The Unchanging Library Structure

Last week we looked at how does the Bible actually work? And we saw the importance of understanding that this isn’t a book. It’s actually a library—not a book, but a whole library of 66 books. And we took note last week that in libraries or even in bookstores, even online bookstores, you got some different sections of the library. You got your legal section, your historical section, poetry, wisdom, music, lyrics, biographies. Sometimes there’s even collections of special letters.

Now we already know that if you walk into one of those bookstores, you’re not gonna read all the different sections exactly the same. You’re not going to take the lyrics or the poetry as literally as the historical documents, and you’re not going to read yesterday’s sports scores the same way as you would read ancient laws, even from New Brunswick, right? And we certainly know and understand that these sections in a library don’t go in chronological order. Neither do the books of the Bible. Genesis may start in the beginning and end with Revelation, which seems like the end times. But that stuff in the middle, those other 64 of the 66 books, they don’t all line up in order. They’re not in chronological order. See, the books in a library shouldn’t all be read the same way. Neither should the books of the Bible. And as we concluded last week, we learned that the books that make up the library we call the Bible were written for us, not to us. And that distinction is incredibly important, very important, and it will become abundantly clear here today.

I am going to pick up where we left off last week, but let me just say some of the comments on the way out, some of the emails, some of your connect cards—so interesting! I’ve never had more interesting reading before. I really enjoyed it. Everything from the kind of lighthearted thanks for the dirty Bible verses to the more serious, “but what about this section, what about this passage, what about this story, will you explain that?” And I would absolutely love to, because I want you to have the same confidence in this book that I have. I believe every chapter, every line, every verse. I have not found a single contradiction or even a question that has caused Christianity or my faith to crumble in any way. Just the opposite. See, the pages of scripture have actually built my faith. and at this point, honestly, I’ve seen too much to ever turn back. See, I’ve had a front-row seat of seeing the grace of God, the miracles of God, and the answers found in this library. So don’t be afraid to ask your questions. Let’s keep using those connect cards—pull them out, they’re in the seatbacks in front of you, get your pens ready, we want the good stuff today. You can say anything on those cards. I’ll pull it out so that nobody else sees it. If you do turn in something that’s a little spooky for me, you go ahead, and we want to make sure that on your way out of here in just a few more minutes the ushers will be standing with the baskets and they would love to receive those.

Descriptive vs. Prescriptive History

But right now, let’s get back to the 200 foreskins, shall we? Yeah. So here’s the story, here’s what’s going on, and you might wonder, as I certainly wondered when I first stumbled upon this: what’s going on? Why is this in the Bible? Like, where is this from?

Well, first and foremost, we need to recognize what part of the library are we in here? What part of the library are we standing in? Well, we’re in the history section. And clearly, if you read a little before and a little after, you’ll see this wasn’t God asking for a hundred or certainly two hundred foreskins. It was King Saul—a real king, not some made-up guy, a real king from history—who was demanding a grotesque price for his daughter’s hand in marriage, because he hoped this guy who wanted his daughter, David, would actually be killed while trying to collect them. But instead, David survives and he brings back twice as many foreskins as what the king demanded. See, this passage, as weird as it might seem to us, is actually simply describing something that really happened. It was describing Saul’s evil scheme and David’s victory. It was not God prescribing something he wants us to imitate. It was a historical event, a historical part of the library being descriptive of what actually happened—not endorsing it, not praising it, and certainly not prescribing it for others. It was Saul’s idea, not God’s command.

Now here’s another troublesome verse that someone asked me about last week. Got lots of questions. Here’s an interesting one, basically saying, “Hey, marry the woman you rape.” Whoa. I mean, at first glance, it sounds horrifying. Hasn’t this virgin, this young woman, been assaulted and been through enough? See, the verse actually wasn’t rewarding rape at all. It was protecting a vulnerable woman in an ancient culture where this woman who had been sexually assaulted would have had little to no chance of living, financial security, or ever being married. Once this happens, she’s off the market. Nobody would touch that. See, the law actually imposed lifelong consequences and responsibility on a man in that broken culture. The law was actually limiting harm.

