“The birth of Isaac was, of course, an absolute absurdity. The notion that a 100-year-old man and his 90-year-old wife, who have never had a child in the course of their long married life, should bear a son, and to place the hopes of the whole future of mankind on this child!
According to all natural conditions of cause and effect, the entire existence of the Jewish people, its history, its hopes, its expectations, must appear as the most laughable pretension. It makes sense only when it reckons on the deeply infringing, complete free almighty will of the Almighty God.
That was why God waited for the first seed of this nation to be laid until the “absurd” old age of its ancestors; that was why He waited to fulfill His promise until all human hopes for its realization had ended. For it was a question of creating a nation which, from the very beginning of its existence, was to be in opposition to all the ordinary laws of history – an intimation of Go din the midst of mankind.” – Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch, Commentary on the Torah, Genesis 17:17 (English Edition by Isaac Levy, London, 1963)
In listening to some of the Rabbis, you can hear them also saying that the same God who created the Universe out of nothing wanted to create the nation of Israel out of nothing. If the whole Universe came from nothing but the very Word and Breath of God, so did the nation of Israel. The nation of Israel came out of the nothing of barrenness and menopause, by the same very Word and Breath of God. At the same time, each of these truths was meant to communicate a greater truth. When a teacher is teaching a student, the teacher must constrain himself or herself to the level of the student.
“If the teacher were to reveal the depth and breadth of the idea as he has it, the student’s faculties would be confused, and he would not be able to receive anything at all. So the teacher needs to contract and conceal the full depth and breadth of his wisdom in this idea … and to dress it and conceal it within a parable. The parable is something that is completely foreign to the idea, so it covers it and conceals it, like a garment covers that which is within it … But it is by the means of the parable that the student will grasp the idea and understand it, because the parable corresponds to the idea.” – Rabbi Shalom Dobver Schneersohn, Sefer Hamaamarim 5657, p. 48
So, God spoke to us through parables. But, not merely through Jesus’ parables, as the Rabbis point out! He spoke through the parables of the lives of the people of the Old Testament to give us a preview of coming attractions, and many times he speaks to us through the saints so that we may have a further preview of even more coming attractions. The Creation came out of nothing but God’s Word and Breath. The creation of Israel came out of nothing but God’s Word and Breath. Now, let’s go Christian. The Old Testament living parables were a foreshadowing of coming attractions. So, the Incarnation came out of nothing but God’s Word and Breath, but we had learned that was possible from the Creation and from the creation of Israel. The Resurrection is the recreation of life out of no-life (out of nothing) because of God’s Word and Breath, but we were prepared by the lived-out parables of the Old Testament. Yes, I do know that Jesus was reaping Hades. No parable is a one-to-one match, remember that it is an idea concealed within a parable so that we might not be confused.
We already know other living parables from the Old Testament because they were explained to us in the New Testament. Thus, Jesus says to the Pharisees and Sadducees that no sign will be given them except the sign of Jonah. So, Jonah spent three days in the whale because God decided to have a living parable of something that was to come. The three days in the whale showed that God could bring life out of apparent death. Hundreds of years later, he brought life out of death in the Resurrection of Jesus. But, there are many other lived out parables in the Old Testament. My Old Testament professor, a good Calvinist Protestant, once asked the class why Israel spent 40 years in the desert. We tried many guesses. However, his answer surprised us all. Israel spent 40 years in the desert because Jesus was going to spend 40 days in the desert. Israel failed the test of temptation, while Jesus won the test of temptation. On the one hand, Jesus reversed the failure of Israel, just like he reversed the failure of Adam and Eve. On the other hand, it was not that Jesus spent 40 days in the desert because of Israel, but that Israel lived out a 40-year parable because Jesus was going to reverse the curse of the Fall, beginning in the desert, just like Israel began in the desert.
At a Protestant seminary, I was taught that the Early Church Fathers were wrong for using allegory to interpret Scripture. Among the Eastern Orthodox, I have learned that this is not so. But, as I peruse some of the Rabbis, I have learned that it was a natural way of interpretation (of the Old Testament) to look at history and regard many parts of it as a lived-out parable in which God was teaching us something at a level appropriate for us. Thus, I have come to see allegory not as human imaginative misinterpretations of Scripture, but as the way to understand various parts of Old Testament history. Of course, there are people who misuse allegory, just like there are people who proof-text. Nevertheless, we cannot use the misuses to impugn the method. Though there are people who proof-text, yet it is important to seek support for your position in the Holy Bible (and Holy Tradition). Though there are people who misuse allegory, it is important to look for God’s lessons in the lived parables of the lives of the saints in Scripture.
Thus, I can look at the fall of the walls of Jericho to see that God is pointing out that He needs no human help to destroy the enemy. He may have then had the Israelites earn the conquest of the rest of the cities, but He had made His point. The God who creates is also the God who can uncreate. “Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell.” There are many other lived allegories found in the Scriptures. The Early Church Fathers explicated many of them. We also need to read the Old Testament with eyes open to the parables found within them that are meant to teach us that which we could not understand until the coming of Christ. We need to do the same with the New Testament. After all, Jesus told many parables so that we, who are merely created, can try to understand something of the uncreated God. (Note: the Book of the Revelation, the Apocalypse, most certainly is one massive parable. However, it has been misinterpreted more than correctly interpreted, given the many false dates proclaimed by many a misguided Christian.)
You’re great learning has driven you mad. ?