This whole session is an introduction to what we're doing; that we have to humble, servant minded, disposition of messiah. For the rest of our time together I'm going to say: well, there's a Drash on that; and there's a Remez here; and I want you to know what I'm talking about.
Remez is a hint, or an allusion, to something before before it. Let me give you a great example of this. John 21, there are so many remezes in there, it's unbelievable - I'm going to pick one. John 21, you have seven disciples going fishing. Jesus has risen, but they're out fishing. Jesus decides to show up and cook breakfast for them on the beach; and it gives some details there, that aren't necessary to the story, so you've got to ask yourself a question: what's the author trying to say?
It says that He was standing over a pit of burning coals. One of the disciples named Peter jumps out of the boat, drags this net of 153 fish ashore - which is another remez - dragging a net of 153 fish ashore; he comes up to Jesus, and it says that he stands there with Jesus over the burning coals. Why would the author include that? When was the last time Peter stood over burning coals? What was he doing?
He was denying Jesus. The last time Peter stood over a thing of burning coals, he was denying Jesus. Now he's standing over a pit of burning coals; and Jesus doesn't even bring the sin up. He simply says: Peter, do you love Me? Peter says: yes, I do. He says: let's go then, let's do ministry together. So Jesus restores Peter, over the same picture of which Peter was denying Him - without bringing it up. See, these are hints alluding to something in the past.
Drash is a life application. No matter what you ever find in the Bible, if you cannot apply it, then don't talk about it. That was sort of their thing. You always look for life application, and you apply with questions. It is never your place to tell someone where they are in God. It is only your place to ask the right questions, so that they sort of discover it - Jesus did this all the time.
Sod is mystery. This is a realm of Bible interpretation that only the Holy Spirit can reveal to you - and they honoured that. Whereas western hermeneutics says: oh, if you just let the spirit reveal anything to you, it can get way off there and wacky. Are they right about that? Yes. They're scared that if you let that go - it's a slippery slope to nowhere; but the truth is that you can't throw all the baby out with the bath water. You have to be mature enough to let people journey; so what they said was that scripture was so huge, and because God is so big, He limited Himself to the language of men.
They said scripture was like a diamond, and it had 70 facets to it; and it depends on how you turn it, as to how the light goes through it. So every scripture has 70 different ways for light to go through it - with four different levels of meaning. So when any pastor or anybody says: hey, I was studying this scripture, and I nailed the real meaning... Wait a minute Joe and Jane. Hold on. We're dealing with something that is living, and active, and is sharper than any two-edged sword.
Let me just prove it to you, with something very practical. Have you ever read a scripture and then three years later read it again, and it meant something else to you? It's living! It's active! It's sharper than a two-edged sword.
So in our journey we have one more session tonight; and two sessions tomorrow. We're going to journey with the heart of a servant, with a heart of humility. We're going to journey into some great things in God's word, that hopefully will help us establish the kingdom of God; so the next session we'll start talking about the Hebraic definition of kingdom, and how we can establish that in our lives.