Reading Another Person’s Mail

Why is it so hard for most people to understand the Bible, after all, we are instructed and encouraged to read it. Why is it that after years of formal education scholars still differ from one another in their opinions as to what God’s Holy Word says? It seems, if the Lord sent people to speak and write His Word, in order to communicate His will for us to obey, He would make it easier for us to understand. After all, if you were in a position to give people orders, to have them perform a task on a job, would you not try to be clear about what you wanted so they could perform that task as you wanted? If we see a need to be clear in our communications in everyday life, does it not seem even more important, to be clear in the things that pertain to the purpose, the meaning of that life?

I am sure some readers are thinking about Jesus using parables; His disciples came and asked him, “Why do you use parables when you talk to the people?” He replied, “You are permitted to understand the secrets of the Kingdom of Heaven, but others are not. To those who listen to my teaching, more understanding will be given, and they will have an abundance of knowledge. But for those who are not listening, even what little understanding they have will be taken away from them …” Some may claim that God wants only certain people, His People, to understand so He speaks in cryptic form allowing the Holy Spirit to give the person the understanding. That still does not answer why so many who claim to be Christians still do not understand and have a hard time reading the Bible. Still the scholars differ.

Yes, Jesus did use parables when talking with the people instead of being plain and clear but my concern is with the Bible over all. If the Bible speaks of God, man, sin, and salvation and communicates the meaning of life, which I believe it does, then why is it so hard to understand? I cannot say that it is just one thing or the only things I mention here; because we must admit, it is difficult. Knowing and understanding has to do with our attitude and belief, our obedience and zeal. There is another reason that I want to focus on in this article that is so obvious that most people do not even see it. That reason has to do with to whom the Scriptures where written. Let me start to explain by giving an example of someone who found a two hundred year old letter in their attic that was written to someone they did not know. The scene is two hundred years in the future.

Dear,
Jan, Paul, and family.
We arrived home safely and tired but we enjoyed our stay with you very much. We are still laughing about the situation Joe got into. We still do not know if his reply was intentional or spontaneous but whatever, it was still hilarious. We are looking at one of those new GREEN SUVs because our old heap is on its last legs. Paul really enjoyed the card games but you know how competitive he is but at least he is a good loser. I just wanted to let you know we made it home safe and hope we can do it again only sooner. I will write shortly to you a longer letter, after we get settled in and rested. We hope Sue is feeling better but if not you should take her to see a doctor soon.
Love,
Nancy

After finding a letter such as this one, it would be difficult if not impossible to know who the people are or what they meant in what they wrote. They would not know what was so funny about Joe’s situation and why they were still laughing about it. They might figure Joe had said something in response that caused the laughter. Did Paul lose playing cards or if he had lost he would have been a good loser. After two hundred years they may not be familiar with the expression GREEN so they could think they were talking about the color, missing the point of being fuel efficient and emission control friendly. There would be no need to think that when they said shortly it would mean a long time. The same with Sue’s illness, they should see a doctor soon not meaning a month or longer. So without having any background knowledge, anyone who found and read the letter could not understand about the few things mentioned.

The point I want to make is that the letter was written to a family long ago in a specific place and time. It was not written to anyone else and only those who were there could know and relate to everything that was written. Today many believe the Bible is written to us in the 21st century just like those who believed it in the 20th century. The idea being, this is God talking directly to us about Himself and Jesus and the salvation they brought to mankind and tells us about what happened in the past and what will happen in the future. Was the Bible really written to us? The first five books in the Bible are called the Pentateuch. It was the Law of Moses for Israel’s instruction. Did Israel understand what Moses wrote? Yes. Joshua, Judges, Ruth, I & II Samuel, I & II Kings, and I & II Chronicles are historical books that cover the history of the Jews from the time they entered the Promise Land until they were carried away into Babylon. Did they understand those books? Yes. The Old Testament prophets spoke to specific people throughout the Jewish history about both present and future events. The Old Testament was speaking to God’s people, the Jews, about His Christ, their Messiah, when He would come, and what He would do, always pointing ahead to Jesus. It was those prophecies that were not understood that pointed to the future. They had not yet been fulfilled and so they had not yet been understood.

We come to the New Testament and within the first chapter, we read, “Now all this took place to fulfill what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet: "Behold, the virgin shall be with child and shall bear a son, and they shall call His name Immanuel," which translated means, "God with us."