See, both these passages ought to remind us that the Bible often records real events and even gives laws to those cultures. Like the hard hats I talked to you about last week, right? Particular people at a particular time doesn’t mean just because you’re not wearing a hard hat today that that was a bad law or pretend. It’s not applicable in this situation—I see no hard hats. This was to a particular people with a particular set of circumstances. See, before we ever assume, by reading something simply because it’s in one of the books of the Bible, before we ever assume God is endorsing something, there are two things we need to ask.

The Two Filters of Interpretation

When you find something offensive, when you find something that doesn’t make any sense, ask yourself this question: Is this verse or even this passage describing what happened, or is it actually prescribing what should happen? Big difference, right? Describing or prescribing. And number two: What problem was this law, this command, this instruction, or this story actually trying to solve in that culture? What was going on? Why was it written? Who was this written to? See, context is incredibly important. Knowing where you’re standing in the library of Scripture is incredibly important.

Let me explain the importance this way for you with a terrible confession. It’s weird. I’m not proud of it. It’s a true story. If my mother were alive, I can just hear her saying, “Oh, Kevin,” and my father, he would have said, “Boys, oh boys, oh boys, you’re an awful boy.” And I am. I am, and I still am. At least several years ago—let’s not put a date on it exactly—long after I should have known better, I was driving along in my nice new Jeep. It was a beautiful summer evening. I had just been to McDonald’s. Had my beautiful wife in the car with me, my boy and his relatively new girlfriend, they were trapped in the back seat. And man, I had a captive audience, and as I like to do, I was showing off a little bit.

And so we were driving along and enjoying things. I was probably, probably feeling a little guilty about whatever I had just inhaled at McDonald’s. And as I’m going, we get back into my neighborhood in this little town. And in my neighborhood, and on just about my street, I see up in the distance running along a good friend who’s all fit and buff, teaches gym all the time. And I decide to show my wife, my boy, and his girlfriend how funny I am. So I hit the power window and slow down the car as we’re cruising by my friend. And I chuck my drink out. Because I’m a terrible shot, there’s no chance of me actually hitting him. And I yell the words, shockingly as they would be, “Hey fatty, get a real job!” Only to discover that it wasn’t my friend. It was some random dude out for a nice evening run.

And I’m the senior pastor, the lead pastor in this small community, very well known, where we are almost famous for our “Team Up to Clean Up” litter initiative where we clean up garbage. I mean, I’m all over social media. It’s a mess. It was a very dark day in my ministry and life. It really, really was. Somebody asked me after first service, “Did that really happen?” Yes. Yes, it really happened. But it’s happened to you too, something similar. You’ve walked up to people before at Costco, you put your hand on their back, or you’ve walked up to somebody and you turn and you start talking to somebody and you realize, oh, that is not who I thought it was. I simply took it a little further—I threw something at them, right? Man, who does that? Who yells “fatty” at someone out for an evening run? Well, what kind of pastor acts that way in a small town with witnesses—my son and his girlfriend, and my wife is sitting there. I mean, I had to throw it past her; she must hold some bit of responsibility in all this, right? Yeah.

The Power of Scriptural Context

Here’s the missing context. If you just heard the story, if you just heard part of that, you might think, whoa, you’re awful. Please don’t turn off, listen to the end. Here’s the missing context: at the time, I was closing in on 300 pounds. I hadn’t run myself in years, not even to the fridge. I knew this guy and he had a crazier sense of humor than me. Like, I was good friends with this guy. I thought it was one person. He had a crazy sense of humor, he would think this was hilarious. He would understand it was sarcasm. He would enjoy the irony of the situation.

See, context matters more than we could possibly emphasize. Not just in my stories, but in yours too. It’s why we judge others by their actions and ourselves by our motivations. Context matters. But not just in our lives—context matters so much in the pages of Scripture, and yet the Bible is often quoted out of context to make it say what we want it to say, or what we hope it would never say. And so I want to share with you these five things that I started last week that we gotta know before we can ever really understand, apply, or before we ought to quote any scripture.

Reminder from last week: it isn’t a book, it’s a library. We don’t read the different books in a library the same way. It was written for us, oh yeah, not to us. It was written for us. See, the story that I hit somebody—that didn’t happen to you, but there are some lessons that any of us can learn. There are some lessons in there for us: be careful who you’re throwing things at. Maybe a better lesson would be don’t call people names and throw things out the car window. Or here’s an even better lesson: context matters. And if you’re overweight and have a relationship with somebody whom you talk foolishness to all the time, who would understand sarcasm, well, lesson learned. There are certain things you can say to your buddy that you can’t say to some random dude running down the wall. Because number three: The Bible needs to be read in context. Context certainly matters.

