Institutes of Theology | Session 9 - Hermeneutics - Part 2

PDF

Last time, if you were with us, we learned that hermeneutics is really just a big word for the principles or the rules of biblical interpretation. How do we get the message that God has given us in His word right. How do we accurately handle the word of God that he has given? It's so important that when we say, thus says the Lord, or we believe, thus says the Lord, that we are actually understanding what God intended to communicate to us in His word. And so last time and this time are really focused on those principles, the ideas that shape how we understand Scripture. Next time, Tom will start teaching on exegesis, which is really the process of how we go about studying Scripture.  So if after tonight you're like, okay, I kind of get it, but how do I actually do this? That's what the next three meetings after tonight will be. But we want to focus on interpreting different biblical genres tonight.

Now, last time we talked about general hermeneutical principles that apply in all of the Bible. But we started with some presuppositions that we need to understand about God's word if we're going to rightly interpret it. We need to know and believe that the Bible is God's revelation. It's God's word to us. And it's God's word that he has inspired. So there is both a divine author of Scripture, God is the one speaking to us. But as we saw, he has inspired the Bible and written through human authors. So there is both a human author of every verse of Scripture and a divine author who is undergirding all of what is communicated in the Bible. And because there's a divine author, the Bible has the characteristics of that God. It is inerrant. It is without error. It's always true and accurate. God doesn't lie, and so God's words are truth. And it's authoritative. It speaks with authority because God is God, the creator and owner of all things. And so the Bible is an authority, and it's sufficient. It's all we need. God didn't give us just some revelation, knowing, well, you can kind of wander around as best you can with a little bit. No, he gave us everything that we need for life and godliness. And the Bible is clear. God intended it to reveal. It's not intended to conceal. It's not some secret mystery for a few. It's intended to be clear.

Now, it was written thousands of years ago. Hence, the fact we are having a hermeneutics class to say how do we rightly understand it, even though it is clear, we need to be careful in how we study and approach it. And we also considered the priority of rightly interpreting the Bible. Why does it matter? We looked at 2 Peter chapter 3, verses 15 and 16, which speaks about how it is possible to misinterpret the Bible. Peter wrote of how some were misunderstanding what Paul had written in his letters. See, you can misunderstand what the Scriptures say, and there are significant consequences to that. He said, “The untaught and unstable distort the Scriptures, or Paul's letters, as they do the rest of Scriptures to their own destruction.” When we get the Scriptures wrong, it can have eternal consequences. It's a matter of eternal life or judgment. It's a matter of true or false worship, of obedience and disobedience, of wisdom and folly. It matters, men, that we get the Scriptures right.

And so then we worked through those principles for rightly interpreting the Bible. General principles that apply no matter where you are in the Bible, with the goal to understand the author's original intent. The author determines the meaning of the text. The divine author, working through the human author, determines the meaning of the Scripture that we study. And so how do we understand the author's original intent? It starts with recognizing our dependence on the Lord. We need God's revelation. We need him to open our blind eyes to give us new life in Christ and to illumine the truth of Scripture so we understand and embrace it. We also need to study from an appropriate Bible translation. The Scriptures were written originally, primarily in Hebrew and Greek, and we are studying and speaking in English primarily. And so we need to use a good Bible translation that accurately represents what was communicated in the original language. Translation like the New American Standard or the Legacy Standard or ESV.

We saw, third, we need to use the normal rules of language, the grammatical historic method. Let the words mean what the words mean. There's not some hidden spiritual meaning, the natural sense of the words, not saying there aren't figures of speech. We'll talk more about some of those things tonight. But use the normal rules of language as you would interpret any other writing. That's how we're going to come to the Scriptures. We're going to see tonight, there are different kinds of literature in the Bible, different genres. And so how we approach the language of those different genres may change and vary, but we're always using the normal rules of language. 

Fourth, we want to interpret Scripture in its context, both the historic context, the cultural context, and the literary context. We don't want to pull things out and make them say whatever we want. There was an intended flow of thought and a cultural and historic context that these things were written. We'll talk a little more about that tonight as well.

Fifth, we want to interpret Scripture with other Scripture. There's one divine author, so the message of Scripture is consistent. We know that it doesn't contradict itself, doesn't mean God doesn't progressively reveal more to us, but Scripture is consistent, and so we want to interpret things that may be less clear with those that are clear.

And then lastly, we need to commit to believe and obey the Scripture. It's not just about the mental understanding and academic knowledge of what the text says. It's about renewed minds and changed lives as we live in response to the truth of the Bible. So we walked through those things last time. I encourage you, if you weren't able to be with us, to go back and listen to those things. 

But tonight, we want to transition to more what we would call special hermeneutics. It's just the specific principles for rightly interpreting the different portions of Scripture. If you've spent any time in your Bible, you know that it doesn't all sound the same. There are different kinds of writings that are comprised in the Bible. There are stories. There are poems. There are other elements that we want to unpack and think about when we're reading or studying in those particular parts of Scripture. How do we make sure we are rightly understanding those things? Again, with the same goal to understand the author's original intent. 

Now, when you think of the different portions of Scripture, your mind probably first goes to the fact that there are two testaments in the Bible. There is the Old Testament and there is the New Testament. And when you pick up your Bible and you are reading in one of those two testaments, there are different things that should come to mind as you are trying to rightly understand what you are reading or studying. If we think just big picture about the Old Testament, it's important that we understand the purpose of the Old Testament. The Old Testament is really laying a critical foundation for us. Some Christians think, well, the Old Testament really doesn't specifically apply to us. It's the Old Testament that we can just kind of ignore, and we can just jump into the New Testament, to that which is more focused on Christian doctrine and thought. And that's simply not true. 

The Old Testament lays a really critical foundation for our understanding of God and for our understanding of the New Testament. Part of that foundation is understanding God as creator. We learn that He is the one who made all things, who rules over the entire universe and has all the authority over our universe. We learn about God's character in the Old Testament. We get to know what this God is like, who has revealed himself to us. We learn about man's sin, not only the entrance of sin into the world in Genesis 3, but the impact of that sin, the effects of that sin, ways that sin is demonstrated in humanity throughout the pages of the Old Testament. And we learn about the promise of salvation, that God says he will send a seed of the woman to crush the serpent, and that seed comes into greater focus throughout the Old Testament. A descendant of Abraham and of David, as God works through His chosen people, Israel, to bring about blessing to all the nations of the earth.

And so when we read the Old Testament, we need to look for those things that are so foundational in our understanding about the world that God has made, and about God himself, and our need of salvation. We also need to recognize the Old Testament anticipates the coming Messiah. Everything about the Old Testament is looking forward to the coming of Christ, of the Messiah. There's an anticipation there. It's not the end of the story. It's leaving you hanging. It's like that movie that has a sequel, and you're in the theater watching, and it ends, and you're like, well, what happens? There's got to be more, and there's an intent on their part to get you to do what? Come back next Christmas, or whatever, and see part two. There's a sequel to the Old Testament that we have to recognize. It anticipates the coming Messiah. And so as we read the Old Testament, we need to recognize the fulfillment of the new. We don't just stop in our thinking with the old because we have the new. We have the sequel. We want to know the rest of the story. We want to understand how it fits together. We also, as we read the Old Testament, need to consider the gap between the original readers and us today. We talked about this last time, grasping God's word unfolds this idea. You need to recognize there's a significant historical and cultural gap between you and the original Old Testament readers. You understand this in large degree. There's a language gap as we've talked about. We live in a very different time and a very different place than what was true of the Old Testament readers originally. 

But there's also a theological or covenantal gap. We'll talk more about that when we consider what we, how we interpret the Law. But we have to understand, there's some significant distinctions between an Israelite reading or hearing God's word, the Old Testament in their day, and us today as new covenant Christians. And so as we think about crossing that river, that gap between their town and ours, as we talked last time and as grasping God's word unfolds, we need to recognize it is not a little stream flowing between us and the Old Testament. It's a big river that we have to cross as we are trying to rightly understand both the original meaning and the implications and significance for us today. 

So as we approach the Old Testament with those things in mind, what are the different kinds of literature, the different genres of Scripture that we find there? The first that we want to think about interpreting rightly is narrative. Old Testament narrative. 

Narrative is about 40 percent of the Old Testament. Almost half of your Old Testament is narrative. What do we mean by narratives? We mean simply stories. They are stories, purposeful stories, retelling the historical events of the past that are intended to give meaning and direction for a given people in the present. You read the first part of your Bible, and it is largely stories. Now they're not made-up stories. They are historic events that took place and are recorded, and they were recorded for the benefit of the people they were originally written to, and they are recorded for our benefit today. Why so much story? Why so much narrative in the Scripture? Well, God obviously wants us to understand the story of His work in history. 

