BIBLE INTERPRETATION SERMON SERIES
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7. In the Language of Men
The last time we spoke on the topic of Bible interpretation, we brought forth an extremely important and widely misunderstood topic. Except for the Ten Commandments, the Bible is not the word-for-word expression of God. Instead, God inspired the prophets with thoughts and the prophets proclaimed or wrote God’s message in their own language. This accounts for the variations of style and writing ability in the Holy Scriptures.
But it does not mean that God’s truth was lost. God preserved His perfect message in the imperfect language of men. The plan of salvation is not that complicated. It becomes complicated when people put their wrong interpretations on the Word. They view Scripture, not as it is, but through the eyes of the latest movie they saw on television. Or perhaps their minds are infected with wrong ideas from science or philosophy and the insert those ideas in their Bible interpretation. As we shall see, the Bible interprets itself. The Bible explains its own expressions.
Unfortunately the Christian world is full of ideas that come from Greek philosophy, false science and even paganism. These were incorporated into the church through traditions and many errors exist in the doctrines of the major churches of the world. Our job is to sweep away the human traditions and errors from our minds and receive the Word of God as it was meant to be understood.
I wish to begin today by using an illustration from the Bible regarding what we call thought inspiration. Thought inspiration is when God gives thoughts to the prophet and the prophet expresses the thought in his own words. This is in contrast to verbal inspiration which is the idea that God chose each and every word the prophet said. Many people think the Bible has been changed because of insignificant changes or errors in the text. But they do not understand thought inspiration. They only understand verbal inspiration. This is a new topic to them.
Let’s go to Exodus chapter 4. We will begin reading with verse 1. The situation is this: God called Moses to lead Israel out of captivity. But Moses hasn’t been in Egypt for 40 years and he doesn’t want to go do the job. So he is making excuses to God why he shouldn’t go.
You may think that Moses was very bad to resist God. But God asks you to give one tenth of your income to support God’s work. What excuses have you made not to obey him?
Exodus 4:1-16 Then Moses answered and said, "But suppose they will not believe me or listen to my voice; suppose they say, 'The LORD has not appeared to you.' " 2 So the LORD said to him, "What is that in your hand?" He said, "A rod." 3 And He said, "Cast it on the ground." So he cast it on the ground, and it became a serpent; and Moses fled from it. 4 Then the LORD said to Moses, "Reach out your hand and take it by the tail" (and he reached out his hand and caught it, and it became a rod in his hand), 5 "that they may believe that the LORD God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has appeared to you." 6 Furthermore the LORD said to him, "Now put your hand in your bosom." And he put his hand in his bosom, and when he took it out, behold, his hand was leprous, like snow. 7 And He said, "Put your hand in your bosom again." So he put his hand in his bosom again, and drew it out of his bosom, and behold, it was restored like his other flesh. 8 "Then it will be, if they do not believe you, nor heed the message of the first sign, that they may believe the message of the latter sign. 9 "And it shall be, if they do not believe even these two signs, or listen to your voice, that you shall take water from the river and pour it on the dry land. And the water which you take from the river will become blood on the dry land." 10 ¶ Then Moses said to the LORD, "O my Lord, I am not eloquent, neither before nor since You have spoken to Your servant; but I am slow of speech and slow of tongue." 11 So the LORD said to him, "Who has made man's mouth? Or who makes the mute, the deaf, the seeing, or the blind? Have not I, the LORD? 12 "Now therefore, go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall say." 13 But he said, "O my Lord, please send by the hand of whomever else You may send." 14 So the anger of the LORD was kindled against Moses, and He said: "Is not Aaron the Levite your brother? I know that he can speak well. And look, he is also coming out to meet you. When he sees you, he will be glad in his heart. 15 "Now you shall speak to him and put the words in his mouth. And I will be with your mouth and with his mouth, and I will teach you what you shall do. 16 "So he shall be your spokesman to the people. And he himself shall be as a mouth for you, and you shall be to him as God.
What did God mean when he said Moses would be Aaron would be a mouth and Moses would be like God? Is this blasphemy? No. God is simply demonstrating the relationship of a spokesman with a superior. God gives a message to a prophet. The prophet communicates the message in his own language. In a similar way, Moses would give a message to Aaron. Aaron would communicate the message faithfully in his own words. It is that simple.
