rightly dividing the word of truth part 3
A young man wanted to know God’s will for his life. His reasoning was that the Bible is God’s Word, so he would just flip open the Bible and put his finger on a verse and wherever his finger landed, that would be God’s will for his life. So he flipped open his Bible randomly and it happened to land on Matt 27:5 which read, “Judas went and hanged himself.” He randomly flipped again and put his finger on the page. He looked and read the verse, which was Luke 10:37. It read “go and do likewise.” Again he flipped randomly in his bible and pointed at a verse. This time it was John 13:27 “What you are going to do, do it quickly.”
Go quickly and hang yourself as Judas did. God’s will for this young man’s life wasn’t looking so hot.
This approach to the Bible, unfortunately, is not uncommon. People treat the Bible almost like a horoscope or a magic 8 ball, or perhaps a magical book resembling something out of Harry Potter with disappearing and reappearing ink, whose message changes from day to day or hour to hour.
I can’t help but wonder if we are prone to treating the Bible this way because of things that we are taught.
For instance, shortly after I became a believer, I was told that BIBLE was an acronym that stood for Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth. Now, that’s cute, catchy, I understand what that is trying to convey. But as you can imagine, as an individual who didn’t know anything about the Bible, that was a bit confusing for me. Basic Instructions. So this is an instruction manual for life on earth. Let’s live by the manual. Leviticus 19:28 do not put tattoo marks on yourselves. I already have tattoo marks on me. What do I do now? Do I get them removed? I saw a guy who did that and it looks terrible. My instruction manual says that I need to go to a priest to make offerings, but the only place I know to find a priest is a catholic church and the same ones who told me that the bible was the basic instructions also told me that the Catholics have it wrong. This basic instruction manual didn’t seem so basic, but complicated and just about impossible to follow.
I was also told that the Bible was God’s love letter to me. That sounded amazing so I did; I began reading the bible as if it were God’s love letter to me. I began reading the Words on the pages as if they were written directly from God directly to me.
Let me read you a few excerpts from God’s love letter to me:
Jer 3:3 you have the brazen look of a prostitute; you refuse to blush with shame.
Ezekiel 5:16 When I shoot at you with my deadly and destructive arrows of famine, I will shoot to destroy you. I will bring more and more famine upon you and cut off your supply of food.
Deuteronomy 28:22 The LORD will strike you with wasting disease, with fever and inflammation, with scorching heat and drought, with blight and mildew, which will plague you until you perish.
Ezekiel 21:31 I will pour out my wrath upon you and breathe out my fiery anger against you; I will hand you over to brutal men, men skilled in destruction.
So according to what I was told was God’s love letter to me:
· He will shoot at me with deadly and destructive arrows of famine
· He is going to lay hands on me and destroy me
· He can no longer show me compassion
· He will plague me until I perish
· He will pour out his wrath upon me and breathe out his fiery anger against me
· He will hand me over to brutal men, men skilled in destruction
Is it just me, or does that sound more like hate mail than a love letter?
I was a little confused. For 6 years I read the Bible as if it was God’s love letter to me. One day I realized that that statement wasn’t exactly true: the Bible is not God’s love letter to me.
If it’s not basic instructions before leaving earth; if it’s not God’s love letter to me, what is The Bible? It’s is a collection of 66 books written over a period of about 1500 years. The Bible is inspired by God, but written by about 40 different human authors, in 3 different languages, on 3 different continents.
The Bible is not God’s love letter to me. There is divine inspiration behind the Scriptures, but there was a human hand that held the pen – a human author wrote to a particular audience in a particular place, at a particular time for a particular purpose. That brings us to our next principle of interpretation:
AUDIENCE RELEVANCE: The text had relevance to its original audience. Though the books of the Bible have been preserved and canonized for us, they were not written to us.
While Scripture is for us, it was not written to us. The words in the Bible were originally written to a particular audience and the contents are primarily, particularly and especially relevant to the original audience. While we can learn and apply certain precepts from the text, the text was not written to us. The bible is not written to us, but for us.
