WEBVTT 00:00:04.000 --> 00:00:07.200 Welcome to the Awakening Church Podcast. 00:00:07.519 --> 00:00:11.599 We exist to awaken this generation to new life in Christ. 00:00:11.839 --> 00:00:13.039 Thanks for tuning in. 00:00:13.199 --> 00:00:16.399 To find out more, go to awakeningchurch.com. 00:00:18.879 --> 00:00:20.160 Hello, Awakening. 00:00:20.399 --> 00:00:21.440 It's great to be with you. 00:00:21.679 --> 00:00:22.800 Digitally, that is. 00:00:23.039 --> 00:00:24.239 My name is Josh Butler. 00:00:24.320 --> 00:00:26.559 I'm a pastor in the Phoenix area. 00:00:26.800 --> 00:00:33.920 And I love helping people who wrestle with some of the tough topics of the Christian faith, largely because I've wrestled with a lot of them myself. 00:00:34.159 --> 00:00:40.000 And today we want to be asking, what do we do when we come across some tough passages in Scripture? 00:00:40.240 --> 00:00:48.399 When you're reading through your Bible and you come across a passage that is alarming or shocking, maybe surprising or strange, where do we go with that? 00:00:48.479 --> 00:00:49.600 What do we do with that? 00:00:50.079 --> 00:00:57.280 Next week, you guys are launching a series called We Believe on the Apostles' Creed and exploring the foundations of the Christian faith. 00:00:57.520 --> 00:01:02.719 But this week, we want to clear the table, so to speak, before we set the table. 00:01:09.439 --> 00:01:12.400 Because the Bible is not a cotton candy book. 00:01:12.560 --> 00:01:24.239 You only have to get a little ways in the biblical story before you find brutal battles and bloody violence, even gang rape and cities destroyed by fire and most of humanity wiped out by a flood. 00:01:24.480 --> 00:01:28.319 And all this is only a little ways into the first book of Genesis, right? 00:01:28.959 --> 00:01:32.799 So how do we deal honestly with these passages? 00:01:33.040 --> 00:01:40.319 How do we approach kind of the blatant sex and violence, the greed and the lust for power that we find on its pages? 00:01:40.799 --> 00:01:44.159 Well, the title for the message today is R-Rated Bible. 00:01:44.319 --> 00:01:45.760 Like the R-Rated Bible. 00:01:45.920 --> 00:01:49.120 And I want to give you three tips that have helped me over the years. 00:01:49.280 --> 00:01:56.159 Some overarching observations and how we approach scripture that I found can be really helpful. 00:01:57.439 --> 00:02:03.599 Before we jump in, it's helpful to remember why this topic is so important in the first place. 00:02:03.920 --> 00:02:07.040 It's important because Jesus loves the Bible. 00:02:07.280 --> 00:02:10.159 We love Jesus and Jesus loves the Bible. 00:02:10.400 --> 00:02:22.879 One of the things that you find when you read through the Gospels is that the way that Jesus talks about Scripture, Jesus holds Scripture in much higher esteem and as authoritative than we often do today. 00:02:23.120 --> 00:02:25.759 So Jesus is constantly saying things like, have you not read? 00:02:30.319 --> 00:02:34.400 As he regularly quotes from and alludes to the Old Testament. 00:02:34.719 --> 00:02:38.879 Jesus says things like, Not a jot or a tittle will pass away of it. 00:02:38.960 --> 00:02:42.560 And he says, I've come not to abolish the law, but to fulfill it. 00:02:42.800 --> 00:02:46.560 If you want to dive deeper on this topic, a book I highly recommend. 00:02:46.639 --> 00:02:52.159 There's this book, great little book by a guy named Andrew Wilson, called Unbreakable, What the Son of God Said About the Word of God. 00:02:52.319 --> 00:02:58.319 It's easy to read, but it's basically looking at Jesus on Scripture and Jesus' view of Scripture. 00:02:58.719 --> 00:03:02.800 But we want to know the Bible better because we want to know Jesus better. 00:03:03.120 --> 00:03:07.599 Jesus is the Word of God through whom we have received the Word of God. 00:03:07.759 --> 00:03:10.960 And the whole story ultimately points to him. 00:03:11.360 --> 00:03:19.199 So we want to know Scripture and we want to know our Bibles better because ultimately our hope and our goal is to get to know Jesus better. 00:03:20.560 --> 00:03:22.800 So that said, let's dive in. 00:03:23.199 --> 00:03:24.960 Okay, tip number one here. 00:03:25.039 --> 00:03:31.120 As you're reading your Bible and you come across kind of a difficult passage, I'd say tip number one is this. 00:03:31.520 --> 00:03:35.840 Recognize that you are crossing a chasm of history. 00:03:36.800 --> 00:03:40.240 Recognize that you are crossing a chasm of history. 00:03:40.479 --> 00:03:42.879 That you're crossing a chasm of history. 00:03:42.960 --> 00:03:44.080 And here's what I mean. 00:03:44.319 --> 00:03:49.599 If you were to watch an old film, like say my mom and I got into Hitchcock films back in the day. 00:03:49.680 --> 00:04:00.000 So if you're watching like an old Hitchcock film or It's a Wonderful Life or something, you immediately start to notice, man, people dress differently then, they talk differently, they had different ways of kind of interacting and all. 00:04:00.240 --> 00:04:02.879 And that's just like one or two generations back. 00:04:03.120 --> 00:04:14.879 If you go back even further, many of us are fascinated today by shows like Downton Abbey or Mad Men, kind of these period pieces that show kind of times that are even further back. 00:04:15.120 --> 00:04:25.199 And then you really see even more, like, oh my gosh, the whole social customs and ways that people, expectations they had as a culture, as a society were way different from what we have now. 00:04:25.759 --> 00:04:32.560 Now, even there, we're still talking within the last 200 years, within Western culture and our own same language. 00:04:32.800 --> 00:04:38.160 Now you multiply that by a few thousand, multiply that a hundred by a hundred, right? 00:04:38.240 --> 00:04:45.120 And we're talking about a few thousand years of difference, a chasm in history, chasms in language and culture. 00:04:45.360 --> 00:04:50.560 The analogy might be if uh it was a thousand, a couple thousand years from today. 