · The Question of Suffering
God's promise that time keeps its shape: seedtime and harvest never ceasing, a time to every purpose, and a fulness of time He chose to send His Son in.
As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night shall never cease.” — Genesis 8:22
See also Ecclesiastes: the Study Guide
Rest built into the week at creation and commanded at Sinai: made for man, said the Lord of it, and read by Hebrews as a rest that still remains.
And by the seventh day God had finished the work He had been doing; so on that day He rested from all His work. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because on that day He rested from all the work of creation that He had accomplished. — Genesis 2:2–3
See also Lord of the Sabbath
The month's first day, kept with trumpets: one of the appointed times God later says He is weary of when the hands offering them are full of blood.
And on your joyous occasions, your appointed feasts, and the beginning of each month, you are to blow the trumpets over your burnt offerings and fellowship offerings to serve as a reminder for you before your God. I am the LORD your God.” — Numbers 10:10
See also The Feasts of the LORD
Beginnings not to be despised: a cloud the size of a man's hand, a seed smaller than the rest, and the weak things God is said to have chosen on purpose.
For who has despised the day of small things? But these seven eyes of the LORD, which scan the whole earth, will rejoice when they see the plumb line in the hand of Zerubbabel.” — Zechariah 4:10
See also Elijah on Carmel · The Great Reversal
14 symbols
Babylon, Egypt, Zion, Eden: real places whose names turned into meanings. The symbology lives here; the history lives on the study of the place.
The name for the world-city organised in pride against God: begun at a tower with a name to make, ending as a fallen harlot the saints are called out of.
“Come,” they said, “let us build for ourselves a city with a tower that reaches to the heavens, that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of all the earth.” — Genesis 11:4
The place itself — Babylon the empire: the city, the kings, the exile — is a study still to be built.
See also Babylon the Great · The Tower of Babel : Genesis 11
The house of bondage a people were brought out of, and afterwards the standing picture of going back, of trusting horses instead of God, and of a refuge God's own Son was kept in.
“I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. — Exodus 20:2
The place itself — Egypt: the empire, its gods and its records — is a study still to be built.
See also The Exodus · The Flight to Egypt
A hill that became a word for the whole people of God: the city of the great King, wept over by Him, and named again as one coming down out of heaven.
Beautiful in loftiness, the joy of all the earth, like the peaks of Zaphon is Mount Zion, the city of the great King. — Psalms 48:2
The place itself — Jerusalem: the city itself, its history and its temples — is a study still to be built.
See also Why God Is Not Finished With Israel · New Heavens and New Earth. Isaiah 65–66. MannaFest
The garden that became the measure of everything after it: what the prophets say a wasteland will be made like, and what the last chapters quietly restore.
And the LORD God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, where He placed the man He had formed. — Genesis 2:8
The place itself — The garden itself: the place, the rivers, the questions — is a study still to be built.
See also The Fall & the Protoevangelium · The Creation Week, Genesis 1, MannaFest
The byword for judgment that fell: used by Isaiah for Jerusalem's own rulers, by Ezekiel with a list of her sins, and by Jesus for towns that saw more than she did.
But the men of Sodom were wicked, sinning greatly against the LORD. — Genesis 13:13
The place itself: Sodom & Gomorrah: the cities and what happened to them →
The great city that repented at preaching, which is why Jesus said its men would rise in judgment against a generation that had someone greater in front of it.
And the Ninevites believed God. They proclaimed a fast and dressed in sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least. — Jonah 3:5
The place itself — Nineveh & Assyria: the empire and its record — is a study still to be built.
See also Jonah, the Study Guide · Nahum: the Study Guide · The Sign of Jonah
The brother nation that would not let Israel pass, and afterwards the standing name for a family grudge kept for ever, and for judgment on it.
