Read THEIR culture, not ours.

PICTURE THIS: A high school student in the year 2050 is unfortunate enough to have to learn about the year 2020. They read about masks, social distancing, suicides, riots, and political uproar. The conclusions they come to are, "They must be wearing a mask because there's so much carbon dioxide in the air." Or... "There were riots because Britney Spears was being held hostage by her father." (ok this might be a little bit true, but you know the riots I'm talking about lol)

The teacher fails to mention the virus. They fail to mention the racial injustice. They're just talking about the chaos happening without the "why."

This is what I could think of to compare to how we sometimes read the Bible without any regard for what the people on that side of the world were experiencing historically.

"Avoid reading our culture into their culture." Dr. John Holmes 2020

This is a topic I have been passionate about ever since going to Bible college in 2016. You better believe, if a pastor, or anyone, puts a verse on the screen and gives no context on who was writing to whom, or why the words were being spoken, I tune out very quickly.

If you are trying to push your own agenda or ideas onto people, and have to use a few verses here or there that sort of work if you don't use the surrounding verses, I hope and pray that the Lord convicts you right then and there.

Let me just reference a few of the super basic examples that we see on a weekly basis, whether it be in instagram captions, on Sunday school walls, or maybe even quoted in a locker room.

Jeremiah 29:11 "'For I know the plans I have for you,' declares the Lord, 'plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.'”

Jeremiah was a prophet God used to speak to His people, and He was encouraging the exiles in Babylon that their exile wouldn't last forever. He was trying to give them confidence in their situation. (The word "hope" in the Hebrew translates better to our English word "confidence.") ~~~So these exiles are sort of used to being taken out of context...because they were forced to live in another culture anyway! *buh dum tsss*

Is that too soon to say? Should I take that joke out? lol sorry

Philippians 4:13 "I can do all things through Christ Who strengthens me." Paul is writing FROM PRISON (to a new church) about being joyful in the midst of difficulties. I don't know of very many people who worship in the middle of a prison cell, but Paul is one of those guys. Of course, we can then draw their AND our conclusions, from the context, for our everyday lives. We just have to remember who was saying it, and why.

Psalm 46:5 "God is within her, she will not fall; God will help her at break of day."

I see a lot of girls referencing this as their favorite verse, but the word "her" here is actually used to reference the "city of God" or Heaven, and could be used to encourage the Church back then. It is to show how strong God can make His courts. How encouraging! But sorry. It's not talking about a female.

I have a Bible verse tattoo on my ankle, and if someone asks me about it, I go into an entire (very condensed, don't worry hehe) backstory on what God was calling Moses to do, but how I can relate to Moses in many ways.

Run on sentence ahead:

The important thing when reading the Bible is to either get a commentary that explains the culture, and maybe WHY Moses would just smack a rock and expect water to flow out of it (geographically that's what shepherds used to do in certain desert terrain to keep their flocks alive, because they knew how the land held water), or WHY the main genealogy of Jesus had 4 women in it when genealogies were traditionally ALWAYS only composed of men (to show how inclusive this gospel is meant to be) that sometimes seemed incomplete but they just wrote down the key people that were of most importance...*TAKES BREATH* There are so so so so SO many things that we may read in the Bible that we either don't think twice about because it seems insignificant, when in reality, it bears a ton of significance..OR, that we think too much about what it means in our OWN lives.

We need to stop making the Bible all about "me," and make it all about Jesus. I find that reading it knowing the intended audience (such as Paul's letters, or the major/minor prophets of the Old Testament (what a DOOZY)) and why the author was writing what they were writing... helps me understand God so much better.

Maybe sheep and pasture references don't really fire me up and help things connect super well in my heart/mind, but it did for the people back then. Just knowing that helps enrich God's Word that much more beautifully.

It also helps me not hate some of the Bible. Strong word, I know... But sometimes I would read something and scratch my head, asking, "did they really do this??" David, a man after God's own heart, had maannnnnnyyyyyyy "companions" if ya know what I'm sayin. He was all over the ladies. But he was a "man after God's own heart." Having three hundred concubines (literally, look it up) was totally normal back then, especially for royalty. Unfortunately, our world's changing and shifting culture since the beginning of time hasn't always brought God glory. I'm sure we can think of many things today that God would shake His head at.

(There are many other things the Bible touches on in marriage, such as a "bride price" where men would pay or work to "secure a wife," which was the respectful thing to do back then if you were taking a member of the family away from making the family livelihood.)

And LASTLY (for today), go to the original Greek and Hebrew (just google it! pretty simple.) if there's any confusion about certain things. Or if you want to see how rich the text actually can be.

For example:

Rhema and Logos are two totally different meanings to the words... "the Word."

"Logos...has a broader, more philosophical meaning [than rhema]."

"The Word ("Logos") is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword..." --Hebrews 4:12

"In the beginning was The Word ("Logos")." (JESUS!) --John 1

"The Word ("Logos") became flesh..." --John 1

Here is an excerpt from GotQuestions.org -- "The Word" ("Logos") inJohn 1 is referring to Jesus. Jesus is the total Message—everything that God wants to communicate to man. The first chapter of John gives us a glimpse inside the Father/Son relationship before Jesus came to earth in human form. He preexisted with the Father (verse 1), He was involved in the creation of everything (verse 3), and He is the "light of all mankind" (verse 4). The Word (Jesus) is the full embodiment of all that is God (Colossians 1:19;2:9;John 14:9)."

This is such a rich topic that I've only scratched the surface on (which I've only felt a couple of times while writing a blog post), so I will probably be posting one or two more things like this in the future to just get more out about it. But thank you for reading! I hope you're able to take this and use it well.

Disclaimer though, my brain is currently exhausted and non-functional so I will be reading this over again tomorrow to see if it's coherent. :)