With this in mind, we need to understand that in the Bible are figures of speech, proverbs, symbolic language and poetic expressions. If we don’t understand this, we can misunderstand the Bible. The Bible was written in the language of men.
But while the Bible uses figures of speech, proverbs, symbols and poetic expressions, we must not make the error of thinking that everything is symbolic or figurative. Many people have hidden the most essential elements of truth by declaring plain statements of scripture to be figurative.
For example, some people say that the story of Adam and Eve and the entrance of sin into the world is simply figurative to illustrate the existence of sin. This is not true. Jesus referred to the existence of Adam and Eve in history and also the story related about them.
Matthew 19:3-6 The Pharisees also came to Him, testing Him, and saying to Him, "Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for just any reason?" 4 And He answered and said to them, "Have you not read that He who made them at the beginning 'made them male and female,' 5 "and said, 'For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh'? 6 "So then, they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate."
We should read the Bible just as it is but keep in mind that expressions can be used.
We must let the Bible interpret its own expressions.
Proverbs 1:7 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge, But fools despise wisdom and instruction.
Many people come to me and say, “David, doesn’t the Bible plainly teach that we are to be afraid of God? How can you love God and be afraid of Him at the same time?”
Let the Bible explain what the expression, “fear of the Lord” means.
Proverbs 8:13 The fear of the LORD is to hate evil; Pride and arrogance and the evil way And the perverse mouth I hate.
What does it mean to fear the Lord? It means to hate evil. To hate evil is the beginning of wisdom. This is very simple Bible interpretation. I didn’t make up the explanation. Let the Bible speak.
The Bible has poetry in it. It is beautiful.
Psalm 23:1-6 A Psalm of David. The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want. 2 He makes me to lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside the still waters. 3 He restores my soul; He leads me in the paths of righteousness For His name's sake. 4 Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; For You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me. 5 You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; You anoint my head with oil; My cup runs over. 6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me All the days of my life; And I will dwell in the house of the LORD Forever.
Is God a shepherd? No. Are you a sheep? No. This is poetry showing the divine watchcare of God for humans. But tiny minds try to belittle the Bible by taking figurative and poetic expressions and trying to make them literal. This leads to many wrong ideas and silly and even stupid interpretations.
One example of this is in the story of the birth of Jesus. An angel is talking to Mary.
Luke 1:30-35 Then the angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. 31 "And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son, and shall call His name JESUS. 32 "He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David. 33 "And He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end." 34 Then Mary said to the angel, "How can this be, since I do not know a man?" 35 And the angel answered and said to her, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God.
Does this passage say that God had relations with Mary and had a son? No. This is not the teaching of the Bible. It has never been the teaching of Christianity. Ever. Small minds that can think only of sex cannot understand this. People make themselves enemies of God and the truth by putting their own meaning on the passage. They despise God’s Holy Word and put it down. They cause others to be led away from the source of eternal life. It is a fearful and dangerous thing they are doing.
The Bible clearly teaches that Jesus existed before He came into the world. Jesus was placed into Mary’s womb. His nature was united with human nature.
1 John 4:2-3 By this you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, 3 and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming, and is now already in the world.
Some people say, “That is impossible!” Are you saying that God is incapable of doing that? Who are you? If God wants to unite Jesus with human nature and put Him in the womb of a woman He can do it. He doesn’t ask you if you can understand how He does it before He does it. He just does it and you need to live with it.
There is a right way and a wrong way to interpret scripture.
Sometimes the Bible uses a symbol. In the books of Daniel and Revelation are symbolic prophecies. Many are the wrong and sometimes crazy and even stupid interpretations of these symbolic prophecies. Let the Bible explain its own terms. For example, Daniel sees a vision in Daniel chapter 7.
Daniel 7:7 "After this I saw in the night visions, and behold, a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, exceedingly strong. It had huge iron teeth; it was devouring, breaking in pieces, and trampling the residue with its feet. It was different from all the beasts that were before it, and it had ten horns.
What could this possibly be?
Daniel 7:23 23" Thus he said: 'The fourth beast shall be a fourth kingdom on earth, Which shall be different from all other kingdoms, And shall devour the whole earth, Trample it and break it in pieces.
The beast represented a kingdom, nation or power. Thus when we go to the book of Revelation and read about beasts in chapter 13, what should we think those beasts represent? Very good. You will be good Bible students.
