We're on lesson six. Last week, we were talking about handling the Word of God, and in the next, this week and even the next, we're still talking about that as in combination with our church's vision, but in just thinking about what was presented last time is just this idea that how important interpretation is of the scripture for us, right?

As we think about our faith and what it's built upon as a foundation, and then also as we think about the authority that we receive from God, interpretation is incredibly vital. And one of the things that Pastor Peter mentioned was that accurate and clear interpretation is absolutely crucial because only when that interpretation is clear, so is the authority of God, right?

Now, when we don't have accuracy and clarity in the interpretation of scripture, then that can surmount to only our opinions. And so the authority of God that is the message given to us is also unclear. So really, the impetus is... Okay, hello, hello. You know, I think it's an issue with my...

I'm gonna try not to move. All right, so the impetus is on us to make sure that we try our best to accurately understand the scriptures. And another way I wanna put it is just to kind of, again, inspire us to make sure that we're actually digging is that in us trying to have that clarity is truly our hunger, you know?

We're exercising not just simply a process of hermeneutics, we're exercising our thirst, we're exercising our desire for scripture when we try to approach it with the desire for right interpretation. Now along those lines then today, we're gonna talk about one major aspect of biblical hermeneutics, and it's the lesson on genre, okay?

On genre. Now in thinking about genre, I don't... Today is gonna be, you know, again, more like class time and talking specifically about the principles and guidelines for interpretation, but I don't want it to be something where it's like, "Oh man, that's just too much specifics and details that I don't have time to get into." Truthfully speaking, the things that we're gonna be talking about today, a lot of it is intuitive, okay?

A lot of it you already practice. It's just an admonition for us to be both regular and consistent with our approach to scripture, okay? What I mean by that is, when we think about genre, you know exactly what I'm talking about. When you enter into a library, you know that you go to a certain section when you're looking for a certain book.

The whole library is divided not by date, but the whole library is divided up by genre. You have your fictional section, you have your teeny bopper stuff on one side, you have your children's books, and so forth, right? And you do realize that likewise, the scriptures, it's not organized strictly in a timeline.

A bunch of the Old Testament is, but actually the scriptures itself is collected by genre. So instinctively, when we walk into even, again, a library or whatnot, or instinctively when you approach your Bible, there is this knowledge that within the text, there are different types. And so, I'm going to bust out my remote here, bam.

Essentially, when we're talking about genre, all we're talking about is the type of text that we're looking at, okay? The type of text has various elements that gives us the indication that it is a different type. The first is content and the content style, okay? What we're talking about is, obviously, we have sentences and paragraphs, but what kind of literary devices, what kind of expressions and verbal elements is this passage using, okay?

And so, for those of you guys who are English majors, you've got a heads up on us. You learned about different types of literary devices. You learned about whether it be idioms, or you learned about expressive sayings, or metaphors and similes, and all that kind of stuff, right? So that kind of expressive speech, the figures of speech in the content of the passage that you're studying, gives you an indication immediately of, hey, this could be a certain genre.

What's more? The form, okay? The form and structure. Immediately as you open up, obviously, to the Book of Psalms, you see the sentence structure of its parallelism. When you look at, you know, let's say even a narrative, you have different segments. You have movements within it, and how it's organized, of whether there's a conflict and resolution, right?

You look at even epistles, and you have a certain structure where a lot of times the apostle will write certain doctrines and then give you exhortation. There is a sense of form and structure to the writings that we see. But one of the most important things is the function, okay?

Understanding its intent and purpose. What is this designed to do? And we realize that the biblical authors and God, as he ordained even the way that it's written, has an intent of writing certain things in certain forms, or I guess certain, you know, styles and types, so that it accomplishes a purpose.

Whether it's to illustrate, whether it's to give you clear teaching, whether it's to move you, inspire you, give you hope, right? The form matches its function, its purpose. So again, all I want to say with this is that there exists in the scriptures literary genres, and it's very important for us to pay attention to them.

And I just want to say again, it's intuitive for us. You know, I don't know if some of you guys are into like home decor, interior design, some of you guys into, you know, architecture and stuff like that. When you walk into a house, you walk in and you understand living room, kitchen, right?

And what that does for you is it starts to build essentially a framework. You understand what kind of things should go. Kitchen needs this, why? For its intended purpose. Does that make sense? And so I use that example to show us that essentially the importance of understanding genre will help us have the right approach and expectation.

So on your packet there, there's a lot of blanks on the first page. Somebody actually accidentally took my teaching notes. You have all the answers. But anyway, there's a lot of things on the first page here. The first one there is underneath why it's important is because it guides our approach and expectation of the passage.

