Paradigms in the Bible, what kind of title is that? Am I implying that there are really paradigms in the Bible? You might not think that there are paradigms present in the Bible but the Bible is full of paradigms. People’s paradigms kept them from seeing what was really happening to them or understanding the teachings of God. Many times, they were unable to see the reality right in front of their eyes. There are all kinds of places in the Bible where it says that people had ears but could not hear and eyes but could not see. Their hearts were hardened so they were unable to understand or believe what they saw or heard. The word eyes or eye appears in the Bible more than 500 times. Many times, the Bible states that their eyes were opened. Humankind has a long history of not being able to see something right in front of them.
Evidently, God must think that perception and understanding of what you see in the world and most especially what you perceive from God is extremely important to living a life that God desires for you. You may learn a new meaning or insight into a Bible verse or story by looking at it from a different point of view or paradigm. Your unique paradigm determines how you see and perceive the world around you. Every person, business, country, and organization has a particular paradigm. Your vision, perception, and what types of things you spend time observing, reading, an educating yourself determines the person you become.
Mathew 6:22-23 NLT
Your eye is like a lamp that provides light for your body. When your eye is healthy, your whole body is filled with light. But when your eye is unhealthy, your whole body is filled with darkness. And if the light you think you have is actually darkness, how deep that darkness is!
Are These Verses Referring Just to Your Eyes Being Healthy and You Can See the 20/20 Line on the Chart in My Office?
No, this verse is referring to what your eyes perceive or what you have your eyes focused on each day. If you keep your eyes focused on good and wholesome things, you will be healthy. This refers to physical health, mental health, and spiritual health. If you live a life focused on good things, you will be living a healthy lifestyle that is good for you physically. Christians live for an average of six to seven years longer than non-Christians. There are more than two thousand studies that confirm this fact. The same goes for your mental health. Mental disease is less prevalent in Christians and if a Christian has a mental disease it is less severe on average. If you are always focusing on the positive aspects of life, you will be mentally healthier. If you are a Christian, you are filled with the light of Jesus Christ and have eternal life. You can see that where your eyes are directed determines your physical, mental, and spiritual health. The key is to not only see but perceive what your eyes are viewing correctly.
Is Your Paradigm Going to Allow You to See What God Wants You to See?
If you do have a God centered paradigm then your body will be full of light or your body will be full of what? Who is the light of the world? Jesus. Then your body will be full of the Holy Spirit given to you by Jesus once you have faith in him. Proper focus and perception are key to having a meaningful relationship with God.
What is a Paradigm?
Most of you know the term paradigm but do you really know what a paradigm is and how it affects your life? A paradigm is a set of assumptions, concepts, values, and practices that constitutes a way of viewing or perceiving reality accepted by a group or community as normal or scientifically correct. I am going to give a quick course on paradigms before we begin with the Bible.
What do you see in this picture? If you look closely there is a picture of an old woman and a young woman.
What do you see in this picture? There is a picture of a man playing a saxophone and a woman’s face.
What do you see in this picture? This is a picture of a terrace or a garden patio with two views with one looking down on the terrace and the other looking up at the terrace.
What do you see here? This is a picture of a face in 2 ways facing to the left and straight head.
Your paradigm forms what you see in the picture first. Your perception skills will also determine what you see. Everyone’s paradigm is composed of all their life experiences. It is composed of events or things that have happened to you, what you studied or learned, and all the things you have observed in life that make up your paradigm. It determines what you see, how you perceive what you are observing, and how you respond to what you see. Author Andy Andrews was invited to talk at my church and talked about the topic “What you may think is true may not be truthful”. At one time people believed the world was flat. We now know that truth was false. I am proposing that what may seem real to you may not be reality. Your brain is not keeping track of every bit of information it is receiving. It is impossible. Your brain receives millions and millions of bits of information every day. The brain cannot maintain one hundred percent focus on everything that is happening in your environment. Your brain fills in the gaps in your perception based on your past experiences or paradigm. It all depends on your paradigm whether your perception is correct or not. Many people have been convicted of a crime because the eyewitness was completely wrong. It is not that they were purposely trying to incorrectly identify someone, their perception secondary to their paradigm was simply wrong. Their preconceived idea about who might commit the crime influences whom they perceive as committing the crime.