But as you approach the Bible, and if you've read it or are reading through it, as I know many of you are, you understand it's a very widespread story, but it is also narrowly focused. The Bible is not a world history textbook, is it? You can't find out something about everything that was going on in the world at every particular time. It is a focused story about God's work in human history and God's plan of redemption. Narratives are also very powerful ways to communicate truth. Stories are engaging. We enjoy hearing a good story that draws us in to what's going on. We enjoy reading those or watching a movie or seeing something on TV. It's an engaging way to communicate truth. It's why so much of what we teach children, if you teach kids at Countryside, you know that we study primarily the narrative portions of Scripture, because we want to understand the story of God's work in the world, and because it's an engaging way to teach truth to children. It's an engaging way for all of us to understand. It's very illustrative. It takes what's taught more directly elsewhere in Scripture, and it illustrates those truths in living color for us. So God cares about communicating narratives. He cares about us understanding the story of His work in the world, and it is a powerful way for God to communicate that truth to us. At the same time, we can very easily misunderstand what God is communicating in narratives if we're not careful. And so we want to think about how do we do that well. 

Let's start by thinking of just some features of narratives. As you read a narrative portion of the Bible, you need to recognize most all of them have a number of features. One is a narrator, the one who is telling the story. There's someone who is recording this event, and it's rarely a first person. It's generally presented as an outside perspective telling that story. That narrator plays a huge role in what is intended to be communicated in that story. They're making the decisions about what is included and what is not, and about why those things are included. You notice that narratives in the Bible have scenes. You know, you think of a movie. There's a scene that takes place in that movie. It's got certain characters that are a part of the plot of that movie in a certain location, and then it goes to a different scene with maybe same characters, maybe different characters. That's what we see in the Bible. There are different scenes that take place weaving together a particular story. 

Each of those scenes involves a limited number of characters. There are people in the stories of the Bible. And oftentimes, it's just a handful of characters in a particular scene or groups of characters, and those characters are somewhere in the setting of that particular story. So you want to read, looking for those scenes, what scene am I in in this particular account? Who are the characters? Where is this taking place? And you want to track the plot of that particular scene. If you remember your literature days, you know that a plot generally involves some sort of conflict. Now, that doesn't mean fighting. Not every story in the Bible, as you know, has fighting in it. A lot of them do, so we appreciate that as men. But the plot has some sort of conflict that is developing and some resolution to that conflict. Sometimes that conflict is purely internal. It's within a character. You know, you might think of somebody like Jonah and the narratives that are recorded about Jonah, and there's a conflict that's going on within him. It's not so much a conflict with someone else, but there's an internal struggle that he's facing. Sometimes it's an external conflict. It is between characters. And so there is some conflict that's developing or taking place.  We want to recognize and understand those things in narratives. 

So how do we interpret narratives rightly? What are some key principles as you read the story portions of the Old Testament, largely from Genesis through Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, and some other portions that are tied in there? Well, one principle that's important is to read the individual scene in the larger narrative context. Again, we talked about how context matters last time. This is true in every genre of Scripture. But in narratives, if you just pull one story out and you don't see the rest of the context, it's like watching a scene in a movie. Yeah, some things will make sense, but you will not really grasp the full significance of what is taking place. So read the individual scene in the larger narrative context. That's why it's so important that we don't just flip to one place in the Bible, I'm going to read this today, flip somewhere else, read this. We want to get the flow of what is happening in its context. So read that within the larger narrative context.

Now, when we say that, we mean one, the overall meta-narrative or the entire story of the Bible. You've heard Tom define that as God is redeeming a people for His Son by His Son to His own glory. So when you read a particular narrative in the Bible, you're reading about Abraham and Isaac, or you're reading about Joseph, or you're reading the account of Passover, or any other narrative account. You need to remember that that story fits the part into the larger story of the Bible that God is working to redeem a people for His Son by His Son to His own glory. It's not just a fascinating story. It fits into a larger story, and we want to recognize that and think about it accordingly.

We also want to think about the broader literary context of the book. So an account like David and Goliath, it's not just a stand-alone story that has meaning all in and wrapped in and of itself. It occurs in a context. God is transitioning from Saul, who was disobedient as the king, to a new king after His own heart, David. And so this fits into the larger story of what is taking place within that particular book. So don't lose sight of the larger narrative context.

Also, remember narratives are descriptive, not prescriptive. What do we mean by that? Well, they're simply describing what happened. They're not necessarily prescribing what ought to happen. So not every narrative is something that we should say, oh, I want to imitate that. No, it's just describing what it was that took place. We need to recognize that that's what's going on. It's not always a model to follow or even a model to avoid. Sometimes it's not clear. Was this person right or wrong? And we can spend all of our time trying to figure out what was right or wrong about this. And that's not necessarily the narrator's primary point. So remember, narratives are descriptive, not prescriptive. Other portions of the Bible tell you what to do. Narratives are not primarily about that.  They are recording what people did in fact do. 

Third, recognize the main character in the Bible is God. This is something that we talk a lot about with our children's teachers teaching narratives, that we want to remember that the main character in the stories of the Bible is not Abraham or Moses. It is God who is at work accomplishing His purposes. Duval and Hayes put it this way. They say, “If we miss God in the story, then we have missed the story. Narrative is powerful and effective at revealing the character of the participants to us. One of the central purposes of this material is to reveal God to us. We have the opportunity to see God at work in numerous situations dealing with various human-related problems.” You see, God is revealed on the pages of Scripture, on the pages of narrative. He's not always front and center, but he's always there, and we get to see and learn about God as we read and study the narrative portions of the Bible. Don't miss him in the narratives. 

What about some helpful practices? So when you are reading a story and you want to keep that story in context, you want to understand what was the author trying to communicate in this particular story. How do you go about that? What are some practical ways to keep you focused on the author's meaning? Well, one is to pay close attention to the comments from the narrator. If we return to Genesis chapter 6, we'll look at a couple of examples of this. Sometimes the narrator makes very clear, very direct statements that are hard to miss and very, very helpful. So, for example, the narrator adds in Genesis chapter 6, the story of the flood and Noah and the ark, verse 5, Then the Lord saw the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil. Continuously, the narrator summarizes what is going on in a really clear way. There's no mystery of what's going on. 

Verse 22, the narrator says, “Thus Noah did according to all that God had commanded him, so he did.” Well, you get a pretty clear idea of where the narrator's going with this story, right? Everybody was sinful doing only what was evil. Every intent of their thoughts was evil, but Noah obeyed God. That's helpful.  Thanks, narrator, for helping us to understand. Sometimes it's not as clear to us what the narrator is saying. Turn over to1 Kings, Chapter 10. And you see, again, something that is summarized by the narrator in a way that is very helpful. Verse 26, 1 Kings 10:26 summarizes the fact that “Now Solomon gathered chariots and horsemen, and he had 1,400 chariots and 12,000 horsemen, and he stationed them in the chariot cities, and with the king in Jerusalem, and the king made silver as common as stones in Jerusalem, and he made cedars as plentiful as sycamore trees that are in the lowland, and Solomon imported the horses. Solomon's import of horses was from Egypt, and Kue and the king's merchants procured them from Kue for a price.” And so you read this, and you might be tempted, as I would be in our day and age, to say, man, Solomon was a really wealthy, successful, powerful king. Pretty cool how God blessed him with lots of silver and horses and chariots. But if you were an original reader of this and you're familiar with Deuteronomy, maybe you've read that prior to getting here, or you look up cross-references and things, and you read Deuteronomy 17:16-17 that talks about how kings aren't supposed to do any of that. You realize, oh, when the narrator's highlighting all of his chariots and horsemen and silver, it's really an indictment on him. It's not what he was supposed to be doing. 

So the narrator's comments aren't always as direct as, oh, by the way, they did evil according to the intent of their heart continually. Sometimes it's more subtle and requires connecting it with other parts of Scripture. But the narrator's comments are very helpful for understanding what's the point of this particular story, what is intended to be communicated to us as the reader. So pay close attention to the comments from the narrators. Look at what they included. Obviously, we're getting a very brief summary of these events. This is like lots of human history condensed down. It may feel like it's a lot to read as you're reading the Old Testament, but it's really a very concise summary of these things. Why did the narrator say what he said is very important for us. 

