The Bible rarely states anything to the effect that "These words constitute a prophecy", and never gives us clues such as "this prophecy has a literal meaning" or "this one has a symbolic meaning", or "this prophecy has both a literal and a symbolic meaning" and then goes on to indicate which parts are to be taken literally, and which symbolically. Rather, prophecies are simply stated, and as we shall see, sometimes without even a clue that they are indeed prophecies. (7:1)

FILLING in the DETAILS-
Along with an inability to distinguish which words should be taken literally, and which words symbolically, another obstacle presents itself before us. Even in the case where the words might have a purely literal meaning and therefore could be understood correctly (if there were some way for us to know that the meaning was purely literal, which there is not), practically all details are absent in the picture given by prophecy. The prophecy uses but a few words, to express what are sometimes great, even magnificent themes or events. This leads to a rather natural, but possibly fatal consequence: we ourselves fill in the details of the picture. We read the words, we make sense out of them, and by this we form a picture of what they mean. This picture, then, becomes our "vision" of what will happen (7:2)

Our picture may or may not be the true picture (7:3)

The inadequacy and the deceptiveness of forming a picture through words can be easily demonstrated. Simply have a friend get a picture that you have never seen, say, from a magazine, and then have the friend describe it for you. As it is described, you will "see" in your mind an image. Afterwards, take a look at the actual picture. The picture will not be the same as you imagined. As you study it, you will then understand what was "meant" by the words that your friend used to describe it. This is a rather simple experiment, which you may want to try. It demonstrates the inadequacy of words in trying to convey something which can really only be conveyed by the sense of sight. In any case, we're going to try a variation on this right here which will more closely illustrate the subtleties involved in trying to fully understand the meaning of a prophecy before it is fulfilled. Here we will begin not with the picture, but as in the case of our attempting to understand prophecies, with words: (7:4)

Read the following sentence which I have entitled "The Traveler": (7:5)

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