Sir, we would see Jesus

Hermeneutics is the study of the rules for interpreting Scripture. The importance of these rules CANNOT be overstated. If you do not have a set of rules or principles for interpreting Scripture how can you be sure that your interpretation is accurate? "Does it matter?" someone may be heard to ask. Well let me phrase the question this way. Does it matter if for us to know what God actually said instead of what we think He said or what we want Him to say? Jesus said "If you love me, you obey my commandments" John 14:15. Well if we don't know what His commandments are, how can we obey them. Which of course implies that if you truly love Jesus you will endever to know what His commands are so that you can put them into practice.

The reason I bring this up is that I heard a sermon recently where a passage of Scripture was used and when it was cited my immediate reaction was "Did this interpretation come from the context?" At that exact moment I was unable to answer this question as I wanted to continue listening and I didn't have all my tools at my disposal. The text in question was Psalm 32:8 and was quoted from the NKJV as follows:

I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go;

I will guide you with My eye."

The next verse was also added.

Do not be like the horse or like the mule,

Which have no understanding,

Which must be harnessed with bit and bridle,

Else they will not come near you.

Now according to the preacher, the point of this passage is to tell us that God wants us not to be like the horse or the mule that must have a bit or a harness before you can guide them. Don't be stubborn. Let God guide you with His eye. Be so in tune with Him that He only needs to look in the right direction and you will be off doing what He wants you to do. Sounds good right. Lets look at it more closely. What is the context of the psalm itself.

Verse 1 and 2 talk about how Blessed the man is whom God pardons of sin! In verses 3 to 5 David tells us how when he refused to confess his sin, God's hand was heavy upon him, and then how when he confessed it God forgave him. Verse 6 starts "For this cause..." leading on from the end of verse 5 in which David tells us that God forgave his sin. Then follows prayer and praise in verses 6 and 7. Now comes verse 8. Question one. Who is speaking here? Commentators are divided, on whether David is speaking himself, or if he is quoting the words of God Himself! Of course if David is speaking then the interpretation given above is completely out of court. However the majority of commentators agree that God is speaking in verses 8 and 9. Is the interpretation thus vindicated? Well we haven't exhausted our options for analysis so let's look a little deeper.

Firstly if we look a little bit closer at verse 9 we see something interesting. The bit and the bridle are not used in this context to guide the horse where you want it to go (to do as you command) but simply to get the horse or mule to "come near you". One could interpret verse 9 as saying "Don't be an idiot that I have to drag near me." In the broader context of the psalm which talks about unconfessed sin and the joy of forgiveness at confessed sin it would seem to me that verse 9 is saying that if you hide your sin you are like a horse or a mule without understanding that has to be pulled closer to the master.

Hmmm. Our interpretation is breaking down. And we haven't even brought out the big guns yet. Lets look further. What does the word "guide" mean. No not in the English. In the Hebrew. From the lexicon we see that the word translated "guide" actually means counsel or advise. Now you may say to me, "Dude I don't have all those lexicons. How am I supposed to know what the text means if I don't know the Hebrew?" Good question. However if you had been in my hermeneutics class you would already know the answer. The simplest way to check a translation is to compare it with other good translations.

NASB: I will instruct you and teach you in the way which you should go;

I will counsel you with My eye upon you

ESV: I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go;

I will counsel you with my eye upon you.

NIV: I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go;

I will counsel you and watch over you.

HCSB: I will instruct you and show you the way to go;

with My eye on you, I will give counsel.

Here are just four examples. Most translations (though not all) render the verse similarly.

Notice the repeated use of "counsel". Also notice the "with my eye UPON YOU" All the commentators I have consulted agree with this rendering of the verse. The Tyndale Old Testament Commentary has this to say about the alternate rendering:

"But the well-known rendering in AV, ‘I will guide thee with mine eye’, which suggests our

responsiveness to his glance, is not accurate, although there is a similar thought in 123:2,

where the servant watches for the master’s signal. The point here is God’s vigilance and intimate

care, … with my eye upon you; our response is in verse 9."

Now if you remove my lexicon lookup and also ignore the Tyndale Commentary reference you still have the argument of context and the argument of parallel translations that even the newest Christian can apply to correctly interpret this passage. And the conclusion is that it does NOT mean what the preacher says it means.

This is one of many errors in interpretation that I found in ONE sermon. Another one was a misuse of Romans 1:21 where the argument was made that it is a lack of thankfulness (in general) that causes our hearts to be darkened. The problem is that the passage is talking about the ungodly who most importantly do not honor God AS GOD! In fact in the original language the emphasis of the verse is not on their thanklessness but on their lack of acknowledgement of God as God!

Now the church that the preacher is a part of does teach Biblical hermeneutics. AND they teach the very principles that I have just used to analyse these texts. So why does the preacher not use them? And more importantly, why should the congregation apply correct hermeneutical principles when the leadership refuses to do so? This is a recipe for disaster! Paul commands Timothy to be diligent to show himself approved of God a workman who need not be ashamed, rightly dividing the Word of Truth. Well this preacher OUGHT to be ashamed, because they did not rightly divide the Word of Truth!

Now why would someone who should know better do this? I think it is because they are more interested in what they have to say than what the Bible really says. Instead of getting their truth for the pages of Holy Scripture they get it from their own minds and then use Scripture wrongly to back up their own ideas. I am very concerned for them. James tells us not to want to be teachers because they will receive a harsher judgement. And I would not want to be in this preachers shoes for all the tea in China.

But there is a bigger problem here. The sheep are being misled. They are having bad Scripture

interpretation modelled for them every week. And worse than that, they will then apply that bad method to their own reading of Scripture. Which means that nine times out of ten they will not be hearing a word from God when they read Scripture, they will be hearing a word from themselves. It will not be God speaking to them, but their own hearts. And the Bible tells us that the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked.

What do I want? I want the people of God to hear a word from GOD! Not me. Not the preacher. From the God of the universe. That is why I harp on hermeneutics so much and that is why I am so critical of preaching that does not apply those basic and simple rules. I heard a story of a pulpit in a church where a sign was hung that only the preacher could see before he ascended to give his sermon. It said something to the effect of, "Sir, we would see Jesus" And that is my prayer. That preachers would wake up and let the congregation see Jesus, hear from HIM, and put HIS words into practice in their lives. That they would thus learn to know Him more and love Him more for the marvelous work He did on Calvary.

Preacher! Let them see Jesus!