To quote the authorities:
Grasping God’s Word | Duval & Hays (pp 19-20) The process of interpreting and grasping the Bible is similar to embarking on a journey. Reading the text thoroughly and carefully lies at the beginning of the journey. From this careful reading we become able to determine what the passage meant in the biblical context – that is what it meant to the biblical audience. Often, however, when we try to apply this meaning directly to ourselves, we run into problems. We are separated from the biblical audience by culture and customs, language, situation, and a vast expanse of time. These differences form a barrier – a river that separates us from the text and that often prohibits us from grasping the meaning of a text for ourselves.”
(p21) “Keep in mind that our goal is to grasp the meaning of the text God has intended. We do not create meaning out of a text; rather, we seek to find the meaning that is already there. However, we recognize that we cannot apply the meaning for the ancient audience directly to us today because of the river that separates us (culture, time, situation, covenant, etc).
(P22) “The basic interpretive journey involves four steps: Step 1: Grasping the Text in Their Town. Question: What did the text mean to the biblical audience.”
From “The Interpretation of Scripture by J.I. Packer: "Scripture yields 2 basic principles for its own interpretation. The first is that the proper natural sense of each passage (i.e. the intended sense of the writer) is to be taken as fundamental. The meaning of texts in their own context for the original readers is the necessary starting point for inquiry into their wider significance. In other words Scripture's statements must be interpreted in the light of the rules of grammar and discourse on the one hand and of their own place in history on the other. This is what we should expect in the nature of the case seeing that the biblical books originated as occasional documents addressed to contemporary audiences. (This is what Packer defines as interpreting scripture literally) if you’re wondering what the 2nd principle is- The second principle is interpreting Scripture with Scripture. That is allowing Scriptures themselves to define terms for us rather than bringing into the Scriptures our own modern understanding of terms.
Between two horizons: spanning New Testament studies and systematic theology by Joel B. Green (on page 174) “…the interpretive task seeks to adapt what the text says to the contemporary life of a people of God whose faith and life are being challenged anew. Of course the problem to which the act of interpretation responds is the recognition that biblical writings are all occasional literature, written by particular authors for particular audiences in response to crises of a particular time and place. No biblical writing was composed for the biblical canon nor for the universal readership it now enjoys.”
In other words, Paul didn’t sit down to write books for the Bible. He wrote letters to address particular situations in his day.
Expository Hermeneutics: An Introduction | By Elliott E. Johnson
(Page 256) While the Bible addresses its reader primarily in terms of a relationship to God, its original audience was addressed in a particular historical and cultural context. This context needs to be considered in the use and application of the ancient message. All members of the original audience had a common historical and cultural context…”
PRINCIPLE #4: AUDIENCE RELEVANCE: The text has relevance to its original audience. Though the Bible was preserved and canonized for us, it was not written to us.
This may be one of the most difficult principles to employ, perhaps a hard pill to swallow, especially if your experience has been like mine. It will take some time to re-orient yourself when reading the text; it will take an intentional shift from this is God’s love letter to me, to these are occasional documents written to contemporary audiences. But, as the scholars and experts point out, grasping the meaning for the original audience is the starting point in Biblical interpretation.
Let’s have a look at the Bible in light of this principle.
Open with me to the book of Titus. Look at verses 1-4.
Tit 1:1-4 1Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ for the faith of God's elect and the knowledge of the truth that leads to godliness— 2a faith and knowledge resting on the hope of eternal life, which God, who does not lie, promised before the beginning of time, 3and at his appointed season he brought his word to light through the preaching entrusted to me by the command of God our Savior,
4To Titus, my true son in our common faith:
Grace and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Savior.
Grace and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Savior.
Again, this is not God’s love letter to David Boone. This is Paul’s letter to Titus. I was not the original recipient of this letter. Titus was the original recipient of this letter and it was particularly, primarily and especially relevant to Titus.
We are reading someone else’s mail. We are reading Paul’s letter to Titus.
If we aren’t careful we can develop a bad habit of reading ourselves into the text. Tit 1:5 The reason I left you in Crete…
Did Paul leave me in Crete? No. Did he leave you in Crete? No. He left Titus in Crete. Look in the last chapter with me.
Tit 3:12 As soon as I send Artemas or Tychicus to you, do your best to come to me at Nicopolis, because I have decided to winter there.