The time had arrived that the Old Testament prophecies would be fulfilled. The New was completing the Old, interpreting the types and shadows. In the time of that first generation of Christians, all things would be fulfilled and the mysteries would be revealed. From the book of Matthew through the book of Revelation, all was being explained. But if all prophecy was fulfilled then why is it still hard to understand? Let us look closely at the beginning of each epistle. We have, “Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, To all those in Rome” … “Paul, called by the will of God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus, and our brother Sosthenes, To the church of God that is in Corinth” … “Paul, an apostle—not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead— and all the brothers who are with me, To the churches of Galatia” … “ Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, To the saints who are in Ephesus” … “Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus, To all the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi, with the overseers and deacons” … “Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, To the saints and faithful brothers in Christ at Colossae” … “Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by command of God our Savior and of Christ Jesus our hope, To Timothy, my true child in the faith” … “To Titus, my true child in a common faith” … “Paul, a prisoner for Christ Jesus, and Timothy our brother, To Philemon our beloved fellow worker and Apphia our sister and Archippus our fellow soldier, and the church in your house” … “James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, To the twelve tribes in the Dispersion” … “Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who are elect exiles of the dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia” … “The elder to the beloved Gaius, whom I love in truth” … “The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show to his servants the things that must soon take place. He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John” … “John to the seven churches that are in Asia.”

I hope you see what you have not seen before. The reason it is so hard for us to understand the Holy Scriptures is that they were written to specific people at a specific time for a specific purpose. They were not written to us but preserved for us. Yet we read them and try to understand them as though they were written to us. As Paul said, “such things were written in the Scriptures long ago to teach us. And the Scriptures give us hope and encouragement as we wait patiently for God’s promises to be fulfilled”. The ‘us’ is not us today but them who lived in the time they were written. Their Scriptures were the Old Testament books and the New Testament epistles were showing them how those promises were being fulfilled in their day. Jesus said, “Truly, I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation” and again “Truly, I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place.” The prophecies spoken by Jesus and His disciples were not far-off events, things that are to happen in our day. The people of that generation were to look for those events as the Old Covenant promises and the New Covenant fulfillment.

Now to bring to mind the letter I used above as an example, I hope you can see that we miss much of our understanding because we were not involved, we were not there when the letters were written by those first century authors. There are cultural issues that do not apply to us. There is also the language barrier that no matter how literal we are in translating we cannot help but miss something of the intent of the writer. That is why it is necessary to read the Holy Scriptures over and over asking God for understanding. Try to look at large portions at a time so you may get the true intent of what the writer was trying to get across. It helps to have as much knowledge as possible about the period, history, culture, manners and customs.

When the scholars write about interpreting Scripture they speak about audience relevance. That is looking at the Word as though you were a first century saint hearing it read by the messenger that brought it and asking what did the author intend for them to know and understand? It is true what Peter said about Paul’s writing … “just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given him, as he does in all his letters when he speaks in them of these matters. There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures …” The people did not study those letters as we do. They did not have to because they understood, for the most part, what the writer said and if they did have a question they could ask those with certain gifts from the Holy Spirit. It was their time, they were the chosen generation and that information and knowledge was to them and for them. They did not have a perfect knowledge of it, but it was a lot more than we have today. What happened to that knowledge? That is a great question to study.

When we read the Bible, it will help to ask God for understanding and to imagine what a first century Christian would think of as he heard it. If you know little or nothing about the Old Testament, chances are you will learn little or nothing of the New. Pay attention to how the authors in the NT quote portions of the OT. Study all of the one hundred plus prophecies that the NT claims had been fulfilled. Read some history about that time period and the fall of Jerusalem. Everyone is aware that the temple no longer exists but they fail to see the importance of what happened in AD 70 when Rome destroyed the city and the temple during its war against the Jews. That was the fulfillment of what Jesus prophesied in Matt 24, Mk 13, and Lu 21.

I have tried to present to you, the reader, something to think about and consider in hopes that it may help you profit from the Holy Word of God. The Majesty in Heaven is pleased to show His people what they need and to give wisdom and understanding to those who eagerly seek for it. Today very few are interested in the Holy Scriptures and in our culture there is a want for instant gratification. They want the Bible to be made easy to read and understand so it will not take so long to learn. I am all for making things easy for others but, we can get to the point where we begin to lose something of value because we have over simplified it.

For hundreds of years there was no need for countless Bible translations into the same language. People made good with what they had but even since becoming a Christian since the middle seventies, numerous new translations have come out with more on the way. With this increase in translations, I have not witnessed an increase in a more desire to read the Bible or an increase in one’s Bible knowledge. I fear the main ones to profit from this are the Bible publishers.

Viewing the Bible in the way I have described should not be a discouragement to us or form doubt about the Words of Life. It is God’s Word - inspired through the original authors. God still speaks to us through it and it should even become a greater encouragement. It makes much more sense when we read those many occasions that show the imminence of expectation by those first Christians. Those verses that speak of “soon” or “shortly” can now be taken literally, as intended; knowing what they were waiting for was fulfilled in that first generation. It helps us to see the complete story the Bible tells; God, from the beginning of His creation, fulfilling all of the promises He made. It is still “…useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the person dedicated to God may be capable and equipped for every good work.”

Written by Fred Robbins 03/07/09