Pray to God for wisdom. Be willing to do God’s will. Be open minded and expect to learn new truth. Remember that we test anyone’s claim to new revelation with the previously given doctrines to see if it is truth. God shows beforehand any changes He will make. We must understand what thought-inspiration is. And we must remember that God’s message of salvation was given in the language of men. Learn to read it correctly!
But it does not mean that God’s truth was lost. God preserved His perfect message in the imperfect language of men. The plan of salvation is not that complicated. It becomes complicated when people put their wrong interpretations on the Word. They view Scripture, not as it is, but through the eyes of the latest movie they saw on television. Or perhaps their minds are infected with wrong ideas from science or philosophy and the insert those ideas in their Bible interpretation. As we shall see, the Bible interprets itself. The Bible explains its own expressions.
Unfortunately the Christian world is full of ideas that come from Greek philosophy, false science and even paganism. These were incorporated into the church through traditions and many errors exist in the doctrines of the major churches of the world. Our job is to sweep away the human traditions and errors from our minds and receive the Word of God as it was meant to be understood.
I wish to begin today by using an illustration from the Bible regarding what we call thought inspiration. Thought inspiration is when God gives thoughts to the prophet and the prophet expresses the thought in his own words. This is in contrast to verbal inspiration which is the idea that God chose each and every word the prophet said. Many people think the Bible has been changed because of insignificant changes or errors in the text. But they do not understand thought inspiration. They only understand verbal inspiration. This is a new topic to them.
Let’s go to Exodus chapter 4. We will begin reading with verse 1. The situation is this: God called Moses to lead Israel out of captivity. But Moses hasn’t been in Egypt for 40 years and he doesn’t want to go do the job. So he is making excuses to God why he shouldn’t go.
You may think that Moses was very bad to resist God. But God asks you to give one tenth of your income to support God’s work. What excuses have you made not to obey him?
Exodus 4:1-16 Then Moses answered and said, "But suppose they will not believe me or listen to my voice; suppose they say, 'The LORD has not appeared to you.' " 2 So the LORD said to him, "What is that in your hand?" He said, "A rod." 3 And He said, "Cast it on the ground." So he cast it on the ground, and it became a serpent; and Moses fled from it. 4 Then the LORD said to Moses, "Reach out your hand and take it by the tail" (and he reached out his hand and caught it, and it became a rod in his hand), 5 "that they may believe that the LORD God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has appeared to you." 6 Furthermore the LORD said to him, "Now put your hand in your bosom." And he put his hand in his bosom, and when he took it out, behold, his hand was leprous, like snow. 7 And He said, "Put your hand in your bosom again." So he put his hand in his bosom again, and drew it out of his bosom, and behold, it was restored like his other flesh. 8 "Then it will be, if they do not believe you, nor heed the message of the first sign, that they may believe the message of the latter sign. 9 "And it shall be, if they do not believe even these two signs, or listen to your voice, that you shall take water from the river and pour it on the dry land. And the water which you take from the river will become blood on the dry land." 10 ¶ Then Moses said to the LORD, "O my Lord, I am not eloquent, neither before nor since You have spoken to Your servant; but I am slow of speech and slow of tongue." 11 So the LORD said to him, "Who has made man's mouth? Or who makes the mute, the deaf, the seeing, or the blind? Have not I, the LORD? 12 "Now therefore, go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall say." 13 But he said, "O my Lord, please send by the hand of whomever else You may send." 14 So the anger of the LORD was kindled against Moses, and He said: "Is not Aaron the Levite your brother? I know that he can speak well. And look, he is also coming out to meet you. When he sees you, he will be glad in his heart. 15 "Now you shall speak to him and put the words in his mouth. And I will be with your mouth and with his mouth, and I will teach you what you shall do. 16 "So he shall be your spokesman to the people. And he himself shall be as a mouth for you, and you shall be to him as God.
What did God mean when he said Moses would be Aaron would be a mouth and Moses would be like God? Is this blasphemy? No. God is simply demonstrating the relationship of a spokesman with a superior. God gives a message to a prophet. The prophet communicates the message in his own language. In a similar way, Moses would give a message to Aaron. Aaron would communicate the message faithfully in his own words. It is that simple.
With this in mind, we need to understand that in the Bible are figures of speech, proverbs, symbolic language and poetic expressions. If we don’t understand this, we can misunderstand the Bible. The Bible was written in the language of men.
But while the Bible uses figures of speech, proverbs, symbols and poetic expressions, we must not make the error of thinking that everything is symbolic or figurative. Many people have hidden the most essential elements of truth by declaring plain statements of scripture to be figurative.
