{"id":357,"date":"2006-09-07T16:43:48","date_gmt":"2006-09-07T13:43:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/toddbolen.com\/2006\/09\/07\/gods-love-letter-to-you\/"},"modified":"2006-09-07T16:43:48","modified_gmt":"2006-09-07T13:43:48","slug":"gods-love-letter-to-you","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/toddbolen.com\/blog\/2006\/09\/07\/gods-love-letter-to-you\/","title":{"rendered":"God's Love Letter to You?"},"content":{"rendered":"

I was recently asked about a statement<\/a> I made previously:<\/p>\n

The Bible was not written for you or me. Thus, I don’t feel bad if some part of it is boring or doesn’t “speak to me.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So I was asked, isn’t the Bible God’s love letter to us? \u00a0 Uh, no. \u00a0 Not exactly.<\/p>\n

It’s easier to speak in specifics rather than in general terms, so let’s take the book of Samuel as our example. \u00a0 The book of Samuel had an author (or authors) and it had an audience. \u00a0 That is, the person(s) who wrote Samuel wrote it for a reason and for a certain readership. \u00a0 And it wasn’t me (or you). \u00a0 This sounds basic, but it is increasingly important in a world (and church) that doesn’t seem to appreciate context and recognize boundaries. \u00a0 While the book of Samuel may be difficult to nail down exactly who wrote it, when they wrote, and exactly to whom they wrote, I think we can all agree that the audience was a group of Jewish people sometime between 1000-500 B.C. \u00a0 We don’t need to be more specific for our purposes now. \u00a0 So the point is that the original audience cannot be me (I’m not Jewish) and it can’t be you (unless you’re 2500 years old).<\/p>\n

But<\/em>, you ask, isn’t there a way<\/em> in which Samuel is for us. \u00a0 Yes, indeed. \u00a0 But that way is not to pretend as if that book was written to and for us. \u00a0 Instead, it is to understand the meaning<\/em> of Samuel as intended by its original author(s) to its original hearers\/readers. \u00a0 That, and only that, meaning is what you must seek. \u00a0 You cannot <\/em>start with “what is Samuel saying to me?” \u00a0 Once you’ve determined what Samuel is saying to its audience, then<\/em> you can determine what application it has for your life.<\/p>\n

So here’s an example. \u00a0 You read the story of David and Goliath (chapter 17). \u00a0 First, determine what it meant when it was written. \u00a0 I’ll save you some time: the answer is that it was written to show David’s military superiority to Saul (not Goliath, Saul), which of course reflects God’s hand upon David. \u00a0 Once you understand the original meaning (and there’s no magic except for careful attention to the context and some knowledge of history, geography, and language), then you can determine how it applies to you today. \u00a0 Valid principles include:
\n1. God empowers those whom he chooses to do what he wills.
\n2. God expects his people to embrace the leader he has chosen for them.
\n3. God can defend his honor in unexpected ways.<\/p>\n

These of course lead to proper application:
\n1. If you are doing the will of God, he will give you the strength you need.
\n2. Honor those in authority over you.
\n3. Don’t try to outsmart God.<\/p>\n

The problem with the “love letter to me” approach is that you end up making the Bible say things that it does not intend to say. \u00a0 For instance, you can say that God will always allow you to conquer the giants in your life. \u00a0 You can say that God’s servants need to be prepared with extra stones in their pouch. \u00a0 You can say that those who denounce God should have their heads cut off. \u00a0 The problem with all of these applications is that they are not what the writer intended to say (and by the way, I’m not making a significant distinction between the event itself and the recording of that event, but there is a difference and thus it’s easiest and best to speak about the written record). \u00a0 And I think they are all false. \u00a0 Let me say it more strongly: all applications which do not derive from the passage are dangerous! \u00a0 They must be forgotten or denounced, as the case may be. \u00a0 If the statement is true and you know so from another passage, then base it on the other passage and not this one.<\/p>\n

If the question is “can I profit from all of the Bible even though it was not written directly to me?”, the answer is a resounding yes. \u00a0 Paul knew that Samuel wasn’t written to him but yet he told Timothy that all Scripture was useful. \u00a0 The key here is in using it as it was originally intended and not as a horoscope.<\/p>\n

So, to Leviticus, which sort of prompted my original statement above. \u00a0 Leviticus wasn’t written for me, to me, and it has very little relevance for me today. \u00a0 I didn’t say that it has none, but I will say that the bulk of the commands given in that book are not relevant for God’s people today. \u00a0 There are things you can learn from Leviticus, such as just how high the cost is for sin. \u00a0 Those are glorious truths which I don’t want to do away with. \u00a0 But I’m not sure that it’s necessary for me to savor every last little detail about the various shades of color of swelling on a person who has a rash. \u00a0 If you lived in the covenant community of Israel and you had a rash, those details were life for you. \u00a0 Today, however, they are boring.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I was recently asked about a statement I made previously: The Bible was not written for you or me. Thus, I don’t feel bad if some part of it is boring or doesn’t “speak to me.” So I was asked, isn’t the Bible God’s love letter to us? \u00a0 Uh, no. \u00a0 Not exactly. It’s\u2026 Read More »<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-357","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-studies"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/toddbolen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/toddbolen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/toddbolen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toddbolen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toddbolen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=357"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/toddbolen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/toddbolen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=357"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toddbolen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=357"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toddbolen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=357"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}