This is Part 1 of a 3-part series.
Part 1: A Passage Speaks
Joshua 1:7-8 NIV "Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go. [8] Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.
Name it and Claim It.
It’s easy to claim promises and passages in scripture for ourselves and apply it directly to our circumstances. But is this scriptural?
I’ve found that this type of mindset and basis for decision making can often lead to disappointment, despair, and sometimes worse, when applied improperly. To me, the sad part of this mistake is that God gets blamed for things He is mischaracterized for.
After reading the above passage in Joshua this morning, it brought to mind another season in my life when I had read it and latched onto the idea of ‘taking possession of the land’. Without going into the details of that particular experience, I’d like to share where I am today when it comes to understanding and applying God’s Word to my life in any season.
God Promises It
Here in this passage, God clearly tells Joshua that he is guaranteed success and prosperity if he reads, meditates, and obeys the commands and laws passed down from God to Moses.
In the context of God’s conditional covenant with the nation of Israel, His blessings (which included material wealth) would flow as long as they loved and obeyed God with all their hearts, souls, minds, and strength. Idolatry was almost always the sin that broke the covenant and brought on a curse, often resulting in isolation or exile.
So does this apply to us today?
Can I take God’s conditional covenant promises to Israel, point to it and say, “It’s right there in The Bible, so it has to be true for everyone”?
Not quite. But I do believe that there can be something valuable found in every passage. If a verse or passage of scripture is jumping out at me, I explore it – not ignore it. There’s a reason why we call it The Word of God
Context is Everything.
Cults and heresy are born out of cherry-picking scripture. That’s why it’s so important to understand the context of a verse or passage that has spoken to us.
This reminds me of a story I heard a John MacArthur once tell of a man who was trying to determine God’s will for his life. He decided to open his Bible and randomly choose the first two verses his fingers rested on.
The first passage he landed on was Matthew 27:5 NIV – “So Judas threw the money into the temple and left. Then he went away and hanged himself.” Somewhat disturbed, but committed to his method he then turned the pages and came to Luke 10:37 where he read “…And Jesus said to him, “You go, and do likewise.”
Before naming and claiming a verse or passage, let’s take a little time doing some due diligence to exegete scripture and ascertain its true meaning. We need to start with prayer and ask The Holy Spirit to reveal and illuminate biblical truths to us.
God delights in our pursuit of Him!
My Process.
Here’s a quick rundown of the process I go through when trying to accurately understand and apply a meaningful section of scripture to my own life.
When I come to a passage like the one above in Joshua, I usually reread the section a couple of times over before asking myself a few questions:
- Who is God talking to here, and Why? (context)
- What do I know to be true of God? (givens)
- What do certain key words really mean? (definitions)
- Where else in scripture is this mentioned? (support)
- How does this apply to me? (application)
In Part 2 of this 3-part series, we’ll break down the outline above to see what my process looks like as I work through each question.