Understanding God's Word

Which is more dangerous ?  
Three quarter truths or 100% blatant lies ?   
Half truths and three quarters truths are more dangerous than blatant lies. That is how the devil operated when he tempted Eve.
To cast doubt by slipping in half truths:
did God really say that you can't eat fruit from any tree in the garden ?  
Eve replied :  hey that's not true…. We can eat from any tree, except the tree in the middle of the garden….. but you will not surely die (half truth) .
God is trying to hide something good from you….because when you eat the fruit, you eyes will be open,  and you will become much wiser,  like God, knowing good and evil (half truth) 
Eve probably heard what God had said, directly, or through Adam, but she didn't quite understand it --- and she was to fall into the trap laid by Satan and both she and Adam fell into sin and was expelled from the Garden of Eden.    
So the first Adam, along with his wife, failed God.    And God prepared the Second Adam – Jesus – to carry out what the first Adam failed to do.  

So Satan came back and tested the second Adam:   Jesus.   
Once again he tried to twist God's word to suit his own purpose – giving half truths :  "If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from the top of the temple…. Because the scriptures says: he will send his angels to take charge of you, lest you dash your feet against the rock".  (Psalm 91)    The scriptures he quoted was quite right – but the application of the scriptures was quite wrong – God does not intend us to put ourselves in danger deliberately in order to find out whether God will come and rescue us…..
Jesus rightly rebuffed him:  " It is written:   Do not put the Lord your God to the test….."

How then can we better understand God's Word ?

How then do we read the Bible that we can understand ?   

1.   To understand the Bible, we must come with an attitude of expectation that God will speak to us through his Word and that His Holy Spirit will teach us and lead us into all truth.   

Scripture Union prayer :  "Open Thou my eyes, that I may behold wondrous, wondrous truths, out of thy Word.  "  Psalm 119:18
       During the first year that I became a Christian I began to read the Bible from cover to cover and I got really excited by what used to be a closed book suddenly became very meaningful. Sure, I did get bogged down when I got to Exodus, with the huge amount of descriptive material on the building of the tabernacle, but someone lent me a book which explain what each part of that meant and so that helped. 

Two kinds of difficulties……. 
One the language  -  AV -  which was outdated, solution use a more modern version :  CEV,  Good New Bible, Living Bible,  Philips Translation. Imagery : style:  book of Revelation, some parts of the prophecy like Daniel and Ezekiel.  :  visions,  etc. 

Another the actual meaning of the actions :  women may not speak in public,  women must have their head covered,  complete slaughter of men, women and children and animals when the Israelites conquered a place. Seeming contradictions: From different parts of the same Bible :  salvation by faith alone;  faith without works is dead,……  

Then when I got  Leviticus, I get even more bogged down by the details of so many laws that bear no resemblance or relevance to what I do today. But when I get to the New Testament, I get bogged down on the very first page with the genealogy of Jesus – so and so begets so and so does not seem to be of any use or relevance to me.   I now realized that each of those so called difficulties and seemingly irrelevant details actually had plenty of spiritual significance.   Some of the Levitical laws are given partly as hygienic laws and the genealogy of Jesus brings about great insight of the kind of people that God used to be Jesus ancestors.

       In particular I have begun using the scripture union method of reading the scriptures and using the questions that we have to ask
a.  What does it teach about God, the Father, son and the Holy Spirit ?                       
b. Is there a promise for me today ?                     
c.  Is there any command for me to obey  ?                    
d.  Is there any example to follow ?  or to avoid ?
e.  Is there any warning ?

Let us see whether we can apply these questions to a passage
e.g.  Ephesians 2, 8,9,10 "For it is by grace you have been saved through faith, and that it is not from yourselves.  It is the gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast.   For we are God's workmanship created in Christ Jesus to do good works which God prepared in advance for us to do."  

This has worked well for most passages.  And I used to keep a note book jotting down the answers to these questions as I scrutinize each passage to find out what God wants to teach me.              

