Expectations
Theologian Karl Barth once asserted that every expectation we bring to the Bible is either inadequate or mistaken. The Bible's purpose is to reveal to us the living God—nothing more, nothing less. We come to the Bible looking for personal affirmation—what we find is a God whose holiness reminds us we are sinners from our birth. We come to the Bible looking for flattery—what we find is a God who is the only one worthy of worship.
Most often we come to the Bible wanting to use it for our purposes. We look for truth or history or morality. And there is truth in the Bible—truth about ourselves, truth about who we are in relation to the One who created the universe, truth about the way the world works. But the Bible is not first and foremost about truth.
There is history in the Bible. I love archaeology. My trips to Israel are always fascinating because there are always new discoveries being made, new ways archaeology is confirming the history recorded in the Bible. When we were there last summer, we actually saw an active dig on the top of Megiddo. They're discovering, layer by layer, the historical nature of the Scriptures. But the point of the Bible is not the history. The point of the Scriptures is to help us see a God who works in history, through history, and who shapes history. The Bible is not just a nice, historical novel.
And there is morality in the Bible. There are clear expectations of God's people, both in the Old and New Testaments. We can argue and argue about the Old Testament regulations and whether they apply to Christians today or not (many branches of the Church have different opinions on that one), but to argue about all of that really misses the point. The Bible's moral laws are also not about us—they're about pointing us toward a God who knows how best life works. In Jesus' day, the Pharisees thought it was all about them. They forgot it was about God. As we draw nearer to God, as we fall more in love with God, we want to live in a certain way because that's what God is like. But the Bible is not first and foremost about morality.
We come to the Bible with inadequate or mistaken expectations. We want the Bible to serve us, to inspire us, to inform us, to make us feel good and, occasionally, to correct us (but not too much, only in the way we want to be corrected!). What the Scriptures intend to do, instead, is point us toward God, who is revealed in these pages. When we come to the Bible to get God into our lives, we've gotten it backward. The Scriptures point us toward a God who wants to get us involved in his life. Because, ultimately, it's about him, not us.
Most often we come to the Bible wanting to use it for our purposes. We look for truth or history or morality. And there is truth in the Bible—truth about ourselves, truth about who we are in relation to the One who created the universe, truth about the way the world works. But the Bible is not first and foremost about truth.
There is history in the Bible. I love archaeology. My trips to Israel are always fascinating because there are always new discoveries being made, new ways archaeology is confirming the history recorded in the Bible. When we were there last summer, we actually saw an active dig on the top of Megiddo. They're discovering, layer by layer, the historical nature of the Scriptures. But the point of the Bible is not the history. The point of the Scriptures is to help us see a God who works in history, through history, and who shapes history. The Bible is not just a nice, historical novel.
And there is morality in the Bible. There are clear expectations of God's people, both in the Old and New Testaments. We can argue and argue about the Old Testament regulations and whether they apply to Christians today or not (many branches of the Church have different opinions on that one), but to argue about all of that really misses the point. The Bible's moral laws are also not about us—they're about pointing us toward a God who knows how best life works. In Jesus' day, the Pharisees thought it was all about them. They forgot it was about God. As we draw nearer to God, as we fall more in love with God, we want to live in a certain way because that's what God is like. But the Bible is not first and foremost about morality.
We come to the Bible with inadequate or mistaken expectations. We want the Bible to serve us, to inspire us, to inform us, to make us feel good and, occasionally, to correct us (but not too much, only in the way we want to be corrected!). What the Scriptures intend to do, instead, is point us toward God, who is revealed in these pages. When we come to the Bible to get God into our lives, we've gotten it backward. The Scriptures point us toward a God who wants to get us involved in his life. Because, ultimately, it's about him, not us.
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