00:04:50.720 --> 00:05:08.240 So let's say it's AD, it's like 5,000, 80, 5,000, and in China they come across some old videotapes of the TV show This Is Us, kind of our modern TV show This Is Us, and they're watching that in a different language and subtitles and trying to piece together, oh my gosh, look how differently they lived back then. 00:05:08.399 --> 00:05:16.319 Well, that's kind of a better analogy, that's kind of like what we're doing now, where we are looking back and we're reading texts from thousands of years ago from a different language and a different culture. 00:05:16.480 --> 00:05:19.199 We're crossing a chasm of history. 00:05:20.399 --> 00:05:26.319 Now, the Bible was written for us, but it was not necessarily written to us. 00:05:26.720 --> 00:05:28.079 And here's what I mean by this. 00:05:28.160 --> 00:05:28.720 This is Dr. 00:05:28.800 --> 00:05:41.600 John Walton, a famous biblical scholar, and he puts it this way: he says, We believe the Bible was written for us, that is for everyone, of all times and places, because it's God's word, but it wasn't written to us. 00:05:41.839 --> 00:05:47.279 It wasn't written in our language, it wasn't written with our culture in mind or our culture in view. 00:05:48.240 --> 00:05:54.399 It was written in the Old Testament, at least to Israel and the ancient Near East, and that's a big chasm of history. 00:05:54.639 --> 00:05:54.879 Dr. 00:05:55.040 --> 00:06:01.040 Walton points to two chasms here that I think are helpful to recognize, chasm of language and chasm of culture. 00:06:01.279 --> 00:06:03.360 Let's talk first about the chasm of language. 00:06:03.600 --> 00:06:06.399 That the Bible was written in a different language. 00:06:06.480 --> 00:06:21.360 It was written in Hebrew and in Greek, and so the church has historically had to wrestle with what are the best words to translate into this language or that language in places where the Bible has been translated, different languages all over the world. 00:06:22.160 --> 00:06:32.800 One example, some of the stuff, issues that can arise is uh if you're reading an Old King James Version, right, you'll come across about nine times in the Bible that the word unicorn shows up. 00:06:32.959 --> 00:06:38.800 So Isaiah 34, 7, for example, uh says, and the unicorns shall come down with them. 00:06:39.279 --> 00:06:46.319 And when we hear the word unicorn, we think of like the magical fairy tale animal with the purple tail and it's flying, the flying horse, right? 00:06:46.399 --> 00:06:51.920 You know, we're going, oh my gosh, is the Bible saying I need to believe in fairy tale, mythical flying horse unicorns? 00:06:52.079 --> 00:06:55.120 Uh well, you may have even seen some funny memes about this. 00:06:55.199 --> 00:07:05.279 There's some uh memes out there by atheists or others kind of poking fun at Christianity, like this one where you've got the unicorns uh waiting to get on the ark and kind of, ah, we'll just catch the next one. 00:07:05.439 --> 00:07:12.079 And the joke or the punchline is that uh we don't have unicorns around today because it sort of missed the boat on getting on Noah's Ark, right? 00:07:12.720 --> 00:07:16.959 We can find ourselves asking, what's going on with unicorns in the Bible? 00:07:17.199 --> 00:07:26.560 Well, the backstory to this is if you go back in 1611 when they were translating the King James Version, they were translators were trying to translate an ancient Hebrew word, Reem. 00:07:26.800 --> 00:07:28.160 And they didn't know what Reem was. 00:07:28.240 --> 00:07:30.319 It was an animal, but they weren't sure what animal it was anymore. 00:07:30.399 --> 00:07:40.079 And so they looked at the Greek translation, where ancient Jews from that time had translated that word into Greek, and the word they used was monokeros, which literally means one horn. 00:07:40.240 --> 00:07:44.000 And so the King James translators were going, well, what do we know about an animal with one horn? 00:07:44.160 --> 00:07:46.879 Well, the word we have for that is unicorn in English, unicorn. 00:07:47.040 --> 00:07:51.680 And back in 1611, when they made this translation, unicorn didn't mean like the fairy tale mythical creature. 00:07:51.920 --> 00:07:54.800 Unicorn meant an animal with one horn, like a rhinoceros, right? 00:07:54.959 --> 00:07:58.639 And so they translated it, which was a good translation back in 1611. 00:07:58.800 --> 00:08:09.519 But times change, language changes, uh, but even so, like, say in India, you have a famous one-horn rhino, where the Latin name for it is rhinoceros unicornus, like the rhino unicorn, right? 00:08:09.680 --> 00:08:10.399 One horn. 00:08:10.639 --> 00:08:15.120 But today in English, that word has different associations, different meanings. 00:08:15.600 --> 00:08:19.120 Now the point here is that there is a chasm of language. 00:08:19.199 --> 00:08:31.759 There's a chasm of language between us today and 1611, the King James, Old Old King James Bible, and there's an even bigger chasm between both us and the King James translators and the ancient Hebrew and Greek. 00:08:32.399 --> 00:08:44.960 It doesn't mean we can't understand God's word and all, but it means that there may be times where we come across something where uh we're entering into an ancient language, and there's a chasm that has to be crossed there. 00:08:46.480 --> 00:08:48.159 The second thing that Dr. 00:08:48.240 --> 00:08:51.360 Walton points to here is a chasm of culture. 00:08:51.759 --> 00:08:58.399 That culture was different back in the ancient Near East than it is in our time and place today. 00:08:58.879 --> 00:09:05.039 An example like society is structured differently, life is structured differently, different social expectations, different norms. 00:09:05.279 --> 00:09:10.480 So maybe a more poignant example, even of this, would be in the book of Joshua. 00:09:10.720 --> 00:09:18.000 So if you're reading in the book of Joshua and you'll come across these numerous passages where Israel is told to destroy these cities. 