We realize and we have to confess that sometimes we're looking for something when we go to the text. Whether it is because you're struggling, you need because you need encouragement, I don't know. Different circumstances of our lives, in certain positions, we go to this text wanting to hear something, right?

And in that kind of circumstance, it puts us in a dangerous situation. But the genre and context of the passage is actually giving for us parameters of what we can actually expect from it. Does that make sense? What's more? It helps us to understand the overall purpose and intent of that passage, okay?

It helps us to understand the overall purpose and intent of the passage. And then lastly, it prevents us from making the kind of mistakes that oftentimes we see in Bible interpretation. A lot of times the mistakes are gonna, I'm gonna summarize as going out of bounds, right? Going out of bounds.

Basically, what I'm presenting to you is that the study of genre helps us to build a framework, overall structure by which you can pretty much hang your, you know, your co-hangers and whatnot and have a little framework for you to understand the general whole and then to make sure also in terms of how you practice interpretation, you stay within its bounds, okay?

Now, the next couple of portions I'm gonna go over quite quickly. If you look, I wrote down that there are many different types of genres found in the scriptures. You look down the list and there's everything from history and narrative, there's the law and wisdom, and I'm not gonna take time right now to go over every single one.

You can take time to kind of read up on that. And also, what I highly recommend is this. At the end of your handout today, I put some resources down for you. One of the resources that I really like is called Talk Through the Bible. I used it when I essentially just worked through the Bible in a systematic way.

And it's kind of like an expanded version of if you have a study Bible and it goes over background, historical context, author, major themes, right? Essentially, it's a expanded version of that that gives you a more thorough outline, multiple outlines, keys to this book. There are some pivotal verses to make sure you maybe even memorize and keep in mind as you approach that scripture, right?

It's essentially a great help for you. Now again, for a lot of you, that might be review and whatnot, but this is again important for us to make sure we understand at least by principle, this is how we approach scripture to interpret, okay? So there are many different types of genres found in the text.

What I wanna make mention of is this, and this is super important, okay? Although in that list I give you, it's not exhaustive. And what's more, even if I said, "Hey, there are parables in the Gospels," you do realize there are parables in the Old Testament. When Nathan rebukes King David, he uses a little parable.

He says, "There was a guy who was poor and had one lamb. This nasty king took the lamb," right? And then he made a very pointed point, he says, "That's you." Parables actually exist all through scripture, Old Testament and New. What's more, even words of wisdom, these maxims and pithy statements exist all through the Gospels, in the epistles.

So what's my point with this? My point is, actually when you practice your interpretation and when you study the Bible, even the passage that you're at, maybe you're in the New Testament reading Galatians, okay? In that passage, you should be thinking, "What kinds of literary forms exist in my passage?" Because even as Apostle Paul is teaching us, he could be using illustrations, he could be using various devices to help teach.

Does that make sense? So in each passage, you should actually be taking care to make note of the genre that's there. What we're gonna do today is look at two examples of these genres and see how it affects our interpretation and our understanding of the passage, okay? All right.

And I know it's a big group and stuff, but any questions? Okay. Let's move on. No, I move. All right. Let's take a look at the first example and the thing that we wanna look at is Proverbs, okay? Proverbs and wisdom, okay? Proverbs and wisdom have with it a very interesting element, and I wanna say again that the reason why I'm starting with the book of Proverbs is because there have been a lot of questions.

How do we interpret it? There have been a lot of misinterpretations and wrong applications as well deriving from those. Well, if you would, please take your Bible and turn to Proverbs chapter 1, okay? Proverbs chapter 1. And I'm gonna be reading just a small section here starting from Proverbs chapter 1, verse 1 through 7.

And he says, "The Proverbs of Solomon, the son of David, king of Israel. To know wisdom and instruction, to discern the sayings of understanding, to receive instruction in wise behavior, righteousness, justice, and equity, to give prudence to the naive, to the youth, knowledge, and discretion, a wise man will hear an increase in learning and a man of understanding will acquire wise counsel.

To understand a proverb and a figure, the words of the wise and their riddles, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. Fools despise wisdom and instruction." Right? I told you at the beginning that oftentimes what you see in terms of content, it's expression, but also it's function.

Very clearly here, King Solomon is saying, "This is my purpose for writing all these Proverbs together in this book." He wants to make the naive and simple wise up. He wants the individual to understand sayings of the wise, of those who have gone before. He wants us to understand what is righteousness and what is not righteousness and be able to observe the difference between the two.

Okay? And if you look also in chapter two, okay, in chapter two, he reiterates his purpose. Verse one, he says, "My son, if you will receive my words and treasure my commandments within you, make your ear attentive to wisdom, incline your heart to understanding. For if you cry for discernment, lift your voice for understanding.

