Riddles and Parables

Ezek.17:2 Son of man, put forth a riddle, and speak a parable unto the house of Israel;
Hab.2:6 Shall not all these take up a parable against him, and a taunting proverb against him...

 A parable is a riddle and a proverb. Parables and proverbs are not easy to understand without the interpretation (Prv.1:6). The disciples of Christ asked him "Why speakest thou unto them in parables?" To which he replied "Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given." (Mt.13:10-11) They did not understand the parables either asking "What might this parable be?" (Lk.8:9). Jesus said again "These things have I spoken unto you in proverbs: but the time cometh, when I shall no more speak unto you in proverbs, but I shall shew you plainly of the Father." (Jn.16:25)
 Proverbs and parables are words of wisdom and knowledge to conceal a thing, designed to prove the young man to make him wise (Prv.1:1-6); that he search out a matter. Dark sayings (Psa.49:4, 78:2) hidden to cause us to have the eyes of our understanding enlightened when we understand and attain unto wise counsels.
 Interestingly we see an indication of how to interpret in Judges 14 where Samson's riddle is feigned to have been unlocked by applying an extreme measure to elucidate it. Notice his riddle "Out of the eater came forth meat, and out of the strong came forth sweetness." (v14). When they give the interpretation as though they figured it out they say "What is sweeter than honey? And what is stronger than a lion?" (v18). The sweetest thing and strongest thing they were acquainted with.
 If you apply this technique to various Psalms and Proverbs you get very interesting hidden interpretations (your translation becomes very significant here). But for the moment lets consider that Christ himself became a proverb. Notice in Psalm 69:11 "I made sackcloth also my garment; and I became a proverb to them." What if we looked at the proverbs more closely?

 "A soft answer turneth away wrath:"- Prv.15:1

What might a soft answer be? An answer is a word (Mic.3:7, 1 Ki.12:7, Job 9:14). Notice Rom.11:4 "But what saith the answer of God unto him? I have reserved to myself seven thousand men, who have not bowed the knee to the image of Baal." Again "If thou canst answer me, set thy words in order before me, stand up." (Job 33:5). We further see soft words as supplications and covenantal (Job 41:3-4) Obviously Leviathan could not be supplicated because "His heart is as firm as a stone; yea, as hard as a piece of the nether millstone." (v24) What is harder than a heart of pride? "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?" (Jer.17:9) "Yea, they made their hearts as an adamant stone, lest they should hear the law, and the words which the Lord of hosts hath sent..." (Zech.7:12). Another twist here is that the opposite of a hard heart is a heart of flesh.
"A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh." Ezek.36:26
 So if we place these words over the Proverb (15:1) we might read 'A flesh word turns away wrath' or 'A word made flesh turneth away wrath' (Jn.1:1, 14). That is an intriguing thing; or just a runaway imagination. Yeah- probably the latter.