00:09:18.159 --> 00:09:25.679 And they're given what I like to call the drastic marching orders, like show no mercy, do not leave alive anything that breathes, basically knock out these cities. 00:09:26.000 --> 00:09:33.519 And one of the challenges here is that when you and I today, when we hear the word city, we think of a civilian population center, right? 00:09:33.840 --> 00:09:35.840 Because cities today are where the people live. 00:09:36.000 --> 00:09:44.159 I live here in Phoenix, and if I walk outside my front door, I see, you know, another house across the street with a white picket fence and the kids plan. 00:09:44.799 --> 00:09:47.840 I walk down the street one way and there's like a hospital and a school. 00:09:48.000 --> 00:09:51.440 I walk down the other way and there's like businesses and small shops. 00:09:51.679 --> 00:09:53.600 Cities today are where the people live. 00:09:53.679 --> 00:09:55.759 They're civilian population centers. 00:09:56.000 --> 00:09:58.879 But this was not so in the ancient Near East. 00:09:59.039 --> 00:10:07.759 Back in this time and in this place, cities were small fortified military outposts that protected the roads leading up to the villages where the people were. 00:10:08.000 --> 00:10:14.159 But within the cities themselves, cities were populated mostly by just soldiers and maybe a few government officials. 00:10:14.559 --> 00:10:19.600 Like scholars estimate that Jericho held about 200 soldiers or so at the time. 00:10:20.799 --> 00:10:28.080 This means that when in the book of Joshua they're knocking down these cities, they're knocking down defensive military installations. 00:10:28.399 --> 00:10:33.840 God is pulling down the Great Wall of China, so to speak, not demolishing Beijing. 00:10:34.399 --> 00:10:38.480 Israel is knocking out the Pentagon, not New York City. 00:10:38.720 --> 00:10:43.120 These are military encounters with these defensive installations. 00:10:44.960 --> 00:10:55.360 Now the point here is recognizing that when we're reading the Bible, we are crossing a chasm of history, a chasm of language, chasm of culture, and that's good. 00:10:55.519 --> 00:11:03.919 It also means though that there are some points where we might be reading and come across something where there's a point of tension because of that chasm with something that we may not understand, and that's okay. 00:11:04.159 --> 00:11:14.000 Now it's a mistake to think because of that that you've got to believe in unicorns as magical, mythical fairy tale creatures, or you have to believe that God commanded genocide, those kind of things. 00:11:14.399 --> 00:11:15.919 That's not the case. 00:11:16.080 --> 00:11:19.600 We can zoom back out to the bigger story and say, okay, what do we know to be true? 00:11:19.840 --> 00:11:25.759 The kind of things you're going to be looking at next week in the Apostles' Creed series, the foundations of the faith the church has historically proclaimed. 00:11:26.000 --> 00:11:30.320 And it's helpful with this to go, the Bible was meant to be read within community. 00:11:30.559 --> 00:11:37.039 I think sometimes we have a false perception that I should be able to go in my closet with a flashlight and just read the Bible and everything will be immediately clear. 00:11:37.679 --> 00:11:42.720 No, we were meant to read the Bible within the community of the church, right? 00:11:42.799 --> 00:11:47.360 And we have pastors, leaders, people can ask questions, people can press into on these questions. 00:11:47.519 --> 00:11:53.919 And not only our local church, but we are intended to read the Bible within the bigger picture, the global and historic church. 00:11:54.399 --> 00:12:06.720 That there is a broad tradition that has grappled with and loads of resources to help us to understand what's going on if we run into parts that maybe have some tension, obstacles, and all. 00:12:07.759 --> 00:12:13.600 Alright, so that's the point number one is tip number one is recognize that we are crossing a chasm of history. 00:12:14.559 --> 00:12:16.879 Let's now move to the second tip. 00:12:17.679 --> 00:12:27.039 The second tip, you're reading your Bible, you come across a tough passage, is to ask, is this describing something or is it prescribing something? 00:12:27.840 --> 00:12:30.799 Is this descriptive or prescriptive? 00:12:33.039 --> 00:12:36.879 We want to ask, is this describing something or prescribing something? 00:12:37.360 --> 00:12:39.679 Is it descriptive or prescriptive? 00:12:40.159 --> 00:12:45.039 If you think about a newspaper journalist, a newspaper journalist describes something that's happening, right? 00:12:45.279 --> 00:12:47.919 Even if they're not stoking on it, they're describing the way it is. 00:12:48.480 --> 00:12:50.879 Whereas a doctor is prescribing something. 00:12:51.039 --> 00:12:54.879 A doctor is saying, here, here's what you need to do in order to get healthy. 00:12:55.200 --> 00:13:02.399 There's an important difference between the two, and it's helpful to recognize the Bible often describes things that it doesn't condone. 00:13:03.200 --> 00:13:04.799 Describes things that it doesn't condone. 00:13:04.879 --> 00:13:12.559 And this is one of the things that I actually love about the Bible and have come to appreciate it about it, is that it's honest with some of the gritty and tough realities of our world. 00:13:12.799 --> 00:13:19.039 So if you think, for example, of a movie like 1917 or Saving Private Ryan, kind of a war story. 00:13:19.120 --> 00:13:25.519 And one of the things we appreciate about these movies when they're good is they do a good job of describing some of the tough and gritty realities. 