Living by the Book/Living by the Book Workbook Set (39 page)

Let me give you another illustration. When I was a boy in Philadelphia, we were allowed to read the Bible in public school—but only five of the psalms. Psalm 24 was one of them. I can still remember the words:

I used to hear that and think,
What in the world is this talking about?
It made no sense to me. (That’s why they didn’t mind our reading this psalm; nobody had a clue as to what it meant.)

But years later I was studying the life of David, and I looked at a map of Palestine. The story says that before he became king, whenever he wanted to go from the southern part of the country to the north, he had to pass a city by the name of Jebus. Jebus was an ancient fortress—a hangout left over after the days of Joshua, when the Israelites never took the Promised Land as God had commanded them.

So whenever David went by Jebus, its defenders appeared on the wall and taunted him. “Hey David,” they yelled. “When you become king, don’t try to take this place. We’ll put cripples at the gate. We’ll put blind men on the watchtowers. But you still won’t conquer us.”

When David became king, he didn’t forget those words. He said to his warriors, “The first thing we’re going to do is to clean out Jebus.”

It turns out that is what Psalm 24 is talking about. David defeated Jebus and made it his capital (which we know as Jerusalem, 2 Samuel 5:3–10). One of his first acts as king was to bring the Ark of the Covenant to Jebus. Psalm 24 is the processional hymn that he and the people sang as they brought it up the incline to the city: “Lift up your heads, O gates! Tear down the walls! Enlarge the breaches!”

And the walls, as if sharing the ancient antipathy of their defenders, ask, “Who is this king who demands that we enlarge the gates?”

The answer comes back: “The Lord of hosts. He is the King of glory.”

So you see, once you understand the historical background, Psalm 24 suddenly comes alive.

One final illustration comes from 1 Corinthians 8, where Paul discusses the problem of eating meat offered to idols—not exactly one of the critical problems we face today. Yet when I came out of seminary, I think I knew more about Corinth and eating meat offered to idols than just about any other human being. Today, after fifty years of teaching, I’m still looking for somebody who’s got that problem. If I ever find them, believe me, I’m loaded for bear.

Does that render 1 Corinthians 8 irrelevant for today? It does if you have no idea of the cultural background involved. Notice verse 1: “Now concerning things sacrificed to idols, we know that we have all knowledge.” Again, in verse 4 he writes, “Therefore concerning the eating of things sacrificed to idols, we know that there is no such thing as an idol in the world.”

But verse 7 declares, “Not all men have this knowledge.” So Paul warns that you have to be very careful in this matter. Why? Here’s where cultural context comes into play. A bit of research reveals that the best meat in town was reserved for offerings to the idols. Not surprisingly, the best meat markets and restaurants were located right next to the temple. So if you wanted to take someone out for a steak dinner, you’d take him there.

But suppose the person was a recent convert. Suppose he had come out of a pagan background of sacrificing and eating meat offered to the idols. Now you’re asking him to eat that same meat—in effect, taking him back to his pre-Christian days. How would that feel to him?

Paul says clearly that “we know that there is no such thing as an idol.” In other words, idols have no real power; they are false gods. But that’s not the issue. The issue is doing what is best for a brother or sister in Christ. Even harmless practices can be a source of offense to a weaker brother who still has an uneducated conscience.

Given that cultural perspective, does 1 Corinthians 8 have anything to say to us today? Well, are there any “gray” areas in modern life? Are there any matters of conscience that some Christians practice freely, whereas others take offense? I’ll let you answer that. But if you want my advice, 1 Corinthians 8 ought to be on your required reading list.

When you study it—or any portion of the Word of God—make sure you study the background. Re-create the culture. Because then and only then will the text come alive.

I
have a good friend who is a carpenter. He’s actually a craftsman, incredibly gifted at working with wood. I love to kid him whenever he comes to my house, because he always brings so many tools.

One day when I was riding him, he responded, “Well, you know, Prof, the more tools a guy has, the better a carpenter he’s likely to be.”

The same thing is true in Bible study. You can go a long way with just your own eyes and the English text. But you can go even further if you add some tools to the process. That’s why the fifth and final key to interpretation is:

Consultation involves the use of secondary resources. They can shed light on the text that will help you make more sense out of what you’re looking at.

You see, we never want to become arrogant in the study process by thinking that we’ve got all of the answers, that the Holy Spirit speaks to us, but He’s never spoken to anyone else. The truth of the matter is that thousands of people have walked this road before us. And some of them have left behind valuable helps. They are like some mountain climbers who leave their pitons
wedged into the rock, so that others can climb up after them. Using secondary sources, you can leverage yourself against the contributions of others.

But one word of caution: Never forget the order: first the text of Scripture; then secondary sources. To go to secondary helps without even consulting the text gives small place to the Word of God. That’s why the first thing you need, before you ever obtain any of the resources mentioned below, is a good study Bible (see “How to Select a Bible,” pp. 34–35). Start with that. Then you can add to your library as you go.

And there are five especially helpful tools that I want to describe. Many, many more could be mentioned, so be sure to check the section at the back of the book called “Additional Resources.” But these five will get you started on building a valuable tool chest to use in your interpretational work.

I’ve mentioned concordances several times already. Next to a study Bible, a concordance is probably the one tool you can’t do without. It is somewhat like an index to the Bible. It lists all of the words of the text alphabetically, with references for where they appear, along with a few of the surrounding words to give some context.

There are many profitable uses for a concordance. One of the most common is to do word studies. We saw some of that when we talked about comparison in
chapter 32
, and we’ll see more in the next chapter.

A concordance can also help you locate a passage when you can’t remember its reference. This happens all the time. Say you are studying 1 Peter and you read: “For you were continually straying like sheep, but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Guardian of your souls” (2:25). This is an obvious reference to Christ. And somewhere in the back of your mind you remember that Jesus was called the Good Shepherd. But you can’t remember where. So you look up “shepherd” in your concordance, and find a reference to John 10:11, “I am the good shepherd.” Bingo! You’ve found your passage.

Whatever you do, make sure you get an
exhaustive concordance
rather than an abridged one. An exhaustive concordance is one that lists each and every instance of each and every word of the text. Two well-regarded titles are Strong’s and Young’s. But most major translations of the Bible have their own
concordance, and you want to make sure that you get one that corresponds to your translation. Otherwise, you’ll be looking up words that are translated a bit differently than in your Bible.