When reading the scripture, it’s important to take an historical perspective. That doesn’t mean you have to wear a tweed jacket with elbow patches. But it does lay out a thought process that is very important.
Take the passage in Matthew 9:35-38. It’s the reasonably famous passage where Jesus says “the harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few.”
What’s really interesting in this passage is that Jesus was finding enormous positive response from the people in Galilee wherever He went. They LOVED Him. They believed in His ability to heal them. And wherever he went, they turned out in throngs!
From a modern (western) perspective, the will of the people is paramount. It’s a foundation of our political system. If you want something to happen, you get a bunch of people to vote on it and the majority rules. It’s election season and I see advertisements for this on every street corner!
But here’s where my comment on history comes in. Would the original readers of Matthew’s gospel have understood the process the same way?
Matthew was writing to communicate an idea (here, Holy Spirit inspired truth) to his audience. He would have written in a way that spoke to the way they thought and understood life and the world around them.
So he would have known that popular vote didn’t really matter.
He could talk about the popular sentiment all he wanted, but everyone knew that wasn’t the real thing.
Stepping back one level further, we know that Matthew was writing to a predominately Jewish audience. He was making the case about how Jesus was the Messiah – the promised anointed One. Jesus was the king, of the dynasty of David, who came with the right to (re) establish the kingdom.
But the democratic process didn’t matter for that.
In Getting to Know God’s Word on page 71, I introduced a discussion of the 3 divine offices. Prophets represented God to His people (delivering words directly from God). Priests represented the people to God (via sacrifices and vows). The King ruled over the people on behalf of God (wielding God’s delegated authority).
In this case, the religious leaders (office of Priest) were the key to recognizing the anointed one. They spoke on behalf of the people to God. They were the ones in the covenant relationship that had that responsibility.
God’s relationship with Israel was never based on individual people (like we enjoy today). He was in relationship with the Nation – the collective of all the people. So individual people couldn’t choose to crown Him king on the throne of David. It has to be the duly designated representative of all the people.
This is an understanding that you can only get to if you grasp the historical aspect of interpreting the Bible. It’s not “what makes sense to me today.” In fact a lot of work in studying the Bible goes into understanding how the original audience would have understood the message.
I sometimes refer to this as “biblical literacy.” Maybe you think of it as “general knowledge of the Bible.”
While the Bible is for everyone, and even a child can understand it. If you want to go deep, it will take a commitment to doing some digging. Asking some questions. Doing some research.
Honestly the only way to start is to start. Read your Bible. That’s always a good start.
But you can learn some distilled knowledge from other books. If I had to point to the book I’ve written that would serve you the best in starting the build a more structured historical view of the Bible, I would have to point to Getting To Know God’s Word.
If you think your spiritual growth would be served by starting in this way, I would point you to my website where you can pick up a copy (ebook or print) – and even the workbook (best via a bundle to save some money) to help you start to build an historical framework for the Bible.
https://www.dennis-stevenson.com/my-books/getting-to-know-gods-word/
It’s also available on most other retailers if you prefer to shop that way. Just search the name.
There are other good books you could read as well, so you don’t have to limit yourself to my library. But if you want to learn, this is the time to start.
Until next time!
Dennis