00:13:25.679 --> 00:13:34.000 They're not necessarily saying like war is good or we're glad these things are happening, but they're doing an honest job, kind of honestly describing things as they were. 00:13:34.879 --> 00:13:52.000 Now, there's a difference between that and say a movie like John Wick or Fifty Shades of Grey, where it's more gratuitous, violence or sex, that's kind of lifting up and saying, hey, this I want to tantalize you, I want to kind of uh you know stimulate you or lift this up as like this is a more ideal good thing or way to live. 00:13:52.240 --> 00:13:59.200 There's a difference between kind of the honest description versus the more gratuitous prescribing and lifting up. 00:13:59.679 --> 00:14:06.559 There's a difference between describing something as the way it was or an is, is, versus saying this is the way it should be. 00:14:07.360 --> 00:14:18.159 Now, when it comes to the descriptive, when the Bible is describing things, the Bible often implicitly critiques something in the way that it describes the story. 00:14:18.559 --> 00:14:25.440 So we may read a story and go, man, God, I want you to just come right out and say in the Bible, like this is wrong, and find a lot of places where it doesn't do that. 00:14:25.600 --> 00:14:33.840 And yet, when you press deeper into the story, you find that the way it's being described is actually implicitly critiquing it, even if it's not coming right out and saying it directly. 00:14:34.000 --> 00:14:34.960 And here's what I mean. 00:14:35.120 --> 00:14:40.080 So let's take a story like in Judges 19 to 21, Judges chapters 19 to 21. 00:14:40.159 --> 00:14:44.639 This is the end of the book of Judges, and we come across a really gruesome story here. 00:14:44.879 --> 00:14:47.279 It's the story of a Levite and his concubine. 00:14:47.360 --> 00:14:53.600 And they're traveling up uh near, they're near Jerusalem, they're in a place called Gibeah, and they stay overnight at someone's house. 00:14:53.759 --> 00:15:05.519 And while they're there, uh the men of the town come and they surround the house, start pounding on the doors, and they end up taking his concubine and violently abusing her and raping her and mistreating her throughout the night. 00:15:05.679 --> 00:15:08.159 And in the morning, she's dead. 00:15:08.480 --> 00:15:12.960 And as if that wasn't bad enough, what happens next gets even more gory, right? 00:15:13.039 --> 00:15:21.279 Like the Levite takes his knife and he ends up carving her up into twelve pieces and sending one piece to each of the twelve tribes of Israel. 00:15:21.519 --> 00:15:23.759 And you're just going, what is going on here? 00:15:23.840 --> 00:15:25.039 That is brutal. 00:15:25.200 --> 00:15:27.840 And also, why don't you just come out and say, like, that's wrong? 00:15:27.919 --> 00:15:29.759 If that's wrong, why don't you just come right out and say it? 00:15:30.000 --> 00:15:41.759 What we find is the way this story is being told is strongly, even more strongly than maybe an explicit one would do, a condemnation would do, it's very strongly critiquing this action in the way it's describing the story. 00:15:42.000 --> 00:15:43.360 Here's what I mean. 00:15:43.759 --> 00:15:49.840 The story mirrors almost to a T the story of Sodom and Gomorrah earlier in Genesis. 00:15:50.080 --> 00:16:03.600 The way that it describes the men surrounding the house and pounding down the door and uh the concubine that's brought out to the threshold, and uh just there are loads of phrases that are verbatim, like copy paste from Sodom and Gomorrah put in here. 00:16:03.759 --> 00:16:11.519 And the way the Bible works, what it's doing is in the way it's telling the story, it is implicitly saying like Israel has become like Sodom and Gomorrah. 00:16:12.000 --> 00:16:24.720 Israel has become as wicked and evil as this famous city earlier in the Bible where God heard the cries of violence and oppression come up to reach his ears, and this happened on the precipice of God judging the city. 00:16:24.960 --> 00:16:27.440 And so there's a strong message being sent here. 00:16:27.519 --> 00:16:35.360 Israel has become as wicked as Sodom and Gomorrah ever was, and God hears the cries of oppression, and Israel is on the precipice of judgment. 00:16:36.720 --> 00:16:51.519 Now, one more factor here in the way that the story is told is if you're reading through the book of Judges as a whole, what you'll find is that the major theme is that the people have no king, and everyone's doing as they saw fit, and they are fracturing and fragmenting the nation. 00:16:51.679 --> 00:17:02.639 So Israel, the bride of Yahweh, the people of God, are being fractured and fragmented and torn up and carved apart by the destructive power of sin. 00:17:03.200 --> 00:17:13.039 And you get here to the end of the book of Judges and these chapters, and this event becomes almost like a metaphor that speaks to the broader theme of the book as a whole. 00:17:17.839 --> 00:17:19.680 The bride of Yahweh. 00:17:21.200 --> 00:17:29.680 Now, the point here is that the Bible is critiquing it powerfully, but it's doing it more subversively, implicitly in the narrative itself. 00:17:29.920 --> 00:17:44.720 Because Israel was comfortable with less didactic teaching and knew the power of story and the power of narrative to actually shape and form our imaginations in some ways that can actually be more powerful than some of the explicit wording and all. 00:17:45.359 --> 00:17:47.359 Takeaway here is use common sense. 00:17:47.440 --> 00:17:52.000 If you're reading through your Bible and you come across something that's shocking to us, it probably was to them too. 00:17:52.160 --> 00:17:58.000 So if you're reading in Genesis 19 where Lot's daughters get him drunk and have sex with them, you go, that sounds bad, it was. 00:17:58.160 --> 00:18:05.440 If you're reading in Judges 11, where Jephthah makes this rash vow and it costs his daughter's life, you go, that sounds bad, it was, right? 00:18:05.519 --> 00:18:06.640 Like use common sense. 00:18:06.799 --> 00:18:16.079 The way these things get told when you press deeper into the stories, these are, it's just describing them, but it's describing them in a way where these are things are not good. 00:18:16.880 --> 00:18:21.119 Another takeaway is sometimes we have to wrestle with the literary context of a passage. 