We also want to carefully consider the dialogue of the characters. Look at 1 Samuel 17. I mentioned the account of David and Goliath. 1 Samuel 17 is a great example of the importance of the dialogue that's recorded. You understand that there was more said than what is recorded in the Bible. You know, if you've ever taught kids Sunday school and you act it out, and you like have them just read what was in the Bible, and you're like, oh, that took like 2 minutes. Like, I think this took longer than 2 minutes. But the dialogue is just a portion of what actually was said. But it's an intentional recounting of what was said with a focus on communicating the truth that was intended. So we're not getting everything that was said that day. We're just getting what the narrator, the author, wanted us to get for a reason. And so you look at a passage like 1 Samuel 17, and you pick up in verse 25, David shows up. You remember the story, and the Philistines have been mocking the people, threatening them. And in verse 25, we see what the men of Israel were saying. They said, “Have you seen this man who is coming up? Surely, he's coming up to defy Israel, and it will be the king will enrich the man who kills him with great riches and will give him his daughter and make his father's house free in Israel.” What are the men of Israel talking about? Well, there's this guy who's defying Israel, and there's lots of good stuff that's going to happen to whoever can take on this guy. You'll get rich and get to be married to the king's daughter. David spoke to the man, standing by him, saying, “What will be done for the man who kills this Philistine, who takes away the reproach from Israel, for he is an uncircumcised Philistine, that he should taunt the armies of the living God.?” You notice he's talking a little differently. What's he concerned about? He's taunting the armies of who? The living God. 

You know, you go down to verse 45 and 47. You see, through 47, you see David talking to the Philistine. “You come against me with a sword and a spear and a javelin. I come to you in the name of the Lord, Yahweh of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel whom you've taunted. This day, Yahweh will deliver you up into my hands, and I will strike you down and remove your head from you, and I will give the dead bodies of the army of the Philistines to the birds of the sky, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel, and that this assembly may know that Yahweh does not deliver by sword or spear, for the battle is the Lord's, and he will give you into our hands.” What's unique about David? Man, he's super passionate about who? About Yahweh and about His glory. And he says, God is not one to be trifled with, and God is going to deliver you into my hands because you have mocked the one true God, and God is going to make it very clear that there is one true God, one God in Israel. David is consumed with God's glory, with defending God's honor. You see, David and Goliath is not a story about little guys doing big things. It's not a story about how you can conquer the giants in your life. No, it's a story about David, a man after God's own heart, being passionate about the glory of God. That's the message that is intended to be communicated by the author, and we see that fleshed out in the dialogue of those characters.

So pay close attention to the comments of the narrator. Look carefully at the dialogue of the characters. Note details that would have been significant to the original audience. Again, the author chose to include certain things. So note the things that were included. Why were those details there? What was it that was important about those things? 

And fourth, look for contrast between characters, even in other scenes. Again, don't just focus on that scene. When you think of David and how he's responding in this, what's the contrast? Well, we see a contrast between David and Saul, both in this scene. If we read it all, you would see that, hey, maybe Saul should have said, I'll go fight Goliath. I'm the king. It's sort of what I'm supposed to do. But he didn't. He said, I'll pay somebody to go do it. David said, hey, I got it, because God is great, and God is good, and God is worth this. And so there's a contrast. You look at the other scenes surrounding this, and you see, again, the contrast between David, a man after God's own heart, and Saul, a man who was disobedient. You might think of an example like Rahab and Achan in the Book of Joshua. We meet Rahab in chapter two. You might remember she was a Canaanite woman, and yet she trusted Yahweh, and she became part of the people of God. She's in the genealogy of Christ. And so you have this Canaanite woman who trusted in the Lord, who became part of the people of God. And then you get to chapter seven, and you've got Achan, an Israelite man who didn't trust Yahweh, who disobeyed him, and who was excluded from the people of God. And so there's a stark contrast between those two things as you see God's mercy towards Rahab and the characteristics of those who are part of His people. So look for contrast between characters, even in other scenes as well.

So as we interpret and as we study narratives, what are, are there some common pitfalls when interpreting narratives? What do we want to avoid when we are reading and studying narratives? Well, one is an allegorical approach. We talked a little bit about this last time, as opposed to just letting the words mean what the words mean and recognizing the, the plain common sense meaning of what is being said is what is intended to be communicating. There can be a temptation to an allegorical approach. This has been common at various points in church history when people said, well, it's got to be more than that. You know, David took five smooth stones. What did those represent? They must be more significant than just stones. They got to mean something else. And you can start looking for every detail of the story and spiritualizing it to make it say something that it does not. Don't do that. Read it for the plain, simple meaning that's there. 

We also have to be careful about reading narratives with just a moralistic focus, solely viewing the story as an example. Again, there is that element of this, but not solely that. God did not give us the narratives of the Bible purely to say, hey, be like Abraham, except when you shouldn't, and be like Noah, except when you shouldn't, and be like David, except when you shouldn't. No, there's a larger story of God's work that is there. So don't view the stories simply as moral examples. Now, with that, narratives are powerful examples, and they are illustrations of what is explicitly taught elsewhere in Scripture. So it is helpful for us to imitate the godly examples that we see and learn from the negative examples, but don't view them exclusively as them. As we said, don't miss God in the story and the larger story of what is taking place.

We can also just have a human focus, missing God in the story, being so focused on David and Goliath that we miss all the emphasis on God, on Yahweh, the true God, and defending His name, and standing for His glory. We can also have just a personal focus, taking everything in the story as directly applicable to you. Again, if you read the story of David and Goliath, and you walk away confident that God will be with me as I stand faithfully for His glory in whatever circumstances I face this week, okay, you are taking that truth and applying it to yourself. But if you think, man, there's something really hard I've got to do this week, you know, there's a calculus test I've got to take, or some project at work, and I'm sure if I just, you know, put my nose to the grindstone, God will help me get through that, because He helped David get through hard things, and I mean, Noah got to build an ark, and we make everything all about us. We miss the larger point of what God is doing in the Scriptures. So be careful. Don't spiritualize it. Don't just view it as an example. Don't ignore God. Don't make everything solely about you. Look for what is God communicating? What is the human author communicating? Why is this story in the Bible? What is the primary point? And then, how does that primary point shape my thinking and my life today?

One important question with narratives in the Old Testament is, is Christ in every narrative? In some circles, recently, it's been a focus on having a more Christocentric hermeneutic that says, you know, we really have to see Christ in every account of the Scriptures. Well, depending on what you mean by that, that's either a good thing or not. The answer to, “Is Christ in every narrative?” I think, is yes and no. In the broader meta-narrative sense of the Bible, the answer is yes. You remember that all narratives are part of a larger narrative that leads to Christ. Jesus in Luke 24:27 said, beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, he explained to them the things concerning himself in all the Scriptures. You know what Jesus was doing? He was weaving those stories together to show how they point to him. That's the right use of all of Scripture pointing to Christ. I love what Tom wrote in his hymn, Our God Has Magnified His Word. He said, 

The word reveals God's timeless plan, one great eternal aim to save a people for His Son and glorify His name. From every verse on every page, there is a road that leads to heaven's Lord and Calvary's Lamb to him who died for me.

So there is a road from every narrative story to Christ, because they're all part of that larger story that leads to and concludes with Christ. And we should be looking for that, and we should recognize that larger story as we read the narratives of the Bible. 

But it's also true that at the individual narrative level, the right answer to the question,” Is Christ in every narrative?” is really more sometimes. He's sometimes there directly as a character in the narrative or one spoken of in the narrative. You know, when you see the fourth man standing with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the fiery furnace, Christ is in that narrative. He is there with them. You know, when you hear a character speak of the promised seed or of David's eternal Son ruling, you are hearing of Christ. He is spoken of in that narrative. 

You also see Christ in the narratives of the Old Testament typologically, foreshadowed by a character or another aspect of the plot. There is a type that is a foreshadow of Christ, the one who is ultimately coming. This can be a character in the story. It can be some other element or aspect of that narrative. Why is this true? Why are there types that are a picture that point to Christ in the Old Testament? Well, as we've seen, there's one author of the Bible, God, and so God is weaving that story together in a way that points to Christ. Bernard Ramm writes this. He says, “Typological interpretation is specifically the interpretation of the Old Testament based on the fundamental theological unity of the two testaments, whereby something in the old, shadows, prefigures, adumbrates (if you have to look that up, don't feel bad, I did too), something in the new.” (It basically means shadows or prefigures. I don't know why he included it.) And he says, “Hence, what is interpreted in the old is not foreign or peculiar or hidden but rises naturally out of the text due to the relationship of the two testaments.”