If you seek her as silver and search her as for hidden treasure, then you will discern the fear of the Lord and discover the knowledge of God." Right? So here he's talking about your own hunger and desire for wisdom, and then it's the resulting consequence, which is what? Big mansions?

Big houses? Big cars? Big bank? No. He says what you'll arrive at is this discernment of who is God. What you'll arrive at is wisdom. Okay? And so that's where we want to start off to frame how we want to understand the book of Proverbs. So, I want to give a definition.

And first, the book of Proverbs are short wisdom sayings that expresses general truth. Okay? What's more? These are short wisdom sayings that expresses general reality. Okay? These are aphorisms that, you know, these pithy statements that state the general reality and state of affairs. Okay? You think through the book of Ecclesiastes.

What is that? When a huge chunk of it's 12 chapters, but the vast majority of it, essentially King Solomon summarizes, he says, "I pursued all the wealth I could possibly have. I pursued all the pleasure I could possibly have. And I pursued all the knowledge I could possibly have.

And then I observed vanity." Vanity, vanity, vanity, vanity, vanity. Right? What is that? Well, it's wisdom. Because truthfully speaking, when I talk to people who've really not, you know, tried to live this life to the deceptive, like, promises, but rather live this life aware of all the empty promises that this life has, they will concur.

Solomon is so wise because all of what he says is quite true. They'll see the reality like, "What is this?" Right? And so a lot of the statements, not every single proverb has the same function or the same statement, but a lot of these proverbs have a summary of looking at specific circumstances, a summary of the current state of reality.

Okay? And what's more, proverbs I see as general principles of life. Okay? If you think about it this way, even King Solomon says, "There are these men of wisdom who've said wise statements, and they give you general principle of life, and I believe that there is an aspect of art to our Christian living." Okay?

Let me say that. I believe there is an aspect of art to our Christian living. What do I mean by that? It's because there is a level of skill. There is a level of wisdom. Right? For example, I know that certain animals are incredibly dangerous. A venomous snake, right?

A venomous snake. I could have the knowledge that that snake with one bite could kill me. I could have a knowledge of what kind of snake that is. I can identify that snake. But in terms of being able to handle it, what to do with that snake, that's an experience and skill that certain trainers, that certain zookeepers will have beyond any other individual at the zoo.

Likewise, there's a certain skill that we learn to handle this life that we have, to handle the word of God, to appropriately react to our holy God, to even seek to serve and whatnot. There is a skill. There is an experience level that is there. Well, the book of Proverbs is meant to guide you towards not just simply this is truth proposition, but it's guiding you towards skill and wisdom to live a life that is fearful of God abiding in his presence.

Okay? And so as I think about that, I want to again say that the book of Proverbs when you look at it is not meant to be taken as like, "Oh, book of Proverbs is teaching me that all X is Y and all Y is Z." Does that make sense?

All right. So now that I've given you just a brief definition of what book of Proverbs in a genre is, we want to, okay, go to the next part. I want to give you an example of a New Testament proverb, use of a proverb. So let me see if I have, I do.

This comes from Galatians chapter six, verse six through 10. If you want to, you could take a look. I actually encourage you, please turn your Bibles there. I only briefly quote it here so that we can kind of see which proverb that I'm talking about, but you should be looking at the context, right?

So he says here, "Let the one who is taught," I'm going to give you a little bit of time on that. He says, "Let the one who is taught the word share all good things with the one who teaches. Do not be deceived, God is mocked for whatever one sows, that will he also reap." We know that that statement is repeated several times through scripture.

What you sow, you will reap. Now if you read this at face value or like right now like this, it's really choppy. It doesn't make sense. So it kind of goes from like, "Hey, he who is taught the word share the good stuff with the one who teaches. Don't be deceived, God is not mocked, whatever one sows that he will also reap." So here now we have to ask this question like, what is he saying?

Is he saying like, "Give your pastor lots of good stuff so that he will invest into you a lot." Is that what he's talking about? No, he's not talking about that. Essentially when you look at the context of it, he talks about how in the book of Galatians, how we should carry each other's burdens.

How we should care for each other so that we should even care for each other's sins. That's the context from which it occurs. And then he starts to go to this and say, "Hey, do not be deceived, God is not mocked for whatever one sows, that he will also reap." And then the next passage teaches us that we should not sow to the flesh, but we should sow in the spirit.

So the context is teaching us just a simple truth. And I want to encourage us on this level. There's a principle here that honestly speaking, it's not a hard one. It's not a hard parable for her to interpret, right? For what you sow, you will reap. And it's absolutely right.

A lot of us sometimes we wrestle and we complain about circumstances that are fruit of what we've been sowing. If we have been, I don't know, just distracted, if we have been sowing to the flesh by, I don't know, all the entertainment that we take in. I'm not going to name specific stuff, but all the entertainment you take in.

