Chapter 4 Interpreter's House
Everyone needs a mentor to succeed in life. This is especially true if you are a person of faith who aspires to heaven. Christian had an interpreter as his mentor. The interpreter told Christian stories that he needed to take to heart on his pilgrimage to Zion.I had a spiritual mentor in the form of the Apostle Paul, who longed for the Lord's presence in my life every day.
Christian's body felt lighter for having been so far unburdened, and with the scroll in his hand, he arrived at the house of the Interpreter, guided by goodwill. "I am a stranger from the city of destruction," he said, "and one who is acquainted with the master of this house told me to come here and see the master of this house, and he will show me something profitable. Is the master of this house inside?" Some time after the doorkeeper went to call for his master, an interpreter appeared and said, "I am a stranger who has left the city of destruction and is travelling towards Mount Zion. I was told that you would show me some beneficial things to help me on my pilgrimage, so I have come." Christian greeted him politely.
"You are welcome, and I will show you some things that may help you". Christian felt very grateful for Interpreter's kindness. Interpreter ordered a servant to light a candle and asked Christian to follow him.
Interpreter and Christian(2022)
The watering can and the broom
Interpreter took him to a very large room, which had never been cleaned and was covered with dust. When the servant began to clean the room, Christian was almost suffocated by the amount of dust that was being raised. He then turned to a woman standing next to him and said, "Bring some water over here and sprinkle it." As she did, the dust settled and the room was clean. "This room represents a human heart that has never been sanctified by the sweet grace of the gospel. The dust represents man's original sin and the corruption that makes all men this way. The man who first began to sweep this room is the law; and the woman who next sprinkled it with water is the gospel. The law discovers sin and prohibits it, but it doesn't uproot it. Just as the woman sprinkled water on the floor and all the dust settled, so sin is removed and eradicated. So too, when our souls are purified by faith, they are transformed into a place fit for the King of glory to dwell."
A Man who Sprinkles Water and a Woman who Sweeps with a Broom (2022)
Interpreter took Christian's hand and led him to another small room, where there were two boys, Passion and Patience. "Why is Passion discontented?" Christian asked, and Interpreter explained, "The boys' father told them to wait until the beginning of next year to get their favourite gifts, but Passion wants them now, and Patience is willing to wait." "But then I saw a man come up to Passion, carrying a sack of treasure, and pour it out at his feet. Passion picked it up and squandered it as he pleased, enjoying himself and laughing at and mocking patience; but in a short time he had squandered it all, and all that was left was a ragged piece of rags."
Passion and Patience
"What does this mean?" asked Christian. "These two boys are symbolic figures. Passion represents men in this world, and Patience represents men in the next. Desire, as we have just seen here, wants to have everything in this world right now, and in the same way, the people of this world want to have everything they can have right now, and they can't wait until the world to come. The proverb 'A bird in the hand is better than two in the forest' is considered more worthy of belief by them than God's testimony of the bliss of the world to come. But just as desire, which, as you have seen, squandered everything in an instant and had nothing left but scraps of rags, so will all those who are blinded by the things of this world end up like it when the end of the present world approaches."
Passion and Patience (2022)
Anointing with oil and sprinkling with water
Interpreter again took Christian by the hand and led him into another room, where a fire was roaring in a fireplace. A man was standing by the fireplace and throwing a lot of water on it to extinguish the flames, but instead of going out, the fire burned higher and hotter.
"What does this mean?" Christian asked. "This fire represents grace working in a person's heart. It is the devil who tries to extinguish the fire by throwing water on it, but in spite of this, the fire burns higher and higher. Now let me show you why." Interpreter took Christian with him to the back of the wall, where a man was standing with a jar of oil in his hand, secretly but constantly pouring oil on the fire, saying: "This is Christ. He is constantly pouring in the oil of grace to preserve the grace He has already put into human hearts. No matter how hard the devil tries to do away with grace, the human soul remains in constant enjoyment of His merciful favour because of Him, and the fact that He is standing behind the wall, as you see, constantly pouring oil on the fire to preserve it, is teaching you how difficult it is to maintain that grace in a soul that has once fallen into the devil's deception." Christian said, "Thank you so much for teaching me so many good things. Now, I think it's time for me to leave."