00:18:21.279 --> 00:18:28.720 So, for example, when you're reading about King Solomon and he's amassing this massive military and many wives, and some of you might read that and think, oh man, good for him. 00:18:28.799 --> 00:18:30.640 Like that sounds like the glory days, right? 00:18:30.960 --> 00:18:40.319 But no, when you actually read the narrative, he is breaking, breaking law after law from the law of Moses, from the Torah and the commandments of God. 00:18:40.480 --> 00:18:41.839 He's breaking all these laws. 00:18:42.000 --> 00:18:49.920 And so implicitly, it doesn't come right out and say, like, King Solomon was doing bad, but it's narrating how he's breaking all of these commands. 00:18:50.079 --> 00:19:04.000 We have to wrestle with the literary context of a passage because there, for example, it's depicting Solomon as like a fallen Adam, one who's turning away from the ways of the king, of Yahweh God as King. 00:19:05.279 --> 00:19:06.960 Okay, so that's the descriptive. 00:19:07.119 --> 00:19:13.039 When the Bible's describing stuff, there can be a lot more nuance than we might have at just a distant face value read. 00:19:13.680 --> 00:19:15.680 Second, now let's talk about the prescriptive. 00:19:15.839 --> 00:19:19.839 When the Bible is prescribing something, these would be like laws or ethics or rules. 00:19:19.920 --> 00:19:26.400 So when Jesus says, hey, love your neighbor as yourself, he's telling us this is the way it should be, this is what I want to call you to, what I want you to do. 00:19:26.960 --> 00:19:36.240 And some laws we read in the Bible, though, there can be some crazy things we come across, like don't eat shellfish or pork, and don't wear clothes made of the two fabrics mixed together. 00:19:36.400 --> 00:19:38.079 And you kind of go, man, what is that all about? 00:19:38.160 --> 00:19:40.960 Does that still apply to me today? 00:19:41.440 --> 00:19:50.160 Well, I think a helpful question with these, the prescriptive, some of these, especially some of these weird laws in the Old Testament, is to ask the question: do these laws have a backstory? 00:19:50.720 --> 00:19:56.160 To give you an example, in America, we still have some laws in the books today that are a bit crazy and weird, right? 00:19:56.240 --> 00:20:02.400 I live here in Arizona, and there's a law that says you can't let your donkey sleep in a bathtub. 00:20:03.279 --> 00:20:10.559 Here's like I was not planning on that anyways, but now that you ask, like, what is going on with not letting your donkey sleep in a bathtub? 00:20:10.720 --> 00:20:26.160 We go to the backstory, it was 1924, and there was a rancher whose donkey always slept in the bathtub, and a dam broke, and it washed the tub and the donkey away, and there was this big rescue operation, and it cost all this time and money and effort and energy to rescue this animal and get it back. 00:20:26.240 --> 00:20:28.319 And afterwards, they're like, dude, let's put a law in the books. 00:20:28.400 --> 00:20:30.319 Don't let your donkey sleep in the bathtub. 00:20:30.559 --> 00:20:32.880 The story helps it make more sense. 00:20:33.599 --> 00:20:39.599 Or in Kentucky today, there's still a law in the books that you can't walk around town with an ice cream cone in your back pocket. 00:20:39.680 --> 00:20:42.160 You can't carry ice cream in your pants pocket, right? 00:20:42.240 --> 00:20:45.839 And come on, let the kids walk around running around with their ice cream. 00:20:46.000 --> 00:20:52.000 But then you get into the backstory, and back in the day, this was a tactic or a trick that horse thieves would use to steal horses. 00:20:52.160 --> 00:20:55.279 So you're out in the town, you got your ice cream in the back pocket, you're walking along. 00:20:55.599 --> 00:21:03.759 Horses love sugar, they love sweet things, and so the horse would come along and start licking the ice cream and follow you, and pretty soon, bam, you've nabbed a horse. 00:21:04.079 --> 00:21:07.519 So they put a law in the books, don't carry ice cream in your back pocket. 00:21:07.759 --> 00:21:14.480 The point here, when you know the backstory, these laws that can sound crazy at first glance start to make more sense. 00:21:14.880 --> 00:21:18.640 And similarly, when we look at Israel's laws, there's a backstory to a number of these. 00:21:18.720 --> 00:21:27.279 The purpose at the time in the Old Testament, there were a number of laws that were designed to separate Israel from the surrounding nations to make them a distinct people that stood apart. 00:21:27.519 --> 00:21:47.119 So if we look at things like the two uh fabrics, not wearing clothes, two fabrics put together, uh, we look around, and scholars would say in ancient Canaanite culture, there were these fertility cults that were popular, uh, where one of the practices was wedding two things together in ritual worship that often had all these other gnarly practices associated with this ritual worship. 00:21:47.279 --> 00:21:53.759 And so this law was probably like a case study law that said, Hey, don't participate in the fertility cult practices, in essence. 00:21:54.720 --> 00:22:01.839 Now we know it wasn't an absolute law because the Levites, the priesthood, they wore clothes made of Of wool and linen mixed together. 00:22:01.920 --> 00:22:10.079 So it wasn't absolute, but there was probably the sense when you know the backstory of going, hey, don't participate in the fertility cult practices of the area around you. 00:22:10.640 --> 00:22:19.839 Or when we look at things like not eating shellfish or pork, scholars have found that pigs were often used in ancient ritual, uh Canaanite ritual practices as well that were messed up. 00:22:19.920 --> 00:22:31.039 And you think about in the ancient world back then, again, crossing the chasm of history, shellfish are bottom feeders, and these are particular types of food that, if not cooked well, could way more easily lead to health issues. 00:22:31.200 --> 00:22:34.480 And so there may have been some backstory like that. 00:22:35.440 --> 00:22:39.920 But I think the question we really are grappling with there is going, well, do these things apply to me today? 