It's not something hidden in the Old Testament that's like, ooh, if we squint really hard, we could see Christ. No, it's something that is there in the Old Testament that anticipates what is coming in the new in Christ. Another author, JND Kelly, says, “Typological exegesis was a technique for bringing out the correspondence between the two testaments and took as its guiding principle the idea that events and personages of the old were types, i.e. prefigured and anticipated the events and personages of the new. The typologist took history seriously. It was the scene of the progressive unfolding of God's consistent, redemptive purpose. Typology, unlike allegory, had no temptation to undervalue, much less dispense with, the literal sense of Scripture.” So it's not making it say something it doesn't. It's recognizing what it's really saying, and yet what it's really saying and describing is connected to, is a shadow that is pointing ultimately to Christ. Now, sometimes we see this in direct anticipation and fulfillment. Think of things like the Old Testament sacrificial system. The New Testament is crystal clear. That was intended to point to Christ. There is a primary point of that to anticipate Christ. It's really a prophetic foreshadowing of what is coming in Christ. 

At times, we see more of an indirect association and fulfillment. This is more like Jonah's three days in the belly of the fish, where the gospel writers say, as Jonah was three days, or Christ said, as Jonah was three days, so will the Son of Man be three days. This is more, “this is like that” in a way that shows God is weaving that story together. And the Old Testament is full of that. And the New Testament writers recognize this connection between what took place in the Old and what was coming with Christ in the New.

Now, we don't have to look for this ourselves. The New Testament writers really bring this out for us. This is why we read the Old Testament with the New Testament in view. Duval and Hayes put it this way. They say, “Most of the foreshadowing of Christ in the Old Testament is identified in the New Testament. Thus, we can rely on the guidance of the New Testament to help us discern whether a passage is a foreshadowing of Christ. In our opinion (and I would agree) an Old Testament passage usually cannot be confirmed as typology unless the New Testament identifies it as such. Therefore, while other Old Testament texts may bear some similarities to New Testament realities, they cannot be confidently classified as typology unless the New Testament indicates the fulfillment.” So when you read narratives in the Old Testament, there are times where the New Testament says, oh, hey, this is really picturing and foreshadowing what was going to be true or what was coming in the person and work of Christ. We want to recognize that. We want to appreciate that. We want to see Christ in those texts.

There may be other times where you're reading and you say, oh, this reminds me of Jesus, and that's great. But that's different than God's inspired intent to connect that to Jesus. So allow the Scriptures to remind you of Christ all the time. But be careful saying the point of this was to picture and foreshadow Christ unless God makes that clear in the New Testament authors. 

So we want to rightly interpret narratives. We want to read the stories of the Bible with the authors' original intent in view, paying close attention to what they included and how those fit in the larger story of that book and the larger story of the Bible as they teach us about God and His work in the world.

A second genre that we want to want to consider is that of Law, the Law. When we speak of the Law, we are talking about the 600 plus commands given to Israel, the Mosaic Law, the laws that were given to Israel in the second half of Exodus, in Leviticus, portions of Numbers, and Deuteronomy. We're not talking about the Law is used differently in different parts of Scripture. So we're talking about that which was initially given at Sinai in Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers. And if you were here for Tom's Bible survey, you talked through these things last semester and was reiterated by the Jordan in Deuteronomy before the conquest. That's what we're talking about. When we get to those portions of the Old Testament, how do we think and understand them? 

We're not talking about the Books of the Law. The Scripture sometimes refers to that, the entire Pentateuch, Genesis through Deuteronomy. We're just talking about those specific portions. We're not talking about the Law and the Prophets, as the New Testament sometimes refers to the whole Old Testament, or the Law of the Lord sometimes is referring to all of Scripture. We're just talking about the commands that God gave to Israel through Moses, the Mosaic Law. How do we rightly interpret those passages? 

You know, for many of you, you skip over them. You're like, eh, I don't really know. This is kind of weird. I'm just going to jump to maybe Joshua. That seems like a good place to go. No, we don't want to do that. How do we interpret these portions of Scripture? Well, we need to understand first the purpose of the Law. There's a historical purpose of the Law. The Law occurs in a narrative context. It's a part of the story that is revealed in those books. So there's a historical narrative. If you look at Exodus 19, you see that historical narrative. God had brought the people out of slavery in Egypt. He is establishing them as a distinct nation, and he is giving them certain laws to follow as a people. He's giving a general legal framework to be applied by Israel's leader. Think more of like our Constitution. Doesn't have everything, every law that was needed, but it's a framework to be applied in other situations and circumstances. That's what God gave to Israel. Historically, it occurred in that context.

It also has a purpose as a covenant. In Exodus 19, God describes how he is making these people His people, and they will be his God, or he will be their God. They are entering into a covenant, a legally binding promise between Yahweh and Israel. And the Law is the conditions of that covenant. You will be my people. You will follow these commands. And the people say, all that the Lord has spoken, we will do. They entered into that covenant, that promise and commitment to obey His Law. There is also a theological purpose for the Law. It was never intended as a means of salvation, but it was intended to demonstrate God's holiness and to highlight man's sinfulness and need for salvation. And it was intended to describe a life lived in relationship and obedience to God. 

So as we think about the Law, we need to recognize that there is a traditional classification of the Law. If you look at things like the Westminster Confession and the London Baptist Confession, you will see the classification that Tom presented last semester as well of the moral law, the civil law, and the ceremonial law. I'm not going to take a lot of time to unpack these things. Again, you can go back and listen to Tom's teaching on this. But in the London Baptist Confession, for example, you'll see it describes the moral law. I won't read all of this. But it says, besides this law, commonly called moral, God was pleased to give the people of Israel ceremonial laws. So you have the Ten Commandments that really crystallized the perfect moral law of God that he's written on man's heart from the beginning. And then you have ceremonial laws that were given to Israel uniquely as a part of the Mosaic Covenant. These pointed to and anticipated the coming of Christ.

He also gave them sundry judicial laws. Think of the fact they were functioning as a nation. And so how are they to interact? What are the consequences for disobedience? What are the rules that govern them as a people? And it goes on to say the moral law does forever bind all. So the civil law, the ceremonial law, no longer applies to us, but the moral law, God's timeless principles of obedience and conformity to His character, still do. Again, you can read more of that. 

And as you unpack the Law, you'll see two common types of law. And again, Tom walked through some of this. You see ordinances, or really case laws, the casuistic laws, “if this, then this.” This is really case laws, examples for those who would rule over the people of Israel to say, “In this kind of situation, this is how you respond.” Now, does that mean it only applies in that exact situation? No, it's representative, and you can apply it in unique ways that maybe aren't quite like that. That's what it's intended to do. You also see clear commands, these apodictic laws. Do not do this, or you shall do this. As you read through the Law, those portions of the Old Testament, that's what you will see.

So how do we rightly interpret the Law? Well, first we have to understand God's character as the backdrop for the Law. The Law is based on God's holiness, God's justice, God's love, God's mercy, God's compassion. So as you read the Law, think about, why does God care about these things? What is this teaching me about God? God didn't just arbitrarily come up with these things to see, I wonder if they'll obey. No, there's a reason for them, and it flows out of God's character. 

We also have to recognize the unique covenantal nature of the Law for Israel. This was again, God's covenant with Israel. These were unique commands that he gave to them. Again, apart from the moral law that is timeless, these were specifically given to Israel as a covenant for them. Some of those were given, or they were all given in a specific historical and cultural context. So some of the laws that you read, that you're like, huh, that's interesting. Deuteronomy 14:21, “You shall not boil a young goat in its mother's milk.” That seems odd to me. Why would that be important to God? Well, no, it occurred in a historical and cultural context. They lived in an arid desert region. They were surrounded by pagan worship practices. So sometimes the commands like this were likely connected to something that pagans were doing around them, and God said, don't do that. There was different fertility religions and other things that would have practiced some of these things. So no, there was a historical and cultural context for those things. 

And realize that the entire Law is part of God's inspired Scripture for us. Don't boil a young goat in its mother's milk is a part of God's inspired word for you and I. But the majority is not His direct commands to us. Your takeaway tonight is not, don't boil a young goat in its mother's milk. No, that was part of God's covenant law for Israel. So as you read the Law, recognize those things. Know that it's not all specifically commanded of you.

At the same time, as you read it, remember God's inspired summaries of the timeless moral law. Keep in mind those two great commandments that Christ said, love God and love your neighbor. So as you're reading through the Law and you're seeing things that are reminder, oh yeah, this is flowing off of those ideas of loving my neighbor and giving ways that looked in Israel. And the ten commandments that give a framework for God's moral law that helps us to think about what does God command and expect of us as he is reiterated in the New Testament. Understand the heart behind the commanded outward behavior. You know, okay, why were they not to boil a young goat in their mother's milk? Well, there was something about being separate from the pagan practices around them. That's a principle that God cares about. There's a heart behind that. 