For example, some people say that the story of Adam and Eve and the entrance of sin into the world is simply figurative to illustrate the existence of sin. This is not true. Jesus referred to the existence of Adam and Eve in history and also the story related about them.
Matthew 19:3-6 The Pharisees also came to Him, testing Him, and saying to Him, "Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for just any reason?" 4 And He answered and said to them, "Have you not read that He who made them at the beginning 'made them male and female,' 5 "and said, 'For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh'? 6 "So then, they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate."
We should read the Bible just as it is but keep in mind that expressions can be used.
We must let the Bible interpret its own expressions.
Proverbs 1:7 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge, But fools despise wisdom and instruction.
Many people come to me and say, “David, doesn’t the Bible plainly teach that we are to be afraid of God? How can you love God and be afraid of Him at the same time?”
Let the Bible explain what the expression, “fear of the Lord” means.
Proverbs 8:13 The fear of the LORD is to hate evil; Pride and arrogance and the evil way And the perverse mouth I hate.
What does it mean to fear the Lord? It means to hate evil. To hate evil is the beginning of wisdom. This is very simple Bible interpretation. I didn’t make up the explanation. Let the Bible speak.
The Bible has poetry in it. It is beautiful.
Psalm 23:1-6 A Psalm of David. The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want. 2 He makes me to lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside the still waters. 3 He restores my soul; He leads me in the paths of righteousness For His name's sake. 4 Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; For You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me. 5 You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; You anoint my head with oil; My cup runs over. 6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me All the days of my life; And I will dwell in the house of the LORD Forever.
Is God a shepherd? No. Are you a sheep? No. This is poetry showing the divine watchcare of God for humans. But tiny minds try to belittle the Bible by taking figurative and poetic expressions and trying to make them literal. This leads to many wrong ideas and silly and even stupid interpretations.
One example of this is in the story of the birth of Jesus. An angel is talking to Mary.
Luke 1:30-35 Then the angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. 31 "And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son, and shall call His name JESUS. 32 "He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David. 33 "And He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end." 34 Then Mary said to the angel, "How can this be, since I do not know a man?" 35 And the angel answered and said to her, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God.
Does this passage say that God had relations with Mary and had a son? No. This is not the teaching of the Bible. It has never been the teaching of Christianity. Ever. Small minds that can think only of sex cannot understand this. People make themselves enemies of God and the truth by putting their own meaning on the passage. They despise God’s Holy Word and put it down. They cause others to be led away from the source of eternal life. It is a fearful and dangerous thing they are doing.
The Bible clearly teaches that Jesus existed before He came into the world. Jesus was placed into Mary’s womb. His nature was united with human nature.
1 John 4:2-3 By this you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, 3 and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming, and is now already in the world.
Some people say, “That is impossible!” Are you saying that God is incapable of doing that? Who are you? If God wants to unite Jesus with human nature and put Him in the womb of a woman He can do it. He doesn’t ask you if you can understand how He does it before He does it. He just does it and you need to live with it.
There is a right way and a wrong way to interpret scripture.
Sometimes the Bible uses a symbol. In the books of Daniel and Revelation are symbolic prophecies. Many are the wrong and sometimes crazy and even stupid interpretations of these symbolic prophecies. Let the Bible explain its own terms. For example, Daniel sees a vision in Daniel chapter 7.
Daniel 7:7 "After this I saw in the night visions, and behold, a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, exceedingly strong. It had huge iron teeth; it was devouring, breaking in pieces, and trampling the residue with its feet. It was different from all the beasts that were before it, and it had ten horns.
What could this possibly be?
Daniel 7:23 23" Thus he said: 'The fourth beast shall be a fourth kingdom on earth, Which shall be different from all other kingdoms, And shall devour the whole earth, Trample it and break it in pieces.
The beast represented a kingdom, nation or power. Thus when we go to the book of Revelation and read about beasts in chapter 13, what should we think those beasts represent? Very good. You will be good Bible students.
Pray to God for wisdom. Be willing to do God’s will. Be open minded and expect to learn new truth. Remember that we test anyone’s claim to new revelation with the previously given doctrines to see if it is truth. God shows beforehand any changes He will make. We must understand what thought-inspiration is. And we must remember that God’s message of salvation was given in the language of men. Learn to read it correctly!