2.  To understand the Bible we must grasp the central theme of the Bible.

What is the central theme of the Bible ?  
Can you summarize in one sentence what is God trying to say to us through the Bible ?

[Old Testament begins with Genesis and here right from the beginning we see  a loving God bringing into being a young couple in an environment of love – a garden – a place of delight – of fellowship – of creativity – of productivity – and harmony – of companionship – of joy……  We read of a God who walked in the garden in the cool of the day, conversing with the people that he loved….Then this harmony and joy and companionship was broken.   Instead of trust, there was fear; instead of openness they were trying to hide.   Something or Someone  came in to the garden and sowed the seed of suspicion which resulted in rebellion and sin.   And with sin came death and separation. 

And right there God unveiled his plan of salvation – and spoke of the seed of a woman who shall trample upon Satan's head.  The seed is God's son who will bring a redemption – to buy back what was lost in the garden.  

And throughout the rest of the Bible, this plan of the coming of  a Saviour is further unveiled.  
through the story of Noah, through Abraham, through Moses, through Joshua – and finally through Christ….  All the historical records, all the sacrifices, all the festivals, the tabernacle, all the prophecies, they all are centred in Christ.    Stories after stories,  incident after incident, ritual after ritual, they all point to the one unique and once for all sacrifice of Christ, the second Adam, who through his obedience, and his sacrifice on the cross, restored and remake the garden of Eden in a new heaven and new earth – which we read in the final book of the Bible….the book of the Revelations.  ]

So each time as you read the Bible, it would be helpful to ask : how does this part fit into the overall plan of Salvation ……  how does this relate to the rest of the Bible.

3.   In order to understand the Bible, I must try to read whole chapters and whole books of the Bible rather than isolated verses picked at random.

Short passages of 10 and 12 verses is OK but seldom provides the broad sweep of what the whole chapter or whole book says.
Suggestion :  read a whole chapter  e.g. Genesis 1 :
and then write summary
What is the main idea ?
What does this tell me about God and what he is thinking or saying or doing ?    
What is one thing I can think about from this chapter or book for the rest of the day ?

Milk is something prepared for us second hand : much like a mother has first eaten the food then produces milk for her baby  --- or mother bird first chewed the food and make it mushy then feed it to the little birds.   To be mature, to be strong, we need to take meat our selves – do original studies.   
     

4.  In order to understand the scriptures I must try to find out what is the context of the word, or verse or phrase.  I.e. where does it occur and how does it relate to the rest of the sentence, the rest of the chapter or the rest of the Bible.  

What do we mean by context ?
Interpret in relation to what is being said in the rest of the paragraph: 

A.  Meaning of a Word or a Phrase :

The meaning of a word or phrase is often modified by the connection in which is used.   One must let its setting determine its particular sense and significance.   For the context often clearly limits the meaning of a word or statement and prevents its from being taken in more than one sense.  This rule particularly applies to words which have more than one meaning and to phrases or statements which are ambiguous.  

 E.g. the word faith in the four contexts :

 Gal. 1: 23  he now preacheth the faith which once he destroyed :  the gospel

Rom 3:3 shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect ?  faithfulness

 2 Cor 5:7 For we walk by faith not by sight.   Trusting God rather than what we can see

Acts 14:27, God had opened the door of faith unto the Gentiles.  Gospel, acceptance through faith    

Story of the man born blind 
In John 9:3   "Neither did this man sin nor his parents sinned, said Jesus, but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life". This is not to be taken out of context as a declaration of absolute sinlessness.   It simply meant that the sickness was not due to any sin of this man or of his parents.   
Where does this scripture occur ?  
What is being said in the rest of the chapter, in the rest of the sentence and in the rest of the book ? 
If I interpret it this way, would it still fit with the rest of the sentence, with the rest of the chapter or book ?  
Can he possibly mean what he wanted it to mean if it is interpreted that way ?

