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 Rightly Dividing the Word of Truth by Alan Martin

“Study to show yourself approved”

Let’s consider one example of how being unfamiliar with the biblical reference given can lead many of us to an erroneous interpretation of what is being said.

For our example let’s go to the words of Jesus spoken to the Pharisees who were grumbling about Him because He had eaten at the luncheon given by Matthew for many of his fellow tax collectors. The Pharisees expressed their complaints to the disciples in this way “Why does your Teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” But Jesus, hearing them said “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. But go and learn what this means: I desire mercy and not sacrifice.”

We can easily read into Jesus’ words our own “feelings” – yes Jesus wants mercy! But there is a danger if this is all we see and thus ignore all of what Jesus actually said - “but go and learn…..I desire mercy not sacrifice.” Had the Pharisees done just that and actually gone to the biblical passage Jesus alluded to, they would have found out exactly what He had intended for them to realize. If we don’t go and learn either – neither will we get the real point Jesus was making.

This is where we must learn to “rightly divide the word of truth.” Let’s do a little homework here and see if we can “go and learn” exactly what point Jesus wanted the Pharisees to get. If we causally read into His words our own ideas, we may be satisfied with our own understanding and miss His main point entirely. We all need to become as the Bereans.

The passage Jesus quoted from is found in Hosea 6:6. How long has it been since we have read the book of Hosea? Are we familiar with the context of chapter 6? How then can we properly apply what Jesus said if we are unfamiliar with the context from which He was speaking?

The context of chapter 6 is Israel’s cavalier attitude towards the tribulation God’s discipline had placed them in. Their words in the first few verses reveal that they had only a shallow acknowledgment that God had torn them, but they presume “He will heal us after two days, on the third day we shall rise up and we shall live before Him. We shall pursue to know the Lord and as the dawn is readied we shall find Him and He shall come to us as the early and latter rain to the earth.” This sounds really good – until you read on and see the Lord’s reply! In reality, they simply thought they could get together some sacrifices, return to the Lord, say they were sorry, and in no time at all things would be good again. That’s not how the Lord saw it!

His reply begins in verse 4 – “What shall I do to you O Ephraim and what shall I do to you O Judah? For your mercy is as an early morning cloud and as early morning dew going away. Because of this I mowed you down by My prophets; I killed them by the discourse of My mouth and your judgment shall go forth as the light.” What is God saying? We must read on.

Now we come to the verse Jesus quoted “partially” – yes intentionally not quoting the entire verse! Remember, He said to the Pharisees “go and learn!” Here is the full verse 6 “For I desire mercy and not sacrifice and FULL knowledge (epiginosko in the Septuagint) of God more than burnt offerings.” If the Pharisees and gone to the passage, they would have seen that they did not fully know God and that was the root of their problem. Reading on they would have seen how He and His Father truly felt about them - Verse 7 “But they are as a man violating the covenant, there THEY SHOWED DISDAIN OF ME.” Is not this what the Pharisees were constantly doing – “showing disdain” of the Messiah, God’s very own Son with whom He was well pleased? Yes, these were the men who were already plotting how to destroy him.

The Lord goes on to compare the people of Israel to “priests who provide murderers with shelter.” Do we remember Barabas? He also said the people of Israel “murder in the same way as Shechem for the people committed lawlessness in the house of Israel.” Shechem is where the concubine was raped by the men of the city all night long and was found dead at the door early in the morning. Her master cut her body into twelve parts and sent them all throughout Israel, who then came and destroyed the men of Shechem, almost completely annihilating them. This was to be the fate of Jerusalem a mere 40 years after Jesus left them to die in their sins.

Only by rightly dividing the word of God can we possibly get the full meaning Jesus intended for the Pharisees to get. He knew they were not going to learn mercy, on the contrary - the blood of every prophet from Abel to Zecharia was going to be given a full accounting for by their generation. He knew their pretended offense at His eating with tax collectors was as insincere as their hypocritical surface righteousness. He gave them a warning in a parable – they missed the point because they were not willing to “go and learn” especially not from Him!

If we are careless students of the scripture, we can read into it whatever we “feel” and never even realize that this is what we have done. This is just one example. I hope we get the point from it.


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SI Moderator - Greg Gordon

 2012/3/15 13:55Profile





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