If we look at different stories in the Bible from a different paradigm, we might be surprised about what we can learn. Let’s look at Moses and the ten plagues. God is always revealing himself to man, but humankind just keeps missing it or not realizing the importance of what we see. Let’s take a look at how the Israelites did in the Old Testament. God reveals his power and glory to the Israelites and Egyptians with the ten plagues and freed them from Egypt.
Psalm 105:37 NLT
The Lord brought his people out of Egypt loaded with silver and gold; and not one among the tribes of Israel even stumbled.
He cared so much for his chosen people that not a single person was left behind. All their current illnesses and incapacities were healed instantly. Whether they were a day old or 99 years old they were going to be able to leave Egypt. The sick, the crippled, the young, and the elderly were going to be able to traverse all those miles through a desert.
God showed his presence to them with a pillar of a cloud during the day and a pillar of fire at night. He never left them alone. God showed his presence to the people of Israel 24 hours a day. God was right there in front of them. God freed them from Egypt, they saw the ten plagues, and his power was right in front of them 24 hours a day. Let’s see how they understood who God was, their faith in God, their ability to follow God’s commandments, and their ability to see and/or perceive God. Let’s look at some of the aspects of their journey to the promised land looking at it with a different paradigm or vantage point.
The Red Sea is 1,400 miles long and averages about 200 hundred miles in width. The depth of the Red Sea varies from 2, 500 feet deep to 5,000 feet deep. Can you imagine walking across the floor of the Red Sea with the sides of the water being twice as high as the Empire State Building? Not only that but there would be drop-offs, crevices, and reefs that must be smoothed out. So God not only parted the water but he provided a dry road for them to travel on. The Persian Gulf is 615 miles long and varies from 100 miles down to 35 miles across at the Strait of Hormuz. There is a place at Nuweiba where there is a large beach that could hold the 2.5 million Israelites that left Egypt.
Researchers have theorized many different possible routes that the Israelites could have taken. There is some controversy about where they crossed the Red Sea and that it was even the Red Sea that they crossed. Many researchers believe that the people of Israel actually crossed the Persian Gulf or Gulf of Aqaba.
King Solomon had the pillar erected 400 years after the miracle of the Red Sea crossing. Solomon had a seaport at the north end of the Persian Gulf and was aware of this area. On the column are the Hebrew words Mizam (Egypt), death, water, pharaoh, Edom, Yahweh, and Solomon.
It is amazing what gyrations these researchers go through to come up with their idea of where Moses crossed the Red Sea or the Persian Gulf. Their paradigms are skewed or misplaced. Many of them are trying to find the most logical place where Moses would cross the sea such as the water being the shallowest, the shortest distance, or the seabed having a ridge that they could travel on. If God created the universe, then parting the Red Sea would be a snap. It would be nothing for him to part the sea.
It is amazing what gyrations these researchers go through to come up with their idea of where Moses crossed the Red Sea or the Persian Gulf. Their paradigms are skewed or misplaced. Many of them are trying to find the most logical place where Moses would cross the sea such as the water being the shallowest, the shortest distance, or the seabed having a ridge that they could travel on. If God created the universe, then parting the Red Sea would be a snap. It would be nothing for him to part the sea.
The people of Israel were trapped up against the Red Sea and complained to Moses that they should have never left Egypt. After witnessing God’s they still had very little faith. They were unable to perceive or understand who God is.
Exodus 14:16-18 NLT
Pick up your staff and raise your hand over the sea. Divide the water so the Israelites can walk through the middle of the sea on dry ground. And I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians, and they will charge in after the Israelites. My great glory will be displayed through Pharaoh and his troops, his chariots, and his charioteers. When my glory is displayed through them, all Egypt will see my glory and know that I am the Lord.
Moses parts the Red Sea and God shows his awesome power again to his people. Can you imagine standing there watching the Red Sea part? This is where many people don’t think about what parting the Red Sea had to look like or what kind of experience they observed. It would have been beyond belief.