Your investment clearly is like you're investing a lot in just entertaining yourself. You've never said no to yourself, but all you've invested in is constantly self-improvement and satisfying whatever you want to. And then you complain like, "Oh, how come I'm not there? Like how come I'm not spiritually here?

How come I'm not spiritually able to do this? And how come I'm so dry? How come I'm so apathetic?" And then we can just simply state the proverb, "What you sow, you will reap," right? And we struggle a lot with the things that have consequences or the fruits of our investment.

But here in this specific passage, he's talking about how we should not sow to our flesh, but we should sow to our spirit. And then he says in verse 10, "Sow then," so he uses that as a specific application. He says, "As we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, especially those who are in the household of faith." So here specifically, he's using the proverb to say, "Sow not to yourself, sow not to your own indulgences, but carry the burdens of your brothers and sisters.

Sow richly into the people around you." And there is admonition always for us to be rich towards others. We're very, very generous and rich to ourselves. He says, "No, be rich to the people around you." And that's the specific application Apostle Paul has for that proverb. Now, one of the truths I want to remind us, okay, remind us, is that there are exceptions to proverbs, okay?

These are, I kept on saying, general truths, general principles. They have general principles for life, but there are exceptions. Remember that in the book of Job, oops, in the book of Job, there's this idea where Eliphaz was bent on this. He was like, "The innocent people who invest into their spirit and to the people around them, they will always be blessed." And then so he says, "Remember who that was innocent ever perished, or where were the upright cut off?

As I have seen, those who plow iniquity and sow trouble reap the same. By the breath of God they perish, and by the blast of His anger they are consumed." So he essentially says the whole principle of what you sow, what you reap, man. And so Job is like miserable because he's in pain.

He's aching and hurting because he lost his children. He's aching and hurting because his body is beaten down. And then his friend comes over and says, "Man, what you sow, you reap." And then he realized there are exceptions. You can sow, sow, sow, sow, and sow, but the fruits are in God's hands.

That's another principle for life that we understand. So we recognize that there are principles in scripture, right? General principles in scripture that does not cross apply to every single position in your life. So I want to give a warning about that, okay? The warning is the proverbial statements are essentially individuals who have great, lengthy, long experience summarize into short expression.

But to go backwards, take the short expression and just start to like sticker it on every single situation of your life, it's backwards, right? So I want to give the warning that should you read a proverbial life principle statement in the scripture and then you say, "But this should be true of my life right now," you're going to be frustrated, right?

Should you take a proverbial principle statement and then say, "This is the doctrinal truth. Why is God doing this?" You know, then you're going to be frustrated. And that makes sense, right? When we universalize or dogmatize certain things that we find in proverbial wisdom statements, then we're going to have a misunderstanding of that genre, okay?

And so what's more is on a personal level, people sometimes take proverbial statements and then because it's personal, they take it as a personal promise to themselves. And the warning about proverbial statements in the process of interpretation is do not make every proverbial statement a promise specifically to you.

As a matter of fact, when you see promises in scripture, these promises oftentimes speak more greatly about the character of God rather than for you to be like, "I was searching for this. Yes, it's for me." You know what I'm saying? Especially when you read Old Testament and you hear God promise them like, "I will never forsake you or I'll for sure deliver you." And then you say, "Just give it time.

He's going to deliver you." I mean, you know instinctively like that has a lot of personal bias behind it rather than carefully looking at what is God saying, okay? So here's a couple of examples of this. And obviously these are kind of more ridiculous ones or like obvious ones.

Here's an example. I think I just left it in your packet there. In Proverbs 3 9-10, he says, "Honor the Lord with your wealth and with the first fruits of all your produce. Then your barns will be filled with plenty and your vats will be bursting with wine." I picked this one because I saw this blasted on the TV and a guy saying, "First give of God, then he'll always multiply to you." And later I'm just going to ask you, just for the sake of practice, okay?

And for those of you guys who have already prepared yourself, like those of you guys who have already come, like you're already always armed to fight prosperity gospel, don't go too crazy now, okay? But I'm going to ask you to share in your groups like by specific interpretive process and principles, how do you prevent either yourself or somebody else from saying, "Hey, this is a promise for us because that passage, I mean the context, I mean in terms of other references, in terms of, I mean even the wording and stuff could be, could be legitimate." What are you going to say to that, okay?

So here's another one, Proverbs 22, verse 6, this idea of train up a child in the way he should go. Even when he is old, he will not depart from it, okay? And the reason why I'm bringing these up is because earlier I mentioned, I'm going to be 100% honest, right?