Is Paul going to send Artemas or Tychicus to me? No. Is Paul going to send Artemas or Tychicus to you? No. He was going to send one of them to Titus almost 2000 years ago. Was Paul expecting you or me to meet him at Nicopolis? No. He wanted Titus to come to him at Nicopolis almost 2000 years ago.
You might say, David, nobody does that. Everybody looks at the text and clearly sees that Paul is saying those particular things to Titus. Yes, most people can see that those things are clearly relevant to the original recipient, Titus. These are some of the verses in which we readily and easily and naturally apply the principle of audience relevance. It’s easy not to read ourselves into those texts for obvious reasons.
I’ve never seen Titus 3:12 on the back of a t-shirt; I’ve never seen it on a coffee mug, a fridge magnet or the front of a journal. I wonder why that is? Why do you think nobody puts Titus 3:12 on the back of a t-shirt? Do you think it’s because that was particularly and primarily relevant to the original audience ie Titus? Perhaps it’s because most people would agree that the request to make it a priority to come to Paul at Nicopolis is not an exhortation for all believers for all time?
However, I am wearing a t-shirt with the following verse: Jer 29:11 For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. That verse is also on the front of Dustin Curlee’s journal. Why do you think people put that verse on the back of t-shirts and on the front of journals? I believe it is because many people would see that verse as an encouragement for all believers for all time? That’s a really neat verse. It makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside. If the Bible is God’s love letter to me, that’s a really nice excerpt from it. However, as I said before, Though the bible was preserved and canonized for us was not written to us. The text is relevant to its original recipients; it is primarily and particularly relevant to the original audience. Let’s look at the verse in context and find out who it was originally written to. Let’s examine this verse in light of audience relevance (as you can see we are also applying the rule of context – these principles overlap).
Jer 29:1-14 1 This is the text of the letter that the prophet Jeremiah sent so we see that the words that we are about to read are the text of a letter from the prophet Jeremiah; Jeremiah the prophet is the author. from Jerusalem to the surviving elders among the exiles and to the priests, the prophets and all the other people Nebuchadnezzar had carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon. So what we are about to read is a letter from Jeremiah to the Jews that Nebuchadnezzar carried into exile in the sixth century BC. Again, we are about to read someone else’s mail. 2 (This was after King Jehoiachin and the queen mother, the court officials and the leaders of Judah and Jerusalem, the craftsmen and the artisans had gone into exile from Jerusalem.) 3 He entrusted the letter to Elasah son of Shaphan and to Gemariah son of Hilkiah, whom Zedekiah king of Judah sent to King Nebuchadnezzar in Babylon. It said: (now for the contents of this letter from Jeremiah to the exiles almost 2600 years ago)
4 This is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says to all those I carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: 5 "Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce. (God tells the Jewish exiles to build houses and settle down in Babylon) 6 Marry and have sons and daughters; find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons and daughters. Increase in number there; do not decrease. (God tells the Jewish exiles to continue to marry and procreate in Babylon) 7 Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the LORD for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper." (God tells the Jewish exiles to pray for the prosperity of Babylon and if Babylon prospers those exiles themselves will prosper) 8 Yes, this is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says: (to the Jewish exiles in Babylon) "Do not let the prophets and diviners among you deceive you. Do not listen to the dreams you encourage them to have. 9 They are prophesying lies to you in my name. I have not sent them," declares the LORD. (God tells the Jewish exiles in Babylon not to listen to the deceitful prophets and diviners)
10 This is what the LORD says: (to the Jewish exiles in Babylon) "When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you (the Jewish exiles in Babylon) and fulfill my gracious promise to bring you back to this place. (God tells the Jewish exiles in Babylon that after 70 years He will bring them back from exile in Babylon to the land of Israel)11 For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. 12 (God tells the Israelite exiles in Babylon that He knows the plans he has for them. Plans to give them a hope and a future) Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. 13 You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. 14 I will be found by you," declares the LORD, "and will bring you back from captivity. I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have banished you," declares the LORD, "and will bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile."
You is not David Boone. You is not Jesse Gutierrez or Kalan Murphy. You is the exiles in Babylon 2600 years ago. They were in exile. God said to build houses and have sons and daughters. God’s plan to prosper them and not to harm them but to give them a hope and a future had to do with bringing them back to the land of Israel from captivity in Babylon.