Exodus 14:22
So the people of Israel walked through the middle of the sea on dry ground, with walls of water on each side.
Psalm 78:13
For he divided the sea and led them through, making the water stand up like walls.
So let’s think about looking at the parting of the Red Sea with a different paradigm or view. Cecil B. DeMille missed a big opportunity in his movie The Ten Commandments. In the movie, you see Charlton Heston part the Red Sea and the people of Israel run down the hill into the floor of the Red Sea and 2 minutes later they are exiting the other side. If we accept that it was the Red Sea they crossed, it is 200 miles across. There are 2.5 million people that must cross the 200 miles. It would take around 2 weeks or more for them to cross.
Can you imagine sitting by your fire at night cooking dinner and next to you is a 3,000-foot-high aquarium? There may be a 35-foot whale shark swimming a few feet away from you as you are eating supper. What about the Egyptian army? They would have to enter this tunnel of water thousands of feet high. What would they think at night camping next to this huge wall of water? So you know the story the Israelites exit the other side and the water covers up the Egyptian army. The story continues after they saw the Egyptian army annihilated.
Exodus 15:22-23, 25-26 NLT
They traveled for three days without finding water. When they came to Marah, the water was too bitter to drink. So they called the place Marah which means “bitter”). Then the people complained and turned against Moses. It was there at Marah that the Lord set before them the following decree as a standard to test their faithfulness to him. He said, “If you will listen carefully to the voice of the Lord your God and do what is right in his sight, obeying his commands and keeping all his decrees, then I will not make you suffer any of the diseases I sent the Egyptians, for I am the Lord who heals you”.
Three days later after experiencing all the things that have happened over the last month or so they still fail to have faith in their God. God could do all the things he did, he could keep the Red Sea parted for 2 weeks with millions and millions of gallons of water separated that could be 3,000 feet high, and yet they still can’t understand or perceive what is happening right in front of them. Their paradigm kept them from perceiving and understanding the events in front of their eyes.
Another example of paradigms in the Bible is the story about the twelve scouts sent into Canaan. This story is found in Numbers chapters 13 and 14. Moses has led the Israelites out of bondage in Egypt and they are on their way to the promised land. The Lord told Moses to send out men to explore the land of Canaan. Moses sent one leader from each of the twelve tribes of Israel. These were not just random people but were leaders in their tribes. When they reached the valley of Eschol they found clusters of grapes so large that they had to carry it on a pole between 2 men. Eschol means cluster. They returned after 40 days and made their report. They showed the fruit they had brought back with them. They reported that the land was bountiful- flowing with milk and honey. But the people there were giants and their towns were well fortified.
Ten of the scouts stated that the people of Israel had no chance against them. But Caleb and Joshua stood up and said that even though what the previous ten scouts said was true about the land, we can conquer the land because our God will be with us. But the people of Israel have short-term memory loss and rebel against Moses. It would have been better for them to stay in Egypt. Let’s choose a new leader they said. Here was God with them 24 hours a day and they had observed all the miracles that he had performed but they didn’t perceive or understand the power of God. They rebelled against God, so they were punished for their transgressions against God and had to spend 40 years in the desert for their lack of faith.
This story is found in Judges chapter 6. The Israelites had begun to worship Baal and were suffering under the oppression of the Midianites. They cried out to God, and again he had compassion for them and called Gideon to be their leader. God told Gideon that he was going to use him to rescue them from the Midianites. Gideon was perplexed as he was the least of his tribe and family. How could he accomplish defeating the Midianites?
We tend to depend on ourselves instead of depending on the power of God. So, like many of us, Gideon asks for a sign that will verify to him that God can do what he says he can do. You have the story of Gideon asking the Lord to have the fleece that Gideon placed on the ground become wet with dew and the ground around it dry. The next morning it was so. Gideon still needed more convincing so now the fleece needs to be dry and the ground is to be wet. God completes the task that Gideon requested. Now Gideon is ready. To make sure the people of Israel understand who God is, God asks Gideon to trim down the Israeli army to 300 men to face the many thousands of enemy troops.