I honestly don't think that it's, you know, like because of crazy far out there teaching of interpretation that a lot of people have wrong interpretation. I kind of feel like what I said earlier is that because there is always personal interest, because there's always conditional hungers that we have and things that we're looking for, there can be misinterpretation of the Bible.

And a lot of times when I see that, you know, maybe parents, of course, when we think about the salvation of our children, many, many times when we think about whether the kids are saved or not, if I think back to like previous youth group experience and all that kind of stuff and parents are unwilling to see like my child is potentially not saved or is questionable, but they're always just like, "No, they're Christian," you know?

I kind of think like, man, there's so much personal investment in that. I get it, it's your child, you know? But even then, when you look at passages like this, this is not a promise that when you do X, Y, and Z for your kid, for sure he's going to be saved.

And this is not a promise that when you do Y and Z for your child, for sure he's always going to be reigned in. I mean, truthfully speaking, God Himself says in Isaiah that He was the Father and His children went what? Astray. This is not a guarantee. But again, we talked about general statements of reality, general principles living.

How should we be wise in our parenting? But these aren't guarantees and promises for us personally. Does that make sense? Okay. So my exhortation and challenge for us simply was for every passage, look at the specific use of proverbial and principle statements, okay? We're going to do one more exercise pertaining to this.

But before I go on, any questions? Okay. I just throw it out there, you know? Alright. Take an example in Titus chapter 1, verse 15. Please take your Bibles and turn there. Oops. Okay. Please take your Bibles and turn there. I'm going to just for the sake of the example, read verse 13 through 16.

And it says here, yeah? Just to give you guys context, Apostle Paul has taught Titus that there has to be qualifications for leaders. Why? Because they have to be able to teach and also to correct. And then he gives this exhortation and forewarning, there's going to be false teachers who are incredibly hurtful and incredibly strong, so to speak.

And it's kind of summary form, they're going to come off super strong. So the elders and the teachers need to be strong themselves, that there has to be qualifications. And within this, in the description of those who are the false teachers, he says this, verse 13 through 16. This testimony is true.

Therefore rebuke them sharply that they may be sound in faith, not devoting themselves to Jewish myths and commandments of people who turn away from the truth. And he gives a principle, or like, not a principle, but a maxim, like a general saying. To the pure, all things are pure.

But to the defile and unbelieving, nothing is pure. But both their minds and their consciences are defiled. They profess to know God, but they deny him by their works. They are detestable, disobedient, unfit for any good work. Let's just do a quick exercise, okay? There have actually been many ways I've personally heard this statement be used.

To the pure, all things are pure, but to the defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure. I want you guys first to try and be creative, okay? So be bad Bible students and be a little creative, okay? How could this be used? To the pure, all things are pure. To the defiled, all things are defiled.

Yes. Excellent. Oops, sorry, that's not the right one. I'm just gonna put these up. Don't judge me, my heart's pure, okay? The whole idea is, hey, to me, everything is pure. So the idea, focus on the to the pure, all things are pure, is kind of like to me, everything is pure.

And then to the defiled, if you're defiled, then everything is defiled, right? And then, I should have just not put this up. What other ways can you think of? Well, I'm just gonna give that one, is the, I remember somebody, I quote this, we were in a team meeting, and then somebody was complaining, and he was like, man, to the defiled, everything is defiled.

So he was like, if you're a complainer, everything is gonna look bad to you, right? So they just use this as kind of saying, like, there is a subjective sense in which, depending on who, the focus is on depending on what you are and who you are and how you perceive things, everything is gonna not be sufficient, okay?

So how does it, what's your perspective? Is everything pure, or is everything defiled? That's the way. That's another way. Any other creative uses of, to the pure, all things are pure, but to the defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure. Any thoughts? Okay. Well, I just wanted to do that exercise to think about that a little bit, because again, with Apostle Paul using a proverbial statement to just your regular reading of it, it sounds pretty choppy.

It really does. But once you realize what he's saying, you realize, wow, he's using that as a poignant attack on those who are false teachers. You look at it in context, and the false teachers are the Jews, right? He talks about how they're devoting themselves to Jewish myths. In previous section in the passage, he talks about those who are false teachers, especially the ones of the circumcision, right?

Especially the ones of the circumcision. So in this passage, when you look at that, you wanna focus on who he's talking about when he uses this proverb. So you ask the difference, not so much on like, oh, what could this possibly relate to, but who he's specifically talking about.

There is a clear contrast between those who are pure and then those who are defiled. And when you look at the terminology specifically, that term pure has a ceremonial aspect to it. What is acceptable ceremonially to God, right? Versus what is defiled ceremony before God. And so the huge contrast should be in thinking about those whom God deems to be acceptable versus those who God deems to be defiled.

