Note: All Scripture quotations found in this article are from the text of the Authorized King James Version of the Bible.
There are seven main symbols found in the Bible that are used to illustrate the word of God. After reading all the symbols listed, notice how a man could survive on an island alone with all these items. Just as these items could help one's body survive, the word of God is needed for the spiritual life of a believer.
1. Sword
The Bible is called a two-edged sword. The sword is used to convict the hearer. Like a sword, the word is quick and powerful. It discerns our thoughts and also separates the body from the soul at salvation. This explains Eternal Security. Our flesh is still sinful after salvation, but our soul is saved and does not become corrupt when our body sins.
Hebrews 4:12 "For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart."
2. Hammer and Nails
The Bible is powerful enough to break the resistance of the hearer.
Jeremiah 23:29 "Is not my word like…a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces?"
Ecclesiastes 12:11 "The words of the wise are…as nails.."
3. Seed
The word of God is like seed. It can regenerate the hearer and tells us how to become a Born Again child of God.
1 Peter 1:23 "Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever."
4. Mirror
The Bible is like a mirror that shows a person their reflection, often exposing the sin in their life.
James 1:22 "But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. 23 For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass: 24 For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was. 25 But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed."
5. Fire
The Bible acts as fire, consuming impure things in the hearer.
Jeremiah 23:29 "Is not my word like as a fire? saith the LORD.."
Jeremiah 20:9 "..his word was in mine heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I was weary with forbearing, and I could not stay."
6. Lamp
The word of God is like a lamp that guides a person in truth each day in this dark and sinful world.
Psalms 119:105 "Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path."
7. Apples, Milk, Meat, Bread & Honey
The Bible is likened unto five foods. These five foods are a well-balanced diet that gives you vitamins, starch, protein, dextrose and calcium. Like the body needs food to be strong, the spirit needs the word to be strong.
Proverbs 25:11 "..like apples of gold in pictures of silver."
1 Peter 2:2 "As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby:"
1 Corinthians 3:2 "I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able."
Matthew 4:4 "But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God."
Psalms 19:10 "More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold: sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb."