The 300 men surround the army of Midian at night, sounded their horns and their jars holding their torches up, and shouted a sword for the Lord and for Gideon. The Midianites became confused and killed each other. This pattern would go on throughout the book of Judges. The people would turn from God get in trouble and cry for help. God would raise up a judge and rescue them only to have them turn away again after the Judge died. They could never keep their focus on God. They would focus their attention on negative and bad things in life. Their paradigm or lives would gradually return to the desires of the flesh.
For 40 days this 9-foot-tall giant named Goliath would come out and taunt the Israelites and challenge someone to fight him but everyone in the Israelite army was afraid. Finally, a young shepherd boy came to visit his brothers in the Israelite army who was named David. He saw this giant taunt the Israelites and asked what would a man get for killing Goliath and ending the defiance of Israel.
David asked how is this giant allowed to defy the army of the living God. David’s paradigm allowed him to see the situation differently. David was not afraid of Goliath like the rest of Saul’s army. He saw someone who was disrespecting God’s people. He didn’t see as Goliath being an unbeatable opponent. He saw someone who could easily be defeated with God’s help. Saul asked to see David and David told Saul no sweat.
This Goliath is no match, this is a piece of cake, and he could easily defeat Goliath with the help of God. As no one was willing to go, Saul agreed to let David fight Goliath. Let’s look at the paradigms of the different people involved in this situation. The Israelites believe that they have no chance of this little shepherd boy beating Goliath and they are going to be slaves to the Philistines. David should be back tending to his sheep. On top of that, David did not want any weapons or armor as David knew God was in charge of this battle. He had only his slingshot, 5 stones that he picked up, and his shepherd’s staff. What do Goliath and the Philistines think about this little unarmed shepherd boy coming to fight their champion? The Philistine army believes that it will be a matter of seconds before their champion will finish off this little boy.
Goliath couldn’t believe his eyes. He has been ridiculing them for 40 days and they send out a defenseless little boy to represent them. He is offended that they would disrespect him and send out a little boy. Goliath yells out to David. Am I a dog that you come at me with a stick? He cursed David by the names of his gods.
I will give your flesh to the birds and wild animals. David tells Goliath that he comes to him in the name of the Lord of Heaven’s Armies and the God of the armies of Israel whom you have defied. The Lord will conquer you and I will kill you and cut off your head. I will give the dead bodies of your men to the birds and wild animals. So, let’s look at the three paradigms in play here. The Israelite army believes that they are doomed to be the slaves of the Philistines. The Philistines and Goliath believe that it will be a matter of seconds before they will be victorious. David has the only correct paradigm of the three. He knows that through the power of God, Goliath has no chance. This is just a simple matter of relying on the power of God. You know the rest of the story as David makes quick work of Goliath. David was brought before King Saul and Saul asked him who was his father. David replied His name is Jesse and they live in Bethlehem. This is the place where the most important event in the history of humankind would occur hundreds of years later. A story can look very different depending on your point of view or paradigm
This is a story that I really enjoy and is found in 2 Kings chapter 6. The King of Aram was very upset with Elisha because he was able to tell the King of Israel every move he would have as a battle plan against the Israelites. The King of Aram decided to stop Elisha and sent his troops to capture him.
They found Elisha in Dothan and surrounded him with many troops and chariots. The next morning Elisha’s servant went outside and saw that they were surrounded. He ran back inside and told Elisha they were in big trouble. But, look at what Elisha says. He told his servant that there were many more on our side than theirs. Elisha prayed to the Lord and asked that his servant’s eyes be opened. The servant looked up and saw that the hillside was filled with horses and chariots of fire. God allowed Elisha’s servant to see with special spirit-filled eyes. He was able to see with a new paradigm. How fantastic would it be to see into the spiritual world?
You could say that Saul’s conversion to Paul was one of the largest paradigm shifts in the Bible. Saul went from being a zealot persecutor of the followers of Jesus to one of the most fervent followers of Jesus. Saul had a complete 180-degree paradigm shift on the road to Damascus.
You don’t usually see a significant personal paradigm shift unless there is a significant emotional event in someone’s life. Our paradigm usually changes slowly over time as we experience more things in life.