See, knowing that God never asked David for the foreskins, but some evil king did? And knowing that the law to marry a woman who was raped was actually designed to limit harm to that woman who lived in that culture? And knowing that I was overweight and thought I knew the guy who was fantastically fit? Well, that added context in each of those three stories ought to change the way we look at those stories. See, diving into context—when someone raises a troubling verse, or you stumble on it yourself—it changes the takeaway.

The Corinthian Context: Order vs. Chaos

Here’s another example. This ought to get some of the ladies all worked up. See what the back of this pickup truck says? “Women shall be silent and submissive.” Oh, there are brave souls in here. There are brave people way beyond me in here. You know, at first glance, I can’t help but to think, man, what is this guy thinking? I mean, he even says at the bottom, “Read your Bible.” I wish he would. I wish he would because that verse appears to be saying something on the back of a pickup truck very, very different than what it actually says.

Let’s look at First Corinthians chapter 14 verse 34: “Women should remain silent in the church.” Well, hey, I guess it’s true. And at first glance, it sounds like the apostle Paul is saying women should never speak in church. And yet, just a few chapters earlier, Paul writes, “But every woman who’s praying or prophesying in church, here’s how they ought to do it.” Hmm. So when we get to the place where he says, “remain silent in the church,” we know he can’t be issuing a universal command that women may never ever speak in churches. No. See, something specific is happening in the churches in Corinth, whom the letter is actually being written to, that we need to understand before we apply the passage today.

So why is this in the Bible? If it’s not to us and it was to them, well, why is it there? What’s in a verse like that for us? Well, it’s there because even when we aren’t facing the exact same circumstances or same issues, we can still learn timeless principles behind the circumstances. We can all still learn not to throw drinks at strangers. And even if you already know enough, there’s a lesson in there for somebody. See, here the principle is not “women must never speak.” The principle is when the church gathers, worship should be orderly. It ought to be edifying. It ought to point people to Jesus, not toward confusion or distraction.

Well, how do you get all that from that verse? You don’t take one verse. You look at the context. And in verse 26, a little before this verse, we see that it says something different. It says, “Everything must be done so that the church may be built up.” Verse 33 says, “For God is not a God of disorder, but of peace.” Verse 40 says, “Everything should be done in a fitting and orderly way.” See, the specific instruction was written to address a specific problem in Corinth. And this is exactly why understanding the original audience, who this was written to, is so important. The timeless principle for every church in every generation is when we gather, everything we do should be to build people up and reflect God’s character of order and peace. That’s how we ought to read the Bible. We don’t just ask, well, what did it say? Foreskins? No. What problem was God addressing with this law, with this command, even in this story? Well, is there a principle behind it? What more is there? What is the principle? How does that principle apply to my life? And what’s in this for me?

Closing Challenge

The command was written to them, but there is a principle in there for us. And so we’ve come full circle to what I shared with you last week. When something doesn’t make sense in the pages of Scripture, the best thing to do is to keep reading. See, it’s a diverse library that was written for us, but must be read in context.

Now, can I tell you one more thing? Let me just say that if you’re reading your Bible and you’re not reading about a God of love and acceptance and forgiveness, you’re reading it wrong. I have built my life, raised my family, and I believe the whole book. So believe me when I say God loves you more than you could possibly understand. Here’s what cells: He loves you just the way you are. You couldn’t possibly, you couldn’t possibly do anything to make him love you anymore. The Bible says that while we were still sinners—while we were still chucking Coke at people, while we were still doing the wrong things—God demonstrates his love to us in that Christ died for us. He built the bridge from where we’re at to where we ought to be. And he invites with open arms every single one of us into a relationship with him.

See, we can trust every chapter, every verse, every line. We just gotta keep reading and know that the God of the Bible is a God of love, acceptance, and forgiveness, who not only has his arms open wide to those who have never begun a relationship with him, but those who have floundered. We don’t really know where they’re at. We’re invited today to begin, or to begin again, that relationship with Jesus. See, I don’t know about you, but I’ve seen a lot. And I have seen that although a lot of things change—the grass withers, dries up, the flowers may fall—but I know that the word of God endures forever. Let me invite you to stand up with me just now.