And so, you know, when we think about this, I'm gonna give a specific passage for you. Jesus speaks to it almost precisely in Matthew 15. For the sake of time, I'm just gonna give you the summary version of that. The Pharisees come to Jesus complaining, what is wrong and what is up with your disciples?

Why are they eating with their hands without washing it thoroughly? Why aren't they doing the ceremonial act of cleansing themselves? 30 people, and then Jesus gets very frustrated. What do you care? What do you care about ceremonial cleanliness? When you lie about what's being devoted to your parents and then you elevate the ceremonies of man, but you neglect everything about what's acceptable to God.

And then he talks about the heart and he says, what goes into a man by your hand does not make you defiled, but everything about your heart produces everything that's defiled. All the adultery, the thievery, and falsehood. And that's exactly what he's talking about here. That when the heart is pure, then what is coming out is pure.

But when you are defiled, everything that is coming out is unacceptable to the Lord. It's all defiled, right? So again, proverbial statement that's used very specifically to attack the false teachers. And he's essentially, you know, reminiscent and quoting almost the same thing what Jesus is talking about, okay? Alright, so with that being said, with all the proverbial statements, I just want to give a warning.

Someone could be like, well, you know, is that just talking about the heart then and what about the actions, don't they matter? And it's like, of course they do. Remember, proverbial statements does not have an addressing of every possible what ifs. Apostle Paul is using a general summary statement to talk about a specific application, okay?

Any questions? Alright, then let's move forward to our second genre that we want to talk about tonight, which is biblical narratives. Alright, biblical narratives. Please turn your Bible over to Luke chapter 1, verse 1 through 4. Luke chapter 1, verse 1 through 4. And I really appreciate it when essentially at the forefront of the book, the book itself tells you what is the intended purpose, okay?

And it basically says here, "Inasmuch as many have undertaken to compile an account of the things accomplished among us, just as they were handed down to us by those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and servants of the world, it seemed fitting for me as well, having investigated everything carefully from the beginning, to write it out for you in a consecutive order, most excellent Theophilus, so that you may know the exact truth about the things you have been taught." Okay?

I'm going to read you another one. You don't have to turn there for the sake of time. It comes from John chapter 20, verse 31. "These things are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in His name." Okay?

Remember how I talked about genre has elements of function, intent, and purpose. And the gospel writers has given us very explicit statements about its purpose and intent. Okay? Now, to give you a definition of biblical narratives, I want to say these three statements, okay? For your blanks, it is that biblical narratives are historical redemptive stories.

Okay? Biblical narratives are historical redemptive stories. And those three key terms I'm going to use as headings to talk about how we should and should not interpret biblical narratives. Okay? First, we should definitely read the Old Testament and all the narrative portions of the New Testament as historical accounts.

Okay? As historical accounts. Meaning simply just that you should read them as real accounts of history in factual terms. Okay? In factual terms. So in biblical narratives, it is absolutely okay for you to ask, "Wow, what was that historical event like?" So it's actually okay for you to read up history books.

Actually, it is not just okay, but imperative that you look up their historical context, that you go back so that you drop down into their situation. What was the scenery like? If you're reading the story, an account of, you know, in our BCC class, I say this all the time.

Everything surrounding Christ, there is so much historical evidence that if you were an actual historian, it would be unprofessional of you. Right? It would be so biased of you to deny the existence of Christ because so much history describes the events of that time. Well we have then the obligation to go back and think about what was their context?

What was their culture? How did they use their terms? Right? What was the interaction like between certain people? If there's any historical details that would paint a better picture for you of that historical event, you must. Why? Because they're real events. They're real events. And I think that it would be beneficial for us to read it with that kind of faith because truthfully speaking, that continues to create for us awe and wonder because all the miracles, all of the dealings of God, all the sufferings of the people, all the redemptions of the people, all these things are historical actual events that have happened.

Okay? However, however, because there are historical events, we should not be reading them as morally permissible things. We don't read the history of the kings of England and then be like, "That's what we should do." You know what I mean? Yeah, assassinate my enemy. Like, what are you going to do with that?

But a lot of times because we're reading historical narrative, we automatically think like, "Well, it's there in the Bible. He did it." That's just like doing one of these like, "Well, MacArthur did it," you know? "Well, he did it." We know we shouldn't be doing that kind of stuff.

Actually I want to say that we know that from biblical narrative, not only is it not necessarily good for us to follow everything as examples, but actually most of the characters in the Old Testament are riddled with sin. Right? And what's really funny, what's super duper funny is that, I'm just going to give you a ridiculous example, okay?