Identify any related New Testament commands. What does the New Testament say specifically to us as the church, as Christians, in a similar way to what is being addressed there? And then look for timeless principles with contemporary application. You know, the Old Testament laws can be really helpful when we think about the application of New Testament commands. So you see things like how to treat your neighbor, principles of restitution and different things like that that are really helpful for us understanding how God desires people to live. Again, are they commands for us that have to be fulfilled in the exact way? No, but they give a great example and illustration of what God intends for those who are seeking to be faithful to him.

Let me just briefly, before we take a break, give some common pitfalls when interpreting the Law. One is, I mentioned, essentially skipping over this section of the Old Testament. You know, we will kind of, that will be the 30% I don't complete or whatever I'm allowed in Institutes or whatever it is. Incorrectly believing we must obey all of this section of the Old Testament. Don't think a high view of Scripture means you got to keep every law in Leviticus. It doesn't. You care about Leviticus because you have a high view of Scripture, but you recognize those were God's, that was God's covenant with Israel. Third is arbitrarily choosing what from this section to obey and what to discard. Just walking through it and saying, well, that's weird. I don't think I need to do that. This makes sense. I'll do that. No. Have a more consistent approach as we've talked about, and as grasping God's word helps to think about. Failing, fourthly, to consider this section of the Scripture when making ethical decisions, we want to be careful that we still go to that portion of Scripture.

When we're thinking through an issue, and there are laws and principles there that help us to think rightly as God's people today, there's a great blessing and benefit from that. Now, I will say, if you read Grasping God's Word on this section, they're not as high on the moral, civil, and ceremonial distinctions as what Tom presented, as what you would see in the Westminster Confession and those things. And there are good reasons why, sometimes people recognize it's hard to tell where one stops and one starts, and that's true in certain areas.

But I think those are still really helpful things for us to think about and understand. So, take those things and what grasping God's word presents about the Law, and really marry those things together as you think about how to benefit from that portion of Scripture. So, don't ignore it, but do recognize the uniqueness of it, but the principles that are there about God's character and how we can live faithfully as His people.

Continuing on with interpreting the different portions of Scripture, we've talked about narrative and Law. We want to consider Old Testament poetry as the next genre that we will think about. You know, much of the Old Testament is Hebrew poetry. Books like Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon, much of the prophetic writings, as we'll talk about, even interspersed with some of the narratives, is a lot of poetry. Now, why poetry? Well, one of the reasons is it can be easier to remember things that have a nice rhythm to them, and much of the Bible was communicated more orally. People did not always have their own personal copy, and so there can be an ease to remember. It also engages the entire person, not only our mind, but our emotions. God doesn't intend that we be stoic. He intends that our emotions are affected by the truth, that we are affected by the truth. 

Now, when we look at Old Testament poetry, there's a number of features that you will see. One is conciseness. There's a limited number of words used to communicate. At the same time, there's a vividness to it, as we'll see. There's also a structure to Old Testament poetry. That structure can look a variety of ways. You'll see what's called parallelism, and you can read more about this in Grasping God's Word or other hermeneutics books. But parallelism is basically multiple lines that are connected together in some relationship. Two lines or sometimes more. Sometimes that's synonymous, like Psalm 2-4, “He who sits in the heavens laughs, the Lord scoffs at them.” Basically saying the same thing twice. Sometimes that parallelism is more developmental. It expands on an idea. Think of Psalm 119, “How can a young man keep his way pure? By keeping it according to your word.” It's expanding on the idea. It's answering and developing the idea that was there. 

Sometimes it's illustrative. Psalm 42:1, “As the deer pants for the water, so my soul pants for you.” It's a picture of what is being described. Sometimes it's contrastive. It's the opposite of Proverbs 10:1, “A wise son makes his father glad, but a foolish son is a grief to his mother.” There's a contrast between those two lines. So parallelism is very common in Hebrew poetry.

Sometimes you'll see acrostics. You maybe won't see it. The Hebrew letters are an acrostic that is used in various Psalms, Lamentations 1 to 4. Sometimes there's a structure that's just more repetition of an idea or a phrase throughout the poem. You also see rich imagery in poetry. You see figures of speech that are used, like similes, if you've spent a while since you took an English class. Those are the ones that use like or as. This is like this or as that. Metaphors that compare two things without that direct connection of like or as.

You see analogies. You see hyperbole. Something is described in an over-exaggerated way, not with the intent of being deceptive, but just the intent of making a point. Sometimes you see personification or anthropomorphism or zoomorphism. That's where we describe personification is something is described in a human way when it's really not human. So we see that in places like wisdom shouting in the streets. Well, wisdom doesn't really shout, but it's personified that way. Anthropomorphism is representing God with human features or characteristics. So when we talk about God's hands or God's feet, well, he doesn't really have hands or feet. It's painting of a picture of something that's true of God. Zoomorphism, animal imagery for God. So when it talks in Psalm 91:4, “He will cover you with His pinions. Under His wings, you may seek refuge.” God doesn't have claws and wings, but it's a picture of what is true about God. That's common in Hebrew poetry.

So how do we rightly interpret poetry? Well, first, recognize when a text is poetry. Turn to Job chapter one, and you will notice in your Bible the change in most translations of how it looks when you get to poetry. Notice Job chapter one and two look a little bit different than when you get to Job chapter three and four. However your Bible looks different, that's how you can recognize you're now reading something that is poetry, as opposed to more of a narrative or other form of Scripture. So recognize when it's poetry. You know, when you're reading a Psalms, or you're reading in Proverbs or other areas, and you see this is poetry, then begin to work to identify the poetic features, particularly the parallelism and imagery used. Expect that. Expect that, oh, they're going to say things a little differently than in a narrative or in a letter.

How are these things emphasized? What is the point of this? And read not only to discern the author's meaning, but also to be drawn into the author's emotion. And this is not just communicating truth and meaning. It's intended to pull you in to the emotion, to the response to that truth and meaning. One author, Robert Plummer, says, “Writers or speakers offer and employ poetry for effective reasons to affect us. That is, poetry is used to express and evoke strong emotions. It employs stark imagery and hyperbolic language. When reading poetry, we do not find scientific factual lists. We expect to be presented with a moving reality and to be moved ourselves. Of course, that is not to deny that the poem's author intends to convey factual information. However, we must expect figurative and exaggerated language, which if taken literally would be wrongly understood.” See, that's part of how we use the normal rules of language when we're reading poetry, is we expect more figurative and exaggerated language, more imagery that we are going to seek to rightly understand. 

Now, when it comes to poetry, two specific books I want to just mention, Psalms is very poetic. How do we think about rightly interpreting the Psalms? Well, one, read them as poetry. Recognize they're different than reading a chapter in Romans. They're intended to communicate truth, but also to draw you in to the response and to affect your emotions as you are reading and studying that truth. Recognize the Psalms give a pattern for personal and corporate worship. They're examples for how we're to talk to God. They help us to know how do we express ourselves to God, and they're a model for that.

Note any contextual information in the Psalms headings. As you read Psalms, you'll notice some of them give a little description, maybe of when it was written, and that can be helpful for understanding what is the author intending to communicate. What kind of circumstances is this Psalm connected to? And understand there are different types of Psalms. There are Psalms of lament where they're crying out in distress. About a third of the Psalms are this, like Psalm 3 and 9, 12, 13 and on. There are Psalms of praise and thanksgiving, like Psalm 100 and 145, just declaring the glory of God and praise of Him. There are Psalms of trust, like Psalm 121 and 131. There are royal Psalms that explain God as the King and celebrate Him as the King of Israel, and Psalms that are focused on Zion, on God's choice of Jerusalem. There's wisdom Psalms that help us think, like Psalm 1 and penitential Psalms that really express the confession of sin, like Psalm 51 and Psalm 32 and others. Even imprecatory Psalms that are crying out against the enemies of God's people and calling on God to respond in righteousness and justice. So understand, there's a variety of Psalms. When you're going through life, you can spend time in the Psalms and find those that really resonate with where you are in this season and circumstance of life and use them as a pattern for how you cry out to the Lord. 

