The art of biblical interpretation: A book written for us

In the last post I argued that the best overall description of the Bible is the covenant book. The primary emphasis of the image is that the Bible is God’s word for us, his people. When we read it we are not eavesdropping on a message meant for someone else. We aren’t overreaching ourselves to know a God who is beyond us. It is meant for us, to sustain our relationship with God.

Several well-known texts make this point. Deuteronomy 29:29 acknowledges “secret things” which belong to the Lord, but assures us that “the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law”. Notice, God reveals things for his people to hold on to as their own, for the sake of their obedience. This is a message aimed at us.

Psalm 119 is the great meditation on the law of the Lord, and in it the Psalmist spells out the blessings of the law: it keeps him from sin (v. 3), strengthens him (v. 28), grants freedom (v. 45), comforts (v. 52), makes him wise (vv. 98-100) and is a lamp and light (v. 105). The law makes a difference in his life; it addresses his needs.

What’s more, God’s word is not simply for the first generation; it belongs to later generations as well. Romans 15:4 makes this point strikingly. Thinking of the Old Testament, it says to Christians: “whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope”. The Bible is written for God’s people, to direct and sustain our relationship with God.

2 Timothy 3:16-17 says that “all Scripture” (that is all) comes from God and is “profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness” in a way that equips God’s people for their obedience. Notice again the assumption that every part of the Bible will be relevant to living for God.

The purpose of the Bible is to call, form, instruct and encourage God’s people. In his providence, God has ensured that it is relevant and useful for his people in every generation.

So then we turn to the Bible expecting to find a message that addresses us and connects with our life with God. Whatever the Bible deals with, we can expect to find it relevant to our covenant relationship with God.

The Westminster Shorter Catechism Q3 asks “What do the Scriptures principally teach?” and gives the answer: “The scriptures principally teach what man is to believe concerning God, and what duty God requires of man”. Our covenant relationship rests on knowing God and is expressed in living for him, and that is the focus of Scripture.

The nature of the Bible as God’s word for us provides the theological foundation for the ‘application’ of the Bible. TV channels promise the news we ‘need to know’—but it turns out we don’t really need it. Almost none of it connects with our daily life. With the Bible, however, you are reading something written for you and for your walk with God. So you should look to it for what you need to do and how to do it. 

Preaching God’s message from the Bible should also include practical application. It can take different forms. It might be to remember who God is and what he has done and his faithfulness. It could be an area of behaviour, or some aspect of our worldview. It will never be merely ‘theoretical’, never be simply a matter of learning some information or a new concept. It will always be practical; and that practice will relate to knowing and living for God, since that is the heart of the covenant.

This doesn’t mean that we squeeze the Bible into a narrow grid of what we think is relevant. Just the opposite, we turn to it confident that whatever it says is relevant. As listeners, readers and teachers we have to attend to the relevance—and ask God to help us discern it. There is never a question of if it is relevant, because it is the word of our covenant God to us.

In the next post we’ll see that, as a covenant book, the Bible tells us what God has done.