Let’s look at the disciples. They spent 3 years with Jesus. They saw thousands of miracles. They had daily one on one teaching from Jesus. He was guiding them and teaching them on a daily basis. Still, all the way through Jesus’s resurrection and beyond, they still were confused about what was going on right in front of their eyes. Jesus predicted his death early in the Gospel of John. Their paradigms had not been changed to realize that Jesus was the Son of God and everything that was happening was under the control of our Triune God.
Mathew 16:21 NLT
From then on Jesus began to tell the disciples plainly that it was necessary for him to go to Jerusalem, and that he would suffer many terrible things at the hands of the elders, the leading priests, and the teachers of religious law. He would be killed, but on the third day, he would be raised from the dead.
John 13:19 NLT
I tell you this beforehand, so that when it happens you will believe that I am the Messiah.
After observing all the miracles such as healing the blind and lame, and even people brought back to life, they still did not understand Jesus.
After feeding the 4,000, they were crossing the lake and began to argue with each other because they had not brought any bread crossing the lake and began to argue with each other because they had not brought any bread
Mark 8:17-21 NLT
Jesus knew what they were saying, so he said, “Why are you arguing about having no bread? Don’t you know or understand even yet? Are your hearts too hard to take it in? You have eyes—can’t you see? You have ears—can’t you hear? Don’t you remember anything at all? When I fed the 5,000 with five loaves of bread, how many baskets of leftovers did you pick up afterward? Twelve, they said. And when I fed the 4,000 with seven loaves, how many large baskets of leftovers did you pick up? Seven, they said. Don’t you understand yet? He asked them.
When Jesus appeared to them after his resurrection, they were afraid and thought they were seeing a ghost. Jesus asked them why they were frightened and their hearts full of doubt.
You might wonder how did this happen? They were with Jesus day and night for three years. Jesus was right in front of them yet they had trouble perceiving who he was. You know that he was teaching them all the time. They witnessed miracle after miracle. How could they not see or understand?
It was only after receiving the Holy Spirit that they developed spiritual eyes or had a paradigm that now allowed them to see and understand. The same goes for us as well. We need to look at this world through different eyes with spiritual perception.
Now let’s take a look at the most incredible paradigm in the Bible. The Jewish people had been waiting for the Messiah. It had been 400 years since the last prophet in the Old Testament Malachi. In Malachi chapter 3, he tells of the coming of the Lord. There are many verses in the Old Testament that tell of the coming of Jesus or the Messiah. In the New Testament, the people of Israel find themselves under the rule of Rome. They were tired of the oppression of the Romans and were focused on the predicted coming of the Messiah to free them from the Romans. Even though the Old Testament is full of verses describing the Messiah, it didn’t matter. They were all very well aware of all the Old Testament prophecies.
You know that it was taught and discussed routinely in the synagogues. You know that the Pharisees and the Sadducees knew the scriptures thoroughly. They had their own beliefs or paradigm about who the Messiah was going to be. They were looking for another Moses to use God’s power to get rid of the Romans. Or maybe they were watching for a person like Samson who slew 1,000 Philistines with the jawbone of a donkey. Maybe someone like King David. At least it was going to be this big, strong, warrior who would nearly single-handedly run the Romans out of town. He would be their powerful king of kings. Their paradigms would never imagine the Messiah who did come.
Jesus would appear as an illegitimate son of Joseph and Mary who were not married yet. He would be the son of a carpenter or blue-collar worker, not a king or some other royal family. He would be clothed in swaddling clothes instead of silk pajamas.
He had no money or wealth. He would spend his early years as a lowly carpenter, not as a soldier in training or in a beautiful palace. No one in Israel had that in mind for the Messiah.
This Messiah was going to preach love. He is even going to tell them to love their enemies. They were to love the Romans. How crazy is that? What kind of Messiah is this? He had no sword, no armor, and no army to lead the Jewish people into battle against the Romans. And to top it off he rode into Jerusalem on a donkey!
The Bible is full of how paradigms influenced the perception and understanding of people in the Bible. As you can see the Israelites kept making the same mistake over and over. There were exceptions as in the case of the Pharisee Nicodemus who realized that there was something different about Jesus. In John chapter 3 Nicodemus secretly met with Jesus and wanted to find out more about him. There was the Son of God right in front of their faces.