Anointing and Sprinkling (2022)
The Interpreter I met
For a Christian, an interpreter is someone who strengthens his faith. On my pilgrimage, I have an interpreter in the Apostle Paul, who was not originally a believer in Jesus. It was while he was on his way to arrest and persecute Christians that he was blinded on the streets of Damascus and heard the voice of Jesus himself. The story of his transformation into a believer can be found in the Bible.
He was on his way to the high priest to get an arrest warrant to take to the various synagogues in Damascus. When he reached the outskirts of Damascus, he was suddenly blinded by a blindingly bright light. He fell to the ground, and a voice called out to him.
Paul in Damascus (2022)
"Saul, Saul, why do you seek to harm me?"
Lord, who are you?
"I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting." (Acts 9:1-5)
Paul lived a life of obedience to God after his conversion and before his martyrdom: "No one is free from sin and death. Originally we were created without sin, but sin entered through Adam and we had to experience separation from God. Adam, who brought us into this condition, also points ahead to the one who will rescue us from it (Romans 5:12-14). But this gift that rescues us is not comparable to the sin that brings death. Think about it: if the sin of one man pushed countless others into that deathly abyss of separation from God, what does this gift of God, poured out through one man, Jesus Christ, bring us? Simply put, just as one man's doing wrong brought us all into the predicament of sin's death, so another man's doing right brought us all out of it (Romans 5:18-19). Sin is no match for that militant forgiveness we call grace. When sin and grace face off, it's always grace that wins. All sin can do is threaten us with death, and now that's over, because God is setting everything right through the Messiah, and grace brings us into life - life without end, a world without end (Romans 5:20-21)."
I'm rarely moved by the sermons of most pastors, probably because I believe in Jesus so habitually, but when I read Paul's 13 epistles, things are different. I can read them over and over again and they are still fresh. Of the 13 letters, the book of Romans is the one that sticks with me in my spiritual life. Message author Pastor John Pederson writes in his introduction to Romans.
'About 30 years before Paul wrote this letter, an event occurred that divided history into "before" and "after" and changed the world. It was the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, and it happened in a remote corner of the vast Roman Empire, in the Palestinian province of Judaea. It was an event that went largely unnoticed, an event that no one would have given a second thought to in the bustling city of power that was Rome. Even when the letter arrived in Rome, only a few people read it, and none of the powerful ones. There was plenty to read in Rome. Emperor's edicts, sophisticated poetry, and sophisticated moral philosophy abounded, and much of it was of high quality. But it wasn't long before these writings ended up in the dust. Not so with this letter. Paul's letter to the Romans had a far wider impact than all the books written by those Roman authors put together'.
Truly, I could have lived in ignorance of God and his son Jesus had it not been for Paul.
Awakening from my sleep, I took out my Bible again. Peter speaks to me today (2 Peter 1:11). "Prove that God was right in inviting and choosing us, so that we may have life for the eternal kingdom of Jesus Christ." Again, Peter makes this request in 2 Peter (1:15). "I know that sooner or later I will die. What I especially want you to do is to write down all these things, so that even after I am gone, you can always look them up.
I dare say that my favourite of the biblical authors is Simon Peter. He's not a man with the stellar credentials we have today, he comes from a fisherman's background, and he's not someone who inherited the greatest intellect and superior genes of his time like Paul. He's only written two epistles before and after Peter, but he's a fisherman, not a learned scholar, and it's not like God hadn't called him to do it. In the end, God chose someone with the DNA of a great family, with intelligence and learning, like Paul, but he also chose someone with humble DNA, like Peter, and used him to be the handmaiden of Jesus. If there is anything I can hope for, it is that these records of mine will be used as an instrument for good in the Lord, just as they were for our predecessors in the faith.
