This past January, I taught a Sunday school series at our church. The series was titled "Unlocking God's Word" and dealt with how to more effectively read the Bible and apply it to our lives. One of the points I taught (I was expounding on some material I had gleaned from a book written by Rick Warren) was with regard to how we will never fully exhaust the study and application of any scripture in the Bible. One of the reasons I gave for this was because our context changes our perspective. For example, in one class, I had everyone break down Genesis 37 (the beginning of the story of Joseph). I was amazed at how many different perspectives people had regarding Joseph. One person viewed Joseph as sort of arrogant and annoying (she was the middle child in her family). Another viewed Joseph with sympathy (she was the youngest child in her family). Still another, viewed him as simply immature (she was the mother of a 16-year-old boy). Even though we were each reading the same story about the same person, our different contexts affected what we read and thus what we took from this biblical account. This is not to say that the text changed or that it had different meanings; we just all related to it differently. This is because our context changes our perspective.
Polly and I have been reminded of this reality numerous times since we began the application process to become Missionary Associates to Costa Rica. Once such verse that I remember standing out to me in a whole new light was Genesis 12:1. This verse reads, "Now the LORD said to Abram, 'Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you." (ESV) This chapter continues with the promise that God makes to Abraham about making him a great nation and blessing him. My whole life to this point, I had always read Genesis 12:1 with the thought in mind of where God was calling Abraham to: "the land that I will show you." Having the benefit of hindsight, I already knew that this was the Promise Land which would later become the nation of Israel. Whenever I read Genesis 12:1, I was filled with encouragement and joy knowing that God fulfilled His promise to Abraham. It wasn't until Polly and I started dealing with the realities and emotions of this transition that I read Genesis 12:1 with the thought in mind of where God was calling Abraham from: "your country and your kindred and your father's house..." The truth is, leaving our families is the most difficult thing that Polly and I have had to work through in this transition. Becoming missionaries has changed our context, which has changed our perspective.
Genesis 12:1 is merely one example of many passages from the Bible that have gripped us in different ways than they ever had before. Let me briefly share one more with you. I have read Proverbs many times. I have been reading the Proverb that corresponds with the day of the month (there are 31 Proverbs, so this works well) each month since the beginning of 2011. I am amazed by how often something jumps out at me, even after having read it so many times before. Polly and I have been praying for God to give us a verse or passage that we could really use as an anchor as we become missionaries. On Sunday (March 25th) I was reading Proverbs 25. When I got to verse 25, I was instantly gripped. In the ESV it reads, "Like cold water to a thirsty soul, so is good news from a far country." So simple, yet so powerful. I had read that verse at least 14 times since the beginning of 2011, yet this was the first time I was really captivated by it. Polly and I want to bring "water" to "thirsty" souls. You see, my context had changed, and with it, so had my perspective.
The Bible is rich and we will never exhaust its richness. We must be careful not to read the Bible with presuppositions or feel like we have nothing new to gain from a scripture. The Bible is God's living word. It does not change; but we do. And as we change, so does our understanding of the things that we read. As our context changes, our perspective changes. May we have greater fervor and excitement as we read God's Word!
I mentioned above about how the most difficult thing that Polly and I have had to work through in this transition is with regard to leaving our families. We are far from the first couple to face this difficulty and we certainly won't be the last. Tomorrow, I will share what we have learned in this journey that has helped us work through this reality and has taught us more about relationships in general (as I believe it has even helped me to become a better husband and father).
Mike
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