I don't know if you guys remember the story, so I'm going to give it to you a little bit here in Genesis chapter 30 through 32. Because he loves, you know, Rachel so much, he is willing to stay super duper long with Laban to work his land. You know, he works seven years and another seven years and then grand total he's there like 20 years.

During that time, he knows he's going to depart at some point or another, so he makes this deal like, "Hey, I've worked so hard and amassed this huge wealth of cattle and possessions and stuff. I'm just going to take all the blemished ones." Right? And then what essentially happens is, Jacob in his scheming, deceptive ways, he takes this certain kind of branch that's spotted and he puts it by the watering hole of the animals.

And then anytime there was a strong, like muscular lamb, he'd be like, "Here, buddy. Here, buddy." And they would drink by the branch and then all of a sudden they'd come out all spotted. You know? Number one, I remember so many Koreans saying, "See? What you should do is put a nice picture, a very picture of a pretty girl or boy on the wall by your house so that every time you leave, you would look at it and then your babies would be beautiful." Right?

Have you guys ever heard that? Is it just my mom? And I'm always like, "Don't worry. My kids are good looking." All right? There was some hilarious, ridiculous thing about what you look at, that's what your baby is going to be because from that story. And they would always quote that.

Or somebody would always quote that story about how shrewd you should be, that it's okay to receive the best from what you're working at. If you're going to work, then get the best. You know? It's like, "Dang, I don't know if..." I mean, if you should work, yeah, you should be a worker that's due his wage, but to use that passage as a means to be like, "It's okay as long as you come out on top," that's kind of shady.

You know what I'm saying? But the fact of the matter is you cannot use Old Testament stories as permissions or this is the way it ought to be. I'm going to be honest, there are a lot of people who say to the churches, "Hey, this is what happened in the New Testament.

How come we're not doing that?" Because there was never any instruction that we should do this. It's a story. It's a story of what's happened. Right? And so I remember also even in a counseling setting, someone had made a certain promise and they're like, "I just got to keep it." And then they quoted the whole like Jephthah story, you know, Judges chapter...

I don't have it. It's like later on, Judges chapter 20 some, and then Jephthah makes this vow like, "Anything that comes out of my house, I'm going to sacrifice." I mean, first and foremost, why would you ever say something like that? So I said, "Moral of the story actually is stop making silly vows, man.

Scripture says stop making silly vows because you can't even promise. You know, let your yes be yes and your no be no. Who are you that you're going to promise things for tomorrow?" But then he used that by saying like, "Even though it's like a bad idea, I should just keep it." And I said, "Hey, hey, like you can't use Old Testament stories as moralistic, 'This is what I ought to do.'" Actually I said, "The New Testament teaches you to be reasonable." Right?

The New Testament teaches you to be wise and discerning. As a matter of fact, the Old Testament doesn't really, that passage, I think it's chapter 20, now it's bothering me, but that passage never concludes with like, "And thus God was pleased." Or like, "And thus," you know, it doesn't give you a moral discernment, but rather the whole book says, "And see, everybody was wicked.

Everybody was just doing whatever they wanted and there was no king and everybody was just lost and blind." It doesn't give you a moral summary of whether that was good or bad. So stop using Old Testament as, "This is what I should do." And those are some examples of it.

I want to say that, again, the Old Testament narrative, first and foremost, is history of, "This is what happened." Not necessarily, "This is what should have happened." Does that make sense? Old Testament narrative, "This is what happened," and not necessarily, "This is what should have happened." Okay? Secondly, I said that the Old Testament narrative is redemptive.

Okay? Redemptive. And all we're saying is, there is a theme and purpose to the story, just like we read in the Gospel of John. So the books are not dictionaries or glossaries of all the doctrines. As a matter of fact, it's not even a doctrine teaching book. It is not a catechism.

It is first redemptive. So I'm going to say this, that all narratives are by nature selective for redemptive history. Okay? All narratives are by nature selective for redemptive history. Now when I say this, I'm going to say it cautiously. The Old Testament narrative is not, sorry, is incomplete in a sense.

I said that carefully. The Old Testament is incomplete in a sense. What do I mean by that? That it is not erroneously incomplete. It is not exhaustive. It does not write for you, "Oh, but what happened with those people? Oh, what happened with that guy? How come it just drops that character at this point?" Because insofar as it is important for the redemptive history, it is there.

Insofar as it contributes to your faith and understanding of God, your need for redemption, and et cetera, it is there. But it is not an exhaustive story of the events of history. As a matter of fact, if you think about why it's so confusing sometimes to read the Old Testament, because you read 1 Kings and 2 Kings and 1 Chronicles and 2 Chronicles, honestly, how many of you guys got really confused?

