Wandering Without a Map

(Photo by Leah Newhouse: https://www.pexels.com/photo/woman-looking-at-the-map-3935702/)

When our family first moved overseas, one of the most challenging things we encountered was the need to find our way around the city without a map. The year was 2008, so smartphones with GPS location and digital mapping were not really an option. Even stand-alone GPS guidance devices were unreliable in the places we were traveling. So, we had to depend on verbal instructions that referenced landmarks and estimated distances, especially since very few of the street names and building numbers were visibly posted for drivers to see. To add to the “fun,” these instructions were usually communicated to us in a language we were still battling to learn. The cumulative effect of these obstacles was that we mostly avoided travelling to new places unless we had a friend with us who knew the way. And I have some humorous stories to tell about those rare occasions when I ventured to plan day trips for the family! Oh, what I would have given at that time for a bona fide, printed, detailed map of the area!

In some ways, my family’s experience of life without a map is a good reflection of what many people experience in the study of the Bible. Most of us have likely had an instance while sitting in a Bible study group where someone said something like, “What the text means to me is…,” and then wandered off down some remote alley of thought that did not seem much related to the text being discussed. This approach to biblical interpretation implies that it does not matter just where we go, so long as we are enjoying the journey. However, just as my family sometimes discovered on our early travels in a foreign country, the fun can quickly fade when you realize that you have stepped off the bus far from where you intended and are not certain how to get to where you need to be. When this kind of “getting lost” happens in biblical interpretation, the results can be destructive to our lives and even ruinous to our faith!

What we need is a kind of “map” to help us know where the meaning of a passage of Scripture is to be found, so to speak. We need something that will help us have confidence that we have not just wandered off following our own whims, or our own “sense of direction,” but that we are truly headed in the right direction with our understanding of the text. In our training of leaders around the world, we teach a principle called “Traveling Instructions” that is intended to give just that kind of a map. This principle simply states that the meaning and message of a text will always be “located” in the author’s intended meaning and message for his audience. This rule does not preclude the idea that God’s Spirit could (and often did) intend a fuller and richer message than even the authors themselves understood (c.f. 1 Peter 1:10-12). But it does help us keep in mind that a passage of Scripture never intends to convey less than what the author intended. It may, in God’s wise, prophetic plan, eventually come to encompass more than what the author had in mind, but it will never be less than the original message (I will speak more of this in the next blog). What this means for us as we study is that we must always strive to first understand the passage as the original readers would have understood it. It is incumbent upon us to give attention to those things the author expected his readers to know (such as prior covenants and promises, key figures and events, etc.). We must also attempt to understand (as much as possible within a given text) the kind of setting and situation in which those original readers found themselves at the time that the author wrote the passage to them. Taking all this information into account will prepare us to discern both the content and the intent of what the author writes to his audience.

To illustrate this point, I want to refer back to an illustration we used before in connection with keeping ourselves only to what the text says. In that blog, I mentioned the tendency of some to “import” content from 1 Chronicles 15:11-15 into the story related in 2 Samuel 6, thereby changing the emphasis of the story as it is told in 2 Samuel. If we apply our present principle of Traveling Instructions to the books of 1 and 2 Chronicles, we will easily see why the author of those books chose to place the emphasis that he did upon the role of the priests in carrying the ark. First, we can see from the close of 2 Chronicles that the book was compiled after the edict of Cyrus authorizing Jews to return to Jerusalem and rebuild the Temple, which had been destroyed by the Babylonians decades earlier. A comparison with the opening chapter of Ezra also helps in that it demonstrates the importance of this decree for those who longed to see the Temple reconstructed. Yet, the writer of Ezra reveals that there was much opposition to this rebuilding project, and many of the Jews lost heart or interest in seeing it through to the end. In fact, judging from the stories of Nehemiah and Esther, it seems a great many Jews gave little thought to returning to their homeland and renewing the worship of Jehovah in a temple in Jerusalem! It is within this context of the post-exilic call to return to Jerusalem and rebuild the Temple, then, that the writer of Chronicles gives his re-telling of the stories of the books of Samuel and Kings. Unlike the author of Kings, he does not pronounce severe judgement on the wicked kings of Judah but rather recounts ways in which they trusted in Jehovah and He answered them — even the most wicked among them (c.f. 2 Chr. 33:10-12). Furthermore, he highlights the status of the temple and temple utensils, the organization of Temple worship, and the affairs of the priests and Levites, essentially making worship in the Temple one of the main themes of the story. With these details of the setting for the original readers, we can appreciate the emphasis the author gives to David’s initial failure to have the priests carry the ark as it was brought up to Jerusalem. While the writer of Samuel wanted his readers to see and appreciate the immense contrast between Saul (the people’s kind of king) and David (God’s kind of king), the chronicler wanted his readers to feel and appreciate the exclusivity of the Levitical priesthood within Jehovah’s design to draw near to Him. Recognizing the vastly different times and circumstances in which the two books were written helps us to be sensitive to the differences we observe and to discern some of the purpose behind those differences.

The “map” of first understanding what the author intended his original readers to understand and how he intended them to respond will provide both clarity and confidence. Even when only a few details about the setting of those readers is available or discernable, the principle of first “traveling back” to consider the passage within its context will help us be certain that we are headed in the right direction as we exercise the other principles of study (e.g., genre, structure, tone, etc.) to discern God’s message in the text.  We may not always land precisely on the doorstep of what the text is saying, but we at least will not be wandering lost in remote interpretations far away from what was intended.