Wednesday, May 7, 2008

Explore the Bible for Yourself, Part 51 of 52

PURPOSE: To help listeners carefully draw applications from historical and narrative literature.

A seminary student who had a speech defect was wrestling with whether or not he ought to go into the ministry. He read Ex. 4:10-11, in which Moses tried to hide behind his defects, and whom God challenged with a promise to teach him what to say.

Is it legitimate for someone today to use that text for a life decision about ministry?

I. Not all history is our history.

A. This text was given to Moses. There is a principle behind it: God is the one who takes responsibility for the impediment. That he overcame the difficulty with Moses doesn't follow that He will overcome the difficulty with me.

B. We need to be careful when we use a historical event in the Bible and then apply it to our own individual situation. The question is, "Does this have the authority of God behind it?" I do not want to say, in the name of God, what God is not saying. History in the Bible can lead me astray.

C. How can we use the history in the Bible? There are several levels of authority:

II. The first level of authority: the Bible itself evaluates the event and gives a reason for that evaluation.

EG, all through the story of Joseph you have the statement "And God was with Joseph." The key statement (50:20) gives the event and the reason for the event. What lesson can we bring over into today? Whatever happens in your life, God is able to bring good out of evil. But you don't need the story of Joseph to know this: the New Testament will also tell you this as a principle (Romans 8:28).

III. The second level of authority: There may be events the Bible calls good that contain elements that may be good or bad.

We cannot make a principle out of the event unless someplace else in the Scripture that principle is stated in the Bible. EG. The story of Rahab (Joshua 2:3-5).

A. Is Rahab looked at as a person of faith? Hebrews 11:31 and James 2:25 tell us that she is.

B. In deceiving the soldiers, could you conclude that it is right to do something wrong in order to do something right? God makes no judgment about what she did in this passage or any place in the Bible.

C. But bearing false witness would lead us to believe that what she did was wrong. But she acted as a person of faith. But it's true throughout the Bible that God uses even the wrath of men to praise Him. Yet you cannot take this as a principle for action.

D. Not all good actions in the Bible have good results; not all bad actions have bad results. A thing is not right or wrong by the way it turns out.

E. All of this is to say that if the principle is not interpreted by the biblical writer, it cannot be used as a principle.

IV The third level: historic events on which the Scripture does not render a judgment of any sort have no authority. I cannot draw a principle from it.

I may be able to use it as an illustration of a principle found elsewhere in the Bible, but it does not have the authority of a principle.