The presentation of truth in the holy books is in a manner which, while foreign to human methods of instruction, is characteristic of much of the divine teaching from the earliest times onwards. God reveals His fundamental truths like the breaking of the dawn, not with a sudden blaze like the switching on of a great searchlight.
Divine and human ways of teaching are in striking contrast. In the theological schools of men, subjects, however profound, would be defined, summarized, and reduced to a series of propositions stated in the briefest possible terms. Such statements, purged of all that is deemed extraneous, and duly formulated to suit the memory and intellect of the average person, would constitute the approved articles of faith. Evidence of the disposition of the human mind to place Bible teaching within certain well-defined limits which all are prepared to accept, even if all do not profess to understand, is provided by the existence of the numerous and varied creeds of Christendom.
A different plan of teaching altogether is adopted in the Scriptures. God educated before He instructed. Truths were gradually revealed to Noah, to Abraham, to Moses and to others in successive ages from Eden onwards, while the record itself of this revelation was made in many guises. It follows that only by patient comparative study of the whole field of revelation from first to last can the general scope and particular bearing of a given subject be discerned. And when truly discerned, it is perceived that divine truth, like stellar space, is in its full extension utterly beyond the comprehension of the human mind, though, as with the natural light of sun and stars, atoning grace brings life and beauty with a divine fulness to an otherwise dark and cheerless world.
W. J. Hocking