00:22:40.000 --> 00:22:44.640 How do I know if they still apply to me today when it's prescribing things that can sound kind of far out? 00:22:45.039 --> 00:22:51.359 Well, three to generally notice it would be kind of three types of laws in the Old Testament, right? 00:22:51.519 --> 00:23:01.039 One were these laws that were about separating the people, making them a distinct nation, uh, shellfish and clothes and all, and those don't apply to us today because we're no longer one nation in Israel. 00:23:01.119 --> 00:23:06.240 We are now the multi-ethnic, multinational kingdom of God in Christ as the church. 00:23:06.319 --> 00:23:09.839 And we live in many different nations and cultures and contexts and all of them, right? 00:23:09.920 --> 00:23:18.880 So the New Testament would say those things that were designed for separating Israel a distinct nation no longer apply to us as Gentile believers, the nations today. 00:23:19.440 --> 00:23:27.279 Second type of law we see in the Old Testament are like sacrificial laws, and those no longer apply to us because Christ has fulfilled the sacrificial system. 00:23:27.519 --> 00:23:29.920 Jesus is the sacrifice to end all sacrifices. 00:23:30.000 --> 00:23:31.599 So those laws don't actually apply to us. 00:23:31.839 --> 00:23:43.039 We can still learn a lot through them about how they point to Christ and what he's done through his death and resurrection, but we don't need to do them, or particularly we they don't apply to us as things we practice today. 00:23:43.440 --> 00:23:47.680 Yet the third kind of law would be things that are often called like the moral law. 00:23:47.839 --> 00:23:53.279 And these things are things that do have significance for us today because they reveal God's heartbeat for how we are to live. 00:23:53.519 --> 00:23:56.559 I love the way that pastor and author Tim Keller puts it. 00:23:56.720 --> 00:24:02.480 He says, in short, the coming of Christ changed how we worship, but not how we live. 00:24:02.640 --> 00:24:07.279 The moral law outlines God's own character, his integrity, love, and faithfulness. 00:24:07.359 --> 00:24:17.039 And so everything the Old Testament says about loving our neighbor, caring for the poor, generosity with our possessions, social relationships, and commitment to our family is still in force. 00:24:17.359 --> 00:24:24.480 The New Testament continues to forbid killing or committing adultery, and all the sex ethic of the Old Testament is restated throughout the New Testament. 00:24:24.720 --> 00:24:29.119 If the New Testament has reaffirmed a commandment, then it is still in force for us today. 00:24:30.559 --> 00:24:36.319 Okay, well, in short, it's helpful to ask when reading the Bible, is this describing something or is it prescribing something? 00:24:36.559 --> 00:24:38.000 Is it descriptive and prescriptive? 00:24:38.319 --> 00:24:42.000 And you want to recognize within those categories there's some nuance in how we should approach those. 00:24:43.440 --> 00:24:46.480 Okay, now let's move to the third and final tip. 00:24:46.880 --> 00:24:51.680 The third and final tip is to look for the redemptive trajectory. 00:24:52.160 --> 00:24:55.119 To look for the redemptive trajectory. 00:24:55.920 --> 00:24:58.240 Look for the redemptive trajectory. 00:24:58.559 --> 00:25:04.240 You see, the whole story points to Jesus, but on the way, God is way more patient than we are. 00:25:04.480 --> 00:25:17.039 God often accommodates himself to some of the fallen and tough and gritty realities of our world, and yet he sows seeds of cultural transformation that are headed on a redemptive trajectory towards a better future. 00:25:17.920 --> 00:25:26.319 Jesus talked about the kingdom of God being like yeast that works its way throughout the whole dough, and does so slowly, incrementally over time. 00:25:26.960 --> 00:25:28.160 Think about the early church. 00:25:28.319 --> 00:25:34.880 The early church radically transformed the Roman Empire, but it did it gradually and slowly over five centuries. 00:25:35.839 --> 00:25:40.160 So when we think about this redemptive trajectory, let's look at two examples. 00:25:40.640 --> 00:25:42.160 One would be polygamy. 00:25:42.319 --> 00:25:48.720 You can be reading in the Old Testament, you find these stories of polygamy, and it's easy to go, man, is that the biblical vision for marriage? 00:25:48.880 --> 00:25:50.720 And no, a few helpful things to recognize this. 00:25:50.799 --> 00:25:59.039 First off, when we go back to Genesis 1 and 2 at the very beginning of the story, it very clearly sets up the ideal as one man, one woman, union, two become one flesh, and so on. 00:25:59.359 --> 00:26:05.599 And yet in the ancient Near Eastern world, polygamy was common practice, particularly for the wealthy. 00:26:05.839 --> 00:26:13.200 What we find in the Bible is it upholds this Genesis 1 and 2 ideal, but then it accommodates itself to some of the realities of the world. 00:26:13.279 --> 00:26:19.759 But the way that the Bible describes polygamy, every single time, it always ends horribly. 00:26:20.160 --> 00:26:21.680 Ends horribly, ends badly. 00:26:22.000 --> 00:26:30.640 So to give a few examples, uh, with Abraham, it leads to both Isaac and Ishmael in this conflict that goes on for generations and beyond. 00:26:31.119 --> 00:26:45.680 When you get to Jacob, it leads to competition amongst his wives, it leads to fighting and jealousy amongst the brothers, and ultimately it leads to the uh Joseph leaving Joseph for dead and selling him off into slavery. 00:26:46.000 --> 00:26:50.480 When you get to King David, his polygamy led to civil war in the kingdom. 00:26:50.559 --> 00:26:54.559 It led to insurrection and ultimately led to the death of his son. 00:26:55.039 --> 00:27:02.480 When we look at King Solomon, his polygamy is uh described as one of the major causes for his downfall. 00:27:02.880 --> 00:27:05.599 So every time we see it in the Bible, it never goes good. 00:27:05.680 --> 00:27:06.640 It always ends badly. 