Hebrew Word Pictures

"For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, 

And do not return there without watering the earth 

And making it bear and sprout, 

And furnishing seed to the sower and bread to the eater; 

So will My word be which goes forth from My mouth; 

It will not return to Me empty, 

Without accomplishing what I desire, 

And without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it."

Isaiah 55:10-11

I love the word pictures of Hebrew poetry. I have much still to learn about the style, but with each new insight I gain, the more I appreciate the Psalms and other poetic sections of Scripture. I've been teaching the basics to our 5th/6th Sunday School class as part of a unit on basic hermeneutics, rules for rightly dividing God's Word. It has been quite exciting to see them catching on so quickly! I suspect their young minds are much quicker to absorb new concepts than ours often are. I especially love "the light bulb" look when they suddenly see & understand a passage in a way they had never seen it before. Up to this age, their approach to the Bible has been to consider it a collection of stories. They are more apt to view the Bible as a storybook about people who lived long ago - Moses, David, Jonah, Paul, than as a revelation of the living God, still active in the world today. By learning new skills they are awakening to the beauty of Scripture and the significance it has in their lives. 

This passage from Isaiah provides wonderful imagery of the effectiveness of God's Word by comparing it to rain and snow that falls upon the earth. "The images chosen," observes Delitzsch, "are rich with allusions. As snow and rain are the mediate cause of growth, and thus also the enjoyment of what is harvested, so also by the word of God the ground and soil of the human heart is softened, refreshed, and made fertile and vegetative, and this word gives the prophet, who is like the sower, the seed which he scatters, and it brings with it bread that nourishes the soul; for every word that proceeds from the mouth of God is bread. (Deut.8:3)"  (1)

(1) Quoted in Biblical Hermeneutics by Milton S. Terry [Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock Publishers, 1999 (originally 1890), p.166]

For a very easy introduction to Inductive Bible Study, I recommend:

How to Study Your Bible, Kay Arthur