Proverbs are another kind of poetry. When we interpret proverbs, we need to, again, read them as poetry, recognize that parallelism that is so common in the Book of Proverbs. Understand the theological foundation for the practical instruction. If you've read Proverbs, you know, it's very practical for how to live in this life, how to live in the world that God has made. But there's a theological foundation for that. That's why it starts with the fear of the Lord, how we view God, what is true of God, undergirds the practical instruction found in the proverbs. Recognize the proverbs give general principles, not ironclad promises. You know, you think of a proverb like Proverbs 15:1, “A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.” You ever had somebody be angry at you, and you responded gently, and they stayed angry? Is this proverb wrong? No, it's a general principle that is typically true in the world that God has made. Again, there are some proverbs that are always true, lying lips are an abomination to the Lord. Yeah, that's always true. Like, there are things that are always true without exception in Proverbs, but generally, they are not ironclad promises, they're general principles for how life works in this world. So, recognize they're general principles, not ironclad promises, and determine the relationship of the parallelism used. Is this a contrast, like we saw in Proverbs 10:1? Is this something that's, he's basically saying the same thing twice, or illustrating it, or is he developing it? Understanding and looking for that, the relationship of parallelism is key for interpreting the Proverbs.

A fourth genre in the Old Testament is that of prophecy. You know, prophecy is, again, a very significant portion of the Old Testament. You have the major prophets, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel, and Daniel, the minor prophets, Hosea to Malachi. And prophecy is really one of the genres that is quite different than what we are used to. You know, we're used to reading stories. We understand law to some degree. We have laws. We have a constitution. We have things that we can relate to with those. We're used to reading poetry. You may have been a while since your English class in high school or something, but we understand those things. But prophecy in the Bible is really a unique kind of communication compared to what we are used to dealing with. The Old Testament prophets were really like God's prosecuting attorneys. Phee and Stuart, in their helpful book, described them as covenant enforcement mediators. You remember the Law was God's covenant with Israel, and the prophets are the ones coming and saying, hey, you're not keeping the covenant. You said you'd obey all this, and you're not, sometimes speaking to the leaders, sometimes speaking to all the people. They're the prosecuting attorneys. God's Law has been revealed. We're bringing an indictment on the people for their failure to keep that Law, outlining the coming consequences and calling for repentance, giving hope that God is faithful, and he will relent if the people repent. He will forgive.

Prophecy has a number of features that you see, an extensive use of poetry and imagery. Again, as you look, you'll see that change in the formatting of your Bible. Oftentimes, as you're reading through the Prophets, where it's very poetic, it has those same features of parallelism. Often, it has lots of vivid imagery that is used, lots of figures of speech. Again, because there's an emotion to this, there's a, this should affect us. It's not just like reading the telephone book. No, there's an impact that the prophets are wanting to have. There are also really compilations of oracles or messages. And you can look at how to read the Bible for all it's worth. Ian Stewart, if you want to read more about this. 

But don't think of the prophets, the books of prophecy, as like a New Testament letter where the author kind of wrote with a central theme and flow all the way from start to finish. Think of the books of prophecy more like an anthology of sermons. You know, if you have like Spurgeon sermons, and it's like, okay, there's a whole bunch of different messages that fit together, but they're also more unique things that have been compiled. That's more typical for the books of prophecy. So you're looking for what's one oracle or one message and then moving on to where's the next oracle or message. And there's different kinds of messages that you'll see in the prophets Covenant lawsuits, really, where God is bringing a case against His people. And he's saying, you know, Isaiah 3 is a good example of this. This is what the law says. This is how you've broken it. This is what's coming. There's woes you see in the prophets. Woe to so-and-so, or this is what's going to come. The coming doom and distress that's going to result from the disobedience of Israel or of another nation surrounding them. There are woes that are expressed. There's promises that are made. Salvation oracles, where it describes the future and a radical change or restoration that's coming and future blessing. It's like, wow, you go from woe, doom, and destruction to this future hope that is great and glorious.

Sometimes you see enactment, oracles, or messages, lived out prophecies, demonstrated, like Isaiah 20, where Isaiah is not wearing shoes for a long time, and it's kind of demonstrating, and walking around his underwear, demonstrating this is what it's going to be like in captivity for you. It's a visualization of those things. There's messenger messages or oracles, where the prophet is just saying, thus says the Lord, and this is what God has to say, very common in the prophets. 

So how do we interpret prophecy rightly? Well, it's important first to identify the historical context of the prophecy. When was this written and to whom? And a lot of prophecy, it includes that in the beginning of the book, or at some point, it describes this is when this prophet was writing relative to the kings of Israel or Judah. This is who this prophet is. That historic context is really helpful for us to understand what is being said and why. We need to recognize most of the prophecy in the Old Testament is connected to one of several events. The fall of Israel, the northern kingdom, 722 BC. The fall of Judah, the southern kingdom, from 605 to 586 BC. Or the return to the land after captivity, as the people were coming back. That's when the prophets were primarily speaking, or the written books of prophecy were recorded related to those times. And so understanding, who is this prophet talking to? Is he talking to the northern kingdom, the southern kingdom, another nation surrounding? Is he talking about the return? What is going on in this book? Don't just ask what happened or what will happen, but why is that happening? What is it that the people have failed to do that is bringing about this judgment? 

Read prophecy also for its present impact, not just its future predictions. You know, there's a temptation when you hear prophecy to think solely about predicting the future. And certainly, there is that element to biblical prophecy. There was more predicting of the future at the original time the prophecies were given because we live after the fact. So a lot of what was predicted has actually already taken place. So we're not looking at it as, oh, what's coming? We're looking at it, what did God do in response to the sin of His people? So read it for its present impact on you, not simply what was God predicting would come in the future. You see, God's past dealings reveal His unchanging character. 

We may see how God dealt with the people of Nineveh, for example, in the Book of Nahum. After Jonah came and they repented, you read the prophet Nahum, and he says, guess what, now judgment is coming. Years later, after Jonah, the people returned to their evil, and God is going to judge. It reveals God's character as we understand what was coming for the people of Nineveh. The prophets also highlight the importance of genuine repentance and relationship with God. Over and over, you see the call to repent, to not just practice the outward ritual of religion, but to have a real relationship with Yahweh, with their God. 

And so as you read the prophets, don't just look for cool things that were predicted. Look for the present impact that the prophets really intended on the original audience to understand God's character and the importance of repentance and relationship with God, and that those things are things that impact us as well. The reality is, as Theon Stewart pointed out, less than 2% of Old Testament prophecy is messianic. Less than 5% specifically describes the New Covenant Age. Less than 1% concerns events yet to come in our time. The prophets did indeed announce the future, but it was usually the more immediate future of Israel, Judah, and other nations surrounding them that they announced rather than our future. One of the keys to understanding the prophetic books, therefore, is that for us to see their prophecies fulfilled, we must look back on times that for them were still future, but for us are now past.

So recognizing, we're not reading the prophecies of the prophets primarily looking for what is yet coming for us. We're looking for how did God deal with His people in the past, and what does that teach us about him and how we should respond. Again, that doesn't mean there aren't predictive prophecies. There are a lot, a lot that have been fulfilled since they were written, and many that are yet to be fulfilled. One of the challenges in reading the prophets is it's kind of like a mountain range as pictured there. It's hard to tell kind of the depth between mountains sometimes, and it's hard to tell sometimes in the prophets. Is this a near fulfillment, or is this yet a future one that is yet to come? And so as we are reading the prophets, we want to seek to determine if the prophecy is speaking of the near historical fulfillment, what was going to come for Israel or Judah or Edom or Nineveh, or whoever he was speaking about, speaking to. Is it the coming national judgment or restoration, or is it the first coming of Christ?

There's times where the prophets do clearly speak about Christ's coming and His first coming in order to be our sacrifice, our savior. There are times where they speak of the second coming of Christ, of both the millennial reign and the eternal state, and trying to discern what is being addressed here and how are they speaking of these events. When we read those prophecies, I encourage you to understand the fulfillment as literally as possible given the use of figurative speech and imagery. So when we are anticipating what God promised, either for Israel or Judah or related to Christ and His first coming or His second coming, we want to interpret that as literally as possible given the fact that the prophets are using a lot of figurative speech and imagery.  But continue to come back to: God's word is clear. He's going to tell us what he wants us to know even if he's revealing that in very vivid ways. 

A couple of pitfalls when interpreting prophecy. I think one big one is, and we talked a little bit about this last time, is just reading verses of prophecy like a fortune cookie, as a personal spiritual message from God. It can be real easy to read through the prophecies, and some of it's harder to understand. Maybe the imagery is not as clear to us culturally, or it's just more complicated to try to wrap your mind around. And so finally you get to a verse that kind of makes sense, and you're like, oh yeah, that's for me. It's like, well no, that's not how we read the prophets. We don't pick and choose verses that are just a personal spiritual message to us. We can also miss the overall theological truths in the midst of the vivid and at times confusing imagery. You may not fully understand all the imagery that is used when God's describing His coming judgment. Don't miss the fact that God is describing His coming judgment. Don't miss the overall truths even when you maybe are struggling to fully understand some specific element of what is communicated. 