AUDIENCE RELEVANCE! The words of Jer 29:11 are relevant to the original audience. They aren’t written to new covenant believers in Christ. They aren’t even written to all ethnic Israelites under the Law of Moses. They are written to the Israelite exiles who were carried into Babylonian captivity by Nebuchadnezzar. They are written to a particular audience at a particular time and the words are particularly relevant to them. They are relevant to their original audience. The words in Jer 29 were not written to us, but they were written for us. We know from history that God was gracious to His promise to bring Israel back to the land after their captivity in Babylon. From this text, we see that we have a God who does not lie; a God who is faithful to His promises; we have a God who is trustworthy.
Does God know the plans he has for you and me today in 2012? Absolutely; He is sovereign. Does God have plans to prosper you and not to harm you? What does that even mean? How do you define prosper? It is important to note the covenantal context here. This prosperity is defined by the OC, the covenant that Israel was under when Jeremiah prophesied. Prosperity according to the covenant had to do with abundance of crops and land and animals and possessions.
It is by taking verses like this out of context and not understanding audience relevance that we end up with preachers who make statements like this one by
A popular author and preacher whose sermons are broadcast on television (Joel Osteen):
It's God's will for you to live in prosperity instead of poverty. It's God's will for you to pay your bills and not be in debt. (Joel Osteen)
That man is the pastor of the largest church in America
Or this one (from Benny Hinn):
In light of audience relevance, we must be careful not to read ourselves into the text, since we are not the original audience.
AUDIENCE RELEVANCE…
Remember that we are either reading someone else’s mail or we are reading a historical account of a conversation (a conversation that we were not a part of). We have to be careful about reading ourselves into the text as if we were the original recipients of the letters, as if we were the ones having the conversation or as if we were the original audience of a discourse as it is recorded in the historical narratives of the Gospels and Acts.
AUDIENCE RELEVANCE: The text has relevance to its original audience. While the books of the Bible we written for us, they were not written to us.
NEXT PRINCIPLE: PAY ATTENTION TO PRONOUNS! When we see in the Bible the word “you” it’s easy to slip into reading it as if it was directed at me. When we come across pronouns, such as I, we, us, you, we need to be careful to assign those pronouns correctly.
Page 145 - 146 of Berkeley Mickelsen | Interpreting the Bible
“The New Testament is rich in pronouns. There are personal pronouns (“I,” “we,” you,” etc.), reflexive pronouns (“himself,” “themselves,” etc.), possessive pronouns used as pronouns (“mine,” “yours,” etc,) and adjectives, reciprocal pronouns (“one another,” etc.) intensive pronouns (“the Spirit himself”), demonstrative pronouns (“this,” “that,” etc.), relative pronouns (“who,” “which,” “what,” etc.), interrogative pronouns (“who,” “which,” “what,” etc.), indefinite pronouns (“anyone,” “anything,” etc.), correlative pronouns (“As much as …so much as,” etc.), and pronominal adjectives (“each,” “other,” etc.). When one understands the nouns for which they stand, the antecedents to which the relatives (definite relatives) refer, the case and particular function of each relative in its context, he is amazed at how much the thought is clarified.”
“The New Testament is rich in pronouns. There are personal pronouns (“I,” “we,” you,” etc.), reflexive pronouns (“himself,” “themselves,” etc.), possessive pronouns used as pronouns (“mine,” “yours,” etc,) and adjectives, reciprocal pronouns (“one another,” etc.) intensive pronouns (“the Spirit himself”), demonstrative pronouns (“this,” “that,” etc.), relative pronouns (“who,” “which,” “what,” etc.), interrogative pronouns (“who,” “which,” “what,” etc.), indefinite pronouns (“anyone,” “anything,” etc.), correlative pronouns (“As much as …so much as,” etc.), and pronominal adjectives (“each,” “other,” etc.). When one understands the nouns for which they stand, the antecedents to which the relatives (definite relatives) refer, the case and particular function of each relative in its context, he is amazed at how much the thought is clarified.”
Robert Trana | Methodical Bible Study (p 63) “Note carefully changes in pronouns and the implications of such changes for determining structure.”
