My entire college marketing class can be boiled down to one statement - "Know Your Audience". Sure the class was two days a week for an entire semester. Yes, we watched Zig Ziglar videos every Wednesday. And the instructor could never remember my name and called my friend Juanita by the name Rodriga (is that even a name?) for 18 weeks, but the greatest takeaway was this - know who you're talking to before you start talking. Know your audience. Know what makes them think, what they love, what they do, how they live. You will go far in your communication the more you know those with whom you are communicating.
I've since learned an equally important truth - when it comes to reading someone else's messages, know their audience. Knowing who was meant to receive a message is vital to understanding the message at all. This is never more true than when interpreting the Bible.
The Scriptures were written by Jews, for Jews, meticulously preserved by Jews and the second testament is no exception. Even writers who were not Jewish were following a Jewish Rabbi in a Jewish belief system. If we read the Bible through the eyes of a non-Jewish person, we will miss or misinterpret most of what is being said. We will be at risk of what my friend Phil in Texas calls "gentilizing the Bible" - making it say what it doesn't say and mean what it doesn't mean.
In recent months, this truth has been brought to mind on occasion - most notably when meditating on Isaiah 43:1-2 -
I've since learned an equally important truth - when it comes to reading someone else's messages, know their audience. Knowing who was meant to receive a message is vital to understanding the message at all. This is never more true than when interpreting the Bible.
The Scriptures were written by Jews, for Jews, meticulously preserved by Jews and the second testament is no exception. Even writers who were not Jewish were following a Jewish Rabbi in a Jewish belief system. If we read the Bible through the eyes of a non-Jewish person, we will miss or misinterpret most of what is being said. We will be at risk of what my friend Phil in Texas calls "gentilizing the Bible" - making it say what it doesn't say and mean what it doesn't mean.
In recent months, this truth has been brought to mind on occasion - most notably when meditating on Isaiah 43:1-2 -
"...When you pass through the waters, I will be with you and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you..."
Comforting words regardless of the audience, but read them again as a BC-era practicing Jew. What would those words mean to you then? On the heels of Passover last month, these words would again remind you of two very important times in the history of Israel - the day you left Egypt, and the day you entered the Promised Land. Two very distinct moments in time when your journey of following after God left a high-water mark on your life. Two crossings, two purposes, two means, two defining moments in life - exiting and entering.
Israel isn't alone in these historical moments. We each have in our past or our present those moments when we find ourselves on the shores of deep waters with nowhere to go but through them. We're either leaving a familiar past or embracing a unknown future, and it's not always at the same time. Sometimes, as with Israel, there's a convoluted, awkward, laborious wilderness in between that begs to be navigated and must be endured. Certainly, sometimes our leaving the past and embracing the future happens at the same river-crossing - to those people, I affectionately blow raspberries. That's never been my experience, but if that's you, I'm happy for you... mostly.
Personally, I find myself out of Egypt wondering how long before I find a Jordan to cross into my future. I left my job more than 6 months ago and find myself in a convoluted, awkward, laborious wilderness in between jobs. But I also find confidence in a promise like "...When you pass through the waters, I will be with you and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you...". We'll break down this verse in a couple of more posts.
Israel isn't alone in these historical moments. We each have in our past or our present those moments when we find ourselves on the shores of deep waters with nowhere to go but through them. We're either leaving a familiar past or embracing a unknown future, and it's not always at the same time. Sometimes, as with Israel, there's a convoluted, awkward, laborious wilderness in between that begs to be navigated and must be endured. Certainly, sometimes our leaving the past and embracing the future happens at the same river-crossing - to those people, I affectionately blow raspberries. That's never been my experience, but if that's you, I'm happy for you... mostly.
Personally, I find myself out of Egypt wondering how long before I find a Jordan to cross into my future. I left my job more than 6 months ago and find myself in a convoluted, awkward, laborious wilderness in between jobs. But I also find confidence in a promise like "...When you pass through the waters, I will be with you and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you...". We'll break down this verse in a couple of more posts.
How about you? Anyone else called to leave someplace familiar? Anyone else embracing something new? Anyone else with me in the awkward in between? Leave a comment and let's start talking.