5.  To understand the Bible I must make sure I know its setting and its style:

Historical  -- what special event are we talking about?  Or is it true for all times

Cultural – is this applying only to a particular race, namely the Jews, or is it applying to all of us at all times
Style -- what kind of style is the rest of the book or rest of the chapter ?  Is it a poem, a song,   which may have definite style : say the same thing twice,  using all the letters of the Hebrew alphabet.
Ask yourself 
Is it an allegory ?    e.g. book of revelations.  A lot of picture language which could not be interpreted literally.

Is it a simple phenomenal language? (what we see rather than what it really is …. The sun rises, and the moon falls…)  Or that the sun goes around the earth. (psalm 19)  It is phenomenal language -- as what we see and as such is applicable to all time.   If it was written in so called "scientific language" then it would have been outdated very quickly, The same applies to the account of creation in Genesis.  It is an "accurate" and "faithful" account of creation, and written in phenomenal language, not scientific language. 

Is it a prophecy? which is sometimes written for three or four events in the future
e.g. behold a virgin shall be with child and you shall call his name Emmanuel.  A Prophecy of Christ coming – but originally referring to a young girl who was unmarried and who bore a child which brought freedom and release to the people. 

Is it a parable? then we must not read more than what is intended. E.g. story of the unjust judge :  on prayer --  one main lesson : we must be persistent in prayer;  we must not link the unjust judge with God

Is it a metaphor? a metaphor compares two things identifying one with another: usually used when one of the two things is not so easily understood : e.g. Mat. 5:13   "Ye are the salt of the earth" : so just as salt is a flouring influence in food, and keeping it from decay, going bad,  so Christians are "salt" in the community, giving it flavour, and preventing it from moral decay

Is it a hyperbole? a hyperbole is a deliberate attempt to exaggerate for the purpose of attracting attention  e.g.  Matt. 7:3  : our Lord said Why do you look at the speck of dust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?  How can you say to your brother : let me take the speck out of your eye when all the time there is a plank in your own eye ?

Obvious we don't see people with beams sticking out of their eyes, but it is a comparison to illustrate the point of the unjustifiable criticism.  

Is it anthropomorphism? ascribing human characteristics to God.    God is Spirit and does not have a body.   But it is difficult for us to understand how a Spirit operates :  so God uses human characteristics to describe himself : e.g. The Lord's ear, or the Lord's voice or the Lord's hand…..

Is it a simile? A simile compares two things and usually the words like or so or as are used introduce for example our Lord said Matt. 10:16 : I am sending you out like sheep among wolves.  Therefore be as shrewed as snakes and as innocent as doves. The obvious simile is in comparing Christians to sheep and false teachers to wolves.   This is a basic simile that is used in many places in the scripture.  

6.   To understand the Bible, I must search the rest of the scripture to find what it says  on that topic.   The Bible is the best interpreter of the Bible.    Where else does the Bible say this ?    

e.g. sacrifices in Hebrews can be referred back to OT.   Here a concordance is very useful.   Something that people in Berea did:  Acts 17: 11   Now the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the scriptures everyday to see if what Paul said was true. Be extremely careful if we are to build a whole doctrine on just one single isolated verse or phrase (often taken out of context).  If God says something important to us he often repeats himself …. All good parents do…..  they know that their children may not quite grasp it the first time around. 

 

7.  To understand the Bible, I must be prepared to translate it to a language that I can understand and which I can put into action. 

The Bible is certainly not a book to be preached from, or to just tell others about.  It is ultimately God's word to me.    One of the tools I use to unlock the Bible behind its words and phrases is to translate into a language that I can understand.  We call that paraphrasing : ie. Writing out the scriptures using words of my own, away from jargons that could cloud my understanding :   The living Bible is a good example of a paraphrase;  the currently published "The Message" is another very good example:  
       I particularly like the paraphrasing of the sermon on the mount from the message.