City Life Starter

I. The Word: Isaiah 45:1-4 (ESV)
1 Thus says the Lord to his anointed, to Cyrus,
whose right hand I have grasped,
to subdue nations before him
and to loose the belts of kings,
to open doors before him
that gates may not be closed:
2 “I will go before you
and level the exalted places,
I will break in pieces the doors of bronze
and cut through the bars of iron,
3 I will give you the treasures of darkness
and the hoards in secret places,
that you may know that it is I, the Lord,
the God of Israel, who call you by your name.
4 For the sake of my servant Jacob,
and Israel my chosen,
I call you by your name,
I name you, though you do not know me.

 

It was several months ago when I was scrolling through FaceBook and came across a well respected Christian leader sharing a message he received from the Lord with anyone and everyone that would listen. According to this individual, the Lord spoke to him about the coming election. As the next President of the United States will be our forty-fifth President (although more technically the 44th) he was “led” to Isaiah 45 (the scripture above). He began to preach with incredible dogma on the correlation between this passage of scripture and our next President. His rhetoric included equating this foreign king, being anointed and appointed to rule by God, with a particular candidate in our next election. While spewing out acute statements of this person being “God’s chosen” as was Cyprus, the crowd he was speaking to was obviously being persuaded. I mean, it is the Word of God and how great is it for God’s preacher/prophet to enlighten us to this ancient text for relevance today. After all there is no disputing the man of God who holds the holy wand which brings amplification to one’s voice as one who has authority because his voice is the loudest in the room. Can you feel my sarcasm here?

Now, I am not against hearing a word from the Lord. I believe this is something we should experience and have done so personally as well as for others. That’s not my issue. Rather, my problem is originated in how the Scripture is being read, used and taught in this instance.

As we have been encouraging our church/the reader to pursue communication with God through the discipline of scripture reading specifically, there are warnings, or ways we are to approach the Scriptures that need to be acknowledged and understood. You should not open the Bible in some form of biblical Russian roulette, point your finger to a scripture and let your imagination run wild. There are real ways you must approach the scripture as you start to study. Unfortunately, this speaker did not do this and felt as a prophet he has a license to not adhere to proper interpretation when dealing with scripture. The danger of this is vast and scary as you can just about make any scripture say anything, mean anything or speak about everything. This dilutes the scripture and makes God’s word a joke or at the very least something to be taken lightly. To make a text, written thousands of years ago, apply to a specific person in our world today explicitly is comical and brings crocodile tears to my fragile heart.

Now, I don’t mean to rant and I will get to a few tips and resources on how to interpret scripture, but bear with me here when I say this text is definitely not talking about our next President. You know who the author is referring to when he speaks about Cyrus…wait for it…CYRUS! Whew…There was an actual king that God chose and told Israel He would use to ultimately bring God glory. Please be mindful of misinterpretation throughout the “pulpit” and do what the Apostle Paul commands us to do in the church.

1 Corinthians 14:29 (ESV) 29 Let two or three prophets speak, and let the others weigh what is said.

“Weigh what is said.” What does this mean? It means to properly evaluate, according to the Scriptures, Holy Spirit, and leaders of the church, whether the word spoken is divine. Don’t just take it at face value because someone sounded polished or dropped the “God told me trump-card”. We are to weigh, think, discuss, evaluate, pray and then move or don’t on the word. The next question should be, “So how do we weigh?”

I’m so glad you asked. Here are a few questions to ask about while studying the scripture.

• Who was the writer?
• To whom were they writing?
• Is the choice of words, wording, or word order significant in this particular passage?
• What is the cultural, historical context?
• What was the author’s original intended meaning?
• How did the author’s contemporaries understand him?
• Why did he say it that way?

The greatest key to proper study, I believe, is to remember the scripture is predominantly about Jesus. The “bible code” that we should be unlocking is seeing and worshiping Jesus more as we open this incredible Word we have been given.

Just about every Sunday, as I drive home with my kids from church, I ask them what they learned in kid’s church that day. After they tell me about the scripture or story my immediate follow-up question is,”What does that have to do with Jesus?” No matter what they say we have yet to find a scripture that doesn’t bring us back to the beauty of Christ and lead us into a wonderful discussion about Jesus in our lives from the text.

This post could continue on and on, but I hope this gives you at least a small start on how to approach the Word with the proper lenses for your daily study.

John 5:39-40 (ESV) 39 You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, 40 yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life.

John 1:1-5 (ESV) 1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. 4 In him was life,[a] and the life was the light of men. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

Resources to help you study Scripture:

Book: Searching the Scriptures by Chuck Swindoll

Audio: Great podcast I enjoyed interviewing Chuck Swindoll about the book above.

Excerpt from the book: The Interpretation of Scripture by James I. Packer