How to Read the Old Testament - Part 5 - Michael Brown

In Galatians 1:10 the Apostle Paul says the following, “Am I now trying to win the approval of human beings, or of God? Or am I trying to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ.” Wow, what a cool guy, a maverick, a lone-wolf. He doesn’t care what anybody thinks except God.

From this we can see that the bible clearly teaches not to try and please other people. Simple.

But wait! Here comes 1 Corinthians 10:33, “even as I try to please everyone in every way. For I am not seeking my own good but the good of many, so that they may be saved.” Oh… Well, that’s confusing.

So, Paul doesn’t try to please people but is also trying to please everyone? That right there is a headscratcher. But only if you read these verses on their own. These two verses are taken from two separate letters, addressing two very different church communities, with very different problems.

In Galatians Paul is writing to a community that been led astray into legalism and trying to satisfy the religious requirements and expectations of outside influencers. So, throughout that letter he is at pains to emphasise salvation through grace and the freedom of believers from human expectations and traditions.

But in his letters to the church in Corinth Paul is writing to a community with the opposite problem. A church riven with divisions, anarchic leadership and falling into all kinds of sinful, carnal practices.

So, in his letters to the Corinthians Paul is emphasising unity, the need to build up others and to live in a way that glorifies God. These verses can only properly be understood within the context of the books that they are in.

The Old Testament is no different. Reading small snippets of the text on their own will do us no good.

The Bible was written as whole books, which in turn are part of one carefully designed whole. And within those books are stories, some short and some long, which in turn are part of larger sections or movements within the different books.

Each individual story (or psalm or prophecy) is supposed to be understood within the context of a larger movement, which in turn is understood as part of a book, which in turn is understood within the context of the whole Bible. It is not designed to read in individual verses and when we do that and remove verses from their context it is incredibly easy to misunderstand what God is saying to us.

For example, one of the most commonly quoted bible verse in modern times is Jeremiah 29:11, “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”

This verse seems to be everywhere these days. If you have been around Christian culture for long you will have had a friend post it on Facebook or you will have seen a poster or t-shirt with this verse on. However, this almost always completely ignores the context in which the verse is found.

Chapter 2 of Jeremiah is a letter being sent by the prophet to those Israelites who have been carried off into exile in Babylon. He is instructing them on how to live in exile and also revealing God’s promise to return them to their homeland after 70 years. It is within this very specific context, and to this very specific group of people, that verse 11 comes.

But that promise is God’s encouragement to this specific group to give them hope in their exile. It isn’t for everyone; it isn’t even for all Israelites.

Within that same chapter there are strong warnings and pronouncements against individuals and groups of people. Here is verses 16-18 of the same chapter, “but this is what the Lord says about the king who sits on David’s throne and all the people who remain in this city, your fellow citizens who did not go with you into exile— yes, this is what the Lord Almighty says: “I will send the sword, famine and plague against them and I will make them like figs that are so bad they cannot be eaten. I will pursue them with the sword, famine and plague and will make them abhorrent to all the kingdoms of the earth, a curse and an object of horror, of scorn and reproach, among all the nations where I drive them. For they have not listened to my words,” declares the Lord, “words that I sent to them again and again by my servants the prophets.”

I don’t know about you, but I haven’t seen those verses on many posters. It doesn’t sound like God plans much of a hope or future for the people of Jerusalem, and the passage tells us this is because of their wickedness and how they have ignored God’s word to them through his prophets.

We can see from this that in context the famous verse 11 is not an unconditional promise of goodness and light and hope for everyone, but a conditional promise, reliant on obedience to God’s word, for a specific group of people.

Let’s look at one more example. I had a friend at Bible school who had a big decision to make about his future. He grew so anxious about this decision that he tried something radical. Inspired by the story of Gideon, found in Judges chapter 6, he took a fleece and laid it outside on the ground to help him decide which direction to go in (if you are not familiar with the story of Gideon and this is all sounding rather odd then maybe pause here and go read Judges 6 before you carry on, don’t worry I will wait for you).

When he went out the next day to see if the fleece was wet but the ground dry (or the ground wet and the fleece dry, I forget which he was going for), he was disappointed to find both the fleece and ground very, very wet indeed (it was November) and that even worse, a fox had done its nightly business all over his fleece.

Now why hadn’t the old fleece trick worked? It was possibly because my friends fleece was a fleece jumper which is of course not what the book of Judges is referring to. Very possible. It could also be because the Bible is NOT promoting Gideon’s fleece test as a way in which we should treat God and make decisions. After all is it not written “Do not put the Lord your God to the test,”?

When we read the story of Gideon in context the meaning becomes more clear. The book of Judges is all about God rescuing Israel from oppression through a series of incredibly flawed people. Figures like Samson, Gideon and Jephtah are not heroes to be emulated, they are cautionary tales.

We are supposed to read that book and marvel at God’s goodness that he could work his purposes through such men. When we read the full story of Gideon from chapter 6-8, we see that he is a cowardly man who lacks faith. He continuously doubts God’s promises to him and repeatedly asks God to prove himself through a series of miraculous tests. In his grace God meets him in his weakness and in doing so gets all of the glory.

So, context is vital. Don’t read verses on their own, or even whole books on their own. Constantly be evaluating and testing your understanding using the whole context of scripture.

I’m going to set you some homework this week (completely optional of course, I won’t have any way of knowing if you have done it or not. Though God will…). Read Numbers 6:1-21 and then read the story of Samson, found in Judges 13-16. What do you notice?

Read the other blogs in this series here: