Latest / Pastor John Piper's answers / How Do I Apply Bible Stories to My Life?

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How Do I Apply Bible Stories to My Life? · Pastor John Piper's answers

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  Speaker 1: Welcome back to the podcast, and welcome back to talking
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  Speaker 1: about our Bible reading plan this year. We started the
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  Speaker 1: new year looking at the spiritual battles we must overcome
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  Speaker 1: in our Bible reading. That was APGA twenty one twelve,
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  Speaker 1: a wonderful episode with all sorts of great advice for
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  Speaker 1: how to read the Bible in a year, just one
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  Speaker 1: of many episodes on Bible study principles from our thirteen
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  Speaker 1: year history on the podcast, specifically in the epistles and
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  Speaker 1: how to break down a paragraph from the Bible to
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  Speaker 1: its individual statements to its propositions to determine how those
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  Speaker 1: propositions relate to one another logically to follow the flow
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  Speaker 1: of a text. For a sampling of other episodes to
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  Speaker 1: help you read your Bible better, see the Aspestro John
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  Speaker 1: book on pages one to forty six, the longest section
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  Speaker 1: in the book. That first section all devoted to reading
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  Speaker 1: your Bible better. As we find ourselves in the second
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  Speaker 1: half of January, we are in the process of reading
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  Speaker 1: Genesis thirty seven to fifty together fourteen activating chapters about
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  Speaker 1: the life of Joseph world famous stories really and as
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  Speaker 1: we read those chapters, we're trying to understand the value
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  Speaker 1: of the Bible's narratives for our own lives as we do.
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  Speaker 1: Here's the question from Nicholas, who lives in Ontario, Canada.
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  Speaker 1: Who is I gather a pastor? Hello, Pastor John, I
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  Speaker 1: thank you for your tireless work on this podcast. I'm
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  Speaker 1: currently listening on Audible to your book Reading the Bible Supernaturally.
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  Speaker 1: It has been such a wonderful refresher on why to
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  Speaker 1: read the Bible and how to focus my reading and
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  Speaker 1: study for personal devotion. Insermon prep. My question is regarding narratives.
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  Speaker 1: You make the point that your revolution in reading came
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  Speaker 1: when you discovered that the Bible's authors were making arguments,
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  Speaker 1: and that tracing those arguments well was key to understanding
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  Speaker 1: the author and thus God's intention in the Word. I
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  Speaker 1: see how this applies to the epistles of the New
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  Speaker 1: Testament and in your look at the book, videos, through
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  Speaker 1: Poll's letters, and even in wisdom literature. But what about narratives.
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  Speaker 1: My church is currently preaching through Luke and while there
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  Speaker 1: is indeed structure there, how do you arc out a narrative?
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  Speaker 1: Are there different keys you look for? Are there specific
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  Speaker 1: transitions or markers or triggers that you're looking for in
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  Speaker 1: the narrative text itself.
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  Speaker 2: Well, let me see if I can get everybody up
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  Speaker 2: to speed with what he's asking. I put a huge
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  Speaker 2: emphasis on following an author's train of thought in order
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  Speaker 2: to find his true intention. And I do believe that
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  Speaker 2: the most fundamental goal of reading is to discover the
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  Speaker 2: author's intention what he wants to communicate. Now, there may
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  Speaker 2: be other good effects of reading besides that discovery. You
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  Speaker 2: might just find entertainment, for example, But without pursuing this
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  Speaker 2: foundational effect of finding an author's intention, we're being discourteous,
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  Speaker 2: and we're treating authors the way we don't like to
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  Speaker 2: be treated when we try to communicate something and somebody says,
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  Speaker 2: I don't really care what you're trying to communicate. I'm
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  Speaker 2: gonna take your words to mean this or that. And
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  Speaker 2: in the process, we're going to lose a great opportunity
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  Speaker 2: for growing. If we don't care about finding what another
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  Speaker 2: person has discovered in reality, and we just want to
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  Speaker 2: read our own ideas in we're getting, we're not going
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  Speaker 2: to grow. And two Peter three eighteen says grow in
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  Speaker 2: the knowledge and the grace of the Lord Jesus. So
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  Speaker 2: I argue that one essential means of pursuing that goal
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  Speaker 2: of finding an author's intention and growing in knowledge and
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  Speaker 2: grace is to carefully trace an author's argument. And by argument,
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  Speaker 2: I don't mean quarrel. Sometimes we people use the word
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  Speaker 2: argument differently than I do. I mean a sequence of
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  Speaker 2: thought that builds from foundations to conclusions. For example, Romans
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  Speaker 2: one point fifteen to seventeen goes like this, I am
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  Speaker 2: eager to preach the Gospel to you who are in Rome,
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  Speaker 2: because there's going to be three of these because this
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  Speaker 2: listen now, I am eager to preach the Gospel to
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  Speaker 2: you who are in Rome because I am not ashamed
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  Speaker 2: of the Gospel, because it is the power of God
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  Speaker 2: under salvation for everyone who believes, because in it the
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  Speaker 2: righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith. I
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  Speaker 2: read my Bible for two decades before I discovered that's
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  Speaker 2: the way Paul wrote. So there are four statements here right,
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  Speaker 2: massively important statements. And my point is you can't understand
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  Speaker 2: Paul's intention, what he's trying to communicate unless you understand
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  Speaker 2: the logical relationships between those four statements and Paul's signals
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  Speaker 2: loud and clear. Those relationships by using the word, because
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  Speaker 2: three times he's building an argument from foundations to conclusions.
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  Speaker 2: Now Nicholas's question is how that detailed, rigorous focus on
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  Speaker 2: the logical relationships between particular statements relates to the interpretation
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  Speaker 2: of big sections of narrative in the Bible or story
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  Speaker 2: in the Bible. And he could expand it out and say,
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  Speaker 2: how does it relate to poetry and parable and so on,
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  Speaker 2: events that are woven together in a certain way. That's
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  Speaker 2: what I mean by narrative. Should we seek the author's
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  Speaker 2: intention in the same way? And my answer is in
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  Speaker 2: principle yes, but in the details of how the author
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  Speaker 2: says his intention, we're going to have to watch for
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  Speaker 2: other things than simply one proposition following another proposition with
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  Speaker 2: a logical connector in between. Stories don't work like that.
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  Speaker 2: But Biblical authors write stories for a reason. They are
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  Speaker 2: trying to communicate something to us. They want us to
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  Speaker 2: find it. One of Jesus's main criticisms I remember when
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  Speaker 2: I wrote that book he referred to. I was just
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  Speaker 2: blown away by this that I saw this really for
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  Speaker 2: the first time. One of Jesus's main criticisms of the
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  Speaker 2: Pharisees was that he said they didn't know how to read.
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  Speaker 2: I mean it must have absolutely galled them. Yeah, I
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  Speaker 2: mean that they were the readers. Right over and over
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  Speaker 2: he says, have you not read?
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  Speaker 1: Have you not read?
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  Speaker 2: Matthew twelve three, Matthew nineteen four, Matthew twenty two thirty one,
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  Speaker 2: have you not read? And they're sketching their heads and saying,
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  Speaker 2: that's all we do is read. Of course they read.
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  Speaker 2: So what does he mean? He means you are reading
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  Speaker 2: and not reading. You are seeing and not seeing. In
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  Speaker 2: other words, there are real intentions that the inspired authors,
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  Speaker 2: in this case, the Old Testament authors that the Pharisees
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  Speaker 2: read every day. Those authors have real intentions to communicate,
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  Speaker 2: whether through careful sentence by sentence exposition, or whether through poetry,
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  Speaker 2: or whether through narrative, And those Pharisees weren't seeing it
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  Speaker 2: at all. That's what Jesus was upset about. So yes,
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  Speaker 2: we should look for an author's intention in all writing,
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  Speaker 2: all writing that's worth its salt. And yes we should
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  Speaker 2: look for whatever clues the author gives us, and all
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  Speaker 2: good authors do give clues to help us find what
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  Speaker 2: he's trying to communicate. Those clues with regard to narrative,
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  Speaker 2: might be repetitions or the order of events, or what
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  Speaker 2: the dialogues actually say, or the effects of certain events,
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  Speaker 2: or actual inserted interpretive comments by the author, etc. So
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  Speaker 2: let me just give a few illustrations from one of
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  Speaker 2: the best stories in the Old Testament. So I'm thinking
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  Speaker 2: of Joseph now Genesis, chapter thirty seven to fifty. Some
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  Speaker 2: regard this as one of the best short stories it's
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  Speaker 2: ever been written, if you want to put it in
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  Speaker 2: those categories. It's an absolutely riveting story, and you wonder
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  Speaker 2: what in the world is going on here? Where is
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  Speaker 2: this going? This story fourteen whole chapters about Joseph's dreams,
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  Speaker 2: the hatred of his brothers. They're selling him into slavery,
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  Speaker 2: his fall further and further into misery as Potiphar's wife
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  Speaker 2: lies about him, and then it goes to prison, and
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  Speaker 2: he's forgotten in prison, and then he becomes the second
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  Speaker 2: ranked ruler in Egypt, and the people of God are
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  Speaker 2: saved from starvation in the famine, and the line of
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  Speaker 2: the Messiah is preserved. Oh, that's what was going on.
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  Speaker 2: And there are numerous layers of intentions in this writing.
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  Speaker 2: I want to get it out of people's minds that
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  Speaker 2: when you read a narrative, get the big picture, get
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  Speaker 2: the one big point. Well, yes, by all means, get
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  Speaker 2: the one big point. It may govern all the others.
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  Speaker 2: But there are a lot of little points that authors
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  Speaker 2: make along the way. So let's start with the big
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  Speaker 2: picture of this story. Moses doesn't leave us I think
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  Speaker 2: Moses wrote this book Genesis. Moses does not leave us
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  Speaker 2: wondering about the big overarching intention of the story. He
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  Speaker 2: fills us in with a couple of very clear pointed
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  Speaker 2: summary statements of what he's been talking about. For example,
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  Speaker 2: Joseph says in chapter forty five, verse seven, God sent me.
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  Speaker 2: He sent me to Egypt before you, to preserve you
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  Speaker 2: a remnant and to keep alive for you many survivors.
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  Speaker 2: So it was not you who sent me here, even
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  Speaker 2: though you sowed me a slavery. But God, he has
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  Speaker 2: made me a father to Pharaoh and lord of all
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  Speaker 2: his house, and ruler over the land of Egypt. In
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  Speaker 2: other words, all these apparently human events that we've been
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  Speaker 2: reading about for fourteen chapters, all even the sinful ones,
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  Speaker 2: were in the control of the sovereign God, who is
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  Speaker 2: sending his emissary through sinful actions down to Egypt to
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  Speaker 2: save his people. That's crazy, that's wonderful. That's almost the
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  Speaker 2: meaning of the Bible. In parable and then Genesis fifty,
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  Speaker 2: verse twenty, Joseph says to his brothers, as for you,
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  Speaker 2: you meant evil against me, but God meant it for
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  Speaker 2: good to bring it about that many people should be
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  Speaker 2: kept alive. I think when you read that, you almost
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  Speaker 2: have to go back and reread the story because.
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  Speaker 1: Now you get it.
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  Speaker 2: Now you say, oh, that's where it was all going,
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  Speaker 2: and you can reread the story and say, with that
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  Speaker 2: clue in your mind, this meant that, and this was
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  Speaker 2: going here, and you see God's hand more immediately. So
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  Speaker 2: the big point is human sinfulness of God's people, of
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  Speaker 2: God's people, or human sinfulness against God's people not only
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  Speaker 2: does not thwart his saving plans, they advance his saving plans.
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  Speaker 2: They are part of the plans of God to save
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  Speaker 2: his people and finally his Messiah and bring him into
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  Speaker 2: the world. Through that line. So that's the big picture,
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  Speaker 2: and he clues us in with hints all along the
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  Speaker 2: way and with that big explanatory statement at the end.
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  Speaker 2: But there are other clues meaning and layers of meaning
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  Speaker 2: besides the big interpretive statement at the end. Along the way,
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  Speaker 2: Moses mingles worsening circumstances with encouraging words. Joseph is thrown
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  Speaker 2: into the pit, he sold as a slave, he's far
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  Speaker 2: from home in Egypt, he's lied about by Potiphar's wife.
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  Speaker 2: He's forgotten in prison. Down, down, down down. You can
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  Speaker 2: graph this story, and it corresponds to many of your lives.
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  Speaker 2: I've done this for our people. I grap it and say,
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  Speaker 2: where are you on this horribly descending graph of miserable
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  Speaker 2: circumstances in your life? And he comes to the end,
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  Speaker 2: and then he seems to be forgotten by God. What
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  Speaker 2: in the world is supposed to sound that way? But
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  Speaker 2: along the way he says things like Moses says, the
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  Speaker 2: Lord was with him, and the Lord caused all that
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  Speaker 2: he did to succeed in his hands. Or again, the
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  Speaker 2: Lord was with Joseph and showed him steadfast love and
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  Speaker 2: gave him favor in the sight of the keeper of
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  Speaker 2: the prison. So we get these hints along the way
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  Speaker 2: that even though things are getting worse for Joseph, it's
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  Speaker 2: not because of his sinfulness. He's not bringing this on himself.
