Let me preface my remarks by saying that tonight’s message is out of the ordinary - not the sort that I present too often. Normally preaching involves the study, the explanation and application of a single text or a series of texts that relate to a single topic.

Tonight I wish to examine the process of doing that. How do we as Christians approach our study of the Bible? How do we interpret it?

People often protest,"You don’t have to interpret the Bible. Just read it and do what it says."
        There is a lot of truth to that.
        By far the biggest problem with scripture is not our lack of understanding, but as one person put it, "that we understand it all too well."
        The problem with a text like "Do everything without complaining or arguing" (Phil 2.14), for example, is not with understanding it, but with obeying it – putting it into practice.

        And yet, when we sit down with the scriptures, the fact is that interpretation is a necessary part of listening to God speak His message.
        Here’s a concrete example. Some people read 1 Tim 2.8 "I want men everywhere to lift up holy hands in prayer, without anger or disputing" and say that this is culturally conditioned. We today simply don’t raise our hands in prayer. On the other hand, they go down 3 verses, "A woman should learn in quietness and full submission.. she must be silent". That, they say, is the norm for today. Women may not speak in church.
        I don’t want to comment on the rightness or wrongness of this particular view, but simply to use it as an example illustrating that we ALL interpret when we read scripture.
        The challenge
                – for all of us –
                        is to be faithful interpreters.

The Bible itself emphasizes this point:

"Our dear brother Paul.... writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other scriptures, to their own destruction." (2 Peter 3:16)
 

Says Peter, things aren’t always that straight forward. And we as readers must be careful in our examination of the scriptures,
        the difficult parts and the simple,
                in order to understand it correctly.

To do that properly requires time, and
        careful
                hard
                        work.
We cannot simply look at the surface reading and work from our gut feeling.

Assuming, then, that we have to engage in the work of interpreting, how do we go about it?
        I believe we have to examine our understanding of what the Bible is.

Last week we dealt in depth with this matter, but let me very quickly restate the basics:

1. All scripture is inspired and guided, in every bit of its writing, by God (2 Tim 3:16). What we are dealing with is no ordinary piece of literature, but God’s holy Word. Therefore, while we can make use of the tools of analysing literature to help us grasp the meaning, we always understand that what we are listening for is God’s message to us.

2. Secondly, in the Reformed Tradition we always approach the scriptures with the understanding that God continues His supernatural care for this universe and intervenes in miraculous ways whenever, wherever, and however it pleases Him. We don’t try to explain away the accounts of healings, and prophecies, and the conception & resurrection of Jesus Christ..... or whatever else doesn’t fit so neatly into our present scientific way of thinking.

3. Third, even though we know it to be God-inspired, we also know that God used human authors. That means that certain literary traditions were followed – Poetry, prose, apocalyptic, prophetic, dialogue, genealogical, royal-covenant, autobiography, dream-vision account, wisdom, etc.
And we must be aware of them and read them accordingly. Obviously, it would not do to read poetry as prose, or a parable as a play-by-play description, or a historical accounting as a fantasy tale, or wisdom literature as a covenant promise.
Some of these forms of writing still are used today and can be understood quite easily. Other forms were common in the days when those parts of the Bible were written, but are no longer used. In those cases much careful research by responsible, God-fearing scholars must be done to help us read and listen to these passages in the proper manner.

4. Fourth, the Bible was written using the vocabulary, word pictures, and phrases that were common to the language of 200-3500 years ago. Those of you that know a foreign language well understand that there are always certain things that cannot be equally well expressed when translated. That is also very true of the bible. That is why you can take different translations of the same Greek, Hebrew and Aramaic original and come up with different sounding English phrases.
Which means that, somewhere along the line, the Bible must be studied in the original languages when seeking to get to the deepest reaches, and to unravel the thorniest issues, and to find the greatest clarity.
Not everyone can do that, obviously, and so we train and employ gifted Christian scholars who make it their life’s vocation to mine the riches of the original languages and share their findings with the rest of us.
Those who can’t use the original are well served by examining different translations in order to get a full flavour of the original. I would suggest the NIV, the New American Standard, and the Good News Bible as three that are very good to set side by side.