I did. The first time I went through that, I was like, "So what?" And then so you're like, "Okay, I'm going to need to diagram who these kings are." And then you're halfway through, you're like, "No, that's not okay." And you start diagramming and you realize, "Hey, this story repeats itself through the Chronicles." But it's emphasizing two very different aspects of redemptive history.

So what I'm going to say is a lot of the historical narrative has this purpose for your faith, for your faith. And what I'm going to say as an example is this. Take for example the stories in the Gospels of all the miracles that are written there. Okay? All the miracles that are written there.

The purpose for you, I hope, is not like, "So are we supposed to be charismatic or are we not supposed to be charismatic?" Like sure, that's a legitimate question that can be answered, but the purpose for you reading that Jesus Christ miraculously fed the 5,000 people, that Jesus Christ spoke a word and the man came out from the tomb, that's supposed to be awe-inspiring for you so that you'd be taking a back and say, "Who is this man?" And then you realize this is the Son of God that has authority over substance and material.

This is the Son of God that has authority over death. That's the effect of a story that it should have on you. And Scripture says it, that when you put it into context that even in the stories, let's say John chapter 6 verse 1 through 15, if you read it, if you read it, it gives you the hint of meaning that after all these people experienced a great many of miracles, if you read in verse 30 through 31, it talks about how these great miracles contributed to the idea that Jesus was the promised Messiah and that people were filled, the people were filled with wonder.

Right? And so the idea here is that the redemptive nature of the narrative is more important for you to think about than just simply answering your doctrinal questions. Okay? So next, the idea is it is still a story. Okay? It is still a story. And I want to encourage you.

You should appreciate the biblical narratives as literary masterpieces. Okay? If you, if any of you are like literature and like English majors or whatnot, and you take certain works of, you know, works of literature and you appreciate them for how they moved you through the journey, I bet you you would be all the more just engrossed in the scriptures if you read it the same way.

What do I mean by that? A lot of people that I know read the Old Testament in chunks. I read three chapters a day because I'm on the year of the Bible reading plan. Right? But whoever reads their literature books like that, you know what I'm saying? Like again, we have different genres.

We have works of fictional novels. We have works of documentary for history. We've got IKEA instructional manual. You don't read all those things the same way. The manual you read a couple of verses and you do it. You read a couple of verses and you do it. Right? The works of art and literature, you don't sit there and chop up into three chapters every day.

So I'm encouraging all of you, read the narratives and movements so that you would appreciate plot, movement, character development. You know, there's always in literature crisis and conflict. Then there's desperation and drama, the pinnacle of it. And there's also resolution and hope for the future and all that kind of stuff.

And the Bible is chock full of it. Chock full of it. And sometimes you won't appreciate that if again, if you're reading the Bible in chunks a lot. Okay? I want to encourage you guys again, look at it that way. Even the Old Testament narratives, even the New Testament narratives, there should be a buildup in that way.

Okay? So, first is appreciate it as a literary masterpiece. Okay. First, appreciate it as a literary masterpiece. And secondly, when you should not do this, you should not look to it as direct documentation. The scriptures teaches us doctrines in the Old Testament, but a lot of times it is indirect.

It's indirect. It rather illustrates the doctrines that are important to us. And then those doctrines are directly taught us in other parts of the world. Okay? So, even when we think about the holiness of God, you notice that when we started talking about the holiness of God, we talked about events in history where a man dared to audaciously just go and touch stuff.

To audaciously just go and talk to God and enter into his presence. And then we said, "Look what happened." And it's illustrated in the holiness. We talked about the book of Leviticus and all along, it illustrated how we needed its holiness. So, ask those questions of what is the narrative that emphasizes whether by direct quotation, right, whether by direct speaking from God, or by the illustration that the prophet is giving, or whatever it may be.

But the thing about it is the danger for us when we look to the Old Testament for just straight doctrines is that again, we're going to take something as a piece from history, and then we're going to extrapolate it from the prophets and say, "I don't know. This applies to our circumstance now." That is incredibly dangerous for us.

Now, a way of kind of wrapping things up, a way of kind of giving a last exhortation. Truthfully speaking, again, this is a lot of review for you guys. Some of you intuitively know, trying to teach biblical hermeneutics is kind of tough. My exhortation to you as we've been exhorting you all throughout this series is practice the hermeneutics as you continue to study the Bible.

You will realize if the passage dictates that you be allegorical, then you shouldn't. You shouldn't just take a preconceived notion like the Bible and narrative is allegorical, so let's do it. If the passage has allegory in it, then do it. If the passage is didactic, teaching you doctrine, then do it.

If the passage is meant to give you beauty and it's more romantic, then do it. You know what I mean? Then the practice of you observing and recognizing the genre and applying the principles of hermeneutics continue to develop and so will you. Okay? Let's take a moment to pray, and then I'll wrap up.

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