00:27:06.799 --> 00:27:18.880 And a very Jewish way of reading the story is to say there's a redemptive trajectory that is transforming in the way this is being described, it's pointing back to Genesis 1 and 2 ideal and forward to a better way. 00:27:19.359 --> 00:27:20.640 We see this with Jesus. 00:27:20.720 --> 00:27:27.119 In Matthew 19, as Jesus is talking about marriage, uh, he takes us back to Genesis 1 and 2, and he quotes them. 00:27:27.359 --> 00:27:30.880 God created male and female, he created them, and the two will become one flesh. 00:27:31.039 --> 00:27:33.599 And he says, This is the ideal for marriage. 00:27:33.759 --> 00:27:41.359 And then he talks about uh things that have fallen short of this ideal, and he says that God allowed it, but because of your hardness of heart. 00:27:48.880 --> 00:28:04.319 And so Jesus gives us this kind of right way of reading scripture that sees Genesis 1 and 2 as design and yet that uh tells the story in such a way that it raises the bar on sexual ethics and pointing us towards a redemptive trajectory. 00:28:05.599 --> 00:28:09.599 So look at a second example of this with slavery. 00:28:09.839 --> 00:28:17.519 Now, slavery is a hard-loaded topic, and we see as well in Genesis 1 and 2 that God creates humanity in his image, in the image of God. 00:28:17.680 --> 00:28:21.279 Not just the king bearing the image of God, but all humanity bearing the image of God. 00:28:22.640 --> 00:28:28.880 Now, when we come across passages that talk about slavery in the Bible, we again we want often want more of like an outright rejection. 00:28:28.960 --> 00:28:30.480 Just say this is horrible and wrong. 00:28:30.880 --> 00:28:35.279 Bible actually has kind of different and subversively a powerful way of addressing it. 00:28:35.519 --> 00:28:46.240 Let's take a look at first what God does do, what we do see God do, is the foundational story of salvation in the Old Testament is the Exodus. 00:28:46.400 --> 00:28:55.839 And in the Exodus, God identifies with and liberates a nation of slaves out of slavery from their oppressors before the watching world. 00:28:56.000 --> 00:29:05.200 And this is God essentially on a megaphone in the ancient world going, I am a God of the slave and the outcast, and I am for their redemption, their liberation, their freedom. 00:29:05.680 --> 00:29:16.160 Next thing we see God do is that after his people are out of slavery, he sets up laws for his people, Israel, that radically raise the bar on how slaves in Israel are to be treated. 00:29:16.400 --> 00:29:26.000 When you read the Old Testament laws in comparison to laws of the ancient world, they're radically raising the bar that are humanizing slaves to an extraordinary degree. 00:29:26.480 --> 00:29:36.400 It's helpful to recognize too, there are some major differences between slavery in the ancient Near East and what we tend to think of as slavery today when we think about the topic. 00:29:36.799 --> 00:29:41.279 First off, one big difference is that slavery back then was often voluntary. 00:29:41.519 --> 00:29:52.000 It was often to pay a debt or to escape poverty and kind of placing yourself under that person to work for an extended period of time. 00:29:52.319 --> 00:29:55.759 It's not saying it was great or good, it's just saying that it was different. 00:29:56.079 --> 00:29:59.279 Another difference is that kidnapping was forbidden. 00:29:59.440 --> 00:30:05.279 Like kidnapping to make someone a slave was strongly and outrightly condemned in the strongest possible terms. 00:30:05.519 --> 00:30:15.200 We read in Exodus 21, verse 16, that anyone who kidnaps someone is to be put to death, whether the victim has been sold or is still in the kidnapper's possession. 00:30:15.680 --> 00:30:16.400 Powerful language. 00:30:16.480 --> 00:30:22.079 That's saying like American slavery and slavery in the Western world, where kidnapping was taking place to put people into slavery. 00:30:22.240 --> 00:30:28.079 Exodus, the law of God also is saying that was worthy of the death penalty for the kidnappers who did that. 00:30:28.240 --> 00:30:30.640 The strongest possible condemnation. 00:30:43.599 --> 00:30:47.200 It's evil and against the law of God. 00:30:48.400 --> 00:30:58.799 Okay, a third difference between what we think of with modern-day uh chattel slavery and kind of slavery in the ancient Near East is that ancient slavery was not race-based, per se. 00:30:58.960 --> 00:31:08.720 So within Israel and with the ancient world, it was not based on racial discrimination or ethnic discrimination in the way that more modern times, Western slavery would. 00:31:09.599 --> 00:31:14.400 The fourth and final difference is that the goal in ancient Israel, at least, was eventual freedom. 00:31:14.559 --> 00:31:25.119 Laws surrounding Jubilee and the Sabbath cycles and all were oriented ultimately towards the eventual freedom of those who hit hard times, hard circumstances, and found themselves in this predicament. 00:31:26.079 --> 00:31:28.319 Alright, so that's helpful, the Old Testament. 00:31:28.400 --> 00:31:37.200 And when we get to the New Testament, we find that roughly 30%, around a quarter to a third of the Roman Empire, is estimated to have been slaves. 00:31:37.279 --> 00:31:44.319 And so we often want the church to just kind of come right out in the New Testament and say, hey, let's end slavery now, right? 00:31:44.559 --> 00:31:48.960 But the reality is it was probably would that have been realistic? 00:31:49.119 --> 00:31:58.319 Partly because of how pervasive and ingrained it was, and partly because of how small the church was as a persecuted and tiny minority, would that have been realistic? 00:31:58.720 --> 00:32:06.240 Instead, what we find is something different, but extremely powerful, perhaps even more effective in the long run happening. 