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  Speaker 2: It's not because he's been abandoned by God, but because
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  Speaker 2: God's hidden purpose. And as we read, we want to
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  Speaker 2: know what's the purpose. What's the purpose? God? You say
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  Speaker 2: you're for him, you don't look like you're for him.
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  Speaker 2: One more illustration of how the author gets across his intention.
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  Speaker 2: And this is one of the perplexing things to me
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  Speaker 2: in the whole story. Chapter thirty eight totally, it seems,
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  Speaker 2: interrupts the flow of this story or the story begins
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  Speaker 2: in chapter thirty seven with the dreams and the selling
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  Speaker 2: into slavery in Egypt, and bang Moses inserts chapter thirty
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  Speaker 2: eight as soon as the big story starts, and it
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  Speaker 2: is so extraneous. It tells this bizarre story about Judah,
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  Speaker 2: Joseph's older brother who winds up getting his daughter in
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  Speaker 2: law pregnant thinking she's a prostitute. Now whatever else is
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  Speaker 2: going on here? My question is, Moses, why here? I mean,
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  Speaker 2: put that chapter before chapter thirty seven. Let the story flow.
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  Speaker 2: What's the point of interrupting the narrative with this chapter
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  Speaker 2: thirty eight. Well, here's my suggestion, and I would love
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  Speaker 2: to know whether it's right or not, because the very
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  Speaker 2: next thing after that horrible immorality of Judah in chapter
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  Speaker 2: thirty eight. The very next thing we read about in
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  Speaker 2: Joseph's story is his incredible uprightness in sexual relations with
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  Speaker 2: Potterpher's wife, who tries to sed youse him, and Moses
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  Speaker 2: records his words, how then could I do this great
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  Speaker 2: wickedness and sin against God? So I think the ordering
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  Speaker 2: of the narrative with the insertion of Judah's sexual immorality
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  Speaker 2: just before Joseph's staggeringly effective and beautiful sexual morality, is
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  Speaker 2: to underline in bright colors the difference between Judah's unfaithfulness
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  Speaker 2: and Joseph's amazing sexual uprightness, which simply goes to show
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  Speaker 2: that there can be main points to narratives and lots
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  Speaker 2: of sub points to narratives that we should be alert to. So,
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  Speaker 2: in answer to Nicholas's question, whether we are reading a
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  Speaker 2: tightly argued epistle of Paul or a sweeping narrative across
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  Speaker 2: fourteen chapters, we're all looking for what the author intends
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  Speaker 2: to communicate, and we look for the kinds of clues
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  Speaker 2: that he gives us, whether in exposition or in narration,
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  Speaker 2: to help us find the intention. And I would just
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  Speaker 2: say to Nicholas, the more the more you read, the
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  Speaker 2: more I read with that aim of spotting those tips
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  Speaker 2: and pointers that authors give us. The more You're good
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  Speaker 2: to see.
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  Speaker 1: Yes, and giving us those tips and pointers here is
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  Speaker 1: very helpful to our Bible reading as we encounter those
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  Speaker 1: fourteen chapters of Joseph's life in Genesis thirty seven to fifty.
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  Speaker 1: Famous storytelling we encounter in the second half of January.
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  Speaker 1: True stories, of course, true stories worthy of our careful
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  Speaker 1: attention and application. Thank you Bestor John for helping us
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  Speaker 1: here and thanks for joining us today. Have a question
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  Speaker 1: to ask Pastor John. Find a link to email us
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: and find our complete episode archive at Askpastor John dot com.
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  Speaker 1: Every episode with audio and full transcripts. And of course
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  Speaker 1: check out that book Reading the Bible Supernaturally at Desiring
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  Speaker 1: Good dot org forbersh books. Wonderful book. Well the Lord
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  Speaker 1: is my shepherd, I shall not want. So why do
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  Speaker 1: we want or lack a human shepherd, a human pastor?
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  Speaker 1: Why do we need pastors? If God is our all
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  Speaker 1: sufficient pastor? Interesting question up next when we return Antoni
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  Speaker 1: Reiki It see on Monday