In this Quarter

A Thing Bigger Than Itself

         
     We are awash in symbols. Our language, our words (hence our thoughts, even) are symbols, representations of things other than themselves. The letters of the word dog aren’t a dog or any dog. They’re a symbol, composed of type on a page, made of letters and sounds that, no matter how construed, never can be what they stand in for. The word dog, in every tongue and script, represents something bigger than itself.
     Language, culture, society, politics—everything to some degree—comes to us filtered through symbols: flags, icons, pictures, slogans, idiom, art, poetry, sculpture, dance, architecture, ritual, and custom, with meanings often varying from place to place. So many things mean more than what they, in and of themselves, are.
     Of course, the Bible is filled with symbols, too. We’re all familiar with, for example, the prophetic symbolism of Daniel: a winged lion (Dan. 7:4), a beast with iron teeth (Dan. 7:7), a goat that “touched not the ground” (Dan. 8:5), a statue with feet of iron and clay (Dan. 2:33). Again, all these are symbols of greater realities.
     And the parables Jesus told? The lost sheep (Luke 15:1–6), the rich man burning in hell (Luke 16:22–31), the marriage supper (Matt. 22:1–13), and the ten virgins (Matt. 25:1–13) are all symbolic representations of concepts that, in their essence, have little or nothing to do with their symbols. (Christ came to give eternal life to a fallen race, not to find lost farm animals.)
     This quarter’s lessons focus on biblical symbolism of a certain kind: clothing imagery. We will consider the garments that people in the Bible wore and what that clothing really meant, what truths it symbolized, what great realities it pointed to, and what lessons we can learn from it. From the fanciful adornment of Lucifer in heaven to the filthy rags of our own righteousness, from the coats of animal skins for Adam and Eve in Eden to the “garments of splendor” mentioned in Isaiah, the Bible uses clothing and clothing imagery to portray truths about sin, pride, righteousness, salvation, justification, resurrection, and eternal life in Christ. 

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