Ok, then.

We are sitting down with the Bible in front of us. Possibly in two or three English versions.
        We’re ready to study.

Now – how do we go about it?
Let me offer you some guidelines that I hope will help in the journey.

I. First, and most important, as we study a particular text, we must get the big picture. What is the main theme of the particular book? what do the chapters around this text talk about? What type of writing style is the author using (poetry, parable....?) Where is the proper beginning and end point of the particular text you are looking at?

II. Second point – we want to examine the rest of the Bible and see where else this passage is used. You can also compare other bible passages with similar themes.
Here’s an example:
Many of us are familiar with the words, "Do not put the Lord your God to the test." (Mt 4.7) And it is often thought that it means that we may never ask God for a special sign when we are seeking to understand what to do in a particular situation. But – is that really what the text is saying?

a. Look at the context. Satan is tempting Jesus and, unlike faithful Christians who want to be obedient to God, he is trying to sidetrack Jesus. He is testing God’s patience by going against Him.

b. Look where else in scripture the passage is used. It happens to come from Deuteronomy 6.16, part of god’s law to His people Israel. When you read that passage you see, "Do not test the Lord your god as you did at Massah." What happened at Massah? We are taken further on in Scripture to Exodus 17.1-7. Moses is leading the people in the desert and they are complaining about a lack of water, to the point where they start to say, "Is the Lord among us or not?" (v.7)

III. We can also gain much insight by looking at the historical situation of the day.
Deuteronomy 14.21 tells us not to boil a kid goat in its mother’s milk. For many years nobody could figure out the intent of that law, until an archaeologist discovered that the religious rituals of the heathen nations often involved doing exactly that.
Suddenly the meaning comes alive. God doesn’t want his people, then or now, doing anything that would compromise their religion and make them seem like the spirituality of unbelievers around them.

IV. What about a concordance, you ask? Well, they have a place, but be careful.
Sometimes we find an important word and immediately reach for our concordance and try to find other occurrences of that word throughout scripture and them combine the various meanings to get a message.

One last note before we close:
        All of this may sound a little overwhelming. But remember: It in no way says that when I read the bible without a university degree in theology that I can get nothing out of it.
        That is far, far from the truth.

        I don’t need the help of a scholar to tell me what John 3.16 means, or to make a commitment to Jesus Christ, or to enter into the new life of which that verse speaks. In fact, no matter how carefully my study and scholarship, it will bring me no closer to a personal heart-felt relationship with Jesus Christ.
        And on the other side, once I have such a profound, life-changing, exciting relationship with Jesus, that in no way stops me from seeking to understand the exact meaning of the text of scripture in the most precise manner possible.
        And for that I seek to do the best I can with the assistance of other believers (professors, pastors, friends, fellow church members....).

Let me say it again:
        Whoever confronts the scripture, whether scholar or devotional reader, everyone should have a humble and awesome reverence for the book before them.
        For it is the love letter of God to the human race.....
                to them, to you, to me.

The Cosmic Creator speaks.
        We must, as His creatures,
                Listen!

For He is speaking personally to us.

And that finally is the bottom line.
The scriptures are God’s love letter to us - a personal letter.
        And we have to be willing to listen  to it;
                to let it penetrate into our mind and heart,
                affecting and changing us
                rather than trying to keep it at arm’s length with all kinds of intellectual argument and analysis or hyper-rational discussion.

God didn’t give the Bible to tickle our intellectual fancy, or provide academic fodder.
        He gave it to change our lives.

2 Timothy 3:16 says:
        All scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

The Bible is meant to be a science textbook, or a history book, or a grammar book, but a guide for the direction of our lives.
        God is speaking in every page of scripture his plan for salvation and for regular day-to-day living.
        In some places more directly than others,
        but in some way it comes through all over.

And so, when the basic work of interpretation is done, I must be willing to examine my life in the light of what I continue to discover about God’s will from the pages of His Word.
        And I must be willing to change accordingly.
 

If I don’t do that,
        I’ve missed the entire point of the exercise!!

Let’s pray to God for His help as we seek to engage in this task of Bible study.