The Bible is a Relevant Book

Have you ever walked in on the middle of a conversation and realized that you must have missed something? For example, someone may have been talking about a friend who had been so embarrassed that “she wanted to die.” Imagine someone overhearing just part of that conversation and thinking that the friend was actually suicidal.
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I fear that sort of thing happens all too often with the scriptures. If we only get part of a passage, we can end up jumping to some really bad conclusions. That is why context is so very important in the study of scripture. Not only should we focus on the context of the surrounding verses, but we need to also focus on the context of the audience that is being spoken to.
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There is a song about the Bible that says, “Every promise in the Book is mine.” That is an invalid statement, because there are promises in the Bible that are not mine because they were given to a different audience. For example in Genesis 17:6, Abraham is promised that he would have descendants that would be kings. That is not a promise that is given to everyone. In that same chapter Abraham is given a promise that his 90 year old wife will have a son. That does not mean that every woman has the promise of bearing a son when she is 90. Clearly the context of the audience makes a difference in our understanding of scripture.
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The context of history is also important. For example, at our Monday night Bible study we just began to look at the book of Nehemiah. In that book we find out that Nehemiah is concerned about the fact that the residents of Jerusalem had not rebuilt the walls around the city. Earlier the prophet Haggai had been concerned that the residents of Jerusalem had not rebuilt the temple. In fact he rebuked them for making their own houses fancy while neglecting God’s house.
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But as we look at the historical context of Nehemiah, we find out that there is more to the story than just the residents of Jerusalem having other priorities rather than rebuilding the wall. First of all, Judah/Israel was not an independent country at this time. They were instead a province of the Persian Empire. Further when we look at Ezra 4:13-23, we find out that the Persian King had ordered them not to rebuild the wall. The historical context that we find in other portions of scripture as well as secular accounts of that time period, help us to better understand the events that unfold within the book of Nehemiah and how God worked in an amazing way in order to allow the wall to be rebuilt in spite of all the roadblocks that kept coming up.
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Not only does context help us to have a more accurate understanding of Scripture. It also makes it more exciting. It helps us to understand how all the pieces of Biblical history and Biblical doctrine fit together in a unified way that not only makes sense, but is really interesting and electrifying.
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Some people think that the Bible is boring. I believe that it only seems boring because many have not yet seen how the pages of scripture unfold to tell a magnificent story. Context helps us to understand the scripture so that we can see it’s true relevance. For further questions or comments, please contact southtownbc@yahoo.com