He had fulfilled all the Old Testament prophecies. He had performed all kinds of amazing miracles. He had even brought people back from the dead. But in the end, they could not recognize God standing right in front of them. He even told them who he was and yet they tortured and crucified him. It is very difficult to change a paradigm or have a paradigm shift occur. Paradigms can be set in stone and are unmovable. Always be willing to look at things from a different perspective, have a curiosity about everything, and open mind when evaluating things in life. You never know what you might be missing.
Your perception and paradigm determine what you recognize or don’t recognize. Paradigms form what you understand and then determine your actions related to your understanding or what you believe is reality.
Parables and Paradigms
Parables? Why did Jesus use parables? Jesus used parables to communicate his message. A parable is an earthly story with a heavenly meaning. Parables were a means of revealing divine truths, the stories could be easily remembered, and it was rich symbolism that could provide a deeper and more profound meaning than just stating facts. Another reason for the parables is that only people truly interested in Jesus’s message would understand the meaning behind the parables. In order to understand the meaning of the parables, you need help from the Holy Spirit or have a God centered paradigm.
Matthew 13:10-17 NLT
His disciples came and asked him, “Why do you use parables when you talk to the people? He replied, “You are permitted to understand the secrets of the Kingdom of Heaven, but others are not. To those who listen to my teaching, more understanding will be given, and they will have abundance of knowledge. But for those who are not listening, even what little understanding they have 3 will be taken away from them. That is why I use parables, For, they Look but they don’t really see. They hear, but they don’t really listen or understand. This fulfills the prophecy of Isaiah that says, When you hear what I say, you will not understand. When you see what I do, you will not comprehend. For, the hearts of these people are hardened, and their ears cannot hear. And they have closed their eyes—so their eyes cannot see, and their ears cannot hear and their hearts cannot understand, and they cannot turn to me and let me heal them. But blessed are your eyes, because they see; and your ears, because they hear. I tell you the truth. Many prophets and righteous people long to see what you see, but they didn’t see it. And they longed to hear what you hear, but they didn’t hear it.
It is extremely important to have the proper perception in order to understand Jesus’s teaching. You need to be able to hear and see the message from Jesus.
1 Corinthians 2:7-16 NLT
No, the wisdom we speak of is the mystery of God— his plan that was previously hidden, even though he made it for our ultimate glory before the world began. But the rulers of this world have not understood it; if they had, they would not have crucified our gracious Lord. That is what the Scriptures mean when they say, No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love him. But it was to us that God revealed these things by his Spirit. For his Spirit searches out everything and shows us God’s deep secrets. No one can know a person’s thoughts except that person’s own spirit, and no one can know God’s thoughts except God’s own Spirit. And we have received God’s Spirit (not the world’s spirit), so we can know the wonderful things God has freely given us. When we tell you these things, we do not use words that come from human wisdom. Instead, we speak words given to us by the Spirit, using the Spirit’s words to explain spiritual truths. But people who aren’t spiritual can’t receive these truths from God’s Spirit. It all sounds foolish to them and they can’t understand it, for only those who are spiritual can understand what the Spirit means. Those who are spiritual can evaluate all things, but they themselves cannot be evaluated by others. For, who can know the Lord’s thoughts? Who knows enough to teach him? But we understand these things, for we have the mind of Christ.
Again, understanding the Bible and the messages and stories in the Bible requires vision, perception, and understanding that is provided to us when we believe in Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior and we have the teaching and guidance of the Holy Spirit inside of us. Our spirit needs to be fully activated by the Holy Spirit to provide vision, perception, and comprehension. Without it, you will not see or understand. Our minds have the capability to think, contemplate, and reason, and in the mountains of Eastern Kentucky they would use the word cogitate.
People should not live life superficially observing the world around them. You are missing many things and not getting the full richness of life. Always be a Sherlock Holmes, observing everything.
God gave us that ability to see much deeper than what is on the surface so that we could have a relationship with him.
Hebrews 13:2 NLT
Don’t forget to show hospitality to strangers, for some who have done this have entertained angels without realizing it.