We have already put this principle into practice a moment ago when we looked at Titus and Jeremiah, I pointed out that the you’s in the passage referred to Titus and the exiles in Babylon. Now, I’d like to look at a more complex passage where this principle is most helpful. Turn with me to Habakkuk. Minor prophet. Start in NT and go backwards. Short book only 3 chapters.
Now, one of the things that Kay Arthur suggests to do in her book (pp 10-12), discover the Bible for yourself what she calls marking key words (or more formally “the inductive marking approach”). She encourages marking in your Bible. When I first became a believer I would have never dreamed of writing in my Bible because after all, to anyone who takes away or adds to the Words of this book, God will add to him the plagues described therein.
But now I am a huge fan of marking in my Bible. She suggests the following: and I quote
“Key words can be marked in several ways: through the use of colors, through symbols or a combination of colors and symbols…Always mark each key word the same way every time you observe it. Then, in future study, the visual impact of your marks will help you track key subjects and quickly identify significant truths throughout Scripture. To be sure that you are consistent, list key words, symbols, and color codes on an index card and use it as a bookmark in your Bible. Be sure to mark pronouns (I, you, he, she, it, we, they, and so on), synonyms (words that have the same meaning in the context), and other closely related words the same way you mark the words to which they refer. For example, a synonym for the devil in 1 Pet 5:8 is adversary. The pronoun him in verse 9 also refers to the devil. Notice how marking the synonym adversary for the devil gives additional insight into his nature.”
So Kay Arthur notes the importance of paying attention to pronouns. She suggests marking them so that you can see who or what they refer to.
I have done that here in our text in Habakkuk. In my meager study of Habakkuk I came across 6 different nouns to which pronouns can refer. I have used 4 different colored inks to mark some of them. Blue = national Israel. Red = righteous remnant. Black = Babylon. Purple = victims of Babylon. There is also God and Habakkuk.
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www.ncfgeorgetown.com Church in Georgetown, Texas. Reformed church Georgetown, Texas preterist church Georgetown Texas. Pastor David Boone. Full Preterism. Covenant Eschatology. New Covenant Fellowship Georgetown. Page House 10:00 am Loving God. Loving Others. Realized eschatology fulfilled eschatology Preterist church Austin Texas. Bible church Austin Texas Second coming of Jesus Christ
Some believers will find today’s principles of audience relevance and paying attention to pronouns disturbing. Perhaps that is because we have a tendency to assume that there is something in the text for me. Our response may be, “Well, what’s in it for me? Where do I fit in?”
I wonder if that is due to our culture. Perhaps our “me-centric” culture has invoked this?
It’s all about me:
· MYspace
· Facebook (what’s on MY mind)
· Burger King MY way
Based on these 2 principles alone, that is one of those presuppositions that must be relinquished if we are going to be objective with the text. We must set aside that presupposition that says there has to be something in the text for me.
In closing, I’d like to share with you a couple of quotes to shed light on the problem with such a response and to drive home the importance of these principles:
Virkler | Hermeneutics In the chapter on historical-cultural and contextual analysis, (pp 87-88) says Amongst the questions one must ask in the interpretation process “Who is being addressed in this passage? There is a popular chorus that claims: “Every promise in the Book is mine.” Pious though it sounds, the concept is hermeneutically invalid. Certainly we would not want to claim all the promises of Scripture (e.g., Matt. 23:29-33)! Nor would we want to claim all the commands given to believers, such as the command to Abraham to sacrifice his son (Gen 22:3)…….Though we smile at the folly of applying a text without regard to its context, a significant number of Christians use this method to determine God’s will for their lives. A more valid hermeneutical procedure is to ask the questions discussed above. Who is speaking? Is the teaching normative or intended for specific individuals? To whom is the passage directed?”
Grasping God’s word – spiritualizing quote on pages 20-21.
The rest of this series is aimed at answering that very question. That is really what hermeneutics comes down to – taking the ancient texts and determining how they are relevant to today’s readers. So join us next week and the weeks to come and journey with us as we seek to rightly divide the Word of Truth.
Our sermon audio and video files can be found at www.ncfgeorgetown.com/media.html
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