So we want to rightly interpret the Old Testament. We want to understand the author's original intent, whether it's narrative, whether it's law, whether it's poetry, whether it's prophecy. We want to be careful to think rightly about those portions of Scripture and understand them clearly and accurately. 

We also want to rightly interpret the New Testament. As we mentioned with the old, there's some general things we need to remember whenever we're reading and studying in the New Testament. One of those is to recognize the foundation and backdrop of the Old Testament. Again, it's so helpful to read and understand the Old Testament as you come to the New Testament. Don't grow weary in your Bible reading plan of getting through the books that are maybe a little harder in the Old Testament. Work hard at those because it builds that foundation and backdrop for understanding the New. 

To understand the purpose of the New Testament, it's declaring Messiah has come. The anticipated one has come to save, and he's going to come again to rule and to reign. And we look forward to that, and we live in light of that truth. And consider the gap between the original readers and us today. It's much narrower. It's primarily historical and cultural, not theological or covenantal. We are much closer to the church at Ephesus getting a letter from Paul than we are to the people of Israel on the banks of the Jordan getting the Book of Deuteronomy. And so recognize that that gap is narrower. It's an easier thing to go from then to now, but there still is a gap, a gap of history and historical and cultural gap that we need to cross. 

In the New Testament, there's a number of genres that we want to think about, and you're more familiar with these, so we'll move through them a bit more quickly. The first are the Gospels, the first four books of the New Testament. What is a Gospel? Some key questions about them. You know, Gospel simply means good news. They are the books that record the life and teaching of Christ, the good news about Jesus. Why are there four Gospels? Well, they have different audiences, different authors, different themes. It's God's intent that we have four Gospels. It's not God's intent that we just got one comprehensive, exhaustive account of the life of Christ. We know that because He gave us four. And three of those Gospels are what we call the synoptic Gospels. They see together Matthew, Mark, and Luke. Oftentimes, there's a great deal of similarity between them, although not everything is in common. And John is very unique, and we benefit from all four of these Gospels. 

So the Gospel writers were not writing with the goal of giving a comprehensive overview of Christ's life. They were writing to a particular audience with a particular focus in mind. Matthew wrote to Jewish believers to present Jesus as Messiah and King. Mark wrote to Romans and other Gentiles to present Jesus as servant. Luke wrote to Greeks and other Gentiles to present Jesus as the perfect man. And John wrote to everybody to present Jesus as the unique, one-of-a-kind Son of God. And so the Gospel writers have a particular focus that they're trying to teach about Christ. And when we come to those Gospels, we need to interpret them in light of that fact.

What are some key principles? Well, one is to read the Gospels as narratives. All the things we've said about Old Testament narratives, paying attention to the dialogue, what the narrator says, all those things still apply to New Testament narratives, to the Gospels. But also understand the similarities and differences between the Gospels and modern biographies. If you go to the Gospels, expecting it to be a biography of Jesus, you will be disappointed, and you will miss some of what the Gospel authors intend. How are they not like a modern biography? One, they're not exhaustive. You know, it can be frustrating when you're like, hey, Jesus was a baby, and now he's 30. What happened? I want to know. And we can spend all our time worried about what we don't know that we miss the fact that God inspired these Gospels to give us what we need to know to teach us what is true about Jesus.

We can sometimes struggle with the limited information that we have and want more. And it's right that we want more. We would love to know more about our Lord and Savior. I appreciate what Moises Silva says. He says, “We must read the Gospels with the expectation that there will be gaps of information and imprecise descriptions.” Sometimes even as you read multiple accounts, and you're like, how do these fit together exactly? Matthew says this, Mark says this. How does that fit together? Well, this fact that they're imprecise sometimes, or there's gaps doesn't mean for a moment that the biblical writers are not dependable. “Lack of absolute precision is of the essence of human language. The degree of precision expected of a speaker or writer depends on the subject matter as well as on the stated or implied aims.” He says, “If Matthew had given every detail, some moderns expect with the exhaustive precision necessary to answer all potential problems, his narrative would not only have been excruciatingly long, worse, the impact of his message would have been engulfed by the information overload.”

So be content with what the gospel writers did include. Recognize it's not exhaustive, but it's intentional. What is there for us? They're also more thematically constructed. We're used to biographies that are chronological, and they give every major event in a person's life, and they kind of work from start to finish. And there's some of that in the gospels, but they are not always chronological. They're not comprehensive. They skip major events, but they are historic, but theologically focused in the message that they're intended to communicate. So, as we approach them, we need to recognize those differences. And then we need to read individual episodes, those scenes we talked about in the gospels. They typically all include Jesus, and so the scenes are more episodes in the life of Christ that we look at. We need to read those individual episodes in light of the whole. The gospel writers are making a point about Jesus, a large point about him, and those individual episodes connect together to make that point. That's why, again, we want to read systematically through books like the gospels to understand them in their context. 

We also want to read each gospel individually, but also in light of the others. Don't rush to say, oh, I just want to read a gospel harmony to get the full picture of Jesus. No, enjoy what Matthew's focused on, what Mark is focused on, what Luke is focused on. Read it for that purpose, to gain what they wanted you to know, and do look at what else is fleshed out and filled in by the other gospels. Keep the main character in view. The question to continually ask yourself as you read the gospels is, what does this teach about Jesus and His kingdom and our response to Him? That's what we see in the gospels. Jesus and His kingdom, what it means to be a follower of Christ, how we respond to Him. 

One of the things you come across frequently in the gospels are Christ's teaching, and there's much that we see in Christ's teaching, hyperbole, irony, rhetorical questions, parallelism, that we've already talked about, but one of the common features of Christ's teaching is parables, and we want to interpret parables rightly as we read and think about the gospels. The parables are a point of comparison between elements of common life and spiritual truth. They are really a story that would be very common that is told to illustrate a particular spiritual truth. They are not really like a fable or an allegory. You know, the point of a parable is not look before you leap or something. No, they are illustrating a greater spiritual reality. They are not an allegory where every detail has some significance. They are really an extended simile. This is like that. This from everyday life gives you a picture of this significant spiritual truth, often about the kingdom of God. And so we need to first work to understand the common first century event or occurrence. If it's talking about a sower sowing seed, we need to understand what was that like in the first century? Jesus' original audience, the original readers would have known that. We have different things that we picture when it comes to farming. Talks about a wedding. We need to understand, what was that wedding like? What is the normal event that was described? We then need to discern the primary point of comparison. Every parable has a primary point of comparison. There's a primary point that Christ is making in the teaching of that parable. He's teaching it in a parable so that those who want to hear and get it will. Those who don't, who are not submitting to him, won't. And so he's intentionally revealing and concealing at the same time the primary point of comparison.”

Now in that comparison, don't press it too far. If you turn to Luke 15, for example, you see a series of parables that are common. There's parables that have a similar main point. You see the parable in Luke 15 of the, in the beginning of Luke 15, verse 3, a parable about the lost sheep. He leaves the 99 to go and find it. Then you see the parable of the lost coin. A woman had lost a coin, and she goes to find it. And the parable of the prodigal son, verse 11, down to verse 32. 

In the primary point of comparison, don't press that point of comparison too far. If you say, oh, the, the lost coin is like a sinner, and when you find that lost sinner, there's great rejoicing. Just like when you find that lost coin, there's great rejoicing. Well, how else is a sinner like a coin? Well, don't spend too much time thinking about it. That's not the point. So don't press the comparison too far.

Don't assign spiritual meaning to every detail of the parable. Think of the prodigal son. You know, you had the son who asked for his inheritance, squandered it, went, and he was, you know, feeding pigs and eating pig slop. Well, what's the point of the pigs? Is there some super-secret spiritual meaning to the pigs? Well, no, it's just that he was broke and he was feeding pigs. So don't assign spiritual meaning to every detail of the parable. No, he's just giving a common story and example. 

At the same time, know that some parables have more than one clearly intended lesson related to the primary point. Especially the longer the parable, the more this is likely. The lost sheep, the lost coin, real short. Basically, there's one primary point. That's it. Prodigal son, that goes from verse 11 down to verse 32. Christ is saying more in that parable. He's talking to the Pharisees. There's the salvation and graciousness of God towards the prodigal son, and there's the really wrong response of the older son, who represents the Pharisees, and Christ is rebuking them. And so there are, can be more than one intended lesson, all related to that primary point of comparison that is being made.