00:32:06.319 --> 00:32:31.200 And that is that within the church, that the churches as embassies of the God's kingdom throughout the Roman Empire began to become within themselves an equalizing place where the playing field was leveled, and at the weekly feast, the Sabbath or the resurrection gatherings on uh Sundays and all, was that together we're feasting Jew and Gentile, slave and free, man and woman, with an equal table. 00:32:31.359 --> 00:32:37.839 And for outsiders in that day, kind of walking in, that was shocking to go, what are you, a master, doing eating at the same table with your slave? 00:32:37.920 --> 00:32:39.039 Because that just wasn't done. 00:32:39.200 --> 00:32:45.039 And the answer was, well, now in Christ there is no Jew or Gentile, there is no slave or free, there is no male or female. 00:32:45.200 --> 00:32:48.000 All are one in Christ Jesus. 00:32:48.720 --> 00:33:06.799 And these seeds, reclaiming the image of God and the dignity and worth and all that, these seeds in the church eventually grew to become in early medieval Christendom and beyond the abolition movement that ended up leading to the abolition of slavery. 00:33:08.160 --> 00:33:18.240 Alright, well, the takeaway here would be that when we come across some of these tough passages, we want to also place them within the bigger story of Scripture and go, how does this fit within the narrative arc of Scripture as a whole? 00:33:18.319 --> 00:33:21.200 Is there a redemptive trajectory this is pointing to? 00:33:21.839 --> 00:33:26.160 Next week, when you start the Apostles' Creed series, we believe that's gonna be really helpful. 00:33:26.240 --> 00:33:31.680 We're just going, this is the foundations of the story, and the foundations of who God is and what he's done, and what we believe. 00:33:31.839 --> 00:33:43.839 And if I come across a tough passage that I may not make complete sense to me right now, I can zoom out and go, okay, but here's the bigger story that the Bible proclaims, that the church has historically proclaimed, I can rest in that. 00:33:44.720 --> 00:33:50.240 If you want to dig deeper into the biblical story, a great resource that I recommend is the Bible Project. 00:33:50.480 --> 00:34:00.720 Some friends of mine back in Portland, they make these great videos and a great podcast that are just amazing at really looking at the threads of the biblical story and how the whole story is woven together. 00:34:02.160 --> 00:34:14.960 Okay, well, in summary today, as we approach the R-rated Bible and you're reading through and come across a tough passage, my encouragement to you, my three tips would be one, crossing the chasm, right? 00:34:15.039 --> 00:34:17.840 Like recognize that you are crossing a chasm of history. 00:34:18.320 --> 00:34:20.719 Two, describe versus prescribe. 00:34:20.800 --> 00:34:23.119 Is this descripted or prescripted? 00:34:23.360 --> 00:34:25.119 And recognizing the nuance within them. 00:34:25.679 --> 00:34:28.719 And then three is look for the redemptive trajectory. 00:34:29.039 --> 00:34:31.280 Going, how does this point to Jesus? 00:34:31.760 --> 00:34:37.440 And how is this maybe setting on a positive arc redemptive future? 00:34:38.239 --> 00:34:42.079 Because reality is the whole story points to Jesus. 00:34:42.639 --> 00:34:45.679 Jesus is the point of the whole story. 00:34:46.960 --> 00:34:52.400 Jesus is the king who became a slave in order to set us free. 00:34:53.599 --> 00:35:05.920 Jesus is the husband who is faithful and monogamous to one wife, his bride, Christ, the church, and who will never abuse, abandon, or betray us, who loves us faithfully and sacrificially. 00:35:07.199 --> 00:35:16.480 Jesus at the cross, he was shattered and pulled apart, fragmented, in order to pull and bring us back together. 00:35:16.719 --> 00:35:25.920 From the shattering, fragmenting, destructive power of sin to reunite us and pull us back together as the united body of Christ in union with him and one another. 00:35:26.159 --> 00:35:42.639 And Jesus is the new Joshua, who our ultimate hope is he will conquer the hostile enemy forces and the powers of hell that have invaded his good world, and he will restore and reclaim the land, the earth for his good kingdom. 00:35:43.199 --> 00:35:44.480 Our hope is in him. 00:35:45.440 --> 00:35:48.320 Jesus is the point of the whole story. 00:35:48.880 --> 00:35:55.920 And so the invitation is to get to know him better through his story and through his spirit. 00:35:56.320 --> 00:35:59.760 And to worship him as the king of all the earth. 00:36:00.559 --> 00:36:02.239 Will you join me in prayer? 00:36:04.480 --> 00:36:11.679 Jesus, we want to know your word better because we want to know you, the word, better. 00:36:12.639 --> 00:36:24.639 We love you, we want to love your word, we want to grow in it, and God, I pray then, as we become a people immersed and saturated in your story for the world, God, uh, give us the wisdom to at times rest in the tension. 00:36:24.719 --> 00:36:37.360 And God, I do pray that we would be able to, the power of your spirit to be able to kind of cross some of those chasms and uh enter into just the the shoes and the understanding that help make this make sense. 00:36:37.519 --> 00:36:46.400 Lord, to know when you're describing something versus prescribing something that your heart for us would be clear, God, as we enter more fully into your story. 00:36:46.639 --> 00:36:54.960 And ultimately, God, that we would find the redemptive trajectory, how the whole story points to you as our crucified and risen King. 00:36:55.360 --> 00:37:04.719 You have taken the R-rated, destructive, uh crazy elements of our world and you have borne them in yourself upon the cross. 00:37:05.039 --> 00:37:14.000 Ultimately, to find us in the depths of our fallen condition and raise us united with you into life from the grave forever. 00:37:14.400 --> 00:37:25.519 And so, Jesus, we want to be united with you, we want to know you more fully, more deeply, and we declare our worship, our love, our adoration, our praise to you, Jesus, our living King. 00:37:25.760 --> 00:37:28.960 It's in your name and for your glory and under your authority that we pray. 00:37:29.519 --> 00:37:30.079 Amen.