But Edom answered, “You may not travel through our land, or we will come out and confront you with the sword.” “We will stay on the main road,” the Israelites replied, “and if we or our herds drink your water, we will pay for it. There will be no problem; only let us pass through on foot.” But Edom insisted, “You may not pass through.” And they came out to confront the Israelites with a large army and a strong hand. So Edom refused to allow Israel to pass through their territory, and Israel turned away from them. — Numbers 20:18–21
The place itself — Edom: Esau's nation, its land and its end — is a study still to be built.
See also Obadiah, the Study Guide · Jacob Have I Loved: the Election Thread, MannaFest
The merchant city whose wealth became pride, and whose lament in Ezekiel 28 rises into language many readers have heard someone else behind.
therefore this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘Behold, O Tyre, I am against you, and I will raise up many nations against you, as the sea brings up its waves. They will destroy the walls of Tyre and demolish her towers. I will scrape the soil from her and make her a bare rock. — Ezekiel 26:3–4
The place itself — Tyre: the city, the trade and the siege — is a study still to be built.
See also Ezekiel, the Study Guide · I Saw Satan Fall
The mountain of the law: burning, blackness and a voice men begged to stop; and the mountain Hebrews says we have not come to.
Mount Sinai was completely enveloped in smoke, because the LORD had descended on it in fire. And the smoke rose like the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mountain quaked violently. — Exodus 19:18
The place itself — Mount Sinai: the place, the route and the questions about it — is a study still to be built.
See also The Ten Commandments · The Burning Bush
The river you cross to get in: parted for a nation carrying the ark, parted again by two prophets, and the water a Syrian general had to stoop into seven times.
Now the Jordan overflows its banks throughout the harvest season. But as soon as the priests carrying the ark reached the Jordan and their feet touched the water’s edge, the flowing water stood still. It backed up as far upstream as Adam, a city in the area of Zarethan, while the water flowing toward the Sea of the Arabah (the Salt Sea) was completely cut off. So the people crossed over opposite Jericho. The priests carrying the ark of the covenant of the LORD stood firm on dry ground in the middle of the Jordan, while all Israel crossed over the dry ground, until the entire nation had crossed the Jordan. — Joshua 3:15–17
The place itself — The Jordan: the river itself and the crossings — is a study still to be built.
See also Joshua: the Study Guide · Naaman the Leper · The Baptism of Jesus
The house of God, named by a man who woke up and said God was in this place and he had not known it, and later the site of a golden calf.
Early the next morning, Jacob took the stone that he had placed under his head, and he set it up as a pillar. He poured oil on top of it, — Genesis 28:17–19
The place itself — Bethel: the place and its long, divided history — is a study still to be built.
Where the tabernacle stood for generations until it did not: the warning God tells Jeremiah to point at when men chant the temple of the LORD.
Then the whole congregation of Israel assembled at Shiloh and set up the Tent of Meeting there. And though the land was subdued before them, — Joshua 18:1
The place itself — Shiloh: the sanctuary town and what became of it — is a study still to be built.
See also 1 Samuel: the Study Guide · The Glory Departed
The first camp inside the land, where the reproach of Egypt was rolled away, and, by the prophets' day, a byword for going through the motions.
On the tenth day of the first month the people went up from the Jordan and camped at Gilgal on the eastern border of Jericho. And there at Gilgal Joshua set up the twelve stones they had taken from the Jordan. — Joshua 4:19–20
The place itself — Gilgal: the camp, the stones and the later shrine — is a study still to be built.
See also Joshua: the Study Guide
The place of a skull: named in three Gospels and John, outside the gate, which is the detail Hebrews builds a whole exhortation on.
And when they came to a place called Golgotha, which means The Place of the Skull, — Matthew 27:33
The place itself — Golgotha: the site, the evidence and the traditions — is a study still to be built.
See also The Passion & Resurrection, John 18–21 | MannaFest · Hebrews, the Study Guide
A symbol is not a code to be cracked. Scripture uses ordinary things (a lamp, a yoke, a seed) and the meaning is built up by use, not assigned in advance. So the safe way to read any row here is to follow its verses and watch what the text itself does with the picture. Where the Bible states the meaning outright, this index says so. Where the meaning is what readers have long heard in it, it says that instead.