Henry Verkler put it this way. He says, “In Jesus' own analysis, it is possible to discern both a central focal idea and a significant emphasis on details as they relate to that focal idea. Jesus' analysis of the details of the parable is in contrast with the practice of those who give significance to the details in such a manner that the details teach an additional lesson unrelated to the central point of the parable.” Again, don't make them an allegory where every little detail means something. No, it's one primary point of comparison, but the details do matter, and they can make multiple points and lessons as it relates to the central theme of that parable.

When you're interpreting parables, look for any explicit statement of meaning from Jesus or the author. Sometimes Jesus or the author clearly records the point of the parable. That's like when Jesus says in verse 10 of Luke 15, “In the same way I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.” Well, gee, I wonder what that parable is about. Well, he told us. Thank you. That's helpful. Sometimes we must allow the context, the audience, and the details to direct our interpretation. There is no summary statement at the end of the parable, the Prodigal Son. And so you Pharisees, you are hypocrites. You don't rejoice in God's gracious gift of salvation. Instead, you stand in judgment, thinking yourself better than sinners. He doesn't say that, but that's the point of the parable. It's clear if you look at the audience and the details and the story that that's the point Jesus is making. So interpret the Gospels rightly. See Christ in them. Understand His teaching as he intended for the original audience. 

What about narrative, like Acts? Again, Acts is narrative and so read it as such. Pay attention to all the things we already talked about, to the focus of the narrator, to the dialogue that's included, to the details that are revealed there. It's also important with the Book of Acts to understand the unique nature of Acts. As we've mentioned, narratives are descriptive, not prescriptive. They're not telling us what to do, like the Epistles that we'll get to in a minute, which are clear, this is what you should do. This is how you should think and how you should live. Acts is describing life in the early church. But it's also important to recognize, Acts is a very helpful model and pattern for the church today. Part of why it's recorded is so we know what happened and we know what the early church looked like. So we do have to decide as we read Acts and as we interpret Acts, what is clear as a pattern and model for us to follow? What is just unique and describing what took place in the first century? And so those are important things to keep in mind as we read the Book of Acts. Viewing it as a helpful model, but not a prescription that we must follow in every point of detail.

About the Epistles, much of the New Testament, most of the books in the New Testament are letters. You're likely familiar with these letters. Twenty-one of the twenty-seven New Testament books are letters. It depends if you how you think of Revelation in that number, but they were a means of ministering from a distance. Why so many letters? Well, because the apostles, Paul in particular, was traveling around establishing churches, and he continued to desire to minister to those churches when he couldn't be with them physically. And so as was common in that day, he wrote letters. He wrote letters that were longer than typical letters of that day because he had a lot to say and a lot of things that he wanted them to understand. And so you see the Pauline letters that were addressed to individuals or churches but were also clearly intended for wider circulation among other churches in nearby regions. You also see the general Epistles, letters that were written not by Paul, but by others, John, Peter, Jude, et cetera. And these Epistles are sometimes addressed to individuals or to select churches, but also are more general to be circulated widely, again, among believers of that day, and obviously for our benefit as a part of inspired Scripture as well. 

Epistles have a typical structure you see. An introduction that includes the name of the writer, the recipient, a greeting, oftentimes an opening prayer. Expect that as you read that Epistle. It's giving you some context for that. Then, the body of the letter, that includes the meat of what was intended to be communicated, and then some form of a conclusion. 

As we interpret the Epistles, it's important that we recognize the situational nature of New Testament letters. The letters were written to a particular person or church in a particular situation. Some churches were doing well. Some churches were struggling. Some churches had asked questions, and they were responding, at least in part, to the questions the church had raised. Some churches needed confrontation. Some churches needed more of an overview and introduction to the Christian doctrine and practice and to Paul and his ministry. So there was a situation that prompted that letter.

Why does that matter for us? Well, it means the historical and cultural context matters. Understanding why the letter was written is helpful for us to rightly understand it. If you open someone else's mail and you know nothing about what was going on in their life or why they got that letter, you're going to understand some things about it, but you're not going to understand fully. And so we want to try to discern from the letter clues about the situation that were taking place. Be careful not to fill too much detail in that's not stated. Don't make stuff up about why it was written but look for details and clues throughout the letter. This is also important because letters are not exhaustive theological treatises. Rarely did the author of a letter sit down and say, oh, I want to tell you everything you need to know about this area of doctrine. Now usually they were addressing some concern or some issue or some weakness or something that needed to be fleshed out. So they do give extensive instruction about doctrine and practice, but it's rarely comprehensive. They're not exhaustive.

Romans is to some degree an exception where Paul really intended to lay out, this is the gospel that I preach in its entirety. And so it's a long letter. The other gospels or the other letters less so. And so this means when you're reading a letter or you're studying a letter, it's important you recognize there's probably more about this elsewhere in the Bible that is also helpful for me to understand. I want to understand this, but I also am excited to see other Scripture. That's why one of the principles we talked about is interpreting Scripture with Scripture, focusing on what's said here, but recognizing it's fleshed out elsewhere in ways that can help me to understand more of what is said in this particular letter.

Also important with letters to read paragraphs in the context of the letter as a whole. Again, how do you read a letter if you get it? Well, start to finish, usually in one setting, right? Because you know the way this flows matters. If I just go to paragraph number seven in a letter, I might get it right. I might not know exactly what's going on. And so we want to be intentional to read paragraphs in the context of the letter as a whole. It doesn't mean you always have to read it in one setting, but it does mean you want to be thinking about the overall flow of that letter. It's also important to pay close attention to the grammatical structure. Again, this is important in any Scripture, but especially the letters, where there's so much truth packed in tightly in a logical presentation that is dependent highly on the grammatical structure of that particular letter. So, pay close attention to the grammatical structure. 

And then the last genre that we want to think about is the Book of Revelation, which is a unique book in the New Testament, really unique in the Bible, revealing Jesus Christ. And we won't talk much about it because we're about out of time, but some key principles for interpreting Revelation, one is to read it as a letter, because that's what it is. “John, to the seven churches that are in Asia,” verse one, chapter one, verse four says. This is a letter that John wrote to real churches in Asia. And so we need to read it as a letter. There was a context for that letter. There's an intent for why it was written, but it's a unique letter. It's also a prophecy. And so we need to read Revelation as prophecy. The Christ says, in Revelation 1:19, write the things, the angel says, the things that you have seen and the things which are, and the things which will take place after these things. So Revelation is a book about what John saw, about things that were, and about things that will yet take place after these things. 

And so as you read Revelation, same principle we saw with the predictive prophecy of the Old Testament, is to understand the fulfillment as literally as possible given the use of figurative speech and imagery. Revelation can be understood. God intends for it to help us understand what is coming. That was why he gave us that book. Doesn't mean it's always easy to understand or that every detail is crystal clear, but we want to read it as literally as possible given the use of figurative speech and imagery. And if you want to study Revelation, our pastor did a wonderful series of messages through the entire book that you would benefit from as you go through that book.

So men, we want to be careful how we interpret the Bible. We want to get the message right as we read it. Those general principles that apply wherever you are in Scripture. Read it with a dependence on the Lord. Study from an appropriate Bible translation. Use the normal rules of language. In some ways, we can expand that to say as appropriate in the particular genre that you are studying. That's what helps you to know, how do I read this part of Scripture? Well, it's the normal rules of language in that type of literature, that type of genre.

Interpret Scripture in its context, recognizing there's a larger story that these narratives fit into. There's a larger theological truth that the prophets are tied to, the covenant from Israel. We want to understand Scripture in its context.

We want to interpret Scripture with other Scripture. Part of that means anticipating the fulfillment of the New Testament from the Old and recognizing the foundation of the Old when we're reading the New Testament. And mostly, men, we want to commit to believe and obey the Scripture. It's not just about saying, Yay, I think I got it right. It's about how does this shape our thinking and how does this drive us to respond? 

You know, the prophets, Christ, the New Testament Epistles all focus on the fact that this is not just our head knowledge. This is about how do we live in response to the truth. May we be faithful students of God's word, eager to study it. And again, these are the foundational principles for thinking about that.

Next time, and then the couple sessions following, Tom's going to walk through really the process for how do we take these principles and put them into practice using various tools, using a consistent process to make sure that we are getting it right, that we're not misunderstanding or misrepresenting the truth of God's word. Let's pray together. 

Father, we're thankful for the time tonight, thankful for the opportunity to think about the various genres of Scripture, the various testaments that you've given in your word. We do pray that we would understand them clearly and accurately. Thank you for the variety of ways that you've communicated to us for varieties of reasons, and we pray that we would benefit from all of the Scriptures. It's all inspired and profitable, and we thank you for it, and we pray that we would be shaped by it. In Christ's name, Amen.